Billy Joel Before Christmas!

The Maestro's Seat...

What would your fiancé buy for you for Christmas if she loved you? I would put money on a pair of tickets to see Billy Joel from 11 rows off the floor. It was absolutely amazing. The seats were unbelievable, and the show was crazy good.

Saturday, Amy and I went into town at around 5 and got to The Sports Authority to park for the night. Being the every-worrying little feller I am, we bought a Nalgene® for me for a small sum, just so we could legitimately claim to be patrons and hence leave our car for a bit. We walked up to the Neal Blaisdell Arena and took out some money from the bank. After that, came a short wait in line, followed by a short wait in the T-shirt line where the rest of our money went and then into the arena where we sat in our incredibly close seats.

Billy Joel came out pounding on the piano and went right into Angry Young Man and then My Life.

‘I just wanted to thank everyone for coming out tonight. I especially want to thank those of you in the shitty seats. I know it was the classic wondering if you should come at all. ‘Should we go, should we not, I don’t really like him that much….but what else is there to do tonight.’ Well thanks for coming out and deciding to come…you wouldn’t believe my car insurance.” And then he went right into Everybody Loves You Now, evidently an ode to his first ex-wife.

Everybody Loves you Now.

Song after song, we just realized how much we loved this man! He played song after song that we just kept saying, “OH I LOVE THIS SONG!” He played Big Shot, where he wore a towel on his head to simulate his long hair lost. (Aside: as he began the show, he said to the people in the cheap seats, “for those of you who can’t see me, I’m 6’6”, slim and well-built, with long blonde hair and…that’s all you need to know.”) He kept on going with Keeping the Faith, Innocent Man and We Didn’t Start the Fire. It was an amazing fast paced few songs. Extremes was around there too and it was absolutely crazy. When he was done singing the song, the piano solo went all nuts! He kicked over his stool, spun around, played with his butt, then his foot, then his fingers again! SO impressive.

Billy Joel and his "Long Hair" for Big Shot.



After a few other songs, Billy's roady did a damn good impression of AC/DC as the band played Highway to Hell and Billy Joined in on Guitar and continued on with We Didn't Start the Fire.

We Didn't Start the Fire.

Innocent Man was really funny...while the woodwinds played, he spent his time spinning his mic...throwing his mic and snapping into it too...

Billy Joel getting into a Snap during Innocent Man.

He spent a lot of the time telling stories and cracking jokes....he even let us pick which "mushy gushy" song he'd sing...Just the Way You Are...by the way.

The last song on the set was You May Be Right, and it was, again, stunning! At the end, Billy was gone, but every people in the audience brought out their cell phones and waved them in the air. They stormed back onstage and blew us away with the Only the Good Die Young. Amy was so psyched to hear that one. The very next encore song was Scenes From An Italian Restaurant and it was just like on a CD, only Billy Joel was right there! SINGING IT!!



Something you may not know about Billy Joel, since I didn't, was that he is hilarious. When it was just about time to end, he was starting to walk off the stage for the second time and his band had left already. He started to walk toward the edge and people screamed louder so he stepped to the piano and the crowd went crazier...so he stepped away again and got booed...then he started to go back and forth making the audience boo and cheer and boo and cheer and boo and cheer again...







How do you think Billy Joel would end a concert? With Piano Man, of course! He was rocking his part and then the chorus was left to the crowd. We sang the chorus everytime!! AAAAAAARRRGH! It was stellar! (I’m running out of adjectives)

It was really cool, we started out behind him, but the piano spun just so, as Billy put it, “everyone gets the shitty seats eventually.”

I don’t think I could have asked for a better Christmas present!!!

Until I get home….I’ll see you soon!....

A Minute of Quiet Reflection...

Have you ever wondered why we move away? I mean, let’s consider that fact that everyone I know has moved away at one point or another. School, work, new opportunities, even for love. It’s an interesting thought. We all move away, but I think regardless of when or why you move, secretly or not-so-secretly, you’re drawn back home.

