I Survived Going Over the Edge!

Somehow I managed to raise over $1,000 for Special Olympics and as a result on October 15, 2010 I went OVER THE EDGE! Unfortunately, I had class on Saturday so I could only spend the day really.

I spent the night at the Hoffmans and it was SOOO nice to see Jenn. We stayed up late talking and catching up. I was planning on sleeping in, but I guess my nerves got to me. But I will say that I had forgotten how HOT it gets in Ewa. I woke up as Jenn and Makaela were eating breakfast. I came downstairs and got the funniest look from Makaela. I had come in after she had gone to bed so I can only imagine what she must have been thinking having this random person come down her stairs in the morning!

I got to visit my old stompin' grounds, Ilima. And I definitely have missed the place! It was so fun running around visiting people and seeing familiar faces. I wish had more time to spend, but I had things to do and had to skedaddle out after only a few hours. I visited the Weidas + Melissa and got to meet the newest Weida - little Makenzie. She's so cute!!! Of course she cried when I held her...*sigh*...Monica tells me she was just hungry, but I think babies just don't like me :(

After running around, trying to shop for things that I have a hard time getting on the Big Island it was time to get myself over to the Sheraton. I walked in and got myself up to registration.


After signing my waiver (GULP!) and checking in my bags, I went to the next room to get harnessed up.

GETTING READY TO BE HARNESSED UP

READY TO GO...KINDA

I was SO happy that the guy who harnessed me up was able to let me go in costume. We taped the pig hat to the helmet and I was ready to go! Well, kinda. For about the week prior to the event when it became obvious that I might actually have to do this (!) I've been getting more and more nervous. Despite going sky diving, this had me way more nervous.

A LITTLE LESSON

The Army National Guards give us a little lesson before we go up to the 31st floor. When I asked this guy if he'd ever seen pigs fly, he said, "Sure, I have!" He was super nice and made me feel much better about how easy it would be to rappel. All I had to do was squeeze this lever and it would release the rope so I could just zip right on down. He also explained the safety that would bite into our secondary rope if we went too fast or something else happened.

FEELING A LOT BETTER ABOUT GOING OVER THE EDGE

VIEW DOWN FROM THE PRACTICE PLATFORM

They had as practice rappelling down one floor to the ground floor. It was totally silly that I was nervous doing this since I was about to rappel down over 31 floors!!! They offer you more practice if you need it, but it was simple and as nervous as I was, it was so easy that I was kinda ready to just bite the bullet and go over the edge. A volunteer took me up to the 31st floor. I shared my elevator with a group of Japanese tourists who obviously thought I was strange.

RAINBOW ON THE ROOF

SCAFFOLDING

There was a bit of wait time so I chatted with the people around me. The lady going ahead of me was a preschool special education teacher at Queen Liliuokalani El. She had a daughter who she coached in the Special Olympics. I was also joined by the head Athletics Director for the Special Olympics Hawai'i and his daughter. His daughter was going over without mom's permission. They were going to pick her up at the airport and tell her then that the daughter had gone over the edge! Naughty naughty!

DIAMONDHEAD!

LONG WAY DOWN

After watching a few others go down, it was my turn. They hooked me up and told me to climb over the railing (YIKES!). There were a few tense minutes where it took a few guys to figure out my slack, which definitely did NOT make me feel more reassured. Then they tell me to let go of the railing and test my weight. What happens if the test fails? I'm guessing you end up on the ground rather quick! But thankfully my safety caught and they tell me to let go of the ropes for a photo op (@$&$?!). Feeling nervous and sweaty already, I grinned for my photo and then it was time to rappel.

I started walking down the overhang, which was fabulous, but then as I got to the bottom and had to keep lowering myself down "until I was almost upside down," was not so fun. Now dangling at least 300 ft above the ground I was supposed to squeeze my lever and just go. I squeezed...and I didn't go. Through the walkie clipped to me, I was told to squeeze the lever. I replied I was squeezing as hard as I could. I could see the guys up top conversing and then I hear..."It's because you weigh like 90 pounds...you're going to have to feed the rope through." Well I can tell you that 300+ feet of thick rope is kinda heavy! But the lower I went, the easier it went and soon I was zipping along!

