10.31.2009

All Hallows Eve


All Hallows Eve- the dead of night on October 31st. A time when the spirit world and the living world collide & become one: alchemy, hocuspocus, necromancy, enchantment, abracadabra- all of it. Midst these aberrant and metamorphosing hours of nocturnal obscurity many of the living personify unconventional character traits...

Admittedly my favorite hollyday, as well as the day of my father's birth, RIP, so there is much to celebrate out of pagan & modern traditions alike.  Who doesn't like to escape the reality of typical events of everyday life- and with a legend to bring more depth & meaning into the event...well, I say go for it. Get your spirit world disguise on. This Halloween, unfortunately falls on my last 6 weeks of graduate school. Deciphering this secret code means I am very stressed out & any spirits trying to identify me in a crowd wouldn't be able to do so even sans requisite costume as stress seems to have altered my very DNA thereby reformulating myself into a walking ball of stress (great costume idea...). But alas, I did stay up most the evening studying, as well as dedicate most the day to studies as well. I will be free tonight to mingle amongst other revelers into the twilight. Granted my creative juices have been limited to thesis writing, but some have spilled over into costume preparation fortuitously for myself! What can I say, I'm casting myself as a Buffy the Vampire Slayer "extra"... Unique concept no doubt. No one else will have it... whatever.

Yes, coffee in bed- hello cozy bed, aromatic Italian Roast espresso wafting by, breezes blowing my curtains about dazzling me in my stupor... It's been a long time since I've had the luxury of being in my own bed & able to relax into the morning instead of jumping out @ 6am & racing off to work @ 6:20am. The cessation of trade winds for the past 2 or so weeks has lead to no improvement on my cheery disposition either. BUT interestingly enough, my smile resurfaced again a day or 2 ago when one of my professors reached out to me and told me I need to continue on in graduate school & pursue my PhD in Applied Linguistics. I was told my concepts were very advanced & I now need to use my masters to teach & gather data to support my thesis proposal! I can't believe how happy this made me! Strange because I think I'm losing my mind w/this MA... lol. Ever the Sagittarius Fire Horse. Speaking of which... I've re-though my "Holly's wishlist for Santa Claus" this past week. I'm getting myself the damn ukulele- OMG they have electric ukes too! I want Santa to bring me a MAN. Yes, a real man. It's the perfect birthday/graduation/Christmas gift all wrapped up into 1 hunky package. He might have a hard time finding his way to me though as I believe I'll be out near Lake Superior & those parts experiencing, no doubt, that phenomenon when the Lake is soooo cold that ice crystals get sucked out  up & cover the entire area in a mist... what do they call that again? I think 'lake effect' Here it is:

Lake-effect snow is produced in the winter when cold winds move across long expanses of warmer lake water, providing energy and picking up water vapor which freezes and is deposited on the windward shores.  The effect is enhanced when the moving air mass is uplifted by the orographic effect of higher elevations on the downwind shores. This uplifting can produce narrow, but very intense bands of precipitation, which deposit at a rate of many inches of snow each hour and often bringing copious snowfall totals. The areas affected by lake-effect snow are called snowbelts. This effect occurs in many locations throughout the world, but is best known in the populated areas of the Great Lakes of North America.
If the air temperature is not low enough to keep the precipitation frozen, it falls as lake-effect rain. In order for lake-effect rain or snow to form, the air moving across the lake must be significantly cooler than the surface air (which is likely to be near the temperature of the water surface).


