Pho as big as your head and Frost City deliciousness

July 5, 2012

I am so incredibly full with such delicious food. I want to just curl up and sleep but I know I will forget details if I wait until tomorrow.

I woke early this morning and got to work at 7. I worked on finishing up the links and bibliography information I was working on. A nice quiet morning. For lunch I ate my leftovers from the food I cooked this weekend - the rice, cilantro, ginger/onion dressing and the broccoli rabe and chinese broccoli. I also had a juicy peach. It was fine but not thrilling. Shu gave me a packet of stuff that when you add warm water makes a pudding type sweet made of black sesame. I have no idea how it will be but I'm willing to try it!

After lunch I went back to work and finished up the bibliography and links. Sent that to Ann and it is finished. We are making up the report on the DVFR data but that will take a bit to get together. I needed to work on and tidy up some of the charts to plug into the report. So I tweaked those till the end of my work day. Shu had her daughter there for a short bit so I took a picture. She had been on a trip to the beach. So cute!

I managed to be a temptress and talked Lisa into an evening out (bad me!). We made a quick stop at Marukai so I could get some of the li hing mui candies (Hunter liked them and wanted more). Those are the ones that taste a bit like honey drops with the salty seed inside - so sweet and salty mixed. I also got more shrimp chip crackers! SO GOOD! Lisa got some hot (as in spicy) dried cuttlefish shreds for me to try. i was impressed! I liked it a lot!

After Marukai we went to meet Wayne at a Vietnamese restaurant. The place is called Pho Bistro 2 and is on Kalakaua Avenue.

We started with an order of spring rolls. They are cut in half and the way to eat them is to take a small leaf of lettuce and place the half spring roll inside, then add some noodles, thin shreds of pickled veggies, fresh cucumber then wrap it up leaving one end open. Take a spoonful of the clear sauce and add it into the open end (which is also the cut open end of the spring roll). The sauce soaks down into inside of the roll. Then eat. It is VERY good. Crispy outside, not overly greasy. It tasted wonderful!

After the spring rolls our food started arriving. First is the plate of veggies you can add to the pho. Pho is prounounced fa. The veggies include bean sprouts, thai basil, sliced limes, jalapeno pepper slices and culantro. Culantro (yes it is spelled correctly) is a spiky edged leaf that tastes like super strong cilantro, but the spiky edges will poke you. You put whatever you like into the soup while it is hot and let the flavors blend as the heat releases the flavors of the herbs and citrus.

Lisa and I both ordered large #14, Pho with rare steak and beef balls (Pho taibo vien). I did check to be sure what beef balls were because I didn't want surprises. Beef balls are just meatballs and nothing scary.

Papa George got large #13, Pho with rare steak (Pho tai). I didn't take a photo since it looked like mine and Lisa's. Wayne ordered the superbowl #12 Pho combination (Pho dac bief). It comes with beef flank, rare steak, brisket, tripe, beef balls and tendon. His bowl was ENORMOUS!

Wayne and I both like the broth the best whereas Lisa and Papa George like the noodles best. There are small dishes on the table and condiments. There are 2 types of red chili in oil mixtures, sriracha, shoyu (soy sauce), hoisin sauce, salt and pepper. You mix the sauces however you like for your personal taste either in the small dishes or you can add it right into the pho. You can dip the meat from the pho into the sauce if you like, and/or the noodles, or add it straight into the broth. Or you can not use any. You also can choose the meat inside the bowl or outside the bowl. The rare beef is cooking in the hot broth, so many people have it served outside the bowl so they can just dip it into the broth and eat rather that having it served inside the broth where it is cooking.

Wayne ate his entire superbowl! The owner was impressed. This is her in the first picture. She stopped by the table and gave him a free tapioca. It was a lovely purple color - it was okinawan sweet potato tapioca. It was really good. it doesn't taste like the sweet potatoes/yams back home. This is not a great picture but you can get the idea. We each had a few bites.

