The Update

Sorry its been awhile since I posted. I worked some extra days and we've been busy with xmas shopping. Its been crazy here the last few days. We have had terrible rain storms! Rain, rain, rain. There has been lots of flooding including sometimes the highway. The rain is to continue for another few days to week. A river keeps forming on the golf course behind us.

I woke up feeling under the weather yesterday. But I dragged myself to work because I didn't want everyone to think I was skipping work on my birthday. I took a nap after work and that helped. Our original plan was to go to Roy's which is a very nice restaurant on the golf course here. But because I didn't feel 100% I for some reason wanted to go to the Japanese buffet at the hotel here. I have no idea why I wanted Japanese food, but Brian obliged. And we are so glad we did. It was sooo good. The restaurant was beautiful inside, you felt like you were in Japan. We had sushi of course, but they had the most delicious fish too (cooked). It was in a sweet teriaki type sauce and was like eating butter. They also had steak, tempura, chicken and lots of bite sized desserts. By the end, I could barely move! It was expensive, but really at the end it wasn't that much more than other places we go. And the food was so good, even if you are not a sushi eater.

Brian gave me some beautiful black Tahitian pearl earrings and pendant necklace for my birthday.

After dinner, we were so full, we fell asleep before 10 on the couch while watching a tivo'd CSI. This morning we both were feeling not great. Everyone at work for both of us have had all these flu bugs. We are working to package up xmas gifts today and mail tomorrow and weds.


Also working on those christmas cards....

Thanksgiving in Hawaii

Thanksgiving was a success! We were so full, we couldn't sleep. We stayed up until 2am watching movies. We really liked Fred Claus- cute xmas comedy. Then today, we tried to pour ourselves into our bathing suits and went to the beach. Not to make everyone jealous, but it was a beautiful day. Not too hot, perfect breeze, sunny.....80 I think. We walked to the beach and spent most of the day there. Then I watched the Ko Olina Christmas parade (about 20 min), it was cute...golf carts decorated for christmas. Then we went on a walk tonight.

Tomorrow, back to work...but I don't think we will be that busy.

Getting ready for Turkey!

So, we're getting ready for turkey day. I had a busy day at work-not too busy- just nice to have lots of things to do. I started one root canal and did another complete root canal, then some extractions, and lots of fillings.

I took a ball exercise class at the yoga studio I went to last week. Its all these exercises using one of those big bouncy balls. It was fun, and great exercise.

Then to the grocery store to pick up the turkey day fixin's. I had another rough day at the office in Kailua. For those of you who don't know, I'm not liking that job as much. To make a long story short, I have to do everything a certain way (not the Dr. Webb way) and I also am gone for 12-13 hours since its so far away. I've been looking to see if Gentle Dental will add me on Mondays so I can have a normal life on Mondays. And so I don't have to dread Mondays all week. But the owner killed what interest I had left in the job this Monday when he said that he hated Paula Deen's accent and thought that green bean casserole was the worst dish ever.

Who does he think he is?! ..... insulting my favorite accent and a traditional family dish in one day?! Life's too short to be at a job you don't like and I LOVE my job at Gentle dental so I'm hoping they come up with another day for me.

I' ve been getting faster and faster at work and this is exciting. Once I start producing a certain amount I start getting bonus's. So I'm working toward that. It also takes time to build up a patient pool. I hope to be getting a bonus by spring.

This week is great because I have my first two days off in a row since I started working (since my days off are fri/sun). I'm really ready to relax! And for those of you who want to know....its been in the low 80s, high 70s during the day and low 70s at night. But we have been getting more rain so we haven't had a "beach day" in a couple weeks. But we take walks along the beach most days. We are quite spoiled. This is an advertisement for people to come visit us. Doesn't it sound nice? Airline prices are coming down.

Busy Week

I had a busy week, I picked up an extra day at Waianae while the other doctor was out of town. But I love working there so it wasn't so hard. I was sure tired at the end of the week. On thurs, I had a crazy busy day at work...14 scheduled patients and another 8 recall exams (people who come in for a cleaning and need check ups).

I checked out the local yoga/dance studio on Weds night and took a yoga class. It was nice and the prices are quite reasonable. They offer mainly yoga, but also a few dance classes, but they are on nights I can't make it. Oh, well.

