aloha oahu (days one and two)

Aloha from Hale'wa Oahu B&BS readers - as promised (or warned depending on your perspective), I'm blogging from sunny Oahu Hawaii!  My friend Vickie and I are vacationing this week here on the North Shore.  So far things have been fairly uneventful but here's what's happened so far:

My bud Carrie drove me to the airport at the 'butt crack of dawn' (4:50am) on Friday June 17th.  She took the scenic route so I was able to see the sunrise over the Atlantic before I was trapped inside two different flying metal objects for roughly 13 hours.  The first flight took me from Boston to Phoenix.  The views were pretty amazing - as I'm sure some of you know, it's like flying over a topographical map that you mess around with in elementary school.  I'm not sure if I actually flew over Yucca Mountain but this foto (from google images which is where all the pics are coming from since my camera broke and I'm unable to download the sim card at this point in time), shows a bit of what I saw, well without words written on it.

Most of the people on my flights listened to ipods, watched movies, slept or read - very few were looking out their windows to see the sights.

I got to hang out at the Phoenix airport for a little over one hour. It was around 9am AZ time so I thought I'd grab an egg sandwich since all I'd eaten was a granola bar.  My choices were Burger King hamburgers, Pizza Hut pizza, some sort of deli with sandwiches or a 40,000 calorie cinnabun.  After walking around the airport for about 30 minutes (I needed to stretch anyway), I settled on peanut butter crackers and an almond/coconut snack thing.  All I can say about the food there is 'epic fail'.

I left Phoenix around 10 am and the continental US around noon I think - I wrote the time down but can't find it - I think its on my travel docs which I believe are in the car.  From there until 2:15pm HI time, all there was to see were clouds and blue sky.  


One of the interesting things about the HI airport is that in some of the gates, people can meet you there so the security isn't as tight as other airports I've been at.  If you want a Lei you have to purchase it and there's very little to do at the airport.  All the shops on the level we were at were closed and there were very few people around.  I made my way to the car rental place (via two shuttles) and then waited in line to get the car Vickie reserved. Needless to say, it's fun to drive especially with the top down.

Since I had about five hours to kill, I went driving up the Wai'anne (Leeward) coast - its the side of the island that Pearl Harbor is on.  I saw some beautiful scenery and went for a walk on the beach at Kea'au Park, stuck my feeties in the water and just sat for a few minutes.  It was beautiful and made me appreciate the space we have on the mainland as I started to feel a bit claustrophobic knowing that I was on an island and I believe closer to Fiji and Guam than California - for sure closer than Maine.  The pace here is certainly laid back.  

Sociology sidenote:  there's a lot of poverty here - I saw a number of homeless people and many houses that looked like they were barely standing; often near large highrises and fancier homes.  This became more apparent as I drove to a tip of the island, to Ka'ena Point State Park where there also happens to be an Army Satellite Tracking Station.  Of course there's military people and bases all over Oahu.  Close to the tracking station, there were a lot of people camping and also squatting on the beach.  I drove by an area close to the state park where people were walking up to cars and selling things.  I'm sure you can sort through my innuendo here.  Oh, I saw a ferret zip across the road here.  Here's a picture of the point: 

Around 6pm I realized that I should probably eat something - it was midnight EST and all I'd eaten was nutty stuff and needless to say I was very tired.  So I meandered back toward Honolulu and found a built up area that had food at Battle Point Harbor.  I ended up getting a yummy sandwich at a local fast food-type place called Aloha something - Aloha Eats maybe.  They had food that was grown locally and it was fresh so that was awesome.  I also managed to buy a hat, which looks ridiculous on me but it'll be good for hiking and boating and such in ME, not just laying on the beach in HI and then I found this exotic department like store 
where I got some waterbottles that are non-bpa (or whatever the bad plastic is) and has a thing in it that you can freeze to help keep your beverage cool.

Then I went and got Vickie at the airport.  We roamed around the streets of Honolulu looking for a 24 hr. Safeway so we could buy some food and then headed to Hale'wa on the North Shore.  We drove through the Dole Pineapple Plantation but could only smell the pineapples since it was dark out.  We ended up at our condo around 10 pm (4am EST).  We sorta saw the beach, had a little cocktail after I showered and then basically passed out.

