About the journey....!

So it’s January again (2012 edition) and I’m back once more to tell you all about my annual pilgrimage back home to see family and friends.  

My high school class met up at held an unofficial “ten-year reunion” at Kochi’s this year and while I didn’t go (it was scheduled for a few days before I went back), I got to hear from a few of my friends who did what everyone’s been up to. 

LONG STORY SHORT - A lot of us are still in school (as teachers or students). 

Hearing about everyone this year showed me how “grown-up” we’re all becoming; several of my friends have already bought their own houses.  It makes me feel like I should start looking into that too.  But I can’t picture myself living in Hawaii (or LA) long enough to do something like that yet. 

It’s like that movie, “Big Fish,” where the young Edward Bloom, played by Ewan McGregor, finds the perfect town of Spectre.  It’s a wonderful town where the grass is always green, you never need to wear shoes, and everyone is really relaxed and happy all the time.  

And while everybody likes him and wants him to stay in Spectre, he says he can’t because he “arrived there too soon.”  To him, it was a place you “end up at, not pass through” and if he stayed there for a while, he knew he’d never leave. 

That’s how I feel – if I ever move back to Hawaii, I know it’ll be for good, so I don’t want to until I’ve had my fill of the rest of the world. 

PS – Big Fish is a good movie; if you haven’t seen it yet, I suggest you do.  Don’t worry, I haven’t spoiled the plot for you. 

OTHER THINGS I LEARNED IN HAWAII THIS YEAR: 

• There’s a secret ingredient to Zippy’s Chili; it’s either mayonnaise or peanut butter. 
• Hawaii has way too many geckos. 
• Television is my Kryptonite; it makes me lazy and gives me an amazingly short attention span
• Some of my friends from high school are now amazingly racist against Filipinos. 
• Generally speaking, people in Hawaii are short.  I’m only 5 ft, 6 and I felt tall there.