Feelin' hot hot hot!

I'm back online... for now. :) Michelle & I have been killing time until it is time to leave. Fortunately (or unfortunately depending on your point of view) this internet cafe is one of the few places that's airconditioned, so we're killing an hour here. We headed over to the Aquarium. It was nice and all, but I find it somewhat sad that Seattle has a better Aquarium than Hawai'i. It took us just about an hour to go through the whole thing. We then headed up to the Tiki Bar & Grill and had a drink (mmm... rum punch!) and some lunch. That killed another hour. Unfortunately, we don't leave until 9:00 tonight. Swimming is a nice idea, but since we've checked out of our hotel room, too hard to clean up afterward. AND my back is still burnt. Although I noticed where my chest got burnt 2 days ago, it is actually starting to tan a little bit! Who knew? (Tan being relative). Oh yeah, and the freckles... good Voltaire! the freckles.

Last day...

and I don't want to leave! There's still so much to do here! So much to see! I guess I'll have to save it and come back another time. Maybe. :) Maybe if tiki-idol helps me out in the love department like he's supposed to (he's probably thinking, Christ, I can only do so much...) I can have my honeymoon here. ;) We just checked out of the hotel. We will be spending the afternoon at the aquarium, since we didn't get to go snorkling. (I think I've been misspelling snorkle this whole time, but pop-up blocker is installed on these computers and so I can't do a spell check.) Then we go back to the hotel, get our luggage and hop our respective planes. In less than 24 hours I'll be back in Seattle... Landing at 8:30 in the morning! That's so early...

I am so completely freckled right now! Michelle took a picture of our arms for comparison purposes. I'm sure she'll post them and you can see exactly how much a white girl I really am. :) See y'all soon! :)

Poor little shoulders

Are dying. They are burnt! They got a little bit burnt on our way to the Polynesian Cultural Center 2 days ago. Today... burnt. Now before y'all lecture me about not wearing sunscreen and all that crap let me say this. I WAS wearing sunscreen. SPF 30 to be exact. SPF 30 Coppertone non sweat waterproof type. I know there are higher SPFs out there, but in reality once you go past 30 the ratio of benefit decreases significantly. So my shoulders are burnt to a crisp. I'm pretty impressed, actually, that I'm not burned much worse. Anyone who knows me personally knows what a white girl I am. I blame it on my Polish ancestry. Or maybe the Germans. Damn Germans! :)

Today we headed out to Hanauma Bay to snorkel. That didn't happen as the lot was full when we got there and they don't let any more people in, so we headed directly to Lanakai Beach. It was breathtaking. We took a ton of pictures. The water was warm. The sand was very fine and there weren't rocks! Yay! (Although at one of the public access points there were rocks and I bruised the crap out of one of my toes. The joint area is purple.) We spent I think 2+ hours just drifting and lounging around in the water. It was so warm and lovely. Honestly, as much as I loved going in the shark cage, this may have been my favorite thing I've done this trip. And it was free. :)

I think I've made a decision to move to Hawai'i now. ;) Halewia was beautiful and the total small town I always think I want to live in. I have a whole romantic notion about that... I'm not really serious, of course, jobs aren't plentiful and housing isn't cheap and if I were to move here, I'd either have to live in Honolulu or outside of Honolulu and do the commute thing and I hate commuting! But it is a nice dream. I have a notebook full of entries about what we've done and all that, that I'll use to post more info. I also will be posting pics once I get back. At least the digital camera pics, otherwise I have an Advantix camera with pics AND 3 waterproof cameras of pics that have to be developed. Damn, I'll be eating top ramen all month long after this! :)

Walk on the ocean

Yesterday was the Polynesian Cultural Center. It was cool. We had a nice Luau. We saw a good show. I'm sure I'll post more after I get home and post pics. Today... was Shark Tour! YAY!

