What a Weekend!

My Friday morning began with a brief meeting with Acacia about the HP Alliance web site. The last week and a half to two weeks I've been running on all cylinders work wise and Acacia said, "Dude, you NEED to have a weekend. Start early. Start immediately." I plowed through my list of things to do like Superman and by the time it was 2 pm, and had finished more than a normal day's work, I was soon out of the house and getting my butt on the Number 1 bus to Chinatown. 

It was a much longer ride on a Friday afternoon! But by 4 pm, I was at Indigo, drinking a Happy Hour Cosmopolitan. Only 3 dollars! Well, I soon found another bar that offered the same deal. So another few dollars, another Cosmo. Mmmmm. Then on to Ong King for an awesome art exhibit as well as drinking a couple shots of vodka and soda. This time it was donation only, so one dollar. After the art exhibit, I had some nice flirtatious time back at Indigo before going to a Vietnamese restaurant for some Chicken Pho (I realized at this point that if I didn't eat with the amount I had drunk, my time feeling good was minimal). Then to the art galleries! Yes, another First Friday. And with it came art galleries that included some awesome art, some awesome crafts, some naked people covered in artsy paint, and some amazing dance. And speaking of dance, after absorbing a lot of wonderful art work I was soon at a club dancing, flirting, all that fun stuff. But then left to go back to Ong King where a singer/songwriter made me cry with his music. I got into Ong King for free on account of being on the guest list courtesy of one of the musicians in Quadrophonics, who I have become friends with. That band is absolutely amazing! WOW! Ong King had wine this time, and so that made it even more fun. Soon I found myself back at a club before going back to Ong King, having missed the last Number 1 bus back home. But a wonderful guy at Ong King offered to drive me home. After dancing to some awesome live hip hop and then techno, this guy dropped me off at Zippy's where I ordered a double cheeseburger - knowing that I would need that to metabolize all of the alcohol while I was sleeping. It was so late where I was that I realized that my mom, who gets up pretty early, would probably be awake. So I called and wished her a good morning as, it turns out, she was on her way to the gym. 

I slept a very long time, woke up at noon and met up with Layla and Benjamin. We went to Aquarium and it was awesome! Benjamin found the fish to be enthralling. But he also found the people to be equally enthralling as well as things like stairs, seats, little rocks on the ground, and just about everything. So he's a good audience. :-) We then went back home before Mala picked us up and took us to a gay rights rally, for Hawaii to have legal civil unions. I found out about the rally at First Friday and it was nice to be there. Then Mala, Layla, and Benjamin dropped me off at the East-West Center where I saw the first Noh play I have ever seen. WHOAH! What an experience! It was a very sad play. So slow moving you wouldn't believe it. Fortunately my date who has the same name as Spiderman's girl friend helped me enjoy this really interesting experience all the better. The night ended with Layla and I having a really nice conversation after she had put "the boy" to bed. He is finally learning to fall asleep in his crib! Way to go Benjamin!!!! :-)

Sunday morning I woke up and got ready to go to Haunama Bay which is nothing short of a tropical paradise. WOW! The snorkeling was amazing. I ran along the beach and danced with the wind and the ocean. It was unbelievable.

I came home thinking I would go to Ong King tonight to do my very first live performance of "Barack Jewbama" but decided after some meditation that after such an exciting weekend it would be better to just sit with myself, then clean and organize my apartment. So thank you Acacia for reminding me to take time for myself!

I am excited to start work tomorrow with an exciting phone appointment at 7 am with a group in the UK!

I'll write more soon! 

The Ends of the Earth

According to this world clock that lists a whole lot of countries through the entire world, Hawaii is the only place where it's still Sunday. Every single other state/province/city in the entire world is experiencing Monday. But here in Honolulu, it's still the weekend.

What has two thumbs...

and just became a member of the Academy of Art in Honolulu. Give up? This guy!

I kid you not, I did work today from a beautiful art museum in Hawaii. Life is good.

The sounds of cats mating

I never would have known it. But when they are doing it and doing it and doing it well, cats make a lot of noise! Almost every night a certain female cat, who for her own anonymity will go unnamed (also I'm not even sure if she has a name) gets it on with a male cat. And either cause she's in heat or because she's experiencing some strange mix of pain and pleasure, this cat starts crying LOUDLY.

So loudly that I woke up for some reason early on Sunday morning (I went back to sleep) at around 4:30 am. And I heard the crying. I couldn't tell if it was a person or an animal. but I decided after some hemming and hauling to call the police. The police asked me if it sounded like a cat mating. To which I replied, "I have no idea what a cat sounds like when they're mating." Well now I do. I told some neighbors about it the next day. It's a cat mating. The same one. Almost every night. We should all be so lucky.

In the mean time, some other neighbors of mine are playing some very loud club music. It's a little obnoxious. But I wouldn't be surprised if they're having a bumping and grinding dance party and the cat outside is there ready to pick up some male um...(insert obvious/corny/offensive pun having to do with cats).

First Cockroach

The first and hopefully last cockroach appeared in my apartment today. It was huge! I think it was about six inches long but the good news is that I got it out of my house without having to smash off it's head. I know, I know. That's what she said. :-)

First Friday

Back in Philadelphia, First Friday - taking place on the first Friday of every month is a thing to celebrate. Old City becomes newly alive as art galleries stay open late and people are coming in and out and in a vibrant mix of urban, bohemian, artistic, yuppie, and hip elements. The same is true in Honolulu.

Only in Honolulu it's not "Old City" but Chinatown that comes alive. Last night, I went alone to First Friday as Layla and Jon wimped out because they have a baby. As did Layla's friends. So I ventured out alone and am so happy that I did.

The art was beautiful, so many nice and cool people that I met. Drinking wine. Drinking beer. Looking at art. One exhibit that stood out for me was The Aloha President, where a photographer took pictures of Barack Obama when he was staying here last year on a break from the campaign trail. Incredibly, he was staying across from her house so she had great access to him and the pictures are beautiful and moving. She said she looks at him as a work of art. And while I don't believe in deifying Barack, I do believe that people are art and that he, who is so beautiful, so pensive, so passionate, and so inspiring with those dashing good looks that stands for Global Citizen is certainly a fantastic figure to photograph. There were so many interesting people and artists.

There was also these awesome dancers in a Chinese dragon outfit with fire and people surrounding them playing percussive instruments.

Eventually as the galleries closed, the bars and clubs opened. A little drunk, I went dancing at a club. And as far as being single in Honolulu, it was certainly a good night. Oddly, I ended it the same way I started my morning: having a cheeseburger at a place called Zippy's.

Any way, it was a fantastic First Friday.

Sheraton, I Know Ye Well

To your left is the Sheraton Hotel at Waikiki. I can't tell you nor will I in this blog all of the many mischievous things I have done in Sheraton Hotels. In fact, today was on the lower end of my Sheraton mischief.

I woke up at 5:30 am, in part because it was cold with my windows open and in part because of the energy work that I had done the night before. By 6:30 am I was at work emailing the wonderful people I work with in the HP Alliance. By 8:40 I was out the door and taking a bus and then a nice walk to Waikiki beach - possibly the most touristy beach in Honolulu. I walked for a while along the beach and just seeing that wonderful ocean and having it's cold water hit my feet is so incredibly refreshing. Then I came to the Sheraton. I simply walked in as if I were a guest, swam in the pool and chilled out in the hot tub for a while. Or perhaps I should say, "warmed up" in the hot tub. Any way, everyone is supposed to have an orange bracelet signifying they are a guest at the hotel. I just kept keeping my wrists down in front of the guards and going about my business of relaxing and talking to some guests. It was fun! Then to the ocean where I had a nice swim and a real nice pee.

I later went to a nearby mall that has a movie theater and an Apple Store. I always forget how despite the fact that I am surrounded by beautiful vibrant tropical aliveness, I am living in a modern Western major United States city. And a city, mind you, that has Sheraton hotels to take advantage of. You gotta love it.

Global Citizens and Tai Chi

I have often referred to Obama's election as "the age of the global citizen" and I'm excited to be a part of this. Especially here in Obama's original home of Honolulu, I feel as though I am getting the chance to continue to emerge as a global citizen.

