One door closes, another opens

I think I am going to like it, a bit slower than previous jobs I have had but it will be a nice change. One of the exciting things I did was copy 81 pages of a book for someone. I also met with HR and found out about my benefits. My health insurance actually starts on Feb 1st and its a really good deal. Here in Hawaii people hardly pay anything for their insurance, in fact I heard you only need to work 20 hours a week to qualify for medical. That's pretty nice.

I also had class last night, I was feeling a bit under the weather but I made it. Unfortunately, I have some type of stomach bug and am not going in today. I feel bad not going my second day of work but I can't see spending the majority of my time there in the bathroom. One more day and I can go to the doctor.

So after last night, we are seriously considering purchasing some sort of car. The Bus system here is usually pretty decent at least during the week. But come the weekend, they shorten the schedule. Last night we went to the bus stop a little after 8pm, buses are supposed to run every 30 mins on the weekend. We didn't even see a bus until 9:15pm. Then we had to transfer buses which was another 30 mins of waiting. All in all, it took us 2 hours to travel about 6 miles arriving around 10pm and the establishment we were going to closed at midnight. Thankfully the cab fare home was only $12, as the Bus stops running at 10:30pm on the weekends.

Overall, the night was enjoyable. We ended up meeting our next door neighbor when we came home (very nice guy) and made a few phone calls.

Yes that's right.... I was offered the job I wanted. I am so excited. I will be working 40 hours a week with awesome benefits. Only downside is that I start work Monday. No more days off to lounge around. I also purchased a bus pass today. Now I am free to roam around the island.

We got our internet installed at home and I made another friend that has a vechicle. Things are going really well.

I am looking forward to an enjoyable weekend, after class tomorrow at 8am.

Yes that's right....I made a friend at class tonight. She actually went to college in Ashland Wisconsin. Her name is Heidi and she is originally from Minnesota. Class was awesome. The professor was really cool, I think I am going to really enjoy the class. We met Alexis at an underground bar, Art's Hide-a-way, what a friendly place. Art, the owner, was really cool introducing us to everyone. He also gave us free french fries and a round a round of drinks.

We stopped at Safeway for a few things on the way home, and it turns out my new friends lives on the other side of my block, I can see her building from my lanai.

Overall...a good day.

For those of you that are unfamiliar with the term...it is a flying cockroach around 2 inches in size. Yes last night while sitting on our floor getting ready to go to sleep Alexis and I both saw a large black spot scurry across the floor. We instantly freaked out. We put shoes on, grabbed bug spray and the broom.

The little bugger went under the fridge but was daring and came back out. What a fast little bugger he was. We sprayed the heck out of him and I smacked him with the broom. Success.

We figure he was traveling alone, as of now, we have a gap under our front door (we are waiting for our screen door) once that is fixed it will be harder for the critters to enter. Our apartment is like a dorm, made out of concrete and we keep it very clean.......yet we still looked into the Orkin Man.

It was finally here...my first day back to school. Alexis started her first day at work so I walked downtown with her. I stopped by the place I had applied for a job to drop off new contact information. They told me I was still in the running and into the next tier. I should hear more this week.

After that I went to purchase my books. A lot of money....I used to rent books at Point.

Class started at 5:15pm it was pretty good. Sounds like it should be pretty interesting. I only have to write 1 paper around 30 pages. It was a short class because it was the first meeting. I met Alexis after class (she stayed downtown after work to meet me) we went to Zippys for dinner. Not a bad day.

We met our landlord at noon to sign our lease. We found out that our building has a rooftop recreation area, bonus. It took nearly an hour to sign all the papers and go over the check-in process. We had to furnish the apartment as best we could by 2pm Sat (when we had to return our rental car). And since we hadn't planned as well as we could have we had to return our nice Trail Blazer and get a Chevy HHR (a mini SUV).

