My trip to Hawaii

Ok... So I read my buddy Alex's blog, and his post about his road trip inspired me to post about my trip to Hawaii.

We got to Hawaii on Thursday. My aunt and cousins who I haven't seen in over 10 years came to meet us at the airport. It just so happened that they were visiting Hawaii from Korea (they grew up in Hawaii, but my uncle is a doctor with the Army, so they are now stationed in Korea). My cousins are so big now! Last I saw them they were around 3 and 6... and now they are 13 and 16. After that we drove to the hotel. We got to the hotel around 1 pm, and they told me that the rooms wouldn't be ready until 3 pm. We put our luggage back into the car and proceeded to walk around Waikiki.

I'm always amazed at how many ABC stores there are in Waikiki. I mean they are on every block, and sometimes you can find 2 or 3 on the same block. I imagine its like Starbucks in San Francisco. And all the ABC stores have the same stuff in it. Why do you need 2 or 3 on a block? I think you can find one in each hotel. I mean it seems silly to me. But I guess whoever owns them are filthy rich, as each one is packed with tourists.

So we headed back to the hotel around 3. We stayed at the Park Shore hotel at the end of Kalakaua Ave. Let me tell you. That hotel is a DUMP. First off there are 17 floors on that hotel, and they have only 3 elevators that service all 17 floors (well 18 floors according to the elevator, but there isn't a 13th floor due to superstition... it's very common in buildings in Hawaii). Between the hours of 6am and 6pm, you can use the stairs if you want. However, after 6pm the doors on the first and second floors are armed with alarms that go off if you exit them. So essentially there are 2 elevators for a hotel that is full and has 17 floors. Sometimes you'd have to wait 15 minutes just to be able to get an elevator back to your room. That is the LAMEST thing EVER. Oh, the rooms aren't air conditioned either. It's ridiculous. There was a fan that kept the room cooler than it was outside, but you couldn't control the temperature so that sucked. I mean honestly, it was cold enough, but I'm still going to complain about that.

That night we had dinner with my aunt, my 2 cousins, her brother and his wife, their 2 kids, and her younger sister. I hadn't seen any of them in over 10 years, so it was really nice to get a chance to see all of them again. We did a lot of catching up, and they all made fun of the orange car I was driving around. Did I mention that the rental place gave me an ORANGE Chevy Cobalt. Man I think they wanted to label me as a tourist. It kills me that I'm a tourist now. I grew up on Oahu. I lived there for over 15 years. I'm off the island for 10 years and I'm considered a tourist. People even called me Katonk, which is what I thought was reserved for mainland born Japanese, but turns out can be used for any mainland Asian. How sad.

The next day we met up with a good family friend of mine. He and his brother used to lock me in the closet at church when I was a little kid. They also used to make me imagine that they were stabbing me full of needles and injecting me with all sorts of poisons. I never believed them so when they "injected" me, they would punch me where they were injecting so it would hurt. Hehe... I must have been about 5 when they did this to me, and I still remember it clearly. It's bizarre what children remember isn't it?

So we met up at Kahala Mall. I took my digital camera so we could get some pictures and I could show my family. Well, my stupid camera decides to magically jump out of my pocket. I didn't realize I had lost my camera until we had gotten back to the hotel. I raced back to Kahala Mall, and checked every store I went into, and the lost and found for the mall, and no one had it. The security guards told me that they get a lot of kids running through the mall, so the chances are very slim that anyone who found it would actually return it. I just made some kid really happy let me tell you. They're now running around with pretty much a brand new camera and a 1 gb secure digital memory card. I mean I know I'm stupid for losing it, but if you're a parent, how can you let your child use a stolen camera? I mean really? If I had a kid, and they came home with some camera, I'd smack them and make them return it. Then I'd smack them for not returning it in the first place. Oh well...

On Saturday we went to the North Shore. We had to get back for my cousin's birthday, so we were at Waimea beach for about an hour, then we had to drive back. Because it was a Saturday, it took us about 2 and a half hours to get from Waikiki to Waimea Bay. That is ridiculous. But the island of Oahu is so crowded these days. Anyway, we get back to the car and I have a parking ticket. Turns out I parked in a no parking zone. Another car was parked there, and I didn't see a no parking sign, so I thought we were alright. Well turns out there was a sign a ways up, but it was bent in some funky way, and I didn't see it. Oh well... another $50 down the drain.

