Day 50

After a night of rain all the plants perk up, everything is greener, and muddy, and the ground is covered in leaves. I made breakfast (Bagel Sunday!) for eight and there were only four, only two showed up. Marianna got kind of frustrated with me and said, you almost reminded me of Eva”, oh man that is like a killer insult around here, I’ve got to do better. At breakfast was this really cool hippie family that’s been here a few days, but we got to eat and talk with them. They have two kids and sold their house and have been “car camping” in Hawaii for about a month. They started at a five-day all raw foods festival, interesting . . . Marianna said the guy is a professor of something, he also mentioned he makes his own tribal type drums, can’t remember the fancy name. Anyway if I ever have kids that’s how I would want it to be, I would want to travel and live untraditionally, and for them to be a part of it, not hinder me, but that’s a long ways or never down the road. So then I puttered around for them to leave so I could clean the room, the car left but the door was locked and I could see all their stuff in there through the window. So then I painted, raked, vacuumed, scrubbed grout, swept, did dishes, just little things here and there and I felt useless like nothing really got done. My days are getting focusless? Jeremiah always works with Reiner, John always done the plants, I always do breakfast, but that’s only an hour of my five hour day, after that I either rake, clean rooms, or paint, but sometimes none of those are available or necessary, I don’t know, I need a project. Oh the house, the main house, Marianna is always saying how dirty it is, and I try to clean but there is so much clutter. I mean you wouldn’t believe how dirty it gets, still is. I moved the microwave for probably the first time in a year here and it was a black rectangle of dead ants underneath plus several shriveled food items. Marianna also has me vacuum the living room which is so unsatisfying, It’s nothing but rugs, maybe two square feet of actual carpet in the whole thing, and every rug has a different difficult length and texture to vacuum, it feels pointless. That is especially with the dogs shedding and getting muddy paw prints all over everything. I don’t mind it, but I feel like just picking up isn’t really getting anything done, this needs a deep gut cleaning, de-clutter, scrub every surface kind of job. So anyway after work, another day in because I still have a most upset stomach. I am almost starting to wonder if its some kind of virus/bug thing, I hope not, but this seems to be lasting longer then the usual “I ate a little too much dairy for dinner kind of thing”.

Day 49 – Diarrhea Diaries continued . . .

Yes folks I am still sickly. I haven’t been able to go to the beach for public restrooms are not really available. Luckily I manage not to get too crampy or anything during the workday, but right after I get off, it’s a mad dash for the, erm, finish. Jeremiah has been sickly as well but I think my little delicate system is taking it a bit harder. So it was our day off, we got up after a ten and a half hour sleep fest, lovely, and had breakfast. Then we lolly-gagged around and took the bus to the movie theater. We wanted to pack a cooler and have a whole day on Kee’I, but my bowels severely limited our options. We went and saw “the Book of Eli” starring Denzel Washington. I did miss about ten minutes due to um, you know . . . Overall it was like they ripped off the post-apocalyptic “The Road” and tried to make it more action packed and hopefully. I like it slow and depressing, realistic really, but anyway it passed some time and kept me entertained, but don’t bother. Then we got some subway and headed home. We never do much on our days off, but oh well, I mean we sleep a lot so that’s good. When we got off the bus to walk home it was torrential downpour, we were soaked through after three minutes. There was also a huge branch in the middle of the driveway we dragged off to the neighbors side. Little Pignic was in the back of her big plastic feed bag in her cage. Needless to say we stayed in the rest of the evening and watched TV, read.

Day 48

Marianna finally confronted the people who own “Batman” (who we found out is really named Nacho). She walked down to their house and gave them a letter saying we just want him to come play, we can’t stand to hear him cry all locked up, can he come play and we’ll send him home when you call. The people were really nice, they don’t want to sell him, but they let him come over right away, he even still had his leash on : ) also Pignic got a harness Marianna made out of an old horse bridle and now she gets to grunt around and not be stuck in her cage all day. She still screams and squeals if you pick her up, and she doesn’t like to be petted too much, but I hope we can domesticate her. For work I showed John a bit of how to make breakfast and how to clean rooms. So I think John came here after kind of a mid-life mental breakdown sort of thing, I’m still not sure. Anyway, since he’s been here he’s trying to turn a new leaf and always being really open and talking about some difficult things like his fear of abandonment, daddy issues, how he partied to much as a teenager, twenty-something, just lots of stuff. Jeremiah gets kind of wierded out, and it is odd, but I like to listen and try to figure people out nonetheless. Even though he is twice my age and has had a completely different life I tell him what I think, and give him my limited advice and some encouragement. Today while cleaning rooms we were talking about some stuff, like how he needs to relax blah blah and he says “You’ve helped me so much, this has been some of the best few weeks I’ve had in a while, you should be a therapist, really.” something like that. I found it a big compliment because he majored and got a degree in psychology at Ithica in New York and worked with special needs high school students for like eight years, so he knows all about it. I don’t know, though if I really helped or if he just hit a breaking point, a realization, and all he needed was someone to actually listen and say, yeah, you’re right, you are messed up and needing to work on yourself if you ever want to settle down and have kids. Anyway I’ve always been interested in psychology and art therapy and stuff and this made me realize how much I really do like those fields again and definitely can see it as something I would want to do with my life. Okay so, then I finally finished painting Marianna’s front doors, I am quite proud. Then I put away dishes and that was it, the days just seem to be flying right on by. Sabina left today, we gave her a really nice card and going away present. There were a lot of hugs and she said if we’re ever in Germany we can come stay with her. Its been raining off and on today, I wish it would just pour like crazy for once! WARNING WARNING WARNING: This is a gross story, read at your own risk! So yesterday we had that Chinese food and Jeremiah and me felt a little queasy last night and ended up having simultaneous diarrhea. I have been having crampy ouchy tummy and diarrhea all morning. It was afternoon and I felt gross still, but not to bad. I had just lain down and started typing this when I let out a medium sized fart. The warmth of the fart didn’t leave quickly like air should though, it was lingering and then moving slowly . . . I just crapped my pants. Jeremiah was in the bathroom and I was screaming, “Ahhhh! I pooped my pants!” “It’s dripping down my leg!” he jumps out and I carefully take off my pants and underwear and throw them in the shower along with myself. It was gross and terrible and I want you all to learn: if you ever have diarhhea and feel like farting later, do so over a toilet, because you never know . . . I know I should have learned this lesson by now, but since apparently not, maybe I should just be the youngest person I know wearing diapers.

Day 47

Today is our 47^th full day in Hawaii! It wasn’t anything to big or special today, but good enough. I haven’t been to the beach for at least three days, it feels weird, I crave it. Okay so this morning, breakfast was made, its hard without Eva here because she actually did a lot and now we are all having to divvy up the extra work. We are running really low on fruit, lilikoi are done, figs are done, tangerines are done, bananas aren’t ready, we might have to buy some fruit! Its crazy how just a month ago we had an excess of all of those fruits, now i barely scrape by. The guests this week eat a lot, mostly butter and fruit . . . maybe they spread the butter on the fruit, that has to be it. So after breakfast I showed John how to clean a room, it went fast with two so then I tried to prime some of Reiner’s porch, but it took forever for me to get started and then I did a bit and it was time to go put away the dishes. So today went by fairly fast. It sucks because Sabina was showing me all of the stuff I’m going to have to touch-up on when she leaves tomorrow, she leaves tomorrow! It’s crazy how I feel like I am really good friends with this random middle aged German women. Some people you just click with, and they are people from all over the world, with completely opposite lives and ideals, you may, or may not ever, meet. Okay so me and Jeremiah really wanted to check out this little strip of town down the road a ways and this Japanese restaurant call Toshima’s. So we puttered around the shops. There was this amazing fabric shop with so many buttons, zippers, fabric, and it was all messy and piles and selling other random things. I want my sewing machine! We got to the restaurant and it was closed for the afternoon until dinner at 5pm. It was really expensive so its good it didn’t work out. Then we went to this old fashioned theater that had a restaurant café next to it, same thing, closed until dinner. So then we hitchhiked to Choicemart. Once again our ride was just a really neat person who has also been to Oregon a lot. There is a little Chinese restaurant in the same area as the store and it was really tasty and not bad priced, we want to go back almost. We have a hard time finding food here we would want to go back to. What I wouldn’t give for some Marco Polo or Tai Beer, hell even La Heradura is better then anything we have found yet. The food is not bad, but its never “oh this is so good”, never food-gasmic you know? Then we walked home and now we’re just winding down. Oh so I have been noticing flowers here, Gasp!, hey they’re everywhere. On the walk around there was this tree of bright purple flowers, like blindingly bright, then a salmon pink flowed tree just down the road from that, just huge masses of color, and there are plants like this all over, and its winter! I just know my lovely mother would be death gasping at every stop and turn : ) I’ll try to get more picture for ya : )

