Hawaii 2007

Gotta recap my 2nd summer vacation of 07:
I am never traveling with my family ever again. Despite how much I love my parents, they can very muchso be the stereotypical annoying tourists, asking the dumbest questions, etc.

Saturday, September 15

• Left San Diego around 6 am for a 10 am Hawaiian Airlines flight at LAX
  
• My parents basically expected all the people at the counter to check you in, label your luggage, make sure it's on the plane, find seating, etc. It's too bad they were standing right in front of the electronic confirmation device and that was ridiculously easy to use...gah
• At the security checkpoint, the TSA employee who asks you for your ID and boarding pass asked my mom for her ID. She showed her driver's license and boarding pass. The TSA lady asked my mom to take her driver's license out of her wallet to show her, and my mom throws a hissy fit, eyes rolling included. Afterwards, of course she has some very lovely things to say about the quality of employees at the airport. I think there's a very basic idea to all of this and this is my advice. Chill. The. Fuck. Out. It's an airport, it's traveling and vacation time. If you're gonna bitch about the poor quality of employees at the airport, that's fine. Just remember that you'll get onto your plane towards your VACATION pissed off and annoyed. That's up to you. You think these people enjoy waking up in the wee hours of the morning to show up to the airport and deal with thousands of tourists daily? Yea not quite the most wonderful thing you'd want to wake up to every morning. So cut them some slack, and just listen to what they have to say instead of bitching. /rant
  
• I felt bad because I got one of the last decent meals and the lady sitting next to me couldn't have what I was having...which was fairly good food...
• Slept through Ocean's 13
• Arrived 5 1/2 hours later around 1 pm, exhausted and checked into the Ala Moana Hotel.
• Had dinner at Bubba Gump Shrimp Co.. Never had it before...Hawaii and I think we have one downtown.
  
  

Sunday, September 16

• My mom had her ASBMR meetings all day, and so my dad, brother, and I headed to the pool. We went to the Ala Moana Beach Park and tried to snorkel, saw absolutely nothing. Just lots of sand and rocks, and the water wasn't very clear.
• Had lunch in the Ala Moana Shopping Mall...holy crap that place is huge. It's like Fashion Valley combined with Horton Plaza. While there, my parents saw some old friends from Japan [this meeting had tons of people from Japan] and I was introduced to their daughter. Too bad she couldn't speak English and I couldn't speak Japanese. I will say that girl sure could dress. I feel hella awkward being introduced to family friends' daughters...
  
• Had dinner at Ruby Tuesday, another place that's prevalent in the mainland, and of course my first time is in Hawaii.
  
  
  
  Monday, September 17

• Mom had meetings again, so the gang went to Waikiki Beach. Roughly a 15 minute walk, and we set up camp near the Hilton Hawaiian Village. Clear water, saw hella sea urchins, some crabs, and schools of fishes.
• On the way to Waikiki, I just remembered that there was this man who was pulling out of a parking garage around...Ala Wai? And he pulled out too far and I was just about to cross the road. For the first time in my life, the driver pulls back and gestures that he's sorry. Does that happen in California? Hell no it doesn't. Props to that guy.
  
• Dinner with Professor Suda, my parents mentors in Japan at Roy's. Delicious. He apparently was awarded with the highest honor at the ASBMR meeting, so congrats to him. I haven't seen him since he last visited San Diego, which was a longgg time ago.
• Again, my parents saw some more friends, I was introduced to yet another daughter. The first one from Sunday was 20, I'm 19, and this girl was 18. What the hell?
  
  

Tuesday, September 18

• We really wanted to go to Hanauma Bay, but of course because we didn't plan, they're closed on Tuesdays. I'll def. have to come back and check it out.
• Ended up going back to Waikiki, this time taking the trolley to the Duke Kahanamoku statue. My dad asked if the trolley went to point F, the statue numerous times when the trolley pulling up explicitly said it was the Pink Line and the map said Pink Line Map... Then one trolley left while I was wandering around and my mom acted as if it was the last trolley ever, giving me an earful. Jeez, it's a vacation chill they come every 10 minutes. More snorkeling, it seemed promising, esp. with me seeing a big school of fish first time I went out, but then after that almost nothing except coral that decided to cut me. Yea thanks. Tried surfing, and I'll admit I sucked ass. Big time. Couldn't even stand up a single time, and ended up chafing like a fool using a softtop board as well as a standard board. Someday I will learn how to surf. You shall see.
• Dinner at Kobe Japanese Steakhouse. Much thanks to Mr. Ribao and the rest of the family for the hospitality and the amazing food. I'll def. have to come back and visit. Yum. Forgot to take a picture, oh well next time.
  

