Something Happening

A sort of interesting thing happens when you decide to update a blog on a weekly basis: stuff stops happening for a little while, and you’re left writing something like “so this week, about the most exciting thing that happened was me eating a bologna sandwich.” You all may be happy to know, however, that I haven’t forgotten about the blog, even if I haven’t written. The reminder faithfully reminds me of my obligation each week, and each week, I guiltily dismiss the reminder and pray for something interesting to happen.

Well, now something is happening, and it will certainly take more than one blog post to update everyone.

We’re leaving Hawaii.

Randi took a job working with transition students at the Texas school for the blind and visually impaired, and we will be moving to Austin Texas so she can begin working there. I suppose that at the very least, we’ll need to change the name of the blog.

It has been a very hectic time with making the preparations and me applying for jobs in Austin, and the emotions are still running pretty high, so I will write more later. However, I wanted to end the silence, and at least lay down the framework for something interesting to come.

Who’da thunk it??

Happy New Year from Honolulu

Ahhh, smell that? It’s the smell of new resolutions on the air… or is that fire cracker residue? I’ll go with choice B. Yes, it’s new years eve, or day by now, but if you didn’t know better, you’d think it was the 4th of July. The big thing to do here on New Year’s Eve is to light fireworks. The Japanese are the big ones for fireworks. They believe to rid their late ancestors of evil spirits they light fireworks in their honor, but these aren’t normal fireworks. You know those small packs of Black Cats you used to light all 20 or so and think it was great to hear them all go off at once? Well, the Japanese light those too, but they come in bricks of 30,000, yeah, they go off for a while. The fireworks started in full force around 7 or 8, picked up around 9, and it’s 1:00 a.m. now and we still here the occasional stragglers.

In addition we have had a few groups of… well…. New Years Eve partiers outside the window. The first group were doing nice college-style cheers and what sounded like drinking games, however, the second group was talking in Japanese so we decided not to go join them, as we had no idea what they were saying.

We sat outside and listened to the fireworks, popped the cork on some Champaign, and recorded the whole ordeal to hopefully give you an idea of New Years Eve island style. Hopefully we’ll have a link up to that as soon as we get it all edited. Oh yes, and before I forget, I turned on the TV about 11:30 and all I got were some reruns and the late shows… darn East coasters stealing all the thunder.

Well, I guess it’s time to sign off for now, but I hope 2007 brought all you hoped for, and I wish you all the best in 2008. Good luck keeping those resolutions, and remember, you have a whole year to get out here to the islands. Start planning early!

Aloha!

Graduation Weekend

Hello everyone, it’s the other half of the dynamic Strunk duo, coming to join the wonderful world of blogging. I’m really excited about getting to share our trip and times in the great state of Hawaii with all of you. Well, the journey officially begins tomorrow, but before we look forward to that let’s take a trip back to the weekend. My, not so little, brother graduated from high school on Saturday. The day was, well, rainy with sudden downpours and tornado warnings around the area, but the ceremony and reception went off without a hitch… unless you count the 15 minute power outage at the hall where the reception was. It really was a fun day, a bit surreal to see your little brother on his way to college, but it was good to see the extended family before we leave town and get to hear how everyone is going to come see us… you all better make good on your word now, you hear?

Yesterday we met Ryan’s mom in Norfolk to take us back to Fremont so we can do the final preparations before we leave tomorrow. I bought a brand new digital camera so I should be posting pictures soon. We ate some good ole fashioned BBQ before leaving the Midwest… I wonder what Hawaiian BBQ is like? Anyway, the fateful time came to say good-bye to the family, I think we all handled it pretty well… though it’s always harder than you think. I have to look at it like I approached spending a summer on the NFB Corps or my six months in Louisiana so I don’t get too sad about being gone for so long, but time really does fly and I’m sure we will be back on the mainland to visit before we know it. I think I’ve rambled on long enough for now, but I will post again soon, amongst the palm trees and pineapples.

Randi