T Minus 45: Obsessed

My skin crawls as I type. My brain plays tricks on me. Maybe that's why I keep waking up in the middle of the night. My brain sees - and feels - bugs everywhere. It started when the bug guy came. Next, the Hawaii Department of Agriculture mailed out a public notice about non-native and invasive fire ants on the islands. A couple days later, The Hubby and I were chatting about the geckos eating the roaches. Tonight, when I turned on the bedside lamp as the sun went down, I spotted a fast moving bright orange speck of an ant scurrying up the wall.

A beach scene watercolor I painted

I have bugs on the brain, and my brain has bugs on me. The wind blows the hair on my skin and my brain nearly screams, "Hey! There's a bug on your arm!" Every few seconds, my brain tries to convince me something is crawling across my skin. Stupid bugs. Stupid brain.

The bright orange speck on the wall turned out to not be one of the dangerous fire ants the Hawaii Ag Dept so kindly warned everyone about. After a bit of Google research, I doubt this could be a fire ant unless this was is the queen. This little creepy crawly is too big.

Collaged Aloha
Bottle Vase

Before my subconscious became obsessed with bugs, I spent the day painting and collaging. I painted a beach scene, and a rose. I looked at my paintings from the other day and decided they needed more depth, more detail, so I touched them up and added an element here and there. After setting everything aside to dry, I thought it would be a good idea to go check out that Ace Hardware I mentioned yesterday.

It turns out that Ace sells gesso, and gel medium too, and at the same prices I paid after riding the bus into Da Big City. Lesson learned. Regardless, I enjoyed exploring the mall yesterday so I don't feel it was a wasted trip. Now I know that if I need medium in a pinch, I walk a short distance to get it. I picked up a couple small things at Ace before moving on.

Hamburger plate lunch.
Too. Much. Food!

I decided to check out the Nagasako Deli for lunch. As with all Hawaiian plate lunches, they piled my hamburger plate lunch with enough food to feed at least 2 people. The burger patties seemed more like a meat loaf, sans tomato product, than a hamburger. 2 hamburger patties and 2 scoops mashed potatoes, smothered in gravy and served alongside a generous scoop of mac salad. Everything tasted good. They simply give you way too much of it!

A watercolor rose

After the deli, I popped in a small salon I noticed to see if they do eyebrows. After being told no, I checked out a place that The Hubby would like. The Hubby won't like it. What I thought might be a liquor store wasn't, so I moved on. I made my last stop Boss Frog's to get a tire pump for the Pink Cruiser.

I sweated melted walked home with no shade. Sure, the scenery never fails to impress, with the beaches and the waves and the flowers, but today we lacked any trade winds to help keep things cool. My walk home was quite warm.

A hibiscus bloom in my
Aloha Bottle Vase

Along the way, I stopped to pick one of those beautiful flowers. Earlier, I finished up a collaged Aloha Bottle Vase and I needed something to put in it. The bloom inspired me and, after spending a bit of time studying it, I tried my hand at painting a hibiscus bloom. I set the first pass aside to dry, planning to finish it tomorrow. I'd run out of daylight tonight and it was time to move to the bedroom.

Before I go to sleep though, I believe I shall take a shower and see if I can get rid of this feeling of being covered with bugs!

Work in progress.
A watercolor hibiscus

Aloha!