MY SHADOW...MY PIG HEAD MAKES MY HEAD LOOK LIKE I HAVE ENCEPHALITIS

SELF PORTRAIT...IT'S HOT!

The view was AMAZING. I saw at least 4 turtles about 20 ft off the beach, just swimming in the water. The sun was shining and the ocean was blue and gorgeous. We just had great conditions. But it was really HOT! The sun shines directly on you and the wall behind you has been baked from a long day in the sun (It was about 4pm) so it just radiates heat behind you. Before I knew it, I was on the ground!

I SURVIVED!

VIEW FROM THE GROUND

I wish I had stopped and taken more pictures, but I was so self-conscious of spending all that time at the top being stuck. When I was coming down I could hear the host say, "Kristen teaches at Mt. View Elementary. Kristen's sister, Lindsey, it watching online and says, 'Kristen looks spastic.'" Thanks Linds... Nevertheless, I was very popular and had lots of requests to take pictures. I got to be interviewed online and I'm sure I sounded like an idiot because I was hot, tired and hungry. But I had a ton of fun. I was so excited that my friend Alice had come to watch. My other regret (besides taking more pictures on the way down) was that I had to go so quickly. There was a really nice setup at the bottom. They had a little lounge area set up for friends and family. Special Olympic athletes and their families were hanging around, thanking you and whatnot. I hurried over to Ala Moana to spend a mere half an hour with my friend Michelle before it was time to dash to the airport.

As I was waiting in the airport I saw people taking pictures with this guy. I texted Chris and said that I thought UFC fighter, BJ Penn was on my flight. He texted back repeatedly that I should get a picture with him. So, oh-so-coolly I went up and ask him if he was BJ Penn and if I could take a picture with him. He was super soft-spoken and seemed almost shy, which is kind of ironic since he makes a living beating up other people, but was really chill and nice. It was a cool way to cap off my whirlwind visit back to Oahu.

ME AND MY FELLOW HILOAN BJ PENN

There's a video, but it's not that great of quality. You can see me in the last video segment at around minute 51 on this page: http://www.hawaiiirl.com/blog/2010/10/12/mix-it-up-hawaii-live-from-over-the-edge-sohawaii-on-friday-october-15-2010-from-800am-to-500pm-hst/

Practice Makes Perfect

Somehow I got asked to make a wedding cake from a co-worker at work. No one at work has even seen my cakes except through pictures! Her sister is getting married in July 2011 and she requested a relatively simple cake:

THE CAKE THEY WANT

She didn't care if it was square or round, but the bride does want it to have a brown ribbon rather than the purple/gray in the picture. She also wants real orchids - these exact kind and color. Finally, she wants the cake to be chocolate. Apparently KTA (the grocery store) would charge her at least $500 for this cake!

Although the cake is simple, there are 3 huge factors to consider:

1. I've never made a tiered cake before
2. I've never worked with fondant before
3. I've never been paid for my cakes before

But, seeing that the wedding isn't until the summer, I felt confident that I could be able to make the cake with enough practice. So 2 weekends ago I decided to practice. I wanted to start with round cakes since a) those are the pans I have and b) I've heard from the Food Network/WE shows I watch that round cakes are easier to cover.

First, I made the Wilton marshmallow fondant recipe from scratch. With my Kitchenaid mixer, it was super easy! However, I will say that while it tastes a lot better than the Wilton pre-made stuff, it does taste like straight up sugar. Next time I will be trying to flavor it. So that's my first lesson learned...flavor the fondant.

I baked, leveled, filled and crumb coated the cakes in my homemade vanilla buttercream. Nothing too fancy and I definitely wasn't being that careful - Chris kept chiding me to be more careful when I was leveling the cakes. But the objective of this practice was for me to see if I could just use fondant and tier a cake!

