The walls and aisles of Surf n Sea’s interior were LOADED floor-to-ceiling with surfboards of all shapes, sizes, designs, and colors, and I remember it being almost difficult to maneuver myself through the store. A little birdie, also known as my sister who lived on the island, told me I should purchase a pair a flip-flops whose position on the scale from 1 to Awesome was so off-the-charts in the affirmative, that the shoes could be found in one place and one place only on planet Earth’s globe: the store in which my feet did presently trod.
So I found the shoes, and here they are:
But actually that photo does not show the original shoes. The original shoes were bluely outlined instead of brownly, and I owned them and wore them religiously for about nine years until they broke. I think I underwent an emotional meltdown when they broke—a meltdown that was so heartwrenching that my family metaphorically picked up what I was laying down and they mail-ordered a new pair of Pyrameds for me. (Pyrameds are what the shoes are officially called, but all my friends call them the “boat shoes,” because they float like boats on water, and once I really did try walking on water while wearing them, but surprisingly it didn’t work.) I continue to wear my Pyrameds almost every chillaxingly leisure moment I can get my hands on.
Anyway, back to 2002… There I was, standing in the checkout line with my merchandise, when suddenly he appeared. I’m going to pull a Stephanie Meyer and call him brilliant, perfect, and beautiful, but he was so much better-looking than Edward Cullen. Soooo much better-looking. No boy I had ever considered cute could hold a candle to this guy. So vividly I remember this moment, which is a moment that he walked in through the store door adjacent to the cash register, turned ever so gracefully, and started talking to his friend who happened to be the cash register attendant. I don’t think it was just my imagination when that most handsome man in my world swiftly smiled at me in his process of meeting his friend.
My heart agonizingly plummeted when I realized that I had no time to dilly-dally and linger in Surf n Sea as beautiful man’s innocently adoring creeper; I had a plane to catch if I ever wanted to make it back to the mainland. Did I truly want to go back to the mainland? Back to the desert? Did I make a mistake? Should I have stayed in Hale‘iwa and learned beautiful man’s name? It was now or never, and I chose never. Ohhhh myyyy goooosh!!!!
While riding in the car that took me to the Honolulu airport, a certain song came on the radio. I remembered hearing it once when I was very young. It was on one of those “Music From The Heart” TV infomercials that advertised ginormous collections of sappy “timeless” love songs that supposedly will never get old no matter how old you get. One of the infomercial’s example songs was called “I Go Crazy” by Paul Davis.
I go crazy
When I look in your eyes
I still go crazy
That old flame comes alive
It starts burning inside
Way deep down inside
Oh baby
Now, every time I hear that song I think of him, who cannot be named (because his name is romantically unknown). When iTunes became available to consumers, I obtained it, and guess what was the first song I ever did buy from the iTunes Store? Need the question even be asked?
I went crazy
When I looked in your eyes
I still go crazy
……uhh, not really. I don’t really still go crazy, but I wanted to finally write down this fun childhood memory, for it had never previously been documented.
