Gym People

I would like my blog readers to get a feel for my gym experience since I spend so much of my time there. So faithful readers, I present a segment I call "Gym People." These are real people I encounter during my times at the gym.

Flat top man- This guy is great. He is a fifty year old black guy with a "kid n play" style flat top. He also wears a visor and matches in a way that puts me to shame. He has a camo outfit, a blue and grey outfit, among others. His shoes, shirt, shorts and visor ALWAYS match.

Grey Outfit man- I have only seen this guy once but the image of him will stick in my mind for eternity. He was wearing a grey shirt and grey shorts and had the most unorthodox workout style I have ever seen. He performed familiar exercises with an elaborate gusto. It was like watching a train wreck. I couldn't look away. I can't believe that his spasmatic methods did not cause him some serious back injuries.

Big butt guy- This guy wears some strange tight men's dance pants. He has one of the biggest butts I have ever seen on a man. He wears a black leotard-type top. He also has unorthodox exercise methods that often include a bizarre serious of punches and kicks amidst the exercise equipment. He once left the gym in a huff after being told not to kick the exercise balls.

Amazing Mullet man- It's a shame they don't allow photos at the gym because this guy would for sure be in my hall of fame. From the front he looks like your average middle-aged Asian guy with a short spikey do. But when he turns to the side, he reveals his wild side with a snazzy little ponytail. I mean, from the front you would never see the pony tail coming. It is A-Mazing!

Hitching to a death metal soundtrack

So, it still feels a bit strange to be back but not near as much as the first few days. I have come to realize that a lot of it is having so few people on base. We have teams in Thailand, Borneo, Bangladesh and Nepal right now so the base feels empty. We do have two smaller schools starting up- our SBFM and our School of Worship. There are currently four Texans on base including myself, who I can reminisce with when I get to missing my beloved home state.

I found out yesterday that my brother is scheduled to go to Iraq for a year starting in October. He is in the army so going to Iraq was pretty much a given. It is weird to have an actual date it's supposed to happen. The army seems to change its mind a lot so I will believe it when I see it. I am not that worried about the actual Iraq part. I figure my parents will do more than enough worrying to cover my family. I know that Andrew is more likely to die in a car accident than he is to die in Iraq. What bums me out the most is the idea that I have to go two whole years without seeing my brother, who happens to be one of my favorite people in the whole world. If I think about it too much, I will cry.

On a happier note, Amy and I have picked up right where we left off, spending 90% of our free time together. I have already gone to the gym three times and I have only been back three full days. Amy and I are going to try to guilt trip each other into eating better. I know that this is the only way to make my working out really pay off.

I also went hitchhiking today. We got in the back of a pick-up truck where there was already a guy hitchhiker in the back. He had yet to discover the concept of deodorant. At one point, the truck stopped short and he flew into my lap. Lucky me! The driver of the truck was agressively friendly and kept yelling back to us to figure out exactly where to drop us off. Then he pumped up some horrible music that sounded like someone yelling until they became hoarse and then yelling louder. To make matters worse, the guy was singing, or maybe I should say yelling along. Mmmm.... hitchhiking!

Good bye bluebonnets, hello plumerias!

I am back in Hawaii. It is weird. It is much stranger than I expected. Actually I did not expect it to be weird at all. But, alas it is. I have been trying to put my finger on why things are weird because this feeling is quite disconcerting. The conclusion I have come to so far is that three weeks at home was too long. It allowed me to become too attached to home and the amazing people I have there. When I am here, I am loosely attached to home and tightly attached to Maui. Then when I went home I became tightly attached to home and lightly attached to Maui.

I know I am supposed to be here and that I am supposed to go to Bangladesh in August but it sure doesn't feel like it right now. I miss home quite a bit. It doesn't help that the students left for outreach while I was gone as did many of my friends here. Luckily, Amy, my best friend here, is around to hang out with me in my melancholy. When I come home at Christmas I need to make it a shorter trip because this is hard.

I have posted home pics on my website so check it out: www.ywamconnect.com/sites/hightower

The bouquet toss

So I feel that randomness is abundant right now and there is likely more randomness to come before I leave Texas. Today's installment of randomness quarterly:
I was having dinner in Kemah (a collection of restaurants and out of place carnival rides and games next to the ocean) with some of my fun college friends. My friend, Sarah Thompson Musselman is pregnant so her bulging belly brought me endless amusement.

Anyway, we were sitting and minding our own business at our table outside when a party boat thing came by with a wedding party aboard. We could see a bride and groom and a few of their attendants. They slowed as they passed the restaurant. Then the bride just chunked her bouquet at some randome people at another table. She was way to far away and the bouquet fell into the ocean. The bride looked sad but she should have known she didn't have much of a throwing arm. So then she appears with another bouquet and the boat draws near to our table. She doesn't say anything to warn us. I guess she assumed a table full of girls would automatically swing into action. By the time we figured out what was going on, she had thrown the bouquet at us. It landed on the canopy above our table and slid into the ocean. This was definitely the first time I have had a random stranger/bride chunk her bouquet at me. If she had given me some warning, I could have sprung into action. I actually like catching those things but I was too confused to go for this one. Weird!

First a graveyard pick-up attempt and now a random bouquet toss. I can't wait for what tomorrow will bring.

Graveyard pick-up lines

Today was a first for me. A guy tried to pick me up in a graveyard. Here's what went down: As you have rightfully assumed, it was hilarious.

I am now car-less after returning the car I had been blessed with for most of my time here. I decided to go to the cemetary by my house to take pictures. Cemetaries can make for some cool pics and this cemetary is old and gigantic. I walked around reading grave stones and taking pics. This guy in a white Explorer stops me and asks if I know where Howard Hughes' grave is. (He is buried in the cemetary.) I tried my best to explain it to him but the cemetary is like a giant maze. He drives off and I go back to my pensiveness and photography.

Then when I am in another part of the cemetary, he rolls up again. I tried to head in the other direction, but he calls out to me. I go over to his car and he introduces himself as Smiley. I immediately notice that his name is tattooed on his arm. How lovely. He tells me that the Howard Hughes question earlier was just his excuse to talk to me. He used to work at the cemetary until he got fired. He says he is in the military now and stationed at Ellington Field. He makes me hold his puppy, Tiny. He tells me that he thinks I am cute and beautiful so he had to talk to me.

The man is clearly near-sighted as I am wearing a baggy shirt and work out shorts, I am sweaty and have a serious case of cloud hair frizz. He has a strange definition is beautiful. I usually use these types of situations as a chance to lie but this time I gave it to him straight. I told him I was going back to Hawaii and would not have time to get together with him. I did not mention the part about not being interested in someone with Smiley tattooed on his arm. We shook hands and I walked home, constantly looking over my shoulder to see if Tiny and Smiley were following me. Pretty funny! Who tries to pick up a girl in a graveyard. So romantic!

This is my second funny experience in this particular graveyard. The first was right before I went to Maui the first time. My dad convinced me, Emily and Sarah Morgan to go on a walk through the cemetary at night. The place was closed but we didn't think that was a big deal since we were just going for a walk. We walked deep into the cemetary for about twenty minutes before we noticed headlights in the distance. Then came a big spotlight that began searching the woods. We realized they were after us and that we were technically trespassing.

My dad started freaking out about how he is lawyer and that trespassing would look really bad. So, we decided to try to sneak out of the cemetary without getting caught. We crouched behind gravestones and traveled in the shadows. Emily was not dressed for the ocassion, wearing bright white pants. She was running, crouched down with her gleaming white butt waggling in the air. It was quite a sight. At one point we lost Sarah Morgan. I wasn't worried, though, because she is the most competant person I know. We finally all made it back to the entrance and ran out. Moments later, we looked back to see police cars at the entrance of the cemetary. We had narrowly escaped.

What a sight it must have been to see four adults: a lawyer and three teachers: one with white pants running like guerilla soldiers through the darkened cemetary. What an adventure!

Day of Discontent

Yesterday I felt moody and melancholy. I hate those feelings. I think being home has aroused some emotions in me that I was not prepared for. I have noticed an annoying pattern within my post-college self, I am not content to chill where I am. I constantly feel the need to think and daydream about the next step. When I was at home after DTS, I couldn’t wait to get back to full-time ministry in Maui. But now that I am so briefly home again, I find myself longing for stability, money, and a family. This probably has something to do with my friends buying houses and having kids. I think I get nervous that I will never settle down. I like security and I don’t like change so the thought of settling down in Houston, sounds really appealing right now.

If I were God, I know I would be thinking something like this: She didn't like living in Houston. She wanted to go back to Maui and I let her go back to Maui. Now, she wants to be back in Houston. Can't she just make up her mind?

At the same time, I know that when I am settled in Houston with a husband and kids, I will miss my missionary days and the crazy adventures. I need to become like the apostle Paul and be able to say that I can find content in every circumstance. Constantly thinking about the next phase in my life is only going to cheapen what I am going through now. I am excited to return to Maui and lead a team to Bangladesh. I just think that being in Houston has made me think too much about how my life will be when I return in a year. I know that returning to Maui will make a lot of this future plan stuff seem less pressing. I am also trying to spend more time with God and let his word speak to my insecurities.

An ode to Kitty

For those of you who know me well, you may remember my family cat, Whiskers (otherwise known as "kitty"). This is the cat my mom was given at Christmas time in 1990. My dad let me in on the secret gift and when my dad saw the cat food my mom bought, he knew I had squealed.

Kitty did not care for me and I did not care for kitty. He was a Siamese cat, which meant he was mean. He would be in your lap purring and then turn on you. His eyes would turn red and he would pounce on you. He scratched my brother in the head and made him bleed. The only person he liked was my mom.

David Ray tried to make kitty love him but it did not work. When David came over to my house, he would immediately cuddle with kitty. He would insist that despite the fact that kitty was hissing and struggling to get out of his arms, kitty loved him. I was not buying it. I always feared for David's life during these exchanges.

