Lei Kupe'e

Last night was the best so far in all of these wonderful nights and days here on the islands! Last night we got to sit in with a hula hulau (group/school) and begin to learn the fascinating art of Hawaiian feather work! It was the chance to connect with the culture that I'd always dreamed of but never thought possible. We were introduced to each new person in turn as they arrived, and each and every one of them made us feel welcome and a part of the group. It is that feeling of Aloha that I most want to learn from these visits to the islands, and last night was a chance to see that spirit in practice as it was expressed to us and also to each other.

oh, and I got to learn some of the basics of feather work too! :) What a bonus. Now I have a whole tin of feathers that I need to tie into bundles within this week so that we'll be able to work on the next step of the project before we have to leave for home!

(pictures will have to wait.)

Sunday was Laundry Day...

It was also, apparently, Find The Lizards day. On Sunday morning, I found this teensy tiny little hatchling lizard in the corner of the bathroom. He was lethargic and non-responsive. He hardly so much as blinked when I picked him up and he looked so helpless and dried out! So I made a little rehabilitation vivarium for him from a plastic take-out food container. I put a damp paper towel in one corner to give him places to hide and be cool and damp. I put a little dish of carrots inside too-- not because he had any chance of eating them, but because they would also help raise the humidity for him. I put a little bottlecap of water inside too, in case he could drink from it.

Then I went outside and sat in the yard to watch all the grownup lizards going about their daily lizardly duties. I asked them what a baby lizard might like to eat, and a few minutes later one of the bigger lizards saw a grub crawling along a rock and pounced on it. yum. Is it possible they understood the question? Either way, I knew to look for little grubs for the baby lizard. :) .. While I was sitting there watching them, one of the little lizards very bravely jumped onto my foot! That made me realize that it would be really neat to get some pictures, so (after the little lizard got bored and wandered off again) I trotted back in to the house for my camera. (I got a few nice lizard pics, but you'll have to wait until I get a chance to upload them.) I found two little grubs for the baby lizard and dropped them in to his temporary home. The next morning he looked much much better! He was alert and active. He hadn't eaten either of the grubs, but he'd recovered from his dehydration, so I took him outside and let him loose in the planter boxes, hoping that he wouldn't become a meal for any of the other larger lizards!

It brings up conflicting feelings, though. On the one hand, I really enjoyed being helpful for the baby lizard and sharing his companionship for the day. :) ... on the other hand, there are no native lizards in Hawaii. All of the lizards that are found here (except for one very very rare skink that may now be extinct) have been fairly recent transplants-- escapees or intentional releases of "pets." The lizards have made a serious impact on Hawaii's ecosystem (as has everything else we non-native humans have introduced; especially tourism, hotels, sunscreen, and plastic bags). Some of the lizards eat bird eggs, decimating the already struggling native bird populations. Even when they don't eat the eggs directly, they can be a source of competition for common food sources and living spaces. .. and this particular baby lizard was one of the brown anoles that are the most aggressive of the newcomers. The brown anoles are thriving to the point of displacing the once-common (but also not native) gecko.

So I'm torn. Should I have helped the baby lizard? should I have left him to his own devices live-or-die? should I have squashed him flat in a hopeless attempt to diminish the invasive lizard population? should I have kept him as a pet and tried to bring him back with me to Seattle, carrying whatever random seeds or bugs or parasites or diseases or fungi he might have on or in him and risked spreading those unknowns to a new environment where *they* might become harmful or invasive?*

So I guess there are two thoughts I bring out of this experience:
1- It's not always possible to know what the "right" course of action would be, and every action (or lack thereof) has numerous possible repercussions. Some of them we can know about and plan for, others may be completely beyond our capacity to see in the moment or even afterward. 2- ecosystems, like the English language, are complex, dynamic systems that change and adapt and respond in sometimes unexpected or even unacceptable ways to the influences of culture and common usage. So for now I'll use the word "snuck" when it suits me, and will help out the occasional dehydrated lizard baby one weekend and weed out invasive plants the next.

Aloha!

*keeping him as a pet and bringing him home was never a real possibility. It's highly illegal for exactly the reasons I mentioned above. Even worse would be bringing one of my own pets in to the state! There are quarantine possibilities for some of the larger, more common pets like dogs and cats... but ethically I'm not sure even they should be here. Especially the cats as they are more likely to be let wander loose to prey on any number of native species.
..but then I couldn't have squashed him flat either.

A Cozy 80 Degrees

One of the things I really like about Hawaii is that I can leave an event at 11:00 pm and find that the night-time air temperature is a cozy 80 degrees. On the other hand, one of the downsides is that an hour later when I'm trying to fall asleep, I find that the night-time air temperature is a toasty 80 degrees and that the ceiling fan breeze makes my hair brush across my face, tickling my nose and keeping me awake. ... It's nice to sit back and appreciate that for at least one day, today, this was the biggest of my problems.

