Yosemite National Park!

My legs…. HURT!

I’ve been in Yosemite park since Wed and I have had so much FUN! That place is just gorgeous! I wish that I could spend months there camping and hiking through the back country and just sitting on the rocks overlooking a waterfall and reflecting on life. There were many times when the beauty of that place brought a tear to my eyes.

Wed night Christian came over and brought all his shit, we hung out that night and finished getting the group stuff ready and had a few drinks. Got up Thursday morning and picked up the rental truck and then everyone showed up at my place around 9. We loaded up and headed out. The drive there was pretty easy really, we only stopped once, but got LOST in the town that we were in and could NOT find the way back to the freeway! Once we got into the park I was so excited to just get there. I love flying around all those curvy roads, the people in the back seat though were getting sick. Opps! We got into the park about 3:30ish and quickly unpacked and then did a quick 2 mile hike up to Mirror lake. I fell in. 🙁

Friday morning we got up early and cooked breakfast. We were going to do the Panorama Trail so went up to the lodge to get tickets on the shuttle bus but they were all sold out till 1:30pm! Decided not to do that and went on the Upper Yosemite Falls trail instead. The sign said it was only 3.2 miles, so we figured it’d be pretty easy, little did we know that in those 3.2 miles you gained 3,000 feet in elevation! It was very hard for most of the group. Half of them turned around about half way to the top. Even I had lots of problems the last 3/4 mile. Between the steepness of the trail and the elevation I could hardly breathe! But it was really worth all the work to get to the top and see this amazing waterfall just flying over the edge of the cliffs. We hiked a little bit past there, then stopped at the river bed and filled up our water bottles for the hike down.

Got back from that and made dinner then a few of us went to a talk given by Ron Kauk where he showed Return to Balance: A Climbers Journey which had some amazing shots of him climbing and of Yosemite in general. It was really neat to see. I talked to him after and got some pointers for my next trip up to Yosemite where I could do some easier climbing. After that I had to run to the Village to do some work and then back to the campsite for bed.

Saturday morning we got up VERY early because our bus for Glacier Point left at 8:30am! We got everyone up and breakfast cooked and on the road just in time! The bus driver was really funny and was telling stories the whole way up there. We got there and looked around a little bit and then started our hike down Panorama Trail. This one ended up being around 10 miles total and 5,100 descend and about 1,900 ascending. We got to see some amazing views of the falls throughout the park. Some of which were Illilouette Fall, Nevada Fall, Vernal Fall and ended along the VERY steep but wonderful Mist Trail.

Part of the group turned back once we hit the mist trail. Which was probably a mistake, because they then had a 4 mile hike ahead of them, instead of just the 3 very steep miles that we had. The Mist trail was just amazing though! We got back an hour before the rest of them did. That night Nick and I headed up to Tuolumne Meadows to watch the sunset… The meadows are at 8,600 feet above sea level, it was 41 degrees when we got there and there was still pockets of snow! But we were crazy and went SWIMMING in the river! 🙂 Ok, I was in the water for about 1.5 seconds before I jumped out screaming like a little girl. Nick was more manly and was in for about 4 seconds total! It was wonderfully refreshing though after the long day of hiking we had. We spent a few hours in the meadows and really enjoyed the sunset. It was just amazing.

Got back to camp late that night and we all sat around drinking and talking and having a great time… Got up about 7 on Sunday morning and Sirin made breakfast for everyone which was delicious. Packed up camp and we were out of there by 10am! Got back to LA around 3:30 and unpacked.

It was so wonderful being up there, sleeping out under the stars and just hiking and enjoying nature. I cried a little bit as we left, and then again as we were coming over the pass into LA and seeing all the smog and the cars again. I hate smog and cars. I just want to sleep under the stars and enjoy nature!

All the photos are available here. And you can view our google earth tracks/photos here.

Saddle Up Boys!

Party time in Iowa! I love $4 drinks! How fun! 🙂

This week has been very busy. I’ve been out and about almost every night and working and what not. It’s been crazy.

