Archive for June, 2009
dole
June 29, 2009
After going to the beach this morning, we decided to venture out to the Dole Plantation for some fun.
We first went through a maze
Then saw some pineapples
On our way home we stopped in Haleiwa for some shave ice (we were going to go to the famous Matsumoto’s but the line was too long).
We then made a quick stop by my old high school to see my tile. Every senior gets to paint a tile which is then put up on one of the outside walls of the school. It is interesting to see the creativity that went into some of these (creativity was not my forte).
home sweet home
June 28, 2009
As much as I love having my own apartment with my own space, there is nothing like spending time at my parents’ house in Hawaii. I think Luis’ favorite part of the trip has been my parents’ lanai. He likes relaxing on the couches as he plays on his computer. He likes to eat lunch out there. And he LOVES reading through all my old diaries there (gasp).
My favorite parts of the trip so far have been an all expenses paid night in San Francisco (courtesy of our airline who overbooked our airline):
Our first class flight to Hawaii where we got real glasses, a full meal, and they even fed us warm chocolate chip cookies with milk (which I didn’t even eat because I was so full from having them feed us every 5 minutes):
I always LOVE going to the beach, and I try to go everyday when I’m here. I’ve also had a lot of fun showing Luis the “sights.” But I think that the best part about the whole trip is having the whole family here together :) My brother blessed my niece, Lia, this morning at my parents’ ward and it was so nice to be able to have all of the priesthood holders in our family (including Luis and my younger brother, Felipe) participate. I’m already starting to get sad at the thought of leaving here in a week. I know a week seems like a long time, but it goes by so fast :(
Gag me
June 24, 2009
So we had vouchers for the Hotel restaurant here in San Francisco, and since we were trying not too spend too much, we decided to go ahead and use them, despite the suggestion of our volunteering predecessors who suggested we eat in the city.
See, while we were waiting to board our connecting flight from San Francisco to Honolulu, they had announced that the flight was overbooked, and were asking for volunteers to give up their seats. At first the idea didn’t really phase us, but the more we thought about it, the more intriguing the idea became. Then, the people sitting behind us in the waiting area said they did it last night, and that they’d do it again if we could, especially because they were guaranteed First Class tickets (which they didn’t announce). So we debated a little longer, and decided to just go for it.
This other couple also suggested we eat downtown, instead of the hotel restaurant, despite the $26 voucher we had for a meal. I thought this was crazy “pass up free food? no way!”
But after eating the MOST disappointing meal, I agree with them. At least our meal was free, I feel sorry for whoever had to pay for theirs. Gag me!
memory lane monday
June 22, 2009
For as long as I can remember, hair has always been a really big deal for me. I remember being about this age and wrapping towels around my head to pretend I had long, blond hair.
My life pretty much changed when I was about this age. I was at Movies 8 with a couple of friends, and I needed to go to the restroom. As with most restrooms at movie theaters, this one was packed right before the movie began. There was a lady walking out of the restroom with her young daughter as I was walking in. The lady, thinking she was being kind, told her daughter in a really sweet, soft spoken tone., “Sweetie, move over so the boy can walk past.” Boy?! BOY?!? I am NOT a boy!!! I think I have been traumatized ever since. I walked back into the movie theater and tried my hardest to hold back the tears forming in my eyes. I have no idea what movie I watched, or even who I was with that day, but that memory of being called a boy has seared in my memory ever since.
After that, I was convinced I needed to buy the shampoos I saw on TV, you know, the ones that made hair “silky.” My mom sometimes bought the ones I wanted and I was always disappointed after showering that my hair didn’t look like the white actresses on TV. When I was a little older, we started trying out relaxers (they’re kind of like perms but they make your hair straight instead of curly). Unfortunately we never had great results. Eventually I got my first flat iron (back in 6th grade before anyone else even knew what a flat iron was). But they weren’t all that powerful back then and this is about as good as my hair ever got. (I sometimes even slept with a baseball cap on so that in the morning my hair wouldn’t be as poofy).
When I was in junior high, my first trip to TLC Elegante in Salt Lake changed my life. For the first time ever, my hair was really straight. I finally had the silky beautiful hair I always wanted. The silky effect only lasted until the next time I washed my hair, but who cared? I had pretty white girl hair. Not too long afterwards my family moved to Idaho and then to Hawaii and I was never able to find another salon owned and run by black people.
