Guys' Night Out

Ok. So Liz Wagner is insane and hilarious. Miko is frightfully funny and slightly mad too. And now I have started to come to terms with my own kookiness, realizing that I really have gone over the deep end. For those of you that know me, I'm pretty sure you've been aware of this over the years and I am grateful you stayed my friend. Thanks for befriending a PSYCHO. So, what on earth would make me spout about my madness? LAST NIGHT.
We've officially blown a gasket, my rooms and I. Last night we went down to Waikiki Beach, dressed like men (no alcohol involved in the evening whatsoever). Pretending to be men. With two bonified men, who were playing along and pretending we were men. And then it happened... four GUYS at the beach thought we really WERE men. Ahhhhhhhh! Disturbing! I'm not kidding either. Being a girl for 21 years, you know when a group of guys fishing go, "How's it goin' guys" there is a definite difference between how they would say it to girls and how they say it to guys. Miko, having been a guy as long as Liz and I have been girls totally called it. We didn't believe it, but he was totally being real: they actually thought we were men. Take a look for yourself:










Please note that the guys' night out was not planned until Liz and I got dressed to go out and realized that in our board shorts and t-shirts we looked like men. So we added hats and decided to go with it. Sweeeeet.
Notice how all the faces Liz and I try to make when we try to "be" men are either faces that are a) pissed off, b) stoned or c) stupid looking. This is what you get when deep down, we will always be girls, and it's rather sad that these are the things we think of when we try to imitate men... albeit I did enjoy a night off of stares, whistles, honks or any various other mindless pursuit of the average caveman. We did get stares, but they were incredulous or skeptical, disturbed or perplexed. But they definitely were not the looks we get as women.
So at the beach, the fun grew exponentially. Miko, Liz and I stopped at "her" hotel, the Sheraton she stayed at before we moved in. We went out on the lanai that they use for weddings to walk toward the water. A huge outdoor stone dance floor, surrounded by flowers and lit up quite romantically was impossible to resist for me, even when I was supposed to be in man-mode. So, looking as absurdly as I did, I began waltzing solo around the dance floor (see below). Miko just laughed and Liz goes "That's my roomie." Having had enough of my being a fool for the time being, we meandered out to the front lobby, where there is a long row of white rocking chairs, and we made a beeline. So by now our new friend Nate (who looks REMARKABLY like Dan Riley) is walking around trying to meet us, and Liz told him to just look for the old men in rocking chairs. Poor Nate had no idea he was meeting us for guys' night out, but he didn't seem to mind. In fact, played right along. Then Liz said she wanted a donut and since we had nothing else to do, I went to the front desk and asked where the nearest donut shop was. With a strange look, I was told there was one directly across the street. Upon returning to the ol' men on the porch, we discovered the GIANT Da Kine Donut Shop sign that we somehow managed to miss... so Liz got her donut and I think the guy knew she was not a man because he gave her one free. :-P
Then the highlight of my night came with our finally going swimming. The water was magic, the perfect temperature. The coral bit all of our feet but Miko kept finding a sandy spot for us. So much fun in the perfect water just floating around, each of us knowing how very lucky we are to be here.
And when we got out, Miko decided to look like ET, so we had to take a picture, and then he didn't want to be ET alone, so I joined him, but I just look like a weird version of a nun.


Scratch that. Stay tuned for tonight's festivities, as all the NSE students head to Red Lion. WORD.

Tiki's

The crew at Tiki's... I love having beautiful friends!

This Sunday night we all dolled up and went downtown to Waikiki to the block party. A ten dollar cover (which we won't being doing again UGH) got us into three bars, Tiki's, some other bar I don't know, and Lulu's. Drinks were expensive, and they did a bikini show (we'll skip that next time too), but regardless, a good time was had in the end. A little dancing, a little drama, you know, the usual. Matt was obsessed with getting the candle lit at Tiki's, Julia and Ruth were dance floor fiends, Liz was obsessed with finding french fries and attempting a decent kiss face, I just wanted to not being wearing my hat anymore because it was too hot to wear it, Meg was laughing at all of us all night and performed the wake up chain to all her friends at home, Miko kept going to sleep and then told us hilarious jokes on the way home in the cab. My favorite and Meg's: "What did the Pink Panther say when he stepped on an ant?" "Dead ant, dead ant, dead ant-dead ant-dead ant..." (sound it out to the Pink Panther theme, it's hysterical). Here's some more documentation of that silly evening:

Jeremy's House

So our friends from Red Lion: Jeremy and Matt are really cool guys. Jeremy works at the hospital. And I have no idea what Matt does. But he's cool anyway. Jeremy made Liz, Meg and I this massive faijita dinner that was simply mahvelous, and we played ONE game of darts in the kitchen. Liz and I versus Meg and Jeremy. I have no idea who even won, but all I know was it was the longest game I've ever played, and I finally lost interest and joined Matt watching an entire series of The Simpsons on dvd. Then Liz fell asleep on the carpet. I was busy being distracted by the BIGGEST dvd collection I've ever seen WHICH was in alphabetical order, and we all know how that's right up my alley... and then we woke Liz up and went home. It was a fun evening all around. :-)


Crazy Meag and Jeremy being quite silly

The other crazy Meg with Matt, who
really needs to stop being scary in that picture.
Ok this is better. Phew!
Jeremy attemps the impossible: waking Liz up from her oh-so-comfy spot on the rug. And then he gets us all laughing. The madness. These guys just fit right in with our collective insanity!

The Great Kayak Adventure

L_Dubb and I are fierce kayakers, we even surfed a small break on the way back from the Mokes, the islands we went out to. Every one we went with was also NSE, including Warren, Julia, Stina, Jenny and more!

Our guides are our new best friends... Luke and Nick. We are going to find out where we can go to watch them surf, they are SIIICK. Plus, they don't think we're completely insane (there are many people we meet that don't agree :-P), so we love them as a result. "Did you learn that in 'Nam?" hahahahaha

And here we are swimming by the Mokes, with Oahu behind us. The water is the most gorgeous color and the sand is like powdered sugar, no exaggeration here. The mountains are breathtaking and I am just in awe of the beauty of this new world. We even saw a sea turtle when we were kayaking! Yes!

Beached

Today was exciting because I heard back from Sea Life park about volunteering for them. Right now they have openings in their sea bird rehabilitation clinic, and I'd be ok with working with penguins. Not marine mammals sadly, but any experience with animals will earn me credentials and believe it or not, penguins are highly trainable. They can't fly, but they are more intelligent than most birds I know. I'd even venture to say on a level (dare I say above?) with my duckies.
This weekend was all about the beach, we went to Ala Moana on Sunday and Sandy Beach on Saturday. Check out the crazy shorebreak at Sandy Beach:

Don't worry I won't be surfing/body boarding here... this is one of the highest injury beaches because people get thrown into the sand on their head and, well, you know the rest. To further my point, it's also called Breakneck Beach. Eww.

Below is a great picture of Liz and Miko at Ala Moana, where I got a weeeeee bit sunburned yesterday. A lot of fun and no waves, so you can lay right in the shallows and catch some sun. Hence, the intense redness that resulted upon yours truly.
And here's the prebeach crew: Matt, Meg and silly L_Dubb waiting for the elusive bus that is NEVER on time. Foiled again. Good thing it was worth it! And besides, the blimpie's was sooooo good while we were waiting :-)

Playtime

All I can say is, when these people go out, it's playtime!! Whether it's the block party at LuLu's or Dallah Ballah Thursday at Red Lion, my silly friends here are always responsible for a permanent good mood.