I knew kitty was going downhill the other day when he came and laid on my lap. If he was in his right mind he would have been able to clearly see that I was not my mom/his only fan. He stopped eating this week and my mom said he smelled like death, whatever that means.

He had been close to death during the Hurricane Rita scare. My mom wanted to take him to the vet to be put down but the hurricane shut everything down. As my dad said, kitty got a reprieve from his death sentence. He liked to yell, Dead Cat Walking!

This time my mom tried to get me to do her dirty work. She tried to make me take kitty to the vet today to get killed. Now I was not opposed of getting rid of this cat that never did anything nice for me. I just didn't feel right about forcing kitty to spend his final hours with me, who could care less about him. My mom needed to do this herself. So, she did it and Whiskers "kitty" Hightower is no longer of this earth. My mom thinks kitty will be in kitty heaven but if there is a kitty heaven (i have seen no evidence for this in the Bible), kitty was far too nasty to gain admittance.

Despite my animosity towards kitty, it is strange that he is gone. So, rest in peace kitty. You will be missed, well kind of.
Whiskers "kitty" Hightower November 1990- March 28, 2006

Bluebonnets a plenty

This weekend I went to Austin. It was a short trip but good times. I got to see Jocelyn and Jason, Lucy, Lindsay, Julie Schwarz and my old pal, Paul Dabney. I got to go to some of my favorite eating establishments: Magnolia Café, EZ’s, Spider House, Jimmy John’s and that excellent little snow cone stand near Barton Springs. Mmmm. I love visiting Austin but there are always moments of sadness when I realize that I no longer have a home there. I am no longer a resident but a mere visitor. There are always a lot of changes and I hate change.

Unfortunately my Longhorns lost in basketball to LSU. I was a bit torn because I had enjoyed watching LSU win the other day and had grown fond of this team that includes a player called “Big Baby.” Though I root for my alma mater, UT, over any other team, I had a hard time with this game. In fact, when we started sucking in overtime, I actually wanted LSU to win. I will be rooting for them to win the whole thing.

There were some amazing bluebonnets on the way to Austin. John and Sarah and I stopped and took some pictures on our way back. I am posting them on my website for all to enjoy.

I can’t sleep lately and I think it is some sort of mutant jet lag. I tried to stick to Maui time and go to bed late and wake up late. That quickly turned into go to bed late and wake up at a reasonable time so you don’t feel like a total slacker. This meant I was going to sleep at 4am and waking up at 9:30. This is not an adequate amount of sleep. Then at 9pm each night, I felt dreadfully tired but could not fall asleep until way after midnight. This cycle sucks! It is like my body is already trying to get back on Maui time but it is not doing a good job. Luckily I can call Amy in Maui when I am up late at night. Hooray for drastic time changes.

Random Japanese woman

Last night I watched my Texas longhorns win due to a three-pointer with .8 seconds left. It was amazing! Have I mentioned how much I love college basketball? Well, I do. Right now I am watching a b-ball game whose teams I don't care about but it's college basketball so I am enjoying it. I just like college sports. With the exception of the Rockets in the early 90's I think college sports is where it's at. It doesn't hurt that my alma mater has some awesome teams.

Today I felt kind of anxious with an overall lack of peace. In Maui, I feel peaceful because I understand my role and I know what is going to happen next. Here in Houston again, I am not sure what I should be doing with my time and I feel uncertain about the eventual outcomes of life situations. I pretty much need to be patient but that is something I constantly struggle with. I tried working out but this did not aleviate my uneasiness. Then I came to the logical decision that I need to spend more time with God. I went to a coffee shop with my Bible, journal and a book I'm reading called Velvet Elvis. My time with the Big Guy was all that I had hoped. I came to this semi-insightful realization. The bible talks about fruits of the spirit- Galatians 5:22
"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control." When we are obviously lacking in one of these areas, like me with patience and peace right now, we need to go back to the source of this fruit- God. When you reconnect with Him, you will find as I did today that it is much easier to have patience or peace or whatever you're lacking.

After my coffee shop God time, I felt much better. As I was walking in the parking lot, an older Asian woman stopped me. She had been sitting near me and noticed me reading my Bible. She proceeded to tell me herr life story in broken English. She had tried a lot of different religions including: Budhism, Judaism and New Age. She had recently become a Christian by watching TBN. This seems like a miracle in itself since that lady with pink hair frightens me quite a bit. She felt like God wanted her to come to Texas and marry this doctor. She has been here five years and is not even close to marrying the doctor. Now her job prospects here are slim but she has had offers in Kentucky. She is confused about what God wants her to do next. I mainly listened to her and then I prayed for her. It was an odd experience but a cool chance to encourage a fellow believer. It really pays to spend time wth God.

Oh college basketball, how do I love thee?

Blog 3-23

Time is going by more quickly here than I expected. Sleeping until 11am most mornings is a contributing factor for sure.

I did not purposely time my trip around the NCAA Basketball tournament but being able to watch tons of good basketball games on an HD cable television is amazing! It is a big change from my TV in Maui that looks like fuzz at all times. During college football season, I often had to hold the antenna above my head to make it no longer look like it was snowing on the field. Ahhh….. the perks of being at my parents’ house.

Last night I visited some of my Young Life kids. Due to lack of leaders, they have had to combine my Northbrook High School kids with their rival, Spring Woods High School. It was good to see the kids but most of my favorites were not there. I hope they will be there when I go next week. They did a skit where the kids had to wrap a live chicken in wrapping paper. Some of the kids and leaders just spazzed when the chicken would get near them. It was so funny! I guess I am used to random chickens after living in Maui.

Today I went bowling with my friend, Katie H. It was good times even though I really sucked. I’d been wanting to go bowling for a while since the only bowling alley in Maui is supposedly so local that they would refuse service to haolies (Howlies or white people). Then we ate lunch at a café that my mom refers to as “the lesbian deli.” Lesbians or no lesbians, they make some great food. Everything I have ever had there is excellent.

Later I played disc golf by myself. It was ridiculously cold so I tried to play fast. I just really wanted to play and I wasn’t going to let the fact that I could see my breath stop me. It was also a good time for me to get away from distractions and spend some time with God.

Then I watched an excellent game of basketball. LSU played awesome and beat Duke, the number one seed team. It was so good! I kept yelling out loud. Thankfully no one else was home to make fun of me. Now I am watching my Longhorns, who are doing good so far. Hooray for college basketball!

Too much Dr. Pepper

I have caffeinated myself too much this evening and that is why I find myself writing in my blog at 3am. I thought about calling my Hawaii friends but even they might be asleep at this hour.

Yesterday I visited my old work, Soundwaves. I saw pretty much all the people I wanted to see. I also found out that I still get my discount even though it has been lowered from 45% to 35%. It was nice to be able to get it without sneaking around and having a friend buy my stuff. When I was shopping, I kept feeling like I needed to get back to work. It was a bit weird. I have considered working there if I come back from YWAM in a year to get a teaching job. The job wouldn't start until August so I would need something until then. Maybe Soundwaves. We'll see because that is a long way off.

I went to my friends, Sarah and John's new house. They have finally moved back to Texas and have settled in Pearland, which is apparently the new cool place to be. Their house was cool and bigger than I expected. They are officially real people. I on the other hand, am definitely not a real person right now. My dad would object to this kind of labeling so maybe I should say that my life is more unorthodox than theirs right now.

I watched part of the show Dog the Bounty Hunter today. It was funny because they were looking for a big Samoan guy wearing a grey shirt and black shorts. My friend, Terry is from the Cook islands, so he looks Samoan, he is big and always wears a grey shirt and black shorts. It turns out Dog the bounty hunter was not looking for my friend afterall, but it was a funny thought.

I have received some disturbing news that people in Maui are watching my boxsets without my permission. Normally I would not mind but certain YWAM people are not careful with stuff and things that get left in the living room get trashed. The worst part was that the offenders were watching my Season 2 of Arrested Development, which I have not even watched yet. Shady! I think Amy is going to regulate on them. She has my back.

Blog lessons

I have had a blog epiphany. I read someone else's blog who wrote about someone but withheld enough details so that I couldn't figure out who they were talking about. I decided to use this technique to discuss some frustrations I was having. Unfortunately I tend to over-detail rather than under-detail and my attempt at being vague ended up being ridiculously obvious to most people I know. I tried to back peddle by erasing the aforementioned posting but it was too late. Several people had already read it including the person I was not so vaguely talking about. Smooth move. It ended up facilitating a much needed conversation, but I think I will stick to being funny and stop with the vulnerable stuff.

So far, being at home is still going well. It is so nice to be free of responsibility for a bit. I have decided not to worry too much about seeing people this week and let stuff happen naturally. Then next week I will make more of an effort to see my friends. This three week thing is nice because I don't feel rushed. This is very unlike my two previous visits where I barely had time to breathe.

I already got to go on a mini roadtrip. It was just to College Station but it felt so nice to drive. Road trips are one of the things I miss the most on Maui. Next week i am going to Austin, which is a little bit longer drive. The bluebonnets are out and they are beautiful. I have missed them. I will definitely live in Texas for most of my life. This place is just too great as are the people I love here. I have decided that all my friends (excluding the YWAMers- though they are welcome to participate) must live within an 8 hour radius of Houston, TX. This seems more than reasonable since this includes parts of Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and even Mexico. This way I can take a one day road trip to visit those that I love. This seems like an excellent arrangement.

I am very excited about all the babies my friends are bringing into the world. Hoku, a YWAM wife just gave birth to Elias Osterhus. There are two more YWAM babies on the way. Then there will be little Joe Morrow and baby girl Musselman and baby Muir. So fun! I can't wait to see what they all will look like.

Sleeping in a V shape

Blog

So I am back in the Lone Star State! Yay!

The day I left Maui, I felt kind of apprehensive about coming home but I am not even sure why. Now that I am actually here, it feels good.