Day 46

So we got up at 5:30 and drove Eva to the airport, it was an easy goodbye. I feel bad that everybody hated her by the time she left, I’m sure she felt left out, unloved. On the other hand she didn’t really have any boundaries when it came to peoples things and just personal space. The drive was really pretty with the black outline of the mountain with the city lights and then the sunset behind it. We also saw a cruise ship all lit up on the pier, I was crazy looking. On the way home we got seven big donut holes, a chocolate frosted donut, and a hot malasada for $2.50! Definitely the best and cheapest thing we have had here so far, must go back there! It was really hard to work today, I got to the kitchen early and before I knew it was 7:20. Even after feeling so tired and time crunched I was finished making breakfast in record time, plus I had to do a bunch of extra little things because Eva was gone. These guests eat a ton! You always have to adjust the butter portion for the Europeans, its like water to them I think. After breakfast I painted down at Riener’s. I didn’t have the time but I thought surely it must be noon. So I went to do the dishes and it was only 11:20! For days that fly by this one dragged on so badly. Earlier I picked up some lilikoi and saw two people in the woods of the neighbor’s property hauling away a dying wild pig they had trapped. It was very creepy and sinister looking and I went away quickly because I think they would shoot me if they saw me or something. The dog and birds were going crazy all day because they could hear it squealing and moaning and knew something was up. I went back sevarl times to spy but saw nothing more. Work is getting really monotonous, I need a new project, some new tasks, breakfast is fine, but the painting at Reiner’s is so never-ending. I think today was just a funk day because we got up so early and I didn’t sleep the night before. So after me and Jeremiah forced ourselves to paint a little more we made a very disgusting and good lunch. We put cream cheese on a hoagie roll with mac n’cheese fried in butter and salad with ranch and balsamic dressing, this is all one sandwich. Then we ate whip cream out of a spray can and had kettle corn (microwavable). It was quite the feast and we’re still munchy, I don’t know what’s with that. I’ve finally found the desire to draw again, yay! Also John moved to Eva’s old room so we have the trailer to ourselves now. Oh the hotel charge did go away, but I don’t see why they charged me twice then took one away, seems ridiculous. I also found i drool when I sleep, what a little baby, when I took a short nap today. Hmm sorry my blogging is so boring; I am just in a funk right now. Little Pignic is feeling less bloated and still adorable. Tonight John made us dinner, tofu and rice and veggie stir fry, quite delicious. Today started rough, we’re all al ittle haggard, bt over all it was alright. We really need another girl working here so if anyone wants to and can afford the time and plane ticket Mariannna says send em’ on over : )

Day 45

Eva’s last day is today, it is weird to think if we did the six week minimum here, it would be our last day as well. I am glad, I’m not ready to leave just yet. When I got up I stuck my face in the bowl of Kona coffee we made, it smells so amazing! I’ll have to taste test it before i send some first though. Now I am thinking of just bringing it home and having it be part of our welcome back here’s some coffee type thing, I don’t know. Maggie (short for Magnolia) the pig was out of her pen today, very strange. She is always either in her little house, eating, or by the fence door, but she ventured off into a nearby path today, I couldn’t believe it. We have seen such a new variety of animal behavior here lately, I wonder if they know something . . . I started a project of very carefully and tediously painting all the double doors at the new houses today. I hate it, it’s so hard! Actually I was asked to, I have no choice. I think the screen on my ipod is completely broken but I totally depend on listening to music to get me through the day, I could break down and get a new one I guess . . . I also spent a length of the morning trying to get Marianna’s computer working better, windows just sucks and is so complicated, I remember the days, I think I just made it worse. We have defragged and disk cleaned up, got rid of old programs, any other suggestions dad? After work so far we have snacked, I posted some on the computer, this evening is a going away dinner for Eva so we are just hanging out until then. Dinner was lovely as always. Potatoes, salald, green beans, and turkey, plus plenty of wine as usual. We get up early to send her off.

Day 44

Um work today went by really fast. I tried at the end of my day to help Marianna’s computer, I hope I did something a bit helpful. So after our coffee dried we made a commitment to only be able to watch TV if we were shelling coffee, so Jeremiah had to do more then me : ) Anyway, on the coffee vein, we finished ours today! We kind of rubbed off the silver layer, roasted it in a cast iron skillet, and we were good! So I will send some A.S.A.P. Um then we made dinner and are watching TV without having to peel coffee beans, yay! I also laid in the sun for a while to get my pasty belly tan, because I look so funny just arms and legs tan, its really quite awkward. Ooh I also go tot do a crossword today, and John likes to do them too, so its always good to have a buddy when doing the New York Times puzzle. So a nice easy chill day on the Rainbow Plantation. I called the hotel about charging me twice and they said to wait a week because t was just an athorization charge that should go way? I don’t believe or feel comfortable with that, but we’ll see if it pans out. Batman had been gone all weekend and we were worried they took him away for good, but he came back this evening. While we were rubbing off the coffee beans we heard what we thought was like a clapping noise, then realized it was galloping and the horses were just running through the property, I guess they do that sometimes, I thought it was something bad, but it was okay.

day 43

No guests for breakfast, so we get an extra half hour sleepy time. I slept soooo good, I love when that happens. I made waffles for breakfast for all my Woofer peeps, it was good. Um Marianna gave me a raking project today, and I actually felt like doing it. I was to rake around our trailer, kitchen area. I raked for about 2 ½ , 3 hours, but it looks so good I’m quite proud. This will also improve on my muscle building, yeah! I actually enjoyed the physical work and just listening to music all day, just meditating, zoning out. Kind of heard some bad news this morning so I mulled that over a lot, don’t really want to talk about it on here. After that I made spaghetti for lunch and me and Sabina and Jeremiah went to run around. Sabina is so awesome and we always laugh a lot and have a good time, really going to miss that girl. We went to Kee’I and they (Sabina and Jeremiah) sat on the beach while I swam in my little kiddie pool and snorkeled. I feel funny if I don’t get in the ocean every couple of days, like I have this need, we are one. Just kidding, but really, I just love it. So after I swam we walked over to the big kids jumping off spot and they jumped, I took photos. Then we talked a lot and watched the blowhole for a while. After that we went to Acka Acka’s and picked avocados, oranges, no bananas this time. Then we picked up some odds and ends at the hardware store and headed home. I love the way my hair looks after it dries from the ocean water, I don’t know what it is. So for dinner we did veggie burgers and now are just relaxing, watching the evil TV. We have to roast coffee soon, before Sabina is gone. Eva leaves day after tomorrow and we are getting up at around five to take her to the airport. Today I re-read a lot of what I’ve written, and I still feel like for all I say I don’t get it all down. There are still special little moments and things I won’t remember in type or photograph that might stay with me, or might get lost in my memory. I think tomorrow will bring porch painting and orange juice making, sounds lovely. I need to start a new book , I just don’t know. Either “the Metamorphosis” by Kafka or “Johnny Got His Gun” by some other dude, both seem kind of heavy, maybe I’ll see what other Woofers left. Oh I got three letters today, so thank you! Actually two were addressed to both of us, but it was nice.

