But before we go…….

We have four weeks left here.  There’s so much that we’re trying to do before we leave.  The last few weeks have been invigorating.  K and I want to leave something behind that we can continue to contribute to even after we leave and alot of the pieces have been falling into place, but I’ll leave that for another post.

Four weeks left.  Almost 2 years behind us.  We’re returning to a place that you rarely see green, you don’t wake up looking at the sky, and mochi is not in abundant supply.  So while we were having lunch the other day I brought a notebook with me and we started our Hawaii wish list: all the things that I hope we get to do before we leave.  Some of these things we want to do together.  Some only one of us wants to do (ie skydiving (eg not me)).

1. Volcanos (Big Island)
2. Black sand beaches (Big Island)
3. Swim with dolphins in the wild (with a life vest)
4. Skydive
5. Take a surf lesson ( I don’t swim)
6. Molokai
7. Hana
8. Lanai
9. Stay on Kauai’s North Shore
10. Old Lahaina Luau
11. Merrie Monarch

These are sort of touristy things.  Hopefully more specific ideas will occur to me.
In four weeks we’re back home.  I find myself trying to take stock of all kinds of things:

what we want to do before we leave here;
what our new home might look like;
what kind of job I’ll get
…we’ll see….

wish us luck!

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Between Days


I’ve been a little depressed. Which is worth examining because life has been good: we live in a beautiful home with great neighbors; I have a car that I love driving; we’ve had the opportunity to make friends with a wide variety of lovely people; and the communities out here move me– a bubbling of ideas that make it seem like anything can happen, anything can change. The sun shines every day.

Despite this, for the past couple of weeks, I’ve been distractingly blue. Sometimes thinking about Ruth. Sometimes not being able to sleep…

We just booked our tickets to go home for the holidays. It hit me so suddenly how good it will feel to be home for a little while. I’ve hardly thought about New York. It feels farther than it is.

But as November whips by, I imagine running errands on the Upper East Side. It’s dark out but it feels early. Daylight Saving has just started and I’m thinking about Christmas gifts. But there’s time, so today I won’t feel bad buying stuff for myself. I’ll text KL and ask him what we’re going to have for dinner. Maybe he’ll text me back that we should meet at Setagaya for a big bowl of steaming ramen. We’ll walk home holding hands with gloves on and shed our thick layers when we get back to our small but well-lit studio.

I miss it. I miss the cold. I miss a book. The one that has the poem. I would put it here now. Mark Wallace’s Standard Time.


Happenings…real and imagined.

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Sarah invited me to work with her and some great people that have created a presenting organization called Interisland Terminal. I haven’t attended one of their weekly meetings yet but I’m looking forward to it. In the meantime their second program Turn it Up to 11! Rock N’ Roll Cinema Weekend opens this Friday.

Back home Mary is getting ready for her S/S 2010 Fashion Week presentation for Slow and Steady Wins the Race. I’ve been trying to work with her from afar. I don’t know how useful I’ve been but it keeps me from feeling so far away. She has a great roster of contributors to The Still Life:

Last year I believed that I video taped a ghost . This year ghosts are not really an issue but having distance from it has made me curious about what really happened.  I was talking to Julie about it and she suggested that I have a session with this woman that does ‘clearings’.  I think I’d like to ask her about my tape.

Finally I’m trying a new recipe tonight. Kat introduced me to the recipe for Zuni Chicken which has become something I cook almost every other week. I asked her to recommend another recipe just to have more than one chicken dish in my repertoire. She didn’t have one but she steered me towards one of her favorites: Mark Bittman. Here’s how the Butter Chicken (as we’re calling it) turned out:


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.

The Skirt that was a Teddybear

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When I was in highschool I used to call very good days ‘love’ days in my journal.  As in, ‘Today was a love day’.  Today was not that for me but in the same spirit I would call today a Sun Day.  K’s job isn’t a normal 9-5 job.  Sometimes he has to leave very early in the morning.  Sometimes not until mid-afternoon.  In a way it’s nice because everyday can be different somehow.  But the suburban in me longs for routines and schedules you can count on.  This morning felt like a day that could be someone’s routine.  K was driving into town and the timing worked out that he could drop me off at yoga class.  We were even able to do some early morning grocery shopping before heading downtown. It was a very lite FM kind of morning.

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I loved it.

After two weeks of dedicated attendance ( 11 of 14 days) Sarah and I came to the the end of our new student discount at Open Space Yoga.  The sadness is that we’ve been able to go to an unlimited amount of classes for only $30.  We saved over $100.  We’ll definitely go back for classes with Murti and to try the Yin Yoga class which we didn’t get to do.  But next week we’re moving on to a new place.  More than likely Manoa Yoga Center.

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Sarah and I were going to try lunch at Mix afterwards because neither of us had been.  It was really crowded and I suggested we go back to Nuuanu and eat at Indigo.  We’d passed it on the way and Sarah said it was a buffet style lunch that was rather good.  And it smelled good!  So we splurged and had a little bit of a fancier lunch.

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Yum!

It was a very decadent day.

Sometimes talking to Sarah is like a Master Class on Hawaii for me.  She drove me back home to Kailua and on the way she was telling me about Mu’u mu’u Heaven–a little shop in Kailua that carries dresses and apparel made out of vintage mu’u mu’u’s.  The store is tucked in behind Foodland.  Its’ so awesome that I’ve passed the turn countless times and never knew it was there.

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So many lovely things– dresses, skirts, tops, jewelry, bags…  When Obama was last here he donated his Toot’s mu’u mu’us to the store and the designer made a bow tie and cummerbund for him out of the material.   I pulled a post-Holly Hobbie/ Laura Ingalls type skirt off the rack and told Sarah that I loved it so much that I could feel it in my stomach but that I would never wear it.  Rather I’d sleep with it every night like a teddy bear forever.

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Shortly after Sarah dropped me off I got a call on my cell from an unfamiliar Long Island telephone number.  I tentatively answered assuming that it was a wrong number.  Turned out to be a friend of someone that K and I both know back in NY.   We got a message that  this woman was going to be in town and didn’t know anyone aside from the friend she was staying with and that friend was going to be working much of the time she was here.  I very off-handedly sent a message saying she could call me and I’d meet her if I could.

I answered and she said she was at the beach (which is right across the street) did I have time to come out.  My instinct was to say I couldn’t because I was tired and had alot of writing I wanted to do.  But I told her to come over and after I had some time to change we could go to the beach and swim.

It was unexpectedly a very relaxing  and pleasant afternoon.  Sunah was very nice.  We ended up spending a long time bobbing in the water and talking about all types of things.  I’m really glad that I behaved counter intuitively and met up with her. Maybe there’s hope for my Aloha spirit afterall!

These are the cookies she left behind:

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Hoover

Favorite Hawaii made sweets available at Foodland:

  • Bubbys Homemade Ice Cream and Desserts (mochi ice cream)
  • Roselani Chocolate Macadamia Nut ice cream
  • Ted’s Chocolate haupia cake

Things I’m going to check out as soon as we get home for the holidays:

  • Permanent Brunch 95 First Ave., New York, NY 10003 post–Tasting Room Colin Alevras and Tillman’s Lesly Bernard open this project dedicated to the weekend meal all day every day, and introduce what must be New York’s first artisanal bacon bar.
  • Kurve 87 Second Ave. , New York, NY 10003
  • Priti Organic Spa 35 E. 1st St., New York, NY 10003

Followed by a pate bonanza at Marlow & Sons with Mary.