One door closes, another opens

Well I am coming to an end of my stay here in Wisconsin and I am sad to see it ending. I have had a lot of fun and seen a lot of important people in my life. I was able to spend Christmas eve with all of my mom's side and seeing my goddaughter Kyra was wonderful, it was her first Christmas. Christmas day was very traditional I opened presents with mom and Bob which included beautiful diamond earrings and an ipod then I headed to dad's house for brunch with Grandma and Mert. Very nice, dad got me a new digital camera which everyone should be happy about because the current one doesn't always work. Overall Christmas was just how I remember it, full of family and fun.

I was also able to go out with friends a couple of nights. We celebrated Beth's birthday with the typical Nitty Gritty birthday mug and a group of friends in Madison and I also went out Thursday night to catch up with other friends. During the week Laura and I went for her first Bridal gown fitting and I think we picked out the bridesmaid dresses for her wedding in July.

I also did a lot of shopping with mom. As of right now I think I have 5 new pairs of shoes plus an assortment of other goodies. I just can't help shopping in Madison...Hawaii can't compare to good old JCPenny and Kohl's.

There is still a bit more of my adventure in Wisconsin as I am going to a wedding tomorrow and fly out on Sunday, New Years Eve. I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday and I'm glad I have such a great family and wonderful friends.

I made it home last night after two slight delays at San Francisco and Minneapolis. The sad part is that one of my bags did not make it to Madison. The one bag with my clothes and a few random items made it, but my bag of presents did not make it. As of right now we are awaiting a delivery man to bring the bag to the house...it supposedly made it to Madison this afternoon.

Whew....I can relax now. All of my grades have been posted in a super secretive place on the internet that only a select few can get to.... but here they are folks...

International Comm = B
Comm Law & Ethics = B
Qualitative Comm = A

Not too shabby!!!

OK here is the scoop... the Christmas party at our place was a lot of fun (maybe too much fun in some people's opinions). Sunday we went for Alexis' surprise ice skating party. It was actually a lot of fun.. ice skating in Hawaii...there was a group of five of us and then two other friends came later. Good times.

Work has been good... I keep getting presents. it's like Christmas everyday. I got this beautiful Hawaiian old bracelet from Jeannine, a couple gift cards, candy, etc. Plus I know there is one other thing on its way....Dr.Wee told me it was in Santa's sleigh and if it wasn't here before I left it will be a New Year's present.

Today I was home sick from work trying to nurse a sore throat so it doesn't bloom into a full on cold... I've slept alot and drank alot of fluid. My flight leaves Hawaii at 11pm tomorrow night.

My arrival in Madison is scheduled from Friday Dec 22nd, at 5:50pm. I look forward to seeing everyone!!

The semester is officially over as of 12:20pm Hawaii Standard Time. After a morning of shopping at the swap meet, waiting at the post office, and enjoying sweat bread french toast at the Hungry Lion I went to class. We had short presentations and pau.

This afternoon we did some light cleaning and preparing of pupu's for the holiday party tonight. We also had to make a run to Wal-Mart... not a good idea this close to Christmas especially on an island with nearly 900,000 people and only four Wal-Marts. The reason for our trip there... a new bed. Alexis' airbed finally gave out so she had to purchase a new one.

Whew...now I am ready to relax and enjoy the next five weeks without class... I think I'll start with a glass of wine :-)

Deadlines.... I guess I must love the pressure of them. For the first time in a long while I actually finished a paper days before it was due. And to be perfectly honest... I don't feel good about it. It's not the same feeling as when I am waiting until the last minute, hoping that it will be finished in time to hand in. I love the rush I guess... for instance tonight. Here I am blogging when I know darn well that my last assignment/paper of the semester is due tomorrow morning at 10:30am. In addition to it not being done...there is a bunch of other things I need to accomplish before class tomorrow. Like get ready for our Christmas party at the apartment tomorrow...I need to grocery shop, clean, start making some food, plus for other needs I have to go to the flea market in the morning and stop by the post office too. For a normal person that seems like a lot of stuff...then throw in the 10 page paper I am still needing to finish...don't go getting to worried for me, I will have it done. I actually already have 7 pages so really I am in the home stretch now....

Here's an idea...Let's get rid of Marie as my middle name and call me Natasha Procrastinator Piper. Now doesn't that sound good???

