10 Year Reunion

Yep, that would be my ten year high school reunion...the time went so fast! Although, I do have to say that it doesn't feel like I just graduated yesterday...too much life has happened since then, but it definitely doesn't feel like ten years!

My best friend from junior high, Kristen- she moved during our freshman year- I haven't seen her since my freshman year in college.


Me and Helen- we used to walk to and from elementary school together

Thoughts on the reunion? It was a bit surreal...seeing people I haven't seen since graduation night, now all grown-up and discussing our doings over drinks and dinner...strange to see them without a backpack :). What I think impressed me the most, was the confidence that everyone has...when you're 18, there are still so many unanswered questions about what to do and where to go...ten years removed from those big decisions, it was awesome to see how settled and confident my classmates are, families, careers. Confidence, as most of you will remember, wasn't run-of-the-mill in high school ;-). We're all grown up. It will be interesting to see how another ten years affects that confidence...how life events will shape us.

Me, Tommy, and Nic- these guys cracked me up all through high school- things haven't changed :)



Justin, Jason, Hank, Jonny, Lydia and I...Jason, Jonny, Lydia, and I have great academic decathlon memories, and the rest of the group, many years of shared honors and AP classes, quips, studies, and good times.


Michelle and I- we were in Girl Scouts together...which means I have known her since elementary school, and she does tris, which makes her even cooler ;-)

It was also fantastic to reconnect with friends- we all mentioned at least once or twice, how great Facebook has been in removing some of the awkwardness of reconnecting. Gotta love technology. I also had the chance to talk with a few people whom I never took the chance to know better in high school- one gal and her husband live in Dallas now and I am hoping to be able to see them in the future. All in all, I'm very glad I went. :)

holy delayed blogging batman

Yeah, I've stunk at blogging recently...there seems to be an epidemic of that right now...things have been really busy with work and such, so extracurricular activities have been limited to training and sleeping :). And then of course, when I do do something, like last weekend 3/4 roomies went outlet shopping and then had dinner with Carolyn Yohe and the fabulous Adrienne at the Yohe abode...I totally forgot to take pictures...similar case with yesterday- 4th of July festivities included a pool party at the Parris' and hangout time with the McFerren clan....but I didn't take pictures! :(...so here's the one picture I have taken in the last couple of weeks. I made a 4th of July trifle for the party. It was yummy...only Lisa and I ate some at the first party, so I enlisted the help of the McFerrens. They stepped up to the plate and finished the job in about 10 minutes flat ('course, there's a LOT of them ;-) ). I should have more exciting blogs coming up...10 year reunion, California and Disneyland...excitement!

5 year anniversary!!!

Yesterday marked my 5 year anniversary with NASA. Five years...sometimes it feels like I've always been here, and sometimes it feels like I just moved here...crazy. Still lovin' it... :)

Tea Party Extravaganza!!!

So, as most of you know- I co-lead a girls discipleship group at my church. We have 20 girls ages 13-20 in our group and to wrap our True Beauty/Modesty discussions...and kind of the year... we held a Mother/Daughter Tea Party on Saturday. It was a lot of fun- we had the owners of Bellisima! come in and do a fashion show and give a talk on dressing modestly and what beauty really is (their clothes are great by the way) and we had some activities for the girls and their moms, and of course lots of goodies. At the end, we honored our four older girls who help us by leading individual prayer groups of girls. I got all cry-y and choked up and couldn't figure out why...later I realized it was because we started the group with these four girls four years ago- and it is amazing to see how much they have grown spiritually and into such Godly young women...I was overcome with God's grace and mercy in their lives and for the privilege I have of getting to interact with such fun and inspiring gals. I truly love these girls dearly and I can't wait to see what God is going to do with our group this coming year!

And finally, someone took a picture of the roommates (folks at church call us the Chicklets :) )



Claire, me, and Pam

Expected and Unexpected

So the topic for this year's Next conference was Jesus Christ (are you thinking, well, duh Melissa, it's a bunch of Christians getting together, shouldn't it be about Jesus Christ?), I agree "should" being the operative word. How often do we go through our day and never once think of the Cross...of what Christ did for us? I was very excited for this conference because I was more than ready to have my world rocked by learning truth, rediscovering truth I already knew, but it was covered with the cobwebs of everyday life, and being convicted of areas where I need to focus on Him more. All of that happened...but what also happened is that He assured me and affirmed certain choices and decisions I have had to make in the recent past- tough choices, that shouldn't have been tough, since it was choosing between Him and the world, but they were...tough (I'll stick with that word, since other adjectives may lead you to believe that I am being melodramatic...although I assure you, I would not be!). So that was an unexpected sweetness to the conference. The messages are all available for free download here. I highly recommend you listen to them.

