A great story from Lisa

Konagirl said:

Ok. Let me try to blog. It doesnt have too many nutritional info and stuff but I know it will make u laugh. Hope its not too long. 

Jus' like share one funny rainy adventure my kids and I had yesterday during this rain.

I got home around 3a Friday night. And no... not from one bar...LOL

I went to help out at McKinley HS where our church was preparing and cooking a Thanksgiving meal for 5,000 people to be delivered on Saturday all over Oahu. The rain didnt start to come down until 4a from where I live. Got up at 6:30a to take Jon to work and it was still raining. On the way home, I was hoping to find a few garage sales but I guess they got canceled. Shux! I was hoping to find some treasures like last weekend.

Got home, started cooking 15 cups rice for one birthday party. Than took my daughter where she needed to go by 8a. We was pau by 930p and it was still raining. Went back to McKinley HS to unload someone's car with donations of household goods that was being donated to a building community in Kalihi near Robello Lane. It was part of the churches outreach they were cooking for. Than I swung by Kewalo's to drop off my tent, tables and chairs. And yes it was still raining.......

Than hurried home to bake a cake, make my turkey chili and slap togedda my potato salad. Loaded up the truck with a 20X20 tent and everything else including the kitchen sink. JJ

Off to Kewalo's we go. And its pouring at this point. Crazy as it seems... we could barely see the road at times. My kids thought this entire idea was nutz. But where mom goes... they go. We get to Kewalo's and everyone is like "waiting under my smaller tent". Did I mention it was raining? ha ha So we start scrambling to put togedda this 20X20 tent trying to figah out da corners. If you dont place the corners in the right place that tent will neva go up. Know what I'm talking about eh? Everyone's freezing, its raining, I trying to stay dry but cannot, kids not fully cooperating for some reason cause they still think dis is nutz... and their cold. We finally get the tent up and situate our ukana (stuffs) under the big tent. Now water start to pile up and drip here and there causing the tarp to sag - if u no wat I mean. We start to McGivah the tent as best we can with whatever we had to help divert the water to drip away from the tent. And we did pretty good. Extra bungies and ropes is a must!

Once the tents were secured (because it was our home in the rain for the next 9-10 hours), we sat down and started laughing and laughing. We couldn't figure out wat idiots would picnic in pouring rain. We were all soak down to the undawea and socks. By than the kids were freezing and grumpy. The birthday girl was feeling bad cause was raining and everyone was wet. After changing clothes, we started to cook and the kids just hung out around the fire drinking cocoa and talking story. We could barely see DH and Waikiki.

We manage to start the hibachi so we could cook lunch which included beef kabobs, shrimp and bacon kabobs, salad, veggies, pulehu steak and chicken, sauteed shrimp and Puerto Rican stew. My friend Donna makes the best No. 1 Puerto Rican stew. Talk about broke da mouth........ Did I mention it was still raining small kine????
Drip drip drip everywhere. 

We could see Ala Moana and had some crazy people picnicing ovah dea too. See... other people no mind the wind and rain. Thats what makes these outings so fun. We have to get out of our comfort zone and do what most people would not do. I know one thing for sure ~ had choke parking. We had Kewalo's to ourselves and only a few surfers went out. They all looked at us like we were crazy and we looked at them like they were crazy. We had hoped for a sunset of some sort and we got it. It was just a little orange sunset down near the west side out on the horizon. Enough to be satisfied that we saw a sunset after all that rain.

So we survived this cold rainy November day. My 21 year old niece had a good time. She enjoyed her reggae cake I made and the present I gave her. Which was five of Bob Marley's LP's that I found at a garage sale years ago. Although she doesn't have a record player, she loved her 5 LP's. Wasnt sure how she was going to feel getting one 2nd hand present but she knew that this present was better than anything brand new. I not giving anyone anymore of my treasured LP's das 4 sure!

As we started to clean up at 7P, Waikiki was clear in sight, some stars was out and the rain had stopped. We wanted to clean up early so we could load up the cars & just sit back and enjoy the rest of the evening before Harbor Patrol ush us out at 10p wen the gates close. They kept patrolling in and out of Kewalos as though they wanted us to leave but we knew had to 10p. We're the type to stay until the bitter end.

We had a great time today ~ as usual. As the kids would say... our moms are crazy. It was jus' us wahines who put togedda this picnic for my niece and us "moms" showed our daughters and my son that we can have fun no matter what. Life is too short ~ we need to live life to the fullest and enjoy. Even if it means picnicing in the pouring rain. 

And as we drove home.. my son looked at me and said... mom.. I had fun today. Nuff said.....

November 23, 2008 1:55 PM

Lisa - keep those stories coming.  Noe