It’s Friday night.
I’m at Starbucks working on my sermon for this Sunday.
My week has been thrown off due to this untimely sickness. I haven’t been to a Starbucks on Friday night in ages.
It’s different on a Friday night. You see more couples coming in and going out. Some stay and linger in each other’s company. Some just come to get a drink before their next destination.
You actually see more families, too.
As  I was people watching and pondering on the task of preaching, I begin to think about the last time I was at Starbucks on a Friday evening.
It was early college years and the Starbucks at Mililani in Hawaii with a friend who actually works at the Starbucks today. I’ve been blessed with many good friends, and am thankful that they have put up with me for so many years. Well, some I’d had to put up with. (Yes, you Spencer.)
I met most of my friends in marching band. I once thought that my biggest mistake in high school was that I decided to be in marching band my senior year and not play football. But looking back, had I played football instead, the friendships I have may not be here today. Everything worked out. As it always does…

Anyway, back to Starbucks, we had nothing to do on a Friday night. Apparently we were both losers of some kind back then, with nothing to do on Friday nights. We were not that much of a clubbing nor drinking type. We weren’t that much into going around and picking up chicks. (That’s because they always came to us. Ha. If that were only true…) So, we decided that we’ll go grab some chess pieces and head out to Starbucks, because some of the tables were designed like a chessboard.
So there we were, two young, college aged men, on a Friday night, peak date time, hanging out at Starbucks playing chess. It was so dorky. I mean, who does that? I’m sure people who walked by us thought that too. But, it was fun. I had fun. And it was memorable. Almost 10 years later, I still remember it.

It’s true when I say that I don’t really miss Hawaii. I don’t miss the island fever that followed me everywhere I went. I don’t miss the beaches that much. I miss the option of having the beaches. I don’t miss island life.
But I know that Hawaii will always be home because I left a big chunk of me in Hawaii with the people that I care about who still live there. I miss my friends and missing out on big moments of their lives, such as having kids. I miss the option of calling a friend to go hang out at Zippy’s in the middle of the night. And the poker nights… er.. not that we gamble…

Anyway, though I don’t get to see my friends often, I miss them and think about them daily. I’m grateful for the people in my life. They are truly a blessing.
I hope to be able to go visit Hawaii soon. To see the babies that my friends had, to catch up or just plain talk story. And maybe stop by a beach.

I look at the plain brown tables at the Starbucks I’m at.
As I think about the Woman at the Well and take sips of my Cafe Soy Misto, I keep going back to a Na Leo Pilimehana song, “I miss you, My Hawaii” because I do.