Vegas baby! I haven’t been there since I was 12 years old… can you believe that? Especially considering the fact I’m from Hawaii. Here, everyone goes to Vegas. Many go more than once a year. The package deals are just so damned reasonable.

I’ve worked since I was 16 years old and never took a vacation outside of Hawaii because of the cost. I feel content just staying home from work. I live in paradise, and I love cruising with friends, so it’s never seemed lacking.

But this year I realized I should go someplace since I’m finally debt-free, and also because my mom was diagnosed with cancer last year and I want to spend more time with her. And it’s Vegas!!

Of course I have the dream that I will pull on the handle of the slot machine that gives me the jackpot of a lifetime … and then I come back home and quit my job, and buy my mom, sister, and closest friends some cool shit and bum around while trying to figure out how to invest the cash so I never have to work again. Real estate might be a good investment here in Hawaii… It really is a buyer’s market right now, but sheesh. I can’t afford anything!

If anyone has suggestions on shows, or sights, or casinos me and my mom should check out, please comment! We don’t leave until August. Hopefully even if i have to get surgery, it’ll be healed by then and I’ll be ready to experience Vegas for the first time as an adult. I’ve heard you get the “virgin luck” when you go to Vegas your first time. I sure hope I get lucky!!!

More than anything though, I hope my mom has fun. She’s been really worried about her mortality. This is the first time she and I will go on a trip together in over 10 years. I hope we both are healthy enough to go, and again, all that really matters is that she has a good time.

Happy New Year! It’s been a while since my last post, and I skipped the holidays, unlike last year. It’s now 13 days into the new year and it’s been OK so far.

The guy I was dating, who later became my boyfriend in August 2007… is no longer my boyfriend – but we’re still dating. We still hang out but things would get difficult and somehow I think I know that we don’t have a great chance of ending up together in holy matrimony. It’s a feeling, I guess. Though nothing is absolute until it happens… or doesn’t.

Here is what went down (more or less) today – Sunday, January 13th, 2008.

Woke up at 5:20 AM
Participated in the Great Aloha Run running clinic where we ran 6 miles, and it was my first time moving up to the run / walk group that runs one minute, then walks one minute. It’s been a long time since I ran 6 miles, and I was surprisingly not winded, so I might move up to the running group within the next couple of sessions.

11:45 AM – Kapolei Subway: Had one of the worst-ever customer service experiences in there where a woman was trying to overcharge me, and wouldn’t even look at the huge sign on the wall behind her until I pointed at it and said – it’s on the sign right there… and then she sauntered over to it, and said “must be new” and that was it. No apologies, nothing. And she was the manager. And she’d just messed up the order before us by giving the wrong sandwich to the lady in front of me, and the guy before her… and then she proceeded to start arguing with the next set of customers while we were finishing our meal. She’s gotta be related to someone cause there’s no other way she should be managing anything.

12:30 – Went to see Juno at Kapolei theaters with the guy I’m dating. It was kinda a disappointment since there was all this buzz about it. On NetFlix i’d give it 3 stars… or a little less, actually… but enough to round-up to a 3 since they don’t let you leave portions of a star in your rating. (I think it was a 2.8 or 2.9 actually).

14:30 – Famous Footwear in Waikele. I went to try and find a replacement pair of running shoes but they didn’t have my size. Decided to try sticking with the recent pair I got. This morning when I got home I noticed my right toe – the 2nd toe.. the nail on it was pretty sore when I touched it so my shoes might be too tight. Not sure. My left foot’s fine though. These shoes cost me $100 and I rarely spend that much on anything, so I’m thinking I’ll try it another weekend. (I cut my toenails really short to be sure).

