So my friend Susan convinced me today that I should start blogging again. I did this before, in another life, before Kaikea, when I was just a born-again surfer with lots of time to contemplate the metaphoric challenges of surfing as an adult and, of course, of life. But now I am 3 1/2 years into childraising, and the day I thought would come soon, when I would magically have the time and energy to create feature-length works of, I had hoped, art, seems to be DOA. And don't tell me about mothers who can do this. As Anne Lamott would say, I couldn't be friends with them. Even though she is a mother who did it, I forgive her because she already had a career and a small house when her child came along, plus no partner and a struggle with addiction. I was in the beginning of creating a career, and creating everything at once, it turns out (family, career, financial stability, mothering knowledge, home) seems to be a divine challenge.

So anyway, Susan convinced me I should do this so I could feel like a writer again, instead of a failed timeshare tour salesperson, which is how I was feeling before I called her. More another day on the adventures of the timeshare-tour-salesperson-cloaked-as-an-activity-expert. For now, suffice to say that overall it feels better to write about it than to do it, though the very best part of it is getting to do the activities. More on that, like the nightflight over the volcano and the pictures I got of Pele's eyes, on another day too.