Life's got something devious in mind

Soooooo..... my life has been seeming to take things into it's own hands lately, and I've been scrambling to find a way to keep up while still getting my own say in! I've really been feeling like I don't know how much more change I can handle, while at the same time feeling halfway detached from it all. This last part has really thrown me, but it's kinda nice because I feel much more relaxed about everything that's been happening than I would have in the past. So I guess that's a good thing.

The newest addition to the worm-hole of my life (I'm not sure if this is a good analogy - I'm trying to invoke images of not feeling control over anything but more like just being along for the ride and things are moving really fast and changing direction whenever they feel like it - maybe the Harry Potter Knight Bus is better for those who get the reference) is that I'm seriously considering leaving Hawaii to move to Santa Cruz. I'd be leaving my school and transferring to a new one over there that I think will suit me and be more along the lines of where I want to end up with my life.

This change has many implications and complications that I'm not super excited about dealing with, but as with all the other change I've been going through, I'm finding that I'm having a pretty easy time looking at those annoyances as worthwhile lessons to learn and that those things I should know how to deal with anyway. So why not just get it over with so I can move on??

I'm seeing a lot of advantages and exciting things to moving to California - closer to family, cooler climate (yay soup!), better quality food that is cheaper, more alignment with my personal philosophies mainly environmental awareness, better quality education, get to hang with Jesse..

but also some disadvantages - cold stinky ocean that I won't be able to play in, not as pretty mountains, loss of spiritual component of school and fresh local herbs (you know, the reasons my current school is great), won't get to live next to DnA anymore, won't get to live by myself, MOVING SUCKS, having to sell all my stuff (especially all my new apartment stuff!!)...

I think the stuff on the advantages list weigh a bit more heavily. And I've found myself able to say for the second time in my life (first time was when I moved here) that if I'm not happy, I can always come back to Hawaii.. It will still be here. BUT! with the way things have been going, I might have a completely NEW new plan in a week. We'll see!

Piling it on

Things at school have gotten interesting. A bunch of people, including me, have become increasingly unhappy with the way the school is being run and how it's affecting the quality of our education.

It's a long story and as soon as I feel like getting into it I'll be updating.

Oh Boy

I think it's going to be a rough couple of weeks... just finished book 2... yeah...

Jesse pretty much pegged it - the first few books you can read in a night! yikes. I need to control myself so I can read on the beach!! These books are like crack!!!

I wish I hadn't heard Jess and David talking about it last week though.. of course I don't know for sure, but I feel like I've got it all figured out. Hopefully I'm wrong.

So far my favorite thing is how everyone in the books can't stand the annoying characters... it doesn't seem to get old. I might have to start asking some kiddies I know what they get out of these books. I'm curious to see how it's different (if it is) from what older kids (I don't know who we think we're kidding that we're not all still kids) get.

I might have to move to Washington

Look at this!!

Potter

I've been sucked in.

I got the first harry potter (which I keep spelling happry potter for some reason) book from the library sunday. I had low expectations (which is nice) but the damn book kept me up until 3am.. made monday sweet. Anyway, I finished it last night and promptly returned it and checked out the next 2 this afternoon.

I have a feeling it's going to be a brain-candy kind of summer! I have to keep Anne and Jesse's advice to pace myself in mind though. I think it will be easier when the books start getting thicker.

Lots of Learning Going On Over Here

and this poem by Max Ehrmann, which I first read maybe 10 years ago, eloquently sums up a lot of things that I find all too easy to understand, but much more difficult to live by. It's interesting how many times people have to learn the same lessons over and over again, huh?

My Day With Jesse!

I got the pleasure of Jesse's company the last couple of days!

We stayed up late debating the finer points of family politics and back-walking Sunday. Then after waking up, getting ready, and eating cereal, I decided that I had to skip Coconut and spend time with this fine friend that hasn't been to these parts in a long 3 years.




We got a little bit of a late start, and should have maybe consulted a map before we left, but we made it to Ho'omaluhia with no problems other than sweaty bodies. Jesse was a good sport and didn't give me a hard time about not knowing how far it was or that it wasn't going to be a lovely walk. AND! He took pretty picture of plants for me!!

That top one is the coxcomb flower which we just learned in Materia Medica a couple of weeks ago. I'm ashamed to say that I don't remember the Chinese name of it.. although I could go look it up...

Then we have the banana flower over here... I love the bananas!






I'm not sure what this one is, but after talking about how the bougainvilla is a trickster and makes you think that it's leaves are the most wonderfully colored flowers, we were ready to call this guy out for trying to be sly.... little did he know that we were wise to his tricks. It was nice that the leaves were all soft and fuzzy (like a hairy-tits we know??)





These are what I learned as 'lipstick' palms, but the botanical gardens called them something else that I've blocked out. I just love the red-orange (my current favorite color maybe) next to the yellow green. It just does it for me, I guess. Try not to be too distracted by my pasty white arm molesting the tree...

We saw some more banana flowers and got lots of mosquito bites before it started sprinkling (nice break from the noon day sun) and we moved into the next part of the garden....










I'm not sure who this flower is, but I love how Jesse got the super up-close-and personal view of it.










