I was very ambitious when I started this blog

Okay...wow. I can't believe I haven't posted since Christmas! I ran out of excuses a long time ago, but suffice it to say that this semester turned out to be really, really busy - but in a good way. I have a lot to cover, so let's get right to it!

First, some pictures I took in mid-January. There's this one flowering plant on campus that I pass all the time on my way to classes, but one day I realized some girls were standing there looking at something - it was full of caterpillars! These guys were everywhere, all in various stages of growth. They were hard at work destroying the host plant, bite by bite; a few adult butterflies flitted around guarding their young (okay, okay, I know that's not how it really works - it just makes me happy!).

Munching

Three on one leaf!

Tiny caterpillar! SQUEE!!!

Probably my best picture of the day. My camera's got a really good close-up function, but it took a few tries before I could snap this particular butterfly when it was sitting still!

Don't they just look like one big happy family? (Remember...I'm happier this way...)

I've looked up butterflies found in Hawai'i and it turns out these are, in fact, Monarchs (the Hawaiian name is Lepe o Hina). The plant I saw them on is called Crown Flower, and apparently it's their favorite :-)

The first time I noticed all the butterflies and caterpillars, I only had my cellphone with me. I tried (unsuccessfully) to get a few pictures - hence returning with my real camera several days later. But at one point on the day when I had my phone, I looked directly overhead and got a bonus - a praying mantis!! It's not the best quality, but I drew a circle so you can see it clearly. It really looks like a leaf!

Now, if you were a random web surfer and you just happened to stumble upon my blog, you might get the impression that all I do here in Hawaii is take pictures of animals, insects and rainbows. Not so! I go to class, write papers, sing in choirs, work in the library, and take care of household chores. It's not all fun and games, people! It's just that I happen to do all of those things in this incredible place where beauty surrounds me constantly and I try to capture it when I can.

Speaking of choirs, I'm now singing in two instead of three. My church job and school commitments were edging out the student-run choir, so the director, assistant director and section leader politely and graciously asked me to step down for the semester. My absences had become a burden on the group, and they all suggested that maybe I had just bitten off more than I could chew (that doesn't sound like me at all, right??) I believe at one point the conversation was jokingly referred to as an "intervention." Anyway, I'm still friends with these folks, and I'm hoping to be able to rejoin next semester.

Spring break was hardly a break this year, but it was my favorite kind of vacation. I had a visit from my mom, my aunt Bobbie and Bobbies's caretaker, Luz, and we explored all over this crazy island!! The very tightly packed agenda (planned by yours truly) included admiring gorgeous Kaneohe Bay from the Pali Lookout, learning about how pineapples came to Hawai'i at the Dole Plantation, sipping tea on the Veranda at the chic Kahala Hotel, visiting the historical sights and museums of Pearl Harbor, and taking in an excellent traditional hula show at Prince Kuhio Beach Park.

Here's Mom, Bobbie and Luz up on the Pali Lookout. It's not called the Windward Coast for nothing!

Bobbie and Luz left on Wednesday and my mom stayed a few extra days during which we hiked, beached and visited a few of the more out-of-the-way places of interest. I didn't have very much time to mope over their departures, however, because I had an extra-special visit from Eamon to look forward to!

I had headed out to Connecticut in February so we could be together for our anniversary, and the plan was that I would return in May after classes had ended. Three months wouldn't be so bad, and it would go quickly. Eamon was set to finish TCNO in mid-March, but not in time to start A-School right away (for those of you playing the home game, TCNO stands for something computer-related, and A-School trains the sailors for their specific job, which in Eamon's case is Navigation). So he was going to be in this kind of holding pattern for about two weeks. I suggested that he try to come visit me here during that time, and it turned out he had earned enough leave days, but he just needed to put in the request, and the request would take five days to go through the chain of command! But the first guy, who mattered the most, gave Eamon reason to think it would be fine, so on that reassurance...I bought him plane tickets! Want to know what's even crazier?? I planned his departure for the day after he would find out!! Man, do we live on the edge. So we both sweated bullets over the weekend, trying not to get our hopes up but who were we kidding, we both wanted it to work out so badly! Whaddaya know, the leave got approved!

Eamon arrived on March 30th, just in time for us to change clothes and head down to the Hale Koa hotel down in Waikiki (which is this huge Navy-run establishment for traveling sailors) for a Passover seder organized by the Reform congregation on the island. That was another thing - I reserved places for both of us even though we didn't know about his leave request yet ;-) It was a huge affair held in the ballroom, and a little disjointed as a result, but very earnest and enjoyable nonetheless.