We left and went to get dessert #2. We went to Frost City. This is me and Papa George in front of the store.

This place is amazing. There were so many choices! This is unlike anything I have every had before. Shave ice here is a block of frozen water that is shaved super fine and then syrup, condensed milk or others things poured over top. This is Vietnamese snow desserts. Like a cross between shave ice and ice cream. It is flavored milk or water frozen into blocks, then shaved in strips and served in a delicious heap of yumminess. I am not describing it well, please go this this link and see a better description. Here are several pictures of us in the store.

Lisa got the summer lychee and shared it with her dad. Papa George is diabetic so shouldn't be eating much sugar. The summer lychee isn't as strong a flavor as the regular lychee but I liked it. It was served with a few small side items as you can see on the plate.

I got the mango. It was VERY GOOD. I couldn't finish it all after the huge dinner and then this huge dessert.

Wayne got the haupia-mango-pumelo. WOW. It was haupia ice cream shavings (remember haupia is the coconut milk custard dessert) with chunks of mango and shredded pumelo (pumelo is a lot like a red grapefruit). FREAKING AMAZING.

After this we were all stuffed and ready to fall over in a heap from so much food. Lisa and Papa George dropped me off and headed home. I have done the blog and am now ready to fall into a food coma. Packing the boxes to ship home will just have to wait another day! I'm too tired to do it tonight.

Malama pono, (Take care)
~Melissa

Books and thoughts on a quiet holiday day

July 4, 2012

Welina moa aloha makamaka a me ohana. (Greetings of affection my friends and family)

Happy 4th of July, or as Scott says, Happy Revolution Day. No work for me today and I did a lot of nothing. I basically sprawled on my bed and read, napped, read, napped, and occasionally ate. Lunch was a mini french baguette, the last of my Herb N' Farmer cheese (farmer's cheese with herbs de provence), and some dried tart cherries. Dinner was the leftover salmon patties and fried rice from Monday lunch. Nothing terribly exciting. The house was very quiet today, most everyone was out enjoying the day off work. The ladies all came and went at different times but overall it was quiet and peaceful. This was nice since people were up talking, laughing and playing music till nearly midnight. Some people had to work today so that was fairly rude. Regardless, I enjoyed the quiet day here in the house without having to be anywhere or do anything. I needed to rest the ankle and catch up on a little sleep.

I read the last of a book I got as a daily deal from Amazon. It is PA Lupton's novel Bound by Blood and I was less than impressed. It started out good but then a few chapters in it is like the bottom dropped out of the story. It is hard to explain but it felt super rushed and I had a hard time immersing myself in the story. The number of typographical errors kept getting worse as the story continued. It finally got so distracting with typos and just poor proofreading and editing (assuming there was any this editor and proofreader need to be fired) that it was hard to even continue. The story concept was not bad but the book itself was a slight distraction but not great.

I downloaded a short story by Jennifer Estep called First Frost. It was a prequel to her Mythos Academy series and was a neat story. I think i will actually download the first book in the series and give it a try. Jennifer Estep wrote the Elemental Assassin books I have read and enjoyed. I haven't finished with that series but I am enjoying some other books before returning to finish.

I have been reading a lot of young adult paranormal stuff lately. Why? Well, why not? It is usually pretty good and tends to focus more on storyline and characters rather than pure sex to sell the story. Not that I mind reading about sex but I prefer it add tot he story rather than just being there to sell the book. Like life sex is a component, not something you see people doing every minute of the day. So sue me, I like some actual story with plot and character development.

However, the young adult books are sometimes stilted in their struggle NOT to portray sex also. I saw some reviews stating that Jennifer Estep shouldn't consider her work young adult because she writes of teenagers having sex which is an adult theme not suitable for teenagers. Ummm hello? I don't know what reality that person grew up in. OF COURSE teenagers have sex. Statistically more teens have sex than those who do not. I'm not saying write a book telling teens to go out and jump in the sack with everyone they meet but ignoring it as a part of some teenagers life is ridiculous.

