The Princeville Hotel is closing for several months in order to "renovate up" and emerge from the dust as a St. Regis maximum stars hotel. They're having a massive sale so we took the pleasant drive to the North Shore with our Nissan Frontier hoping to bring home something slightly big.
I realize now what a Costco girl I am. Or ok, Walmart girl. I had the naive audacity to assume they wanted to get rid of 252 rooms of stuff so they'd sell things at garage sale prices. As I browsed through the ballroom filled with their diningroom wares, I thought, "So are these the REAL prices or is it half-off??" and "Why does that sign say 10% added?" A tiny, bland-looking creamer was $2...couldn't I buy one brand new at KMart for that price? A cake stand, albeit silver-plated, was $30. Surely I could find a new one at Macy's? No? Two elderly women nearby were saying, "Oh look, this sugar bowl is $5, can't beat that! This is quality stuff." Ah ha...ok, there WAS a stamp under the mini creamer indicating a china company in England as opposed to MADE in China. People like to say "You get what you pay for," but someone tell me why after 30 years of using "cheap" bedsheets and not once finding holes in them, there are a couple of holes in our 3 month old high-thread-count "quality" sheets that I bought at Macy's?? And no, they're NOT from insects because we've never seen any bug on our bed and the sheets aren't left sitting in a hamper.
We ended up buying a peach tablecloth, 2 tiny new wastebaskets, 6 plastic tumblers, a BACKSCRATCHER (darn if I know what those were doing there) and 2 small woven trays (Made in China.. now that's more like it!). Oh yeh, I did buy the QUALITY tiny creamer.
So that was the first hour. We then moved on to the guestrooms in search of a safe. We were looking for a small safe and the "sample area" in the lobby indicated there were 2 small models and 1 large. Every room we visited had the larger safe in it. While searching for the small safe we did find a $10 radio/speaker set that I would say packed quite a punch for their size. Our search was also enjoyable because we got to see several suites and it was fun to wonder who'd stayed in them in the past. One of the features of the Princeville rooms are the bathroom window glass which allows you to see through the bathtub wall into the room (and vice versa, it's not one way). When you flick the light switch, it "fogs up" the glass to enable privacy. I wondered what happens when the power goes off. Leonard asked me why I was laughing. Note to self: Never be naked in that type of bathroom when visitors are in the next room or if Granny goes in there to take a bath during a thunderstorm, clear the room!
That was our second hour. After not finding any small safes in the rooms they allowed us into, it occurred to me that none of the three models were fireproof! Omigod, we just wasted an hour searching for something I didn't want in the first place!
We should've left right then and there, but nooooo back in the lobby "sample area" I heard myself saying "Hey look those mini-bars are only $25!" I recalled seeing some brown ones in the rooms like the sample, but also some newer types that were white. I asked one of the workers if the white ones I had seen were also $25 and he said yes. So back down we went in search of the nice mini-bars. I couldn't recall where I'd seen them so that meant looking through 2 floors of rooms. Finally we found them near the end of the second hall. Although the older types had wheels on them, this new one did not so I had to trudge through several hallways and catch two elevators to find a cart. That's ok, I was getting some exercise for a change and now getting an almost brand new little "mini-bar" for our diningroom.
As we loaded it on the wagon and proceeded on our long trek back to the lobby, my intuition told me, "What if they tell us this is NOT $25?" After all, although a similar size, it was obviously newer than the sample. Well, sure enough, the cashier asked, "What do we have here?" I said "It's a mini-bar, $25." Her supervisor, Mr. No-Nonsense-What-Are-You-Trying-To-Do-Rip-Us-Off, said "No, that's a refrigerator. $85." I explained that I was told that it was a mini-bar and showed them the card that was in it which said "Dear Guest, this is a cooler...etc etc." Mr. No-Aloha repeated, "It's a refrigerator." I went to talk to The Pricer (that's what the cashier called him), a more pleasant man in the Sample Area and he confirmed, yes that IS a refrigerator. Grrrrr.
