rockn' in the free world, side ponytail style

I'm sunburned, my hair is salty, my feet are sandy. I am in pure bliss heaven.

I am sitting in my kitchen, drinking vitamin C water, and wearing a fushia bougainvillea behind my ear. March the birthday month is turning out to be all that it promised to be. Last week we had bar b q's and potlucks with our Aolani St. neighbors and went to beach bonfires and played Salad Bowl, the funnest charades game ever, with boat kids from work. I got to wear orchid and tuber rose leis all week since it was my b-day and I put up with many many jokes about getting lei-ed. Ha ha.

As of late I am one happy camper. Weather's been cloudy and dramatically wet (ie sheets of rain you can see approaching and flooded streets with poor windshield wipers) but still hot. I almost upchucked over the railing at work today because the crossing to Molokini was so rough but once we got into the crater to snorkel it was calm as a bathtub and I got to paddle around in a kayak, supposedly lifeguarding but really mostly thinking about a trip my mom and I are planning to take some time in the next five years to Return to our Roots. We want to go to Cuba, Hawaii/Alaska, Zimbabwe and Sweden and then I want to write a book/story about it and include memoirs from crazy Ja Mama's life. Sorry, that was a huge tangent. Back to Maui: I'm buying a surf board this weekend and hoping to catch the bug that everyone's got here and throw myself into it night and day and actually get to be decent at it. Or at least have fun. I hula in my dreams, but not in real life. Yet. I'll keep you posted. Ryan and I are looking for a bigger place upcountry so it looks like our relationship with this island is "getting pretty serious." As in, we're going to be here at least another 6 months. So get your damn tickets to come out here!

I am reading three "fun" books at once, a luxery never afforded in college. They are, in order of intellectual rank: Sophie's World, Eat Pray Love, and Surfer Girl. I just re-read Animal Dreams by Barabara Kingsolver and cried. I am a sucker for re-reading good books. My dad says there's too many books and too little time to do such a thing. My mom says there's too little time period to read books. I must be adopted.

How long are you supposed to cook artichokes? I swear it's been in there over an hour now. I am no Martha Stewart/Betty Crocker/happy homemaker but I have become much more domestic since I moved here. Cooking meals is cheaper and fun and doing dishes and keeping the house clean ensures we don't get ants, roaches, mice or any other tropical pest. Plus it's nice to come home after a long day of explaining humpback whale mating habits to a chill, inviting, uncluttered place. I like being rooted in one place right now but I am also out of this world excited about THAILAND. Tia and I buy our tickets tomorrow! And fly away in June. Sanuk! Mai pen rai. Jai yen. And that's all the Thai I know.

Fig newtons, coconut ice cream, Drammamine and red dirt roads,
Kdubyah

I heart March

I'm going to Thailand!

At least, I may be going if I can make enough dinero to pay for it. My friend Tia (I have friends!) is going for the month of June and she invited me to come with her. She found plane tickets for $650 roundtrip. That's less than a month's rent here in Maui! Lots of details to work out but I can't pass this one up.

It's March madness! I've already been invited to three birthday soirees, not including my own. For my big 23rd, I'm planning a beach bonfire party across the street from our place. Lots of good people, palm trees, singing, guitars, tropical drinks, and possibly skinny dipping. (The water's a balmy 74 degrees after all.) Should be fun.

In related news, I did not get the Fulbright. The only reason I'm sad about that is because I feel my motivation and dreams and intelligence were put to the test and they failed. But I know it's not like that and in all other respects, I'm super stoked because now I can really commit to being here and enjoying life in Hawai'i. I can take hula long term, learn hawai'ian, make time to SURF finally and hopefully find a supplemental job to the whale watching that I find more fulfilling.

I have been using that word a lot lately, fulfilling, and how my life isn't. But I think all that's about to turn around. At least my social life is turning around which makes me happier and more able to recognize all the possibilities around me. We really can't exist as islands, at least I can't. I need people around me who have a similar passion for life a.k.a. wannabe world savers. Sounds like a flavor of Lifesavers or an underground hiphop group.

I'm still up for moving to Portland, OR some day to join the revolution but until then I've got my eye out for a used pink surf board, a yellow cruiser bike, a copy of Lonely Planet Thailand and a real, fulfilling job. And I think this is just the month for it to happen.

love, kai