I'm feeling overly emotional tonight. Ten bucks says mother nature may be to blame for this one. I feel like crying for no particular reason but to cry. I find myself trying to create a reason in my head. Kelly and I may need to bring a box of emergency lady accessories on our trip.
I leave on Sunday for northern California. I keep saying it's to San Fransisco but I don't know if that's where I'm going. I'm going all over the place. To Pismo, San Simeon, Ragged Point, Big Sur, Vallejo, Napa, San Fran, all the way down the central valley back to Santa Clarita. I'm looking forward to it a lot. And than 7 days later I'm going to drive to Park Moabi on the Colorado River for four days...it's the wanderlust syndrome, I told you.
The part I'm looking forward to the most is being able to talk. And talk. And talk. And the endless hours of driving being absorbed by talking. I want to talk until my jaw hurts and my throat is raw and the air in my car turns into a Scrabble board. I want to soak up the news and gossip with my old friends and I want seep out all the emotions and things in me until I drip with nothing but divine happiness. I want to spit the words out of my mouth and devour the words into my ears and be wrung out and hung out to dry when its all said and done. And guess what? I will. Oh I will. And everyone better be ready to hear it.
And everyone better be ready for some crazy amounts of pictures. And more pictures. And pictures of pictures and pictures of me and pictures of my friends and pictures of landmarks and pictures of food and pictures of driving and pictures of signs and pictures of trees and pictures of wine and laughs and smiles and views and pictures of pictures of pictures.
WHEW. What an abundance tonight is :)
Bree
Friday, June 25, 2010
Thursday, June 24, 2010
I've got a symbol in my driveway
For some odd reason, I am not sure what my picture I have set up above this ^^^ represents about myself. And in a way, I don't like what I think I am thinking it is representing. It can be one of those glass-half-empty glass-half-full pictures. Am I running away from my problems, or towards them? What's the symbolic meaning behind it? Is life not meant to be symbolic and is it merely the human imagination that is convincing us that everything has to have a rhyme and a reason?
Well. I believe everything happens for a reason.
And I have said this before and I will say it again until I turn blue in the face. Everything happens for a reason and the signs are pointing you in the right directions. You just have to loose your GPS and start following your heart. GPS will tell you turn by turn how to get there, but you're missing all the great sights along the way. Your destination is ahead on your left, but on your right is Chance, Fate, Opportunity, Daring, Fun, Adventure and I even heard they've been known to throw in their good friends Love and Friendship. I'm learning this the hard way. Or maybe the right way.
Blah blah blah.
Good night world.
Bree
Well. I believe everything happens for a reason.
And I have said this before and I will say it again until I turn blue in the face. Everything happens for a reason and the signs are pointing you in the right directions. You just have to loose your GPS and start following your heart. GPS will tell you turn by turn how to get there, but you're missing all the great sights along the way. Your destination is ahead on your left, but on your right is Chance, Fate, Opportunity, Daring, Fun, Adventure and I even heard they've been known to throw in their good friends Love and Friendship. I'm learning this the hard way. Or maybe the right way.
Blah blah blah.
Good night world.
Bree
Sunday, June 20, 2010
Mindfullness Mindlessness
Everyone keeps telling me to write. Write Bree, write about this, write about that, write when you're happy, write when you're sad, write when you're right, write when you're wrong. I find I write only when something is such a deep, raw emotion that I feel like if I DON'T write it down, it'll just rub me until I bleed from the inside out. I write when I feel like I HAVE to get the word's out because otherwise they'll be like my own form of toxic poison. How crude and awful of me to say that my own words and thoughts are like poison. I apologize.
But everyone is their own worst enemy right?
The amount of change that has overcome me in the past month since I've moved home is a bit ridiculous. I'm not sure if sharing every mundane and obscurely huge detail of my private life is 100% appropriate at this time, but I do think that everything in life happens for a reason. This has been proven to me time and time again..and in the past few days...time and time again...again. I just have to remember what I already know, even if the reminder is coming from a least-suspected source...in the form of a question...answering my own question...questioning my own answer...being referred to again that everything happens for a reason.
