when i was small i believed in santa claus though i knew it was my dad

So, here are some pictures from a little snorkeling adventure. Enjoy.







WOW WOW WOW- THAT'S AN OCTOPUS!

...like a big fat drunk disgruntled yuletide rambo

so much to say, so little time.



12/18/2008


suit up!

time is on my side

This very day last year I was in Dublin, Ireland with a great group of friends. Lizzie, Bill, Chaz, Geeble and myself flew from Philadelphia to Dublin and met up with Jim Stem (who was on leave from Iraq), Sull (she flew over from philly as well) and Michelle, Courtney and Dove (they were all studying abroad in Rome).









Twas a long flight to Ireland, but when we finally got there we were all itching for a Guinness. After meeting up with each other, some of us having not seen a friend, let alone a large group of friends for over 5 months and the others for just a few, it was a nice little reunion, and it was only obvious that we should go to a pub immediately... Even if it was 9:30 in the morning. And to the pub we went. First round was on Bildo. It was something he's always talked about long before any of us realized we'd be meeting up at a pub in Ireland. He always promised he would buy the first round of beers for whoever was with him on his first trip to the mother land.

I was two or three beers in when I did my first shot of Jameson and Jimmy Boy decided to violently shake me. It was 10:30AM, Friday morning, on the 16th of November in 2007 when I first puked my guts up in Ireland. All I remember thinking was "Well, that's just great." Next thing I knew I was drinking another Guinness to cure my illness.

The first couple of days in Dublin are still a blur. I remember visiting the Guinness Brewery and the Jameson Distillery. The distillery was where I got to hang out with my two true loves.










My best friend & sister, Michelle, and my companion & cheer-me-upper, Jameson Irish Whiskey.

When walking upon the "gates of heaven" we all stood back to allow Bildo have his moment of glory. It was as if Christ himself appeared.







Bildo dropped to his knees and kissed the ground in front of him. He truly was experiencing his version of heaven on earth.




One thing Michelle & I always talked about is how we'd eventually go our separate ways in life. No matter where we ended up we always thought it would be super cool to meet up in Dublin for a cold pint. We finally made a dream come true. And we didn't just meet up for one cold pint... we had a trail of cold pints waiting for us!

There's more to this story, so, stay tuned.

big me to talk about it

Well, it's been quite some time. Apologies to those who like reading this to pass those boring moments during your days.


Phillies finally won! 2008 World Champions! I'm not sad that I'm so far from home either. Think about it... in twenty years when I'm telling my kids about my first World Series I get to say that I was living in Hawaii. I think that's pretty awesome.

In other awesome news, Obama! I'm pretty stoked to be able to say I voted for the first black president of the united states. Sorry McCain:















I originally took off 3 days of work because I was going to try to fly home for the series, but that didn't work out as planned. I ended up having a great long weekend here though. We did some major grillin', watched the Phillies win, lose & win win win, drank some beers and relaxed.

Last Monday was supposed to be Dan's last day on Maui for a good while. I figured with him out of the house I'd get to cook Erik a nice dinner, only Dan ended up crashing it! It was really no big deal. I actually offered him to crash it. Besides, look how delicious everything ended up looking:

I started dinner with a fresh salad with tomatoes, mozzarella cheese, & peppers. And I cooked chicken parmesan. I made my own sauce with a bunch of veggies & garlic. Everything turned out perfectly. As you can see, Dan was happy:

Erik totally ruined dinner because he had gotten bit by a small doggie earlier that afternoon. Apparently his boo-boo hurt so much he wanted the doctor to look at it that night. Luckily for him, Hawaii is free of rabies.

On Tuesday Erik & I drove the back roads to Lahaina. We stopped to check out this crazy blowhole. Every time the ocean crashed into the shore it looked like a geiser was shooting out of the ground. It was really cool looking. We didn't bring a camera down to get a shot though. We also saw this huge giraffe!

Erik has more pictures on his camera, but he hasn't uploaded them yet.