A gecko was loose in the house today, we named it Gordon. We were going to let him roam around and eat ants....until he took up residence in the bathroom. Too creepy. Brian managed to grab him in a grocery bag and let him loose outside.

We decorated our xmas tree today since it was raining. It looks great. We found a discount store for ornaments. We have a short week this week! I work M, T, W, Sat. Of course, Brian only works M, T, Sa.

I can still move my fingers

Today we went on another hike. I picked up a book on hiking in Oahu at Borders the other day. We've been planning our trek this week. We finally decided on a trail last night. I ordered some hiking boots, but they are on backorder and won't be in for a couple weeks. There are NO outdoor sports/specialty stores here. We went to some sporting good stores, but the women's hiking shoe dept is practically non existent. Brian got a new backpack and we were ready to go.

Our hike was the Waianae Kai Trail. It starts in Waianae (where we work) and goes up into the Waianae range mountains. The trail was to be 6 miles with part of it as a loop. There is an extended version of the trail that goes 8 miles total. So we packed our sandwiches and such last night and woke up early this morning to blaze the trail. This morning we headed out with much needed coffee.

We should have seen the difficulty in finding the start of the trail as an omen. We spent at least 30 min wandering around the road trying to find the start of the trail once we got near it. We finally found it- really the middle of nowhere. We were pretty sure our car was going to get broken into because we saw people driving around looking for interesting trash by the side of the road. So we left our car door unlocked. They sometimes recommend this so that no one breaks a window. They just look and realize there's nothing there. We left two vital items in the car...a cooler and 6 beers on ice in case we wanted to go to the beach post hike. However, in the morning rush, we forgot our suits.

The start of the hike was up a forest reserve road in a dry area with brush, shrubs and cacti- The waianae valley. It is the hottest place on the island and it was (even at 8:30 am). This was a steep walk up for about 1 mile. Of course, that's when it started raining. Just enough to keep you hot instead of cooling you off. It was such a steep road!

Then we made it to the trail part. I should mention that the trail was labeled as Intermediate with a danger level of Low. We started our hike to the mountain. We went thorough strawberry guava trees and passed a dead gutted pig carcass. This is a ferrel pig hunting area on weekends and holidays. Luckily, we hiking on Fridays. We treked into a gully where there was a pile of rocks wrapped in ti leaves. This is what you are supposed to do when you are passing through sacred land. At that moment a rock or fruit or something fell and almost hit me in the head. We wrapped up one of those rocks and put it on the pile. No more falling rocks after that. Then the trail started going up and UP and UP! There were areas where we had to grab onto trees and roots to get up. Then some places had ropes to use to get up. We followed the markers wondering what we had gotten ourselves into. We just stopped often for breaks.

We were trying to get to the point where the power lines peak on the mountain so we kept looking for them. I was sure a Velociraptor was going to jump out and get us. We finally got to the top. It was so cool. First of all, it smelled like burning sugar- we don't know what that was. Then the mist set in and you couldn't even see the mountains! It was just like the three sisters for me in Australia (for those of you who know that story)! Basically, there were 1000 foot drop offs on either side of us in certain areas on the trail. We ascended up 2100 feet during the hike. We then started the descent! That was more difficult for me than going up. I really wished I had my hiking boots instead of my old tennis shoes! On the way down, we followed an ancient Hawaiian trail. It was really fun. We finally made it back down, down, down, to the steep road and finally to the car. We had made it back to the car 1:45pm. It took us over 5 hours. The car was in order and we had a much needed cold beer.

We then came home and collapsed. I am sitting on the couch right now typing this and I have serious doubts as to whether I can get off of it. Our legs are so sore! But it was so fun! It was beautiful and we feel like we really accomplished something. We will definitely try the 8 mile loop sometime, just not until we are in better hiking shape. And we would bring more water and supplies for the long one. I have lots of video of the event, I will be working on compiling it.

On another note, this week I was passing McDonalds in Nanakuli and someone had parked their horse out front. And Dr. Yamamoto, our orthodontist at Gentle Dental got on Lost as an extra so I'll be looking for him when it starts.

Signing off- no energy left....

