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Why so Serious?

I got up extra early this morning so I could make it to my interview with plenty of time to spare. I got the last couple pages I needed from my office, then went across the street to sit and wait by the door until everyone else was ready. The interim superintendent wasn’t there, but it was a panel with Jeff, Justin, Judy, and then Ben for emotional support I guess. He didn’t really ask anything, but he did help elaborate on some things as I answered their questions. For the most part, they stuck to a list of questions Ben wrote for them, which they wouldn’t even know enough about in order to rate my answers.

I wasn’t terribly nervous, but I did decide to go all out with a jacket and tie, and started out by dropping my pirate flag on the desk in front of me. The others were spaced out around the U-shaped conference tables. Justin immediately wanted to hear about why I love cows. From there it was mostly business until my only concluding question for them was whether they would like to see a magic trick. I received an immediate and resounding, “yes,” so I proceeded to unlink two rubber bands to at least one incredulous gasp.

With that out of the way, I went back to the shop and watched as Gary, and then Zach left for their interviews. I felt pretty confident in my own answers until I heard their shared responses. I knew it was a moonshot anyway though, and assumed I would have to rely on Doge to make it to the moon for me instead.

The three of us went to Sam’s for lunch with Josh and his wife. Then I tried to leave my leftovers for Summer, but she wasn’t at the shop at that time. We continued back to work for a slow afternoon while the newbies went to work on projects elsewhere.

Thomas came by to chat with Gary and Zach, and from the sound of things, they’re working to come up with an agreeable number that would bring him back to the district. Time will tell, but hopefully not too much time.

After work, I went by the shop to see Summer for a bit until it was nearly time for her to leave. Then I went home to change and made it up to her house for the evening. She grilled chicken for salads, and then it was an early night to bed after a long day of tickling anxiety for me. I don’t know why I had so much trouble with that today, all well after my interview was over. Breathing exercises haven’t been working to alleviate them, so I guess it’s off to try something else.

Let’s put a smile on that face!

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Dress Rehearsal

I felt exhausted all day again today, and I still don’t know if I’m just not getting enough sleep, or if it’s some kind of internal clock thing that still hasn’t reverted back to this time zone. Fortunately it was pretty quiet at work. Mike was at the high school all day for the virtual conference they were hosting. I spent all day with Brody hunting for Chromebooks. We’re short nearly half of the lease that needs to go back, and I don’t know what we’re going to do. Hopefully we can return some alternate devices.

We decided to try The Gunslingin’ Burger for lunch. I had been once with Allen a while back, and my opinion didn’t change today. It was a pretty good burger, but not worth near what it cost. It would have stung less if the combo meal at least came with a drink, but the girl said they stopped including a drink when too many people chose to bundle with shakes. I guess it never crossed their minds to simply not allow that, and to only include a fountain drink.

In any case, I’m still creeped out by the life-size cross standing in the dining room. Then the chef seems to miss social cues as he lingers to ask how you enjoyed your meal. In most any other environment I wouldn’t take issue, but in this scenario it just kind of makes everyone feel a little uncomfortable. I think at a cheaper price point I would just accept everything else, but this just feels like a lot.

After lunch, I ended up sitting out of any real group work. I tried to do some sleuthing to find the missing devices in any system at all, but didn’t have any luck. I spent the last bit of the day prepping for my interview first thing tomorrow. I think I’ve just decided to go all-in. I want to believe that the three of us have a fighting chance, but a bigger part of me thinks there’s no way they’ll let it happen, so I feel like I have to really do something to stand out.

After work, I ran by Summer’s shop to try and print a better copy of my “blank” page to my résumé. It turned out really well, but I wanted to see if Staples could go full-bleed. Unfortunately they couldn’t, but I perused clearance while I was there. Then I stopped by Taco Bell for a quick dinner on the way home. They were unbelievably slow, and the food seemed really lean, but it tasted alright.

Mom and Dad stopped in while I was putting together my individual packets for tomorrow. Then I video chatted Summer while I picked out a nice outfit for the morning. I hope it pays off.

I suppose you’re all wondering why I called you here today.

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Crying Over Spilled Milk Products

It was a good thing I showered up last night, because I refused to get out of bed this morning. I gave myself another half hour or so, then got up and ready for work. Ben was out, and will be out for quite a bit as he wraps up his last month. Zach had everyone on projects, which involved cutting zip-ties at Crawford, then hunting for leased devices to return from the middle school.

A handful of us went to Slim Chickens for lunch, and I took Eaddie some on the way back to work. Then I spent the rest of the day with Brody trying to find the last of the devices. We took a pretty good bite out of the list, but there’s still a lot to go, and we’re running out of places to look.

After work, I went to my parents’ house to take a family photo to send to Susan after she texted to check up on us today. Maybe not everyone hugs their cab drivers. Maybe that’s the problem with the world.

