One door closes, another opens

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!

I have plans of going to Waikiki tonight to see all the ghosts and ghouls. I woke up with a bit of a sore throat so I hope I feel better as the day progresses...

Have a scary day!!

Here are a few pictures from my friend Lynn's birthday adventure this past weekend. We were out on the town and ran into some furry friends....gotta love the holiday spirit.

So Tuesday night we got our mid-term exams back in COM Law and Ethics. But before she could hand them back she told us about the results. She actually stood at the board and compared us to other classes. She told us that our class average was a 62.4%, no one got A's only two people got B's and those were on the low side. Then she offered us a bunch of work for a few extra credit points, including our groups preparing a mock trial. Which of course I, along with everyone else will do because we need to raise our grades. But even after she wrote everything on the board she still decided to lecture a bit and then have myself and another girl give our presentations before we actually saw our grades. Needless to say I was a bit shell shocked trying to give my presentation.

No I am not here to happily report I received one of the B's... but I was fairly average...The interesting part was that our professor had the nerve to ask if it was her, if she was she a bad teacher. I thought she was pretty good but it is odd that so many students did so bad on the mid-term...

Saturday was a bad day for me. I went to class and did not want to be there at all. I had big plans of shopping at the outlet mall after class. Which I did but don't worry I only bought two things. Anyway, when I arrived at the outlet I parked the car between two other cars. When I came back from shopping I noticed a motorcycle had been parked next to me. As I am sitting in the car getting ready to back out I hear a bang. I kind of looked around but saw nothing so I thought maybe a palm leaf had fallen on top of the car. But no, I looked around again an noticed the motorcycle wasn't next to me anymore and there was a little blue car backed half way into the spot. Yes that's right some stupid person "didn't see" the motorcycle parked there and backed into it causing it to tip over and hit Alexis' car. I got out and yes there was a bit of damage, a couple scratches and a bit of a dent. The woman was stunned so I had her lift the bike off my car so I would be able to leave, I got her name and number and told her she better at least leave a note for the owner of the bike. She said she would wait for the owner to come back. SO I get ready to leave and the lady has the nerve to come up an tell me that I took her cell phone. Man that lady was Luckily that I was already in the car. I was not a happy camper. So instead of going to Old Navy I was upset and drove home to tell Alexis.... she didn't even go to look at it. As long as it was drivable she was pretty cool.... whew.

Next mishap of the day... I had gotten FREE tickets to a Hawaiian Winter Baseball game from Talsha for last night. So Alexis, Lynn, Amanda and I were going to it. As we were getting ready I looked at the tickets and found out the game was scheduled for 7pm instead of 6pm...not that big of a deal. Then I noticed that the four tickets weren't together. Two were in row 5 seats 9 & 10 and the other two were in row 6 seats 1 & 2. Again not that bad. The girls arrive at 5pm. I tell them the news about the time and seats. No big deal we go to get some cash at the ATM and I look at the tickets again. Hmm.... October 20th? That doesn't seem right..... yeah folks, we had missed the game by a whole day. How crappy is that? At least they were all cool with it.. they laughed at me and I felt bad but life goes on... So anyone who knows me, knows I don't make mistakes like that often if ever. I usually plan and am in charge of things like that all the time. So this incident... I blame the fact that the tickets were free and I swear Talsha said they were for Saturday.

The week went by pretty fast. I think I am finally sleeping better at night, I don't think there is an earthquake every time I lay down. The week was busy with work and school. I had a midterm Tuesday in COM law & ethics, I think it went ok. As for the rest of the week...here are the highlights...I ate at Genki Sushi (which is weird, you sit and the sushi circles the restaurant on a conveyor belt so you pull off what you want) and I also went to Wal-Mart last night where we bought a pumpkin. Really exciting!!!