It was sooo cool. I was in the cage with 1/2 sheet of plexi on 2 sides and cage on the bottom and cage on 2 sides. I have never been really good with snorkles but this time it was so easy. I just held on to the cage and put my face in the water. They were so close. Several times they bumped into the cage. And at least once scraped along the side of the cage so close I could touch it, but I didn't. I followed instructions. I saw one of those fish that attach to the sharks' bodies. I also saw tuna who were feeding on the chum the boat guys were throwing in... and for the record both of those guys serious YUM! I got to stay down for 2 sessions because there were only 10 people who wanted to do it and they have room in the cage for 4 people each time. I was in the 2nd group and Captain Mike said 2 of us could do it a 2nd time. Heck yeah! The only bad thing was that as I was getting out, I started to feel sea sick. I hadn't any other time... but for some reason by the end of the 2nd session I was feeling it a little bit. There were a couple of people who got legimitely sick. It is weird, I get motion sick on many things... cars if I try to read... buses the same thing... revolving rides at the fair... but I don't get sea sick. This afternoon I just napped much of it away. Swimming in the ocean (even just really treading with my feet) is hard work! We were supposed to go to Pearl Harbor, but I don't think that's happening as we're shopping and then dinner today and tomorrow is snorkling (maybe) and another beach. While in the cage there was the cutest tiniest fish ever floating right in front of my eyes. It was about as big as the tip of my little finger. It was striped and looked like a tetra. It just kept swimming around me!

(and blogger may rule right now because I'm doing this from an internet cafe and I ran out of time and it shut the window down, but when I logged back in and clicked on recover post, this entire thing was here! YAY! Blogger did something right!)

I'm here!

And it is beautiful! And hot! And Michelle & I are at an internet cafe. I have a bunch more to post, but when I have more time I'll be able to do that. Today we're heading to the Polynesian Cultural Center. I am looking forward to that a lot! We went swimming in the ocean yesterday. I kind of don't love swimming in the ocean. I forgot how much salt water stings the eyes and how gross it is in your mouth. :) But we played in the waves. The only problem was that the ground was very rocky and kind of slimy. Not at all like I expected. I scraped my knee and the bottom of my foot in 2 places. It was exhausting playing in the waves. You get so tired so fast. I flopped back on shore just tired. I also bought a Hawai'ian Tiki statue... for love. :) We'll test him out and see if he works. I've got high hopes. :D

Elvis has left the building...

Ladies & Gentlemen! Don't miss me too much! I am on vacation! See y'all Sunday. :D

Countdown....

Today was the last day of Folklife. As I got to check in there was that same guy from the last 2 days already there and set up with laptop and bags of food. Very weird. He doesn't look homeless, but I can't figure it out. I did my greeter shift and got slightly annoyed. We were at the monorail entrance and got a lot of tourists who were just here for the touristy stuff, not realizing something else was going on. That's not what annoyed me. The entrance was pretty busy. There were 2 of us out there doing the money and programs. Behind the table at the information desk... 4. Like 2 of them couldn't have come out and help us? And part way through the shift one of the info booth guys said we should hold on to 5's and 10's from the contributions so we could make change. Yes, let's add one more thing for us to d over here since we're so damn busy and the 4 of you are just sitting there on your asses. The one guy was an older guy... 'been doing this for 20 years' blah blah blah. He kept insisting on doing things his way even though a - he hadn't been working the greeter booths ever and b - he was wrong. AND he was like an adult learner... just kept telling these sutpidass stories. Blargh.

At lunch there was a random stopper. Y'all know how I feel about them. This one carrying a baby. Seriously, good thing I noticed the back of his baby bjorn because I was seriously tempted to push him.

I spent the afternoon with the kids again. We had a good time. Today I was at a booth where we made dragon masks and lanterns. It was a good time. The son of the woman of the booth cracked me up. I forget sometimes how funny teenagers can be one on one. A gaggle of them is not fun. Yesterday outside the boat booth was this gaggle of teens - I don't think they were homeless - but they were in the way AND they were using craft scissors to cut one of the others' unclean hair. That was gross. Also on the bus today, there was a girl and 2 guys. The girl had fangs, although I'm not sure how they were there. She was sitting with one guy who was obviously her boyfriend and this other guy facing them and whatever. Anyway, they go to get off the bus and she's being led by a leash. This overwhelms another girl on the bus who yells at her about if she likes that. Fang girl affirms. It was very odd.

