Got back from Hawaii to a rainy San Francisco morning before the sun came up. It's cool how close SFO is to Honolulu, less cool when you have a red eye flight that you thought you might sleep for some of. Blah blah me and my sleep, at least today I have a decent reason for being tired.

The trip went well. Hawaii is lovely and yet lovely in that "I like it here but I don't pine for it when I am not there" way. I pine for Vermont. I miss the coldness. I miss the darkness at night. I miss the absence of automobiles and the presence of my typewriter and my lumpy pillow and my twigs and soy milk breakfasts. I've got less than 24 hours here and then I head to Michigan, talk to some librarians about blogs, and then head back to Boston and eventually home. Once I get there, Ola will be leaving on her Peace Corps adventure (which begins with visting every kid and some family time down in Tennessee) within days and except for a family visit around Turkey Day, I'll be staying at home and living alone for the first time in over five years. To say I'm excited about this would be an understatement.

But, back to Hawaii. I was lucky to have my colleague and friend Aaron to pal around with, so we actually did things like leave Waikiki, do a little snorkeling, go for walks in search of waffles and cadge wifi from 21 stories up, participating in what my friend Judith calls "laptopping." Yesterday Dave Brier, the conference organizer, took me for a drive around to the less concrete-jungle parts of the island and I took a few pictures. I think the view out my windshield is pretty great in Vermont most days, but it's rarely as striking as this.

I get home on Friday. Saturday is the Leonid Meteor shower. While I can't recall seeing a single star dimmer than Orion's Belt in Hawaii, I should be able to see the meteors from my backyard, or I might need to go across the street. If you can get outside and out to someplace dark on Saturday night, you should really try to check them out.

jessamyn, abada abada, hawaii