It is Christmas Time Again...Only This Time it is in Hawaii

Hey so I know I have been slacking off and haven't posted anything in like a month. Ya, my bad. Hopefully this one will make up for it all.

Ok well this past month actually has been pretty eventful. So my last post about the beginning of the two weeks with Gram and Pop. Well that week ended off really well. It was so fun to actually get to see them again and I can't wait to see them again in like two more weeks. Ya so I don't remember where I left off on my adventure with them but I think the biggest thing that happened towards the end of the stay with them was that we went down to the swap meet. Man I don't think I have ever blown through a paycheck so fast in my life. But on the bright side of the situation I did get pretty much all of my Christmas shopping done while I was down there. Like it was so much fun. I think I came back from there with like ten bags of stuff filling them up all the way. Ya I think that kinda wraps up the trip with them; well besides getting a load of stuff when they left too. That was always fun to get and I think I got left with enough food for a couple meals even.

So really the next big event of November was probably Harry Potter. I was so pumped to get to go see it! I really wanted to go to the midnight premier they had at the Palms, but ya that is a funny story. So it was like a week and a half till the movie came out and I ride down to the theater early to hopefully get some tickets, and I knew they still had some because my friend had bought some the day before. Ok so I ride down there and when I get there, the box office is closed till four. Ok well I had work at that same time so I was like ya I will just come by after work and I will pick some up. Ok so I go to work, ride back, go in to buy my tickets and this is the response I get: "I'm sorry but we just sold out of our midnight tickets 15 minutes ago. If you come back on that Friday though I will open up the box office early for you and you can swing by and grab your tickets then." Ok fine I'll do that. Ok so that Friday comes around (now mind you I am on a tight schedule at this point in time because of another big thing) and I ride over early like he told me to, ya box office is still closed. So after I go do my other thing I come back and I am finally able to pick up my tickets for Harry Potter. Ok so for Friday night they had said they were having like this big special party with like all the leftover prizes and stuff and they were going to be giving them away to anyone who came. Now it was going to cost an extra buck and a half but I was like, "Hey if I am going to win something ya why not?" So i paid for the ticket that night and when I got there, well you had to buy five dollars in concessions products to even get one raffle ticket. Ya I wasted all my money for snacks to buy the special ticket. Overall though I loved the movie that I would even see it again. Oh wait, I have seen it two more times since then.

Ok so the next event which was the one that was happening that same Friday was that President Monson was going to be at the Polynesian Cultural Center. Now me being an excellent stalker that I am planned my whole schedule around his. And actually it worked out for the best. Look at how close I got to be next to him during the Tongan show. Ok well its not working right now so I might have to just upload them another time. But I was really really close. On his way out he even shook my hand and told me I was a "fine looking young man." That's like the prophets way of sayin' you look hot. Or at least that's what I gathered form his spiritual insight. So I followed him and sat next to him in the Tongan show and then sat behind him at the Samoan show and then also to the night show. Ok so when the show was over it was so cool. The entire cast of the show came out on stage and sang "Teach Me to Walk in the Light" to him. It was awesome because even us in the crowd sang along. As he was getting into his car leaving PCC we all sang "We Thank Thee Oh God for a Prophet." It was such a touching experience. Then getting to go to the Laie, Hawaii Temple dedication on that Sunday was amazing as well.

So the next thing that has happened this past month would be Thanksgiving. So my ward had us meet down at the Palms theater at ten in to morning to go watch a movie. I lucked out and got to see Harry Potter for my third time that day. So after then movie we headed over to the Laie Stake Center and had our dinner. It was so good to actually have real food again. And food that is actually worth the money that I paid for the meal. Oh man at dinner that day I was sitting next to my friend from back home, Kelsey McIntire, and she stole the crayons from me and starts drawing. So at first I see her drawing a hand turkey and then it turns into a really good looking turkey and then the next time when I look back, she has a noose around its neck and him dangling from a tree branch with the words "Thanksgiving Sacrifice" under it. It was the most morbidly hilarious thing I have seen since I have been here. So after lunch/dinner I went back to my room and hung out and talked to family and I talked to Sarah. So overall it was a great day.

So really the only thing that has happened since then has been that I have gotten packages with decorations for my room in, talked to my family and Sarah a lot, and I have applied to transfer from being a concessions worker at PCC to being a tour guide at PCC. So I find out the results of my interview on Tuesday so everyone cross your fingers. Also I am getting so excited to go home. 12 days till I board the plane. I have things already laid out of what I want to do. I will let you guys know how my interview went when I find out on Tuesday.

