Hello computer. Happy New Year. It’s been a month since we’ve spent time together. Sorry to say, but this make me happy. After a year of being a full-fldged doctorate student I have spent way too much time in front of this screen downloading, organizing, studying, researching. And now that I have only 10 weeks left of school and am equipped with a new smartphone, I hope to look at this screen even less.
Not that this computer hasn’t been good to me. In the finals week of one of my undergrad years my previous laptop decided to die so I frantically ran to the Apple store that had just opened in the mall to get this black MacBook. It’s been updated since then thankfully to my savvy Apple friend and the cute guy working at the Apple store.
My first time to Modesto was to take my computer in during another finals week but this time in grad school. Actually, it wasn’t finals week but every week feels like finals week there. So anyway I left my computer with them for the weekend and proceeded to Yosemite National Park to camp by myself as a sort of meditation retreat. Yosemite is everything they say it is- you have to see it to believe me.
As I drove the 3 hours into the valley on an early October morning I reflected on what the fall season means to me. Being from Hawaii I have never really experienced seasons so I was hoping to catch some fall color in the park (which turned out to be futile since it was a little too early for leaves to change color and Yosemite is full of evergreens). I had rented a tent from my favorite store, REI, and was a proud owner of the “Soloist” stove and burner. I tried to not let the name of my equipment remind me I was a single female alone in the woods but rather I conjured up images of an adventurous John Muir whom I was reading his journals.
The camping trip itself wasn’t hugely successful but I consider surviving a weekend alone in the outdoors pretty good for anyone. The only downfall to camping alone is the cold nights, which is one reason it wasn’t a 5-star trip. The other reason was that I had recently injured my knee so all of the hikes I had planned were out of the question. But, when one door closes, a thousand others open. Because of my knee I was forced to be creative with my weekend plans. I decided to take the drive up the side of the valley to watch the sunset, which only required a 30min hike to the top of a dome. I took my flashlight and warm clothes with me on the casual walk and was rewarded with a 360° view of Yosemite. The air was quiet with a slight breeze among which hundreds of thousands of tiny spiders floated across on their silk and glistening in the descending sun. It was upon this beautiful dome watching the colors change in the sky and the stars come out when I realized that the fall to me doesn’t have to do anything with the weather but being in school and wishing I were somewhere else.
When I drove back into civilization I had several voicemails from Apple asking for authorization for work to be done on my computer. I must’ve been a sight for them as I had spent 2 sleepless nights in the cold and had no clean clothes left. The man working customer service told me that they had been trying to reach me for days so I explained that I was in Yosemite with no reception. He paused his work to look up at me and said, “Oh. You’re one of those.” To this day I don’t know what he meant but from that point on I thought that I should be documenting my adventures for my future grandchildren to read when they wonder about their family history.
Thus, Carlen’s Journal is born again. Writing a blog is something I have done in the past but when Facebook came about I gradually stopped my journal entries. Now that it’s a new year my resolution is to maintain this blog more regularly especially since this year will be full of travels around the country and hopefully many more adventures. I will try not to bore anyone and I do want to improve my writing so any constructive feedback will be appreciated.
Happy New Year.
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