Blather, rinse, repeat

Here are a few more stills from the movie so far.

( There not huge files, actually they're kinda small. )

They look like Tarot cards, some of them.

Anyway, that's some stuff we did Sunday and one that I did on my own. ^_^

( Cute LJ quiz. )

Havok (known to some as Lohi'au) is posing on top of my fountain.

This is after he has repeatedly figured out how to work the latch on his door. And by the way, the latch is outside. He has figured out a way to let himself out, and I have yet to get exactly how he's doing it.

And this is a bat:

He, along with another teeny little bat, was stuck on fly paper. When this happens to bats (often,) the have to be bathed in mineral oil or other kinds of oil to get the glue off of them. Then they have to be washed in soap and water to get the oil off of them. Tricky, as these suckers bite! And are known rabies vectors. So you have to be careful. But my god, aren't they the most adorable little things you've ever clapped eyes on? How can anyone not like bats? They are beautiful.

So getting the stupid halter-moniter off was no big, and they didn't tell me anything. They have to send the readout to a specialist and the Dr. will call me back Monday or Tuesday. Leave it to me to get this done on a Friday.

Tomorrow I have to go in for blood work and then after that I'm going to swing back and pick up Mom and Gran. Gran wants to go out for shopping, the fun kind, stuff that she enjoys. When I asked her tonight if she wanted to go she was real excited about it and that made me happy.

Also Shane called tonight and he says he is free to do more filming on Sunday, and he might be able to round up some friends. That's great, but I had also planned on filming three other scenes that involve Casse and Jane. If all of a sudden EVERYONE decides they are free Sunday, well then I'm going to have a pretty full day, aren't I? And I've only got 9 hours of battery on my camera, so I'd better do it right the first time! Because everyone's schedule is so messed up, there will be no chance to shoot stuff twice, or to try again. The other thing is that I've got to totally make the decision on how I want the story to go, like, NOW, because I'd be recording key parts. I've been thinking of switching a few things up, things I was dead-set on from the beginning, and I can't tell what makes more sense. But now I absolutely have to effing decide, because I have to film it Sunday. So I guess I'll just sleep on it and then go with my gut feeling once I make sure I really have everyone on board for Sunday.

I perform better in chaos anyway. That's what I've been told, and I think it's true.

Long weekend ahead of me! ^_^ Long, but exciting, you know?

First let me get my SQUEE out of the way. OMFG CRISIS CORE CLOUD STRIFE OMGOMG! Will there ever come a day when I don't pee myself over anything FF7 related? No. There will not. And how sad is it that when I play the clips, I can understand some of the Japanese just because I have been playing FF7 clips / watching anime for so effing long? Sad. Very. Say, do you guys think that Cloud and/or Sephiroth will ever marry me?

Anyway.

Today a squirrel almost strangled itself to death. Jenny saw him all scrunched up and trying to move in the corner of his cage and she called me over all frantic like--"He bites! But I think he's stuck in the towel and we have to get him out!"--and thank goodness she noticed it in time. I grabbed him up (I've been bitten before, I'm sort of all right with it) and his eyes were bugging out of his head and he was turning blue. Ends up he had chewed a string loose of the towel and you know how squirrels curl up and turn around a lot to nest, well the string had wrapped around and around until it was impossible to undo. So I'm like, "OMGSCISSORS!!!" And Jenny got the surgical scissors and I held the little dude while she got the string off of him. He's okay now, but damned if that image of his eyes popping out isn't still with me. Which is weird, because I've seen so much worse.

I saw worse today, in fact. This guy brought his dog in after he had accidentally run him over. The dog's hips and legs were shattered. The dog is this huge black lab, it took me forever and a load of help to get him into the stretcher. The guy was all frantic, he was yelling 'He's broken! He's so broken!" But he kept on yanking the dog's leg to prove this to me. I was like, Okay, well maybe we shouldn't be like tugging on all of his broken bones perhaps! Just a thought! Then as he was pacing frantically, while the dog was still on the floor on a stretcher, he stepped on the broken leg and didn't even notice. And in case you didn't get this in the beginning, it was the guy himself who had run his dog over with his truck. Oh, and here's another freaky thing, when I went into the truck to get the dog out, I looked up briefly to his dashboard and saw like a ton of roadkill pelts and deer antlers hanging over my head. WTF?

