Good Grief

So just when I thought maybe my airport/plane ridiculousness was over, I was at the wrong gate (again) for a while cause the desk never announced it.. so I get over there and everyone's piled up infront of the counter! I'm thinking, "what the hell?! Are they delaying this flight too and having a pile of people having to reschedule their connections?? what is it with today and this whole trip in general?" but with way more cursing..

So I hung out for a while and waited to see if there were any announcements or if they changed the departure time.. and they didn't, but I called my dad anyway letting him know to keep checking cause it looks like this one's getting delyayed too.. and as soon as I get off the phone they started boarding. Sweet. I'm glad I over reacted and they have their shit together and it's nothing I need to get excited about. So once I'm seated - which took a while cause this crazy bitch was taking up the whole row I was sitting in - I walked up to her and kinda tapped her on the back and said nicely - hey I'm in this seat. And she snaps back - hang on - with a LOT of attitude. I wasn't really in a mood for that crap so I kind of turned to whomever was behind me just to get a second opinion on whether or not that was completely unecessary or not. That woman raised her eyebrows and gave a look of complete disapproval - which I took as a go ahead to be a little more sassy myself if I felt like it. So I said just a sec to her and tried to get my ass out fo the aisle cause they were trying to load the plane and take off as quickly as possible.. so I said kinda loud, I'll just move over here while THIS lady is taking her time. and the woman that was behind me moves quickly past saying - Yeah she is! - looking pissed. That actually got me laughing a bit, especially cause the whole reason this was happening was because she was trying to unbungee her bag off this fold up bag caddy, fold everything up, tie up the bungees and awkwardly stuff them up in the overhead bins. So while she's finally doing the stuffing with lots of going back for more and doing all the collapsing and tying up IN THE AISLE this old man gives her a (nicely said) What are you doing? again she snaps back, but this time it's, I'M TAKING MY TIME! complete with dirty looks to the nice old man and his wife, and as a yeah I heard you bitch to me. To me now, this is turning into kind of a good time. I love a good bitch-off when I'm already annoyed.. but I did think the plane was not a good place for it.

So when this is finally settled (not too much more happened, she just busted herself down to the toilet, expecting everyone to get out of her way) and we were in the air, I had my moment of, whew! we're in the air and this is my last plane ride for 2 weeks. sweet. But then.. ugh, I get annoyed just thinking about it, the captain comes on and says that there's a storm over DTW and we're runningout of fuel circling, so we're goingto go to Grand Rapids to refuel and wait it out cause this system is super weird and is actuslly stalling out over the airport and they're not letting anyone land. Could this day and this whole sequence of plane rides get any worse??! We took off at 145pm central, we were supposed to land in Detroit at 4pm, it's now 430 and we're stuck in Grand Rapids. So I have to call Dad again and say, 'I hope you're not on your way...'
'why?' 'We're in Grand Rapids, DTW isn't letting anyone land cause of some storm.' 'It's not even RAINING here!' 'Are you serious??' 'YES! oh wait, yeah it's starting to sprinkle.'

So I tell him the story we got from the pilot about how they have NO IDEA how long this will take cause this system is coming from the wrong direction and we just have to wait for DTW to start accepting planes again and we have to wait for everyone who was in front of us to land first. He;s getting off the highway and will wait for me to let him know when we're taking off cause it should only be about 20 mins to dtw. So then I called Erin, cause I thought this would be pretty funny since she knew about my first trip to MN last Wednesday. She did, but then she pulled up the radar for me and gave me the skinny on the storm - which looked likeit was starting to break up.. Sweet!! and just tehn the pilot comes on saying that we'll be taking off in 5-10 mins. Sweet again! so I get off the phone with her, update my dad and then take a little nap.. an HOUR later we took off with the pilot saying it'd be about 20 mins til we get to dtw. 1/2 hour later, I'm sitting there going, if we're circling again I bet they really don't want to tell us.. I'm getting all squirrely constantly craning my neck to see what we're doing out the window (I was in the aisle). And then we finally landed... at 6pm. yuk.

But I'm hone now and I had an awesome salad and stayed up til 2am chatting with my dad about all sorts of stuff. Best talk we've ever had, which gets me all smiley =)! I just founf out that my dad as a highschool football player thought the most fun thing in the world was crashing into people at full speed. Hilarious.