Day 42

It was our day off today, we got up and showered, went to breakfast, caught the bus. Oh before all that, well after waking of course, I went up and used the internet a while. I got onto my online banking, which I totally forgot about, but is so nice while I’m here. I noticed that the hotel we stayed at in Hilo charged me twice for our room, if I hadn’t been up all night worried about this gut feeling I had my plane ticket might not have worked, I never would have noticed, I just knew something was funky. I’m not irresponsible about my money and spending but now I am on super alert since I got screwed over. I have to wait until Monday business hours to call their head office about it, so hopefully I will be refunded. Once in town, we walked forever in the scalding heat and sun to the business center to print out my flight confirmation (the place was closed). So then we tried to find this tattoo & piercing place because my nose stud is just not a good size. We got all turned around and sun burnt, I have a circle on my chest where my necklace was, ha ha. When we found it they didn’t really have what I wanted. We found a bus stop and waited in the sun for half and hour, but across the street was another tattoo and piercing place which did have what I wanted, so not all searching in vain. The bus back was finishing this crazy route before it was our homeward bound route and in about forty-five minutes we didn’t get any closer to Captain Cook, just a big useless circle. We wanted something nice in our day so we stopped and the Keaohou shopping center and had some Subway and caught a movie. We saw The Lovely Bones directed by the one and only Peter Jackson; pretty magical and intense. However, just like Avatar, we had to miss the last few minutes because of the bus, oh well. While waiting for the bus I called Stephanie and decided about a week after I get back I am going to go stay with her in Reno for a week or so. This is because she will be a tour bus guide in Alaska over the summer and I have to get some Stephanie time in. We also have some tentative plans to move to Portland and go to PCC together after the summer is over, so it was nice to start thinking about life after Hawaii : )

Day 41

Only two guests for breakfast, then a long day of painting trim, again. Its nice though to just get lost in my music and paint. It is honestly the most creative ting I’ve done since I’ve been here. Hawaii is inspiring, I just feel so busy, but I’m not, I don’t I am disappointed with myself in that area, gotta work on it, just go, draw, something. Anyway Sabina took us to another fabulous beach, really really my favorite so far. A big tourist area, but for good reason. It has fine flat sand like in Oregon. The water is way warm and you can go really far in and its only chest deep, plus there aren’t really big waves continually working you, just a big one every now and then. This time we really boogie boarded. You lay on your stomach right in front of a breaking wave, which looks scary, but it just pushes you with this extreme force and power, its incredible. I got tired pretty quick, but so much fun, so fun. Then for dinner we cooked a big Costco cheese pizza and put onion, mushroom, and whole cloves of garlic, mmm. Wht else, oh Pignic is getting fed way too much, Marianna doesn’t really know what she needs I think, so her little belly was all bloated and Sabina suggest we pet her pushing from the head to the rea on either side, to just work it out : ) Okay so that’s all.

Day 40

So today, hmm, another exciting day in Hawaii. I didn’t sleep to well got up and did the breakfast thing. After our days off I just want to travel and see and have peace. It was hard to get in the swing of things, I felt like everyone was talking to me at once and it was all so chaotic. So for work I cleaned the Crow’s nest by myself, which took all day. It was a lot of work, very messy people, but they tipped very well : ) and left lots of food : ). While I was in the laundry room under the house I heard a little snorting noise. About ten feet to my left up on a rock ledge was the cutest little baby baby wild pig. I watched her for a while then went and got my camera. She was a little scared when I got back but I got some decent pictures. Then the rest of the day I showed and told everyone about my little piggy find. Sabina took all of us to two steps, I didn’t get in but it was nice to hang out with everyone. Right before we left I heard a loud squealing and I knew they had go the little girl. I sprinted all the way up to the house and there she was in a little cage in the bird area. So adorable and Marianna is so happy to have her, just the sweetest little thing. Marianna was hugging everyone with excitement to have the new little critter. So far we’ve have obtained batman and the pig, I hope this animal collection doesn’t get to much more out of hand! Jeremiah is completely enamored with her. Earlier in the day he was looking constantly. John had even spotted her at the end of the walkway to the main house, so she wanted to be found and taken care of. I think her parents which were probably big and ugly, got shot and its an orphan. This new guy John is pretty cool and me and Jeremiah and have a lot in common with him. He has spent a lot of time in Oregon and has explored it more then we have, its lovely to reminisce. Also, we were talking about things we like to watch and mentioned Buffy. He actually went to high school with David Boreanez and partied with him all the time. He’s like “I’ve seen that guy with a lampshade on his head!” Such a small world I couldn’t believe it. We had rice and veggie stir fry made by Eva for dinner, pretty delicious. Then we shelled coffee beans and watched some Upright Citizens brigade. Oh we also listed to John’s old band (he was the drummer) and then had him listen to Caleb Riley. Now we are just relaxing and winding down for bead, there are no guests so we get to sleep in an extra half hour, so a short day, and then our day off! Things are going great. I am so happy our new person is just another awesome kindred spirit. Also I spent a long time on the computer and posted some videos on my face book , so be sure and check that out. I have the lava tube we swam in, little Pignic, and the crashing waves on the lava rock.

Notice, Very Important ; )

Okay so i do notice i missed day 36 or 35, something in there, and i just misnumbered things a bit, but its all there, just to much trouble to change the titles, it will just be like the mysterious missing floor number 13 on elevators, mwa ha ha!

Day/Night 40

I only say night because at about 2am I realize my earplugs have fallen out and I hear a muffled coughing like someone is puking or hacking up their lungs, I think oh no, great, Jeremiah is sick. I look at the bed next to me (we were so tired we didn’t even wanna sleep next to each other) and Jeremiah is sound asleep. I listen and it’s the neighbors. I don’t know what was wrong with this guy but I woke up several times and early to the sounds of coughing, puking, cursing, it was quite strange and concerning. Oh when we checked in the hotel lady was so nice and cute and helpful, I love when you’re in a new odd situation and people can just make you feel so at eases and welcome. So we get up and go have the breakfast, which is in the bar. It’s a really cool room because it’s a big square, normal area, but there is a circle opening on the ceiling as big as the room that opens up to like a big old barn, rafters type looking roof, the space between the normal ceiling and the big high opening is separated by a false grass roof, it was just neat. Breakfast was unripe papaya, tiny muffins, English muffins, toast, guava juice and real Kona coffee, we stuffed ourselves best we could. We go pack up our room and check out and we are off. I decide that we should make a sign because just thumbing it isn’t working so we rummage through a dumpster and I have a sharpie and I scribble VOLCANO on it with a Sharpie. A guy in a silver PT cruiser takes us 2/3s of the way. He had a crazy, probably 3G’s, metal grill that made him very hard to understand as well as his heavy Hawaiian accent, but he was cool. We get dropped off at a gas station diner and then picked up by a sweet old man with a dirty white pick-up. I am so cold only having brought shorts my legs are permanently resembling plucked chicken : ) He drops us off at this little Volcano village and we walk back to the highway and walk a ways, passing a very disemboweled pig road kill display and get picked up by a guy in a silver Jeep. He is so funny and talks very much like a hippie stoner, “alright man, dude, you know, totally, yeeahhhh”, but he is so excited for us to go to the volcano and tells us everything. When we get there he even takes us around to places and lets us get out and look so don’t have to walk everywhere, he was so nice. The frist stop was a lookout onto this vast black crater with a smoking vent in the middle, amazing! When we part ways we say something about going to “Captain Cook” and the last thing we hear him says to us as he drives off is “Captain Crunch”. We had a good laugh about that. So now we go down down down a trail that reminds me of silver creek falls, no joke the air here is moist, the vegetation smells and looks familiar, earlier we said it felt like a misty day at the coast. The path breaks open to a vast black crater that looks huge, like Crater lake without water, just broken asphalt. However it takes only fifteen, twenty minutes to walk across. Its amazing. By that time we have seen the Awing sights and are in a time crunch. We end up going up very steep railed steps and quiet moist trails over and over, following different signs, crossing another Crater, until we finally get to the main visitor center, exhausted from walking. I think in our little less then 48 hour trip we walked about seven or eight of it, it was intense, I am so tired and sore, in the best way possible. So we wait forever trying to hitch a ride back. I am about to give up and say we are gonna miss our Hilo bus and have to hitch all the way home, what a drag! Then the sweetest middle-aged couple from South Carolina in an silver PT Cruiser picks us up. Usually when you hitch in a car its hard to fill the silence and not have it be awkward but by the time they had to drop us off I didn’t want to get out. We got along so well and talked abou tall sorts of things and the guy was so interesting, it was the best. We made it to the bus station about ten minutes before it left, cutting it close, but I guess deep down I knew we would make it. They really saved our butts though. The guy had been everywhere, but one of the most inspiring things he talked about was when he went to Japan and taught English for a year. I got all the information I could and am so seriously considering it now. So we are back on the freezing bus and this time keep to ourselves and listen to music and enjoy the scenery. I cant believe I slept all the way there because it was gorgeous I realized on the way back. We were along the coast line and we would pass these valleys just off the road railing that had steams and waterfalls running through them and the trees and flowers and vines were so lush and breathtaking, it was like a chunk of tropical rainforest. It was like a poster, a foreign world, it was just awesome. The drive from Hilo overwhelmed my eyes. Sadly, I couldn’t get any good pictures, fast moving bus with dirty windows, not so good. This time when we stopped in Waimea I first off got some pizza and drink and we stuffed our mouths, then we saw the bus driver get on so we carefully place our bus illegal food in our bag and sit in the back and secretly consume. We were so covert and sneaky, it was fun, and hey we were starving, hadn’t eaten for like seven hours and all that walking. The drive continued to be amazing with rolling yellow hills of wind blown grass that Jeremiah said looked like thousands of running bunny rabbits, I agree : ) Now we are home. Its crazy that the time it would take to drive around this entire “Big Island” Is probably just a little longer then it would take to drive from Portland to the California border, makes Oregon seem so big. Also once coming home I realize after looking at a map the “volcano” we went to was just a little steam vent, caldera are, the actual volcano hole, summit thing is much further away, but I kind of think it may not be accessible to just anyone. It was so weird to come back to the Rainbow plantation after all of that and I realize the feeling I will have coming back to Dallas will be like that times a thousand, bittersweet.