We stopped in to Matsumoto's in Haleiwa for shave ice on the way back home. I can't explain how much I miss that stuff. It doesn't get much better than a rainbow shave ice with vanilla ice cream on the bottom. Good stuff. The way back only took about 2 hours, and I was able to get to Buca Di Bepo for my cousin's birthday by 6.

After dinner, we returned to Waikiki and walked around. We just walked on Kalakaua Ave. I tried to count the number of hookers that were working the streets, and sadly I only saw 3. It has become a tradition to always count the hookers in Waikiki. Last year, we counted at least 15. Either this is a bad time for hooking, or the cops have been doing a good job cracking down on it. I mean there was a time when every street corner was packed with them. It always made me sad because there were some beautiful girls out there hooking. These aren't your every day crack whore garden variety hookers. I mean Hawaii has some FINE hookers. Japanese business men have a lot of money to spend, so some high class hot hookers used to walk the streets. But the days seem to have passed.

Sunday morning was the wedding. It was at 9 am (can you believe it was so early), and was held at the Sheraton Waikiki. This was just the reception. They had the ceremony on August 2, and held the reception on the 14th. Not a bad idea. I got to see friends I hadn't seen in a while so that was awesome. And Alisa was beautiful. She's always been a cute girl, but to see her in her wedding dress was something else I tell you.

Monday we took to ourselves. We spent the whole day on the north shore at Waimea Bay. Michelle loves that beach so we stayed there for awhile. I didn't put on enough sun screen and burned myself. I put sunscreen on Michelle's back, and I didn't use enough, so she burned pretty bad on her back. OOOPS! I'm fired. Waimea was pretty sweet though. We got to see a pod of dolphins frolicking. They were jumping out of the water and putting on quite the show. A whole bunch of swimmers tried to swim out to them, and it seemed like they got really close. The lifeguards immediately got on the loudspeaker and asked the swimmers to swim away from them, because dolphins are federally protected, but the swimmers paid no attention.

Stopped in Haleiwa again for more shave ice. I tried Aoki's this time and Michelle got Matsumoto's. There is a reason why Matsumoto's has a line that is so much longer than all the other places. Aoki's was good, and the ice was a little softer, but it lacked the flavor of Matsumoto's. The only other place that I've been to that comes close is called Waiola's in McCully.

We had dinner that night at Alan Wong's. We went there last year and had dinner there. Once again we got the 7 course chef's tasting. It was awesome. First course was an appetizer of ahi sashimi with beluga caviar on top, and an oyster with a vinegar based sauce on sea salt. The second course was a li hing mui foie gras with mango chutney which was awesome. The third course was lobster and abalone in some kind of tasty sauce. Fourth dish was quail, I can't remember the fifth dish, the sixth dish was the main meal which was lamb with mashed taro. The final dish was the dessert, and I can't remember everything on it, but it was excellent.

And that's the trip. We came home on Tuesday. I'm tired so I'm done for now.

Off to Hawaii

So I'm leaving for Hawaii tomorrow. Our flight leaves LAX at 8 am, so we have to be there by 6:30 or so, meaning we'll have to leave Santa Barbara around 4 am, because we'll have to return the rental car. I'm not looking forward to it.

My place is a disaster right now. The whole place is essentially floor to ceiling with boxes. Not the end of the world, but what it means is that I'll have to return from Hawaii to a HUGE MESS. Not the most exciting prospect, but what can you do? I've been moving for the last 2 weeks. Last night was the first night where I was completely out of my old place. And instead of unpacking I went to sleep. I mean 2 weeks of moving and also trying to get a piece of software released to beta is hard work. I'm due for a vacation!

Nothing really exciting to report other than that. But I'm going to be gone for almost a week, and I didn't want anyone to think I abandoned my blog again. I know I've done it before, but this time I'm just leaving it for my trip and I'll be back I swear!

Alex and Sarah

Alex and Sarah!

Fiesta!

Here is a shot of Alex and Michelle. We are chilling at Ruby's. More
shots to come later.

