Life of Larisa or LOL

...LOOP. Not too long ago, Gabe and I hiked a portion of this trail that starts in the back of Pearl City. We were leisurely. We were with friends. We barely broke a sweat. The kids climbed trees and explored. We were in and out in under an hour. Today was a different story...we went with Isom . I should have known when he was packing the back pack full of "extra" water bottles and even asked to stop by the grocery store for more water reserves...we weren't going to be doing the simple hike Gabe and I did weeks ago. It was a gorgeous day today and perfect weather for a late morning hike. Gabe and I were excited to share this new hiking trail with Isom and enjoy the midday sun. Family hiking is a typical weekend activity for us. Gabe is a trooper and rarely complains...that's my job. We followed along the tree covered path lined with red dirt at a good pace...Gabe was in the lead, followed by Isom, and several yards back---me. We stopped at the same trees...

What do you do when you're missing your other half, there's an ant parade outside your front door, the coffee you made is bad, you sat in traffic for two hours, the McDonald's clerk is mean AND they give you chicken instead of fish, your kid is rude, you forget to bring eggs for your friends baking needs, you nearly run into the car sitting in your blind side, your Starbucks order is messed up, and your eyes are puffy from crying the night before while watching "P.S. I Love You" ? That's the kind of "off" day I had. It is nearly over and I'm having trouble finding a bright spot. I would swear today was Friday the 13 th . But it's not and nothing that happened was too terrible but I'm still feeling like a cartoon with smoke coming out of my ears. We do have an activity filled weekend to look forward to so I'm hoping when the sun peaks through the curtains tomorrow, it will be the start of a brighter day. Looking forward to my swea...

Traffic sucks. Traffic in Hawaii today sucked worse than usual. There will be no cute pictures of cupcakes, or even really blurry, bad pictures from my iPhone in today's post. Just pure complaining. So, if you are uninterested in that...click "next blog" at the top of your screen and move along to someone who is in a cheerier mood than me. Today was a perfect example of how much Hawaii desperately NEEDS a rail system. From Mililani to Kapiolani Park is 21 miles. Estimated travel time is 36 minutes. Well, we all know that travel time is the amount of time it should take---in a perfect traficless world. Factor in crazy drivers, accidents, road construction, traffic and your commute time can drastically change. Today's commute: 2 hours! I could have walked faster! That is beyond ridiculous. The longer I sat in the car the angrier I got. No wonder so many people suffer from road rage. I was getting road psychosis! I mean really, when you aren't even MOVING, it beco...

And I thought labor and delivery of an 11.2 pound child was hard. I can now easily say that I have put my body through three major traumas. The first was giving birth to who was affectionately called "The Monster Baby" at the hospital. The second was completing my half marathon in which not one, but two...then three of my toe nails fell off---completely. The third was hiking Koko Head last weekend. It was one long, pitocin induced contraction---there just wasn't any recovery time...one step, two step, dying of exhaustion, can't beathe, when will it be over? It was horrendous---and that is putting it mildly. I am only now recovering (6 days later). I figured I better jot a few thoughts down before the memory gets pushed deep in the crevices of my mind...next to the other excruciating pain moments of my life that have gotten buried; only to resurface when I am experiencing something equally as bad. The part that was even harder than climbing large, dusty, broke...