Lake-effect snow. (2009, October 1). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 19:37, October 31, 2009, fromhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Lake-effect_snow&oldid=317222920


Ok there you have it- complete w/APA style citation (any quality researcher can tell you that you are nothing without facts cited... See, what a geek. I deserve to suffer 3 more years through graduate school. As well I'm kinda thinking New Zealand as there is a long tradition of anthropology/archaeology, as well as critical applied linguistic study at PhD level there... Wow. It's too much. I need to finish my paper still. No, I need to watch an episode of Buffy right now & drink my coffee and plot...
HollyMissBerry

10.28.2009

deep & remote


The spirit of research. It's amazing how polished I feel in becoming more & more solid about my masters & visualizing the end of this amazing
journey. Once again I journey far away from myself & find myself in the process. Perhaps though its more like finding out more about myself- isn't that what's supposed to happen. I feel so in sync these days with my mind's fruition making sense of hands touching books & absorbing knowledge.  It's like ancient henna scrolls tattooed onto my body as the knowledge seeps in- seeks in- covering up my nakedness, my my reservedness, my shyness.  I am freed of my inhibitions. There is nothing to hide behind- not even  knowledge of powerful words. Instead I want to face it all head-on. I'm ready to get deep and ready to get remote.

This past weekend... changed me. It instilled something deep inside me. My cauldron of creative juices indulged- enough to increase my thirst leading on a path towards overindulgence. I like the thrill of this perceived edge right now.
I just flashed on what book I will treat myself to upon graduation. What book for my own reading pleasure will consume me? What book will be my reintroduction back into the world of pleasure reading? Any suggestions from all you phantom readers out there? I dare you all to peak my curiosity...

10.26.2009

Science-fictional Flower Power




Pleasantly satiated w/ the thrill of life... Not overindulged but the kind of satiety... well I'm gratified to capacity, as opposed to beyond, presently. 


Had a most incredible journey this past weekend over on Oahu for the SHA conference (Society for Hawaiian Archaeology). I got my mindset outta my current academia and reloaded my past academic file up on the hard drive and just went with it. Fantastic to push homework out of my mind all weekend and just fall in love again w/archaeology. Of course content was political, it was refreshing the coming together of so many ideas, theories, stories, urban legends, amusing tall tales, etc. Damn we are a quirky cast of characters! 


It was like homecoming. Like coming home to another family of mine. Some are carnies, some are distant cousins from the 'other' side of the family that no one talks about, some are demigods/demigoddesses that I am still shy to strike up conversation with, some are future collaborators, some past mentors: all of them though are full of true grit. One in particular I'm gathering up courage to approach about what I want to do with my pending Masters (Dec. 14th!) and synthesize it w/my anth/arch heritage to make a kick-ass position for my wandering self. 


It's all coming together... I'm starting to relax into gradual acceptance of it. I'm even craving a taste for basking in the glory of it for a few morsels of time. That piece of paper that sums up so much yet so little equally. Just enough to help recover from the brief reflections on how excruciatingly painful the journey was- so bitterSWEET indeed. I love me some bitterSWEET indeed. 


My head begins to swell with so many different ideas that continue to expand. I've told myself for so long it's all about getting back to Istanbul, but who knows? This weekend stirred the juices of creativity. Oh and the sweet rains just descended down onto the night blooming jasmine outside my bedroom window... satiated w/THAT pungent aroma. Suddenly it stops & quiet resumes- enough so that I can hear my brain blushing. Yea, life IS good, really good & all this- these experiences rambling on while I walk this trail- well, I don't see the end of the path anytime soon! I see some snow up on the path in the near future, and a snowboard as well. 


So yes, back to the weekend. Honolulu was its normal hot, muggy, humid environ. The Uni of Hawaii campus is always refreshing entering up into Manoa Valley. I camped out in a few different hotels, albeit more like crashing on the floor of friends' hotels... The first night turning into a foggy morning w/my hosts offering me some Alieve (who knew it fought hangovers). I recall being up in the pool bar in theier hotel telling those tall tales to a captive audience...or not but I do recall we were all laughing. 


Every talk, lecture, debate, powerpoint presentation, etc was just quality. To hear of all the research going on all throughout the Pacific & the culture studies & calling out for more collaboration between archaeologists & linguists- well, that last one especially just makes me squeal w/delight! Oh how I wish I could get aboard that Samoa project in 2 weeks... How can I get out of work & school for a few weeks right before finals??? Damn it's absolutely impossible but to contemplate being a part of an emergency survey team put together to go to Samoa to record sites impacted by the earthquake & resulting destructive tidal waves- well that is a part of a history that could be lost forever & to help recover things like this, it is a moving experience that brings humanity together in beautiful ways. 