Rather than describe each message that was given, I will just list some key phrases that the speakers said that really made me think.

Josh Harris' message was based around Luke 6:46-49 (Jesus speaking to the people)-

"Why do you call me 'Lord, Lord', and not do what I tell you. Everyone who comes to me and hears my words and does them, I will show you what he is like, he is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when a flood arose, the stream broke against that house and could not shake it, because it had been well built. But the one who hears and does not do them is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation, when the stream broke against it, immediately it fell and the ruin of that house was great."

I never realized that this passage was being spoken to believers. I always thought that the people who built their house on the rock were believers and the ones who didn't were unbelievers, but Jesus is addressing believers in this entire passage- that means some of us are building our foundations on rock (ie Him) and some of us aren't. (ooh, conviction, or as Dustin would say, "the Sovereign slap" :)).

Josh said (paraphrased) "When was the last time that Jesus, that something you read in Scripture, changed the path you were on."- oh yeah, I had an answer for that one. Thanks for the affirmation Lord.

DA Carson- "God's love for the world is not awesome because the world is so big, but because the world is so bad".

DA Carson- "You must see more of the glory of God to become stabilized in your Christian life"

Kevin DeYoung- Speaking about feeling condemnation for something you have done: "saying 'I can't forgive myself' is just more sin. Of course you can't forgive yourself, only God can".

Kevin DeYoung- "You will never be a Christian until you stop believing in yourself". (ie only God can sustain you, if we try to sustain ourselves we will fail, maybe not immediately, but we will eventually fail).

So that ends my Next blog. The conference was...expected and unexpected.

Tejas Tri 2009

Another tri bites the dust :). Today Lisa and I did the Tejas Tri - 600yd (0.34 mile) swim, 11 mile bike, 3 mile run. I did it in 1 hour and 30 minutes. My swim was a bit longer than I would have liked, but I swam almost the whole distance freestyle (only used the breaststroke once or twice to catch my breath or to sight better)- which was really my main goal, so overall, I am very happy with my results. The run was challenging because it had warmed up pretty good and its was pretty miserable out there. I am glad Lisa finishes before me...she's there to cheer me on at the finish line (and today I needed it!)...hmm, maybe I need to train harder so I can reciprocate...or maybe some of you should come cheer both of us on (hint hint, nudge, nudge).

Post race

My bike performed awesome, I really enjoy riding it- my fear of riding is slowly fading to a more manageable level...although it wasn't helped by the poor gal I rode past who was being administered to by the paramedics...look likes she took a head/face dive off the bike and was strapped to a body board and was "red"- I stopped looking at that point...crashes are going to happen...::shudder::

Lisa and her gear

Besides the new bike, I also broke in what's called a trisuit. It's a once piece shorts/tank top combo. I got the Orca 226 and I LOVE it...my shirt was always riding up and I don't like showing my stomach...I didn't have to worry about that with the trisuit..plus it allows for great range of motion, it wicks water and sweat like there's no tomorrow...great investment.

Me and my gear

I will say that one of the things I did not like at this tri was the lack of the wet, icy towel they usually hand you at the end of the race to wipe your face with and put on the back of your neck. I never realized how amazing that towel is until I had to do without...ah..icy cold towels...

Funny

Lisa and I went to Bike Barn today with our bikes to get a tutorial on how to change a bike flat- neither of us knew how and its an uncomfortable feeling racing knowing that you could get bit by that lack of knowledge at any moment.

My favorite moment from the "lesson" (the lesson that was interspersed with abundant stories from Bike Barn Clint about bike crashes and wipeouts by the way- yeah, those were edifying ::eye roll:: ).

BBC- "So you guys do tris?"
M&L- "Yep."
BBC- "Wow you are retarded."

Okay, not the most PC comment, but entirely unexpected which made it all the more humorous to me...really, I could have giggled about that for about 5 minutes, but I had to have flat-tire-fix focus brain instead...

:D

Work language

So one of my roommates, Pam, came home today and told me she had a new word for me...it might just be the second best word ever...are you ready for it?

