Hawaii, Day Post-One: HI to CA, Plus Cats

I left Hawaii on Wednesday morning, flying direct from Kona to Oakland (since that airport is much closer to my brother than SFO). Because of the destination, I was flying Southwest (I had flown United from SFO to Kona), so it was my third airline of the trip.

I'm not a huge fan of the airport in Kona--I always have trouble finding my way around (where is the agriculture inspection? could they put up a sign or something?), and because it's all outdoors, I get very hot when dressed for the chill of the plane instead of the weather outside.

Anyway. The Southwest boarding process went as smoothly as I had been told it would, and I found myself a window seat not too far back. Unfortunately, I did turn out to be behind someone who, despite having one of the few empty seats next to him, still felt he had to recline his seat into my space. Which is so rude I can't even stand it.

Anyway. Out comes the knitting!

I was a bit surprised that they don't have screens in the seatbacks. 

They let you stream shows and movies to your device, but honestly, since that assumes that you have a device (not everyone does), and that it's a size you want to watch a movie on (my phone? not a chance), and that it's charged, I don't really approve. I could have watched something on my iPad, of course--this is more a theoretical complaint than a personal one. I listened to an audiobook and went on knitting.

Goodbye, Hawaii.

Also did some reading on the iPad, while eating the snack box that they handed out to everyone.

World's smallest package of tic tacs.

After a long, long stretch of nothing but this:

Finally, land was in sight.

Container ship?

Hello, California. Nice to see the mainland again.

See the bridge, shining in the distance, like a ghost?

My brother met me at the airport, and we got my checked bag (it made it! again!) and went to the BART station, where he pointed out the sunset behind me. Quite pretty!

We took the bags to his house, where the cats were an enthusiastic welcoming committee, sniffing everything very thoroughly. (From here, it's all cat photos, if you're not in the mood for that much cute.)

The two youngest (they're almost a year) were the most into it.

But the middle child also had to see what was going on.

And the senior boy was curious too.

Not only did the suitcase smell fascinating....

But I hung my jacket over a chair, and they quickly discovered that it had dangling cords that made excellent cat toys.

Inside the bag, also full of smells!

They were all over it. Literally.

And the airbed was a surprising but fun play space!

We went out and got dinner at some point in there, but it was basically the cat show for the evening, which suited me fine.

Next up: a day of rest, and a night heading home.

At a Loss

I'm sure I have complained every year when it gets to be annual performance review time at work, and I have to BS my way through the self-assessment. But this year it is, actually, quantifiably, worse than it has been in previous years, because my company has glommed onto some more jargon this year, which shows up in the self-assessment in two ways.

First, they want me to describe how I have 'demonstrated' their 'core values,' which are (gag) curiosity, courage, and collaboration. Courage? How on earth does my editing demonstrate courage? How CAN it?

Second, they want to know how I have 'demonstrated' 'customer obsession.' Also known as 'customer centricity.'

I can usually work myself up to BSing the usual strengths and weaknesses sorry, 'areas for improvement' questions, but these? I don't know if it's the lingering trip lag, but I just keep looking at these and shaking my head.

I don't think they want me writing that I am obsessed with preventing our customers from knowing that our analysts don't always use verbs in sentences. Or that I have the courage to face the frequently poor-quality writing that is sent in.

The deadline is next week. I should be working on them. But ugh.

Post-Trip Recovery, Setbacks

It's been a rough re-entry to post-trip life so far.

I knew that I would have trouble with jet/trip lag, especially after taking the red-eye back to the east coast, which was the best of the few options for nonstop flights. So I planned to get home Friday morning, giving me Friday, Saturday, and Sunday to start recovering, and hopefully get unpacked, before going back to work.

This plan had only mixed success.

Friday: I got a couple of hours sleep on the plane; I didn't have trouble falling asleep, but I couldn't seem to find a position comfortable enough to stay asleep, so I kept popping awake again. I actually dozed off in the car on the drive home, and took a nap after I got home. Friday was about as much a write-off as I expected it to be. Very tired, not sure what time zone I was in, and everything hurt, from the combination of hauling all my luggage around* and being confined in cattle-car plane seats for so long.

*My suitcases do have wheels, but it's still a workout and on a trip this long, I was clearly not up to the task.

