My Actual "To-Do" List

I'm determined to stop hating Hawaii.  It's the only way I'll survive, because I've heard from more than one source that trudging through and counting weeks is not going to do any good.  So because I like making lists for everyone to read, here is my checklist for how to start tolerating this place:

• Go to the beach at least once a month.  My old roommate Chris had this poster in her room saying that the cure for everything was salt water:  sweat, tears, and the sea.  I've had enough sweat (it's hot here, okay?) and tears in the past few weeks; it's time for some sea.
• Go to the Laie Temple at least once a month.  The temple is already one of my happiest places, and having it be a beautiful temple like this one can only be happier.

And I'm not even going to make a comment on how it's not the Boston Temple!

• Climb a Banyan tree.  These are the coolest things ever and as soon as I can find a good one that's not next to where I work with a bunch of really well-paid forensic anthropologists who will judge me, Imma climb that bad boy.

This is one right outside of one of the CIL labs.  So tempting to climb it on my lunch break!

• Get brave enough to jump off the rock at Waimea Beach.  Google Image search that one if you want to see it (I don't have to do everything, you know).  It's this really big rock that kind of looks like Jabba the Hut, and people jump off of it into the ocean.  There's a high part and a low part, but if I can jump off the low part, I'll feel pretty triumphant.
• Go on ≥ 3 dates with ≤ 3 people.  This one probably won't happen for a reasonable/appropriate amount of time, but I do want to date a bit, if for nothing more than some free Hawaiian dinners.
• Buy and learn to play a ukulele.  It's the only musical instrument I can purchase here that will travel well.  And then I can finally compose the mash-up of "Mele Kalikimaka" and "Blue Christmas" I've got going in my head and play it at a Christmas party!
• Meet Daniel Dae Kim.  I know he's married and too old for me, but he's so darn attractive and he lives here somewhere!  I've never celebrity-stalked before, and I figure it's a female rite-of-passage.
• Get a little bit tan.  This is a thing that I have mixed feelings about.  On the one hand, I don't want to get skin cancer, and I don't want to alter my pale skin/dark hair/green eyes combination, which I think is one of my favorite things about my appearance.  On the other hand, I hear sunlight is a good remedy for depression and it would be sort of nice to no longer be the pastiest haole (pronounced "howlie") on this island.  So we'll see...maybe I'll tan...or just get more freckles.

So there's my list.  I think I can manage to do all of these things and still go to work, right?  At any rate, I'm turning over a new leaf (or palm frond) and maybe, just maybe, I'll learn to like it here!