Entries this day: Austin_to_San_Francisco Reenie Sleep bus_cutie history_of_hawaii hostels

Austin to San Francisco

8:39am CST Saturday 8 February 2003

We're in Austin airport now. I got a banana through security without it being checked. That and my hat. This is the new TSA (Transportation Security Administration), and they didn't seem to have their shit together, lined up ducks, nor a smooth operation.

I had a banana (a real banana, not a gun banana (well, actually it's a telephone banana)) wrapped in my gilligan hat in the handwarmer of my hoodie. I walked through the gate and got beeped (presumably from the change in my pocket). The beep now means that I have to get checked manually, not that I just have to take out more stuff and go through the gate again. They had me sit over to the side and gave me my plastic 'bucket' of stuff which had already gone through the X-rayer. After I got beeped, I put my hat and banana into the bucket.

When the guy checked me, the bucket was not checked again. A possible solution is to not give the passenger access to the bucket until they (and all their hats and bananas) have been checked. I wondered about saying some polite variation of "haha! I got a banana through without it being checked, you not-so-secure TSA suckers!!!" and chose not to. I might write them, but I know I won't. Maybe they search all internet sites for language about TSA.

Interesting place for the government to check is all of Google's files. It's all public information; I wonder what it would take to scan it all for certain language.

HOLY SHIT! I HAVE WIRELESS ACCESS IN THE AIRPORT!!!!!

Oh, nevermind; it's not free.

9:27am

Hahah the pilot of the plane facing us in the window opened the windshield and was adjusting or cleaning something on another window. Janette noticed him and I jumped up, "get back into the plane, sir; please take your seat!"

9:29am

sigh. nevermind.

Okay. kinda watching the news, but mostly dancing around not like a Rob's crazy dance, but a little knee wigglin' shoulder groovin' with some beat box on top. ANYWAY, the news was featuring a woman who raises cacti (shit is it cactii or cacti?) in the area. And spent 30 seconds showing/listening to her tale of how she learned to use a paintbrush to remove leaves from inside the cactus so she wouldn't get stuck with cactus needles.

I'm all, "monkeys invented tools like that. ya gotta feature this on the news?"

Then I'm all, "maybe this is better than a news story of how a guy killed someones mom, dad, seven brothers and seven sisters."

1:29pm CST Saturday 8 February 2003

On the descent now to San Diego. Clouds and then sleeping kept me from seeing out the window until we got to some pretty fly mountain ranges. I always enjoy watching from flying. Coolest was a jet going under us opposite direction FAST.

Saddest was just the scars of highways across the natural beauty of mountain and desert terrain.

11:46am PST Saturday 8 February 2003

Switched to PST. We're chillin' on the plane and will switch to the other side so my neck can get untwisted for the flight to Oakland.

12:51pm PST Saturday 8 February 2003

Above middle California now. Flying over mountains. I enjoy wondering about the ocean though. I can see where the water is apparently flat with no or very few (or very little) waves. Sometimes this seems to be the result of a boat going by, leaving a flat area of water. But sometimes the areas are huge and or really wiggly. Is that from a really big boat having passed by some time ago (no boat in sight)? Or does the wind just stop there or run one way on one side of the flat and the other way on the other side of the flat part?

Oooooh special thanks to the steward who gave me a full can of OJ instead of a dinky cup with OJ but mostly ice.

2:50pm PST Saturday 8 February 2003

Oops. Someone left Janette's suitcase on the bus. He just split back to the airport while we were trying to figure out how to get tickets to take BART to Colma station to take another bus to get to SFO. Janette is inquiring about the suitcase with the next next driver. Twenty minutes until suitcase comes back. Nice.

4:34pm PST Saturday 8 February 2003

San Francisco airport now. We'll be meeting Janette's friend Reene (sp) soon. She's checked in, but we haven't found her yet. Our flight leaves at 6pm.

