Fear the Crab

I spent Christmas Day with Maile and her family, and ate dinner there. They had honeyed ham and other goodies like stuffing and salad and mashed potatoes. It was very nice and great company. In fact, I think I shall visit her tomorrow as well.

After work I stopped by Maile’s classmate’s house and joined them at the tail end of their party. I met the husband, who seems like a nice guy, as well as a few of their friends and neighbors. There was one girl who at first glance looked like a young version of Natalie Portman, but I only had a quick glance before they left. I don’t even remember the name anymore.

I ate some food that was leftover, and I enjoyed Maile’s chicken drummettes, which are always good (despite whatever she thinks).

I must remember to pick up my brother at the airport tomorrow night.

Maile, George and I joined George at Bucca di Beppo, an Italian restaurant, for his birthday. It was a surprise party, because George had no idea everyone else was going to be there. His girlfriend planned the whole thing. There were other people, too, that were from George’s side of the social circle, and they were pretty cool, what few we managed to talk to. A couple of them reminded us of other people. There was a guy named Stacy (sp?) who reminded me of Reid, and another guy named Ken who reminded me of Richard. It wasn’t really a case of looks, it was more because of their actions, or little movements of body language that just screamed of similarity.

Speaking of screaming, when Maile and I went to pick George up, we idled some time waiting for the guy to finish work. We took a few pictures with my digital camera, and one picture Maile took of me standing next to my truck was.. well, interesting. There were these hazy swirls of white that suddenly appeared in the photo, and it’s not present in any of the others we took before or after. I can’t rightly explain it good enough, but it freaked us out because we can’t explain it. You can kinda see me and my truck through the white swirls, and that is very clear, so the camera wasn’t moving. And it’s a digital camera, so I don’t think there’s a problem with any double exposures. Weird.

After the dinner the three of us went upstairs to Dave & Busters for a drink and a few games. Combined we managed to acquire about 2000 tickets, bringing our running total up to a little over 17k. We actually don’t know what we’ll use those tickets for, but since all the good things are in the 50k and up range, it’ll be a while before we have to think about it.

Maile has a final to take tomorrow, then has to study for another on Thursday. I only have one final on Thursday, but I also plan to wash my truck tomorrow. Hopefully I’ll wake up early enough to get that done, but it’s been raining these past few days, so I’m not sure just how effective my little chore will be.

Forgot to post Thursday. Nothing much happened, though. I spent a good portion of my morning trying to fix my homework assignment, and even went so far as to ask the professor for help. Not that it’s a bad thing to ask the prof for help, after all, that’s what they’re there for. But it was the first time I had to ask the professor for help, and it seemed her answer to my problem was something I had already figured out; I just didn’t know it was the answer until then. Still, it took me until later in the afternoon to fix my homework, but it was very satisfying to get it over with.

Friday started off as an okay day, then it turned lousy, and then it turned better. The lousy part began when I went to work, and there was a major traffic jam on the highway. I left the house at 1715 hours and didn’t get to work until 1900. I spent an hour and 45 minutes on the road in stop-and-go traffic. What sucked is that I was supposed to start at 1830, so I ended up being late and getting into trouble. I found out later that a good portion of Waikiki’s roads were closed because of some silly block party they were having to celebrate the grand opening of a shopping complex. Add to that a traffic accident on one of the freeway off-ramps, a concert at the Waikiki Shell, and the first round of the NCAA women’s volleyball tournament, and that’s plenty of reason for me to stress out at work.

Thankfully, hanging out with friends and talking on the phone with Maile helped make the day end gracefully. I went to Zippy’s with some co-workers and ate breakfast food. I also drank a lot of coffee, so I’ll probably stay awake for the next four hours. I could use this time to help Maile with her homework, but she wants to do it herself, so she didn’t send me stuff to look at. Her homework is not due until Tuesday, but then she has another assignment due the next day. This is all for the same class. I don’t know what the professor was thinking, or perhaps the professor wasn’t thinking, because I’ve never heard of anyone giving two assignments one after the other and expect them due within a few hours of each other. Hopefully tomorrow or Sunday I can help Maile alleviate some of that work.

