I apologize for not posting over the last couple of weeks. I was in Honolulu for a few days visiting with my parents and going to Pearl Harbor. I was able to take a tour of the USS Missouri and that was really very interesting. It is not often that civilians can take a tour of a battleship that was recently decommissioned. I was also able to see a nuclear submarine that was in Pearl Harbor along with an array of other ships. I also spent some time shopping for new clothes in Honolulu - fun, fun. After that excursion, my parents flew back to Hilo with me. It was not a fun visit - we did absolutely nothing. My father literally would not leave our living room because he was watching TV on his laptop the entire time. They complained about it being too hot all the time (it was actually cold) and complained about the people - well everything. My father also cornered Brian and talked to him for about three hours and told him we need to move to Florida because it is so great (so great that my parents moved from there). Brian was in a horrible mood the whole time, my parents spent the entire time planning where to sit on the plane ride back and complaining about how long it takes to get here (yes, it does when you don’t take the direct flight you should have taken and instead get stuck with 6 hour layovers so you can save $5).

After all of that, I had to get ready for a “trunk show” for all of my handbags, Swarovski flip-flops, pareos, and jewelry. I had a terrible first day but the last two days were fabulous. Several people actually had me autograph the items! It was a lot of fun. I am looking forward to my next show and I was also invited to take part in a show that is by invitation only - so I am thrilled. My jewelry was also a hit and the cruise ship tourists loved it. A number of people told me I should open my own store on the bayfront and everyone was very complimentary of my products. The hours were extremely long - I arrived at 7 am and left after 8 pm and had to get up early and go to bed late to get things ready. It is a lot harder to work 13 hour days when you have to interact with people constantly compared to working 13 hours at home! I think I caught some kind of virus from the show - probably a result of being around all those people, handling money, being in recycled and air conditioned air, and keeping long hours. I have also been having gall bladder attacks again (I had a severe one in Honolulu) so I am currently taking care of that. Fun.

I am in the process of setting up my kitchen laptop since Brian just got a new laptop and he is having a great time getting it ready to use.  I finally decided on some  kitchen software - The Living Cookbook - it seems to be the most robust program in its category and it does exactly what I want it to do. I should be able to synch it with my new cell phone when I go get a new one.

Our trip to Kauai is coming up next week after Brian gives his final.  Hooray!  After that, Brian will be heading to California to visit his family for Xmas.

More later…

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On Brian’s blog and around the house, we have been discussing Freud, feminism, politics, and Hawaiian Psychology - a normal day for us.

At any rate, I am rather interested in the concept of Hawaiian Psychology. Indigenous cultures, specifically Hawaiian culture, often have very interesting and unique ways of looking at problems or ways of living that western culture has too often chosen to ignore. A book on Hawaiian psychology actually exists - Ka Lama Kukui Hawaiian Psychology: An Introduction by William C. Rezentes. The book is primarily for psychologists that are treating Native Hawaiian patients but I think it would be interesting for laymen. I have heard of people (even the courts) performing Ho‘oponopono in order to resolve problems between families, groups, or even inner struggles.

We have also been discussing Freud’s extremely misogynist case study of Dora. I find it disturbing that Freud’s conclusion was that women like to be sexually assaulted by men. He also asserts that Dora really wanted the sexual assault and even further that she should have submitted to it. Freud also seems to assert some kind of empiricism of his method but it is almost as though he never realizes that the entire scenario that he has “derived” are wholly constructed and based on entirely questionable interpolations. Given the history of Dora - her father was having an affair with a family friend, the older [than Dora] husband of the cheating wife comes on to her and sexually assaults her on several occasions, her father becomes distant to her and uses her as a pawn in his sexual games, the cheating wife betrays her trust, her father and creepy husband of cheating wife deny that Dora has been approached by creepy husband, her mother does not really do anything to help her, she’s a Jew living in Germany during a very bad period, and she was subjected to ice-water therapy and shock therapy. If this was not all bad enough, she was sent to Freud who also added insult to injury by telling her that she wanted to kiss him too and asserted that all of the above things were her fault. I do not think that I have to point out any additional reasons why she was not a happy person…

Does anyone have any thoughts on the case study of Dora?