My final thought for the day - the guy who sells Real Change newspapers should make a vague attempt to remember that I just bought one from him less than 5 minutes ago. It makes me less grumpy with him.

Estoy cansada

I am some kind of tired today! I'm sure I'll sleep like the dead. One more day to get through and then VACATION! YAY!

This morning I was a greeter again. I don't think I want to do that again next year. There was a family of dirty hippy contra dancers helping out this morning. They annoyed me giving me instructions. Yes I set the programs on the contribution box... but there were no people! I'm aware that the people won't be able to put their contribution in the box if the programs are there... but seriously NO PEOPLE! Freaks. Then another guy came by... the greeter guru or whatever. I did not like him at all. He was giving me all sorts of instructions about where to set the fucking buttons. On the contribution box so people can just grab them. I'm not 5 fucker. Please don't speak to me as though I am... Your condesencion is seriously annoying. No excessively unusual folks came in my gate. There was a rather interesting trio of adults with 2 smallish children. The adults dressed all in black, tattooed down arms/legs (at least 2 of them were). The men had long scraggly hair. Aging rockers. One was pushing a stroller of black and silver... very high tech looking actually. Then the son... he looked like a soccer mom's kid. Striped t-shirt and probably blue jeans. The baby in the stoller - and it was a little baby - dressed in pink. It was incongrouous. (Random side note, I'm watching Titanic on NBC - I wasn't kidding that I watch crap movies - and in the drawings that Jack does, they blur out the nipples on the naked pictures... so freaking weird).

At lunch, I went to the Center House again. This is the 2nd day I sat up on the 2nd level eating lunch and the 2nd day I noticed the same gentleman sitting up there at the computer. With at least 2 bags of food/groceries at his feet. He seems to munch on that all day while using Seattle Center House's free wi-fi. Of the odder things he does... pours his soda from a 1 literish bottle into a can. So weird. And kind of creepy.

The afternoon was spent making wooden boats in the children's section. It was so fun! I met some very nice people who work at or volunteer for the center of wooden boats. The kids were so cute making their little wooden boats, and I too am now a proud owner of a little wooden boat. I think next year, I'm not doing 6 shifts again. It's just too exhausting and far too killer on my feet. The heel problem I've been having for awhile now, is much more painful after a day like today.

It doesn't bode well

For the day that I flipped my hair over to spray in some leave in conditioner and instead sprayed sunscreen lotion through it.

J'ai mal du tete. :(

I'd like you to notice the time of this post and realize the significance of it. It is 1:40 in the morning! I have a bit of a headache. I spent 16 hours... HOURS at the Seattle Center today. I got there at 9:30 to check in for my volunteering shifts. And just left. I'll get to the reason why in a moment... :)

This morning's shift as a greeter was kind of fun. I like being chipper. :) Plenty of dirty hippies coming in. Plenty of normal families or people like my parents who aren't quite dirty hippies because they're Republican but they certainly have dirty hippy tendencies. (Please disregard any spelling errors. It's very late and I'm fairly tired but I want to get this all down before I go to bed. :) ) Most horrifying thing I saw... a woman in tight white outfit. TIGHT WHITE OUTFIT. The shirt was kind of cropped and a roll of flab poked out. The skirt also psychotically tight, showed off quite a bit of ass. It was cut weirdly but barely covered ass cheeks. That's not the worst part of the outfit... It gets worse. Written across tits in airbrush script of pink/purple/blue... Pussy Cat. Ok tacky as all hell... But then she turned around. Joanne's 2nd biggest pet peeve? Words on asses. Yup, across ass in same airbrush script of pink/purple/blue Pussy Cat. Sigh. So awful. The sign on our boxes says 5 dollar donation but a lot of people seemed to feel that they HAD to donate. I don't like that misinterpreted pressure. They also want us to ask people to donate but I ain't having that.

