We flew into Honolulu today and it’s so nice to be back. We’re staying with my sister at the dorm where I used to live and it’s pretty surreal to be sleeping here again, so many years later.
I’ve been up for exactly 24 hours as of now but I’m not tired. I’m laying here listening to the sirens and sounds of Waikiki, thinking that I used to be so accustomed to hearing them every night that I would often have a hard time falling asleep when I went back home to Canada because it was too quiet.
I am so glad it’s finally May. For some reason, so many good things are happening this month, and I am so excited that it’s finally here. This weekend we are off to L.A. on a mini-roadtrip, and we are driving home on Sunday just in time to watch the Sharks play the Canucks.
Next weekend we fly to Honolulu to visit my sister, and Derek is walking in his graduation ceremony for his Associate’s degree. I am so proud of him, and so excited to be going home for 9 days. I am also possibly running a triathlon while I’m there, I’ve been training a little bit but we haven’t signed up officially. In true Spearing fashion, we are waiting until the very last possible second to enter. We are slightly indecisive.
We fly home on the 19th (I am sad to be missing Bay to Breakers, but it’s definitely going to be worth it) and the next weekend we are flying to Vegas to see my other sister. We haven’t seen each other since Thanksgiving, and I am super excited to spend the weekend with her and her husband.
On top of all of our traveling, I also got a promotion at work, and I start my new job on May 6th. It’s definitely going to be a whirlwind month, but those are my favourite kind. I’m feeling very lucky and grateful for all of the good things in my life at the moment, and I can’t to see what the rest of the summer holds.
My first year living in Hawaii, I was introduced to the South Shore Grill by my boyfriend at the time. The relationship didn’t last, but SSG and I have been an item ever since. One of the best things they have there (although everything is delicious) are their desserts, especially their peanut butter temptations.
Now that I’m not living on the island, I don’t get these delicious treats every week, and it’s quite sad. When I went back to Hawaii in January we took my mom to SSG so that she too might know the joys that are peanut butter temptations. I’d never even thought about trying to make them myself, since I couldn’t fathom the wizardry that would be necessary to get the Reece’s into the cookies without baking them into a melty disaster.
My mother took one look at the cookies and declared “They probably just push the peanut butter cups in right when they come out of the oven.” I’m pretty sure that’s why we have parents, for exactly such moments as those.
I was able to find a recipe, and made them last week and they were amazingly delicious, and so simple to make (literally 15 minutes from when I started to when I took the first bite) that I was kind of embarrassed I’d never thought to make them before.
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| basic peanut butter cookies in a mini muffin tin, bake about 8 minutes |
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| push in peanut butter cups once they come out of the oven |
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One final tip is to make these on a night when you are home alone, so you don’t have to share with your husband.
Not that that’s what I did. I would never do something like that, especially knowing how much Derek adores these cookies. Obviously.
I woke up last Saturday and I was SO excited for summer. It was a beautiful day, and it just didn’t feel right to be wearing black, as I do about 90% of the time. Instead I opted for the absolute brightest articles of clothing in my closet, and I don’t think it was a coincidence that I was so happy, all day.
Maybe I should buy more yellow? I might be on to something.
Some of the pictures are a bit dark, I’ve been playing around trying to figure out all of my camera settings, but they kind of reminded me of those days when you spend hours laying out on the beach in the blazing sun, and then you finally open your eyes and it’s so bright that all of the people and objects look really dark, and that made me even MORE excited for summer, so I put them up anyway.
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| Billabong Tie-Dye shorts/ Element Shirt/ Roxy Sandles/ F21 Bustier/ AE Sunglasses |
If this is the ugliest blanket you’ve ever seen, that’s OK. It was my first official “decor” purchase ever, I was 16 and I had just discovered Ikea. It was the same summer I painted my bedroom electric purple and my bookshelf fluorescent orange. My room was awesome.
I also brought snacks and entertainment. It was a really relaxing afternoon, and one that will hopefully be repeated with slight variations every possible opportunity until the end of the summer.
Last weekend I had the most amazing girl’s trip with my mom and sister in Hawaii. I was so happy to be back there in the place I love the most, and my sister and I had so much fun showing my mom all of our favourite local spots.
I went into the tattoo parlour to get the islands inked on my foot, but I didn’t leave enough time, and the tattoo artist I wanted to get wasn’t available. I’ve wanted to get it done for a long time, I’m kind of hoping if I move some of my 808 love onto my foot, there will be a little bit more room in my heart for California.
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| Lovers for life |
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| 5 hour flight, only got to see her for 5 hours. Worth every second. |
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| Me and my mama, she used to be taller than me a longggg time ago |
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| Pillboxes hike |
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| Nashville’s aka my other home |
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| our shorts are cooler than your shorts |
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| love her |
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| Pali Highway |
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| Lanikai < 3 |
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| Booze Cruise |
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| I wish you would step back from that ledge my friendddd |
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| Waimea Bay |
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| Huge, scary waves on North Shore |
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| Koko Head, you win again. Everytime. |
I got back from Hawaii last night at 1 am, I am basically sleeping under my desk today at work but it was so worth it. We hiked Pillboxes and Koko Head, booze cruised in Waikiki, shopped to our hearts content, went to North Shore and saw the crazy huge waves, danced our little toes off at Nashville’s, ate at all my favourite places, and went for nice long runs on the beach every morning. It was a perfect weekend.
I’ll put up more pictures later, but here is a little Lankai love to brighten your Tuesday.
