surfing update

This will be a quickish post, because I'm at work (it's slow here), but I'm super proud of my progress on the board.

I've had 4 private lessons so far here (2 to go) and am capable of choosing a wave, knowing when to paddle, adjusting my body on the board for variability in the wave, standing, surfing suavely, and even walking forward on the board mid-wave.

This is one activity I'm definitely going to miss when I leave. At least I already have 2 coworkers who have offered their homes to stay whenever I want to come back. I'm pretty good friends with one of them. We go outrigger canoe paddling twice a week. It's fun, but tiring.

Yep. Another update later this week maybe, new topic.

A recommendation for the crafty ladies out there

Wal-Mart recently started carrying the Martha Stewart line of crafting products. I hate to contribute to that crazy lady's fortune, but I really like them. I bought one of her stamp pads, which I think are just as nice as the Colorbox brand, and a few stamps. She has a lot of cool ribbons, stamps, and doodads for cards and paper projects. I especially like her wedding and botanical motifs. Most of her colors are muted brights -- kinda like Real Simple magazine.

I've been slacking in the card-making department lately. I'm sort of looking forward to cooler weather that forces me to stay inside and work on stuff like that. On a related note, I'm feeling unbalanced these days. Not unbalanced as in depressed ... just that I feel pulled in too many directions right now. I turned down a social event Tuesday night so I could stay home and get my chores done. Pathetic? Maybe. But I sure felt a lot calmer after I knew that cards for my in-laws were in the mail (a week late, unfortunately), we'd cooked a nice meal instead of eating hot wings at said social event, and massive amounts of laundry were clean and put away.

Fall in Nebraska

Saturday was one of those rare perfect days in Nebraska: sunny, 75 degrees, and just a slight breeze. Since Andy is out of town, I recruited Hayley and my friends Ellie and Erin to join me at the AppleJack festival in Nebraska City, which is about 55 miles from Lincoln. (Note: Andy would never consent to going to AppleJack, even if he were around!) AppleJack is a fairly typical small-town festival, but the setting is a lot nicer. Nebraska City is rather picturesque and has lots of rolling hills and orchards and trees -- hence, the annual apple-picking festival. I have a lot of fun memories of marching in the AppleJack parade in high school. Ellie was involved in most of those shenanigans, so it was only appropriate that I asked her to come. :)

Our first stop was the Kimmel Orchard, where we picked apples and loaded up on fresh cider (best juice on Earth, I swear) and caramel apples. I had high hopes for finding apple donuts, but I gave up because they were located in the most inconvenient spot in a very crowded narrow building.

Maybe Hayley can post a picture of us picking apples. Andy had our camera, so I wasn't able to document this little outing.

After the apple picking, we went to the Arbor Day Tree Farm for a picnic lunch. I brought sausage and cheese from UNL's Dairy Store, and Erin brought asiago cheese bread from Panera. We spent a good chunk of the afternoon just hanging out and relaxing.

Our friend Melissa's parents had a fall festival at their gorgeous house tonight. I got home about 45 minutes ago, and frankly, I'm surprised that I'm still awake. After such a long, social day, my mind is on overload and won't shut down even though I'm tired. I'm not minding, though. I'm just enjoying my peaceful, quiet house and the wide-eyed kitty sitting next to me. I love my friends, but I'm an introvert at heart and spending 14 hours with the same group of people is really challenging for me.

On that note, I'm going to attempt to sleep again. Tomorrow's another big day, and so is Monday. I need all the rest I can get.

mini life updates

do any of you use twitter?

Hayley, are you back in Scottsbluff yet?

Mr Andy

Sorry for ignoring you post. Haven't been on here in forever!

Enter Hawaii

Well, this is what the sidewalks of downtown Honolulu looks like on a beautiful afternoon of shopping. It's hard to sum up my entire past week - I've been super busy. I started private surf lessons; that way I'll get as good as I can in as safe an environment as possible in the short time I'm here. Water is gorgeous and warm and now that I think about it, I haven't spend time just swimming and splashing in it yet. It's been pretty much just surfing. Shopping is amazing and intimidating at the same time. I'm not a great shopper - my endurance is not impressive. I've mostly been spending money on activities so far. And food. Food's not cheap. The cheapest gallon of milk I've found is $6. Cereal is at least $6.50... and that's not for the large family-sized box. But whatever. A girl's gotta eat. I did invest in a lovely pair of tahitian pearl earrings. The clothing here is all beautiful, but not practical for Wisconsin... so I'm not really going to buy any.

Today I went up to the north shore region of the island, to a small town called Haleiwa. I had a mango shaved ice there... according to the locals, it's the best shaved ice on the island. It's pretty much the best (and largest) snow cone you've ever tasted... in dozens of flavors (not colors) and just doused with sugary flavor goodness.

Work is also great. If this site was in Wisconsin, I still would have liked to go. The other day, I took a prescription over the phone for a sea lion! We do a lot of compounded prescriptions, primarily for animals but also some bioidentical hormones and a few pediatric doses and unique dosage forms (i.e. drug-infused lollipops). We dispense the classic blood pressure and cholesterol meds as well, but the compounding is definitely what gets me excited. Vets and physicians actually call asking for help for dosing difficult patients. It's quite fulfilling. And all the people I work with are great. This one's going to be hard to leave at the end of the block.

I will be working 4 Saturday mornings aside from my normal weekday 8:30-5 so I can take a couple week days off when Mary comes. Considering how much I've experienced in my first week, I can only hope Mary is able to have half as much fun. And I plan on doing as much of it with her as I can. Mary, I think I'm going to take a short bodyboarding lesson next weekend just to have general technique down before you all come. I'm thinking on that first Sunday we'll do the arizona memorial, bodyboarding, beachside lunch, beach relaxing, then roy's for dinner. Don't worry, I won't plan every moment of your trip here, but I want to make sure your first day is filled with amazingment (plus it's my birthday, so I get at least some say).

Anyway, it's time for me to be getting ready for bed. I try to get to sleep around 9-9:30 so I can get a morning workout in before going to the pharmacy. And speaking of workouts, tomorrow night is my first pole dancing class! From the email sent out to the six signed up for the lesson series, it looks like at least 2 are students at the university in honolulu... perfect opportunity to meet girls for weekend dancing nights. =)