Sorry for the D-lay

Yes it's been over a month since my last entry in this blog and I do apologize for not following through with the upkeep. So much has happened in my life since my last entry that it prevented me from updating. A whirlwind trip to Maui, countless nights on Waikiki, hiking, swimming, and seeing more of this island. Here are a few photos from Halloween, at our party on the North Shore at Kona Kyle's. It was madness but pure fun and awesomeness. I had also put some webshots up a long time ago... here's the address for that:http://community.webshots.com/user/meagalomaniac16.

I am excited for my short visit home next weekend, but also terrified because that means my time here is almost up and I'm not sure I'm ready to let all this go forever. I really have found a true aloha'aina, love of the land. Today I'm tired, and sad because I've been thinking about how hard it is going to be to leave here, but all good things must come to an end (why?) and I will be back in NH/Rhode Island just in time to go into shock from the cold and snow, hahaha. Not sure of any fun plans for tonight but I hope we find some. This weekend is going to be brutal studying for a test on Monday, a presentation on Wed, need to start my choreography for my modern dance final, pack to go home, make a powerpoint presentation and write my farewell speech for Miss Rockingham, write two summaries of scientific articles. I really hope to be able to get to go on a hike on Sunday though, and Saturday night is a reggae fest that we are hoping to get to... we don't get those at home for sure ;-)
I'll try to be better about updating...
But Halloween was amazing and the pictures from Waikiki are being developed and will come later. For now, here are the ones from Fri 10/28.
Aloha and Mahalo,
Meagz

Pictures from Thursday(s) and Friday night

These are recent pictures from fun times here on O'ahu... firstly is Liz and Nate (Nene) at Kona Kyle's house on the North Shore, then Nene drinking (he's a lightweight like me, don't believe that picture), then another pic of Nene and Liz before Red Lion last Thursday, next is my home girl roomies Brianna and Meg with Marcus throwin the Shaka and Nene chillin... and then the BLUE roses are from my mommy! She always knows the best way to make me smile and lift my heart :-)

Beware, this entry is long and wild!