Some of the science geeks from Berkeley are on Maui this week in Kaupo continuing on w/their work and I at first thought, I can't go over Friday night after work & hang out & talk story because I'll have homework & it's All Hallow's Eve on Sat, but then again, how can I NOT go and take this opportunity to camp out under the stars & hang out w/these minds some more... Sometimes I wonder where my head's at. At those moments I take the time to smell the science fictional flowers and get the tent & sleeping bad out of storage, as well as the cooler & camp chair!Yea

10.17.2009

The (reality)check is in the (e)mail


Don't ever wait to hear these words, or to think those words will someday end up in your inbox more appropriately... Looking out onto the horizon what do I see? I see chapters- my chapters. They are unknown at this point and it is exciting. I have not known self-discipline as I have these past 2 years almost. I have never felt compelled to discipline myself to the extent that my mind takes control of my body. The experience was so necessary, but I relish in knowing it is coming to an end. It's not so good to be so rational for so much of the time in all matters of life.
This rites of passage nears. If you asked me 5 years ago if I'd be going to graduate school I would of... well, I wouldn't of necessarily believed it for sure. That I went through the program in less than 2 years seems incredible, or exhausting- yes exhausting. It's so close to the end that I'm getting excited, impatient and exhausted all at the same time. Makes for a butterfly breeding farm in my stomach indeed. All these emotions choked up inside of me because I can rarely find the time to release them through yoga, running, the beach, the mountains- whatever. Turning down social events because I either have to study or I just have to have time to catch up w/myself and sink into a round or two of wall staring- which I might add has been thoroughly worth it...


Let's see one of last months highlights was driving to Kula to go to my dentist... a friend said, "I don't know who looks forward to going to see the dentist Holly". They don't understand- he's a throwback from the 60's this guy- a dentist to cherish for sure. It helps that he tells me I need to take up a diet of cotton candy & soda pop... Such a smooth operator that one. I actually did contemplate cotton candy at the county fair but opted for a carmel apple instead.  Tomorrow is the ukulele fest at the MACC so this takes precedence over wall staring. I've already told Santa to bring me either a tenor or concert ukulele... I've been good, that's bad.

Closer on the horizon though is Oahu next weekend. It is the annual Society for Hawaiian Archaeology (SHA) conference where everybody gets together & listens to what projects are going on throughout the Pacific. I'm excited for one of the keynote speaker's lectures on Friday night about the Polynesian Diaspora: The Chumash Connection and Beyond:
_______________________________________


****Keynote Address****

The 23rd Annual Conference of the Society for Hawaiian Archaeology (held in conjunction with the University of Hawai‛i at Mānoa 75th Anniversary)
 
"POLYNESIAN DIASPORA:  THE CHUMASH CONNECTION AND BEYOND"


Terry L. Jones, Professor of Anthropology and Chair
Department of Social Sciences
California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo

Four years ago Kathryn Klar and I suggested, on the basis of material similarities (sewn-plank boat construction, compound bone fishhooks) and complimentary linguistic evidence that there was at least one contact event between the Chumash and Gabrielino of southern California and Polynesian voyageurs.  Since then, the long-dormant case for contact in South America has been renewed based on mtDNA and radiocarbon findings that indicate a pre-contact presence of Polynesian chickens on the coast of Chile. In this talk, I’ll review the evidence for Polynesian cultural contact with the Americas in the northern and southern hemispheres and ponder the question of why American (and some Pacific) scholars continue to dismiss the possibility of such contacts even though the passages involved were well within Polynesian seafaring capabilities.