I've actually seen worse than that, and seriously the three most awful things I've seen there were: that mother-dog whose puppy had gotten stuck halfway out and the owners left it there for three days, okay, with two other puppies still inside, so that by the time the dog got to us the puppies had died and already strted to rot inside of her. You must imagine, it is already over 100 degrees inside of a dog. The dead puppies had started a pyometrial infection which raised her temperature, which of course sped up the rotting process. She was already half dead from being in labor for three days, and when our vet finally just yanked the puppy out (Hi, this is really not rocket science?) you can only imagine the stuff that came out along with--and after--the first dead and already green puppy. The second worst thing I've seen was the dog with its jaw mostly rotted off, so bad that when I went to hold its tongue for intubation, half of it came off in my hand. True story. The third worst thing I've seen was when this dog had bitten off another dog's tail, swallowed about a pint of its blood, eaten some kibble, and then threw it all up: blood, kibble, and partially digested tail. I've seen some crazy stuff, but those are still the worst. My friend Kim at emergency sees worse stuff than that all the time, though. Like the dog who lost its tongue in the paper shredder. God, people!

Perhaps not so randomly, I love it when people assume that I'm not strong enough to lift heavy things. I was carrying these two big cats in carriers out for this old lady on Friday and she kept asking if I was okay, she kept rubbing my arms and saying, "Your poor skinny arms!" Which is hilarious because even though my arms are skinny, they're like, all ugly tendons and stuff. Thanks, Sifu and Sije. ;D

Jane came back from her vacation today (I know I've mentioned her before; girl I work with, we have a strange and weirdly lovely friendship, we are messed up but in different ways and everytime I think I'm going to be nice to her, she not only beats me to the punch by being nice to me, but outdoes me with her niceness everytime,) and she out of nowhere bought me these really adorable meese earrings from Montana. They're green meese with little lime green hearts on them. Unexpected gifts make me so emotional. I didn't know how to thank her, so I just asked her if Sunday would be a good day for her to die in our movie that we're making. ^_^ Like I said, it's a strange friendship, like all of my (few) ones are.

Oh hey, check it out. I am of the opinion that car salespeople do not know the meaning of the phrase "at the very latest." I think the next time someone at the car place tells me that phrase, I'm going to say, "I don't think that means what you think it means." I might actually have the balls to do that. Or maybe I would, if the sales-dude that I'm dealing with now (the nice gal who sold me the car and thought that I was in my early twenties is no longer with them O_O ) didn't have freckles. I'm such a sucker.

Anyway, after the hospital today was my sanctuary shift, and just as I was pulling up to SITF this thundercloud rolled over the field all ominous and impressive-like, and then it just opened up. The crows were going all bonkers, but not in a bad way. There was some flash-flooding and the fields were just drenched; it lasted for about two hours. I think that must be my favorite kind of weather, the violent thunderstorm.

Oh so last night in Kung Fu it was my favorite: hardcore drills! Especially in blackbelt class, where we went for it and I trained my stupid face off to where I reached That Point, the one I always talk about where you stop thinking and stop feeling and you're just buzzing. Even during warmups before blackbelt I was buzzing so hard, and so warmed up that I came really close to completing a straddle-split (I will get there one of these days, I have about three more inches to go!) and was getting the soles of my feet up against my head without anyone pushing them there.

What else? Oh yeah, some guy online randomly hit up my MySpace and he was all, "HI UR PRETTY" ish. Dude is like 11 years younger than I am. I have no idea why this mess of a face of mine appeals to 20-somethings, or appeals to anyone at all really, when it does. Maybe they're looking at things other than my face? O_o Because the rest isn't so bad if I do say so myself. ;D

Well, time to pic-spam.

( BUNNY NOSE )

My Mom asked me a few weeks ago what a cormorant looks like.( This is what a cormorant looks like.  )

( This is what a cormorant bite looks like. )

( This is a legless greeb. )
His legs were amputated and now he just has little stumps. He kind of paddles around in the tub though, he's really adorable.