At 1:00 that shift was done and I went off in search of food. Nothing tempted me so I ended up in the Seattle Center eating normal food. Fair food just doesn't do it for me anymore. I tried Fair Food for dinner - somethign Kenyan - but I didn't like it so I ended up in the Center anyway.

My afternoon shift was spent making beaded bracelets and necklaces and rings with little kids. It was fun but kind of not a lot to do. And it was hot as hell out there! At least I was in the shade. I also wore my cute little blue tank top that is cut fairly low in front and denim capris. Fortunately (or unfortunately depending on your view of this hair style) my hair was in braids.

So now to why it is 1:30 and I'm just getting home. I went to see workcrush's band again. I did. I got done with my shift at 6:00 and poked around the festival until 9:00. Then I went up to the EMP's Liquid Lounge. I love the Liquid Lounge! There's no smoking in there and it is a fairly small and intimate setting. Somehow workcrush's band always plays last. The first band went on at 10:00, I almost gave up all workcrush fantasies in favor of bass player for this other band, YUM! (and totally my professed type as opposed to the type I usually end up dating - and the type workcrush is) Then I heard one woman introduce another to a 3rd woman as bass player's wife. So now we're back to workcrush. I think he saw me. I can't imagine how he didn't. I thought he saw me and I waved but he didn't wave or anything so maybe not. I dunno. But damn he is sexy when he is playing. Their lead singer is also fairly sexy. Unfortunately my liquid courage did not help me go up to him after the show to talk to him. In fact I slipped out fairly quickly. I was hoping to catch a bus, but I wasn't sure what the times were. Since I wasn't sure what time I would let out, I didn't write down all the possibilities figuring that the times would be posted on the bus stops. Apparently they stop listing times that happen after 10ish. :( Oh and the first band was great. The 2nd band sucked big time. They said this would be the last time they were playing together for awhile, thank goodness for that. And then workcrush's band ruled! :) Sigh. I need to find a nice Hawai'ian fling to take my mind off of workcrush.

Now I MUST go to bed. Two more volunteer days before Vacation. I can hardly wait!

It's wrong and I admit it...

But I'm so glad it is going to be all rainy and gross here in Seattle while I'm in Hawai'i. :) Although I actually like the rain and wouldn't necessarily mind it in place of oppressive heat (like yesterday).

Also I'm watching Control Freak on MTV2. This is kind of cool. I can go to MTV2 and vote for which of 3 videos they're offering up. So far every video I've wanted (and voted for) has been the one to watch. Apparently there are no R&B fans up at this hour of the morning... none of them have won.

Old Navy's commercials are innately wrong and annoying. I hate Superfreak to begin with, but to have it attached to a skirt commercial? Ew.

Crikey, I've got to shower so I can catch the bus!

Friday evening...

We got out of work early. Horray! I went and got a mani/pedi. Horray Horray! Toes are a dark purple and the nails are a metallic silvery with a hint of purple. In the bottle it was more purple, but on my nails more silvery. That's okay they look good to me! :) And I think this is the first time in my maybe 4 manicure history that I didn't fuck up the nails right off the bat. I'm so proud.

This weekend is the Northwest Folklife Festival. If you're feeling like stalking, I'll be at gates in the morning Sat, Sun & Mon and in the kids' areas in the afternoon each day. :D Hopefully I'll survive the heat.

After that... V-A-C-A-T-I-O-N!!! God I can't wait!

Houston we have confirmation!

I had to call the shark people but I got my confirmation that Michelle & I are indeed on the boat June 2 at 8:30 AM for our shark encounter! YAYAYAYAY! Now I just hope we get directions on how to get there in the email confirmation. I have also booked us for our Polynesian Cultural Center trip and Luau. Pieces are falling into place quite nicely!

I can't hardly wait any longer!

Where is my confirmation from the shark boat people?! I WANT IT! NOW!!

