Good day for a great cause...

Today was a good day for a great cause,

I booked it on over into town to meet up with some high school classmates of mine to meet up, talk story and eat, and we did it all in the outdoor garden area at my friend's apartment.  (It's something we do once in a great while.)  It was pretty awesome.

It was a potluck shindig so I went to grab some fried noodles from good old Zippy's.  It was quite the adventure, before hitting up Zippy's I drove from place to place trying to find something to take for the potluck.  For one reason or  another nothing was working for me, either there was too many people waiting in line, restaurants that I thought were open were out of business or what they had to offer didn't sound appealing, so Zippy's it was.  Today was hella hot so I just had to hook myself up with an Icee, Pepsi and strawberry mix, yeaaah baby.

So I made it to my friend's place, and it was pretty cool.  We chilled in the garden area and looked at photos from our (much slimmer) high school days.  I also got to see my friend's crib, which he fixed up, pretty nice place I must say.  So when we booked it back down to the garden area, we met up with the gang.  I got to talk briefly with them and then I had to book it on out.  I wish I could've stayed longer, but that's what you get when you're Mr. Busybody.  It's all good, there will be more opportunities.  But ya, I got this killer shot in the garden area of my friend's place.

So after the shindig at my friend's place I drove over to grab my other friend and then we headed on over to the windward side.  Today there was a "I Heart Japan" fundraiser that took place, which was a Zumba, slash Kickboxing, slash Hip Hop two and a half booty workin' event, all for $10.  All of the proceeds went towards Japan and their very unfortunate situation that took place there.

At the "I Heart Japan" fundraiser, there was a (non-mandatory) dress code of wearing the colors red and/or white to kinda go with the theme of the event.  So I busted out my red Dickie's (oh yea baby) and threw on my "Aloha for Japan" shirt, so I was good to go.

So yup, there we were again, the "fly dancers" dancin' backup for my friend Mara.  (If many of you remember, we all did a very similar fundraiser a couple of weeks back. http://haynmade.blogspot.com/2011/03/zumba-dunny-and-haynmade-what-combo.html)  The only difference was, the stages were more stable and I didn't have that fear of falling between the stages "tectonic plates" cracks.  But ya, all in all we did a pretty good set in front of 150+ peopz.

After the workout, my friend and I booked it on over to get some grub, cuz we were hella starving, lol.  So we headed on over to Kailua Town Pub & Grill.  I ordered me my French onion soup and a club sandwich, my friend got her a pastrami melt sandwich.  Man, that was some good stuff.

And what's a meal without dessert?  Haha.  (I know we burned calories for nothing, lol.)  So we headed on over to Coldstone to have some icecream.  I had me my typical order of coffee icecream with malted powder and Kit Kat, in a waffle bowl oh yea baby.  My friend jus' had her some coffee icecream.  I was one happy dude.

Upon leaving I snapped a couple more pics...

And then there's pic at a fountain nearby...

Get a workout for the cause...

What's up peopz,

Just wanted to put a plug for some good friends of mine.  Come this Sunday, April 3, from 4:00-6:30pm, a fundraiser will be conducted to help out the folks out in Japan with their unfortunate situation that happened.  All of the proceeds from each of the $10 ticket sales will be going towards the cause.  There will be Zumba, Hip Hop and Cardio Kick Boxing from Hawai'i's greatest instructors, so bring it on!  Click on the fyer below for more detailed 411...

Zumba, a Dunny and HaynMade, what a combo...

Zumba, a Dunny and HaynMade, what a combo,

Yup, today was a day to remember.  My good friend Mara (the same one I talked about in an earlier entry (http://haynmade.blogspot.com/2011/03/sheeeeees-baaaaaaack.html) asked if my friend and I could help her as her "fly dancers" (hahaha) for a Zumba marathon fundraiser for a local Hawaiian canoe paddling club here in the 808.  Being the cool peopz that we are, (and in all honesty, we're all about helping peopz out) we accepted her kind request.

Mara isn't a certified Zumba instructor but as I mentioned in my earlier blog entry, she does teach a Hip Hop class with a "Zumbaish" feel to it, and it's the bomb diggity.  So her Zumba clan asked if she would be willing to do a few routines at the fundraiser.  So prior to the three of us going on stage, we feverishly learned the choreo, some routines I was already familiar with, a majority...not.

So came time for us to go on stage, we booked it and danced before a crowd of nearly 100 Zummba fanatics.  The entire time we were dancing our set, all I could think about was Olivia Newton John's "Let's Get Physical", Jane Fonda's Workout and the over so popular "ooo la-la" 20 Minute Workout.  (All of you folks from the 80's know what I'm talkin' about, haha.)

So we get on stage, and we're doing our choreo, and the nearly 6 foot tall stages weren't secured to the ground, nor were each of the stages fastened to each other...hilarious.  As we went from one routine to the next, there were these gaps between each of the stages that were getting further and further apart from each other, due to our movement.  I was hella worried that 1...I'd fall through the gap or 2...I'd fall off of the stage in front of a hundred people.  But long story short, it worked out okay, I got my cardio on, had hell of a good time with my friends, got some pics of my fig and shook my ish for a good cause.

Sheeeeee's baaaaaaack!...

Sheeeeee's baaaaaaack!,

For those in the street, hip hop and urban dance scene in the 808, you'll know who Mara is.  I first met her in the 90's (yup I'm dating myself, lol) when I was high school through a good friend of mine who was dancing for her with a crew called "SLAM" who was with Big City Productions at the time.  I remember the first time I started taking class with Mara at Big City, I was seriously blown away.  Mara has set the foundations for 100's of dancers including Gil Duldulao, Janet Jackson's choreographer.  Throughout the years Mara and I have become pretty good friends.

I danced for Mara for quite some time.  In my later high school years, I auditioned and got into SLAM.  During my summers while I was in college, I continued taking Street from Mara.  Around that time, Big City became Dance Central, and during my later college years, I wasn't able to take classes, due to work and the fact that I was living on another island.  I returned home for my Masters degree and got started dancing up with Dance Central again.  Man, there was a HUGE block of time that I missed out on and choreo had made some significant changes and I had to catch up, lol.  All in all it was good to be back.

I'm still hanging in there as one of the geriatric dancers of the group, haha.  But anyway a few years ago, Mara got the call from the military and she was deployed to Iraq.  While she was away I continued to take Street classes from different choreographers (all former students of Mara), which was good, because I learned different styles of choreo.  Mara had been in Iraq for a few years, when she returned back to O'ahu, she got married and stayed on the downlow from the dance scene...until recently.

Last week I got the text from Mara letting me know that she was back into the dance scene, I was trippin.  She let me know that she was going to be teaching two classes back at the Y (where our studio is), Beginning Adult Street and Street Jamz.  Damn, it's kinda a trip that she's back, not to mention the kick booty cardio she's trademarked for.

But anyway, for you 808 heads lookin' for a good workout, do come by and check Mara out.