Danny's Last Day

... man I am a slacker. Posts went from Danny's first days, to his last, with nothing in between. Oops. I think I can say Danny had a good time here. Surfed a lot of the North Shore. Hiked on the South Shore. Ate some good food, a lot of which came from the grill I work at. His flight takes off at almost midnight tonight. Ouch. Hopefully he will sleep through most of it ...

Unfortunately this whole holiday weekend I will be working doubles at my jobs. I must say I am pretty sick of having jobs where I am scheduled on the weekends. It feels like that is when everyone else is having their fun, and I am pretty much always working. It might be time to lose one of them ...

Anyway - I hope everyone had an awesome Christmas, and has a fantastic New Years!!

Over and out.

Danny's first week...

So Danny has been here almost a week... here's what we've been up to:

First night he came with me on a week for my run around the park. I lost him. My music was up too loud, so when his bike chain broke I couldn't hear him yell. (note to self: should probably start listening to music a little softer). I ran all the way home before realizing he wasn't behind me anymore. Oops. I did find him though, and he was very thankful.
The rest of his trip has been spent on the North Shore with our auntie Shar Lyn and cousin Conner. He and Conner have been surfing a lot, and Danny already broke a board at Rockies. We cooked a lot and have had a lot of fun. One lunch we saw Pam Anderson at the Wailua Bakery! ... Conner missed out on that lunch, so funny enough they went back a few days later, and she was there again! Lucky boys.
I'm back in town at the moment, back to work sadly, but I will hopefully be back up Tuesday night.

I think I already heard Danny dreading having to leave Hawaii. Now doesn't that sound familiar...

Danny is here!

Yay, Danny just got here, he's eaten dinner, and now we are about to go for a run. I will try to keep you posted on what we do!

Christmas is Coming

Shaka Santa

Gotta say the Christmas tree that they put up at Outback today made me pretty dang depressed that I am not in Florida for the holidays. I have been doing a pretty good job of ignoring the fact that Christmas is creeping up, but as it gets closer, it is increasingly hard to ignore the songs on the radio, the lights, and all the decorations around the city (Honolulu kinda goes all out).

That is what I drive past on my way home from work every day. ->

Getting in Shape

I have been trying to get motivated to start regularly exercising for some time now. So much harder than it sounds. I go on hikes here and there, surf once in a while, and have been on a few sporadic runs in the past few months. I'm not the weight I feel the most comfortable and while I already eat very healthfully (minus when my sweet tooth gets the best of me), exercise is the answer. Last night I started my quest to lose 15 pounds. I went on a 3 mile run around the park and zoo and it felt pretty good. Especially afterwards. The during is just was just okay haha. Today I am planning another run around the park. It is so weird how hard it is to get up and just go run. The run isn't even the worst part, it's the dread before. If I can just get my sneakers on I've already won half the battle.
I miss the days of high school sports where you exercised for hours with your friends and actually had fun burning calories. I have been trying to find adult sports leagues and running groups without much success. Jacksonville was a little better in this department, and whenever I do return, I plan on taking full advantage of this fact.
What do you think are the best ways to get and stay motivated to get regular, intense exercise?? (Dad, runner of a bazillion years??)

Direction

I'm not really sure what has come over me these past couple of days, but I have become a little overwhelmed by the feeling of having no sense of direction in my life. I have lived in Hawaii for 4 months now, have become pretty comfortable being on my own and have had countless fun adventures, so now what? Where do I go from here? I'm starting to feel like I have accomplished the adventure I sought here, and am now yearning for something with a little more direction for the future. Should I be back in school, working at a more serious job, taking classes to earn my professional teacher's license, earning a culinary certificate to pursue my love of cooking/food? Ughhhhh ... it is weird to go from a life that is so laid out for you (school, then college, then career) to one that has no real step by step timeline to follow ...

Any words of wisdom or advice would be much appreciated : )

Ellie

Ellie 

Today my mom called me at work to tell me our family dog, Ellie, died last night in her sleep. You always forget just how much a pet can be part of your family until they are gone. I'm halfway across the world, and I still feel something is missing at home. I wish I could have seen her before she died. And it seems so hard to fathom that she is just gone now, forever. Death is a weird that way. How can someone/something be such an important and fixed part of your life, just be gone? I'm gonna miss the funny way Ellie sat back on her hind legs and sat upright while you pet her. How her favorite part of going to the dog park was just to get pet by all the other dog owners, instead of playing with the other dogs. The ridiculous noise she made when she wanted attention, and how she looked like a bat when she slept on her back. I am going to miss the way she went absolutely crazy for pizza crust. I am so, so sad I will never pet her or hug her or rub her belly again.

RIP Ellie, you were the best 'dog' our family could have asked for.

UPDATE!

Hello my fine followers, it is finally that time. Time for a long overdue update! So, since I have posted last, Neil has come and gone, I survived my first Thanksgiving away from home, and my brother's countdown to get here is at 10 days!!

Having Neil here was so fun. Bittersweet, but fun. We went on four hikes (Pill Boxes, Mariner's Ridege, and Koko Head, and Manoa Falls), went snorkeling at Hanauma Bay, had Thanksgiving in the garden at my Aunt Shar's friend's house, perused the farmer's market, shared acai bowls, relaxed on the beach, and watch some of the Triple Crown surf contest at Sunset Beach. We had a full week to say the least. I was luckily able to get off work the entire time he was here, so it was almost like a mini-vacation for me as well.  I forgot how nice it could be to be in paradise with your best friend.... until you have to drop them off at the airport :( that was hard. And hard is a HUGE understatement. Traumatizing probably fits a little better I'd say. Just ask my mom, the one I called sobbing my head off after I had to walk to the car after saying goodbye to him. Going home to Florida is looking pretty good right about now.

Anyway..... I did take some pictures of our adventures that you can see below! Such a beautiful island isn't it??

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Get your own

*Random hilariosity from today: I had to take the bus home from my teacher aide job today ... man do I NOT miss that damn thing at all. My entire commute home from start to finish took 2 1/2 hours (20 min drive in a car), but on the bright side I did get to ride alongside Santa Claus. That's right, Santa Claus was on the bus. Fully decked out in his red suit, and wishing every person individually a "Merry Christmas" as they boarded the bus. I wish I could say he was the most interesting passenger. But for anyone who takes public transportation in the middle of the day could probably tell you, there was much, much more to take in.