October 2019

The Happenings of October 2019

Curtis returned home from his longest ride yet at the beginning of October, and we were so thankful to be able to spend the rest of the month together. October has always been one of my favorite months, so it was nice to be able to fill it with memories of being together rather than apart. The few days between my sister leaving and Curtis coming home were hard for me, but receiving news that he was coming home earlier than expected instantly improved my attitude on the world around me. Colors were brighter! The birds chirping outside my window sounded cheerier! And everything that we did together from hikes to grocery shopping to staying at home doing absolutely nothing felt extraordinary.

Here are some things that happened this month that I want to remember:

— October started with the last few days of Sarah’s visit, so we spent each day going hiking and to the beach and enjoying every last bit of sister time together.

— Once Curtis was home, we hiked to Makapu’u Lighthouse and the Old Pali Highway on the weekends. If you remember from February’s post, there was a major rockslide that closed the Pali highway for the majority of this year. They’ve slowly been extending the hours that it’s open, and now it’s open 7 days a week and only closed overnight. We’ve still been doing this hike even when the main highway was closed, it’s honestly one of our favorites here.

— We bottled all of our mango wine and ended up with 18 bottles! We have some tweaking to do to get the flavor and sweetness balanced just right next time, but the alcohol content is certainly there. Unfortunately it wasn’t until after we bottled it that I searched online for the best way to ship wine, only to discover that it’s illegal to mail alcohol…I guess our families won’t be getting any for Christmas. Sorry everyone, you’re going to have to visit us to get to try our first batch of mango wine. In other news, we decided that since our first round was mostly a success, we’re attempting to make guava wine with guava foraged from a hike.

— I turned 27 on the 27th! I feel…old. Thankfully Curtis had that day off, and on that day we attended a goodbye brunch for one of his fellow officers, hiked Koko Head at sunset, and got Poke and a delicious chocolate cake to eat at home. The 27th also happened to be our 75th wedding monthiversary, so we celebrated both of these events by putting a deposit down on something we’ve talked about doing for a long time, which brings me to the next notable event…

— We got matching tattoos! I know this may be a controversial subject to some, but it was something we’ve wanted to do ever since we got married. I guess after 75 months, we were finally committed enough to go for it. 😉 The image we chose was one that I designed way back in 2012 when we were in a long distance relationship. I would doodle it on the back of the cards I sent him, and all over my sketchbooks, and sometimes even draw it on my arm. It was a simple design that held a lot of meaning to us: a bottle with a pocket watch on the inside. Can you guess why? I’ll give you a hint, it’s based off of a Jim Croce song that we’ve claimed as “our song.” It’s also the name of this blog…haha. Anyway, we’ve always known we would do this someday, and after years of contemplation we were finally impulsive enough to go to a tattoo parlor and make it official. We had them done at Loyalty Tattoo in Kailua and are very happy with how they turned out. Mine is on my arm and Curtis’ is on his back. They are completely identical, and the time on the watch reads 7:27, our wedding anniversary.

— We ended the month the same way we do every October, where after a full year of coming up with creative couple costume ideas, we stayed home and did nothing but eat leftover birthday cake and scheme about buying half-priced candy the next day…which we didn’t do either. I guess we’re a little off our game this year. However, I’ll have you know that we did celebrate the holiday that matters more to us despite being apart on that day: on October 3rd, we both wore pink and watched Mean Girls. Curtis watched it wearing his pink hat on his boat somewhere out there, and I watched with Sarah and Celeste at home. Then we watched it again when we were together to make up for missing the actual holiday.

Which brings us to November. I’m alone again, but so far doing better than I was a month ago. I’m thankful for the cooler weather that’s finally arriving to the islands. I’m thankful that the end of the year is fast approaching, and while I know that the rest of this year and the next won’t be smooth sailing, I’m excited for the changes that will eventually arrive. This year has been challenging in so many ways, and I’ll reflect way more on that in our end of the year post, but we’re nearing the end and I couldn’t be more excited to have this all be behind us. For now, I’m going to try to spend this month reflecting more on what I’m thankful for and focus on how the trials we’ve faced and are facing have helped us grow, and how they’ve blessed us. Happy November, friends!