The Aloha Diaries Part 6 — Aloha

Well, the Greenwich High choral group is on its way home, having left Honolulu a couple of hours ago.

Assuming the second leg of their journey, from SFO, runs on time, United Airlines should deliver my two Valentines by supper.

The kids sang one last time yesterday, at the National Cemetery of the Pacific — Punchbowl Cemetery, as part of a wreath-laying ceremony. Here they are:

The rest of the day was spent touring Honolulu.

I didn’t hear too much from them, except lamentations from Catherine regarding the pineapple. If she could, she would have filled her suitcase since she’s pretty sure the supermarket stuff isn’t going to measure up.

Given how many times we’ve tried to get her to eat pineapple in the past, I can only shake my head.

The other takeaway from their calls: They’ve had a great time, soaked up a lot of sun and are now eager to be home, in their own beds, to sleep!

Have you been wondering about me? It’s been a pretty low-key week and it flew by.

A sinus infection sidelined me from the heavy-duty spring-cleaning/closet-purging I had planned for last weekend, and the darn snow has me unable to lift my arms today without wincing (and there’s more waiting for me out there!), but in their absence, on top of working each day, I managed to

• Clean out the freezer
• organize the linen closet
• do all the laundry
• catch up on the stack of magazines that had towered on the coffee table
• work some crossword puzzles
• take a ballroom dance class
• go to band practice
• teach Jazzercise
• and crochet a hat (yes, really; my first effort and not half bad)

Note that unlike two years ago, when they were in DisneyWorld with the chorus for a week, I did not set Catherine’s bedroom to rights. She will find it exactly as she left it. Even though it killed me to walk away.

Every. Time. I. Looked. Inside.

I spent my last night of peace and quiet with a good long catch-up phone call and some Mallomars. Now I’m looking forward to tonight and hearing all the stories Catherine has been promising to tell “when we get home.”