Aloha, Manoa

Tuesday evening I met the man of the house, Art. As I have mentioned before he sounded like a cool guy. And maybe he actually is, but I just wasnt' feeling especially social. I need time to decompress after working in the lab, and that's "me time" not "let's get to know you!" time. But I can see why he and Carl get along. They are both rather opinonated, and I sense more than a bit of judgementalness in them. We watched a special on crop circles, and they had someone talking about psychic phenomena of some sort. Art laughed, "where do they get these people? It's so stupid!"

I don't know, that just hit me wrong. I guess I'll never know how he became a Samoan chief. . . but frankly there are bigger mysteries in life.

Wednesday was a normal day, as far as I can tell. I took many pictures of princess, and some of the house. It was my last day riding the #6 bus in from Manoa to work, and it was a delayed trip. After getting a man in a wheelchair on the bus, the loading dock malfunctioned, and the driver could not raise the platform to help the man back off at his stop. So we waited for awhile, and then we were told that it could be a long wait, so I hopped off and started walking baby! Eventually i made it into work, did some tasks, and then walked to the bus stop to ride the bus home to Manoa for the last time. I decided to first stop at Ross and buy more clothes (I can't help myself) because their jackets are ridiculously low-priced since no one in hawaii needs them. So now I have a dark red pleathery coat, and a faded jean jacket with pretty bell sleeves. Even more clothes I don't have room in my suitcase for.

I went back out to the bus stop, sat down, and saw my very first complete rainbow. It stretched from the Manoa Valley out to the coast, perfect, just like the million drawings you see of rainbows all your life. A perfect arch. So I stared up at that for awhile, smiling like a goof. Seemed like most people didn't notice, but maybe it's a common sight here. When I looked back down there was a VERY old man riding one of those reclining bikes. The bike had tall emergency orange flags waving from its back. The man peddled very slowly with his matchstick legs directly through traffic--and completely left of center. He was slow enough that most people just avoided him, but he was headed for a head-on collision with a minivan. The van didn't swerve, it just slowed down, more and more. But the bicycle man was constant. His face, weather beaten and pinched, did not show any expression but grim determination. Eventually the van turned and avoided him. In this 2mph game of chicken, the old man had indeed won. He continued down Ward Avenue, peddling into the sunset.

Eventually I got home. I tried to pack, but was feeling very tired and slightly nauseous. .. I still don't know why. Maybe my body was trying to prevent me from leaving my little patch of paradise. Who knows? Eventually I got mostly packed, slept till morning, and woke up to finish my packing and wait for Cheryl to come pick me up. As I folded some still-warm towels, Princess hopped up onto them. It reminded me of my cat Snow, who seemed to know if you were reading and would instantly hop on top of your book--siamese cats want attention. I continued to fold her into the blue towel, and she purred inside her new nest. Soon enough, Cheryl was there, and I hauled my things into the car and was driving away from Manoa. I'm very sad to leave it behind. I'll miss all the evening rain showers, and the quiet walks home from work, and always feeling safe and welcome. And I'm really going to miss that vocal little feline Princess Prettypaws, they way she curls up in your lap like it's the only place she'd ever want to be. I was so thankful to have someone to come home to. It was a wonderful opportunity, and I'm glad I got to have it, for as long as it lasted.

So where to now? I'm staying in Cheryl's apartment, and thank goodness for her generosity!