"Stranded" in Hawaii

So the airline I few out on, ATA, is now bankrupt and out of business. Basically, I don't have a flight home. I used a voucher to get out here (from a cancelled flight last August), and that covered the whole ticket, except for $230. Yesterday I called my credit card company to try to get the whole thing refunded, so I can find another ticket back to Raleigh.

The guy at my credit card company told me that people had been calling really mad, because they were stranded in Hawaii (one of the few places that ATA served). We agreed that if you were going to be upset about getting stranded in Hawaii, you deserved to have worse things happen to you.

Even here in Hawaii, people get annoyed when I tell them I'm going to be out here for (at least) three more weeks.

The worst part about Hawaii is probably the cost of burritos. At the really good taco place down the street, a burrito is $7.95 (plus tax). I love burritos, but a burrito-lover needs to make a stand at some point. Maui Tacos, I'll be taking my business elsewhere! "Elsewhere" = Safeway for peanut butter and jelly.

I've finished reading Atonement. At first, I liked the movie more than the book. But by the time I finished the book, I think it had won.

I also finished Midnight Dreary: The Mysterious Death Of Edgar Allan Poe in about one day. Besides proposing a really fascinating conspiracy theory, the book discusses "cooping," which was a 1800's political practice where thugs would go round up innocent men on the eve of elections. The captured men would be kept over night in a "coop," where they'd be beaten, drugged, then shuttled around to vote for the same candidate in as many districts as possible. Obviously, the amazing part is that the men were so beaten and drugged that they couldn't run away, yet not so out of it as to arouse any suspicion from the numerous officials who presided at each polling place. God bless democracy.

Now I'm reading Number9Dream by David Mitchell, who's probably my favorite author. It's pretty damn weird. Cloud Atlas is probably my favorite book.