My Adventures With Grammy and Poppy...So Far

About ten days ago my grandparents, Grammy and Poppy, came to visit me all the way over here in Hawaii. When I first got the news that they were coming I was so pumped! Like before they came I had not seen anyone from back home for three and a half months. I was seriously going crazy. Well I got everything prepared for when they got here long before their arrival. I set up for me and Pop to go to a football game, all of us were going to go to the temple open house and also go to the Polynesian Cultural Center for a full day. Along with those all I had planned was to just hang out with them.

So They showed up Friday night after work and I was waiting up front with a couple leis for them. The next day we had planned on going down to Honolulu early and then hanging out at the swap meet, which is a huge flea market that goes around the whole football stadium, till game time. Ya, well when we got down there we found out that there was no swap meet that day. Ya so what are we going to do now. Well Gram suggested we swing by K-mart and pick me up a bike. Hey, works for me. So we went to K-mart and found a nice, brown beach cruiser for only like a hundred bucks. Great deal right there. Well we bought the bike and started to head back up the Kam highway to get back to Kahuku. So the way we did this was we shoved the bike into the back of this tiny Nissan with the seats down and then I had to get nice and friendly with my new bike. Not to comfortable that's for sure. Well the ride back up to Kahuku is about an hour. Well we started to head back up and ya we made it about a mile before I started to get carsick. Not fun. So about 40 minutes into our drive we decide I need a break and so we swung by Cholo's Mexican Grill in Hale'iwa and got some food. They had a tasty steak fajita. Well we got back in the car and made it back to Turtle Bay. Well, on the way to Turtle Bay we swung by campus to drop off the bike. But once we made it to Turtle Bay we dropped everything off, played a game of cribbage, and then went to the football game back down at the stadium we were just at. Well Pop and I made it down there and finally found a parking spot up at an elementary school almost a mile away. But it made a nice walk. So we made it there and I found some great seats. We were six rows above the field on one of the end zones. The game went very well for us. The University of Hawaii Warriors ended up killing the University of Idaho Vandals like 45-10. Great game! Well we made it back home with a few detours and that wrapped up the busy Saturday.

So Sunday was pretty laid back. We went to my ward and afterwords headed over to the condo in Turtle Bay. On the way there though we decided to be rebellious and swing by a few places. We first hit up Ted's Bakery and bought some of the best pie in the world! Chocolate Haupia pie. We then decided to just head out to head out to Hale'iwa and get the best shave ice in the entire world at Matsumoto's. We ate our shave ice and headed back to Kahuku. When we got back we decided to check out the resort and their beach before heading back to the condo. We looked around and went back to the condo. We cooked up some steaks and potatoes and had like the best dinner ever since I have been here. And for dessert, more chocolate haupia pie.

So I really didn't see Gram and Pop again till like Tuesday when we were going to the temple open house. So we went to that and it was amazing! The most beautiful building I have ever seen. So after the open house we went back to their condo until I had to work.

Didn't see them again till Thursday when we went to the PCC. But we met up around noon and went to the park. We hit up a majority of the shows that they had going on and looked around at different stores too. Gram found a quilt half off so she definitely was excited. I was excited because I found a ukulele that I am going to buy on Friday. Overall the day was awesome. We went to the lu'au. It was so different to actually like be the one at the lu'au then the one working at the lu'au. It was so nice though. It was fun to mess around with Yvonne and Rachael at the lu'au. So after a delicious dinner, we went over to the night show. On the way over we went to the marketplace that is located outside the night show. Gram ended up buying a couple pictures and I got a new black sulu for just general use and an ornament for me mom. We made it up to the night show and saw all my co-worker friends there too. We fully enjoyed the night show and headed back home.