Working Girl

Its been awhile since my last post. I've just been a busy working girl! Being a dentist is exhausting! I've been really tired after work, some days I fall asleep on the couch before 9:30pm and its real tough for me to stay up past 10:30 on our "weekend nights". I've been seeing all kinds of things at work and learning every day. I've been doing a lot of extractions at Gentle Dental since I do all the extractions on Tues, Weds, Thurs, and Sats. There's one person that works every other Weds that does some extractions and one lady that does them on Mondays.

On Halloween, Brian and I went on a hike. We didn't read too well about the difficulty of the hike and it was tough! But it was so fun! It was through a rainforest and in the moutains of the North Shore. It was in Kahana Bay. We were hiking through a lot of mud, over roots and streams. We had to take off our shoes and wade through 3 of the streams. One stream we had to shuffle over a dam with ankle deep water rushing over while holding onto a rope. I have it on video- Brian almost fell in. But then he held the rope tight for when I went across so it was easier for me. The hike took us over 3 hours. We were tired, but had fun, so we are looking into doing more hikes. I'm going to get some proper hiking boots so I don't turn an ankle.

I have a hand injury I'm nursing. Part of the nail on my left thumb nail decided to fall off. Of course, its at the base of the nail. I think I remember smashing it last month on something. So, I have to keep my left thumb all wrapped up (especially at work). The nail will probably take weeks to grow out. I'm watching it for a few days to see if I need to find some Phelanges specialist- hahaha.

This week, I'm working 6 days- I picked up an extra day in Kailua while the owner is out of town. I may work another long week before Thanksgiving. Nothing like working on my own slush fund! But its not really slush since I'm taking off a couple days around xmas without pay so I'm making up for it now. I won't get paid vacation until next year. Of course any paid vacation in dentistry is a luxury.

"Lost" on the beach

We were up late last night watching Brians recorded football (Michigan state was quite disappointing) and we rented a movie- Baby Mama (cute). I had delusions of waking up at 7am to go to Waiamea bay which you have to get to really early to get a parking place. But come morning, we were too tired to make beach sandwiches at 7am.

So, we went to the farmers market later this morning. Then we packed up and headed to the north shore around 11am. It then started raining at the beach we were going to go to (sunset beach), we turned around and went to the beach on the far end of the north shore near keana point that they film the TV show, Lost at. No filming today. The beach was over a mile long and there were only a few families there. The car thermometer said it was 80 out, but with the wind and the clouds and light mist from time to time- we were freezing! We have become real temperature wimps! We think the wind chill must have been 65 degrees. So after all that driving we were determined not to miss out on the beach so we put on all the layers of tshirts we had and huddled under our towels and ate our sandwiches and pineapple.

After a bit, it warmed up and the sun started to come out. We stayed for a few hours. It was fun because we were near an airfield that was offering glider rides and we watched the gliders. They would make the turn for the final descent right above us. Then there was a retired gentleman who brought out his parasail and surfboard and was riding along the shore using the sail to pull him along. We were very impressed.

Oh, and we've started a new war with the ants. Waterbugs are gone, but the ants won't go. So we picked up some ant traps. Of course they wouldn't go in there so Brian smashed their favorite food in there....cheddar cheese. Apparently ants have expensive taste around here...cheese is usually $3.50-4 for 8 oz.

Brian may have found me a girlfriend at work. She came in to observe the office and is our age. She's a dentist and her husband is an endodontist (root canal specialist). She even lives in Ko Olina-just a different part. I'm going to give her a call this week.

Work has made me tired this week

I'm a bit worn out this week from work. It's difficult to explain, but talking nervous patients through procedures all week can be exhausting. I've also had a run of non compliant patients. It seems that many people don't believe my instructions and then call me later and are upset because they are in pain. I write down the instructions and spend usually 5-10 min explaining things and then they go home and do whatever they want. I can't provide more details, but its been frustrating.

On the other hand, another patient of mine who came in last week for an emergency wrote a GLOWING thank you note to the manager about her wonderful experience....so I'll just hold onto that note to read from time to time.

I tried a new haircolor this week and its a bit of a disaster. I think it looks purple, however, Brian thinks its barely different than before and only one person at work noticed the difference. It was supposed to be this debra messing red- not so much. So I'm hoping to get in the sun this weekend to help it fade out. I've already washed my hair several times.