( A cute spider that was living on my computer last week. )

( A pretty spiderweb in my yard. )

( My lunch last Friday. Yes, I am twelve. )

Lohi'au keeps ringing his bell. I'm sharing my dry cereal with him.

Well, hopefully I can go to KF in my new car tomorrow, and to the Dr's on Thursday. Wish me luck with both. ^_^

Oh hold up, I know! How about some stills from our movie. They are so cheesy but kind of fun!

( Stuff no one cares about except for people who are in it. )

'Kay, I'm pau.

Reminder to self to go to Dr., as an athlete with arrhythmia.

So today was totally superfine, the perfect weather to be out and about, especially at the Powwow. Although we both did get a little sunburn (CURSES!) We got there in time for the grand entry which was beautiful, and I videotaped some of it, including the raising of the Shinnecock flag. A few people around me were taping the American flag and I was just like, WTF? You can see that anyday. How often do you get to see them raise the Shinnecock flag? Jesus. Mystic River played (I think they're so awesome) and the dancing was superb as usual. I love the feather dances and the fancy shawl dances the best.

We bailed from the stage area when they started doing the lord's prayer and getting all churchy, and we went shopping. I wanted to see if they had the shirts I had wanted to buy years ago, the ones that said "Native Honey" and "NDN Goddess" and such and they did. I knew this was Litefoot's business tent, but I had no idea that LITEFOOT WAS GOING TO BE THERE AS WELL. So that was pretty neat. And I got my "Native Honey" shirt I always wanted. :)

Then we got some frybread with all delish kinda veggies and salad on it (3bean, corn and squash, holy crap so yummy) and sat on the bleachers and watched more of the dancing. Frybread is basically a heart attack on a plate but it's so good and I only eat it when I go to the Powwow, so.

The rest was just walking around looking at cool things to possibly buy (but I was pretty good this year) and then we went back to watching the dancing. And of course noticed two of the most good-looking tribal dancers, like, EVER. They looked like brothers actually, and both with waist-length hair and that wiriness and fluidity to their movements that I COULD NOT LOOK AWAY.

ETA: I forgot this one hilarious thing. The MC kept cracking all these jokes, and as we were leaving he started doing this whole thing about inter-tribal marriage and offspring. I forgot a lot of what he said but one of them was something like, "One of my cousins is part Hopi, part Mohawk and part Navajo. He's a HoMoHo." I nearly fell over laughing. He was so cute.

I got some pics, of course.

( A really cute sign outside of one of the food and drink tents. )

( A cool but sunwashed photo of two dancers. )

( Those two effing beautiful men. )

( Me and Kim after sunburn. )

( Kim's handstamp after some of it had been washed off, LOL right??? )
SERIOUSLY YOU GUYS. How funny is that?

Anyway, after that we went to Boccacini's for dinner and then home where we played with my crow and Haku and looked at pictures of dogs on the internet. Good times, man.

Oh, hold up, I just found this photo, it has nothing to do with today. Just ( look at how teeny Lohi'au was only a month and a half ago. )

He is HUGE now. And he also figured out how to unlatch his cage and let himself out. I watched him for about 15 minutes today as he worked the latch back and forth, not only pushing it around, but actually flipping it down to lock it and up to unlock it repeatedly. Clever corvid bastard. Now I have to think of something else to keep him in there when he needs to be.

Well actually I'm so flipping tired (or are my eyes just burned to a crisp from the sun? I need to invest in some serious sunglasses, I swear,) so I'm closing this out now. Hey, is it me, or did this summer FLY THE EFF BY?

( gigglesnort, Friday madness, the bastards ate my hibiscus, dog /crow funneeness, me and my car, violence in the workplace, and... )

( Pre-show: I think the stress is getting to my BALLS. )

( But we got there, and it was Good with a capital G. )

( Taking Back Sunday is the White Rabbit. )

( Apparently two boys talking is much more entertaining than a rock band playing their hearts out. )

( TAKING BACK SUNDAY )

What was funny was that last night I had total Wayvision. I knew before even seeing one of those boys everytime they were walking by. I'd be like, "Mikey Way," and there he would be. My brain would to, "Gerard Way" and lo and behold, there he was. At one point right before MyChem went on, Mikey and Alicia were walking through the audience to the sound booth and not a single soul recognized them. I was like, "Dude. Mikey and Alicia Way."

