Back from Hawaii

Mark and I returned from our vacation to Maui on Sunday. It was glorious to be away from work and the daily little stresses of life for a while. We stayed in Kihei at Mark’s parents’ condo – we all crashed the end of Mark’s sister and brother-in-law’s honeymoon and turned it into a family vacation. Kelly and Jesse, you both were so sweet to hang out with us on your honeymoon! :)

Paul and Della’s condo was basically a revolving door during the trip. Kelly and Jesse started out there and were joined by Paul, Della, Mark and me (and a stray gecko). When Kelly and Jesse left to return to Seattle, three moved in to take their place: family friends Gerald, Wendy, and Diane. We had fun sharing the condo with them for a night before we had to leave! Paul and Della, thank you so much for your hospitality – we had a great time! Now if I can only find some mahi mahi fish and chips somewhere…

Countdown to Hawaii

We will officially be leaving for Hawaii in 84 days! We got our plane tickets yesterday and I can't wait to finally step on a sandy Hawaiian beach for the first time. I need to make myself a reading list so when we get there, all I'll have to do is set down my chair, pull out a book and sip an icy drink. The hope of Hawaii is going to get me through the darkness (and dampness) of our Seattle winter!

Christmas 2009

We returned Sunday from a wonderful Christmas weekend in Colorado. We visited lots of family and got to see some friends of mine whom we hadn’t seen in almost a year. Our friends, Megan and George, just bought a house in Fort Collins and are preparing for the birth of their first baby – she has such a cute baby bump! We laughed together because as a kid, Megan absolutely hated the color pink (“Pink is sexist! My favorite color is blue!”) but now that they know they’re having a baby girl, they’re decorating the nursery in pink and brown. I adore pink, so their baby will be receiving plenty of pink from me! She’ll learn to like it!

Northern Colorado was hit by a snowstorm the day before we flew in, so we had a fresh white Christmas. I’d show you pictures but my camera never made it to Colorado in the first place – I forgot it at home. So here are a few mental snapshots from the weekend.

• I used to hate Pictionary but now I love it. I don’t remember the last time I’ve laughed that hard! There was a drawing of an elephant (“ivory”) that you wouldn’t have been able to identify even with hints (although my drawing of a light switch, “off”, wasn’t too on target either).
  
• Mom got me the DVD of the original airing of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “Cinderella”. I can’t wait to watch it – how can you go wrong with Julie Andrews? Thanks Mom!
  
• We went to the Christmas Eve service at the church my mom has been attending and then went to a family friend’s house for dinner. Thank you to the Morgans for having us over on such short notice! We appreciate your generosity, even though you left us in the dust on Mario Kart.

Leavenworth Oktoberfest

Hundreds of people descended upon Leavenworth this weekend to take part in their annual Oktoberfest. What better place to celebrate than a tiny Bavarian town in the middle of nowhere? I stayed with Paul and Della in Wenatchee and met up with some of my friends Saturday afternoon to see what Oktoberfest was about. Turned out it really was all about the beer, with some hyper-vigilant cops thrown into the mix.

The atmosphere was much like what I would expect to see at a frat party: raucous laughing, a tower built entirely of empty beer cups, and plenty of people making fools of themselves. Toss in some live polka music and you’ve got yourself Oktoberfest! I particularly loved the band that headlined Saturday night in the party tent – polka versions of the Beatles and John Denver and multiple renditions of the chicken dance and a German drinking song that everyone seemed to know the lyrics to except us. Plenty of guys sported lederhosen (think Kurt from The Sound of Music) and everywhere you turned you ran into a girl in a little German dress (think St. Pauli beer).

Philip bought us toy laser guns that vendors were selling within the Oktoberfest boundaries, and we ran around for a while shooting each other and seeing if we could aim at certain targets with the laser (no people, save for an old college friend we ran into). Later that night, we were surprised by police officers who escorted two of our group out of the tent and proceeded to angrily lecture them on their use of the toy guns. I thought we were surely getting kicked out of the event, and we rounded up the rest of the group to join the other two (safety in numbers). They didn’t eject us, but they were angry and continued to harass us the rest of the night with dirty looks and flashlight pointing. At this point, I would like to interject. Really?! Officers, did you really have to haul out two friends to lecture them about toy guns? Let’s think about this. We probably had the LEAST to drink out of the hundreds of people there, and you’re picking on the ones with the lasers. There are guys clutching their beer steins and falling over themselves and you think we're a problem? I would say we're the least of your worries tonight. At least we are going to get in the car sober and not pose a threat to the rest of society. Speaking of driving sober, I'd also like to say a big thank you to the three police cars we saw pulling over likely drunk drivers after we left Leavenworth. We cheered when we saw those flashing lights. But next time officers, let's not take the lasers so seriously. Leavenworth is not an airport and we are not terrorists.

I mean come on, do we look like terrorists? Honestly.

A paradox

I work in the world of corporate real estate. For the uninitiated, these agents tend to work all kinds of hours to make sure their deals get done (they are paid on commission only). This includes vacations, as it’s typically considered unprofessional to render yourself completely out of touch with the corporate world. It isn’t unusual for an agent to call in and conduct all sorts of business from Palm Springs or Sun River. In fact, I think it’s expected. I don’t think I could ever spend a vacation like that. Not only would my family not appreciate it, but I go on vacation to get AWAY from everything, not bring it with me. This is why it’s nice not to have a smart phone. I have an excellent excuse NOT to check my e-mail. But I digress.

I’ve become so accustomed to hearing from co-workers when they’re “getting away from it all” that I get frustrated if I DON’T receive a response to an e-mail I send them. It’s a ruthless double standard. I know you’re sitting on the beach but I also know you have an iPhone. And I flagged my e-mail as high priority. And I don’t throw “high priority” around like it’s nothing. But if you try to call ME when I’m on the beach… you’ll probably get my voicemail. Over and over. Maybe that’s the good part about being relatively unimportant at work. The world won’t stop if you take a break.