all the news that's fit to pope

So much to talk about... this is what happens when you only blog twice a month, right?

(I actually do that in my journal, too. Chastise myself for not writing enough, that is. Every time I miss a few days/weeks/months, the first entry back invariably starts "wow, look how long it's been since I've written!" Old habits, as they say, die hard...)

Where to begin. I guess with weekend trips I've taken recently. (I'll take weekend trips I've taken recently for $200, Alex!)

Two weekends ago I finally made my long-awaited (2-3 months) return trip to Yosemite. It was awesome; my great friend Thea happened to be in town that weekend, so we got up at 5am (after staying up til 3am, first in the city and then at my house, hanging out and packing), drove 7 hours (which includes two wrong turns and an hour and a half drive to our trailhead once we got into the park itself), and then hiked 8 miles in to our base camp. Over a mountain. Well, very big hill at least.

Actually, now that I think about it, it was the opposite of "over a mountain." It was down one side of a big hill, and then up another. So through a valley I guess is what you'd call that. And no, I'm not going to go back and edit that so it just says "under a valley" instead of "over a mountain." What fun would that be?

So. Day 2. We plan the "Half Dome Hike," one of the signature hikes of Yosemite. Half dome is the picture you've most likely seen of Yosemite if you've only seen pictures. People come from all over the world to do this hike. And from all over the world they came on that day, as well...

It was an extremely popular hike. (Read: crowded as hell.) (Oooh, I like that use of "as hell"! I have always wondered about using the "as hell" preposition for everything; I myself have been known to say things like "cold as hell," which makes no sense at all. Maybe "cold as Eskimo hell" or something... but hell is generally portrayed as kinda hot. So it was my assertion that "hot as hell" or "evil as hell" or some such thing would be appropriate, but not much else... but "crowded as hell"? Yeah, I like that. Good social commentary there.) The hike itself isn't that burly until the very end... and we skipped that part. Not because it was burly, but because it was so freaking crowded. The final ¼ mile or so is a nearly vertical scale up the backside of Half Dome. There is a railing, and wooden steps every five feet or so. On this day, it was ass-to-face the whole way up, and a ½ hour-45 minute wait to even start the ascent. And it was already midday (we slept in after our epic journey the day before), so we wanted to make sure we got back to camp before sunset. We did, and got to go swimming in the mountain-fed river as reward. Sweeeet...

The other reason we came back down at that point was because Thea got stung by a yellowjacket. At the base of the final ascent of Half Dome. On her inner thigh. As far from the car as we could possibly be... which means she had to hike back out 10+ miles with a really painful sting in the worst possible place for hiking it could be. Did I mention that Thea is a superbadass? Cause she is.

Anyways, there's a good "Jerod is an eeediot" story that goes along with this trip, too. They always warn you about bears at Yosemite, of course. They're all over. It's bear-crowded as bear-hell up in there. So you can't leave food unattended at all (those old Yogi Bear cartoons ain't lying... though that's set in Yellowstone I guess). Little mice and birds will actually swoop in if you leave food unattended for more than a few seconds, but it's the bears you've gotta worry about if you leave food out of bear lockers overnight.

Or, for example, in your car for three days.

The funny thing is, we were totally obsessed with not leaving food in the truck. We had brought literally 3x as much food as we needed, so we were trying to figure out how to not leave it in the car, but not have to carry it in with us, but also not have to throw it all away. We ended up giving away as much as we could (we had cookies) and then carrying in way too much. But for some reason (we're maintaining it was the lack of sleep) we both left food in the truck. Not only food: fruit. I left two bananas, Thea left an apple. I remember with amusement the extreme disconnect going on in my brain. On the one hand I was running around repeating to myself, "can't leave food, can't leave food..." while on the other I must've looked at the bananas literally a dozen times, sitting there under the front seat, and thinking, "those'll suuuuure be tasty on Sunday..." The lesson, as always... I'm an idiot.

But it all turned out okay. Truck fine. Lesson learned. The lesson that you don't leave food in your car at Yosemite, that is. I already knew I was an idiot. The only consolation was that we both did it. If only one of us had it might have gotten ugly.

Okay, how about recent weekend trips for $400!

Last weekend was a big dance/activism festival north on 101 called EarthDance. I saw some amazing music: The Coup, Lyrics Born, Don Carlos (founding member of Black Uhuru), some really good d.j. music... ver' ver' nice. Lots of dancing. Met some cool people. All in all a good time for all.

Finally, normal weekday life: I got another job! Yep, that's right... I guess that puts it at five now? Including that silly one I haven't done anything for yet. But the new one is exciting; I'm tutoring English. It will start with just some SAT test prep for high schoolers, but eventually will turn into tutoring kids of all ages in whatever they need. There's even some basic curriculum building stuff I'll get to do. I just started this week, so I'll give an update once I've settled in a bit more.

Otherwise just pushing along. New challenges and opportunities popping up every day. Just trying to keep up.

I was going to give a shout-out to the state of Seattle football, too, but then both the Huskies and Hawks lost this weekend. The Huskies is understandable; they're still looking solid, and that Locker kid is pretty dope... but the Hawks losing to the freakin' Cardinals??? Bleah. And so much for the Mariners... oh well. At least our franchise rookie didn't go down with a career-threatening knee injury... sucks for Portland. I actually do feel bad for them, I have always like the Blazers, especially once they changed divisions... and now they have both Brandon Roy and Martell Webster and all, it's hard not to be a fan if you're from the PNW... hopefully Oden will come back strong. But, in the meantime... viva Kevin Durant and his own personal Scottie Pippen, Jeff Green! Pope out!