Mom decided to make phở for dinner, so Summer brought Eaddie over as soon as they were done cleaning up at home. We ate a late dinner, then headed home for the night. I stopped by Dairy Queen with Eaddie on the way, and ended up spilling about half of my shake all over the kitchen floor when I knocked it off the counter. I’m struggling with flat surfaces.

I’ve been exhausted during the day, but I can’t ever seem to get to bed earlier. Something needs to change, but I can’t quite figure out how.

Maybe being the first interview can be a good thing.

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Lagged Day

I slept later than I wanted to this morning, but I needed the rest after such a long two days prior. I’m still surprised I managed to stay up so late with Eaddie. I finally rolled out of bed around 11, and CiCi’s sounded pretty great. We packed the girls up, got Summer’s car from the shop, and went to eat.

After we ate, the girls went home to clean up while I dumped 50 bucks into my gas tank and went home to clean up myself. I didn’t get a whole lot done, but the kitchen looks a lot better. I didn’t even get a shower until after the girls made it home. My schedule may be off enough that I can switch to showering in the evenings, but tomorrow will tell.

I have so much email to excavate, and real mail will start coming in again soon. It’s back to everyday life, except now Summer understands the appeal of life on a sailboat.

At least it’s cooler here, for now.

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AND I WOULD FLY FOUR THOUSAND MILES

I got up around 7 this morning to finish packing everything up to be out by our 10 o’clock checkout. We cleaned up most of the leftover food, including a couple sandwiches for our flight back. Julie called bell services, but we ended up having to send down one or two people at a time after people kept riding the elevator up just to go back down. We said our goodbyes in front of the elevator, and then Summer and I ran into our bellhop on the way down.

We checked our bags in, and then wandered the strip for the few hours we had before our flight. Between a pushy saleswoman with a fire-sale strategy and someone else selling hairy oysters, Summer settled on slicing up food for pearls. We let ourselves get talked into two pieces of jewelry and a third pearl just to take home.

Our last meal on the island was a Japanese place on the resort, which was pretty decent for counter service. Once we had eaten and wrapped up the last of our souvenir shopping, we went to the lobby to wait for Susan. She picked us up a bit earlier than the 5 o’clock we had initially planned, but we felt better with the extra buffer time at the airport. As we got out, she handed us a big bag of goodies as a thank-you gift for our egregious tipping. I gave her a big hug and then figured out a way to re-pack everything to fit into our bags.

The flight back on the 767 was absolutely awesome with the added space and the built-in display in the back of the headrests. We just barely missed the sunset while we were sitting on the tarmac. I watched a couple of movies while we were over the ocean until I caught the sunrise at 37,000 feet. I dozed off a bit a few times, but it didn’t seem too bad. Even Summer stayed up for most of the first flight.

Our second flight was delayed in Houston for about an hour because they had to replace a part. I don’t know if they were being truthful about it being a part for the lavatory, but the flight back was fine. We made up a bunch of time and were only a little late touching down. By then we were pretty hungry and drove across town to Chuy’s for lunch/breakfast/midnight meal.

Loaded up on caffeine, we made it home and dropped Susan’s gift bag for my parents and then picked up Eaddie at her grandparents’ house. As soon as we got to my house, Eaddie took off on her bicycle and Summer passed out in bed. I unpacked and then stayed up watching House with Eaddie on account of how much she missed me, clocking out after roughly 38 waking hours.

ALOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHA!

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Tropical Mornings

I got out of bed with Summer this morning so I could go out before the sun came up. It was still plenty bright outside because we’re on the wrong side of everything to see a proper sunrise, but it was still really pretty out. We walked along the breakwater and watched surfers go out to sea. Then we walked down the pier to look at the boats. We ran into a couple roosters by a swing in a tree, and then a friendly cat. We even spotted a boat for sale for a cool half million.

Eventually we were hungry enough for breakfast, so we went to CJ’s again to see if they could open on time. They made it pretty close, and the food and service both ended up being pretty good. This week has been pretty successful as far as food goes.

When we got back to the room, we took Dad out to try the pool, which was way too cold in the shade for being on a tropical island. We eventually moved from there to the saltwater lagoon, which was still too cold for Summer. Dad went to rent a stand-up paddleboard while Summer laid in the grass. I just shuffled around the lagoon letting fish nibble at my feet.

Julie eventually made it out with Mom as well, and they had a lad carry out a couple beach chairs and dig a hole for an umbrella. I eventually had my fair share of sun and went in to clean up. I made a sandwich for lunch to clean up some of the food we have left, and then went with Dad and Summer to do some souvenir shopping. I hate gift shopping, and wasn’t terribly impressed with much of anything. At least Summer loaded up for all of her people.

