You Knew This Was Coming

We've been here now for over 3 weeks.  The twinges of homesickness are starting to creep in.  I'll take this moment to list a few things about Hawaii that are starting to bug me.  No.  I am not asking for sympathy.  I do not expect anyone to feel the least bit sorry for us, and I will immediately delete any snide comments about how we have it "so rough."  We still moved far from home.  Dan is still in the middle of a job change.  We're still experiencing a little bit of culture shock.  A small bout of venting to cope with all the change never hurt anyone.  Here we go.

There are NO SIGNS!!!  I know I've mentioned this before, but I don't believe I emphasized how incredibly inconvenient this is.  No "Food/Gas/Lodging Next Exit" signs on the Freeway.  No signs in front of a large strip mall to tell you what it contains.  No street signs whatsoever at most major (or minor) intersections.  (You have no idea where you are most of the time.)  No signs for any restaurants or stores telling you that they are there, let alone where you should enter.  If you happen to notice a Wendy's then you must have seen it on the building itself, because that's all you're going to get.  Imagine trying to find a Wal-Mart (You know - huge blue store - they stick out like a sore thumb - you can see them coming for miles), and you know it's in this parking lot area somewhere, but it still takes you 10 minutes to find.  Yeah.  As if Wal-Mart wasn't annoying enough already.  More on that later.

There is no Sonic in the state of  Hawaii.  To quote Brian Regan, "if that isn't the biggest oversight in the universe, I don't know what is."  The weather is perfect, and all you need is a good Vanilla Dr. Pepper between the happy hours of 2-4pm.  No dice.  Maybe it's because they aren't allowed to have a sign.

People are friendly, so long as you are a patron of their business.  I don't believe they are doing this (solely) because you are giving them money.  I truly believe that their friendliness is genuine.  I just believe that these businesses have hired-up all the friendly people on the island, so there are none left just wandering about society.  They're ticked at you.  You did something.  You'll never know what it is.


My Steelers got Tebowed.  (I know this has nothing to do with Hawaii.  Still.)

Wal-Mart is old school.  No Super Centers.  Didn't know how much I counted on being able to grocery shop in the same place I buy my socks.  This is slightly detrimental to a habitual ad-matcher like myself.

There was a roach in my kitchen this week.  I know Hawaii is known for their bugs, and I'm going to be seeing plenty more unwanted icky creatures, but this was the first, and it wasn't cool.  It was huge.  I tried to find a pic of a Hawaii roach and post it here, but the page freaked me out too bad and I had to close it.  Sorry.  I sucked it up in my Swiffer Sweeper Vac and left it in the little container to die.  (If you know me, then you know what a brave accomplishment this was.)  It's still over there in the corner waiting for Dan to empty.  (Hint-Hint)

I can't figure out the food.  I'm all for trying new things.  I just can't figure out what they're trying to sell me.  We passed a restaurant last night and the plain, white building said, "No. 1 Barbecue and Chinese Restaurant.  Shave Ice." What exactly are you going to get there?  I'm guessing Saimin.  You can get this everywhere, but I'm still not sure if it's the term for the noodles themselves, or what's in the noodles.  There are these things in all the rice and noodles that look like shaved, cooked radishes.  That's what I thought they were.  Turns out they're some type of fish.  Huh.

Can I just get a Starbucks with a drive-thru?  I think I'd rather live in a land with no Starbucks than a land where you MUST get yourself and 2 babies out of the car to go in and get it.  It's just mean.

That being said.

I got to see a whale jump completely out of the water this week.  From my balcony.  We're about to move into one of the nicest houses on the whole Army post.  I get to stay home and play with these kids all day.  Dan really thinks he'll love his job (as soon as the training is finally done).  The weather really is perfect all the time.  There are more golf courses than Dan knows what to do with (okay, that's a mixed blessing for me).  The hotel next door put up some NFL regulation goal posts in one of it's lawns, so I'm counting on meeting some Pro Bowlers this week.  Dan's parents will be here in 3 weeks, and mine in 8.  We got to eat and play on an incredibly beautiful beach last night and watch the sun set beside the mountains.  We're blessed way beyond all these little annoyances.  After re-reading this paragraph I'm not sure I can name all the complaints I listed above anymore.

Life is so fun right now.  There's a lot of change, but we'll look back forever on this month with only the fondest memories.  The kind of memories where you'd trade whole chunks of life to go back and live again.

But if there could just be a Sonic . . .