In other events, my manager and I wanted to split a burger from Jack In The Box because they're so huge. Unfortunately we didn't have a knife to cut it. However, when you mix my brain cells with Maile's braincells this is what you get:


I've been working 9 days straight as of right now & I'm really tired. Oh, before I go, I know some of you are wondering who Erik is and what he looks like. He's an alcoholic pilot & he looks like this:

i'll stick around and learn from all that came from it

QUICK UPDATE!

Rainbows are still awesome. Especially when you see them from beginning to end like this one:












I'm the only customer service agent that hangs out at the hangars with the mechanics. It's only cause my roommate is the Director of Maintenance for our airline & I usually wait around to get a lift home. I have lots of fun when I'm over there and I don't know why. Anyways, here are Sam & Kris putting the new logo on our aircraft (Tsunami 4) as seen in the following photo. Pacific Wings has two newer airlines up on the mainland. In New Mexico we have New Mexico Airlines & in Georgia we have Georgia Skies. Tsunami 4 is going to Georgia Skies obviously.


Last Sunday a few of us from work went to Erik's house for a pool/bbq day. Stacey brought her daughter Rylee and I hung out in the pool with Rylee.


We all had a fun & relaxing day.




Last night I went out to dinner with Erik & then we went to Mama's Fish House for some drinks. This place is amazing & super expensive, but probably totally worth every penny. All I had was a drink called the "Relaxer" and it tasted like a chocolate milkshake miracle with coconut shavings. I can only imagine what the food tastes like.

In other news, Phillies won Game 1 of the series. I should be home for this, but I'm kind of feeling like they might lose if I go home. I just can't believe the first time I leave Philly & my favorite sports team finally makes it to the series with an excellent chance of winning the whole thing.

every thing we did was wrong but we did it anyway

At work we've switched our BBQ days to Monday...it just works better with everyone's schedule. We also switched beaches. We now go over to Kanaha Beach Park which is a lot closer to the airport & way easier for all of us to get to. It's more of a park where we hang out. There's picnic benches and water faucets for hoses and such. If you walk about 50 feet into the trees it'll open up to the beach & ocean. The trees are really neat looking. Standing very tall & looking similar to palm trees (only with longer leaves drooping over each other & giving off a gloomy feel) it almost feels like you're in another part of the world. Not like Maui doesn't already succeed in that! My manager has two little boys & my co-worker Stacey has a little girl. They call these woods the Dinosaur Forest. Every Monday I bring all three kids back there and we run around looking at "dinosaur bones," (photo #1) and we look at "dinosaur foot prints" which is actually just a butt print from the chickens cooling off in the shade. We'll also find the occasional 'lost sandal' which obviously means that person was dinosaur lunch.

As you can tell, I like my Mondays at the Dinosaur Forest.

This past weekend was pretty fun. Friday night I just had a couple drinks at a local bar with a friend from work. Saturday we grilled, drank lots of beer & played beer pong all night. We then went swimming in the ocean at about 1:30am, worked up an appetite and went to Denny's at like 2:30am.

Sunday a friend (Erik's a pilot at work) and I went hiking up in Waihe'e Valley. I've never been up to Waihe'e before, but I've heard about the swinging bridges (photo #2) and was pretty interested in checking it out. We had a little hike before going swimming in a little pool of water. At the pool there was a huge banyan tree (photo #3) that I wanted to climb...so I climbed up the roots towards the top. In the middle of the tree was a huge hole that dropped down to the water about 12 feet below. The hole was super wide at the top, but narrowed down as it went towards the bottom. How do I know that? Oh, well, because I fell down that hole and scraped the skin off the left side of my body between my ass and my shoulder. Yep. I wasn't in pain, but I was more shocked that I almost plunged to my death. Not really my death, but you know.

TRIVIA: The Banyan Tree is a tree that is frequently seen on the tv show LOST.