Although $85 is not a high price for a mini-refrigerator, I'd had my heart set on $25...maybe $50 max. Plus I didn't like Mr. No-Nonsense's brusque attitude. Plus we really don't need a mini-bar OR mini-fridge. Plus there's a FINANCIAL CRISIS going on in the U.S. I felt sad leaving that cute little refrigerator there.
So that ended our 3rd hour and our Aloha Trip to the Princeville Hotel.
Arriving back to Kapaa Town, I suggested we stop at Cost-U-Less for some veggies. I suppose I felt cheated that our truckbed was empty upon leaving that MAJOR hotel sale or maybe I was in Furniture-Finding Mode. We came out of Cost-U-Less with the usual groceries...and something I've been wanting for years: a walnut/glass curio cabinet! Brand new and uh....Made in China. Way over the cost of an almost-new cute mini-fridge, and we had to spend all evening putting it together, but I'm a happy camper! And yes, there's a FINANCIAL CRISIS happening, so I'm returning the new bracelet I bought from QVC.
Sunday, September 28, 2008
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Midlife on Kauai Watching TV
Wow I can't believe how quickly a week goes by! Since I have nothing pressing to address, do you know why time flies by faster the older you get? The explanation I remember (and I forgot the source, sorry!) was that as you get older, each day/week/month/year represents a smaller and smaller percentage of your life so it seems shorter and shorter. For example, to two-year olds, one year is half (50%)of their lives! To 50 year olds, it's just 2%, a very small fraction in comparison to what they've experienced. That makes good sense to me. Have you noticed that when you go on vacation, if you go to a place you've visited often the days pass by faster? If you go to a new place, however, time there is more memorable and seems to pass a bit slower. So it makes sense to me that time passes more slowly for kids since for them, almost everything is "new".
What I thought I'd write about today has to do with television. Big surprise. Who watched David Blaine last night? Not me..well I watched a total of maybe ten minutes off and on. I don't like to see anything that makes me uncomfortable or sad or mad. That leaves a lot of programming out, but my blood pressure is healthy. I enjoy David's street magic, though. I'm also a curious person who has to know how things end, so I got online to google David to see what happened. Everyone seems annoyed at him. Maybe because he didn't die? I think it's shameful the way people were insulting him online, and I hope those comment posters were stupid kids and not stupid adults. Kids, to me, are not necessarily under 18...many 20somethings are still kids (as I was until perhaps age 25). I had to leave a comment that although I don't care for his strange feats, I did admire him earlier in his career and that was enough for me. After all, how many people impress me? Relatively few, so if you impress me once that's pretty good. I wouldn't scorn him for putting on a two-hour program that ends in what apparently was a screwed-up trick (his "death fall").
I do scorn, however, the network and sponsors that produced the program. They only did it, however, because they know that viewers would watch. Online, people were grumbling about wasting two hours watching, about David taking 5 minute upright breaks, about him falling 40 feet but being attached to a wire (uh, duh!), etc. Oh my god, they confuse human being David with cartoon character BatMan, it seems. How sad is that? Why do people criticize people that they are not obligated to watch and who do extraordinary things (albeit not necessarily valuable)?
Do you hear me publicly criticizing Cloris Leachman for still being on "Dancing With the Stars"?? I just switch the channel in annoyance instead and silently berate the viewers that voted for her. I don't really blame her for her mediocre dancing and hamming it up with the judges, I blame people who vote for her because now I'll have to channel surf when she appears again. Her antics got old for us the second night. Upon seeing her voted through last night, I promptly protested by watching the Travel Channel's Hotdog show and Dog the Bounty Hunter. Haha, I always said I'm a dog person.
My hub and I enjoyed watching people scarf hotdogs all over the U.S. It reminded me of my current favorite fictional heroine, Stephanie Plum, the bounty hunter. Steph is a notorious junk food junky from New Junky..I mean Jersey. She exists on take-out food, Tasty Kakes, and doughnuts. Yummm!