****************************************************************************************************
Professor Terry Jones has worked as a professional archaeologist for 30 years, mostly on the central California coast where he continues to study hunter-gatherer ecology and maritime adaptations. He has published over 30 scholarly articles in such journals as Current Anthropology, American Antiquity, the Journal of Anthropological Archaeology, and the Journal of Archaeological Science. His dissertation on the prehistory of the Big Sur coast was published by the U. C. Berkeley Archaeological Research Facility, and he has published seven other, monographs and edited volumes, including (with L. Mark Raab): Prehistoric California: Archaeology and the Myth of Paradise (University of Utah Press, 2004), and (with Kathryn Klar): California Prehistory: Colonization, Culture, and Complexity (Altamira Press, 2007). In 2008 he received the Martin A. Baumhoff Award for Special Achievement from the Society for California Archaeology and the California Polytechnic State University San Luis Obispo Award for Distinguished Scholarship.  He is editor of California Archaeology, the journal for the Society for California Archaeology.
****************************************************************************************************
DATE: October 23 (Friday)
TIME: 7:00pm
PLACE:  UH-Mānoa Campus, Hawai‛i Institute of Geophysics (HIG) 110
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________________________________________
Yes always a kick to drink adult beverages w/ ones contemporaries & swap stories of adventures in the field. It's going to be a weekend of friggin cool cats conversing about what we love to do, and what fascinates, and frustrates, and amazes us and keeps us going. Really looking forward to jumping out of my current academia frame of mind concerning teaching English as a 2nd language and back into my academic roots- what spawned it all. What spawned me into this thing that I am. I've forgotten a lot about that person, or haven't had the time to to consider how much of that is still me so I'm looking forward to having my mind blown- to get outta my present state, out there on the horizon, drifting in a sea of desire, into the endless sunset.

The (reality) check is in the email? I seriously doubt it at this point. And even if it is, I've already drifted miles away into that endless abstract sunset that leaves me amazed w/life & my place in it.  That same sunset that leaves me shattered w/happiness when granted viewing privileges from the front row, down by the orchestra in the pit where the ocean roars.

10.14.2009

Indian Summer

October has always been my favorite time of year. I love the changing of the seasons & it seems most evident in autumn. Even on Maui one saavy kamaaina can detect the, albeit subtle, change in weather. Last night was the night for me. It was cold in Haiku. Of course I haven't lived at elevation for a couple of years (3) as the last shack was on the cliff's edge in the lands known as Pauwela. So now I reside... perhaps 300ft. amsl (above mean sea level in tek talk).  I made full use of my Canadian goose down comforter. The statement in itself seems absurb put in the context of Hawaii but not really. I love to feel the nighttime air breeze past me while encapsuled in warmth. Even in Alaska in March I slept w/the windows open- certainly helps to have something respiring next to you though yes.

Why can I not stop thinking about snow? Steven's Pass & that sweet town of Leavensworth (?) nearby for the holidays or Hood? or Bachelor? Most likely Mt. Ashland though. Do I put my resume in @ University of Alaska @ Anchorage & get an interview so I can hit Aleyeska in Dec/Jan? Do I concentrate once again on grant writing & Antarctica- which I pondered bgs (before grad school)?  Finland? Norway & that damn ice hotel Nissa Nancy told me about? There's always the possability of hitting the southern hemi's winter in June in Argentina tearing up the Andes. Those were good times indeed- sweet enough for an encore performance surely.

This is what October feels like. I get so excited for a cold front. Hard to live out that fantasy on Maui. I did just see some pictures the other day of a friend snowboarding atop Mauna Loa on Big Island. I have always known about this- even when I went to UH Hilo, but never checked it out. Something about trekking up an 12,000 ft. volcano w/your equipment on your back & all that loss of oxygen I guess prevented me from doing so in the past. Perhaps now w/thoughts of needing to immediately start paying off student loans will grow me some balls to pull this one off. Perhaps I'll be invited by a certain someone to join in on this adventure.