Fasgrolia- the FASt GROwing Language of Initialisms and Acronyms

Ha...this is what we speak every day at work. Love it.

(By the way, the look on Claire's face as I expressed my genuine delight (I think I may have jumped up and down...) at this new found word was priceless- she didn't think someone could get that excited over a word. Ah Claire, welcome to another facet of Melissa :))

So the next time someone says something to you that is high-tech and full of acronyms, just tell them to stop speaking fasgrolia. hahaha...ha.

:D

Tea Party Invitations

Here are the invitations I came up with for our upcoming Girls Group Mother/Daughter Tea Party...it's been awhile since I've done invitations- I had fun with them even though it was a simple design...very girly- I like it!

front


inside-minus the details of course :)


invitations...

Words

So I am reading this really phenomenal book called "The Meaning of Everything- the Story of the Oxford English Dictionary" by Simon Winchester. As most of you know, I really like words and I thought, well, what better to read than a history of the OED (yes, I realize the nerdiness in this statement...oh well). I am enjoying two things about this book 1) it reads more like fiction than non-fiction and 2) Mr. Winchester employs many new words I have never heard of and/or words that I recognize but could not define. He's also pretty masterful with these footnotes that contain the more humorous aspects of history or nuggets of trivia.

My two favorite trivia nuggets so far:

1. If you were to write "what!?" the combination of the '!' and the '?' is called an interrobang.
2. The word "paperclip" was first used in 1875

I'm also finding it pretty funny (probably as only I would) that I am using a Merriam-Webster dictionary to look up the words I don't know...(and yep, I am TOTALLY writing the definitions in the book as I go :) ). That's probably why I couldn't find the definition of "machicolated".

Some of my new favorite words:

1. bellicose- war-mongering, belligerent
2. erudite- scholarly
3. malapropism- humorous misuse of a word

...looking forward to the second half of this book....

Still processing...

I've had several people ask "so where's your Next blog?" Next as in the conference I went to this past weekend. It's coming folks...I'm still processing the amazing messages I heard. So until then, here are a couple of pics to tide you over. We took 13 people to this conference (more than double from last year!) and it was a great group. Dustin and Megan are our singles group leaders and Dustin was a trooper, having to hang out with 12 women for 4 days...I'm sure it was really rough... ;-)

Our group

Me and some of my girlies

My new toy!!!!

So after at least 6 months of research and pricing and questioning and praying...I finally got a bike today!!!!

Seriously, I think I have now spent about 6 hours in bike shops asking questions and trying bikes and probably annoying the serious bike guys with my ignorant novice questions.

I was supposed to go check out a bike I had found on craigslist this evening. The components were good (Shimano 105- which is what I was looking for), the price was good, but the frame wasn't exactly what I had in mind.

A co-worker of mine is an avid cyclist and told me to go to the bike shop where he gets his bikes. So I did. I walked in and said "this is what I want and this is how much I want to pay, what do you have?" And lo and behold the owner said, "oh, I have something your size" and he pulls out this:

It's the '08 Specialized Roubaix Compact- aluminum frame, carbon fork, ALL Shimano 105 components...and he gave it to me for about half the retail value!!! And even better, if I decide that I want to upgrade to a better bike or a tri bike later, I can TRADE this one in...I don't know of any other shop that has offered that...how cool is that?

So yay for this blessing. I know, I tend to be a bit frugal, but I just want to make sure that I am being a good steward of what God has blessed me with...I am glad I waited for this one! Fast like lightning- whoosh! :D

Silverlake Sprint Triathlon 2009

So, have I mentioned that I love triathlons? This was only my second, but at least I know now that me loving my first experience wasn't a fluke.

Post race, in the transition area

I am REALLY happy with the results of today's tri. My publicized :) goal was to complete the 0.25mile swim, 10 mile bike, and 3 mile run in under 1hr 45 min. My secret, type-A personality, perfectionist goal was to do it in 1 hr 30 min. My actual time? 1 hr 22min!!!! The rough breakdown is 11 minutes for the swim, ~ 37ish minutes for the bike, and GET THIS: 28:28 for the 3 miles...yeah that's right, I ran a 9:41 minute mile!!! Holy moly!!!

