Soul Food

It really shouldn't have been that complicated. There were a couple of teenage girls ahead of us -- typically giggly and silly, and, let's face it, we're in Hawaii, so odds are they weren't overwhelming intellectuals -- and they managed it with no trouble. But for some reason, with our myriad advanced degrees and years of living experience, three highly independent and intelligent women were having a bitch of a time getting a decent picture out of the photo booth. And by "decent", I mean one with our faces in range, rather than tops of heads cut off, everyone looking the wrong way, no one able to figure out how to get into position.

We were in the checkout line at the K Mart, buying snorkeling kits on our way back from getting massages at a swank spa, when we saw the photo booth. One of those old school ones that you see on Atlantic City boardwalks and in arcades. "Oooooh, fun! Let's get our pictures taken!" So we got our big pile of quarters and headed over to the booth.

We had enough change for two sets of pictures. On the first one, someone (and I won't name names **cough*Michele*cough**) got confused about which button to push and committed us to a single photo, rather than a series of 4 like we had planned. That picture actually wasn't half bad, miraculously enough.

Then the fun really started. The next time, we figured out how to do a series of four, but we were having a bitch of a time actually positioning ourselves for the photos. First we moved the camera too low, so that it focused on Michele's midsection. Kathleen didn't even make it into the booth in time for that one. Then Kathleen got in, but the shot only got the top half of her face, so it looked like she was peeking over a fence, a la "Kilroy was here." Part of the problem was that there is a screen in the booth that shows what the picture will look like, but the urge to look at the proposed result rather than the camera -- resulting in everyone looking down -- is difficult to resist. In any event, we finally got the camera positioned, but we were racing around the booth like a Chinese fire drill, laughing our asses off and creating quite a disturbance in the K Mart. Here's the end result:

We kept the prints in the car all weekend, and every time we looked at them, we couldn't stop giggling.

I think that laughter and familiar companionship was exactly what we all needed. Each of us was feeling stressed out by life in general, and Kathleen had the added pressure of worrying about her grandma, who was very ill in the hospital all weekend. But cooking dinner together, spending time at the beach, having coffee in the mornings, and being able to talk about everything and nothing fed all of our souls for a few days.
And as an added bonus, we all got in some serious beach time (and some serious sun -- Jason and I are both nursing sunburns) so that Kathleen and Michele could get some surfing in. Kathleen was out in the water with Jason for about an hour and a half, and she did great. The waves and wind weren't cooperating much -- too small and too much chop -- but she's a strong paddler and made terrific progress. Michele got up as well, though she was a pro at that point, having surfed 4 weeks earlier.


We're going to make up shirts for people that graduate from our surf school, so that anyone who comes to visit and gets a surf lesson gets a shirt. Design ideas are welcomed and encouraged.