Anyway (lolpun!) it wasn't 15 minutes before they were dropping the banner for MyChem, and about five minutes after that that they were coming on.

( My Chemical Romance )

( Frank Iero FTW. ) "I'm pretty sure tonight is made of win."

Anyway, there you have it, the story of last night. I've already got Frank's note put away in my photo album, which will have to do in place of actual photos because in case you haven't noticed by the lack of them posted here, none of my pics came out any kind of viewable. But that's okay, I think I should sometimes try to get over my hysterical mania about having pictures of everything that has occurred in my entire life, ever. I've written it all down and it was such a swell time overall, I have something better than pictures.

Oh and hell yeah, the movie. OMG, our movie! Our officially sanctioned movie. OMG. OMGWEEEE.

My god(dess)daughter and I rule so hard.



Anyway, today was flipping crazy. After spending the morning running around town buying worms (and a few books for myself and some chocolate) and not getting to go grocery shopping which I needed to do, but I suppose that can wait, I got to work on Lohi'au's cage. I'm making it kind of simple really. Small enough width-wise to fit in and out of the door, just barely small enough height-wise (it's 6.5 feet tall) and wide enough for him to have room in there to fly, play, perch, bathe etc. With the help of some borrowed power tools from my Da, I managed to frame it out, so at least that part is done. I hope to finish it tomorrow and put in the two doors (one door inside the other is how I have it figured in my head,) but that might be kind of a long-shot. I also have to staple all the wire up.

The stupidest part of all of this is that I can't go buy any stupid wood, because Jeremy manages lumber and we all know that I can't go showing my face around there because who knows how that will destroy him. :/ I mean, come on, please just give me a small break. So I actually have to send my Mom and/or Da to pick up lumber for me. And even then, he actually saw them and completely ignored them. He ignored Chrissie when he saw her at the supermarket the other day, too. Please grow up? Just a little?

Speaking of, then Chrissie came over because she heard power tools and wondered what the hell was going on. ^_^ Then we just chatted for much of the afternoon. Afterwards, I had to get into the sunroom and pretty much frigging remodel if I'm going to fit this cage in there, which is really more like a mini-aviary. Shifting everything around, the many plants and two tables and other stuff like that, took me about two hours. It looks a little crunched in there now, but once I get the cage in and I can put some plants in the space under it, it will look better.

I'm not going to obssess over this bird. I'm not ready for another bond/obssession like I had with Pendragon. And I admit that's what it was, it was a bond but I had such a weird guilt over him, like I had to freak out everytime he looked at me funny. And in the end he had such a long and easy life that I have to kind of kick myself over all the worrying I did, when in the end everything was fine. I'm not going to do that again. Mark my words. I'm just keeping an non-releasable bird who is very social, and whose company I happen to enjoy at the same time. I always feel like certain things are meant to be and things come into your life at certain times for specific reasons, but that's also not a reason to go freaking out about it.

Anyway, today was a week from the day of shooting the first big scene of our movie. Oddly, I'm not nervous yet, but I will be next weekend. I'll be nervous like whoa. Can't even hardly imagine it yet. O_o

Welp, I'm pretty tired so I'm going to set down and read some books for a while before bed, but I had to share these few little tidbits and that picture first.

Okay, I admit it's weird that my previous post is one of two boys making out hardcore and this one is...decidedly not, but you know that's just how I roll. So I never got into the last night of the trip and the flight home etc.

( The last night, in which I say goodbye for now to my Hula friends. )

Anyway, then we had to leave, I hate saying goodby to JoNathan but it is always with the promise of seeing him again soon. And I left with Brian blowing kisses out the door of the lobby, it was too cute.

( In which Jo-chan is a fierce terrorist. )

I love flying, but I hate airports.

( In which dogs do not have a good day but I get to see SB for a while. )

SB got here around 2:30 and he stayed to talk for a while, for which I was so grateful because as I've mentioned before, I never get to see this kid anymore.

