Typical Hectic Day of a Dancer

Tonight's Main Event: 

MA'OHI NUI kicking off the ProBowl Party @ Waterfront, Aloha Tower.  

Live performances by T-Pain and JBoog 

You're probably thinking that I'm crazy to be blogging on a "show day," but trust me this one will be short, because I'm running on a tight schedule... tight like my pu........ Bahahahaah!  Okay so before working my 7 hour shift today [with no break, as usual], I got up early to work out, eat breakfast, pack my lunch, shower, brush my teeth, and then I had to scrounge for ti-leaves to make our fresh costumes for tonight's show.

You're probably asking, "Why did I procrastinate and not have my fresh costumes done earlier in the week?" Well, for two reasons, 1) I was working during the day and practicing nights to prepare for our upcoming tour.  2) Our clients don't hire dancers that dance with dead crap for costumes, thus we try to keep our costumes as fresh as possible... [Just like fresh ahi poke from Tanioka's].

So, if you don't own a farm or botanical garden, which most dancers don't, you're gonna have to go on a wild search to find the plants and resources you need for costume making....... et Voila!  Here is my secret spot for picking my red ti leaves.  I try to look conspicuous or pretend that I'm doing regular maintenance so that I don't get caught, busted, or arrested!  Yiiiikes!

I already have green ti leaves in my yard, so that's where these babies in the pic below came from.  Now I have to clean, strip and braid the leaves into material to make my costume, which for tonight will be a hip costume and a hei for my head.

Even if you're a pro at making these, finding the time out of a busy schedule to have your costumes done is still a hassle because it is time consuming.  Just like cooking, you want to make your costumes with love, otherwise the end result just comes out sh***y.  Preparing for shows and being a hardcore dancer in general gets really tiring :0( but the pay off is great, which is why I'm still die hard!

Anyways, the end result is shown below :0) Now all I have to do is throw some water on her, put her in a cooler, or a cool place in general, and I'll be ready to rock the sh** out of her at our show!!

Wish us luck at the event!  Hope you all have a HAPPY THURSDAY, a GREAT ALOHA FRIDAY, and an AMAZING WEEKEND to follow!  Xoxo!!

A U S T R-maa'fuckin'-A L I A Baaaabyyyy!

I want to start off with a quote from my dear friend, Madea!  Haha!  Also known as, Tyler Perry :)

Nobody said it was gonna be easy! But it’ll get easier when you learn how to love yourself. When you get to a point in your life when you look at people and go: “okay, wait a minute. You? Or me?” You will make a decision. Look, I’ve never just thrown nobody away. I’ve never in my life just thrown somebody away, just say: “don’t bother me. Don’t talk to me no more.” I have never done that. What I do is, I tell them: “look here, this thing you’re doing right here? That’s gonna cause a problem; you need to fix that. ‘Cause if we gonna be friends, you gotta fix it. If you don’t, we gonna have an issue.” Now, if you see someone fix it, or they even trying to fix it, that’s someone that cares. Keep them around. That’s a leaf that’s trying to grow up and be something else. You understand? But if you tell somebody that what they’re doing is hurting and they need to stop it, and they keep doing it? They don’t care; move on. Let them go. No matter how much it hurts, let them go. And it’ll get easier, I promise you . Everyday it will get easier and easier and easier. You just got to make it through. You hear me honey?

I looooooove wise ole Madea!  Reflecting upon that quote makes me realize and be all the more thankful of the wonderful people--my family and friends--that I have in my life!  This past week was so difficult for me to get through.  I'm not sure if it was just a menstrual or hormonal imbalance kind of jive, but I felt super fat, unmotivated, lonely, a bit suicidal... haha don't take the latter seriously, I think the suicidal part was probably just me taking the "F*** My Life" perspective to a whole new, majorly melodramatic level.

But anyways, there are definitely times where I look forward to having restful days, peace and quiet, not having to deal with work, gigs, dance practices, chores, errands etc. etc.  Days where I can just have absolute "Me" time.  Yes, those kinds of days do exist for me.  I make it happen, otherwise, I probably go crazy, gouge my eyes out or jump on broken pieces of glass or something.  On the contrary, I have my moments where I look forward to my life where I am so busy that I am not able to indulge in "Me" time at all!!!  [Not to say that I enjoy every minute of being bussst-ass-busy, but there are stolen moments where I do enjoy "gettin' busy."]  Yes, those days exist too, and unfortunately, they unjustly outnumber the peaceful and restful days... by a landslide :(  I don't know if you recall reading my blog about our dance group's Christmas Show, but just as an example, during that time, it was caaah-ca-ca-caaa-raaaay-zzzeeee busy!  And the next couple of weeks will be the same because in the middle of February, a select few dancers from Maohi Nui are going on tour to.....

A U S T [mother fuckin'] R A L I A !!! Yeah, Australia!!