Sorry for the riddled tongue twister. I'm just merely blabbing. Trying to help a slightly-uninspired mind find a little inspiration.
The other night, something really beautiful and magical DID happen between my dear friend Kelly, my brother Jonathan, my little cousin Noah and I. We got into a deep, heartfelt intellectual conversation. It involved the universe and life and light and soul and body and mind. Topics that I think we were too afraid to approach on our own, but as the circle of love opened up around us we let everything out. Even Noah, who's only 10, proved that he's an older soul that I think any of us could have guessed. But just the spill of emotions and new ideas was so beautiful, the energy in the room literally changed. It was a tangible, electrical, amazing energy that you could almost ALMOST hold in your hands. To be surrounded by such a diverse group of long-time family and friends and know that we can share anything and say anything without being judged was really wonderful. We had trust in each other and created an amazing bond between all of us, just by merely talking.
I don't know where I'm going with this...I guess if I can give you a moral of my ramblings it would be just to go out into the world tomorrow with an open mind. Everyone, every situation, every single little thing and person and event that comes across your path happens for a reason. A reason that many of us won't know until years down the road. I'm thankful for the amazing people that are in my life right now, and for the amazing people that used to be in my life, because deep-down, I've learned invaluable life lessons from all of you that I could never have learned on my own.
Be open minded. Ok? Ok.
Good night.
Bree
But everyone is their own worst enemy right?
The amount of change that has overcome me in the past month since I've moved home is a bit ridiculous. I'm not sure if sharing every mundane and obscurely huge detail of my private life is 100% appropriate at this time, but I do think that everything in life happens for a reason. This has been proven to me time and time again..and in the past few days...time and time again...again. I just have to remember what I already know, even if the reminder is coming from a least-suspected source...in the form of a question...answering my own question...questioning my own answer...being referred to again that everything happens for a reason.
Sorry for the riddled tongue twister. I'm just merely blabbing. Trying to help a slightly-uninspired mind find a little inspiration.
The other night, something really beautiful and magical DID happen between my dear friend Kelly, my brother Jonathan, my little cousin Noah and I. We got into a deep, heartfelt intellectual conversation. It involved the universe and life and light and soul and body and mind. Topics that I think we were too afraid to approach on our own, but as the circle of love opened up around us we let everything out. Even Noah, who's only 10, proved that he's an older soul that I think any of us could have guessed. But just the spill of emotions and new ideas was so beautiful, the energy in the room literally changed. It was a tangible, electrical, amazing energy that you could almost ALMOST hold in your hands. To be surrounded by such a diverse group of long-time family and friends and know that we can share anything and say anything without being judged was really wonderful. We had trust in each other and created an amazing bond between all of us, just by merely talking.
I don't know where I'm going with this...I guess if I can give you a moral of my ramblings it would be just to go out into the world tomorrow with an open mind. Everyone, every situation, every single little thing and person and event that comes across your path happens for a reason. A reason that many of us won't know until years down the road. I'm thankful for the amazing people that are in my life right now, and for the amazing people that used to be in my life, because deep-down, I've learned invaluable life lessons from all of you that I could never have learned on my own.
Be open minded. Ok? Ok.
Good night.
Bree
Sunday, May 30, 2010
Reflections
And here comes another novel.
Bare with it...or not.
I don't know how to say what I am feeling. The words seem far and few between. Sometimes words aren't enough to express human emotion. You can sprinkle in some adjectives, throw around the nouns and spice up the verbs but it may never do true justice to what a beating heart can feel. The only way to describe my emotions would be to SHOW you them. Not tears, not laughter, but the physicality of them. The embodiment of my memories. I want you to feel the sand, hear the voices, smell the air, see with your own eyes the beauty of the remembrances in my mind. I feel so grateful that I can shut my eyes and go back to that place, go back to that time. I will never EVER take that for granted.
Leaving Hawaii was difficult to say the least. I dealt with it in many ways. It was almost a grieving process. I was angry, sad, depressed, I had a bout of denial. I finally accepted it. I took in ALL that I could in those last few weeks that I was there. I left nothing untouched. I finally pursued everything that I had said "Oh..I wish I could do that...maybe some other time." There is nothing left on that island that I wanted to do that I didn't. After a while, when the acceptance of leaving had sunk in, I almost wanted to just GO. I wanted to rip it off like a bandaid and not draw out the process of saying goodbye.
The morning I sat in that airport, staring out the windows of my lasts views of Hawaii, a rainbow...the brightest rainbow I had EVER seen...stared back at me. At the time I considered despising it. It was like the sky was mocking me. I look back now and realize it was a farewell. It was the island's way of giving me a warm aloha and it drew lyrics from a local Hawaiian artist...
"Well I woke up this morning
A rainbow filled the sky
That was God telling me
Everything, everything is gonna be alright"
Jack Johnson...I don't if you've heard of him.
Now that I am back in the states, that strange far-away land called the Mainland, I can reflect on it with a happy heart. I took the heartache sitting on that airplane, knowing I was leaving behind beautiful friends and memories, rather than leaving feeling like I had regretted something. I am here in Southern California, in my old room, in my parents house. I am car less (momentarily), jobless, and sometimes a little down on myself. But I know that something is just waiting out there. I feel like I'm perched on the edge of a cliff and I'm just waiting to jump. Something is coming, I can feel it. I can see it, I just can't define the details yet.
In the meantime I want to do everything that I have never done before in LA. I want to hike up the Hollywood sign. I rode the rollercoaster at the Santa Monica pier. I want to go to the Griffith Observatory, Olvera Street, see a screening of a tv show. There's a lot here I haven't done.
Than maybe I'll go north. San Fransisco. Yup. That's where I'll go. Not because I'm chasing a greener pasture, not because I think it'll be better. But because I want to see and experience everything. There's so much out there. It's within reach, even when I think that it's not. It's there. I know it is.
If you made it this far...CHEERS. My reflections are merely an outlet. I need to get them out, otherwise my head my implode with thoughts. And we all know that if my imagination and this crazy mind of mine were let loose in the world, disastrous (or marvelous) things may happen. Either way, the world isn't ready for that just yet.
Aloha from the west coast.
Bree
Bare with it...or not.
I don't know how to say what I am feeling. The words seem far and few between. Sometimes words aren't enough to express human emotion. You can sprinkle in some adjectives, throw around the nouns and spice up the verbs but it may never do true justice to what a beating heart can feel. The only way to describe my emotions would be to SHOW you them. Not tears, not laughter, but the physicality of them. The embodiment of my memories. I want you to feel the sand, hear the voices, smell the air, see with your own eyes the beauty of the remembrances in my mind. I feel so grateful that I can shut my eyes and go back to that place, go back to that time. I will never EVER take that for granted.
Leaving Hawaii was difficult to say the least. I dealt with it in many ways. It was almost a grieving process. I was angry, sad, depressed, I had a bout of denial. I finally accepted it. I took in ALL that I could in those last few weeks that I was there. I left nothing untouched. I finally pursued everything that I had said "Oh..I wish I could do that...maybe some other time." There is nothing left on that island that I wanted to do that I didn't. After a while, when the acceptance of leaving had sunk in, I almost wanted to just GO. I wanted to rip it off like a bandaid and not draw out the process of saying goodbye.
The morning I sat in that airport, staring out the windows of my lasts views of Hawaii, a rainbow...the brightest rainbow I had EVER seen...stared back at me. At the time I considered despising it. It was like the sky was mocking me. I look back now and realize it was a farewell. It was the island's way of giving me a warm aloha and it drew lyrics from a local Hawaiian artist...
"Well I woke up this morning
A rainbow filled the sky
That was God telling me
Everything, everything is gonna be alright"
Jack Johnson...I don't if you've heard of him.
Now that I am back in the states, that strange far-away land called the Mainland, I can reflect on it with a happy heart. I took the heartache sitting on that airplane, knowing I was leaving behind beautiful friends and memories, rather than leaving feeling like I had regretted something. I am here in Southern California, in my old room, in my parents house. I am car less (momentarily), jobless, and sometimes a little down on myself. But I know that something is just waiting out there. I feel like I'm perched on the edge of a cliff and I'm just waiting to jump. Something is coming, I can feel it. I can see it, I just can't define the details yet.
In the meantime I want to do everything that I have never done before in LA. I want to hike up the Hollywood sign. I rode the rollercoaster at the Santa Monica pier. I want to go to the Griffith Observatory, Olvera Street, see a screening of a tv show. There's a lot here I haven't done.
Than maybe I'll go north. San Fransisco. Yup. That's where I'll go. Not because I'm chasing a greener pasture, not because I think it'll be better. But because I want to see and experience everything. There's so much out there. It's within reach, even when I think that it's not. It's there. I know it is.
If you made it this far...CHEERS. My reflections are merely an outlet. I need to get them out, otherwise my head my implode with thoughts. And we all know that if my imagination and this crazy mind of mine were let loose in the world, disastrous (or marvelous) things may happen. Either way, the world isn't ready for that just yet.
Aloha from the west coast.
Bree
Thursday, May 13, 2010
Growing up
We are all growing up.
And sometimes it's easier to grow up when you have a forecast of a good outcome. But when you're left unknowing, it can make moving forward really hard.
I'm a deep pool of stress and emotion right now. I mixture of excitement, resentment, cheer, foreboding, heartbreak and joy. I don't know where I'm going, and I don't know what I'm going to do, and I'm terrified. I have dreams, but I really don't want to let my dreams be dreams. I'm trying not to. The hardest part of my transition into a new chapter is leaving Hawaii. A part of me is drawing out the process probably longer than necessary. Another part of me wants to rip it off like a bandaid. Just get it over with...but I'd rather take the heartbreak when I get on that plane knowing I'm leaving behind beautiful friends and memories, than to be in the air thinking I had made nothing of my time here.
If I even so much as see an airplane I look away. They're going to have to drag me onto that transportation device by my feet, my nails clawing into the carpet and throwing a tantrum. Sometimes I daydream about silently crying my way onto the airplane, my heart breaking into a million pieces in my chest...buckling myself in the seat, watching the clouds and the ocean roll by the window, and as they go to shut the cabin door, I stand up and scream and run to stewardess, shove her out of the way and burst into the tropical sunshine and run...and don't stop running until I hit Waimea, than sink into that deep clear water and listen to the whales. I won't. But, I can imagine.
If all goes well though (which it will, I know it...I feel it) this will be an opportunity to do something that I have always dreamed of doing. I can start with a foot on the right path and go work towards something that I have wanted to do for years. I can work in a marine related field, get up to the Bay Area and volunteer at the Marine Mammal Center. I'll make new friends, I'll have new experiences. Maybe the Bay Area will be my next Hawaii. It will all work out in the end.
But in the mean time, I have a tube of waterproof mascara and a shoulders of friends to cry on.
...Bree
And sometimes it's easier to grow up when you have a forecast of a good outcome. But when you're left unknowing, it can make moving forward really hard.
I'm a deep pool of stress and emotion right now. I mixture of excitement, resentment, cheer, foreboding, heartbreak and joy. I don't know where I'm going, and I don't know what I'm going to do, and I'm terrified. I have dreams, but I really don't want to let my dreams be dreams. I'm trying not to. The hardest part of my transition into a new chapter is leaving Hawaii. A part of me is drawing out the process probably longer than necessary. Another part of me wants to rip it off like a bandaid. Just get it over with...but I'd rather take the heartbreak when I get on that plane knowing I'm leaving behind beautiful friends and memories, than to be in the air thinking I had made nothing of my time here.
If I even so much as see an airplane I look away. They're going to have to drag me onto that transportation device by my feet, my nails clawing into the carpet and throwing a tantrum. Sometimes I daydream about silently crying my way onto the airplane, my heart breaking into a million pieces in my chest...buckling myself in the seat, watching the clouds and the ocean roll by the window, and as they go to shut the cabin door, I stand up and scream and run to stewardess, shove her out of the way and burst into the tropical sunshine and run...and don't stop running until I hit Waimea, than sink into that deep clear water and listen to the whales. I won't. But, I can imagine.
