Puppy on the Beach!

because almost nothing is cuter than puppies on the beach. nothing.

I wanted to title this "bon's first beach trip" but unfortunately she hated her first beach trip so I didn't get any pictures. I was too busy hanging on to her leash for dear life as she tried her hardest to avoid the water and go chase the other dog that was there.

But this time she loved it. It wasn't crowded at all so we were able to let her off her leash (shh, don't tell on us, I'm pretty sure that's not allowed) and she was exploring everything. I was dying of cuteness.

fact: everybody pees in the ocean.

I'm a little bit in love with life :)

One Down

Last Saturday was mine& Allan's one year anniversary. And seeing as I've written a blog post dedicated entirely to my dog... I figure this probably deserves one as well.

Two weekends ago we were trying to finalize and make plans for our big day. We eventually ended up booking a dinner cruise package out of Honolulu and we were pretty excited. Later that week Allan says something about still needing to get me a present before Saturday. At that I panicked a little because he is the present buying king and loves to get people presents all the time. And I... am the present buying loser. I'm terrible at it. I like my presents to be meaningful, and useful, and, of course, wanted. So finding presents that are all three is always really hard for me and makes me hate present shopping. Add in the fact that Allan takes the car to work every day, so I'm pretty much stranded at the house until he comes home, on top of the fact that I would probably get lost trying to find the mall and I'm having a bit of a present buying anxiety attack. So I tell him he doesn't need to get me anything, honestly, "and I'm not one of those girls who say 'don't get me anything' and then get mad when you don't. I really mean you don't have to get me anything!" "but how do I know that this isn't part of that?!" "because it's not! now don't buy me a present!" fine. fine. fine!

Friday night I hear Tolliver's giant truck pull up "hey, I’m going out with tolliver" "have fun. whatchya going to do?" "...things." "....okay..?" Later I get a text saying they found a car that he thinks I'd like& promises pictures when he gets home. It was a cute little blue guy& he was right, I did like it. Quite a bit.

So Saturday we wake up "what are we going to do with our day until we have to be in honolulu?" "well the bank opens at 9." "okay." “I’m going there, then to the car place." "okay." "and you have to come with me." "okay.” Get up, make some french toast- because it’s my favorite and also it just feels like a special day kind of breakfast- and then head over to check out a car.

I guess the night before, Allan was able to negotiate the price down a bit. But when we got there the car guy wasn’t quite set on Allan’s price. Allan& I talked about it and it was looking like we weren’t going to get the car because he didn’t want to pay anymore for it than he had already told the guy. The boys stepped into the office to chat a bit and I waited by our car, a little bummed but ready to go. A few minutes later Allan called me over just in time for me to hear the guy say he’d give it to us at our price! So we signed all the paperwork& drove our new little guy home!

We had to check in for our cruise 45 minutes before our boarding time so we wandered around the Aloha tower a bit, and found a new potential restaurant to try out in the future (Gordon Biersch Brewery Restaurant).

Met my soul sister.

"let me take a picture of you with her" "why?" "because i want to."

And then found our ship. When we got on we were directed to our table in the dining room. Thankfully we had opted for the “private window table” option and I was really glad we did when I saw that most everyone else was crammed into tables with 10 other strangers. I’m not a fan of eating with strangers.

Part of the cruise was a hula dance show. When we sat down we assumed the show would be up on another deck, on a stage and stuff, you know, the usual "performance scene" because our dinning room was pretty packed. But no. They danced right there in between all the tables.

I need one her headdress...

We also got the “celebration” option. Meaning we got cake!
 

By the time we got around to taking a stroll along the decks it was starting to get dark, so I didn't get many pictures of the view, so you'll have to take my word- it was pretty nice.
 

After we got off the ship we weren’t really in the mood to go home just yet, so we tried to wander our way over to Waikiki. Approximately 2 miles later, I don't think we were even close, and it was getting pretty late so we gave up and caught a cab back home.

Pretty good first anniversary if you ask me.

It's crazy to think that we've already been married a year. It's been so hectic, and busy, and frustrating, and wonderful. I wouldn't change it for anything. I'm so lucky to be married to such a wonderful husband and best friend. Here's to many more!
 

That smile though! I mean, come on! <3
just ignore my inability to get my awkward self in the frame.

and bon was terrified of my camera for some reason...

also we're clothed, don't even worry.

