Change

Sad. We're moving out of our sweet blue hawaii leopard print guacamole colored Pa'ia hale. Good bye North Shore. Good bye smelly hippies at Mana Foods and cheap mahi mahi at Fish Market. Ryan's going back to Oregon life and I'm staying on island, waiting for the whales to return and make me the big bucks. Fall, winter and spring apart will be lonely but free minutes with Verizon and unlimited internet with keep us together as always.

Happy! I love my job! I learned how to change the transmission oil and the generator oil yesterday and I get to drive the sexy orange outboard skiff all by myself. I catch the soft pink sunrise over Haleakala in the am and the rampant hot sunset over Lana'i in the pm. In between I keep 130 snorkelling passengers safe and entertained and hopefully environmentally aware for 7 hours. I'm keeping my sea hours to take the test next year and get my captain's license. Alaska '07?

Update. I leave in four days for PORT TOWNSEND, WA. I'm so excited to see the quaint picturesque Victorian seaport, I don't even mind that it will be 25+ degrees colder and 98% grayer than what I'm currently acclimated to. I'm looking forward to seeing Ja Mama, Seattle Aleta, Portland Andrew, Willamette Brie and Alli and Nathan, some fav profs, and any other crazy wonderfuls that happen to cross my path. Also eagerly anticipating the Olympic Hotsprings, Off Center Cafe, the Rose Theatre, the Columbia River, Chetzemoka Park, riding Amtrak, and microbreweries. I have a month off maui to lose my tan, eat burritos and hug doug firs. Heavenly.

On Election Day I come back to Maui and move into my new apartment in Kihei with Tia. I hope to find dance classes and a farmer's market within biking distance. My commute to the harbor in the little white Honda with the broken bumper will be 10 minutes shorter now that I'll be on the South Shore. With all the condo resort freaks. Oh well. We'll be a little island of funky bohemia among the sea of plastic leis and bottled paradise.

Love to the office workers of the world. You are making the world go round. I'm simply pitching eco-ideals to the vacationing masses. Imagine telling a honeymooning couple from Texas to reuse their compostable bioplastic cornstarch cup. The expressions that cross their face are priceless. Freediving for their wedding rings when they come off over the coral reef is also priceless. This job is anything but dull.

I miss the old, embrace the new. Reunion soon?

love, kai

P.S. Are we grown ups now? I hope I didn't miss that milestone.