I'm super duper excited!  I still didn't ask for leave from work yet, and I haven't even prepared my student's substitute plan either.  I haven't thought about packing.  We haven't learned any of the dance numbers we're supposed to perform.  And we haven't prepared/sewn any of our costumes!  Ohhh what joy will the next couple of weeks bring!  Ugggghhhh!  I'm not looking forward to the stress that comes with preparing for these kinds of dance events, but HE surely does plan my life accordingly.  And I say that because my sister is leaving, and I've been having more bad days than good days, so I know HE knows that the stress will help to get my mind off of things and help me get through the emptiness I've been feeling and focus on life and the better things ahead :)

To help brighten the mood of my sister leaving for New York, my mom, Tine, and I went shopping today at Ala Moana.  It was more for my mom than anything and Tine and I were just there to support her decisions [No that material looks cheapy! Oh yea, go with that one, you look so Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy] but hey she deserves it :) Oh, I also scored myself two cute pairs of shoes that I plan on rocking in Australia... and I'll probably rock them out for the next 10 years of my life as they become "so last season" and then slowly make their comeback into the fashion world... like bell bottoms!  I don't ever buy anything stylish.  Meaning to say that I am the epitome of "ghetto" haha kinda sorta so I'm very happy with the shoes :) Okay have a great week in Hawaii Nei all!

Oh yeah **CHEEEERS** for starting the New Year off with a new blackberry phone :) Ohhh how I loooove her soooo :)

Pill Boxes!

First Hike of 2011!  Kailua, Hawaii, Pill Boxes :)

Let's see how long I can keep this up... too tired to write so enjoy the pics! ...I had pics on here...then I don't know where they went lol. Must've had something to do with my phone upgrade. YIKES! Technology these days!

Switching Gears into 2011

So the last time that I blogged would have to have been right before Maohi Nui's Christmas Show.  Things started to pick up and I started to get suuuper busy!!  The Holidays have been sooooo busy indeed!!  All the long late night practices, rehearsals, costume picking (as in picking fresh leaves), costume making, and costume prepping took up so much time within that one week.  As if that was not enough to drain the energy out of me.  Little did I know the remaining three weeks would get worse!  Ugghh!  So many parties to celebrate the Holidays, to celebrate another year of success and hard work, to celebrate graduations, to celebrate another year of friendship and many more to come, to celebrate birthdays, and wedding engagements!!  It is truly, "The Most Wonderful Time of the Year" for me :)

The highlight of the past two months would be seeing my family reunited under the same roof again since Thanksgiving 2007.  That's a little over 3 years!  I finally got to meet my youngest nephew and we got to throw them both a big birthday bash at our hale like my mom has always dreamt of doing.

Of course us sisters always dread these big gatherings because that's when mom's fuse is like that of FIREWORKS and when one little thing sets her off... oh truuuust!  She does explode like one!!  So we did our best to clean and help her cook and set up, but still no bueno!  When guests were arriving before the actual call time, she lost it, and went into PRACK-TACKK-TACKK-mode [that's supposed to be the sound of a fire cracker or fireworks haha].  Anyways, the Holidays were amaaaazing, fun-filled, busy, stressful at times, but I wouldn't trade that to have anything ordinary.  I would post up pictures to highlight the many joyous events that took place, but I'm feeling under the weather... it's mostly due to my body working overtime and not getting adequate amounts of rest!  Ugghh!  Damn you anemia!

NEW YEAR'S RESOLUTION 

1. Do my best to save money by doing more "Free" things.  I guess this all rooted from last year.  I wanted to try new things and be open to whatever, which included going out to clubs, paying cover, buying rounds of drinks, not allowing myself enough time to make a potluck dish so I'd end up buying one, gallivanting too much causing me to buy MORE gas than I actually need.  So to achieve this I intend to:
• Cut down my alcohol intake & try to drink only wine because less alcohol = less $ spent.
• Limit the late night festivities to weekends only or on very special occasions & only to places that have "no cover" or somewhere that I can get on a guestlist e.g. MaiTais and The Shack.
• Utilize and appreciate what Mother Nature has given = a FREE gym :)
2. Going hand in hand with number 1 is to live an even more healthier lifestyle.  It's kind of contradicting because I'm already in the midst of catching a damn cold, but it's because I haven't given my body a break during the holiday season, but I would definitely go about achieving this by: 
• Limiting the late night festivities to also allow me to have more me time and family time.  I already spend enough time working and dancing that often times I forget about myself... forget that I need to take care of myself first!
• Cut down my alcohol and to consume only wine because a glass of red a day is supposed to be healthy.  And hey, if the French drink wine all the time and maintain gorgeous figures, then I can too ;)
3. In past years, I spent A LOT of time and created soooo many wonderful memories with my friends.  So, this year, I want to rekindle the relationship with my family and extended family by talking more and spending more quality time with them as well.

Buuuut in the end, whatever happens, happens!  If I don't succeed in achieving these things, then I would hope that it was for a purpose to achieve something better.  I leave it all in HIS hands for he has a wonderful plan for me, I just got to believe it and stop thinking that I'm a worthless piece of crap!

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE :))