Anger is a dish best served....well, probably not at all

I am pissed off today.  The reasons why are irrelevant, but are fueled by the lovely hormonal imbalance that is my ma'i (for those of you not from Hawaii, look it up).

So, I called my best friend.  NOT the target of my anger, but a friendly ear to listen to me.  And after ranting about how pissed I am, about how the object of my anger would never understand it or listen to how pissed I was without galavanting off into the land of defensiveness, and saying that what I really wanted was to hit something.  Anything.  Preferably with a bat.

Did I mention I was REALLY REALLY pissed?

So, my bestie, being the soul of sanity that she is, helps me to find a way to channel my anger.  Batting cages?  Nope, don't think we have them anymore.  Hit a car with a baseball bet? Nope, that's illegal.  Kickboxing class?  Nope, not one you can get into like, TONIGHT.  Ok..... and then the bestie hits the nail on the head... Mai, what about the driving range?

Aaaaahhhhh, the sweet bliss of knowing that relief from my anger and the need to HIT something is just down the road at the Bay View Golf Club Driving Range.  In Kaneohe. And they're open unitl 10 PM.

So will the object of my ire ever hear about it?  Maybe.  But will I get to release that anger onto those poor, innocent, little white dimpled balls?  Yes!!!  Will I be imagining other balls in their place?  Most likely.

Yup, anger is probably a dish best served not at all.  But if you gotta let it out somewhere, a driving range is probably not a bad substitute.

Unless you're a golf ball.

Kaili is 14 today

So it's kind of hitting me like a ton of bricks.  My "baby" is 14.  And 6'2".  And 230 pounds.  What the hell??

It's been a road with him.  He's had his ups and downs, and things are largely headed up now.  He loves basketball, and when his head is in the game he's really good at it.  He's got a nice group of friends who I like and have met.  He is a really good kid - generally nice, doesn't want to hurt other people or their feelings, and truly is the best big brother ever.  His grades and his chores aside, he's growing into a really nice young man.  And he'll go to high school in the fall! 

It's hard to stop thinking of Kaili as "my little boy."  He's not my little kid.  And that whole letting go and releasing him to grow on his own is harder than I had anticipating.

It's kind of kicking my ass - but it's my growth opportunity for this year I guess.  Hau'oli la hanau e Kaili. 

File under "WTF"

I love listening to NPR - you guys know this.  But the other day I heard a story that truly made me say "WTF" and talk to the radio.  In the car. By myself.  The Alau Family insanity persists.  That aside, here's the deal:

Apparently, the Slovakians decided they were going to test their explosive detection systems by placing small amounts of C4 in the bags of passengers without the passenger's knowledge.  The theory here was the bomb sniffing dogs would FIND the C4, the explosive would be removed, and no one would be the wiser. Ahhhhh - the best laid plans of Slovakian mice and men.

2 packets of C4 were placed in the bag of a passenger, again, without his knowledge, and the dogs started doing their job.  The dog found one of the packets, but not the second.  Before the human associated with the dog could remove the second package of C4 from the bag, he and his dog were called of to something else, and the C4 was left in this poor schmoe's bag!! 


Sometime later, the security guard does a forehead slap, and calls the pilot of the plane associated with this bag, letting him know that there is C4 on his plane.  The pilot says "well, it's not hooked up to anything that will make it explode and is therefore harmless, so we'll just go ahead to our destination."  Where was that destination, you might ask?  IRELAND!  GREAT frickin place to bring C4 to.


Okay, plane takes of, and Slovakian security sends a TELEX to the Dublin airport's baggage division.  Insert double take and "WTF" here.  A telex?  Really???  And somehow, the Telex wasn't received in Ireland.  So like 3 days later, when Slovakia informs Ireland what happened, the Irish, who never over react, find the poor schmoe with the C4, surround his apartment with the police and SWAT team, ARREST HIM, and then detain him for several hours until the Slovakian government straightens the whole convoluted mess out.


DAMN.


I am actually out of "WTF"s in my vocabulary for this situation.

Safety first?

Scrapbook for Gram - we printed this and sent it to her for Christmas

Happy New Year

Good morning. I caught the tail end of a piece on Morning Edition on my drive in today, and it inspired me to write a brief blog. It was a commentary on the ending of 2009 by an author named Ben Mattlin. He has a pretty intense story, which can be found along with the commentary here http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=122066678 but suffice to say the one thing that stood out for me was his last few lines at the end of it.

