Wait, are you serious?

So I turn on my computer this morning. Check all of my emails (the yahoo account, both gmails, as well as my HPU address) and then log on to Facebook. I see a friend request. "Oooh," I think, "Somebody wants to be my friend!" I click. The photo is of a happy looking blond girl and her boyfriend. I look at the name. Karrah Watkins.

WHAAAAAAA?!

Let me take you back ten years or so. I'm eight years old and I'm camping with my family in Canada - it's our usual summer camping trip, but it's the first time I've been to Canada. Nothing special there (just kidding to all you Canadians). Point is, there was another little girl in the campsite across the path from us. Her name was Karrah Watkins. During our week of camping, Karrah and I became pretty good friends. We played a lot and got our families to hang out together. When it came time for Karrah to leave, we were both crushed. She gave me a friendship bracelet and we traded addresses, promising to write to each other. And we did. For quite a long time. Probably a couple years at least. Then one of us would forget and a letter wouldn't come for six months. Then the other would forget and a letter wouldn't come for a year. I think the last letter I sent was in 9th grade.

But today I pull up Facebook and who do I see? My long lost pen-pal Miss Karrah Watkins.
Weird weird weird world.

Really? I mean, really?

So I had my biology practical tonight. By flashlight. At least, that's how it began. I found myself at dinner, eating with the usual crew plus Kris. Suddenly, the lights flicker and go out. Not a big deal. We continue our dinner with the added ambiance of open curtains and natural lighting. Sweet.

I stop briefly in my room before heading to my exam. Upon approaching the Academic Center, I see that there is no power there either. On an unrelated note, I'm wearing my excellent Salvation Army sweater. I make my way up the dark and eerie staircase, almost crashing at one point because the stairs are unusually tall. I get to the classroom to find everybody chilling outside per usual. Dr. Kahng appears. The exam is not canceled. Moreover, it will be taken by flashlight. Great. This seems absurd to me, but I can dig it.

Anyway, the lights come back on a few minutes into the exam. No lies, I was pretty bummed. There aren't many ways to improve biology finals. But doing it by flashlight would have been a sure bet. Oh well, four finals down and two to go. Bleah.

A Collection of College-Related Haikus

Skittles.
I taste the rainbow
citrus is my favorite mix
not a fan of grape

Finals.
finals are a joke
information retention
yeah right, don't they wish

Printers.
ink is running low
and yet it keeps on printing
I don't like its lies

Energy Drinks.
nectar of students
slowly destroying kidneys
and yet we drink them

Freshman 15.
we eat what we want
but just around the corner
imminent weight gain

Weekends.
most people party
but we are major losers
so we just hang out

Easy Mac.
perfect little lunch
the staple of college life
wondrous cheesiness

Take a deep breath and....ahhhhhhhh

(sing this to yourself - the tune of Pure Imagination)

Come with me and you'll be
in a woooorld of biological alleviation.
Take a look and you'll see
into my absolute elation.

Here we'll start in my heart
and the fact that I'm no good at science.
To bio: I hate you
oh defiaaaaance!

If you want to see stressing out
simply look around my dorm room
There is always chaos, gloom
I want to kill my roommate...soon.

Nothing sucks quite as much
as my stuuuuupid bio class.
So I quit before it
kicked my sorry little ass.

If you want to see stressing out
simply look around my dorm room
There is always chaos, gloom
I want to kill my roommate...soon.

Nothing sucks quite as much
as my stuuuuupid bio class.
So I quit before it
kicked my sorry little ass.

Explanation: I changed my major away from Marine Bio/Oceanography. I am now officially a communications major with a double minor in Spanish and English. And I am THRILLED. Sad that I'll be leaving the ocean behind me, but happy that I'll be doing something I'm actually good at.

Holidays should come more often.

Here's the deal. I love long weekends. Love.

Wednesday: Work 10-3. Lame, per usual. Didn't do much. But then Kelsey called and she was very much jonesing for an adventure. Luckily, I was too. So Kelsey, Asia, Lulu (a dog), and I hiked the Pillboxes in Lanikai. Really really hardcore, but super amazing. Lulu has a bit of a complex and needs to be in front at all times. As such, she pretty much dragged me up and down the mountain. It was super duper windy up top and the view of Lanikai was amazing - the sun was getting lower, so the mountains were starting to cast a huge shadow over the town. Post-hike we went to Lanikai Juice (ultra delicious). Then we chilled at Kelsey's house and picked up Boston's pizza and chilled some more. Then came back to campus and watched Requiem for a Dream. Intense as shit.