Job Hunting

Job hunting is probably one of the worst things ever. You submit an application and hold your breath waiting to hear back. Four weeks later your face is turning blue but you still haven't heard anything... It sounds weird, but the lack of rejection notes is probably one of my biggest pet peeves. Like seriously, take five seconds to write me a two lined email saying "Hey, you didn't get the job, stop holding your breath. Go spend your energy elsewhere." I mean I'd probably be a little bummed, but at least I'd know!

That's pretty much how things have been going for me. After about my second week here I was over the whole 'stay home in my pajamas watching tv all day' thing. I've found I do much better when I'm busy and I really needed some productivity in my life. So I started looking around at dancing jobs. I researched ballet studios and companies until I thought my computer and eyes would explode. I couldn't find anything performance-wise. But there was a little studio on base that might need teachers. I got an interview with the director but found out she doesn't have the funds to employ me, despite her really really wanting me. So she wanted to know if I'd be interested in teaching as a volunteer. Which... is exactly the opposite of what I was looking for.

So I went back to the hunt. Scouring the base's job listings trying to find something that I was qualified for but that also didn't absolutely suck. Applied for a few of those. Waited... waited... Applied for a few more. Waited... waited... A few days later a couple of them had notes that they had been forwarded to the management for further review. Good sign. A week later I still hadn't heard anything.

Allan's friend Tolliver works at a tourist ranch on the weekends and he thought I might be able to get a job dancing/teaching hula to some tourists over there. So he checked their job listings, but there wasn't really much. He got me a listing of their openings though and I went through that and thought I might as well apply for their ticket office job. How hard could it be really? So I applied. And waited... and waited...

Finally, yesterday, I was about to send them a follow up email when they called me to set up an interview for 9am today. Awesome. Sweet. Finally something is looking good and I've at least got an interview. Tolliver assures me "if you've got an interview you've basically got the job. The hardest part is getting them to get back to you to set up the interview." Perfect. Get up this morning, get all dressed up and ready to go. Downloaded google maps cause Allan swears its sooo much better than the iphone app and I reeally wanted to not get lost this morning. Drop Allan off at work around 8 and then head out to find the Ranch. Except 10 minutes into my journey google maps freezes up and glitches and doesn't tell me to exit. I look down at my gps a bit later and my little blue arrow is not even on a road any more, its in the middle of the mountains and its flashings it's stupid "locating" icon. Okay, keep it cool, I'll get off on the next exit, pull over, get my phone figured out and get back on the road. I left plenty early, I'll still make it. Only the next exit isn't until oh... about... Honolulu. Which, for those of you not familiar with the island is on the south side of the island. The Ranch... is on the North Shore. I almost burst into tears. I'm finally able to make a (probably illegal) U-turn, get my phone to figure out where I am, and get back on track. By this time its 8:40 and I'm about 30 minutes from the Ranch. I give them a call, tell them I missed my exit and I'm going to be "a smidge" late for my interview, but I'll be there soon, I'm so sorry.

I pull into the parking lot at 9:09 and power walk my way to the office where I have to fill out an official application, but I'm so flustered I'm shaking and probably no one will be able to read my handwriting. Get called back into the manager's office and start our chat, and it's going great. I've got this in the bag. Until she asks if I've ever used the specific computer programs they use in their offices. Obviously I've never had reason to use or make myself familiar with their office programs, so I admit that I'm only familiar with a couple. And apparently that was like strikes one and two right there. She let's me know that because they use those programs so heavily everyday that that hurts my standing. But we continue the interview anyway. To her credit, it was only slightly visible that she was already mentally setting my application aside.

I head home under my dark cloud. And of course google maps gets me there without a hitch.

So now, here on a Friday night, I'm youtube-ing tutorials on all these programs and educating myself so I can call them back when they still haven't filled the position and apply again. It's good fun.

And now a picture from yesterday's walk as a reward for making it to the end of my rant. I even made it huge so you could see it better, even though that puts it in ugly alignment. You're welcome.

I'm pretty lucky to have views like this all around me. It makes frustrating days less grumbly.

Also once upon a time, I accidentally deleted someone's comment& I don't know how to undo that. So sorry. Cause I don't even know how that happened.

