Official

I now consider myself an official member of the College of Social Sciences, they put my picture up on the website. Everybody knows that is the point when you know you've made it. A picture on the contact us section of a website. What more could a person want out of life?

My new job is going well. Due to Election Day and Veteran's Day I have yet to work a full work week. With Thanksgiving next week I'll have another short week. I think the last week in November will be the first full week for me. At this point the only downside to my job is how incredibly cold it is in my office. There is an AC vent right in front of my desk. I've decided that all my cold weather clothes are going to get some use after all.

Speaking of cold weather the last couple days here have have actually been kinda cool. At night it's been getting down to the low 60s and then today I don't think we broke 80! Added to that it rained a good part of the morning and then was overcast the rest of the day. I think I have acclimatized. We have a church meeting tonight and I am totally wearing my boots. I also pulled out one of my heavier cardigans to wear in the overly air conditioned room.

these boots are made for walkin'

 When I was in France I bought these amazing boots. They’re perfect. They fit over my calves (finding a pair that did was no small task), they have a nice low heel and they are just plain gorgeous. I think I wore them non-stop the first 6 months after I bought them.  I kept wearing them when we moved to New York but it soon became apparent that they were in need of some TLC. I was wearing out the heel and some of the stitching in the back was coming undone.  Into my closet they went for almost a year as I kept meaning to get them repaired. I finally got around to fixing them last spring. When I first got them back they were really stiff and slightly uncomfortable to wear. The more I wore them though the softer the leather got.

When we were packing to move to Hawaii there was discussion as to what to do with our winter clothes. We got rid of a lot, mostly stuff that we hadn’t really worn/used and decided to bring the rest of it with us to Honolulu. We knew we would be traveling back to the northwest for visits and unless we went in late summer we would need jackets and sweaters. My boots fell under that umbrella as well.

A couple of weeks ago I decided to pull my boots out and wear them to work. It was a little cloudy when I left home and as per usual I knew my office was going to be freezing. I posted a picture on Facebook of me wearing boots and got all sorts of comments about wearing them in Honolulu. Before I wore them to work I don’t think I had seen anyone else wearing boots. I have since seen a few other women wearing them. I wore them again to church on Sunday and when I was complimented on my outfit I mentioned that the boots were probably an odd choice but I wanted to wear them. The girl I was talking to replied that she had a pair of boots but she only wore them at night because she felt funny wearing them during the day when the sun was shinning. I wore them again the other day and received all sorts of compliments. Mark and I have decided that everyone is simply jealous of my gumption and wish they too could be on the cutting edge of fashion.

I have decided to throw caution in the wind and single-handedly make wearing boots in Honolulu acceptable.

Phew

Wow, what a week.

Last Saturday we took the bus up to Laie. It was Mark's birthday and we wanted to get out of Honolulu and we really wanted to go to the temple there. We took the bus up, which while convenient it was kinda long. It was nice seeing more of the island though. For the last 45 mins of the trip we were right along the water. As per usual it was a beautiful day. After the temple we went to a plate lunch place where Mark got $15 worth of steak, shrimp, rice and mac salad. It was his birthday after all.


When we got home we were planning on a nice quite evening. I made Mark his birthday cake and we were peacefully watching a Les Miserable concert on PBS when suddenly it was interrupted with an emergency notice of a tsunami warning! To be perfectly honest the threat of tsunamis was something that I didn't even think about before moving here. We flipped around the different news channels but it seemed like no one really knew what was going on. There were sirens down at Wakiki and other beaches that we could hear at our apartment. We eventually found out that we're not in an evacuation zone but we still stayed up until after the tsunami had meant to hit us. Nothing really happened but it was exciting.

Monday I had to go all over Pearl City trying to find some random clinic so I could get a TB shot for my job. Apparently all state employees have to have a shot. The clinic had just changed locations to a temporary place way up in the hills of Pearl City. What I thought was only going to take me an hour and a half tops ended up taking me almost 4. Needless to say when I finally went back to my temp job I was more than a little flustered.

Monday night and most of Tuesday was spent worrying about all our friends and family on the East Coast. I still can't believe how much damage Sandy cause. It's hard to think about New York shutting down.

Wednesday morning I had to go back to the TB clinic to get my arm looked at to make sure I didn't have TB (I don't). This time I left really early in the morning and managed to only show up 2 hours late to my temp job. Mark had a job interview at Safeway. They him right there and he starts training on Monday. In celebration of his job and of my new one starting the next day we went to this burger place called Honolulu Burger Co. It was super yummy. Mark got this huge burger that had a 1/3 lb patty, black forest ham, kalua pork and bacon on it. Yes, it was obscene as it sounds. They have possibly the best sweet potato fries at this place.

On Thursday I started my new job at University of Hawaii. I'm working in the College of Social Sciences. When I applied for this job I was so excited about it and out of all the jobs I applied for it was one that I really wanted to get. I work in an absolutely beautiful building and I get a Mac! They asked me when I got there Thursday morning which I preferred and totally jumped on the chance to use a Mac at work. I really like my office. There are about 10 of us and it seems like everyone works together really well. It is so great being back on a college campus. I was temping at a bank and I felt totally out of place. UH feels a lot like NAU which I really like as well.

Friday was actually the chillest day of the week. Mark made some seriously tasty pad Thai for dinner and that was about it.

This morning we woke up early to help clean the church building. We got there 5 minutes late and most of the work had already been done. Apparently some men show up super early and do most of the cleaning then.

We met up with some friends to go on a hike a little later. There are a bunch of hikes really close to Honolulu. We went on one called the Makiki Valley Loop. It wasn't super hard but it was beautiful. We went up into the rainforest that is literally minutes away from the city. A couple of times you could actually see the city through the trees. You'll notice the hazy sky, that's due to the vog. Yes, that is a real thing, just look it up. It gets really bad when we have winds from Kona on the Big Island. Once the trade winds come back things will clear up nicely.


Tonight we are kicking back with a movie and popcorn. I am definitely sleeping in tomorrow!