Lanikai actually means “Heavenly Waters”. I’m pretty sure when you die, this is where you go. That wouldn’t surprise me one bit.
Exciting news for me! I am going to Honolulu in 9 days with my mom and sister. I absolutely can’t wait, it’s been a year and a half since I left and I miss it every single day. I am basically too excited to do anything but jump up and down really fast, so I decided to distract myself by looking back through some pictures of my time on the island.
It is truly such a special place to me, I lived there for 4 years, met my best friends and the boy, and had more fun than I even thought was possible. I woke up every morning, and truly felt lucky and so grateful to be able to spend another day there. To me, it will always be home.
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| Sandy’s BBQ |
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| Waikiki with my favourites |
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| My 21st birthday |
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| Valentine’s Day |
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| Hilton Lagoon |
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| Seeester |
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| Navy Ball |
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| Best picture ever taken |
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| Cha Cha Cha’s |
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| Baby J, Baby A, Mama C |
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| don’t ever leave me cuz i’ll come find you |
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| Shower cap night |
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| love them |
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| this hurts my heart, i miss her so much |
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| lighthouse hike |
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| west coast best coast |
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| roomies |
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| one of the good ones |
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| my lovely island from Tantalus |
That’s actually a lot of pictures, but it doesn’t even begin to scratch the surface of all the wonderful times I had. I am SOEXCITED to go back to see all my favourite places, I just wish all of my favourite people could be back there with me.
It’s been over a year since I left my lovely little island to move to the Bay area (I still miss it every day!). I get restless very easily, and I love to travel and explore so when I found out we were moving, I was sad, but also very excited. California? Sure, that sounds like a good place to hang out for a bit.
I don’t know if I really realized I was LEAVING Hawaii and not coming back. As we slowly got settled here, and that realization started to dawn on me, I was definitely sad, maybe even depressed.
I couldn’t work yet because I didn’t have my work visa, I didn’t have any family or friends, no classes, no home, nothing. It was very hard for me to meet people, or to warm up to the people I did meet, because stripped of the things that I used to identify myself (country, home, school, friends, family, work) I did not feel like myself, and I didn’t want the people I met to know me the way I was then, but the way I was before.
I remember thinking a lot of the time, “I bet you would really like me, if we ever met.” This went on for a lot longer than it should have, even once I started working, and doing things for myself, getting out and exploring, I still felt like a friendless little orphan a lot of the time.
Then one day, I found The Boots.
Now a pair of boots, while I’m sure they can be stylish, comfy, even sensible if you get the kind that have steel toes, or keep your feet dry, but they don’t have actual magical powers. These ones didn’t either, but they did have something else. They were chunky black motorcycle boots, boots that I’d wanted for years, probably since the first time I saw Daria on MTV but I never bought them for myself because I didn’t think I was someone who could pull them off.
I’d even told my quite a bit more stylish younger sister how much I wanted these boots, and she made fun of them, and I promptly realized she was right, and put them out of my head. This has always been a recurring theme in my life, in all areas, but most easily noticeable when it comes to fashion.
I’ve always loved fashion, and held a deep admiration for people who were able to wear anything they wanted and look stylish and effortless, but I have never personally felt that I was able to wear a lot of things, really for no other reason than I told myself I couldn’t.
Fast forward to about a month after I had had my dreams of ever being Gemma Teller crushed mercilessly, and I was at the mall, in the Macy’s shoe department, when I saw the same boots I had fallen in love with online. They were black, Steve Madden and completely gorgeous. They were also on sale. And they had one pair left in my size. Now I wouldn’t say I am the most spiritual or intuitive person in the world, but I can take a hint.
I bought them immediately, put them on as soon as I got home, and proceeded to fall in love, while pointedly ignoring the obvious looks of disdain being directed at my feet by That One Guy (also known as my lovely husband Derek). I thought I would feel weird wearing them out of the house, or have trouble finding any of my clothing that would go with it, but they seemed to fit right in with me and my life, my new best friends I could wear on my feet.
What I realized then, was that whenever I am feeling orphaned or friendless (which I am not, I have the greatest friends in the world, they just happen to be scattered all over North America), I should try to appreciate the amazing opportunity I have to experiment with style, with hobbies, with eating, with fitness, with the people and things I spend time on.
I have a completely clean slate to do anything I want to do. And while it sucks sometimes to be so far away from the people and things you love, I can take comfort in the fact that whether I leave the house in black motorcycle boots, a see-through white blouse, or ass-less chaps, nobody can judge me because nobody knows who I am.
Following this epiphany, I’ve really started to get into this really neat place where I’ve started living, and trying to make the most of my time here. I bought black leather leggings, and I love them every time I wear them. I bought a cheetah print cardigan, a peblum shirt, a leather skirt, a mini sweater dress, a mini cheetah print sweaterdress, blood red lipstick.
I ran my first half marathon without my mom (she usually does the pacing, I thought I was going to die), I volunteered with Habitat for Humanity, I started blogging.I’ve taken an interest in eating healthier (except for chocolate, there will always be room for chocolate) and started experimenting with quinoa, kale and coconut oil.
We took a road trip down the coast and stopped at every beach along the way to Carmel. I signed up for a writing class. We went to a free concert in Golden Gate Park, and watched the Giants with the NL championship surround by San Franciscans at a Haight Street bar.
I guess the point is, there is so much in life to do and so much to explore, it’s better to focus on the things we can do, rather than the things we don’t have. And if you’re not sure who you are, or what you really want, there is no time like the present to find out.
loveliness. 