paia

we had a slow start this morning. aiden was really "whiny." i can't blame him, this cold he's enduring is tortuous, and i know he's a real trooper because i've caught some of his colds afterwards, and the suffering i've endured has at times made me want to cry (okay, i'm a real wimp). he has really bad moments, when he gets clingy to mommy (a sign that he's having a hard time- he never looks to me for comfort). so there was a big debate about what to do: should we explore another part of maui (frankly, this west coast is getting pretty boring 5 days in), or should we just take it easy and let aiden recuperate?

i had to go on an errand to buy diapers for baby kara and some lemon-ginger tea for aiden's apparently sore throat. by the time i returned, aiden was up and running... it was decided that we would go to a town called paia, maybe 40 minutes away. i'd heard that it was a nice place to go shop, really artsy... so we went.

the sun was blazing today. really hot. if i hadn't mentioned it earlier, well, "lahaina" means "cruel sun." apt for this western region, which, in many respects, resembles the waianae coast- only, there aren't any homeless tents pitched on the beaches, and a whole lot of white people and tourists have taken over, living in nice little resorts... anyway, lahaina's cruel sun followed us across the "neck" of the island of maui, over to paia.

paia is the spitting image of oahu's haleiwa. it is a plantation town, and proud of it, so the buildings and shops are kept in that style. nevertheless, it is also very bohemian, with a majority of the locales being art galleries (even some of the food places double as galleries for "captive audiences"). there is even a shave ice place of sorts, only this one was started by this old filipino man named quiintas (or something), a very friendly dude who still carries ice into the property to help out his grandson... i could tell from the start that this was going to be a problem. my ma and pa are saddled with baby kara (who is a little over a year old), and my ma has a bad knee... besides that, they are accompanied by kathy and marcus, weaned on handheld videogames from too early an age- they have little appreciation for artsy-fartsy crap. so from the instant we got out of the public parking lot, i could tell that they were all thinking: "what are we doing here?"

myself, despite all my professed appreciation for art, i can only tolerate so much of it... i mean, there were some interesting pieces, a lot of great glasswork, some done in raku style and all. but of course, too overpriced for us. i wanted willow to check some of the art out, she wants to be an artist after all, but despite taking some interest in some stereotypical pieces, she too was bored. the only person that really really wanted to spend more time in paia was lynn.

lynn and willow got some gelato, the rest of us went to get shave ice from that quiint (sp?) place, also ate some great plate lunches there. and then we split up, because my parents' party wanted nothing more to do with the place, but lynn wanted to look around some more...

...dragged around paia for another half hour...

then we drove back towards the hotel. on the way, we stopped off at krispy kremes and bought some donuts for my mother... and, well, pretty much end of story. sorry to be so boring...

tomorrow, we (lynn and i) go to molokini. promises to be promising...

...

last night, after a session with aiden, i couldn't go back to sleep. i happened to see a shooting star out over the balcony, made a wish for all things to happen as they were supposed to happen, but then as i reflected on it, the star (which actually was a falling burning piece of rock that vaporized in the atmosphere) probably wanted to ask: who's supposed to do the supposing, do you suppose? and i couldn't give a ready answer. god? no. buddha? no one? and if no one, then what's the point of making the wish? wouldn't things happen as they were "supposed to" anyway? what is this invention, this patina of "supposed to" anyway? where did it come from? who supposed it?

i practiced zhan zhuang a little. don't think i'm crazy, but nowadays when i do it, i start vibrating like crazy, and with my eyes closed, my body starts doing all of these spontaneous motions, some of them pretty violent. it is like something (maybe ME pretending) is trying to loosen out a whip, and kind of jerks me or vibrates me in all manner of directions to accomplish a release. like my "core" muscles start to "explore" all of their possible directions. and then my arms vibrate, elbows oscillating. it actually feels pretty refreshing AND exhausting at the same time. of course, i can stay still too if i "focus," but somehow, it seems "intended" that i practice it in this semi-conscious free floating way. ... call me crazy if you will.

i actually wanted to practice some of my forms out in the moonlit sand. but that would mean leaving lynn alone to watch the kids... oh well.