( In which I'm chosen by my crow. )

I guess I have to build another cage. O_o S'up, huge responsibility? Oh! And the good news is that my robin with the hugely broken leg, like I mean snapped in half, is up and perching and all of that stuff. I did my specialty, the One Handed Splint the day I got him. Seems to have worked, so like, go me and all of that.

So of course, I pretty much have to share some of my pics, no? Mais oui.

( A cute snail that was slithering around. )

( BAD TOUCH! ) Seriously, those mannequins were put there like that on purpose, they had to be.

( I kid you not, people )

( This was funnier to me than it should have been. )

( Switching up figurines in stores is an old tradition. Imagine my delight when I found a nativity. )

( My henna tattoo when I first got it. ) It's pretty much gone by now since I wash my hands so much.

( Oh, and the sun really burns my eyes now, as you can see. ) Seriously, since the surgery, a few hours in the sun is enough to make my eyes like the effing desert.

( A crow in a palm tree. )

( Jo-chan and I zooming around in tiny little boats. )

( Makaha Sons.  )

( Auntie's halau dancing for Kaleo. You can see Auntie in her purple dress, with Brian dancing next to her. ) Aren't they lovely?

Oh, I remember! One more thing. On the plane there, Jo-chan and I were watching Monty Python DVDs. I've been trying to get her into MP for a while, she's at the perfect age for it. This one episode seemed to totally seal the deal. Also, it was something that has been an inside joke between my Mom and I for ages, words that were tinny or woody, for at least 17 years, the duration of my obsession with Monty Python. But I'd forgotten how goddamn effing hilarious this sketch was.



This was one we watched on the plane, and when Michael Palin (I'd still mack this guy even to this day, I'd effing marry him, fo' realz yo,) starts to sing and Eric Idle dies, I laughed so hard I nearly fell out of my chair and into the aisle. I had to watch it and rewatch it just like I used to do back in the day when I had all the episodes on tape. It's not even the "CARIBOUUU GOOOOOOONE!" and it's not even the, "Really dear? How about 'tit'?!" that slayed me, it was Michael Palin. I shrieked with laughter right there on the airplane and the guy next to me (who was cute) seemed to think that was pretty funny because he just watched me with this amused look on his face. Seriously, give it a looksee. If it doesn't kill you, you're likely already dead.

From that same episode, in transcript here: THE COURTMARTIAL/ANYTHING GOES IN SKETCH!

Okay so this entry is all over the place, I should STFU and go to bed now. What that Monty Python sketch, people. It's good for you.

I owe major updates and comments and whatnot. I'm sorry I've fallen off the earth, but it's all been LEIK WHOA.

Well first of all, as I mentioned, last Saturday was Spencer's high school graduation. I thought I'd go in there all chill and mellow and whatnot, but then when he came back down the aisle after the ceremony I got all teary eyed, of course. I took a ton of pics (which I won't post here) and I still sort of can't believe it. It just all is going too quickly. Afterwards we all went to this beautiful restaurant on the water in Easthampton, where they played Bob Marley and you could watch the boats go by, and the food took like an hour to get there. I didn't get home till around 6.

The next day, Mom and I drove out to pick up Jo-chan for her pre-birthday birthday party / shopping thingie. Mom and I listened to my CD's all the way there, me narrating the entire time ("This is 'Lies For The Liars' by The Used, but it should really be called 'I Hate You Gerard Way, Please Take Me Back' because [explain the whole band / brokeback tour-bus soap opera stuff] and in THIS song it says blah blah which is funny because in THAT song it says etc. etc...." Ridiculous but my Mom smiles and nods anyway.) We got in really late and Jo-chan was playing Silent Hill, and then I took over playing it for a while. Monday, I switched some birds around and got Truffles (starling from Laura) and Tim (grackle from work) into the aviary, and got my nice hammock up in the yard. While I was doing this, Jo-chan was just hanging around the yard, playing with the dogs or swimming. Then we went out shopping and Jo-chan picked out a bunch of stuff for her birthday. We also got ice cream and tried to think of a movie to watch later. Also, we stopped at SITF to see some of the animals, and we visited with Tucker for a while.

