Tuesday soundtrack: Presto by Rush (1989). I somehow had forgotten about this song “The Pass,” one of three singles released from this album, but wow. Midway through, I said aloud, “What in the world is THIS?” Amazing song. Great song. I did a little bit of reading and learned it’s one of the band’s favorites as well. Rush’s stuff post-1987 (the year I graduated high school) is all kind of a blur to me, despite their being maybe my third favorite musical acts. So this has been fun.
Tuesday was a bit more like a good weekend day off than a vacation day, but since I didn’t really have a weekend, I’ll take it.
I woke up at 3:00 in the morning, took a while to get up, and was finally rolling at around 4:00. The drive to Kewalo was really quick — maybe ten minutes, and I caught red only on three lights. The way I go, that’s kind of amazing.
Pulled into the lot close to 4:15 and it was already approaching capacity. I locked the car and immediately wandered around the pier for a little while and then *bing* it occurred to me that I haven’t had a latte in a million years. Checked the app to see if one of the two Starbucks within walking distance was open, and the one on Ward Avenue was. Helllloooooo vanilla latte. I wandered around the area in javanated bliss, then walked around the pier some more, took some photos of the pre-sunrise beach, and by the time the sun was up, I’d walked 7500 steps. It’s a little more than half of my usual goal but also far more than I’ve been walking at all lately.
And then I hit the water and it was glorious. Beautiful. Lovely. And very sparsely populated. Totally worth having to wake up at 3:00.
I had to change the way I kicked, because I could feel it in my knee, but it didn’t take long to adjust. Swimming is weird; it’s generally much easier on your joints than running or walking, but the motion is also less bidirectional. You don’t notice it when your joints are healthy. You do notice the weird twisty motions you subject them to when they’re ailing.
I stopped at one of the breakfast spots in the hood on my way home. Picked up a shrimp and bacon omelette and a side order of something it calls “boom boom chicken.” Hard pass on the chicken, which was a boneless, spicy chicken fried in something like cornmeal. It wasn’t bad; it just wan’t great, and it was ten bucks. There are better things to spend the money and calories on. The omelette was pretty good, just not as good as that Veggietopia omelette I had a couple of months ago.
Read the news. Did the crossword. Snuck a peak at my work email. Took a nap! Goofed around on my phone. For lunch I had some English muffin pizzas. They were okay. I need to stop using canned spaghetti sauce for my pizza sauce. I have a good, easy pizza sauce recipe based on my mom’s old recipe that works much better for bready pizzas like these. It’s not as saucy, so it doesn’t seep into the bread. I wish I’d picked up the ingredients the last time I was at the supermarket.
I wasn’t exactly hungry, but I did get the munchies around bedtime, so I ate a few potato chips and had a slice of pie. Then it was to bed shortly after midnight. Later than planned but rested. A day off I needed. My brain felt clear and my spirits were pretty good.
Ali and I texted a tiny bit about my being at the beach. I sent her a short video I took for her of the waves on the sand. Jenny texted to ask if I was interested in leading a little online seminar on writing appeal letters, for the local association of fundraisers. I said I would speak to my supervisor. Then we talked a little about some of the funny stories I could share. Cindy texted me to ask the Mac keyboard shortcut for emdash, but by the time I looked at my phone she’d already figured it out. Sylvia and I talked a little about the new Lay’s chip varities. Crush Girl and I texted a little bit about some cooking she did over the weekend.
My knee howled at me all day, so maybe 7500 steps before a swim just won’t work. If I can get in the water four times a week, which will kill my arms and shoulders for a while until I get used to it again, I might not need to do the walking, or I could just do a lot less. Must think about this.
In this spot every day, I offer to connect with anyone who needs it during these mad times. Here it is now: just leave a comment. I’ll email you my contact deets. You may get a photo of Ala Moana at dawn.