So we were off... all over the island. We must have went to Walmart 5 times in that 24 hour period. We got all the basics, trash cans, ziploc bags, shower curtain, pots, towels, etc. If you haven't started from scratch to furnish your home...DON'T. Those hand me downs from family are a blessing. By the end of Friday we had settled on beds..... me a futon (the last one) and Alexis an inflatable queen size bed (pretty cool). Our first night sleeping here was kinda scary. We aren't in the country anymore.

Saturday morning we went to a Swapmeet and got a few things then continued shopping..... by the end of Saturday, we still had nothing to sit on in the living room but we have a coffee table and tv/tv stand.

The nest few days we relaxed and unpacked.

Monday was a holiday so we didn't do a whole lot. Alexis had an interview at Home Depot and we spent some time driving around checking out apartments.

Tuesday was a good day. We both had interviews in the downtown area. Mine at my school and Alexis had one at a temp agency. We met after the interviews for lunch at Aloha Tower. Before lunch was over, Alexis had two interviews for bookkeeping jobs. While she left me to interview I received THE CALL. Yes we got the apartment we wanted! I was so excited. As was Alexis once she found out. We went back and started planning the week as we couldn't move into the apartment until Friday. The day just kept getting better, Alexis got a call later in the afternoon and was offered a job. Awesome.

The rest of the week went slow, we actually laid out at the beach and relaxed (a bit). We even went out Wednesday night for the first time. If I haven't already said this... Hawaii doesn't have any country radio stations on the FM dial. So we were really happy to find a country bar in Waikiki. What an experience that was.......

We started our day off by looking at a 2 bedroom 1 bath apartment near a strip mall. Very clean and roomy. The only problem is another set of girls looked at it at the same time. The y are locals had jobs and their parents were willing to co-sign. We both applied at the same time.

We decided to relax and drive around the island. We went to Haliewa and ate at Pizza bobs. Alexis wanted to sit outside. This was our first encounter with a lizard. One was sitting on the bench next to me, luckily we hadn't gotten our food yet when we decided to move back inside.

We finished our ride around the island and came back via the mountains. It was a nice day.

Today we went to see rental units. We started with a small house within walking distance of school. The owner was very friendly and basically told us we could have it if we wanted it. To our dismay the house was way too small. Two people couldn't fit in the kitchen, the bathroom was only a shower stall and the bedrooms could barely hold the children's bunk beds that were in the room. All that for a steal of $1400 a month.

The next apartment was in a "nice neighborhood" for $900 a month. It wasn't too bad...until we got inside and saw the small dark bathroom that you stepped down into. The rental process is very competitive. This was the first place that we saw other people filling out applications as we looked at it. Yes we filled one out and hoped that we wouldn't be called.

to enjoy our evening an de-stress we got some food and went to a movie. With all the expenses here we were happy to find a movie theater for $1, we saw Jarhead.

I woke up at 5:30am, Alexis was already up. Today was the day to crack down on our apartment search. We made a few calls yesterday but got no where. We found several addresses and started driving by apartments, we were informed that was the best way shop for apartments. A lot of the places we drove by were in poor condition, yucky neighborhoods, and not a lot going for them. At times I was ready to cry as was Alexis. She wasn't prepared for the "concrete jungle" as she calls it.

As the day ended we had made 3 appointments to view apartments tomorrow, including a promising house near school.

After a long plane ride that started in Chicago at 7 am with a stop in San Francisco, we finally arrived in Honolulu at 2:20pm. The first leg of the flight was good, not too many people on the plane but the second flight was packed. Recommendation..... upgrade to business/first class or at least an asile seat.

Once off the plane I realized I hadn't acctivated my credit card...after a bunch of phone calls I finally got it straightened out. We rented a midsized car at Alamo. The lady liked me so she upgraded us to a Trail Blazer ( no worries about fitting all of our luggage). Upon arrival at our hotel in Hawaii we also got a room upgrade. Things were looking good.

We were pretty tired so we took a short walk around Waikiki and then ate some Mexican food. We were asleep by 8pm.