grass poop

I mowed the grass for the first time today since we sold Two Trees back in 2003 (I think). While Jim was in town he had planned on firing the landscaper because they were doing a fairly weak job. He offered to buy a mower and take $150 a month off our rent if Kurt and I wanted to do the job ourselves so I immediately accepted. He also bought a lot of weed killer and sprayed the yard and told us if there were any other materials we needed to just say so. So I mowed today. I decided to do so because I still had an hour of daylight left and thought it hadn't rained all day. I was wrong. I had apparently missed the rain and didn't realize it. So the mowing was a bit rough and the clumps of wet grass the resulted felt like dog poop every time I stepped on one. I raked the front yard and if it doesn't rain tomorrow I'll rake the back then probably mow it again this weekend. Surprisingly, I'm actually looking forward to having a yard to mow again. Its nice to push a mower around, get a bit of low intensity exercise, and get in some self-reflection.

breathe the pacific

My landlord came into town last night and showed Kurt and I a bit of the island today. I have to say, Jim is an amazing landlord. Apart from my mom (if you consider her a landlord from birth until about age 20) I've never had a landlord drive me around and show me the sights of a city, buy me a Christmas present and tell me that if we need anything around the house to send him the bill. We were going to try to get up to the Volcano but we didn't get to. We did, however get to see Rainbow Falls and the Boiling Pots which were pretty amazing sights. We also went to the Mauna Koa Macadamia Nut Factory where Jim's wife used to work. He said he'll be out to Kona again in February and we're going to try to get over there so he can take us scuba diving. I can't wait. Oh yeah, I also got to climb one of the most excellent climbing trees ever grown, as seen to the left.

Check it all out here. Just gotta get my Kentucky pics up now.

the kentucky moon

My my my, Kentucky was blast. I got in late the night of the 22nd, Yale and Keebler coming to pick me up. We actually ended up seeing Amanda Mills (Jesse's halfsister) at the airport. She was on her way back from the Bahamas where she had been for her honeymoon. We made a few calls and then headed over to a party to meet up with April and Shelley. The host of the party was apparently a wedding photographer and he had set up a photobooth in his living room. I don't know how it worked since the equipment was all boxed up but it worked fabulously and I got a number of new pictures to look back on in nostalgia. At then end of the night, I also had the chance to showcase my Rubix Cube skills.


So the following day, I traveled from Louisville to Georgetown to see the Willetts. It was the first time in a long while that all of the Willetts kids and all of the Adkins kids managed to be in the same place at the same time and it was fantastic. Topics of conversation ranged from time travel to television to books. Another one of the reasons I miss New York is having Simon around the same city. I headed back to Lancaster later that night and the following day was Christmas Eve. I spent most of the day shopping, as I hadn't done any Christmas shopping. Katie took me around and brought Leah with her along with her friend Eva's couple children. Leah is just as adorable as I remember her from last May. She greeted me with a hug and during lunch put her french fries in her hair. That night, Katie and Leah came to Christmas Eve Mass with my family and got to see all of my uncles, aunts, cousins and Grandmother at the same time. This was a first for her, and a welcome reunion for me. After mass, we went back to the farm and ate oyster stew. Again, this was a first for Katie (both seeing the farm and eating the stew) and I was really glad she got to spend the night with us. Jerry (who I'd met for the first time the previous night) brought a bottle of Elijah Craig which Kyle and I (and a number of my relatives) highly enjoyed.


Christmas was as it always is, my absolute favorite holiday. It consisted of snack foods all day, lots of wonderful presents, games of Balderdash, and a movie at the end of the night. The entire day was with my family and it was fantastic. We should have Christmas every month.


Most of the rest of my week was spent with my Mom during the day and with Katie and Leah for a few hours each night. A few highlights throughout the week were seeing Chris and getting drinks with him, Katie, Chris' lady and Ty, my mom cooking fried chicken and fettuccine alfredo and Katie and Kyle joining my family for dinner and a game of Apples to Apples and Taboo. I also got to go back down to my farm again for our extended family's gift-giving and Hot Wheels race. We actually managed to win first place in the race for the first time in fifteen years of racing with our car "Erasmus" (named after John Blackthorne's ship in "Shogun"). My last night in town I went to Winchester and helped Katie study for the ACT and said goodbye for a while. My final day in Lancaster was spent with my mom and we eventually said goodbye before I headed to Louisville. I'm really going to miss my mom over the next six months or so.



