Maui: Days 1 & 2

We had such a smooth day travelling to Maui yesterday! Got up early at the motel near the Oakland airport and took their shuttle over to the airport -- it was pouring and it didn't make me feel very sorry about leaving CA! I'd been nervous about our flights because we were booked on an airline I'd never heard of before -- North American -- but it turned out to be great! Once we found our way past the huge Sun Trips check-in line, we walked right up to the NA counter, then went through security and soon boarded our plane. The flight was uncrowded and we had a whole row (6 seats) to ourselves, and we rented a little digital TV thing so the kids were able to watch "Shark Tale" and "Racing Stripes." Will and I took a nice nap as well. And when we got off the plane and went to the baggage claim, our bags were already waiting for us!

Our rental is yet another crappy GM minivan -- I didn't even know Oldsmobile *made* a minivan! -- but it's getting us around just fine. And after killing several hours with very tired, bored kids (we landed at 10:30 am and couldn't get into our condo till 3, so we hit Costco and KMart, ate lunch at Cool Cat Cafe in Lahaina and shopped at Hilo Hattie's as well), we drove to the Papakea resort where we are staying. The condo is functional other than a kind of scary spiral staircase up to the loft where the kids sleep, but it's all very comfortable and the grounds are just beautiful. Ryan took the kids in the pool while I went grocery shopping and got the condo organized -- then we had our Costco roast chicken for dinner and the kids were in bed early. We watched "Survivor" and "CSI" and then hit the sack. I'm surprised we made it that long, having been up since 5 am Pacific time!

Not surprisingly, we were all up by 5 am Hawaii time this morning. We killed several hours hanging around, eating breakfast and hanging out, and then I made a quick trip to Longs before we packed up a picnic and went over to Airport Beach, where we spent a lot of time last time we were here. We were a little dismayed at how high the tide was and the roughness of the waves compared to last time, but there was a storm fairly recently, and that definitely affected things. For a while, poor Ryan made the kids stay close to shore, convinced he was going to lose one of them in the water. We go through this every time we go to the ocean. Ryan grew up taking all of his vacations at the ocean but never actually swimming into it, and if he had his way, the kids would stand at his sides, holding his hands and not going in past their ankles. This was never going to work since a) these kids like the ocean and b)the waves were crashing so hard on the beach that it was actually safer out further, beyond where they broke. I know it's counter-intuitive, but it's the truth, and it took me a while to convince him, but once I did, it was good. Out in the water was the clincher that I need to go on a diet -- my butt actually functions as a floatation device. That's great when you are floating in the ocean, but since I don't spend all that much of time time floating, I'd like to do something about it. Will work on that when I get home!

Anyway, the beach is great -- except for the sand. That shit gets *everywhere*. It gets in places you might never have thought of! I certainly never anticipated being in a beach rest room, standing in front of my 10YO daughter and encouraging her to spread her personal parts out so I could pour water from a water bottle on them :-/ Poor kid. She seemed to feel a lot better afterward though, so it was worth it. When we returned to the beach, Ryan and Will had also had enough, so we snacked a little, packed up, and headed home to our condo. It was almost noon!

We rinsed off, ate lunch, vegged a bit, then went out to the pool, which is really nice -- warm and with a tile-bottom so your feet dont get chewed up. We were out there maybe an hour, then we came back to the condo. Ryan took the kids down to the putting green they have here for a bit while I napped, then Will and I went out to get pizza and salad for dinner while Ryan watched the Kings defeat Seattle on TV. Now the kids are in bed (Will was sleeping by 6:30 and was in bed by 7:30) and Ryan and I are out on the balcony (I refuse to call it a "lanai" like everyone else around here). I asked him if he wanted to watch a movie but he said he wouldn't make it through one. So I suppose he'll be heading to bed soom, and maybe I will too. In spite of my nap, I'm feeling pretty punchy. We discussed plans for tomorrow and have already decided we will make less of a production of going to the beach tomorrow -- we won't worry about packing a lunch and all, and we'll go early and plan to come back and eat here. Not sure if we'll go back to the same place.

Laundry to fold!

Weird Nights

I've been have night sweats where I wake up drenched, and it sucks. This has been going on for more than a year, only before it was maybe once or twice a month, and now that I'm on medication that's supposed to control this and other hormonal issues, it's happening more like twice a week. Or more. Blech.

Last night, in addition to waking up drenched in my own sweat, I also got a nosebleed. I think it was related to my nose ring -- maybe I was rubbing my nose and the end of it poked me somewhere up in my nasal cavity and made it bleed. All I know is that as I was waking up, I had a vague sense that something was wrong in my nasal area, and the next thing I knew, my one nostril was a faucet and I used tissue after tissue to catch the flow and finally ended up going back to sleep with one wadded up and crammed up my nose. Very lovely. When I woke up, it looked like someone had been murdered on my side of the bed, so I'm washing my sheets. Just what I have time for this morning.

This week I had two dreams where I still lived at 83 Ryegate Place, the home I grew up in. Which naturally takes me back to the question I often have of how and why my dream-brain has gotten stuck, sort of, in my childhood. One of the dreams I had this week was about the hens coming to visit -- only I lived at home with my mom and that's where we all came to stay. It was like Ryan and the kids didn't exist. And sometimes I have dreams where they do definitely exist, and I still live on Ryegate, and they live -- I don't know, it doesn't come up. I've even had dreams where I seem to be in high school and I'm dealing with getting to class on time, whether I have homework or if I can remember the combination to my locker or there's a cute guy I'm all excited about -- but I'm also stressing about finding a babysitter for the kids so I can actually go to school. Very weird. I've always wondered why my dreams are still stuck in San Ramon. Maybe because I still "experience myself" as a teenager, as my therapist talked about? I don't know. Still curious though.

Exercise

I've been working my ass off (would that I meant that literally!) exercising this week, even though my allergies are killing me. Monday, I walked on the treadmill for 45 minutes and lifted weights (abs and upper body). Tuesday, 45 minutes on the elliptical trainer and weight lifting (abs and lower body). Yesterday I ran three miles and did abs, and today I took an hour-long stability ball class that just about killed me. During the last 15 minutes, the teacher had us in constant motion to get our heartrates up, so I even got some cardio in.

Tomorrow is a day off. We're skipping the gym and going shopping :-)

The Dog

Buster is surprisingly clever sometimes, but this day wasn't one of those times. He could tell I was going to be going out soon and didn't want me to find him and put him in his crate.

And More

12. Cold Blooded by Carlton Smith
13. The Ladies of Missalonghi by Colleen McCullough (BC, *)

Currently working on two more -- one parenting-type book that will probably take a while to slog through, and also a book about a 70s commune for one of my book clubs.