early moring racket November 30, 2007

 

last tuesday morning (8am!!) i met
three friends from work for some

t e n n i s

now, don’t let my cute tennis
skirt and racket fool you…

i am NO GOOD at all

the entire time was a semi-private
lesson from gerald.  he plays in
tournaments in Vegas, and teaches
high school kids, so he’s pretty good.

i learned this and more:
the grip i use is called continental
i should plant my feet then swing
i need to keep my eye on the ball
i don’t need to whack the guts out of
the ball just yet. (i have this problem
with golf too)

it was so much fun. we played for
almost three hours. 
gerald would feed me balls and then
come to the net and tell me what to
correct.  i must say that swinging a
golf club and a tennis racket are nothing
alike.  i hope that playing tennis does
mess up my golf swing. i probably
don’t play enough tennis, nor is my
golf swing consistent or good enough
to make a difference.

tina and arlene were on one half of the
court and gerald and i were on the other.
somehow all the balls arlene returned
to tina liked me a lot (it must be the skirt)
because they kept flying at me. i stopped
flinching after a while and just took the
hits.

ps-gerald and i matched (i love matching!!)
and so did tina and arlene.  we didn’t plan
it.

the grounds are beautiful at the courts we
went to.  mountains in the background…
plumeria trees everywhere!  they showered
down their blossoms and decorated the ground.
there were also trees with small pink flowers.
when the wind blew they rained down a
blanket of blossoms onto the perfectly
cut green grass. 

i kept stopping to say, “look! isn’t that
wonderful?!! everyone stop and look!
it’s so pretty!”  i’m such a girl!

      

new friends at the dump November 18, 2007

this is julie.
i’m coming out of the closet - as a blog writer
that is. i regularly contribute by referring to
myself in third person but it’s starting to
slip into my real life conversations so i 
decided to stop being a phoney.

recycling is kind of a big deal in hawaii.
i mean, it’s an island for cryin out loud,
so we’re the people that have to worry about
going underwater should this global warming
situation progress.

but let’s all stop kidding ourselves. when i
say green i’m talking about money not the
earth. so, i recycle for the cold hard cash. (me
AND the homeless people)
at $0.05 a pop you can easily get enough
to buy a pop in only a few months. or like
an eyebrow pencil. whatever you’re in to.

the first step is dressing appropriately.
that means going to the dirty laundry
basket, not the closet – you wear the same
thing you do for dumpster diving. pretend
you’re doing just that. that reminds me -
next time i’m wearing gloves.

then, go to the side of the house and drain
the rainwater/sludge/cockroach communities
out of the thousands of stacked plastic and canned
goods. (it is best to get your roommate to come outside
and help you) stuff them in your junkyard appropriate
soccermom van and hit the road. or let it hit you.

i pulled into the dark lonely alleyway and was
greeted by a sinister cashier. ok. he wasn’t
really sinister. but nor was he jovial. he didn’t
say much of anything until he dropped the
bad news bomb on me – all of the caps must
be removed from the bottles. in addition to the
sorting, i quickly realized it was going to be a long
night. i got to work. meanwhile, homeslice had some
smokes, listened to the radio, cooked and ate dinner
and read the paper. about 600 bottles in, i started
planning to spend my earnings on arthritis gloves
and bengay. just then, the cashier looked in the van
and saw i had only just gotten started and offered his
assistance. my hero. so we made a little small talk.

turns out, what i thought was the Spanish radio station
was the Micronesian radio station. joke’s on me. and my
highschool Spanish teacher. he inquired about my offspring.
i regretfully informed him about the lack thereof and upon
further prodding had to explain it was because i have no
husband. it was then that he asked for my number.

it was tempting inspite of the fact that he spoke very little
English, has 3+ children in Micronesia and is a suspected
chain smoker, because he washed his hands before dinner.
fortunately, my resolve has been strengthened through the
repeated playing of our ipod list which is 98% girl power songs.

don’t worry, it was all worth it because today we had enough
money to buy our own icey drinks.

just kidding, we also had enough to a pack of gum.

happy birthday julie November 17, 2007

ok, julie’s birthday was sept. 29th.
i got us tickets to the lion king for her
happy day. our tickets were for nov. 10th!

the plan was to have the funnest day EVER!
it was our Once a Year Day

it was great fun…see for yourself.

morning:  sleep in…way in (kind of an accident)
early afternoon: a trip to the mall to buy a dress
on sale and some other assundries, The BEACH,
and anne. (we just finished the 5th book)
later afternoon: ultimate frisbee. it happened to be
the best game i’ve played in weeks! julie and i were
both really on our game!!  AND we were on the same
team which is our favorite! AND our team made a
dramatic come from behind win!  it felt so good to kick 
some frisbee
…derriere. aaron, our team’s self-appointed coach
 for the game said,
“i love a game when it’s a compliment to say,
‘you play like a girl!’”
pre dinner: operation ‘Look Hot’ was to commence at 1800
hours. i think it was a success. especially considering the
short amount of time we had. Go Team.
dinner: pf chang’s. we were seated in the ginormous corner
booth. lisa took charge of the ordering while julie kept
looking awesome. at least, that’s all she could assume
since everyone was staring at her. or maybe the new
dress was a bust. just when her silent paranolia was
overtaking her ability to enjoy the melt-in-her-mouth
lettuce wraps, the waitress kindly informed us that
julie had a notable resemblance to the bartender. all the
employees were secretly calling her “Fake Rachel.”
the entire restarant then became less conspicuous
in their curiosity. julie decided that as long as they
started calling the bartender “Fake Julie” she
would let them stare all they wanted.
we ate fortune cookies for dessert…with the most
insulting fortunes ever.
lisa’s: “Improve yourself. Practice makes perfect.”
    interpretation: “you really suck. try to stop it.”
julie’s: “Don’t let friends impose on you.”
    interpretation: “major pushover”
show: AMAZING  julie and i held hands, squeezing and
softely squealing for at least 1/3 of the the show.
(another 3/8 was spent hating the people behind us
who were unwrapping their thousands of plastic-vaulted
snacks in a deafening manner)
  

WAIT! THERE’S MORE:
grown up simba is the guy that used to be in wicked,
yes meghan, cliffton oliver!!! i met him on the subway
after meg and i saw wicked one night. he pointed at me
and said, “front row! i remember you because you were
mouthing all the words!” well, this guy is now is the
national tour of the lion king. (he was simba on broadway
for a few years, then left to go to wicked) he is so good!
so, i decided to be ms. creepy creeperson and go to
the stage door to say hello.
(meg, i knew we’d be in a fight if i didn’t go)
when he came out he saw me and said, “oh my goodness!
what?!!? no way!! what are you doing here!!?”
he gave me and julie hugs and kisses like a good
new yorker. we all had a jolly good talk about his
career and my journey to hawaii, and then about
broadway in general.

julie and i climbed into my little poni and sighed
with blissful happiness. it was the perfect end to
her birthday celebration.  we crawled into bed
smiling and tired with the boys singing us to sleep.

happy birthday, my dearest and loveliest julie!!!

the kid is one of the two actors who plays young simba.

i solemnly promise November 17, 2007

the other day at the mall
julie and i saw these three old
women in matching muumuus.
same material, slightly different pattern.

right then and there we vowed that one
day when we are in our 60’s or older we
will have someone make matching muumuus
for us. or we will make them ourselves.

we WILL keep this promise.

hopefully we will wear them together
at our retirement center. it will
definitely wow the men. also, we
will wear them wherever we want.
like the mall.
and your Golden Anniversary Party.

by then we will welcome the non-formfitting
dress and the laugh that will inevitably come
with it.

could someone kindly remind us in about
35 or so years??

here’s to you mr. robinson… November 16, 2007

 one week ago I put
 mr. mark robinson 
 on a plane back to his home in NYC.
 he was here visiting me for two weeks.
 his visit was a very enjoyable one.

 funny story:
 so, t- 2 days to mark’s arrival
 i was playing my heart out in a
 game of ultimate frisbee.  my team was
 loosing so I decided to kick it into gear.
 the frisbee was floating down in my direction.
 about three other guys go with me to
 snatch it out of the air.  well I did not get
 the frisbee, but I did get
 a boney elbow to the face!!
 when the game ended julie and i ran home
 for a STAT ice job on my face.  i kept ice
 on my mouth for the next two days.  
 it helped, but did not take it way entirely. 
 so when mark came two days later i had
 a fat purple lip.  yep,  that’s  right!  i
 embraced my humility and did not even put
 makeup on it. (not that I own any of that kind
 to put on anyway!!!)  “mark.  here I am…fat,
 busted up, purple lip and all.”  he said he
 hardly noticed at first glance.
 he is a gracious man.

     
 this is me just after the elbow incident.
 it’s a bad pic, but i want you all to experience
 this with me!!

 so, mark’s two week visit was filled with piles
 and heaps of time on the beach, some playing,
 and lots of good conversation.  
 we parked ourselves on the sand, in the sun,
 under coconut trees, on rocks, on towels…
 and took in the beauty that is the ocean…
 the blue, sometimes still, sometimes turbulent
 waters of hawaii.
 there was deep discussing, some laughing,
 storytelling, silence, and some reading aloud.
 we hung with Julie some, we had dinner
 with monica and chris and lunch with my
 pastor and his wife.

 i introduced mark to the fun and exhilaration
 of the pink raft on the waves of Kailua. mark
 fell in love with the lush green mountains and
 blue waters of Oahu…it is especially overwhelming
 when you can see them both at the same time!!
 we cruised the north shore road while happily
 swaying to the music of jack johnson.
 (a favorite past time of mine)

 we had some really good food as well. 
 his favorite and mine…furikaki chicken.

 a few random things I learned about mark:
 *he can drink a huge cup of hot coffee faster than
 i can count to ten in chinese!
 *he can really hang with the casual vibes of island life
 *he is allergic to cats
 *he is the fastest gunslinger in the west when
 it comes to pulling out his blackberry and
 googling something.  So handy!!
 *he is    b r I l l I a n t  ! (i already knew that)

    

 the day mark got in was his birthday. Oct 29th
 we didn’t know what his fav. dessert was
 so i got him a few to choose from. and this
 was the best man-lei i’ve ever seen!

       

 we hung out at Barnes and Noble and did some
 reading. he was SO into this book. i read
 through a book of much more importance.

     

 one day we went to waimanalo and
 sat in front of this dreamy house. this
 house was behind us and this ocean was
 before us. 

      

 maybe my favorite place we went was
 spits caves. it’s a rocky place on the edge
 of a sort of cliff.  the waves crash onto the
 rocks and a cave shoots out water when
 the waves hit it just right. there were HUGE
 houses right on the side of rock.  it was
 beautiful!!  Breathtaking and soothing.
 we were awed into silence for a while.