BFFs

Good dirty fun is hard to find.

As are adventure partners who are willing to engage in rotten food battles, swim up streams not of muddy water but of watery mud, camp with someone who nearly ruins the tent zipper going pee four times in a night, and walk around in gnarly bare feet caked with every evil thing that can stick to a sole. But I'm lucky. I've found two friends who not only are willing to do these things, but love to do them as much as I do. In fact, Chris, Ginger & I did all of these things - and many others - in just a one week period.

In fact, let me count how many tons of fun we had...

It was awesome...
Camping in the forested belly of Waipio Valley, just hidden from the rushing whisper of the Sea...

...Watching you masterfully build a blazing fire, on which we cooked canned chili, gooey with melted cheese...

...Playing UNO, & other games with the deck of Hooters cards...drinking both wine and the next morning's coffee out of red plastic cups, rinsed - like the other dishes - only with muddy river water, scrubbed with the exfoliating power of grit, rocks and sand...

...Collecting arsenals of rotten guava from the beach for an all-out fruit war...rinsing those seeds from my body in the ocean waves...watching the dog body-surf them in, much to her adorable surprise...running barefooted across black sand...rolling down the slant of it into the water the same way I used to roll down the grassy hill in our backyard as a kid, becoming dizzy with laughter...racing back to the campsite – you on foot, me swimming upstream…

...4-wheeling like sidekicks to Indiana Jones down ambiguous rocky roads, looking for the secret pathway to the upper rim of Hi'ilawe Falls...seeing that man peeing to mark the potential spot...removing gates when they were in the way of our adventure...

...Walking through the skeleton of an abandoned house, finding a strange hole in its floor where bows and arrows mysteriously lay among the rubble…reaching the very top of that huge hill in the fog, whose flanks were dotted with sheep and cows for Ginger to chase down…letting her run her little doggy heart out – behind the car – while we watched her slowly empty of steam in the rearview mirror…

Being awakened by the sound of you, lifting the dog onto the bed and egging her on while she panted her hot morning breath in my face...Eating (at least decent) Mexican food, drinking Coronas with lime, and playing pool at Ocean's on “Taco Tuesday”...watching your Mom get hit on and called a "Sexy Bitch" by several men, young and old alike...watching all those little kids and teenagers on their boards, rocking Skate Night at The University of Nations…plotting our trip to the skate park in Volcano…making your coffee in the mornings, so sweet and milky it forgot it was coffee…

…Joining Aidan the Boy Wonder’s Kiholo Bay Thanksgiving Potluck Campout...…

Eating deep-fried turkey, stuffing cooked over a fire, and pumpkin pie with real cream whipped right on the spot…drinking Bartender John’s Hawaii-style lemon drops, as he sat on the bed of his truck, fishing hand-picked citrus of all kinds out of a box to mix with vodka and the natural sweetener agave nectar...

…Watching some dude in a speedo spin fire...

...Swimming with a group of naked hippies late at night in a freshwater cave with dive lights...Seeing Ginger dive in off the wooden ladder, along with everyone else…

...Sleeping – again – to the sound of water running endless laps to and from the breathtaking Kona shore…

…Playing a million games at the house, as usual… Rock Band in spite of the one broken guitar…Wii Games, fresh out of the wrapping…Wii ping pong, pool, fishing, racing, shooting, and then some…Tiger Woods PGA Tour on PS3…and the game where you smash all the zombies in the mall with whatever object is near you and you pick up and hurl at them until they are nothing but piles of really real-looking blood…playing Battleship and Backgammon…Talking about science, evolution, politics, people, animals and Life…Having heated debates about the nature of intelligence, challenging one another’s minds to grow bigger…

Hiking, picking avocados and climbing trees in the far reaches of the Breeze’s Farm in Captain Cook…eating lots of the chocolate cake that became Aidan’s secret dessert stash at the outdoor holiday festivities days before…hanging out at your house all day Saturday, leaving only to accompany your Mom to Home Depot for a Douglas Fir…stringing Christmas lights, arranging decorations as if your living room were a mall display in December…cringing and laughing as your Mom forced us to listen to both Josh Groban and Barbara Streisand’s Holiday Albums…nestling your childhood ornaments into the sweet smell of pine…remembering my own kid-Christmases, missing my own family – especially my Mom - painfully…but rejoicing in how nice it feels to have you and your Mom and all the pets as my family too…

God, am I forgetting anything? Probably. But just writing what I just did felt like having all that fun all over again…and that much fun might even be dangerous. I’d better stop for now.

Until next weekend…