Steph is fictional,so she can eat all the chili dogs and Tasty Kakes she wants, but don't do it! Take this Chinese milk situation. It's a particularly tragic example of what technology and greed can do. The same thing is happening to us in the U.S., only less noticeably. I know of too many people under 60 who have passed away or have serious health issues. My mom's generation seems healthier than ours because they haven't been eating junk food all their lives. The majority of us are existing on pesticide-sprayed, genetically altered, overprocessed food with unpronounceable food additives.
America is so proud of democracy, capitalism, and free enterprise, but there may come a day when some historian says "guess it wasn't such a great system after all!" The idea is great, it's the human element that I worry about.
To end on a lighter note, my mom's friend claims she lowered her blood pressure by eating dark chocolate every day. Time to experiment!
What I thought I'd write about today has to do with television. Big surprise. Who watched David Blaine last night? Not me..well I watched a total of maybe ten minutes off and on. I don't like to see anything that makes me uncomfortable or sad or mad. That leaves a lot of programming out, but my blood pressure is healthy. I enjoy David's street magic, though. I'm also a curious person who has to know how things end, so I got online to google David to see what happened. Everyone seems annoyed at him. Maybe because he didn't die? I think it's shameful the way people were insulting him online, and I hope those comment posters were stupid kids and not stupid adults. Kids, to me, are not necessarily under 18...many 20somethings are still kids (as I was until perhaps age 25). I had to leave a comment that although I don't care for his strange feats, I did admire him earlier in his career and that was enough for me. After all, how many people impress me? Relatively few, so if you impress me once that's pretty good. I wouldn't scorn him for putting on a two-hour program that ends in what apparently was a screwed-up trick (his "death fall").
I do scorn, however, the network and sponsors that produced the program. They only did it, however, because they know that viewers would watch. Online, people were grumbling about wasting two hours watching, about David taking 5 minute upright breaks, about him falling 40 feet but being attached to a wire (uh, duh!), etc. Oh my god, they confuse human being David with cartoon character BatMan, it seems. How sad is that? Why do people criticize people that they are not obligated to watch and who do extraordinary things (albeit not necessarily valuable)?
Do you hear me publicly criticizing Cloris Leachman for still being on "Dancing With the Stars"?? I just switch the channel in annoyance instead and silently berate the viewers that voted for her. I don't really blame her for her mediocre dancing and hamming it up with the judges, I blame people who vote for her because now I'll have to channel surf when she appears again. Her antics got old for us the second night. Upon seeing her voted through last night, I promptly protested by watching the Travel Channel's Hotdog show and Dog the Bounty Hunter. Haha, I always said I'm a dog person.
My hub and I enjoyed watching people scarf hotdogs all over the U.S. It reminded me of my current favorite fictional heroine, Stephanie Plum, the bounty hunter. Steph is a notorious junk food junky from New Junky..I mean Jersey. She exists on take-out food, Tasty Kakes, and doughnuts. Yummm!
Steph is fictional,so she can eat all the chili dogs and Tasty Kakes she wants, but don't do it! Take this Chinese milk situation. It's a particularly tragic example of what technology and greed can do. The same thing is happening to us in the U.S., only less noticeably. I know of too many people under 60 who have passed away or have serious health issues. My mom's generation seems healthier than ours because they haven't been eating junk food all their lives. The majority of us are existing on pesticide-sprayed, genetically altered, overprocessed food with unpronounceable food additives.
America is so proud of democracy, capitalism, and free enterprise, but there may come a day when some historian says "guess it wasn't such a great system after all!" The idea is great, it's the human element that I worry about.
To end on a lighter note, my mom's friend claims she lowered her blood pressure by eating dark chocolate every day. Time to experiment!