THIS! is my new desktop pic! I LOVE MONKEYPODS!!! I want to have one in my pocket (next to Anne - she can enjoy it in my pocket too) so I can pull it out and sit under it reading a book or take a nap whenever I want.

I mean, who could possibly get tired of that view?? Think of all the birds playing around in there and the wind moving the branches and the leaves and all the shade on a hot sunny day... *sigh*

After the monkeypod we walked through a grove of Awapuhi - the shampoo ginger and saw a couple of nutmeg trees. This was very exciting for me as nutmeg is one of my favorite spices!

Then we stumbled into an area of spiky palms - which I also read the name of and promptly forgot. Damnit! We decided it must have some delicious fruit though to have to protect it like that.

After that, we were pretty much focused on a safeway sandwich and a beer of some kind, so we headed back towards the visitors center with a stop at the thorny tree.



Jesse made friends with a giant pea pod - separated at birth - Jesse and Kokopelli...


And, of course, on the way out of the garden, we saw in someone's yard, the quintessential picture of Hawaii... the plumaria.

We had a long walk back but were rewarded with juice, sandwiches, chimay, and a ride home from the store from that sexy neighbor of mine..

It couldn'thave been a finer day - or night - especially with the nice needling Jesse got to enjoy!

An Awkward Saturday

Well, I'm not going to lie, this past saturday was both a good and incredibly BAD day.

It started out good enough, I hung out with Jorge and Shane out at Shane's family's camp out by Mokulēʻia - nice day, a little windy, but we played in the sand and ate li hing fruit salad - WHICH I can't believe I never thought of!!

Then I bought my Heather Brown art , had a nice 2 hour chat with Mom and Dad, before heading up to Billy and Dawn's to wish a happy 40th to Dawn with a bottle of wine and help pick out party music.


That's pretty much when it started to get crappy for me which really sucked cause I was wanting to have a fun firetwirling party with some friends. Luckily (or not) only a couple of people from school showed up so I didn't have to feel too bad about being so anti-social and angry.

Nevertheless, it was great to catch up with Jesse and have a word or too with Brian while completely avoiding everyone else.

Angelica and Jesse also managed to get some pretty pictures which I will shamelessly post for my own enjoyment!

Saturday turned out to be a big lesson day for me and while it wasn't fun, it was necessary, and I appreciate it for that even though I wish it didn't have to be that way.

Hopefully I won't have to repeat this one too many times!

Oh Baby..

I bought a massage table today!!!!

kuliou'ou pics

have been uploaded and can be looked at in reverse order (no idea how to get it right on that dirty flickr) here!

Art!

During my trip to the north shore yesterday, I stopped at the Heather Brown gallery and bought myself 3 prints. I love them!

movin on up

Check out my new (as of this evening) living room. I'm ready for all kinds of fun.

Kuliou'ou Hike

This past Saturday I went hiking with Angelica, David (shirtless sitting at the picnic table), Anita (pink shirt), Dave (shirtless directly to the right of me in the pic), and PJ (blue shirt). We went to Kuliou'ou, which I'd done one other time with Jorge, Shane and Jacob. I enjoyed this hike much more the second time (for a number of reasons!) and was really glad I got out of the house and enjoyed myself.

It was also great getting to know Anita and Dave. I'd heard a lot about them through Rahul and DnA, and knowing that Subrat is Anita's brother made me very curious about them.


The giant banyan tree ~ halfway up the hike is my favorite part of the whole thing. We stopped on the way up AND on the way down and had good climbing sessions - you can play 'find the people' in the assorted pictures.

It was also fun noticing how much the Coconut Island stairs helped my hiking skills. Having to walk up so many stairs to go home every day really helped me learn the many ways to stair climb. That was very useful towards the end of the hike when it gets all steep and steppy.


The view at the top was quite beautiful as usual, as well as windy. I got pretty cold and was happy I had my raincoat. I have to say that one of the best things about hiking with DnA is that they lov to eat just as much as I do. There was a plethora of snacks to be had at the top of the mountain which meant I didn't have to be stingy and territorial out of fear of hunger. I know I'm pretty ridiculous for that, but I must have some kind of ingrained fear of starvation or something. I'm not quite sure, but I get pretty fierce!




At the top, we met a man who apparently hikes Kuliou'ou every week or something; he told us a story about being up at the top, enjoying the cloudy, misty day when all of a sudden flock of PARROTS started flying past him. he said each bird was a different color. It sounded like quite the magical moment. I think that now every time I hike somewhere in the Ko'olaus I'm going to be hoping to see this elusive flock of parrots.

I have to say that I've been continually surprised how much my attitude during activities is different depending on who I'm activity-ing with. It's nice to feel that I can most likely enjoy pretty much any activity as long as I have the correct company. This realization has put a few things into perspective for me, including the rejection of the idea of anyone saying that they know for sure that they don't like something when they've only tried it once or even a couple of times, or always with the same people. Yes, this is one more area where the entire landscape of experience is important, not just what the picture is of on first glance.

Here's the photo shoot of our downhill climbing session.

I love this picture of David. He's just got the best look on his face!















Here's Angelica and Dave.. aren't they cute little monkeys!










The next one is the 'Where's Waldo' challenge... can you find everyone??










And the final picture of the hike is just how I like it - nice and ridiculous!