I'm getting added to the website for the office I work at in Kailua on Mondays, I will post the address once its on there. Also, I got my cards at Gentle dental this week so that was fun.

Off to run errands!

Just another day in Paradise

I was thinking about how much I loved my job and realized why and thought everyone would think its funny.....

I work all day in my PJs (provided scrubs) that I don't even wash (they have a laundry service). I wear crocs all day.

Everyone brings in fresh fruit from their trees at home or various local foods to share- this week I had mango bread (like banana bread but with mangos), fresh picked mangos, and fresh picked tangerines.

At lunch time, we order from the local lunch wagon. It has three choices per day and comes with main course, 2 scoops rice, and salad. This is $5 and I divide up into two lunches so I have one for the next day.

Today, I spent about 1.5 hours sitting around reading people magazines that someone brought in and made about $75 catching up on best and worst dressed.

Then after work, I dumped my scrubs in the laundry and changed into a tshirt and my maternity pants and headed home while watching the sun decend on the ocean.

Then I stopped at the library and picked up a few books for beach reading on either Fri or Sun (whichever day we go).

The added bonus was that Brian didn't work today and when I walked in.. he had dinner ready for the grill and beers properly chilled. We had chicken and shrimp and green beans with mango salsa (didn't make this time- bought at costco).

Anyway, I just thought it was funny. Today has combined the best moments of my early life to create quite a day- from wearing PJs, to having "school lunch", and "mom" making dinner. Ha ha ha --now all I need is a bus ride.

Back to the Daily Grind

Well, I'm back to working full time. I was in the private practice in Kailua on Monday and ended up staying late talking with the owner...he has plans for expansion. I had a day of mainly cleanings and exams. Only in Hawaii can a dentist who has 4 extra years of training end up doing cleanings. But, I make a base salary, so it doesn't really matter what I do as long as I am building up a patient pool to treat in the future. I didn't get home until 7:30- boy was I tired! I had left at 6:30am. I am making it a rule for me to be out of the office by 5:30, so I can be home by 6:30.

Then Tues and today I was in Waianae at Gentle Dental. The office is not remotely posh like the Monday office, but the staff is so nice and the senior doctor is also a woman who has been practicing for 30 years. She's a nice role model. The atmosphere is really laid back. I drive past the ocean to work in Waianae and I hear that in the winter you can see whales in the ocean. I'm super excited for that. Today, I supported the local lunchwagon by ordering a plate lunch (the office orders from there most days). I had Kahula pork and cabbage. It was nice roasted shredded pork with cabbage, seasoned well, two scoops of rice and a small bit of green salad with dressing. Its $5 and I saved half for tomorrow. I think I will continue to order once a week from them since I get two lunches for $5 and I want to support local business there. Oh, as far as dentistry, things have gone well so far...fillings, exams, and 4 extractions.

Tomorrow is of course, another first day....my first day in Pearlridge (near where Aunt Juju used to live). I hear its busier there and there is some tension between the front desk and assistants (that tends to be dentistry as usual). I have a feeling I will like Waianae better. Wish me luck, pray that I avoid any root canals for a few weeks as they have some crazy system I have never seen before in my life and I'm not sure how to use it. Even Brian thought it sounded weird.

Oh, and lets all thank Brian for me for doing all the grocery shopping and errands today on his day off while I was at work. He deheaded and deveined 130 shrimp and cut up about 20 steaks today after shopping. Then divided it all up and froze it to last us a long time. He also last night after I went to sleep set up all my things in the kitchen for me so that when I woke up my keys, phone, tea mug and such were all ready for me. I even had a few minutes to have breakfast outside and watch them mow the green.

We are off on Friday, so we will see if we have enough energy to do something tomorrow night. Oh, Grampy, at our tennis clinic, the tennis pro adjusted my grip and I think I have my topspin back!

And the Grand Total Please...drum roll....