We rested for a bit after shopping, then dressed up for dinner upstairs at Fresco Italian. I was pleasantly surprised by the food, and it was nice to be seated right next to an open window, where outside they were hosting a luau. We split up after dinner and Summer and I walked around a bit more before coming back to the room. I stayed up a bit late to pack as much as I could before bed.

Tropical evenings

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Rubbah Flippahs

I tried to get out early again to get some pictures on Summer’s run, but got there after she had finished. We walked around the harbor a bit and took some pictures of crabs and fish along the dock, and then came back up to get ready for the day. Dad made breakfast this time since Julie didn’t wake up until much later. Mom stayed up all night, wired on coffee ice cream.

Dad and Summer picked up snorkeling gear, and eventually we got everyone downstairs for Susan to take us to the Makai Research Pier. She stopped in a few scenic places along the way and showed us around, and even took some pictures for us. Dad took a spill at one of them and scraped up his knees pretty badly, but Susan came to the rescue again and patched him right up.

The research center itself was closed to the public, but there was a pretty good beach with lots of live coral for snorkeling. Julie was upset that there were clouds out for part of the day, and didn’t feel like the snorkeling was as good, but I felt like it was quite a bit better than Hanauma Bay and the skeleton of its reef. I don’t remember seeing tons of great fish there – mostly giant parrot fish, which I guess was interesting too, but this time I felt more like we were in a real ecosystem. We also didn’t have to camp out tickets at 7 in the morning, and there were WAY fewer people there.

Dad, Summer, and I spent the most time out in the water, and we kept getting spread out. Dad and Julie saw a sea turtle at one point, but I never did. I spotted a seahorse and showed Summer, and we think Dad saw the same one just a little earlier based on where we saw it. It was super hard not to just touch the little guy. He was bright yellow, and had hitched himself to some seaweed relatively near the shore.

Mom never even got in the water, and stood in the shade to play on her phone the whole time. Julie tanned for a while, then made us sandwiches for lunch. When we were finally ready to leave, Susan had to send her boyfriend, Kevin, over to get us since she was on the opposite end of the island. He was pretty cool too, though.

On the way back, we stopped and picked up a bunch of fresh donuts from a Leonard’s Bakery truck. Both Susan and Kevin kept telling us about it, and we figured we wouldn’t have a better chance to pull off the road to get some. Kevin insisted that we eat in the car, but I was the only one that did. I kind of regretted it because they were pretty messy, but they were also way better fresh than when we got back to the room.

After cleaning up and resting a bit, Dad, Summer, and I went to return the snorkeling gear. Just as we got there, Susan said she could take us out to eat, so we hustled back and met Mom and Julie out front. We went to Nico’s Pier 38 after Susan’s suggestion earlier in the week, and after a bit of a wait, we got a table. The food was pretty great, but my mojito hit me super hard and I felt like I had a midget sitting on my shoulders the rest of the night.

Kevin was the one to take us back to the room after dinner, and from there it was straight to bed for us.

See horse?

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Don’t Be Shellfish

I got downstairs early today to walk the beach with Summer. She was finishing up her run as I got down there, so I got a couple pictures of her in front of Diamond Head in the sunrise. I missed a good one with the moon between a couple palm trees though. When she finished, we walked around by the water to see if we could find anything neat, but they do so much combing of all the trash and everything else that there weren’t any shells at all. Just some larger broken pieces of coral.

We headed back up to the room to try and score tickets to Hanauma Bay, but were unsuccessful. Julie came down and made French toast, bacon, and eggs for breakfast. Summer got us all tickets to the Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor, plus housekeeping had to come by in our absence to check all the lamps for women’s underwear. Once everyone was ready, I was able to get in touch with our cabbie friend, Susan, for a ride to the harbor. She had to send another friend of hers to get us, but it worked out fine.

I liked the memorial quite a bit more than I thought I would, and I really enjoyed for one of the few times in my entire life learning about world history. At first I got a bit confused by the audio tour because I didn’t see the numbers that were supposed to prompt me to play the next track. Once I had that straightened out, I moved through the displays as quickly as I could. We almost didn’t get to take the boat to the Arizona Memorial, but they started it up again and we managed to make it on the standby line.

After we finished, Suzan was able to come get us herself, and she helped us decide on dinner at Karai Crab. It was kind of a Cajun-style seafood place, and I think everyone really enjoyed it. Even Dad got adventurous with the mussels and clams. I was a little worried it wouldn’t fill me up, but I felt good afterward. Susan checked in on us as we finished up, then took us back to the Lagoon Tower. It’s been fun building some rapport with her, and she’s been really helpful just in our chatting during our rides.