Today included my interacting with people in the UK, NY, Boston, writing an email to Rwanda, and getting a heartwarming good night call from Ben Brandzel who is in Johannesburg in South Africa.

Later I got ice cream and sat around drinking herbal tea with Layla and her French friend Noe (a juggler and solar physicist), Noe's girl friend from Yemen, Nada (also a solar physicist), and two of their friends visitng from France.

And this was under the back drop of my spending a lot of time, looking out at the ocean in the middle of the tropics and working on international issues. So I feel like I truly have turned into quite a global citizen.

Perhaps one of the coolest parts of today, however, was my Tai Chi class, with my teacher Jonathan. Jonathan has been doing Tai Chi for about forty years and martial arts for about fifty years.

There are only two other people in this one hour class, so there's a lot of personal attention. I think a Euro-American studying Tai Chi in Hawaii is another example of global citizenry, but I think Jonathan adds something very interesting to this because the class is not simply around Tai Chi. It's also around energy work. Activating chi or as my breathwork teachers would call it from the Indian tradition, prana. But essentially it seems that chi and prana are the same. And the amazing thing in slowing down and doing energy work is that for as much as I love meeting people from different parts of the world and working on international issues, it is in going within and doing energy work that my body, mind, and spirit truly feel connected to the actual world. The sense of openness and calm is truly something that I am very grateful for.

On Landlords and Factories of Adulthood

My landlords have insisted that the person who cleans their house biweekly also clean my apartment. Dworkin warned them that I can be a slob. However, they were surprised this morning when the cleaning person came to find that I've been keeping this apartment looking so nice. While it was nice to have someone help tidy up, it's also nice to feel like I'm "growing myself up" (I know, at the age of 29, I'm a late bloomer) and am tidying things on my own.

And talking about growing up, I have also just found out that my good friend Justin has had a baby. I didn't even know that he and his new wife were pregnant! So Mazel Tov Justin! I also got a text message this morning from my one of my closest friends from growing up, Eric Furman letting me know that he's engaged. So Mazel Tov Eric!

I know that tidying oneself up and getting married/having a baby are in different realms, but regardless, I feel like I'm living in a factory of adulthood.

Noh

One thing I didn't realize is how much Honolulu is brimming with culture. There's people from all over Europe and the continental United States. There's native Hawaiians. And probably more than half the population comes from East Asia.

Chinese, Japanese, Polynesian, Filipino, and just about every kind of Pacific islander. And don't get me started on Vietnamese. Pho, a Vietnamese dish, is as popular here as burritos are in back in Somerville, Massachusetts. Every where you go there's people from different cultures.

My landlord Michael is the curator at the East-West Center at the University of Hawaii. This Center is dedicated to strengthening "relations and understanding among the peoples and nations of Asia, the Pacific, and the United States."

Any way, right now there's an exhibit that Michael helped with in Noh and kyogen, collectively known as nohgaku. This is a type of Japanese theater that's been performed for the last seven hundred years. The image on your left is a mask is used as part of Noh theater. Kyogen theater, however, does not use as many masks. I visited the exhibit on my second full day in Hawaii and found it fascinating and I hope to go back there on a day when they'll be showing more about Noh costumes. On my first Friday in Honolulu, Michael took me to a concert as part of the Chinese New Year that was Chinese music with some American fusion. It was pretty amazing. It's incredible how much culture is in this world to see, hear, and explore.

It makes me even more excited for my Tai Chi class that I'm taking once a week with my second class tomorrow. :-)

So Far, No Cockroaches!

Any one who has ever lived with me or dated me knows that I'm not so great at cleaning up after myself. Well now that I live in my own apartment with my own little kitchen, not only do I have to clean up after myself, but in the tropics, when it comes to cleaning up after oneself, the stakes are very high. Here in Hawaii, everything is alive.

Just a couple of days ago I saw the corpse of a bug sitting on my floor and ignored it, thinking I would get to it later. Within an hour or so, it was surrounded by a small swarm of ants. And so Michael, my landlord (and Layla's father) has carefully warned me that if I leave dishes or crumbs out for just a few hours, I'm bound to have a cockroach infestation. I've been careful. And so far I'm proud to say that after one week of living here, there is no cockroach infestation. Keep your fingers crossed.