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
De-stress from TMC and Read My Blog
Hmmm it's over a week since I last fed my blog. I'm not in a writing mood this week. It probably has something to do with TMC (Too Many Clouds or Too Much Crap)these days. Like natural disasters (Texas hurricane), Sarah Palin, Jordan's ridiculously high dental bill (Kauai does not have an HMSA participating oral surgeon), and the stock market plunge (why why why does it happen when we have ridiculously high dental bills, need tires on two vehicles, have to repair the garage, etc. etc.?).
Dave Barry claims that his appliances can hear when there's extra money in the house. Well our stuff can do more than that, they can affect the stock market! Yep, whenever we have big expenses the stock market takes a dive. Nice, really nice. How are we supposed to retire and go to Vegas 4 times a year???
Since I'm not in the mood, I shall cheat and post more of those "coincidences" instead:
Many years ago I dreamt about a married relative I hadn't thought of or heard of for years. She was dressed in a wedding dress and surrounded by her young daughters. After I woke up I thought "What a weird dream, what made me dream of her getting married when she's already married with kids?" Well within the week, my mom told me that this relative was getting divorced. Years later she remarried.
I decided to post on an eczema message board about Jordan's experiences and while typing out the long entry, LeAnne Rimes appeared on "The View" and said it was Eczema Awareness Month.
One day out of the blue, I wondered how long Carla would stay on as Jordan's aide. The next day when she came over to pick Jordan up, she said "I have some bad news...I found another job so I'm quitting."
We went to my mother-in-law's on Christmas Day. On our way back to Palolo about 15 minutes after leaving Kailua, I suddenly missed our videocam and was about to ask my hub if he took it. His cellphone rang and it was his mom saying we left the cam at her place.
We were driving down to Waipouli and decided to go to Hong Kong Cafe, our favorite Chinese restaurant on Kauai. Leonard said "Eric will be happy to see us, we didn't go there for a long time!" (Jordan had been somewhat allergic to corn and chicken). Inexplicably, I thought to myself "Well, maybe he'll be so happy he'll show us some customer appreciation!" WELL..that night for the first time ever, they gave us a free dessert: deep fried black bean rolls!!
I was chatting with Karen and telling her about my conversation with my hub the night before about Portuguese: Why do we know so little about Portugal and why don't we hear stuff about Portugual the way we hear about France, Italy, Spain, etc.? Portugal needs a Press Agent! At the same time I was chatting with her I was playing a DVD of "Lost" (season finale) and I had the closed captioning on. I looked at the TV and two men were talking a foreign language. The Closed Captioning said "...speaking Portuguese". Whoa!!
Okay, there'll be more of this later...on another night when I'm uninspired.
Oh, forgot to mention that I took Jordan to her American Sign Language class tonight. I really love sign language! It makes so much SENSE and I really appreciate LOGICAL in this ILLOGICAL world! The only thing illogical about it is...why on earth should there be an AMERICAN sign language? I'm assuming it was developed in the days of more efficient communication, so why couldn't there have been an International Sign Language? I've got to Google this later....
Dave Barry claims that his appliances can hear when there's extra money in the house. Well our stuff can do more than that, they can affect the stock market! Yep, whenever we have big expenses the stock market takes a dive. Nice, really nice. How are we supposed to retire and go to Vegas 4 times a year???
Since I'm not in the mood, I shall cheat and post more of those "coincidences" instead:
Many years ago I dreamt about a married relative I hadn't thought of or heard of for years. She was dressed in a wedding dress and surrounded by her young daughters. After I woke up I thought "What a weird dream, what made me dream of her getting married when she's already married with kids?" Well within the week, my mom told me that this relative was getting divorced. Years later she remarried.
I decided to post on an eczema message board about Jordan's experiences and while typing out the long entry, LeAnne Rimes appeared on "The View" and said it was Eczema Awareness Month.
One day out of the blue, I wondered how long Carla would stay on as Jordan's aide. The next day when she came over to pick Jordan up, she said "I have some bad news...I found another job so I'm quitting."