So for now I'm exploring some of the young adult writers. I enjoyed the Harry Potter books and even the Twilight books. I enjoy mulling over the concepts and ideas in my head rather than dwelling on the specifics of the books that may be trite or imperfect. I find this allows me to enjoy books, movies, etc. that otherwise I would pass over.

I was able to see fireworks this evening. The kitchen windows give a lovely view of the ocean and I watched the fireworks. It was enjoyable and much more comfortable. Watching the fireworks set off by/over the ocean was lovely. Not going out and walking around was also nice. I enjoyed a relaxing and low pain day, which I needed. I can only handle being in pain for so many days in a row before I start getting grumpy.

Other than my ankle (which I am taking care of ans is healing) things are going well here. I am not going out to walk or do as much simply to allow the injury to heal but I am still looking around and trying to see new things in Hawaii. Work is continuing to teach me new things, including the constant fear of unemployment that comes with working for state government. I have to admit, it is alarming. I am learning many new technical skills and strengthening the skills I have. I am very glad and thankful I could come here. Besides work I am trying to learn and enjoy a lot about Hawaii itself. I try to pick up new words daily. I also am eating so many new things. Some I like and some not so much. generally speaking though I have enjoyed almost all the food, places I've been and things I have seen. What an adventure!

I apologize for no pictures today. As I said above, I spent the day resting my ankle and letting it heal. I want to go snorkeling but I don't know how I could manage flippers with the ankle. Similarly with hiking. Hula is out. I'm pondering some options that do not include much walking for a few weeks. Maybe if I am careful I can get the ankle healed enough to do these things right before I leave. Time will tell. I actually feel guilty when I don't go out and do something, like I am wasting the opportunity. I can't run continually though and occasionally need some quiet time to relax. Truthfully, I really enjoyed a day of quiet rest and reading. Sometimes a vacation day can be best spent just not doing a bunch of running around. There are many things to still do and see while I am here but today wasn't the day for those things.

For now it is time to go to sleep. I'm not sure how that will work since I napped on and off all day. I'll at the very least curl up with a book and rest. I hope everyone else had a wonderful holiday. Please feel free to e-mail or send me a message on Facebook. I enjoy hearing from people.

Me ka aloha pumehana, (kindest regards, warm aloha)
~Melissa

Red thai curry, homeless newspapers and sea scorpions

July 3, 2012

I woke up this morning, got ready for work and was about to leave at 6:45 when a deluge occurred. So I promptly decided to dawdle a bit till the rain slacked off. It soon stopped and I made it to work by 7:30. Work was a quiet day. My computer couldn't stay connected to e-mail for more than about 30 seconds then would drop and not reconnect for hours. Also, I couldn't get on the internet at all. Normally this wouldn't be a crisis but this is the second day like this. While we are waiting for the meeting on Friday with the branch chief regarding the sexual health survey (HSHS) I am helping Ann with odds and ends on her current projects. Today I was going to be working on references and finding links online to put on the Heath Equity national website. Kind of hard with no internet. So we requested IT come look at my computer and in the meanwhile I manually entered bibliography info on articles and resources we had at hand.

For lunch Emily brought her homemade vegan red thai curry. She makes it with chunks of tofu, red, yellow and green peppers, 2 types of mushrooms, zucchini (Japanese zucchini I believe) and coconut milk. It was SUPER good. She had stopped by a Korean BBQ place in Kahala Mall and gotten some rice to go with it. I was going to make rice to bring but by the time I got home last night after the ankle x-rays and all I was tired. Plus, we had a couple of new residents here and they were using the kitchen. So Emily was super nice and got rice to have with the curry. She also got a veggie plate and let me try those items also. Here is a picture of her delicious curry with the rice.