Getting Benjamin To Sleep

I have now been in Honolulu for over one week. There's so much to say it's sort of ridiculous as this week has been nothing short of incredible. While there's so much to say about my Hawaiian adventures, I'm going to start by talking about one of my new best friends in the world: Benjamin Dworkin. He's also making me very excited to meet my newborn niece and nephew Sara and Jeremy.

Any way, before I tell the story of how I got Benjamin to sleep, let me ask you something: did you know that just about every single thing is so exciting that it's important to point to it and excitedly call it either "bah" or "dah"? I didn't realize this, but Benjamin is helping me to discover how everything is pretty exciting. And watching him with Dworkin (Jon) is teaching me a lot about myself. But here's the story of how I got him to go to sleep (I know it's long but I love talking about him, so here goes):

When Jon and Layla picked me up on Wailae Avenue near my house, we were hoping that Benjamin would nap the entire two hour drive to the North Shore. But unfortunately it seems that the poor boy was so tired he simply couldn't fall asleep. At least not in his car seat. Jon tried everything, sitting in the back seat. Then Layla tried. Then I tried. Then Jon tried. The only thing that happened was a continual stream of crying at the top of his lungs. Even singing, which normally works for Bejamin was not working (he is soooo musical by the way). Normally he loves music so much that he often sings himself to sleep with a careful arrangement of "bah dah bah dah" in some kind of harmony and a rhythmic moving up of his hand, until he's finally sleeping. This did not happen yesterday. It was becoming painful to listen to. I felt bad that I hadn't helped but Jon said, "Hey man, you did as good as any one could have done which I guess is not saying much because there really isn't any thing that can be done."

SUCCESS!
But then after we parked the car, I tried again. This time, while the door was open,
before I got in the car, I made a huge yawn and a huge yawning motion with my body. Benjamin was so mesmerized by this, that he forgot to cry. i walked into the car and sat next to him and yawned a few times. He just stared at me, fascinated by my yawning. It was interesting. I wasn't telling him to calm down. I was just showing him how tired I was. I then draped my right arm in front of him and kept making smacking noises with my lips. Almost like I wanted to suck on something (which the breast lover that he is, I think he could relate to). He just kept staring. I yawned more. And smacked my lips more. And he just kept watching me. Soon I started to lightly sing "The Rainbow Connection" and every time I saw that he was getting a little into it, I started to fade out my voice, like I was drifting to sleep. I pretended that I couldn't finish the sentence, and I'd close my eyes and smack my lips again. And then I'd open them again and yawn. And this went on for several minutes. And as it did, he seemed to be calming his mind and his body and his eyes would look softer and softer. Until eventually his lids began to look heavy. I'd yawn again and he'd stare at me yawning, trying to maintain his interest but being gently persuaded by his eyes to just rest. Very, very slowly this went on until finally his eyes were relaxed and he was sleeping gently. He moved his head to the side and he started breathing in his sleep. He kept almost waking with little shudders coming from his body, and I kept making light yawning sounds. And soon he was more and more relaxed in his sleep. Layla turned to me and I gave her a thumbs up and she gave a big smile full of maternal gratitude.


On the way back, after what may have been some of the best snorkeling that the world has to offer (omg! it was incredible and soooo peaceful) I sat with Benjamin again. Once again, it was really difficult. I had a ball that I gave him that he kept throwing in my face. That would calm him down from crying but he was still very much awake. Layla said, "why not play the yawning game?" And I tried it slowly. And once again began to sing to him through my yawns. And this time, rather than drift off so quickly he started dancing to my singing. Dancing with his hand, shaking it up and down in the air. I would close my eyes and open them just a tad and all I could see was Benjamin staring at me with his hand in a perfect rhythm: up, down. up, down. up, down. I kept trying not to laugh. Eventually he just fell asleep. I once again gave the thumbs up to Layla. Layla signaled to Jon that the boy was asleep and Jon, who I had just mentioned something about Shamanism to smiled and said, "you know, there might be something concrete to this Shamanism thing."

It was actually so calming for me. Just sitting there watching this small child with his very very active mind, slow himself down, unwind, and allow himself to finally drift off. It helped me too. I think I'm in love. :-)