Just Another Day in Paradise

(A pretty typical one, and oh, so much fun!)

early this morning, i hung out with keely at our friends', pam and tom's house. pam and tom are a handsome/beautiful couple, very successful and fun. keely and i are house-sitting and pet-sitting for them while they're away over the next two weeks. keely's taking the first week, i get the second, with their geriatric daschound (snitzel) and pug (phoebe). adorable little ones, they are! so keely and i swam in their gorgeous pool, laid in the sun for a while, and skimmed through the movie section in the paper, thinking about what we would see later in the afternoon. we always see movies on friday afternoons. today we decided we'd finally see 'american gangster'. a long, but enthralling, film with an excellent cast.

anyway, after swimming, i showered, then met chris in town at the kava bar for lunch. kava is a root, which - when made into a gray drink that tastes like a combination of turnips and mud - is supposed to make one feel "relaxed". i don't drink the nasty stuff, unless it's frozen and whipped into a "kava-colada", and its bitter taste is drowned out. however, the place is cool, a chill little space where people gather and shoot the breeze. it's outside in the open, just a little bar with wooden stools, and a few picnic-style tables in front. chris and i chop-sticked a plate-full of kahlua pork (mmmmmmmmm!) and garlic bread, then headed to the swing zone for some practice on the driving range.

we've recently gotten addicted to the new xbox 360 tiger woods game, which has made me itch to get out on a course and hit some REAL balls! keely (chris' mom) and our friend ian met us there, we all rented clubs and bought buckets of balls, and began walking out to the range. chris stuffed the change from our purchase into my back pocket, losing a quarter on in the process. we both noticed it falling, but decided not to pick it up...that some lucky person would find it later at the precise moment they needed it. we played, which was fun, but i realized i am much better at virtual golf than i am at the real thing.

by the time our supply of balls was depleted, we were all really hot and thirsty, so we went to the little junk-food window to order some cold drinks. i ordered a soda for me, and a frappe coffee for chris. as the woman behind the counter was ringing up our tab, i threw the remaining two quarter from my back pocket into her tip jar. the bill - she told me a split second after the change hit the glass - was (something dollars and) 25 cents. chris said, "do you have a quarter"? i said...no, i just put it in there"...then it dawned on both of us. wait a minute! we DO have a quarter!! the lady happily waited while chris walked ten paces and picked up the shimmering quarter where it still lay waiting in the grass!

cold drinks were wonderful. but not enough. we decided to go do both of our most favorite thing in the universe: jump in the water. we went to the kailua pier, where hundreds of cruise ship passengers milled around and took pictures of the most photographed frame in all of kona: heavenly kailua bay. we dove into the ocean, which felt like pure bliss as always; we swam and dove, and chris kicked down to the bottom about 30 feet, where he carved my name into the sand covering an old tire. we examined the HUGE sea urchins attached to the pier wall; we dove down the bouy chains and shot back up; chris told me about a shipwreck near by, but not close enough to swim to. and we both saw barracuda! all in our early afternoon swim. in the car afterward, chris got a call from his friend scott. from my end in the passenger seat, i heard this: "what? really? today?? a big shark???? we were just AT the harbor!" thank god, i realzied after he got off the phone and relayed the story to me, scott's friend had seen the shark at the honokohau harbor - NOT the pier! i guess this friend of scott's - an avid diver, marine biologist, and underwater filmguy (sounds like someone i should meet!) - set his camera on the sea floor and left it rolling, hoping to capture an image of rare octopus he had found earlier in the week. he swam away from the camera, where he "noticed" the 14-foot tiger shark local to the are coming up behind him! AND HE DIDN'T GET IT ON FILM BECAUSE HIS CAMERA WAS NOT ON HIM! but WOAH, and WOW, nonetheless!

we showered in the provided hose, then cruised around in our bathing suits, killing time before our movie (american gangster) was to start (in like an hour and a half!). we drove up and down ali'i drive watching the surfers ride kahalu'u waves, and pulled out at the scenic overlook in keauhou, where we discussed the sacred lava tube system chris had never found, (though not for lack of tromping through miles of brush to do so). we saw a spider savoring her mummied kill, tons of bees, and three butterflies: one orange, one white and one yellow. we had nonie-fruit wars, and looked out at the magnificent sea, until we felt like moving on.

at this point, we still had some time to kill before the movie started. so we walked around in HPM, which is like a smaller version of home depot, picking out which bathroom sets and refrigerators we would buy if money were no object. then the super k-mart, which is next to the theater, and where we always get the candy and soda we smuggle into the movies. we hung out in the sports and games aisles, throwing a football up and down the rows, and excitedly "oohing" over a set of 'junior' golf clubs we imagined would work better for me than the real, "tall people" clubs.

after the (enthralling, though very long) movie, it was about 7:30 and dark. so chris suggested we go to the farmer's market, which would be desserted this time of evening, and ride skateboards all over the walkways and sidewalks of the market! being on a skateboard again felt so good, so natural. and, as it always was, so FUN! and even cooler being barefooted than it would've been in shoes!

after getting all sweaty and tired, we headed back to chris' house, (which is where i spend about 75% of both my waking and sleeping life). there, we drank red wine, ate spaghetti, and played more xbox golf until our eyeballs nearly bled!

so...today's just about over. but a couple of cool things to note about both yeaterday and "tomorrow": last night, a 3.9 earhtquake subtly - though obviously - rumbled 16 miles underneath kona. though this was NOTHING compared to the 6.7 that rocked our world last october, it was felt just enough to jangle the nerves. and (monday)...the research project through the university of arizona that i've been anxiously awaiting for well over a year, which will involve a "research medium" attempting to contact mom in a double-blind reading, will happen. i have been instructed to invite mom into this conversation. then, after it has been completed, i will get a transcript of the reading, and score it for its accuracy.

now, it's after midnight, and a steady tropical rain is rocking me to sleep. i am happily beat, after living this day to the fullest. and ready for some rest and sweet dreams.