Yo, Semite!

This weekend was spent up in Yosemite with a bunch of yahoos. It was David Austin-Groen's birthday, so it was decided to do a guy's only camping weekend. Now, short of Burning Man, I haven't been tent camping since high school. As a child, we used to go to Little Grass Valley every summer, but even that usually involved a camper or trailer of some kind. I'm not much of an outdoors person. Allergies combined with a tendency to sunburn like an albino hairless rat under a radiation lamp have led me to pursue activities that involve shade and filtered air.

The ride up was spent talking a blue streak with Chris DeJong about Radiostar and some other projects that we've worked on. I remember the trip camping to be much longer, but we left early enough to get to the park in extremely good time. Everything about Yosemite reminded me of childhood. The continual presence of dust and pollen in the air gives everything a very particular quality. It's like everything is viewed through a camera filter and symbolizes the *past*.

A lot has changed since those halcyon days, though. For one, the tents have been vastly improved. Even with instructions that made no sense, had you put things together in the wrong order, and referenced parts that didn't exist, I had my new dome from Amazon.com up and groovy in minutes. Back in the Boy Scouts, getting a tent up was a major endeavor. If only we had modern technology back then. Of course my old "mummy bag" sleeping bag from back then still works like a charm.

The food was much better than camping in the past. Everyone was responsible for a meal, and everyone came with goodies. Eggs and bacon, fresh fruit, sausage, deli sandwiches, pasta, kebabs... we ate better than we do at home.

I certainly got more sun and exercise than I do at home. We went on what looked to be an innocuous mile hike at Vernal Falls, but failed to account for the fact that it was also a 1000 foot ascent, with one section of it dominated by ice cold spray that soaked every last one of us to the bone. The view from the top was phenomenal, but I was a bit focused at first on my own shivering, and then my fear that I had somehow gotten violently sunburned on my left hand. After a moment, I realized that the old tye dye shirt I was wearing was bleeding dye all over me. The shirt was a costume piece from a show I did years ago and it never occurred to me that it wouldn't be waterfall safe.

All in all, I learned some very important things during this weekend. First and foremost, turning Settlers of Catan into a drinking game is a very dangerous thing to attempt. Chris won, but I don't know how or when. I was constantly four steps behind everyone else. We tried it again the next night with Jack Daniels instead of good tequila and I learned that I am NOT a Jack fan. Ugh.

Not all things consumed were to my detriment, though. Zack Stern had some fancy schmancy allergy meds that he let me try that performed miracles on my beleaguered sinuses. I was breathing easy despite the constant layer of tree pollen that covered everything like a sugar donut of snot doom. Bless the man. Bless him mightily.

All in all, a good weekend and great way to spend my last weekend before Vagina Dentata consumes my life.