Stars and dogs and telescopes and frogs

Just not a lot to report from the last week or two. The rash of engagements and/or pregnancies reported by friends and family in the last 2-3 weeks has been crazy. It's making me feel old. I hope you people aren't all expecting gifts.

I think the most notable thing from last week was the eclipse viewing party. Actually, the sky here is pretty stunning on any given night. It's usually clear, and while I do live in a city, it just seems like the stars are brighter than in previous places in which I've lived. I know nothing about astronomy, but I imagine it has something to do with living so close to the coast, so there is a significant area near me that is contributing no ambient light at all, or being a lot closer to the Equator than I've lived before. Who knows. One of my smarter friends can pipe in here with the real answer.

Anyway, the point is, there was a total lunar eclipse earlier this week, and it was to be fully visible from Hawai'i, so I decided to take advantage. From 21:30 to 01:30, a local museum hosted a viewing party. They featured lecturers in the planetarium (I didn't go to that part), as well as volunteers from the Hawaii Astronomical Society manning enormous telescopes all over the lawn. In addition to the moon, they were showing Jupiter and some other cool stars whose names I cannot remember. They also sold snacks and had weird space-themed music playing over the loudspeaker. I went for an hour just to check it out, but ended up going home where the sky was clearer (the museum is closer to the mountains (and the clouds, apparently)). Plus, as it got later, I knew I was getting punchy when one of the volunteers discouraged me from "touching his telescope" and I started to giggle. I have the sense of humor of a 12 year old boy. Good lord.

Courtesy of Jamm Aquino at the Honolulu Star-Bulletin. Good job, Jamm!

Also this week, I house- and dog-sat for a friend. The plan was to use this excuse to spend some time at one of my favorite beaches that is right down the road from her house, but unfortunately I ended up working a lot, so that never happened. Still, I had the run of a big house with a cute dog, though I nearly killed him by taking him for a long walk in the middle of the afternoon heat, and subsequently getting lost (dude, all of the hawaiian street names sound the freaking same). I had water and sunscreen for myself. The dog, however, had to suffer. My favorite part? Where I come from, we had squirrels and rabbits with the occasional raccoon or skunk in the yard. Here, I would walk outside in the morning and evening to find 3-4 frogs, one the size of my head. I thought this would provide entertainment galore. I tried desperately to get the dog to chase the frog, waiting for hilarity to ensue, but they must be used to each other -neither cared a bit about the other's presence. Really disappointing.

Final note, apparently there are currently some big airfare sales to and from Hawaii, specifically on United and possible Delta. Just an FYI for those of you often promising/threatening to visit.

Dating, Hawaiian style

For those of you whose favorite comment upon my decision to move was 'I bet you're going to meet and marry some Polynesian guy and never come back' (and there were a lot of you - I'm not sure what that means about me)... I have a little update. It turns out I would be shocked if that is indeed the case.

I've been doing fairly well at meeting people since I moved here. I do think it gets harder as you get older, and I work in a pretty small office, but I've always been someone with a few close friends rather than a huge circle of acquaintances, and I haven't been someone who refuses to do things because she's doing them alone in a long time, so all is well. In fact, I met a few people just last night who are fun and my age. Of course, they're Tar Heel basketball fans, so I'm not sure if we'll be able to spend time together on any sort of regular basis, but we'll see - they may do in emergencies.

Anyway, the title of the post. My boss and I have become friends, but she's onto my MO of the last 10 years or so: find a job, move somewhere new, goof off there for 3-4 years, move on to the next place. As such (and this is likely much more about not losing an employee than it is about keeping a fantastic friend), she's taken it upon herself to see how she can keep me here indefinitely. The plan she believes offers the most potential: marry me off to a guy with significant local ties. The next question? What kind of guys do you date? Okay. I really don't have a laundry list of criteria, but I got to 'cannot live at home with his mother' pretty quickly, and she balked in a big way. Yeah, that's an issue. Here, it's partly a cost of living thing, but mostly a cultural thing. There are simply a lot of men, in their 30's, with perfectly good jobs and incomes, who nonetheless live at home with mom and dad. Seriously.