Yesterday I spent 4-5 hours organizing my student loan mayhem. Student loans for dental students can be crazy since we have government loans (subsidized and unsubsidized), perkins loans, and private loans of various types. The have different interest rates, grace periods and payback options. I am unable to consolidate my goverment loans and it would be unwise to consolidate my private loans because (as I found out yesterday) my interest rate will increase. So I am going to put a poll up to see who can guess my student loan total. Basically, I will be paid off in 2033! And I'm going to have one heck of a party on that day! But the bottom line is that depending on my payment choices, I will be paying either $1000 a month or $1250 a month depending on what I decide. Some payments start in Nov, some in Jan and one in March.

So...don't forget to vote on your guess for Sarah's Grande Dental Debt!

After that headache yesterday, I visited the fitness center while it rained (bummer). Then it stopped and it was later in the afternoon so I decided to go to the adult spa/pool for my tired muscles. On the way, I met some friends for Brian. Some guys are here for a couple months who are umpires for the minor leagues- plus they offered to get us tickets. Super cool.

Then I was reading "Nights in Rodanthe" in the hot tub with the jets and the palm trees. It was perfect. I'm going to sneak down there more often for reading. Its the perfect place to read a book like that in which I want to really enjoy it. Maybe I'll pick up a book light so I can go after work (sundown is 6:30 now).

Something I didn't think about until someone brought it up. You guys are all going to have daylight savings soon and then we will only be 4 hours (central) and 5 hours (eastern) apart. Yea!

Work went great on last Monday. I was super nervous, but I made it through and everything came back to me. What a relief! I had an easy schedule. but produced $900 so that was good for a first day(obviously that's not what I take home). I start the other job next week, so this is my last weekend of lounging.

Bad news about the flood, there is some freak clause in Brian's homeowners insurance that prevents us from being covered for the flood. But the main thing is that the water is out, we have our gutters going up today with drainage away from the house. Our friend, Aaron is coming out next weekend to fix our gravity drainage system. And hopefully, the renters are filling in the dirt around the house (like they were going to do a week ago and haven't).

Signing off...

Worst than we thought the worst would be

We got the estimate for the flood in Michigan and its worse than our "worse case senario". Its going to be 6K for water, carpet, pad removal, antimicrobial wash and replacement of drywall (2 ft of dry wall along the basement). We still need new carpet and pad, AND we will need to dig a drainage ditch or something around the house to prevent more flooding in the future.

We are waiting on another estimate, but the water has already been there for 4 days.

Keep you posted.

Ahhh! Not another day in Paradise!

Work yesterday went well. I didn't end up seeing patients because we are waiting on malpractice insurance for me. But the office was very nice and I had a good time. I will write more on that later. Because that's not the real news of yesterday.

The real news is that Brian's basement flooded in Grand Rapids. What a disaster! The renters are upset and think their kids are getting asthma or something (after 36 hours of water). All the water removing companies are booked but one. There is still about 1 1/2 inches of water. We are going to pay an astronomical sum of money due to need to get the water out before the dry wall all needs to be replaced. We have no idea if this will keep occurring or where the water came from exactly. The renters think it came from 3 or 4 places. This is the ABSOLUTE worst time for this to happen to us, since Brian has run out of savings. We were up until 11pm last night trying to work out what to do, calling companies, researching, etc. Then Brian got up at 3am to start more calls and confirm more quotes.

Then in the middle of that, I got rejected for health insurance. So I have NO coverage right now. My job health insurance won't start until about Nov. There are only 2 companies that provide health insurance in Hawaii and the main one rejected me for my bout with dental school depression 3 years ago. So now, here I am, a doctor, after being in school for 20 years, unable to get insurance. I didn't qualify for Cobra either. Its not about the money, I would make it happen, I just can't get coverage. So, I will be providing oral health care, being exposed to God knows what and I have no insurance. Great! I have one more company I am trying, but they won't be able to start me even if I am approved for a few weeks. I spend time exercising, eating lots of healthy food, don't smoke, wear my sunscreen forcefield, I have taken no medications other than antibiotics for 2 years and haven't been in to the doctor in over a year. Still I am not healthy enough for Blue cross, Blue Shield.

After all this news, Brian and I worked out our frustration on the tennis court at 9pm last night. They have great lit courts and we did much better than when we played on Sat.

I will keep you all posted on our great flood and my lack of insurance.

Working 5 days!!!