This is the veggie plate. It is a pickled seaweed (the dark green shreds) which was tasty. A sesame oil seasoned cabbage (maybe bok choy?)(the lighter green bigger pieces) which I really liked a lot. Long rice (the noodles) which I believe is seasoned with shoyu (soy sauce) or some type of other seasoning. I like long rice, I have had it before but with chicken, not as a veggie dish so it tasted different. This was better than the meat version of long rice. Plus kim chee pancake (the red stuff) which was very very good. It was a lot of new things and every bit of it was delicious. 

Emily also brought Okinawa ugly oranges. This is not a nasty remark about the oranges but their actual name. Ugly oranges look like a rotten regular orange. They look all sunken in and when they are ripe the skin is brown. I had one as my dessert and it was VERY good. The orange peel has a lot of hollow area inside and the fruit is very easy to peel. The edible portion is about the size of a clementine. They have seeds but they are easy to see. There is not a lot of orange flesh but rather it is mostly juice! It is like a little pocket of very sweet fresh orange juice. It was really good!

A super big mahalo nui loa (thank you very much) to Emily for bringing the food and being so generous sharing it with me. It was a delight getting to try the new foods and share the experience. I thought the vegan red thai curry was fabulous and the korean bbq veggie items I will definitely have again!

The afternoon went quickly. I worked on the bibliography a bit longer then IT arrived to fix my computer. Earl (the IT supervisor for this branch) discovered it was a problem with my IP gateway address (no idea what that means) and fixed it. In addition we did some updates and made some modifications to my computer setup. This took the rest of my workday but it will be good to go on Thursday morning. Tomorrow is a holiday (4th of July - Independence Day!) so I have the day off. I was heading out to walk home and Emily was leaving at the same time. She offered a ride home and I took her up on it to save unnecessary walking on the ankle. It was hurting a bit but not bad at all. MUCH less than previous days. The aircast is really helping a lot.

Since today is a short day without many pictures or information I wanted to share another little item of interest. Susan brought me a copy of the homeless newspaper for Honolulu called "Street Beat". Apparently the homeless population here put out their own newspaper. It has interesting articles about homeless people who have kicked drugs, alcohol or other problems that contributed to their homeless status. It also tells about laws, resources and various things that affect homeless people. It shocked me when I saw it - I had never considered that homeless people might put out a newspaper. There is such a large population of homeless here. I know very little about the situation here other than you see homeless everywhere. there is even a lady that lives in her car that I pass every workday on my walk into the office.

OH NO! Sayuri just came home on crutches. She got stung by a "sea scorpion" while surfing today. She is a professional surfer so is out surfing most of every day. Since the ancient sea scorpions are extinct I had to look up what this may have been. Sayuri speaks good English but she is stressed and it may be a literal translation from Japanese and we call the creature something else. I think it is referring to the Scorpion Fish (Scorpaenidae) which include a variety of fish with venomous spiked ridges. Some of these are lionfish, stingfish, devilfish and others. They hide in seaweed or coral. She is in a lot of pain so I certainly wasn't going to pester her about words. I hope she heals quickly. We are becoming the walking wounded up on this floor! This is a picture of a devil scorpion fish taken here in Hawaii. You can see how these camouflaged fish can be easy to mistake for coral or rocks.

I talked to Scott a bit but he was tired so went on to bed. I played a little DDO with Rob which was a lot of fun. I was trying to stay off my feet to rest my ankle. I'm pretty tired so I'm headed off to bed. I still haven't decided what to do tomorrow for the holiday. I hope everyone is healthy, happy and enjoying their week.

Aloha auinapou, (Goodnight (late after midnight))
~Melissa

Flowers, food, and a broken and sprained ankle

July 2, 2012

I woke up early this morning, showered and got to work at 7. I was walking in and I noticed a change int he bougainvillaea along my way. The flowers had flowers. My first thought, "Only in Hawaii do the flowers have flowers..." I think it is the stamen and pistol of the flower that make it look like a second flower is blooming on the flower.