The next morning, we woke up and realized that someone had put this in our front yard:

I'm not sure how we're going to be able to deal with this day in and day out!  Rumor has it turtles sleep on the beach at night, perhaps we'll go out tonight and look for them.  Yesterday we spent the day laying on the beach and swimming a little in the water.  Vickie and I have both finished our books - she was reading The Help and highly recommends it; I was reading The Partly Cloudy Patriot and liked it but not as much as Assassination Vacation (both by Sarah Vowell).  I'm about to start Vowell's new book Familiar Fishes which is about HI - hope Gretchen won't mind if I get some sand in it.  I should get to the water, Vickie's been out there for about 45 minutes without me.  


Here are some of the best quotes we've had so far: 


"When in doubt, when your camera doesn't work just smack it" [turns out it is a temporary fix].


"If your camera doesn't work, shut it off and wait five hours"  When I didn't do this Vickie said sternly "What did I say about five hours?"  [this didn't work either].


After I picked up a pod from the beach and started to dissect it Vickie said: "That's not an almond, smell it - it's something that birds it not people.  This is for wildlife not people" and then threw what was left of the pod over the railing and then said "sorry I pitched your nut".


"Real women have bellies".


When I was holding my camera to my ear to hear if it was trying to work Vickie said "That's a camera not a telephone".


"You can get cheap flowers like this in Seattle for like $5."
"You can get those in Maine too, you know like carnations and stuff".
"Why buy carnations when you can just go to a funeral and take them for free?"


Apparently it's Father's Day so I'll close with a foto of someone with their Dad at the Honolulu Airport.  

Birthday visuals



Flowers from friends



Pretty baubles



Sweet treats



All add up to a great way to celebrate a birthday!

mystic beantown

June has certainly proven to be a busy month so far for us WOA (women of action).  Early June began with marking the completion of Kristina's garden. I think it is now about 10 ft. by 30 ft. and notice there's a new little herb bed outside fence (yes there's a fence made out of chicken wire which is supported by the poles).  Carrie would like you all to know that  she did not help in the garden this year but my friends John (the hammer) Messier and Gretchen (tiller queen) Legler did help me out in significant ways.

My friend Ruth had another successful show at Slates in Hallowell ME.  It was her cd release party and the concert went quite well.  For those who are interested in her music you can check out her website www.ruthhillmusic.com and/or friend her on facebook (Ruth Hill Fan page).  I'm her sometimes roadie / email gal.  It was an awesome show and if you like folk / acoustic music you'd probably like her stuff, its pretty great.

Carrie, who is sitting next to me reading a magazine in her kitchen, wants everyone to know that "one piece suits are the best bet if you want to look slimmer in a swimsuit.  Tankinis are particularly unflattering" (ShopSmart ; ) July 2011: 30).  This was actually a recent topic of conversation with my friend Gaelyn and I as I had to purchase a new swimsuit.  The old one still fit except in the behinder area which was saggy and would probably create a few uncomfortable moments for me if I wore it in public.  Carrie does not need to purchase a new suit this year.


I have been in Boston since Friday afternoon - I came down to celebrate Carrie's birthday, hang out with her friends and our mutual friends Lucy (from NC), Neil (currently residing in Worcester MA) and Sarah (who lives right down the road from said Carrie).  We decided that before I headed back North that we'd update people on our recent happenings.  I just asked Carrie if she remembered any of the 'funny' things we said yesterday she replied, "like what?".  This could be quite the dull post but alas, we will trudge along in the hope that maybe someone is slightly amused.

Friday night:  we went to Sarah's house to watch the "B's" game and while we were there we walked up her street to see the filming of I hate my dad which is some kind of new Adam Sandler film.  We were quite star struck seeing the crew breakdown the set and seeing clothes from the show - not.  While we arrived too late to see anyone famous / semi-famous (unlike my most recent brush with fame which was having David Strathain sit next to me at a conference) we were pleased to know that Wollaston MA can easily be transformed into looking like a neighborhood in the 1980's.  Aside from having fun with Sarah and friends, the Bruins lost that game and that's really all we'd like to note about that night.


Carrie's birthday Saturday:  While Carrie worked at another thrilling Curry Orientation, I picked up the house a little and did some food prep for her birthday gathering.  She actually got up early to make cupcakes for the event.  In the afternoon I went and met our friend Lucy (who I worked with at Warren Wilson College in Asheville NC), for lunch in Boston.  She is in town taking a two-week education leadership seminar.  Lucy and I enjoyed seeing people who were all dressed up in their rainbow gear for GLBT Pride.  We also saw bands of roaming pirates around Faneuil Hall - seriously - there were tons of younger folks with pirate outfits on, we believe it was tied to a pub crawl connected to a fundraiser for a deadly disease but we have no supporting evidence.  Lucy and I returned to Wollaston where we helped Carrie prep a whole bunch of yummy food and then parteeeeeeeee into the early AM, well actually late night.  Rumor has it there was a dance competition when Neil and I were taking Lucy back to her hotel but again, there's no supporting evidence that this occurred.  [Note from Carrie: The evidence is the 14 people who witnessed it -- Kristina is jealous she missed it!]