And before I could get too high and mighty about how much I rocked, after crossing the finish line, I saw my sports medicine doc who helped treat my stress fracture and encouraged me all along that frustrating 6 months of injury recovery. I went over to her and gave her a big hug and thanked her (she's awesome, still knows me by name and everything!). So, it was a great reminder from God that He gave me the healthy leg and the health in general for me to be able to complete today's race. So, glory to Him :). I put in the training hours and He blessed that. Sweetness. And it was great to be racing with Lisa again! Next tri? June 7th. :D.

Lisa and me

Knowledge

I just finished re-reading "The Hiding Place" by Corrie Ten Boom. You should read it. One of my favorite parts is this conversation between little-girl Corrie and her father. She asks him a tough-adult question (they are traveling on a train and he has his work-bag with him). Here's their conversation after Corrie has asked her question and dad hasn't answered yet:

" At last, he lifted his traveling case from the rack over our heads, and set it on the floor. 'Will you carry it off the train, Corrie?' he said. I stood up and tugged at it. It was crammed with the watches and spare parts he had purchased that morning. 'It's too heavy', I said. 'Yes,' he said, 'And it would be a pretty poor father who would ask his little girl to carry such a heavy load. It's the same way, Corrie, with knowledge. Some knowledge is too heavy for children. When you are older and stronger you can bear it. For now you must trust me to carry it for you."

And the parallel that I drew:

God is the same way with His children. He doesn't overburden us with all the details of His plans, He gives us the knowledge we need at the exact moment we need it- not before, and not after. Perfect timing. He knows when we are strong enough, prepared for the next step-whatever that might be. And we, as His children, must trust Him to keep His plans, to carry that knowledge for us, until that perfect moment arrives. Wow.

Whoosh!

That's the sound of my ego being deflated. Here's the scenario:

This past Sunday, we had people over (duh, if you read my blog, you already know that). Among them was my pastor and his family. Conversation between me and Grady (my pastor):

Grady: So, you do triathlons?
Me: Yep!
Grady: When's your next one?
Me: Next Sunday
Grady: So show me your muscles, you gotta have muscles right?
Me: Yep! ::makes arm muscle::
Grady: That's it!?
Me: WHAT DO YOU MEAN, THAT'S IT!? :: tone of righteous indignation::
Grady: Well, I was expecting some serious guns if you do triathlons

Whoosh.

Thank you Grady, for keeping me humble.

Bottle Mastery

How's that for a blog title? I'm talking the type of water bottle that you put on your bike. I can now consider myself in the class of people who can remove the water bottle from its holder while riding the bike, drink from it (and actually get fluid in your mouth, no chin dribbling allowed), and put it back, all without falling over, dropping the bottle, riding into a parked car, etc.

Baby steps I'm tellin' ya....

Hospitality #3

This probably could be called Hospitality #4, since Claire had #3 while Pam was in Costa Rica and I was in Russia, but, I made a command decision (it is my blog after all ;-) ) and I am calling it #3. Honey Baked ham, green beans, macaroni salad, fabulous desserts (thanks to Claire and Mike and Molly!) and lots of laughs...good day.

The Van Wright family, the Crews (minus Jon), Mike, Molly, and Maddie, Josh (we missed you Lisa!) (MIA- Dustin and we missed you Megan!)

Goodies

It's been awhile since I have picked up one of my favorite books, The Valley of Vision, compiled by Arthur Bennett. It's a collection of Puritan prayers...I love it because 1) wow could they pray! :) 2) it voices stuff that I have trouble putting into words. I hadn't used it in a couple of months until a recent blog by Tim Challies reminded me to pull it from the shelves again. Here's one I read the other day that I hadn't before. It shouldn't amaze me, but it does, that people hundreds of years ago faced the same flesh/spirit struggles...the world vs God...we know who should win...but if you're like me, who can drag my feet, make every excuse imaginable, or stick my fingers in my ears to try to ignore the fact that it must also be acted out...its a blessing to have reminders. Thank God for His willingness to gently teach (yeah with me, I think its more like clobber over the head or drag me kicking and screaming, but hey, we'll call that semantics ;-) ) the truths we so desperately need to know. The language in this is old (we are talking Puritans here :) ))...but its sooo beautiful.

Fullness

Heavenly Father,

Thou has revealed to me myself as a mass of sin, and thyself as the fullness of goodness,
with strength enough to succor me,
wisdom enough to guide me,
mercy enough to quicken me,
love enough to satisfy me.
Though has shown me that because thou are mine I can live by thy life
be strong in thy strength,
be guided by thy wisdom;
so I can pitch my thoughts and heart in thee.
This is the exchange of the wonderful love-
for me to have thee for myself,
and for thee to have me, and to give me thyself.
There is in thee all fullness of the good I need,
and the fullness of all grace to draw me to thyself,
who else could never have come.
But having come, I must cleave to thee,
be knit to thee,
always seek thee.
There is none all good as thou are:
With thee I can live without other things,
for thou art God all-sufficient,
and the glory, peace, rest, joy of the world is a creaturely, perishing thing in comparison with thee
Help me to know that he who hopes for nothing but thee, and for all things only for thee, hopes truly,
and that I must place all my happiness in holiness, if I hope to be filled with all grace
Convince me that I can have no peace at death, nor hope that I should go to Christ,
unless I intend to do his will
and have his fullness while I live.

Hmm...not so odious bike? Maybe...

So, I have a sprint triathlon coming up in two weeks and with my trip to Russia and then vacation, my training hasn't been all that great...getting some runs in is easy (yes, I did run on vacation)...but I haven't been on a bike since my last triathlon back in August...and you all remember how those practices went :)

So I re-borrowed my friend Jeff's bike (there's this whole saga to me actually buying a bike which I won't bore you with) and I took it out early this morning to see if I could still get on and off the bike without accidentally amputating my leg or arm or ear (with me, you never know what could happen). Success! I didn't fall off the bike! Or over or under the bike (I did however, somehow manage to gouge my inner ankle wheeling the bike OUT of the garage...go figure).

So after church today I took it on a 6 mile ride. Not bad...I forgot how much wind resistance changes things, but I definitely feel more comfortable on it now than I did in August. After my ride, I added a short run. Doing two events from a tri back-to-back is called a brick workout. My run ended up being only 0.5 miles, because well, let's just say I had some wicked jelly legs...I know I will be able to complete the tri, but it won't be a great performance due to the lack of training...just more impetus to do another in June ;-)...however, I am SOOOO thankful that my leg has healed. God definitely taught me patience throughout that experience...and to lean on Him harder to sustain me throughout the day and not just rely on the endorphin/stress release high that exercise provides. I'm so glad God wants His children to know him better and better and that He patiently and diligently teaches us these lessons that sound so easy but are oh so difficult to act out.

Phase 3 vacation summary- Hawaii

So I am just going to post some pictures here. I will eventually get around to getting a whole album up...

First off, yay for landing in Houston before this huge thunderstorm hit. Boo for our flight from Honolulu being delayed until 2am...yay for good sushi restaurants within walking distance of the airport, boo for super cold airplanes, yay for bringing jeans to change into and sticking my feet into my purse to keep them warm :) (yes I really stuck my feet into my purse and it really did help...I slept the whole rest of the flight!)

After delaying my flight to Oahu by a day, the girls (Lydia and Emily (they are sisters and I went to school with Lydia...we've known each other for 17 years!!!) picked me up and we headed out to the Likelike (pronounced 'leaky leaky") Highway, a really pretty drive on Oahu). We stopped at Chinaman's Hat for some pictures, drove around to see some of the pretty beaches and overlooks (and saw some humpback whales spouting off the shore!!!), saw Haunama Bay, and the sunset.

Me, Emily, and Lydia in front of Chinaman's Hat

Sunset near Haunama Bay

The next day we woke up very early (4am!) and went to hike Diamondhead Crater.

Lydia, Emily, and me on Diamondhead Craater, Honolulu in the background

We met up with another group of my friends (Tima, Katrina, and Mark, and their friend Patty) for breakfast at one of our favorite restaurants on Oahu, Eggs and Things.

The gang at Eggs and Things

Then we all flew to Maui. Our condo was awesome! Within barefoot walking distance of the beach (Kamaole II) in the town of Kihei (south Maui). We hit the beach first thing of course :).

Our beach

Since Tima and all only had a few days on Maui, they were going to cram as much as possible into those days. We joined them at 3:50am to drive up Haleakala, the dormant volcano, to watch the sunrise. The elevation is just over 10,000 feet and it was freezing! (literally).

Sun rising on Haleakala (yeah, we were above the clouds...so cool!)

Me and Tima on Haleakala

The girls...thawed out finally

Then we drove the Road to Hana and hiked to Waimoku Falls (407 foot waterfall).

Me and my old roomies, Tima and Katrina


Lydia and Tima

Big waterfall

I talked Emily and Mark into joining me in the waterfall!!!


Wahoo!

We then visited Wai'anapanapa State Park and the black sand beach. Alas, we couldn't swim in it though...you can see why...

Ooh pretty black sand (it wasn't soft though...)


Umm, yikes.

We went to Lahaina, really quaint old town, good shops, and we went to the Old Lahaina Luau, which was a lot of fun. We sat with a great group of folks and had a really fun time with them.

Taking out the kahlua pig


Enjoying my mai tai



Sunset from Lahaina

At the Old Lahaina Luau (all the girls at our table and some friendly visitors :) )


After our botched kayaking/snorkeling, seasickness/freezing adventure (of which we have NO pictures from!). We spent our last beach day on this beach, Makena Beach. Wow.


Sunset from the condo balcony (our last night on Maui)



Last picture on our beach (it was sooo windy so we weren't too sad about not being able to have one last beach day)

Our last day on Maui we went back to Lahaina and drove around the coffee plantation. And then got one last iced coffee at the Maui Planatation Coffee House. Yum!


I really like coffee

Great trip. Great great great.

World Cup 2010

I just found out that we (my brother, my friend Jana and her husband Scott) got our tickets for World Cup 2010. It is in South Africa!!! And the best news is, its during a beta cutout so no silly Shuttle launches can get in the way! (beta cutout means that the sun angle is too high (Shuttle will get too hot) during a particular timeframe...this one just so happens to extend over the world Cup timeframe). ::happy dance, happy dance::

Feeding the Fishies

So we signed up for this tour that takes you kayaking around the island and then you snorkel from your kayak. Cool right? Yeaaaaah....

So holy-choppy-water-Batman. And guess who didn't even think to take her Dramamine. And when you get out of the kayak to snorkel you still bob up and down and side to side cause of the stupid lifevest. I did get to see sea turtles! And a ton of colorful fish...

I also fed the fish...twice...hope they liked my breakfast.

Maui :)

So I've been too exhausted at the end of each day to blog, and the internet is having issues so I only managed to get one photot loaded...but, let me just say, I heart Maui and am never coming home. Nope. (I did spend a whirlwind 12 hours on Oahu as well, taking the girls to all the sites I saw the last time I was here...fun and tiring!)

We have an amazing condo with an ocean view and about a 2 minute walk from a bee-yew-ti-ful beach.

Me on the baclony of the condo..ocean is behind me :)

Yesterday we woke up at 3am to drive to the summit of Haleakala (the inactive volano here) to watch the sunrise. Breathtaking and frostbiting (elevation 10,000 feet). Then we drove back down and drove the Road to Hana. This road has 671 turns (no, I didn't count, someone else did in my travel book). Talk about hairpin turns! The have these one lane bridges that tell you to yield to oncoming traffic- thing is, the turns are so tight, you can't see the oncoming traffic...so we decided youd need to be a Jedi or something to determine if there was oncoming traffic (believe this decision generated a LOT of laughter and ensuing dorkiness).

Then at the end of the Road, we did a four mile hike into a waterfall and I STOOD UNDER A WATERFALL!!!! And I got two people to do it with me too! Everyone else was dissuaded by the "Danger of falling rocks beyond this point" sign. Good thing I feigned illiteracy ;-).

Great trip so far. Today is church and then we are going to crash on the beach for the rest of the day for some much need recuperation :D.

Not coming back.

Phase 2 drama

So phase 2 of my vacation was supposed to consist of a whirlwind trip down to Tucson to visit my parents, a haircut, back to Phoenix to visit some friends and then fly out to Hawaii...

But, it's me, right?

So instead, that stomach bug I had for a bit in Idaho decided to come back, this time full force and I ended up in urgent care being pumped with fluids because I couldn't keep fluid, well, in. I am such a fan of anti-nausea medicine by the way. And can you say holy high fever batman?

So obviously, I wasn't going to be able to make my original flight to Hawaii. After keeping down some jello and a popsicle, I spent an hour on the phone with Expedia last night (I'll spare you the bloody details but I ended up having to "speak with a supervisor"), I delayed my flight by a day, which isn't bad at all, since that is one of the days we were going to be on Oahu and I've already been there.

So, I am now going to go sit on my bum, eat a popsicle, watch a Doctor Who and continue to recover.

Definitely ready for phase 2 to be over... :)