Those of you who keep up on liturgical calendars will also note that this was during Holy Week, so we were in church almost every day of Eamon's visit! He came with me to the Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and the Saturday vigil services, and then he had to head to the airport that night to be back in Groton for classes on Monday. So it was a short visit, but since it was basically a bonus, we were both very happy with how things worked out.

And now I've gone on long enough. I know there was a lot to cover, but there's only so much you can subject people to - even if they're your friends and family!

Much love until the next post. Here's a teaser - I'm going to Bulgaria this summer!!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

...which is really surreal, because it doesn't snow here and evergreens are not native to the Islands. This kind of thing never bothered me in LA, but for some reason being in a tropical place for the lead-up to the Christmas season is just messing with my brain.

But, moving right along. Remember that ceramics class I said I was going to take? Well, I wish I had something to show for it, but I missed two classes (one because of my trip to Connecticut, and another because I had to be at a dress rehearsal for my choir concert). So I only got to the glazing/firing stage on one piece and the shaping/drying stage on two others. But I had a lot of fun and I fully intend to take the class again whenever it's offered next semester and then, I promise, I will have pictures of my work!

Speaking of the visit to Eamon, it was unspeakably great to see him. We both needed time together so badly, so we worked around his class schedule as best we could. I got sick towards the end - the dry weather did a number on my throat, which had been spoiled by lovely humidity for three months - but it wasn't that bad. The weekend was the best because he didn't have duty and could go off-base, so on Saturday we wandered around the incredibly picturesque nearby town of Mystic, and then on Sunday we drove to Boston to visit with a good friend of mine from the program at Simmons and her husband. We saw the legendary Topol in Fiddler on the Roof at the Opera House. What a show, and what a lead!! He did an amazing job, and the supporting cast was also excellent.

Perhaps the best thing about seeing Eamon was that while I was there, we made arrangements for the next visit, which is now only 12 days away!! He'll be here for a whole week starting the 18th, and this will be a real whole week because I'll be done with classes, so we can just hang out and do as we please. Of course he's never been to Hawai'i (and there's a lot on this island I haven't explored yet) so we may go on some excursions, but the main point is we'll be together the whole time. We're heading back to LA on the 25th (yeah, I know...) and then Eamon has to leave for Connecticut again on the 27th :-( I'll be in LA until the 4th, though, so I hope I'll be able to see people!!

Just before Thanksgiving I got together with some lovely ladies from the aforementioned Republic of Pemberley for Afternoon Tea at the Kahala Hotel. Our table was out on the lanai overlooking the ocean and a lagoon with three or four real dolphins swimming around it. The tea was simply scrumptious - I can't wait to go back!

Thanksgiving itself was warm and wonderful. Tim Ryan and Nancy Wilcox (friends of my parents' from way back) invited me to their house in beautiful Aina Haina - all together there were about 15 of us there, enjoying excellent food and delightful conversation. I swear, Tim knows everyone - and not just in Hawai'i, I mean everywhere. And boy, can he tell a story.

Last weekend I took yet another hike with the Leisure Center (how can you go wrong - great destinations and activities all around the island, transportation included - it's genius). This was to Ka'ena Point, the westernmost tip of Oahu. It's like this big, sharp arrowhead jutting out into the ocean (look it up in GoogleMaps, set it to satellite mode and then zoom way out - it's really cool!) The hike was more of a long walk on a rough-terrain 4x4 road. The jagged cliffs to one side and crashing waves to the other made for really impressive scenery. As we got near the edge of the point, the clay mud suddenly turned to sand dunes and the landscape changed completely. It's a protected area for nesting Albatross (Albatri?) - I spotted a pair hunkered down right by the path:


These guys are like seagulls on 'roids - they're HUGE. I tried to take a good picture of one in flight but they're incredibly fast for their size. Anyway, I think you can tell they have a massive wingspan from this shot:


The area is also a natural habitat for Monk Seals, a highly endangered species native to the Islands (I read on one site that there are only 1300 of them - total). We got lucky enough to see TWO. I got pretty snap-happy with one of them - it kept adjusting positions for maximum comfiness and belly exposure. Seriously, I couldn't help myself, it was just being so friggin' adorable.

Can't you just see the thought bubble on this one? "Aaaaaahhhh..."


