Every vacation I have ever been on always ends on a bittersweet note.  On one hand, because I'm a creature of habit, I long to return home, to my routine and things familair.  On the other, I usually have such a good time that I don't want to leave wherever I am.

Hawaii was no exception.  As a matter of fact, Hawaii was the utmost example of this.  Despite a few bumps in the road, I had the most amazing time.  It is such a beautiful, beautiful place and as I was on the airplane Sunday night, watching the lights of Oahu recede behind me, I almost teared up.

I would never live in there, in Honolulu at least, but I will certainly visit again.  Even now, thinking about the things I saw, takes my breath away.

But now I'm home, after a long ten days away, and I got to cuddle with my boys (Steve and the dog) last night.  I did miss them terribly (and my bed - what can I say? I didn't spend over a grand on a mattress to hate it!). 

Initially, I thought I would be able to return to work today, after getting in at 4:30 Eastern time yesterday.  After the flight out there (the second leg was an almost unbearable seven hours - don't know how people do International flights) and hearing that jet lag is actually worse when you go forward in time, I decided against going to work today.  Instead, I laid around while trying to tell my mind that I needed to pick the house up and unpack and clean and get this place prepared for the in-laws visit on Saturday.

But I took a three hour nap instead.  Because my body's internal clock is so fucked up - I was exhausted at 9:30pm last night after having pretty much airport and plane hopped since 9pm Hawaii time the night before.  I was wide awake at 2am then again at 6am and pretty much got decided to get up.  Then around 2pm, I sat down to eat lunch and passed out, not waking up until 5pm, shortly before Steve got home from work.

Note: ME = FAILED HOUSEWIFE

Now, I'm hungry, because it's 3pm in Hawaii and my body is saying it's close to dinnertime.  They say for every hour you go forward it takes a day to recover from jet lag.  I went forward six hours - I don't know if I have six days.  I have to drag myself to work tomorrow.

So there's so much I want to tell you and about 1000 pictures I have to go through.  I will update in the following days.  The past month was spent getting ready for this trip and now that's it's over, I don't have anything to fixate on.  Except the in-laws visit this weekend, four days after my return.  And some friends visit exactly a week after the in-laws leave.

On second thought, I better start making lists!

There's stuff to say but I am way too tired to form a coherant thought.

So here's a question instead:

At the end of the month, I will be vacationing for eight glorious days in the great state of Hawaii.  I can't begin to tell you how much I am looking forward to it.

I have been designated as the activities coordinator, however.  So what I need are suggestions of great places to see?  I don't mind the touristy stuff but I prefer the off the beaten path local advice for restaurants and sights.  I like seeing places as the locals see them.  I think that's the best way to experience the beauty of a place.

So we'll be staying on Oahu, more specifically, in Waikiki.  We will have a rental car and aren't adverse to driving (what's high gas prices when you're on vacation?) and we also aren't opposed to island hopping, though we'd prefer to keep most of our activities to Oahu.

So where should we go?  I need your advice, oh lovely interwebs!

So February was a rough month.  Not so much "bad" and just "busy"!  I don't work well with busy because then my routine gets thrown completely off and I feel so out of sync for weeks and weeks afterwards.  What can I say, I'm a creature of habit.

Just like that, it's all over.

We've had a whirlwind of a couple of months.  There was the whole buying the house thing, then moving into the house.  Then we traveled to both North Carolina and Pennsylvania.  And we even had a kickass New Year's Eve party in our new house.

Now it's time to breathe.  To get back to normal life where I can come home at night and veg out and we can sleep late on weekends and play video games all day if we feel like it.

We are still living out of boxes though.  The kitchen, the living room, the guest bedroom and our bathrooms are unpacked.  But most of our clothes and the office are still in boxes.  There's also quite a few things still in the garage that need to be moved into the house because with the Christmas travel rush, we kind of just tossed them aside.

But now, I have time to get settled.  I have time to go to Home Depot and wander the aisles.  Funny how I never found anything in that store interesting and now I get excited to go there.  We have time to start on projects, like rebuilding/finishing the deck and replacing some of the lights the old owner never got around to.

I hope your Christmas and New Year's was safe, happy and fun.  Ours went well but boy, do I have some stories to tell.

2007 was an awesome year - I only hope 2008 is just as great, if not better.

My week so far ...

Sunday: return home from a weekend in NC with my dad and his side of the family.  Barely roll in the door and unpack before falling into bed.

Monday: back to work, numerous phone calls need to be made, Christmas Cards completed, run to CVS for stamps and script, run to Petsmart for Sammy supplies and Christmas presents, unpacking and cleaning of the house, working from home, sealing and stamping Christmas and Thank You cards

Tuesday: work, out to dinner, baking cookies - both took way longer than they should have

Wednesday: work, shopping for Christmas lunch, wrapping Steve's presents, final cleaning of the apartment - including oven, refrigerator and shampooing the carpets, working from home, laundry.  Note to self: make sure oven in house is self-cleaning - if not, buy one.

Thursday: work, return items to Old Navy and PetSmart, clean out car, maintenance to car (alignment, etc.), pack for trip, finish laundry, remove subwoofer box from car (more room for our shit), move rest of house stuff from garage so Steve's truck can in there while we're gone, give Sammy a bath

Friday: work - most of the day, 10 1/2 hour trip to PA

I'm crazy right?  I cannot wait until the holidays are over so I can start making some sense of this house.  Our clothes are still in boxes and we can't find anything but I don't have time to search for it when I'm trying to prepare for this trip.

Exhausted is an understatment!