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I have been extremely busy lately. My launch is soon (hopefully this week) and things have been crazy. I have constantly having tension headaches and migraines and therefore living on Excedrin (not great, I know). I am also exhausted but I slept in this morning so hopefully I will be more productive.  Nonetheless, things are getting done. I just sent my product hang tags off for production and should have them in about a week. I currently have my business cards being re-designed and my website header was just completed so the website is nearing completion. I am also waiting to ship off some fabric to be cut but that will have to wait since I require bags from FedEx to ship the rolls of fabric to the cutting facility.

I am also very proud of Brian and how he is learning to manage his own blog. I think it is great that he finally has a blog. He also said he would never teach online a long time ago - but he is doing that now as well. He is finally embracing technology. Hooray for him!

I still have a great deal to do and little time to do it all in!

More later…

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I have just spent the last few hours helping Brian create a blog of his own - MyBleam.com (Blog + Dream) and it is a blog of his dreams, a dream dictionary of sorts, and includes open discussion of enlightenment related things, psychology, current events, sociology, and whatever else a strange INTP can think of… This is not suitable for ISFJ mothers (*hint* not appropriate for Brian’s mother or Katy’s mother *hint*).

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Being a vegetarian, it only stands to reason that I would be attracted to the idea of vegetarian shoes. I was just looking at Zappos and I took a look at the vegetarian shoes they carry. I really like the idea of buying nice shoes that are earth friendly, recyclable, cruelty free, and all of that good stuff but every vegetarian shoe I have seen looks like it jumped out of the 1960s or the 1980s. Who decided that vegetarians should lack fashion sense? I would not buy a single shoe I saw on that page. The more casual shoes look more like something the hippies with dreadlocks that live in Pahoa would wear - nothing wrong with that - but it is just not me. This shoe, called the Earth Flight is just about the ugliest shoe I’ve ever seen and it comes in such an array of colors - black, poo brown, lighter shade of poo brown, and dirty ocean color. These people should give Manolo Blahnik a call so he can straighten them out about how to make shoes. Make less ugly shoes, please!

*Update* After being out and about today I would just like to say that Crocs are *not* an acceptable vegetarian solution to footwear.  Those things are so hideously ugly that they should have gone out long long ago.  They are made out of something called  croslite  but they feel really mushy and soft in a rather gross way, I think.  Those things should be kept for the garden only.

Brian is out of town for the day - he’s in Honolulu living it up in Waikiki. Fortunately, he will be taking a cab where he needs to go so I don’t have to worry about him driving there (since he does not know where things are). I am sure he will not have the grand time I had last weekend in Honolulu with the cute convertible, fun convention, and my culinary adventure.

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Brian graduated yesterday, yay! He was already Dr. Brian before graduation though… We move in just 16 hours and we are so thrilled and excited. I will post more later when we arrive in Hawai’i!

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Oh yes, I forgot to post about this several days ago. I was going through the apartment and throwing things away and getting them ready to pack up. I moved our 15 lb. medicine ball that was sitting on this big blue wizard popcorn can. I decided that I would put Brian’s old wizard popcorn tin in the trashpile. He has always said not to throw it away even though he said it was old and dented and we were not taking it to Hawaii. I figured that I could ask him about throwing it away when he got home. But then I noticed that the popcorn tin was a bit heavy. I knew it did not have popcorn in it because Brian would never leave food untouched. I opened it. This was mistake number one. Inside the popcorn tin, I discovered that my husband had been using it as a filing cabinet for over 6 years! In this popcorn tin, I found IRS documents, his acceptance letter to graduate school along with his congratulatory letter on his fellowship, several official transcripts, and a myriad of other very important documents. I had to laugh. When he came home I asked him if they really give PhDs to people who keep filing systems in a popcorn tin. He laughed at me and told me that graduate schools are always looking for creative people! I had to continue laughing at him… But I also had to take a picture for the sake of posterity.

In addition, he is demanding that everyone call him Dr. Brian except he insists that I begin calling him Dr. Love. lol

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