You are drawn back to the promise of old friends and new times. Perhaps drawn by the hope for reliving and stealing one last glimpse into old times. Time goes on, no matter where you live. In fact, there is no point in trying to run from it, change it or wish it backward. All obvious, but to me sometime it needs to be said. Out of our past, we can create a future; a future based on prior knowledge or maybe even one that diverges from all things you know.

Here, with Amy and Megan, I have made a small family, Ohana. If one of us is in trouble, the others rally for support. Drives home are where we get most of this supporting done, but occasionally, it will be a personal thing that we can deal with at home or at the beach. My point, I suppose, is that Hawaii has felt comfortable over the past 5 months. Not just like home, where good feelings wait to grab hold and rock you into the peace of family and friends, but still like a homey place.

In my five months of school, I have seen fights, stealing, swearing and yelling everyday. I have kids who show up with more candy than clothes. I have seen students where the same shirt everyday and I’ve seen the same student marked Absent 58 out of the 70-something days. It is a very strange place to be where school is valued so little. I can’t imagine what I’d have turned out without my friends and family that pushed me so hard to achieve. These students do not have that.

We were pushed to move away and see new things, have adventures and send home pictures. Our kids are told, “I grew up in Wai’anae, your grampa grew up in Wai’anae, your mom grew up in Wai’anae, you grew up in Wai’anae and your kids will grow up in Wai’anae…” I have a student who saw a picture of the rainforest in Manoa Falls on my computer and didn’t believe that it was on this Island because he’s lived here for 12 years and has never been farther from Wai’anae than the stadium in Aiea (30 minutes away).

What a big and different world we live in when such a strangely vast difference can occur between people in the same room. I’ve gone farther from my home than most of my students could ever dream of simply because no one is pushing them to do all they can.

Thank you Mom, Dad, Billy, Meg, Sean, Amy Lee and all my friends…

Hawai'i vs. Oregon State

The University of Hawai'i took on the Oregon State University Beavers on December 2, 2006. Unfortunately, Heismann-hopeful, Colt Brennan could not seal the deal with another big win against a key big guy. He bounced in the go ahead pass five yards out of the end zone in the fourth quarter. Sadly, they lost by a field goal (and missed one earlier in the game.) It's odd how sometimes you just start rooting for a team because you are there. I had to root for them, they play hard, they are a well put together team and mostly home-grown, but ranked for the first time in seemingly forever.

Football is football, but nothing can stop the fun of a football game. Win or lose, the real fun is before the kickoff. Beginning at around 3:30 in the afternoon, the tailgating take 2 began for the Wai'anae teachers in Aiea! Ready to take on the joys of beer consummation, Catch Phrase and some random guys next door, we were undeterred by slight rains.

Not only were we undetered, but it seemed to spur us on. In fact, after the first round of tailgating, we decided that there had to be some way to get drunker faster...then Jaime recalled a well-known friend to the collegiate undergrad and super-drunk...the FUNNEL (aka beer bong). Now strangely enough, although I had never partaken in a "beer bong"...I was the one who knew the best strategies for air-release and beer guzzling. So I quickly became bong master and rained the liquid joy to the weekend Warriors.

This beer bong, for some reason lasted long enough for two pictures, although it was just over half a beer long. The guy next door, James I think, decided that this looked like a lot of fun. He was also making fun of the lack of beer in our funnel. We had cut it down so as to make it manageable without getting on the parking lot...after all, we aren't in college anymore and there is no need to dirty oneself for the drink.

Here is the last picture of all of us sober. The nice people who took this picture were also the nice people who decided to share their barbecue with us as they were taking it down. Evidently as payment for keeping their slightly annoying but very friendly underaged buddy busy and getting him drunker.... and possibly most of all getting him to drink the warmest and oldest bottle of beer they had....so they didn't have the guilt of the pour out for their gross Hawaiian Lager...ew...



