At the Dole Plantation, we spotted this little green lizard (an anole, I believe).
It froze on this leaf and I got distracted by a rooster, only to look back and find...
...it turned brown on me! Ah I wish I had noticed/caught it, but I had no idea it could morph like that.
In retrospect, I can see that it was already starting to turn brown in the middle picture. Alas, I figured it was just a green lizard so I never thought to watch it so closely.
Today I got around to learning how to surf after talking about it for the last 10 years. Wow, how did that happen?! Time sure does go by fast. Luckily, there are still plenty of years left for me to continue to try surfing. As for this first try, I joined two other girls for a group lesson in the morning. Panda stayed in shore to watch and take pictures for me.
It was extremely busy at Waikiki Beach, but Erik our instructor showed us the “sidewalk” that you paddle up, which is sort of a safe zone to the right of most of the surfing action. If you head up that channel, it’s pretty safe. Once you get far enough in (there were visual cues for us to line up to make sure we were positioned correctly), you’d wait in the “parking lot,” staying aware of your surroundings so you don’t run into anyone who may be coming in on a swell. When the coast was clear, we’d paddle towards Erik and he’d send us off on a wave.
We had practiced how to get up on the board back in the shop, ensuring we could keep a strong stance and maintain our balance. While the sensation of this force pushing you from underneath and behind was strange, it was relatively easy to get up and not flail around.
My first wave was a short ride and as I tried to get back on my hands and knees for greater stability, I fell over into the water. The second attempt wasn’t much better – my timing was a bit off. But by the third try, I was able to catch a wave almost all the way back to shore! On my way back I had one mishap where I wasn’t straight enough heading into a wave so I got turned around right next to a guy surfing. Thankfully, he was an instructor, so he was incredibly skilled at keeping us from colliding. Other than that, I was pretty proud of how well I was able to avoid any accidents, even getting out of the way of a fast-moving outrigger canoe (if you never had one charging at you before, it can be intimidating).
For some reason, my breastbone feels bruised from the experience. At first I thought that it was due to my bathing suit, but I just had a soft string there, no knots or pieces of plastic to dig into the flesh. Long after I got out, it was still hurting too. I thought I’d be more sore since I was feeling it getting out of the water, but I feel good so far. My triceps hadn’t gotten that kind of workout in awhile! I’d expected paddling to be easier than it was since I’m a good swimmer, but boy did I feel weak and inefficient.
Ultimately I’m so glad I finally took a surfing lesson and I can’t wait to try in the California coast sometime. Hopefully next time, Panda will be confident enough to join me.
First official view of a Hawaiian island (for this trip anyway).
First view of Hawaiian civilization!
And here we are, approaching Oahu.
During the landing, we fly by Pearl Harbor.
And also get a glimpse of some jets on Hickam AFB.
A big ALOHA from the airport! Off we go to our vacation adventure.
Tomorrow I head off to Hawaii, and leave behind my cats. So here’s a clip of Missy doing her thing and massaging my childhood blanket…
Also not to be left out, a picture of Molly lounging in one of her favorite spots.
I was walking by Rocket Fizz in Westwood one day when I noticed a gigantic box of Quality Street sitting in the window. I can’t tell you how thrilled I was to find some of my favorite candies from England available in the US! When I saw the price, I was pretty shocked, but the next time I was there I got one because it made me too happy to see them (and get to eat them).
Oh Quality Street, how I love to snack on you. Who can resist your vibrant colors, variety, and delicious chocolate morsels?
In this day and age, idleness is often seen as the enemy. We push forward at breakneck speeds and look down on people who aren’t insanely busy. “Oh, they must be lazy,” we think, passing judgement on their life. It’s pretty crazy when people feel proud that they’re sleep-deprived or brag about the long hours of hard work they put in.
Somehow being overworked and over-stretched is regarded as being more productive. Rather than balancing our lives, work (including schoolwork) tends to take over. I know this feeling – I’ve studied all through the night and stayed way past dinnertime at work. Both of these situations made me feel like I was working “hard enough” and anything less made me question my dedication, drive, or industriousness. If I didn’t work hard enough, I felt like people would judge me.
