My New Favorite Beach

Here's a little peak at my new favorite beach.  Can't wait to share this with the next visitors <3 

At one of the army functions a couple weeks ago, I had a dog-lover-to-dog-lover conversation with Nick's boss's girlfriend. She has a small dog, too, and she shared that Kailua beach, on the East side of the island, is dog friendly. After our lazy, Sunday morning (we slept until 11 a.m.!), Nick and I packed our cooler with lunch, and our beach bag with books and a Rosalie and our little Starmweber family cruised in our firebird over to Kailua Beach Park. 

The gin-blue waters promised transparency for hundreds of yards out to sea. Of course, people packed the beach. Children ran unattended, screaming further perpetuating our ill-will to produce offspring of our own. I did, however, think of my dad when I saw a small group of kids participating in the Hawaii equivalent of sledding. These kids hiked up a small, sandy ledge, and road their body boards down the sand hill. It made me chuckle. If they only knew what it was like to traipse up Beaudry Park hill in three feet of ungroomed snow, with 10-pounds of snowpants, boots, coats, scarfs and hats all of 20 seconds of real sledding as the cold bit our cheeks. But, I digress. 

About to Catch Hell...

Do I dare even spread my thoughts across the computer screen tonight?
This is a post that surely my mother will call me about, or at least she'll send me a text message. She will reference a conversation we had months ago wherein I was supposed to promise that I wouldn't gloat or taunt (or sneeze or burp or fart) about the weather in Hawaii...


But, alas, here I go. Deep down, I know you mainlanders like hearing about this :)


So despite your mildness of winter, or the unanticipate-able (you're damn right I just made up a word) fluctuation of single-digit temperatures one day and 38 degrees drizzle the next, I know that there is a sure chance that while my mother or father or perhaps my dear friend Ashley sit down to read this blog, sleet might be pelting the windows or snow might be knitting a thick, white quilt across the hillside. Remember, if this is true, it's only because of the following story I'm sharing...


Saturdays have turned into our chore day. We work to blitz the house and do any errands Saturday morning so that we can thoroughly enjoy the remainder of our weekend, right up to Sunday evening.


Saturday, specifically, Nick drove my firebird down to Honolulu, rented a carport lift, and changed my breaks (he's so handy!). I followed him to town but I drove his truck so that I could grocery shop and head back to Kapolei (in case the break job took the majority of the day).


I arrived before the crowds and was unloading groceries within the hour. Further motivated by the fact that it was before 11 a.m. and the groceries for the week were packed in the refrigerator and pantry, I tackled the blitzing by myself. And herein, I was smacked in the face by an epiphany:


Sure, I miss the romanticism of a cozy fire, our quaint little town, of snowy Sunday mornings and the excitement of a winter storm when I'm tucked in with my family on the couch watching the weather channel. I miss the white-knuckle driving on Route 13 and the winter fashion trends of a scarf or a hat and a sexy pair of boots and jeans.
I miss our blood family and our non-blood family. 


But there is something invigorating about cleaning on a Saturday with my windows wide open, the sunshine streaming through the lanai, the trade winds breezing through the living room, dinning room and out again through the open front door. I am repeatedly inspired by the smell of fresh cut grass, by the taste of salt on my lips when I run by the lagoons, and by our effervescent neighbors, who surely must be so, at least in part, by the aforementioned list.There's just something special about a weekend in January filled with sunshine, bathing suits, beaches and ocean, and it's not a vacation. I'm on a tightrope, addled by whether I can truly comprehend that this is our home, not just a vacation spot. 


Of course, while you mainlanders roll your eyes in disgust, there is an irrefutable consequence for living where we live. The Hawaii weather beckons me with is long, pointed finger. Weekends are filled with adventures; some new, some familiar: hikes, sharks, beaches, lagoons, north shore, east side, etc. Nick and I want to be out. We want to explore every corner in the pockets of this island. So, naturally, we set aside homework and reading for the later evenings, when we're sun-fatigued. I found, in New York, the ennui of a cozy, snowy weekend artlessly evolves into lesson plan and grading productivity. Snuggled under the blankets on the couch, drinking tea, I only had so many options. I am finally able to empathize with the laid-back, Hawaiian work ethic. Of course there's no work ethic here! Who the hell wants to work when you can be outside? There's a reason school is out during the summer months! Ah, good thing I never had to go to school year. There is certainly a high probability that I wouldn't have earned any degree at all...