I’ll just hit the highlights. I went out to the Saddle on Tuesday by myself. But ended up running into a hole bunch of people that I knew, so it was tons of fun chatting it up with them and hanging out and what not. Thursday night I went out to the Saddle again to meet up with Ginny and Brandon. Ran into David again that night and he sat with us the whole night, also ran into this guy Jeremy that I used to know. He and Ginny hit it off talking about runway shows. Jenky and Scott joined up with us later that night. I drank WAY to much on Thursday night, ended the night with lots of shots. Scott was too drunk to drive home, I probably was as well, but either way he came back to my place and we crashed here. I drove him home early Friday morning and then tried doing some work but had a horrible hang over and took a nap most of the day.

Friday night I hung out with Mandy, Zach and Nic. We went to Carl’s which was tons of fun and played darts. Four drunk people playing darts is probably not a good idea. 😉 After that we went and drove the loop on our way to the gay areas. I love the loop, it’s so crazy. Hung out at this random gay bar named Buddies which had some HORRIBLE drag queen, then we went next door to the Saddle again ran into Brian who I haven’t seen in years and last I knew he was “straight”. lol. He was def gaying it up last night. Anyways, some guy was totally hitting on me the whole night, but he was a little older, so whatever.

We’ve been having some CRAZY fun storms and winds the last couple days! It’s been so fun.

This morning my dad and I got up early and headed down to the G&G’s house and started cleaning out the garage. My grandpa has so much shit in there! Tonight I was supposed to go out with a few people, but decided I needed a night at home.

I’m still very bitter with Constantine about what I found the other day. Ugh. Fucking lying boys. I don’t get it. Why can’t anyone be honest. Last night we were out and Mandy was bitching about the same basic thing. Why can’t people our age be monogamous and truthful? It’s really sad and annoying. I am hoping that Constantine will call me so that I can bitch him out… He and I are done until he learns to be honest and how to treat people who he wants to be friends with.

In other bad news, apparently my cousin’s BF is in the hospital… Get well soon Neil!

Tomorrow we are heading back down south to finish up the garage and then start on the tool shed and tomorrow night I am going to a drag show with David and some people. Should be fun! I miss drag shows.

Funeral Stuff

So, it’s been one LONG LONG week.

I got into Omaha at 3pm. As I was walking into the baggage claim area I spotted my mother on the phone… I walk over to her and she tells me the news… :'( Lots of crying in the airport. Drove to the grandparents house and lots of crazyness. The week has really just been a blur. Tons of people in and out of the house, lots of people sleeping here, people brining fooooood and I mean TONS and TONS of food. One day we had 5 people bring lunch over. I honestly can’t remember much of what else has happened.

One morning I was a mess and texted Constantine that “I wish you could be here.” Because I was really needing someone to talk to besides family and stuff here and someone who knew just how much grandpa meant to me. The jerk never replied. You’d think of all people, he would at least CALL and talk to me a little bit. He knows how much I cared about grandpa. Ugh. Really, I have had some of the most random people send emails or call, people I haven’t talked to in years. And yet he couldn’t. Very annoying.

Wed morning we had the private family viewing which was nice. Grandpa looked really good. Thursday was the public viewing which had TONS and tons of people there. After wards the pastor came and chatted with the family and we all sat around talking about grandpa and sharing stories and stuff. I was bawling my eyes out there.

Friday morning was the funeral and of course that was very sad. My grandpa used to drive around town every morning, and you could always count on seeing his truck come around the corner, the pastor opened with that. He said that he always looked forward to Kenny driving by in the morning. He worked in all the stories that we had told the night before, and the buckets, rhubarb, bukeyes, and biscuits and gravy. We cried and we laughed, the church was packed.

After that we drove out to the cemetery. We were lead out by the Lenox Emergency Services and drove down main street and past the house. It was so sad. Got out there and he had the full honor guard and they did the whole flag folding and then we released some balloons. After taps was played all the firefighters pagers went off and they put out a last call for kenny black. The woman doing it could barely make it through. Even the funeral director broke down crying when he was trying to explain it to the family before hand. That went to the whole county which was very neat. The whole thing was just amazing to see how many people came.

My grandma was thinking that she’d get maybe 3 or 4 hundred for the memorials, but so far we have $1,700 already! She’s giving money to the Ambulance, Fire and School and then also going to create a Scholarship in his name.

Last night we all got a little crazy with my two aunts and my cousin and went out to the grave a few times and drank JB Whiskey and stuff. It was fun and refreshing.

Today we are all just chilling and trying to clean up the house and stuff and are going out to a nice place for dinner. I am staying till Monday and then going home.

Later all.