Saturday, July 28, 2012

Maui - Day 2 - Hopeful

It's 8am. Earlier than I planned on being up. Back home it is noon. I am not sure my body knows what time it is.
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I am sitting on the balcony looking out at the hotel grounds, and between the palm trees I can see the ocean. I have been out her for 30 minutes, but it's taken me some time to find the batteries for my wireless keyboard and to look around to see if there's any wi-fi I can connect to (there isn't - I will have to power up the mobile hotspot from Iggy's phone later).
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It's quiet in terms of activity but there are birds warbling and chirping and generally making a racket. After my alarm went off (I forgot to turn it off when we got here last night) we heard a siren go by and Iggy mumbles in his half-asleep state "Book'em Dano!"
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There is an older (than me) couple sitting out on their deck too. He was eating a banana. When he was done, he leaned over and kissed his wife, then went in to get his cigar. She's been calmly smoking a cigarette and reading a novel.
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The grounds crew is cleaning up under all the trees. Apparently those pretty trees with the yellow and white flowers dump a lot of leaves and twigs and stuff overnight. It always makes me feel a little sad to have to see people working in jobs I would detest. But then again they may not get 'ice pick' headaches and my job might seem super boring. I have to settle for being glad they're employed and hope they like their job.
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When I first got out here an short chubby woman on the sidewalk below paused to stare at me. I don't know what she was looking at (I'm fully clothed) but later I feel slightly chagrined when I realize my nose strip is still on. I am slightly worried I am getting a cold since my sinuses have been draining most of yesterday and I couldn't breathe well last night. A couple of people at my work were worried about my stress level when I got those 'ice pick' headaches recently. I told them that if anything, I am *less* stressed now that we're done with the home buying, home selling, and moving. Plus I convinced my boss to take away one of my projects. But they pointed out that when you run on adrenaline you think you are fine and it's when you stop that your body has the chance to react. So now all I can think of is being on vacation, my work laptop safely at home, my body is going into full stop mode. It's probably going to hit me like a box of bricks! (hoping not)
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Ooh - there's Iggy bringing me hotel room coffee. This will be a good day - I have a feeling about it!

Maui - Day 1 - Getting There Is Half the Fun (right?)