Saturday: I slept well Friday night, but in setback #1, I had to be a grown-up all afternoon. It was the celebration of life for my Mom's best friend who died last year, so I had to dress in real clothes and make conversation for a few hours. Don't get me wrong, I wanted to go, but the timing was unfortunate. Then we had to run up to Costco for a prescription Mom needed that day, which took what little energy I had left. I think I was asleep before 8 Saturday night.

Sunday: I woke up after 11 hours sleep, far more than I usually get, and though I wasn't exactly bouncing with energy, I was hopeful that it was going to help. I fed the cat, got my coffee, went to sit on the couch ... and setback #2, I overturned the entire large coffee. 

It. Went. Everywhere. 

What a huge mess. I had been cleaning it up for an hour when my mother got up; my sore muscles were screaming at me, and I was pretty upset. Bless her, she took over the clean-up and let me go sit and stare into space, but it definitely took every bit of energy that I had built up and more, and the rest of the day was pretty much a write-off as well.

Monday: I probably didn't feel worse than I had on Sunday, but because I had to sit at the computer and work, it seemed worse. Impossibly long day, sore, no energy, and turning the light off to go to sleep at 8:15.

Tuesday: Almost 10 hours of sleep later, I felt marginally better! Not as sore, some energy! I finished my work project and thought I might get a little unpacking done ... and in short order, though I did get a bit done, my body was all, "Whoa, whoa whoa! Dial it back, there!" and I realized that I had used up all the energy I had, and was back to "let's sit down and stare into space, occasionally picking up the phone and then putting it down again because it's so heavy." Work wasn't as busy, so I was able to spend some time just sitting, or with the lap cat, or reading, so it wasn't as bad a day as Monday, but still, not much got done, which was frustrating.

Wednesday: I had been sleeping well since I got home, but at 3-something-AM, that ran out, and I was awake for more than an hour. And a bit headachy. Overall, marginal improvement from the previous day (in spite of having to go to the dentist, ugh, but it was just normal levels of unpleasant), but not much energy, not much. Though I did notice my arms didn't hurt they way they had been, so that's good.

And now it's Thursday. I feel almost human (in spite of the building getting power-washed today, so there was a period where I could feel my skeleton reverberating in my body). And hopefully, I can get fully unpacked soon.

Still to come: photos from my trip home, including MANY of my brother's cats!

Where Were We? Ah, Hawaii, Day Six

Day Six was Tuesday, my last full day in Hawaii. The weather started out with some pretty blue skies.

Then it got overcast, and the forecast for the afternoon was grim. The weather was a lot more grey than I had been expecting, so my mood was a little grim too.

But then it got sunny again! So unexpected.

I ran up to Kona Stories to get more fabulous toffee to take home, and discovered that they didn't just have the one cat I had seen on the previous visit, they had (at least) three!

None of whom were feeling social. Oh well. Not their fault I was missing my Maggie.

Back at the rental, I sat outside to read, and saw this little guy running up a pipe.

There were some clouds, but the blue sky did not go away, and I got to sit in the sun, and be warm! It was lovely.

Not in every direction, but that's okay.

Little yellow birds in the grass. (As with all the photos, click on them to see them bigger.)

Some clouds, but that makes for a more interesting sunset.

The light on the water.

A flower in the parking lot near Huggo's, where we had dinner. 

And watched the sunset, the best one of my visit.

The surf crashing in on the other side.

Here comes the sun.

And down it goes for real.

I didn't see the green flash this time.

But the color in the clouds, and on the water, continued spectacular.

The food was really good, too; I had the teriyaki steak, which had a delicious flavor, and then this amazing thing for dessert.

The menu describes it thusly:

Layers of coconut cream, coconut cake and Hawaiian Haupia, whipped cream and more shredded and toasted coconut

I would say it's like a fresh, fancy, delicious version of a Pepperidge Farm Coconut Cake (which was always my birthday choice when I was a kid). No knock on PF, but this was amazing.

Finally, it was time to go home and organize my packing, to leave in the morning. Sigh. More travel.

In Lieu of Coherence

Admire my adorable cat.

Home, Safe and Sore

I’m home, I’m fine, and I’m exhausted and every muscle in my body hurts! More … sometime.