Talk Story

Today I got to do something I haven't done for awhile - Talk Story. Turns out my dental hygienist was a local girl from Wailuku, Maui. She saw Kai's name in my chart so asked me if I knew what it meant. I explained to her that he was born in Hawaii. Real local style, she looked me over and asked "military?" I said yes, that my husband was. We talked some more and she learned that I had moved to Hawaii of my own accord, that I lived there for almost four years and that, no, we did not live on the military base. Funny how so far from the islands, in suburban Massachusetts, I was being sized up for my Haole-ness. Guess I passed (and I didn't even play the hula card) because she started talking local, ya? We got caught up on what we both thought of the idea of light rail for Oahu, shared stories of the crazy day some army trucks knocked down an overpass on the H1 effectively isolating Honolulu from the West Side and stranding thousands of people at work (ahhhhh!!!!), dished on Oahu restaurants. We talked about poke (po-kay) and sashimi and of course the fateful day that the Ala Wai went brown. Took a little longer than it should have to get my teeth all shined up but you can't rush Talking Story. I knew eventually I'd be pau!