If all goes well though (which it will, I know it...I feel it) this will be an opportunity to do something that I have always dreamed of doing. I can start with a foot on the right path and go work towards something that I have wanted to do for years. I can work in a marine related field, get up to the Bay Area and volunteer at the Marine Mammal Center. I'll make new friends, I'll have new experiences. Maybe the Bay Area will be my next Hawaii. It will all work out in the end.
But in the mean time, I have a tube of waterproof mascara and a shoulders of friends to cry on.
...Bree
Sunday, April 25, 2010
A mixture of emotions displayed in song...
California here we come, right back where we started from.
Yes, I'm moving back to California.
California, knows how to parrrrty.
I'm excited to see my friends and actually get a chance to do some stuff that I haven't been able to do here in Hawaii.
Those Hollywood nights, in those Hollywood hills.
Maybe I'll get the courage to go to Hollywood at night. Nah probably not.
I'm going back back back to Cali Cali Cali.
Road trip?
I wish they all could be California girls.
I've heard they're beautiful ;)
Beverly Hills, that's where I want to be.
Nah not really, but I'd like to know that if I wanted to go, the opportunity would be there.
Nobody walks in LA.
So true, that may be one of the hardest things to leave behind; the ability to walk wherever I want to.
I left my heart in San Fransisco.
*shrugs*
LA woman.
I guess that will always be me...where my roots are.
California dreamin on such a winter's day.
It's nice and sunny here in Hawaii, but I'm trying to optimistic about leaving it ok?
All the vampires walking through the valley, move west down Ventura Blvd.
AND I'M FREEEEEEEEEEEEE FREEEEEEEEE BALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLIN!...oh wait, it's fallin huh...?
Livin it up at the Hotel California, what a lovely place...
Is there such a place as the Hotel California? Besides CSUCI...
Do you know the way to San Jose?
Heard that place is nice too..
I'm going to California with an aching in my heart.
Oh Led...it's so true.
Ventura Highway, in the sunshine.
I still can't figure out why there are alligator lizards in the air...what the hell are alligator lizards??
Still the same girl, who builds her own frames for the pictures that she paints of the lights of Monterey coming in across the bay, back to my same girl.
I love you Monterey *sigh*
Sweet Thursday's calling me back up to Monterey
This entire song reminds me of my road trip to the aquarium and camping in Big Sur.
There will always be the Honolulu City lights in my head....Alohe Oe.
Yes, I'm moving back to California.
California, knows how to parrrrty.
I'm excited to see my friends and actually get a chance to do some stuff that I haven't been able to do here in Hawaii.
Those Hollywood nights, in those Hollywood hills.
Maybe I'll get the courage to go to Hollywood at night. Nah probably not.
I'm going back back back to Cali Cali Cali.
Road trip?
I wish they all could be California girls.
I've heard they're beautiful ;)
Beverly Hills, that's where I want to be.
Nah not really, but I'd like to know that if I wanted to go, the opportunity would be there.
Nobody walks in LA.
So true, that may be one of the hardest things to leave behind; the ability to walk wherever I want to.
I left my heart in San Fransisco.
*shrugs*
LA woman.
I guess that will always be me...where my roots are.
California dreamin on such a winter's day.
It's nice and sunny here in Hawaii, but I'm trying to optimistic about leaving it ok?
All the vampires walking through the valley, move west down Ventura Blvd.
AND I'M FREEEEEEEEEEEEE FREEEEEEEEE BALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLIN!...oh wait, it's fallin huh...?
Livin it up at the Hotel California, what a lovely place...
Is there such a place as the Hotel California? Besides CSUCI...
Do you know the way to San Jose?
Heard that place is nice too..
I'm going to California with an aching in my heart.
Oh Led...it's so true.
Ventura Highway, in the sunshine.
I still can't figure out why there are alligator lizards in the air...what the hell are alligator lizards??
Still the same girl, who builds her own frames for the pictures that she paints of the lights of Monterey coming in across the bay, back to my same girl.
I love you Monterey *sigh*
Sweet Thursday's calling me back up to Monterey
This entire song reminds me of my road trip to the aquarium and camping in Big Sur.
There will always be the Honolulu City lights in my head....Alohe Oe.
