Couches Couches Everywhere

So I'm assuming (with full knowledge of what assumptions do to you and me) that some people out there aren't fully knowledgeable about this phenomenon called couch surfing. It seems that recently any kind of 'surfing' is considered (to borrow from David) the cat's pajamas - you know, the ocean, the web, and now couches.
So last week-week and a half ago, I picked up my first 'real' couch surfer (the first first one was Jon, a friend of my brothers and because I kind of knew him already, I'm not counting him) Amenala. She was coming from Australia (originally from MD, but had been living in OZ for the last 3 years or something) and was an interesting girl. She taught me about WWOOFing which I find very exciting.

Friday evening, Ayumi found her way to my road. She is GREAT! She's Japanese, but spent the last 4 years in New Paltz, NY (?) learning print making.. I had one of the most fun days ever with her yesterday. It was so easy to hang out with her that it felt like we'd been friends for long time. We snorkeled all over Sunset beach - I was surprised how much there was to see - and 3 Tables (although there were so many little kids around it was definitely a Rubber Ducks day). I was hoping there would be some turtles out since she was so excited to see one, but no such luck. We figured out that it's much more fun to try and take bad pictures than good pictures.

I couldn't let go of the turtles though so we had to head to Laniakea. I was about to show her how to feed the turtles when these bitchy highschool girls came and STOLE them from us. I couldn't believe how rude they were... oh well.

Then we headed into Haleiwa and had the best dinner at Banzai Sushi.. I'm totally in love with their no nori veggie roll. I think I could eat 3 or 4 of them. We had a contest to see who could get the most mosquito bites after putting on the restaurants bug spray - Ayumi won (10-7) and was quite proud of how much healthier she was.
We had a nice sunset at Waimea where I got to teach her what 'ripped' meant. I was sad to drop her at the Pupukea hostel, but I"m hoping that wherever I find myself at the end of this year, she'll come visit again! And maybe, just maybe, I might find myself saying one day.. Hmm! I think it's time to check out Japan.


Anyway, yesterday was just the kind of easy fun-ness that I've been needing to get me out of my apartment and into the ocean! It was also wonderful to meet another young woman who is so comfortable with herself and her own ideas (like my chumbapie!), I've definitely been learning how rare the opportunities are to really get to share myself and my accumulated wisdom and get to peek into someone else's too. Plus, I have an odd sense of humor and finding other people who either get it, are ok with it, or just have their own odd humor is more fun than I'd ever put together before. Such a good day or laughing, playing, and learning. What more can you ask for??

Book 5

So David and Jesse both told me that book 5 of Harry Potter was not their favorite... but I have to say while it went much slower than any of the other books, I felt much more connected to it. Definitely not the happiest of the books, but I thought it was really really good.

A Sweet-Ass Friend

haha.. I'm so clever with my puns...

SO! last week one of Anne's best friends (get it.. sweet.. I'm so bad), Jeff, took a little stop over on Oahu to check out my school. That made for some interesting conversation as you can imagine, what with my current state of mind about everything. Anyway, he turned out to be pretty fun after a short getting acquainted period (what else would you expect after a recommendation from Anne and all...)! And even though he was only here for a short 24 hours - which we spent wisely at lanikai juice, school, and kalama beach - I felt like I made a new friend. Good shit!