Time

I went home a few weeks ago to see my brother, Nate, and his new bride, Jodi, get married. I had such a great time! The wedding was beautiful, and it was so nice to see so much of my family again. It seems like I waited my whole life to graduate and get out of Lincoln, only to wish I was still living there. I am so glad that I have been able to visit so many places, and I wouldn't change it if I could, but there's just something about home that draws me back. :)

Life here in Hawaii is still going on as usual. I wish it wasn't so hot, though. I work such an odd schedule, and it's hard to find the right time to go for a run. I have to be at work by 3:00 am, and I get home around noon, but at that time of day it's too hot to do anything! I either have to get up at 1:00 am and go running before work (yeah, right!), or take a 4-hour nap after work, wake up to do my regular stuff, go running when the sun sets, and then go back to sleep for another 4 hours before morning. It's really inconvenient, and it will be even more so when Andrew gets back. With a schedule like this, who knows if we'll even see each other when he's actually here! Aah, one day I'll look back on these times and see them as the best days of my life ... I'll figure it out, why worry now? :)

Photo taken in Lincoln, NE and is Copyright Nicole Young, 2005.

Lazy

I think that my "new" job is finally getting to me. It comes and goes ... some days it's good, but some days I just want to pull my hair out! I think part of my stress is because I have only seen my husband one whole week in the last three months. Comes with the territory, I guess. I've been doing rather well, considering the amount of time he's been gone. Ah well, we've got a vacation planned in late September that we both have to look forward to ... can't wait!

Right now I am sitting at my desk, trying not to notice the huge stack of groceries sitting on my counter, waiting desperately to be put away. My usual routine for putting away groceries is to set them all on the floor when I come home from the store, then let the cats jump around the plastic bags until I put away all the cold and frozen stuff. Next, I take out all the non-perishable items and set them on the counter, throw the plastic bags away so the cats don't suffocate themselves to death, and then I tend to more important tasks in my house ... such as, re-watching DS9 episodes on DVD, reading my new HP book, and sitting down to play my new favorite number-logic game I discovered in the newspaper - sudoku. (For those of you who can decipher my acronyms, you will realize how much of a geek I truly am ... but don't forget the fact that you actually know what I'm talking about!) I really wish Ace would come home soon ... DS9 just isn't the same without him! (Not to mention that he has two seasons of STV to catch up on when he gets home so we can finish off the series! Ah, yes, I am a geek.)

Photo taken in Lincoln, NE and is Copyright Nicole Young, 1997.

Home

I am back in Hawaii after my week-or-so in Nebraska. It was so refreshing, spending time with my family. My little nephew Christian was one delight of my trip! He is just so adorable ... this photo is of him at my parent's house in Lincoln. I also went to my Nate (my brother) and Jodi's wedding (they are Christian's parents) . It was all just such a blast! Seeing them with their baby boy has made me re-think our plans for when Andrew and I have kids. I'm not sure if I'm so keen on sending our kids to day-care right away ... well, we have plenty of time to think about that before we really need to worry :)

Photo taken in Lincoln, NE and is Copyright Nicole Young, 2005.

Favorite

This photograph was one of my first attempts at lightening-photography, and it turned out being my all-time favorite photo that I've taken so far. This storm came right after the photo I took of the cloud in my previous post. I took the photo from my back porch in Lincoln, but if I were to take the same photo today, it would look completely different. They've built so many buildings back there, in what used to be only milo fields. There is a huge mall, some office buildings, restaurants ... you name it and they've probably put it in my parent's backyard. It's not too bad having it there, since it's convenient shopping and all, but you can't see the starts at night anymore. I miss places like that. Hawaii is a small island, so I can't just drive for miles out into the country like I used to back home, so I won't be getting many lightening photos anytime in the near future ... but plenty of shots of Hawaiian paradise, instead :)

Photo taken in Lincoln, NE and is Copyright Nicole Young, 1997.

Photography

One of my favorite past-times, if you can't already tell or don't already know, is photography. I was a huge shutterbug when I was a teenager ... and I've been trying to re-kindle that flame lately. Back then, almost all you could work with was film, which I still love, but the world of digital photography has made so many things possible! I'm in the process now of trying to digi-tize all of my old negatives, but since I have hundreds of rolls worth of negative, it will be a slow process ... mostly because of the cost for that many negatives. Looking back on all of my old photos really brings back good memories, and some of those is just remembering how much I enjoyed my hobby. (I took this photo 8 years ago; it was a huge cloud right before a beautiful lightening storm ... I'll post the photo from the storm later on.)

Not too much is going on for me, right now. It's just me and my cats at home by myself right now until Ace gets back ... I do get to leave in four days for home, though :) It will be a very nice break for me, to get away from this monotony! My schedule has been changing over the last few months, but it's finally settled on a fixed time. I do shift-work, from 0330-1130. It's not too bad, cause I don't mind getting up in the morning ... it's just coming home and trying to stay awake until my normal bedtime that's tough. I'm really not sure why I can't do it. Maybe cause I don't have anyone (but my cats) to keep me company at home. Ah, well ... only a little longer and I will have my husband back!

Photo taken in Lincoln, NE and is Copyright Nicole Young, 1997.

Papaya Tree

One thing that's great about Hawaii is that a lot of people have fruit trees in their backyards. Well, I wasn't one of these lucky people, so I decided to do something about it. Meet my beautiful, tiny (but growing) baby papaya tree. I got it about a month ago, and it's actually growing! I took these photos a few weeks apart and you can actually see that there are more leaves on the bottom pic. I definitely do not have a natural green thumb, since I've probably killed more plants than ... wait a minute, I think I usually kill all of them ;) But I'm going to change from my evil plant-killing ways and nurture my baby tree to be full-grown and fruit-bearing. Wish me luck!

(Only six more days until I get to go home and see my family ... yay! Hmmm ... I guess I'll need a papaya tree babysitter ...)

Fireworks

The 4th of July has finally come, and I was, once again, out there with my Nikon, shooting away. The photos turned out okay, not my best, but this was my first attempt at fireworks in Hawaii. I've had a great weekend so far ... I've spent a lot of time with friends, and I also did some much-needed shopping today. (Now all I have left to do is some very-much-needed house-cleaning!)

Only eight more days until I go home! I really miss the little things about Lincoln ... the fireflies, thunderstorms in the middle of the night ... I always used to say I would never settle down in my home town, but after being so many other places, it doesn't sound so bad after all ;) The only problem would be convincing Andrew ...

Photo taken in Oahu, Hawaii and is copyright Nicole Young, 2005.