Great news for those who haven't heard....I have my jobs lined up so that I will be working 5 days a week!!! I work on M, T-Th, and Sat. I'm very excited. I will be going into one job on Monday, and the other job won't start for 30 days, this is bad, but I'm hoping that they can get me in earlier.

This morning, Brian and I went to the Aloha Swap meet again. It was great. We picked up some Hawiian decor. We have our front hall set up with a "beach station" so that we can grab our stuff and go. Now, we will decorate with our beach signs and pictures. I will post pictures when I get our things hung up.

We had real rain yesterday which was exciting!! But actually we are starting to get super spoiled, we were disappointed when it was overcast on the beach on Fri (Makaha beach). The constant sunshine and perfect temps have been very nice.

Real DDS now!

I'm going to be a real DDS now, I may be working on Monday. I interviewed yesterday at an office on the other side of the island. It is a 40 min drive in no traffic, so the commute will be a nightmare. But it is one day a week (mondays only) for now. I loved the office and the owner and I think it will be a good experience for me. I am also still trying to negotiate a 4 day a week job at another office. But they really want me 5 days and so I'm working on it. The problem with the 5 days is that with the schedule they would have me on, Brian and I would only have one day in common off (sunday) and we like to do things together, so we are trying to match schedules.

I am really excited and a bit nervous about starting. I haven't touched a tooth in a long time. Brian and I are going to watch some dental dvds we have so I can start to get back into tooth thinking.

We also signed up for our Ocean club passes today. Its the owners pass for the condo assoc. here. It gives us access to the lit tennis courts, discounts at the restaurants, and access to fitness classes (free or $5). It is actually pretty cool. They have tennis clinics, yoga classes and stuff like that every day of the week.

Keep your fingers crossed for me for the 4 day a week gig, if I can get them to sign me, I will be so relieved!!

Today they are having a charity golf event on the course, $500 per person for a round. It starts in an hour, I'm super excited to watch the rich people play golf. They also set up little tents around on the course with food and drinks for the golfers. Brian and I thought it was too bad we don't have the materials....we could have set up a tooth bleaching tent in front of our unit to raise money for our personal charity....rent and student loans!!

Blue Ribbon Winner!!!

I won the chili contest at our association last night!!!! It was a fun night. We met some nice people and next month they are having an Octoberfest party. My chili was a huge hit and everyone wanted my recipe, only I couldn't give it to them because this is how I made it....

Started at 8am while Brian watches football. Took cheap meat that Brian bought at Costco that was too fatty for us to use for anything. He had totally chopped it apart a couple weeks ago to remove the main pieces of fat and it was in chunks too small for steaks or anything useful. Cut meat into smaller pieces, coat meat with flour, chili powder, salt and pepper. Brown meat in olive oil in batches with onions. Deglaze with a bottle of sam adams beer. Add a big can of diced tomates, a small can of tomatoes with chilis, a big can of chili beans. Add chili powder (have no idea how much), add cumin until you run out and then start having to grind up cumin seeds in magic bullet. Taste chili and realize it tastes horrible. Go out to store to buy tomato paste. Stop at library to pick up book on hold. Get sucked into watching cooking demonstration at the library for an hour, look for books, realize you've been gone for 2 hours. Rush home to find the chili burned on bottom. Scrape up burned bits and convince yourself that it adds flavor. Add tomato paste. Realize that now the meat ratio is wrong and needs more meat. Repeat browning and deglazing process and add to pot. Heat up and realize, now its too pastey with all the flour from the meat. Add tomato paste thinking it will make it taste like tomato again. Heat up and realize that now it is a pastey goo. Carefully skim off the top four cups of pastey goo. Add last can of diced tomatoes in the house. Add a couple tablespoons of sugar, some salt. Taste and realize there is no kick. Have Brian add red pepper flakes when I'm not looking. Throw in some chipotle red pepper seasoning I found in cabinet. Tell Brian that my chili is embarrassing and that I'm not bringing it to the competition. Brian convinces you to bring chili since you've been working on it all day (now its 6pm). Bring chili in my red ceramic dish and get there and everyone else has theirs set up in crock pots all plugged in keeping them hot. After an hour, they yell out, who has the red dish. Think that someone broke your red dish.....accept your first place blue ribbon. Make new friends.

