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| Later tonight... Karaoke Madness >> |
Friday,
June 7, 2002 |
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 ade
is perhaps one of my oldest and dearest friends. We met back in
preschool, the hanabata days, when life was simple and free of
worry. Sometimes I long for those days again, when the most pressing
thing on my mind was whether or not the cafeteria was serving peas for
lunch. (Tangent:
I despise peas, even to this day. The cafeteria gestapo used to detain
me until I ate everything on my plate and my mother would have to wait
outside for me until I forced down every bit of food before I was
allowed to go home.)
Wade and I grew up together, attending the same schools (with the exception of Jr. High) and became fast friends, growing especially close in high school. I have such fond memories of my times with Wade... Going to the Junior Prom with him... Playing tennis under the hot Hawaiian sun, working on our kickbutt backhand... Ghost hunting late at night at the Pali Lookout with him and Shari in his Mazda 626, driving through the clouds and fog, screaming at every little noise we heard... Plotting together to help me win the heart of my green-eyed crush and even going to the extremes of actually working at McDonald's so that Wade could befriend him and I could be closer to him. (By the way, it worked, until...) As I recall those times, all I can do is smile. It seemed like only yesterday, I can hardly believe over a decade has passed... I miss him and often wish that Wade had chosen to make Hawaii his home, but I know how much he loves it in California and I can't fault him for seeking a better economic environment there. So, when he actually makes it back to Hawaii, we try to make it a point to get everyone together. His visit this year was no exception. Wade set aside the entire day to spend time with us, so I made plans and gathered the troops.
I took the day off today and planned a circle island adventure for Wade, being that he's been away from home long enough to have earned himself Tourist Status. His only request was that we stop by Matsumoto's for some world famous shave ice.
Being that we were on a time schedule, we didn't stop at too many scenic points, but enjoyed the view at 40 mph, using the time to catch up with Wade and what he's been up to across the ocean. We talked about how when Wade first met Kamuela, he wasn't even able to legally drink alcohol. Of course, this didn't stop him from partaking in one of Wade's famous "friendship shots." Wade will do anything for a drinking partner. Mahealani was barely out of high school at that time. Today, a little over five years later, we couldn't believe how quickly time had flown by. We fondly remembered the year when Wade was back for a few weeks and a bunch of friends, including Kamu, Wade, Shari, and Rocky spent almost a week camped out at my house, living on Boston's North End Pizzas and Mountain Dews. The day prior to Wade's last day, we stayed up for 24+ hours, trying to squeeze as much as we could into our last hours together. Doing crazy things together makes for great memories. Today's
antics were no exception.  Hiding behind a display of local snacks such as mochi crunch and shrimp chips at Matsumoto's in Haleiwa, Mahealani tries on a headacheless visor. |
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 Kamu had this thing about pointing today... |
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Matsumoto's
now features these nifty plastic mess-proof shave ice holders for
$0.25/each. It makes for a neater eating experience, although some folks
will tell you that it's not the same if you don't get all sticky from the
shave ice syrup melting over the sides of the cone onto your fingers and
dripping on your toes and rubber slippers.
Kamuela decided to go with the traditionally naked cone and managed to drip only a little bit of strawberry shave ice on his Pearl Harbor Movie Crew t-shirt. (Yes, he worked on the set of the movie Pearl Harbor!) He's quite deft in the skill of shave ice consumption. Must be all that Aikido training he endured...
About an hour later, we bid a fond farewell to mother and daughter, and headed back to Hawaii Kai where we got ready for the evening's events. We invited a bunch of friends from high school to join us. I hadn't seen any of them since the class reunion last year. Of course, as usual, any time I anticipate seeing anyone from high school, I get all freaked out about my appearance. I'm not sure exactly why, but it always happens. Nevertheless, without further ado, on to the evening's events... ...KARAOKE! |
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Kamuela
and Mahealani joined us for the event. Mahea was kind enough to drive the
entire way, navigating her VW van from Hawaii Kai to the opposite side of
the island on the North Shore and back again.
We
made a pit stop midway through our circle island tour to catch up with
Kory, another childhood friend of ours. A new mother, having just given
birth about 2 1/2 weeks ago, she wasn't able to join us for the circle
island trip or the evening's events. However, it was great that she was
able to meet us for some coffee and conversation, even bringing little
Amanda to meet us at Starbucks.