16:45 – in the car, on the phone, on the way to see my friend. My best friend, who is also my ex-boyfriend- and we aren’t dating. We’re both hip hop djs in our spare time, and both get along really well and make best friends… but after 3 years of going out we broke up about 3 years ago and I don’t know that we would ever get back together. But it’s cool and no stress, and we just cruise and do simple stuff for fun like go walking around and taking pictures of stuff, or walking through Don Quijote store. Nope – I didn’t spell that wrong – it’s a japan store which was formerly Daiei, and formerly Holiday Mart, but now calledDon Quijote. The Kaheka street location has the best alcohol selection of any grocery store I’ve been in here on Oahu. But hit me up with a comment if you know a place better! ha ha! Though my drinking days have been over a while

17:00 – Arrive at my best friend’s house and cruise with the bunnies. One belonged to me and he agreed to take her in when I was having a hard time with college and keeping up with her. Living in central Oahu makes commuting super difficult for college students. Not near as difficult as it must be for West-siders, and North Shore people though. The second bunny was purchased since I had originally gave him 2 bunnies to watch, but one passed away and the other seemed very lonely. Rabbits are very social creatures and she’s bonded to the new bunny even stronger than the last one. I’ve loved rabbits since I was a kid. They are the pet of choice for me.

17:30 – Cruise. We drive around Waialae, Kaimuki, Kahala, Diamond Head, and just look at the houses and talk about whatevers. We don’t know where to go and don’t mind cruising. Cause that’s what we do sometimes. We decide to eat at St. Louis Drive-In. We both order the Autumn special (BBQ Cheeseburger deluxe, fries, and large cokes).

19:00 – The Amazing Race is on TV and we arrived with the food in time to watch it. I like TK and Rachel, and Christina and Ron. I think ultimately I want TK and Rachel to win. I was glad Nathan and Jennifer were eliminated tonight. Though they make great antagonists! This is the first time I watched the show all season, and I’m pretty sure I’ll tune in for the finale next week.

20:00 – driving in my car towards home. And I drive a lot listening to the radio. Actually, listening to a recording of a show I subbed last week at the nameless radio station I used to be a dj at. It wasn’t as bad as I was thinking it was, but not as good as I’d have liked.

21:30 – home. On my bed surfing the interweb… then i start writing this blog on my macbook pro, which is part of the older generation that gets extremely hot.

22:17 – finishing the blog, and debating going to bed early since i have to wake up at 5 in order to get to work by 7 since traffic sucks that much here. Also about to write in my little running journal how far I ran today, how long it took, etc. I think I’m also signing up for the marathon this year. Pretty sure… more than 50% sure anyhow… And feeling lucky because I have a decent life and good friends. It’s been a good year so far.

Valentine’s Day came and went this past week, and I didn’t really get to celebrate it with the guy I’ve been dating. I did see him for a little while, but he had to do a system application upgrade and it took place from 9 – 10 pm, so he had to spend much of the evening making phone calls to radiologists, and preparing for the downtime.

he gave me a heart-shaped box of See’s chocolates. I gave him a regular 1lb. box of See’s candy with valentine’s wrapping paper on it.

Friday was a good day. My co-worker found a position at another company as a Network Technician. I’m super happy for him. We had a party after work on Friday that started at Restaurant Row and moved to the 9th ave. rock house and grill along waialae avenue. I liked the place and would go there again to hang out.

The highlight of my weekend was spending time with the guy I’ve been dating. This weekend we booked a room in the Pacific Beach Hotel in Waikiki just for a day. We checked in, walked around Waikiki and did a little bit of shopping, Ate dinner at Genki Sushi in Waiau, drove back to the hotel, and in the morning, we checked out and went to Windward Mall and the new iHop that opened there.

The wait for iHop was about an hour, and we got there around 12:45. We played videogames at Tilt to kill time. We had the Sampler breakfast for $9.99 each. It was a good deal, and a lot of food since it had the option of all-you-can-eat hotcakes. They make pretty good pancakes (you’d hope so wouldn’t you!?) and there were choices of maple, strawberry and blueberry pancake syrup.

In Hawaii iHop’s a big deal since its a fairly new restaurant to open up out here. The iHOP in Waikiki has been open for a while now, but the Windward Mall location only opened on Feb. 5th, 2007. There were so many people buzzing around and excited about going to eat there. It was my first time ever in an iHop. I had fun.

