Well, this is a first. Someone linked directly to my index page's former display of Roger Wesson's moon photograph and it's been generating a lot of hits via Google's image search engine. I could not figure it out at first. I could see that there were an extraordinary number of hits via Google Images but I thought maybe it was a class doing an assignment on the moon or something. It's a lovely image, and kids don't always understand that photographs and web graphics are intellectual property (which is why I got Roger's permission to use it) but there was simply too much traffic for that explanation to work. After two weeks of ever increasing hits I realized someone must have put a link directly to my image without bothering to download it to their own computer. I took the image out of my folder and put up a lovely new grey, black and white index page for the winter.
I've been in Honolulu since Thursday. I had a very pleasant, relaxing vacation, except for the part where I wasn't all that relaxed because I'm not going to be able to unclench my jaw or stop fretting over History and piano practice until after finals. Yes, even in Paradise I found myself babbling to our cab driver about Chinese immigration to San Francisco and the islands in the nineteenth century. He was very impressed at the depth of my knowledge. I was slightly horrified, myself, but I didn't start the conversation or lead it there, it just came up.
I didn't spend every waking moment worrying, of course. After all, the weather was idyllic, my charm and style at the Hertz counter got me a free upgrade from a compact car to a convertible, I ate the freshest prawns and fish possible every day, Halloween in Waikiki was wicked good fun, and I came this close to getting a tattoo of a petroglyph-style sea turtle. We accidentally saw three hula shows, all very good. My favorite moment was sitting on the patio of the Moana Surfrider's Beach Club overlooking Diamondhead and the golden sands of Waikiki beach, observing a perfect tropical sunset while sipping mai tais and Blue Hawaiis. Absolute bliss.
Coming back wasn't hard, oddly enough. I love Hawaii, Trish and I had a great time, but I'm happy to be home. Sure, it's on the cool side here, there are no plumerias in bloom, and we can't go swimming in the ocean without a wetsuit, but that's fine. I'm far more relaxed than when I left and that was kind of the point. Trish summed up our long weekend with the immortal phrase, "It's like summer camp with booze!"
And it was, actually.
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