Well it was bound to happen sooner or later. Something went WRONG ! With how great everything has been since I went to Paris, I thought I was really riding the wave.

So here’s what happened. I had planned to leave today to go back to Hamburg for about 10 days. This past week I had been feverishly preparing to take a lot of copied files with me, and making a schedule of what I would work on there. Soenke had planned a day trip to Paris on the 25th to celebrate our 6 months together. I had a booked business class seat for today. It was all looking good!

Then I arrived at the airport. Although the booking situation had looked ok last time we checked, the lines were suspiciously long at check-in (even the business class line). Even so, I was checked in on the Munich flight with a cushy seat assignment in Row 1, & the girl commented that my priority status was pretty good (although full-paying customers still take priority over me). I had arrived 3 hours before the flight, so there was time to kill. I eventually went to the gate (of course the farthest gate away at LAX) and went up to speak with the gate agent just to re-confirm my status on the flight. I was totally SHOCKED when he told me that my luggage was being offloaded and I had been bumped from the flight !!!! WHAT??!!!

This had never happened to me before. As a consolation, the flight manager told me she would list me as standby on the last flight of the day to Frankfurt (highly overbooked as well). Then she sent me off to the business class lounge to think about all this.

A few hours later I trudged back to the same gate to wait for my chances on the Frankfurt flight. After begging, pleading, & even agreeing to sit in a jump seat (kind of like sitting on a child’s folding chair), I was turned down, along with about 10 other people. Then, another hike all the way back past security to the ticket counter, to recollect my luggage and assess my options.

With no letup on flight booking status the next few days, I was realizing that I would not be going to Germany. Thus, I would not be seeing Soenke, and would not be celebrating on Wednesday in Paris. WHAT WHAT WHAT?!?! How do I curse in German?! To top all this off, I have had this stomach bug the past few days & thus cannot eat anything without feeling like throwing up. So with no food all day, my energy level (and tolerance level) was at about zero.

My first move was to do what any good girlfriend would do: call & wake up her boyfriend at 3am in Europe !! He negotiated me a reimbursement from Lufthansa for most of the $125 cab fare home. In the taxi, I did the next important thing: I cried like a girl! Then I pulled myself together & decided to find 10 good things about what happened today. I figure I could make myself miserable or I could see the bright side, so here goes my list of upsides for today:

1. I like to “people watch” in airports, especially in the international terminal where there are happy little traveling families from all over the world. I had LOTS of time to do that today.
2. I like to watch the big 747s cruise by the end of the LAX international terminal. I got many chances to do that too.
3. I got to hang out in the Lufthansa business class lounge where it was about 20 degrees cooler than the rest of the airport (it was VERY hot today!!)
4. My friend Danae kindly took me to the airport in the morning, so I didn’t have to pay for the ride up, plus we had a lot of fun chatting !
5. The weather here is HOT and beautiful, so I can spend the ENTIRE day out at the pool tomorrow !!! (YEAH !)
6. I will get a refund for 500 euro (about $615) since I was bumped & there is no hope of me getting on other flights the next 2 days straight as they are wildly overbooked too.
7. I don’t have to eat German food all week ! (mmm, my apologies to my German readers, but, I haven’t quite warmed up to most German food yet.)
8. I had an opportunity to catch up on a lot of tax technical reading (yippee?) .
9. I don’t have to deal with jet lag !
10. Soenke said he might come out & see me here instead !

And the icing on the cake:
I get to relax & watch History Channel for the rest of the evening!

So see, what I learned today is that every cloud really does have a silver lining. I just needed to be flexible & open-minded.

Better luck next time !

Aloha !

Veni, vidi, velaxi ! (we came, we saw, we RELAXED!). With the laid back attitude of the islands, who can do much else? But, there are some rules on the islands. They require you to remove your watch, tie, & socks upon landing (although, lord help you men if you even THOUGHT to wear a tie). Replace with Hawaiian shirt & flip flops. Then, the required ritual is to toss your cellphone in the ocean. From there, things just feel better.

