Its a Maui thing....this explains alot...

Its a little inside joke my girl friends and I have "Its a Maui thing"...when my MIL saw I had a tattoo on my back of a butterfly (yes I know, so original)...she had a few things to say about that:

1) "Chad, what kind of people are you hanging out with now?" (and yes, I was standing right there)
2) "Is that a Maui thing?" (because ya know, only people from Maui get tattoos)

Hence the catch phrase: "Its a Maui thing"

For anyone that knows me in real life, and maybe online...I have a weird quirk about me...I have to take a shower before bed, not only that...I have established this as a rule in my house...and it can't be too far from bedtime, even if you don't go outside the rest of the day...I would say said shower needs to occur within 3 hours of bed...yes, I told you I was nuts.

Not only do I need to shower close to bed tim, I always-yes-always wash my feet right before I slip into the sheets.

I take a shower in the morning most times as well, but not always...and if i go to the gym at work during lunch, i have to shower after that of course so sometimes I can take up to 3 showers a day.

my college roomie kelly will vouch for me...

When I lived in Maui, it was never something that stood out about it, it wasnt something that made me strange...it was just a normal part of life...

but when I moved to the Mainland, I realized that not everyone takes a shower before bed (which gives me the heebeejeebees thinking about) and not everyone must wash their feet before bed...not only that, people looked at me funny when I would tell them I was off to wash my feet and head to bed...

my sisters and I are the same, and we could never figure out why we are the way we are...

Then today, my sister emailed me this article from The Honolulu Advertiser (the newspaper) and it explains it all! Now I know why I am the way I am: Its a Maui thing!

Bath Rule Is No Dirty Secret. You gotta be local to appreciate this!

By The Honolulu Advertiser columnist and playwright, Lee Cataluna.

It doesn't matter how late it is or how tired you are.

It doesn't matter if nobody else will know or care.

It doesn't even matter if the water heater is in the "off" phase or the solar panels have cooled for the night.

If you're local, you gotta take a bath before you go to sleep.

It's a rule.

You can't really break it down into a more specific category than "local".

It's not a Neighbor Island thing, it's not a Honolulu thing.

It's not particularly a city thing, or a rural thing, a mauka or makai thing.

It's not really an ethnic thing.

It's just a Hawaii thing.

Not that people who live in places other than Hawai'i don't bathe. Of course they do.

But when you live in a tropical climate, you have, shall we say, different issues. Even if you live in an air-conditioned house, drive an air-conditioned car work in an air-conditioned office and shop at Kahala Mall, somehow you get it in your head that you've been exposed to the elements all day and gotta get that lepo gone before you sleep. There is no waiting until morning.

The morning shower is a whole different deal, separate and distinct from the nighttime take-a-bath rule. In lots of households, the rule is both.

When my dad tells the story of his hip replacement surgery, the kicker is always "And in the hospital, I didn't take a bath for eight days!" To him, that was the very worst part. When he tells that story, people gasp, wide-eyed at his sheer survival skills. Eight days. Wow.

The take-a-bath rule has some exceptions, of course. For example, if you took a bath late in the afternoon, you can pass on another one before bedtime just as long as your feet are clean.

When we say "bath," we usually mean shower. Somehow the word gets held over from childhood.

In some houses, it's "au au". In others, it's "bafe", as in "Ramona, go bafe now befo' da hot wata run out."

There's a related phenomenon, known in certain circles as "boch-and-go". "Bocha" is Japanese baby talk for bath. "Boch" is the local-style slang. The "boch-and-go" rule dictates you must bathe before you leave your house to go to a party, go on a date, even to just drop by your friend's place.

If you are coming home from work or school, there must be a bath before you can leave again. "Ho, I had work so late today, when I got back home, I only had enough time to boch and go." "Eh, no waste time watching TV or playing computer. Your auntie waiting. Just boch and go." "No, I cannot come straight from work, I gotta go home first, then boch and go."

But even after boch-and-go, the take-a-bath rule still stands. You can boch and go to a party, but you gotta bathe again when you get home. It's a rule. Depending on the kind of party, of course, there could be exceptions. But at the very least, your feet have to be clean.

It's the rule.