Off Island!!!! Life!!!

It happened! Now I know, again: there is still a world out there, passed miles of blue ocean. This time the flight was not too bad. Usually i feel like cattle boarded on the plane and kept as quite as possible through semi-hibernation. This time I wore my warmest snowboarding hat and i embrace the big warm guy sitting next to me. Who said spill over is not nice? I missed him and froze my side when he left for the restroom...
Hawaii was cold, but still much warmer than Sacramento where I am now. My past few days have been wonderful:
Friday in Honolulu: shopping, friends and James Bond
Saturday in San Francisco: great food and more James Bond
Sunday to Sacramento: exciting driving and couchsurfing with Europeans!
Monday- Tuesday to Sacramento: all about geodatabases (and more couchsurfing)


Friday in Honolulu
One day lay over to a bigger island was a real pleasure. It is not too cold there, people still wear Hawaiian t-shirts and flip flops, and life is more... vibrant. There are shops, tons of shops, restaurant, safe dogless walks, fresh vegetable and fruits... all the commodities of a western world, still in a island setting. No wonder Hawaii is so dam expensive.
After 6 months of shopping deprivation I wondered and gasped in front of shops window, try any sort of fresh samples, I even had a woman flattening my horns (they are always there, right on the forehead) and hardly restrain from the need to buy anything (mostly everything) that is not readily available on island.
The only hot buy was chocolate and a pair of semi-close shoes I may need in the continent. I hang out with John and Erika all morning, and went to Erika's surprise birthday party to the Marianna, one of the last Hawaiian bar (which also has some ornaments from the bar where Magnum P.I. was filmed -I though my brother would have loved it).
Still exhausted from all the shopping and the red eye flight from Samoa, I decided to head to the Hilton and enjoy one of their couches for a nap.
James Bond was on a mission on another Pacific island and happened to be passing to Hawaii at the same time as me... what a treat... He arrived shortly after. His boss with him. My not-relationship with JB is so well known at this point that, on my side, I could say something like "I have a boyfriend but he does not know it" ;-)

Saturday flying
Saturday we all flow to San Francisco, which took most of the day anyway… JB keeps on leaving me speechless. The cold air in SFO made me frisky! I rented a car so that I could move more easily and faster around California these days and mainly because if I get too comfortable with island life and driving, in this case, I will seriously need some rehabilitation program once I decide to leave. I offered a ride to JB’s boss, but he elegantly declined. I can imagine the calculations in his mind: “Italian + woman + did not drive faster than 25m/h for the past 6 month + did not pass or was passed by a car for the past 6 month + did not see a traffic light for the past 6 month…. = danger danger… taxi is safer….”. Even JB, which lives a quite adventurous life, seemed slightly worried. For me, it was a good kick of adrenaline, getting out of that zone of comfort that is so healthy once in a while; it was life paragliding for the first time.
And finally… a road full of restaurants. Full! Mostly closed, a part from the ONE: the Italians are open for a compatriota! Pizza, Tiramisu’ JB and Italians! I got it all!

Sunday driving
(Osea: American driving –of course I am right and the rest of the country is wrong ;-) )
Lazy rainy Sunday happen in Samoa too, often. But here there is a difference: it is warm inside the house (ok, not so much in JB house, or maybe he just wants to show off his new goose jacket), and it is cold outside. That adds a bit to that nice cozy feeling…
After a tasty Indian lunch I hit the road. Driving is San Francisco was not bad at all, the roads are as smooth as baby’s asses and there isn’t any unexpected crossing. But as soon as you pass the Golden Gate things start going a bit wilder. Now, I would like to remind the reader that this comes from the point of view of somebody that is did not use the 4th gear for a while.
Well, first of all, passing the Golden Gate, having a glimpse of Alcatraz was a magic moment. It is a symbol; I came so far in life. The last time I crossed it, it was 10 years ago with Maria and Tyson (which I am going to meet soon in PDX), I had no job, I knew no JB, no island… (It must mean something a part the fact that I am 10 years older).
Then, the road started becoming bumping, it started raining and it became dark. I remember being astonished by US roads when I first moved there from Italy: they were big, fast and straight. The feeling was different now. What is big and fast now are the other cars, not the roads. I tried to stay on the slow line (supposedly the far right one), but even that is not easy, as this lane shift continuously. Sometimes I had 4 lanes on my left, some other 3 and one on my right, some other times I found myself in an exit only lane. All without changing lane.
There is more about American drivers. Let’s say there is a 4 lanes road: the 4th lane is for the drivers that go 10 m/h faster than the speed limit; the 3rd lane is for the one that follow the speed limit; the 2nd one is also for the one following the speed limit; the 1st lane is for the one that would like to go slower, but it is also for exits, entries, and sometimes it just disappears. Therefore, most of the traffic is on the left hand side of the road, not on the right as it should be. If somebody wants to go faster then 10m/h above speed limit, any line that is not the 4th one is fair game: Americans DO PASS on the RIGHT. This would drive any Italian very very mad. Italians may flash, use the horn, pass on grass… but they NEVER pass on the right. Ok, someone does, but they are only the very bad ones.
And more! There are exits on the left side of the road (that means you need to enter into the very fast lane somehow) that merge with other roads on their left! Not logical at all!
Scanning the radio for some good music, I found Ramazzotti singing in Spanish in a great latin radio station… ohi si… now I am the queen on the road!
Destination? The couch of a couple that I never met before. The couch is in Folsom, pass Sacramento, but it was totally worth to drive all the way there to meet some fellow Europeans (Portugal and Poland). I really love couchsurfing. Everything about it soon…

NOTICE: I am driving today (Tuesday) from Sacramento to San Francisco (butterflies!), beware of a small black cute car on driving in that direction.