Now that I am working on my own ventures, I constantly struggle with self-judgement. Am I ever working hard enough? Should I be sleeping less? Should I be more stressed? While I’m at home letting the hours go by as I sit in front of my laptop, others are doing the daily grind. Wake up early, drive to work half asleep, zombie through the morning, grab a quick lunch, struggle through the afternoon, finally call it a day, drive home in rush hour, chomp down some dinner, take care of personal chores, and crash before it’s too late to get a decent night’s sleep.
Meanwhile, here I am sleeping whenever I get tired, waking whenever my body says so, and lounging around all day snacking and spending time online. Am I wasting my days away? Do I need more structure? It’s hard to say. Based on societal norms, yes, I should be busier. But who’s to say that those norms aren’t horribly skewed?
After all, being idle has many benefits:
1. You get a chance to recoup so you can be more, next time
2. It’s better for your creativity and allows space for free-flowing thoughts
3. You finally start to notice the world around you (and hopefully appreciate it too)
People meditate or go on retreats for these very reasons. I really think a certain amount of idleness in our lives can really enhance our quality of life. It’s the whole “stop and smell the roses” concept and it’s good for your health too. Why should a bit of peace in our lives be a coveted gem instead of an accepted norm?
As for me, I’m still looking for a better balance between nothing and too much something. The difficult part is differentiating what is work and what is not. Much of what I do is of personal interest, but enhances my knowledge and ability to improve on the businesses too. It doesn’t feel like work, so I often forget to count it. I’m just fortunate to have this kind of flexibility to adjust my workload if I do find it to be too much or too little. If only the American culture didn’t emphasize work-work-work-stress-work so much. Maybe we’d be a happier bunch.
If a plane saw its own shadow, would it get scared like a groundhog? 😛 I don’t usually catch the shadow of the plane I’m in, but this time the angle was just right.
One day, Blue got really excited and alert. He strained against his leash, trying to get at the window. As it turns out, there was a squirrel out there.
That squirrel was lucky there was a wall of glass between it and Blue, or else it'd be running for its life.
I’m not a “girly girl” and am generally pretty low-maintenance. You’ll usually find me lounging around in soft, loose clothing. I don’t do my hair, makeup, or whatever else most women seem to do ritualistically every morning. I much prefer to get extra sleep than to spend hours primping myself. So, I guess it is because of this that my friends find it particularly shocking when I go out in a dress. I don’t think this is a big deal, but apparently dresses look more dressed up. The real reason I wear dresses is actually due to convenience/laziness.
You see, getting dressed couldn’t possibly be easier than throwing on a dress. Once again, I opt for comfortable ones that are usually soft (sometimes silky too) and loose. I mean, I don’t go around in moo-moos, but I get ones that offer free range of motion. Whenever I need to throw something on and I can’t figure out if I should wear this shirt or those jeans, it’s easy to turn to a dress! After all, it’s only one item to worry about as compared to two and there certainly is no concern about whether it “matches” or whatever. Plus, there is no waistline to constrict you if you eat a little too much. 😉
I’m surprised that dresses are considered fancier than shirts and pants, if only because they offer casual wearing options without the fuss of mixing and matching. I guess part of it is because they are classified as feminine garments and part of it is because they tend to have fancier designs. Still, with a simple black cotton dress that has absolutely no frills, I still get comments and questions about how dressed up I am. When my friends see me in a dress, they can’t help but wonder if there is some sort of special event I am attending.
Well, I’m here to set the record straight. While I do wear dresses to special occasions, usually I just do it because it requires less thinking to throw on a one-piece and walk out the door than to try to figure out which shade of jeans goes with which color/design of shirt. That’s all it is!
Neither of these videos do justice to what it was like to see this bird in person – the first is its piercing chirp (not quite as intimidating as it was) and the second is it bouncing around on cattails (hardly any bouncing appears to be happening). Nonetheless, they give you an idea of my encounter with the creature that is usually perched atop the pavilion in the background, staring down at you.