"2009 wasn't anything special. The usual assortment of good and bad. But it was blessedly drama-free. And that was enough to make it a good year.

Sure, I hope for better in the new year.

But even if I don't get that, I'll still say I'm lucky. Because sometimes, just normal is good enough."

Normal. A normal year. What would a normal 2010 look like for me? Husband being home is not, sadly, normal. Challenges with the kids is normal. Craziness with work is normal. Family gatherings and general mayhem is normal. Struggles with money is normal. Change, change, change.... normal, normal, normal.

So perhaps I would wish for a relatively drama-free 2010. Fewer trips to the emergency room. Fewer "oh crap why did I say that" moments. More quiet time.

Drama free. What a concept. I like it.

Post Christmas Round Up

Yeah, I know, I know. Zero posts for 2 months, Mai, wtf??? And while I know you all just hang on my every word (insert dripping sarcasm here), I have been somewhat otherwise occupied for the last few months. So here's the roundup for the moment:

• Kids are running around like chicken no more head - and I am chasing them in the same fashion.


• Been crazy busy with work, in a really good way.


• Did some interviews for a show Emme was putting together and because of that got to meet and chat with some really cool people.
  
• Drooling and being gaga over my adorable new nephew, Jeremiah. Amazed by my sister who bore the little guy at 10 pounds, 5 ounces.
  
• Worked on Emme's Christmas show - full of amazing performances by peopple like Na Leo, John Cruz, and the incomparable Uncle Willie K. Cried my eyes out with the beauty of the performances.
  
• Landed my ass in the hopsital with appendicitis of all things - thank God for the teenager and the family and friends who helped out.
  
• Survived Christmas, and am looking forward to the New Year.

That's about it, I guess.

Also, wanted to share my lesson for this year. I am a person who normally pushes for what she wants (those of you who know me know this). This year I learned about - as was said in "Under the Tuscan Sun" - ladybugs. Chasing them around - pushing to catch them - just doesn't work. But sometimes, if you juse lie down and wait, the ladybugs come to you. And honestly, I need to thank my family, especially my husband, for this lesson. Family and spouses are often the best teachers.

There's always more to say - and I will try to say things more frequently.

Peace and joy to everyone now and throughout the new year. May 2010 be your best year yet.

Wondering at nature

I know it has been a long time since I posted, but it's been a busy few weeks. To recap, I spent a week (it was supposed to be 4 days, but it turned into a week) in the Bay Area hanging out with the sister and my brother in law, Unclwe Waynee, not to mention Connie and Ben and their daughter Maggie, and attended my college friend Lan's wedding. It was a busy few days.

But I'm back now, and back at work.

So this wonderment at nature today has a long history. About 10 years ago now (OMG!!), I worked at the Nature Conservancy of Hawaii. I often led hikes in the Waianae Mountains, which I really loved. One of the parts of the hike I truly loved was explaining to my hikers why it was that the Waianae Mountains have such amazing biodiversity. The Waianae Mountains are older than the Koolau range by about million years. So, one side of the Waianae Mountains used to be the Windward side, except as the Koolau Mountains came up, they blocked the rain from reaching the Waianae Mountains. Since the decline of rainfall happened over a long period of time, the species that lived in the Waianae Mountains had time to adapt. So now, the Waianae Mountains are in the rain shadow of the Koolaus - the clouds come in, hit the Koolaus and drop the majority of their rain, and then don't have time to pick up more moisture before they hit the Waianae Range.

Fast forward to today. After a week of a lot of heat and no tradewinds, it finally rained. And, since I work in Kapolei now, I actually got to WATCH the whole rain shadow tale that I have been talking to people about for years. And really, it made me marvel at nature. I mean, Mother Nature can be a stone bitch - witness everything going on in Samoa, the Phillipines, Indonesia, and India. She's unpredictable at best, and overwhelmingly destructive at her worst. And yet, there are these beautiful soft clouds, floating into the Waianae Mountains, not raining on the peaks, but leaving their soft mist behind, feeding the plants and animals that live there. So here was this soft, gentle, almost undescribably Mother Nature, doing her thing.

That's cool.

That was just my thought for today. Wanted to share.