Anyway, I say all that to say that I’m not going to try to give you a play-by-play of my trip anymore. If you want that you can go here–the blog of my friend Dana, who, along with her husband, joined us on our trip. I’ll still keep trying to upload pics to facebook, but don’t expect to see all 2,100 of them! Yes, you read that correctly, and we’re only halfway through the trip!

Now, on to what I really wanted to talk about…

Yesterday, the five of us took the road to Hana–a remote and rural community on the other side of the island, untouched by the modern distractions of resort areas and commercial districts. The trek and final destination are one of the single-most beautiful, awesome, and breath-taking sights you will ever see. I could use every other word synonymous with such adjectives, but they couldn’t even begin to describe the beauty that God has created here. The mountains, rainforests, waterfalls, and crashing sea against the volcanic rocks are just an amazing testament to God’s awesome power and love! To think that He created everything around us FOR US generates a feeling inside of me that is hard to describe. I feel very special and loved, but also small and insignificant in the vastness of God’s wondrous creation! It really helps me realize the beauty I take for granted in my life everyday–not just in nature, but in the people around me. He created each and every one of us in His image, and nothing can be more beautiful than that!

The only thing that could make this place any more beautiful is if all of you that I love and cherish could be here to share it with me! I really miss you all. Aloha for now!

These photos REALLY don’t do it justice!

Sunday, after an orientation breakfast and planning out our many activities for the week, the five of us made our first excursion to the beach–well, one of the many beaches on the island (between Kihei and Wailea, to be specific). I’ll just let the photos speak for themselves…

While we were there, we did quite a bit of exploring in the tide pools (you can see them among the lava rocks above) looking for some marine life. We saw a several small varieties of fish and a couple of different sea urchins–one of Dana made the mistake of trying to handle. One of the urchin’s spines broke off into her finger and released some black dye-like substance into her skin. She was in quite a lot of pain, so she and her husband went to an urgent clinic to get it taken care of. It ended up costing several hundred dollars for the procedure to remove the lingering spine. Don’t worry, she’s fine. Here she is showing off her wound.

There’s another, much funnier, version of this photo. I’ll let you guess what she’s doing in that one. ;-)

DA KITCHEN

For dinner, we went to a little place Rose McGee recommended to me: Da Kitchen. It was excellent (especially for the price) and the portions were almost on the ridiculous side of large. Anyway, I meant to get a picture of us enjoying our meal, but I forgot. Sorry, Rose! I did pick up a take-out menu though!

To be continued…

Check out my facebook albums for more photos.

My parents, my friend Dana, and I traveled together and met up with Dana’s husband, Todd, at the airport on Maui. (He had to fly in a day early in order to use the free airline miles they had accumulated.) We dropped off our luggage at the room and headed to Lahaina for dinner at Bubba Gump’s–delicious as always and the view is amazing as it literally sits right on the ocean facing the sunset.

Before we headed back to the room, we stopped for a few groceries and souvenirs. Anyhow, seeing that I had only had 1 hour of sleep in the previous 36 hours, I was out for the night as soon as my head hit the pillow.

To be continued…

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I went to Kohl’s and found some really nice ones on sale. When I got to the register to check out I noticed that they now have a fairly large monitor facing the customer that displays all of the items that have been scanned.

As the cashier scanned the box containing my new flip-flops the following appeared, in fairly large print, on the monitor:

MEN’S THONG

I started laughing… mostly because there’s no way I could wear a size 9 thong.

Oh, and the next morning at church, I spilled grape juice all over the right one. Figures.

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I was talking to a friend of mine a couple of nights ago and he shared with me a great analogy concerning relationships…

In academia, there are basically two points-of-view in the realm of grading exams. The first is that all students begin the grading process with a zero. As each question is graded, points are accumulated for every correct answer and the final grade is determined by taking the number of points earned and dividing by the number of points possible. The second is very similar, but the perception is changed. In this scenario, all students begin the grading process with a perfect score. As each question is graded, points are deducted from the total for every incorrect answer and the final grade is determined by taking the number of points deducted, dividing that number by the total number of points possible, and finally subtracting that percentage from 100. Have I lost you yet?