After my near-death experience (Grandmom, I'm only exaggerating!), we continued on our hike towards another pool of water with a dam creating a small waterfall (photo #4) . We jumped off the left side of the dam into the water fall. The water is maybe 12-15 feet deep right and the current from the waterfall really pulls you under. The background drop for right where we were at that dam was just beautiful. Looking back really far you can see a huge waterfall that's said to be about 400something feet (photo #5) . It doesn't look quite as magnificent from where we were standing, but I imagine being up and close is a surreal experience.

After our adventures up in Waihe'e, Erik & I went to a sushi bar. I've eaten sushi before, but never like this. It's sort of like a conveyor belt zipping past you with differents plates of sushi for your own pickings. I don't know what the hell I was eating last night, but everything tasted good. Even the thing I ate with tentacles & the fish that still had eyeballs. I love that I'm not a picky eater. Another pilot from work, David & his girlfriend Melissa met up with us at the sushi bar. We all went to an arcade called the Fun Factory afterwards. We won lots of tickets and gave them to some little kid.

Today is Columbus Day. Columbus bypassed Hawaii though so they don't celebrate. Instead it's called Discoverer's Day. More of a recognition to James Cook who found the coordinates to the islands & told the world about the existance of the hawaiians. All city & state offices do not regard either Columbus/Discoverer's Day as an official holiday; therefore, all offices are open as if it were a regular Monday. However, federal offices are closed because, well, believe it or not, Hawaii is still a state in the US of A.

sweet smell before the rain

I'm alive.


Friday night there was a 49 year old's birthday party. Classic rock, Jameson's & lots of people. I wasn't impressed & I would have been more satisfied laying around on my couch watching scrubs reruns.

Saturday I watched the Phillies give up a game to the Brewers. I then tried explaining baseball to my filipino roommate. She still didn't get it. I don't see how baseball is a hard sport to understand. Saturday night I went to the Maui County Fair with a friend. He never had funnel cake before & I made him try it. Obviously, he loved it. We played a bunch of games and he won some prizes while I lost a lot. We also went on a couple rides before realizing we're old and get nauseous on all the cool rides. So we pulled the safe card and kept going on the swings.

Sunday morning I woke up at 6:30AM. Phils came on at 7AM so I was drinking coffee & bailey's & watching the game while waiting to be picked up for a Hana roadtrip. The road to Hana has been making me sick to my stomache lately, but it's worth it. I went up with a few friends from work, Andrew, Erik & Andrew's brother Phil. We went exploring in the caves and found more air pockets, but none of us had enough gear to actually go explore more. Next time we'll bring more flashlights, masks & maybe some tanks to breathe under water.

All in all, it was a really great weekend.

fat bottomed girls you make the rockin' world go round

GO PHILS!


This weekend is going to be wild & crazy. If I don't update by Monday it means I didn't survive. I wish Jackie was here for this weekend.

too deep now to ever swim against the current

Today is the last day of September of 2008. I don't have much to say right now.

I've been out of commission again with something I've never had before. It feels like my chest is caving in...sort of making it hard to breathe. On top of that I had a migraine for a straight week. Thankfully I woke up yesterday without the raging pain in my head, but still the weird feeling in my chest.

Here are some pictures I've been promising:

This was girls night in Lahaina.



Here we are drinking...


...and deciding what to eat!


Lauren's going away party & the bungalow.


I didn't need to shove the cake in her face cause, well, she did it herself.


Me & my homegirrrrl, Lauren!


Alyssa sporting her demon face & me being oblivious to demon face.


"COME ON BABY, DO THE LOCOMOTION!"

and tonight will go on forever while we walk around the town like we own the streets

I'm feeling much better than I was at the beginning of the week. I even picked up shifts at work today & yesterday to make up for loss time & I pulled in some sweet overtime hours. Hopefully, I have a pretty little paycheck this coming Friday.

It's amazing how life works sometimes. You close one door & another one presents itself. Whether or not you open it is your choice. I think it's good to close some doors and venture into new rooms, but you don't want to get too lost because then you'll just be alone in the dark. Friday night I went out with work friends. We just hung out at one kid's house and played Wii all night. Around midnight three of us went swimming in the ocean. I used to be so afraid of the ocean at night...fear of the unknown. Yet, that night, I just floated on back staring up at the sky. THEN A SHARK CAME AND ATE MY FRIEND! No, I'm obviously kidding, but how funny would that be?

