I awoke with my wrist more than a dull throb. In fact, any slight movement hurt, and not the I-overstretched kind of hurt but the damn-that-made-my-eyes-water kind. Maybe I slept on it wrong. Because I was told traffic is terrible, I have to run to downtown Honolulu to turn in my application for the gated property. I leave at 0600 and get there at 0620. So much for traffic being terrible from 0500-0900. Anyways, I am sitting there in my Star Wars shirt (it looks like Van Gogh’s Starry Night), and a guy walks by and starts chatting me up over it. An hour later, after swapping stories and woes and dreams, we part ways, and I friended him on Facebook to hang out later. I turn in the application and head back to the hotel.

I crank out a dozen emails for apartments knowing only one will be returned. I am surfing Craigslist for a car and not seeing anything in my price range–the amount I want to spend, not the amount I can afford–got to start being frugal somewhere! I am out searching for apartments, calling, emailing. I run out and check quite a few locations and properties but only from the outside. Until I get those returned calls, I’m S.O.L.

I zip back to the hotel to get some quick downtime before one of my two “old men” flies in. The beauty of mixed families is that you get two parents for everything. I get a callback from the property I saw yesterday, the gated community. They approved my application, but I need a down payment tomorrow at 0800 to move in on a Friday.  Problem: my bank is located on the base, and I don’t have access yet. After a crap-ton of back and forth with the 1-800 number for the bank, we find one that is not on base. Glancing at my watch, I realized my dad lands in 45 minutes, and it’s getting late in the afternoon, close to closing time and rush hour. I make a dash for the bank, get there, get my money order and head back to the airport. It worked out great and perfect for timing. Pick him up and get him to the hotel and drop off his things. 

Punching in the coordinates for the Ford Focus, we drive over an hour through congested traffic to get there. I really liked the Focus. Clean, well-kept overall, my favorite color. Two things were wrong with it that were absolute deal breakers, unfortunately, but we keep it in mind. With the day long over, we head back to the apartment and get ready for some shut-eye. Tomorrow will be a long day.