Stupid Airports

So I'm sitting at O'Hare right now - for the next 3 hours - because the stupid flight crew for my Minne-Chicago flight didn't show up until a 1/2 hour after we were supposed to take off. The airport totally made excuses for them saying, 'they got in late last night and they have to have a required amount of rest time... so as soon as they get here we'll get going..' WTF??? So this is a suprise to you dumbasses since you had all night to do the math required to figure out how late they're going to be and warn anyone that they were never going to make their connecting planes - there fore ruining their days and yours cause they now regard you as the stupidest people ever?? Seriously half the plane had to reschedule and fuck up their days some how - I was sitting right next to the counter and I couldn't really get myself to hold back my contempt for this situation. I know it's not the counter lady's fault that I have a jackass pilot who's an hour late, but I do blame them in general for not having any brains. I mean, I'd rather have my pilot sobered up and not distracted by that pounding headache, but I don't like being lied to.

American Airlines is getting added to my 'travelling for this trip sucked cause of..' list with SFO airport and car thieves. Hopefully this is the last addition!

Ken's Wedding I

Ken got married in Duluth, MN yesterday at the Aquarium. He is one crazy mofo and I was very glad to meet his new wife and find out that she's just as much fun as him - but way cuter.

It was incredibly fun to get to surprise a few really good friends that either had no idea that I was going to be there (like my cousins Tom and Marcie Melvig in the pic below) or just didn't really believe me.

It was awesome, just awesome to see everyone, although the number of no-shows was suprising and disappointing. But I won't dwell on that cause the rest of it was so fun!

I got to be girlywear some giant heeled shoes so that I was at least 6' tall - I'm still way shorter than Tom - everyone had cracks about me being too tall and skinny.

I've never been to a wedding where everyone was laughing throughout the ceremony. It was awesome. The actual marrying only took about 10 minutes with giggling included. Then it was down the hugging line - where I got to deliver my leis!! I was so excited, I was sweating all over the place (ha! too bad it's true..) they were very excited too.


The reception was in the aquarium too - with all the sturgeon and trout in giant aquariums all around the tables. This guy (above) played bag pipes, the concertina, harmonica, banjo, guitar, and pretty much whatever else got put in front of him. It was incredile. I had a strip steak for dinner with super good rosemary potatoes and veggies.. yum.

Here's the happy couple!

Mike was jealous that I wore heels and had to stand on tip toes for pics.. silly shit.

Kristen!!! We had so much fun the next day at breakfast, it was difficult to stop talking and get into our cars! I'm still perma grin about it!

Ken's Wedding II

Mike and Randy - Sassy as ever

Ken and Jen being cute

Unstacking the cake

Me and Randy!! Again, my talent for self-portraits comes in handy.. =)

Nick Lauer (he's clean!!), me, Marcie, Tom, and Jeff Titlauer (I don't know how to spell his name!!)

Here's 2 that I wasn't expecting to see. We went to the bar after the wedding with the guy from Frostbitten Grass and his friend Derek. We got nice and drunk and closed down the bar.

Jeff, Labeau, and Elly

Here's Elly's sultry looking man. They've recently moved to Seattle and I'm stoked to go visit!!

Here's a pile!! Heidi Lebeau, Taylor Klipp, Jen Klipp, Randy Wakes, Elly Bunz, Lebeau, and Raka.

Whew!

So I'm assuming everyone has read Dave's story about our crazy morning yesterday..

I don't know what it is about the solstice, but we've had some bad shit going on there for the last 3 years... I'm just trying to enjoy my boyfriends bday, come on!! Next year I'm staying home.

Anyway, the rest of the day was comparitively uneventful for me.. I almost missed my plane from SFO to Vegas cause the San Fran airport sucks - never flying into there again. But I made it.. and then they delayed our take off so I was mildly freaking that I was going to miss my Vegas to Minne flgith, but we were actually early. And now I'm watching some Bob Ross, stuffing my face with broccoli and ranch dip.. ohhhohohhoh broccoli.. soaking up Minnesota. Yes, I WILL be heading to the Mall fo America later this evening since I forgot the shoes I was planning on wearing to the weddings, but at least I have my luggage, my plane didn't crash, I didn't get hit by any cars, and no one I care about deeply was found dead.

I have some cool pics of my flight, but I am not sure how to connect up my laptop, so you'll all have to wait.

Sundays

We had Brandond's going away party Sunday night (rough for Manday) complete with fire twirling. His giel Cat was back in town for his last days.. and Keiki Beach gave us a good time - especially later in the night when a group of kiddies came down to hang (and ask for beer). They brought new life to a bunch of old kids playing with fire.

Pre-sunset

I love my fire poking stick

Brandon fell into a burning ring of fire

Joe, Betsy, and Brandon (with wind flames)

Dave's fireball

Betsy workin the poi

I've been trying to get this pic for 2 years!!

Dave and our new Burning Man friend (Sarah?)

The crew, complete with High School pod.

Just Another Saturday

So yet again, we headed north with Sean after a morning of buying trinkets for the fam at the swap meet with DnA. I got a bunch of little fun things to please the masses... I'm getting excited!!

