I woke a dozen times through the night, not what you would call a good night's sleep. Finally, seeing the clock read 6:00am, I got up. I skipped breakfast and tea because I needed to get to Kahului before 9:00. Having not bought a travel mug yet, making tea to take on the drive with me wasn't an option.
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| Da Bus Hawaii public transportation |
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| Art-fitti found at the airport bus stop |
The bus arrived around 8:40am. I boarded and texted The Hubby to let him know I was on my first ever public bus ride. He asked if I took a picture of my first bus. I hadn't. I sometimes don't think to take pictures of things.
I got off the bus at Maui Mall. The DMV is in the mall. I crossed my fingers and hoped that I would have a better outcome at this branch than what I experienced yesterday. I pulled a ticket, looked down to read number 12, and glanced up at the board to see they had just called number 7. Not too bad, I thought to myself. Nevertheless, I waited an hour before getting to a window.
I failed to get a license today, but the trip proved helpful. After taking my paperwork and making some phone calls coupled with a bit of research, she produced an Ohio phone number that she thought would be the office I should contact to get the paperwork I needed. If either of the ladies I talked to yesterday had made that much effort, I could have called Ohio this morning and not needed to come over here. Oh well.
I thanked her and walked out, hoping that the scrap of paper I carried held the key to me getting one step closer to being "local." I would have to wait until tomorrow to find out. The office in Ohio closed at 4:00pm and it was already nearly 11:00am in Hawaii, meaning almost 5:00pm back east. That 6-hour time difference will take some getting used to when I want to talk to friends and family back east.
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| A pile of bunnies and one loner |
I checked the time. My friend from Waihee whom I was having lunch with today wouldn't be there for a while. With time to kill, I wandered the mall and grabbed some pictures. The shops all sat dark and quiet, not yet opened for the day, so there was no browsing to be done while I waited. The pet shop did have a cage of bunnies located up against the window. All but one lay in a pile in one corner, with the loner laying on the other side of the cage. If bunnies interested me as pets, I'd pick the loner.
Finally, I found a shaded bench to sit on and wait for my friend. Just as I was sitting down, the phone rang. The apartment manager of the place we applied to over the weekend called to let me know we were approved and that she would email the lease agreement to The Hubby for him to sign and fax back. Finally, some news that made me feel like things were going my way. I let The Hubby know.
Seeing that the time was close for my friend to pick me up, I texted her to let her know where she could find me. She texted back to let me know she would be about an hour late. Island time! Island time moves slower than mainland time, but that's part of what drew me here to the island in the first place. No worries, brah.
When she and her sons finally picked me up, we went to a nearby park for a picnic she had brought for us to share. The highlight of the picnic proved to be the fresh mango that she picked from a tree in her back yard! This was the best mango I had ever eaten, so unbelievably ripe, super juicy - absolutely nothing like the fruit I bought back in Vegas, which I always thought was fresh but now see was nothing more than firm, sour nonsense. I want a mango tree!
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| A heron in the park watching us eat lunch |
While my friend and I talked story, her boys ran around the park being boys. We watched a heron who seemed very interested in watching the boys. I remembered to grab a picture.
After lunch, we dropped one of her sons off at school for practice and headed to her house in Waihee. She lives in a jungle, so lush, green, beautiful. I saw a lot of potential in her house were I to live somewhere similar. She showed me some of her crafty things and we spent some time visiting before she needed to drop me at a bus stop and take her other son to his school for practice.
Just minutes after she dropped me off, the bus approached. I got a picture this time, of the second bus I'd ever ride. The first stop was at the harbor in Ma'alaea, where I experienced a few seconds of panic when the bus pulled away from the stop. We were headed in the wrong direction! I really didn't want to go back towards Kahului. I relaxed, however, when the driver announced "Next stop, Wharf Cinema Center." It seems that when the bus stops at Ma'alaea, it needs to take a winding figure-8 tour of the parking lot before it can get to a stop light where it is able to make the left turn needed to head towards Lahaina.
Suddenly, my phone started blowing up. The Hubby, it seemed, had received the lease agreement from the apartment complex and did not feel very comfortable signing it. He finally told me he would prefer I keep looking. I was back to square one when it came to living arrangements. I felt a little let down.
My day brightened quickly, though, just before we pulled up to the stop in Lahaina. I noticed I had a voicemail from a local number. I suspected it would be another potential interview, but I hoped that it would be a job offer. One of my references had texted me earlier to let me know that he had been called. I hit the button on the phone to play the message, trying to keep my hopes in check.
It was the lady I had interviewed with on Tuesday at the art gallery. She asked if I could call or stop by to answer some questions. With the gallery being very close to the bus stop, I walked straight there after the bus stopped. She seemed very happy to see me, but nowhere near as happy as I was when she told me she wanted to offer me the job.
A job! I have a job! A real, money earning, J. O. B. Job! I wanted to do back flips.
She told me training started next week - I know it's only a few days away but let's start tomorrow, I thought to myself - and that I would start working on my own on August 1. Elated would be an understated way to describe how I felt.
She also recommended I take a trip up the coast to one of her other galleries that is located near Ka'anapali. That gallery also needed help and she wanted me to meet the manager there. She told me that, in time, I could work both locations, eventually maybe even enough hours to be a full-time gig. We finished our conversation with her telling me that she might call and have me help out in the gallery this weekend even though my training didn't start until next week. Let's just dive in, head first, clothes on, and get going! Craziness, I tell you, but a good kind of crazy.
I promised her I would go visit the other store and headed home. My visit to the other store would have to wait until tomorrow afternoon. I needed to make phone calls in the morning, the most important of which being the one to Ohio. Then I need to start lighting up the voicemail boxes of leasing agents in my renewed search to find some place to live.
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| 84 degrees and this lady is bundled up like its in the low 50s. My freezing Hubby doesn't even put on the hoodie until it gets around 70! |
I walked the one mile trip home. I get in at least a mile walking every day, even the days I don't have somewhere to be. The Hubby would probably say I stroll a mile and should walk faster or something, but I don't care. If you ask me, the amount of walking I've been doing the last couple weeks is insane compared to how much walking I did in Vegas, which would be none. I hated walking just for the sake of walking, through neighborhoods with their 8-foot stone walls in 100-degree heat. Here, things are different. I walk and find new things. I see things other than boring neighborhoods and, if all else fails, I have a nearby beach I can walk on.
Today felt like the longest day I've had since arriving on the island. I enjoyed my picnic and visit with my friend, I got - and lost - an apartment to live in, I got a job, and I found a way to get my mile walk in. I am exhausted, though, likely due to waking up way too early for my tastes.
I even learned a new word today, too.
Hawaiian word of the day: shi shi - the more you know!
Aloha!
Congratulations Julie. Got the job, have friend(s) to hang with, turning down places to live. Life is good. Enjoy your surroundings and relax.
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