Wednesday, September 19

• Eaaaaarly morning flight at 8 am, which meant getting up at 5 am. Gah. Traffic on H1. Dude, Hawaiian freeways have traffic at 6 am. Traffic sucks.
• Saw Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, and that movie sucked. But I can live with a Jessica Alba movie. Mmm. The first one wasn't that great either to be honest.
• Got to LAX around 4 pm, decided that it was smart to drive through rush hour traffic back home...didn't get home til 6:30. Starvin' like Marvin. Typical post-vacation ramen dinner mmm.
  

Thatsssss it. Summer is almost over, I'm looking forward to the all campus dance Sunday, Week 0 festivities, and Fall Rush. Can't believe it's almost Fall Quarter. Gotta rock it. I start work on Tuesday, 8:30 am oof. We'll see how this goes. Good night.

Annoyed as fuck.

It's one of those days where every little annoyance bugs you incessantly.

Yesterday I had a 5-panel drug test. Never done that before, but yea this whole pre-job hiring stuff is pretty intensely legit.

Here's how today went:
The water purifier in our garage, it's this giant cylindrical tank, is leaking. What the fuck. There's a wooden table set up next to it where I've got a TV on top. Hooked to that is a PS2 and DDR pads, and the back legs of the table are starting to melt away basically. Gah. And then there's this crap with everybody overwatering their lawns and that leads to water building up on the pre-driveway part, you know like against the curb. And it's hot as hell recently, and so hella green shit has been growing in those nice little puddles, and no matter how much you sweep em into the sewer, they keep coming back because, you guessed it, everybody and they mamas is overwatering.

That was 5-10 minutes before I left for my fingerprinting, no biggie but just kinda irked. Then there was fingerprinting. Mind you I drove around for a fuckin good hour or so, damn you Google maps. It's not entirely Google's fault, they gave accurate directions, but instead of offering to tell me to make a right onto a large prominent street, it told me to take a right at a basically unmarked street. How the hell was I supposed to know? I drove up to Oceanside basically, that was friggin retarded. Past the 76 and everything. Granted I was supposed to go to the Carlsbad Police Department. CarlsBAD. Bah. I get there eventually, 1/2 an hour before they were stopping the fingerprinting thing and of course, I'm appointment-less. Here's where I'm pissed off. Wachovia utilizes a company called ChoicePoint to handle the administrative things as far as fingerprinting and drug screening go. They were really good with helping me get things set up and even sent me a fingerprinting kit overnight express and it got there the morning after. Great service so far. However, the lady who was helping me on the phone told me that as long as I went on a Thursday afternoon from 1-3:30, then it was all gravy at the C-bad PD. It wasn't. I needed an appointment and I obviously didn't have one. So I had to schedule an appointment for next week Thursday. What kinda crap is that? Thanks ChoicePoint receptionist #1. As for receptionist #2, she was good. She helped me rearranged my appointment so tomorrow I'm going to the YMCA off Camino Del Rio & the 8 to get this fingerprinting business handled. Gah. I better fucking get hired after all this here and there crap.

I've been having some vivid dreams recently, I can't remember all of them, or any at all actually, but I think it has to do with me sleeping deeper...you know why? Because I've been sleeping with the window open for the past week. Apparently that helps you sleep deeper and I've gotta say it's worked so far. One involved me on this crazy train/walking sidewalk from UCSD to SDSU. The hell?

I'm off to Hawaii in 2 days. I'm stoked. Sorry Lisa, we'll roadtrip it next time I promise. :]

Then there's Fall Quarter. Super stoked. So much to do, so much to do. I will most def. be keepin busy and that's something I'm going to hate and appreciate at the same time. Time to time managed effectively, instead of lounging around. Put that booty in motion.

September 3, 2007: Labor Day

Today you might be the object of someone else's attack. What did you do to deserve it? Maybe nothing, but right now that doesn't seem to matter. You still need to deal with the issues. Nevertheless, avoid getting hooked into complex situations just because you love someone deeply. Ultimately, everyone must take responsibility for his or her own problems.

Wow. What the fuck. Have you ever been frustruated with trying to explain something that's inexplicable? As in 'do you have a plan, are you prepared etc etc etc' and you answer with 'yes...' but that doesn't even begin to explain how you really feel? Because you're tired of dealing with the same fucking questions and coming up with 'new' explanations for each 'new' question? Gah.