Anyway, my friend has concluded that I fall into the former of the two when it comes to relationships. For the most part, it is an accurate conclusion. In my mind, most girls start out at “zero” and as I get to know them better I am able (though sometimes unable) to determine if they are someone I would like to date and, possibly, eventually marry. Though, there have been some exceptions to this for some reason unknown to me.

My friend, on the other hand, says he was the exact opposite (was, because he’s now married). In his mind, he wanted to date virtually every girl that he met. As he got to know them better, he would weed out those who were “undateable.”

So, what does this all mean exactly? It means I’m picky. Which can be both good and bad. Where do you think you fall in those two camps?

I don’t wanna be in love.
I just wanna be in love.

~Dawson Wells

Dawson Wells, Some Hot Chicks & Bob (myspace)
February 5, 2007 @ 8:00 p.m.
3rd & Lindsley – 818 3rd Ave. S; Nashville, TN
Cost: FREE

Lovers Electric (myspace) (video)
February 6, 2007 @ 8:00 p.m.
The Basement1 – 1604 8th Ave S; Nashville, TN
Cost: FREE

Lovedrug (myspace)
ACOUSTIC SHOW w/ Thornton & Will Holland
February 28, 2007 @ 9:00 p.m.
The Basement – 1604 8th Ave S; Nashville, TN
Cost: $5.00

mewithoutYou (myspace)
w/ Sparta and Aloha
March 18, 2007 @ 7:00 p.m.
Rockettown – 401 6th Avenue S; Nashville, TN
Cost: $13.00

death comesto matteson (myspace)
THIS IS A PLAY FEATURING THE LIVE MUSIC OF death comesto matteson
March 22 & 23, 2007 @ 8:00 p.m.
Public Theatre of Kentucky; Bowling Green, KY
Cost: TBA

You should come to any or all of them! It’ll be fun!

As many of you know, Kroger has this promotion where if you spend $100 or more on groceries in a month with your Kroger Plus Card, you will receive 10 cents off per gallon the next time you fill up. Most people would just take their car the next time it needed fuel, get their discount, and let that be it. Not my father. No sir.

He waited until all three of our families vehicles were in need of a fill-up. So, we caravaned ourselves to the nearest Kroger, positioned all of the cars around the same pump, and he then proceeded to fill up every car on the same receipt so we could all benefit from the discount. We saved almost $5.00! That’s five Jr. Bacon Cheeseburgers from Wendy’s (plus tax)!

Does your dad do anything that cool? …ridiculous? :-)

I miss Opryland. Yes, “Opryland” still exists as a hotel and such, but I’m talking about the theme park. Most of you probably have no idea what I’m talking about. You see, before the evil Opry Mills existed, there stood a very decent theme park in it’s place. No, it wasn’t of Disney caliber, but it was way better than that sorry excuse for a Six Flags–Kentucky Kingdom.

Have you ever been sitting at work (or anywhere else) just going about your business when you suddenly realize that you have a big, dumb smile on your face? Not that there’s anything wrong with smiling, it’s just an odd thing to realize. I mean, you’re just sitting there thinking about something happy, but to everyone else there is no apparent reason for your smiling. Am I making any sense?

I remember that during my first few months of driving (when I had my learning permit) I was terrified of other cars on the road. I would take less-traveled roads just so I could avoid coming in contact with other vehicles. I’m totally comfortable now, but I’ve realized that we, as drivers, are way more trusting in others (and in God) than we may realize. Think about it… Why am I so comfortable going 55 MPH in a 2-ton box of steel, all the while, passing other 2-ton boxes of steel, going in the opposite direction, and coming within just a few feet of colliding with me? So, just remember, if you ever think that your faith in God has become weak, go for a drive.

I bought a book. I don’t read books often. It’s called “Before You Leap” by Kermit the Frog. It was in the “Self-Improvement” section at B&N. It’s pretty good so far. Did you know he was in the banjo club in high school? Oh, Kermy…

I did absolutely nothing today. I really should have done some laundry. Shoot.