This is the Life...

wow.

Um, yeah, today was a good day...maybe even great...maybe so far as excellent...yup. That sounds good. An Excellent day.

I am laying on my bed in my cabin, listening to Pearl Jam, in my swimsuit and jeans, with a good internet connection and a plumeria tucked behind my ear, my hair still damp from the saltwater.

Nice, right?

So, a blustery couple of days with Hurricane Flossie rolling by, I have been staying in, doing laundry, reading, cleaning my cabin, playing on the computer, watching movies, and burning CD's (somehow, I arrived in Maui without ANY music...if you feel like making me a cool mix, please, PLEASE, do so, and send it ASAP...that would make my day) because it has been nothing but cloudy skies and rain the last couple of days. Yesterday we saw some sun and it looked like it would be a nice Friday today, but I woke up to screaming birds and a cloudy sky--boo! So I ended up going to the kitchen with Paul and learning how to actually make the banana bread. Oh yeah, I can do it all now...hee he :)

After seeing some sun break through around 1 o'clock, I jumped into a swimsuit, hopped into the truck, and headed over to Hamoa beach. The sun completely disappeared on my way through town, and I was totally disappointed as rain droplets started hitting the windshield. Figuring it might pass over, I stopped at Hasegawa store for some beer and mosquito repellent and made a phone call (one of the few places in Hana that I get reception). After a ten minute phone call and no change in the weather, I just decided to go to the beach anyway...it's not like I have a free afternoon and the truck every day, and it is Maui, which means the water is still warm even if it's raining, so I went for it. The beach looked pretty dreary when I got there, and the surf was really rough (a holdover from the hurricane), and after getting tumbled a couple of times, I almost gave up and just wrote it off as a bad day for the beach...However, I gave it another try, and after swimming out past the break, a beautiful sun broke through the clouds, and it turned into a gorgeous afternoon. The sun comes out and everything just becomes amazing....the water turns so green and clear and you can see the bottom and the light makes everything sparkle and it was so nice to feel the heat on my skin after nothing but rain and wind for three days.

After swimming for about an hour and meeting some people who had stopped by the stand earlier in the day, I walked up the path and was just hanging out enjoying the view before I left. I ended up meeting an older local guy who i recognized because he drives his little motorbike past the stand regularly, and he had a couple cold Bud Lights and gave me one and I chatted with him for a while, which was cool. It is always nice meeting the locals and getting to know what is what in a new place. Now I am chillin in my cabin, still salty and in my swimsuit, feeling very content...

...EXCEPT for missing everyone terribly. Wish there was someone here right now who I could make some dinner for and then we could open a couple of cold beers and watch a movie...if this sounds like a good time, then hurry up and get your a** over to Maui and let's make it happen! Can't wait for my first visitors! I will be a banana bread PRO by then!

Rain + Tourists = Good Combo

---oh, can i just say how much i love "The Daily Show?!" God, John Stewart is so freakin' hilarious....I'm dying laughing right now---

Ok, so now that I got that out of the way...

Um, today was nasty weather. The hurricane (I have to stop typing every couple seconds because i have to bend over laughing at the Daily Show) is not hitting hard today, but maybe tomorrow...

Overcast and rainy all day, we thought the Hana Highway would be slow and intermittent...apparently we were wrong. I worked from 9 this morning until 7:30 tonight with about an hour break in-between, and the stand was busy almost all day...good stuff for us, with lots of people loving the banana bread...Needless to say, I didn't make it to the post office today to send out some bread, but I'm working on it...

Ha, thank God for cold Sierra Nevada, internet, bug repellent, and South Park...

Hope to hear from you soon, send me a text message if you can...esp in this hurricane weather...

Hurricanes, Famous People, and Pigs

So, it has been an eventful couple days...I still am getting eaten alive by mosquitos, but that is old news....the new news is better and more interesting!

So, they say there is a hurricane brewing a couple hundred miles from Hawai'i, but we should only get a tropical storm, which should hit some time tomorrow...needless to say, not a whole lot of tanning going on for me. Not to mention the fact that I have been working a lot, so I haven't really had time to go to the beach because I have been tending the stand. Oh, the lovely banana bread stand...for all of you at the Chieftan, I will try to send you some delectable bread tomorrow, and I want feedback! :)

Besides being busy with work and rainy weather, there has been some fun things too...One of our local guys, Glen, and his girlfriend Athena, had a wild boar roast at their house the other night which I was able to go to. Also called Kahlua Pig, wild boar are not native and are a huge environmental nuisance, so people are encouraged to hunt and kill them. Charlie, a local native, goes pig hunting all the time with his dogs, and he and Glen ended up getting three pigs, which they haul out of the jungle on their backs like backpacks. It is a totally dirty, bloody, messy endeavor, and we got the fruit of their labors, which was some awesome wild pig (esp. the ribs, which Charlie slow-cooked forever).

There was a big bonfire, tons of food, and plenty of cold beer. Also, some serious Boston accents! Glen is from Boston, and his friend from there was also visiting, and after about 8 beers, his friend decided to go "bobbing for beers" in the trashcan/ice/beer cooler. After dunking his head in the freezing cold water about ten times, trying to get a beer with his mouth, Charlie walks over, takes off his beanie, sticks his head in the trash can full of ice and beer and comes up with one on the first try! It was hilarious...lots of drunken guitar playing, more pig, and more beers...good times.

The next night, I ended up getting invited to a get-together at Honokalani Ranch, where my friend Rebekah works as a landscaper. She works for David LaChapelle, whom I had met earlier that day at the stand (and I didn't even realize it). For the unfamiliar, David is a internationally renowned photographer, and he has a huge piece of property down near the beach, where he invited all of his employees for dinner before he leaves to go back to the mainland (apparently he has to do J-Lo's new video). It was a really cool night, met a bunch of new people, and ate some awesome vegetarian food.

So, a good couple of days, with plenty of crazy bugs and toads and rats and spiders thrown in for good measure...I hope you are enjoying the blog, and if you want to write an email, you are welcome to at andriamiller50@yahoo.com, or leave a comment, which I love to read.
Missing you in Hana!