i'm on hold with 21st century insurance . . and have been for 15 minutes. Ramendra Kundu decided to pull his car out in into the street that i was turning on earlier today. now my already ugly (but beloved) car has a dent/scratch from the back right door to the bumper. *sigh* shit happens.

also, my mom wants so badly to throw a bbq for family and friends that will surely blow unless she gets more help. she volunteers her kids, ugh. the social scene planning and hostess role is not my favorite. i'm starting to help by squeezing lemonade (symbolism?) from the super full lemon tree in the back yard.

Hawai’i: this is the 6th day in maui and it’s amazing. the transition from a more independent college life to living with 3 siblings and my mom could definitely use a vacation as a buffer. When you’re having a good time exploring then the chaos of 5 people who don’t mind pissing each other off to get what they want isn’t such a big deal.

Day 1: flew to Hawaii and started to read for pleasure again (jeeze it’s been a while). Started a series on dragons and I’ve been going through 1 book every 3 days. We arrived at this super nice hotel and played on the beach, read in the sand, and watched the sunset only 100 meters from our balcony. It was practically a dog park out there so I got to play with some dogs – missing carlie so much.

Day2: shopping, ugh. for me it was more of a spectacle of crafts. There wasn’t anything that necessary from the swap meet, but my family still managed to spend a lot of money. I felt somewhat guilty for participating in the sale of Hawaiian culture and the dependency on tourism for its economy. In the afternoon we went to Iao valley state park which looked a lot like pfiefer but with tropical plants and atmosphere. The creek was pretty and the gardens were nice. That night we went to a Luau which was pretty cool. Fire dances and Aerialist who performed were amazing.

Day 3: My family and I had a picnic on a nice beach nearby and the waves were nice but we had no boards. That afternoon we drove to the top of the volcano/crater haleakala to watch the sunset from above the clouds. It was one of the most surreal moments of my life and I would go up there again in a heartbeat. We must have taken 100s of pictures which I’ll get from my moms camera later. Heh, the high altitude and dragon books got to my head . . . I couldn’t stop thinking about being a human who would only live for about 40 more good years and if I would be able to witness amazing natural things like these around the world while having to micromanage time with all the distractions of everyday life (internet, occupation, advertisements).

Day 4: Snorkeling is soooo much fun. We boated out to the island crater Molokini and saw colorful fish, eel, crabs, and coral. I dove a few times and got an ear ache towards the end but it went away within an hour or two. We saw sea turtles being cleaned by fish and you could get within arms reach of them as they came to surface for air. They’re pretty awesome. That night I went to sleep and almost immediately began to dream about floating on the water and seeing underwater amazingness.

Day 5: lahaina was the capital of Hawaii before Honolulu and we went there to see the ‘old town’. It was full of modern day shopping chains and art galleries. Besides the natural scenery, it did not seem authentic at all and so I mostly read under the banyan trees there. In the afternoon we went boogie boarding back near our condo in kihei until sunset.

Day6: I woke up and everyone is sleeping in. I cant finish the second dragon book because chris is still reading the third. after two hours of internet I’m getting restless and I got the stuff out that I don’t want to forget from this trip. It’s about ½ way over and I’ve already had such amazing experiences. visuals to be added later.

Big Sur:  just an hour or so south of where I live now (Sunnyvale), there were beautiful state parks to hike and beaches to see (it was too cold to swim in). eric and ryan drove up from southern California and Hannah and I met up with them at Andrew Morela state park where we’d be camping for 2 nights. From there we went to the coast a few times, and hiked one or two trails at pfieffer  Big Sur, julia pfieffer burns, and point lobos.

things to update after my final tomorrow

heptathlon

It was a very pretty Friday afternoon and I had just gotten off of work. During the bus ride home I saw a live music stage, bounce house obstacle course, and pie throwing center in front of the dorms for their spring festival.

 

Almost one week earlier, on the way to Malibu creek rock pool, a handful of friends and I saw a huge bounce house emporium from the freeway and began our planning of a bounce house adventure. I hurriedly called the parties involved during that car ride to inform them of the free bouncing on campus and two other people made it out. This begins our marathon of events that added to about 7 for that afternoon and evening. We took our fun very seriously.

 

1) Obstacle course: The largest bounce house an obstacle course. After a few races with all of our senses, we began to go backwards/forwards and use blindfolds to make things more interesting.

2) Q-tip fight: The second bounce house-like opportunity was a q-tip fight (I don’t know the real name for it) where allie and I battled. Kristi joined us for a game later on. This test of our warrior skills revealed that I like to defend more than attack because it’s easy. Also….some people just step forward onto your pedestal and knock you off. Is that really legit?

 

3) Animal feeding: as we walked back to the apartment, we stopped by the garden with coy fish, turtles, and ducks. There were lots of babies in the crowded pond and more people tossing bread at them.

