Yosemite and more

After numerous new events attended and experiences had, I’ve finally gotten around to starting this blog post. My behavior can be described as a feather in the wind. It can also be described as just not getting around to it. It’s probably a combination of both.

Since the last time we talked, a lot has happened! In short, I’ve hiked around Yosemite Valley, watched two close friends get into their dream schools, hosted my family and saw my sister graduate from Hastings School of Law, attended some of the best musical performances that I’ve seen to this date, dressed for an entire weekend in a tuxedo, and played the new Mario Kart. Let’s start with the important stuff; Mario Kart rules.

I’m going to write for a bit about the camping trip that my good friend Dave and I took at the end of March…

We left my house in San Francisco on Saturday at about 2:30am, not having reserved a spot in a campground and thinking that getting a first come, first serve site might be tough in the ever populous Yosemite National Park. The drive was relatively easy, although we did admittedly get lost and I did admittedly almost pass out. Subsequently, I bailed into the role of navigator and Dave stepped up to guide us into the Camp 4 parking lot. We registered ourselves and awkwardly began pacing the grounds in hopes of our bodies miraculously teaching themselves what it was we were supposed to do. We had drove all night and weren’t about to start thinking. Thankfully, our carcasses managed to setup a tent next to a fleeing French couple who were nice enough to speak to the two awkward bogeys. After a long nap, we resurrected and joined the camping community, setting out on our very first hike in Yosemite Valley! Due to rather sheepish planning, we didn’t bring a camera and thus our first hike, to Upper Yosemite Falls, goes undocumented. That’s unfortunate because the views were some of the best all trip of the celebrated Half Dome.

Sunday we decided to go for a much longer hike; we would embark on the beginnings of the John Muir Trail and visit the spectacular Vernal and Nevada Falls. I say the beginnings of the JMT (yes, they do call it that) because that trail is actually something like 200 or so miles and we only went up about five or six. This was probably my favorite hike of the trip because it was pretty empty, there was snow all over the place, and we went up quite high, offering us some of the better views. We weren’t able to complete the full part of the trail that we wanted, all the way to the top of Nevada falls, and we couldn’t climb the backside of Half Dome due to the weather conditions. I believe Half Dome opens up sometime in late May. Nonetheless, a fun hike! Upon returning to Camp 4 we decided to move to a spot that had pits with grills on them. Until that point, we were using a borrowed stove that was pretty flighty in terms of keeping a flame going. To put it humorously, I almost burned my eyebrows off more than twice the night before, trying to keep a flame to cook burgers. Yeah, real funny. No, seriously, I laughed a lot every time…. after I screamed like a little girl. Taking the open campsite as a sign of good fortune, Dave and I decided we’d open a bottle of J&B and celebrate.

Monday was dedicated to the trail that circles Yosemite Valley’s floor, making visits to the notable El Capitan and Bridalveil Falls. Both sites were beautiful in their own way. The sheerness of El Capitan is enough to make any human experience a slight lack of confidence or a strong sense of wonderment. Although, I would argue that Half Dome is the true king of Yosemite Valley. There is something mystic about Bridalveil to me. Quite possibly it was the cool mist spraying off and settling in front of the dark granite, vertical wall. We walked back a good deal from visiting these sites, across the valley to our campground. Dave and I made the decision to leave Yosemite the next morning and save Wawona for our return visit. Instead, we would go to Mirror Lake that late afternoon.

The pictures of our trip can be seen (finally!) here:

http://picasaweb.google.com/william.umoff/DaveAndBillSYosemiteTrip08

I’m bound to leave details out after taking two months before starting to write. I’ll talk about the other stuff I’ve been doing in a later post.

Thanks for the trip Dave. Congrats to Jen, Dave, and Allie for their great recent accomplishments!

Pistachios and Beer

I’ll start this Blog by saying that I’ve started a Blog.

As you know, it is entitled Pistachios and Beer. Why, you ask? Well, quite simply, I like pistachios and I like beer. But, there is another reason. Now I’ve been doing Blog searching for the last six months, pretty heavy. It occurs to me that blog names are either morbid, Gothic or sadistic, they have the name of the blogger in them, they are a cool made-up word or variation of an existing word, they represent a passion or field of interest, or, finally, they consist of at least one arbitrary thing. I’ve chosen the last on the list naming methodologies to come up with one for my own blog. Of course, as you know now, I do like pistachios and beer–that will forever be the case–but to the foreign blogger they will appear to be arbitrary. At least, that’s the idea.

Moving on to the question of why I have started a blog, I can begin by answering, “I want to talk to myself in a less scary way.” Aside from this reason I am blogging because I want to practice and expand upon my writing and vocabulary, log what I’ve been doing or what I’m into, and see what it’s like to speak freely to the world, myself included, being as truthful as possible. There is something liberating about the idea of telling the world what you perceive to be true. I’m looking forward to seeing what this blogging experience is all about. I think that this blog will lead to some self-realizations, improvements, and, hopefully, fun.

I know that there is a great chance that people known and unknown to me will read this blog. Because I do want to present the truth, for the purpose of expressing myself, perceptions and opinions about me will surely be developed by these people. It should be known that this blog reflects my personal feelings in the moment or after some time of brooding, and I underscore this because it is my goal to preserve my ability to write honestly and therapeutically. In my experience of interpreting blogs for a purpose, I would say that you can certainly gather a feel for a person’s likes, dislikes, and even intellect, but be careful to judge that person on moral grounds. OK, enough with the disclaimer crap. Here’s to blogging!