"Please Prepare for Hurricane Iselle"

We got an email early last week telling us about the hurricane and tropical storm heading our way. It warned us about the storm and its path and included a list of things we should do to prepare. We went out and got more water and took stock of our food supplies, but we weren't too worried about it. Iselle was predicted to hit us about Friday. Allan stopped at the commissary on maybe Wednesday-ish and the entire water isle was cleared out. People were getting pretty serious about this water hoarding business... He walked out with his one item while everyone else was juggling multiple bottles and crates and gallons of waters. But we still weren't worried.
Friday rolls around and Allan doesn't have to work, cause there's a hurricane coming to get us and everyone has been advised to stay safely in their homes. So the base is a ghost town. I looked out the windows and didn't see a single person. Yeah, it was windy, and we had a few pretty heavy ten minute on& off rain showers, but by noon it was actually looking like a really nice day.
Allan's friend Tolliver texted and asked if we wanted to go for a drive and check out the waves. Of course we jumped at that offer cause we were already tired of sitting at home. We drove up to the north shore and stopped at a few of the beaches to see how things were looking. And I was a little unimpressed. I was expecting huge crashing, storm-worthy waves. But they just seemed pretty average to me. Maybe they were a little bigger than normal, cause everyone seemed really excited to jump in and go surfing (much to the police officers' annoyance as they were trying to get and keep everyone out of the water).

you can't see them very well, cause they're tiny, but the microscopic dots about mid-left side are people surfing 

tiny surfer dots on the far right side

the biggest wave I caught on camera

We hopped back in the truck and kept on driving, ate lunch at Fumi's shrimp shack in Kahuku (yes, I, Hailey, actually ate shrimp. and enjoyed it too...) I guess this Fumi guy owns the shrimp farms surrounding the shack, so they serve the freshest of fresh shrimps.

Next Tolliver wanted to show us the beach where they filmed the Catching Fire arena beach scenes and I was pretty excited. "It's a liittle trail across across from a fruit stand...." By the time we saw the fruit stand we had missed our turn, and I guess the boys weren't as excited to see the beach as I was, cause we didn't turn around :(  -no worries though, I'll go back sometime so I can picture-brag about it.

We stopped for ice cream in Haleiwa- "the original surf town". It was a really cute place, the kind that looks so genuine it attracts all the tourists. But thankfully the threat of the hurricane was keeping everyone else at their hotels and we had it mostly to ourselves. Unfortunately I didn't even think about taking any pictures cause I'm the dumbest. We headed back home and Tolliver told me that now I'd seen the whole island "well, the best of it."

And that's how you spend a hurricane day in Hawaii. Ask any islander.

Dog Days

Do you ever get 1,100 words into a blog post and then realize you hate it and no one is going to want to read that? Just me ? boo...
It was a rant about the complicated process of getting Bonnie to Hawaii. But that was garbage.

This is still going to be a dog post though, so if you're not into that... here's where I'll leave you *cough cough caroline...*

Do you know much about dog nails? There's the nail and then under that is the quick, which is all skin and nerve endings and blood vessels. Pretty tender and sensitive. Well, somewhere along Bon's journey over here last week she broke one of her nails and injured the quick. When we noticed it, it was super red and swollen and reeally painful looking. It was also prone to bleeding if ever she got too excited when we were playing and bumped it against anything. We took her to the vet and what had happened was her nail had lifted and torn away from the quick. It was still hanging on though and that was causing even more pain because it was trapping dirt and nasties against the quick. So they numbed her up a bit and ripped her nail the rest of the way off,  cringe  to give it a fresh start and all... Now she just has a sensitive little naked nail

We have to keep it super clean and put medicine on it, which takes the two of us- Allan holding her immobile, in a chokehold and me applying the ointment to her nail bed- because she doesn't want anyone to touch it, because it hurts.

Another really great thing about having a dog- dog hair. Every where. I didn't use to think that Bon was much of a shedder; as long as I brushed her regularly I didn't notice too much hair anywhere. Well when Bonnie got here last Thursday we were all excited and even let her on the couch with us to snuggle. Two days later we regretted that cause she was jumping up whenever she wanted and covering the couch in fur. so. much. fur. So she's not allowed on the couch anymore. We also decided that it was probably time to get a vacuum because we bought a little a rug for our living room, and we also wanted the hair off our couch. We bought one yesterday and did a quick trial run on our rug just to see how it works...

and I guess it does pretty good. That fist and a half sized ball is all Bon hair. From a 5x7 rug. So gross! The vacuum also came with a little pet attachment, its got a brush part on it and brags about being great at picking up animal fur. So obviously I'm considering vacuuming Bon. You know, stop the problem at the source.

Even for all that though, I guess Bon is alright. She's pretty good for snuggles, even if you did just get home from work and are grungy and stinky...

And on a completely unrelated note- we almost adopted a one-eyed kitten while we were at the vet's. It was Allan's idea and he got me all on board and excited.... and then changed his mind. The nerve.