The wonders of acupuncture

I've always thought that holistic medicine was a little hokey. I thought acupuncture was BS, and I wasn't even too sold on chiropractors (not sure it fits into holistic medicine, but it's all the same to me). However, my trip to the acupuncturist yesterday has sold me on the idea. It's totally wild.

Someone at work recommended that I go to an acupuncturist to help with the injuries from the fall. She asks me to reenact the fall. So I try to remember as best as possible. She watches me, then has me perform some movements that are the opposite of the movements that happened with the fall. My right shoulder was pretty tight. After performing the motions, my right shoulder immediate relaxed. It was bizarre. Everything was still sore, but I did gain a little bit of movement back.

After that we started getting into the acupuncture. She had me sit in a chair, and brought out the needles. She put one on the top of my left hand and had me move my head. I immediately had a little bit more movement. She put the second one in, and I could move a little more. Then she had me turn my right hand palm up. She put another needle in, more motion. She put a fourth needle, and I had maybe 80% of my motion back. I would estimate that prior to that, I had maybe 30% of my original motion. I can't believe that 4 needles were able to restore that much of my motion. After this she had me lie down, and put one more needle somewhere near my right ankle. She had me lie down for about 45 minutes or so. I pretty much passed out. After she had me slowly get up, and I was able to get up without any pain. I mean there was still a little pain, but I had so much more motion, and my right side didn't feel like it was a great knot any more.

So being the morning after, I'm a bit more sore than I was after seeing the acupuncturist, but I still have all the motion. I don't think I'd be this far along if it wasn't for the acupuncture. I've got another appointment for Monday, and I'm looking forward to it. I should be able to start moving boxes by tomorrow. That's good as I have to be out of Willow Springs by Sunday.

Viva Fiesta!

I'm screwed up

I hate the mornings. I tell you they really aren't agreeing with me right now.

It's 5:40 in the morning, and I'm leaving my apartment to get to work for a 6 am training session. It's pretty misty out, but I don't think that perhaps the stairs would be slippery. I start walking down the stairs pretty quickly, because I'm a little behind schedule. I make it down about 2 stairs then proceed to slip, slamming my arse hard into the stairs and sliding. The red bull I had slips out of my hand and clangs loudly down the stairs. I grab the rail, and try to stand up, and my leg gives out under me again and I slam hard into the ground again, and slide to the bottom of the stairs. So what's the damage? A cut between my left pinky and ring finger. My left elbow is bruised and quite ginger. A scrap on the middle knuckle of my right hand. And whiplash. That is right. I can barely turn my head. I have to turn my whole body. This whiplash is WORSE than when I crashed my car on Christmas eve. It probably had to do with the tensing up and slamming into the ground TWICE.

So this is great timing. I'm in the process of moving and I can't carry any weight, and can't turn my head. It's going to make moving go really fast I tell you. Oh well.

What is it with me and morning posts?

7 am. Went to sleep at midnight. Up at 4 am. Into work by 4:45 am. Why? Getting servers ready, that is why.

So my last 2 posts that are separated by MONTHS come within hours of each other. Do I like morning posts? Or is it that I'm so lame at blogging that the only time I'll bother is in the morning, when I'd rather be sleeping than working.

So setting up servers requires a bit of down time for the installation, so I've spent some time this morning catching up on my friends blogs. In reading their blogs, I think I've discovered why I don't blog at all. I'm afraid that blogging will confirm my secret suspicion that my life is way more boring than all of my friends. I mean you read Alex, Aaron, and David's blogs, and they are all filled with all sorts of fun happenings. I'm slightly worried that I just won't have anything to fill.

Another problem is I'm not the kind of guy that takes pictures. So I don't have much to show for anything that I do. This is a little problematic as blogs are much more entertaining with photos to show. Maybe I can change this with fiesta... All I need to do is find the charger for my camera.

And the final thing. I think my blog is filled with my rants on the stupidity of people and whining in general. This doesn't make for good reading.

So I've identified a few problems. Bear with me while I try to fix them.

5 am!

