Yeah... I'm back

ok... so the "Daily" part of this didn't quite work out. I've had stuff to do...

But I'm back... mainly at the direction of my bride. She, once again, is holding our family's world up (picture Care in an Altas pose but with me and the girls and all our baggage on her back). So thanks Uncle Sugar... appreciate the move out of cycle (most of you won't get that but I'm not concerned).

So... here I am in what they call paradise. The diatribe I'm about to break off is a snap shot of my last two weeks... let's go...

** Note: I'm starting this at the point AFTER my family dropped me off... way too emotional for me to share, and only three chicks will EVER know me that well.

So... I walk into the airport, no longer sad, I've learned to eat the sadness. Maybe that's a bad thing but I'm saying goodbye so much I've learned it. But I walk in and now I'm PISSED. Just because I enjoy that emotion and because I know the next 24 hours are going to suck.

I check in at the Delta counter... ask dude if I'll make my connection in Atlanta. Knowing full well I WON'T! I've traveled the world and I know that you can't get off a flight from Tampa to Atlanta and catch an International flight in 40 mins... But dude says "yeah, you'll be fine"... Ok man. You might be wondering why I'd schedule flights so close if I'm such a "world traveler"... again, Uncle Sugar planned this trip for me.

So, I get to the gate... start a little people watching... that was underwhelming so I scored a newspaper to kill time. Unbeknownst to me, I've been upgraded to first-class. Board the bird and we're off. Crazy chick sitting across the aisle... talking to herself really loud.. biz man sitting next to her wants to hurt her... but he won't. I read some and watch the little tv in the headrest in front of me... watched some Dane Cook HBO series... he and a few other comics do a tour and the show is the behind the scenes stuff as they travel.. actually pretty damn funny. I think I'd let that Dane dude into my circle, seems like a good dude. But on that tv you can also track the progress of the flight as your little plane travels towards the destination. I'm a bit antsy about making my flight (I have a friend picking me up and would really prefer not to be late and screw anything up for them). I look at the tracker and notice our plane has done a circle just outside Atl... sweet! I now Know I'll miss the flight. I learn later it was an "air traffic issue"... Atl airport is a busy one.

As expected, I miss my connection in Atlanta. Whatever... next flight is in a few hours... and Delta WILL make this up to me. We all (about ten have missed the connection to Honolulu) go to customer service. A crazy lady, a new one, completely snaps and becomes our "leader", speaking for all of us... the other jackasses are standing there nodding and giving her tacit power to make a deal for us. I couldn't stomach it any longer... so, I cut out of line, walked to the counter and grabbed a dude and said "Dude... give me 10,000 miles on my account and a voucher for some free grub"... he squared me away swiftly. Crazy lady was glaring at me as if I was burning the flag of her newly formed country of "Missedflightia" right in front of her. She continued her verbal assault of the agent as if he personally made us miss the flight. Now, I'm all about verbally expressing my disappointment when confronted with incompetence, but this cat had no idea what went wrong and he wasn't flying our plane... so he didn't deserve her crap. But she'll get hers one day for treating him like that... Karma's a bitch. Anyway, I got 5,000 miles (didn't get the 10k) and my voucher for $7.50... who the hell came up with that number? Why not $10... I walk away from the crowd to find some damn food and call the squad to let them know what was going on.

About 30 mins later I'm at my gate eating and watching people and I see the Nation of Missedflightia (all 9 of them) marching towards me with crazy lady on point. They're on my flights the rest of the way... guess they lost the battle.

So... instead of Atl to Honolulu direct... I'm now going Atl to Memphis to LA to Honolulu. We didn't crash and I ended up making it to the Island about 7 hours later than originally scheduled. Whatever... I get off the bird... knowing my friends will be greeting me (as well as the guy I replaced at work). I come down the stairs and I hear a loud "Welcome to fantasy island"... It's my good friend Bryan. In his typical jovial style Bryan's got a big smile and a Lei. Bryan's one of those dude's who's never in a bad mood. Just a great person... My bags made it ahead of me. But they made it. My life in three bags. Sad really...

A little background -- Bryan and Stacy lived next door while we lived in Washington... they have two incredible kids... Their youngest (a boy) and my oldest were great buddies for those years... had sleepovers all the time. And our families had some crazy good times playing poker, watching sports, you name it...

We get to my friend's house... Their kids are in bed but Stacy's up and we all chat for a bit. Tell some stories (can't share most) like the one where Bryan and I drank a case of beer while we built our kids these massive all-wood swing sets. We're talking a fairly complex thing where measurements and power tools are highly necessary. yeah, and we were drinking. The things went together but, man, it wasn't pretty. The main beam for the sets, which held everything together... had about ten holes drilled thru it because we kept measuring wrong, looked like swiss cheese... you had to see it. But no one ever got hurt on them so don't judge! Or the time we were installing lights in their basemenmt, again a case of beer involved... we didn't "need" turn turn the power off, Bryan asks " is that wire "hot" (meaning powered", so I grab it and get absolutely electricuted! He outranks me... I had to listen.