Thursday: Happy Thanksgiving! Woke up for brunch. Then Asia, Denise, and I headed over to Kelsey's for kickball! A bunch of people from around her neighborhood were there and Asia hit Kelsey's mom in the face with a ball. It was amazing. After kickball, we took some neighborhood kids and swam at the house where Kelsey is house-sitting. They have a giant inflateable orca. Sweet. Dropped off the kids, played a shit ton of Rock Band (Razorblade Saturday RULES). Kelsey's sister Amanda flew in as a Thanksgiving Surprise - very adorable. Dinner was crazy delicious and Kelsey's family is superbly cool. Picked up Asia from Andy's house and came back to hang out, play cranium, etc. Just as we were getting ready to fall asleep to a movie, Kelsey's mom came in and said she was going Black Friday shopping with her crazy friend Trinidad. So, we all piled into the Explorer and drove to Waikele for some super hardcore bargain shopping. Got back at 4 am, fell asleep instantly.

Friday: Slept in super duper late, lounged around in pajamas. Made Christmas ornaments, talked to the family. Very cool. Dorked around for a while, stopped at campus for clothing, then took off for the North Shore (me, Kelsey, Amanda, Kelsey's mom, Denise, and Asia). AMAZING waves. Had a picnic, frolicked in the water. Got some rockin shave ice. Drove home, slept-ish in the car. Went to see Quantam of Solace at the Windward theater (while Denise, Asia, and Paige saw Twilight). It was pretty not very good. Which is fine. Took the bus back, fell asleep in Denise's room. SUCH a good day.

I like how my English gets progressively more lazy through the summary of my days off. Ah well. I'm content. Screw school, I want to be on vacation forever.

Home SO soon. Can't wait.

When did I get this crabby?

So I'm a crabby person. We all know this. My only question is this. When the fuck did this happen? I wasn't always crabby. I remember the days of cake decorating with Jaclyn, Shehan, and Allison. Jaclyn made us rockin little nametags (I believe I still have mine) with our cake decorating nicknames on them. Mine? The OPTIMIST. I used to be super happy and jolly all the time! The one cheering everybody up, the one smiling even when everything was just shit. Now I'm the crabby bitter one. I really don't understand. If anybody has any speculation as to what happened to me, I would love to hear it.

Anyway, I am finally no longer sick. Last week was hellish, but I'm all better in time for Thanksgiving break. It's going to be good. Dinner at Kelsey's house with her crazy German grandmother and kickball at the park next door. Pool partying it up at the house where Kelsey is house sitting. Checking out the Lost sets, making Joey jealous with the pictures I take.

Speaking of. I talked to Joey yesterday and all my crabbiness from this last week dissipated. It was great. We talked about how much it sucks that I won't be home for Thanksgiving, started planning all of our adventures for Christmas break. We're going to pull John out of school and take him to lunch so everybody will think he's the coolest guy ever ("Joey, all of his friends are going to be so jealous! His brother and that random chick are pulling him out of school!" "Well, that random chick is pretty cool too.") Somehow, Joey even remembered our plans to go camping next summer. I couldn't believe that it was still on his mind - I figured he'd just forget about it until next July when I reminded him. I was happy. As we said goodbye, I asked Joey to say hey to his family for me when he's home this week. Our running joke is that Joey's family loves me more than they love him, so he said "No, I have to win their love back." I responded "Fine, then I'll call them on my own." Then Joey pointed out that they would probably, in fact, really really like it if I called to say hi. So I think I will.

I also taught my mom to video chat (she bought a mac). It was ridiculous. She held the cats up the camera "Katie, can you hear Freddy purring? Can you hear him?" "No, mom, but I believe you." Then I could hear my dad in the background, "Liz, you're probably going to want to vacuum out the keyboard after this." Oh man, I'm pumped to see my family.

Looking up? Not so much.

Last night: most horrible night ever.

So I had a cough yesterday. Not anything terrible, just one of those annoying tickles in your throat. I figured I'd take my multivitamin as well as Vitamin C and go to bed early. Don't I wish.

I got back from work just after midnight, took a quick shower, and got into bed (wearing my usual sleepwear: shorts and a beater). Soon, I found myself coughing incessantly, unable to stop. Shortly after that, I found myself absolutely freezing, curled up into a ball under my blanket (fever much?). Way after that (we're talking 3:30 at this point), I convinced myself to get up and put on my one pair of sweatpants and my one long-sleeved tee and take some ibuprofen. I considered texting Steve to see if he was still up, but didn't want to bother him. Instead, I listened to music and hoped hoped hoped that I would fall asleep.

Eventually, I did. At about 4:30. Then I got up at 7:15 for breakfast and errands. On the way back from errands, I fell down the stairs next to Lehua (and bashed myself in the face with the orange juice I bought). Great. Welcome to my life.

Embracing my current location leads to...

We didn't have school on Veterans Day. : )

Bits and Pieces

This morning, like every Monday morning, I walked my usual path from Lokelani to the AC for my Oceanographic Field Techniques lecture. Halfway there, I looked down to realize that I wasn't wearing any shoes. I paused, then shrugged and kept walking. It definitely wasn't worth turning around and I was very much ok with that.

