Chasing the Sun...

Ah, the feel of the sun on your back...



Especially when it's been freakin' raining for 3 1/2 weeks straight, and you decide to make a run for it to the other side of the island while you have two days off...oh yeah, baby, in search of the sunlit lands...



So, this weekend, Ananda and I and her friend Eric made a break for it to "the Other Side" as we call it here. We got a bit of a late start on Sat morning (Eric made sushi for breakfast and you just can't rush something like that), but made it to Paia (the first real town past Hana, about an hour and a half drive--at least) around 1-ish.



We headed straight for the beach, and after basking in the sun for a couple hours, made our way to this place called the Flatbread Company, which makes awesome pizza. Yum. No plate lunches for us today! We then headed around to the southwest side of the island toward Kihei and Wailea to hang out with some of Ananda's friends, Jared and Kat.



After crashing at their place for the night, Sunday morning we went to a place called Big Beach in Makena, just south of Wailea, and planted our tushes on the largest stretch of naturally occuring white sand beach in the world (or something like that...it's HUGE).



ALL DAY LONG.



I mean, yeah, we went to Kihei Cafe for breakfast, but then it was straight to the beach, and it was great. Really great. Just lay in the sand all day long, swim in the amazingly clear turquoise water, and wonder how you got so lucky to have absolutely no agenda but this.


This is me, still smiling at 11 at night, all salty and sandy and sunned from a fantastic weekend in the sunshine. Hooray. (oh, and I cut my hair).



This is the newest addition to the farm...a puppy! That is Paul holding our new little girl who doesn't have a name yet. She is absurdly cute. I can't take it.



Um, not much else, trying to stay dry and mud-free (today was actually really beautiful and I spent the entire day at the beach, but at this moment it is currently raining). I got an awesome package from my friend the other day (my first package in Hana!) and he sent me homemade marshmallows--can you say AMAZING? Yup, it was great...and I got this fantastic card from my So-Cal photographer friend Troy with a picture of him and his two boys in their Santa hats and red Rudolph noses...so cute. So it was definitely a good day at the post office with 2--count 'em, 2!--pieces of personal mail. Woo hoo!



Welp, miss you all, hope you are well, and drop me a line if you get a second...

Floods, Phones, and a New Year

I wish that this picture was true...(that's my toes at Red Sand Beach)



Unfortunately, it just started raining as I write this...the rain has been insane since I returned from the mainland. There is a reason they call it "the rainy season" here in the jungle...it freakin' rains all the time. Hana averages about 200" of rain a year, and LaHaina (on the other side of the island) averages like single digits of rain...it's crazy here.


On New Year's Eve, I had been baking all day, and the rain had been so intense for the last three days that the dry creek bed on the property had become a raging stream. It also happens to go under the driveway, and it had flooded and was going over the driveway and was threatening to go down the drive and flood the area where the banana bread stand sits. For a while, they couldn't get the truck back up the hill, and I was literally stranded at the top of the hill. Just me and the dog, flooded out on New Years--nice.



Luckily, they were able to dig some trenches and clear away some debris to redirect the stream to it's bed, but the driveway is completely trashed. We have all pretty much given up on our flip-flops (or slippahs as we call them here) and have resorted to knee-high rubber boots, which is about the only thing that helps with the endless mud. It also prevents any kind of outdoor projects or gardening, so as soon as it clears up, there will be lots of outdoor work to be done. The only thing is, it probably won't "clear up" until the end of February!



The upside of all this rain is the regular occurence of some beautiful rainbows (which I can actually see from the window right now over the water...so amazing), but it's really not helping with my tan :)



I just lost my phone on Christmas Eve (see last blog), but luckily, I am getting my new one...TOMORROW! Yippee...my friend told me I was addicted to my phone and this was a good way for me to chill out for a while, but I disagree. First of all, people don't just have house phones anymore, and some don't even have that, so a cell phone becomes a necessary means of communication (oh, great, it just started raining really hard again...nice.) Secondly, I live on a tiny rock in the middle of the Pacific, which makes me feel isolated enough already, so a cell phone is a means of attachment to the rest of the world. Thirdly, it housed all my pictures (well, a lot of them anyway), and those also are used to share parts of my life with people...not that I am all that interesting, but it's nice to be able to show someone a crazy three-horned chameleon or a spider instead of just telling them about it. And lastly, that's just life...I don't just have the post office and a landline anymore...I have email, cell phones, video messaging, text messaging, picture messaging, a high-speed internet connection, AND a landline, all of which I use to keep in touch and the loss of one is...well, i'm not going to tell you how tragic it is because you are probably already sick of my excuses about how much I adore my cell phone--my phone can beat up your phone! Ha!

Just kidding.

I'm a big dork.

So, New Year's was fun, we went to a party at a friends house with food, a fire, some champagne, and surf movies outside on the big screen, and then we went over the the Hana-Maui Hotel to watch some fireworks and toast to the New Year...the subdivision near town looked like a war zone with all the kids lighting firecrackers in the street, and you heard loud pops all day and night long, into the next day, and I even heard some today! The hotel is the only thing in town open past 7:30pm, and it also employs most of the town, so any big holidays are sure to bring a crowd of locals there, so it was very festive and fun, and luckily I didn't have to work until 2 the next afternoon, so I got to sleep in...