We haven't done a lot of beach-going or souvenir hunting or other touristy excursions this trip. Instead, we've connected with the locals. We've gone swing dancing and folk dancing and ballroom dancing. We have spent time with some really great people with whom we'd like to keep in contact. We walked along the beach at sunset and watched the full moon rise over the ocean with some friends of someone we met at one of the dances. With a different group of friends-of-friends, I hiked up a steep and challenging trail to help pull up invasive plants out of a patch of rainforest so that the native plants (slower growing) have a chance to survive. My knee had some trouble with the steeper terrain, but the other hikers helped out with a stabilizing hand. I naively left my lunch in my car, but the other hikers generously shared their own lunches with me. The biggest problem of that day was the 32 mosquito bites. (My knee trouble subsided after several doses of Advil and a couple days of rest. Some of the bites still itch-- and I got them a week ago tomorrow.)

I haven't done as much swimming as I thought I might do... I had imagined myself swimming 2 to 4 hours every day (2 in the morning, another 2 in the evening). Instead, I've been wary about too much sun exposure, so I've only gone for about a 2 hour swim every other day or so. I'm getting a light tan. The nearest beach is sandy without much coral, so no brightly colored fishes. Instead I've entertained myself by looking for man-made debris that gets washed up in the tides --you know, the glass shards from broken bottles, the bits of plastic and metal we humans leave in our wake no matter where we go (and that get carried by wind and wave and weather even into places that we haven't gone). In addition to the broken glass and random unidentified clutter, I've collected 3 pair of slacks, 1 blanket, 4 snorkels, 1 swim mask, 2 pair of swim goggles, 1 pair of sunglasses, 2 unbroken glass soda bottles, and 1 very very nice watch.

I'm not yet tired of pineapples. There's another fresh one on the counter for tomorrow's breakfast. I don't think I've lost any weight. I might have gained some. I snuck in to one of the fitness gyms and ... (* for commentary on the word "snuck" check the footnotes.) ... and put myself onto one of their scales. I think I've gained five pounds. I'm hoping it's all muscle; I've been swimming and dancing more than usual. .. ... .... .....I've also been eating cheeseburgers and shave ice and drinking Dr. Pepper. I suspect my hope is misguided. But I am still able to fit into my swimsuits, so it can't be too bad, can it?

Tomorrow is sleep-in-and-do-laundry day. That's why I got to stay up late and write this entry tonight.

* If you are interested in the grammatical implications of the word "snuck," the following links can shed some light:
http://www.askoxford.com/asktheexperts/faq/usage/snuck
http://daggle.com/060221-011328.html
http://languageandgrammar.wordpress.com/2008/05/02/sneaks-snuck-sneaked-in/
http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/news/mcintyre/blog/2007/10/inflect_this.html

While I admire all the effort and skill that went into standardizing the English language throughout the centuries, I feel that sometimes the purists go too far and forget that the English language is a living language, a cultural collective. It grows and changes with time, context, and common usage. It is also subject to stylistic whims (and this is stylistically a very colloquial blog.)

In this instance, I like the emerging variant of the past tense "snuck" because it implies to me a certain (guilt-based, self-serving) furtiveness. Accordingly, if I were implying an honorable need to sneak (e.g. taking care to not wake the children while setting gifts beneath a Christmas tree) I would use the grammatically preferable past tense "sneaked." Isn't language fun?

A Balmy and Humid 80+ Degrees (F)

...is not something you often experience in Seattle, Wa. Neither are the Tradewinds. Or truly fresh pineapple...

Aloha from Hawai'i, island of O'ahu!

Today I take a relaxing moment in the early morning hours to write this post before my husband wakes up. I've been here just long enough to really start forgetting what day it is. I've eaten 3 whole pineapples over the last couple of days, and will probably eat several more before I have to return to the mainland again. I haven't seen any honu yet (sea turtles), but I will keep looking.

We've found the local swing-dance group and they are incredibly warm and friendly people. It's nice to be dancing again now that the knee injury is finally starting to heal properly! It turns out that my still-persistent knee pain may be being caused by a lower back problem. I've got some new physical therapy exercises to focus on my lower back, so let's hope that they do the trick. I am very tired of the chronic pain, even at a low level.

Today I will go to the beach, feel the sand beneath my feet, the waves at my ankles, the sun on my skin. I will sift through the sand for interesting pebbles and will most likely find cigarette butts and bottle caps. I will throw them into the garbage and will ponder whether my responsibility ends at the landfill. What happens to our trash from there? How polluted will we make our planet before we figure out how to clean it up again?