The day I left I got to go with Amy and her visiting Canadian youth group kids to Kaanapali. It is fun playing tourist. It was also good to hang out with Amy since my friendship with her is one of the best things about Maui.

I took some Tylenol PM to try to sleep on the plane. I thought it wasn’t working but then I woke up four hours later. There was a strange spunky old lady sitting next to me on that flight. In the middle of my nap, I wake up to find her leaping over me. It was a bit strange since she was old and the normal action would be to shake me awake and ask me to move; not vault over me.

I have decided to just stick to Maui time while I am here. I will just stay up late and wake up late. This is my ideal schedule anyway. Most of my friends work during the day anyway. I have already gotten a chance to hang out with Sarah, John, Thama and Emily. I was worried about not having much car access since my mom needs her car for work. I have been so incredibly blessed. One of my supporters is letting me use her car while I am here. What an amazing surprise! I was speechless. This unexpected generosity will make my time here so much better. Yay God!

My parents have changed my room around. When I was living with them before, I started out in the room on the bottom floor and later moved to the third floor. Now I am back on the first floor. The bed in the room is one of those craftmatic adjustable beds like you see on tv. My grandparents bought it but didn’t like it. You push a button and the end of the bed raises up. Another button makes the head of the bed raise up. If you press both of them, you end up making a V shape. I tried squishing Emily in the V shaped bed. It was fun.

Here are some things I have missed while I have been in Hawaii.
-carpet- it feels amazing
-clean- with constantly open windows and Maui dirt, nothing is ever really clean
-my own indoor bathroom with a bathtub that won’t give me hepatitis if I lay in it
-stocked refrigerator where I don’t have to write my name on everything and I can eat whatever I want
-No bugs or spiders in the house. They burned the cane fields right before I left causing spiders and roaches to infiltrate our house.

Despite all these amenities, I do miss my YWAM friends.

Plane Crash

On Wednesday night, Amy, Carrie and I were working out at the gym when there was a big boom. Even through my music I could hear and feel the boom. It seemed weird but since I was running on the treadmill and listening to music, I didn't really know what was happening. Then several fire trucks and police cars came racing by. I figured that something must have exploded.

When we finished at the gym, we walked outside and saw a commotion. We walked closer to the chaos and saw what had happened. A small plane had crashed into the BMW dealership. It destroyed about ten cars. When we got to the scene, it was still on fire. You could see the damaged cars but you couldn't see the plane because of the thick cloud of smoke surrounding that area. There were so many other curious people around: primarily lots of Hawaiians and mulleted people.

The next day I found out more information about the crash. It was an air ambulance- a small plane that was coming to transport a patient from Maui to Oahu. The occupants were the pilot and two nurses. These three people were the only casualties since the BMW dealership was closed for the day. They are not yet sure exactly what happened to cause the accident. It was pretty crazy and sad for those involved.

Hard decision: Surfing or Work?

Yesterday I skipped work and went surfing. Tuesday is a day that I do not have much to do so when my roommate asked if I wanted to go longboarding, I just had to go. We had a fun time. The waves were decent and I had not been in so long. I am thinking about selling my shortboard, which I suck at and putting that money towards getting a longboard with my friend, Ashley. We'll see. I have had little success selling my car so I don't know why I think I will be able to sell my surfboard.

Surfing yesterday was a good step towards me getting a better tan. I need to look dark when I come home. It is expected since I have been in Hawaii. I can't believe I come home in a week. I am so excited! I wish I could bring Amy home with me since I know I will miss her a lot. Oh well, it is only for three weeks.

It looks like I won't get to see Andrew after all. I even canceled my flight. There is still a chance I can still see him but I don't even know at this point. It is frustrating to me. I can only imagine how much more frustrating it must be for Andrew and Shella.

And Now... Two Hitchhiking Stories:

Amy and I hitchhiked to Wal-Mart yesterday. This is pretty much a standard thing. After Wal-Mart we went to the corner where we always hitch back to Paia. As we rounded the corner, we saw another hitchhiker. This is problematic when you are trying to get picked up. Amy and I have good luck at hitching because we are two girls. This makes us seem non-threatening/ vulnerable to women and ego-boosting to men. Amy also wears these tight lululemon work-out pants that I think help our chances a bit. So, this guy is trying to hitchhike right where we are. We tried to distance ourselves from him so as not to seem like we were with him. Then he walks over to us. He asks us to go to the Big K and buy him a thirty pack because he forgot his ID. I don't know what he wanted a thirty pack of but we knew we would not be going to be going to the Big K for him. Then the guy kind of stumbled into traffic. It was bizarre, for sure.

Earlier in the day, Ashley and I had been driving by the same corner I spoke of above. There was a 13year old kid trying to hitch with his skateboard. Ashley decided to pick him up, but he was walking and didn't see us so I rolled down the window and called out, "Hey buddy!" He totally didn't hear me. Then we saw a creepy old guy trying to hitchhike in front of the kid. We didn't want to have to pick up creepy guy too so we kept driving. But when I think about it, I must have looked like some sort of creepy pedaphile trying to lure this kid in my car. "Hey buddy!" Haha

Coasting down the volcano

This weekend felt long. This was not in a bad way but there was a lot of stuff going on. On Friday night we had graduation. It was good except that we ran out of food. People kept inviting other people to the graduation so the caterer had constantly changing numbers. She almost cried when she ran out of food. We reassured her and showed her grace. She is not a Christian and it was good to show her that we were not mad at her. My theory is that some of the parents gorged themselves. There were two chocolate fountains that did not run out. That seems to be a more important detail anyway. Who needs real food when you have chocolate literally flowing? I know that I don't. I am the one who pioneered the fondue fountain technique of actually sticking my plate into the fondue. I skip the dipping and go straight to the good stuff. I must admit that I always feel pretty sick after some quality time at the fondue fountain. It is worth it, though.

I am going to miss these students a lot. There are several of my favorites that I did not get to say goodbye to but I figure it is easier that way anyway. Sometimes goodbyes are too much. And in the YWAM world, who knows when you will get to see them again but the chances are good.

One of our current students is Jill whose brother was feared dead. She went home to be with the family and while she was there, his body was found under a bridge. So sad! My heart hurts for her. She is still supposed to be coming back. I think she is planning on being there about two weeks. Apparently her family supportd her coming back to Maui even though they aren't Christians. Please pray for all of them during this tragic time.

Yesterday Kristy, Amy (of course) and I went to Kaanapali-the resort place on the other side of the island. It was painfully cloudy and cold. Not cool. Kristy felt guilty about hanging out at the Hyatt pool so she laid out on the beach. Amy and I have no shame and claimed lounge chairs right by the pool. Some sketchy hotel guest tried to hit on us so we made up personal info about ourselves. We said we were from Minnesota- funny for a girl from Toronto and a girl from Texas. We told him we had never been to Maui and that the day before we rode bikes down the volcano. This is probably the lamest tourist activity in our opinions. We see the poor tourists riding past our house twice a day. Just coasting and coasting.

Then at night we had a rousing game of Loaded Questions. I just love that game.

I am a blogging fiend!

So this is like three days in a row of blogging. Look at me! I think this means I am a dork but I am not sure.

Oh well, I like to write. What can I say? Yesterday I took some of our students to a hospital/clinic to get vaccinations. I volunteered because I wanted extra hang-out time with the students but I had to miss dinner. Korean chicken! That's some good food. Luckily I got a reliable DTS student to save me some.

The hospital place was really far away. It looked like a scene from a movie. The building was old and antique looking with beautifully manicured grounds. To top it off, there was a peacock inexplicably walking around. That's right, a peacock. So strange. It felt like a deserted mental hospital/rehab place. It was after hours so no one was around. This further contributed to the bizarre feel of the place.

After the students got shot, we heard a lengthy talk about the dangers of malaria and sexually transmitted diseases like Hepatitis. Then we rushed back down the volcano to get the students to their night lecture.

One of our girls, Jill, went home last night. Her older brother is missing and has left suicide notes around. They don't know where he is and he is feared dead. Please pray for them. She is planning on coming back here and continuing her DTS and then going to Bangladesh. I really hope everything turns out for the best.

Tonight is graduation. This is a chance for us to dress fancy and eat good food. We are having it catered by a local lady and it is supposed to be awesome. I know there will be a chocolate fondue fountain so it will be good by default.

Crying and Crowd Surfing

Yesterday was a good day. I finished fixing the spelling and grammatical errors on our base's website. Now we don't seem so uneducated. Then I took the afternoon off in order to have some one on one time with one of my favorite Fall students, Leah. It was really good. I like that girl. She is considering coming back on staff, which would be awesome! I try not to get my hopes up when people say that while they are still here. A lot can change when they go home.

Amy and I started watching Arrested Development. I got season one and season two in a package. A great gift! I had never seen it before. We've only seen the first two episodes but Amy and I are pretty hooked already. It is a very randomly funny show, which I appreciate. I am excited to watch more.

Last night was testimony night on base. This is when a few returning students from each team get up in front of the entire base and share things they have learned. This is an awesome time especially for those of us on staff here in Maui. Sometimes we can lose sight of our higher purpose and get too focused on the daily stuff here. But the reason we are here is to send teams out to spread the love of Christ to other countries.

I could see changes in several of the students just from hearing them speak. There is a new confidence in them and a greater sense of their identity in Christ. One of the students, Derek gave an emotional testimony. He said that he had been praying for his dad to become a Christian for years. He gave up for awhile but recently renewed his prayers for his dad. While he was in DTS, his dad became a Christian. While Derek was sharing, he asked his dad to come up to the front with him. It was very emotional as Derek was crying and his dad's eyes got watery. My eyes got watery but I refused to release the tears.

