Day 14: Tuesday 9/28/10

Lately I've been tied up doing regular day to day stuff. I have a job that starts Monday, its at a vegan restaurant called Rainbow Living Foods. They make Tiramisu! YAY! I put down a deposit on a cheap Honda Ruckus today and will be picking it up tomorrow. My roommate is remodeling a friends house and has asked me to help. I gots no problems wit makin mo money. Painting for $12/hr cash is pretty sweet. Got some stickers from the bike shop for my pinkish purple la ptop that I bought on accident. Walmart sucks. Met some more cool people. This one girl I met at the local pizza/bakery joint is producing a documentary and was on her way to go meet a potential investor. She's wierdo/intelligent/artsy. Apparently she has some of her works at my new job. I'll be checking that out next time I'm over there. Speaking of which, yesterday I stopped in to my workplace cuz I had time before the bus picked up. The owner (hottest 40+ woman ever) was whirring about there were 3 other people there working and there were no customers. Everyone was busy. She has this lime mint water she keeps on giving me. I love it! Okay, handyman at 8am. Sleepytime.

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Day 9: Thursday 9/23/10

Wow, another trip to Walmart. Typical Walmart fashion, they're out of what I want so I have to get the next best thing. Turns out after I get home, the computer I bought is pink. Fuck it. I'm buying some stickers tomorrow! Try for a couple more jobs online. I'd clean someone's toenails for the right money at this point. I'd like to get a job, a car, and a surf board. I've hesitated on so many things other than looking for a job, hoping the job will make everything else easier. Everyone I run into says I have the right personality and approach to getting a job, I just haven't found the job yet. Well, I'm still under review (3 days now) for on call Banquet House Attendant according to the Starwood Resorts website. That would be an awesome gig. On call means awesome pay and its an in to a big employer with plenty of opportunity.

Day 8: Wednesday 9/22/10

Wow, I've been here a week. In the morning, I work for three hours. I wind up trimming Guava trees in to hedges rather than weed wacking. Well, actually, I'm just putting cut branches in piles for three hours. There's $30 for yah. In the afternoon I ask around for more work. I decide to get some ice cream down the street from where I'm staying. Turns out this is the best ice cream in the world. I have cream lychee! $5 for a waffle cone and if I were employed I'd get one every day. The owner of the shop and I chat for a bit. He asks for my # and will try to find me a job. I think he's maybe the 6th person to ask for my # to help out. I decide to head to rock quarrys (a nice spot hidden from tourists) to get a look at the full moon. I meet Steph (guy) who is fishing I ask him a couple questions about fishing and we hit it off. 3 hours later he hasn't caught any fish but I heard some great fish stories. We go back to his place for some beer and more bsing. I meet his beautiful wife who goes out to get us beer. Steph tells me she's never done that before! We hang out on this deck he built above his driveway that you access from the second floor of his house. Its made from this really expensive hardwood that doesn't warp, splinter or crack. He built it. Come to find out he's a contractor and has a job coming up in a week or so and apparently he needs some more help for this one. I've been asked if I'd like to help. Oh yeah! On top of it all, I'm going out in his boat this weekend for some big time fishing. We're talking 250 pound mahi, 100 pound ono (wahoo) kind of fishing. The whole time we're chatting I'm almost giggling about what this guy knows and what he's caught. Crazy thing, he kind of reminds me of Gator Dave.

Day 7: Tuesday 9/21/10

Anxious to install my ceiling fan I plan to head to Princeville Ace Hardware (Island Hardware) before I head to Hanalei to look for jobs. Before I head out I decide to finally try out the bakery and get a sticky bun and a coffee. Erin, the cashier when I got my application was not working, but came by for free breakfast and brought her dog. A very young looking 39 year old blond brought her bird with her (I remember the bird from the day before). She's German and from LA. We got to talking and come to find out she's friends with the owner's of a nearby art gallery. She's going to ask if they'd like to employ me. After breakfast I go to apply at the health food store. No go there, but I meet Sun, who works Kilauea Farms. I'll be weed wacking for $10 an hour. Jim says I should get $15. We'll see. After that I bus to Ace hardware and get my electrical box and a multitool. While I'm there I get an application. In the check out aisle I meet Michoel, the island's Rabbi. I ask him if he plans on using all of the 200 zip ties today and he said yes. Being the incredible detective that I am, I asked him if he was building a Succos! He was amazed I knew that. After chatting, he asks me to help and I agree to. For two hours I harvest bamboo, shortly there after the bamboo is loaded up in the truck David (another Rabbi) brings. We have a hard time making sure the load stays in. Kevin shows up and helps us. We all build this beautiful Succos and I get tipped $50.

Day 6: Monday

I sleep in 'till 7:30ish, finally! Today I've applied to more places than I've done since I got here. autism caretaker, farmer, banquet server, just to mention a couple things. Spent another $100 at Walmart. Food mostly, thankfully. Bought orange oil for the walls in my room, it made the place not feel so old. I still live in a 12x12 carpeted shipping crate, but at least there's some luster to the walls now. I also got a ceiling fan. Believe it or not I have no a/c and no ceiling fan for $560 a month (utilities incl.). Daytona would have this for $300. This is NOT Daytona! Everyone has an interesting story to tell and they're not toothless drunks. There's a lot of drinkers here, but they're different for some reason. Maybe its because a 12 pack of Heineken is almost $20. Oh yeah, almost forgot only 2 bikes at a time on the bus!

