Happy Thanksgiving

Mike has been here for nearly two weeks, one of which I have been unemployed. It's been nice to have time to relax. Today is Thanksgiving and we spent the morning at the beach. This afternoon we will be celebrating the holiday by the pool with a group of Canadians that are here every year at this time. We will be the token Americans to give legitimacy to their celebration. We will have barbecued turkey and all the trimmings! Mike is getting involved with me on my Monday morning volunteer work. Here is a picture from his first week here. We had a good size work crew that day. We get people on vacation dropping in to help and now seasonal regulars are coming back to the area and returning to help. It can be hard work sometimes but rewarding. We will be having a couple people we know here on the island during the next couple of weeks so there will be social time ahead. We also have a short trip planned to the big island to visit with Uncle Bob and Betty, who we purchased the condo from. I'll keep you posted on our adventures. Aloha.

I'm still here!!

Remember me??? I have been very slow getting to my blogging but here I am again. One of my last posts was about my library job so it's very appropriate that I am now writing again because my job here is ending VERY soon, Friday 11/21/08 to be exact. They had a few internal applicants from other branches and had to hire from that batch so I'm outta here! I have mixed feelings about leaving but mostly I'm happy to be removing myself from the environment. At this point I have nothing else lined up for work so that feels a bit uncomfortable but I am trusting that something will come along when the time is right. I found this library job quicker than I had expected so a little time off now is just fine, especially since Mike arrives on Sunday and will be here for two months. With just the bookkeeping work we will have more time to spend together. I can pretend I'm on vacation too, except not spend much money in the process just in case... I had a lovely time in Seattle in September but I was happy to get back here and continue my 'settling in' process. The first week back felt lonely after spending so much time with so many wonderful people but I got back in the swing of solitude. I am meeting more people as time goes on and there are certainly many more familiar faces I see regularly in my outings. I am still doing the volunteer work on the trail at least twice a month. There is a group called South Maui Sustainability that I am interested in and have attended some of their public information meetings and a couple of other events as well. One of their projects involves community gardens and I am getting involved with that. It's just getting started so I don't know yet what the involvment will look like. Another group I am interested in is the Kihei Community Association (KCA). They are involved with projects in the community and also act as representatives of the city in the county government. I am trying to learn more about where I'm living and the issues around here so that I can better understand my environment. It's a very new thing for me to get involved in these kind of things and I have much to learn. I took a ballroom dance class for a session and I'm thinking of taking a hula class. Tat this point I'll wait until after the 1st of the year, after Mike leaves, and then look into it more. I am going with a friend to see Sonny Ching this weekend. He is a name in hula over here. I have a ukulele and I have been practicing on that a little and did attend a ukulele festival a couple of weeks ago so I could here professionals. It won't be long until I'm on stage too! (HA!) I do still get to the beach, once a week to just swim and enjoy the warmth of the sand, and a few evenings a week to enjoy the sunset. In fact, I find myself getting a little crabby if I miss a couple days in a row of not getting my feet in the sand. That is why I'm here after all! Aloha!