The day was rainy in town (sweet) but beautiful as soon as we got out of that crusty area into the wide open spaces (sweeter). We got some lunch at Ted's and headed for Turtle Bay to get the official Monkey's Lunch recipe for my dad. It was tasty as ever, but not worth $9.

We sunned ourselves afterwards at Sunset until sunset - Sean and I played smashball in the water, and yes, we were absolutely terrible at it. Our record number of hits (are they called volleys if you count me as 1 and him as 2, etc?) was 7. Pretty crappy.... but we were chest high in the water and diving and dodging small children and giggling grandmas. good times.

Here's a little product placement.. Snapple green tea with lime, garunteed to be only 5% tea! At least there's funny little facts on the lids. That totally makes up for the complete lack of nutritional value.

BOXING!!

I went back to boxing tonight and I am SOOOOOO glad. I missed it so much! It felt great to get all sweaty with the burning eyes and the dripping all over the place. It wasn't as difficult as I had been thing it would be to not go too hard so as to save the recovering shoulder (damn that woman), but once I got going with the hooks... I did get a little excited =).

So now I'm basking in my sweatyness, happy that I earned my shower tonight. It'd all be perfect except for the febreeze and bleach reek coming into my apt from our neighbors. It's giving me quite the headache, but it's not killing my smile.

More Beaching For Me

Today we (Sean & I) headed out to 3 Tables to meet up with Dave, Cassie, Lysa, and DnA who were off scuba-ing. We had expected that they'd be ont their 2 dive, but when we caught up we found out that there had been a scuba tank run-aroundand it had taken 2 hours to get the gear. yuk.

Anyway! The weather was hot and beautiful and there were many instances of getting all sweaty and then running and frolicking in the water. We feasted on mango and other fruity delights and then Cassie and Lysa decided they were in for another dive even though swell was rising. I am hell-bent on sunning myself brown before I go jet-set-wedding-ing and home, so I roasted myself until A came over and gave me a squeeze.

She tried to blame it on Sean and D, saying they were over yonder talking about how my boobs looked big at the moment and 'someone' should go and grab one... but I found out later it was all her idea. Not that I minded, but it was definitely funny to hear how disappointed D was that it didn't turn into a 10 mintue sensual massage. =) She still insists that she only got the conversation going...

Dave hauled off and bought himself a dive knife. Look how excited he is.. POKE!

Aww... But he was too sleepy to romp around with Cassie and Lysa and use it. Here's Dave trying to sleep while I take pics and giggle about how cute he is.

The best part of the day was definitely the hour or so (that's what it felt like) that DnA and I played in the surf. Swell had picked up from maybe 1' or so to a whopping 2-3' (faces) which were tha absolute perfect size for getting pushed up the sand, standing up, and running giggling back into the water to do it again. *sigh* I love pretending I'm 6!! It was the most fun I had all day.

Bye Bye Maui

I'm off of Maui today. It was the loveliest work trip I've had, thanks in a big way to finding a friend or two to hang out with. I met Shane's roommate Karen today that I'd head lots of stories about and shared some pineapple from the farmers market. Hopefully they will think it a good idea to come visit Oahu some time so I can return the hang out favor.

I Love Pictures.... and beaches!

I actually got out of work EARLY today! Sweeeet ASS! Got 6 piles banged away, then they told me they had to take care of some equipment so I was free to go.

So I called up my new friend Shane over here in Kihei, showered off all the diesel and whatever all that black shit in the air is, and headed out to Big Beach. I'd never been there before, but I have to say it is now on my list of favorite beaches! There's a basalt cliff surrounding the right side and behind the beach if you're looking at the ocean that maybe goes up about (man I'm bad at heights) 100'.. I don't know.

Anyway, the water was warm and crystal clear and it was sandy bottoms all the way out.


We drank some IPAs and talked lots of shit - which reminded me of what was missing in my life right now...

Sunset was beautiful and we saw some dolphins!

Afterwards, I got a tasty teriyaki turkey burger (yum) and we headed out to the infamous 'Kihei Triangle' of bars where all the cool kids hang out.

I managed to not get myself too drunk and managed to talk some more shit... (is there a shit talking theme here??) I should have brought the camera into the bars, but I am one forgetful girl and I've noticed through writing this blog that I am notorious for not taking pics of the things that I had the most fun with (feijoa... SLUUUUURP!) or just the parts of trips that I want to remember better.. SO you have to look at some more pics of big beach.


When I got home, A told me I should have jumped this little ledge and checked out Little Beach with all the nakedness (she says there was a plethora of penis while she was there - fine with me) and I could have gotten the sweet pics (OF THE BEACH!! you sick fucks!) that she got there a few weeks ago.