Saturday, April 24, 2010
This crazy little thing called LIFE
So tonight was amazing. Incredible and wonderful and everything that I could have asked and wished for it to be and than some.
I had a rough day, trying to make decisions about what's going to happen within the next month...moving back to the mainland, trying to find jobs, etc. I had wanted to go to the Kokua Festival (Jack Johnson's Kokua Hawaii foundation benefit concert to raise money for environmental causes) here in Waikiki from the get-go but was unable to obtain tickets for financial reasons. I knew that when those tickets went on sale, I was quietly weeping to myself on the couch knowing I was too poor to afford seeing that concert.
This morning I had vowed to try to avoid Waikiki at all costs, just because I didn't want to be tempted to try to break into the Shell to see the performance. But, emotion got the best of me and I decided that it would be better to camp out in the park outside the concert and listen to the music, than to completely avoid going at all.
3:00pm Grady and I trudge down Waikiki in the glaring hot Hawaiian sunlight to Kapiolani Park. Damn it, if I'm living in Hawaii I want to at least LISTEN to the Kokua Festival...it's only once a year in Oahu! We got there around 4:00 and listened to the first three performers. We set up camp right behind a cop car, in the midst of hippies tight-rope walking and bbqing and getting stoned. I couldn't see anything, but if I listened really close I could hear them.
Sunset came and went and Ziggy Marley played. Around 8:00 the first Jack Johnson songs came on. I was all excited to just hear the distant screams of the audience and croons of Mr. Johnson. It was from a distance, I wish I could have been closer, but it was worth it just to be as close as I was. As people in the park started to trickle out, it was just Grady and I under a bright industrial light that ran along the security fence, swaying back and forth to Jack's rhythmic melodies. From the corner of my eye, I see a guy approaching. This guy walks up to us, "Want two tickets?"
"No thank you, don't have the money," was my sad response. I was assuming he'd continue his scalping effort at a different location. He just smiled and dropped the two tickets in our laps. My only response was a muttered, "...are you serious?" He just turned back and smiled and walked away.
I quickly started scanning the tickets, are these fake? They've got to be fake, no way this is real...There's the date, there's the time, there's the seat number... OH MY GOD!!! WE JUST GOT TICKETS!! Grady and I sprinted to the entrance...they scanned it...we were IN!!
I ran to the side of the ropes, it was standing room only. But WHO CARES!!?? I was in Kokua Festival! I never dreamed I'd be there...this close to Jack Johnson. I was right under the big screen, the sound was better, I could see him...a little inch big guy on the stage. I was shaking with excitement and kept saying, "CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT JUST HAPPENED!?!" Grady just was shaking his head and laughing.
There was a lady standing next to us who was listening to one of his songs and she looked at us and asked, "I don't even know the name of this song, it's my favorite song, do you know what it's called?"
"Oh, it's called 'Home', I love this song too!" I kept singing, just brushing off her question.
At the end of the song, Grady taps me on the shoulder. The lady was gone, but he's holding an envelope with two more tickets in it, "Want to go to the front?" he asks.
The lady who was standing next to us gave us her orchestra seat tickets and walked away, we couldn't find her to thank her or anything. ORCHESTRA SEATS. I MEAN LIKE, 2ND ROW ORCHESTRA SEATS!!
This seems like a crazy joke, but it was so real. We walked right up to the VIP area, they walked us to our seats. Now I'm crying. By sheer luck, generosity of strangers and by someone that was looking out for us tonight, we made it from outside in a park behind a cop car to 2nd row of the Jack Johnson Kokua Festival. So surreal. We were able to watch Ziggy Marley, Taj Mahal, Jack and others for two hours for FREE. I couldn't afford the $40 presale, non-the-less the $80 tickets, God forbid I would have bought those orchestra seats that were going for over $500 this morning. I got them for free by some insane karmic blessing. It was ridiculous.
I don't have any pictures to show you, my phone was dead and I had no camera. How was I expecting to be able to see that??!! But I will never EVER forget the kindness those people showed me tonight. I will forever hold that memory SO dear to me. What an amazing thing happened tonight...wow.
...on my list of things I want to do before I die, there was see a Kokua Festival. Check :)
What you put out into the Universe, will come back to you.