I got into Louisville and spent New Years at the Pour Haus watching some cover band that April and Shelley knew. They were surprisingly good for two reasons. One, they didn't bother doing their own "take" on the songs. When they covered a song it was as close to the original as possible. They also had an amazing stage presence. They were dancing the entire night. I even asked a random girl if she would take me on stage and she did. I stood there for a few minutes, waved to the audience, and then got off stage. I ended the night fairly early since I hadn't gotten a lot of sleep the night before and the next day I ate with Dougie and Shannon, watched football with Bryan and Keebler, went to see "I Am Legend" with Brian and Brendan, and then drove around in the freshly fallen snow with Yale. I actually got a bit worried that my flight would be cancelled because of how hard it was snowing at times.


The snow in Kentucky was magical because it came just in time for me to see it. If you know me, you know I love snow and that week was the only chance I'd really get to see snow the entire year and it was provided for me. Then I flew home and ended up seeing the snow covered tops of the volcano as I landed back in Hilo.

Christmas with the snow

So I'm going to try to sum up what's been going on with me since my last update in a mere few paragraphs. After a couple months of roughness in Hawaii, I'm starting to enjoy it. I sort of expected to be unhappy there for the first couple months when I moved there due to a period of adjustment and I think that period has started ending. Within the last few weeks before moving, I went to the beach three more times than the total number of times I had been prior. In addition, I went to the Kona (more touristy) side of the island with a group of friends and slept that night on the beach. It was a magical evening that ended with me attempting to build a sandcastle at three in the morning, all the while drunkenly stating that the sandcastle was "in honor of my brother", as Brendan would have built a sand castle had he been at the beach. During the day. Sober.

A couple weeks later, I flew to Oahu to see my new friend Naomi. This girl is pretty fantastic. Its actually her birthday today so happy birthday to her. I hope its going well. She's a teacher for "Teach for America" and actually worked at a school right down the street from my New York apartment while I was living in New York. So it was quite serendipitous that we met. She actually knows my friend Daris, who used to work at that school as well and also was with "Teach for America". Naomi is like a beautiful girl version of Aaron Hawkins. Those of you who know Aaron know that this is a very big compliment. Naomi took me all over Oahu for the weekend I was there. I got to see Waikiki and Honolulu and I got to hike up into the hills around the Army Base and see some beautiful sights. I also saw waves larger than any I ever saw in Los Angeles or the entire Atlantic. Apparently they weren't even particularly big for that area either. If she'll have me again, I plan on visiting Naomi often in the coming months and I really want to do the Shark Dive (among other things) near where she lives.

Kurt and I also had people come over for a night of entertainment for the first time the week before I left for the mainland. Annie, Maddie and Meagan (the same girls I went to Kona with) came over on a Saturday night and Kurt cooked Barbecue Chicken with a number of sides (scalloped potatoes at my request). We ate, at sat for a while then had a few drinks and played video games. The night was decently tame but a huge amount of fun. I hope I see more of them in the future.

When I started packing on Thursday for my trip to LA, I got very eager to be home. I can't wait. Despite my anxiety though, I've fully enjoyed my time here. I had some issues getting here but the weekend held a Christmas party with my co-workers and I got to see Kristina and John's new apartment (which is only a couple blocks from my old apartment in Glendale). There was a lot of food and some Cranium playing and drinks and a great time. The work week has been hectic but fast-moving. Sam and I even worked from Sam's apartment one day which was a nice break for Sam, I think.

That brings us tonight. Pam picked me up from work and we picked up immediately were we left off last time I saw her. We chatted about her sister's engagement (which she actually seems fairly supportive of), we talked about Kentucky and her plans for a month long vacation (during which she may come to the Big Island for her Mom's wedding) and her eventual move to New York. (I'm a bit envious. I miss those New York devils.) We ate dinner a nice place in Pasadena and eventually headed home as she has to go to Vegas tomorrow and I have to work bright and early.

