I'm learning how to drift race this weekend in San Diego, so I figured it might be good if I knew how to drive stick. It took me about 45 minutes, but I sort of got the hang of starting, shifting, and braking. I wrote a little poem about it.
Za!
From first to second, I pushed it.
Clutch, in, brake…wait, I’m sliding. Fuck.
Under the pale light of the nearly full moon,
I slid through gear after gear,
Revving the little car up, before accelerating past neutral into –
Stall.
Patience sat to my right, guiding me through each turn
And though there was some grinding,
It soon became
Fun.
Thursday, May 31, 2007
Memorial Day
This past weekend, I went up to Kings Canyon (near Sequoia) with S and his friends for Memorial Day. It was awesome. The landscape is so different from what I'm used to on the East Coast.
For those who are familiar with National Lampoon's Vacation, this is Wally World.
We stopped for gas, and this was across the street.
We left midday Friday and got up there around 7, leaving us enough time to chop firewood and set up camp before dark. This is the view from inside the park.
As soon as we got there, though, we got out of the car, started to bring things over to the bear box, and there was a deer. A blurry deer!
The moon was stunning that night.
I hadn't been camping in about 10 years, but I soon learned that fire is very important.
Especially if you want to stay warm.
By the next morning, everyone else had arrived, just in time for my crepes and S's bacon and eggs. After a hearty breakfast, six of us headed down to the river, which was super close to our campsite.
This is the light through the trees at the river.
Yours truly.
Later that day, after a foiled attempt at seeing the Crystal Cave (tours were sold out for the day) we went to see the sequoias. These are some mighty big trees.
This is the largest tree in the world. It's named the General Sherman, and there are two photos of it because I couldn't get the whole thing in one.
That night, the guys found a root and decided to put it on the fire. As I mentioned, fire is very important.
Especially for eating marshmallows.
The next morning, four of us went hiking. The Sierra Nevada looks much different than any hiking I've ever done. Everything is much more sparse. But still beautiful.
S showed me how to use my camera and I took a macro shot of a tiny flower.
Graffiti on a rock dating back to 1912. The tag, not the boulder, that is.
And this is a pic of a guy who had to jump into the water (70 feet or so from some heavy rapids) because his girlfriend lost their umbrella in the water.
After the 4.5 mile hike, S and checked out one of the waterfalls close to camp.
This was the view from the campsite
Later that night we played cards. One of the dogs, Nico, helped.
The next morning, we got up wicked early and four of us headed to the Crystal Cave. It was on the way out of the park, and though it was packed with tourists, it was still awesome. I don't think I'd ever been in a cave before.
To get to the cave, there was a 15 minute walk downhill, of which we had to walk back up to get to the car. On the way, I spotted a little lizard.
For those who are familiar with National Lampoon's Vacation, this is Wally World.
We stopped for gas, and this was across the street.
We left midday Friday and got up there around 7, leaving us enough time to chop firewood and set up camp before dark. This is the view from inside the park.
As soon as we got there, though, we got out of the car, started to bring things over to the bear box, and there was a deer. A blurry deer!
The moon was stunning that night.
I hadn't been camping in about 10 years, but I soon learned that fire is very important.
Especially if you want to stay warm.
By the next morning, everyone else had arrived, just in time for my crepes and S's bacon and eggs. After a hearty breakfast, six of us headed down to the river, which was super close to our campsite.
This is the light through the trees at the river.
Yours truly.
Later that day, after a foiled attempt at seeing the Crystal Cave (tours were sold out for the day) we went to see the sequoias. These are some mighty big trees.
This is the largest tree in the world. It's named the General Sherman, and there are two photos of it because I couldn't get the whole thing in one.
That night, the guys found a root and decided to put it on the fire. As I mentioned, fire is very important.
Especially for eating marshmallows.
The next morning, four of us went hiking. The Sierra Nevada looks much different than any hiking I've ever done. Everything is much more sparse. But still beautiful.
S showed me how to use my camera and I took a macro shot of a tiny flower.
Graffiti on a rock dating back to 1912. The tag, not the boulder, that is.
And this is a pic of a guy who had to jump into the water (70 feet or so from some heavy rapids) because his girlfriend lost their umbrella in the water.
After the 4.5 mile hike, S and checked out one of the waterfalls close to camp.
This was the view from the campsite
Later that night we played cards. One of the dogs, Nico, helped.
The next morning, we got up wicked early and four of us headed to the Crystal Cave. It was on the way out of the park, and though it was packed with tourists, it was still awesome. I don't think I'd ever been in a cave before.
To get to the cave, there was a 15 minute walk downhill, of which we had to walk back up to get to the car. On the way, I spotted a little lizard.
Hey You New York Folks
If I haven't been able to convince you yet to come to California, check out this sunset pic. It's from my front steps.
Random Pics
The Capitol building
Approaching Grauman's Chinese Theater on Hollywood Blvd.
It's so Hollywood.
The Griffith Park fire that I could see all the way down near my office.
K's bf's MOG. They took it to Lightning in a Bottle in Santa Barbara, and the thing only gets like 8 miles to the gallon.
The harvest moon
The historic Randy's donuts
The view from outside the office
Approaching Grauman's Chinese Theater on Hollywood Blvd.
