Year of the Dog

Hawai'i was wonderful...

Am putting some thoughts together--i am still wistfully processing the whole experience. Currently i feel like leaving the corporate world and becoming a lifeguard at my favorite beach in Hilo. i liked encountering pleasant and friendly drivers who would smile and wave from their cars for me to pull ahead. i liked that i could go places and people would ask my last name, and they'd know my family. i liked going to the beach every day and having the biggest decision be what kind of shave ice i was going to have that day. i'm clearly not over my vacation. More to come on that.

i can tell you about the horrendous flight over, however:

Apparently, we flew to Hawai'i on a day of a huge tropical storm. This storm was tracked across the Pacific stirring up 25 foot waves. A normal 4 hour flight turned into a 5.5 hour nightmare.

Usually turbulence has been a rough patch of clouds or wind. i grip the armrests and it's over. This time, the turbulence was intense and long-lasting. It lasted for over twenty minutes two different times. The "fasten your seatbelt" light was on for most of the flight. There was at times that eerie silence that comes when people are too scared to move. Some people screamed when the plane dipped for about five seconds, then tipped heavily to the left. i found myself wishing and praying that it would stop, and thinking at certain moments that i'd never see my family again.

At one point, the plane was silent except for a boy in the back who was talking loudly, "Dad, if the we crash will the plane protect us?" Comforting and exactly what you want to hear at 20,000 feet above the Pacific!! At one point, i realised that the experience of turbulence was quickly surpassing my fear of dentists.

We landed horribly wibbly wobbly at the Honolulu International Airport. After a comforting plate lunch, we headed to the airport bar for a much needed drink before our inter-island flight later that afternoon. Enough about this.

We have stumbled into 2006 the Year of the Dog. We're all about the dog here at pennylane productions--i am a dog and i live with a dog. Am i a dog person? If you've always associated being close to fur with not being able to breathe, i think it's difficult. i can say that i'm a dog person by fate, as those i'm close to love dogs.

Apparently, one born in the year of the dog is:

-loyal
-honest
-selfish
-stubborn
-eccentric
-trustworthy
-a good leader
-reliable
-compassionate
-anxious

We get along best with Horses, Tigers, and Rabbits.
We worry a lot.
We're good listeners.

And guess what, we're going to have a very good year.