Oh yeah to throw more salt on the wound...I went out for Alexis' birthday last night instead of writing my paper... what a life I lead, at least I was the designated driver :-)

It's over and I think I passed this one :-)

I now have to finish a take home exam and write a 12 page paper (which I haven't started yet). But I feel better that LAW is over with.

Tomorrow is Alexis' birthday... it will be low key as we both have finals to work on. But hopefully we will make it to the hungry lion in the morning.

We started the day by finding a protective coating for my toe so I could go to the beach and swim. We went to church and then with our church twenty something group we went to the beach. Kate knew of a great little place somewhat sheltered from the North Shore waves. Before the beach, we stopped and picked up sandwiches, pickles, chips and sodas. It was a lot of fun, I love saying I went to the beach in the middle of December.

Pipemasters surf competition was on today, we didn't make it to pipeline but I'm sure it would have been cool.

We left the apartment at 9am this morning for a day of fun. We had plans, things planned out and U2 went and screwed up the whole day. Every Saturday there is a swamp meet at the Aloha Stadium. I had a list and was ready to get things taken care of before I fly home. No such luck...thanks to U2. They are in town performing at the stadium tonight so the cancelled the swap meet. So our next step was Macy's for a sale they were having, the lines were so long. Imagine being on an isolated island with only so many stores to shop at it is crazy here. Highlight of my time spent at Macy's was the sky cab. Pearlridge mall has at least two locations and there is an elevated tram that connects them for a small fee of fifty cents you can ride one way. It was well worth the money.

After a couple deep breaths we continued on our merry way eventually getting up to the North Shore and all of the traffic that brings. On Friday the two week period where the Pipemaster surf competition can take place started. So basically now until Dec. 20th there will be days with good waves and the competition will occur. Today's waves weren't too shabby but the competition was not in session. We did go to Pipeline beach with a bunch of other people to watch the waves.

After a long day, we were out of the house for 8 hours we finally got back to do some homework and watch Christmas movies.

Well finals are quickly approaching and everyone should already know that I am a huge procrastinator. Yes, I have waited again until close to the end to start my papers. I only have two due this semester but they are both 10-12 pages and they are research papers with theories. Tonight I finally decided to put some effort into my International Com paper, it is due Friday. So I think I made good progress, I have 6 pages so far. Plus we went to the University of Hawaii library tonight to get more resources (HPU has the worst library ever). Unfortunately, I stubbed my toe leaving the library. I actually ripped it open, not pretty, so now I am wearing some weird protector bandages on the toe, because everyone knows its hard to keep a band aid on your big toe.

We also took the time to finish our tree trimming. Mom and Bob sent a box of ornaments to help us decorate the tree and it looks pretty nice. Mind you this is a cheapo tree from Home Depot. I am including a picture of our tree and my work tree... I bet you cant tell which is which :-)

Well yesterday was our HPU faculty and staff Christmas party at the Pacific Club. It was pretty nice and very crowded. Not as much as fun as the President's Host Christmas party...but still nice. We got dressed up and mingled with everyone, had some wine and indulged in the chocolate fountain. Yesterday also happened to be Talsha's birthday so we went out for some drinks after the work party. It was a lot of fun but made for a very long night. I was one tired camper today...

Busy...busy...and more busy. I had two presentations this week which consumed a lot of my free time preparing for. Tuesday night was my COM law presentation ( it could have gone better) and Saturday was my Qualitative COM presentation (better than the law presentation). But I also had class on Friday night where we watched a movie about the Massey case, a very famous rape/murder case that happened here in 1931/1932 involving locals and a naval family. It was worth watching, very interesting.

The highlight thus far was my President's Host Christmas party on Wednesday night. It was from 6-8pm at Sorentos, a fancy restaurant at the top of the Ilikai hotel in Waikiki. It was a lavish event. Invite only thrown by the President of the University. We had prime rib, lamb, ribs, chicken, all the fixings. They also gave us two drink tickets and Santa came. I lucked out and got a present...an HPU sweatshirt. I mingled around with a bunch of people from the University, mainly the President, Senior Vice Presidents, Deans and a few faculty members. It was a really nice event.

Last night I capped off the week with Talsha's birthday party. Apparently Karaoke is a HUGE thing here. There are actually places that you can rent Karaoke rooms where you can bring your own food and drink. It was a bit overwhelming as everyone got pretty loud in a small space. But I sang some songs....Miami by Will Smith and Lynn and I sang, Save a Horse ride a Cowboy by Big and Rich, that was a party stopper. I don't think the crowd we were with was into country music, LOL.