I got my Eddie Izzard “Dress to Kill” DVD, and was pleasantly surprised to find some extra material that wasn’t included in the HBO showing. I also got Robin Williams’ Live on Broadway DVD, and I hope that, too, contains extra stuff.

I worked eight hours today, and I managed to make it through without going insane. It’s been quite a long time since I’ve had a full day of work; for the past year or so I’ve had 4 to 5 hour days. What helped me get through was the time I spent trying to figure out my homework assignment, even though I’m not supposed to be doing such things while on the clock. In the end, all that coding may be for naught, as one of the requirements for the assignment was that “no other data structures are allowed to manipulate data.” I found it easier to use one kind of data structure, but I’m not entirely sure if it’s allowed. As I think about it more and more, it’s probably not allowed. Which means I’ll have to redo my entire code, and redo it in a more complicated and difficult manner. I sent an email to my professor regarding that requirement, but I can’t expect a reply until Monday. I also sent an email to one of my classmates because he has access to codes from previous years, and hopefully one of those codes will contain an outline of what I need to finish this assignment. However, as before I may have to wait until Monday.

I ate at Anna Miller’s for dinner, because I wasn’t sure if there was anything in the fridge at home for me to eat and I didn’t want to go home to find out and have to drive off again. I figured that if there was something to eat, it can wait for tomorrow’s lunch or dinner. At Anna Miller’s I had the pancake sandwich, which is just two pancakes, an egg, and two strips of bacon or links of sausage (I chose the sausage). It didn’t bother me that I was eating by myself, though some company would have been nice.

I enjoyed a most delicious dinner at Maile’s house. There was plenty of good food, including the turkey, and Maile cooked up this sweet batch of yams. She used marshmallows! It was so cool! There was the aroma of rice krispie treats and the taste of such on the tip of my tongue. I had two servings. We also had stuffing (one of my personal favorites), salad, mac salad (which I don’t really eat), rice (gotta have rice), and cheesecake for dessert.

In addition to that wonderful feast, I watched too much tv and typed too much on the computer. So now my eyes hurt and my back is probably all thrown out of whack. Can’t beat a good meal, though.

Today’s quote:
“Once you have the stick in your hand, mount it!”
— Madame Hooch

Tuesday:
Went to school, and had a school day. It rained off and on, but never to the point where I had to open up my umbrella. Slept over at Maile’s house

Wednesday:
Woke up at 0600 hours and never looked back. Applied some Rain-X on my windshield because water just wasn’t beading up like it used to. Spent some time online and basically was a bum. Maile came home at around 1200 and brought lunch, which was sweet of her. We left the house at 1300 hours or so to conduct the day’s activities.

First we went to her mom’s working place because the mom forgot her lunch. We dropped that off, then assembled a bookshelf for the store so that the desk in the office could be more organized.

Went to Ala Moana and started our Christmas shopping spree. We first browsed through Macy’s, then Shirokiya, then a whole bunch of other places. While in Shirokiya, I ran into Min, who was there to buy dinner before he started work. I was finally able to introduce Maile to Min, since neither of the two had seen each other before, but both have heard about the other.

By the time dinner rolled around, I was dead tired. I think I was actually tired after lunch, but it didn’t hit me until 1700. Maile and I planned to eat at Bubba Gump’s, so that’s why we stayed at Ala Moana. The food was good, though a bit spicy, and the service was pretty on it. At least, they were very “happy.” I had a beer (Kirin draft) while Maile had what was called an Orange.. something. It basically tasted like a creamsicle with orange juice in it. For the meal I had a fish sandwich, which was excellent, and Maile had Shrimp New Orleans, which was also excellent. However, we were both feeling kinda full from the chips and dip we got as an appetizer, so it was unfortunate that we weren’t able to finish the meal.