To continue our story, though It did become quite a series of bong-shots/ Funnel-hits....Either way it sounds worse than it was, but Erika was next and she did well...as the man with the funnel, I was in charge of keeping the least amount of beer off the parking space as possible. I did alright...anyway...here's she...














Then Jaime went again...now here, you'll see that Jaime, clearly was the one who voted most strongly for the funnel production, as this is her third attempt, and by far the least messy, she was either getting the hang of it, or maybe recalling her glory days in the U (whichever U it was...)

So, it was around this time that James was getting impatient with the small beers, and so a challenge was issued....











Not to be bested, James showed us all with a mixture of Heineken, Bud Light, Corona and something else I didn't catch the name of, until there was just about 2 beers in the funnel....the most that can fit, mind you, was around two beers...But he downed it in two swigs....impressive really...just relaxed the throat...

(most of the power is derived from the lips...as they say)












Now, I'm not normally one to be pressured into something, but there was no way that 18 year old fat kid was going to say that I was being a rude funnel-master...or whatever...so I did my duty and killed my beer via funnel...and how intense do I look...GOD I'M AWESOME!!



(oh, and it was right after that, that I sent Chris a text simply stating "my first beer bong"...nuff said)









Now, I may have missed a few shots here or there, as I can't be in two places at once, most pictures are courtesy of Ms. Amy Lee...but this is a picture of a slightly drunker group...but there was still close to an hour to kickoff...













And this was Megan's second beer bong, letting you know just how much we were drinking...we had a lot of beers to drink, and most of them went by way of the funnel.

















Jill was not to be outdone mind....she too deserved some funnel-lovin, and so it was said, and so it shall have been, and thus it was...drink...


















Now take a look at us..some of us are standing upright, most of us had time to tell our limbs to make the SHAKA...my body was slow to respond to the order thus the appearance of me grabbing my crotch...or something...I almost have it...but not quite...maybe I suck a little...









ON the way to the game, a nice man who checked out every one of the ladies took this picture of us...it was alittle chilly I won't lie...but we were troopers and kept on keepin on...

This was on the way into the stadium behind us...




Many people go to watch football games...many people go to make silly hair with the leaves we were given as we walked into the game...Megan is the latter...

For most of the game, it was a Beavers game and the Warriors had to fight and did fight to stay in it...most importantly we had good seats!

Amy and I sat in the row in front, while everyone else sat behind us...sad and lonely we were, but the girl next to me was from Waianae, so we talked for a bit...it was fun...
I took this picture thinking maybe I could say "I took a cool picture of the next Heismann trophy winner calling a Timeout..." but alas he decided to start making bounce passes on his last chances...

And finally...the WARRIORS endzone...a tough loss, but a good night...I recommend it highly if you happen to be on Oahu during football season with 20 bucks in your pocket....


Well...that was it for that weekend...there's been some rough days in school, but until that ruptures to the surface....

NOVEMBER! In a Nutshell!!

Amy and I viewing the lighthouse from Diamond Head

I can’t even begin to explain everything that happened in the past few weeks since Rich and Alison left, so I’ll do my best to sum it up.

After they took their leave of us, the very next weekend, we were the lucky recipients of a rainy day with no power. Why? You wonder. Well, as most of you must know, there was a 6.8 magnitude earthquake that occurred just off the coast of the Big Island at 7:06am on October 15^th. It didn’t effect us too much shook the room for about 1 minute and then there was a smaller (6.0 magnitude) at around 7:14am, but after the first one, the electric company decided to turn off the generators…ALL OF THEM ON OAHU!! So the geniuses that they are, it took them until 8pm to get them back up and running. Apparently, to have to sets of functioning generators touch each other is so catastrophic that they didn’t want to chance it.

Anyway, that was a boring day. The girls planned and corrected by candle light and I read a lot of my book while watching patches of our skyline turn back on. The people downstairs were funny, they were drinking since 8am and kept going all night long…until they ran out…I've mentioned them before...they are the ones with the Dogs (one of whom has no right to be alive...observe)

So from there we just had to survive October. And did so without much to report, really. Amy and I did get to see H-3 for the first time, it is a gorgeous highway that leads into Kaneohe and goes through the mountains and then THROUGH a mountain. The view was absolutely breathe-taking coming out of the tunnel. It really is something to see, even if that was the only reason we went that far.