My brain feels like it is going to explode and outside will shoot out October blossoms. School-related stress is like nothing I've encountered before. All these rantings of mine as solely to blow off some steam & keep it all together. With the coming of the autumnal equinox came a feeling of glee- in knowing that school will be over before the coming of winter. This keeps me going. Ok my head really does feel like it is going to explode now- but it is due to Oktoberfest moreso than stress on this  occasion...
more later...

10.11.2009

feliform: having the body/shape of a cat


Embraced in the darkness of the bewitching hour by some unseen force, or compulsion really,  that continues to take me deep into thought about so many things so often. I've never grown out of this. There is something about this time, these times throughout my life that compel me to write down my thoughts- once through a series of journals filled with volumnes of barely legible, even to myself, chicken scratch handwriting (for some reason all these years of writing never improved upon my penmanship), and now through the a cyber-medium complete w/perfectly symmetrical Helvetica font.
At the Alaka'i St house these were some of my most favorite times spent w/my feline friend
Koloke K Kitty Kat, aka Jackie Love. I even still like to type his name. It reminds me of that time together- owner & pet, Homo sapiens of the Hominidae family & Felis cattus domestica of the Felidae family, mistress & faithful servant. He was a good boy kitty. I always loved to watch his reactions to the comings, and goings, (lol) of the men in my life. He played harder to get than I ever did! Snubbed a few.

So it's a night to think fondly of him. I guess it was just the drama of the weather lately in part: 2 tsunami warnings in 2 weeks due to earthquakes in nearby Pacific Island nations of Samoa & Vanuatu, 2 flash flood warnings, a Tiger Shark sighting, and most recently 5 days of no tradewinds & high humidity that dramatically conceded this evening to the opening of the heavens this evening & tears of fury-laden droplets unleashed themselves upon the windshield while driving back home from Paia town tonight after an evening spent with some good friends. This, of course, meant trying to momentarily navigate the windy road after 5 days of dust settled onto my windshield & suddenly simulate a mini mudslide occurring right before my very eyes on my windshield... This always makes driving exciting. You know, either more people drive out in the country with their highbeams on & ever so rudely don't dim them at oncoming traffic- also trying to navigate the dark, winding road, or I just need glasses. It sure seems like high beams everywhere. Cannot be. Must just be the hypnopompic effect of the rain & (low) beams (lol) hitting the reflectors that give off some sort of a vertigo dreamscape effect. Or I need glasses (did I say that already?) So perhaps I should stop flashing my high beams back at them during these encounters- lol!

1:30 am. I really need to sleep in. If I could wake up at noon or 11- now that would be nice. Let's see, what's on my schedule for tomorrow? Studying. Nothing else. I think I might of penciled in a sunset run (Yay!) & going to Paia Yoga's opening celebration (Yay!) but otherwise studying.  Doing a lot of fancy daydreaming about no more studying post Dec. 14th. A free woman! I get to rejoin my book club! I get to have time to read my Wired Magazine subscription. I get to have a social life again. I get to cut loose. Yea, I get to cut loose.

More than feeling feliform tonight I feel feline. I like it.

10.07.2009

Daydream Believer


I fear the humidity has rendered myself melancholy this muggy evening. The only creature on island presently with energy still intact is the cat on my roof right now chasing a rat. Everyone else is stuptified into submission to this heatwave. Has anybody seen where the tradewinds went?

All this lethargic quiet time has given me ample ammunition to ponder. Yes, I have spent all afternoon cowering in my jungle hut not just cowering though but daydreaming. Daydreaming about life without grad school... 10 more weeks of this crazy stress which I have come to know so well. Only 10 more weeks of feeling guilty if I go out for 2 nights in a row & slack on my studies... Only 10 more weeks of carting books to the beach to study (not that I'm complaining too much about this endeavor as at the very least I am getting out of my shack on the rare occasion that I am not working). Only 10 more weeks of looking at men as only momentary distractions (interpret that however you want as I still am myself).