Even the trash bins have flowers! These plumeria had fallen onto the lid of a trash bin set out for pickup. They were lovely so I took a photo.

As I was going up the steps at work I noticed this tree also had interesting flowers.

So I spent the morning finishing up the childhood obesity data crunching. I got that sent off to Ann right before lunch. We stopped quickly at Times Supermarket so I could get my July bus pass. For lunch we went out to where Lisa lives, out near Pearl Harbor. We stopped and got lunch at a place called Tanioka's Seafoods and Catering. I got fried rice, a fish patty and 2 salmon patties. They are like salmon croquettes. They were tasty. I'm not a huge fish fan, but these were good. I also had a masubi made of the diced pickled plums, and some sort of purple seasoning. It was good but very hard to describe.

Lisa got several items, including a spam masubi and a seafood cake. She wanted me to try both. They were alright but I am glad I didn't order either. I STILL do not see why the spam masubi is such a regional delight. I have tried it. Twice. Done with the whole Spam masubi thing.

After we grabbed lunch we went quickly to Lisa's house. Ann was checking out a plant in the garden to help Lisa identify it - it is agave.

Lisa's house has a lemon tree in the backyard, there were TONS so she gave us bags and we picked some to take with us.

On the way back we stopped by Samurai's for dessert. Samurai's is a little hole in the wall place that makes guri guri (some call it goodi goodi) which is a Mauia style homemade sherbet. It is milky so it is more of a cross between ice cream and sherbet. Ann got the prepackaged lychee flavor and I had a taste. Yummy. I had the soft serve strawberry and vanilla swirl. I got the small and it was HUGE. It was very tasty. We actually were taking the food back tot he office so I ate my guri guri on the way back, which meant I was stuffed already before I started my meal. 

Lisa got come candied popcorn (you can kindof see the bag behind my guri guri above) which is a lot like kettle corn, but sweeter and not really salty at all. It is red and green so it looks Christmasy. She also got furikake potato chips. We tried them and they are DELICIOUS. I must try making these at home. Rob and Alex - try the furikake I sent you on potato chips. They also put it on popcorn, rice, and anything fried.

After stuffing myself with food I went back to work on data. Ann has a new project for me to help with but since I hadn't been able to get on the internet all day that was put aside. I got instructions to work on it around other ongoing projects. I spent the afternoon working on the DVFR data and starting to get some facts written out into paragraphs.

By this time my ankle was extremely painful. So I gave in and asked the folks at work where a good place to go that was NOT the Emergency Room might be found. After looking at several options I chose a place right next to Kahala Mall. I figured I could take the bus there and back. A lady at work, Shu, lives right near there so offered to drop me there on her way home. Thank you Shu!!! So I went to the Urgent Care Clinic.

This is probably a good thing. It turns out that my right ankle has a grade II sprain on the outside portion of the ankle and a crack in the bone on the inner ankle portion. The doctor said I probably hadn't felt the pain from the crack until the pain from the sprain decreased. So I've been walking around for almost 2 weeks on a serious sprain and a cracked ankle bone. They wanted me on crutches, which I said NO. The next suggestion was one of those big walking boot contraptions. I also said NO to this. If I wore that I'd be falling down the stairs here at the house constantly. I pointed out that I've been walking on it and doing stairs for 2 weeks with just an ACE wrap and I hadn't dislodged the cracked bone yet. He agreed and we settled on an AirCast splint type ankle brace. That way I can wear a regular shoe and be in less danger of tripping or falling down the stairs. It gives a LOT more support and takes the majority of pressure off the ankle. If it gets worse then I'll have to go get the big clunky walking boot or crutches, but we agreed this was a better plan for a first step. I am allowed to walk, just not to do anything crazy on it. No waterskiing, hiking up huge inclines, NO HULA, etc. They offered me painkillers but I again said NO. I told him that since we were going with a brace instead of crutches or a big walking boot that a small amount of pain would keep me from overdoing it. If I didn't hurt a little I'd be out running around on the ankle and making it worse. I told him I had brought my Tramadol (Ultram) with me in case my back got too bad and could always take one of those if it got unbearable. Tylenol or Ibuprofen should be good enough though. He laughed and said he didn't usually have to talk people into accepting a prescription for pain meds. I have things to do though and don't have time to be drugged and sleepy or stupid. I'm sleepy and stupid enough on my own :)

