Sounding Off and So Much More

I'm still recovering from the Elections. I was a poll watcher. Which meant that I traveled within a 20 mile radius to 5 different polling locations making sure that everything was OK. And everything was . . . sort of. One poll worker was telling me jokingly that he was directing all Democratic voters to come back the following day and vote. HAR HAR. I asked him if he was serious and the guy sitting next to him told me that NO, no voter was asked to come back the next day. I also got a lame hate email about the same thing: "Republicans vote on the 4th, Democrats on the 5th". I replied asking the sender to remove me from her mailing list. This person is also a local real estate broker. She totally just lost the business of me and anyone within earshot of me. I don't have time for stupidity, especially within local business owners. Are they serious about sending that stuff? And that podunk video store with no air conditioning and no customers, are they serious when they put up campaign signs endorsing a Republican drug user during the primaries? I think that candidate lost because of their "endorsement". Or maybe it was because of the drugs. Who knows. I don't get Republican voters anyway.

So while all this hoo hah was going on, I missed posting on some other stuff that went on.

I went to Italy for a couple of weeks this summer. Boring. And yes, I've been before, and yes, I had tons and tons of family there. But I don't look at Italy as some awesome vacation spot. It's one of the homelands for me so I don't have the tourist gaze. I wish I did sometimes though. But I was there to take my Dad to my real home (where my heart is) after his stroke so any attempts to move into the subjective experience of the tourist was futile.
I did, however, reacquaint myself with the virtues of Arugula. It was everywhere and I loved it. While eating the pizza above, I kept forgetting to eat with a fork and knife. It just didn't seem right to me. It wasn't comfortable. But I eventually gave in. Then I began to realize that it is quite disgusting to eat pizza with bare hands. ew! Why did we start doing that anyway?

So in August, while I was still recovering from Italy, Tevita participated in a church/community service project. Even with the quality of photo, can you guess the politician he's standing next to?
That's right, Hawaii Senator, Clayton Hee. They and about a hundred others came to clean the nets from Kahuku Beach. Nets that were tangled amongst the reef. There goes those Pasifik men taking care of our islands, one piece of aina at a time.