Day 39

So we got up at 5am and took our backpacks and a flashlight and started our journey. It was dark and cold and spooky walking through our familiar paths in this way. I jumped at shadows and noises that I had no reason to. The walk up the driveway was a lot at that earlier, and no sleep, I was to excited to sleep. We saw a truck at the Chevron and I decided ot try and hitch rather than walk uphill 45 minutes to the bus stop. The guy said sure and we got a ride to Manago hotel with three of the cutest sweetest dogs in the back with us. It was a good thing we got there early because I had major intestinal distress. Jeremiah saw a bathroom at the senior center just behind us and I barely made the walk to the toilet. I had to poo so bad it impaired my walking. Oh the sweet relief, there was no way I would have made the bus ride so it was perfect that we got the ride and arrived early. We met a girl waiting for the bus who been to Oregon, and the Cheese factory and we reminisced of our home state. The bus was freezing cold and it was so dark out. It was nice that just as things started to lighten up was when we were getting in unfamiliar territory. The rolling hills on the start had little patches of dried grass that looked exactly like the savannah grass in Zoo Tycoon, it was kind of funny and I wish Alana had been there to concur with me : ) After that I sort of slept and tried to forget I was freezing until we hit Waimea. Waimea is beautiful. The rolling green hills in the background were just amazing. The bus stops behind this big store complex and the driver tells us everyone has to get off and it will resume at 8:20, it was 7:50, so we figured we had half an hour. We went to starbucks and got some food and hot cocoa and came back at 8:10-8:15, we waited, and waited, we finally asked around and they said the next bus wasn’t until 10:45. So the bus driver gave us the wrong time and location, it had actually left at 8:05 by the main road. We had about three hours to kill, great, I was a quite missed but Jeremiah was optimistic and happy so I tried to buck up, but I was looking forward to getting into Hilo at 10am, not 2 or 3. We meet this guy named Adan in the same situation and I kid you not his voice is identical to Jeff Bridges, quite amusing. This guy was a character, we chat about where we’re form what we’re doing, the weather, and then his philosophical rant begins. He talks about hydrogen atoms, biology, science type stuff. How DNA has a conscience and we didn’t get here by marinating billions of years ago in some cesspool and evolve from there. He isn’t religious, after thinking about all the fancy things he said, this guy used big words and I didn’t understand half of it, I think he believed that some alien life left matter on earth that is the very advanced in almost a technical way, as the cells and DNA and evolution we are. It was very thought provoking and interesting, but kind of crazy. We wondered in and out of a few stores and got on the bus where he started talking about it again, but now about how bad things are getting anf the fact that we are dissecting and studying, and essentially screwing with the very cells and DNA that make us, and altering them, is so wrong. I sort of agree, that we affect and hurt the very things that make us. He also talked about Monsanto, which I am convinced in the root of all evil, and their domination of seeds, and essentially our lives. I then proceeded to nod off and let Jeremiah chat. I slept almost all the way to Hilo. We get there and I am still freezing. We check out the hostel, too expensive! And decide to eat, then find a bed. We have a delicious Tai meal at a very charming little restaurant. Now it’s quite warm and clear blue skies. The waitress gives us a map and general idea of where the hotels are and we’re off. To get there you walk through the most beautiful, huge garden. Full of cute little ponds, streams, footbridges. We inquire prices at several hotels and settle on the Hilo Bay Hotel. Our room is pretty cool, it was $73 dollars for the night, only $8 more then the hostel and we get private everything, a pool, and breakfast, so definitely worth it. Later, after the fact we learn was free entertainment at dinner too, but we missed out. We go try the pool and only get our feet wet and read its so freezing and the sun isn’t out anymore. When we get up to leave we go dip our feet in the ocean about ten feet away and its like twenty degrees warmer, but gross and there are tons of leaves, quite funny the ocean is warmer then the pool. We had seen an add on the map for this interesting looking store and have nothing else to do that evening so we walk. In short we walked about two hours to and from, and some getting lost for a lame, overpriced, small place, impossible to find. We are so worn out we take a break and eat at this place identical to L&L but named something different and nourish ourselves. I am so exhausted I ask Jeremiah to just talk and keep me distracted on the almost hour walk back. We end up singing every lyric of every Bowie song we can think of. It was a lot of fun and a fond memory I’ll keep for a while. We get home and crash. I soaked in the tub and the fan is loud and sounds like its broken and trying to hang on, but its nice to relax anyway. So we have been traveling all-day and done essentially nothing except spend a lot of money on food and bed out of desperation. Tomorrow is Volcano or bust!

Day 38

Um today I made breakfast and then liliquoi juice until noon! I couldn’t believe how long it took, then I puttered around till it was time for lunch. While I made juice Ludwig (a green African parrot) climbed on the roof of the kitchen all sneaky and was singing and so happy and being silly and then Marianna said he had to come down. He is my favorite bird. He is 28 and so cute and has such personality. Marianna also picked this flower bud thing called lipstick fruit. You pop open the bud and there and little red waxy seeds and we smeared the color on our lips, it looked okay on me. It was fun giggling in the mirror playing with natures make-up. She said watch us get swollen puffy lips after a while, I guess she had never tried it before either. I think we’re pals now its nice. She always tells me if she’s stress or people are bugging her and I give her a hug and say its all gonna be okay. She really is quite dear and deserves a much less hassle some life then what she is dealing with now, I feel bad. Then we took the new guy John to Kee’I and the surf was so high and wind and current from all different directions, not a good day at the beach but it was fun. Jeremiah even got stranded up on some scary rocks we always avoid. I saw him and gave him the okay signal and he shook his head no. I thought he might be hurt, but he was just in a bad spot. For dinner we made beans, salsa, guacamole, and had cheese and lettuce and it was a big tostada feast. Tomorrow starts our two days off I’m excited to see where we end up going : )

day 37

Today was a breakfast for four, crazy! I barely know how to cut so little fruit. So then I puttied and painted trim all day after breakfast. My arms ad legs are so sore. I cant barely more in the mornings, but in such a good way. It’s all this swimming and climbing ladders and, yeah hopefully some nice toned muscle is building up. Then after work we ate, prepared the room for the new guy, and shelled coffee beans. The new guy John is 42 and ha been to every state. He is living in half our living room which I divided with an old shower curtain, meh, it works. He seems to be at some reflective crossroads in his life and this is a new leaf and I thought he was gonna break into tears several times, but he should be all right. So yeah, nothing much except now we have five woofers. Oh and the boys left last night, we never got to hang out too much but they were so much fun, we’ll miss t hem and their affection for buying doughnuts for everyone in the morning : )

