Insomnia

Can't sleep, will post.

There was a time in my life where I was pretty dedicated about recording, journaling, my day to day events. I decided to dig out those old journals and look them over.

20 years ago today I was in Hawaii. I was beginning my Senior year in college with my first real international experience - Biology in South India (the title of the course). Another student of the 10 of us taking the course and I decided we were going to leave a couple weeks early and see some of the world before we ended up in India for our class. So Cara and I set off towards India, but did so via: Hawaii - Tokyo - Seoul - Taiwan - Hong Kong - Singapore - Madras (now Chennai).

I found my old journal of the trip, and 8/8/88 found me waking up after my first night of the trip, in Hawaii. That was 20 years ago - Wow. My journal reads:


Monday, August 8th. Slept on this air mattress thing. Semi-quasi comfortable. But wait, before we go any further - today is 8-8-88. Pretty cool huh? I don't know exactly when I got up. Anita left about 6:15. I got up about 6:30, watched TV a while, the phone rang about 6:45. It was one of Iina's friends from Sweden. I didn't understand her the 1st time and I thought the call was a wrong number. So Tina's call got everyone else up. Cara, Tina and I talked a while then Tina went back to bed while Cara and I wolfed down some plain-wrap raisin bran. Then about 7:30 we left for the beach. It was cloudy at first. We spent the 1st 45 minutes just playing in the water. There weren't a lot of people out. We were right on Waikiki beach in front of the Royal Hawaiin Hotel. Unbelievable !!! Then Cara laid out while I went snorkeling with stuff from Anita's apt. There are "reefs" right in the water. I saw a lot of beautiful, fluorescent tropical fish, some anemonies, and even found a dollar bill. Then I played in the water some more, laid out. Back in water snorkeling again. Then went back to the apt and got 3 bucks and some stuff for Cara. I rented a surfboard. It was real big and heavy. Spent the 1st 40 min trying to get just even one wave, didn't. Finally, when my arms were exhausted from paddling around, I caught a wave and stood right up. It's easy 'cause the boards are so big. It was great, but I was tired so I came in after an hour. Eventually Cara and I came back here for lunch - raisin bran. We went back to the beach afterwards but didn't stay as long because it was really hot and we were fried. I did a little snorkeling! Back here we watched Dragnet on VCR and goofed off till dinner. Anita and Tina made this super good homemade pizza. I can't believe how gracious Anita is being through all this!!! She's great! Then Cara and I went shopping. We bought postcards. She bought Gecko shorts and shirts, I bought one Gecko shirt. Everything here is gecko, it hilarious. Then we walked around the international market a bit and came back here. This place is incredible. I still can't believe what all we're doing. We both got fried today, Cara has some pretty bad tan (burn) lines and my face is beet red. This is the life, Hawaii, the beach, and sharing an apartment with three gorgeous girls (Cara, Anita, Tina). My eyes are real heavy and it's only 10:00. I wonder if I've adjusted to the time? We walked through the Hilton also, very nice. I called NW Airlines and Eric also today. An absolutely incredible day!!!!

It was an eventful year. That trip to India gave my life a sort of about-face, and I returned to school with a new ambition (my senior year, no less) to become a doctor.

Two years later I was ending my summer as a part-time EMT and a full-time banquet waiter at one of the "resort" hotels in Sandusky, OH. I was getting ready to move to Toledo to begin medical school later that month. The closest date in my journaling I could find was from August 4th, 1990:

Got home from work about 7:30, ate, and decided to take a nap. I got woken up (of course) by Dottie, asking if I could come work. Ok, I said. Around 1000 I drove to the mall. I ordered blinds at Sears, found a better deal at K-Mart and came back and canceled my order. Then I bought a pretty cool answering machine (except it's a GE, boooo) at BEST for 40 bucks even. Came home and it took 30 minutes to get here from the causeway because Cedar Point was totally crowded. Mary and her family (from 4-County) came over along with her sister and brother-in-law who's an orthopedic surgeon just out. We talked, it was kinda interesting. Then I went to work. We had a group of doctors at an hors d'oeuvre party. It was pretty fun. Good food (including mozzarella sticks. There was even a clown who made balloon animals. Also put up tables in Halyards. Took some stuff (medical) from the drug reps and came home. It rained all day (mostly) today.

It's crazy looking at these journals from 20 years ago. That was half my life ago!