Then Maria, one of our staff members, came to the front and said, " A lot of times when someone becomes a Christian, we are happy but skeptical and reserved. We remember the other friends we have that became Christians and fell away. We figure we'll just wait a year and see if they really change." I totally agree with what she said. Then she said, "We need to break out of that skepticism. The angels are rejoicing in Heaven over one lost soul being saved. I want you all to scream and yell that Richard (Derek's dad) has become a Christian." So we all started cheering and screaming and jumping up and down. I was trying to cheer but I just started to cry. It was really emotional but in a good way. I definitely wasn't the only one to cry. Then Maria had Derek and his dad crowd surf over us. It was so cool. The worship was awesome and really got me pumped up! What an awesome night!

Boys

The Fall students are still here and I am having fun reconnecting with them. They are so great! This afternoon I am going to have coffee with one of my favorite ones. I am going to try to be more intentional at hanging out with them before they leave.

I wish that I understood men. Actually I probably don't because it would make life less mysterious. I just wish they could be more straight-forward sometimes. Instead it seems like I am constantly trying to decipher the signals they send out. I am sure they feel the same way about me but I feel like the guy is supposed to be the head in the relationship so he should be the one to come clean with his feelings first.

When I was younger, I had a guy friend who I unitentionally led on for a long time. I thought we were just friends and he thought we were dating. I still hold that we were not dating- no kissing and he never paid for the stuff we did. Anyway, not knowing that he thought we were dating, I basically told him he was annoying and I didn't want to hang out with him so much. This, admittedly was not the nicest thing I could have done but I didn't know that he would consider this a break-up. A friend told me later that I broke this guy's heart. I had no idea. I think this experience has contributed to my hesitance in becoming friends with guys outside of group situations.

I also know of a guy here who likes me right now but I just don't feel the same way about him. Lots of people would like us to get together but just because other people think it would be good doesn't mean that it would be. I wish I liked this guy as more than a friend because he is an incredible guy- a godly man that would treat me like a queen. Yet, I don't think I will ever be with him. The feelings simply are not there and I cannot forsee them ever being there.

The guys that I like never seem to be able to consistently like me. It can be frustrating for sure.

It is crazy to think of a time when I will be married and no longer experiencing boy drama. I am sure I will create a new kind of drama then, though.

Hobos in my office

Today was a good mail day. I got three letters and a package. Good deal! Thanks to the Fowlers, Thama and Lee. I love mail. Today was Rachelle, a staff girl's birthday and she got like twenty letters and two packages. This made my mail haul pale in comparison. I still get way more mail than the average person here. Thanks guys.

The weather here has been cold and weird lately. It was really rainy and windy the last few days. My room has two windows facing different directions which causes a wind tunnel to occur in my room. It is nice most days but when it gets super-windy you are almost blown to the ground. Yesterday Amy and I wanted to go across the island to suntan with the rich people at the hotel pools but the weather was too gross. We ended up eating junk food and laying around.

Today I had what could best be called a tangerine explosion. I passed below the tangerine tree and all of a sudden rotten tangerine squirted all over my pants and my hand. I smelled like garbage! Eww. Not cool.

I found out today that a homeless guy was found sleeping in my office. And by office I mean that room down the hall with the waterbed and the.... Actually the housing office is located in what we call "the dollhouse." This is this building that looks like a large kids' playhouse. It is in front of our girls' DTS student house. We used to keep it locked and I guess we will have to start doing it again. Sometimes homeless people are found sleeping in our vans and I think some of them stole about ten rolls of toilet paper from the bathroom. I would like to help them out but we can't let them sleep on our offices and vans. We also don't have a big enough budget to allow for toilet paper thievery.

Tornado in the living room

Our Fall DTS students are back. This makes life on base hectic and exciting in a good way. It feels like having a bunch of old friends back. I love it though it is sometimes inconvenient. The students are divided by team and dispersed among our houses. We have the Borneo girls living in our house. They have taken over our living room and it looks like a tornado blew the contents of someone's trailer into our house. There is stuff and people everywhere. Walking from my room to the front door is quite the adventure. I like having these girls here better than the summer girls because I actually know these girls.

Last night, Amy, Kristy, two Fall students and I went to a ladies gathering with ladies from our church. There were about 15 ladies there and that is pretty much most of the ladies in the church. They were so funny. We had some amazing food. I gorged myself to the point where I could not even make room for tiramsu. I did not know that was even possible. We went around in a circle and had to tell a funny story or a joke. It was pretty funny to hear what the ladies chose to tell. There were several stories about nudity, bowel movements and tampons. Crazy! Some were border-line inappropriate. But then again so am I.

I want to watch more but Amy wants to watch Lost so I gotta go.

Is Coffee a date?

I have recently become aware of a phenomenon sweeping the Christian circles. It may also be affecting the non-Christian circles but I am a bit out of touch on what happens in those circles right now. So, a guy asks a girl for coffee and they go out and have coffee as friends. Getting coffee seems harmless, right? But the guy decides based on how the coffee time goes, whether or not it was a date. This puts the girl in the strange postion of not knowing if she is simply having coffee with a friend or having her marriagability judged by a potential significant other. Tricky. I am not saying that all coffee times are dates but I just feel that it has become a cop-out way for a guy to ask a girl on a date with no fear of rejection. He never has to officially ask her on a date. Afterall, it is just coffee. I am not that big a fan of this getting coffee pseudo date thing. I know I have gone to coffee with guys assuming it is not a date but then getting the feeling that they think it might be. Awkward! Guys and girls need to be more straight-forward with their intentions. I know I am not the best at this but it's still true.

It seems weird to think that there will be a day when I don't have boy angst. I have had boy angst on and off for the last five years so it will feel really weird when it is no longer there. I am sure when I am happily married some day I will find something else to have angst about.

Pregancies A' Plenty!

I just realized that I know a lot of pregnant people lately. On base there is Hoku, Jen and Libby. Then on the mainland there is Erin Morrow, Sarah Musselman, Nikki Thompson and Tiffany Muir. I can't wait to see what all these kids look like. I have not come to the point in my life yet where a lot of my friends have had babies. I guess it is just beginining. Yay!

I ordered a Mormon on the internet for one of my housing students. Two girls came. My girl, Brittany, said it was a good talk but other YWAMers kept coming and getting on it. It ended up being seven YWAMers and the two poor Mormon missionaries. I think they got a bit intimidated. They invited Brittany to church and I think I am going to take a group of interested students there after our churches one Sunday. I am very interested in Mormonism and I have read a great deal about it. But I have never gone to one of their churches so I hope it happens.

We had a girl go home because her parents did not like what she was learning. This was hard for all of us to take. It was hard not to take it personally. God totally made up for that experience. The parents of another student came in town and they sat in on lectures and got to know the students. Students and staff need the first half of their outreach fees really soon. They wrote on a dry erase board how much each person needed and had everyone pray about them getting their finances. The student's parents decided to contribute $7500 to cover everyone's first half of outreach. What a blessing! It was also good to have such a positive reaction from a parent to counteract the negative reaction of the other student's parents.

This weekend we went to Kihei and picked up some bookcases donated by a feisty older woman named Gail. We took the maintenance van and that thing is quite ghetto. It is rusted through in some parts and drives weird. The spedometer said I was going 100 mph until halfway through the trip when it mysteriously righted itself. We were driving behind a pickup truck when we noticed that the girls in the back were some of our students. They were going to Kihei too so they motioned to the truck driver to pull over and they got in with us. It was cool to be able to spend more time with them. We got to Gail's apartment and she said she would come out and meet us. She described herself as old with blond hair and shorts. She gave us some nice bookcases. Then we went to the beach but it was cloudy so we did not enhance our bronze looks much.

Amy has had a friend in town for the last two weeks so our working out has not been too regular. We will be going back to working out six days a week starting tomorrow. I am going to buff! Watch out when I get back to Texas! I just need to stop eating so many baked goods. They are just so tempting!

Unexpected Valentine

I know I wrote halfway through Valentine's Day but the second half turned out to be memorable as well. I went to eat crepes with some of my YWAM friends. It ended up being seven girls and one guy. It was very reminiscent of a group date from The Bachelor. We tried to play up the Bachelor angle by behaving like stereotypical contestants. We all tried to buddy up to Todd in order to go home with a rose. I took a proactive approach and tried to woo him with humor and by subtly bad-mouthing the other contestants. Ashley played coy and managed to snag a little one-on-one time before the rest of us became wise. I thought I did pretty well but I did not get a rose. In the most shocking rose ceremony ever, Todd did not give any of us a rose. This was probably because we weren't actually on The Bachelor. Better luck next time.

My favorite part of the night occured as we walked back from our Bacheloresque crepe date. We were passing by the DTS girl students' house when a DTS student, who will remain nameless for the sake of his personal diginity, approached Amy with a card and chocolate bar. He wrote in the card that he wanted to get "coffie with her" sometime. He also tried to super-spiritualize it with a part about how the Lord wanted a romance with Amy. Oh and he used the wrong form of there and spelled it thier. I am unashamedly prejudiced against bad spellers. That must be the English teacher in me. Anyway, the student had not done much research before his ill-fated "coffie" proposal. Amy does not eat chocolate bars and the student manual expressly prohibits any dating by students. We had a great laugh! What a hilarious unexpected valentine!

Then we watched "The Forty Year Old Virgin." It was better the second time I saw it. It reminds me of Office Space and Dumber and Dumber, which both get better the more I watch them. There are definitely some scandalous parts and some foul language but I am not very sensitive to those things. We did have to turn it off once as one of our Swedish mission builders came in. I did not want to corrupt poor little Gustav.

Later the students tried to hold a very unsuccessful dance party. They could not get their hands on any speakers so some people tried to sing. This is never a good call. We went and gawked at them for awhile but soon grew bored of their unexciting hyjinks. Overall it was an excellent day.

The Bachelor is Back!

It's Valentine's Day. I am not one of those people who hates Valentine's Day just because I don't have a love interest. I enjoy the plethora of free candy and baked goods that arise on this occasion. So, yay it is Valentine's Day!

