Tuberose

I finally got layed--pardon me, I mean lei-ed. It was the sweetest thing. There is this too cute lady I work with and on my last day with her at Pier 1 she bought me a lei. Two, in fact! One is created from this really sweet smelling white flower called tuberose and one is made of tea leaf and is supposed to last forever because they dry really well. I was so honored to wear them. I had to stop myself from tearing up for the first half hour after she placed them around my neck. To show you how naive I am, I thought that when I got off the plane in Maui there was a good chance that there might be Hawaiian hula dancers waiting to place multitudes of leis over my head, but no such luck. Despite the absence of the Fantasy Island welcome, I wasn't worried. I was still happy to be here.

In my two months of being here, the ever so lovely and fragrant leis have eluded me. I would see them sometimes at the grocery store and want to buy one just to wear it and smell it, but what's the fun in that? I can't lei myself (hey, this is a family blog so keep it clean folks). I would also see flower shop advertisements selling gorgeously extravagant leis I could almost smell off the page and I wanted one so very badly. I never indulged because it seemed inauthentic somehow to purchase one for myself.

Anyhow, the store manager is a Jehovah's Witness and half of the employees of the store are Jehovah's Witnesses. To be truthful, if the kindness of these people is any indication of their religious teachings, I am halfway on my way to becoming a Jehovah's Witness myself. No, seriously though, they have been unbelievably warm, friendly and fun. Norma Jean in particular is the sweetest, kindest, most patient and generous person I have known in a long time. Customers I want to behead I just send to Norma Jean and they always end up happy in addition to having compliments on her customer service. So when she presented me with the leis I was so very touched both because it was something I had wanted ever since I landed in Hawaii, and because it is a symbol of the affection she has for me. What more can a girl ask for? I've got my beautiful leis and a spot in the heart of extremely wonderful people.