Upon reaching class, I had a feeling of dread. We were to get last week's quizzes back and I did not feel that I had done my best work. In fact, I had felt extremely unprepared for the quiz and felt super duper guilty about probably getting a bad grade. Much to my surprise, I got a 92. Yesss!

I continued my streak when Brian (my professor) began talking about how deprived of literature we all are. He wrote an author's name on the board and challenged the class to come up with the title of any of their works. There was a moment of silence in the room. Luckily, the name he wrote was Vonnegut. "Breakfast of Champions," I said. "Slaughterhouse Five, Cat's Cradle, Timequake, Mother Night, Deadeye Dick." Brian said nothing, but smiled.

He continued discussing authors of fiction and mentioned the name Christopher Moore. He paused and turned towards me expectantly. I grinned."Practical Demonkeeping, Bloodsucking Fiends, Island of the Sequined Love Nun, The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove." Another smile. Then back to talking about boats.

It's a good day.

35 days and I'm home.

I can't remember the last time I just wrote...

the nights are dark, lonely.
my only company is the wind.
to wallow,
to waste away,
to cease.
all prevalent desires.
to succumb. is it to fail or to succeed?
a simple matter of judgment.
but a simple matter is rarely that.
always more complex
always less happy
the deeper you go.
I wish to stop.
just stop.
everything.
but each time I try, something holds me back.
my music will not allow for my sadness
my life will not allow me to slow.
to relax, to breathe.
the only thing I am allowed to do
is keep moving.
moving forward.
always.
it's all there is.

at what cost

Salvation Army + Kate + Sweaters = Happiness

The best $1.50 of my life.

The 5th Best Place to be on Halloween (in the world)

So it turns out that Halloween is a really big deal here in Hawaii. Seriously.
I've had three different costumes in a week.

Last weekend was the Monsters Ball dance at Planet Hollywood. Definitely had more fun than I expected to. I tend to be kind of a bum at dances and those kind of functions, but I totally danced my ass off and had a rockin time. There were some hardcore creepers at the dance, but what else is new. An excellent night overall. Exhausting, but excellent.


Tuesday night was Haunted Halls. I probably spent upwards of 18 hours between Saturday and Tuesday working on it. Our theme was Indiana Jones (we drew a lot from The Temple of Doom). It was friggin amazing. We had moving spike walls, fluorescent bugs, gooshy stuff, tiki men with compressed air, a torture chamber, a giant boulder, scary jungle people, and a sacrificial altar/temple type thing. The 3rd floor railing was rigged up with vines and moss and Corey shaved his head and did the Haka. It was ridiculous. Needless to say, we won. Fantastic. It was worth getting super behind in Biology. Almost.



Last night was finally Halloween. Kelsey had the amazing idea of being Guitar Heroes as our costumes. Perfect. We looked ridiculously awesome and had bundles of fun. A bunch of us went down to Waikiki (Kelsey drove) for dinner at Chili's and walking the strip afterward. We stumbled across a few other guitar heroes and a many people far more horrifying. At one point, some people stopped us because heroes with guitars was something on their scavenger hunt list. I felt helpful. All of us are kind of sick, so we came back pretty early and watched Silence of the Lambs. Epic evening. Truly.

Small Wonders

When it rains really really hard, the mountains are covered in waterfalls.

When we get bored.

There wasn't much to do today. Didn't fee like going to the beach, didn't have much in terms of homework. Tiffany and I were at loose ends.
So what did we decide?
Arts and crafts.

Then our roommate said she bought fake cobwebs to put up.
Tiffany and I took matters into our own hands.

Then our R.A. Lloyd came to join us.

Then we got a big box and made a fort.









It was a weird day.

Mom: Crusher of Dreams

So I talked to my mum today.
I was excited because in an email she referred to the cats as "fat and sassy."
It made me smile.

I told her about school and how much Thursday's Biology test sucked.
Then I told her that my weekend project was to turn my bed into a fort.
And I told her that I was looking forward to it very much.

Her response?
She doesn't think I'm spending enough time studying.

I was upset.

And so it begins.

I probably should have started this a month and a half ago when I moved to Hawaii. Better late than never, though.

I miss having weird people around me. Everybody here is pretty normal. There aren't even any "alternative" people here. It's bizarre. People here thing I'm a huge hippie slash tree hugger. Not that I'm contesting the fact, both counts are very true, it's just different. It actually makes me kind of sad.
I don't have people who walk around barefoot.
I don't have people who embrace the grubbiness of the great outdoors.
I don't have people who braid weeds into their hair.
I don't have people who surrender themselves to spontaneity.
Oh well. I'm making friends anyway.

Hawaii is an interesting place to live. I live in the mountains, have to walk uphill everywhere I go. At the same time, I can see the ocean from the Pali Highway. And if I'm willing to take The Bus for thirty minutes or so, I'm confronted with the beach. And the ocean. That clear clear water and that blazing golden sun.

I'm getting into the swing of things.
Slowly but surely.

Can't wait until I go home.