Here's my favorite, which is also my new desktop wallpaper (and because I have a terrible memory, it makes me squeeee!!! every time I turn on my monitor):


That's it for now. To be perfectly honest with myself and with you, my dear readers, I probably won't write another post until after the holidays. I hope you all get to spend them with the one(s) you love, and have a wonderful New Year!

It's gonna be an interesting month

Earlier in October, a few folks at The Republic of Pemberley (my favorite Jane Austen website) posted about their planned participation in National Novel Writing Month, affectionately known as NaNoWriMo. I had seen discussions about this in previous years, and never really thought seriously about it. The idea is to write a 50,000 word novel in the space of 30 days, and it always happens in November. Well, I was talking with some of the folks in the LIS program at UH, and it turns out one of my friends there has done NaNoWriMo before and is doing it again this year, so I figured what the heck?? I enjoy writing, I flatter myself I'm a pretty good writer, let's see if I've got a novel in me and whether I can get it written in 30 days!

I have some plot outlines and character ideas jotted down, but the rules state that you're not allowed to actually start writing until midnight, November 1st at the earliest. Well here it is October 31st at around 10:00 Hawai'i time and I wouldn't exactly say I'm pumped or excited - more like apprehensive! Am I crazy to try to do this right now, while I'm working on a Master's degree?? Probably! Can I go all the way? I really just don't know. Will I try? You bet!

People have been filling up the NaNoWriMo boards with ideas for how to adjust their lives and figure out ways to make time for writing - cutting out TV shows and Internet browsing, that kind of thing. I'm sure I could deal with that, but something rather more important may get in the way for me (aside from, y'know, those pesky homework assignments). And that is...

I'm leaving later this week to visit Eamon for five days! I won't say five whole days because we won't have all day of every day that I'm there, but believe me, I'm not complaining. We'll just make the most of the time we will have and then it will only be a few weeks until we can see each other again for Christmas!

So all of that is to say, I'm going to try to participate in NaNoWriMo, and I hope to name myself among the winners (that is, writers who accomplish the 50,000 word goal - the satisfaction is its own prize!) But I will also be realistic and if it's just not going to happen, there's always next year!

Spring forward, fall back...or not

This will be quick - I have more to write about but I have schoolwork I should be doing instead.

I just wanted to let everyone know that Hawai'i thumbs its nose at your silly "Daylight Saving Time" and does not change its clocks. The rest of the country (except for Hawaii's fellow maverick, Arizona) will "fall back" on November 1st, so that means time differences will change. If you're on PST, Hawai'i will be two hours behind instead of three, and if you're on EST, that makes five hours behind instead of six. If you're in Mountain Time or Central time, you do the math. I can't keep track of that many zones :-)

This only really makes a difference going eastwards. If you were ever going to call me at 5 or 6 in the morning my time, you're a cruel, cruel human being, Daylight Saving or no. But this means I can call everyone on the mainland a whole hour later than normal! Mwahahahaha....

So, in short. Adjust your inner multi-region time clock, come Sunday, if you plan to get in touch by phone.

Apologies for the long hiatus

I remember saying that I was going to update this blog every couple of days. I sure had good intentions, but I just haven't been very motivated to post lately.

The last few weeks that Eamon was in Boot Camp were really intense (so close and yet so far!). He finally graduated on Oct. 9th, so he's officially a Sailor! Wahoo! The weekend immediately after graduation was an emotional roller coaster for me. We got to talk a few times, which was great, but they were mostly short calls - Eamon was, after all, trying to give as much time as he could to his family, who had flown to Chicago to attend the ceremony. I was harboring (ha, nautical humor!) the hope that he would be able to come visit me here, but then it became clear that he wouldn't, and then we realized we were being silly and there was no reason I couldn't come visit him!! As my birthday present, he offered to cover my plane tickets to Hartford, CT so we can just hang out together for a long weekend. It's a lot of traveling for just a few days, but it will be completely, 100% worth it. Just having that to look forward to, and the fact that we don't have to go another two whole months before Christmas, will make everything much, much easier.

