Really really tired. I'm fully aware that it's only 10 PM Hawaii time, but keep in mind that it's about 2 AM back home. And yet I'm still waking up around 8 to 9 AM over here, which I guess is around 11 AM or 12 PM back home, which is pretty late for me.
Walked around downtown Lahaina earlier today. That was nice. Lots of interesting shops around there, many of them on the art and prints side. The highlight was stopping by a ukelele place. The woman who worked there was pretty impressed with my playing and asked if she could record a video of me and put it on YouTube. After that she asked me to teach her what I was playing - a little version of Here Comes The Sun on the ukelele. Pretty cool, but like so many other moments on this trip, utterly surreal.
Though my Dad is the only one in our family who identifies as Catholic, we always go to a Catholic church on Christmas Eve. We did just that here, though I can't say that the service was anything like the one that Saint Francis back in West Des Moines puts on. That was a pleasant surprise, though I'm not sure whether or not the rest of the tourists there were exactly thrilled to have to be handed a church bulletin that asked them to even try to attempt to sing lyrics like:
E ka Pua Hipa a ke Akua,
näu e huikala nä hewa o ke ao,
e hö mai ka maluhia
I always seem to end up giggling whenever I'm in a church. This time it's because I thought the priest (who had an Indian accent) said something about "God's great dickery."
"Decree," my mom said no more than a second after I smirked. "He said decree."
The service was followed with a visit back to our condo after an attempt to find a place to eat. We resorted to heating up a frozen pizza and watching City of God. Not exactly our usual Christmas Eve tradition, but it was nice.
It doesn't feel at all like Christmas Eve. I think that's because I've never spent a Christmas holiday away from home. It's a nice change of pace, but I don't think I'd want to make a habit of being away from home for Christmas.
I was about to hit the "publish" button, but my dad interrupted me before I could.
"Santa's in Alaska," he said. "They saw him on the radar."
