Brrrrr! Woke up to a chilly Manoa morning … someone said it was 65 degrees! Now I know that’s not cold for many of you, but for us folk here in paradise, it’s freezing! But like I’ve said many times before, I’ll take this weather over the hot, voggy stuff any day! The best part about all this is that it means that the holidays will be here soon …
ManoaDNA is gearing up for its upcoming 2013 Hot Hawaiian Christmas tour to Japan at the end of this month. We’re busy putting the final touches on our new CD, LIVE ALOHA! , which we’ll be bringing with us … pretty awesome stuff, if I say so myself. But before we depart for Japan, we’ll be heading to Kona this weekend to join our friends Danny & Anna Akaka at their wonderful “Twilight at Kalahuipua’a” event over at the Mauna Lani Bay Hotel. It has to be one of the coolest gigs ever …
Had dinner tonight with dear friends Eddie and Myrna Kamae. We always have so much fun together … we used to have dinner with my mom over at Arcadia, and Myrna used to take all the saltine crackers which she loved to eat with vanilla ice cream. This was the first time we’ve gotten together with the Kamaes since mom passed away. I can still remember when I was a kid and Eddie and the Sons of Hawai’i used to come over to my parent’s house to jam. Talk about the good ‘ol days …
As we were leaving the restaurant, I turned to Eddie and gave him a hug and told him to drive safely. He looked at me and said, “You remind me of your dad.” OMG! I was so stunned that my eyes started to tear up. No one had ever said that to me before! It was a simple, passing statement from an old friend and it hit me like a ton of bricks! I then realized that all my life I’ve tried to be my own person .. to not be like my dad. I just knew there was no way I would even come close to measuring up to him because to me, he was Superman.  But last night, Eddie’s words seemed to bring closure to a lot of that … I was overcome with a tremendous sense of pride and gratefulness, and at that moment, felt closer to my dad than ever before. Simple, but so profound …
The boys and I will be at the SWIM tonight … come on down if you’re in the neighborhood.
Aloha, “D”