Word of cation from a now empathetic mainlander: do your schooling before you move to Hawaii. There is NO WAY anyone would be able to write thesis papers down here...


<3 love you all!

Let's Play Catchup

Hi! I promise I haven't been eaten by a shark or pulled into the bowls of the sea by a giant squid! But between teaching and grading papers and reading this King book (11/22/63), I'm filling up my days and haven't sat down to blog in a while! [Please accept apology now]
Let's play a quick game of checkup :)


Speaking of consuelo, Deke came to visit! To celebrate his birthday, we took him on a Shark Encounters jaunt up at North Shore. We hopped in a shark cage and swam inches from Galapagos and Black fin sharks. You know my feelings about the water. At one point, our captain killed the engine of the boat and announced that we were a few 10 yards away from some whales. Naturally, I was sure that the massive whales were capable of flipping our 30 ft boat. Then, of course, when we arrived at the floating cage, the sharks swam directly under our boat and between the whales in the distance, the sharks circling our boat and, of course, the ever-pregnant fear of jelly fish, I was certain that I wouldn't survive treading in open water for 30 minutes.  These creature, however, were far from aggressive. They were merely curious. They gracefully swam toward our cage, around our boat, and back down to the darkened sea bottom (600 feet below us!) And even after I chummed the water with my vomit (from extreme seasickness post cage treading), the sharks never elevated above inquisitive. 

             

      

We had an absolute blast! And, as long as we go in the morning next time to avoid the waves, I would be willing to go on this adventure with any Hawaii visitors we have! :)

Also while Nick's brother was here, we hiked to one of Hawaii's famous waterfalls. It was quite the hike! Never mind that we became disoriented and lost our way on the trek into the waterfall. 

It was one of my favorite memories here in Hawaii, though it hadn't rained on the island in a few weeks so the waterfall was but a mere trickle. 

We have LOVED our company, and we absolutely loved having Deke visit for a week. Perhaps our only complaint is that his visit wasn't long enough. 

All the family visits (to include Kage and Wags, obviously) propelled hunkering into our new home. The transition would have been much harder and the holidays wouldn't have been so jolly without our people here with us :)

All while Deke was here, though, I've submerged into the spring semester at UH Leeward. I am loving it, though it certainly isn't my TC3 colleagues. I have four courses this semester, and (cross your fingers!) one over the first summer session, too.  The campus sits on Pearl Harbor. Here's the view outside my office!

Peaking in the background are the ships in Pearl Harbor. Ok, it's not the green, rolling hills of Dryden, but I'm far from complaining!


Nick spent the last few days on the Big Island taking inventory for a project he and his platoon are going to undertake sometime this spring. It's near incomprehensible that Nick can board an airplane in the morning, arrive in Hilo an hour later, take care of business and, if he didn't have other errands to run on the Big Island, be home a few hours later. People who live here in Hawaii island hop for day trips all the time. Nick and I were equating this to a three-day weekend trip to Buffalo or Glens Falls, but people hop on planes and take three-day weeks in Kahului or Kona. Here's a map. We live approximately 10 minutes from Waipahu (Oahu) and Nick was in Hilo (Hawaii).

As if he took a day trip to Syracuse or something :p


Tomorrow, Nick and I have a cocktail event for his battalion. It's valentine's day themed, and (big plus) I don't think he is required to be in uniform. We're looking forward to the event because it will take place on Hickam Air Force Base, which is set on the water and, let's just quote Nick, "the air force does it right".  In other words, the venue should be elegant and the food should be slightly north of decent. :) 


That should bring you up to speed with the last 16 days! I promise to set aside blogging time this semester. I'd be a fool to let this slip since I started to work.
Please, I am the quintessential multitasker. <3 


OHHHH PS... cross your fingers! Kage is looking for flights in May!! Kris is planning her 2012 trek to the pacific and Nick and I are holding our breath for a vacation home in July!!


Mindy?
Jake?
Luka?
Johnny?
Michael?
Courtney?
Mom and Dad Reis?


Get your tickets! <3 
M.

Another Small Recommendation

Reading this now:

My parents gave Nick this book for Christmas. I stole it from Nick, and I'm reading it first. It's absolutely fantastic. Well researched. And well worth your time. 
......
Make sure you have Google ready as you read it, unless you're an extreme 1960s American history buff :)

Toss Up?

