Something Goes Thump in the Night

Aloha again, I've returned! Hawaii was awesome (how could it not be--it's Hawaii): We did everything from visit a 4300 high canyon to go 115 feet down in a submarine. We visited the neighboring island of Kauai (where chickens roam EVERYwhere because the guy who was transporting mongooses to the island got BIT by one, and in anger threw the box of them in the ocean...true stroy.) The tour bus driver in Kauai was named Debbie and it was her 2nd day on the job. For anyone who's ever seen Night of the Iguana, this was our fate for one day. She almost got into numerous accidents, kept stopping off on the side of the road to make her assistant gather flowers and distribute them to us, and made a few flippant nasty remarks about the Church...on the very day I was wearing my shirt with "CATHOLIC" written across it in huge letters. But Debbie was great despite all that--or maybe because of it all. Interesting to say the least. She wasn't half as interesting as the guy we had in Paris. That guy was drunk the whole time, busted up a headlight, and kept stopping near seedy "SEX-O" shops and disappearing, telling us to "just walk around until I get back." THAT tour all ended with the guy finally giving us over to another tour since I think he had a nervous breakdown. I would've too. All the Latin Americans on the bus were in love with him for some reason and would sing loud songs in Spanish, dancing in the aisle, while he told them to stop. They also demanded to be let out every time they saw a Planet Hollywood. THAT was awesome.
Anyways, we also went to the zoo and aquarium and ate at this restaurant with a fish/shark/stingray tank so big divers could swim around in there to feed them. Crazy. Then there was time for the beach of course and TV time to watch the frenzy over the MJ verdict.
The most insane part had to be, however, my birthday night. We'd been up since 4am on that tour (with Debbie) so by 9pm or so I just wanted to order room service and go to sleep. I went out on the porch and watched the serene ocean just a block away. The room service guy came and suddenly everything changed. His face was pale and he put the tray down on the table immediately, not even really caring where he put it. Then he said, "Don't panic."
Well, I don't know about YOU but when someone tells me not to panic, that's exactly what I do. He said that a 5.3 earthquake had hit off the coast of Chile and the last time that had happened, with a SMALLER quake, a tsunami had hit Hawaii. Wow. The worst part was he was a native and HE was in shock. He told us that the sensors would detect whether we'd be sfae or not with in the next 6 hours. Until then, he said, "keep the TV on." Basically, he was abandoning us to the media. He glanced around before he left (in a hurry, I might add--tips were NOT on this guy's mind) and made a passing comment before leaving: "You're on the 20th floor here. You should be safe. Don't panic." I had visions of the first 19 floors of the hotel being swallowed by water and us having to swim out to higher ground (I was looking at the mountains in the distance with new attention.)
Well, needless to say the warning was cancelled and all was peaceful on the Hawaiian front. But that night was pretty scary. You can believe I said my prayers before sleep! I was literally asking my mom if it was possible to get a plane back to the mainland before morning. I'm still a little wary of Hawaii now. Crazy islands out in the Pacific. Crazy tsunamis. Debbie had just been talking about a hurricane that had devastated Hawaii ten years earlier. What is it with natural disasters and that place? Maybe I'll rethink going back next year...nah. It's Hawaii!
In other news, yet ANOTHER ex-boyfriend is getting married. I would've never even known except I dreamed of him the other night and suddenly got curious as to what he was up to. I typed his name into Google and wham! He's a nice guy and I wish him the best...and now I know why when I emailed him a nice "hi, how're you?" note some months ago he never wrote back. :) I thank God that FC left me a message today with that theme (just by chance.) He said he knows I'm an angel because he looked for my face among the other angels. It's a marriage reference. An Igbo marriage has the bridegroom hid among the crowd and the bride searches for his face. Aw! What perfect timing for him, because I was just sinking into that awful feeling of: "Great. Everyone ELSE has something going on but me."