So all in all things are going well, however I do believe December has been somewhat of misplaced April Fools month for team Ian. Starting with realizing that I had an expired license when I tried to fly to Oahu. This resulted in a pat-down and dust up both coming and going and with me arriving at my gate amidst an announcement of "Ian Adkins report to Gate (insert gate number here). The gate will be closing in one minute." Prior to my flight to LA, I choose to try and get a new license (FAIL)*. I did get a state ID after a few hours, however which would suffice. On my walk home (the cab company takes hours to pick people up) it began raining with a vengeance. I got wetter than I've ever been in my life. When I shower, I'm dryer than I was at this point. When I've been swimming for hours on end, I'm less wet. I believe I may have been dryer when I was in the womb than I was on this walk. Needless to say, I took my phone out of my pocket to protect it from the rain and put it in my backpack. This was like removing a kitten from a tree in order to protect it but choosing to put the kitten into a room filled with fast moving bullets and razors. All the rain pooled at the bottom of my backpack and my phone was destroyed. It didn't just turn the water damage square in the back of the phone red but soaked it enough that the square fell off. No warranty, no repairs, no replacement phone. I'm S.O.L. when it comes to my wonderful Blackjack. Brendan is coming to my rescue though and giving me a phone to use so I don't have to buy a new one just yet. The next prank I played on myself was to miss my connecting flight from Honolulu to Los Angeles. Why did I miss it? The flights were on different airlines from Hilo to Honolulu and from Honolulu to Los Angeles so I had to exit the airport, wait for my bags, go through agriculture inspection, get my ticket and go back through security. I may have had time for this (I got my bags with forty minutes to spare), but Hawaiians are sort of lazy. So, I went to the ticketing counter which had shut down for three hours despite their upcoming flight. So I had to sit outside the airport from 7:30 am til 11:30 am. Yes. Awesome. I flew to LA and had to sit on the tarmac for another half hour or so due to a plane being in our gate. The most recent prank I've played on myself was to break the only belt I brought with me while trying to buckle it. This is a two-fold prank because 1) my pants are much too big since I've lost a lot of weight since about this time last year, so my pants fall down while I walk and 2) despite the aforementioned weight loss, the fact that my belt makes me look like a fatass. Hurrah. Go team!**

Again, I've had some setbacks but things are looking up. I can't wait to get home and see my family and my Louisville friends and Katie and a number of other people. You all are the greatest people in the world. I love each and every one of you. Enjoy my update, belated as it may be.

*- I didn't actually fail the test, they just said I'd have to start over with a permit again, which I'll do sometime in the coming months.

**- I stole this little saying from Naomi.

Singing along with the song of the pacific

So, its a couple weeks later than I originally wanted to write my next post but at least I'm writing it, no? I've successfully made it to Hawaii and successfully survived my first weekend. I'll write more about actually Hawaii soon but I want to finish filling you in on my road trip first.

I made it into Seattle at about 10 o'clock Pacific time and Noah met up with me. We cabbed it back to his place with my stuff and then headed out to see Seattle for the one day I was there. It was honestly about what I expected, which was a good thing. I did want to move there for a while my sophomore year of college after all. It was pleasant outside and not rainy (although I hear the rainy season has started up again already). Noah took me to a Chowder store near the sea port. I got a Cajun Chicken chowder in a bread bowl which was delicious. We then walked around in Sculpture Park (which was basically what it sounds like), then to the Space Needle (but didn't go up). Finally, we grabbed some ice cream, saw the giant Lenin statue, the troll beneath the bridge (from Ten Things I Hate About You), Bruce Lee's grave and then headed back so Noah could get ready for work. I went to his bar with him, had some drinks met a few of his friends and then walked home (and got lost) so I could prepare for the next day.

We picked up the car the next morning around nine and headed on our way. It actually took us a little while to get to the coast and I got very fed up with the Washington Highway System (in order to go south on US-101 you have to either go north on it or go west on another road.) But eventually we made it and the weather was basically what I wanted. It was cloudy and mild, but there wasn't any rain. We stopped a few places along the way and made it into Oregon by nightfall. I really want to say that I think driving down the Oregon coast is something every person in the world should attempt to do some time in their life. Washington and California and even the Northern train trip I took were beautiful but nothing like the Oregon coast. There were so many little signs for Scenic views it was hard to believe but every one was stopped at was indeed beautiful. And if the view from the road wasn't enough, they generally had a small trail leading off onto a cliff where the view was even better. It really is hard to explain it. The pictures just don't do it justice.