Then came the new part...fondant. Our kitchen doesn't have the surface space necessary to roll out the fondant and I couldn't remember if I brought my fondant roller. Chris cleared off the dining room table and found the tiniest wooden roller in a drawer. It would have to do for now as it was about 9pm at night on a Sunday. Rolling the fondant had its challenges as fondant can be quite sticky. But after several tries I had a big enough sheet of fondant to try covering my first tier. Chris helped and I was able to cover the cake with ease! I repeated the process for the second tier.

Then came the stacking. I pulled out my cake decorating reference books and placed cut lollipop sticks in the first tier for supports. Then Chris and I plopped the little tier onto the first. There are definitely imperfections, but I wasn't being that careful and it was my first time making a cake like this!

Next came the decorating. I had bought some silk orchids at the craft store. They weren't the right color, but I just needed them to practice so I wasn't about to shell out big bucks. Chris cut them off their wires and I started sticking them in. Apparently I don't have quite the artistic eye, since Chris got very aggravated with how I was sticking in the orchids and took over arranging them.

I didn't feel like making another batch of fondant for the ribbon since it was late and I didn't have a fondant ribbon cutter anyway, so I just grabbed the ribbon I had lying around for my lei. I used a little buttercream to secure it and voila! Chris got a little nitpicky with his "feedback," but I'm totally happy with this first attempt.

FIRST TIME WITH FONDANT AND TIERING!

THE FIRST PRACTICE CAKE

Obviously there's a lot I need to work on, but I'd say it isn't bad for my first time. I bought a large pastry mat to give me the surface to roll out fondant, I'm probably going to have to get another fondant roller as well as buy a pearl mold to make the pearl chains going around and a fondant ribbon cutter.

The cake was a hit at work...vanilla cake with a vanilla custard filling with fresh strawberries and blueberries - my favorite cake to make and eat! Before I cut it people kept asking me if it was a real cake...of COURSE it's a real cake! Why would anyone bring in a fake one???

Best of all, my coworker sent a picture to her sister, who loves the cake! But I still need to practice. Look forward to it!

I've also been playing with my new diecut machine and it can emboss too. I made this card for a co-worker who's having a really tough time right now.

1 Little Lonely Worker

Today was my first day acting as a pseudo 12 month employee. Now I know all you non-teachers out there will probably want to slap me, but I've been spoiled with breaks and summer vacation. This concept of working year round with something called "vacation days" is still very much a myth to me...like Santa Claus...who I still believe in ;p

Technically I'm a 10 month SSC, which is unusual because most SSCs are 12 month. After my first, hellacious quarter I understand why. However, I can get call back pay if I come in over break to work on my stuff and so for fall break I declared I needed 2 days. Today was my first day working during a break (ESY doesn't count).

I had Chris drop me off at work at my usual time - I'm still woefully carless. It was pouring rain and still is now. I can hear it pounding now as I speak - YIKES, like someone knew I was writing about the rain, it literally started raining HARDER just a moment ago. Creeeeepy. Anyway, I dashed out in my fabulous cowboy rainboots - ask Michelle, they are truly fabulous - and realized there was no one on campus.

So I spent the day being super productive (Wow, you mean I have a desk under all those files???). But I couldn't believe I was the only one on campus...my admin weren't even around! I was rather lonely with no one to talk to, but I suppose that explains how I got so much done.

Nothing eventful happened other than some random lady who was visiting the library screaming bloody murder and death threats (really) because my custodian allegedly went into her car. Seriously, this lady had nothing worth anything in her car. My super friendly custodian, Marvin was power washing the parking lot. In the rain. Looking like that Gorton guy who sells fish sticks.

FISH STICKS

Really! I'm talking yellow slickers (waders or whatever), the yellow rainjacket, AND the floppy hat. I don't know what was more amusing to me - the getup or the fact that he was washing the parking lot in the pouring rain.

APPARENTLY PEOPLE REALLY DO DRESS LIKE THIS