Sunday - meeting Andy in Mystic: part one: unhappy worker goes back to orientation to make sure students fill out the CPI correctly.  This is a simple assessment tool for incoming students which consists of 100 questions.  Carrie's favorite story involves a student filling in the dots to 183 and then pretending she wasn't doing it.  Ah, higher ed.   Part two: we head down to Mystic CT to hang out with her pals Ned and Itzik.  Ned's family owns a house on Masons Island (which is part of Enders Island) and they rent it out to tourists so we went down to chill on the porch, gaze at the ocean, eat and help make beds for the first batch of tourists for the season.  Enders Island used to be owned by a Dr. Enders somebody and it now is a retreat run by the Catholic Church.  It has a beautiful chapel with really cool contemporary stained glass windows (done in an arts and crafts style to match he main house on the island and so you can see lots of ocean) and a mummified hand of St. Edmund, which looks nothing like this:

His hand & forearm have a faded red silk glove thing on it with fingers exposed and the ring finger has a loop of the glove around it.  My guess is so it doesn't fall off since there's no elbow to hold it on.  Its in a case with other religious artifacts - little medals and pins with pictures and jewels on them.  While we really went to see the arm, the island itself is very beautiful and it was a lovely walk to have before dinner and our partial viewing of the movie Seven which was not so lovely.  We missed the end because we had to eat dinner but no one seemed that disappointed once I told them what happened.


I do think though that one of the highlights of the trip was meeting Andy.  As we were walking to see St. Edmund's hand, Ned has us make a detour through some bushes in someone's yard (attached to a big fancy house of course).  In the bushes was a clearing and there laid Andy.  Don't be afraid, it wasn't a real person, although it did startle Carrie.  Andy is a concrete statue of a young man (naked!) that was made in 1963.  Ned talked about how the statue caught his eye when his parents bought their house; at that time, Andy was standing upright.  We then talked about how we would rescue Andy - he looked fairly heavy and that he may have broken his legs when he fell over.  If Ned gets the statue (he's going to contact the people in the big fancy house) then we'll let you know what happens to him.  We think he'll be moving to Jamaica Plain MA.  At that time, if appropriate, we'll send fotos.


Carrie also demonstrated her mad skillz as a saver when we went to BigY to buy TP for the Mystic house.  We needed to get a large amount since 10 ladies would be staying at the place in a week or so.  After roaming around the feminine hygiene and diaper aisle, we located the goods and kizang!  there was a sale going on if you had a BigY card.  So after minutes of debate, Carrie headed over to the customer service counter and signed up for a card.  Since they are excited to have new customers, she also received some gold and silver doubloons.  Apparently Itzik was pissed off the first time they went there as he thought they only gave change in doubloons.  We played with the coins, grabbed an 18 double-roll pkg of TP and then cashed out.  We were a bit miffed that we couldn't use the doubloons to pay as we were buying things that weren't on the magical pirate doubloon list but when we were leaving, I did note that we could have gotten a fee mylar baloon with one of our doubloons.  We saved $5.71 - Take that Extreme Couponing (and one new mama of twins in Cary NC).


We headed back yesterday with some fine boutique items we purchased in Mystic (including a birthday gift for a friend of KWs) and one gay man who endured the backseat of the Saab which blasts hot air instead of cool.  Carrie's planning to call Saab this week but isn't too concerned since she never rides back there or in the passenger seat.  Apparently the driver's seat has full AC.  Kristina is on her way back to ME to work on finalizing an article, mow the yard and pack for her return to beantown in two days as she flies out to Oahu on Friday at very early in the morning.  Carrie will be resting to prepare for taking KW to the airport at the "butt crack of dawn, when no human should be awake" (CC).  


Thanks for reading, if you made it this far, we're a bit concerned about your boredom level (jk!).


xoxox the employed WOA cc and unemployed WOA kw


go Bs!

sister inspired movie

Another example of what happens when academics are on break and make phone calls:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1NZHLpGUydk&feature=channel_video_title

carrie inspired movie

Check out  "banjos & brastraps: phone call #77,777" on you tube.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_HFDyqzrCvo&feature=youtube_gdata_player

"Don't mess with your eye, you can't get another one!"