Day 35

Today We had full capacity again and a big breakfast. Marianna gave me a key for our trailer because we have been having trouble with Eva just coming in whenever she wants. The other day she went into our bathroom and took fingernail polish and remover that was left by other woofers as well as some tostadas I had bought with my own money that were wrapped up in a bag behind the front door, so she had to have been snooping through our stuff. She has on other instances said “ I just stepped in you rroom wile you were gone to . . . . yadda yadda” and this was the last straw. Eva was cool at first but she is getting kind of awful now and driving everyone crazy with her senseless and rude antics. I also found a cool green glass mug on the beach and Ho’okaina and put it in the dishwasher to take to my room later as a souvenir and she was drinking out of it this morning. So I say hey that’s my cup we found on the beach I just wanted to wash it its special to me. She proceeds to hold it all morning drinking her coffee and juice and whatnot in it. As soon as it was empty and breakfast was over Jeremiah ran it to our room. So today we had four out of five rooms to clean. Me and sabina did two, we make a good team. She does the bathroom I do the beds and we both wipe down the living area, I usually vacuum. We let Eva clean to by herself because if there are two people she will get even less done with all her mumbling and running back and forth. Its like when you are in the middle of doing something then you start something else and something else until you have like three unfinished things at one and keep getting confused and catching up and not getting a lot done. She does that all day, everyday, at work and times ten and a lot of mumbling and arguing, its just crazy and we can’t take it anymore! Plus she is always saying at breakfast “Where are you going today” “What are you doing” “What beach shall WE go to”. Its just rude to invite yourself and ask about every detail of other peoples free time. She always asks me how much things I got cost, where I was, “what are you doing” twenty times a day, “what shall we do? . . . or what” over and over. Mind your own damn business most of what I do and eat and say do not concern you! Okay I’m done ranting, its just gotten really bad lately. So after cleaning, oh and I painted and puttied a bit too, its neverending, we went to Kee’I beach. We never hand out on the rocks to the right and today Sabina showed us where to jump off. I’m to chicken but her and Jeremiah had a fun time and I took some great photos. Then we snorkeled and swam a bit in the scary into the wave by brocks sort of way, the surf has just been constantly high lately, but it was allright. She had me bring a boogie board to float on because I feel safer and don’t feel so tired. I feel like the little baby, but noo judgments here its just how it is so I wasn’t embarrassed and boogied on. Oh there a really cool spout and under rock tunnely peek-in rocky area too. We sat by a little tide pool and talked a lot and headed to Acka Acka’s (the banana and orange place). We managed to get some avocados form way up high with the pickers and some oranges. There is also a couple huge bamboo patches thre, small patches, really big bamboo. It was awesome and Jeremiah took and old fallen piece to try and make a degirairdoo. Once home Jeremiah got a hankering for L&L so we walked there and then got chocolate for me at the convenience store. Now we are shelling coffee and watching TV. So Jeremiah has gotten several letters since we have been here and I have gotten none, it quite depressing. Someone please write to me! P.O. Box 122, Captain Cook, HI, 96704, thank you! I feel so unloved and lame. I promise I’ll write back!

Day 34

Today I painted the trim below the soffeting for three hours straight, it got rather monotonous but it was okay. Anyway earlier while making breakfast Derek was talking about this black sand beach him and Todd went to yesterday where there are lava tubes and you can swim in one with skylights. Sabina heard about it to and after work she said, you wanna maybe go try and check it out? We meet almost everyday now at 1:30 and go off on an adventure. We are so lucky she has a car and is fun to hang out with. So we started north towards to the airport area. It was the furthest we’ve been that direction thus far and it was a peculiar feeling passing the airport for the first time since we got here. It brought up feelings of our arrival and first impressions of everything. It was an interesting drive. The big hill on our left had black streams of lava rock flowing from it that were one-hundred years old but the pattern almost made it look fresh. Also, for my dearest mother, on this highway there were bushes of very bright flowers in purple, orange, pink, red, just filling the sides, I’ll try and get a picture sometime. Another weird thing was the sides of the road are embankments of black lava rock with a different type of graffiti on them. People haul white smooth stones from the ocean and write things on the lava with them by lining them up to spell things. Names, years, dedications, all sorts of stuff. I even saw a little note it Japanese. So we were supposed to take a turn by mile 83, we found it and turned on something that did not quite look like you sjould drive on it. This is a very local secret spot, sort of. There was a huge octogon house/fort thing where we parked and maybe four other people on a vast expanse of black sand beach. Gorgeous bright blue sky day. We walked on a little lava rock mordor path to the left and found some little private sandy beach section, archways, and walked back. Then we took the car a little further down to the lava tube area. It is just off the path into some trees and there is a huge hole in the ground surrounded by rocks (like the well in apocolypto but not so deep) with a little wooden ladder leading into the water. We climbed in and it was very cold, but clear chest deep water, not salt water. We walked through under the stone to a skylight. You’ll have to see the pictures, but it was just serene and calm, a little eerie in the dark corners, but so worth it. After that we went back to the beach and tried letting the waves push us forward on the boogie boards, it was cool but hell on your knees. It was a nice moment after we all pull out a book around the same time and just read for about half and hour in companionable silence. Its nice we are all similar people who enjoy that sort of thing. When we go tin the car o go home Jeremiah couldn’t find his shirt or hat anywhere and we decided to just leave without them. We were talking about where we could have left them and Sabina says how bad she is about leaving things on the roof of her car and Jeremiah shouts “There it is”. On the side of the road his hat, sunglasses and shirt in a cute little pile, we stopped and grabbed it and had a good laugh. On the way home we stopped at the harbor for sunset, not many clouds so it was the usual pink-orange orb that looks bigger then in Oregon, but oh well. When we got home Marianna had been making vegetarian chilli all day and we got a large portion to take for dinner. It was delicious! A very awesome day with easy work and a great rip afterwards, we are sure gonna miss Sabina and her rental car and knowledge when she leaves. She seems to know everything and the safe way to interact with the ocean, which we are clueless about. She is always saying “So . . . its okay”. I can swim but I get tired really easy and am always kind of freaked out about waves and getting in and out off rocks and she always makes sure I’m okay, its very nice and reassuring.

day 33

Work has kind of a pattern lately, make breakfast, go finish up Reiner’s house. Like today I painted a part of the porch white, oh sure I did a bit o’ raking fore that, but that’s normal too. So we are at capacity guest-wise and have no rooms to clean today or the next day, yay! After work, which went by so fast today! Sabina and her rental car, two really awesome things that help us get out and enjoy Hawaii, wanted to head off to Ho’Okana beach. It was no clouds, hot and we said yeah! We stopped at this little side of the road coffe shop and gift shop so Sabina could get coffee. She also got lilikoi (finally learned how to spell it) cheesecake which she shared, so good! So we went south pass the area two steps is at and down this scary gravel road. This beach was all nice soft sand, very hot, we played in the rolling water till I was pooped. Then we walked on the lava rock that goes on forever to the right of the beach and saw tide pools (not conataining many living critters). The huge waves kept crashing up against the rocks and making huge splasger, it was just gorgeous to watch. Then we dried off and sun batherd. This is definitely inmy top beaches thus far. I like Kee’I because there are no scary waves, but minimal places to swim, but the one strip of sand is enough for me. Then we stopped at the store on the way home and I got cilantro and tortilla chips for homemade guacamole. That evening I made a big old bowl from avacados we’ve been hoarding away here. We put refried beans on tostadas with cheeses and ground veggie burger and guac, it was delicious and we ate too much. The Simpson’s movie was on TV and I hadn’t seen it, its pretty cool, I liked it. I got this blister on my elbow somehow in the last few days and it popped and got all black and pussy and it hurts so bad I cant fully extend my arm. I swear I am never in all the way good physical health. Like right now my throat hurts, I have the elbow, I cut my finger cutting fruit, and I wore these headphones that go in you ear and kept twisting them in and now my ears ache so bad I can’t lay on the side of my head, its ridiculous. It doesn’t get me down, it’s just bizarre how I get damaged so much just when I am away from home. Anyway today was a great day on a new beach, hooray! There are native geckos (not the jelly eating ones) living in the curtains above our bed, or right outside the window, or both : ) and they make the cutest little squeeking sound. I started reading Catcher and the Rye tonight as well.

