May Day is Lei Day

I need to get organized with this blog posting business.  I constantly have ideas darting in my brain and frantically running around yet when I go to write them down, they hide.  Stinkers.

Mom has had an interesting reaction to being back in Colorado after her last trip to Kauai. This time around, she was able to relax a lot more, not worry so much about me in a cabin in the jungle.  We walked the bay, cooked dinners from the farmer's market, toured the Na Pali, and drank many beers on the beach.  We drove each other a little nuts, but I think I just have that affect on people.  It really is fantastic to have other people visit when they have time shares and I can go home alone.  Since being home she's wistful for Kauai and the simple pleasure it offered her.  I don't remind her of the crazy struggles it presents as well.  She's lonely in her distance from my father and I believe she saw the potential of the legions of older surfer hotties here that would kill for a woman like her.  Renee summed it up when she said, "Your mom would be single for about twenty minutes."

I could tell she felt a bit uncomfortable with her appearance while she was here.  She's a beautiful woman, and in Colorado, with her make up on, and fashiony mom clothes, she's a hottie for her age.  Here?  Well, here it's different.  The day I picked her up from the airport was May Day.  A labor holiday in much of the world, here it is May Day is Lei Day.  You give leis and honor the spirit of aloha.  For two days leading up to May Day, we had ukulele and chanting in the cafeteria and a hula dancer.  I'll say it again, NO IRONY.

My dear friend Sylvia constructed a special hair clip lei for me and made a ritual out of taking the lei out of her own hair to give to me as a gift to my mom.  It was so touching and in doing it she really let me know I was loved by her.  She then asked, "Your mom has long hair, right?"  Oh.  Not many moms on the mainland do, past a certain age.  Here, the old women have the longest hair, which they wear natural and tucked in a bun or even loose.  So I did gift the lei to my mom, in honor of Syvia, but it kind of became a symbol of the difference in Hawaiian fashion.  I put a bug in her ear that she should grow out her hair, so we'll see.  If she does, it's a sign she's moving over.

I was looking at my friend Dave's facebook photos of the bars he frequents in Chicago.  The girls are beautiful, and mostly dressed in black, tight clothes, trendy, ironic, hipsterish.  The guys are kind of pretty too, in an ugly way.  Skinny and trying kinda hard.

None of that has hit this island.  Well, I've seen it here and there.  The film crews of course, and random visitors.  But overall, the women are amazingly traditionally feminine.  Long hair, beautiful tan bodies, lots of skin showing, always a flower in the hair.  The tuxedo pants and vests I wore in Denver would look like a costume here.  The men simply wear t shirts and board shorts.  The first night I went out with the 24 year-old, he put a little effort into it.  He wore a camouflage jacket over his t shirt.  Yup, camo and board shorts.  There is not a more Kauai local boy look that I can think of.  I can see how you'd wile away a lifetime here.

Aloha.