Six and a Smidgen

The other day my friend Laura alerted me to the fact that we've been here for over six months. Can you believe it?! We had no idea. We'd never spent any time thinking about it but if I asked, I would have said "oh, we've been here almost five months."

In the spirit of such an anniversary we created a list of some of the things we've done/accomplished in the past six months.

- We moved in together
- And bought a car
- And boogie boards
- We do our laundry in our OWN washing machine
- Have greatly improved our chopstick skills
- Know "mauka" from "makai" and "Ewa" and "windward"
- We've met some wonderful friends that will influence the rest of our lives
- Witnessed countless rainbows
- Managed to get minimal sunburns
- Saw a beautiful green Diamond Head from a sailboat
- Played basketball with local "mokes"
- Paddled a canoe near dolphins
- Have visited neighbor islands and made it to Fiji
- Confirmed our love of raw Ahi and are on our way to mastering the art of the BBQ
- LIVE in slippahs
- Jenni continues to grow her bathing suit collection
- Bryan has more than one aloha shirt
- We are proud owners of The Bus passes
- We've been 'pounded' by waves
- Saw turtles and a wild lobster
- See the ocean every day
- We live on a beautiful island where millions of people go out of their way to visit every year

It's been a good six months. They've flown by and haven't always been easy. But we're surviving. And we're thriving. This isn't exactly the paradise lifestyle we imagined but it's going to a be a good experience to build from. And to build our tans!

Love and Aloha,
Jenni and Bryan

The Trades are Back, Hooray!

The trade winds are back. THANK GOD!

It's been hot here. Like unbearably hot. And humid. We've both been suffering and sluggish. Never knew we'd love the trade winds so much. Or even know what the trade winds do.

Weekend Update

I always feel like we owe you some sort of recap of our weekends. Because, while they're not always exciting, they usually have the most Hawaii-ness of any days. So here it is, in a nutshell.

Friday night: Art After Dark at the Academy of Art. We love this event! It's monthly and is a great opportunity to see friends, meet new people and be in the scene.

Saturday morning: A 4-hour breakfast with family friends from San Diego - in town for business and vacation. We went to the Waioli Tea Room, one of my favorite places just for the setting and overgrowth.

Saturday evening: Bryan went to play basketball with a group he met through one of the girls I paddle with. He had a blast. And I treated myself a solo movie. Little Miss Sunshine. Excellent! Then we went to dinner at this Asian-Italian fusion place we like. Sounds really weird but it's really good.

Sunday: I met some friends to watch the start of the canoe race I was not part of, and drove around part of the island to stop and see their progress. Eventually we got bored so I met up with Bryan and went to the beach. We played and sunned and watched the canoes come in. All in all, it's okay that I didn't race.

Sunday evening: Bryan got new slippers at the mall and we went to the Greek festival. Not the best Greek festival we've ever been to but it was pretty neat to see it happening in Hawaii. As you might imagine, not a large Greek population here so it was definitely a melting pot sort of festival. To finish off the international evening, we went for Mexican food.

That's it, nutshell complete.

Hope you had a nice weekend!

A Total Bummer... Or Maybe Not So Bad

Just as I'm about to write this entry about the bummer mood I'm in, things turned around and are bright and sunny now. But let me tell you about it anyway.

Last night I found out I will not be racing in this weekend's long distance canoe race. It's a four hour race that goes about a quarter of the way around the island. I had somehow convinced myself that I would make it in this race and I was really, really looking forward to it.

I joined the canoe club to make friends and be outside. I did not think I was competitive and didn't think it mattered if I got to race. But it does. I was super disappointed last night when my name wasn't called. I even got teary on the way home. I have been working my ass off and, aside from turning to steroids or actually doing pull-ups every night, there's not much else I can do. It's like being held back a grade in elementary school or not making the cheerleading squad in high school (neither of which apply to me but I imagine they would be devastating). I was crushed!

And, I can't be mad at anyone. I can't be mad at myself, I've been working hard! I'm doing a great job! And I can't be mad at the coaches, they just want to have a winning team. It's sort of awkward to be upset and not be able to blame anyone for it.

So I was wallowing in sadness and bummer mood all day.

Until I came back from lunch and had an email from my coach. She said the only reason I didn't make this coming race is because they really needed to put someone else in who's someone's mom and can't swim well. Weird, right? But the point is she said I'm doing very well and the other coach is "impressed" with my paddling. YAY! So now all is right with my paddling emotions.

The day got even better when my brother left me a message informing me that Daiei (it's like a Japanese Wal-Mart) is giving free roses to everyone named Jennifer today. I'm 100% serious. He says they have a sign that says "Today's name is Jennifer" and if you can show your ID with the name Jennifer, you get free roses. I'm gonna go get me some free roses after work!

By the way, yesterday's name was Brian. The Japanese fates must have their eye on the James family.

Whoa, what if tomorrow's name is James? I might just have to stop by tomorrow to check.

Dr. Jekel and Miss Jenni

I have been a big grump-ball lately and Bryan has been awesome in putting up with me.

I think paddling has been wearing me out. I love it in the moment but come home too tired to do anything but sit on the couch. And that makes for a messy house. Which makes me even grumpier. I'm also in a move-funk. No friends, no comfortable places. Adds to the grumpiness.

The picture illustrates it nicely. Here I am on the couch after too much wine and bowling. The house is a mess - see everything on the floor? I look nice and sweet but watch out! Because I soon fell asleep and when I was woken by Bryan encouraging me to go to bed I was terribly mean to him and told him to "leave me alone!" And it doesn't stop there. He patiently puts up with me every day.

Tonight I resolve to clean the house and be nice.

By the way - the polaroids on the floor? From our going away party in SF. I finally made them into artwork last night. They'll be hung in the hallway tonight. All your happy faces to greet us everyday!