Too old to stay out

The Khaki Ball was last Friday. It was a lot of fun, but I required the rest of the weekend to recover. While I did throw back a few cocktails, that wasn't the source of the suffering. It was staying out til 4am. Ugh. Definitely too old for that. The Ball was held at the Hale Koa and after supper a group of us headed down the beach to the Shore Bird so some people could sing karaoke. (I'm a supporter, not a singer.) After karaoke wrapped up a little after 1:00, a subset of the group headed into Waikiki to hit up a few bars. (Some bars stay open til 4 in Waikiki.) I was done drinking for the night, along with the other girls in our group, but our male counterparts had a good time polishing off the night with a few more drinks. Zac and I danced like crazy people, as we do. Put me in a place with the music bumping and I'm a happy girl. Just wanna dance!

Finally around 3:30 or so we all decided that it was time to start walking back to the hotel. The night was a blast. Everyone had a great time. Zac and I collapsed into bed once we got to our room and we were asleep quickly. Unfortunately 2.5 hours later the sun came flooding into our room through a small gap in the drapes. I stumbled out of bed and closed them fully, but it was to no avail. I was awake. I tried to go back to sleep but, even though I was exhausted, I couldn't. As I laid there in bed I thought, "I can't imagine who would be capable of staying out that late on a regular basis. One night a year is plenty."

Luckily that wild weekend gave way to a nice, normal week so far. I've been able to focus more on work due to fewer distractions and have actually made some progress on my latest work assignment. I'm still concerned that my employment will evaporate after this assignment, but I can't complain. I was originally promised maybe only a couple months worth of work. It's been more like nine, so you'll hear no whining from me.

I've got a list of people I need to call. It's weird planning to call people, but when you talk to people infrequently phone calls tend to get pretty long. It's one thing to call someone for 15-20 minutes. That you don't really have to 'plan'. But if you're anticipating a phone call that could run for an hour you need to make sure you have that much time on your hands. (A comfortable place to sit helps too.)

My Grandma is the only one I know whose phone calls are predictably brief. I never knew this before I moved away. (I didn't have reason to call her when I lived in Mpls. I saw her pretty regularly.) Now that I call her every now and again I've discovered that her calls last 8-12 minutes. She asks how I am, I tell her, I ask how she is, she tells me, a couple minutes of small talk and then she suddenly announces, "Well, it's been good talking to you! I love you!" I tell her I love her too and we both say goodbye. It startled the heck out of me the first time it happened, but now it makes me giggle. So many phone calls devolve into neither party wanting to be the one to end the conversation, though nobody has anything significant left to say. I find my Grandma's approach refreshing.