So this is the side with the crack in the bone.

This is the side with the grade II sprain.

I am indeed talented. Why can't I instead be talented in winning the lottery?

It feels MUCH better with the Aircast. Good enough that I left and walked to the corner and to the mall so i could go to whole foods. It was only about a block so not very far. I was going to take the bus home but Lisa called and said she needed to go to Long's Drugstore which was right there next to where I was. She offered to pick me up outside Whole Foods and take me home. So I got the few items I needed in Whole Foods then went with her to Long's. I got a few more items for the gift boxes to send home. Then she took me to get Jack in the Box since I have been craving breakfast. Bacon, eggs and little silverdollar pancakes! YUM. Thank you Lisa!!! Emily from work had offered to pick me up but my ankle felt good enough to take the bus. After getting to Whole Foods though I was glad Lisa was going to Long's and I could get a ride home after all.

So I am home, groceries put away, food consumed. I am ready to sleep. My ankle hurts when I take the brace off but I don't want to sleep in it in case I have swelling. So I'll take it off and get to sleep. Goodnight everyone, have wonderful dreams.

~Malama pono, (Take care)
~Melissa

The Hawaiian time warp and the stupidity of shaving

July 1, 2012

E komo mai, e noho mai, e `ai a e, wala`au! (Come in, come sit, eat and talk)

There is a problem here in Hawaii. Apparently when you come here you step into a time warp where time goes faster than at home. I am convinced this is true. I have finished week 6 of my internship, halfway through. That means I have been here 7 weeks. This is not possible. Apparently someone is here on the island doing experimentation with the time flow. Hmph.

Today I was domestic. I did laundry, tidied my room and cooked. I had spinach parmesan ravioli with sundried tomato and basil sauce for lunch. I love Whole Foods :) These are both from there. Very yummy.

My ankle was ridiculously painful so I wrapped it and swept my floor in my room. I tidied the top of my dresser and made up my container of pills for the week. Blah blah... normal stuff. I needed to cook some of my veggies I had gotten a couple of weeks ago at the farmer's market. I made miso broth from an instant packet, then I tore off the cilantro leaves left on my bunches. I put my white rice, one lemon worth of fresh juice and this miso and cilantro broth into the rice cooker with a little extra water to give the correct amount. While that was cooking I cut up the broccoli rabe (also called rapine) and kai-lan (also called chinese broccoli). I put these in a deep skillet and added the last of my maui onion and ginger dressing with a little water. I let this cook down then split it into three containers and set in the freezer to cool. Let me clarify, these are basically just greens with stalks. The flowers on them make them look a little like broccoli. My rice finished and I divided my rice mixture evenly into the three bowls. Stir and mix everything up well and seal them up. I hauled everything upstairs and put 2 in the fridge and 1 in the freezer. That way I can see hoe it freezes. This will be a good lunch for a couple of days. This is the precooked miso soup mix on the right, the Maui onion and ginger dressing in the bottle, then the cilantro, broccoli rabe and kai-lan.

I still have some of my frozen tamales left, cheese and bread. Of course I still have a big thing of rice. Otherwise my food stores are now depleted. I need to try to get tot he grocery tomorrow, or the small farmer's market on Tuesday to add a few items.

