Photography - Orchids

When my parents came to visit Hawaii, we went to an orchid show in East Honolulu. My dad raised hundreds of cymbidiums, even starting his own side business. Our large backyard would be spiced with customers eager to purchase his tender loved plants. In Honoulu here are some of the orchid species I photographed:

Happy Meals, Easy Bake Oven & Gendered Toys

So, I’m sitting here eating a McDonald’s Happy Meal. And does it make me happy? Well, sort of. I ordered the Happy Meal because I was saw the poster outside for the new Star Wars Bobble-Head toys that it came with. Cool! When I asked the lady at the drive-through window what toy was being given away this week, she pointed to Darth Vader on a Ty-Fighter. Very Cool! So I ordered a 4-piece chicken McNugget meal and eagerly stuck my hand in the bag to pull out the toy. Not cool! It was C3PO. I like 3PO, he’s just not the toy I was expecting.

As I sit here eating my fries I laugh as I recollect this funny childhood memory. When my brother was in kindergarten, his teacher, Mrs. McKibbens, made the class write a list of everything they wanted Santa Claus to bring them. In pencil, my brother wrote down only one thing--the two words: “at-at.” Yes, “a” “t” dash “a” ”t”. The teacher circled it in red, put a question mark by it, and had a private meeting with my mom. Perhaps she was concerned that he was having trouble spelling. Or maybe that he had trouble following assignments. Or maybe she was concerned that my parents wouldn’t know where Santa would even buy—I mean make—such a thing, an “at-at.” But my mother reassured her that it was a Star Wars toy…an All Terrain Armored Transport (AT-AT) to be exact. I can imagine how confused the teacher must have felt.

I remember how excited and thrilled my 5 year old brother was that Christmas morning. Per his annual routine, he woke up super early on Christmas morning, shaking me out of my slumber, so we could rush out and see what Santa had brought. Sure enough, Santa had brought an AT-AT down through our chimney tied with a perfect red bow. It was a cool toy to play with; after all, you could stuff a ton of action figures in that thing.

Don’t get me wrong, I also enjoyed playing with girl toys too. That was the year I got my Barbie swimming pool. But there were few girl toys that really had any real purpose behind them. It’s a testimony to how gendered children’s’ toys are, and the ways in which it socializes young girls to be passive recipients in society and into nurturing, care-taking roles. Girl toys rarely allow girls to build and construct, battle for power, or take over the universe. Rather, we are socialized to brush the hair of My Little Pony, change the wardrobe of Barbie, and go marketing with miniaturized plastic food. I appreciated my Strawberry Shortcake collection, but again, the best part of these doll was being able to smell their hair. The extent of fun with this toy was to make my brother close his eyes and guess which character he was smelling. Poor guy! The Easy Bake Oven played into stereotypes and gendered processes of socialization but it was one of the few toys that allowed girls to start and complete a mission and purpose. To bake, albeit, but at least this was an active rather than passive way of playing with toys. I mean, who knew that you could actually bake a brownie or small cake via the heat of a light bulb? Genius! The Easy Bake Oven took ‘playing house’ to the next level.

All in all, I will probably return to McDonalds for another Happy Meal soon. They really should make Happy Meals for adults. After all, we work hard and deserve some fun in life too!

Clone Wars toys are available for 4 weeks only. See: www.happymeal.com for details. My favorite Happy Meal toys are: Boba Fett on the Slave 1, Darth Vader on the Ty-Fighter and R2D2 in a plane, and the Stormtrooper on an AT-AT. (If you understand any of these terms you are either:r a) born in my era b) a Star Wars geek or c) the parent of a child born in the 70s or late 60s)

Hawaiian Host Memories

I don’t even know if people even bring these back to the mainland as omiyage any more.

When I was a kid, I used to love when friends and family members returned from Hawaii leaving behind an omiyage “Hawaiian Host Macadamia Nut Chocolates.” I always remember the dark brown bod with the Tiki figure on the cover, lifting up the airy bubble sheet and finding individualized compartments each spooning it’s chocolate delight. We used to keep the box on our long wooden living room coffee table. It was always so tempting to want to take a peek…even if we already had our day’s share.