Day 5: Sunday 9/19/10

5 am I'm up. 5:30 Jim's ready to surf. We drive to Hanalei Beach Park. I watch and study the break. It rains. 8:00 the rental place opens. I paddle out and get pounded after I go off the back of my first wave. I'm doing something wrong. After watching others, you paddle around the break, not through! Three spots, the point (wrong board for this spot today), the shelf, and the bowl. I found the bowl and put two and two together. Two hours and I'm hungry and sunburnt (yes, I put sunscreen on, at 5). Free sunscreen from the surf rental and I get a snack from Polynesia Cafe. Back in the water, I get yelled at by a local, get three big waves and its time to turn in the board. I walk toward Kilauea and get picked up by a compulsive hitch hiker picker upper.

Day 4: Saturday 9/18/10

Job hunting time. Jim says to ask around and I do. They say come back later. I bike to Anini Beach. What a beautiful ride. What a big hill. Twice. Jim tells me about a Corolla on a bulletin board. I call and leave a message. I also hear about a farmers market (from Jim) and buy green beans and potatoes, which turn out to be blue sweet potatoes! Corolla lady calls, meets me en-route to Anahola where I think I can get laundry detergent and meat.On the way I see a guy trying to get this dog, it wants to run in the road! I'm making matters worse so I bid the guy good luck and move on. Turns out the car is (c)rusty. Anahola is far she tells me (9 miles), I turn around. After dinner I cruise out to the lighthouse in Kilauea for a view. The journey made the trip, not the destination.

Day 3. Friday 9/17/10

What? 3:45! I'm awake? NOOOO! I get out of bed ater the roosters start the day. Last nite, Will said they don't bother him any more and he was up with me. Time to ride to Walmart to get a cell phone (thats 3 trips now) so I can expedite my efforts in job hunting and home searching. Just after I get back to Kapaa, I get a call about a place in Waimea (which is on the way back from Walmart). Its in a nice place, up a hill I hear. Oh man IS IT A HILL! On the way up I realize I forgot the phone # to a guy I was supposed to call at 12:45 (its noon at this point) or is it 1:45? Turns out the place is on the highway, with jalousy windows. If I moved here, I probably would wind up employed in the near future running this guy's rental properties. Its too early for this kind of decision. On my way back to Kapaa now. Going down the hill. . . . . WHEEEEE!!!!! I later call the landlord I just met and thank him. I officially decline the place but show my talents (in case he gets a better place available) by telling him about www.postlets.com. I get back to the hostel at 1:45 and its believe it or not actually when I needed to call. I call Jim and decide to come see his place. I learn about the bus and it leaves in 5 minutes. Fortunately the stop is right out front. Turns out Kilauea is the right speed, Jim surfs, is a masseuse, is building a catamaran to go to Fiji, and practices Jiu Jitsu. I move in tomorrow. I take the bus back, have dinner..macaroni and cheese with spam and canned vegetables. There's left overs and I'm movin out. Sharing time. To end the day, I decide to see how far that bike path goes. Saw a glimpse on the say to Kilauea. Its long.

Day 2. Thursday, 9/16/10

Go to Walmart when I wake up at 5am and get rained on. Walmarts aren't all 24 hours. It opens at 7! I get wetter. I buy a backpack, shoes, clothes, and spend 1/2 an hour trying to buy a leatherman they don't have. I walk back to the motel I stayed at (with shoes on!) and talk to the owner about a job and home. No job, too much money for a place that small. ($700 for one room!) I decide to buy a bike and walk back to Walmart. I got the nicer Schwinn since its my main transportation and there's mountains in these here parts. Time to ride to Kapaa! After a brisk 45 minute ride without any water (d'oh!), on adrenaline (haven't learned to bike slow yet), next to traffic (nicer people in these here parts), I'm in Kapaa. Its a beautiful ride there and I discover a bike path long the ocean that later I find goes almost to Anahola. I ride by my first hostel and it looks like a dump. I ride to my second hostel and nobody's home. I ride back to the first hostel and take a closer look. I see some kids playing in the grass between the beach and the hostel and ask them about the place. Turns out one of the guys, Will, works there. Jackpot! Turns out its cute in its dumpy, tropical, hostel like way. The people are cool and not cracked out as well. I now head to the library to check on permanent housing and a job. It turns out I'm hungry and the hostel is across the street from the best burgers on the island. this place has 5 solar panels, 3 as a canopy and 2 on the roof. $5 later I'm full (I ate the little burger). Back to the library (the one in Kapaa this time) for more job hunting. After my time is up (I get an hour at a time) I grab some Spam, Macaroni and Cheese and bread. There's my first Spam sandwich in my near future. Hawaiian Bread Ketchup and Spam, YUMMY! After dinner I ge some Sparks, determined to break my 4 hour time difference sleepiness. I hang out with some hostel people and drink some beer too. Lites out at 11:30 at the hostel. I made it.

New life on Kaua'i Day 1. Wednesday, 9/15/10

A walk from the airport in flipflops to the nearest place to stay under $100. Only two hours before dark, taekes 1h 45min. Nice clean place, near a library with internet. Without that library, I wouldn't have found this place.

added- I had one hour to use the internet, didn't log off, tried to call the motel at a payphone (they're everywhere!) and came back to the computer with 2 minutes left. Later I find out that there's only 1 hour max per session with an hour break before you can get back on.