After showing the condo to various people and running errands, I asked Mom if we could lounge in the pool for a bit. Yesterday afternoon was hot and humid and full of melting, so I was hoping to avoid some of that today in the pool. You know, the pool THIS close to the OCEAN.

Yep. That's about right.

We pulled on our bathing suits. I hadn't worn mine since I don't know, maybe last summer? If ever I have felt like a stuffed pork sausage, today was the day. So, I did what every woman who feels like she can't measure up to the American objectification of women: I covered myself up. I put on a shirt and shorts and went out to the pool with Mom.

When I arrived at the pool, I saw a woman lying on one of the lounge chairs. She was wearing the same make and model of bathing suit that I had on.

At the pool, I looked around at the no one there, looked around at the windows of all the units around us, the knowledge of my ill-fitting bathing suit that looks JUST LIKE THE WOMAN LYING NEXT TO ME spinning in my head, and I was reluctant to take off my shirt and shorts and jump into the inviting pool. That feeling of inadequacy based on impossible cultural norms weighing down on me as I recalled the look of my hips, the size of my stomach, my developer's posture. I'm a size 6, a size f'ing six, and was feeling horribly inadequate.

And then reality hit me.

FUCK THAT.

This is who I am. This is what I look like. Yes, I conform to a large number of societal norms, I play well with others, I blend in with a crowd. At that moment, no one, NOT ONE PERSON cared what I looked like. I don't care that I don't conform to the "typical" 20 year old American male's version of beautiful. I don't care that I will never be on the front (or insides, actually) of a fashion magazine. I'm not winning any pageants. I am perfectly happy not being ogled.

So, off came the shorts, shirt and towel. I strutted to the pool steps, happy that I'm in this body that can move, can swim, can dance, can walk, can run. It doesn't conform to 21st century American beauty, and that's okay. I'm pretty happy with it.

Mom and I started the day with a trip to Starbucks, which was, of course, great for Mom. It was a quick trip, since we wanted to start walking before it became too hot and we would melt, so, we tried a Starbucks closer than our previous one. Poor choice us: it was hard to navigate the lot. Back to the condo we went, put on our walking shoes and started off around 7:30. It was a nice walk into town and back out. She showed me a number of places she had been, and I asked her if we were going to make new memories for her. She had been telling me about all the places she had been, but none of the new places she wanted to try. I'm not sure I expressed myself well, but we now have a list of new places to try. We walked by two places we will likely try for breakfast over the next few days.

On the road back, we walked past a tree that has a number of, well, things attached to it. I'd seen this tree a dozen times yesterday, and I puzzled what the objects nailed to it were. We they dead bats? Artwork? The skull of some alien from a Riddick movie?

I figured it out on our walk this morning: shark tails. Rochelle suggested they might be fish tails. I think she is correct.

Regardless, the tree is kinda creepy, and very fascinating.

Our first full day in Kona, and, oh boy, has Mom packed it full. The main goal of this trip is to rent out the condo we are staying in, which means, a morning of cleaning and errands and supply runs and go go go. Mom was kind enough to drop me off at Starbucks for about an hour of fast(-ish, let's go with "fast") internet, for which I was quite thankful. I caught up on email, and pondered my weekly and daily lists, chatted with a coworker about the direction I was taking some tests (good direction, slight adjustment to make it better), and downed a short-chai-latte-soy-no-water-extra-hot.

Part of the problem I have with helping with this condo, is that it's real estate. Which means, of course, I want to remodel it, fix it up, buy another, rent it out and good f---ing lord just stop with the real estate already, Kitt. I can imagine all sorts of changes I'd like to make with this place. Not a great place to be, lost in imagination when there's work to do.

So, after cleaning up the place, vacuuming and scrubbing, Mom showed the place to an interested couple. We took off for lunch and errands. First up: thrift store.

Couple things about thrift stores: they're a great place for bargains, and short legs plus cropped pants equals holy crap really bad look. I knew that latter one, I'm not sure why I thought it would have changed on this vacation. We were looking for kitchen towels and lamps for the condo. The thrift store had neither, though Mom did find a shirt she liked.

Next up was lunch at Sam Choy's Kai Lanai. I didn't know that Sam Choy was a big deal. Apparently, he is. I had the Fried Poke Salad, which was mostly amazingly delicious. It was as colourful as it was tasty. Recommended for the food, but not for the view,

Nor the price. $40 for lunch was higher than I was expecting. I don't know why I wasn't expecting that high, I should have been.

The bathroom sink was pretty neat:

After lunch, we wandered to the post office (want a postcard from Hawaii? drop me a note and let me know) for stamps, the supermarket for fish, rice and soy sauce for dinner tonight, then off to Target for weight lifting equipment:

Which is to say, more cleaning supplies.

Despite wanting a cupcake for dessert, we decided not to stop to have one, since the icing would likely melt off the cupcakes before we had a chance to eat them, as Mom expected to leave them in the car while we went to the farmer's market. I'm not sure what Mom was thinking about "leaving" and "in car." My plan was to shove the thing as fast as I could "into" my "mouth" and likely "mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm" with delight for the 5 seconds that the cupcake survived mastication.

So, after the weight workout at Target (where, incidentally, for the first time in a week, I entered a Target and DID NOT BUY ANY NOTEBOOKS, go me!), we went off to the local farmer's market. Mom adores this farmer's market. As, incidentally, we are trying to get 10000 steps in each day, she parked a long ways away from the farmer's market location and step step step off we walked over.

Here, we learned about the Round All Ass 'nd y'all.

Mom appeared to be less amused about that than I was. At the farmer's market, we found all sorts of Hawai'ian fruits, which was wonderful. Mom has a particular vendor she always goes to, so we went there. Turns out, the avocados here are big.

After the farmer's market, we wandered over for ice cream and had the most delicious ice cream ever. The only "Ooooof." of the day happened there, when I pulled out $2 for a tip and dumped it in the jar, only to realize the inner dollar bill was actually a five, and I just tipped them $6 on a $7.49 order. Upside, the ice cream was realllllly good.

After the ice cream, we bounced back to the condo for another showing. The evening was very low key, with Mom on the phone with prospective tenants, making appointments for viewings and my bouncing between writing this post and watching bundle install work over a 3G connection. Fun times.

Right now, neither of us wants to cook, so an adventure to the local natural foods store is in order for dinner. If I make it to 8pm tonight, I'll be shocked.

Mom says that most people get used to the humidity on the Islands in a couple, maybe three days, so I'm hopeful we'll want to cook by Sunday. Otherwise, we bought a lot of tasty food that's going to go to waste, and that would sadden me.

Today has been a great first day on Kona.