After iHop we took a look at the model home for his future house (being built) and also looked at the lot itself. I’m really happy for him. His parents are helping him out with the downpayment. If you aren’t familiar with the incredibly high cost of housing in Hawaii, let’s just say that in order to own a simple home (3 bedroom, 2 bath) you’d better be willing to lay down almost half a million dollars. And keep in mind IT people in Hawaii are paid 1/3 less than IT people in the mainland USA. Its the price you pay to live in Hawaii, I’m told. I was born and raised here, and hope to live here, but in all honesty I don’t know if I can afford it. I want to get myself a simple one bedroom apartment or studio, and am hoping to get it for under $200K. That’s something I hope to accomplish this year, or maybe early 2008. And when I say simple, I also would like the building to be secure so I don’t get attacked.

We crashed at his house after looking at the model homes, watched a few Samurai X ova’s, which were cool, and ate Chinese food for good luck. I ordered Egg Blossom soup. His dad bought the food for us. It was nice spending time with him this weekend.

rurouni kenshin / samurai x

I feel close to the guy I’ve been dating. I am grateful to have had such a nice time with him this weekend, and will try to remember being happy when things get stressful during the week. I’m still not sure where we’ll end up, but am glad we met, and thankful for the good times we have.

I was supposed to go running this morning. I got dressed, and went to my spot to run, but for some reason couldn’t bring myself to run for more than 10 minutes. The winds were really strong, and it was so cold. I just felt restless and came back home instead. I also cancelled on going to the beach with Rich since I was feeling a little sick this afternoon. I slept for about 3 hours, ate dinner with my mom and sister, and am now blogging about my 3-day weekend coming to a close. I feel a little anxiety, but have to get over it and find a new job already! The winds outside are cold and seem a little sinister. I hope this upcoming week at work goes by quickly and painlessly.

I was surprised when i first heard the news that Tower Records had gone bankrupt, and they were bought by a liquidation firm. Here on Oahu, there are 3 Tower locations: Pearl Kai, Ke’eaumoku, and Kahala Mall. Tonight I went with Rich to the Kahala Mall location, and it was really cleaned out. The CDs were 70% off. Hip hop cds were all gone already. The remaining albums didn’t look interesting at all and were only $1.50 since the section had been so depleted. I wandered around for quite some time before finally deciding I’d searched through enough, and found what I wanted. Lots of stuff was already sold-out. I checked for stuff by Bonobo, the Cinematic Orchestra, Boards of Canada, the Cure, hip hop stuff, etc. but they were gone.

Certain artists catalogs like, Radiohead, the Cure, and Rage Against the Machine had all been sold. I made 3 purchases tonight:

1) Caribou : Start Breaking My Heart (Leaf Label)

2)V/A : Exit Music – Songs with Radio Heads (bbe)

3) D’Angelo : Brown Sugar (EMI)

Hawaii doesn’t have many music stores, and I worked at the Pearl Kai location about a decade ago, so there’s a little nostalgia mixed in there as well. But Tower was something that seemed like it would always be around. So I was surprised, and a bit bummed. Hopefully we’ll get another music store out here with a decent back-catalog! I am glad to have had the chance to work at a Tower Records, and can only hope the employees nation-wide were able to find replacement jobs they enjoy.

Here’s a picture of the Kahala store I found online:
All 3 CDs combined came to under $15. The Caribou CD is a great listen so far. One of the most interesting things I’ve heard in a long time. If you like electronic stuff, as well as jazzy, or math-rock stuff, you might be able to dig Caribou. It is not overly experimental to the point of pretentiousness, but also very unique. It’s kinda melancholy, and beautiful. It is definitely a pleaser for a beat-fiend like myself.

Tower Kahala had a sign counting down the number of days left. One more week before its final day. It seems surreal to think they’ll be gone. I heard the Ke’eaumoku location will become a Wal-Green’s… right across the street from Wal-Mart. That doesn’t seem like a good idea on Wal-Green’s part. It’s always weird to lose something that holds memories from the past. I met some cool people there, and remember just hanging out in Tower when I didn’t know what else to do with myself since I’ve always been somewhat of a music fiend. My tastes vary a lot. I still remember browsing for hours just looking through all the racks. Ahh well… Goodbye to Tower Records. It was good while it lasted.

