Category: Hawaii

After Dark

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Every last Friday of the month the Honolulu Academy of Art sponsors a party called Art After Dark.  By the time we got there last night to meet my friend Seth everything was pretty much over.  We identified at least two gallery wings that flanked an open air courtyard.  One of the galleries we were able to go into before it closed housed a Picasso, a Van Gogh, a Gauguin, and a gorgeous Cassat.  It was an interesting environment:  intimate well curated galleries and a thumping DJ in the courtyard with hundreds of inebriated twenty-somethings gyrating good-naturedly .  I’d like to go back at a proper hour.  We walked up to two bars only to have each of them close , my mouth poised to  yell above the din ‘white wine please!’

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The Churma House

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The other day, a poet named Brenda invited me out to meet some Filipina writers at a special event welcoming a visiting artist.

As K and I were about to head over, Brenda sent a message that she couldn’t come but that I should still go.  As we drove up Kamehameha I thought we were looking for a performance venue and I was half expecting a converted plantation house to emerge from the lush greenery.  But what I read on the evite as The Churma House was actually the Churma home.  Silly.

I knew one person there– a writer named Amalia.  She explained that most of them had come together a couple of years ago  to do a production of The Vagina Monologues which benefited the Filipina Rural Project.  All of them were writers.  A number of them were librarians which I thought was very cool.   Rose, the host, owns a book distribution company called Kalamansi Books which exclusively sells titles from the Philippines here in Hawaii.  Their house was lovely–serene and warm.

We had to leave before the reading started but Amalia said we should eat and get to know people.  We stayed as long as we could.  The pork adobo was delicious.

Eh! try nice

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We visited Eric at Lanakila Pacific today for our Meals on Wheels orientation.  We start our route next week.  As someone that has worked almost exclusively in the not for profit world, I’m pretty impressed so far.  They’re organizational model is unique in that they’re striving to be wholly independant– cooking their own meals, hiring workers from their training programs.  Every element seems to be well thought out and carefully developed.  I’m most impressed by their relationships with Hawaiian farms–sourcing all of their food locally and cooking all meals in house.  K liked the fact that they’ve built relationships with schools and when young people are studying relevant periods in history Lanakila will refer one of the seniors they serve as a first person witness to give a testimonial.  I’m looking forward to getting to know the organization more.

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Clean Living

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Many years ago, I had a beloved little white top from a store called Language on Mulberry St.  It was a white silky bandeau that fit me perfectly.  I wore it for many fancy occasions.  When it was time,  I brought it to the dry cleaner across the street from my apartment in NY.  It was nothing special, just your average neighborhood dry cleaner.

A few weeks later I was getting ready for a party and brought it out,  still wrapped in the dry cleaner’s plastic.   I put it on…I mean,  I tried to put it on.   After the initial shock I realized it had shrunk to a fraction of it’s original size and would have fit a 5 year old snugly.

Since then I’m more careful.  It’s not so easy here in Hawaii to find things by researching online.  As I’ve mentioned before, the best way to find anything is by word of mouth.

I called my favorite store in town, Aloha Rag, and asked them if they could recommend a good cleaner.  They came back with Hayukosha Royal.

We have to attend a restaurant opening on Saturday so we took our fancy duds to be cleaned today.  Their website says they use a GreenEarth system of dry cleaning– detail oriented and environmentally aware. Best of both worlds.

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K’s family is arriving in a couple of weeks.  We agreed we need some help getting the house in order..

The Breeze at Dawn

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I’d missed 4 days of yoga and felt bad about it.  Being sick this week  made going to class feel like a chore. I didn’t want to slip into that rut.  The day I went back Brigitte read this:

For years, copying other people, I tried to know myself.
From within, I couldn’t decide what to do.
Unable to see, I heard my name being called.
Then I walked outside.

The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you.
Don’t go back to sleep.
You must ask for what you really want.
Don’t go back to sleep.
People are going back and forth across the doorsill
where the two worlds touch.
The door is round and open.
Don’t go back to sleep.

Jalaluddin Rumi version by Coleman Barks

Uncle!