Nick and I decompress at the end of every work day by visiting one of our favorite websites, The Chive. Each day, the Chive has a blog post called "Daily Morning Awesomeness." 
Yesterday, Nick and I came across this photo:

This was the conversation that followed:


Nick: Ron?
Mia: Grams?
Nick: Toss up?


Thank god for winos <3 PS... if you know where to get this wineglass, please email me....

Better than Coffee

Yesterday morning, when my alarm chimed at 5:36 a.m., I didn't need to pull myself from the bowls of sleep. I didn't need to combat the foggy density that tightens like a straight jacket, as I decided whether I could sleep through the continued ring or if I could teeter ever so carefully between sleep and consciousness long enough to snooze the alarm (careful! don't hit 'dimiss') and then fall back into the recesses of a distant dream, relinquishing all cognizant responsibilities for 10 more minutes....

No, I didn't need to do any of that. I was already awake. Petting Rosalie, who was curled on her back against the puffy walls of the duvet cover, a crooked smile on her face as she, herself, was probably dreaming.

It's always like this for me on the first day of school. I'm like a nine year old again. Perhaps it's worse since this year, on my first day of school, I'm 6,000 miles from any school I've ever started (be it as student or teacher). 

I pretended (for whose sake, I don't know), to drag myself from the comfy covy bed, but a ball of excitement burned in my stomach as I started my  morning routine. 

Makeup + Hair + Outfit + Coffee

It didn't take long before I was kissing TheRo goodbye and left the house, juggling my coffee-to-go, my purse, my briefcase and the bag of office necessities I forgot to drop off last week (you know, like Clorox wipes (Kage), Zone bars (Christine), pink duct tape (from Dale!), and so the list continues...).

I climbed in my car wondering when I last left for work before sunrise...My honest guess was maybe when I student taught in the Kingston City School district. But even then, the sun was certainly peaking over the Hudson Valley as I pulled onto Route 9 in Poughkeepsie. My first thought was that I love pre-sunrise in Hawaii in January when the breeze is cool on my skin, but refreshingly cool, and the salty air is still as the neighborhood wakes quietly, slowly. It certainly makes starting the day far better than, oh, say pre-sunrise in January in Cortland. You know... the air is frozen, and it burns your lungs and takes your breath away as you scrape your car, and start the engine to warm everything up before you climb in and endure chilly seats and icy, foggy windows; the air is thin and the neighborhood is quiet because no one wants to drag themselves out of their down comforters, certainly and especially because the heat hasn't kicked on yet. Starting your morning routine during winter in New York is ripping off a band-aid from sensitive skin, daily.

[How's that for juxtaposition, fellow New Yorkers? I miss you <3 ]

Anyway, the aforementioned thought alone certainly paved a foundation of positivity for the remainder of the drive to work. Coffee in hand and having already accepted that there will be heavy traffic, I set off for work to the tune of shitty Hawaiian country radio.

Before too many exits, H1 (the highway that takes us from our home in Kapolei to anywhere else on the whole island) passes a clearing so drivers can see straight to Honolulu. And as I approached this clearing, I saw the oranges and reds of the sunrise bursting behind the peak of Diamond Head mountain. Stop-and-go traffic prevented me from pulling out my phone to take a photo, but luckily, I can google an image of anything:

This closely resembles what I saw.

Occasionally, I take a deep breath and attempt to fully actualize the idea that I'm living in Hawaii while I'm in my twenties and newly married. It's unfathomable, but so exciting! I rode the thrill of watching the sunrise all the way to the school. As I searched the lot for a parking space close to my office, I made a mental note to blog about the sunrise that I could   look forward to on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. I parked the car and collected my things, when I caught a light out of the corner of my eye. The moon. It was a Jurassic moon. The kind of moon that made you wonder if something was wrong because it was so big in the sky. It perched on the peak of a mountain, and I did my best to take a photo of it for you. Alas, a photo cannot do justice to the image that is forever imprinted in my mind. 

Between the sun and the moon, at 6:45 a.m. on the ninth day of the first month of two-thousand and twelve. 

Who needs coffee when I can have such sensational, picturesque landscaping on my way to work....

