Hawaiian family gatherings

are never ending in my family and I've haven't been to one yet that has ever ended before midnight. My cousin Moke had a belated birthday party for two of his daughter's Anastasia and Vanessa (12 & 9) across the bay which my daughter and I looked forward to attending. As with celebrations there were also funerals that we attended for this family. My uncle and my cousin April, who recently passed away from Cancer and left two teenage boys, her husband and two twin girls (6 months old). April was the event planner of the families. She would send out the evites, plan the menu, co-ordinated the jumper, rent the facility or be the first one to secure the best area at a public park. That was April in a nutshell. With all of her love and aloha, she welcomed everyone into her family, no matter what race, color or creed, you were treated as family.
Hawaiian parties never start on time and this was no exception with a 2:00pm start and dinner finally being served a few hours later. The greeting of family and friends are always given in hugs and kisses. Introductions to familiar faces and the memories that we reminisce from past events and families that all brings us closer never losing those ties. Dinner is always excellent and plentiful. Smiles, laughter of children and conversation are the center pieces of my life. Our opu ( stomach) full of food and drink, we enjoy the rest of the night in music. My Aunty Joyce seems happier than usual and is more talkative than combative and she warns me about Mark and keeping him away from my daughter. My Aunt is a fiery red-headed haole (caucasian) woman who in her younger years was a total hottie. Wise in years, she can see everything in it's development and she does not like Mark. As the night starts to fade away and the crowd thins out, we start the task of saying goodbye to all of our family members which usually takes an extra twenty minutes. My cousin reminds me of another party in two weeks for her sister's twin girls and in agreement, I know that I need to be there. Our jaunt across the bay is short as my daughter and I converse about Mark, a long time grade school friend of my cousin Moke and now a single father who has frequented these parties since his teens, who has now taken a liking to my daughter and from what she said, wants to ask me if he could see my daughter. Sounds so old country Filipino, doesn't it? I told my daughter, who doesn't have an interest in him, he's going to have to go through the proper channels, my Aunty Joyce.

Things that make me feel better

and one of them is coloring my hair. It's time to do that when my gray hair starts to frame my face and I look like those recess monkeys, I am SO vain. Lynn and I have often said, "When do you think we'll stop coloring our hair?" I replied, "When hell freezes over or when they don't make Nutrisse anymore!" We both agreed in unison. At 40, looking in the mirror isn't a matter of "Do I look still look good". It's a matter of how many more new wrinkles have cropped up overnight and are visible or the new age spot that I've been calling a "beauty mark" that has turned another shade of brown. I can see the ageing process has begun slowly. Not so much the pillow bags under my eyes but my hair. It used to be really long, past my waist until I got it cut off about 6 inches on my trip to the Philippines in Feb of this year. My hair had grown to different lengths of various strands and a good salon was recommended through a coworker friend and trusted the woman who had my "hair" in her hands and besides, she was very cute. Being of Hawaiian/Tahitian descent, my hair is very thick and wavy. In the words of Lynn's daughter Bryn, she voted it officially "ruffly". After she washed and combed out my long, dark, tangle mane she proceeded to put my hair up in sections and carefully measured and cut. I could see in the mirror that she took great care and effort in handling my hair and my emotions as I watched my curly locks fall effortlessly on the floor. I haven't cut my hair since I was 14 years old and the birth of my children, my hair grew longer and I let it grow. My friends and co-workers have always asked me if I would cut it and this seemed like a better time than any. The whole cutting process took about 45 minutes and then she tackled the job of french braiding my hair. NO ONE has ever done that to my hair and I was surprised and shocked that it could be done! I had a pedicure, massage, facial, ear cleaning, shampoo, cut and braid all for $25.00us. I gave her a big tip because she was worth it and she bought me a "red horse" beer. I kept my braid in for two days before I loosened it up again and saw how short it was. My hair had fallen to the middle part of my upper back. Very short and something that I've gotten used to. I emailed Lynn telling her that I cut my hair and told her that she now has longer hair than mine. Her hair falls past her waist as well. Being a Caucasian woman from the South, she has very smooth, straight brown hair and has said a few times, "if you cut your hair too short, I'll divorce you!" Which is all in fun, I know she loves me too much to do that. I'm rambling here but yes, I love to color my hair because it definitely makes me feel better and gives me the lift that I need sometimes when my life spirit has dropped a few bars. It's what I crave among other things.

Sleeping Beauty

It's 2:15pm and I'm still in my PJ's! How wickedly delightful. Actually, it's plain insane. I've got so much to do today and all I've done so far is get my 401k papers signed and wait for the postal girl. I text'd Lynn this morning at 11 something which is about the time I woke up after staying out last night until 3am with my coworkers! That was a lot of fun. What was supposed to be only three of us turned out to be 8 of my coworkers that showed up. I did have one beer and french toast with blueberries. Everyone had the gamut of a full breakfast, eggs, hash browns, toast to a soup and sandwich. All we talked about was the trials and tribulations of work. I can see that the environment never changes. We said our goodbyes, hugs and kisses hopefully I'll see them in January 2008. Coming home to an empty house, besides my son, is lonely if you don't have your sweetie there to greet you when you come home. In my case, if Lynn and I ever live together, I'm not sure if she'll approve of me going out with my friends after work at 1am or jetting off to London for dinner while she is at work. There's still many things that we talk about and how it will affect us and of course there are compromises and situations and we talk through them and work them out.

Mid afternoon

I finally got out of the house and went to my place of employment where I am currently on sick leave because of my Rheumatoid Arthritis. My job has a "welfare" system for it's employees, if we fall victims to illness, financial burden, destruction that diminishes our capacity to work, they help us out with monies donated by employees into a fund where we never have to pay it back. It's a donation deposited by employees and it's there for who ever has need. And right now, I have need because I am falling behind on my monthly mortgage and other necessary utility bills. There is paperwork to fill out, printouts from my payroll and my doctors verification that I need to submit in order to be approved for this "donation". I'm crossing my fingers for it. In the meantime, I'm getting my documentation for my loan and what I qualify for since I am no longer making the money I used to make when I was gainfully employed. I'll be submitting that tomorrow. It was nice to see everyone at work. The airport is really slow right now and flights are not as full. It's a good time to travel. Unfortunately my flight benefits are restricted because of my illness, which means, I'm not able to travel for "free". I was at the airport for quite awhile and got invited to our "beer breakfast" which happens when everyone is off from work at 1:00am. We frequent an establishment called "Peter's cafe" and it's open 24 hours except for Mondays. It's true that some of us do have a beer or two and it has to be off the table by 1:45am because of the liquor laws. It's usually our time to get together and talk about the evening and how it went.
Nani came home tonight rather early from her job. She usually doesn't get home until after 11:00pm. She did go to work today and received her check which she was not too happy about because they missed a few of her sales and did not show up on this check. I feel her pain, because she is a hard worker and really wants to make it in this job of selling vacuums but to get a check for $152 dollars after two weeks working 10 hour days? C'mon now, give these kids a break. This isn't the slave days....pay them! She was gracious enough to give me $90 dollars of it which will go towards gas and a ticket she recently got parked on the wrong side of the road. I can taste that beer right now.