August-October in Review

It's been a busy summer/fall for the Purkey family. I had to go to training in Hawaii at the end of August for two weeks. It was awful, I can't believe the things the Army puts me through! I'm kidding, of course. It is really beautiful there and I enjoyed the trip. Since the hotel and my airfare were covered by Uncle Sam, I figured it would be a good time to take Allissa. She flew out there with me, but could only stay a week because she had to get back to Korea to start school on the 30th. My co-worker's sister in law came with us so Allissa would have someone to hang out with while I was at work. The day before they left, we went to the North Shore and they took surfing lessons. I briefly considered doing it too, but I'm not the strongest swimmer so
I took photos from the beach. The instructor was really good. His daughter was in the movie Blue Crush and he taught the actors surfing. I was a little apprehensive about letting Allissa do it because she hadn't been swimming in the ocean before, but the guy said he had taught two year olds to surf and it was safe. He and his son worked together and they did a really good job of keeping track of where everyone was and not letting them drift out, so I'm glad I let her do it. She had such a blast. The next morning I got a call from a friend in Louisiana and she said that she and her mom were worried about my mother because her car was still parked in her driveway and asked me to call her and tell her that she could stay with one of them if she wanted. Huh? I asked what was going on and she said that there was a Cat 5 hurricane on the way. My heart almost stopped. I called my mom and begged her to leave, but she said it was already too late because the highways were parking lots and there was nowhere to get gas. She did say she would go and stay with someone though so at least she wouldn't have to go through it alone. So, I took Allissa and Rachel to the airport and then stayed glued to the television all day and half the night. I must have said a million prayers. It must have helped because at first the storm was set to run right over the top of her, but then it shifted to the east a little which put her on the west, less severe side of the storm. Luckily, after the storm passed over, I was able to get through to my mom and reassure myself that she was ok because I couldn't reach her for almost three weeks after that. She did have a tree branch fall on her roof and punch a big hole in the ceiling, but I was actually relieved by that because I had been expecting so much worse. Other than that, there wasn't any other damage, but it was pretty miserable for a few weeks because they were without power.
After Hawaii, I went home for one night and flew out for Arizona the next morning. I got into Phoenix and turned on my cell phone and had several messages from my friend Traci. Apparently the house we had arranged to rent was a total rathole. It was bug infested and not very clean and just not a place we really wanted to stay. I had given up my reservation at the Carroll Drive Apartments already and everywhere in town was totally booked, so I envisioned living in my car or driving back and forth to Tucson for the next month. Traci was so good. She got there a day earlier than I did and ran all over town lining up places for us to stay. We were supposed to end up moving about three times, but the first place we stayed at extended our first stay by a week and they worked really hard to arrange it so we wouldn't have to move. We ended up moving out for one night and then moving back in for the rest of our stay. So kudos to the Gateway Studio Suites. The staff there is terrific. The rooms are nice and even had a refrigerator and a two burner stove and dishes and pots. I went to Trader Joe's in Tucson and bought a lot of stuff. They didn't have the tea I like though. It's their winter brew tea, so maybe it's a seasonal thing. I was hoping to get a couple of boxes to bring back to Korea with me. Oh well. I have found a tea in the commissary that I like. It's by Stash and it's a a Chai spice tea. It's really good. Anyway, I enjoyed the time I spent in Arizona because I got to hang out with my friend Traci and made a couple of new friends too. I left a day earlier than I had planned because Cliff had to go TDY so I missed the graduation. I didn't have a problem changing my ticket and when I got to the airport I found out why. The yahoo who changed my ticket changed the departure day, but forgot to change the month so he had me scheduled on 30 Oct instead of 30 Sep. I couldn't believe it. Luckily I always get to the airport early and there was ONE seat available on the first leg of the flight. The gentleman at the counter was extremely helpful and spent ten or fifteen minutes trying to sort it out and get me on the flight. He said it helped that I was a mileage plus premier member. I guess they get priority seating. So, I got the seat and made it back to Korea as scheduled. I got back in the evening and Cliff had departed that morning, so he had parked the car in the parking garage and sent me a text message with the location. So, as soon as I got off the plane, I turned on my cell phone and there it was. It took a while to get through immigration, but my bags were waiting once I got through so I had no trouble getting them and getting to the car.