So New York is definitely the city that never sleeps. I was hanging with
my cousin Andrew, his roommate Su Hak (I'm sure I spelled that wrong),
their budy Bob, and a whole bunch of their friends. It was a wild time.
We had some bad luck at first, because it was raining, and the first
club we went to wasn't their thing. But it would have been "cheap" to be
there. We would have paid $300 for 10 people and 2 bottles of vodka,
mixers included. We had 10 people but the other guys wanted more Asians.
I was perfectly happy with the indian and white crowd that was there,
but hey, I wasn't driving the evening. Another note. I think this was
the first time in my life that I went out with a group that was entirely
Asian. Definitely strange for me, but it worked out ok. After thr bust
at the first club, we went to another club called stitch, and then
finally to a club called bob's. While my cousin and crew were trying to
pick up on chicks, I had a nice conversation with a Swiss girl who's
best friend and boyfriend were ignoring her. We mostly chatted about the
political differences between Switzerland and the US. Apparently the
rest of the world was just as shocked as I was that we re-elected Bush.
Before I knew it, it was 3:45 am. We then cabbed over to a noodle house
in china town, and now I'm back at my cousins apartment at 5 am.

Oh I saw the broadway musical Rent tonight. I know I said I hated the
music, but seeing it on Broadway totally changed my opinion of the
music. I highly recommend seeing this is you can.

And finally, my day was jampacked with activities. I woke up at 6am, got
ready caught the train at 7:50, and was in to the city by 9:00. It took
me about 45 minutes to get to my cousins apartment.

I caught up with Andrew for a while, since I haven't seen him in 8 or 9
years. The details are all fuzzy.

Anyway left his apartment and went to get in line for the Statue of
Liberty and Ellis Island. Wait was an hour and 15 minutes (yeah right,
because is stood there for 15 minutes and the line didn't move. The
weather was overcast and the visibility was poor, so I didn't feel like
spending 3 to 4 hours of the day on that. So instead I walked around the
financial district, checking out wall street and the New York Stock
Exchange.

Next was ground zero. It was very strange to see that site. I never had
the chance to see them, but I can imagine what it was like, and how
empty it is now. People were crying all over the place. The whole thing
was pretty emotional. I didn't expect that I would get choked up, but I
did. Unlike Matt's wedding, I didn't cry, but I was definitely moved. I
also found my neighbor's name on the memorial for those who lost their
lives in the Pentagon. He was one of those on the flight.

After that I met my cousin for lunch, then cruised into chinatown,
little italy. Soho, nyu, washington square park, greenwich village, then
began walking to broadway to see my show.

I'm tired. More to come later...
--Nick

Room Service is evil

So I get back to the hotel from work and I'm really lazy. I mean I don't want to go back into the city, considering I didn't get to bed till nearly 3 am on Wednesday night. So I just wanted a nice evening of rest and relaxation. I throw on some PJs, and what do I think to do? I gave in. I bought the internet and played World of Warcraft.

Now this is an all time low for me. Here I am, in New York. I could be taking the train into the city, and what am I doing, I'm playing WoW. Now as sad as I think that is, I can't seem to care, because it was exactly what I wanted to do last night. I know Alex and Aaron are going to have a field day with this one. I guess its just a sign of an addict. I admit I'm addicted, and I don't care. However, if you think about it, I actually saved money, because the internet cost me $10, but it costs me $40 every time I want to go to the city. Not to mention I think work is going to send me out again, so I technically don't have to be in a rush to see everything...

In any case, since I'm in my pjs, and I haven't eaten, I decide that calling room service is a good idea. I didn't read the fine print that says they will charge 20% for service. Wow. They don't even refill your water and they want 20%? I mean come on? If the person who delivered my food had a cart, and they refilled my water, and had a bottle of wine to pour me another glass, I'd gladly tip them 20%. In any case, dinner cost me $28 for a tiny chicken and goat cheese salad and a glass of wine. And of course I was still hungry. I think its insane that I should still be hungry when I have $5o per diem to spend on food. Oh well I guess it was all for the convenience of sitting on my lazy arse and eating in my hotel room.

I'm not going back into the city tonight either. I'm going to wake up really early so I can be in NY by around 7 am. I would like to get a complete day in, so I'll be getting to bed insanely early, and waking up insanely early as well. Well I may not use my week nights to travel much, but I sure intend to use my weekend!