Um, I think that's about it for now, I sent out some banana bread today to a few people, so some lucky bums should have yummy bread in a couple days :)

I performed an amazing trick of brains-over-brawn tonight when, going stir-crazy from the rain, I came up to the cabin to say hello to everyone and there was a shot glass stuck in a jam jar that looked permanently embedded in there (it supposedly got stuck in there during a rough washing machine experience). Marty said it had been there forever and was impossible to remove, and I had it out in about 30 seconds-woot! Ha ha, it was our diversion for the evening, and I got rewarded with the shot glass filled up with tequila...not a bad day's work :) I mean, I am a bartender after all, I had to uphold my rep :)...anyway, it was pretty funny...

Oh, I also cut my hair ridiculously short (actually my friend Mo, who is in some of the pictures on the bottom cut it--yeah, not a stylist, but it didn't turn out too bad), so I will try to put up some pics when I get my new phone tomorrow, yea!

Anyway, Hope you all had a fun New Year's celebration, I hope you told some people how much you love them, and I hope you are only making resolutions you can keep--Ha!

Write, call, email, or send me some cool stuff...or come visit...well, maybe after the rainy season :) Miss you and love you!

Merry Christmas (Mele Kalikimaka)

Disclaimer: This blog is supposed to be all about pictures. I took pictures of my friends, I took pics of my family, I took pics of food, signs, Christmas lights, In-N-Out, my house, my sister's dog, and then some awesome, really amazing pics of this beautiful rainbow when I got back here. Problem is, after I took the pics of the rainbow, I somehow lost my phone. These are the only pics that got sent to my online album, so if you aren't in here, you should be, and if you are, you're just lucky that I had an afternoon on the couch with some time to kill (and I love you-he he). Trust me, I'm way more bummed out than you are, I had some fantastic pictures on that phone...gone forever. Crap. Don't get me started. So, now, on to the blog...

No, this is not Hana, Maui, in Hawaii.

This is the cold weather of San Francisco, CA, where I went to take a vacation from Maui (i'm sure there is a law somewhere against saying what I just said, but ignorance is bliss, right?)...yes, you read that correctly, I left the lovely warm beaches of Maui and headed to the cold of Northern Cali for two weeks, and guess what?

IT WAS AWESOME!

I. loved. every. single. minute. Even if I was bored, I wasn't bored. I had people everywhere, places to go and things to do, beers to drink, food to eat, people watching, and despite all the hustle and bustle that people hate around the holidays, I had real moments with real people and the connection was there, no matter how busy and crazy SF can be. I had a great time, and it reminded me again that no matter how amazing the place you live is (heh-hmm...um, Hello! Maui!), it is still the people that you love that make that place great and make it feel like home (and having beer on tap is a definite plus).

Jason (Also mistaken for Neo in this pic): You are the best ever. Thank you for letting me stay at your place and eat your food and drink your booze and spend your money and make you laugh. Thanks for putting up with my endless shenanigans. I hope that I can somehow return the favor, hopefully by hosting you at my lovely jungle cabin...oh, and the coffee is on the way!

Ron and Nika: how do I love thee? Let me count the ways...One thing I know with you two--I will never be bored! I had so much fun with you, and I love your spare bedroom, and the Blue Light (Taco Tuesdays baby!) and all the great adventures we have. Thanks for paying my bar tab (and leaving me with one! :), thanks for dragging me to new places, and for being great friends to me. Keep up the good work with the dogs, they looked GREAT in Macy's!

Keith: The best beer rep EVER What else can I say? I owe you buddy. Let's party.

Robert: So much fun hanging out at Local, thanks for keeping in touch.

Damon: Thanks for coming out my last night in town, it made my night. Vegas baby, Vegas.

Aussie Mark: Constantly challenging me to new heights of beer drinking..."one for the ditch."

And to all my friends in the city and all my Chieftan compatriats: I only lived there six months before I moved to Maui, and I was wondering if all the friends I had made were only a dream. Thanks for overwhelmingly proving me wrong, and making me feel so loved...wish your pic was up here, and wish I could show you some good times in Maui...hurry up and come visit already! And thanks for all the Don Julio!

I am desperately sad that I lost some ridiculously cute pics of my family and also of my sister's two Boston Terriers, with whom I spent an awesome afternoon snuggling with on the couch and watching movies. Those puppies are ridiculously cute Rach. --insert pic here--

I had a great time seeing my family, I got to see both my cousins, and I actually even forgot to give my brother his Christmas present that I bought here and brought with me to the Mainland, and it is now somehow back here in my cabin--I'm a genius. Oops. Sorry Brian. I love you all and miss you terribly.

Now I'm back in Hana, and apparently it has been raining since I left for SF, so I came back to grey clouds and lots of baking. Christmas Eve was actually spent in the kitchen from 9:30 in the morning til 8 at night--you guessed it. Baking. Lots and lots of banana bread...luckily that meant no baking today, Christmas day, and I got to sleep in, go paddling, have brunch with friends, go to the beach and watch some sick waves, and then go to a friend's house for dinner and surf movies outside on the big screen. An excellent end to the day. I have to admit, I feel isolated already in this tiny town on a rock in the Pacific, losing my phone really intensified that feeling (no phone numbers either), and it did not feel like Christmas at all today(no family or close friends), so it was a very weird, oddly lonely day, but some great people welcomed me in and cheered me up, so it ended well. Weird, but fun and good.

I hope that whatever your Christmas was, you got to see people you love and who love you. Send me an email if you get a chance, I'd love to hear from you, and I will let you know as soon as I get my phone replaced.

I have passed the way of all tired-ness (like my friend Josh)...goodnight!