Yesterday Amy and I worked out for the first time in a very long time. It felt good and I was not as out of shape as I had feared. I still need to eat less of the afore-mentioned baked goods if I want to get in better shape.

Last night my house watched The Bachelor. This is only the second episode I have seen of this season and without cable it looks a bit like snow. Nevertheless we had a group of about ten people that watched it together last night and it was magical. It was so fun and it reminded me of my college reality show parties. Those were the days! Temptation Island, Love Cruise, Boot Camp, The Bachelor, we watched them all and we had no shame. It makes me miss college a lot but it was great to see a reality show in a fun party/sarcastic atmosphere. I will regale more reality show memories at a later date.

A seven foot inflatable birthday turkey

I have had a very lazy weekend. I felt sick at the end of the week so I tried to get some extra rest. I thought I might be getting really sick but I think it may be an allergy build-up. This is good and bad because I have not gotten worse but it also means I have to figure out a way to have less dust in my life. This is difficult since open windows serve as our ghetto air-conditioning here.

So, most of the weekend I spent lounging around my house in betweeen some intense napping. The island life is not what people think. On Saturday I mustered enough energy to surprise my friend, Gena on her 24th birthday. I had previously found an inflatable 7 foot turkey at Wal-Mart on clearance for only $3! I would have been a fool to pass up that sweet deal. I decided to fashion a sign that said, "Happy Birthday Gena" and have this large poultry hold the sign. She came out as the turkey was being inflated but I think I made my point. I am sure it was her first 7-foot inflatable birthday turkey, or at least she made it seem like it was her first. Later she and I went out to dinner and watched a movie at my house.

Today I went to church. I have been getting a bit frustrated by how much our church talks about speaking in tongues. I am so over speaking in tongues. With the constant bombardment, I decided to see what the Bible has to say about the subject. From what I read, I have come to the following conclusions: There are three different types of tongues. One kind is where you are miraculously able to speak another language for ministry purposes like at Pentecost. This kind seems cool and useful. Then there is one that is like a prayer language between you and God. It lets you communicate with God beyond what you can do with words. Then there is the kind used in church, but the Bible says that you should not speak tongues aloud unless you or someone else can interpret what is being said. The Bible also says that tongues is only one type of spiritual gift and that some of the other gifts like prophecy are more important. I think all this stuff is true but I think that many churches put too much emphasis on this stuff and then other churches pretend it doesn't exist. It can be annoying. For now I am content to not speak in tongues and I am still a bit wary of the way I feel that it is being exploited as a test of one's spirituality. No tongues means no faith. I don't think so.

This afternoon Amy and I hitched into town so she could buy a laptop. Now she has become very technologically advanced being the new owner of both a digital camera and a laptop. She is going on a research tour this Fall to the countries that we have committed to. She needs to be able to document her experiences properly. If I was not staffing the summer school then I would seriously consider joining her. It is cool that she will be visiting the country I will be doing outreach in.

Right now she and her friend from home, April, are on an adventure with a bizarre little man from our church. He had been offering Amy for a while to take her to the top of Haleakala, our local volcano, to watch the sunset. Amy finally consented today and included April and I in her affirmative answer. By the time it came time to leave, I was feeling a bit sick again and the prospect of spending an extended amount of time in the little man's company did not sound very appealing. I decided not to go. Amy was not happy about this but I had done her some favors that day so she couldn't be too mad at me. If April was not going and she would have had to go with small bizarre guy alone, I would have sucked it up and gone. Instead I took a bit of a pseudo nap and a shower. I feel confident I made the right decision.

Amy is back! Yay!

Amy made it back to the United States after her scary deportation experience. I am so glad she is back! I had to fax her some documents and then she tried to cross the border again. This time was much more successful. She had been told that this new visa she needed would cost up to $900 but it only cost $6. Then the airline had said she lost the ticket to her missed flight and would have to buy a new one for $1000. It turns out that a kind airline official only made her pay $100 to change her ticket. Then the hotel room that they missed out on when trying to cross the border let them stay the next night for free. So, Amy was emotionally abused, had to arrive a day late and had to pay about $150 more but she has made it back to the U.S! Oh, and her plane from L.A. to Maui broke down and she had to run to another flight to get here. Crazy adventures!

I have been getting a bunch of packages. It has been lovely! I got a hula hoop that came unwrapped with postage directly on the hoop as well as one of those fun frisbees with a hole in the middle sent the same way! Thanks Emily Stone! I also got a package from the illustrious Sarah Lavellechelberger. Keep them coming friends! Amy's mom sent some of this delectable Skor bar treat she made with Amy as well. Good stuff!

Amy got deported and other news

It has been intense at YWAM Maui for the past few days. I already wrote of my intense prophecy and that one of our girls sadly chose to go home. These things coupled with the events of the last few days have made things hectic. I do feel an underlying peace about things but I still feel anxious at times.

My friend, Amy went home for a week to Toronto in Canada. She comes and goes from Maui with such a frequency that her passport has been flagged as a drug runner. This means she always gets hassled at customs. She usually tries to avoid this by crossing the border in New York and flying out of the Buffalo airport. She was supposed to fly out yesterday but got stopped at the border for three hours. The unyielding immigration official gave her a really hard time about being a missionary, which included him asking if God told her to come to Maui. She said yes and he said that God would have to tell him personally for him to let her over the border. He said that she has the wrong kind of visa. The kind she has would cover her if she worked in the kitchen or housinfg or pretty much any other department but since she uses a computer and does administrative stuff, she has to have a different kind of visa. He denied her entry into the U.S., took her picture (mug shot) and fingerprinted her, her mom and her best friend. She was officially deported!

Today I have been trying to help her by faxing and mailing letters from YWAM that might help her situation. Please pray that something works. This is a very busy time in the quarter for Amy's job here on base and since she is my best friend here, I miss her like crazy! Also her friend is flying here tomorrow for a visit. Her plane tickets were non-refundable. She will be here for two weeks and I guess I will be her buddy until Amy gets back. Crazy!

Also I don't want to go into detail, but there is a guy on base here that I believe may be struggling with mental illness. He is my friend and it is really hard to see. His behavior is very erratic and unlike him. Please pray that the base will know how to handle the situation. He is actually scaring me. The leadership team is aware of the situation and they are figuring out how to deal with him.

On a random rather undramatic note, I met a guy from Pasadena, Texas today. I was wearing one of my many Texas shirts. This particular one is a little league shirt that says Pasadena, TX on the front. He stopped me on the street to tell me that he was from there. It turns out that he was a pastor at a church there and has recently moved to the island to pastor a church here. I gave him the base's info and invited him to come to worship. It is always nice to have non-YWAM connections.

What a Weekend Phase 2!

That last post was getting pretty long so I thought I would break it up into two chunks. So the prophecy thing totally blew me away and even other people on base are talking about it. Crazy! It put me in a good mood. When I went home, some of the girls said Jaws was breaking. If you don't know what Jaws is, look on the internet. It is one of the biggest rideable waves in the world and it is here in Maui. It only breaks a few times a year and I had never seen it before. Ashley, Jess Bedogne, Merry, me and the two Swedes, Gustav and Andreas decided to go see it.

We drove to where we heard it was and parked our cars. You have to have a four wheel drive to get out there so we set off on foot. It is about a 45 minute hike. When we were almost there, some hippie girls in a ghetto Explorer offered us all a ride. So, we all piled in. It turned out that the girls were not alone. There was a big blue and yellow parrot perched on the driver's side headrest. A little strange but hey, this is Maui. They drove crazy and even sideswiped a windsurfing van. Eek. We got down there and watched people looking like ants descend the face of this mountain of water. It was awesome. It was easy to marvel at God's creation as well as the combination of fear and stupidity it took to get those surfers out there.

Then we started walking about. When we were halfway there, the same girls came and picked us up again. They drove crazy again and dropped us off at our cars. What an adventure!

Then we went to a little Super Bowl party that our mission builders, Retha and Jeff hosted. I am not really into the Super Bowl but I like parties and I like football. Unfortunately for our seahawk die hard hosts, the game did not go the way they would have liked. To me, however, I have already had my best footbal game ever- do the words ROSE BOWL mean anything?

One of our students went home today. It is sad. Her name is kelly and she is one of the girls I felt like I knew better. She went to my church too. She was getting pressure from her boyfriend and parents back home to come back. She had told them about some of the more charismatic stuff and this alarmed them. The thing about YWAM is that it exposes you to the full spectrum of Christianity. From the holy spirit to logically defending your faith. They don't force anything on you and everyone is encouraged to test the teaching with the Bible and personal experience. I remember all the holy spirit, speaking in tongues, healing and prophesy stuff seeming weird to me as well during DTS. I am still not fully comfortable with it all and I don't think I need to be. I read the Bible and test things that seem strange using that. I have heard people speak in tongues, for example, but it is not something I want for my life. I think it was hard for her to go to my church too where every service has healings, prophesy and/or speaking in tongues. I know that stuff can be hard for me to handle too. I am sad to see her go and I know she would have done great on outreach. She has two weeks to change her mind but I can't see her coming back. What a shame!

What a weekend!

I had an action-packed weekend. It was so good! This past week I spent most of my freetime hiding in my room and relaxing. I just needed some recoop time. I fear that my new roommate, Ashley thinks I am a hermit. At least when Amy gets back, I will be going to the gym again and not always in the room.

So after lounging around so much, I was up for a trip to Kaanapali when Ashley suggested it. Ashley has a car and is pretty good about inviting people along when she goes places. I went with her and two other staff members- a fun brother/sister pair named Rachel and Josh Cordy. There are six kids in their family and like most kids I have met from big families, they are laid-back and easy to get along with. We went to the touristy part of the island to get out of Paia. Even though we live in Hawaii, it is easy to forget you are in paradise when you remain in our little hippie town too long. On the way, we saw a ton of whales jumping out of the water. I am not much of a whale aficionado but seeing them is cool.