After ice cream cake and prezzies and stuff like that, I finally decided that the movie should be a kind of rite of passage; after all Jo-chan is 15 now, and I thought, "It's time." So I busted out The Usual Suspect, all the while warning her that the language was atrocious (but funny) and the violence was graphic etc. She loved the movie (how could you not?) especially the ending, and commented that perhaps it'd been a while since I'd seen that movie, because she'd seen a lot worse in terms of violence and language. Which.... yeah, of course. I forget these things. I also had to skip Kung Fu this night, because of party and movie night etc. Jo-chan had to leave the next day (which always sucks) and I had to work.

The next day, Tuesday, brought a whole bunch of crazy animals to me. I went to work with no birds at all and came home with five. One that I did not take home with me was this beautiful baby osprey with deformed legs. (Which, I'm sorry to say, does not bode well. They hunt with their legs.) But I fell directly in love with him and I got to feed him for a while. ( This is how a baby osprey eats. )

You can't tell me that's not the cutest thing you've seen.

Tuesday also brought me three hatchling starlings (one a runt, two fallen about 20 feet from a nest onto pavement--I get that every year, don't I?--and lying on the ground in 93 degree heat for who knows how long. They were heat-stroking out, all limp and panting and not gaping,) and a nestling/fledgling grackle so covered in mites he was (and still is) totally anemic that he's white where he should be pink and/or yellow, unable to swallow his food and just doing badly all around. My poor baby. :(

And it also brought me Lohi'au, whom I have already mentioned. And with Lohi'au, a whole slew of problems that just might be worth it after all.

Okay, first of all, realize that I've been asking the universe for a crow for a while now. I felt like I was ready to keep a non-releasable one, but not a healthy, releasable one. I keep asking myself, what if I had wings and then someone stuck me in a cage just because they wanted to keep me around? But if he was non-releasable in any way, then I would keep him. So when I first saw Lohi'au, skinny but gaping for food and jumping around, I thought, "This little guy will be perfect with some spit and polish. I'll keep him for a few days then give him to Laura so her crows can raise him." I actually called Laura Tuesday night to tell her I had gotten this wonderful baby crow, and what my plans were for him. She asked me how old he was and I told her, a real baby, his tail hadn't even grown out yet. This was the first red flag, because Laura says you never see crows out of the nest that young, not unless they were rejected for some reason. She felt--had the gut feeling--something was wrong with him, that he had some other issue. Oh, the other thing was that I had found two maggots on the newspaper of the cage he was in. These were mystery maggots, as I looked him over top to bottom and could not find a single wound on him. I even smelled him (you know, you can smell rot) but he just smelled like a crow, nothing else. (And crows really do smell like other crows, healthy crows have the same smell. Except Tucker; he smells a little different, a little more like the entire clinic.)

Well, I didn't press the matter. You can see I spent some time with him because he is such a cool little bird, but I limited that time because I didn't want to tame him.

( Incidentally, this is how a baby crow eats. )

OBNOXIOUS AND ADORABLE!

( This is the story of how it almost ended and what might come next. )

So it's not something I'm taking lightly. In fact I'm being kind of neurotic over it while everyone around me, who watched him sit on my shoulder and preen my hair all day was saying, "It's a done deal" and "the bird is already yours" and "how could you think about getting rid of him?" But it's a big deal to me! Already tomorrow I have to put him into a bigger cage because he's getting bored and frustrated in the carrier.

But the bird has awesome energy, I mean just look at him:


FEED ME!!! Isn't that hilarious?

Anyway, so that's where I'm at right now. What's gonna happen is, I'm going away to Florida next month and Laura is going to take all my birds while I'm away. She's going to put Lohi'au with the other crows to see how he does. If he is perfect and he gets wild and he understands crows and he can survive in the wild, she'll know. She's the local authority on crows. And if that's the case, I'll gladly let him go and be a crow. But if not, you know, I'll figure it out.