Sweet Lullaby

*I Wont Give Up*

Jason Mraz

Spa Days Are for Everyone!

This week was full of division and department meetings, of convocations and new hire orientations, of organizing my desk and organizing my lesson plans and reorganizing my schedule. Alas, Friday morning seemed like a great morning for the spa....


Oh, I'm sorry. Did I imply that I would be going to the spa? Silly me, I'm a teacher. Teachers don't make enough for spa days! Let be clarify who went to the spa: Henry David TheRo. Miss  Rosalie. Little Bells. 


Our little puppy girl.


Ah yes, Rosalie was in dyer need of a spa day. Her shaggy mane, I can only imagine, is like wearing an industrial thermalized North Face jacket in the middle of summer.

                   Rosalie's Mane-->

                                                                                   <--Industrial thermalized North Face Jacket.




















So, alas, this morning I brought Rosalie to The Groom Room where the eccentric owner (she dyes her puppies pink and blue and..) proceeded to pamper my little pooch :) Now, in good ol' Cortland, Rosalie had a fantastic groomer. Rosalie was bathed, blow dried, clipped, brushed and all within two hours. Ah, but in Hawaii... 


Little Bells leaves the Groom Room after a bathing, a blow dry, a hair cut, her teeth cleaned, her nails "pawdicured" and a 45-minute massage. TheRo is typically wild with excitement and angst when I pick her up from the groomers. But here? She's mellow from her massage. 


WTF? I want to be a dog!!! I demand to be reincarnated as a dog and adopted by a loving, dog-crazy petparent who takes me to the spa for a haircut and massage every 6 weeks.


Alas, back to lesson planning and perhaps an afternoon nap... Rosalie is already zen on the couch beside me...


Aloha!
M.

       

                

My Husband, the Builder

With essentially two weeks off for Christmas vacation, Nick feared idle time that might inspire me to request his presence next to mine on a beach chair, laying very still as the sun kissed our bodies...
I believe all Reis men think sitting still mirrors that of eternal hell... which is why we love them so much!


Nick's mind works feverishly even when he sleeps and before the sun set afterwork at the start of his Christmas vacation, Nick had already purchased materials to build a bookcase for our home. Let me first say, the man is brilliant. His mathematical mind spit numbers and angles onto sketch paper quicker than a machine. I peered over his shoulder, but his measurements and calculations all but jeered at my failure to understand the final product. 


I followed Nicholas around Home Depot as we filled our cart with screws and wood and molding and plugs and other Home Depot-y things. For me, the small parts elicited something similar to post-traumatic stress as I remembered the hellacious desk project from October. Zen breathing and inwardly reminding myself that this was Nick's project seemed to combat my desire to run from Home Depot, leaving all the parts and pieces in the cart somewhere in aisle 14. 


As soon as we arrived home, Nick organized his tools in the garage to begin his project. Pausing only for dinner, Nick worked into the night to finish the outline of the bookcase. Standing just over 4ft in height, it would be the perfect first-project, especially since we had a chest and three boxes worth of books that needed a home. 


Within three days, Nick not only finished the bookcase, but stained it and added decorative leaf molding to the outside. Three days. Didn't it take me three days to build the desk? Why yes, yes it did. And the desk draws didn't open. And I cursed the desk's existence. But albeit, Nick finished the desk completely in three days. We waited until the Wags hopped on his plane back to Connecticut before we shifted the guest bedroom to fit the bookcase in the corner, and there it now stands, holding about 1/8 of our books (oh c'mon, no bookcase would adequate fit ALL our books; we're nerds!), beautifully accenting our office / guest area.

Ah, but he didn't stop there. I told you! It only took three days!


After Wags' departure, Nick and I discussed prospective next projects. Without hesitation, we decided on a stand of our tv/cable box/and blueray player. While I was able to semi-visualize the bookcase (hey, it was a bookcase after all), Nick pushed the limits of his imagination to engineer something far more interesting for our tv stand. What did I know about it? I knew it was going to fit in the corner, and I knew we were staining it black. Nick tried to explain the shape and concept to me, but to no avail. After a lunch date with my mom and Grams one afternoon, Nick detoured to Home Depot again, this time without me. He chose his pieces and his brand new miter saw (wtf is a miter saw? All I know is that it cuts up to 10-inches into piece of wood ... and it's very loud). 