What is on the other side of the rainbow for me? The underside of the rainbow? A mirrored image? A parallel universe? Do I pick up where I left off & continue to daydream about Antarctica? Do I head back to Reflections Camp in Kabak Valley & just chill out on the Turkish Mediterranean for a bit? Do I just say 'fuck it' and go to India & have my mind blown? I'm so used to not having to think about what to do because it has been laid out for me & I've just been going for it. I'll need to create another challenge for myself- won't I? This is how I roll- isn't it?

The road to everywhere. This is what I know. I remember. I repeat. I always return to Maui, pick up where left off, settle into another comfort zone... for a while. Then the itch. Why am I all of the sudden thinking about Okanawa? About Finland? About Talkeetna? What do these have in common? They are all island-like. They are all remote. They all have a healthy diet of fish. They are all so far away from Maui. Crazy thoughts. Daydreams are funny like this. I tend to act on daydreams.

Daydreams turn to Nightdreams- no wonder I can't sleep more than 6 hours a night. Is it all the avocados I've been eating these past 5 weeks? What is this piece of paper going to do for me? Where is this piece of coveted paper going to take me next? I want it all. I want intellectual stimulation, I want esoteric stimulation, I want physical stimulation, I want emotional stimulation, I want scientific stimulation, I want artistic stimulation. Nothing to daydream about here- I already live this. I'm in fact overstimulated I believe. So much that I daydream about more hours in the day to accomplish all this. Somebody stop this train. Where is the pause button? My pause button since my return to Maui has been Buffy the Vampire Slayer- lol thanks Katie...

The Buffster, she kicks some serious vampire ass. Which has, of course, given me the idea of portraying Joan of Arc this Halloween. Or Edina of the Absolutely Fabulous fame. Of course I would need a Patsy... All this, these momentary daydreams though, they are just distractions. I said to a friend last week something to the effect of, "I'm living for the future so I can be in the present." I laughed it off immediately & decided that was an appropriate facebook status update but there was a certain element of truth that didn't sit easy within myself. It seems I am but existing for that day, sometime mid-December, when it is over. This chapter that has created so much desire, so much wonderlust, so much critical, cognitive analysis this is grad school at it's most coveted (for me) experience. Yes, that is my future. That is my date when the present begins. It is strange. I cannot become sidetracked as I have come too far. It's not difficult by any means, this dedication, and it has left an imprint deep within myself. A sense of pride & prejudice at the same time: it look some great moments in time, and it created some great moments in time- what doesn't. Nothing has come easy for me. Nothing has ever been difficult for me. Another friend & I came up with another, what some might consider fairly obnoxious saying, "I don't manifest, I do." We were in Charley's when we thought up of that one. I believe we were inebriated. We laughed it off.

So what if I really am a Daydream Believer? I suppose I will be just as busy post-grad as I have been. As I have always been because that's how I roll. Anyone care to have a go at it with me? We shall see. Everything is as it should be after all. Yea, I feel better already. Perhaps that's not the right wording though. Doubting words- and that is exactly why I am a Daydream Believer- no words need be exchanged.

10.04.2009

the season of Holly


Sunday morning & coffee served in bed. How incredible it is that I  look out my window from the luxurious comfort of my incredibly sensous red silk sheets (!!!) & have an uninterrupted view of a wall of green sheer mass. The dichotomy of color saturation: the red silk curtains from India, against the backdrop of various exotics- all of which I might add are fairly invasive to Hawaii's flora... Ah, spell broken- slightly.

It's the aromas emitted from outside that waft in. It wraps itself around my body- fighting for space in between the silk sheets, as well as other contenders. But enough of that... that was last week's blogbits! The sweet grasses, the night-blooming jasmine (what lucky girl would NOT plant night-blooming jasmine outside her bedroom... all the better to intoxicate any man and render them senseless- kinda like the one-two punch). Again I find myself off track! So to proceed quickly & on track it's a smelly wonderland in this atmosphere. The addition of and Italian espresso roast... Sunday morning sanctuary.