I have been doing a targeted diet and exercize program for the last ten weeks. On day 2 I weighed 160 pounds. I ate an average of 1200 calories a day and walked an average of two miles a day plus did strength exercizes three days a week. On day 70 I weighed.... 160 pounds. I'd like to think that maybe I traded fat weight for muscle weight, but the inches didn't come off either. The diet and exercize made little to no difference. I still bob like a cork when I'm swimming in the waves. I am still too buoyant to linger at the bottom of the lagoon. Today I will eat a slice of chocolate cake for breakfast. I will weigh myself when I get back home again to see whether or not that slice of chocolate cake (etc) makes my weight go up.

I'm out of things to say for now. I'll try to check in again soon.

Closing the Door on the Past...

...let's try this again...

I started up this blog to have something in common with my best friend and a way to share my life experiences with her and with other friends (both virtual and RL). When those core friendships failed, this became a very painful and difficult place to be. Too much of my life was something I couldn't put out on a public forum, and trying to focus on the little that was left over felt hollow and false because I had to leave so much of the real stuff out of the picture. So for the past couple of years I've left nearly all of it out of the picture. I had wanted it to be different, but life doesn't always give you what you want, and sometimes doesn't give you what you need.

..... ..... ..... ..... and now that topic is closed. Everything that I post from now on comes from this new perspective. I'm not going to try to go back and post about the things that I'd wanted to post about before. I'm sorry for the posts that never got written. Thank you to those few treasured readers who have contined to send occassional e-mails and let me know that they've missed me. You mean a lot more than I can express. :)

Christmas Meme

So here goes…all you have to do is answer the questions and tag a few of your friends.

What is your favorite Christmas gift?

I've started a tradition with my husband that both of us appreciate: Throughout the year I buy myself some things that I particularly want, including a big-ticket item (one year a spinning wheel, one year a shop-vac, one year a Kitchen-Aid stand mixer...) I start using them right away, as soon as I bring them home (what's the point of waiting til December?) and then when the holiday season rolls around, I bring them into the main room and put bows on them. I get what I want (when I want!), my husband gets the credit and doesn't have to go shopping.

What is your best memory of Christmas?

Oh! okay, I've got one... I was flying out of town one winter to spend the holiday break with my now-husband. The flight was just a few days before Christmas, so all the holiday house lights and street lights were up. It was a rare coincidence that we'd had a fresh snowfall. (Seattle does tend to get one or two snowfalls each year, but if you do the math, you'll realize that it's not likely they'll coincide with Christmas.) As the plane rose into the air, the beauty of the colored lights reflecting off the snowfall was inexpressibly breathtaking.

Depending upon where you live do you have a hot or cold Christmas?

Last year was memorably cold with our four days of power outage! (and we were luckier than some! Most folk had their power restored by Christmas Eve, but a few unfortunates did not.) Usually it's just wet. Wet and chilly.

Would you prefer to try the opposite weather at least just once?
I've spent time in Southern California for the holidays before, so just making it warm(ish) and sunny wouldn't be a stretch. But I would really enjoy a chance to spend a holiday season up in Norway feeding reindeer and watching the northern lights... I'd also like to spend a holiday season south of the equator-- Australia, perhaps? Hawaii would be nice, of course... and then I'd also like to spend the holiday season in a country that celebrates differently. What are the winter festivals in Thailand or Japan like, I wonder?

What do you prefer in a tree? Fake or real?

Real trees make my allergies act up. Fake trees are *so* not worth the effort! .. these days when I do manage to dress the house, I just string lights and ornaments up from the furniture instead. ...and sometimes I do put up a wee little fiber-optic tree on the dining room table.

What is your favorite carol?

Mele Kalikimaka

What is your favorite Christmas dinner?

I used to make something exotic and unusual for the holiday dinner.. something I hadn't ever tried before. Sometimes that meant a new recipe, sometimes it meant a new type of food-- like goose or quail or venison. .. but then there was the one year in which (unthinkingly) I cooked reindeer stew. I don't think I'll ever forget that faux-pas!

Do you wear a Santa hat at Christmas?

not really. but I do wear season-appropriate socks from time to time.

Have you ever seen Santa delivering gifts?

not telling. ;)

Meme Addendum

Oh! I thought of a couple of sports teams on the drive home today!

Panthers, Pumas, and Patriots!

can't tell you what sport they play, what their home arena is, none of that. But I'm relatively certain they all exist! (as well as some sort of team from Paloose) .. except the Pumas. They might exist or they might not. They might just be a running shoe.

Memed Again...

thanks to Basset Knitter again...

