Saturday, Dec. 20

Well, today was my last day on Kauai. Although the weather was not the best (cloudy), I went to Kalapaki Beach one last time. I hung out there for a few hours and headed back here to pack up my stuff and tie up some last-minute loose ends. As I mentioned yesterday, I would write about some of things that I've learned while living here for the past six weeks. I think the first thing that I learned here within the first few days is that, "I am not on the mainland anymore. " I know that term "mainland" may annoy some of you, but that's what people here call the continental US. What I mean by this is that the mentality of people who live here is far different than it is in any place I've ever lived before. It's far more laid back here, and by far more -- I mean more so than I ever imagined it would be. I'm all for kicking back and being mellow, but it was a bit much at first. For example, when I would ask a co-worker what time he'd be in to work, I would get this reply "Oh, I'll be in around 10-ish." He'd show up around 11:30 most days. For some reason, folks who live here seem to think they have much more time than they actually do. Maybe they actually do?? But this type of attitude was hard for me to take. At first I felt that it was disrespectful and lazy, but it's really not meant that way. Things move at a much slower pace here, and I am starting to accept that. I guess that it doesn't mean that I have to move at that pace, I just have to realize that some people will. Aside from this experience forcing me to be more independent and do more things on my own, I really think that the last six weeks have taught me a lot about living outside of my comfort zone. I'm pretty particular and normally go to great lengths to make sure everything is up to my "standards." As most know, I'm living in a '76 Winnebago in the brewery's parking lot. Let's put it this way -- I've been using a public bathroom in the parking lot for the past six weeks and it often smells terrible by Tuesday. I've been taking showers in a makeshift shower that is rigged off our water system and connected to our brew house. I have exactly 4.5 minutes to shower before the hot water gives out I've also been sleeping on a marginal quality air mattress since the day I got here. The point of the last few sentences is not to complain or solicit pity, but to illustrate the point that these are things that I've never done before and would have never even considered acceptable. It's way more rustic than what I am used to. But ya know what? I've acclimated myself and gotten accustomed to it all. It feels normal to me to wake up in the middle of the night, open the camper door, stumble into the parking lot and make my way to the public restroom. I'm fine with eating peanut butter sandwiches most nights and having my most comfortable chair be a $6 plastic lawn chair. I think that when Jess gets here and we move into our house, it will be a bit of culture shock. Hopefully I'll be able to handle it and won't need to sleep in the driveway. In closing, I've certainly had my ups and downs. However, I wouldn't change it for anything. I think I'll add this experience to my "character building" column and look forward to the next chapter in Hilo. Aloha.