accomplishment unlocked!
9. Hike Half Dome, or something equally epic.
Completed 9/26/2010
We hiked Cloud's Rest, which is almost 1,200 feet taller than Half Dome. It's also less crowded (I would much rather jump from granite slab to slab than stand around in that line for the cables), we didn't need a permit, and the view was better-- If we would've hiked Half Dome, we wouldn't have been able to see around Cloud's Rest, because it is so much taller.
Well, there it is. Cloud's Rest is the hike I've been working toward since I first slipped my feet into hiking boots in the beginning of August. Am I glad I hiked 50 miles beforehand? YES. Even being in pretty fair shape, the altitude change was just killer. Gaining 1,000 feet of elevation over about a mile of switchbacks was insanity. As we were hiking back, we kept on asking each other how the heck we made it up in the first place.
Our time in California is drawing to a close. In less than two weeks, I'll be 3,000 miles away, starting over. It didn't seem real after we bought our tickets. It didn't seem real when I booked the ship date for my car. As I drove her onto the loading dock at the shipping port (after a MUCH needed trip to the car spa for a bath, massage, and pedicure) and handed the key over to the attendant, he said, "The next time you two see each other, it'll be in the Aloha state!" and just like that, this crazy idea to move to Hawaii for no apparent reason became reality. We're actually doing it. I'm still in shock. It's going to be madness for the next week as we struggle to figure out what to take, what to ship, what to ship later, and what to get rid of. I've told myself that I'm going to donate everything I possibly can, either to Goodwill, some sort of shelter, or really anywhere where someone less fortunate will have the opportunity to benefit from it.
As of yesterday I am officially unemployed. My last day of work was Thursday, and they made it really, really hard for me to be excited about leaving. Ladyboss and I were going to go out to lunch with one of the salesmen, and right as I was grabbing my purse, a pizza guy walked in with about 10 boxes of pizza. They threw me a surprise party, and all of the employees came up to wish me well. They gave me about 10 fake leis to wear, along with a cheesy grass skirt and a coconut bra, haha. Still, it was really sweet. Manboss and Ladyboss both gave me hugs before they left, and Ladyboss wrote me a great letter of recommendation. The owner of the company called me for our daily chat and said I'd always have a job with them if I decided to come back. For being such a grumpy old tightwad, he's a total sweetheart sometimes. I'm going to miss those jerks, but I think all in all I'm still glad that my time there is over. It's certainly time for something new.
Oh yeah! Jimmy Eat World was INCREDIBLE. I took some crappy video (with good sound quality!) with my tiny cam of my favorite Jimmy Eat World song, but it doesn't do the experience justice at alllll. I am blown away how powerful Jim Adkins' voice is. That video is the last song of the encore, and they seriously played their entire set (23 songs?) without stopping ONCE. Actually, I take that back, they stopped for like, 2 minutes right before the encore, but seriously. He wasn't guzzling water, and the breaks between songs were seconds long. Stamina! After coming home, I decided that I needed to acquire the live Clarity album, because Goodbye Sky Harbor blew my mind live. I'm a sucker for live vocal looping. I was really excited to see We Were Promised Jetpacks too. Travis gave me their album a while ago, and they remind me of a Scottish version of Taking Back Sunday. Love it.
KIND OF GLAD WE'RE MOVING, AS OUR NEW ACROSS-THE-WAY NEIGHBORS DON'T KNOW HOW TO NOT SLAM DOORS AND NOT PARK IN MY FREAKING PARKING SPOT. Just because my sweet little Scion isn't sitting there doesn't mean it's up for grabs, guys. Parking spots are assigned, and it's not my problem if you have five mom vans over for your cougarfests.
Completed 9/26/2010
We hiked Cloud's Rest, which is almost 1,200 feet taller than Half Dome. It's also less crowded (I would much rather jump from granite slab to slab than stand around in that line for the cables), we didn't need a permit, and the view was better-- If we would've hiked Half Dome, we wouldn't have been able to see around Cloud's Rest, because it is so much taller.
Well, there it is. Cloud's Rest is the hike I've been working toward since I first slipped my feet into hiking boots in the beginning of August. Am I glad I hiked 50 miles beforehand? YES. Even being in pretty fair shape, the altitude change was just killer. Gaining 1,000 feet of elevation over about a mile of switchbacks was insanity. As we were hiking back, we kept on asking each other how the heck we made it up in the first place.
Our time in California is drawing to a close. In less than two weeks, I'll be 3,000 miles away, starting over. It didn't seem real after we bought our tickets. It didn't seem real when I booked the ship date for my car. As I drove her onto the loading dock at the shipping port (after a MUCH needed trip to the car spa for a bath, massage, and pedicure) and handed the key over to the attendant, he said, "The next time you two see each other, it'll be in the Aloha state!" and just like that, this crazy idea to move to Hawaii for no apparent reason became reality. We're actually doing it. I'm still in shock. It's going to be madness for the next week as we struggle to figure out what to take, what to ship, what to ship later, and what to get rid of. I've told myself that I'm going to donate everything I possibly can, either to Goodwill, some sort of shelter, or really anywhere where someone less fortunate will have the opportunity to benefit from it.
As of yesterday I am officially unemployed. My last day of work was Thursday, and they made it really, really hard for me to be excited about leaving. Ladyboss and I were going to go out to lunch with one of the salesmen, and right as I was grabbing my purse, a pizza guy walked in with about 10 boxes of pizza. They threw me a surprise party, and all of the employees came up to wish me well. They gave me about 10 fake leis to wear, along with a cheesy grass skirt and a coconut bra, haha. Still, it was really sweet. Manboss and Ladyboss both gave me hugs before they left, and Ladyboss wrote me a great letter of recommendation. The owner of the company called me for our daily chat and said I'd always have a job with them if I decided to come back. For being such a grumpy old tightwad, he's a total sweetheart sometimes. I'm going to miss those jerks, but I think all in all I'm still glad that my time there is over. It's certainly time for something new.
Oh yeah! Jimmy Eat World was INCREDIBLE. I took some crappy video (with good sound quality!) with my tiny cam of my favorite Jimmy Eat World song, but it doesn't do the experience justice at alllll. I am blown away how powerful Jim Adkins' voice is. That video is the last song of the encore, and they seriously played their entire set (23 songs?) without stopping ONCE. Actually, I take that back, they stopped for like, 2 minutes right before the encore, but seriously. He wasn't guzzling water, and the breaks between songs were seconds long. Stamina! After coming home, I decided that I needed to acquire the live Clarity album, because Goodbye Sky Harbor blew my mind live. I'm a sucker for live vocal looping. I was really excited to see We Were Promised Jetpacks too. Travis gave me their album a while ago, and they remind me of a Scottish version of Taking Back Sunday. Love it.
KIND OF GLAD WE'RE MOVING, AS OUR NEW ACROSS-THE-WAY NEIGHBORS DON'T KNOW HOW TO NOT SLAM DOORS AND NOT PARK IN MY FREAKING PARKING SPOT. Just because my sweet little Scion isn't sitting there doesn't mean it's up for grabs, guys. Parking spots are assigned, and it's not my problem if you have five mom vans over for your cougarfests.