First let me say that I only hope to post this tonight, because my internet connection is almost non-existant. It's the kinda thing where I'll get online for about 1 second ("Hey YR CONNECTD DO SOMETHING QUICK!!!") and in the next I'm chucked off again. ("HAHA U GOT PWNED!!!") ANd even though my connection has been dodgy since I got it (yeah it's cheaper, but you get what you pay for as they say,) it's never been as bad as it has been this week. Linksys Wireless, people. They suck all the pole in China.

Anyway, so the Solarfest show today (and I've got a ton of pics and even videos, so as I write this I'm only hoping I'm able to post them. Well, post anything, really.) I was told to get there early, and I gave myself about 20 minutes getting lost time, because it was a long, unfamiliar drive. (And I did get lost, briefly. You know what would be a great idea to let you know which exit out of the 80000 on exit 53 is Sagtakos Parkway? ROADSIGNS. I'm just saying.) So I got lost but I still got there way earlier than I had to and no one was there. I spent a goodly amount of time walking around and being bored, and it was overcast and about to rain and pretty much no one was coming out to this thing today. I chatted for a while with some guy about his really cool solar-water power invention, he had a little shack with the entire setup and he made the whole thing with stuff he got from Home Depot. It was neat, and it was also pretty cool to be talking to an inventor. Then I talked for a while with a guy who was all into shamanism and spiritual stuff. I get that a lot, random people coming up to me to talk about that kind of thing. He asked me which island I was from and I said, "This one." Then he asked me what my heritage was and I thought, Oh, that's what we're talking about. So I told him, and we chatted, then Olivia pulled up with Eric (another of her dancers) and she was followed shortly by Maria.

We roamed around for about 45 minutes while the sound guys set everything up, and I started to get worried because there were like five people on the grass in front of the stage. So I went out into the street and started calling random people in, telling them there was going to be a Hula show. A few people came in, but most of them just kind of waited outside the faire grounds where they could still see the stage. (Not that it mattered, admittance was free.)

We went on at around 1:30 I think. Olivia and Maria started the show with three of their numbers. Then I was up for Kahiko, and I had decided on doing O Keahi A Lonomakua, you guys all know that is my favorite Hula. I took a moment to explain to the audience (after some sound problems and feedback and the sound guy realizing that I am 5'9" and he had to adjust the mic etc.) what the Hula was about, how mainlanders tend to romanticize Hawaiian culture and water it down, and sell the entire Aloha thing as if there was nothing else to it. I told them there was so much more to the culture than just "Spirit of Aloha" and I explained that this was a song about Fire Goddess Pele, and her battle with her rejected suitor Kamapua'a, that the chant was told from his point of view as he witnessed the destruction caused by her anger. Some of you might remember that the last time I performed it I completely blanked on it and got vers 2 and 3 mixed up. No one in the audience that night knew, but I knew and it bothered me. So I promised myself I would just nail it this time and I wouldn't do anything wrong. So, not only did I totally nail it and not miss any steps or anything, but I chanted the second verse like I was supposed to. Which I hardly ever do because I'm usually out of breath after the first verse. But this time I had the ha for it so I did it. So I was really happy with how that turned out. Then Olivia went up to do her Tahitian, while I got ready for mine. (I have to wonder why she didn't ask me to do 'auana instead, as there wasn't a single 'auana represented there.) As I was getting ready, I realized that holy crap I did not have the music for the 'otea I wanted to do! In fact, I didn't have the music for any 'Otea that I knew. But, panic? Me? Why, never. There are two Tahitian songs that I have always very badly wanted to choreograph, and so I told myself, what better way to see if I can do it other than to just do it?

So I plugged my iPod to the sound system (which, by the way, was HUGE,) lined up "Tiare" and "Tahiti Tahiti," climbed onto the stage, O my brothers and only friends, and I completely made crap up. What you must realize when I get to the pics is that this is totally not the right costume for that kind of dance. The first one is an aparima, you would wear a pareu for that, and I think you would also wear a pareu for the second one, too. That's an 'otea costume, and neither one of those are 'otea dances. But, I didn't have anything else to wear, and I already had that on, so.... So there it was!

The other thing about that was that, for as often as I'd made up Hulas for each of these in my head, actually doing them on the spot was a little different. While I do understand the lyrics to both (Tahiti, Tahiti is pretty basic, I just understand it, but I did have to look up a few lines of Tiare for translation,) doing it live without anything really planned was, errr, a challenge. I also never realized how long Tahiti, Tahiti really is. I felt like I was up there forever.

