Update!

Time to update again, I guess. I've kind of slipped into a routine, so life's not as interesting to blog about. Here's what's happened since the 15th:

That creeper guy showed up on the beach at night while Jeanie and David were out there, tried to convince them he was Buddha and stuff again. What a disturbed person, extra disturbing because there's no one at the beach at night, and how did he find them?

I discovered the deliciousness of vanilla rice milk. Yum yum. I wouldn't buy it for myself, but some guests left an unopened carton. It's good with chocolate syrup!

Went salsa dancing again with the same people plus this guy Micah who comes into SBC a lot and Holly, a girl I didn't know. Micah is an MK, he's 22, and he's an only child--cool, huh? I was up until after 4 a.m.... We were planning to go again tomorrow but Brook's friend Brandon, who I kinda know, too, is having a game night/goodbye thing before he moves to Oahu, so we're going to that instead.

Hung out with the same Friday night people on Friday night. Went to church, McDonalds, this bar called TipUps, snuck into the hot tub of one of Rick's properties. It was a late night--I mean early morning--again. I don't think I've ever had such sleep-deprived weekends (I was a lame college girl--which is totally fine with me).

It finally got HOT here for two days. And then the temps plunged back down, and there is currently a flash flood warning for all the Hawaiian islands.

I'm upset about the schedule at work again... :( Our manager Kris apparently does exactly the opposite of what people request, while at the same time pretending she's somehow accommodating us. Jeanie and I were taken off the only shift we have together, my hours were dropped down to 11 this week, and Jeanie has to work Saturday even though it's not on her availability (it is on mine...). I don't want to talk about it anymore.

Rick is thinking about renting out our place, and Retha said we'd probably move to Tower 3, this teeny tiny studio at the top of two exhausting flights of stairs. I would definitely put up a fight. Sigh, I don't really want to talk about that, either.

I've decided that it's OK to tell random customers who ask me out that I have a boyfriend. It's only happened to me once (unless you count Chas), but it doesn't hurt to be prepared. It's really in everyone's best interest--I am safe from the type of guy who would ask out someone they know absolutely nothing about, and his pride is intact because I didn't say, "There is no way I would ever consider going on a date with you." I'm such a bad liar, so it's just kind of exciting to me that I pulled it off once :)

Creepy Customers and Beach Weddings

I have been listening to Greg Laswell obsessively since I got his CD last weekend. He is amazing. I also got one of The Frames CDs, which I like as well.

Easter was awesome. Jeanie and I went out for breakfast (pastries! We gave them up for Lent), then went to church with David and my parents. My parents took us all out for lunch afterwards and let us in to play at the pool at Haggai until Jeanie and I had to get back for work. It was a very celebratory day.

This CREEPO guy came into Border’s on Monday. At first he seemed no stranger than a lot of our customers, all happy-love-Buddha stuff, but I got the weirdest vibe from him as he kept talking to me. He kept twisting his words around so I couldn’t understand what exactly he was saying, something about being God’s messenger and seeing me in Pa’ia. It wasn’t like he was high or mentally off or anything, just disturbed through and through. He was attractive and really charismatic, which made it even more disturbing. Eventually Peter came over from across the store because he could tell something was up, and he gave me a task in the back so the guy wouldn’t bug me. Creepo sat in the café for a while and then started being weird to Ann, one of the booksellers. She said she got the chills from him, too. Eventually he got kicked out of the store because he was saying he’d come back when she worked next. Ick ick ick.

We went several days without hot water because our propane tank emptied and there were no replacements. Tuesday was the first day I took a real shower in five days, and it was wonderful!

