The Good News: I did get the 'new' apartment in Waikiki. Rental agreement is signed, hands shook, key in my possession.

The Bad News: it's really, really, really hard to move from one end of Oahu to the other on less than 24hr prep time, by yourself, especially when parking in Waikiki is scarcer than liquid water on the moon and your moving van is a rented car and the rental agency won't let you extend the rental period enough to actually have time to move without charging a few hundred dollars for a few extra hours. Yeah, that's not a proper sentence, but I don't care. Moving is stressful. I got really stressed out, and burst into tears in public a few times. But I don't care. Living alone in a quiet, spacious, super cheap (for Waiks), slightly funky apartment, 2 (count'em two, (uno, dos)) short blocks from Waikiki beach (one of those blocks is the beach), where I could paddle out and half drown in view of dozens of Japanese tourists every morning if I want to, is more than totally worth all of the hassle.

Oddly, I've moved so many times in my life, and have so little stuff with me in Hawaii, it took me about an hour to pack. It took me four hours to attempt to resolve the rental car snafu, and I eventually gave up. If I had known I would waste that much time, I could have just moved. Sigh. I'll try again tomorrow or Wednesday.

Did I mention I have a wraparound lanai? The new apartment also has a stove, which is not something you can count on being furnished in an apartment in Honolulu. And yes, it has a fridge - er - icebox, as it is called here. It is also equipped with a comfortable, inviting desk - so maybe I'll be able to finish a novel there.