Friday is my first day off, but I have to give my last midyear review and recieve mine. I get an email from my boss that he's worried we had our wires crossed since he got an out of office from me (I love that one of my PMs calls these OOTOs - it sounds funny when you say it phoenetically). But I simply can't fit in all my work activities in 4 days this week and our flight isn't until 3pm. My boss wants to talk to me because there are some things he wants to explain - but he has to move the meeting out due to a conflict. I tell him it's all ok - just not too late because at 1pm my laptop is powering down to start it's vacation.
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Right as my (delayed) review is about to start I see the Intermountain Rural Electric van pull up outside. I am only half in nosey-neighbor mode today (my home office window faces the street and I see all the ladies on their midday walks, the kids skateboarding in formation, neighbors chatting over the fence, and I feel vaguely creepy watching all of it from afar). Then 2 minutes later our power goes out. I run downstairs in my PJs and see the electric guy coming from the side of our house. I incredulously say, "Did you just cut our power?" He responds that he did, that our bill is in arrears, asks my last name. I know he's only doing his job, but I have a hard time being civil - I need power to have internet to do my review and I have sheets in the wash and I gave myself time for leisurely packing and whatnot, but I didn't account for drama.
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It turns out that Xcel doesn't provide electricity in this area. So when we transferred our Xcel account they only transferred the gas. But didn't bother to tell us about their lack of ability to transfer the electric. We haven't gotten a bill yet for just the new house, so we haven't seen this change. The dweeb who owned our house before has not canceled his account - and while I have probably seen bills to him for IRE, I simply write "please forward" and put them back in the mailbox. [BTW, I do get to call him a dweeb. He left no forwarding address, and he did annoying things like turn the water down to the bare minimum after he sold the place. This left us with brown spots in the front yard and a cordial but annoying letter from the HOA which arrived our first week there telling us to please fix it so we don't bring our neighbors' property values down.] So IRE hasn't mailed us a "welcome" packed because they think he's in arrears and we've never heard of IRE before meeting the poor man cutting our power this morning. 30 minutes on the phone (mostly on hold, but then with a helpful woman who gets this type of thing all the time - I cannot describe how much I don't want her job) and we're promised that the power will be back "sometime today." Which means my review is phone only and the washer is still stopped midcycle. But at least my house sitters won't have to figure this out - can you imagine if it happened while they were there?
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So a lot of the stuff we're planning to do today doesn't work out that well. Not sure if Iggy got through paying the bills online or got his music downloaded. I know he didn't get a movie downloaded. But the power does come on in about 90 minutes (thank you IRE!) and I get all the bedding done in time to change all the beds and we get that last load of clothes through the dryer so Iggy can pack (I packed last week before I went to Bismarck because I was afraid I wouldn't have time when I got back Thursday night - something usually goes wrong with my return trip and I am not distrustful that it will work as I planned).
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I am repacking my purse and trying to figure out what purse is big enough to hold my iPad but sorta beach-y. I end up not finding one so I start to reuse my purse from last week (which is cool in it's own way, but hello! I wanted to change so I could break from work and feel like I am on vacation!). Iggy comes in and says, "I can't fit your present in my bag -- do you want to open it now and see if you want to take it?" I open it and it's a Kate Spade bag in khaki and orange (I don't have an orange purse yet) and it looks really beach-y! Plus since I've wanted a Kate Spade purse for the last two years -- since I had to get glasses and somehow ended up with Kate Spade frames. He points out that it's made of cotton and 2 years is the cotton anniversary. I have a *swoon* moment - he notices me being bummed about my purse choice right now, he listens (he remembers my Kate Spade quest) and he knows what colors of purses I have (granted I did just use up half a shelf in the new walk-in closet arranging my purses) and he knows what motif is for a 2-year anniversary! Then I have a sad moment, because the thing I gave up today with our electricity debacle is gift shopping. I had dreams all last night about getting something and presenting it with a couple cotton balls and q-tips as some sort of bow. So now I am empty handed. But he looks quite please with himself and I promise to make it up to him later.
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We finish about 30 minutes later than we planned on leaving, but I think we still have enough time to make the flight. The part we won't get to do is the Bon Voyage drink at the airport bar before we get on the plane. Small sacrifice. But as we're leaving the thunderclouds roll in. We start to worry about the dog (who hates thunder) and a little about delays at the airport. It turns out that I closed the closet door where Radar likes to hide and he has locked himself in the bathroom and chewed the doorknob in an attempt to get out. This is typical and he is otherwise unscathed when the dog sitter gets there about 90 minutes after we leave. (sigh - we really need to get that crate for him!) The other issue is that we do sit on the runway for 40 minutes. There was only about 35 minutes for our connection in LAX, so we end up missing that plane by about 10 minutes. They won't hold the plane even though 7 people on our flight need that connection because they pride themselves on on-time statistics, I guess. I think this is particularly rotten, but I am not one of the people who chooses an airline by their ontime stats -- I care more about safety stats and my miles, I guess. One family is trying to get to Maui for a wedding tomorrow (one is a bridesmaid!) and they are extremely high strung about it. At least all I am trying to do is lay on the beach or something - I can wait a day to start that.
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The airline rebooked us on another airline and gives us a shuttle to get directly to the gate. Thoughtful. When we get to the counter we find out that they haven't rebooked us to first class (we splurged for the trip there wanting to have the long flight in comfort and celebrate). The new airline has 2 seats left and will let us pay to upgrage. So we do that and hope that the other company will be refunding our first class upgrade from the canceled flight.
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First Class is an experience. I knew I'd like the free drinks. I don't particularly like being waited on like I am in a restaurant since I don't think you tip. For the 20 people in first class there are 2 attendants. Coach has 2 as well, but there are maybe 100 people back there. It all seems so pertensious and I vaguely feel out of place. Someday maybe I will feel entitled to this -- like the teenager across the aisle. I can't image growing up flying first class, but if you knew nothing else, it would seem normal, I suppose. I say thank you every time and try to be polite and not needy. The captain comes out and introduces himself, chats with every First Class passenger, asks about their trip. The couple behind us seems like a young, flighty gold digger and a late-30s guy who feels like he should be getting married soon. Or maybe he just wants an expensive booty call by taking his girl on a fancy vacation. They're loud and annoying but they say they approve of our drinks and say we might be their new party friends in Maui. I am mildly appeased, but I end up watching the in-flight movie so I don't have to hear their witty banter anymore. Later when I am sleeping leaning on Iggy she puts her feet in the space between our seats and I am vaugely grossed out by having her feet on my side. At least I enjoyed the meal, the drinks and the leg room was fantastic. The seat was pretty comfy too. I am mostly happy that we're making it to Maui tonight instead of being stranded in LA for a night.
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Arriving in Maui is a bit of an ordeal. We don't have the plant declaration form that was supposedly on our seats when we boarded, so we pretend to be a part of the family in front of us until they are questioned about bringing an animal into the country. But this is useful as we just slip by while they're explaining themselves. There is the moment of tension at the luggage claim while we wonder if our bags made the airline transfer with us, but they both arrive. The rental car places appear to be closed, but we realize after a minute that the stores are just "fronts" and that you have to take a shuttle to the real rental car desk. There we are up-sold to a convertible Mustang at a "deal" since we are on an anniversary trip and since I want to be able to drive the car it's an extra $X/day. So we leave feeling a little frustrated that this trip is so expensive and so far all it has been is travel. It's 10pm by the time we're leaving the airport and dark. Iggy says, "Is this how you pictured Hawaii?" It's not, really, but the adventure is wearing on me by this point. At little ways out of town, driving along the coastline and looking at the city lights at the base of the mountains silhouetted against the sky. This is more what I pictured Hawaii looking like.
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We arrive at the hotel and realize it's a charge to park your car every day, to use the safe in the room is a fee every day, etc. Parking is challenging because all the spaces are for compact cars and we have the behemoth Mustang. We finally find a spot on the top floor. Our room has two queen beds (we wanted 1 king)and to my tired eyes the place looks run down.
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But, mercifully, the room is cool, the bed is soft and I am dead tired. I bet tomorrow the hotel looks better and I am not so grumpy about the cost of everything.