komoniwanna

i started today residually pissed from the night before. i left d sprawled in the room, sleeping (he told me later that he spent part of the night, after i returned to the room and he left, sleeping at the beach and hanging out at denny's, where he was propositioned by a midget prostitute- which i would not have believed if i hadn't seen her already myself) and started to walk. once one exits the plasticity of waikiki, honolulu becomes an actual city with its layers of quirk and filth. i would still never live here, but i appreciate it more.

i walked north for a long while, trying to find a diner i'd seen from the bus the day before. there was no diner to be found. there were very few places to eat in general; i ended up in an odd area of official buildings and acres of manicured flora and the occasional gas station. i walked to the actual downtown of honolulu, which reminds me, oddly, of downtown fairbanks: low-slung buildings with overhanging signs advertizing shops like "pat's teriyaki" and "fashion cabinet." groups of men malingered out front, smoking and looking slovenly. the corporate end of downtown was aflutter with pairs of women carrying bags from ross and long's drugs. (long's drugs! that's where i used to shoplift before they went out of business in alaska and, i thought, everywhere!) store windows contained creepily outdated garb: orange sequin-trimmed prom dresses, dusty vases, fake flowers. they actually sell fake flowers in hawai'i.
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on the other side of downtown is chinatown, the most authentic one i've ever been to in the sense that 1. i was the only white person, apart from an older couple, that i saw in its 6-block radius (i am often the only white person in any outside-of-waikiki setting. yesterday d and i were on a packed accordion bus and afterwards compared notes. "i saw two others" i said. "no, there was another guy up front" he replied. it's a new enough experience that i notice it. i am ashamed of my insulation.) 2. no one spoke english above the basic fundamentals. 3. products like this, which i have no idea how to comprehend. i think the definition is what throws me off; i imagine "cake" as "something with fairly defined edges."

the hawai'i capitol building is a marvel of bombast. i saw it from afar yesterday before i knew what it was.

this was tonight's sunset from a park north of waikiki that i do not currently recall the name of. the sand was pure white. no seagulls, no insects.

d and i met up later and behaved nicely towards one another. he calls it "hotel spelunking"- strolling into the nice places (of which there are many) to see what the accessibility of their spa amenities are. this is how i have now seen honolulu from the 31st floor of the sheraton and enjoyed a ($7.56!) gin and tonic from their oceanside, tiki torch-lit lanai. there is another lovely place a few blocks from the place we're staying (about 5 hostels are crammed along our block of lemon street- all that's missing is a locking gate at either end) with a pool that he "thinks we could totally get into." i smiled noncommittally.
d is sleeping/snoring in the room; i am back on the stairwell where the internet actually connects. to his credit, he stopped at the drugstore and bought breathe-rite strips and some fucking anti-snore pills, neither of which help at all. (he is too busy snoring to know this yet.)
the idea of being on vacation is finally starting to kick in. i feel mellow. happy. then again, there may be things other than hawai'i contributing to that.