olive branches

it turns out that the leis went over very well. i did, however, hear one comment that i thought worthy of note. i gave my boyfriend a lei with kukui nuts in it. if you're not from hawaii or haven't spent much time there, you likely haven't seen a kukui nut. they sort of look like buckeyes, but they're solid in color (actually, there are some that are spotted, but you don't often see them leis). anyhow, a friend of my boyfriend's saw the leis and asked if he had a necklace of olives before commenting that he looked ready to run off to the olympic games. it took a lot of self-restraint on my part not to fall over laughing. i suppose the lei could have been made of rotten, petrified olives and some leaves if you squinted your eyes, but i feel that that might be a rather large stretch. regardless, the leis were beautiful. i had the fresh ones shipped from cindy's lei shop in honolulu. it takes two days to get stuff shipped from honolulu to anywhere east of the rockies (in the us), but the flowers arrived on time, were nicely packed and looked great. if you are thinking about getting leis for graduation or some other celebration, i would recommend cindy's.