This was the advice from KBW last night when I asked her whether or not it would be okay to put Vaseline on the corner of my eyelid since it was dry and hurting.  There were the reasons she cited for why it would be a bad idea:
1. it's a petroleum product (this worries her about many items regardless of whether or not I'm going to put them near my eye)
2. it's for external use only (although I know for a fact people put it on the inside of their noses)
3. it wasn't on a homepathic website as a solution
4. her eye doctor didn't recommend it - rather he said you should put warm compresses on your eyes in 5 minute intervals for 15 minutes
5. you don't want to mess with your eye, you can't get another one! (I must point out here that it does say on the jar of Vaseline that you can use it to remove eye make up)

So I tried the compresses -- after scalding my hand in the water -- KBW stressed that she said warm not hot water.  She asked if I felt better and I said that it hurt worse from pressing on my eyes and it makes all kinds of bright lights on your eyelids -- this freaked her out and she stressed that I was supposed to press gently and not try to get my eyes against the back of my head.

The result -- my eyelid is still dry and now it may very well be bruised from the compression.  KBW may be a PhD, but she's no eye doctor!

What do you think -- can you put Vaseline on the skin near your eye?

So much for a quiet weekend....(notes added by kbw day after original post)

Kristina came to Boston this week for a little work assignment and stayed through the weekend for some retail therapy and a Wii Dance Off via Just Dance 2.

     FYI: Carie kicked my ass on the dance off.  Be happy you didn't have to witness this event, it wasn't pretty.

As we came home last night from our shopping adventure we heard dogs barking from the apartment across the hall. (two yip yip dogs) Since we haven't updated that situation in a while -- Bess moved out after getting in a fight with Muffy. Muffy appears to have a new room mate although she is rarely there.  Anyhow, since the barking was annoying I called the landlady and let her know that there were dogs over -- there's a policy in the lease that we are not allowed to have any pets. 

     I have to say that Carrie was quite determined.  She said "I am going to call the landlady right now" - went to a secret place, dug out the locked box of important items and before I could answer her question "is it too late to call" was dialing the number.  It was very impressive and yet seemed a bit out of character for my easy going mild mannered friend.

Two hours later the landlady called me back and said she called Muffy and there was no answer -- and that she left a message telling her to remove the dogs and would be over in the morning.

     Carrie corrected her and said "oh no, she's been there all night - I can hear her talking and laughing now."  The landlady said something to the effect of "really?  I knew she wasn't telling the truth - if she thinks she can play me...."

Muffy then went out for the evening, leaving the dogs to bark well past midnight when KBW and I put in our earplugs, retired for the evening and wondered what drama the morning might bring.

     Nothing like sleeping on a flip out futon with earplugs on a Saturday night.  For some weird reason I pictured Carrie and I in flannel, floor length nightgowns which buttoned up to our necks and had a ruffled collar.  We had on little lacy bonnets and if you looked closely, you could see little brightly colored ear plugs sticking out of our ears as we shuffled off to our respective beds.

At 8:45am there was a lot of knocking, doorbells ringing and dogs barking across the hall.  (Apparently I was exhausted and the ear plugs were working because I missed all of this).  When Muffy finally answered she was told to remove the dogs as they were not allowed.  (As Carrie told me, it was more like: Dogs are NOT allowed, you MUST removed them immediately as the older landlady kept yelling (with a Chinese accent) NO DOGS, NO DOGS!). She gave an award winning performance with tears and lots of drama about how the dogs were in town for a funeral (because we all know dogs regularly attend funerals) and they would be gone by the end of the day.  The landlady held firm and told her she was sorry but they had to be out and that the other tenants were complaining about the barking. (re: Carrie) In moving the dogs to her car, Muffy somehow let the dogs get loose and had to call and chase them about. (Oscar, OSCAR!! [screeching]) The landlady said she would be back to check later in the day. (Note lack of follow-through on the landlady's part here but dog toys and leash were tossed in the back hallway by Muffy as an indication of the dogs return back to where they belonged which took about 45 minutes so clearly they are Boston dogs).

Since then Muffy had been in and out of the apartment, slamming doors, yelling and carrying on, banging on the walls.  She left for a while, but is now back and up to the same antics.  Our favorite Muffy quotes in all of this are:

"This is why I didn't want to rent from someone who was Chinese, they have no respect for anyone."  [side note: I have one of the best landladys ever! who is very kind and respectful]

"My neighbor is such an a**hole!  I won't f@#*ing forget this!  EVER!"

Needless to say she's mad and I've taken pictures of my car while she was gone in case she decides to key it or something.  Welcome to Spring Break ....CRAZY!!

(I went back to Maine ASAP).