My final thoughts on Star Wars....and other stuff...

And I swear I'm done bitching about it.

I am not a film snob. I freely admit I like crap movies. I love Gone in 60 Seconds (which I know Michelle finds appalling.). I loved both Charlie's Angels movies. I love Disney movies. I liked 50 First Dates. I even liked the first 2 movies of the prequels. I usually do not like art films and I totally wasn't expecting some great classic of cinema. I just wasn't expecting to walk out of that movie thinking that's the worst thing I've seen since Braveheart. And I HATED Braveheart. I would've walked out of that movie if I hadn't been living in Alaska at the time and my ride was still watching the movie... and that would've meant walking home since I think the busses stopped running after a certain hour of the night.

Other stuff unrelated:

Tonight was our 2nd to the last meeting before we go camping. We needed to do a schedule and figure out what we were doing for food etc. We also needed to practice our ceremony. Only 3 kids showed up. Sigh. We got a lot of planning done, though because with only 3 there's only easy agreement. Michelle had a great suggestion to make the yucky part of the meeting (planning) more palatable. We made s'mores in the office. We used the toaster oven. The kids loved it and it made them happy. Because we got done with everything so fast, we also got to try out our solar print paper. My coworker had suggested rinsing with Hydrogen Peroxide. Here's what I learned the hard way (luckily we tried it on my solar print before we tried it on the girls' solar print.) rinse with water first THEN we could do the hydrogen peroxide. The kids thought they were cool so I'm excited to say we will do them camping. My next two weeks will be BUSY! But in a good way, then everything is done and I'll be able to relax. The only thing left for me to do would be to work on planning for the Paint Out for August.

Am I turning into Joanne's dad?

I just cooked this frozen chicken and vegetables thing. It is not even remotely appealing to me now, but I feel wasteful throwing out the whole family-sized dish of it so I might eat it even though I don't want to.

Updated:
I didn't eat it. I made a cheese dog instead.

I learned from the best...

And that would be Michelle. FYI. Here's our schedule for vacay! VACAY! In case you want to be a stalker or something. :) And I put it together! With input of course. :)

Sunday - Michelle arrives and check into hotel. She goes to beach.
Monday - She's still there alone. She goes to beach.
Tuesday - Intrepid explorer arrives. They go to beach together.
Wednesday - Polynesian Cultural Center with Luau.
Thursday - (Wait for it...) Shark Encounter! (yay!) and then Pearl Harbor in the afternoon.
Friday - Hanamua Bay for snorkling and Lanikai beach for pristine white secluded Hawiian beach.
Saturday - Beach in the AM. Check out of hotel. Shopping in afternoon.
Saturday Night - Fly home. :(
Sunday - Collapse in a fit of excessive tiredness from busy yet totally fun vacation! And maybe do laundry.

Why Gluten Free

Mishka asked in a comment why do I eat gluten free. I don't know that I've ever really addressed it in this forum. Originally when I started this blog it was a way for friends far away to keep up. Few of them actually read it - but they all knew. :) Anyway, about 9 years ago, I was diagnosed with Dermatitis Herpetiformis. It is a condition related to Celiac Disease characterized by an intolerance to wheat, rye, oats (maybe) and barley. Dermatitis Herpetiformis is not related to Herpes. Herpetiformis means lizard skin, which is what happens when/if I eat wheat. My skin breaks out into these very painful, very itchy blisters that burn when scratched open. If you were to look closely at my skin today, you could see scarring on both arms and hands from the condition.

It was so bad when I was living in Alaska before I was diagnosed that I couldn't sleep at night and often thought about burning my skin with something hot just to stop the blisters. (Damn at 3 AM when you haven't slept fully in days because you burn and itch so bad you'll do ANYTHING to stop the pain). It didn't help that the doctor at the poor person clinic I was going to at the time had no idea. She first treated me for Scabies. It wasn't. She recommended Aveeno oatmeal baths. Did you see the part about oatmeal not being on the diet? I was essentially making it worse. Then she sent me to a dermatologist. She biopsied 2 of the blisters and found out that was what it was.