The best part, I've discovered, is the reaction of others when they hear that I have a problem with this. Am I not the only one who thinks the timeline of events is supposed to be graduate from school, live on your own or with roommates for a while, have some fun even though you're dirt poor, eat ramen, spend your very limited discretionary income at the bar, consider a roadtrip for a day or weekend a bona fide vacation, gradually get promoted, earn a bit more, actually live in a place without bugs and more than one roommate, etc.? I mean, some of you saw my Boston apartment, right? With the exposed wires, appliances from the turn of the last century, and a shower during which you had to jump out no fewer than three times per 6 minutes due to sudden changes of temperature to scorching hot? And yet that may have been the best few years of my life so far. Anyway, not so much the philosophy here. So, at the bar (I know, that's really a theme in this post more than it is in my actual life) last week, the boss says to our friend Lauren, "Know any guys for Kelly?" "Maybe." "Who don't live at home?" "Oh. Not really." And today at our staff meeting (again, a very small office with nearly all women) to Luci: "Hey, do you know any guys here in their 30's, smart, fun, who we could set up with Kelly?" "Yeah, a couple." "Any who don't live at home with Mom?" To me, in a sympathetic voice: "Um, that's going to be really hard to find in Hawai'i." Nice. Looks like she's going to have to find another plan.

Sleepy and sunburned

I was long overdue for some exploring after working last weekend. Today I decided to get up early and head to Hanauma Bay. One of the most popular snorkeling areas on the island, you have to get there early because they often end up turning people away by mid-morning due to lack of parking. It feels like a bit of an ordeal to actually make it to the beach - there's a slow-moving line to pay the entry fee ($5 for you people, free for me and my Hawai'i driver's license), you're required to watch a movie (more on that later), then a walk down into the cove to the beach area. The guy in front of me did his best to ruin my morning, he couldn't complain enough ("how hard can it be to count five dollars?" and "why do we have to wait in one line?"). When he got to "is the weather going to improve?" (Seriously? It was cloudy and a bit overcast because it was 8:30 am, but I have lived here for almost 3 months now and it has been breezy and sunny every day I've been here. No exaggeration. Every day.) I got annoyed and decided to warn him about jellyfish (even though I knew there were none -that was last week, and they are a monthly phenomenon). He was lucky, in that I almost felt compelled to pull out my drowning statistics to scare him as well (that's true - get out a bit too far and there are currents there that will take you down fast - "drowning in Hanauma Bay" is a frequent cause of death reported to me at work). And on that cheerful note, on with my story...

HB is actually a nature preserve, so they have fantastic conservation measures in place. They're closed completely once a week for repairs and upkeep, every person who attends must watch a video about respecting the reef (and not drowning), and there are knowledgeable volunteers all over the place.

Anyway, I got settled in and didn't want to leave. I snorkeled a fair amount, and was pretty amazed that you could see some really cool, large, bright fish in knee high water. Typical - there were people around who claimed to see sea turtles, but no such luck for me. I probably would've snorkeled even more, but my rental mask was for shit - it had a small leak that got pretty annoying, but I couldn't make myself return it for a new one, since it was my second. I broke my first one before I even got in the water (shh). I'm guessing that snorkeling gear is probably a good investment for me, considering it's not that expensive, and I do live in Hawaii. I also see people a lot snorkeling in a specific area off the beach closest to my house, and I'm curious to know what's out there.

Anyway, wrapping up. Fantastic day, swam, read, enjoyed a snack shop hot dog, finally decided to leave due to concern for sun exposure. I was there for over 4.5 hours. When I got home, I realized that I was diligent as all get out about sunscreen protection on all parts of my body... except for my face. How do I forget that? After the first application, I kinda forgot. As a result, I'm sunburned like crazy. Got home, made a snack, changed to go walk around Diamondhead.... and promptly fell asleep for a two hour nap. Haven't left the apartment since. Those days at the beach really take it out of you.

So that was my day. Oh, pictures, you ask? I had my camera in the car, but didn't take it down to the beach as I would have had to leave it unattended for hours while in the water. I did go to take a couple of picks from the lookout before I left, only to discover my camera batteries were dead. Boo. This is what you missed: http://www.terragalleria.com/pacific/oahu/hanauma-bay/picture.hawa33078.html . And yes, the water is really that color. It's stunning. For pics of the fishes: http://www.honolulu.gov/parks/facility/hanaumabay/underwatertour.htm.

Oh, one more thing. On my way out, the author and illustrator of a children's book were there for a book signing. The book's pretty cute, so, while she doesn't know it, my niece is now the proud owner of an autographed copy of A Fishy Alphabet in Hawai'i. While I mostly bought it because it's cute and I have a book-buying obsession when it comes to the kid, I'm not going to lie - there is the added bonus of the thought of my brother and sister-in-law having to read unfamiliar Hawaiian words out loud. It starts out uneventfully - C is for clownfish, E is for eel, etc. Then you get to H is for Humuhumunukunukuapua'a and I is for I'lao. That's funny. (Humus are the state fish, FYI).