We hung out on the beach but the weather was weird- getting hot and cold, cloudy and windy at random intervals. Also the sand was blowing. We went to the pool at the Sheraton. We swam around, went on the slide and went in the hot tub. Then we were lounging on chairs by the pool when a very polite woman asked us for our room numbers. When we told her we were not guests at the hotel, she asked us to leave. Amy and I never get kicked out of the Hyatt pool. We even managed to score hotel towels but I think the fact that Rachel was loudly talking to her dad on the phone about the fact that she was pool hopping did not help our cause much.

Then we met up with a majority of the surf team and watched them jump off cliffs. Afterwards we got pizza and then I spent the rest of the evening working on my book and lounging around.

Today I went to church. It was weird not having Amy there. A guest pastor was there named Pastor Helena. I had heard of her before and I think she comes to the church about once a month. I had never seen her though. She had an intense in your face kind of style that was not my favorite but she had some good things to say in her sermon. Then she announced that she would spend some time prophesying. In YWAM I have been to a number of events where someone was prophesying. But the person never has any words for me. I am not even 100% sure what I believe about this kind of stuff. It is definitely out of my suburban Presbyterian box. I have come to the point in my faith now that I think prophesy definitely happens and that there are false prophets- Benny Hinn types and real ones. The Bible says that prophesy happens too and that is what I try to measure my experiences by. With that said, back to the prophesy lady:

Before it even started, I leaned to the girl next to me and said that I never get prophesied about. The way it worked was that everyone was seated as we were during her sermon and she just pointed to random people, asked them their name and had them stand up as she shared a word from the Lord with them. As this was going on, I was praying that God would speak to me this time. She talked to random people in the congregation mainly telling them how they resembled important Biblical figures and how God was going to use them with those gifts. They were probably true but slightly vague. She told Eric, one of my DTS students that he was going to the nations to spread the word. She said that God was proud of him and that he would be coming into money soon that he would have to pray about using. She told another DTS girl, Brittaney some stuff about how people are drawn to her positive attitude and other nice things that I can no longer remember but seemed true at the time. For me and Paul, another YWAM staff member, she was less vague, especially with me but I will tell that part of the story last.

Paul was told that he is a gifted teacher. He will have a big ministry but he needs to beware of Delihahs shady women that will take his focus. If he gives into them, his ministry will not be what it can be. There is one good girl for him but he needs to wait and resist the others.

Now to set mine up, I have been thinking and praying about a lot of stuff lately. I have been thinking about what I will do after YWAM and I have also been thinking a lot about if and when I will get married. 25 seems really old sometimes and I wonder when and if I will get married and have kids. Most of my closest non-YWAM friends are married so I think it is a pretty natural thing to think about it. I am in no way obsessed by these thoughts. I have not yet become that girl but I have been thinking about this a lot lately. So, Pastor Helena points at me and my heart starts racing. I stand up and she says, "So, you want to know if you're going to get married? I was shocked. I mumbled yes. She said you are going to get married and you are going to have two children. You are going to have two children but I see a third child. I don't know about this third child. Maybe someone is going to give it to you. You will remember me when this happens. Then she said, you are a teacher. You will be a Sunday school teacher and you will change the lives of your students and they will tell their parents about your teaching and you will draw them in. THen she was like, I don't know if you even like kids but I see you building things with the kids.

That is what she said as far as I can remember. The church gave me a cassette tape of it that I plan to listen to again. This totally squelched my remaining doubts about prophecy. It had to be God who told this woman what I needed to hear. There is no way a perfect stranger could be so alarmingly accurate at addressing my latest struggles. It was so cool. I thank God so much for that. I have a real sense of joy and peace after all this. It was so amazing!

Meeting Myrtle

For some time now I have used the name "Myrtle" as my fall back alias when I am asked my name at a restaurant. I have become quite quick and natural at spelling it. I have a few other aliases such as, CoCo and Bertha but Myrtle is my favorite. Last week I got a note in the office that a hotel had responded to my letter asking for free stuff. The note said Myrtle on it and I thought that was a joke the message taker had written. I soon discovered that I had indeed been contacted by a woman named Myrtle. Yesterday I met up with Myrtle, who gave us a ton of free bedding from the hotel where she runs the housekeeping department. I am now even more proud to call myself Myrtle.

My guests have all left now. It was fun to have them here but a bit stressful since they were on vacation and I was still supposed to be working. I ended up taking Monday and Tuesday off to spend more time with them. On Monday we drove to Hana. I had heard from many people that the drive was intense and exhausting and they were definitely telling the truth. I had to drive the whole way. It is only about 35 miles but it takes about two hours each way because of the crazy curves and slow speeds. It was draining. When we finally got there we went hiking at a place called the Seven Sacred Pools. It was beautiful and fun but I wish I had been wearing hiking boots instead of sandals. I went with Abbey and Misti and it was good to spend time with them.

Yesterday morning, I said goodbye to Misti. It wasn't that bad since I am pretty sure I will see her again. With YWAM friends there is always the possibility. Then Gena, Abbey and I utilized our last hours with the PT cruiser to go to Kaanapali, the tourist part of the island. We did not have much time there but it was still fun. Later we dropped off the car. It was nice to not have to drive so much anymore. After Hana, I am in no hurry to drive anytime soon.

I miss Amy. She is home in Toronto until next Tuesday. Before she left we had been spending about 90% of our free time together. Things are not the same here without her. I can't wait til she gets back. I thank God for her friendship and companionship.

More Wedding Bisnass

Sherry and Jono's wedding was probably the smallest one I have ever been to. More than half the guests were YWAMers. Carrie and Corey are two YWAMers who got married last year. They told me that barely any of the guests brought gifts. That is shameful and white trash. I was determined that this not be the case for Jono and Sherry. I made what seemed like an endless stream of announcements at base-wide events that people need to buy them a gift or give money to me to give them towards a laptop. I ended up collecting about $700. I was pretty satisfied with that.

Sherry was one of the most beautiful brides I have ever seen and we all know I have seen a lot of brides. She just looked gorgeous. Jonathan totally cried when he saw her. It was really cute. I like it when the groom cries. One of his brothers totally lost it and all of Sherry's bridesmaids were crying. Their wedding was slightly unorthodox with a hula and they said their own vows. The vows were very informal but funny and sweet. The ceremony was short, which is always a bonus.

Amy, Sara and I were assigned to take care of the candles and the drinks for the wedding. We set everything out between trips to the chocolate fountains. The candles kept blowing out in the wind but later in the evening they managed to stay lit. I was also in charge of the music for thei reception and the dance. I was nervous about whether or not people would like the music or if they would dance. Sherry had okayed my selections but I was still nervous. Luckily everything turned out great and people danced all night. I had a lot of fun. I am not a very good dancer but I am an amusing dancer. I even pulled out my impersonation of Elaine's dance from Seinfeld. That dance and the Hammer by M.C. Hammer are pretty much the only actual dances I know. The rest of the time involves me doing goofy pantomimes. Gena and Todd did a hilarious dance together to a Destiny's Child song. I almost peed my pants. It was so great! Gena made all the bouquets and then she caught Sherry's bouquet. I was hoping to catch my third bouquet but alas Gena beat me to it. I should have thrown the elbows. Oh well.

After the wedding, all the DTS friends went to the beach and hung out and reminisced. It was really fun. We stayed out past 2am and I had to get up for church in the morning. It was worth it, though.

Sherry and Jono's wedding day

Today is Sherry and Jonathan's wedding day! They will be Mr. and Mrs. Craig. How crazy is that! Sherry and Jono met during my DTS so it is so much fun that they are getting married now. Yesterday they had their rehearsal dinner. They invited me and Gena along with the usual-wedding party, family and out of town guests. It was really fun and a good chance to spend time with Sherry before the wedding. I also got to hang out with her bridesmaids again, who I really like. There were a large number of people from my DTS there. Pretty cool. Sherry, Jonathan, Michael Berman, Liz Wilkes, Cherish, Misti, Abbey, Ryan Hagler, and me and Gena. It was like a DTS reunion.

Despite all the pre-wedding fun, life has been pretty hectic and sometimes frustrating this past week. Because my car does not work and my DTS friends are in town, we decided to rent a car for the weekend. It is exciting to be able to do that now with no extra charge since I recently turned 25. Renting a car is one of the only things you can do at 25 that you can't do at 24. I felt very mature and sophisticated. Amy came to the counter with me to ask about upgrades. The lady said it would be $10 more a day. I told her that was too much. There was some witty banter between us and the woman at the counter as we finished all the rental biznass. We were supposed to get a Dodge Neon. She gave us keys and we walked to the parking spot indicated on the rental form. It was not a Dodge neon but a convertible PT cruiser. PT cruisers are funny because they are kind of a mid-life crisis car. It is even funnier because it is a convertible. It is also bright blue. We look really funny in it.

There was some unnecessary drama about who could drive it. It was something we really should have talked about beforehand but we didn't. I assumed that I would be driving always since it was my name on the rental agreement and no one else was authorized to drive. The girls thought anyone should be allowed to drive it. Having a lawyer for a dad, I knew he would kill me if someone else drove it and something happened. I cannot afford to have someone in debt to me for thousands of dollars. This is the worst case scenario, obviously but it could happen. The girls ended up paying $30 to have one of them put on the driver's list for one of the days. This was fine with me because now her name was on the rental agreement. Overall the whole situation was annoying though I could totally understand their point of view. It definitely caused some tension in what should have been a great reunion.

Housing Japanese Business Men

I have not been working quite as much as usual lately. One of my DTS friends is in town and two more will be coming on Thursday. I have been taking half a day off and working for half the day. Amy and I have been work-out junkies. We have been consistently going to the gym about 5 or 6 times a week. This is quite the feat since we are hitchhiking on most of our trips. Yesterday we had to hitchhike in the rain. This is not my favorite thing and if Amy wasn't so darn persuasive then I definitely would have skipped the gym yesterday. I have yet to notice a huge difference in my body. I think my calves are getting more muscular, which is the last thing I want to become more muscular as they are already border-line frightening. I am also trying to eat better, which means not gorging myself on every baked good I see. After Jono and Sherry's wedding, I plan to give up baked goods that include chocolate. They are having a chocolate fountain and it would be torture not to partake. I am also making an exception for this delectable Skor bar thing that Amy's mom makes. I am banking on Amy bringing some back for me when she goes home this next week.