Today, I still find myself driving to Longs to kick the late night choco-craving with a box of Hawaiian Host chocolates. I had passed by aisles of these boxes at Walmart and Costco when I first arrived—“eh, nothing special” I’d say rather snobbishly and brush off the sale signs and advertised 6-pack deals. But a couple months ago CK gave me a party favor from a recent bowling event he went to. It was a snack pack of the new Hawaiian Host ToffeeMacs. Yum! I was hooked. It was like eating Almond Roca without the outer almonds, and with a solid toffee bar middle mixed with tiny mac nut speckles. At less than $4 a box and with its availability everywhere on the island, this Hawaiian Host line has become my favorite quick fix for chocoholic cravings.

Dust

Hawaii is such a dusty place. It’s unbelievable. I wondered aloud to a friend why I have to dust so much. He said it was Hawaii. And that I live on the ground level.

My room sits perched in front of a marina where ducks pass by my sliding glass door and jump into the ocean water just outside my bedroom window. Ducks!? Swaddling by my room?! (culture shock #239) Where in mainland cities does that ever happen? Here in Hawaii it is a daily occurrence for me.

What drives me nuts is that I find myself sweeping and dusting at least once a day. Sometimes little dust balls come rolling out of no where! I mean, if I sweep the floor before going to bed, where do all these new little dust balls come from when I awake? I swear that I have a secret dust 'rabbit' hiding under my bed who creates little dust bunnies during the night.

My parents used to tell me Hawaii stories about dust. Mom’s weekly chore as a little girl was to dust the furniture every Saturday. I could just picture all those picture frames and white hand-knit doilies that had to be removed so the family furniture could be properly dusted. And as a kid my dad installed an outdoor water spout so brother and I could wash our feet before going in the house. I never understood this ritual. Why did we have to wash our feet when other families didn't. Turns out that my dad used to play bare foot in the red dirt on Maui, tracking into the house its dust and other fine particles which his sisters had to delightfully clean in their spare time.

Hawaii. Dust. And the blowing wind. They all go hand in hand.

Next time I'm getting a room on the second floor.

It wasn’t until I moved to Hawaii that I began to understand little things about why our family does some of the things we do. I'm finding that some of these little nuances are geographically and culturally based—tied to life ways in Hawaii.

Barbies, GI Joes and Legos

My brother probably hated playing with Barbies. I mean, what really does Barbie do? I had a collection over 20 dolls but did I really need that many? The most fun you can have is dressing her up in the latest outfit and maybe seat her with her friends near her real-water swimming pool (a memorable childhood gift from Santa) or in her Barbie Dream House (another cool gift from Santa). But it’s not like the dolls talked or had conversations with each other. They just sat there, looking pretty, staring at one another in their nice clothes and styled hair.

But Star Wars and GI Joe action figures on the other hand were quite fun. The clawed hands could actually be fit with guns and light sabers (with Luke and Vader’s eventually built directly into its arm) and the figures could actually battle one another for ruling power. Sure we had to move each figure with our hands, but hey, at least there was a bigger story and purpose for these toy lines. The GI Joe guys had cool code names like “Snake Eyes” and “Storm Shadow” and were equipped with their own specialty weapons. My brother made me memorize these facts for days. He would quiz me on the real name, code name, specialization, and weapon of each different GI Joe. I spent many summer hours reading the information on the back of the action figure cardboard cut outs. He even made a little box out of white construction paper and staples to file all the cards in order. Eventually all those memorization exercises eventually paid off and got me through high school and college.

Transformers were cool because the concept of attaching multiple robots to build an even larger robot was a thrill. And who, but the Japanese, would think of turning each transportation vehicle into a dinosaur, bird, animal, or robot. My brother and I would have timed races to see who could transform each toy the fastest. It was such a hot concept that even McDonald’s Happy Meal toys would transform plastic mini McNuggets, Hotcakes, Shakes and Fries into a robot of sort. Of all the Transformers, Bumble Bee the little yellow bug (VW) was my favorite. Perhaps that’s why I wanted a VW in college. My friend Angie and I wanted to paint one hot pink and plaster sorority Greek letters on the hood and doors.

But in my opinion Legos are the best toys of all time! I’ll have to write a stand-alone post for Legos next time. They are in a category of their own.

Cheers to my brother who was my best friend and who made childhood and growing up so much fun and memorable. I can’t imagine my childhood without him