Sharks!

Things have been busy here in Hawaii. I am still not completely moved into my new place, but I am getting there. This past Wednesday, we had the first TV-on-DVD night in the indoor/outdoor room (henceforth known as: manspace). I set up all of my furniture and my entertainment system in the previously unused space and I must say that it was well suited for some Battlestar Galactica. I would go as far to say it is the most frakkin' awesome room I have ever had.


Despite having a lot to do and not much time to do it, I still appreciate the fact that I live in Hawaii and should never take that for granted. That being said, I took half of the Saturday before last to spend some time at the sand bar with some friends. One of those friends was Jeanne. If you reference back to the Lanai post in February, she was the lady that picked Dan and me up when we were backpacking on Lanai. She was in town this past week for a teacher's conference, so Dan and I hung out with her a couple of nights. After Dan left for the mainland, she stayed in his place.


On Saturday, Jeanne came out to the sand bar with us. Well, it was her idea that we go in the first place. She lived on Oahu about 30 years ago and wanted to see how the bay changed. She said that 30 years ago, it was completely dead. No coral would grow, it was full of garbage and sewage, and the water was polluted and murky. Happily that is no longer the case. People got together and decided that the bay was worth saving and now it is full of life. It's a bit ironic, but I saw more sea life this week than ever before. We saw about a dozen turtles on the way out and back, as well as some things I had never seen at the sand bar in the past: a Portuguese man-o-war and hammerhead sharks.


This past Friday I went out to the sand bar for an overnighter with Tomollie. We were supposed to have more people, but everyone backed out, so it was just me and a married couple. I know what you are thinking, "Hollie must have felt awkward being the only girl." She did ok. It wasn't too awkward. Also, keeping with the sharks theme, Tomollie said that a shark fin with a black tip followed me when I was swimming from the pier to my mooring ball to get my boat. I have my doubts, but they swear by it.


The sand bar on Saturday morning was huge. After some breakfast and brushing of the teeth, we walked around looking at the coral (which usually isn't exposed) and crabs. Following that we played football on the sand. Usually there is not enough sand to actually go long and blow out your arm, but since it was a very low tide, we had about 100m x 800m to play with. Needless to say, we couldn't cover that whole ground, but we definitely tried. It was a lot of fun and, surprisingly, my arm isn't even sore today.

Today involved more moving. I keep thinking that I have "one more trip," but that has been going on for about two weeks. I swear my junk is multiplying behind my back. I have no choice but to get it out this week. Friday is our no-kidding last day. I figure I will spend Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday cleaning. I only have one more trip worth of stuff to move...

Lastly, my bed has arrived. Since I spent my economic relief check on a laptop made in China, I thought it would be a good idea to buy something else that I needed: a California king memory foam mattress. It is something that I have wanted for some time and now that I have a bigger room, I figure it was a good time to pull the trigger on that purchase. Plus, it was on sale, so all of the stars were aligned and I placed my order after only a few minutes of online shopping. The place I bought it from, Bed In a Box, was having a sale, and they have free shipping (unfortunately I found out when I placed my order that free shipping only applies to the lower 48. Shipping to Hawaii is rarely free. In this case it was $260. I suppose it's the price one has to pay when living on the most isolated land mass on earth.) At any rate, I slept on the bed for the first time last night and it was pretty comfortable. Tonight should be even better since the foam has had the recommend amount of time to get to it's intended shape. Something worth mentioning is that my feet still hang off when I sleep on my stomach. The difference between the California king and the full size is that now only my toes hang off instead of halfway to my knees. At least it's forward progress.