I arrived in Hawaii on a beautiful summer's evening in July. It was absolutely gorgeous! I had been there before but this time felt so different. Maybe because I was with two very good friends of mine, L. and J., or maybe because the last time I was there I was with my ex and it was definitely not a good time. That first night, we walked along Waikiki Beach listening to the sounds of the water and a local band playing Hawaiian music on the sidewalk. I looked up to see the first star of the night and said aloud 'Starlight, starbright, first star I see tonight'. What did I wish for, you ask? Well, let's put it this way...I hadn't been on a date in just over 3 years and was definitely ready. =)
Expanding on that just a touch, while I would absolutely love to have one of those storybook romances that the rest of my family seems to have found, it hasn't in my life. 3 years ago, after a particularly disasterous ending of a relationship, I swore off ever becoming involved again. I meant it and for at least the first 2 years felt very strong in my decision. I found that I liked the person I was, and that I savoured my time alone. I didn't have to answer to anyone, I told myself. Then L., my best friend for 12 years, met J. L. was like me - single and more or less loving it. J. fit in immediately and became my friend too. It made me realize I was truly missing something in my life. As I approached that 'dreaded 30 1/2' it seemed to be looming large. I'm a shy person by nature, until I get to know someone and I don't really have too many opportunities to meet people.
Oh, and I don't drink. Usually. You can probably see where this is going...
On Friday night, L, J, and I went on a sunset cruise out of Honolulu. It should have been a great time, and was, but the boat itself was terrible. Too many people crammed into too small a space. I'm not a claustraphobic person usually but this was insane. Our table was a very eclectic group...two postal workers from Odessa, TX (we thought they were like Thelma and Louise but ended up being really sweet), an older lady from New Y-aark dripping in jewels and telling us over and over again the man she was with was her late husband's brother, and a ex-hippie couple from Michigan covered in tattoos but mostly just worried that their son wasn't getting into trouble while we were on the boat. Because we couldn't get out of our seats very easy, we didn't enjoy much of the smorgasbord. However, the waiter kept bringing drink after drink of this lovely pineapple concoction. Oddly, I don't really remember a lot of the rest of the cruise... =)
By the time we docked though, we had become fast friends of the Michigan and Odessa people. The Odessa girls asked us to join them at the beach bar called Duke's. Highly out of character, but we decided to try it out. The Michigan man, reminding me very much of my older brother, bought me a drink 'for not judging him by appearance'. Little did I know that it was a pina colada made with 151 rum.
We sat at a table and soon a player arrived to chat up one of the Odessa girls. He was a riot! He thought he was Joe Cool and was giving all Canadians a bad name with his highly exaggerated stories. He thought we were all from Texas and it was a bit of a suprise when I finally opened my mouth to tell him we were also Canadian, and that No, Calgary is not the capital of Canada!
He motioned to his friend at the bar, and asked him to sit down with us. The guy sat down beside me and my alarm bells immediately started ringing. He was absolutely beautiful. Yeah, I know...I had my drunk goggles on. =) Turns out the player had just met him that evening and he was actually just killing time as he had duty early the next morning. We talked for a while...my cynical heart feeling cracks in it's outer exterior. His name was Todd, he was a Petty Officer in the Navy and was in Hawaii for military duty. I had stopped drinking by this point as I wanted my head to clear. L and J were ready to leave and gave the hint that it was time. Todd looked sad that I was leaving, and gave me a kiss. L snapped a shot off at the same time, so now I can say I have a pic of our very first kiss. ;-) Again, I told him we were leaving and if he wanted to find me, he would. He leaned in and told me his room number where he was staying and told me to give him a call.
It was such a fun night, and my bitter side was silenced at least for that moment. We walked back to our hotel and I was on Cloud 9. No, higher than that, really.... I went for a swim in the ocean in all my clothes!
By the time I got to the hotel, I told myself this was a one-off. Nothing more, nothing less. I said to L that he reminded me of my ex, JB. JB was a serial dater, not that he mentioned it to me at the time. He never liked my 'one at a time' rule and hence, we found were better off as friends than as anything else.
Who knew what the next few days would bring? Whatever that star was, it was definitely listening that first night....
