When your dreams ACTUALLY come true

Now that we've found ourselves comfortably situated, I'm finding it difficult to describe how I feel about all of this. For the most part, a lot what we expected has actually, surprisingly, come to pass. It was one thing to fly to a Hawaiian island with the expectation of living by the beach, swimming with sea turtles every day and and waking up each day with no more responsibility or concern than to consider whether we should go snorkel or find some other adventure. But that is EXACTLY what each day has been like for us. There is a saying, "Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you'll land among the stars." But we hit the moon. It's insane.

That's not to say that everything is perfect. We have already had our first centipede in the apartment. For those of you unfamiliar, centipedes are just about the worst insect you can come across on the island with a bite that will send you to the hospital for the pain alone, and they are pretty poisonous too. Needless to say, I was not pleased. Our landlord talks without a filter or pause button. Seriously, I have never experienced an individual so oblivious to my many attempts to subtly blow them off. To paint a picture for you, watch the movie Extract. Our landlord is like Jason Bateman's neighbor Nathan, only older and more forgetful.

But those are just small, insignificant specks amongst all of the wonderful that has been happening around us. It is like the Island wants us to be here. People everywhere are constantly finding ways to make us feel welcome and at home. Even now I'm sitting at a nice restaurant/coffee shop called Lava Java, and Joe, a fellow we've seen here a few times before, has been back and forth giving us info on concerts coming up and regaling us with stories of swimming with sharks. He only met us once and as soon as we returned he was welcoming us with with hugs and smiles. And then there is Nick and Bandera, our next door neighbors. Nick is a Wave Photographer who actually has a gallery on the main strip in Kona. I don't need to tell you he is very good at what he does. Bandera, Nick's girlfriend, works down at an aquarium and also helps Nick with his photography. They are about our age and we've hung out on the patio a few times, maybe even had a few too many drinks with them the other night while we swapped stories. We've made friends, which helps the most during our transition here, because the hardest part about all of this was having to leave our friends behind. We both miss everyone a lot, and it's nice to know we aren't alone out here.

Well, I'll call it for now we can call this a blog post and not a short story. But first, a quick few updates: I start officially serving Sunday, Lauren has an on-the-job interview tomorrow and a place called Splashers, and guy at a local market may start trading materials to Lauren for her to paint and may even sell some of her stuff AND hopefully before the 6th we will have internet set up in our apartment so you won't have to wait a week for us to post an update. That is all. Have a good night.


~Tyler