I am writing this post from my balcony in Honolulu, and I could not be more grateful to be here right now. It's lightly raining this morning, but I have coffee, the air is warm, and the scenery gorgeous. I'm here solely due to my parents' generosity, and loving every second of it.

As I mentioned in the previous post, nothing went quite as planned yesterday, but it all turned out to be good. I woke up late, my flights were delayed, but I still made it and with little chaos (save the man behind me who thought I should not recline my seat and SHOVED it up when I did).

I also got some reading done. I finished Book #8, Super Sad True Love Story. I enjoyed it. It's futuristic, and somewhat depressing, but the main characters have something just quirky enough about them that they're loveable. I can't say it's my favorite ever though, and did take me a while to wade through reading bits and pieces here and there.

Book #9 was read on my LAX to HNL flight, Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother. If you've watched any media at all you've heard about it. And I have to say, I think Amy Chua might be on to something. Not entirely, but at least in part. Why not assume strength and instill discipline in children? She certainly makes some glaring mistakes, but it seemed like an honest struggle on her part.

I started books #10 and #11, which couldn't really be more opposite. #10 is Greg Boyd's Present Perfect: Finding God in the Now, and #11 is Jay-Z's Decoded. Greg Boyd is definitely a better writer than Jay-Z, but I think I'll stick through Decoded, despite it being somewhat boring so far.

I have quite a few books with me (I will be protecting my Kindle from water with my life on this trip!), and am hoping to finish a few more while I'm here.