Still, the audience liked it and there was clapping and yelling and junk like that, which is always nice to hear. And then we were done!

Or at least I thought we were. It ends up that some guy wanted to interview us for IslipTV.com. I've been in a few (and I stress, a few) interviews before so I figured that would be pretty easy. But the lens of the camera was right in my face and I was getting all self conscious, you know I hate people looking at my face close up. As I was talking, I realized I was kind of flailing my hands around like I tend to do when I get self conscious, and looking anywhere but in the camera. So when this goes up on IslipTV (on Tuesday, I think,) it's just going to look so spazzy. Oh, and he also taped the show to put up there, too. So that's all going ot be on IslipTV, which is online, but I'm not sure if I'm going to link to it or not. It depends on how spazzy and stupid I look.

Then it was around 2:30 and even though a reggea band was about to go on, I was starving and I had to get back to feed the birds. As I was going to my car, a lesbian drug addict came up to me and started talking to me. She was so wasted that I had a hard time understanding her, and indeed she had a hard time standing up. She was nice though, she was trying to be nice, but it's hard for me to talk to people who are so far gone that I can't even tell if they're speaking the same language anymore, so I had to excuse myself and leave (I had to go say goodbye to Olivia and Maria before I went.) Before I did, she asked me my name and she told me hers. And there was something so random and unusual about her name that I will just have to put in a locked post. I believe in signs, let's just say that and leave it there for now.

So I said goodbye and was walking to my car once again, when this completely drunken fool of a guy started dancing at me in the street. Playing along with him because I was still in my Aloha Girl mode, I had no idea (though I should have) that he would take this as in invitation to accost me on the street with more slurred words and randomness. So he came walking over and started talking to me in a heavily accented, falling-over-drunk voice. He had to be closing in on 50 or so but he obviously thought he was about 19. It got to a point where I honestly couldn't understand a word he was saying and it got very awkward. I told him that I had to go and he said, "You married or single?!" I told him, "Married." He says, "Yeah, to who?" And I said--get this, now--"I don't know, some guy." And I started to walk away, because you know, please take no for an answer and move on. But he didn't, he actually followed me down the street going, "beautiful mamacita, kiss kiss!" with the kiss noises and the typical hand gesture that goes with the fake kiss noises. I was totally flabbergasted, all I could think was, Dude, this is 2007, not 1974.

Then as I was driving away, he and a bunch of his drunken friends started walking after my car (it was one of those crowded, narrow roads) and telling me to Come back, Hey dancing girl come back and dance, hey mamacita don't leave etc. UGH. It wasn't anything threatening, it was just too stupid for me to believe. Times like that I always think, Really, where do you honestly think this is going to lead? I'm 34, gainfully employed and clearly not drunk. You're 50 something, walking around on the street with the biggest can of beer I've ever seen, hardly able to stand up straight and you're missing your two front teeth. Do you really think this is going to get you anywhere? I'm not saying that to put myself above people, even if it sounds like that, but honestly, does the phrase "not my type" ring any bells at all?

Well, that was pretty much how it went. A good show, all in all, though really kind of random and chaotic. Now I'm going to try to set up my old internet connection so I can upload some pics and videos (those ones you see up there; at the time of this writing I haven't even uploaded them yet, still offline you see,) and then if that works, I'll post this and then continue with a locked post about the name of that girl and its significance.


Here are some pics:

( Me with Dance Aloha troupe. )

( MySpacing it, Hula style! )

( Olivia and Maria doing their Kahiko: )

( O&M doing Nani Vale with pu'ili: )

( This is my favorite pic of me doing Tahitian. You can't see my face! ^_^ )

( Me doing Tahitian again: )

( Interesting place for 30 Seconds to Mars glyphics... ^_^ )

That's pretty much it! Now I've got a pint of Hawaiian Lehua Blossom and Sweet Cream ice cream in the freezer and it's calling me, along with maybe a movie. Doesn't that sound nice?

Peace out, yo.