Reenie

4:54pm PST Saturday 8 February 2003

Reenie's actual name is Maureen. But she's Reenie from now on in here. She goes by Reen in the real world, but Janette calls her Reenie.

Reenie wasn't allowed to bring scissors through the checkpoint, so she mailed them back to herself at her house. "But what if I need to trim my bangs??? Is that such a terrible thing? I'm no terrorist; I just don't want to be a fashion disaster on Hawaii, of course!" I made that last sentence up, but she was saying some funny shit like that.

Sleep

7:09pm AKST Saturday 8 February 2003

I'm going to sleep in a bit. Not yet, but soon.

8:59pm HST Saturday 8 February 2003

Will be arriving in Honolulu soon!!

bus cutie

9:38pm HST Saturday 8 February 2003

Traded smiles with a cutie who apparently has a boyfriend so I didn't talk to her. When I saw her later getting on the bus she and he seem to have plenty of baggage. As we were waiting at the carousel for Janette and Reenie's relatively small bags, tons of huge bags were pouring onto the conveyor and I'm just thinking "fuckin' americans..." with all their belongings and stuff stuff stuff.

The cutie and her boyfriend are on the bus one seat up from us across the aisle. fuckin' stalker.

- - - -

Oh, on the way out of the airport we saw a box labeled AMNESTY BOX, and Janette was all, "that's the last chance to drop off your monkey."

Hahah 'Okay, Bobo, you stay here while I go run around the island!'

history of hawaii

9:59pm HST Saturday 8 February 2003

THE FUCKKING PERL HARBOUR MEMORIAL IS NOT THE HISTORY OF HAWAII!!

Jesus the fucking video that they're showing us on the bust (and Ihave engouh problems with a vidoe on the bus at all I mean shit we have *REALITY* outside the bus to watch and they are advertising all this stuff to see but what, oh pray tell what gets fully TWO MINUTES of airplay on this video? Not about the King Hakeakeala (or whatever his name is that I don't know because it was only said once and I don't know the real history of Hawaii) but the damn Perl Harbour monument with footage of the bombing and then two fuckin old guys all "yeahp, that was a real good tour (of the memorial) if ya wanna know about the history of Hawaii."

WHAT? WHAT? Good god man! Get the fuck over it! The only reason the harbour was bombed is cause we were taking over the island, destroying its culture, starting with kidnapping the queen of the island so that Mr Dole could have cheaper access to pineapples and shit. Argh oh jeez. Okay . Okay. Okay. I'm okay. ish.

hostels

11:17pm HST Saturday 8 February 2003

The hostel where Janette intended to make a reservation didn't have a room reserved for her, so we walked toward the beach, asked an old man with a funny cackling laugh where moe hostels were located. He directed us to a police substation (HPD is Honolulu Police Department, not Houston Police Department) where the cat called hostels for us and found one available. We were his last customers before he shut down the shop. Perfect timing.

7:29am HST Sunday 9 February 2003

Last night when Janette and I went walking along Waikiki beach, heading away from all the bustle toward what turned out to be a war memorial with a no longer used salt water swimming pool (the largest of its kind), I carried my computer and all my stuff except my hoodie and shoes with me in my back pack. Specifically my computer I wanted to keep with me and not leave at the hostel, for I didn't trust my shit to remain safe.

This after my yammer complaining about people having too much stuff. Is it okay for me to covet just my little bit of stuff? To hold dear one particular item, which really I'm not attached to the computer; it's these journal entries I don't want to lose. And to a lesser degree my emails that I don't want to lose. Everything else I can replace. Even my pile of MP3s doesn't crush my heart to imagine losing them. Half of them are copied from online

I intend/hope (not yet trust) that I'll feel more safe at the next hostel on a less populated island.

I'm gonna try to upload these entries here in the internet cafe of this hostel.

- - - -

I entered some bills into WG and then paid one of the dollars for 5 minutes of internet access. It's a dollar per 10 minutes. I'll try to negotiate.. oh wait, well there's a new person at the desk and they are counting through till now to switch people at the desk.