Holidays come and almost gone...

So Christmas has come and gone for another year. And with it has departed all the fun little activities that come with the hoiday. We all know what I'm talking about. The celebrating, cooking of 18 pound hams, mashed potatos, corn, and consuming of Hula Pie. Also included in that is the second massive dinner a couple hours later in the usual 6 million dollar house with it' hundred dollar bottles of wine and other expensive alcohls and foods. We've all been there right? Oh, wait. I think that only happens in places like Maui. So my Chistmas was interesting I guess. I cooked an awesome ham basted in brown sugar glaze and pineapples. Threw in some mashed potatos with homemae garlic seasoning, and thawed out some frozen corn. After consuming way too much of this food we all sat around for a ocuple hours then headed out to some baller house in the pineapple fields for dinner number two. Jon or Matt (can' remember who) is hooking up with the daughter of the owner or something along those lines. So she invited us up there for food and festivities. We roll in in style of course. After hanging around and snacking on cheeses, crackers and win we all head outside for dinner. Of course we consume more food than necessary once again. On top of that are countless bottles of wine. The house itself is pretty sick. Even though it is dark you can tell it is highend. Everything is in perfect order and shiny. The grass is cut like a putting green. Marble everything. It's one of those houses where you are afraid to walk around and touch things because you're not sure how much it is worth. So after a couple hours of eating someone breaks out the golf clubs and the father decides that we are all gonna take turns whacking golf balls into the pineapple fields beyond his property. At this point we have all had about a bottle of wine each and it is around 11pm. This being my first time taking a swing at a golf ball with a driver I gotta say I did pretty well. Didn't shank any balls though I did drive a ball into a tree about 50 yards straight ahead of me. The ball rebounded back and I thought someone was gonna die. After chatting with the mother for about 20 minutes I was told that she absolutely loved me. Can you believe that? We finally made it home around 1:00 and I siply passed out. Work the next morning was a little less than pleasant. I would liek to thank everyone for the christmas cards and whatnot I received over the past couple days. I will also single out the McGrails for the Barnes and Noble gift card I received from them. Nothing like spending money at the place I work. Really though, thanks veryone. I finally sent in my broken Ipod Shuffle. I bought it almost a year ago and it has not been owrking for the past 5-6 months. I called them about a week ago and was told I had 20 days left on my warrenty to send it in. So I was sent a new one a couple days ago. Has made the solo runs much more tolerable. Now if I can only do something about the intense heat and humidity we have been dealing with. Sorry everyone in Worcester who are dealing with the usual unpleasant winter. So my video was accepted by CBS for Survivor. That means I am one step closer to getting on the show. Pretty exciting. I'm gonna try and attach a link to the video here for all you out there. What I did was hike out to Black Rock, the popular cliff jumping location on the island. After explaining to the camera why I would be the perfect Survivor I simply jumped off the cliff into the water with the cmera still oing in my hand. The interesting part about it is that when I hit the water the camera simply shut off. I'm guessing from the impact. Luckily the camera turned back on about 5-10 minutes afterward. Thank God, cause I only had time for that one take.


So I finally got my bike all put together. I took it out for its first ride on Maui 2 days ago. What happens? Just under 2 miles up the road I blow the front tire. Yup, somehow that jsut seems right for me. Also, it's raining pretty damn hard on me. There I am standing with my wheel take apart, a dead tire on the ground and me holding the new tube. At this point I am not sure if I am gonna bother fixing the tire or chucking the whle bike into the woods. Then a white ford explorer pulls over and a woman gets out asking if I want a lift home. Instantly I say yes. We load my bike into the back of her truck with her 2 little children fighting over who gets to hold the "cool wheel" fo me. I climb in and we head back to my place chatting about biking and livin on Maui. Her name... Blue. Yup. Apparently jsut before she had her ids she was a semipro cyclist and had to give it up when she had her first child. Lesson to everyone out there: Children ruin dreams.

Speaking about my bike: UPS has reached an all time high for being the worst company out there. I got a call from them the other day. Finally the pictures were looked over and sent to the processing location in Texas to determine if I am getting money for the damage. Why does the woman call? Because I need to describe everything to her. Well why do I need to do this if she has all 9 pictures I sent showing the damage? Because the other people sent her 9 copies of just 1 picture. Of the undamged side of the box. At this point I am fed up with them. I have to resend all 9 pictures 1 at a time to this place. This is the 5th time I've had to do this in the past 10 days. I let this woman know this before I hang up and then call the supervisor and explain everything to him. Falures... all failures.

Other than that things are going pretty well out here in Maui. The apartment is holding together. I have been getting somewhat frustrated now and then. Living with Matt and Jon is fine. Matt is really good with cleaning up after himself which I appreciate. Jon is not too bad. He knows how I feel about messes laying around or junk building up so makes an effort when he remembers. Both do most of their eating at the Restaurant so not really an issue. But Curtis has been gettting on my nerves a little bit. I hate being that guy to have to say something but I think I will within the next couple days. He just started work and works only a couple days a week. What has been bothering me is that he leaves messes pretty much everywhere. He does not really wash his dishes. Just lets them pile up or he'll just fill the sick with soap water and let them all soak for like a day or so. He does not empty the garbage ever. He'll jsut keep piling garbage on top of garbage. And he eats mine and Jon's food. I'm not sure if on is realizing this but I have. I don't mind if he is out of something and snags some pasta or someting. Just let me know and not just laugh about it when he gets called out on it. Food is super expensive and I am definitly not made of money. It would be bad cause he does say that we can help ourselves to his food. But he has none. There is like nothing to help ourselves to. The whole "what's mine is yours" saying does not apply when you have nothing to offer.

Anyway, I just called in sick to work today because I have a killer headache. I think my allergies are going into overkill here. But now I do get to go down to the beach and swim. Plus, 2 days of in a row so pretty siked.

Time to go get my tire fixed. Everyone have a great New Year's.

Cait: I am told by Jon and Matt that I have to wear that dress shirt you bought me on New Year's Eve. Apparently it's killer and will "make girl's panties just drop." I know you needed to know that.