So here I am in Hawaii...

Next day is all about getting checked in... those in the military get it, for the rest of you... it's basically a lot of running around and doing paperwork for pay, security clearances, blah blah blah. I work on top of one of the mountain/hills. From the window at my desk I have a view of Pearl Harbor, it's beautiful. Stacy lets me borrow her car for all this running around. Need to start looking for wheels of my own. I've had it in my head since I got the assignment that I'm getting a Jeep... sold my car and carried a large stack of cash over the pond for my new Jeep. I'm a craigslist-aholic... on there five-ten times a day. Finally after two days... I find her. She's beautiful. A 1983 CJ7. It's orange but it works on her (Bryan calls it competition orange). Bryan and Stacy take me to look at it and I fell in love instantly... I had to have it. Dude says he has someone else coming later to look at it so I tell him I'm buying it. I sneak off quickly to call Care though... I ain't gonna lie - I had to get her buy-in. She said whatever I want... She could tell I was head-over-heels and it was useless to resist. And much to my excitement he hands me the keys and says take it... he trusts me.. we'll exchange money later! The planets were aligned, everything was going so right.

All is well, I'm cruising in my Jeep over the weekend and take the money to the guys wife on Monday... it's mine now. I own her! So I'm doing the work thing Monday and Tuesday... THEN WEDNESDAY COMES.... and stuff gets weird.

I'm in the shower on Weds morning just chilling... doin what I do. Something on my thumb catches my eye. Looks like a in-grown hair, it's a bump with a puss thing... so I pop the damn thing. Some puss comes out, I wash it off... and go about the day. It's bugging me and itching a little that day and night. I wake up Thursday and it's swollen and starting to look ugly. Stacy says go to the doctor, Care says go to the doctor, a chick a work says got to the doctor... But I'm not rolling into the doc foor a bug bite! So I don't... Friday morning I call and make an appt. It looks nasty! The doc walks in and as he's washing his hands and making small talk, he looks at my hand and says, "that's a very serious Staph infection! It's MRSA"... he's all sorts of upset, starts playing with it (IT HURTS so bad I have tears rollin)... he needs to take a culture so he has to squeeze some stuff out of it but "it" doesn't want to be squeezed. I wanted to curl up in a ball and cry. Don't remember pain that bad EVER.. He heard some of my more colorful language and I questioned his credentials (I do that when I'm mad). He gives mke three antibiotics and sends me on my way but demands I return on Monday to follow up. I did some things I shouldn't have over the weekend... but took my meds as directed.

Monday morning I see the doc again. He walks in.. says "How is it"... I show him.. he says "you need to go to the hospital and see a surgeon"... WHAT?! Dude... seriously? Nice. He tells me to call a number in 15 mins, he needs to call first to ensure they get me in immediately. Within 10 mins my office already had my appt and doc... Stacy takes me to the hospital (who knows what was going to happen next).. Good thing she came because I had no idea what meds I was on, she remembered. I had some great dudes taking care of me... funny story. The first guy that brought me back gets me in to this "community" room and says, "ok, what are you here for".. I say I have a Staph infection that they're cutting out of me... He looks at me like I had antlers growning out of my head and say "ok... you need a private room, follow me"... he was great though... actually had a personality. Doc comes in, pokes and prods it, brings in 2 other docs and they all gameplan the proceedure. Then the tech who assits (has tatoos all over his arms) great guy also but looked a little "off"... gets all the gear for the surgery together. One of the itmes is this horrible looking scrub thing with huge teeth. He takes me to the sink to clean me and asks if I want to scrub myself or have him do it... I told him to do it. He says "right answer.. and wrong answer"... I'm sweating bullets now... this thing HURTS and now creazy tattoo guy is going to scrub the shit out of it? I ask about the teeth... he laughs and says "I'm not that morbid, we'll use the other side"... relief, the other side is a soft sponge. Next up... numbing the thumb... 5 injections into my hand... I cussed a lot and loudly... it flippin hurt! The doc was a little tripped out... but I wasn't enjoying this... but, it worked... I was numb... but not completely. I watch as he begins to cut, then turn away, I look back... it's wide open and he's squeezing... it hurts I tell him.. he tells me it's my hand, it won't get completely numb... too many nerves... he squeezes more then says.. "ah, there we go.." I look again as puss and blood and fluid pours out of me... NASTY! He starts pulling of my dead skin (yeah, the staph started killing my skin).. I can't look anymore... the entire time this is happening, hospital workers are walking by rubber-necking to see "the guy with a huge/nasty staph infection"... Stacy starts to invite them in, and they gladly do! I'm a freakin zoo animal now... but I'm happy cause it's almost over. Doc jams some packing into the wound and wraps my hand in a make-shift cast-thing. All in all a good experience with the people there...

So there it is... my first 2 weeks in Hawaii... Not too bad. I still have my thumb and I'm not dead.