Last thoughts from Hawaii

This is my last full day in Hawaii and I visited the U.S.S. Arizona Memorial and the battleship U.S.S. Missouri. For my foreign readers the memorial is dedicated to the over 1,177 crewmen from the battleship Arizona who lost their lives when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. The Missouri was the battleship that the Japanese surrendered on effectively ending WWII. The Arizona is an eerie memorial because you can see the remains of the ship (still leaking oil!) which contains many of the men who died that day. It's the equivalent of being in a cemetery. Before you get on a small water craft which takes you out to the memorial the entire ticket group watches a movie on the history of the memorial and some of the causes behind the attack. From a critical perspective the movie was fairly presented but the interesting part, considering the current U.S. debacle in Iraq and general Middle East quagmire, was that the movie talked about U.S. economic interests in China pre-WWII and many of those interests revolved around (drum roll please): OIL!!! Some things never change...

Back to Tucson tomorrow evening and back to reality. I can't really complain too much. I have a friend that is currently battling breast cancer; a much younger sister who is soon going to be dealing with her first child; several friends dealing with relationship issues; and others who are struggling with juggling kids, spouses, mortgages, bills etc. I also have my bills, student loans, the need to finish my PhD, find a job, and maybe when hell freezes over find a cool guy willing to do some trekking with me...but overall I'm doing okay right now! Hawaii was a mental godsend! I highly recommend it to all my readers!!