We stayed on the southernmost, largest island (the “Big Island”) in the chain of islands comprising Hawaii. It boasts the world’s most active volcano, which has been erupting continuously since 1983. With that kind of seismic activity, you tend to keep your running shoes on at all times.

Our fabulous lodging was The Sheraton at Keauhou Bay (I’m sure “Keauhou” means “Paradise With Pineapple Daquiris Included” in Hawaiian). The hotel, recently remodeled & reopened, included a beautiful fantasy pool with palm trees and grottoes and rock channels and a WATER SLIDE. I, of course, thought “hmm, perhaps I should test the waterslide to determine its…er… ’safety’.. for children…”.. and so we tested its safety about 72 times, including its resilience to loud yelling & hollering on the way down. To ensure a comprehensive safety analysis, I asked the lifeguard at the top of the slide under what conditions could you get going SO FAST on this thing that you get TOTALLY AIRBORNE ?!?!?. I noticed about 20 other adults testing its safety over the course of the week (including the hollering test) & possibly not even one child.

Another particularly enjoyable experience was snorkeling in one of the bays with colorful tropical fish & even some sea turtles. We have decided that the sea turtle is our Official Mascot. It just floats along with the current in a state of extreme chillin’, not stressing about a thing, & lets everything bounce off its shell. Many lessons to be learned from the sea turtle. In between snorkeling gigs, we laid on the sand under the palm trees (of course after doing a quick visual coconut check to avoid possible concussions).

We also made a few driving expeditions while on the island. The first was a drive down to ‘South Point’, the southernmost tip of the island, which is also the southernmost point in the USA and certainly the edge of the universe (it felt like it). It is normally VERY windswept, hence old gigantic wind turbines with propellers ripped off, and many headless palm trees. The road down is pretty bumpy & narrow, and we had a Chrysler something-or-other rental car. At the time, I didn’t notice the big red letters on the rental car map that said “DON’T DRIVE ON SOUTHPOINT ROAD IN RENTAL CARS”. Whatever. When the lower side panel of our car accidentally, er, uh, ‘fell off’ during our expedition, we just threw it in the trunk & moved on. The point itself was beautiful, exotic, remote & felt like the edge of eternity. We did some hiking and photo shooting, and just watched the waves crash for what felt like hours. I fully expected some UFOs to come visit us there, but we must have missed them by a few minutes. Damn.

Our second expedition was an amazing night tour to THE VOLCANO… The Cauldron of Creation… now THAT was an experience. The energy there was so intense that I thought my head would blow off my shoulders. AWESOME. It was pitch dark by the time we got there (most folks were on the way out of the park). We had flashlights & water, & hiked over a dried lava flow that had covered the road back in 2003. You could see a flow of red lava hot spots down the side of the mountain, hear the waves crashing somewhere off in the distance, & see a million stars all at the same time. Totally mystical & peaceful. We sat there in the darkness & contemplated nature’s act of creation (but again, with running shoes on…). The moments there were very profound.

To summarize the trip: MONUMENTALLY RELAXING AND REINVIGORATING. By the end of the week, the need for conversation was almost gone. A raised right eyebrow meant ‘hey do you want to go up the waterslide again?!?’, while a twitch of the finger meant ‘it’s coconut-umbrella-drink time’. Soenke had given up shaving, & I was looking at my makeup bag wondering what all that weird stuff was for.

Nothing like a week in Paradise to put your head back on straight.

Mahalo!

Photos:

Soenke reluctantly buys proper West Coast swim trunks (must have flowers!):

Getting lei’d at the airport! :

A small part of the fabulous hotel pool:

At the beautiful & peaceful “Place of Refuge” :

Keauhou Bay, next to our hotel:

Results of my offroading efforts in the Chrysler rental car:

Our replacement jeep (much more effective!):

Hanging out at the volcano:

Feeling relaxed & very happy!:

Hawaiian danger sign (?!) :