Hawaii Adobo

An open letter to Hawaii’s stylish boutiques:

I’m talking to you Fighting Eel, Fashionista’s Market, Valerie Joseph, Bamboo Sky, Eden in Love, Mahina - and a barrage of other cute LOCAL boutiques. You clothes are cute, but DO NOT fit me. It kind of sucks.

I hate being relegated to only purchasing shoes, accessories and/or handbags at your stores. I want to wear clothes you sell if only they’d fit over my thigh/arm/stomach/boobs. I’m pretty sure that I’m not the only one. Girls who wear clothes in a size 12 and up are SOL when it comes to finding something to squeeze into from your stores. 

Thankfully, the last season or two have featured looser fitting garb (which isn’t so loose on me) but at least I can make a size L trapeze shaped top work. I’m sure this won’t last, however. Sometimes I can squeeze my melons and/or hippy self into something with a little spandex.

I would much rather support a local company than have to purchase my on-trend items online. Not being able to try things on have resulted in many returned items. The only local boutique I know of who has considered us curvaceous chikas is Jeans Warehouse. 

Seriously, look around Hawaii - girls with a badunkadunk are plentiful. A lil extra cushion for the pushin’ is as plentiful as the plumeria. So I ask you local Hawaii boutiques - won’t you help a full-figured sister out? 

There’s a lot of us out there, show us some Aloha.

Usually the phrase “The one that go away” refers to past loves in one’s life. For me, I think of clothes that have cycled their way in and out of my closet. Now, I longingly think of them and wish they still were chillin’ on one of my hangers:

1. Dark red/purple silk blazer - it hung perfectly and the sleeves could be scrunched to elbow length with ease. I thought that I couldn’t make it work, so I donated it. 
2. Gauzy White Tunic - Bought it on a whim at old navy and wore it twice. This was pre-leggings days. Should’ve waited before getting rid of it.
3. Kitten-heeled Vintage shoes - I wore them to death, So at least they were well used.
4. Red and white boucle jacket - In the style of Chanel, it was 3/4 sleeve and adorable, I can’t remember why I got rid of it
5. Black blazer from Banana Republic - I brought it to store at my mom’s house and she gave it away. Sad face indeed.
6. Black and White body con dress - this dress hugged each and every curve in a good way - kinda made me look like a penguin in a good way as well. Alas, it was just a bit too big.

Alright. Enough boring fashion shoulda coulda wouldas.

Yes, we got a new car (thanks to our generous wedding guests we were able to put a nice down payment on it). We decided to get a Kia Soul and we love it. I figured I would share my experience and some lessons learned, tips and tricks from the whole process.

After reading up about car buying on the internet - from reviews to tips and tricks - we decided on the Kia Soul for a few reasons: price, features and the awesome Kia warranty. The new car was going to primarily be my husband’s car since we wanted to give his older car a breather from the back and forth trips across the island. I liked the fact that I could haul stuff around in it, since I plan events. 

One weekend we got the balls to finally go down to a dealership and test drive a vehicle. We made it a point to go on a day where we had another appointment to go to in the early evening so we wouldn’t be tempted to jump the gun.

TIP #1: DON’T JUMP THE GUN.

You can and SHOULD test drive however many vehicles you want to make sure you are getting the car you want for the price you want. We were lucky and found that the Kia Soul was indeed the car for us. Go to the dealership on a day that you have another commitment later in the day if you have to. You’ll have enough time to take a few test drives and them peace out before they try the hard sales pitch.

We went to the Aloha Kia Nimitz location in Honolulu and I have to say that our first experience at a dealership was pretty crappy. C-R-A-P-P-Y. Crappy!

We psyched ourselves up for some pushy salesmen and entered the lot. Immediately a salesman latched onto us and started talking to us about the different cars available. We noticed that he was quite disheveled, with holes in his shirt. Not quite the image that we expected for a car salesman. But perhaps looks would be deceiving? We mentioned we were just looking and he just kinda followed us around asking every few minutes if we wanted to go on a test drive. Standard salesman - that part was fine. 

When we test drove the Kia Soul, we found that the salesman was less knowledgeable about the car than we were. He kept pointing out the “safety” feature of the 6 airbags - 3 for each passenger and 2 in the bag. Hmmmmm…(3x2)+2 does NOT equal 6. We asked a few questions for which he fumbled for answers for and did not offer much by means of expertise. A warning light went off in our heads and we both kind of knew that we wouldn’t be buying a car today for sure, and definitely not from this dude.

TIP #2: PEACE OUT IF YOU FEEL UNEASY.

Car buying should be akin to any retail buying situation I think. You should feel comfortable, not rushed, check out the merchandise leisurely and try it on for size - especially if you are a bargain shopper. I wouldn’t buy a pair of Jimmy Choos without trying them on first, and if a salesperson was trying to get me to buy the wrong size I’d be out of there in a flash.

As soon as we got out of the car for a test drive, he immediately asked us if we’d like to go inside to work on some numbers. We said no and asked to test drive another car. We chose the Kia Forte as pricewise it was pretty similar to the Soul and had similar standard features. We wanted to test drive one of the middle models with not too many bells and whistles. Of course, the one he had us test drive was the upgraded-everything model with leather interiors, the works.

Not even a minute after we drove off the lot, it ran out of gas. RAN. OUT. OF. GAS. On a fricking test drive. We were stuck for 20 minutes on the side of the road at Lagoon Drive waiting for some damn gas. That leads me back to Tip#2. As uneasy as we were feeling about this dealership, this kind of sealed the deal. 

What kind of dealership takes people on a test drive only to have their car run out of gas? 

The answer is simple. One that did not get a sale from the G’s that day.