My ankle is very painful. I tried to stay off it this weekend. The necessary rips to do my one load of laundry and to cook my food downstairs were really the only walking on it I have done. I am going to give it another day or so to see if it improves any. If not I may need to go get an x-ray. The pain has changed. It is no longer the throbbing achy feeling of a muscle or tendon but the sharp, stabbing pain that is more like bone. I seriously hope I didn't have a crack that I pushed into an actual break by doing the hula class. I don't have any bruising around the area, so I'm hoping all is well. So, let's all knock on wood and hope it is just tender from hula and that it will improve. However, I don't think I can do hula again for a few weeks, if at all while I am here. I do have the CD though so the trip to class was worthwhile. The bruises on my leg are healing nicely, no worries at all there. The main thing is not to overreact or worry about this. I pushed it very hard on Thursday night during hula. It is very possible it is just inflamed and will be much better in a few days. It is also entirely possible I'm just very good at ignoring painful things and will just continue to do so. If it gets worse I'll go tot he doctor, if it improves I won't. Seems reasonable :)

I cooked this evening but wasn't very hungry so I didn't eat. I got a little hungry later so finished off the last of the buffalo beef jerky Jeff sent me. I have now probably eaten enough salt to pickle myself for the next century. However, that's how I like it so I'm happy. I had a few dried tart cherries to finish off my dinner.

Now it is time for bed. I need to get up early to shower. I can;t stand and shift my weight around due to my ankle so I have to sit on the edge of the tub to shave my legs. Plus I am blind as a bat without my glasses. Trying to shave without them on is the equivalent of handing a machete to a blind teenager, spinning them around, and shoving them into a jungle. Suffice to say, I have no desire to hack my legs to shreds, or to bleed for the dozen nicks and cuts I'd end up with. So sitting in the edge of the tub it is. I LOATHE shaving as well. Whatever idiot thought this up as something to make women more attractive was a sadist and deserves to be smeared with honey and tied to an anthill. Regardless, I'll get up crazy early, shower, shave and hike my gimpy self into work.

On the bright side, I'm in Hawaii. The weather is beautiful. The trees and flowers are lovely. I am an injury magnet and would likely have injured myself no matter where I was. So all in all, I'm still delighted that I'm in Hawaii. At least I have GORGEOUS scenery to look at and enjoy. All in all, everything else is a manini (small) issue.

A hui kaua, (Until we meet again)
~Melissa

Quiet day and the adventures of public transit

June 30, 2012

I did absolutely nothing today. I sprawled on my bed trying to rest my ankle. Hula was a lot of fun but it was possibly the worst idea that I have had in a long time. My ankle has gone from "Ouch this is tender, I should wrap it and rest it some" to "OMG THIS HURTS, don't even THINK of using it". In short (and less dramatic means) I've hurt it more and it is painful.

Today is the last day on my buss pass also. I need to figure out a way to get somewhere to get a new bus pass tomorrow. That should be interesting.

I had some tea this morning, then snacked a bit on the buffalo jerky and dried tart cherries Jeff sent. This was topped off with snacking on the shrimp chip crackers off and on all day. I watched most of a season of Angel on Netflix and napped. Those shrimp chip crackers are FREAKING AWESOME. They don't taste like shrimp. They are a lot like a muncho but a LOT less salty. They are a deep fried tapioca starch with a little flavor and are really really good. I ate the whole bag today. I'd feel bad but it's a whole bag of puffed air basically, so it isn't like it was a lot :)

So since I did nothing of any interest today I wanted to take this time to tell you about the bus.

The bus here goes just about everywhere. The buses are inexpensive compared to owning a car, so a lot of people take them - especially the poor, disabled and elderly. Having never been dependent on a bus to get anywhere I find it a unique experience. Waiting on the bus I get instantly bored and aggravated, which is from being spoiled by having a car to just get in and go immediately for most of my life. I am learning patience. Or perhaps I am just learning how to enjoy my kindle app on my smartphone.