So I finally am sitting down to write about this terrific weekend, while I am in between classes on Monday and should probably be studying. But once I get this typed out maybe I will be able to focus better on the work. :-) Here's the account of this craaaaazy weekend (which started on Thursday...)
Thursday: Laura's birthday and the bus stop.
So this has got to be one of my favorite nights of my LIFE with my roommate Liz. I've been a little under the weather lately because of a roller coaster of emotion, but that's not the point of this story. That's just the background of why this night meant so much to me... SO anyhoo, Liz and I decide that tonight is my time to crawl out from under my little black rain cloud and make some memories. So we make plans to get dressed up and go to the Cheesecake Factory for Laura Colgan's 22 birthday. I'm psyched for taquitos and 6-carb cheesecake for me, something and Key Lime cheesecake for Liz, and Raspberry Lemonades for both of us. But then Laura and her friends change plans so we end up going up to her room in the Wainani towers to say happy birthday before we go down there anyway, because the cheesecake and drinks were calling... but then Liz got smart and called them to see what the wait would be for two people. EIGHTY-FIVE minutes was the response we got. YIKES! So that plan was scratched and we decided to go meet Kona Kyle down at Magoos instead. (We didn't go with Laura and her friends because they were going to a friend's house that we didn't know and they were gonna go out on the ocean at night in a boat drinking... we didn't feel like potentially dying or getting seasick either, so we figured Kyle was a much safer way to spend the evening.)
SOOOOO, we walk down through campus to Magoo's. It's PACKED. The bouncer was funny, and for some reason was telling us that he uses Purell like crazy, and I of course had to tell him that he should be careful because that stuff kills the good bacteria too and backfire and make him more suceptible to disease (MAN am I a geek). He was like whoa, I didn't know that and then confessed that he actually just washes himself with pure alcohol... and Liz and I decided that it was time to find Kyle and HOW! hehehehe So we find Kona and decide to get food. We freak out that a medium pizza is $19.99 and the other prices are just as bad. Seeing as it was only 8:30 we decided to ditch Kyle and his buddies for a short time to get subs across the street at Blimpies. This is where the night gets REALLY interesting. After happily enjoying a cheap meal, we discuss our options for the evening. We could A) Go to dollar draft night at Red Lion, but we do that EVERY Thursday B) Go back to Magoo's, but it was SUPER packed, Kyle went somewhere else and drinks would be buko bucks... or possibly at third option?? C) We go next door, by some Absolute Citron, pour it into our Pepsi cups filled with Pink Lemonade from Blimpie's and have an adventure of our own. Of course we are the world's biggest dingbats and go with option C. So we do this and realize now what? We can't go back to the dorm because we can't drink in our apartment even though we are 21 (BOGUS), and we wouldn't be able to bring a drink into Magoo's! So, because we are a couple of ninnies we come up with the brilliant plan of sitting at the bus stop and finishing our drinks there. I'm not kidding! Every other bit of conversation was followed with one of use saying "I can't believe we're doing this..." and a new round of crazy laughter. We sat there for an hour and 15 minutes, laughing and being silly, not causing a single person any problems, not spending a fortune and not getting hit on by nasty men that are at Magoo's. We bring a new meaning to the girls' night out and friends in low places. World's biggest dorks... but it definitely is a testament to our friendship: that we can have a blast together, just being friends and being there for each other, even if we're doing nothing but sitting on a bus stop bench. It was exactly what I needed and I am so grateful to have my Luda during the tough times and the good ones!
But the night was not over yet... it was only 9:45 by the time we couldn't handle drinking the rest... because there wasn't enough pink lemonade to keep the lemon rind taste suppressed... lol. Oh man. Brutal. So then, we head back to Magoo's, almost bursting with hysteria and excitement to go tell Kyle what we jackasses just did... only to find out that he had left because his friends didn't like how crowded it got! Then we spy our roommate Meg Happy running across the street to Red Lion, and we knew we should at least go say hi to O.C., our bouncer buddy there. Halfway there Liz calls Nick, the guy from the Leisure Center to harass him and get him to meet us at the bar, but he has to work in the morning so that didn't work out. Of course when we got to Red Lion we HAD to go inside, because a bunch of our friends were there, and O.C. gave us a break on the cover charge because he loves us. (We're only regulars on Thursday nights because we like to play pool, see friends and stay away from Magoo's... don't worry, we never go to the bar more than one night a week! Side note: We're not turning into huge party-ers, because we are still big nerds and would rather watch movies in our comfy beds than spend money on alcohol... :-) And we are doing work out here too, sometimes at the beach. :-) Don't want you guys to get the wrong impression because all I write about is the antics of going out all the time!)
Sheesh. Sorry about the rambling, but that is how my mind works. You know this! Back to Red Lion. So we go upstairs and meet Chris and Dan who are waiting for the steak they ordered to show up (who orders a steak at a bar?), Meg Happy is playing pool already with some dudes, and our "friend" Jerome lurking at the top of the stairs... haha what a weirdo! Then we get a happy phone call from Kona Kyle, saying he is coming to Red Lion to see us! Yay! So he gets there and we all have fun sitting around talking about the Kaua'i trip we took together and planning for Kyle's party that would be happening the following night, at his house on the North Shore. :-)
The evening ended eventually, with Chris storming out because Meg Happy threw alcohol all over him, Jerome still lurking inside and outside of the bar, Kyle and I watching some wierd tv show about strippers with no sound and deciding that the women were NASTY and there were way better things on tv (although Kyle would have liked it better if the girls were pretty, but these ones were NOT), and then Liz and I started back to the apartmento, fully exhausted and brought Kyle too, because we wouldn't let him ride his moped after drinking and that concluded our crazy Thursday. I understand if you don't want to read anymore... but I promise the next blog about Friday's party, Saturday's recovery day and Sunday's kayaking adventure will be worth it when you're ready to read more! :-)

I love these people!

Clockwise from left: Tyson being goofy, Miko and Liz take a nap after Red Lion, Marcus and Nate snorkeling in Shark's Cove on the North Shore, Marcus lurking in the shallows (he's really not creepy, even though he looks it here! :-P) and then Liz, Miko, and I on the bus to LuLu's.

Kauai Return Trip

KAUA'I!
The girls at Waimea Canyon




No way have I been drinking, even just a little....

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 :-)