trial period

Aloha. I ended up in the hut! haha. I went and spoke with the couple that wanted help with their oasis, and we agreed to do a trial period for about a month, so here I am. It's been about a week and a half so far, and in that time I've been swinging back and forth between wanting to get the f' out of this situation, and thinking how very fortunate I am. It's one of those good on paper things... The agreement is lodging and utilities in a great location and access to a bike in exchange for doing random landscaping projects, researching random ideas they have, assorted random tasks like figuring out this solar apparatus he has with no instructions, and mostly helping the daughter find and apply for scholarships/find a direction in life. To me it sounds like a pretty easy gig, and the only issues have been that there's no clear agreement about a schedule or number of hours they expect (not for lack of asking), so it's caused some personal confusion as to whether or not I'm meeting or falling short of expectations. I hope to bring that up soon and just check in and see if they're comfortable with the ad hoc approach. I'm not sure I completely gel with the man and woman (Debra and Tony), either, but, theses are things that I'm pretty sure I can deal with in exchange for living in a little mini-oasis, inside of a tropical paradise.

I applied at some local health food stores, but haven't heard back. So, no job yet, but I'm only spending money on food so the impact on my savings isn't so bad. I'll just keep looking.

I've been making an effort to go to pickup a lot, which has been great for getting off the property, exercise, and meeting/socializing with new people. I also joined the fall league and ended up on a great team with nice and talented people. Plus, a lot of them are good-looking...but, that's neither here nor there :p There's a monthly disc golf tourney going on this Saturday on Sand Island that I think I'm going to check out. That could be fun.

I'm really looking forward to experiencing Halloween in Waikiki. It should be pretty entertaining. I've decided to dress up as the pants party. I'm going to draw some pants partying on a shirt, maybe on some pants, too. On the front of the shirt I'm going to write, "Invite Only." I'll probably go out with some other frisbee kids I've met here. There's a really nice group that's here from Teach for America.

Anywho, kick ass at Nationals if you're playing! : D

Honolulu

ahhh, I finally made it to Honolulu. The last few weeks were pretty chill. My biggest worry was selling that sweet motorbike, which I managed to do in the 11th hour! Phew! Other than that I just worked my hours and spent time picking the brains of this awesome couple that just came to the farm. Their names are Caban and David. Caban had a doctorate in Psychology but gave it up awhile ago to persue a more...alternative approach to life. She had a business doing deep astrology (she made me a chart before I left), then a natural healing practice. The latest pursuit was natural beekeeping and working at her husband's used bookstore. David, owned a bookstore called Tsunami books in Eugene, OR and was apparently somewhat of a central figure in the natural living/hippie circles there. Caban's last child just became legal so they set out for a life whithout kids and some annonymity, and thus they came to a small farm in Kauai. They both are really into music and healthy living, so it was great to learn from them. One really interesting thing was how she helped keep her bees healthy. She used accutonics, which posits that everything (diseases and health) vibrates on certain frequencies and to heal a sickness in your body you just have to use these tuning forks to change its frequency. I thought that was pretty cool. : )

So! The plan is this: I've gotten a couple of responses to this email I sent out to the Honolulu frisbee mailserve about possible work exchanges here; childcare, errands, help with a business, etc. for a room. One is for this couple who have a property that they're thinking of turning into a natural healing retreat for Japanese visitors. They would need someone to help expand the garden, be a steward of the land, help the husband with his "import" business, possibly cook for the guests. Here's the best part, the accomodations would be this Balinese-style gazeebo room thing. So, it'd be like a pimped out tropical hut. : P I'm hopefully going to go discuss an arangement with them tomorrow. If that doesn't work out, then I got another offer from the Tennis director at the Punahou school to be a live-in nanny for a 16th month old. For those of you who have read Barack Obama's first book, Punahou is his alma mater. So, I would be president by association, I'm pretty sure. Oh, sorry, I mean "presidential candidate," wink wink. So, even if neither of those work out I talked to some girls who have a room for rent. I'm glad to not be hurting for options. As soon as I have a stable residence I'm going to go apply at the Umeke market, a natural foods store. It's should be pretty sweet.

I'm going to go join the local frisbee scene as soon as possible. I'm dropping in on league this Saturday. It should be awesome! : ) Yay, frisbeeeeeeee.

Anyway, hope everyone else's lives are awesome. Good luck at Nationals everybody!