What's been going on...

Went to my friend Nona's son Jared's graduation party on Father's Day and got to see several old friends from the Moana, where I worked 1987-1991. Brought back a lot of memories...one place I worked where I made a lot of friends. Other places I've worked had great people too, but except for a few exceptions, many were more co-workers than friends.

Got a nice family photo at the party.


Since it's graduation and grad party season, Darrell and I have been talking about starting to plan Ryan's grad party, which will be coming up in less than three years! If the rest of the time went as quickly as this year, it will be here in no time. I inquired with Ala Moana Hotel, but they don't take bookings until 18 months before, so I need to call back in January 2010 for June 2011. Ryan likes the idea of a party because he wants to perform with his band. It's probably going to be a big party...Darrell's staff alone will be 100+ people if everyone comes.

Just re-read what I wrote previously and I guess I'm repeating myself. That's what happens when I don't blog regularly. But this whole process has been pretty valuable, helping me remember what's happened. It really helped when I was working on the band trip scrapbook...when it came to journaling, I just edited a little, printed out my blog entries and pasted them in the scrapbook. If I had to remember everything that happened back in December and January, I would probably not have much journaling at all in the book.

Ryan's friends in his band stayed over two weekends in a row, while Grandma and Grandpa were in Japan, so the boys could practice for their upcoming gig. They really sound great! The first week Keali'i the drummer and Nick the keyboardist were over and they wrote a couple of songs. The next week Keali'i and Ka'ala the lead singer were here and the music really came together. Got some songs on video. They just need to practice all together, once everyone is back in Hawaii. Their bassist Paul lives in California and boards during the school year, Nick is going to summer school in Virginia, Keali'i is leaving on a family vacation for a couple of weeks. They have a gig at the water park in July and another in August.

It's been a busy week at work and I'm really tired...TGIF tomorrow! Ryan worked last night until 8:30 pm so we didn't get home until after 9:30. Just found out he works again tomorrow until 8:30 so it'll be another long day. He also works Saturday and Sunday. We have a busy weekend too...band booster club board retreat on Saturday and graduation party on Sunday. Tired too because our power went out last night sometime and Darrell woke me up to tell me to re-set the alarm clock. I was all groggy and thought he said it was 12:50, but he must have said 2:50. I must have known something was wrong, because I kept getting up after that, looking at the clock and telling myself, gee, it's still so early. I finally opened my eyes and saw that it was light outside and jumped out of bed...instead of 3:46 like it said on the clock, it was 5:46 am, 15 minutes later than I usually get up. Didn't realize I was that tired, but someone mentioned that I LOOKED really tired today...gee thanks!

We decided to go to Kona for a weekend next month. Ryan kept asking...I kept telling him it was too expensive. But we finally checked again and I realized that we had miles that we could use, from my signing up for the new Bank of Hawaii Hawaiian Airlines Award credit card. So we were able to get some convenient flights without spending any cash. The only somewhat-reasonably-priced flights were before 6 am and after 10 pm going and coming. We'll be staying at the Keauhou Beach Resort, which we found out is really close to Haley's house, so we get to meet her entire family. Haven't been to the Big Island since Ryan was little, so it'll be nice to visit again. I just hate the packing and flying part!

We used to have a First Hawaiian Bank Aloha AirAwards card. Luckily we used most of our Aloha Airlines miles on our trip to California and didn't lose out when Aloha went down in March. Now we need to build up our Hawaiian Air miles...