Regardless, the bus arrives and you have to be looking at it for it to stop usually. If you are looking away or facing the other direction, for example, it assumes you are a homeless person or are catching a different bus and doesn't always stop. If the bus is full, it doesn't always stop. So, it is in your best interest to be aware and stand up when you see the bus number coming. Each stop usually has multiple bus numbers (different routes) stop there, so knowing which number to look for is important. The problem is, the number is in the top left of the front window when you are looking at the bus from the front. However, there is ALSO a number in the bottom left of that window. It is VERY confusing for people new to the area to figure out which number they are supposed to look at. Also, you have to know which direction you need to catch the bus. For example, bus 3 goes to Ala Moana Center and the downtown area from where I live. For that I catch the #3 Salt Lake bus. To come home I catch the #3 also, but the sign on it could read Koko Head, Kaimuki, or Ruger. If you don't know what or where these things are it makes it very difficult.

Once the bus stops they try to let passengers disembark first, then you QUICKLY get onto the bus. Put your $2.50 for adults into the change and dollar machine, drop your transfer pass into the bag, or flash them your bus pass. Flashing the pass is much faster and easier because of what is coming. It absolutely sucks if you have crinkled dollar bills and are standing there trying to feed them into the machine.

Why? Because as soon as the last person gets onto the bus and the driver sees some variety of payment or pass they close the doors and take off. You better hope and pray you are seated or holding onto something. Standing there trying to feed in crinkled dollar bills is a nightmare while the bus is lurching off and you are trying to stand there. The seats for the elderly and disabled are at the front of the bus, thankfully. Once they shut the door is is the pedal tot he floor and the bus takes off. You see people stumbling and being flung towards the back of the bus. Little old ladies with canes trying not to be flung onto their faces in the walkway. It is nuts. I've never seen anything like it. Now I have heard that every bus isn't like that, but every one I've taken so far is like that. Usually people help the disabled and elderly into their seats to make sure they get there before falling flat from the speedy gonzales bus driver. Also, people are VERY quick to stand and offer seats to elderly. Sometimes women but not always. It is nice that the people watch out for their elderly here though, says a lot about them.

To get off the bus you pull the cord when the bus is between the stop before and your stop. You need to listen carefully to the announcing and hopefully there is a sign that scrolls the location coming up also. Not all buses have the sign. So you yank the cord and the sign changes to "Stop Requested". This is helpful if you requested the stop. Not so much if you missed it beforehand and need to know what the next stop IS going to be.

Usually when you are coming to your stop you stand up and head toward a door at the front or back of the bus. Again, trying desperately to not be flung forward or back and usually not succeeding. The bus pulls into the stop and you had better be ready to get off the bus immediately or they just go on. The back door is a push to open type door that locks when the bus is in motion. It also doesn't stay open long and frequently closes on you when you are going through it. This causes ensuing yelling as the person in the door is yelling at the bus driver. People get off the bus and everyone rushes to get on. Then you stand back and watch through the windows as those people are flung towards the back of the bus when the driver puts the gas pedal to the floor to take off.

They do have bike racks on the front of the buses but I have no idea how they work. Given the kamikaze nature of the bus drivers I have no idea how someone manages to get their bike on or off the rack without dying. However, maybe it is enough of something different that the driver actually pays attention.

Let me just say, riding the bus is an experience. It is just fine when you're healthy and stable on your feet. It SUCKS when you are carrying groceries or are unsteady on your feet. All in all though, I have to say if all of those people were driving cars the traffic would be a bigger nightmare. Traffic is a serious issue here, and driving in rush hour is a problem. I hear there is a light rail system under discussion but there are mixed views regarding that. The foundations are being laid, but I don't know if there are plans to finish it or scrap the project.

So, that is the adventure of rising the bus here. So now you know what joys there are to be had when I mention I caught the bus somewhere.

Aloha!
~Melissa