The Kane at the lu'au pulling up the pua'a


So the next day I didn't really see Gram and Pop but it is worth a good story. Ok so if you can imagine a day where everything that could go wrong does go wrong, ya that was Friday. Ok so overall it just wasn't the best day because we woke up to lots of rain. Not very fun. But I went to class and all that and you know it just didn't go exactly how I wanted, the the worst stuff happened at work. So I was running late to work so I thought that I would test out my bike and ride to work. Well I made it about a hundred yards from my dorm and the chain falls off. This is in the rain I mind you. Ya so I was running so late I couldn't take it back so I ended up running with my bike all the way to work. Ok so I went to work and started to set everything up and it seemed like it was going to be an alright day.. Well I start to joke around with a couple of my friends there and next thing I know (and yes I know it was all for fun) I have pineapple juice smeared all over my face. It wasn't a bad thing till the next day when I had a hardcore breakout. Ya not fun. Ok so back to work. So work goes alright...until I have one of my least favorite leads picking on me at work. Can I tell you how annoying Rasian is! Like beyond annoying and the fact he is racist and picks on me doesn't help. Ok so not only that but the lu'au is like super busy so I am running all over the place during the lu'au. So we finish up the lu'au and we have to like hard core cleaning that night. So we finish up like an hour of cleaning while being picked on by Rasian while having soap thrown in my face. Ya but it wasn't to bad. The really bad stuff happens after dinner. So I finish my dinner and head on over to the Ohana Lu'au on the other side of the park...in the rain. So Maddison and I make it over there and tear apart all the pineapples and start to head back. Well on the way back to our pray meeting we have it rains extremely hard. So we make it back over to the night show for the meeting and both of us are extremely wet. Well after about 15 minutes of getting ready to leave over to the meeting and having to wait because the rain turns into a monsoon, we make it over there. Well it was still raining extremely hard so the plan is to use my sulu as an umbrella and then run over to the meeting. Well our timing was a little bit off so as one person would run the other would walk and we would switch off back and forth. Well after we make it like a hundred feet I start to run and completely wipe out on the bridge. Well I pull myself back up with some skid marks on my arms and head over to the meeting. Well when I make it back completely soaked t this point, I realize I lost both my PCC ID and my school ID. Ya turns out my school ID is also my room key. Not cool. So I head back out into the rain to go look for it and I can't find it anywhere. So I walk back to the meeting and then head out to work at the night show. Well it looked like it was going to be fine...until we started running at the show. So my job is to run trays of ice cream down to the sellers while at the night show. Well to get there you have to run at full speed down a flight of stairs. Well we are running and my friend is running in front of me. Well I am three stairs above him. Well as we are getting down to the end of the flight a lady pops out in front of him and stops right on the last step. Well he managed to stop right away, but I didn't Now I didn't end up running into anyone but I was like half an inch from running into Jordan. Well we wrapped up night show and we started to clean. I can't even tell you how many times I almost killed myself while cleaning. Well we ended the night and I fixed my bike and I got picked up by Gram and Pop.

Well Saturday was an early day. We all woke up early and headed back down to Aloha Stadium to finally go to the swap meet. We spent about four hours down there, but I got all my Christmas shopping done...well almost all of it. I just have a couple more things to get for someone then I'm done. After the swap meet we went over to Waikiki to go swim on their famous beach. Surprisingly the view wasn't as great as I thought it would be but the water was warm and there was a great view of the sunset.

Skyscraper condo at Waikiki

sunset at Waikiki

Sunday was kinda a loco day but a fun one. We got up early because we were going to go to my ward again. So we all got ready for church, but Gram got sick so we decided that that we would stay and "keep an eye on her" as she rested. Ya Pop and I hung out in the living room watching football. It was so nice to just lay back and relax for a day. When all of us decided that we were ready for an adventure we went over to Ted's again to get more chocolate haupia pie. Well they had sold out of their full pies so we settled with just a slice each. Well we went over to the condo's beach and snorkeled and swam for a little bit before heading back to have another steak and potato dinner with chocolate haupia pie as a dessert.


Well so far those are the adventures with them, and I still have three more days with them.

I Love My Adopted Moms!

So we all have those people in our lives that aren't really family, yet somewhere inside you feel like they are practically family. I love all those sorts of people for sure. The favorite ones I have those are all those women out there that are my "moms." Now I do have quite a few of them and they all have certain things about them that makes them unique and awesome. They all have one thing in common though and that is that they all care about me.

Calie Tomblin from Coeur d'Alene is a great example of an adopted mom. Calie is a great friend of everyone in the family. She loves to come over to the house and play card games. She claims that she is the best card player around. She is pretty good but whenever I come to the table she just doesn't quite step up to the plate like she does when she is playing without me. She is so funny too. Oh man there is never a dull moment when she is around. One of the greatest things Calie has introduced me to is her bean dip. Can you say PHENOMENAL. Man my life has been drastically altered because of that bean dip, not going to lie. Like I still have cravings of it. The greatest thing about Calie though is that she treats me like one of her own kids. She is there and loves to talk to me, gets excited to see me when she sees me around town, and she is willing to do anything for me. I trust her so much and know that I can rely on her for anything. I love you Calie!

