Soon I'll be going on a school trip to Yosemite, where we will spend our days hiking and writing in our "journals". There's a lot of things that I needed to buy for this trip, because I'm not much of an outdoorsman. In fact, I've never really been camping out in a tent, seeing as my mom prefers civilization (and I guess I would really miss indoor plumbing, myself). But it'd still be nice to just try it, you know? For the sake of having that experience. It's not good to judge something you don't understand.

There's a whole lot of things that I needed to buy for Yosemite, including...
- A sleeping bag (I almost never sleep at other people's houses)
- Hiking boots
- Waterproof pants
- Waterproof jacket
- Snow gaiters (well, I guess I don't REALLY need them, but they're useful to have. They're like half pant legs that you can put on.)

There's probably a few more things that I have forgotten to mention. But anyways, I'll probably never use most of the things I bought for Yosemite after I come back. We don't really go hiking much in the first place (probably because I didn't like to do it...Too hot outside, I usually burned up my energy in the beginning through running, etc. Not that it isn't nice once in a while. In science camp back in fifth grade, we had the chance to hike alone, and it was really relaxing).

One of the things we needed to get was a bandana. Apparently, when we're out hiking, we'll stop to eat lunch, and we'll be using the bandanas as "plates" for our food. I set to thinking about bandanas.

Bandanas seem to have many uses. They can be used as hankerchiefs if you have allergies, you can wear them to look sort of like a cowboy (and you could also wear it if you're sick or people around you are sick as a kind of mask), you could put them on your head...I'm not sure if people usually do this, but somehow or other I got the notion that people who have gone through chemotherapy and thus lost their hair tend to wear bandanas to cover their heads.

To me, this gives the bandana a lot of meaning. The bandana is a sign of struggle, showing the battle between people and cancer and their fight to survive. It is a visible symbol of pain, fear, and desperation. At the same time, bandanas also show hope - a little hope that a person will pull through, fight off the cancer, and be able to resume living their life again. Maybe things will never be the same. Perhaps the scars, physical and mental, will always be there. But it's something precious, getting to have a second chance.

Bandanas are pretty cheap to get, but they're not necessarily useless. I hope you're paying attention things and what kind of purpose they really serve. I guess that's what teachers mean when they're saying, "You should ask under the surface questions!" You should still pay attention at school, even if you find it boring, because you never know, something important might be said.

My history teacher sometimes tells us stories, such as about having to transport a cake, being a valet, gambling in Las Vegas, and so on. He says we should pay attention since there is something to be learned from his stories; they're not just for entertainment. I think I might want to be a teacher sometime.

Here are some of my possible careers:
- Writer (well, that may have to be just something I do in my free time, what with the "starving artists" thing)
- Photographer (again, only if I can make a living off of it. Nowadays lots of people have huge Nikon or Canon black cameras)
- Interior designer or travel show host (too bad those jobs aren't that common)
- Ice cream shop owner (or some other kind of shop, with yummy food XD)
- Fashion designer (it'd be fun to come up with things, and I'd like to steer people away from those really low colors and tight clothing. x_x )

Labels: bandana, camping, cancer, career, chance, chemotherapy, future, hiking, hope, learn, outdoor, science camp, shopping, sign, significance, struggle, symbol, trip, useful, yosemite

It's been pouring buckets lately, and I was braindead about what to name my blog post, so there it is.

This morning, my piano class was at 11:15 (weird, because nowadays it's usually 11:30). As always my mother and the piano teacher started off with their strange middle-aged/old lady talk. They talked about how a lot of piano students have been skiing, and how one of the kids was very sick with a cold, yet he was still going to go skiing. Wow. The two older folks, however, kept saying how they don't like camping and things like that (my mom says "So many bugs and dirty ground!") but all the same, a lot of people like to go back in time (y'know? Because sleeping in the "outdoors" and cooking stuff over a fire is basically going how life was a long time ago).

Everyday when I walk home I continue to keep an eye out for the black cat. He, or she (I can't tell the gender of it) doesn't come out if it rained that day, it seems. I guess felines aren't too fond of the wet weather. Most cats, after all, are freaked out by that sensation. Maybe their fur isn't completely waterproof, or they just aren't used to it, or something.

I'm impatiently waiting for more magazines to arrive in the mail. I constantly read the magazines Reader's Digest, National Geographic, and Nintendo Power. I got a new Nintendo Power issue yesterday, but I've read almost all the interesting stuff already (I didn't want to read about an Indiana Jones game) and I haven't seen a new RD lately. I don't know if any new NGs came, either, because they tend to get scattered around the house.

Last night I was reminiscing about not going swimming for several months. I kind of miss it. The last time I went was in late November, swimming in the Venetian hotel pool (that's in Las Vegas). Ever since I stopped my swim lessons, as I don't have much free time for them, I haven't had much chance to go swimming. Oh well...As long as I don't completely forget how to swim, I suppose it'll be okay.

Oh yeah, we bought some Milanos today. It's a kind of cookie of sorts, from the Pepperidge Farm company, whatever that is. There are many flavors - regular, milk chocolate, mint, dark chocolate, double chocolate, black&white, raspberry, and orange. I bought one raspberry and one double chocolate (they're tasty and have less calories). My mom actually likes the raspberry, so that's cool.

Labels: blah, camping, cat, food, gossip, magazine, milanos, old folks, rain, ski, swim

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