It's Like We Know What We Are Doing

Oddly enough, I’ve been putting off this final Hawaii post.   I’m not entirely sure why, really.   Maybe the finality of it all was more than I wanted to deal with.   I’m home.   Things are back to normal (or as normal as things are in the summer in my life…many trips are in various planning stages up in here).   The feel of Maui is fading.   And this is the last thing I plan to “do” to close the chapter on this trip.   Once this post is done, my trip will officially be over.   And I’m not sure I want that to happen. Then again, I could be really lazy. Because this was my first trip to Hawaii and my first “big” (partially) solo trip (a trip to Disney World when I had my first nervous breakdown in the parking lot of Animal Kingdom doesn’t necessarily count, right??   It was pre-blog…it doesn’t count), I thought I might as well share a few bonus pictures along with some of the things I’ve learned from experiencing both of these things fo...

Tuesday, May 5th The trip home is its own story.  Mostly because it's been almost two weeks since the flight and I'm still pretty angry about the whole thing.  Well, I'm not as angry as I was.  It has been almost two weeks.  I shouldn't still be angry at what happened.  My remnant anger is at the resolution...or lack thereof. I mentioned in a previous post that I had used miles to travel First Class to Hawaii.  I had saved them up for almost 15 years and had finally decided to use them for a purpose.  I don't normally fly First Class.  I mean, I travel a lot, but I try to go as inexpensively as I can because I travel a lot.  So First Class isn't in the budget.  This was a birthday trip that was created based on flying First Class to Hawaii. This is what I was leaving.  I didn't want to leave... Fast forward to my flight home. Well, fast forward to the start of this journey.  And this journey actually star...

Tuesday, May 5th I have to go home today. I don't want to go home today.  I want to sit on the beach or by the pool again today.  Every day.  I want someone to bring me water and fruity drinks.  I want to not worry about work or paying bills or anything involving real life. But I didn't have to go home until later tonight.  Danielle was being picked up by the SpeediShuttle at 3p.  I was being picked up at 7p.  So no matter what we ended up doing, we had to be back to the hotel before 3p.  I still had enough time to do everything I hadn't yet done on Maui. We started the day lazily.  The alarm was set, but only half-assed.  Most of the packing was done last night.  So instead of jumping out of bed and attacking the day, we both just kind of hung out.  Having a five hour difference in the opposite direction works in a way.  Everyone we know has been up for hours now.  So it's better for texting and e-mails an...

Monday, May 4th The day I both dreaded and planned for is here.  Today is my 40th birthday.  I don't feel any different.  I mean, it's not like I turned 40 and gained super powers (which I can't deny, I've been expecting to happen since my 13th birthday.  It's like TV lied to me!!  Evie Garland isn't the star of a documentary??).  It's just another day.  I've barreled into the next decade and nothing can be done to stop this from happening.  So how do I accept the fact that I'm now 40??  By running away and having some light pampering. One of the things I had wanted to do while I was here was to take a Meditation class.  The Athletic Center had a Meditation class scheduled at 7a.  At first, I was thinking this class was way too early in the morning to even consider taking.  But I hadn't counted on jet lag. Danielle and I rolled out of bed and did the lightest of getting readys.  I mean, let's face it. ...