Today was Loretta and Onassis’ wedding! It was great, just a tiny ceremony thrown together last minute on the beach. They said they spent less than $300 on everything, including wedding dress, marriage license, honeymoon to Oahu, etc. Jeanie made a cake and friends did makeup, flowers, music, photos for free. The minister’s wife even danced hula as David played the guitar. The setting was perfect, beautiful, sunny, vivid, and there were only about 15 of us there, so we just gathered around them through the ceremony. Afterwards we went out for brunch. I loved how laid back it was…. I could see myself doing something similar—though I’d want more than a two-week engagement! Click for some pics of the wedding: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2036902&id=110900370&l=9070f62a19

Saturday Night Introversion

Is introversion a word? I don't know what's wrong with me, the past few Saturday nights, I just want to be alone. It's even a little tough simply checking email at the Lodge because there are so many people around who want to chat.

This has been a good week. Well, "good" kind of glosses over some emotional highs and lows because of something I can't talk about in this blog, unfortunately. Let's see, here was my week after my typical Sun-Tue full work week:

Wednesday I had dinner with my small group and then hung out with Jeanie and David for a bit.

Thursday I went salsa dancing with Brook and two of his awesome friends, Josh and Sarah, who I've been getting to know recently. We took this hour-long lesson first (a lot of what I learned in my four lessons two years ago came back to me, thank goodness) and then met up with his twin sister and her friends at Lulu's, this restaurant/bar with live music and dancing. It was SO much fun!!!! Brook and I did pretty well, I have to say, and it was hilarious and great dancing with Josh, too, because he makes a lot of it up and goes a little crazy. We are planning to go to the rest of the lessons in the coming weeks (I think there are two or three more).

Friday Jeanie and I went on this beautiful hike called Swinging Bridges (because there are two freaky swinging bridges). Friday night we went to the Good Friday service at church, which was really good. The pastor of Hope Chapel who speaks on Friday nights has terminal leukemia, and he is getting progressively weaker, but his messages are incredible because he has such inner strength and hope even as he goes through the toughest thing you could imagine. It makes me realize how pathetic my problems are and how easily I get bogged down in them. After the service, we had a bachelorette party for Loretta at Sansei. It was kinda lame because we were all tired and ready to leave by midnight, but we did manage to fit in one completely embarrassing karaoke song. I'm not sure I can ever go back there.

Victoria, one of the girls living with Maria, left to go back to the mainland. I don't think I mentioned that Sarah and Reynolds, some of the YWAM people we met at the beginning, are gone, too. I wondered what it'd be like to get to know people here because so many people come and go, and now I'm starting to know.

Thanks to the quotes on the back of sugar packets at work, Jeanie and I discovered the great Noah BenShea, this SUPER cheesy inspirational speaker. You should totally check out his website (www.noahbenshea.com). He will change your life. Here are some of his best quotes:

“The obvious is often hidden by its obviousness.”
“Time is a river that never walks but always runs.”
“Excuses are one of the few things Noah didn’t bring onto the ark.”
“Don’t let your past kidnap your future.”
“The time is not ‘now or never,’ but now is never again.”
“Family is a way of holding hands with forever.”
“In your life, you are the paint, the painter, and the painting.”

Deep.

If you want to see pictures of that hike Jeanie and I took, click on the link in the previous entry.

Parents, Engagements, Hunchbacks, and Friday Fun

Parents: My parents arrived on Wednesday! It appears that it will be hard for us to spend a lot of time together because our schedules are opposite and I live on the other side of the island and they have no car…. But it’s nice just knowing that they’re nearby. I hung out on the beach with them a bit the other day, and today they took the bus up to Paia to see my little life here.

Engagements: Two of our friends got engaged! To each other, that is. We were friends with both Loretta and Onassis before they ever met, which is kind of strange. They just met two months ago and are planning to get married on April 15th. Soooooo fast. It kind of makes sense for them to get married right now because her massage therapy school is done and he’s taking a new job in Texas, but I totally can’t imagine moving so quickly.

Hunchbacks: Loretta gave Jeanie and me massages the other night as kind of a thanks for driving her from Makawao to Kihei once or twice a week, and she told me that she’s only seen the kind of back problems I have on elderly people, overweight people, or people who’ve been in really bad accidents. Basically I have a hunchback. Great.