I fear I will have Amy withdrawals when she is gone. We hang out so much that it will be really weird to not have her around. It is only for nine days so I am sure I will survive. I plan on getting my bike fixed soon so I can still exercise without going to the gym.

I hate Apple right now. I know this may hurt the feelings of some of my Apple-loving friends. I have had my IPOD mini for less than a year and the battery really sucks. I can charge it for hours and then it will say low battery and not work. I went on Apple's confusing unuser-friendly website and ordered a box to send it back to Apple. This stupid box cost me $30. I thought that would be no big deal if it resulted in a restored IPOD or even a new IPOD. Then Apple sent me an email that essentially said, "You are very unintelligent and your IPOD works just fine so we are doing nothing, SUCKER!" Those weren't their exact words but I know that is what they were implying. So, this means I paid $30 for my IPOD to go on a little vacation. So lame! I can't afford to essentially throw $30 away. UGH! I wish IPODS weren't so darn handy. I feel like I am just at Apple's mercy. I will say now that I will not be buying one of their computers anytime soon. At least Dell let me have an email chat with a man named Mahesh, who actually helped me.

Sherry has moved out of my room to go stay at the villa where she and Jono are getting married. It is sad to have her leave but at least they will be returning to the island for awhile after their honeymoon. I have already moved down from my top bunk to more prime real estate, her old bed. It is abnormally high with enough storage space to house at least four Japanese business men. Kramer made some money doing that on Seinfeld. Maybe I can do that to make a little side money. Then again, hiding Japanese business men under your bed is probably frowned upon at YWAM Maui. I will post some pics of the new living situation on my website. My new roommate will be Ashley. I think we will get along well except that she is a light sleeper and I talk in my sleep. Oh well, I enjoy an audience.

Let's get this wedding started!

This week Amy and I have been really good about working out. If we keep up the good work, when I visit in March, no one will even recognize me. Ok, maybe not but working out does make me feel better about myself.

Last night Sherry (my roommate) picked up two of her bridesmaids at the airport. It was nice to finally meet them since I had heard so much about them. They seem really fun. The room Sherry and I share has gotten pretty crowded with the addition of the two of them as well as Liz Wilkes, a friend from my DTS who came in today for Sherry and Jono's wedding. Tonight I am sleeping in Amy and Jess's room since we have to get up early for church tomorrow and the other girls in my room don't.

I am interested to see how my church goes tomorrow. Last week we had a guest speaker lady who did a bunch of healings. I don't know yet what a normal service is. I'll keep you posted.

Tonight a bunch of us girls went to this place called Mulligan's. Everyone talks about how much they love the place. I wasn't very impressed. It is really fancy. I pictured this quaint little Irish pub but it was not. I did have a lovely $8 apple pie. It was expensive but delicious.

Reflections on a 25th Birthday

So, yesterday was my birthday. It was a good birthday. Much better than last year when my grandma died and I went to her viewing on my birthday.

I feel like the key thing about birthdays is to feel loved and important to people. I definitely felt that way which means my birthday was a success. I did some work but not too much. I always feel like birthdays are usually just a few fun moments that make you feel like it is your birthday. The rest of the day seems normal but you keep thinking it should be exciting all day. Being in YWAM on your birthday means that you get people talking about your birthday all day. It's great! I got "Happy Birthday" sung to me no fewer than five times. I got cupcakes in the shape of the number 25.

In the afternoon Amy and I went to Wal-Mart and TCBY. Then we went up to her mentor's house. Her mentor is a lady named Moana who is married to a guy, Eric, with an awesome mullet and a partial handlebar mustache. He definitely disproves the stereotypes about mullets. He is super nice and a millionaire. They own four houses. One in Maui, one in Canadian ski country, one on the Hawaiian island, Molokai, and one in Paris. Their house in Maui is up near the top of the volocano and has an incredible view. Eric is an artist so they designed the house themselves. It looks like one of those places you would see on a cool house tv show. They have this awesome fishtank built into the wall between the study and living room. So cool. Amy and I just hung out and relaxed in non-YWAM land. It was nice.

Then she treated me to a steak dinner at Outback. It was good. I got a free ice cream sundae because it was my birthday. It was funny at dinner because my friend, Jared called. Now, I got lots of birthday phone calls from great friends all day. I was a bit surprised that Jared knew when my birthday was because we aren't really birthday call friends. It soon became clear that he just happened to call on this special day and did not know it was my birthday. It seemed to awkward to tell him so I decided not to. I felt really blessed yesterday because almost all my favorite people in the world called me or emailed me including my brother who had to call me from a pay phone in "Armyland," Georgia. I was especially excited to hear from my old roommate, Lucy who I had not talked to in a long time. I just love that girl!

After Amy and I went to Outback, we went home and watched some Law and Order. Mmm.... Box sets! Then some of my friends came over bearing gifts. I got stickers, a gift certificate to Borders and a funny shirt. I always joke that our other girls' staff house is where all the homebody girls live. I say all they do is knit and make handicrafts. Our house is more social and several of the girls have boyfriends so there are a lot of rules at our house. I like to say that "Anything Goes" at Mayu's. Two of my Mayu's friends found a shirt at American Eagle that says "Anthing Goes." Pretty funny. Today I wore it and wrote "at Mayus" underneath it.

Marti Harnly wins the prize for sending a birthday package that actually arrived on my birthday. I have heard rumors of upcoming packages and I am waiting on pins and needles for their arrivals. Better late packages, than no packages. That's what I always say.

Almost 25!

I am writing this the night before my 25th birthday. This seems really old. I will be a quarter of a century old. Woah! Luckily I am not the type of person to make assumptions about what I will be doing at a certain age. Many people my age are getting married, buying houses, and having babies. I guess I am not the norm. I am having a good time and I know I am where God wants me. I do hope he has planned a time for me to do those things in the near future.

I don't know what I am going to do on my birthday. I hope it will be something fun. In college, birthdays were grand events. My roommates and I always went out of our way to make eachother's birthdays super fun and very special. One birthday involved me being kidnapped and taken while blindfolded into a bowling alley where most of my friends were waiting. Another time my friends devised a giant video scavenger hunt that had to do with things I like. The players had to find a mullet, for example.

Last year was my worst birthday ever. My grandma died two days before. I was supposed to be on a Young Life retreat on my birthday but instead I was at a funeral home in Arkansas. Not ideal to say the least. The visitation was on my actual birthday and we did nothing that felt like my birthday at all. The only birthday-like event was when my brother put some matches in a bundt cake brought for my Grandma's funeral and the family sang a weak Happy Birthday. The bundt cake gave several of us, including me food poisoning so I spent the next day feeling queasy and I even threw up. No fun at all.

I did get a bunch of phone calls and text messages from friends, which meant so much to me. My friend, Katie H called me. I was very surprised since I don't even know when her birthday is. The best part of my birthday last year was at my grandma's viewing. I was sitting in the room next to the room with the open casket, trying not to look at it. I heard an old lady across the room talking about how she wanted to meet Liz. She came over and said that she had a granddaughter around my age and that she and my grandma would talk about their granddaughters a lot. She said that my grandma was so proud of me and that I was a missionary. That comment meant more to me than a million presents or elaborate birthday celebrations. This was in the midst of a confusing time for me as I was contemplating returning here to YWAM Maui. Thanks Grandma.

Washing a fellow Texan's feet

It's been a little while since I last wrote. This was the students' first week here. They have been super-busy and so have we. We had a mini-crisis on Tuesday morning when the DTS leader wanted to change the date of Love Feast. Love Feast is when the students come back from their two-night camping trip. They sleep outside under tarps, can't change clothes and don't wear deodorant. They only get to eat oatmeal and Ramen. Then when the students cannot take anymore, we bring them to Love Feast. The staff deccorates this church and dresses up nice. We cook all this good food and have a fancy dinner. Then we wash the students' grimey feet. It is a great feeling for the students and really symbolizes how Christ's love cleanses us.

There is so much that goes into this so the DTS director calling the day of to try to change it, is crazy. People were flipping out. We ended up keeping it as scheduled but this was only after several staff members resorted to tears. In the end, it turned out great! I washed a girl named Dinah's feet who is from Dallas. I made sure I got the Texan.

This weekend Amy and I worked out a lot. We are trying to be dilligent. We weren't so good during the week because I kept feeling sick. I got a migraine and my lymph nodes in my armpits are swollen. This means I have some sort of infection but my only real symptoms seem to be the fact that I have been irritable and borderline bitchy. Fun times for my housemates. Amy and I have also watched a lot of Lost. Man, that is a good show. We even downloaded the first ten episodes of season two so we could catch up. It's just so good and suspenseful.

Amy is having a hard time. She has been dating a guy from Canada and they were really serious. Now, being long-distance has taken its toll on him and they have broken up. This is not a fun time for Amy since she still loves him. There is still a chance they may get back together later in life but that is a hard place to be in. I know from experience. I think this means she and I will be working out even more. When I come home in March, I will be so buff, that is if I can resist YWAM's overabundance of baked goods.

Today I went to the church I will be taking students to this quarter. It is interesting. The worship team includes a guy with a mullet who is also a millionaire. It is a shame he is married and 20 years older than me. Today there was a guest speaker lady who did a healing service for people. It was a come to the front of the church, lay hands type of thing. I know God can heal like that but it is a little showy for me. I prefer more low-key healings but that is just a comfort zone issue. My students were a bit weirded out but I heard that this was unusual for this church.

