Thirty going on 13

I dragged myself to work tonight. I slept for about 2.5 hours and then drove to meet Russell's very hapai wife, Sarah, for my first ever attempt at maternity photographs. It was shaky in the beginning because there was a viscous blanket of vog (sorry, Joy) covering Kaneohe. But, I got just a few that I think I love already but will have to wait until next week to really look at. And did you know that I could not find those little wooden blocks that have the painted alphabet letters on them. I saw a lot of photogs use them as props so I ran to Ross before the shoot. Nope. Running late, I ran into windward mall to check out Kaybee Toy Store. Nope, they don't have. I even tried the small little specialty kids store in the mall. Nope. I was so surprised. I thought they were a classic.

Then Scott and I drove separately to Waikiki for Keiko and Derek's wedding rehearsal. I had to come back to Kaneohe early for the Hope Chapel Women's Worship Night for this Thursday's worhsip night on Kailua Beach. Stanton, Scott, and I are supposed to sing Keiko down the aisle...and we have never really practiced together and Stanton is on the mainland right now. I should have known better than to think that I could sing with Scott and get through the entire song. While we were just running through it for practice, I noticed that he plays the guitar great during his part...when it's my part, he gets bored and starts doing dramatic pauses before each strum. Then he even just stopped and mocked my singing and asked if I planned on "singing it with soul" on Saturday. I almost stormed off. Well, it ended too late to make it back to the worship practice so I went to the rehearsal dinner and had a fun dinner with Justin and Megan, Tracy(Scott's childhood friend) and Emily, and Kelly and Eric.

I showed up at work completely prepared to tell Johnny that I was useless for the night and not to expect too much from me...oh, we already had a case waiting for us. So we had to immediate jump in the cars and drive to...Kaneohe...a place I'm very familiar. In fact, it was a scary-a*% wooded area on the corner of Kahekili and Keahala (my church is off of Keaahala). Now, amongst my high school friends, it's the running joke that everyone from high school recognizes me everwhere we meet up. So, it's pitch black, we're carrying three flashlights between the six of us...and I'm reminded that even turning thirty...I still look the same. There were some bystander standing on the side of the road and one of them came up to talk to the officer..I recognized as her my old neighbor from Kailua. I figured she might not recognize me because I'm in a different setting, it's dark, I'm wearking work clothes. She said "Hi Keao" without hesitation. Then, we had to call the fire department out to come help us and here comes six firemen stomping through the woods. One guy starts beaming when he saw me (and I'm seriously standing in the woods in a dark corner behind the floodlights)...I thought it was just my good looks. He came over and excitedly asked how I was doing. I thought maybe he knew me from church. Back at the squad cars, he came over again to talk story and asked "You know who I am?" When I'm tired, I'm real honest. "No" So, he mentions that I graduated from Kamehameha in '96. I introduce myself (kind of stupid since he seems to know who I am)...and he still has not given out his name...there's some silence and then he finally gives me his first name, Josiah. Ah, I recognize the name...I never would have come up with that name on my own but I was able to pull his last name out because he was the only Josiah in my grade. Damn it, I suck at remembering people. Plus, he looks completely different. I, apparently still look like I did when I was fifteen, just chubbier, and will always be recognized.