Many More Updates

Once again, lots to catch up on. First and foremost, Jeanie and I both have jobs! After she got the one at the Border’s café, I had an interview there and was basically offered the position on the phone before I even got there (apparently they loved Jeanie!). The interview was unique; there weren’t really any questions, just a conversation with Kris, who must be the most awesome manager you could have—extremely personable, funny, easy-going. I felt like I was being folded into a family the second I walked in. So anyway, we are pumped to have landed a pretty sweet job. Here are the perks:

-It is in Kahului, only seven miles from Paia on a good highway.
-They’re just putting in the Seattle’s Best café now, so everyone will be starting from scratch.
-Both Kris and Retha are open to working around each other’s schedules so they can share us in a way that works best for everyone.
-Jeanie and I get to work together (this will be the fourth job we’ve had together—crazy!).
-I get to work in a coffee shop and a bookstore at once!!!

We are pretty stoked to get started. We go in to fill out paperwork on Tuesday and start training on the register on Friday. The café doesn’t actually open until the 23rd or something, but there’s a week of training and setting up beforehand. Hooray, we have jobs! It’s pretty exhilarating, after waiting for over a month.

We’ve been doing a lot of stuff with people recently. On Thursday, Tim, that traveler guy from the Lodge, took us to see the spot where Jaws goes off. Jaws is one of the biggest waves in the world (or so I’ve heard—I haven’t googled it or anything), and you have to get to it through these sugar cane fields on a maze of terrible dirt roads, so Tim offered to take us in his 4-wheel drive SUV. It was a fun drive (reminded me of Kenya in the old days), and then once you get there, you slide down this steep hill holding onto a rope and end up on a pile of boulders that I would not want to surf into. Jaws wasn’t going off, but the swells were still pretty awesome. Then that night we went to Café Mambo because they show movies there every Thursday, and drank smoothies and watched Caddyshack.

Friday morning I met Lisa, the woman whose memoir I’m editing, at Anthony’s (coffee shop). She is from Kauai, but she and her husband are visiting Maui and happened to be passing through Paia on their way to Hana. She was nice, but the meeting was a little awkward, because I’ve never done anything like this before and I’m not sure how to be professional. Plus, I know I’m a good editor, but I don’t know how to make other people trust that I’m not just changing their grammar for fun. Her memoir has been fun to read; it is decently written and very interesting. After that, we worked, hung out at the beach, went to Border’s for my interview, went to the Hope Chapel service in Kihei (where we actually sat with people we knew, a couple girls we met at Big Rise), bought boogie boards at Walmart, and ate junk food while watching Scrubs. Busy day.

Yesterday after work, we joined a group from Hope Chapel in Lahaina to go on a whale watching cruise! For those who don’t know, the humpback whales come from Alaska this time of year to have their babies. It was fun—we didn’t see any fantastic displays, but it was still pretty awesome to see whale tails and spouts close up. There was great food and we met some new people. Afterwards, we joined a group at this restaurant, BJ’s, and even though I doubt these people are soul mates, it was still great just to be hanging out with people! We are making friends!