We got back to the room just in time for the sunset, and then we went back downstairs for some ice cream. I had a five half-scoop waffle bowl that was super good. Summer finished hers and then crashed. Everyone else watched TV while I worked on my evening journaling. Tomorrow, we hope to find better local snorkeling than the super popular tourist destination that we failed to schedule today.

Can you eat the barnacles too?

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Diamond Head to Go With These Hands

Summer got out for a run super early, and I didn’t sleep in much but didn’t realize when she had gotten back. When I finally found her out on the balcony, we decided to get out for breakfast. Dad was up too, and the three of us went to Blue Water Shrimp again after CJ’s New York Style Deli couldn’t get their doors opened within an hour of their posted opening time. The food was really good, and seemed cheaper than CJ’s anyway. I had some super thick French toast that had a great crunch and squish.

After breakfast, we came back and tried to get around to do something. We didn’t have any set plans, so we settled on a hike up Diamond Head. Summer and Dad were most excited about it. I was interested, but leery of the physical toll. Mom and Julie had no interest. We wandered downstairs to try and get some coffee, but the taxi showed up before we got through the line.

Leading up to the hike, we actually drove through a tunnel to get into the crater. Then it was a long hike up the inside of the crater to one of the military installments at the peak. You could see all around the island, and it was just beautiful. The sun was pretty brutal though, and I was drenched with sweat by the time we made it to the top. Some of it was paved. Then it got to a carved, rocky surface, went up through a tunnel again, and then ended with a bunch of stairs.

After a bunch of pictures and cooling off in the strong breeze at the top, we made quick work of the trip down. They had a couple food trucks there, so I got a pineapple smoothie, and Dad and Summer got Dole Whip. I ended up getting a free Doll Whip myself when the girl stuck her head out of the truck and offered it to anyone. Nobody else jumped on it, so I was happy to eat it.

It proved tricky to get someone from Charley’s Taxi back out to take us back to the resort, but we finally got a lady out that ended up being our favorite driver yet. She was super affable and informative, and made it a short trip. By the time we got back, Julie had gotten Mom out of the condo and out to the beach. We changed and joined them for a while until I knew we needed to start planning dinner.

Summer and I came back to the room to shower and change, and then we all took a taxi to Phở Bistro 2, which Julie found nearby with good reviews. I had oxtail soup, which was really rich and tasty, but it was weird that it was made with lettuce and rice in it. I’m pretty sure those beans were peanuts, too.

We had trouble getting a taxi again, so we just walked the mile back to the resort. I started sweating pretty furiously with the humidity, and couldn’t stand to wait in line for ice cream or drinks. Summer and I just headed back up to the room where she fell asleep while I took a cold shower to cool off.

I came downstairs for my blogging ritual at the end of the night, and Dad came out of their room with a pair of panties he found in one of the lamps in their room. Julie called the front desk to talk to a manager about it and negotiated a $100 credit on the resort fees, but I don’t really know what I would expect in a situation like that. Gross? Sure, but I don’t know what kind of resolution would really make me happy. I probably wouldn’t expect anything. Now I feel like I have to clean my own mess up so they can clean around me.

What a time to have a place with stairs to get to the bedroom.

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Why Did the Chicken Cross the Terminal?

I woke up at 3:30 this morning so I could have plenty of time to shower and pack up. We made it to the airport in plenty of time, but things got hectic super quickly. After checking our bag, I forgot to get my ID back, and made it all the way to TSA before panicking, completely forgetting that I had just had it out minutes earlier. Fortunately the girl that helped us brought my ID back, but then Summer had a couple oversized bottles of liquids. It would have been different if we hadn’t just flown to Florida earlier this year.

We made it to Houston without any trouble, but did have to huff it a bit to the next flight. If we had known better at the time, we would have chilled out for a while and maybe gotten some food. As we made our way out to the runway, a lightning storm blew in and kept us on the ground for about an hour and a half later than we planned. The pilot made up for it though, and we just barely made our connecting flight in Los Angeles.

That last transition really hurt us, because then we didn’t get any food, the snacks on the flights weren’t very substantial, and we also couldn’t precheck for the COVID requirements. When we finally made it down to Honolulu, we had to wait in an awful line for about half an hour just to get out of the gate.

Julie did great and arranged a taxi for us, so I made the call and made our way out to meet the guy that came out. He took us to Lagoon Tower, where Julie met us at the taxi. We got room keys and made our way up to the penthouse to unload.

Summer and I were starving, and it was dinner time for the others as well, so we went downstairs and out into a tiny, cramped marketplace to find some food. I felt super sweaty due to the heat and humidity after such a grueling flight, which just made me even hangrier. We stopped into an ABC store for a couple things and eventually got our food that had been ready for a while. Evidently the buzzer didn’t work.

We took everything back to the room to eat, and then I took a real shower and crashed.

Because his connecting flight was delayed and he had to be re-routed by the airline!