Day 32

First off, i didn't even realize a week had gone by since i posted, times a flyin'! So here is all the updates : ) Today I painted around Marianna’s stained glass window, the frame, and cleaned a room. Then I bought my flight ticket home. Jeremiah wanted to do it on his own separate card and now the flight is unavailable! So we will be getting home different ways I guess. It really sucks because the specific flight I bought was so I would have a seven hour layover in Honolulu to explore a bit, now I’ll be solo in that endeavor, grr I hate buying electronic tickets online, paper tickets feel so much safer. Things are getting a little repetitious and dull staying at home after work, this place is awesome I just need to force myself to do things otherwise I might as well be at home. I think today I’ll draw; I haven’t for a whole month! I have read a couple books since I’ve been here, that’s good. Oh when the new guy gets here we’ll have five woofers so Marianna is insisting Jeremiah and I take a couple days off and go to the volcano or Hilo and broaden our horizons a bit instead of being cooped up here. Pretty excited, don’t think Jeremiah cares though. We have been having these yummy pesto pizzas from Costco lately, very good, but I am just disgusted at how much instant cheap food I eat instead of fruit and veggies. I must get healthy and fit! Today when I woke up my throat still hurt but it didn’t make me want to cry so that’s good : )

Day 31

It’s kind of cool that when people ask how long have you been here we can say a month, has it really been that long? We’ll be here ¼ a year. So today Marianna was back and I don’t know there has just been a lot of drama and confusion and misplaced anger, luckily none of it affects me a Jeremiah too much, but it’s hard to bee around. I guess that’s what happens when six people are stuck on 7 acres together almost all day everyday. Reminds of that one cheesy reality show, well I guess real world, or that big brother show, one of the first to show up in the ”reality” TV phenomenon. Okay, so yeah, today, for work I painted a stain glass window frame for Marianna’s house and puttied nails dents in the soffeting. It went really fast. I am still feeling sick, grr! So again not many plans for this evening. Oh we figured out that batman is not the missing dog because theirs is fixed and more like a Chihuahua, which he is not. Heard about the big Haitian earthquake on the news, sad! I also perused a 1994 Hawaiian atlas and learned some things. Like because of our location the hottest day ever was 100 degrees Fahrenheit in 1931. So it will be in the eighties even in the spring when we are here, just more rain I think. Hmm what else, the state flower is the yellow hibiscus. Oahu, where Honolulu is, at that time, held 75% of the population of all the islands, its probably more or similar still. I find that fascinating since we are the Big island, but Oahu has the big bustling metropolis so I guess it makes sense. Okay that’s all. We’re going to try and figure out to get the dried fruit shell off the coffee beans and be almost finished with our own Kona coffee adventure. Let me grab that atlas and spit out some more fun facts, I enjoyed it, and so shall you : ) Japanese people have the most tourists here and spend the most money, us western U.S.ers are second. The only states smaller in land area are Rhode Island, Connecticut, and Deleware. Um actually that’s all. Okay, good night, and thanks for reading : )

Day 30

This morning Marianna was gone at the condos so I made breakfast pretty much alone) no offense but Eva got in the way a ton). Reiner showed me a piece of paper about a missing dog that pretty much seems to be Batman (Solei’s little friend), so now we are feeding him more then just a nibble here and there. Then while I was cleaning up an already sickly and annoyed morning got worse. The guests when Marianna isn’t there get so crazy. “Can we have more butter, coffee, there’s no more dishes” “can I use the phone, do you have a phone I can use” (three different people, why don’t you have a cell phone!) “I want to rent a boogie board, snorkel gear”. I don’t know how to do any of this, I can’t find Reiner, So I break down and let the phone line use the house line cuz they’re just staring at me. I’M NOT IN CHARGE I’M JUST THE KITCHEN GIR!!! But I managed not to get too pissy and think eventually it all got worked out. I went to our bathroom and Jeremiah showed me our bathtub, it looked like droppy black spray paint, but it was ants, gross, he took care of it, now he just has to wipe up their little corpses. Then I cleaned the boat room and retired early because I have a headache and feel like crap and too much stress happened and . . . sigh, it was hairy morning. Then I was starving and the propane is out in our kitchen and I couldn’t get it to work in the Jungle kitchen so I figured out how to change it but just told Jeremiah how because I was to scared to touch it, but nothings has blown up since we changed and used it so all is well. Not going to do anything today, still feel puny.

Day 29

Today after work we went to Kee’I (pronounced K.A. if your wondering like O.K. but backwards and with an “A” instead of an “O” yeah, that’s enough of that) and it was lovely. Swam a tad, snorkeled, lay around, had egg salad sandwiches. Just perfect. We saw these two older guys getting into the water to snorkel and the one was out snorkeling for a good half hour and his friend was just sitting there playing with his mask. Finally Jeremiah noticed it must have been broken so we lent him ours and he was off in a flash, then once he’d been in for about 5 minutes his buddy got out and was looking for him, oh I felt bad they couldn’t get it together. He was quite a handsome older mine and Jeremiah was to shy to give him the mask so I had to prance over in my little bikini and do it, oh well : ) Actually I think they were gay. It was funny because we got a female couple of veterinarians and Marianna was talking about how they get so many gay couples and I was like “Is gay friendly posted on your website somewhere?” and then she said “Well you know, RAINBOW plantation, we get a lot of people . . .” Oh duh! I just now got it. I just love rainbows I am never quick to associate it that way, my naïve upbringing still lingers, thank goodness : ) Ignorance is bliss. We hitchhiked home with this couple in a car, usually trucks, who had just been in Oregon recently its cool that everyone we talk to in Hawaii has been there or knows what it is, oh they had been to crater lake, so that’s cool. When we got home someone) later I found out Reiner) put the Forgetting Sarah Marshall DVD on our front door. Now mom, I completely agree it is a ridiculous and stupid move, but set in Hawaii, I’m in Hawaii, we pressed on and watched. Yeah, the Dracula opera is cute and semi-redeeming, as well as seeing our little freaks and geeks drummer in a starring role, but complete and utter tripe for sure. So somebody left a huge bottle of Jack Daniels whiskey in the Jungle kitchen (guest kitchen) and its like ¼ full, so we bought a 12 pack of Coca Cola and will definitely enjoy that. Its crazy what people can’t pack and leave behind.

Day 28

This was our day off and I have developed a sore throat, no other symptoms, but this is the kind that is like a knife stuck in your larynx and it seizes me with pain every time I swallow my own spit even. I just wish we could both be healthy for longer periods of time here. Anyway so I felt puny and didn’t think I could handle much so we went and saw avatar. Very beautiful, and while it reminds me of a bunch of different movies (mostly Pocahontas) it was amazing in its own right. All the movie previews lately have been suck amazing fairy tale fiction things which take you to crazy new worlds, I’m excited for summer at the drive-in. we had to leave about two minutes before it ended though because our bus was there, ah crap! But we made it. Oh before the movie we went to the Saturday market and it was same old same old, but they had this poster of all the different types of avocados I found fairly interesting.

Day 27

So today after work I went by myself on the bus to K-mart area to replenish some necessities. Q-tips for my angry piercings, candy, a plastic instead of fabric shower curtain for the trailer, just odds and ends. Then I got a couple cheap-o t-shirts for work that I don’t care about because I keep staining and getting stuff I don’t want to dirty. Oh after that I went to the grocery store and got or fixens for the lifetime supply of veggie burgers we have. On the walk to the store I sent a mass text to see what everyone was up to, you all received it I’m sure : ) My phone totally blew up it was crazy I couldn’t keep up with it and will probably stick to personal contact instead of mass. But when my moth is almost up for phone and I have 350 texts left I try to use them in one day. So I came home and we had fabulous veggie burgers, but then we were still hungry and split a box of mac n’ cheese of which we also have an industrial personal Costco supply of. Marianna keeps up veggers quite full and happy.

Day 26

Solei has a new boyfriend, who we think is the only neighbor, up the driveway’s dog. That was a very badly worded sentence, but you get it right? At first we would see him in the driveway, then around the Mac trees plying with her, now they chase all through the property and around the house, sometimes we see him without her. We made up the name cuz he has big black pointy ears. Kind of a dashund, terrier, wiener, corgy mix, he’s cute. He pees everywhere and keeps Solei distracted and everyone entertained. Today after breakfast Marianna had a ton to do so she recruited us to accompany her on her errands. So we’re off and she goes to her doctor fallow-up after her tumble and we are at the condo for three hours cleaning. This condo is super fancy and nice, teetering over the waves. The waves were insane today, never seen such big blue waves ever. The surfers were collected right in front of our view and it was just awesome. When Marianna got back we walked around and watched the waves, but we were further out of towns reach then we thought so we walked back and followed her around the rest of the day. We stopped at the bank, and then went to Home Depot. She bought a very expensive sink, returned some tiles. Then we went to Costco, which I the same in Hawaii, and stuffed ourselves with pizza and ice cream while she shopped. It was kind of chaotic and hectic, but we got to talk and bind and be comfortable, it was a lot of fun. I think its good we came along, she needs so much help and takes up so much by herself. I think because we were with her, she also bought us a bunch of veggie friendly food : ) so sweet. Yeah today was different and good and I feel like we finally just got familiar and friendly with each other. Oh Eva has today and tomorrow off, she is trying to make it to the volcanoes, and she’s crazy.