~A very happy Bree
I had a rough day, trying to make decisions about what's going to happen within the next month...moving back to the mainland, trying to find jobs, etc. I had wanted to go to the Kokua Festival (Jack Johnson's Kokua Hawaii foundation benefit concert to raise money for environmental causes) here in Waikiki from the get-go but was unable to obtain tickets for financial reasons. I knew that when those tickets went on sale, I was quietly weeping to myself on the couch knowing I was too poor to afford seeing that concert.
This morning I had vowed to try to avoid Waikiki at all costs, just because I didn't want to be tempted to try to break into the Shell to see the performance. But, emotion got the best of me and I decided that it would be better to camp out in the park outside the concert and listen to the music, than to completely avoid going at all.
3:00pm Grady and I trudge down Waikiki in the glaring hot Hawaiian sunlight to Kapiolani Park. Damn it, if I'm living in Hawaii I want to at least LISTEN to the Kokua Festival...it's only once a year in Oahu! We got there around 4:00 and listened to the first three performers. We set up camp right behind a cop car, in the midst of hippies tight-rope walking and bbqing and getting stoned. I couldn't see anything, but if I listened really close I could hear them.
Sunset came and went and Ziggy Marley played. Around 8:00 the first Jack Johnson songs came on. I was all excited to just hear the distant screams of the audience and croons of Mr. Johnson. It was from a distance, I wish I could have been closer, but it was worth it just to be as close as I was. As people in the park started to trickle out, it was just Grady and I under a bright industrial light that ran along the security fence, swaying back and forth to Jack's rhythmic melodies. From the corner of my eye, I see a guy approaching. This guy walks up to us, "Want two tickets?"
"No thank you, don't have the money," was my sad response. I was assuming he'd continue his scalping effort at a different location. He just smiled and dropped the two tickets in our laps. My only response was a muttered, "...are you serious?" He just turned back and smiled and walked away.
I quickly started scanning the tickets, are these fake? They've got to be fake, no way this is real...There's the date, there's the time, there's the seat number... OH MY GOD!!! WE JUST GOT TICKETS!! Grady and I sprinted to the entrance...they scanned it...we were IN!!
I ran to the side of the ropes, it was standing room only. But WHO CARES!!?? I was in Kokua Festival! I never dreamed I'd be there...this close to Jack Johnson. I was right under the big screen, the sound was better, I could see him...a little inch big guy on the stage. I was shaking with excitement and kept saying, "CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT JUST HAPPENED!?!" Grady just was shaking his head and laughing.
There was a lady standing next to us who was listening to one of his songs and she looked at us and asked, "I don't even know the name of this song, it's my favorite song, do you know what it's called?"
"Oh, it's called 'Home', I love this song too!" I kept singing, just brushing off her question.
At the end of the song, Grady taps me on the shoulder. The lady was gone, but he's holding an envelope with two more tickets in it, "Want to go to the front?" he asks.
The lady who was standing next to us gave us her orchestra seat tickets and walked away, we couldn't find her to thank her or anything. ORCHESTRA SEATS. I MEAN LIKE, 2ND ROW ORCHESTRA SEATS!!
This seems like a crazy joke, but it was so real. We walked right up to the VIP area, they walked us to our seats. Now I'm crying. By sheer luck, generosity of strangers and by someone that was looking out for us tonight, we made it from outside in a park behind a cop car to 2nd row of the Jack Johnson Kokua Festival. So surreal. We were able to watch Ziggy Marley, Taj Mahal, Jack and others for two hours for FREE. I couldn't afford the $40 presale, non-the-less the $80 tickets, God forbid I would have bought those orchestra seats that were going for over $500 this morning. I got them for free by some insane karmic blessing. It was ridiculous.
I don't have any pictures to show you, my phone was dead and I had no camera. How was I expecting to be able to see that??!! But I will never EVER forget the kindness those people showed me tonight. I will forever hold that memory SO dear to me. What an amazing thing happened tonight...wow.
...on my list of things I want to do before I die, there was see a Kokua Festival. Check :)
What you put out into the Universe, will come back to you.
~A very happy Bree
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