Sunday, 04.07.2002.
Stress relief.  The stress that I've been giving myself over this craft fair has been manifesting itself in my skin and my stomach. For the past week, my stomach has been acting up -- much like it used to back in the days when I used to work at the Bank. My skin texture is even worse than normal, which in my opinion is pretty bad as it is. I finally decided to let everything go and just take a day to relax. Today was it and it was Shari's mission to help me do just that.

We decided to go shopping after church and lunch at Zippy's. We ended up at the Waikele Outlet Stores. The skies overhead couldn't have been bluer and as expected, it was pretty hot. The stores do not reside in a covered mall like Pearl Ridge, Windward and Kahala Mall. It's more akin to Ala Moana, with its open air shopping area -- but for some reason, Ala Moana, with its trees, fish ponds,  waterfalls and architecture seem to keep shoppers much cooler than in Waikele.

	Banana Republic, where I purchase the bulk of my clothes, was a must on the list. I ended up buying two pairs of dress pants (cream and gray)  and a turquoise  quarter-sleeve v-neck shirt. You would think by now that I have enough v-neck shirts, but I figured that it wouldn't hurt to add another one to the collection.
	An Oasis (literally) in the midst of the sweltering Waikele heat. Okay, so maybe it wasn't quite "sweltering," but it was too hot for my liking.  But then again, my ideal temperature does not exceed 70 degrees F. As a result, we stopped by the Oasis for some refreshment. Thank goodness that my Pink Lemonade wasn't just a mirage.
	Shari insisted that I post this very unflattering picture of me eating a salted pretzel. (I'm not sure why... but here it is.) It's not that there isn't an abundance of unflattering pictures of me already on my site, but let's just add this one to the list. We can't all be photogenic like Shari. ;-)
Speaking of photogenic, here's two pictures of Shari's legs. There is a reason why I was taking pictures of her legs in the parking lot of her apartment -- and it's not that I have some kind of sick foot fetish, okay?  I took these pictures to show you her tattoos. Shari is one of the last people that I would've thought that would have gotten a tattoo -- much less 2 of them. Well, her boyfriend has 9 of them, so perhaps she's trying to see if she can catch up with him. (Just kidding!)  You can click on the the photos above to see close-ups of her body art.

Whaddaya know? After our little shopping expedition, I got home and my stomach had settled. In fact, I didn't even have that dormant icky feeling in my tummy. You know, the one that feels like it might erupt into a full blown AAB (atomic @$$ blast) episode at any minute. 

Maybe I can even sleep well tonight, without being haunted by nightmares of rubber stamping to infinity...

.top.

::Bits 'n' Bytes::
Moving: Walking around Waikele Outlet Mall
Feeling: De-Stressed
Hearing: The TV in the other room
Tasting: Remnants of Listerine on my tongue.
Pondering: I need to firm up my mid-section.

::Gratitudes::
Today, I'm thankful for a wonderful friend like Shari who is trying to get me to buy clothes that are not either black or gray. She says, "color is good." ;-)

::Show your Love::
Please be a dear and  indulge yourself in a few grains from the rice bowl before you leave. Your clicks help to rank me higher on the Rice Bow Journal directory and that makes me happy. :)