... of things to come.
We're in the new apartment.
It's a mess.
We have too many things!
This evening we were getting ready to go buy groceries
to make a meal for a family that needed a little nudge of help.
I got my coat on.
Got my keys.
And my roommate, Tiffany, was still sitting at the dining room table
pressing on her stomach.
Tiffany is expecting in February.
"She kicked," Tiffany said.
"I want to see if she'll kick again before we leave."
We waited.
No kicking.
Tiffany picked up a hammer that was on the table
and said,
"The end of this hammer is about the same size
of the thingie they do the ultrasound with,
and when they move that on my stomach,
she goes nuts."
So she gently pressed her big fat belly
with the end of that hammer,
and while we dissolved into giggles,
Madelyn got spunky and kicked back.
Tiffany's in for it.
... into real life could be better. Really.
I've heard it before, but coming back from Hawaii is hard. Truly. Normally by the end of vacation, I'm ready to get back and get things organized.
O, but how I'm not here in mind or spirit.
Re-entry's probably a little bit more difficult because I moved apartments immediately after coming back ... and still had my job to deal with.
But I don't want to think about it.
So I'll share some beach pictures with you.
Hanaumo (sp?) Bay
me conquering snorkeling.
{i didn't really conquer snorkeling.
it was scary.
i swam away from the fish when they got too close.
it made my sister laugh.
then she snorted salt water into her breathing tube.}
but i did not see sharks.
my sister.
and me.
some beautiful, random beach i was i was still at.
big sigh.
good vacation.
back to unpacking ...
Even in Oahu, I'm still being told I need to relax.
By the surfing instructor!
Cheryl {mi hermana} and I took a 3 hour surf lesson on the North Shore yesterday. A splurge, indeed. But so very worth it.
Hard work, this surfing business. Paddling against the waves, sharing our space with sea turtles (no sharks, thank goodness!). My arms feel a little jelly like today. My left foot caught the brunt of the reef (the hike we were planning is going to have to wait a few days!).
And it was amazing.
And now, of course, I can say that I HAVE been surfing {technically} on the North Shore! {Um, "technically". It will be our little secret that we surfed in this adorable little bay with adorable little waves.}
These are all the pictures I have of our surfing experience. We were both in the water, with nobody left on shore to take more. But I do have a few more random ones to share ...
Bubba Gump Shrimp.
I have no idea what this beach is called.
Waimea Bay.
Warm water.
We had so much planned for this trip, but with all the running around and excitement ... we're beginning to lose steam! ;) Hopefully we'll still get to the snorkeling, the temple and the hike to Waimea Falls, but we'll have to see.
Today we have plan to give Cheryl some time to get caught up on some homework and then, this afternoon, head to the North Shore to a coffee shop I'm told is well worth my time. ;)
So I'm IN Oahu.
But definitely NOT on Oahu time. It is just beginning to get light outside and I've been awake forever. Literally. Forever.
I have a story for you. This story begins, "I'm fine. Everbody's fine. Nobody got hurt."
I'm in Little Pacific NW Town, on the plane. We're waiting to take off. In fact, the doors to the plane aren't shut yet, but most everybody has found their seats. I'm in the back with a group of very chatty, social people. {You work with juvenile delinquints? I work with juvenile delinquints!"}
But in a flurry of activity, the 2 flight attendants rush to front and back of the plane, slam the doors shut and lock them. I look to my left and see a Very Big Man being wrestled to the ground and handcuffed by TSA, City PD and the County Sheriff's Office. They've surrounded him and there's a shotgun pointed at him.
Our flight was delayed.
After they had escorted him away, the pilot got on the loudspeaker and informed us that the Very Big Man had escaped from a locked mental health facility, broken through the glass airport windows and was making a mad dash for the plane.
Other than that, it was an uneventful trip. ;)
Cheryl and I are making good use of our time. Today is starting out to be a beautiful day ... so it might be surf lesson day ...
ri-di-cu-lous.
The amount of work I am putting into this grad school application. Or, maybe that's the worrying I'm putting into this grad school application.
* Letters of Reference: Requested.
* Transcripts: Received.