Speaking of my birthday - it was great!! Those of you who posted on my Facebook page and/or e-mailed me, thank you! It was so nice to have that to wake up to :-) The weather was gorgeous, I talked to my family and Eamon, saw Where the Wild Things Are with a group of friends – review below – and had yummy Pho (Vietnamese noodle soup) in Chinatown. One of my friends gave me a very special gift indeed. The backstory is that we had been in touch before moving to Honolulu about possibly living together, but for one reason or another it didn't work out. But we found each other on Facebook, and she very kindly came to the Oahu Sacred Music Festival concert that I sang in last Sunday. That was where we met in person for the first time - she's never even been in my apartment! Well, here's her gift, next to its foremonster :-)

Don't they look so conspiratorial? My friend said she saw the display at Barnes and Noble and thought this particular monster just suited me. Isn't that awesome?? I mean, that's heavy cosmic stuff!

The Where the Wild Things Are movie was really, really good. It felt kind of like Maurice Sendak finally got to tell all the bits of the story that he had had to leave out because of the picture book format. It provided lots of insight into why Max was so uncontrollable. The Wild Things themselves were an interesting bunch. They were kind of like ginormous children - their conversations didn't have any real train of thought, they played games without rules, and they had varying loyalties to each other; there was a definite "in-crowd" and outsiders, and all that stuff. Very different characters than the Wild Things of the book! It was ambiguous whether the Wild Things would be able to self-govern after Max left - had he grown up somewhat and passed along a hint of self-control, or was it just going to be chaos again? I had never thought about what would happen to them in the book, so that was really quite profound.

I also said I would post some snorkeling pictures (I know, I'm going way back now). There weren't that many that came out well, but here are the few that did:

Trumpetfish right up near the surface



School of Sargeants eating on the reef



I think these are Hawaiian Chub



And here's the best picture I got of the turtle. It's almost like he's (she's?) posing for the other girl's camera!



In other news, I performed Hula on stage! It was for the Chinese Student and Scholar Association Mid-Autumn celebration at UH Manoa. I have video up on Facebook of the class rehearsing the two dances we did, but I've tried maybe ten times to upload the video of the actual performance and it keeps timing out or just stopping. I will keep trying!

I've now sung for two services at St. Mark's, and it's a terrific church to work for. They have an open, welcoming congregation and they're all just lovely people. It's a very "high church" Episcopalian tradition with smells and bells galore. My whole closet is now infused with frankincense :-) The whole service is full of music - the priest even chants the gospel!

I was thinking of posting a picture of yet another beautiful rainbow we had a few days ago, but that would not make for much variety in my posts since they appear so often :-) I can't keep from taking pictures of them, though!

And now from the sacred to the profane...

I went with a friend from school to October's "First Friday," which is a street event in Chinatown on the, you guessed it, first Friday of every month. All the art galleries have open showings, and you just generally wander around and people watch. But we got more than we bargained for at this one hipper-than-thou bar. They had a woman standing in the window wearing nothing by body paint. Yeah, she was nekkid. It was truly bizarre.

Well, until the next post...which I will try to write in a few days as opposed to a few weeks!

Happy Autumn!

At least, I'm assuming it's a happy Autumn. I wouldn't know. There's no nip in the air, rustle of dead leaves, or hankering for apple cider and pumpkin pie. I used to check weather.com every single day in Boston because it could be pouring rain on Tuesday and then hot without a cloud in the sky on Wednesday. Here, the 10-day forecast is like a bad joke. It's been 88° and sunny, give or take a degree, every day since I got here.

The FedEx folks, as well as the mail carriers, have been going out of their way to be helpful. When all of those boxes were arriving, the mail carrier would call to make sure I was going to be home to receive them. And that day that 13 of them arrived, a postal worker who didn't have a regular route not only delivered them, he brought them all up to the 4th floor! And FedEx knew I was expecting computer parts, so they called me too!

So, thanks to the vigilance and extra service of the delivery people, my CPU and printer arrived safely within a few days of each other. But I still don't have everything set up because my apartment is apparently the Bermuda Triangle of electronic devices. When I tried to plug the monitor into the wall, I heard this awful *POP*-fizzle and was certain I had killed it even before getting to use it. When I turned on both the monitor and the CPU, I got only a "no signal" message on the screen, so a Dell tech is going to be coming out here to help me try to fix everything. Then, when I was trying to plug the computer, monitor and my new speaker system into the surge protector, I pushed the CPU up against the wall so both it and the subwoofer would fit in the space next to my desk, and I think the CPU got too close to the cord for the lamp (which looks like some former tenant's puppy turned it into a chew toy). There was another *POP*-fizzle, and this time, I even saw sparks! How festive! I don't think any permanent damage was done, but I'm not taking any chances - the tech will be the one hooking everything up! As if that wasn't enough, I even needed help downloading the drivers for my printer. I'm so ashamed. Am I married to a geek, or aren't I?? At least the printer hasn't felt a need to contribute to the Guy Fawkes demonstrations...