We went to my mother-in-law's on Christmas Day. On our way back to Palolo about 15 minutes after leaving Kailua, I suddenly missed our videocam and was about to ask my hub if he took it. His cellphone rang and it was his mom saying we left the cam at her place.
We were driving down to Waipouli and decided to go to Hong Kong Cafe, our favorite Chinese restaurant on Kauai. Leonard said "Eric will be happy to see us, we didn't go there for a long time!" (Jordan had been somewhat allergic to corn and chicken). Inexplicably, I thought to myself "Well, maybe he'll be so happy he'll show us some customer appreciation!" WELL..that night for the first time ever, they gave us a free dessert: deep fried black bean rolls!!
I was chatting with Karen and telling her about my conversation with my hub the night before about Portuguese: Why do we know so little about Portugal and why don't we hear stuff about Portugual the way we hear about France, Italy, Spain, etc.? Portugal needs a Press Agent! At the same time I was chatting with her I was playing a DVD of "Lost" (season finale) and I had the closed captioning on. I looked at the TV and two men were talking a foreign language. The Closed Captioning said "...speaking Portuguese". Whoa!!
Okay, there'll be more of this later...on another night when I'm uninspired.
Oh, forgot to mention that I took Jordan to her American Sign Language class tonight. I really love sign language! It makes so much SENSE and I really appreciate LOGICAL in this ILLOGICAL world! The only thing illogical about it is...why on earth should there be an AMERICAN sign language? I'm assuming it was developed in the days of more efficient communication, so why couldn't there have been an International Sign Language? I've got to Google this later....
Thursday, September 4, 2008
Dear Abby
Carolyn, fellow crafter and friend, called me today and asked if I wrote to Dear Abby. I said, "Uh yeeees, but several months ago, why?" She said a letter signed "CT in Hawaii" appeared the other day. I was puzzled because I read the paper every morning and hadn't seen my letter.
A few months ago I wrote to Dear Abby via the internet (of course) regarding my thoughts about Jordan's loneliness. How, because on Kauai we're somewhat isolated from our families, she doesn't get to socialize much outside of school or Special Olympics. The only people (beyond the Special Needs circle)that ever showed any sensitivity to her feelings were two of my cousins on Oahu who would take her with their daughters (younger than she) to various "girl" activities. This occurred maybe a half dozen times and were very appreciated by Jordan. (Thanks Pat and Iris!)
It's not that it's anyone's duty to empathize with Jordan's situation. If anyone's to blame perhaps it's me because I'm a happy hermit, not the most social person. We don't attend church or belong to clubs so that also limits our social circle. We were, however, conscientious about involving Jordan in various activities (piano, karate, bon dance, etc.) so she's a very well-rounded and interesting young lady, but in retrospect I wish I had involved her in something more social like the Girl Scouts.
My letter expressed the hope that if any teen or pre-teen girl or boy wanted to do a kind deed, they should try to reach out to a special needs student. I understand that young people are very egocentric and not empathetic, but many are kindhearted and perhaps only need a nudge. If so, and if my letter resulted in just one lonely handicapped girl getting invited to a birthday party, then great!
So that was the letter I had in mind as I looked through the past two weeks' newspapers in search of every Dear Abby column. Nope, not there. Finally after looking through them the third time, I found my letter and it was NOT "that" letter after all! The reason I had a difficult time finding it was because it was a short letter I had forgotten about (SEE "Age-Activated Attention Deficit Disorder" BLOG POST BELOW!!) in which I replied to someone else's letter which bemoaned the fact that she did not have grandkids.
