Today was second day of the master cleanse, although the record keeping is late, almost two in the morning. I spent very little time thinking about the fact that I am not eating. Instead, it was a day of thinking ahead: Chanuka starts on Christmas Eve this year and both will be here in two days. I had to accomplish two tasks: get presents for the DxDp team Marysol and Eric and get a Menorah. Sounds simple but after going from store to store in boutique heavy Kailua, from bewildered looks I knew that most shop girls did not know what Chanuka was. At Pier 1 I was informed that only town store carries holiday related items. Whole Foods had one, but it was more of an aluminum joke than something I would be happy to cherish for eight days of the holiday. I knew there was one at Target as a last resort, but it was a pink decoration variety for outfitting a little girl’s room. With my cayenne lemon maple syrup hydroflask in tow, I realized that my beach town was definitely more in the Christmas spirit and that I would have to cross the Koolau mountain range to get my Jew on.
The bus ride over the Pali with the expansive vista of the windward coast has always been one of my favorites. It is like emerging from sleep to the bustle of the city. Shortly after the tunnel, there’s a reform temple, amidst dozens of other churches and places of worship on the Pali, a veritable spiritual row. The temple gift shop, located just outside the sanctuary, had a few nice choices. I picked the smaller one, anticipating traveling with it on the eighth and final night (which also happens to be New Year’s Eve) to G’s Waikiki apartment when he comes back from the East Coast trip home. But menorah was not all I got from that shopping trip: it came with a pamphlet on the holiday, lighting instructions and meditations, as befit a synagogue shop. And of course, it was nice to support the Jewish life on the island. All in all, it did have more meaning and I was glad that Whole Foods’ buyer did not have better taste.
Back in Kailua, it was time to buy some gifts. And then the boutiques definitely delivered. Marysol loves pineapples and I found a perfect made in Hawaii brown leather clutch with pink fruit accents. She opened the gift before our midnight excursion for Longs sale (and me driving her car for the first time) and loved it, I was very happy. Eric will be opening his gift tomorrow I hope, but it is a Madre chocolate bar (from cacao harvested just 30 minutes from Kailua’s shop on this side of the island) and chocolate bar of soap for the lover of interesting lather material. Two days till Chanuka, two days till Christmas Eve--but clearly once a gift is by me acquired I want it to be opened, not a stickler on those time lines.
By the time all of the above was accomplished it was late afternoon and I had a very good tasting glass of my cleanse lemonade. I rubbed coconut oil after a detox bar in the shower, and essential oils of course. Other markers of my nourishment journey happened too but the hour is late. I did feel it was important to continue with the daily record keeping, staying on the verbal track as much as the cleansing one. Before tuning in to Amazon prime and Mozart in the Jungle as my nightcap, I have to say, tomorrow I might be hungry but right now I just feel great holiday spirit percolating in my fingers. And when I wake up, on day three, Chanuka will be just a day away!