Connie Nemeck also hails from Coeur d'Alene and she is so funny. She likes to play card games to. Same game that Calie loves to play (Hand and Foot). Connie is so funny too. Whenever we are playing games with each other she causes an uproar in laughter easily. What is even better is to have both Calie and Connie together. There is like non-stop comedy everywhere. Connie likes the same things that my family likes too, especially me. She is so entertained with football and lacrosse it is awesome. It would be better if she would realize the amazingness of Boise State football but I will cut her some slack. Connie has done so much for me and I appreciate it all very much. I love you Connie!

Ma (Natalie) Robison hails from a city close to Coeur d'Alene. She is from Post Falls but is still awesome. She was my Ma for our church's pioneer trek we had this past June and has always been there for me since. On my last Trek I went on, my Ma was good and all but once Trek was over that was kinda the end of it all. Ma Robison has been there and cares the same for all of her kids from Trek. Immediately following Trek she held a big family reunion and we had such a great time there at her place. Before I left for Hawaii she actually drove over to my house to drop off a gift for me. She is the best ma that anyone could ask for and I know that she is willing and wanting to do anything to help me out. She made Trek such a great experience and she is awesome. I love you Ma Robison!

The newest addition to my adopted moms is Karen McCabe. Karen is from Riverton and has technically only met me once, but she is still a mom to me. She has always been the one to check up on me when I go through rough patches since I have been here in Hawaii. She is there to always offer me support and someone to talk to. Recently I have gone through an extra rocky patch and she was so sweet today. So I woke up on the wrong side of the bed today and was not really wanting to talk to a whole lot of people. Well, I am sitting at my computer just about ready to break down and I get a text message. I really am not excited to see who it is from. Well when I looked and saw it was Karen, I wasn't to bummed to read it. Well I open it up and she sent me a text to see that I was doing ok in this rough time. Do you know how big of a smile I got on my face just because she was checking to see that I was doing ok. Well we get talking and she is just willing to give me advice and support on everything I tell her. She even offered solutions to help me feel better. Karen made my day a whole lot better in just one quick text message. I have not felt like someone cared as much as she does. I appreciate her so much. Thanks for everything you have done for me Karen, especially today. I love you Karen!

Now having all these adopted moms doesn't take away from how awesome my Mom is. My Mom is the best in the entire world. Oh man she has given me so much that I don't even know where to start from to start showing her appreciation. She is always wanting to do everything to help me out and sacrifices everything she has in order to make life easier and better for me. She has put up with me for over 18 years now and I am glad to have someone like her in my life. I could not have asked for a better mom. She is involved in my life and interests so much is is great. She may like to try to be a little too involved, but she does it because she loves me so much. I wish I could have the opportunity for her to know how much I love her. I trust her with my life and know she is there for me. I love you Mom!

I just want to once again say thank you to all my moms, adopted or not. I appreciate everything you do for me and hope the best for all of them. I know I can personally trust each one of them and wish that they realize how awesome they are. I love all you guys so much!

Everything Tastes Better in Hawaii...Well Almost Everything

I have found a great discovery here in Hawaii since I have first arrived. Everything tastes better in Hawaii! Especially chocolate. Back home on the mainland, yes there are very, extremely delicious. But having come to a place where chocolate must be eaten immediately and ice cream lasts about 5 minutes before it melts, ya it tastes better. It is almost like it is a delicacy. Ok, so Hawaii is one up on chocolate and ice cream...however, the mainland has some stuff I miss too. Burgers and fries here just aren't the same. The burgers are just missing the mainland grease I love and the fries just don't taste like french fries. And the ultimate thing I miss though is steak. I didn't get it much back home but here I never get it. So the mainland is up by one at this point.

