Wednesday, October 26, 2016

Time After Time

So...these are some highlights of what has happened since V-Day 2010...

  • 2011-Windward Skies 
  1. Moved home to Hawaii and lived in Kahuku with The Man's good friend and their family.
  2. Got a job at Bobby Benson Center-a residential facility for youths with co-occuring substance addiction and mental health issues. LOVED IT!
  3. The Kid got married. Existential Crisis: The Beginning.
  • 2012-Hail Kahuku Hail 

  1. Got a job at Kahuku High & Intermediate School- a day program for youths with co-occuring religious and cultural conflicts interspersed with addiction, mental health issues, tom foolery, hooliganism, horse play (from real horses I tell you!) self-created drama, and an award winning sports programs. HATED IT!
  2. Moved to Punaluu-a residential half way house that housed many many recovering addicts, RSOs, and weed smoking people (the good kind) who raised the most polite kids I've met in the North Shore.
  3. The first of many hospitalizations for my declining health.

  • 2013-#FAF and #TLE and #LOTR 
  1. Mr. Wonderful Man and I finally "Sealed the Deal" at the Laie Hawaii Temple. He's mine! FAMILIES ARE FOREVER!
  2. After 3 surgeries, resigned my tenured position at KHIS due to my health issues-specifically compromised vision in my right and then left eye. I am now legally blind in The Left Eye. 
  3. Spent many a dark day listening to movies and gaining a greater appreciation for well composed scores. I now have a genre of movies that I call "Good Listening" for the ability of the movie to still convey the plot and emotional arc with more than just the visuals. The absolute winner is #LOTR. Every. Single. One.

  • 2014-Trumpet Behavioral Health, Moves and Baby Pala
                                                                                                         
  1. In January, on a whim, I answered a Craig's List ad looking to hire a SpEd teacher in a special school in Liliha. I had seen the same company advertise for a teacher for their Kunia location, but I wasn't willing to travel that far. I went, I interviewed, and I didn't get the job. The Principal said I didn't have enough experience. (Even though I have been teaching since 1997 WTF???) BUT...they asked me if I wanted to be the designated sub for their Kunia location as their newly hired teacher was about to go on maternity leave in a few months. Until then, I would learn how to be a behavior technician using Applied Behavior Analysis at both Liliha and Kunia. Okay. Why not. And so my journey with Trumpet Behavioral Health began. LOVED and still LOVING IT!
  2. The Kid announced that she was gravid. And that they were moving. To Utah. 
  3. Interviewed for a teacher position, again, at Trumpet in May. You see, the teacher who was hired for the position, the 25-year-old-just-moved-to-Hawaii-still-wet-behind-her-ears-but-still-had-more EXPERIENCE-than-me, yeah, that one, well, she was resigning. 5 months after she got the job. So I went. Again. And I interviewed. Again. And I ...didn't get the job. Again. But I loved the work and loved the variety that going between both locations gave me. So, I kept going back and learning and loving the job.
  4. In August, the teacher at Trumpet Kunia, the one who I covered for while she was on maternity leave, was seriously contemplating leaving. I didn't want to go through the process of interview/rejection for a third time, so I didn't make a move.
  5. In September, I happened to be in the Kunia building when a potential candidate for the teacher position came in. She was young. She was friends with the former teacher at Liliha. She was relatively new to the island. And, she was currently the teacher at...Bobby Benson Center. Well well well. Something in me clicked and I told the Principal that I would take the job if she wanted me to. Suddenly, 9 months later, after waking up every day at 4am and catching 3 buses to get to work (before the teacher arrived) and then catching 2 buses home and arriving at 6pm if I was lucky-suddenly it all paid off. That Principal who had rejected me two times, hired me as the new teacher. And after 9 months of her low-balling me on the pay scale, I walked away with more money than I had ever made in my life. #blessed
  6. October 23 I attended the birth of my first grandchild. The Kid was a beast. She powered through that entire process. I powered through holding her leg up during contractions-on a side note, I really think that hospital staff made that move up to occupy visitors in the birth room cause of all the movies I have watched, people give birth without assistance in elevating their legs. And I have actually caught a baby being pushed out of the birth canal and there was no "leg-elevation holding technique" being employed there. Just Saying. Anyway, I was physically tired and I had too many intense emotions-Existential Crisis: My Progeny- and had to sit out the last part of it on the side. But the results were exceptional.

  • 2015 Days of Our Lives
  1. Life at Trumpet included Resignation after Resignation after Resignation after Resignation. And so on etcetera etcetera etcetera. And just like that, DOE decided to Resign us from working for them. The contract was NOT going to be renewed when it ended June 30, 2016. 
  2. The Kid and her family "Sealed the Deal". That was the moment that I really knew that my job as a parent had narrowed in scope to its full circle conclusion. Thus ends my watch, my parental patrol and the final installment of Existential Crisis: An Eternal Family is in place.