This time, within two days, Nick and finished the tv stand, and toward the end, there, I was even his assistant while he put together and bolted in the final pieces. 


Your guess is as good as mine as to what project will be started next. MLK weekend is potentially 4-days off, which, given the previous two projects, gives Nick ample time to complete another project! For your facebook friendly bloggers, there's a photo album on my page that will perpetually document Nick's projects. Until then, your warm suggestions are welcome.


Hey, I love having a creative and handy husband !! 

               

       

            

           

Go Now, and Live

A very dear and true friend of mine, J Millie, first introduced me to this poster. I remember the very moment I stood in J's bedroom reading it as the words entangled in my soul.   What a message. Thanks J for the thousands of times you and all the other Millies have inspired me, this poster in your bedroom not withstanding.

Go now, and live.

The Beautiful First Moments...

Cheers, fellow bloggers and welcome to 2012 :) 
I've taken a short leave of absence from my blogging with two full weeks of visitors here in Hawaii. First, the Wags! Then, my wonderful mother and grandmother arrived on Christmas day and stayed through New Years Eve. Their plane ascended into the black, new year night as fireworks blasted from beaches and mountain side streets. It was a happy christmas, a merry new year and a wonderful time with our family.


Exhausted and slightly cold-stricken, Nick and I pulled onto our home street just after 11 p.m. last night. Our eyes blotched and blurry with our fill of the on-the-go vacation lifestyle for two weeks straight as we slowly dodged neighbors as they trekked to the lagoons for a promised display of spectacular fireworks. Nicholas and I debated our will to see fireworks, though we were graced with perpetual blasts of color and fizzle all the way down to and back from HNL. Drunk with fatigue, Nick and I decided against the beach festivities, and instead, we spontaneously (and without further planned intentions) began one of my favorite continuous memories thus far in our extended staycation on island...


With barely enough energy to clean up and lock up the house, we bustled our last particles of steam and quickly closed up as NYE-ers staggered cheerfully passed our house. As we crawled into our bed, we noticed the clock promised 2012 in only 30 short minutes. Alas, it was damn near imperative that we peel our eyelids back and wait for that last kiss of the year. 


So, with all that we had left, we clung to consciousness and sat reading aloud Chapter 7 of Harry Potter and the Dealthy Hallows. 


[Starmer Tangent]
In the last week, Nick and I have decided to reread HP7 to refresh our memory, as over the vacation, we had a self-initiated Harry Potter movie marathon and Nick also gave me the complete Harry Potter books 1-7 collection. 


We didn't get too far into "Dumbledore's Will" before the fireworks sparked. We made it to midnight from the last time zone on Earth! With a joyous sense of relief, Nick and I shared the final kiss of 2011 and the first kiss of 2012, marked our page, used our deluminator, collected our lights, and slipped into a comfortable, deep, non-alcohol-induced sleep (gosh, we're old!).


The beautiful first moments didn't cease at 12:03am, however:
Nick and I woke up late this morning. My husband made me breakfast in bed and we snuggled, watching the Pats slaughter the bills while we curse each other's teams. The late morning continued with a little house work and Nick's tv-stand project that we worked on together. And alas, half way through the afternoon, Nick and I, still in our pajamas, renounced productivity, settled in front of the cool backyard breeze with mimosas and continued deeper into our HP7 reading marathon.  We shared chapter for chapter for chapter as the sun brushed oranges and reds against the blue of the afternoon sky. 


A quick nap. Some xbox for Nick. A walk at dusk with our little Ro (Henry David TheRo). Cereal for dinner.


I'm so glad I have a husband who shares my affinity for books and quiet days of nothing. Cheers to our east coast family <3 We miss you. We love you. I'm sure I speak for Nick and I when I said that, in a twisted sort of way, I wish somehow that the romanticism of today could have been paired with a slight hangover induced by NYE festivities with friends back home. 


So, a Starmweber wish to you:

May you all find your peace in 2012. 

Make memories. Laugh. Find success. 

Strive to cherish moments. Be surprised. Embrace adversity. 

Soak up the sun. Relish in deep friendships. Extend your family. 

Cry. Read. Learn. Grow. 

Smile far too often. 

Speak your mind. Maintain your integrity. 

And, in Hawaiian tradition, never lose your aloha. 

Merry 2012 <3