This tree makes me want to dig all my painting gear out from under my bed.

Sunset

Once again, here's the sunset from the beach in front of the hotel next to mine.. I don't know what it's called, but I've been eating dinner at their bar every night - the 5 Palms - cause the bartender, Shane, cracks me up (and they have excellent soup). I'm not sure if he's actually funny or if it's just the MA accent. =)

Last night I got to hear a bunch of stories from the wait staff and kitchen crew.. but the best by far was Kalani's (the valet guy) story about his surfing trip to Tahiti.. I almost wet myself I was laughing so hard. If Sean had been there, I'm sure I would have cuase he loves the particular subject matter of the story as much as me.

Yay!

Amazingly enought, we actually accomplished something at work today. Instead of things breaking and other crap interrupting the job (like me missing my plane), we actually drove the piles ALL day. I might be having to leave Maui on time after all.

Anyway, if you're wondering what a pile looks like.. here you go.


That Fraggle Rock stick is a piece of concrete measuring 1'x1'x60'. It looks pretty small, huh?
Anyway they bang that thing into the ground and I count how many times they hit it. We did this 9 times today. The previous record was twice in a day. Large improvement.

This morning I started Miracle in the Andes by Nando Parrado. It's about that Rugby team whose plae crashed into the Andes in 1972. The movie Alive was based on the first book about it by Piers Paul Read. Anyway, this guy Nando was one of the survivors of that crash, and more interestingly, one of the 2 who hiked out of the Andes to save their friends. It is amazing. I can't stop reading it because it's so honest. He really tells everything he can and it's amazing the things that went through his head. It's making me ask myself a lot of the same questions, but unlike him, I'm not being faced with an imminant life and death situation right now.

After work, I took a much needed shower to clean off the diesel grease (Sean, picture the neck nastyness) and sweat, then I ate some yummy farmers market salad and went to take some sunset/rain pics. The clouds were so cool and I knew if Dave were here he would have been all excited, but my pics didn't turn out very well, even though I took ~150 while I read my book..

here's what I've got.

Clouds and Lanai

West Maui

A little cinder cone south of Kihei

Clouds and beach


Sunset looking south

Sunset looking at West Maui
Sunset looking at Lanai

Maui For ME!

Today has been a long day. We camped at Kualoa this weekend (everyone should look at Dave's pics) I woke up the first time during the night to dave poking me in the eye, the second time to an unidentified crashing noise, the third time to Claire calling at 530am, and the last time cause I had to pee and it was 80 degrees and stagnant in the tent at 615.
the morning went well and I got home to do laundry and pack and bum around with dave (since I'll get back and then he'll be leaving, then he gets back and I leave and when I get back he'll be gone, and then he'll get back and go again and again and again and again and then we'll have out in november or some shit) by 1pm. I was very proud of myself because I had everything all set upa nd packed and ready to go and I even stopped at Safeway and got myself a sandwich and still made it to the sirport without losing my wallet or anything.. and then I locked the keys in the truck. Can you fucking believe that? I couldn't. I've never before locked my keys in the car, and i had been pretty sure I wasn't going to start doing anything sillly like that. Especially at the airport when I have to be getting ona plane in an hour!

Luckily, I had had the sense to keep my wallet in my hand while I locked myself out of the car, so I scurried about to get a tow truck - with the extra special help of the lady on the phone at the security number that the stupid security guy had told me was the number to call for a tow truck. She called for me while I was on hold (cause I didn't have my phone and that was my last 50 cents) and even made sure they would take my credit card. And also luckily, I had thought I was on the 610pm filght to Maui, BUT I was actually on the 640.. so I had some time. The tow truck guy came and told me that the tacoma is the EASIEST car to jimmy ever.. unforutunatley, this tacoma didn't know that and it took a half hour. but hey, at least we got it open and I got to my plane and everything is sweet. For a while though, I wasn thinking, what the hell is it with me and going to Maui? Something always goes horribly wrong! I forget my alarm and barely make the plane, I forget my wallet and miss the plane, I look at the wrong time on the ticket and miss my plane for a second time on the same day, and now, I lock the damn keys in the car while on my way to the job that just will not get off it's feet. We had 2 full days last week and only actually did about 4 hours of work due to all types of things going wrong. If I were a superstitious hawaiian I'd be saying something about the archaeological site they found at the job putting some bad juju on us.

Anyway. I got a free upgrade with my rental car (sweet) and the hotel I'm staying at has free wireless and the nicest behind the counter people I've ever met. I really like Maui.

Here's my room!

And the candy books to keep me from falling asleep... I'm so excited! Too bad Dave's not on the summit, though.. we could play =)