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We’re fast approaching our Summer break which means heading back to NY for a little while.  It’s exciting.  Summer is my least favorite season in Manhattan but as K would say ‘it’ll do pig’.  I’m looking forward to being able to go anywhere without having to worry about driving or getting a ride.  Translation I’m most looking forward to seeing all my favorite friends at all our favorite places.  High on my list is a nice long session with Mary at Marlow: good wine, pate, chocolate cake with sea salt.  I just gulped when I wrote that.

K’s friend and coworker Eric wrapped up his job here the other day and they planned a very festive going away dinner for him at Uncle Bo’s in Waikiki.  Lots of people turned out because this Eric dude is a very likable fellow. My friend Seth lives nearby in Chinatown so I gave him a call and asked if he wanted to meet us for a drink.

Seth and I are old friends from NY.  We used to eat and drink a whole lot when we first met 11 years ago.  It was liberating and very nostalgic to spontaneously get together just to drink and talk.  Because of my mobility issues I’ve been here in Oahu for 8 months and have only seen him 3 times.

Uncle Bo’s is quite nice.  K and I unfortunately didn’t eat any of the food because we thought it was only drinks.  On the way, we stopped for McDonald’s drive thru.

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Uncle Bo’s set down a bunch of complimentary dishes in front of us that looked very tasty but at the time made me feel a little sick because of my hastily devoured Big Mac.  I hope we get a chance to go back. The spicy tuna looked good.

My favorite thing at Uncle Bo’s was the espresso infused vodka.  Deeeeelicious.  It didn’t even taste like vodka–very smooth and fragrant.  Seth was explaining to me why it was special but I wasn’t registering what he was telling me.

K and I brought our new flip cameras with us.  After midnight, most of the people at the dinner had either gone home or headed to a party at Aloha Tower.  K, Eric, Seth, and I were the only ones left polishing off drinks and talking.  K and I had brought our new flip cameras and we filmed silly little drunk bits of conversation.

I realized watching the footage later that when I’m drunk I can be a little bit of a bully.  I insisted Eric give me a profound thought to wrap up his time here in Hawaii.  Poor Eric.  When pressed he came up with: don’t eat the yellow snow.

Thems Yummy

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Last night we went over to K’s friend’s house for dinner.  They had a bunch of people over to their place in Lanikai.  It was our first time to see the inside of a Lanikai house.  K and I were marveling at how behind a modest facade such a spacious oasis could exist.  It was a beautiful space.  While we ate our chicken a little distance away from everyone, I told K that I would find it hard living in such a big place.  That when I pictured home, it was an apartment not a house.  K was like, ‘you think it’s because we’re New Yorkers?’ I pondered that.  Is it more natural to want lots of room or to be contained by a smaller place?  It seems funny to prefer less space but I do.

For dessert they made mini ice cream sandwiches:  m&m dark chocolate cookies with mint ice cream.  They have a mini dog named Nunu.  While we were watching tv, Nunu climbed on top of me and gave me and K tiny dog kisses which totally brought back memories of life with a dog.  Dogs make life better.

It’s 6AM. Where am I?

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K was out of the house at 5:50AM this morning– another early call. When we first moved here I would often wake up around this time to answer emails from NY and chat online with friends–even when K wasn’t working early.   I believed that I could continue managing projects there from here.  The time difference is so extreme that I would aim to wake up at 5AM just to respond to people before lunch time.  I’ve come to like the feeling of being up while it’s still dark outside; the sounds of everything waking up around me, particularly the birds chirping around the same time every morning, the sky getting lighter and lighter.  Across the way, our neighbor leaves at the same time everyday, 6:30 their wood gate slams.  It’s a comforting sound.

When I was little, there was a time that my parents would leave me with a babysitter on Long Island and commute into the city for work.  My parents were fastidiously punctual.  We would leave the house in the wee hours so that they could make it to work before 7AM.  I never slept after they left me.  I would lay awake in whatever guest bedroom I was kept in, trying to think of comforting things, listening for any sound that would indicate that my caretakers for that day were waking up: a bathroom door, slippered footsteps, muted conversation, someone beginning to work in the kitchen.

Even though I still wake up with K every time he has an early morning, I don’t try to keep up my life in NY.  It’s been 8 months.  At some point it occurred to me that we live here now.  Which is funny because in few weeks we’re headed back to NY for the summer.