Come home and clean the kitchen that looks like a disaster!

Interviews, decisions

Been busy this week with job interviews. I started calling every dentist registered with the Hawaii Dental Association in the area. I had a couple interviews. I have one offer I am considering, the main concern of mine is the days. I want to try to match Brian's (M, W, Th, Sat) a bit so that we both have two days off that are the same. This position is for Tues-Sat, which means that we would only see each other on Sun. Especially since Brian works 10 hour days. So, we are going to try to negotiate some changes on both sides. I would love to be able to trade the Monday off for a friday or for Brian to negotiate a Mon off. The position is with a company that provides benefits so that's nice.

I have two other interviews so far next week. The other interview I had this week was a horrible offer. I would be working on medicaid patients all day (medicaid is basically 21 and under here), but the fee schedule for medicaid is so low that I would be paid very poorly unless I saw about 20 patients a day which is not possible.

On Thurs afternoon, Brian and I went to Makaha beach to relax (after my interview that day), it was completely overcast and past 1pm so we didn't put on sunscreen right away. We were punished for that. I just have a bit on my arms, Brian is more burned than I.

Then yesterday, we went into Honolulu to see the Bodies exhibit. It was cool. I highly recommend it, especially for grampy since he took gross anatomy too. The quality of the dissections was amazing. But, of course, the MD's made a couple mistakes when referring to oral conditions on the displays. It was funny because they had these people in white coats walking around answering questions about the bodies. We assumed they were physicians, until we heard a girl say she was a massage school student. Maybe they should hire me at the exhibit.

After the exhibit, we went to a Korean restaurant nearby that I had scoped out online. It looked good, and had good reviews. And they had great food at a good price. Since the cost of everything is higher here, you get a lot less quality at restaurants for the same money at home. Expect to pay $20 a plate for food, sometimes bad food. But this place was great. We ordered korean dumplings (like chinese dumplings) and then ordered a combo platter for one. But it had so much food! We had soup, and 5 different types of kim chee (pickled korean veggies), rice and then two types of meat that were seasoned well and very tender. They even finished us off with a sweet ginger drink. The platter was only $21. We will definitely go back there.

We left town right at rush hour and got stuck in traffic for 1 1/2 hours. Its funny because as we are stuck in traffic, there are people with political signs on the side of the street advertising a candidate who is pushing for "no rail". This is a crazy ongoing battle here. For some crazy reason, there is a large group of people here who think that adding a train into the city is a bad idea and that sitting in 2 hours of traffic is a good idea. They are even battling over whether to place it on the ballot.

Today, Brian is enjoying his football today and I am working on a vat of chili. I'm entering a chili making contest tonight at our housing association. We thought it would be a good way to meet people around here. I don't expect to win by any means since some people have been perfecting chili recipes for years, but I think it will be fun.

So, I will let you know if I win. My interviews are on Mon and Weds. But even if they go poorly, my one offer is decent. Its a flat rate per day which is what I want as a beginner, I won't be driving in traffic, there is bonus program, medical insurance, 401K, and of course my favorite....they provide scrubs. No laundry for me, I show up, change into the provided scrubs and at the end of the day change back and out the door. They could start me around the beginning of Oct. I am excited to start getting a pay check!!!

Jaws!!

After hours of football watching, Brian was depressed in the results. I made us Blue Marlin Tacos seasoned with lime, chipotle and mangos. They were good. Then we thought we'd go to the Marriott Beach club hotel and listen to their outdoor music. But after walking over a mile to get there and us dodging roaches on the sidewalk (not fun to smash them in flip flops)....there was no music! We couldn't believe it! On Thurs, there was an outdoor movie on the lawn and music and on Sat night at 9pm, there was nothing. There was only one person even swimming in their miles of connected pools. We watched the stars for an hour and then went back. We rented a movie on our TV. Interestingly, we found that on our cable you can order pizza from pizza hut for delivery. Its really funny. Now, you don't even have to find the phone to get food.

