"Are you for Scuba?"

Update on the past few weeks....

The week after my surprise visit back to sacramento for my sister's birthday, brother's birthday, and Mother's day, I came back to Maui to find my cousins visiting! John and Calandra come to housesit for my aunt every year, sometimes multiple times, when Candy and Nane go out of town. Which means we got to see them since our studio apartment is attached to my aunt's house. So, I got to send some time with them during my time off!

They brought with them some friends. Two couples: Rachel and Brian, and Janna and Jeremy (friends from church). I joined them for burgers at Cheesebrugers in Paradise off Front Street in Lahaina the first night they came in. I mooched off of their homemade dinners multiple times that week and one morning for breakfast as well. They showed me a new beach I didn't even know existed: Slaughterhouse Beach. Quite the name huh? Apparently that's where the imported cattle from neighboring islands were dropped off to be slaughtered for maui islanders. That story didn't really make me want to go there (thanks John) but it was a beautiful beach! The girls came to my Zumba class that I was subbing for one morning. Twas their first time and they did a great job! Zumba naturals!

Newest Adventure: My cousin John taught me how to scuba dive in Kapalua Bay! I wish I could have gotten a picture to show proof on the blog, but it never happened. It was so fun though! Pretty freaky at first, completely trusting a mask to whole heartedly breath IN while underwater. Breathing out is no prob, but IN... purdy scurrrry! I could only get down to about 15 feet because my right ear wouldn't pop. You know when you go too far underwater your ears hurt? You're sappose to plug your nose and blow out and they pop like popping after an airplane ride or high elevation. Well, my right ear never cleared :( lame sauce... But I thoroughly enjoyed it! I'd love to go again, but to go on a scuba diving trip I'd have to have my diver's lisense (re-read that: DIVER'S lisense not "driver's" haha). That means we'd have to get certified and buy gear and read up on good spots and figured out which fish are which so we know what we are looking at... Eh, with this new Maui attitude, that sounds like too much work. Maybe someday if we are bored we'll look into it. For now, I'll just dive with John when they come to visit :)

Modeling

I got back some of the professional photos from the project runway fashion show I modeled in (see previous blog post "Runway Shows and Hidden Trails" for story)

Last minute I was asked to model in another Runway Show in late May. Mary Kay Cosemetics invited all of their top sales associates to Maui for a retreat. One of their last nights they put on a dinner and show for everyone. The show included musicians and a few fashion shows. South by Andy South and Cloth Hawaii showed their lastest collections for this very expensive high end show (It was put on at the Four Seasons in Wailea... enough said). Andy South was a designer for the very popular reality tv show Project Runway season 8 fashion show that I was involved in last month. He is probably the most well-known Project Runway contestant that was at the last show and he has definitely been successful since being on the reality show. The other designer was Cloth Hawaii, also from O'ahu. Cloth Hawaii is a vintage repurposed and reproduced designer. As compensation for modeling in the show, Cloth Hawaii will be making something special just for us models :) most likely some kind of jewlery or accessory. I'm used to modeling for free so I'm stoked to get something out of this! We haven't yet received the event photographer's pictures of the show but here are some backstage photos: 



Cloth Hawaii





South by Andy South



Cloth Hawaii with deisgner Micah in the middle (black dress and headband)



South by Andy South
(funny pic)

Andy and some of his models :)

The runway photos will show up on another blog sometime soon hopefully. And maybe even more from the first fashion show...

There was a Zumba Party put on at the local gym Sports Club Kahana last Saturday. Fellow instructors lead the 2 hour Zumba part-ay and I stayed after to make some connections with the gym owner and hopefully I'll be helping out with the next Zumba Party. It was free for everyone. Great advertisement for the gym. There was a good turnout and we had oodles and oodles of fun :D

Yesterday Jonny and I explored a new beach called Airport Beach on the other side of Black Rock. Here is some video of our time playing in the water.

The end of this week also finishes our 2 weeks of housesitting for my aunt and uncle. We've loved being in charge of 2 little fur balls! Boy do we miss having pets of our own. Their pameranian named Kea (Kay-uh) is a darling pup attached to my hip (and attached to Jon after his shifts and licks the salt off of his chest, neck, arms, etc...Weirdooo). And Kiko is one of those talkative cats that responds everytime you say her name, or when she just wants some lovin'. Kea gets the luxury of sleeping with us since our mattress in on the ground there's no way of  keeping him off except from completely excluding him and closing the door. Then he'll bark all night. I know it's like childcare and you're not sappose to give into his cries, but it was keeping me up and honestly we don't mind him sleeping with us. And we figure he can be spoiled every couple weeks when we housesit.

My friend Melissa will be gracing us with her presence next week. I'm superrrrrrrrrrr excited!!!!

Until next time

Maui No Ka Oi