Last Thursday, the 17th, I had plans to go to lunch and then do pottery painting with the Navy Wives group on Facebook. Cari, a friend of mine in the LIS program, picked me up and came to lunch with us - she's actually an Army brat, but who's counting? The pottery painting place was on Hickam Air Force Base, and I needed to go to a military installation (didn't matter the branch) to get my dependent ID card, so I figured I could go take care of that and then join everyone. Well, I called ahead of time and spoke to a very nice lady who told me that, contrary to what the very mean lady at Pearl Harbor had said, I did not need Power of Attorney, because my husband had signed the application as the sponsor; I just needed to show up with two forms of ID and the application and I'd be good to go. I didn't even need to make an appointment! She also gave me directions, but try as we might, we couldn't figure out where we were supposed to go once we got on base. So I called the office again, but that was absolutely no help. The guy was like, "Look for a gray building...oh, maybe it's tan..." I dunno, dude, you're the one who works there! Cari and I were cracking up at this point - bless her heart, she drove us around and around that base until I was sure they would stop us for suspicious activity! We finally found the office and the whole process took maybe twenty minutes, which was great. We ended up missing the pottery painting, but getting the ID was way more important. So now I'm officially a Navy wife! Eamon said in one of his letters that getting his dog tags made it all feel very real. Now I know what he means.

One of the things that really makes me feel like I'm in Hawai'i is seeing geckos inside, and I was hoping I'd be lucky enough to have one in my apartment at some point. You can tell when they're nearby because of their distinctive clicking (if you've ever ridden horses, you can approximate the clicking by making the sound you would use to get a horse to start walking). I'd been hearing clicks every night, but a few days ago it echoed right outside my door, so I ran out to check how close it was.

This guy was one door down, just at the entrance to the hall. It's a little hard to tell, but he's flat against the wall up near the ceiling. Look at how well he's camouflaged against the white! He was about 4 inches long - don't you just love his fat little belly??

A few days later, when I was adjusting the windows above my lanai door, I finally got my wish - a tiny little gecko scurried in from outside and settled on the wall above my desk!

This one was only about an inch and a half or two inches long - so cute! I love their little beady eyes and big flat toes.

Here's what Niamh had to say about all this:

I burst out laughing when I saw her staring wide-eyed at the strange little creature up on the wall. I swear she didn't blink once. Can't you just see the thought bubble? "What the...??"

I've signed up for yet another class with the Leisure Center - ceramics! I feel like I'm singlehandedly keeping the place going :-) My very ambitious plan is to make a teapot and sugar bowl to match the beautiful purple floral teacups and saucers that Micah and Ellie gave out as their wedding favors. I haven't been able to find the rest of the set in that pattern online, so if I can just match the colors I'll be happy! Well, okay, let's be realistic - if I manage to make something that even remotely resembles a teapot, I'll be happy.

One thing that makes a house (or apartment) a home is pictures. I have all of my framed photos now, and I would love to put them up around the living room and bedroom, but I am just having the toughest time deciding what should go where, whether I should keep them in their current frames or get the big collage ones that hold lots of pictures, and all those piddling little details. But I can't do it by myself - I need another pair of eyes and arms, someone who can hold them up where I kind of want them to go so I can stand back and see if I like it, or who can tell me if they look okay when *I* hold them up.

Eamon's division got to call home this past Saturday right around noon my time. I was in Hula class and I didn't even hear the phone ring :-( He had gotten his first call just a little over a week before, so I wasn't expecting another one for at least a few days, but there's absolutely no rhyme or reason to how they schedule these things. He left me nice messages (yup, messages plural - he tried calling me twice!) saying things were going better and he was happy I was keeping busy and doing fun stuff, and I shouldn't be sad that I missed his call. Well, with so few chances to talk to him these days, I was definitely bummed. Thankfully, I have lots of wonderful people I can call in times of crisis (or just when I need a good cry), and my roomie Diana and her wife Sarah took turns cheering me up while baking various yummies for a church function.

And I can also take comfort in the fact that Eamon graduates from Boot Camp in just a little over two weeks!!!

Produce, rainbows and cushions, oh my!