Today, we decided to go to the turtle cove (our named lagoon near us). We didn't get out there until about noon. Brian is really enjoying his new beach chair (he's been laying on the ground up until now). We also had a new umbrella (more sturdy and bigger than our other one). It only took about 45 min before it ripped out of the sand and blew down the beach. It broke one of the spokes and scratched the pole. We think we're taking it back because it scratched all up as soon as I opened it. We are ordering a sand grabber online. I have never had so many problems with umbrellas before. The wind really messes them up. I will have to have a consult with our beach umbrella goddess, aunt JuJu.

So, as we were deciding to pack it up to go back around 4ish....I saw something funny in the water out of the corner of my eye. It was a shark!!! I saw the dorsal fin and the tail fin. It was circling around in the lagoon. Some of the locals who were also camping in the area and started yelling...shark! shark! No one was in the water (except the turtles). It was rather exciting. We've only gone in about knee to hip depth there due to the rocks, but then the shark was swimming around in knee deep water. We thought about how many people (with kids) who snorkel in the lagoon! The shark was about 6ft long maybe, thin...I think it may have been a tiger, but I will research tail fins and see what I come up with. Needless to say, Brian and I probably won't be doing any water activities there. But its still a great sunset and a great empty beach. We've been there a 3-5 times a week since arriving and this is the first time we've seen one. We'll see if this is a regular occurance. I find it funny because I can't find any shark teeth (or shells for that matter) on the beaches here. Sometimes you find a bit of coral, but no shells and no teeth.

Tonight....burgers....yummers. We read they are having this fancy food and wine fest here in a couple weeks. Costs $2000 to attend the weekend's events....$300 per person for one meal or $500 per person for the golf tournament only. But we are excited to see how good these $500 golfers are!

Out with the Cold for awhile

I'm back from my cold experience. Please save your jokes about...how can you get a cold in Hawaii?! It's entirely possible. In between kleenexes I have been hitting the pavement for work. Its been tough. I haven't felt this kind of rejection since junior high lunch hour. I'm starting to doubt my career choice. I have been to all the offices in Kapolei and have gone into Kunia, Ewa Beach and Makakilo. I have a couple names to call and a couple doctors to follow up with, so there's still hope. My favorite stop was an office called, "The Tooth Fairy"...perfect if we can dig up my old softball tshirt (for those of you who don't know, I was on a softball team in grade school called "The Tooth Fairies"). But, I don't think she needs another doctor...bummer.

Yesterday afternoon, Brian and I went to Makaha beach for a couple hours late, late afternoon. Then Brian and I got frozen treats. Brian had a mango frozen bubble tea (slushy type drink with 1/2 inch gummy pearls in it) and I had a pineapple snow ice (different from a shave ice- shave ice is better I think). Then we went grocery shopping. Last night I made us homemade calzones.

Today, Brian is in a football coma. We woke up at 8:30am and by 9am he was watching 4 different college football games, an NFL pre-season game, and US open tennis. He's drinking coffee and a beer at the same time. But he's really excited because the Michigan State game is going to be broadcast tonight because they are playing California. We were excited to watch the Warriors game, but it is a $60 Pay per view (and they are losing big time now, 56-0 so far).

I'm going to sneak out to Old Navy today since I broke my flip flop attacking a "waterbug". Our numbers have decreased, yesterday was the first one I've killed in the house in a few days. In addition, they have been providing Brian and I with a new game....We sometimes go on walks at night along the lit paths of the hotels and now we see who can kill the most roaches along the way. Brian won last time. Since there are no bars or nice restaurants (other than the expensive hotel restaurants) we have to come up with original entertainment.

I also have to write about our turtle encounter....We were on the beach we call turtle lagoon, near our townhouse and all the turtles were out eating the sea grass. We tried to film them, but its tough since they bob in and out so fast. We stood in the water about knee deep and stayed real still. As the waves came in, the turtles would sometimes come in with them. Also, the turtles were real curious about us and would swim right up to us. One almost touched Brian's foot. They were so close, I was getting scared. Although Brian pointed out that they probably aren't going to bite me. It was awesome to have a 3 ft diameter sea turtle right near you. We were the only ones on the beach that day. It was great!

New Blog, New Rules

I had to set up a new blog since my security has been breached. This was created for my close friends and family. Please ask me before giving this address out to others. I do need some help though, I don't have the email address for Andrea/Derek or Bryan/Emily.