errantember

In many ways, this is the First Day of the Rest of My Life. I just got back from a ten day trip to Hawaii with part of my poly pod, which was the last of four trips I intended to take after quitting my corporate job. While I've done a small amount of work to transition into my new career as a mobile application programmer, mainly by learning about Gamesalad, I now no longer have the excuse of an upcoming trip to delay my efforts. Also, after being inspired by sustainable living seen in Hawaii intentional communities, I'm finally going to start eating only what I grow in the yard once a month. If I don't have anything grown or stored, I don't eat. I need to figure out some guidelines, like whether or not it's ok to use spices, cooking oils, etc, during those days. One thing I'm considering is only using those items I can buy with money I make selling things I've grown or made. I'll be starting on January 1st, 2011.

Right now I'm working on getting my Hawaii picture processed and online so I can tell the story of our amazing trip there.

I got up deliberately late at 5:30 PM today, because I was catching up on about 10 days of little or no REM sleep. I dreamed like crazy!

Hawaii Day 1 was mostly Airplanes and Airports.

I'm here with 6 other poly people staying at beautiful house outside Hilo on top of a rocky lava bluff with a set of fjords above the water 30 feet below. Today we went to the Hilo Farmer's Market, which had probably 30 or 40 booths, and *lots* of purple sweet potatoes. We purchased as many items as we could for our Thankgiving dinner there, plus extra fruitages and veggies for the rest of the week. We then rented snorkeling gear for the members of our party not completely equipped for $25/week, which seemed reasonable. We took that gear to Richardson's Beach, a nice little cove with a good variety of underwater habitats, including black sand, rocky terrain, coral reef, and a little open water with a white sandy bottom. There we swam with countless fish from a nature special, and several large (300 lbs+) sea turtles. I even ended up getting touched by one, despite warnings not to get within 10 ft. of one, because it literally swam underneath me before I knew it was there!

The underwater environment is less colorful than it appears on TV, both because the camera crews use special filters and lights on their gear, and because it was partially cloudy for a good part of the outing. It was the first time I've done any serious snorkeling in many years, and I was happy to see I was still in good form, and able to keep up with my far more physically fit friends. I've always been very at home in the water, and being able to see, breathe, and move like a fish is fabulous. I'd love to get SCUBA certified someday, but the budget wasn't available this time around.

We rounded out our day with a trip to the super-busy-one-day-before-Thanksgiving supermarket to get our cooking supplies. We listened to the hilarious story about drinking kava-kava from Getting Stoned with Savages While A. made kava-kava, like doing a tiny laundry, in front of us. We then proceeded to drink the kava-kava while cracking up and baking shortbread before going outside to admire the nighttime surf. For those not familiar, kava-kava is a native root that tastes like dirt (literally) and has sedative and mood-altering affects. After my third glass, I was feeling it a bit, but wanting a more complete experience, I chewed some of the leftover root from the brewing, and am now preparing to go outside and take some pictures, staying well away from the fatal 20-foot drop to the pounding surf and rocks below.

One member of our party has an underwater camera that I may be able to borrow in future snorkeling adventures, and, if so, I will put some pictures up where you can see them.