Day 25

I kind of missed a day, but I think this is what went on, in short. We moved back into the trailer, hooray! I rearranged it all good and clean and I sleep so well and its private and I don’t have to go outside to pee. Hooray hooray. We also continued and finished getting the peel off the cherries for coffee.

Day 24

After the breakfast thing, I made a gallon of orange juice from a five-gallon bucket of oranges, sucky ratio, but it’s relaxing, I liked it. After work Sabina took us to a beach called two steps, the furthest south we have been yet. It’s a really cool place, next to Place of refuge, sand and trees, calm. This place was lava rock and there is a spot, with to natural steps right in to the deep blue. It’s good for snorkeling, kayaking, kind of intimidating to get into though. There is also “ALOHA” written in cinder blocks on the bottom of the ocean floor around the middle that you have to snorkel and look for : ) when we got home we shell coffee beans. You just pop the seeds out of the shell, very slippery and stain your hands brown. Then Jeremiah and me were in our little room having a private couple time and Eva says “hello, are you home?” well the lights are off and the door closed, so we just keep quiet and don’t say anything. Then five minutes later, assuming we’re not there, she opens the door and says oh sorry! But instead of leaving she precedes to fiddle with our lights, inside our room door, because she wants our porch light ton because she cant see. I’m not sure how much she saw or if she knew what was going on, but for us it was very embarrassing and bad timing, and man! Do we have to tell her all the time what we’re doing. For dinner Marianna made these amazing veggie burritos for us, delicious! Anyway, we’re moving stat!

Day 23

Day 23

Hmm, big breakfast today, again, tomorrow, 16 guests, than we should finally be a little less full. Also this morning Reiner is always watching television when I come up to make breakfast and we say good morning, whatever. This morning, however, he says Marianna fell last night I had to take her to the ER so she might not be up this morning. Anyway here’s the story. She woke around 2am with a leg cramp and went to walk to the bathroom and fell on the doorway. Her head hit the floor or the side of the door, not sure, and split, a big two-inch gash in the back of her head. She also has carpet burns on her back. She passed out and who knows how much later Solei finds her and goes and wakes up Reiner and he wakes her up and there’s a lot of blood and he takes her to the ER where they fix her up with pretty much super glue in the back of her head. Now she has a pretty constant headache, oh she broke a toe, twisted sprained a toe as well. So the dog saved her life and she is doing well, but it was scary. So for work today I swept weed-whacked debris off a steep hill section of driveway to the new houses. I made passion fruit juice and cleaned two rooms. After work Sabina, Jeremiah, and I picked coffee cherries, we’re going to make some real Kona coffee and send a sample to our families: ) The peacocks are screaming, I think a storm is coming, there was some foreboding clouds blowing in from the other side of the island. Anyway, coffee picking. Well you get covered in ants, just picking along and look at your arm and there’s twenty ants making a mad dash for your shoulder. It’s sticky and um, coffee season is really at the tail end. Usually you can strip a whole branch but we did one by one, filled half a five gallon bucket, maybe a little more, but really, even that much was a lot of work. Sabina had lessons from a pro all about growing and pruning coffee plants, what to pick, etc. So we learned a lot while we picked. Its just really awesome to get to do this since I sort of learned about the origin of the coffee I made at work at coffee fest, I feel like a real barista pro, now top make kick-ass latte art and my transformation will be complete. Okay then we went to where we picked the bananas and picked oranges with big hooks on sticks and branch shaking, to five gallon buckets. Then Sabina picked about seven big butter avocados, so excited! We got dropped off at the L&L Hawaiian Barbeque, Jeremiah’s new favorite, and tried the garlic cheesy fries with a veggie burger. Its good, but I get almost instant diarrhea after we eat there, so I don’t think I will anymore. We eat fairly healthy here and I think the grease and fakeness takes a toll on my system. That was definitely too much information, but its part of my day. Oh and we did two loads of laundry today, we’ve only done three in three weeks between two people. I like conserving so I’m glad I brought so many clothes now, almost.

Day 22

Have I mentioned jeremiahs track phone gets reception everywhere? but I have to walk up the driveway, crappy stuff is so underrated in this high tech world. Anyway today was eventful. I mean breakfast, raking, picking up mac nuts with Solei, and clipping bamboo for the horses. Then we were all (Eva, Marianna, Jeremiah, and myself) off to the condo in the Jeep. We got there and the people had been there two weeks and you couldn’t even tell. Really nice place, right on the ocean, middle of town. We cleaned in records time, kind of a shotty job, but good enough. They are kind of fed up with owning the condo. Then we bought bread, wine for Reiner, Subway veggie sandwiches. Next we went to the other condo and swam in the pool while Marianna hung out with a friend who works there. It was nice and relaxing, there was a Jacuzzi too. Calming to not worry about waves and sea salt and fishes sometimes. It was a lot of running around and Marianna overbooks herself with things to get done for the day you just can’t possibly have time for and gets all stressed out. She is dear, but gets all worked up and keeps having to convince herself its easy its fun, no stress, but I want to teach her about time management just a tad. She doesn’t need to be as worn out as she gets, or as she says, a tired old hippie women, adorable. Eva wouldn’t stop talking and puttering today and it was getting on all our nerves when we are just trying to be quiet and clean and relax and get things done. We have a decision to make if we want to move back to the trailer, and eventually Eva there too, in a couple weeks when the new WWOOFer comes, or stay in our small no bathroom room. I opt for the trailer because I hate going outside to pee in this room. There is also a huge skylight and uncomfortable futon mattress, both which contribute to me not getting more then four hours of sleep at a time since we’ve moved in here. Anyway this is all personal mumbo jumbo I’m working out. So today was very productive and we saw new things and go to hang out with our lovely hostess. Ea tends to monopolize attention and conversation, but we are definitely the easy going good children who don’t question our current authority, becasue there’s no need, they know what their doing. Oh my gosh I almost said anyway again, I get down what’s happened, but I don’t work on varied sentence structure, for being such an ace in English class my whole life you’d never know from this blog. Hell, its just so I can remember and you can be entertained, I’m on “vacation”, so I’ll stop self deprecating and let the grammar go. Oh I will send a bag of macadamia nuts to whoever can tell me how many times I’ve used “anyway” in this blog, just rediculouso!

