It was 6:30pm and I was frantically marching up the long, steep hill from work to get to my cell phone (which I have to leave in my car) so that I can contact the outside world and tell Alex I'm just leaving work now. We only have one housekey (long story) so I'm afraid he'll be locked out, he usually gets home at 6pm. I usually leave work at 4pm so this was a crazy long day for me. Unfortunately he doesn't pick up his cell phone so I try him at work and for some reason he answers. We are both hardly at work this late, especially without notice, especially since I start at a ridiculous early time (or at least I am supposed to).
After swapping stories on both of our absolutely terrible long, exhausting and awful days, I make the call that we need a mini- vacation, and we need one immediately. And so, off to Waikiki we went for dinner and drinks. It was just like our mini-honeymoon all over again (not really). Someone even asked if we were on our honeymoon and I of course said yes (which wasn't drowned out by Alex's no). We just went to Cheesecake Factory, nothing fancy- but getting served up mojitos and pina coladas and rubbing elbows with the carefree tourists felt so. freaking good. Like maybe we were one of these carefree tourists and maybe the work day never really even happened. Maybe it was all just a horrid bad dream, that's all. That's what the pineapple mojito coo'd at me at least...
We SO needed tonight. I had just finished having a heart to heart with someone I look up to at work and it opened my eyes and inspired/scared me into maybe taking some serious action. Sometimes I/we feel trapped, like-- with the limited industries out here- the job options aren't as great as wide as they are on the mainland, and what are we doing?! Something has to make working out here worth it. We needed a night like tonight to remind us that even after the worst day, we're still vacationing in Hawaii when we aren't working. And we damn well better live it up and appreciate it.
And you know, that rings true wherever you live. Can't waste the workday by taking life outside of it for granted.