I'm really tired right now. I plan on flying to another island next weekend. Stay tuned!


Oh, & GO BIRDS!

don't be afraid, cause no one ever sings alone

I've been sick the past couple of days with a high fever, sore throat and just a stuffed up head. I haven't really eaten much since I've had no appetite & I haven't left the house. So, today I forced myself to get out, take in some fresh air and catch some sun.

On the bus ride over to Lahaina I did a lot of thinking. I'm gonna switch up my plans for the next couple of months and after I'm finished with Maui, I'm gonna head somewhere cold. Haven't put a lot of thought into it, but it makes sense... at least to me it does.

I did a lot more thinking on the bus ride home...


I often live my life as if I'm in a movie. This way the bad stuff doesn't always seem so 'bottom-of-the-barrel' bad. And let's face it, most movies have happy endings, and I guess that's what I'm really waiting around for.

The music I listen to makes up the soundtrack of my life. Certain lyrics having more meaning than others. As some of you may already notice, I title each blog entry with a line from a song. These lyrics help me through different situations, both good & bad. It's weird how things to seem just always work out for me. I used to worry myself sick about tiny, little problems, but see, the real problem is you spend all of your time worrying that you forget to appreciate the greater things in life. You forget to smile for no reason whatsoever. You forget to live. I've taught myself to stop worrying so much and to just breathe.

It amazes me thinking about my childhood and picturing myself now. I moved to Maui with only $200 bucks in my back pocket and nothing saved. It's been almost three months and I'm still kicking it out here with a smile on my face. Is it hard? Yes, but I'm not complaining. I refuse to give up so easily. I haven't found what I'm looking for yet. I've made plenty of mistakes in life and I don't want this to be added to that list. I just won't let it.




...just breathe.

well, i never pray, but tonight i'm on my knees

You ever see two little girls who are just so damn adorable you can't help but stare at them? I mean almost to the point where you look crazy with a goofy smile on your face and in your head you're probably thinking "Wow, these kids are so gosh darn cute!" whereas, everyone around you is thinking "Keep the kids away from that weirdo!"

Yeah, that was some chick at the mall today. I was waiting for my bus to work and I couldn't help but laugh at the awkwardness of the situation as the mom held on to her girls' hands a little bit tighter and hurried away.

So, I'm in the market for a second job. I'm waiting on a night manager of The Ale House Tavern to get back from the mainland, and hopefully we can work something out. Turns out, it's pretty damn expensive to live out here.

After being out here for over two months, I finally have a charger for my camera. Once I get the usb cable to connect my camera to the laptop, I'll be showing you more pictures in no time!

you can watch me disappear

I called Maui home for the first time Friday night, and it didn't feel weird at all. This weekend was a lot more fun than I had originally expected and I owe it all to one single person.


A majority of Saturday was spent in Manayunk with 3 people I never, ever hang out with. We went to the Red Bull Soap Box Derby. The remains of a hurricane were apparently passing through Philly and we got the worst of it. I was literally soaked all afternoon, but it was well worth it. The event itself was ridiculously wild and just mind blowing.

Saturday night I showed up at Paddy's and had some beers with a few old friends before the crowd came rushing in. It was great to see a lot of faces the past couple of nights, but honestly, it's usually the norm that I go a couple months without seeing certain people. I managed to fit in Sugarmom's and Lucy's as well on Saturday night. With only a few hours left before leaving the mainland, a friend and I walked around Philly for a bit. "That really happens to people?" is all I can say about this weekend.

I slept the entire way on both planes. I guess I was pretty tired from getting a total of 4 hours of sleep the entire time I was in Philly. I gotta admit, it felt great getting off the plane and being home.

don't be gone when i get home...i need you there

I fought the law & the law won, but the fight was well worth the risk.


