hope on the horizon.

back to work, back to the grind. after a not-so restful winter break, i can't help but sigh at the circumstances. but there is hope on the horizon... in just a few short weeks, stephen and i will be taking a much needed vacation - to the gorgeous islands of hawaii nonetheless!!!

with stephen's recent completion of grad school and his upcoming 30th birthday in february, we knew a celebratory trip was in order. we started brainstorming this past fall and settled on america's pacific paradise. he has never been and last time i checked, it was over 20 years ago that i had the pleasure. so we looked up flights, compiled our frequent flier miles and booked two tickets to honolulu for a mere $10 each!

now this was back in october, and our planning pretty much stopped there, that is until this weekend. this may sound bizarre, but this is the first real vacation i've had to plan...ever. i was totally clueless on our honeymoon plans and every other trip i have took has either been planned by my parents or accompanying friends. so first things first, the day after we got back from houston, we headed to borders and picked up a comprehensive travel guide book.

during my lunch hour thursday, i booked our lodgings at modern boutique hotel in the center of waikiki. that evening i purchased a 3-day go-oahu-card and drafted a schedule to maximize our savings. friday night, i spent the entire evening reading the guidebook cover to cover. and this weekend, while stephen was busy working preparing for his upcoming armenia trip, i searched dozens of websites, made a handful of reservations, purchased pro bowl tickets (AHHHH!), organized all my links into a google notebook and then neatly summed up our travel itinerary using the amazing new internet tool - tripit. so cool!!! i forwarded my account to my oh-so-organzied dad to check out my handywork in my first planned vacation.... let's just say, i certainly did him proud.

in the meantime, i updated my netflix queue to have hawaiian movie classics sent me over the next month. first up, elvis presley's blue hawaii. fools may rush in, but....

FEBRUARY 5th CANNOT COME SOON ENOUGH!!