Maui life continues to honor myself w/blessings of friendships and amazing events- this week no different. It's complicated at this point because I just want to cut loose but this last semester in grad school seems painful & I need to stay focused. I have been completely satiated w/life the past 20 months just working like mad, taking classes, running, going to yoga & little else. Certainly no time for manly distractions on a scale more serious than catching my eye & little else. There is a certain comfort to know I want no intense connections while I'm in grad school BUT as this is my last semester...

I was Skyping w/Australia yesterday, while studying, and I feel compelled to honor another connection. Last entry I commented on influential men in my life but there is one more element who has shared in my molding of sorts. Yes, the very Wild Thing. How can I not look back at my Santa Cruz years and just smile so wide. DP was so different than any chick I knew there. She's this wild Tasmanian that taught me to hang out on the porch in the mornings w/coffee, cigs (her) &  spliffs while rubbing papaya peels over our faces to soak in the enzymes while listening to Charlie Parker & company.

It was those formative years of mine that I used to look at her and just think, "wow, this chick really tells it like it is." What I have found out throughout the years that she represents almost a certain breed of females down under- she's what I would call the Alpha Female of the southern hemisphere. I say this because anywhere I've traveled throughout the world since meeting her, and I do mean some of the most remote places where females usually don't travel alone- well, other chicks I've met up & traveled with have been Aussies. Just true grit them. What she, probably unknowingly, taught me was to never compromise yourself, or your principles more so- for anybody- period. If people can't accept you for who you are, you can't will them to do so. If a man doesn't like you the way you want them to, they never will so just move on. She taught me to honor myself to trust my instincts- as others have but coming from a female role model, well this plays itself out differently.

Talking to her yesterday was like we were transported back to Santa Cruz, back to her little shack on 34th Ave, or back to the Boz's in the Jewel Box on the edge of the sea cliffs at Capitola-by-the-sea. It was a fantastic journey back through time. It made me realize my journey, my timeline is what I make it. I realize I have turned her stories that I so enthusiastically gripped onto every word back then, have turned into my stories. I have created my own stories. I now realize that a she played a crucial role in my becoming an anthropologist/archaeologist. My amazement in humanity & the legacy of cultures stemmed from many of our conversations- many of which consisted of copious amounts of red wine & other adult party favors... teeheehee! LOVE YOU GIRL. Also DP perhaps you want to think about investing some $ in Maui w/me & we can purchase some property... I've been thinking I want something permanent here to come back to while I continue to travel around the globe & work.  Good place for you to set up the family & do your thing...

Coffee cup now empty, the rain has abated to a background humming, the forest canopy still holding up the cloudy sky, and the red silk sheets still envelops me, it's time to concentrate on the day at hand: get up, study- that's it... It's no wonder I lazily lay in bed dreaming about the past and the future as present day seems less thrilling than said timeline! No complaints as, let's see, Friday night pau hana spent in the charming Wailuku town w/friends drinking red wine at Marc Aurel Cafe & listening to Kanekoa before heading out to the Iao Theatre for a showing of Rocky Horror Picture Show.

 Last night was the Maui County Fair- complete w/regrettable amounts of subpar carnival food- carmel apple excepted! I will say that the subpar food came just in time though as we polished off the bottle (red wine, of course) a little too quickly back in Haiku before journeying into town while catching one last episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I thought I might have one of those 'moments' but ended up keeping it together, lol! We did take a ride on the Ferris Wheel.

 I love the view of the island from Ferris Wheels. The lights of the Fair set against a backdrop of darkness- with a full moon glowing on the eastern horizon slowly making its way towards us. It was incredibly beautiful.  I love the fair. It represents a time of year when Maui is at it's most beautiful. There are subtle changes in the weather that are apparent to the 'kama`aina' or children of the land. It is most special. The winds of summer die down a bit, the first winter swells start hitting our shores, the parking lot at Ho`okipa fills w/happy, smiling faces of surfers taking out their guns that have been in storage since the last of the previous seasons winter swells. All of the north shore is full of people smiling! There are parking spots in Paia town once again. I love this time of year.