More on tomorrow's (perhaps indoor) adventures. Happy birthday to Mom and Audrey, congrats to Jackie (marriage) and Lisa (pregnancy). Lots of well-deserved happiness for the Schoeneberg/Sigler/Daugherty/whatever Brian's last name is (sorry, Brian, I cannot remember to save my life) families.

More non-existent natural disasters

Flossie came and went with very little excitement to the Big Island and none here. The next test? The tsunami advisory. A few notes: I didn't even know about this until Becky texted me (from VA) while I was happily getting a pedicure. Then, I find out from the Advertiser article that we're required to have an advisory if a tsunami watch or warning is issued to any other area in the same ocean. That's right. Something happens anywhere near the Pacific, and we're advised. Finally, read the article and tell me you're not dying to get up and go to the beach at exactly 2:14 am to see what happens. Keep in mind, that's over nine hours from right now. That's an impressively specific time prediction.

Tsunami advisory canceled for Hawaii
Advertiser Staff The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center has canceled a tsunami advisory for Hawaii following a powerful earthquake today in Peru. The center said there is no destructive threat for Hawaii. Some small sea changes may occur at around 2:14 a.m. tomorrow.
A tsunami advisory, which had been issued earlier this afternoon, is the third highest level of tsunami alert. Advisories are issued to coastal populations within areas not currently in either warning or watch status when a tsunami warning has been issued for another region of the same ocean.
An advisory indicates an area is either outside the current warning and watch regions, or that the tsunami poses no danger to that area.
The quake hit at about 1:40 p.m. Hawai'i time near the coast of Peru. The quake had a magnitude 7.9.
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in 'Ewa Beach also canceled its regional tsunami warning, the highest alert, and watch, the second highest alert, for parts of the Pacific Ocean closer to the earthquake.

Flossie update

Thanks to those of you have expressed concern about the hurricane heading our way, but I thought I'd let you know that... I'm going to be surprised if it even rains here. I slept much of the day today because of work last night, but the latest forecast for O'ahu is this: trade winds at 15-30 (you should know that 15-20 is the daily norm) with gusts up to 40, and 1-2" of rain on windward and mountain areas, less than an inch on south shore (where I live). In other words, the dream of meeting Jim Cantore will probably not be achieved anytime soon. The live pictures of the surfers on the Big Island right now are pretty cool, though.

Nothing else exciting right now. I have next weekend completely off call, so I'm determined to do something fun.

Starting to Fit In

I'm beginning to feel more and more comfortable. I do still get a kick of the unexpected things that you see when living in Hawai'i (went on a Sam's Club run yesterday, where, where they usually are giving free samples of frozen pizza, they had set up a ukulele display, only a few aisles from where you can buy surfboards), but I'm rarely shocked.

This morning I got a text message from my boss saying that she wasn't planning on going to the office today, so if I had nothing imminent going on, I could feel free to take the day off if I'd like. Okay, I think I can handle that. Spent the morning cleaning and doing laundry, spent lunchtime talking to a few of my friends on east coast time, spent the afternoon at San Souci beach. Beautiful afternoon, very warm, very calm water. It started to rain very briefly, which actually felt cold (I suspect my complaints are falling on deaf ears. I know, poor me.). Instead of leaving, I just got in the water, where you didn't even know it was raining. Rough. I read a ton, though from neither of my two book club books. My club partner is over 5,000 miles away, though, so I'm not really worried about the repercussions. At least I wasn't reading Harry Potter (that was for Hober. No offense to my other friends who read HP. I love you Lisa and Rob!).

After the beach, went home, ordered a pizza, and am settling in to watch DVD's of The Wire. Are you all watching this show? It could not be more fantastic. Seriously, have I ever lead you astray on tv recommendations? Sports Night? Arrested Development? Veronica Mars? Trust me. Plus I need people to discuss with. Oh, and when at the 7 Eleven earlier, I actually managed to intercede when the clerk was giving someone incorrect directions, offer better ones, and properly pronounce the Hawaiian street names. I'm practically a local.

More of the same tomorrow. Picnicking in Kapi'olani Park, then to the beach. Oh, and once again, I'm on first call when doing these things. I think all of my friends from my old job officially hate me.