When I moved back to Utah 3 years ago to go to law school, it had been so long since I had gone anywhere to get my hair done professionally (I had since gotten pretty good at making my own hair look ok), that I didn’t even think about looking up TLC again. But there was another lone black girl going to law school with me and one day I happened to ask her where she got her hair done. She told me none other than TLC Elegante (which is really the only place I know of in Utah that does black hair). So once again, I made the 45 minute drive back up to the place that brought me so much happiness a decade earlier. Since it is kind of pricey, I only go there once or twice a year. But it is still worth every penny.
princess for a day
June 19, 2009
Last Friday, we had our niece, Hannah, come spend the night at our house. I usually try to do something fun with her when she comes (I’m secretly trying to brainwash her into thinking that Tala’s house is the funnest place on earth). So I made some goop for us to play with. After getting the floor all dirty, I made good use of the free child labor and had Hannah help clean.
The next morning (after I let Hannah watch TV while I got a few more “minutes” of sleep… and got the times mixed up and made us really late), we were on our way to the Princess Festival!
(yes, I put some eye shadow on her, but it was theprincess festival and she wanted to look her best)
At the end of the ball, Hannah got to take pictures with all of the princesses. She even got up the courage to go take a picture with the evil witch (Hannah then ran up to me smiling and said, “She’s nice, Tala!”).
But even with all of the fun and adventure of rescuing princesses, going to a ball, riding in Cinderella’s carriage, splashing at Ariel’s water fountain, going “flying” on a trampoline with Peter Pan, and playing in a tepee, I think Hannah’s favorite part of the princess festival was… the playground! She loved the rocking duck.
She loved the swings and wanted me to keep pushing her higher and higher, but I was so scared that she was going to fall out that I would just tell her she was going really high. I don’t think she believed me.
She enjoyed the slides, but was a little scared of the rickety bridges.
And the sandbox was definitely one of her favorites. She could have stayed there all day.
All in all, we had a really good time together. When I heard about this little princess festival, my first thought had been that I wished I had a daughter that I could take. But it was sooo much fun being able to borrow my little Hannah for the day. I love that she is at an age where she understands what is going on and is willing to participate, but not quite old enough yet to make fun of you for getting so excited about such a silly thing. I can’t wait until Lia is a little older so I can do fun things like this with her too. And as for Abel… I’m going to have to figure out what people do with boys… good thing he is only a baby.
3rd time’s not a charm
June 18, 2009
I got my 1st Drivers License in Idaho at the ripe old age of 16. My picture wasn’t too bad. It was nothing to brag about, but I had seen much worse so I was content. (I’d show you but when you get your license in Hawaii, they take away your old one.)
The 2nd DL I got was in Hawaii when I turned 18. The picture is AWFUL, I know. But they refused to take another picture (even though the only people in the DMV at the time were me and my brother). So I’ve been stuck with this atrocity for the last 8 years.
This is my 3rd DL. I just got it in the mail today. Apparently I’ve been cursed by the DL picture gods. I wish the camera at the DMV could be lifted up just a bit so that it wouldn’t point directly at my double chin. Or better yet, we should be able to bring in our own pictures for them to use. But alas, I’m stuck with this for the next 5 years :(
P.S. Believe it or not, I was actually tanner in the Hawaii pic than the Utah pic (which leads me to believe that they do some sort of color alteration to the cameras so that the tan people in Hawaii don’t just look like dark blobs and the white people in Utah don’t just look like white blobs when the flash goes off).
pandemonium
June 17, 2009
I always see Buy Low Market’s insert in the paper, but I never feel like it is worth a whole extra trip just to get inexpensive bananas. There were a couple of times on my mission when I would go grocery shopping at some of the Latino supermarkets, and although their prices were pretty cheap, the produce was usually sub par. I assumed Buy Low would be the same way. After cleaning out my fridge earlier this week, I realized that I had absolutely no produce at home, and since I am making a conscious effort to cut down on our spending, I figured Buy Low was worth a try. After all, the prices seemed really good (bananas were 4 lbs for $1, oranges were the same, peaches were 2 lbs for $1, lettuce was $1 for 2, etc.).
So I dropped Luis off at work and made my way to the store. When I got there, the parking lot (which normally seems pretty empty) was completely full! I had to park all the way at the end of the lot. I then walked up to the store and found that there were no shopping carts available. I had to wait until the employees rounded them up from people as they loaded groceries into their cars. When I finally got a cart and walked inside, I was greeted with this:
There were people EVERYWHERE! You could hardly move in the produce section. After getting everything I needed (I spent probably $5 on $20 worth of produce), I headed towards the back where both ground beef and chicken was on sale for 0.78/lb. People were literally grabbing 5 lb packages of ground beef out of the employee’s hands as she walked around the butcher’s counter. I have never seen anything like it. I felt so bad for the employees that had to deal with the mob of people. Fortunately they had great cashiers so checking out was painless (they even had an employee passing around doughnuts and apologizing for the wait).
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