"Nobody's Grandma" was disappointed because both of her adult children told her they do not intend to have children. Many readers responded to her letter, including myself. My short letter said in effect that I can understand her feelings because it is highly unlikely that I will ever be a grandparent either since Jordan is my only child and is developmentally disabled. I went on to say I do feel bitter at times, but learned to appreciate what I have and what I can't change. I'm still wondering if that was an edited version, because I find it hard to believe that I would be that short-winded *LOL* I most likely included this little story:
One day while shopping at Long's, I met up with a former coworker whom I hadn't seen in years (Kauai is bigger than you think!). She asked if I wasn't a grandma yet (she didn't know Jordan). Of course I said quickly, "Oh no, we'll probably never have grandkids," feeling that familiar sadness. "Jordan is like our grandchild," I joked. At that moment, though, I had an epiphany. Although I had been joking, Jordan really IS as good as having a grandchild. She is twenty now and maturing still, but yet is so delightful, funny, sweet, and affectionate that certainly she can play the dual role of daughter and granddaughter. Not to mention that just based on her looks, many people mistake her for 12 years old. Since that day, I don't feel like I'm missing out as much as I did before!
Ok, maybe I WILL be missing that wonderful "baby smell". On the other hand, I won't have to deal with OTHER baby smell, crayoned walls, torn up books, or spilled milk. *LOL*
A few months ago I wrote to Dear Abby via the internet (of course) regarding my thoughts about Jordan's loneliness. How, because on Kauai we're somewhat isolated from our families, she doesn't get to socialize much outside of school or Special Olympics. The only people (beyond the Special Needs circle)that ever showed any sensitivity to her feelings were two of my cousins on Oahu who would take her with their daughters (younger than she) to various "girl" activities. This occurred maybe a half dozen times and were very appreciated by Jordan. (Thanks Pat and Iris!)
It's not that it's anyone's duty to empathize with Jordan's situation. If anyone's to blame perhaps it's me because I'm a happy hermit, not the most social person. We don't attend church or belong to clubs so that also limits our social circle. We were, however, conscientious about involving Jordan in various activities (piano, karate, bon dance, etc.) so she's a very well-rounded and interesting young lady, but in retrospect I wish I had involved her in something more social like the Girl Scouts.
My letter expressed the hope that if any teen or pre-teen girl or boy wanted to do a kind deed, they should try to reach out to a special needs student. I understand that young people are very egocentric and not empathetic, but many are kindhearted and perhaps only need a nudge. If so, and if my letter resulted in just one lonely handicapped girl getting invited to a birthday party, then great!
So that was the letter I had in mind as I looked through the past two weeks' newspapers in search of every Dear Abby column. Nope, not there. Finally after looking through them the third time, I found my letter and it was NOT "that" letter after all! The reason I had a difficult time finding it was because it was a short letter I had forgotten about (SEE "Age-Activated Attention Deficit Disorder" BLOG POST BELOW!!) in which I replied to someone else's letter which bemoaned the fact that she did not have grandkids.
"Nobody's Grandma" was disappointed because both of her adult children told her they do not intend to have children. Many readers responded to her letter, including myself. My short letter said in effect that I can understand her feelings because it is highly unlikely that I will ever be a grandparent either since Jordan is my only child and is developmentally disabled. I went on to say I do feel bitter at times, but learned to appreciate what I have and what I can't change. I'm still wondering if that was an edited version, because I find it hard to believe that I would be that short-winded *LOL* I most likely included this little story:
One day while shopping at Long's, I met up with a former coworker whom I hadn't seen in years (Kauai is bigger than you think!). She asked if I wasn't a grandma yet (she didn't know Jordan). Of course I said quickly, "Oh no, we'll probably never have grandkids," feeling that familiar sadness. "Jordan is like our grandchild," I joked. At that moment, though, I had an epiphany. Although I had been joking, Jordan really IS as good as having a grandchild. She is twenty now and maturing still, but yet is so delightful, funny, sweet, and affectionate that certainly she can play the dual role of daughter and granddaughter. Not to mention that just based on her looks, many people mistake her for 12 years old. Since that day, I don't feel like I'm missing out as much as I did before!
Ok, maybe I WILL be missing that wonderful "baby smell". On the other hand, I won't have to deal with OTHER baby smell, crayoned walls, torn up books, or spilled milk. *LOL*
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