* Upper Division GPA: Pain in my tush, put calculated. (That was two bachelors degrees worth of term credit hours to add, multiply, divide ....)
* Double check my Upper Division GPA Calucation: Not quite yet.
* School of Social Work Application: Rough draft started.
* Regular School Application: Rough draft started.
* Personal Essay: Drafted and sent to a writer friend, who's taking a look at it.
* Anything I've forgotten: Can't think about it quite yet!
And we won't know until April?
Seriously?
Oh-so-ri-di-cu-lous. {I will be. While waiting for the results ...}
Just a little bit of *very* personal business here ...
I got to write a VERY large check to Former Husband today {using the fruits of my table waiting labor}. This is a long story, but by The End, I was just at the point where I would have done anything to expedite the long legal process. In fact, I remember saying {in complete desperation, knowing that I could not go any further} at the time, "I will give you anything you want. But please, please let me out of this marriage." {Dear hearts, please remember that this was after every desperate measure I could possible think of ... and the heinous behavior still continued.}
So I've been giving. For 14 months. But as I wrote out this Sizeable Sum, knowing that next month's sum will be tiny, do-able and, most importantly, final, I wept.
How many times have I wept in the past two years? It could be its own version of "How Do I Love Thee?" I've wept in pain, in desperation, in confusion, in betrayal, in depression, in anger, in exhaustion ....
... but also in relief, in prayer, in worship, in hope, in love, and, of course ...
... in Thankfulness. Sheer gratitude is why I wept tonight. Because as of next month {ironically, the "anniversary" month of the finalization of the big, bad, D word} I have absolutely no legal ties to a past that I've let go of. Does that sound heartless? It's not my intent. I've just healed, and been healing, healthily.
I have this incredible expanse of ... I don't know what ... stretching out in front of me. And for that, I am very, VERY thankful.
In other news, I read an article on cnn.com that stated research has now proven that sharks can produce asexually. Flipping fantastic. More shark phobia!
{I'm not entirely sure why I keep adding photos of shark to this blog when they seriously scare me to death. That's probably not normal ....}
... I'll be going here.
And I cannot even begin to tell you how ready I am for this trip.
This is Oahu's North Shore. And it is not the only place I will be going. My dear sister Cheryl is wrapping up the last year of her naval enlistment and lives on this island. She's been asking me to visit for a few years now. A month or so ago, I found an
amazing deal online and bought the ticket.
Surprised me, too! {But, remember ... I have a free place to stay and Cheryl and I are budget eaters.}
I have not taken a vacation quite like this in a long, long time. In fact, my last "away from the mainland trips" have been missions focused. When I told Cheryl that I was coming, she didn't think twice. She said she would put in immediately for leave and we would do anything I wanted.
Anything?
Amongst our list of tentative plans .... a tea ceremony at a monastery, watching the surfers practice on the North Shore, a Mai Tai cruise, kayaking & snorkeling, a trip to the volcanoes, fabulous eating, even more fabulous shopping ... and visiting a coffee shop that Mrs. Ronna PROMISES will be worth our time. ;p
And beach time. So much beach time.
Coincidentally, snorkeling does not excite me. In fact, it scares me. Weird, huh? I wonder if there's a snorkeling specific phobia. I've told Cheryl exactly 54 3/4 times that I do NOT want to see sharks and that if God put it under the sea and we cannot see it with our naked eye, then there is a REASON for that. But I love my sister and she promises, promises, promises that we will be in such shallow water that if I REALLY wanted to, I could probably just sit down and wait for the fish to come. Just when I had come to the conclusion, at her experienced cajoling ~she is the YOUNGER sister ~ that it wouldn't be so bad, she asked if I wanted to see sea turtles. Well, that actually sounded fabulous and I told her as much. Then, in a way only younger sisters can do, she quickly told me that,
"that'sgreattheseaturtlesareindeepwatersowe'llhavetoswimoutalittlewaysand
there'saslightchancewemightseesomesharks. . . . "
Scaaary. I do NOT want to be eaten by one of these things! But I DO want to get out of this little town for a little while, so I guess I'll take the chance.
November 3rd through November 11th. That's when I'm going.
I've already started my packing list ....
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