I’m going to try and keep my hair long this time. With the occasional trim, of course.

I didn’t post yesterday because I fell asleep early. I guess I was just that tired. I woke up 11 hours later and had a nasty cotton-mouth, which is odd because I never drank anything. I think it’s all the vog in the air with the Kona winds blowing in.

Yesterday was a bit eventful, too. On my way in to work I nearly got into a traffic accident as a truck got a flat tire. Unfortunately, the driver decided to slow to a stop as he tried to move to the shoulder, and nearly caused a chain reaction as we all tried desperately to avoid him. Given the heavy rain earlier in the evening, the roads were still slick. It’s a miracle nobody hit anything.

I bought the Kikaida DVD as promised. Not much else to say about that.

Last night Maile and her mom gave Keoni an choice. He could either stay at the house under strict rules (no stealing, lying, or drugs), or he could go out on the street and face whatever consequences there. He chose the street. He explained this choice by saying that since he was eventually going to jail, he might as well do what he likes before then. Unfortunately, his likes involve stealing Maile’s jewelry and trying to swindle the other family members out of money. And he likes crack.

Discovered today that he came back to the house. His excuse was that he wanted to do laundry, and he wanted money. He also gave some sob story about how it’s so hard on the street, but Maile just reminded him that it was his choice. Tonight he’s going to return and the mom is going to have a “chat” with him.

I’ve decided that I will drop my math class, or at the very least, talk to my professor about it. I’m so borderline it’s scary. I’m really worried that the exams will sink me below the level of passing, so I figure I will drop the class now and get a W (for withdrawal), but still attend the rest of the classes so I can get the material. I’m going to ask if I can also continue to turn in the assignments and take the exams, just to get an idea of whether or not I understand this shit. It’s too bad I can’t get my money back, but it’s better than getting a D or F in the class.

Ate dinner at Assagio’s in Mililani. I had a chicken and shrimp special with a spinach garlic wine sauce over a bed of linguine. Maile had the chicken linguine anchovy olio, or something along those lines. Not bad.

Christopher’s 1st birthday party was decent enough. There was a lot of food for a lunchtime party, enough to make one believe it was a dinner. Three types of salads, jello, cheeses, fruits, chicken, fish and smoked fish, shrimp, crab legs, and prime rib. In addition, there was a dessert table with mousses, tarts, eclairs, and other goodies. One person at our table filled her plate with nothing but desserts.

Frank DeLima made an appearance. His act was pretty good, though it was very tame compared to his other works. It’s natural, of course, considering that this was a children’s party and he really couldn’t let loose. Maile and I left shortly after Frank’s act, because we were tired and I had to work later in the evening. Actually, we both didn’t want to go, but because it was at the Hale Koa and Henry paid by guest, we would have felt really bad if we didn’t attend. I’d say it was worth it.

At work, however, I began to wish I had taken a nap. It was really slow, and that only made me feel more tired. My feet began to hurt and the rest of my body felt tight, as though I could crack every bone. I barely made it home, and I think I drifted onto the shoulder twice while driving.

Tonight and tomorrow I will help Maile with some of her history notes.

Bought more socks today. Same size and type as before, those lightweight hiking socks that seemed to only come in women’s sizes. They’re very comfortable, though.

Bought the End of Evangelion DVD. Haven’t watched it yet, mostly because I’ve already seen it and bought it just to complete my collection.

Bought dinner at Jurison’s Inn in Waikele. They have some good mochiko chicken, with a sauce that they make themselves. It’s a bit of a sweet sauce, and seems to go well with the chicken.

Bought some Listermint and a couple of packs of cigarettes. The Listermint because it’s better than Listerine, according to lab tests conducted by Maile at LCC. It kills more germs, and it tastes better. Not to mention, you don’t get that burning feeling when using it. The cigarettes I got because I’ll only be smoking at home, so I left them in the freezer to stall the staleness from sinking in.

I bought a lot of stuff today. Thank goodness tomorrow’s payday.