It's so Hollywood.
The Griffith Park fire that I could see all the way down near my office.
K's bf's MOG. They took it to Lightning in a Bottle in Santa Barbara, and the thing only gets like 8 miles to the gallon.
The harvest moon
The historic Randy's donuts
The view from outside the office
The Road Trip
Yes. I realize it's been over a month since I moved to Los Angeles, and I still haven't put up my pics of the road trip that Z and I took to get here. So I'm putting them up now.
The first leg took us from Brooklyn to Virginia. When F$ and I drove this leg back from Atlanta once, I sort of forgot about a few states, including Maryland and West Virginia. Z and I left late afternoon and drove until long after dark. And I think I only forgot about WV this time, but I didn't take any photos either because I was driving.
But...I did take photos the next day. I think these are Virginia and Tennessee. We got from Virginia to Atlanta where we spent the night with my parents.
On the way, we saw this truck carrying giant tires on the way. Very strange. I have no idea what they're actually for.
The next day, it rained. Yuck. But on our way back up to catch the 40, we passed through Nashville - Z, are we going to stop? Maybe for a bite to eat? Z? Hmm. - then Memphis - Hey Z? How about here? No? Hmm. My driving companion was very good about keeping me on task.
Which is good, because otherwise, I can be very silly.
I did learn Tennessee can be scary. Not all of it, but certainly some of it.
This is Memphis! Hi! Oh, bye!
We also passed through Arkansas. It was pretty flat.
We made it to Amarillo, Texas that night. For those of you keeping score, that was 1,126 miles. In one day. We slept for about five hours (maybe) and then got up and got back in the car. There are no photos of Texas, because I slept through the whole thing except for when Z woke me up to show me the largest cross in the Western hemisphere and I took one look at it, snorted, and went back to sleep.
Here are some shots of New Mexico, which I fell in love with.
My first mesa.
You know what is necessary on a road trip? Coffee. I learned this the hard way on the route to Atlanta when I got a migraine because I hadn't had my chai and we had to stop the car for nearly an hour so I didn't puke in the car. I swear, I'm really not high-maintenance.
I can't even describe how breathtaking the landscape is.
I don't know if this is still a working town, but it's just off the highway.
In Arizona, there were these silly dinosaurs, and some realistic looking ones. I have become somewhat of an expert of shooting photos from inside a car.
We did make a short stop in Arizona. Oh my god, you must be saying, they stopped?! Yes. We stopped at the meteor crater. To be honest, we also stopped in Albequerque on a hunt for coffee and to get me some cold medicine. This is where astronauts trained for the moon landing. It's huge! If you look closely at the second pic, you'll see a life-size image of an astronaut to give you some sense of scale.
Yup. We're finally here. Well, at least in the state.
The sky did crazy things that night.
I've reached LA! It's late, I'm tired, sick, and more than a bit cranky, but I have arrived. :)
The first leg took us from Brooklyn to Virginia. When F$ and I drove this leg back from Atlanta once, I sort of forgot about a few states, including Maryland and West Virginia. Z and I left late afternoon and drove until long after dark. And I think I only forgot about WV this time, but I didn't take any photos either because I was driving.
But...I did take photos the next day. I think these are Virginia and Tennessee. We got from Virginia to Atlanta where we spent the night with my parents.
On the way, we saw this truck carrying giant tires on the way. Very strange. I have no idea what they're actually for.
The next day, it rained. Yuck. But on our way back up to catch the 40, we passed through Nashville - Z, are we going to stop? Maybe for a bite to eat? Z? Hmm. - then Memphis - Hey Z? How about here? No? Hmm. My driving companion was very good about keeping me on task.
Which is good, because otherwise, I can be very silly.
I did learn Tennessee can be scary. Not all of it, but certainly some of it.
This is Memphis! Hi! Oh, bye!
We also passed through Arkansas. It was pretty flat.
We made it to Amarillo, Texas that night. For those of you keeping score, that was 1,126 miles. In one day. We slept for about five hours (maybe) and then got up and got back in the car. There are no photos of Texas, because I slept through the whole thing except for when Z woke me up to show me the largest cross in the Western hemisphere and I took one look at it, snorted, and went back to sleep.
Here are some shots of New Mexico, which I fell in love with.
My first mesa.
You know what is necessary on a road trip? Coffee. I learned this the hard way on the route to Atlanta when I got a migraine because I hadn't had my chai and we had to stop the car for nearly an hour so I didn't puke in the car. I swear, I'm really not high-maintenance.
I can't even describe how breathtaking the landscape is.
I don't know if this is still a working town, but it's just off the highway.
In Arizona, there were these silly dinosaurs, and some realistic looking ones. I have become somewhat of an expert of shooting photos from inside a car.
We did make a short stop in Arizona. Oh my god, you must be saying, they stopped?! Yes. We stopped at the meteor crater. To be honest, we also stopped in Albequerque on a hunt for coffee and to get me some cold medicine. This is where astronauts trained for the moon landing. It's huge! If you look closely at the second pic, you'll see a life-size image of an astronaut to give you some sense of scale.
Yup. We're finally here. Well, at least in the state.
The sky did crazy things that night.
I've reached LA! It's late, I'm tired, sick, and more than a bit cranky, but I have arrived. :)
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