Weetawhat?

We’re back in Austin, attempting to readjust to the Central Time Zone. We left Hawaii at about 5:30 last night (at least I think it was last night… was it last night? Yeah, I think so…) and arrived in Austin at around 9 o’clock this morning. I took a little three hour nap this afternoon, which has prevented me from passing out yet, but I’m not sure how late I’ll want to stay up tonight…

So since our flight out of Honolulu wasn’t until 5:30, and check-out at the hotel was noon, we made our way back into Waikiki yesterday afternoon to eat lunch at Duke’s again. This time, we knew exactly what to do – we all ordered salads so we wouldn’t eat too much, and then ordered three Hula Pies for the six of us. I’m gonna miss that Hula Pie… I swear the fire goddess Pete herself created Hula Pie, just as a counterbalance to all that fiery volcano stuff… in any event, it was definitely blessed by divinity…

Well, this is a strange coincidence… I finished a book this week called The Namesake. I’ve had it in my possession for about two years, and finally decided I should go ahead and read it on my vacation. Mainly because I recently noticed they’ve made a movie based on the book. And while no one is forcing me to run out and see the movie, I didn’t want to risk accidentally stumbling upon it one day on HBO or some other movie channel and seeing a critical scene before I’d read it. I don’t like to know the entire story of a book before I’ve read it… for some reason, it doesn’t bother me as much with movies. (And besides, the book is always better, right?)

Anyway, back to the strange coincidence – there’s a character in the book who lived her childhood years in England, and at one point she is reminiscing about her time there, and about how she can remember “eating Weetabix and hot milk for breakfast.” I read that line on the plane on the way home early this morning, and fleetingly wondered what in the world “Weetabix” was. I tried not to dwell on it too long, because it wasn’t like I could pop over to the on-board internet café and do a Google search. (Although how cool would it be if planes had on-board internet cafés?) And then a few minutes ago, as I sat here clicking away on my keyboard with the TV on low volume, I was suddenly aware of a man with a British accent describing different ways to eat “Weetabix.” (You can eat it with berries! Or yogurt! Or honey! Or dried fruit!) I sat here with my remote in my hand, rewinding the commercial to make sure I’d heard correctly. It was the strangest thing… just this morning I was curious about Weetabix, and tonight I discover that Weetabix is on its way to America. And of course it makes the whole thing even more bizarre when I think about how I’ve had this book for two years and I just happened to finally read the Weetabix line TODAY, the same day I see the commercial for the first time… Like I said, strange coincidence. (And “Weetabix,” by the way, appears to be something similar to a shredded wheat biscuit… which, I’m assuming, is why it’s best to add berries or yogurt or honey or dried fruit…)

The book was really good… the kind of book where nothing spectacular or out-of-the-ordinary happens, but the author is so good at describing the ordinary that every page is transfixing. She explores themes of tradition and family expectations and the very-often random and “accidental” incidents that shape our lives. And how even when we stick to those traditions and expectations our families might have, there are no guarantees of the path we’ll end up taking. Sometimes it’s all just coincidence. Kind of like how I happened upon a commercial today for a product I’d never heard of in my life until a few hours ago…

Or perhaps it’s a sign that I should buy some Weetabix… (why couldn’t this strange coincidence have had something to do with chocolate?)