Work Break

I think I'll be disappointed in myself if I don't write again until I leave Maui. I've started a few entries and then didn't have the heart to finish them, but I'll try again.

So, things have been a little rough here.... Not terrible, and I'm finding a lot of things to be happy about, but in general it has been an incredible struggle to stay positive while going to work, investing in relationships with people here, and trying to keep my grad school applications/visa application/editing project going. It's a weird tension of feeling like I have too much time until I leave yet not nearly enough time to get everything done.

So I'll focus on the good things:

-Thanksgiving with Isaac's fam :) Lots of good food, new people to meet, lots of intimidation on my part, haha. I never realized just how small my family was. Jeanie and I also saw Up in the Air with Mary at Maui's one and only artsy theater. It was really good.

-Another Star Trek party, this time at our place. As if it's not bad enough to GO to a Star Trek party, we had to host one ourselves ;)

-Jeanie and I hiked in the crater on top of Haleakala. It was intense and fabulous. Four miles downhill and four miles back up the same way. No joke, everyone is right when they say it looks like the surface of the moon. No other way to describe it. I added pictures to my album (click on the link from the last entry with photos).

-I finished a draft of my paper, a draft of my admissions essay, and a draft of my teaching assistantship essay/application. Still a LOT to get done in the next week and a half (the deadline I set for myself to mail the application to UW.... EWU isn't due until Feb), but I've accomplished a heck of a lot and there's no giving up now.

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A few bummers:

-Josh moved back to Oregon. When we saw him off at the airport, I realized that after a year here, Jeanie and I are actually quite alone. There was a time when it seemed like there was endless potential for deep friendships, but now so many people have left and so many things have happened that essentially we just have each other again (I mean, that's a little dramatic. We know a ton more people, but don't have any really close friends). Our time in Maui has come full circle. We'll get to see Josh in Portland, though. It'll be SWEET; Jeanie, Isaac, Josh, and I all there at the same time :) :) :)

-My favorite supervisor at Borders got fired. Because she didn't have enough Borders Rewards sign-ups. I encourage everyone to boycott Borders.... They're trying so hard to stay afloat that they're pressuring customers and firing employees who don't pressure customers enough. It would be better if they just went out of business. I'm a little bitter.

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And finally, a poem. Because I feel bad about not blogging anything pretty about my time at the Cerizo's farm. I guess technically it's for Isaac, but you are all welcome to read it too:

Your Family's Farm

After a five-hour trek up
and down the irrigation ditch, after
fitting river rocks
into the dam, after hauling
shovels and dense bunches
of bananas back along
the narrow ridge, after
late lunch in the kitchen, we sit

in the front yard,
listening to Keola Beamer,
finishing off sweet coconut
cascaron. These are the voices
of your childhood,
not so unlike my own:
mother, uncles, family friends,
crickets, wind
like rain in the palms.
You, in Seattle, are homesick,
and I, in your home, am too.

Night transforms the view.
Miles across the city,
across the harbor,
headlights on Haleakala Highway
resemble a trickle of lava
down the ancient volcano,
carrying, for anyone
who learns to see,
the earth's deepest memories.