This was not quite what I had planned.
Yesterday I figured I would work in the office till about 4, tying up loose ends in advance of leaving, drive south to pick up
1ticor, who's
house/pet sitting communing with nature in the redwoods at our place until our return, and be home at 7:30, 8pm at the latest. Plenty of time to pack & get a decent nights sleep.
Yeah. Right.
I didn't leave the office until 7:30.
My transcriptionist is horrendously behind. Like almost 2 weeks. So yesterday was spent making certain that charts of patients who're scheduled to see my PA next week had the appropriate documentation of their last visits. It's one thing if I'm seeing someone back for follow-up, but no notes when it's someone else seeing the patient isn't acceptable. At 3 pm the transcrptionist dropped by the office, and was alarmed to find me
frothing at the mouth dictating directly to my computer via Dragon.
"You're leaving tomorrow? I thought you were leaving Monday!" It took all that I had not to strangle my transcriptionist, but then I have a peace testimony to uphold. The message got across. Two hours later there were 3 days of transcribed notes in my email. That meant I had to proof and then print and sign them, but it was certainly faster than doing them myself from scratch.
It's an hour drive to where Ticor lives, worse if there's traffic or road contruction, and of course last night there was both. I did stop at Subway to get sandwiches for the three of us for supper (hey, as far a fast food goes Subway is decent stuff, and the way I order, I get two meals from one sub. No mayo, whole grain roll and triple the veggies. Think salad on a bun.)
We left Fairfax at 9, and after stopping for pet food, got home at 10:30. At 11 pm I started packing. At 3, I finally got into bed. We were up at 7.
Why 3am? Oh, things I wanted to take needed laudering, couldn't find my snorkle and fins, or for that matter my underwater camera, beach jams needed mending, stuff like that. And no, I was not going to pick up stuff here. My feet are size 14. Finding fins to fit my feet is not something I want to do again.
The trip to the airport was fairly uneventful, as was the flight over. This was a first for me. The plane actually lifted off 15 minutes ahead of schedule. Everyone got there early. We were on the ground in Maiu 20 minute ahead.
There has been a draught here on the islands for the past year. We arrived to a light, but very welcome rain. With only carry ons with us, we were at the car rental quickly.
The woman behind the counter was very pleasant, bordering saccharine though as she went through the company script. Did we want to upgrade to a convertable? No. A hummer, so we could see the island in style? No. (for crissakes woman, I reserved a Ford Focus!) Do we want their insurance? No. (I already have coverage onboth my own car insuance as well as from my credit card.) Are you sure you don't want the insurance? Yes, I'm sure. Finally, she asked if there was anything else and I asked if there was a fee for having LJ as a second driver. There had been the last time we were here,
"Not if you're domestic partners." she smiled.
"Actually, we're married, not that it's recognized here," I countered.
"Well we recognize it. That's our company's policy."
Budget just got my business for the future.
We drove south from Kahului to Kehei, stopped at the Safeway, finished the last halves of our subs from last night while sitting in the covered outdoor seating near the mall food court. Then it was into the market to get food for our stay (b'fasts at the very least) plus some bottle water, and then on to the condo.
A bit over two years ago, when we were talking about getting married, if the Calif. Supreme Court didn't stay their initial ruling (this was the ruling that spawned Prop 8), Ben handed us the keys to his condo in Kehei. "You need a vacation. Hell, you need a honeymoon!" This time I asked if we could use it again and here we are.
We got here at 4 local time, which was 7 by my internal clock. We unpacked, stocked the fridge and crashed. I had planned to drive down to the beach to watch the sunset, but then I hadn't planned on 4 hours of sleep last night. I was out cold for 7 1/2 hours and then *bing* awake. Wide awake. And hungry.
And now, a banana, 1/2 a basket of grape tomatoes and one livejournal entry later, I think I'm ready to go back to bed.