A full day's work

Yesterday was crazy. Part of my new job is to coordinate one-time jobs in the community. People(primarily old ladies) call and want us to help them with tasks. I have been talking to several ladies and I forgot which one wanted us to do what. We were scheduled to help an old lady out yesterday morning. I thought we were supposed to help her clean. I was wrong.

I brought Retha, who is my mission builder and also my friend, Kristy's mom. She is a good cleaner and luckily a strong woman. I realized soon after meeting the old lady, Karen that we would be helping her move from Haiku to Kihei, a 45 minute drive. Retha and I had to load everything in a ten-foot trailer. We made to hair-raising trips across the island with a top-heavy trailer full of Karen's belongings. Karen was a crazy driver and being in a ten-foot moving truck did not help matters much. It also did not help that I was not sitting safely in a seat with a seatbelt but on a bucket in between the two front seats. Karen had a dangerous habit of stopping at the last minute and often scaring me into thinking she might not stop at all. I have never prayed that much during a car ride. Thank God I emerged from the journey alive.

The task took all day which I had not known nor told Retha. I felt bad for dragging her along on my exploits but I could not have done it alone. After our first trip, Karen treated us to lunch at a diner. Our order got mixed up and took way longer than it should have. Karen freaked out and yelled at our waitress. She threatened to walk out without paying for our drinks if we didn't get a hefty discount. It was so embarrasing and I felt sorry for our waitress. Luckily she ended up staying and not walking out. Retha and I did not know what to do. So awkward!

We carried so much crap and much of it had to go upstairs at Karen's new place. Retha and I carried a bed, desk, glass-top table as well as an endless amount of boxes. I almost lost it several times. It was pouring down rain at one point as we loaded furniture onto the truck.

I was so excited to see this tedious day come to an end. She gave us a donation of $20 each which amounts to about $3 an hour for the eight hours of manual labor. I almost screamed! The money is not even for me and I am giving it to the housing fund but this paltry sum for a full day's work was hard to take. My ankle hurt and I am getting sick, evidenced by the swollen lymph nodes in my armpits. Ugh! What a crazy day!

We had some decent talks about YWAM and what we do but I fear my mood as too sour at the end. She was an astrology-loving new ager who is in some sort of dance group that dances to songs of various religions. I hope we made a good impression on her because that experience wa a lot like Hell.

The students have arrived

Things have been super-busy here the last few days. Students began arriving on Thursday and continue to arrive today. Last night was our opening ceremony. This is where we welcome the students and give them leis. We as staff were supposed to arrive early to pray and help set up. I was just about walk in the door of the chapel when one of the DTS staff told me I needed to pick up a student from the airport. Apparently he had slipped through the cracks and had been left at the airport for an hour thus far. The DTS staff was busy with opening night bisnass, so the task was left to me.

I hopped in our of our terribly tacky big green vans and headed to the airport. All I had was a name and a picture. I searched a bit and finally found Graham. He had had a rough day. It was 7pm and he had not eaten since 10am. He had waited in the airport for an hour, his luggage was lost, he had had to sprint to make one of his flights. Needless to say, he was not in the best mood.

When we got back to the base, someone had parked in the van's spot so we had to drive up the hill to one of our other houses and walk down. Luckily Graham didn't have any luggage. I showed him his room and gave him som Count Chocula cereal in a ziploc bag to go. Then we headed into the opening ceremony an hour late. Right when we came in, everyone exclaimed that he must be Graham. They were in the middle of announcing all the students' names and I guess they had already come to his. I think the whole experience was quite overwhelming for the guy.

After this we had refreshments and I tried to learn the names of more students. I like to aggressively get to know them in this first awkward stage when they are not friends with eachother yet. It is pretty amusing since they are all so painfully insecure at first. I also played my favorite group game- "Blame-shifting Butt Grab." I grab someone's butt and then scamper away to make it look like it was the unlucky person behind them that did it. It is a good game. I only did it to the people I knew and not the students I had not even met.

Now the students are on EXODUS- this two-day bonding wilderness time. Amy and I are picking up two students from the airport later today and dropping them off unwittingly at the campsite. Suckers!

Hookin' Em' In Hawaii

I had been waiting for this moment for a long time. Ever since I found out that the Longhorns would be playing for the National Championship, I have been antsy about watching it. I figured out ahead of time that the tv at my house simply would not do. It was not okay to watch such a crucial game through a snowy hazy reception. I decided to watch the game at a coffeeshop with a big flat screen tv. I watched it there until the last five minutes when a worker who clearly was not a sports fan, made me leave. It ended up being good because I briskly walked to a nearby bar and watched the game in a roomful of fans evenly representing the two teams.

That was the best football game I have ever seen! Oh my gosh! It was so back and forth with a last minute win by my team. I really could not have asked for a better game! It did make me seriously homesick for Austin and all my fellow Longhorn friends. My friends here are not into college football and think my love of it is an odd quirk. I made sure to inform them all of our win and played a can opener that plays the Eyes of Texas over and over again while reminding them of our win. They still don't care that much but I sure do!!!!!!!

This was a good morale booster as I have been feeling a bit down lately. I just miss people and places from home. I think it is some sort of post-holiday blues. I don't know. This definitely improved my mood. Go Longhorns! Man, I am just so excited!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hooray for Fireworks!

I did not want to sit around the house on New Year's like a loser. Sorry those of you who chose to spend the end of 2005 that way. I didn't do anything for Halloween and I was not going to spend another holiday sitting around wishing I was doing something festive. Amy did not want to go out because she was wary of the possible drunk drivers after being hit by one last year. I felt bad leaving her alone since we do pretty much everything together lately but I could not bear the thought of staying home.

Gena is housesitting for a family and has full access to their minivan. Ten of us piled into the minivan and set off toward the other side of the island where fireworks were rumored to be found. First we stopped off at a youth group gathering that one of our guys was connected to. I felt pretty awkward being there since I did not know the kids or feel compelled to get to know them for this one-time meeting. I did participate in a weird game where everyone is in a circle holding ropes between each person. There is a trashcan in the middle and the idea is that the people in the circle whip eachother around and try to force a player to touch the trashcan. There is a lot of shimmying, flopping around, and crazy manuevering. It was pretty funny to watch. I was not a very good player with the residual ankle issue. It is frustrating to not be able to play sports even weird ones with circles and trash cans. I did snag some of their food, though. There were also a bunch of fireworks for the kids to play with. This would not be happening with my high school youth group.

After hanging out with high schoolers, we headed to Wailea, a really fancy part of the island. We walked for a long time along the coast and found a great spot to watch the fireworks. We walked out onto the reef which was about 30 feet above the ocean. The waves were really big and powerful, which is unusual for that part of the island. The people we were with had brought little fireworks and were lighting them and tossing them into the ocean. They actually continue to spark in the water and it looks really cool.

The fireworks started and were so close to us. I had never seen fireworks this close. It was like going to the movies and having to sit on the front row. You could barely see it all at once. The fireworks were definitely not the best I had ever seen but the setting was positively ideal. The only thing that would have made it better was if I had been there with a boyfriend or husband. It was cool and I am very glad I did not stay home.

Adventures in Hitchhiking

The last day of 2005 was pretty fun. Amy and I decided to hitch across the island to Kaanapali. This is the tourist area where we like to go pool hopping. (Tanning and swimming at nice hotels, trying not to get caught.)

We got picked up very quickly for each leg of our adventure. The rides were very interesting.
Ride #1: We wanted to go to Costco and we got picked up by a guy in an old ghetto BMW. He was also planning on going to Costco so it was perfect. Midway through the ride, we learned that he had just had two Bloody Mary's before we got in the car with him. Lovely. There was only one point where I feared for my life. Then we got to the Costco parking lot and he seemed to want to hang out with us but we ran ahead.

Ride #2: We got picked up by some guys in a pickup truck. The bed of the truck was completely filled with stuff but we told them we could make room. Amy ended up sitting precariously on top of a cooler holding onto bungee cords for dear life. I tried to hold her down as well. I was sitting on the tailgate (it had a guard thing on the back) and on top of some pears. There was also a spearfishing spear, bottles of water, four surfboards and who knows what else in the bed of the truck. Midway through our winding ride we smelled the strong scent of weed coming from the cab. Neat.

Ride #3: Our last ride on the way to Kaanapali was an odd tourist guy. Usually tourists do not pick up hitchhikers. This guy had just driven around the island by himself and was going to meet some "friends." He had that child molester vibe complete with the standard issue handle-bar mustache. He talked really quietly. I kept watching his hand to make sure he didn't try any funny business with Amy, who was unfortunately close to him in the front passenger seat. He tried to come with us to see the Hyatt pool but we ran off as he was trying to bargain with the valet guy.

We had fun sunning ourselves and pretending to be wealthy tourists. Then it was time to go home and we again kept getting picked up right away by strange people.

Ride #4:We got picked up by this woman who seemed familiar. Amy figured out that it was our waitress from Bubba Gump's a week ago. Amy even remembered that the girl used to live in Hana and went to school in Buffalo. The girl was extremely talkative but cool so it was a good ride.

Ride #5:The bulk of our journey home was in the car with some college-age guys. They were driving a nice SUV. They seemed nice in a non-creepy way. They played some quality music like Ludacris. They were very hospitable and offered us a beer. That did not bother me though I did decline the offer. The thing that did bother me was that halfway through the ride, the driver took a sip of a beer that had been previously hidden from view. Awesome.

Ride#6: We were only 4 miles from home when we began ride #6. This middle-aged guy and his son picked us up in their two-door coupe. We crawled in the back to find the messiest back seat I have ever sat in. There was trash everywhere and old rice on the seat where I was to sit. Score! I had no choice but to sit on the old squishy rice. Amy just laughed at me. She found her own treat next to her seat- half of a cheeseburger-rock hard.

So, there were some sketchy moments during our hitching adventure but we made it safe and sound and had a good time. I have been thinking about getting my car fixed. I am going to look into price stuff soon.