Friday Fun: Yesterday was as great as an entirely free Friday could be. First, Jeanie and I slept in and went on a 7-ish mile hike in a huge forest in Makawao. Then we had a break in the middle to eat burritos at this cool little restaurant, shower, and get ready for church. We picked my parents up in Kihei and did the church thing, then hung out with the same people we’ve spent the last few Friday nights with. Went to a new (new for us) sushi place in Kahului (the tiger roll is sooooo good!), came back to Paia with David and Brook, built a little fire on the beach, and ended up just sitting out there talking until past 5 a.m. I am getting into a bad habit of not sleeping on Friday nights…. But it’s worth it.

Click the picture below to see new photos in my facebook album (you have to go to the second and third page to see them)!

My Maui Dad Can Kick Your Butt

Have I mentioned Peter, one of our managers at Border’s? He is a few years younger than my parents, a big gruff ex-bouncer who’s a softie at heart. Jeanie and I have gotten to be pretty good friends with him, and he’s made it clear that he’s watching out for us, like when we leave for the night, he’ll stay outside until we get to our car. Or this one time when on my day off I came in with one guy and talked to another while I was there, he told me to be careful, it was a small island and he didn’t want me to get a reputation or for him to have to break up any fights (especially between a local guy and a haole, I realize now). Though he has absolutely nothing to worry about, it makes me feel special (warm and fuzzy, in fact) to know an ex-bouncer’s got my back. He said Jeanie and I could call him dad, too. :)

More Late-Night Adventures

I feel like a true introvert: It is Saturday night and all I want to do is stay in and hang out by myself after a busy week. I'm working on three loads of laundry because our dryer was broken for several days and I was digging dirty polos out to wear to work and it was just wrong.

I changed my availability at work so I could have my Friday nights off, and so far so good! My hours were cut down to 16 next week, which might make it hard to make ends meet, but it's still worth it to be able to go to church and then join all my friends in the after-parties :) Yesterday I went to Sansei (that sushi/karaoke place) with a big group of people and of course had tons of fun. I might have mentioned Brook's friends Scott and Josh, but I don't think I mentioned that they are cool enough to be able to pull off things like wearing bright yellow skinny pants and living in a tent in a macadamia nut field. Oh, and they are from Oregon, so naturally that puts them pretty high on the coolness scale already :)

After we left Sansei, Jeanie, David, and I squeezed into Brook's truck and he drove us partway up Haleakala to this field where you can see the lights from basically the whole island. The top of Haleakala is one of the best places in the world for stargazing, but unfortunately it was a little too cloudy to see much. We sat in the grass and froze our butts off, smoked some cigars, walked past the first few trees into the dark woods, and tried to freak each other out. I feel so lucky to have friends who enjoy doing what I would consider fun things. Almost everyone I've met on Maui is adventurous, outdoorsy, and chill all at the same time, and so quick to invite people on hikes or to parties or whatnot.

After getting to bed around 4, Jeanie and I rose bright and early at 8 to go visit her best friend Elyse's parents, who are here on vacation. We lay in the sun and wind at a nice resort in Kaanapali and swam in the pool until she had to go to work. I am tired.

By the way, I took all of two pictures last night--how lame that now that I actually have people to take pictures of, I don't--but I'm going to wait to post them until I have some more to add.

From My Soul to Yours

Every week, I work nonstop Sunday through Tuesday, basically from 11-11 each day with a couple short breaks. It's not really stressful, but every Wednesday I breathe a sigh of relief, think of all the errands, exercising, phone calls, and writing I have to catch up on, and also realize I haven't done anything interesting since Saturday. The only highlight of the past few days is that Jose Zee, that interesting customer at SBC, gave me a gift the other day: a little vial of rose oil in elaborate paper/dried rose packaging. He said there was just something about me that made him want to create for me. "From my soul to yours," he added. It was very sweet.

My parents come in a week!!!! At the beginning of March, I thought about it pretty much every day, but the last couple weeks I've been distracted and now their arrival has snuck up on me, which is a good way to have it happen.