Day 21

So today was our day off. We had breakfast and stocked up on foods for our journey, potato salad and olive rolls. I took a long relaxing shower to ready myself for the intensity soon to ensue. So we packed all our snorkeling gear and tons of water and we’re off. The trail is just a little clearing in some elephant grass field, across from three very tall palm trees. We started down and it was hot but all downhill. We saw and smelled a dead wild pig on the way. Also on the trail is tons of horse poop, sometimes it’s a farmy smell, but mostly annoying. It’s hard enough to find a good place to step, let alone avoid poopy piles. We knew going back up was going to be bad. It sort of goes from field to intense lava rock gravel, which means big chunks of rock and some flat step like terrain. We passed several people on horses, those poor critters, how treacherous. We finally made it down and geared up. To get in you have to jump off this tiny end of concrete jutting out, I have a picture. I hate jumping into water, oh its so scary1 but I mustered my strength, I think I was actually shaking, and it was fine. Plenty of people around to tell you where to get in and get back up so that was good. The snorkeling was very picturesque. Bright yellow fish, striped, big black fish, rainbow fish. The water was so blue and clear you could just look and see how deep it was, but so clear. We snorkeled for a good hour and half, with a lot of surface breaks and swimming. The brain coral was everywhere, oh and bright sea urchins. There were a lot of people on snorkel tours as well. Then when we were done we climbed a little concrete corner, which I think was so much easier then getting in : ) although it was very bright pretty snorkeling I think Kee’I is better because its not deep and surprisingly I see a lot more variety there, turtles, angel fish, schools of long silver fish, etc. We refreshed with food and drink and Eva showed up and snorkled for a little bit then we headed up. I knew it was going to be bad, and it was. So steep, Brianna I swear to you I have been to mordor claming mount doom and back. I mean straight out of hell climbing that rock trail. I think I might have shed a tear at exhaustion at one point or it could have been the buckets of sweat, never have I sweat so much in my whole life, it was just humid and overcast today anyway. Okay so I made it, I realized how out of shape I was. I think I would like to tackle it again though. It took us about and hour to get down and about a half hour more back up. The real clincher is Eva was booking ahead of us not even a sight of tire or out of breath on her. She is 65 and we hardly saw her the whole way up she was so far ahead. It was awful, but I am not going to have bad memories of it, the snorkeling was great and it is a pretty big accomplishment to actually walk to the water from where we live, its so far down, and we couldn’t be closer to this trail, its probably the most direst route except you cant drive a car on it, maybe I’ll invest in a donkey whilst I’m her e : ) So we got back and I showered again today, covered in sea salt and sweat salt, Elwood would’ve loved it. Oh I also wore rather improper shoes, keds, my only non-sandal shoes, with no traction, I did fall but I got blisters. Okay enough whining; really it’s a great memory and personal challenge. So we are back home and decided to finally go to the L&L Hawaiian Barbeque (Hawaiian McDonald’s). There are a lot of interesting things on the menu but all meat so we ate the veggie/garden burger and fries. It was good, I have the fast food drag now, so full and lazy, but much deserved oil and mayonnaise calories after such an exercisefull day. So now I plan to do the crossword I got from the paper at the restaurant and go to bed. Oh also had a lovely chat with Bri on the phone, having such a homesick week : ( So yeah happy New Year, its 2010, an even year, grr. Loves and kisses and hugs.

Day 20

Happy New Year! We did not stay up until midnight, passed out at nine. But today there is a lot going on with the party at the new houses at two. Had another huge guest breakfast. Yesterday I made two platters of fruit and they hardly even touched one, so today I just made one and it was fine. Sometimes you have three people who eat a whole tray, you just never know what to make proportionally. Oh and Marianna made banana waffles, yay! So good. Then I cleaned the boathouse. It was my first time in there and I have to say if anyone comes and stays here it should be that room. Its kind of ghetto, but it’s a boat! Very cozy. Then I cleaned the glass deck windows on Marianna house. Then it was party time. So much good food. Potato salad, olive and garlic rolls, sauerkraut, mashed potatoes and so much champagne. There was this little women named rosemary who never let you have and empty glass. Reiner also kept say "Chelsea! Jagermeister!, or however you spell it, which means, farm master, or something silly like that in German, i can't remember. So yeah, had some of that to drink as well : ) It was a lot of older people so we ended up hanging out with the boys and Sabina most the time. Oh while I was washing windows the music playing at reiner’s house was one of the CD’s that we always played on heavy rotation at courtyard. Kate Medulla or something? I’m not sure but I thought it funny that I always deal with air pots in the morning, and then the music, I just can’t get away from certain aspects of that job I guess. Anyway it was a happy new year. Tomorrow we’re tackling the captain cook trail on our day off, intense!

Day 19

We have had a lot of guests for breakfast lately. Breaking out all the tables and chairs for twelve. Um then I cleaned a room, picked some grapefruit. Anyway after work Jeremiah and me were playing cards on our front deck and heard a really loud vicious yelling, fight going on. It was the neighbors up behind us, but pretty far away, I’m amazed we could hear it. We tiptoed around the edges of the property trying to hear better. It was a lot of cussing, a women yelling at a man, who hardly talked at all. It went on for a long time. Then Marianna told us we got pizza tonight. It was from Costco, huge slices of mozzarella, spinach, tomato, we added a ton of garlic cloves, and yeah, so delicious. I guess once a week we’re supposed to have a Woofer dinner night, we just hadn’t been because of all the holidays. Oh and the boys are here. They are really funny and easy to talk to and promising to take us places and help us branch out, so that’ll be cool.

Day 18

Today made breakfast for six then Marianna says, “Oh shit I forgot two more people came late last night, we have eight”. No fear, I made extra anyway. Then I picked a ton; I mean a ton of lilliquoi (passion fruit) and make a two-gallon jug of concentrated juice. Eva and me cleaned a room for the gay hairdressers that are coming, friends of the family, for new years. New neighbors. It’s funny because two women, lesbians, were our neighbors for the last three days. I guess we are fated to have homosexual neighbors. I don’t mind its just interesting. No plans today as of yet, but I’m sure it’ll be an interesting day anyway. On my way to clean the room Eva says, did you see the dead chicken? So I go check it out and sure enough there is a pretty big dead chicken on it side right in front of the crow’s nest. Marianna and Reiner passed me on the golf cart and I tell them. Marianna is really upset. Later she says at first they thought it was solei (the dog) but when she kills a chicken it a lot messier. So she thinks a guest must have backed up and hit it or ran over it. I think so too because it was placed so perfectly in front of their room, the crime scene had definitely been tampered with, but they didn’t want to say so its still a bit of a mystery. Solei did kind of run away after the fact, but probably cuz she didn’t wan to get blamed and it freaked her out cuz she knows it would be back to the pound if she killed again (it was a puppy years problem). I love that dog though she is so sweet and fun and cute, ah it’s nice to have so many animal friends : )

Day 17

Day 17

Well I think I am in a rut, today I made breakfast, cleaned a room, worked on Reiner’s house. Stuck in our 12 by 12 room, well Jeremiah is, he has been watching TV lying on the bed for three plus hours. I’m just puttering around. Used the Internet, wrote a letter, cleaned the place up. I guess I could go somewhere, but I like company. I hope he gets out of super laze mode eventually, its quite frustrating. Sabina should be getting a rental car around the 9^th and she has all these neat sounding places she hints she’ll take us too, I will be happy to get out there a little more. Even though I am in Hawaii, things get a bit tiresome already. I wouldn’t mind going to the beach everyday, but it’s hard to get there sometimes. I just miss having friends to call and have silly simple times with, groups of like-minded energetic happy people. Laughing with my family. What serenity and joy I felt the other day at the beach was followed by a day of missing the small world I lived in where I knew everyone and what was going on around me. Any who on a plus side I haven’t had to rake for like four or five days, boy howdy! I wish we were back in the trailer we originally were in because the TV was never on in those two weeks; we talked and read, and went places, and played games. But now is on constantly and I cant sleep, eat, or anything without it in the background. I just can’t think with that mindless drone in the background but he loves it so and gets mad when it has to be turned off. Somebody help me! The television stole my boyfriend! It’s happened before and I never thought Hawaii would make it happen again . . .

Well I’m sort of going to have to eat my words now. Just when I was ready to toss in the towel and say there is such a thing as a dull day here, it happens. We get to talking to Sabina in the kitchen and she says “ I need a rope a machete and some helping hands” we were off to hunt bananas! She has some friends with a vacation/rental home high up above our house, amazing view; I forgot my camera so I’ll just keep that happy memory for myself. They aren’t there often and she helps maintain things as favor and she gets free reign on all their bountiful produce. So we get to the tree and you have to chop down the whole branch with the bunch down. She did one and Jeremiah did the other. It’s like a huge grass so two or three whacks does the trick, I didn’t do it but it almost appeared to be like slicing through butter. Which is surprising because it looks like a huge tree, I mean it is, bananas are fascinating once you get learning about them, they are one of a kind. The juice that comes out is clear and slimy like bleach, you wash your hands and it just feels slicker. Anyway after we got the bananas form the huge fallen limbs we had to hack it into log sized pieces and throw it in the elephant grass. I took lots of pictures when we got home. Then we hung them off the porch in the kitchen, fed quite a few of the large leaves we took home to the sheep and horses and that was it. We got two huge full green banana bunches, for the guest breakfast, and a little yellow one with about ten on it for us. The rest was rotten but we salvaged a few after hacking off the deadies. So there was our eventful evening. Oh for dinner Jeremiah fried up some, what we now call, and “Hawaii squash” I also have pics. It looks like a zucchini/cucumber and tastes like that mixture as well, very mild. Just a little olive oil and sea salt and it was perfect.