A few of my photos are here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/pipsyrules/sets/72157624517618188/

Though LL took some amazing photos here: http://picasaweb.google.com/wheezy/Yosemite2010#

Tuesday, 7/13:

• Bridalveil Falls

On our way to Bridal Falls

• Mirror Lake

Wednesday, 7/14:

• Woke up around 5:45am, grabbed breakfast at 6am, left for the park at 6:30am, and arrived around 7:45am.
• Walked from Parking lot C to Camp 4.
• Hiked from the base of Camp 4 to Upper Yosemite Falls. We started around 9:30am and didn’t make it to the top until 2pm. MP was feeling nauseous from the elevation gain, so we stopped several times. Surprisingly, I didn’t feel affected (though it wasn’t until we were descending that it actually started making me feel dizzy!). MP has said for us to continue going on to the top without her and we’d catch up with her on our way down. Halfway through the hike I had ran out of water, and then LL did too. Luckily we ran into someone (from Foster City!) that had a filtration system. What a lifesaver! When we got to the top, we were stunned by the beauty of the running stream that flows over the edge of the mountain and becomes the waterfall! I had told LL we should cross the stream to get to the other side (since there was no real way to climb down the rocks onto the side where there few people). She crossed immediately, but then I started to have doubts as the rock was slippery! A guy from the side that I wanted to get to actually came out and helped me across! There were 3 guys that we ended up talking to, all from Israel. One of them goes to school in San Diego for Architecture now. He lent me his towel so I could change into my bathing suit. How nice! The 3 guys said they had actually walked all the way around the water to get to that side but what we had done was much easier and faster.  MP came up and crossed to our side and LL and MP went further up the stream to sit in the water. I hung out and laid flat on my back in the icy, cold water and also dunked my face in first. It was soooo refreshing!

Refreshing mountain water!

• Lot’s of other people started to cross the water once we had done so…we tend to start trends!  :) We hung out around the top for a good hour and a half.

Upper Yosemite Falls

• Too bad we didn’t have more time, like half a day left…  We crossed back through the water, and the guy who originally lent me his hand, assisted again. Then his friend, who goes to San Diego ends up crossing too and asks me for my number! Anyway, LL and I check out the overlook point and then the three of us girls head down the mountain. When we got to the ground floor, we were relieved and overjoyed. Nothing like good ‘ole flat land! We walked to the market to pick up drinks and relax for a bit. While we were relaxing on the bench outside the market, we noticed the same dog we walked passed (while walking to the market) waiting for it’s owner outside. We wanted to know what it was, so once the owner came out, I sprang up and asked him. From there, we got into a conversation of his dog, a Napoleon Mastiff, where he’s from, rock climbing, where we’re staying/where he’s living, what we do for a living, and national parks. The girls left me by myself to converse with the dude. Lot’s of people came up to ask to pet his dog, in which they did. While that happened, I grabbed my phone, quickly trying to think of how to ask him for his contact info. When I got back to him, he turns around and says, “Oh, and I should give you my contact information in case you’re in the area again.” That SAVED ME from asking him!  Whew!  I would have sounded all blubbery! Anyway, it was quite surreal. I was all scrubby, sweaty, dirt dirty with an orange bandanna in my hair, hiked up socks, wallet items bulging out of my breast pocket. God, I was a mess! But strangely, he was okay with that! Anyway, it was a good day! Two phone numbers without trying! Ohhh, keep the outdoorsy guys coming!

Thursday, 7/15:

• Picked up breakfast at the lodge, headed out of Oakhurst and made stops in Merced (3 boutique shops), Turlock (Sonic), and the Tracy (outlets — absolutely nothing there). It was kind of an uneventful day, but relaxing. I dropped off the girls at their houses around 2pm and was exhausted when I got home. Ended up going to sleep around 8pm!

I can’t wait to go back to Yosemite…I really want to do the four mile trail, nevada trail, and vernal falls trail!

I think the most difficult thing about it all is that my principles aren’t set in stone.

I don’t know whether they will ever be.

I’m not sure why I need to do “the right thing” — because it’s the right thing? Because if someone else were in my shoes, I would want them to do the right thing?

Ugh. It’s hard to wrap my head around it all.

While I shouldn’t be selfish, I feel that my happiness is compromised when I do things for others that I really just don’t feel like doing.

It’s a battle between doing the right thing versus compromising my happiness.

It’s just a short-term happiness that I’m compromising, or is it?

I can see how good people make mistakes.

I can see how easily one can veer and not do the right thing, and that it takes all the strength and willpower that one has, in order to do the right thing when one clearly doesn’t want to do it.

Humans weren’t made to do the right things — we weren’t meant to be perfect.

Humans try to condition themselves to do the right things…so that we can say that we’re good people?

But we all fuck up.

We all fail at some point in time.

What is this need to always do the right thing?

I’m driving myself crazy.

What if I I choose not to do the right thing and I’m happy about it?

I’m a bad person because I intend to do the very opposite of the right thing.

Why is it so black and white?

Perhaps, if I can live with my actions then that’s okay?

It’s all so gray.

Fuck the noise inside my head.

I almost forgot how to work a cassette tape.

Listened to:

• Cab Calloway – Happy Feet
• Los Del Rio – Macarena
• Atlantic Starr – Masterpiece

…and myself singing when I was six years old, making up a Father’s Day song (rhymes and all)

…and myself playing the piano, my last year of lessons in preparation for Certificate of Merit.

• Invention #13 – Bach
• Polonaise in g minor – Chopin
• Sonata Op. 6 – Beethoven
• Sonata (?) – Mozart
• Waltz – Chopin
• Phantom – Bober

To work around getting rid of sentimental items, I took photos of my old toys and trolls so that I can look back on them, if I so choose.

I think I have a dust ball in my throat. Haven’t gone through this stuff in years.

Busted out the old Nintendo Game Boy. Freakin’ huge ass piece of technology. Played my favorite game, Tetris. Definitely not as good as I used to be, but good times…

Goodbye sentimental items (part I)!

how old I get,

I will practice

being humble

like

a buzzing bumble bee

consistent in its hum.

And

with all the best intentions

to do the right thing for others

and for myself –

that if I fuck up,

I will yield to remorse

and admit

my wrongdoings

wholeheartedly.

To surrender

to the pain and anguish –

That…

is retribution.

I take a breath.

Think.

Clear the cobwebs

and acknowledge the mistake.

A mistake that if

there was a such thing as

a “do-over,”

it would be  done

differently.

I take a second breath.

Think.

And apologize

from the heart so

that you know I am

genuine and sincere.

I take a final breath

And feel!

So that I can learn and be a

better performer — a

better person.

The next time around.

- Intertwining and mingling different groups of friends / Conversing for a group, not towards an individual.

- Being happy for persons-I-don’t particularly-care for successes.

- Diffusing uncomfortable situations/kindly excusing oneself (is that even possible when you’re cornered and haven’t got anywhere to go? i.e. waiting for someone and a crazy bum comes up and starts harrassing. Twice now — that’s enough for me, kthxbai.)