No problem

     I don’t have problems. Issues, quirks and phobias, but no problems. Procrastination was a problem, but giving up deadlines resolved that. Tonight I went to a birthday party held at a large rambling house high on a hillside with a view of the channel between Molokai and Lanai. Not knowing the hosts I tagged along with friends of friends. Whales spouted as the sky warbled through a quartet of vermillion hues. Our host raced around filling glasses as if he was in a hurry to get out of there. The house, a vault of travel treasures, took awhile to tour. As in any museum there was no way to take it all in. Collectible artifacts were randomly interspersed with quirky personal items. A globe covered with pins showed their travels, a table sized rock shaped like Molokai stood on a dresser with photos pasted where they had been taken, hand painted gourd penguins in hula skirts hid in the corners, a half scale coconut tree of carved wood towered over the couch and an enormous fully loaded Christmas tree reached to the rafters.

     I rarely see the homes of those wealthy enough to decorate with animal skins and large bronze mermaids. A huge rare drum had become a coffee table. I did my best to interact. Being socially phobic used to be a problem, until I changed the designation to highly sensitive. The first is taken as hateful, the second is merely pitiable. Not a problem.

     Dinner was very good. The host inhaled his. I was sitting next to him and didn’t see him get up, but the next thing everyone saw was his truck racing down the driveway. So he HAD been in a hurry to get out of there. People stared at his wife for an explanation. She said, without a hint of angst or apology, that he had gone to town to the hardware store’s annual Christmas raffle because he had a feeling he was going to win the flat screen TV they were giving away. Hours later he hadn’t returned. His birthday gifts sat in a pile unopened as people got up to leave. I admire this kind of behavior. This fuck it I want a TV and will walk out of my own birthday party to chance getting one kind of attitude. That guy is not willing to live life in a box. His wife, still completely unfazed, took me in the bathroom and showed me her collection of penis and vulva shaped rocks, some found, some carved, a few life size. All in all, my kind of party.