After that, we were into November, and November began with another trip to Germaine’s Luau. It was fun, but once you know what’s coming, the night seems to fly by. We also learned a little trick that if you buy a souvenir glass, they will fill that for your drink ticket. NICE! And then, once again, we were back to business as usual until November 9^th, when Amy’s mom and her boyfriend, Joe came to visit us.

We did a lot of the same things with them that we do all the time on the island. We took them in to hike Diamond Head and watch the sunrise from halfway up the crater. Then took them into Honolulu to take a look at Iolani Palace. Both were very cool adventures. The day of Diamond Head wasn’t over with just that; we also went to Koko Head, Koko Crater and then all the way to the blowhole and Hanauma Bay.

Iolani Palace and its front gate

Hanauma Bay was amazing! Amy and I and Joe and Amy’s Mom took turns using our snorkels and saw lots of cool fishes. It really was a ton of excitement for us. I guess it depends on what kind of fun you are into, but seeing all those animals and fighting the currents, was awesome.

Amy's mom, Joe, Amy and Me in front of Koko Head

Hanauma Bay Reefs and Mountains around it

We went to Sunset with Amy’s mom and Joe and finally saw some good surfing. I have pictures but it takes some zooming before you can see them good. The waves were incredible, at least 5 feet and constant. We got in and let the current bring us from the blanket to the lifeguard, then we would get out and walk back and get in again. We were swimming against the current as hard and fast as we could and as we looked to the shore, the tree that was across from us before was STILL across from us. It was really a strong current and Megan almost lost her bottoms trying to get out one time. All-in-all, a funny time with some cool sites (the surfing not Megan’s butt).

And once again, how do you end a visit in paradise? A trip to Paradise Cove for a Luau. It was a good one, too. The dancers weren’t as good as Germaine’s but the food was a bit better. I enjoyed Germaine’s more, but there was more to see at Paradise Cove. They showed more everyday life-type things there, but the drinks were more expensive and the people/ actors were less into it.

Amy’s mom took Joe and they headed home on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving. The visit was fun and we did a lot of fun things and saw some new and some old stuff. After the visit, we were left doing some work and then two days later was THANKSGIVING! That was a fun day as you can see. We began the day, Amy and I, eating breakfast with my Uncle Bill and Aunt Ginny, and then met up with friends in Nanakuli. Kevin, the one in the front right, cooked the turkey.

The girls are all our friends who teach in Waianae, and the other guys are friends of Kevin’s. We had a whole great dinner and then we all took some home for a couple of days leftovers. Good times with good friends.

Thanksgiving!

We did Black Friday and bought nothing for anyone but us. HAHA! We bought a few DVD’s, nothing big. And the next day, we decided to go to the UH game against Purdue. We had a LOT of fun. We tailgated for a couple hours, but it took us more time to get to the stadium in the traffic. We actually didn’t get into the game until the end of the second quarter. We had great seats in the nosebleeds, but the front row, so no one was in front of us. It was a lot of fun ( I keep saying that, but it is very true )

A nice Pic of us at the UH game against Purdue!

As for this past week, it has been getting kind of chilly. It’s somewhere around the 70’s in the morning, 60’s in the evening and never really warmer than 80 lately during the day. We have been bundling up, Amy more than the rest of us. My kids have been out of control, too, which makes me think it’s the weather…haha…or maybe just their upbringing. Who can tell?

Amy Bundled up this past week! IN HAWAI'I!!

Well, that’s pretty much it for the end of October through November. If you would like to know more, let me know. We ended this week with a UH football game, too and I will write about that in my next post. So, until I take another 5 minute break from my life…

Bonus Pic of Megan with her Aloha Bud Light beer labels