Sunday October 15, 2006
6 a.m
Kristal wakes me up so we can attempt to swim in an outdoor saltwater pool. She checks the conditions and finds that there is no entry at that time.
7:07 a.m.
I have decided to rest a little longer on the pull out couch in the living room, Kristal is on the lanai drinking coffee and dad is in the back of the suite showering. We start to hear a slight rumble, like a suitcase rolling across the floor above, then there is a slight shaking. At this point Kristal is entering the suite and I am hoping out of bed. The hotel starts to shake violently making it hard to walk into the hallway. We head towards the back, I brace myself in the bathroom doorway and Kristal braces herself in the bedroom doorway so she can also call to dad. He gets out of the shower. The power goes out...Kristal and dad say they could still feel the building swaying...I was shaking too much to know if it was me or the building.
7:14 a.m.
Dad goes back to finish his shower. Kristal and I talking in the hallway, I'm still shaking. Then I remember hearing about aftershocks. Just as I voiced it we got hit again. Not as intense but close. Luckily we were already in the hall way by door frames. Again we had to call dad out of the shower....
7:20 a.m.
Kristal goes to check downstairs in the lobby and I hop into the shower. It is still dark but I just wanted to get clean and get out.
7:35 a.m.
power is restored and we immediately try to find the news channels....CNN and Foxnews were the only options. We were able to find out that the quake's center was six miles from us and we had just experienced a 6.6 on the Richter scale followed by a 5.8 aftershock. Plus Oahu had been hit with a 4.8 quake. I stated making phone calls shortly after but there was no success. All circuits were busy. I was finally able to text message Alexis and she was ok.
10:20 a.m.
The government was asking for no one to drive so we decided to take a walk into town. The first place we went to was a liquor store where the owner was standing in the doorway taking peoples orders. A good majority of their alcohol had fallen off the shelves and the store was a mess. We continued on...most of Kona was still out of power. Some places didn't have running water. But overall people were pretty calm. While out walking I finally got a hold of mom... I had been thinking all morning that she already knew about it and was worried sick..haha...she had no idea, which I guess is better since I was able to tell her I was ok before she heard the news.
1:00 p.m.
I took a nap and awoke to find 4 voicemails a few text messages and a person even called me while I was checking my phone. I returned calls including one from Mitch Webber at Channel 27 in Madison. He did a phone interview with me and it aired Sunday night. HE also got a picture from mom and Bob of me to display on the screen.
4:30 p.m.
Our plane was supposed to leave Kona but was delayed until a plane from Honolulu arrived at about 5:50 p.m. During this time Kristal found out their flight back to Wisconsin that evening was cancelled and rescheduled to Tonight (Monday).
7:00 p.m.
We arrive to a dark Honolulu. The earthquake had triggered something and caused an island wide black out for most of the day. Alexis picked us up.... the streets were dark, no stop lights but an occasional police officer directing traffic at busier intersections. We got home ate peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and played games by the candle light.
12:24 a.m.
I awoke to the fan turning on...17 hours after the earthquake my apartment got power.

I am including some pictures from our hotel in Kona...the top picture is part of the cracks the bedroom wall sustained from the quake. The two below are our kitchen and how all the cabinets and drawers opened and the other is the 4th floor balcony that has a steady stream of water cascading over the lanai (major water damage).

I am fine... there were no major injuries or damage. My flight was delayed a few hours from Kona to Honolulu but I made it. Power came on around 12:30am. When I have more time I will detail my events and show some pictures.

Well today I am heading off to Kailua-Kona on the Big Island. It has been a busy week with school and dad visiting. I haven't spent as much time as I would like to with him and Kristal but it has been nice. I was able to take some "sick" time on Thursday afternoon. Dad and Kristal came and met me at my office we did lunch and then went to Hanama Bay to go snorkeling. It was fun, neither of them had snorkeled in the past and dad doesn't really like the water. But they tried it and had fun.

Friday morning I received an email telling me that I have been accepted by the President of HPU as one of the new President Hosts. A President Host is a position that is a very big honor at HPU. You have to have to maintain a 3.0 gpa, be nominated by a faculty or staff member, go through an interview process, a board then reviews all applicants and finally the president approves or disapproves the nominee. Luckily my former boss, Dean Whitfield nominated me and I was selected. I will receive a wonderful sweatshirt and be required to help host important presidential events and mingle with trustees, donors and other important people. I'm really excited! The president goes all out on these events and its usually at really swanky places around town plus an open bar at most of them.

With a busy day at work and a group presentation at night made for a hectic day. Dad and Kristal were set to arrive in Honolulu at 5:15pm get a cab and go to their hotel. My plan was to meet them Saturday after my class...but I got a phone call a little after 3pm...they had arrived, early. They were heading to their hotel.... around 4:45pm they called again. Something was wrong with their reservation so I rushed home, they got a cab to my apartment I visited for a bit then headed to class a little late.... It was a rush but it was good to see them...so they stayed the night then I took them to their hotel after my class today..... the beginning of a busy week with work, school and visiting.

I love my friends....I love that you can make new friends but keep the old (I borrowed that from the girl scouts). I think I am meeting some pretty wonderful people here in Hawaii and I know I have some amazing lasting relationships from college and even high school. I love all of them and they each hold a special place in my heart.

I just wanted to say thank you to all my friends and I love you all!!!

Saturday night in Waikiki

I attended the premiere of LOST the hit ABC television show filmed on the island. It was held at Queens beach in Waikiki. All the stars were there plus we got to see the episode 5 days before it airs nationally on Wednesday night. So here's how my night went...we arrived after the red crpet arrivals started and unfortunately my camera wasn't working great. After the red carpet we walked around a bit...there were over 15,000 people at the beach to watch this. So there weren't many good spots on the sand left. Therefore we walked around and watched the stars leave (no, most of them didn't stay for the show). So the sad part of my story is that I didn't really watch LOST (but hey...I can see it on Wednesday night like the rest of the country).

The actors I saw included (by character name) Locke, Jin, Hurley, Kate, Jack, Desmond, Mr. Eko, Sawyer, Claire, Charlie, and a few new characters which they introduced. I will post a few of the pictures and you can see how they turned out.....

After the premiere we went to Chili's for dinner and we ran into Tim Chapman from the DOG the Bounty Hunter... he was eating with his family. BONUS : -) And no I did not take a picture of or with him.