Of course, then what to do? I immediately stopped all wheat consumption and bought 2 cookbooks that were awesome. The first was the Gluten Free Gourmet by Bette Hagman and Against the Grain by Jax Peters Lowell. Of the 2 I'd recommend Against the Grain first, just becuse Gluten Free Gourmet is strictly a cook book, Against the Grain is about really dealing with it in public. I was treated appallingly in public because of the rash. I worked at a bookstore at the time and often parents would say can my kid touch you or can you breathe on them because the mistakenly thought I had chicken pox. I went to KFC with my friends Kate & Katie and the waitress (yeah Fairbanks' KFC had waitstaff, I know that's weird) bluntly asked me first what my problem was without even taking our order. Then she would go out of her way to avoid me. (Seriously, walking in a circle so that she didn't walk near the leper.) I was embarrassed but Kate & Katie were incensed. I believe they sent a complaint card to the home office. I tried a bunch of Gluten Free products. There weren't a lot out there like there is now. The bread was gross. I learned to live on rice cakes and rice dishes.

Eventully, I got health insurance and was prescribed Dapsone. Dapsone keeps the rash at bay. Even going GF, I never fully stopped getting the rash. The intensity was much less and it was much more survivable. But because it is a skin issue, it takes longer for the body to react to a food because it has to go through the whole digestive system etc. Conversely, it takes longer for something to clear up. There're a lot more foods now that are GF and aren't gross. (A descriptor I use frequently). And every year, I forget a little more what good food used to taste like. :)

So there you have it, the entire why I don't eat gluten. :)

I want my 2 and a half hours back!

I wanted to love the movie, I really really did. I saw all the other 5. I remember as a child seeing the '1st' one over and over on TV. We (my friend from elementary school, Joanne M - I was Joanne H) had most of the lines memorized at one point. I can honestly say I hated it.

Warning: I'm spoiling much of the movie so if you haven't seen it stop reading!

We'll start with why does George hate women? Although that was the quickest pregnancy in the history of mankind, I guess we were to infer that 9 or so months had passed during this period. I say the guy is a complete mysoginistic asshole seeing as how a woman brought all this about essentially. He was afraid of losing the woman he loved so he would do anything to save her. Matthew chooses to believe that the images of her dying were planted in Anakin's head just to mess with him and gain control. Also he (George) takes a formerly strong female character and gives her the most trite crap dialogue and weakens her to a shell of a woman. Jeebus! She was painful to watch.

Which brings me to really painful to watch. I knew the kids died. I read that ahead of time, but actually seeing little moppet ask what to do and then seeing Anakin take out his light saber made my heart hurt.

The writing was shite. George cannot write a love story to save his life. The direction was shite. Those are some good actors he had, yet... they left me wanting. The action was pretty good. I totally didn't get the robot general and why he was coughing. Also why did the robots run as though in fear. They don't fear. That's the whole point. I liked the wookies but thought they were gratuitous. And finally, was I the only one who thought of Mr. Garrison's weird invention on some old South Park episode when the general climbed into his circular transporter when he and Obie Wan were fighting on that outer system.

Also... the 2 moles on Ewan McGregor's forehead totally distracted me. And the gentleman behind me was breathing so loudly. He would inhale and then his exhale would have that little pause like I don't even know how to describe it. Maybe like he had heartburn and was burping with his mouth shut. I don't know but that too was distracting. Of course it did help take away from the shite writing. At least now that he's done with the movies, we won't be subjected to this crap again.

Swimming with the fishes...

Michelle & I are going to Hawai'i as y'all are aware. I've been looking at different activities to do when there. One of the things we're going to do... a shark tour! There's a boat tour and an option to go in a shark cage. I so want to do it! I think it would be so amazingly cool and exciting! But I'm a little tiny bit scared too. But it would be the opportunity of a lifetime! I think I'm going to do it. Now I just have to rearrange the schedule to allow for this adventure.