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.