At the end of the night we stopped in a town called Lincoln City and got settled in for a bit, then headed out for some drinks and a bite to eat. We went to a sports bar of a sort (there weren't a lot of options) and got some burgers and played pool with a couple girls from around there for a bit. They told us to hit up the Seal Caves the next day (which we would) and then suggested a second bar for us (since we were getting ready to leave) which was closer to the hotel. The second bar was awful, however so we headed back and crashed for the night.

That, my friends was the first day of my road trip. I'm going to do my best to fill you in on the rest of them and eventually get this blog up and running. In the meantime, if you wanna check out the rest of my pictures from the trip they can be found here:


http://picasaweb.google.com/ian.adkins/NewYorkToLosAngelesRoadTrip

I hope you enjoy them.

trails and rails

I’m into my third day of train travel and here is what I’ve discovered thusfar. I’ve decided that anyone who rides trains around the U.S. and Canada are of an entirely different culture and mindset than most of the country. A number of the people are European but that stands to reason because there is a lot more train travel in general in Europe, so why wouldn’t they travel by train in the States as well? Also, and this may seem obvious, but people don’t just take a train to get from one place to another, if they are on the train then there is usually some sort of adventure in their background.


On my train from Chicago to New York, I had a seat of my own at first and so the beginning of the trip was fairly uneventful. I sat, read, and watched some TV on my ipod, nothing excited. At one point an elderly couple boarded the train but there were any free adjacent seats. So, as my momma taught me, I offered to move and let them sit together. They were very grateful, and offered their thanks, as did some of the other passengers around them. “What a sweet boy”, was the general sentiment.


Behind them, an Indian man about my age offered me the seat next to him and we chatted. He was born in India but grew up in Los Angeles. He had taken a train from there to New York and spent some time with his friends and was heading back. He was missing a leg (though I never found out why) and so I made runs to the snack car for him a few times and we basically hit it off. We talked about girls, drinking and our jobs (he’s also a techie) and basically hit it off. He also kept me company in Chicago while we both waited for our next trains.


My train left about an hour before his and when I got on I sat behind a girl who I’d noticed on the first train (from New York) and noticed she was heading all the way to Seattle as well. At one point, one of the… flight attendants (?) asked anyone who was sitting in a seat by themselves to move to the back of the car as she was reserving the front of the car for couples and families so they would be able to sit together. So I asked the girl ahead of me if I could sit with her and she agreed.


So my current seatmate is a sweet girl named Rachel who is from Switzerland, where she teaches elementary school. She’s in the United States because her brother lives in Vancouver and she is going to go to school there for a few months to learn better English (although apart from a few words, she seems to know it quite well). Prior to heading to school though, she took a train from Vancouver across Canada. She visited Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, Winnipeg, New York and a number of other cities. She’s been traveling for about a month and a half and is now heading back.


As far as other people I’ve met, at my first night’s dinner, I met a large, crazy man (albeit quite friendly) who gave me advice on what to eat and what not to eat in the dinner car (he’s not a fan of vegetables). At my second dinner I met two elderly men, one of whom is retired from Amtrak and now has a lifetime supply of free train trips and is using them to see America. The other recently went to his daughter’s wedding in New Mexico and bought an All-American Pass. In his words, “now that my children are married and I’m retired, I figured I should see a bit of the world while I’ve got the time.”


Lastly, I met a man on the scenic view car (I know it has another name but I can’t remember what it is) who was on his way back to Seattle from Nova Scotia. He had biked for 67 days across the United States and then taken a train to Nova Scotia. He told me that a lot of his route had been following the train tracks and so a lot of what we were passing now he had seen before on his way out.


The lunch car just opened so I might go grab a bite. I get to Seattle in less than a day now so if anything exciting happens before that I’ll update you again. I miss and love everyone in Kentucky and New York.

two greats gone

Madeline L'Engle died today.

This makes me sad.