Yesterday, I worked for the guy who usually takes the Saturday Help Desk shift. We have 1 person who works Tuesday – Saturday and answers the calls. He wanted to watch the UH football game (Warriors beat Purdue 42 – 35 ) so I worked 6 days last week, and get my one day off today. It feels weird only having the one day. But it’s important people have time off.

My boss met with me on Friday and asked me how I thought I was doing as the new Team Lead. It’s been about a month now. I said I wasn’t sure yet. That, with the short-staffing it was hard to just keep shifts covered. I told him after doing the job for 3 or 4 months, I’d have a better idea how I was going to be as a Lead. In my heart, I’m hoping I won’t be there much longer than the 3 or 4 months.

There’s a position open that I want to apply for at a bank here in Hawaii, for Desktop support. I’m working on the resume today and sending it off to them. If they’ll pay as much, or close to as much as I make now, I’m willing to take it. I’d like to continue to progress in IT and don’t want to stop at Help Desk. I’ve been in HD since May 2005. I’m getting really antsy to leave. I told the boss that I wanted to continue to learn new things, and while I am learning management, which is good, I want to learn IT things!

Last night, the guy I’ve been dating took me to Restaurant Row, and we ate at a Greek / Mediterranean restaurant named… Yanni’s. It was my first time at a Greek restaurant. It was a good experience. I had some food I can’t type the names of, and it was neat to try something new. This was our post-Thanksgiving celebration together since we both had family stuff to do on Thursday. I told him I’d want us to take time off and overlap just a couple of days so we could stay in a hotel in Waikiki and play tourist. I’d wanted to wait until I got another job, and he said “We could do that now.” But I’m too short-staffed and have a new guy starting Tuesday, so I can’t go for a while. A part of me wonders if he means it, and still wonders what he thinks we’re doing.We act like we’re in a relationship, but not quite. And I know once I slap that “boyfriend” label on a man, things get weird because I get weird. So in a lot of ways, I can’t ask for much from anyone.

Some of the guys at work told me I should go to testking.com for the answers to the A+ hardwware exam I’m taking at the end of December. I’m debating it. If anyone has any input at all on the A+ exam, please, by all means, leave me a comment. Am I better off studying on my own, or should I shell-out the $70 for the hardware questions? Apparently, its 700+ questions and answers for $70. I feel like I should be able to pass if I just study hard. Any suggestions?

This year, I stayed home. My mom and sister took the drive to Waianae, and said they’d bring me a plate of food back. After debating, I decided not to go cause I’m feeling a little weird today. But I’m craving turkey and cranberry sauce like you wouldn’t believe.

Waianae has a bad rep to some people in Hawaii. My high school b.f. was afraid of the place. Vince wanted to go all the time. Many of my relatives are from the west-side, and my parents too.

I’m in a non-relationship with a guy who I like a lot. But I don’t know how much he likes me. I guess it shouldn’t matter since we’re just dating afterall. We went out for a short while in 2005, but it didn’t work out. We decided to start dating instead and it’s been that way since. Sometimes, I find myself trying not to like him too much. And other times, I decide to just like him anyway. Even if it does turn out I don’t mean much to him.. I can’t help liking someone if I just do.

I’m studying for the A+ Hardware certification exam, and scheduled it for December 29th, at 2:15PM. It cost me $158!! I’d better pass. I plan on studying right after this. I need to move out of Help Desk, yo! They designated me as the Lead in my company’s Help Desk. We support about 6,000 users I’ve been told. It’s a hectic job with never-ending piles of work. Phone calls, emails, voicemails, tickets to close, procedures to write, account creations, sending advisories for downtimes, and all kinds of stuff I’m grateful to have had experience with. But I do want to start moving on in IT and figure out exactly WHAT it is I wanna do!

This year is almost over, and I AM thankful for what I have. Even though some mornings I wake up full of dread, I know in the big scheme of things.. it probably don’t mean shit.

Happy Thanksgiving!
Shoots
aka