 

At this pond, we witnessed poor parenting by a mother duck that was chased from her ducklings by a male duck. Her babies waited and waited (and we waited too) for her to come back. In the meantime another mom and bunch of ducklings had joined the pond and as the ducklings from the first batch mixed with the second, the new mom in the pond started to peck the ducklings under water. The huge coy fish didn’t make it easy for the other animals to eat and even ate little fishes in the water. We found an apple on the floor and decided to bring it to the horses on the way back.

 

The three horses were excited to get some apple and extremely pushy . . . but maybe I just felt that way because they were huge.

 

4) Animal taming: Allie’s bipedal motion emu project was nearby so we went to visit the birds. It was my first time seeing them and they were young (not 6.5 ft tall yet). We watered them because it was a hot day while they acted very spooked and raptor-like. Their talons looked like they could do some damage, one of them was getting out of a bucket and scratched his neck open to deserve stitches; they arnt too bright. At the moment allie just goes out there to spend time with them and get them adjusted to humans for the research.

Coming to get you

 

Having a mud bath.they sit/walk/run in funny ways.

 

5) soccer game: last year there was a lot of soccer organized by the international students. At least every Friday and Saturday/Sunday there would be a fun game. Most of these people are in my year and we’re all graduating. Even though most of us (myself included) slacked this year, we played a farewell game that was pretty fun. I missed soccer a lot and signed up for a soccer class at a community college for some practice.

 

6) rock climbing: ryan, allie, and I then went rock climbing at hangar 18. We all tried to traverse the gym, something that I hadn’t tried before and it’s pretty fun. On your way around you try to recognize the different holds and how to use them with a long enough route to test your endurance.

 

7) marco-polo water adventure: we all returned to the village sore and hot. There was an undie run going on at campus that we decided against and instead went to the pool. Ryan had a long jump competition against himself to see if he could jump halfway across the pool. Allie and I had a hand-stand contest. We all played some marco-polo.

 

At the end of the day we were pooped and thought of food and watching surfs up. But my eyes were failing at that time, so I retired to bed for many hours and a great weekend with bedroom aerobics and sleep.

Triathlon

 

On Monday night the campus brought lots of free food and fun to the students to kick off finals week.

 

1)      Allie and I went rock climbing in the afternoon. The long and inclined 5.9 that was my ‘unicorn’ last quarter I completed on my first try so I was very happy. Allie and I traversed some more, I really hope that this summer allows for lots of climbing.

2)      Then we came back to the apartment and went for a swim. The swim included balancing acts and splash fights with carly and Brittney.

3)      Night Owl: the free food and fun event at the student center was pretty amazing. We met up with 9 other friends to watch episodes of the twilight zone with free snacks and giveaways. Then we went to the bounce house that was basic with a climb and slide offshoot. My stupidity almost got me knocked out when I tried to go backwards…. Stupid me. The best part is when allie’s shorts got stuck on to the netting on the side of the bounce house. After bouncing for a while, we left to check out the free food/drinks near a karaoke area where some of my more brave friends sang. The last thing we did was a game of pool and then headed back to our apartments.

 

Finals week began with another super exciting day of free goodness and another fun night.

the cost of living
i need a job up north. it will start to cost me to simply live soon. *gulp* i hope life doesnt get boring now.

i miss carlie monster sooooooooo  much

“Dad, to tell you the truth, I don’t know or trust loan so if she’s going to stay at my apartment then I would like someone to keep an eye on her.” I’m trying to help my dad out because he’s planning on taking kyle, loan, and Hannah/lisa to Disneyland this weekend. If I can extend my apartment stay for a few days then they wont have to pay for a hotel (pending some paperwork and roommate reactions).

 

He called me premature for not trusting her

 

I said that the only real fact that I know about loan is that she’s kyles mom. In my book, sleeping with a married man indicates poor judgment. I went on to say that during the only time that I’ve spent with her, she was silent. I let him know that I’m open to getting to know her; but until I have some indication of her intentions I don’t trust her. To sting: I said that if I were to judge her based upon the accounts of grandma, aunt, and dad it would not help her case. She has been described as a “stupid”, “ugly”, “selfish”, “mentally unsound” person who (and this next one came from my dad) “I hate, because she could have made my company be successful but she refused to work”. But hey, I’m a daughter from the first family so of course they’re going to say mean things about her. fortunately for her, i try to be an objective person so I dont weight those claims made by other people.

 

He said that the fact that he’s trusting loan with taking care of kyle should give her the benefit of the doubt.

 

I reminded him that he and I have very different standards when it comes to morals/values.

 

 

    This has got to be the first time in months that I’ve talked to my dad. I don’t mind talking to him because it’s good to communicate, however I know that I’m stirring up conflict and that’s not the ‘nice’ thing to do. I’m so conflicted between being a good sister to my siblings and expressing my own opinions on the lack of morals (mostly pertaining to my dad). The best thing would be for me to communicate how flawed the situation is while not upsetting or causing (additional) tensions to family ties. Unfortunately, I still tear up when talking about family and action in itself makes people uncomfortable so the situation can get tense/defensive.