There's a really great farmer's market held on the UH Manoa campus every Friday, and I finally went this past week. It's all locally grown produce, and it's all really cheap! I spent about $20 and came away with papayas, lettuce, "long beans" (which look like nothing so much as green shoelaces), grape tomatoes, Roma tomatoes, a cucumber, and the cutest watermelon in the entire world. I kid you not, this thing was frickin' adorable:

It's the perfect size for one person!

FYI - I just figured this out - all of the pictures in the blog posts are clickable so you can see them full-size. In my browser, which is Google Chrome (try it if you haven't, by the way - it's great!) they just open in the same window and then you can go back one page to return to the blog. I don't know if they do the same thing in Internet Explorer and Firefox, though.

After the farmer's market I went to the supermarket to get the rest of the groceries I needed, and just after I got home (around 5:00) it started pouring rain. But as is often the way of these tropical showers, the sun was shining brightly - looking west, the raindrops formed this curtain of dazzling crystals as the sun streamed through them. But I instinctively turned my head east and was greeted with a saturated, gorgeous, full-arc rainbow reaching across the entire valley. Where the clouds were heaviest and darkest, the rainbow doubled in a mirror of itself. I dumped the groceries and ran inside to get my camera.

I got this one standing on my lanai. When I was first looking at apartments I considered one without a lanai - the landlord tried to play it down by saying that having usable indoor space was better, and most people just use their lanais to store their bikes. Well, screw that. I can't believe I almost missed out on this!

There were two guys getting into their car in the parking lot next to my building, and I shouted down to the poor, unsuspecting wretches, "Are you seeing this???" I couldn't bear for no one else to witness this miracle unfolding before my very eyes. They looked up and appeared minorly impressed, and I realized I must have sounded slightly crazy. I explained, "Sorry, I only moved here a few weeks ago!" They laughed and one of them said, "Oh, yeah, well, we get those every couple of days." Holy crap! If I ever come close to getting jaded about the beauty of this place, I give each and every person reading this blog full permission to slap me. HARD.

I had to go out to the top of the stairs to get a picture of the makai (seaward) half. It's kind of faint, but you can see that it really is a complete 'bow ;-)

And here's a close-up of the mauka (mountain) end. Look how it even tints the hills behind it!!

Just a few minutes later, both rainbows had faded and my groceries were in danger of spoiling :-) Sigh...

In the continuing saga of organizing and making the apartment feel more like home, I've been searching and searching for floor cushions to arrange around the coffee table for guest seating. There isn't a dining table except for the one out on the lanai, but if I have people over I don't want to make them sit on the lovely but hard stone floor. It's the kind of table that has a shelf underneath it, but the dimensions are kind of odd for most standard cushions, and I wanted them in a shade of red to go with the futon cover I brought from Boston. Mom and I had found some cute ones at Target when we went during the Whirlwind Weekend of Relocation(TM), but they didn't have four of the same kind. Well, I went to Target this past Saturday with a girl I met through the program - she's living with her parents while in grad school, and has use of their car. She had some things to get and asked me if I wanted to come along. Lo and behold, I found four of the same cushions, in a perfect shade of red, and they're exactly the right dimensions to store underneath the table, with just enough space to spare for all my board games!

Here's a picture of the futon with the coffee table and cushions out. I love how well the reds match! Now to find a slipcover for the armchair...I sure hope I can find one I like!

Dell has finally shipped out the CPU for my new desktop (that's the "brains" of the computer). The flatscreen 22" monitor arrived from Newegg.com several weeks ago, but it's taken a long time for the CPU to be built because of the high demand from the new school year starting. It will be arriving much earlier than the most recent ETA, which was the 24th, so I'll give them that. I've been busy enough what with schoolwork and social activities, but I miss my TV shows! See, the CPU has a TV Tuner, so the cable from the wall can plug directly into that and the CPU will hook up to the monitor, but without the CPU, I've been TV-less. I watched the premiere of America's Next Top Model online last week, but if all goes according to plan, I'll be able to watch this week's episode on my beautiful monitor/TV!

Sorry for all the ugly wires and stuff. I've cleaned all of that up since this picture was taken :-)

If you count from the first full day I was here, today marks exactly one month that I've been living in Honolulu. It has gone by really quickly, mostly because it's all been really fun and interesting. I could be sitting in an apartment somewhere near Groton, CT, waiting for Eamon to finish Boot Camp, and then we could live together while he completes training schools, but as much as I miss him and want to be with him more than anything, I know this isn't forever. And I get to live in a beautiful place while I prepare for a career. That's a trade-off I can live with for a little bit.