...and since responding to the meme is quicker and easier than writing a whole new post... ;)

My name: Peacock

1. Famous Singer: Prince
2. Four letter word:Poke
3. Street: Parsons Ave
4. Color: Puce
5. Gifts/Presents: Pony
6. Vehicle: Pinto
7. Things in a Souvenir Shop: Postcards
8. Boy Name: Padgett
9. Girl Name: Penny
10. Movie Title: Pirates of the Carribean
11. Drink: Pink Lemonade
12. Occupation: Paper pusher
13. Celebrity: Pia Zadora
14. Magazine: People
15. U.S. City: Princeton
16. Pro Sports: P (hey, people..I don't watch sports!)
17. Fruit: Papaya
18. Reason for Being Late for Work:Pocket was empty (misplaced my keys, phone, etc.)
19. Something You Throw Away: pamphlets left on my doorstep
20. Things You Shout:Phoo!
21. Cartoon Character: Petunia Pig

Memed Twice, Actually...

...by BassetKnitter

Important music in my life.. music that has made a deep and lasting impact or which encapsulates an important time of my life.

1. Cat's In the Cradle -- Eric Clapton
how I felt during much of my childhood

2. Always Something There to Remember -- ?
the song that was playing at the moment that my horse died from colic at the end of an excruciating 15 hours. Even still when this song plays on the radio (rare little air-time it gets these days, and rarer still that I'm listening to the radio..) I am transported back to the pain of that moment and the bittersweet memory of the time I had with her.

3. Pressure -- Billy Joel
how I felt during most of my academic life and early adult life out on my own.

4. What Happens Now --Evita soundtrack
The song that came un-bidden into my thoughts throughout the time that my ex (of a 13-year relationship) and I were breaking up.

5. Mary Ellen Carter -- Stan Rogers
A perpetual element in my life since the first time I heard it. It's the song that comes into my life each time I have to rebuild after a broken relationship, a lost friendship, a failed attempt at anything. This song, perhaps, more than any other is the one that defines me.

6. I Knew I Loved You -- Savage Garden
The song my husband and I chose for our wedding dance. I'd heard it play on the radio and came home to tell him I thought it would make a good song for us. He'd heard it, too, and had been meaning to tell me the same thing!

I've Been Memed!

...by IndieKnits

7 things:
1. It is my understanding that knitting and crochet are the *exact same* concept, but the difference in tools make some stitch combinations easier with a hook, others easier with the sticks. No, REALLY. When I am using "crochet" stitches along with my knitting, I use my knitting needles to form them. (Knitting with crochet hooks is a tad more complex because of the little flat spot in most crochet hooks' handles and because the hooks are generally so short, but I've done it as well.)
addendum: conceptually they differ in that the expectation of crochet (except Tunisian style) is that only one loop (or set of loops: e.g. star stitch) is live at any given time. The expectation of knitting is that an entire row of loops is live at once. ... Basically, you can think of crochet as a bunch of knitting stitches in which you bind off each stitch *as you make it* instead of at the end of the project. Cool, huh?
2. In 2002 I couldn't knit. Well, I guess I *could* knit-- if I read a book to remind myself of cast-ons and cast-offs.. but I really didn't enjoy it. ... although there is that one lace scarf I made for a gift... but that was a project I *REALLY* didn't enjoy! Especially the fifth time that I had to rip it all the way back and restart because I dropped stitches. Come to think of it, it never would have lived to completion if I hadn't managed somehow to get it back on the needles the sixth time I dropped stitches... It was a project that was altogether too far beyond my skillset to be plausible, but when I took it in to the yarn store to complain and swore that I couldn't knit, they said it was obvious that I *could* knit if I were making lace like that, and I must be lying. phoo. No help at all! ... that scarf was born in 1997, firmly settled in the "I Can't Knit" years. Somewhere in 2002 a school-friend was knitting socks, and I got fascinated. It's been a slippery downhill slide from there onward, and *NOW* I can knit. I can shape things, I can adjust sizing, I understand gauge, I recognize knitting shorthand and charted symbols, I can repair errors in lace work (not just my own, either!)... and of course, I can knit socks. :)
3. When I was about 13, I tried to teach myself to spin on a handmade drop spindle. I'd read about the concept in history books, and they'd said it was possible to spin "with a stick shoved through a potato." When I failed to get the results I wanted, I decided I couldn't spin after all. It was another one of those things that I Just Wasn't Meant To Do. .. Thirty years later, I'm totally hooked. And with the right equipment (and a better understanding of the function of twist) it's surprisingly simple! (note: "simple" does not necessarily mean "easy". "simple" paves the way to "easy".)
4. Art is a much more difficult discipline than science. Science has clear goals, defined steps, and right-and-wrong answers. I most definitely did not choose Art as "the easy route." There are days that I hate it. ..but it is rarely boring.
5. The childhood-dream career paths I most regret not taking: stuntperson, circus acrobat, whale tamer.
6. The childhood-dream career path I am most glad that I did *not* take: garbage collector.
7. My mother wanted me to be: a lawyer. She gave me that "You can be Anything" speech so common in middle-class suburbia... but apparently "unemployed artist" and "perpetual student" weren't what she meant.