So besides the normal American fattening food tasting great, most of the Hawaiian stuff I have found here is beyond delicious. Pineapple at every meal makes for a great compliment to anything. Another thing that they serve with every meal is rice. I have grown to love rice so much. I sometimes only eat that for meals. Another popular item here is chicken. They have so many varieties of chicken products it is insane. Teriyaki and barbecue are the favorites though. The best things though are found only at work though. So I work at a luau right? Well any luau has kailua pork and at ours we have taro rolls. The best combination in the world. Actually, I have found that anything with taro in it is amazing. Now if you like coconut, I have something for you. Chocolate Haupia pie. Now, haupia is just a coconut pudding. So the pie is a chocolate pudding pie, but on top it has coconut pudding and coconut shreds. So good!

So if any of you decide to travel to Hawaii, be sure to hit up these things for sure.

Why Does my Body Hate Me?

Well last night I had one of the greatest things happen to me. I actually got about nine hours of sleep! I know it is great. It is the first great sleep I have gotten in a while. Now I don't want to jinx it but I'm hoping my insomnia is starting to back off a little bit. I honestly hope it is because I am just to tired for it to go on. My body has not allowed me to just fall asleep like everyone else. I always feel like I have no energy; yet at the same time I feel wide awake and capable of anything. My body is just bipolar I swear.

Now not only does my body hate sleep, but I swear it doesn't allow itself to recover either. So last week was a rough week and many things happened. Many of the things that happened led to me getting not only emotionally hurt, but physically hurt to. I was stupid and would allow myself to literally tear itself apart for hours a day. Now I know me being in pain is my fault. No duh. But, it has never taken this long for a recovery either. Like a few pulled muscles should have gotten to be a little better by now one would think. Ya but not only is my body throwing a fit about not recovering from these past injuries, no but it keeps hurting itself. These new one I swear I have had nothing to do with. But like the past couple days my wrist is acting up again like it used to, my hip is going all whack, and my back has gone from being fine to once again cramping up.

Can't I just like send it a memo saying:

Hello body,
You do realize that  I actually do have to do stuff during life. If you wouldn't mind cooperating with the rest of me and helping me out by stop hurting yourself and recover already it would be a great help. Maybe I might be in a better mood if you did this for me. Thanks!

Your friend,
Geoff

If he could cooperate with me life wouldn't be to bad. Like, at all bad. Ok maybe a little bad but I can't blame that on my body. Well I have been trying something new the past couple days and it seems to help with my sleep. Lets see if it can help with the rest of the healing process.

Sleep

Well for all those aware of it and all those who will now be informed of it, my insomnia is attacking worse than ever right now. Ok, its not to bad because I can still go throughout a day just fine with only a few hours of sleep. But what got me at least last night was that when i finally did go to bed there was a power surge. Ya power surge + needing your alarm clock to wake up for church = church - Geoff.

So last night I couldn't get to bed and actually ended up talking to one of my friends till 3:00 AM. I mean even when we ended the conversation I still wasn't even close to being tired; but you have the whole voice in the back of your head saying, "You are going to have to get up in five hours for church." Ya well needless to say set my alarm, crawled into bed, and actually got to bed fairly quickly. That right there is a miracle by itself actually.

I don't know what it is but apparently if I am just in a good mood when I crawl into bed I can get to bed fairly quickly after getting in there. So anyways, ya I was in a good mood going into bed and I crashed hardcore. Well like I said before, after I fall asleep we get hit with a power surge. Suck! Ya so I get like my 5 or so hours of sleep and I wake up and I am thinking, "Man my alarm hasn't gone off. Is it seriously before 8:00?" Ya I take a look at my alarm clock and it starts flashing like it does when it first gets plugged in. At that moment I'm pretty sure all that was going through my head was, "Dang it! I honestly can't miss church today." So i hastily pull myself out of bed and over to the desk. Flip open the phone and find out the church has already started and was already a good ways into the meetings. Well I drag myself out and over to the location of where the meeting was supposed to be. . .no one is there. I go over to another meeting place. . .no one is there. Then it dawns on me, today is ward conference and it is already over. Ya, not cool guys.

So overall me staying up late talking to my friend was a plus, me getting to bed quickly was a plus, me not getting more than 6 hours of sleep is a minus but also a normal, me getting scared when my alarm clock got reset is a minus, finding out I freaked out and got dressed super quickly is both a minus yet a plus. So if you add all of these elements together, I would like to claim that last night and this morning were positive experiences.

Hau' oli la Hanau Nancy!

Hey just so everyone knows it is Nancy Dea Weber's birthday! Be sure to wish her a happy 19th birthday today! I hope she has an awesome day today. I wish I could be there to spend this special day with her.