I ended up talking to a friend who already had a buddy pass booked for me and I payed $92 to fly home. As of right now, I do not have a way back to Maui on Sunday, but I will get back somehow. I need to be back there. I want to be back there.


Philly is still the same. It doesn't matter how long you go away, things will always be the same at home. I'll always be happy to see the skyline on a pretty day though. Philly is home, but I'm not done with Maui yet.



Lots of family came over for a couple hours last night and it was really great seeing everyone. My little sister Lauren (3yrs) asked me to please not go back to Hawaii. I felt like crying and staying just for her. After hanging with family, I went and met up with friends at Bar Noir. I felt so strange being out. I don't really know why though. I've only been away for two months...it's not that long. Some of the people that came out I usually only see every couple of months anyways. I do miss them for sure and I'm hoping to spend more time with everyone before I get out of here.

This morning was traffic court...the main reason I came home. That went really well. I'm guessing that heavenly angel got herself all cleaned up and remembered to keep an eye on me. Hopefully, she finds some sweet airfare deal for me to get home to Maui on Sunday!

Walking home from court was fun. I noticed how dirty Philly is compared to other places. At first I was thinking it was really gross, but I'm sure every major city is the same. I found it particularly amusing that there was some sort of flower bush growing along a wall and it looked so out of place. Not to mention there was trash on the ground around it and cigarette butts thrown into the bush.





You can almost see the flowers fighting hard to stay alive. Such beautiful flowers that if treated properly could really bloom and possibly change the view of the whole street. If only people cared more.

to the kids who would talk and stay up all night

I'll see you soon.

Stay gold.

we were aiming for the moon, we were shooting for the stars

I love falling asleep on beaches. I went to my secret, yet not really so secret, beach in Paia after work yesterday. After falling asleep for almost 2 hours, I went swimming in the ocean. What a fabulous way to wake up! Later on I had to head over to the hostel to help Dani move out.


Hanging out the bungalow used to feel comfortable. I would go there as if it were a safe haven. Just laying in the back on the hammocks and looking up at the blue sky would put my mind at ease while offering me a sweet, serene moment. Letting me forget all worries- past, present & future. Last night was a little different.



As I was eating some bananas from the banana tree (when I say 'some' I really mean I ate about 12 bananas. they just taste so good!), I got to thinking about that old saying "If these walls could talk..." and just wow. All I could think was "shit man, these walls have seen some of the most amazing people and some wild-ass parties." By the time I got around to the 5th banana, I couldn't help but realize that I was quite fortunate with the times I've spent staying/living there. There are people all over the world that I can happily call 'friends.' It's hard saying goodbye to these great people, but we have to help ourselves understand that it's not "goodbye forever" but more of a "see you later." People come out here for so many different reasons. The thing most of us have in common is we're not exactly sure what it is we're looking for and we have no idea how we're going to find it. Yet, we all seem to find ourselves through these wonderful friendships we create along our journey. We were never lost. We just needed to escape the everyday routine we were used to for so long. The same boring lifestyle that clouded our eyes and fogged up our view. There's something magical about this island. I'm sure I can speak for many people when I say that.

By the time I was on my 10th banana, it was getting closer to closing time. Erin and I were gonna take Daniele to the airport for her flight home. I played a quick round of guitar hero to show off my phenomenal HARD level skills- the song was Strutter. After failing the song, I stood up and blamed it on the 11th banana claiming "the bananas don't like Kiss, okay?" I don't think anyone bought it though. I played again on medium and managed to hit all the notes. My pride was back because well "oh, are you kidding? bananas looooove the Foo Fighters!"

All in all, it was a bittersweet night. I understand that the people I love are leaving for home and while the hostel may not be the same for me, it's just the way it goes. Nothing has changed at all. Amazing people come and go all of the time, and that's just how it's always going to be. On Sunday when I come home from Philly, I'll make my way to Little Beach. The bungaloids I know will be there with fresh faces, and I guarantee you that one of those faces will be another wonderful person. Yep, another wonderful person on a venture looking for something he/she doesn't fully realize is right inside of them.

To all of you on that journey: You don't know how lovely you are.