Post holiday catch-up and Honolulu Derby Girls

I am finally back to blogging after an extended illness and ten days in Hawaii for Christmas (sadly, these two events overlapped significantly). Here are the things I miss about Hawaii --

• chocolate popsicles -- don't even get me started
  
• teri chicken plate lunch
• my cat Aengus -- 15 years old and still more fun at a party than me
  
• the weather -- where even the rain seems pleasant
• the mountains, the plants, the birds, the beaches
• the fact that I look just like everybody else
• how everybody is in a good mood all the time

Things I do not miss about Hawaii:

• my allergies to just about everything in Hawaii (including my fab cat Aengus)
• the traffic -- worse than Boston, I am sure
• the fact that Hawaii is a rock in the middle of the ocean -- people are always asking me why I would want to leave paradise. The truth is you can only take paradise for so long before it starts to bother you that you've basically done and seen everything. You can drive around the entire island in a couple of hours and you'll just end up back where you started. Everything is expensive and a lot of things never make it to Hawaii at all (think movies, plays, concerts, products in stores, ideas for chrissakes). It's like the little town you grew up in where everything is safe and familiar but all you want to do is get to the big city and pursue your dreams. Except you can't take a Greyhound out of town or hitch a ride with some likely stranger -- you have to buy an expensive plane ticket. Yup. Nice place to visit. Hard to live in. At least for me.
  

So the holidays were nice if short and a bit stressful. I was able to visit my grandmother on Maui, who just had a stroke, which was a good thing (the visit, not the stroke). Spent some time with my Mom and caught up with a couple of old friends. Spent exactly ten minutes at the beach (Waikiki Beach, which hardly even counts - plus I was wearing sneakers, which makes it count even less). Witnessed the Christmas miracle of Taz (my mother in law's dog, who has been quite ill, and who was so sick that we all thought he was going to die that night -- shaking uncontrollably, unable to get up, not responding -- who got up the next day, bouncy and happy, demanding to be taken for a walk and given treats! Yay!).

As for roller derby, I missed the first practice because I was too sick (flying + head cold = bad) but was able to hook up with the wonderful Honolulu Derby Girls for two subsequent practices. They practice at Kaneohe Marine Corps Station at an outdoor hockey rink. Did I mention how nice the weather was? The Honolulu Derby Girls are all super wonderful people and I had a great time skating with them. I also met Sassy Chassis (Rat City Rollergirls) and Bea Attitude (Texas Rollergirls) who were also in town. Hooray for derby! I brought my new outdoor wheels with me but never even took them out of the package -- my blue Fugitives were awesome on the cement floor. A good time.