Trolley rides, ballroom, facials, Neil, Melanie & dance battles

I caught the trolley for the first time the other day. Why? Because I didn't have my car and my mom just happened to have a trolley VIP pass. I've never caught the trolley just to catch a trolley here in Hawaii because normally, it would be Brent, mom or my own car (or the bus if I was extremely, extremely, desperately in need. But actually I don't think I could bring myself to do it even then...I had bus traumas, ok).Anyway, it was my first time catching a trolley and I decided that I was going to make it an adventure so I did and it was fun. I got to sit on a crowded trolley next to tourists from Japan and a random couple from Australia. Unfortunately for everyone around me, I was yammering away (as usual) and catching up with Jace.  I ended up shopping for an hour in one store (American Apparel) before Brent finally came to get me.
 Where were we going? Oh, didn't I tell you? We took ballroom classes on Wednesday! Classes included chacha and the quickstep. It was so fun, though Brent looked like he wanted to kill me when we were doing the chacha. Actually, I think he did tell me, "I'm so mad at you right now..." but he was lying because he said he had a lot of fun. I was surprised though--I didn't expect to learn the quickstep so fast. I think what worked was that Brent was a better lead in that. Not that he was bad at the chacha at all, it was just that we learned the steps separately, memorized them and then had to re-memorize when we got together because well, it was completely different. But when I was on the women's side, I made a new friend--the ballroom diva guru, Danny (pictured). Danny was so amazing that he decided to challenge himself and probably scout for newbies like me to take under his wing. Once spotted, he glided over to give me advice and tips during the lesson. I felt special because he even praised me and said I'd be a really good dancer and that I should take additional ballroom lessons. Apparently he was giving Brent advice and tips on the men's side of the room as well which makes me wonder how he soundlessly glided over to that side in such a short amount of time since I felt like Danny was watching and guiding me the entire time. He even came up to me and Brent after the lessons and gave us his number to call if we ever had questions about dancing. Like I said...awesome. I can't wait for the next class!

Thursday, I went to dinner with Vicki and Chiri at a Taiwanese nabe (hot pot) restaurant called Sweet Home Cafe. It was delicious and cheap and I'm going to recommend that everyone try it, seriously.  The wait was long but the food was worth it. And you get free dessert. It was our last night together (at least for a while) so we were catching up and hanging out. It was nice. Vicki and I decided that we'd hang out more often (I said we should try for weekends since we don't seem to get together on weekdays). 

On Friday, I had a facial appointment at Spa Hawaii. And it was great. It really was. I fell asleep to a roaring noise and woke with a start when I realized that sound was my snoring. I swear I don't snore, normally. I couldn't see what was going on though because my cosmetician had my eyes covered. I hope she wasn't there, how embarrassing. Or maybe everyone snores when they get a facial so I'm not alone. I'll go with theory number two and fell slightly better.
After my facial, I picked up Brent (in his car) and we ended up going out to SoHo in downtown for a dance event. Apparently, last week was National Dance Week (I really should know these things) and Brent's friend, Linda had flown out  few of her dancer friends to teach in Hawaii. I met Melanie, a beautiful Puerto Rican who also happens to be a great dancer and was visiting from New York. the other New Yorker I met was Neil (pictured), my new queen teddy bear. He had an accent and he was fabulous and he loved me. We became Facebook friends and I wish he'd come back soon.

Saturday, we went to a potluck at my aunty's house, except it really wasn't a potluck because my other aunt, Hiroyo, made everything. Brent came over after work and we left the party early to get ready to go out again (I know, we were party animals this weekend). This time, we went out to Paparazzi and saw Neil and Melanie there again. Jermaine came out with us as well and we all hung out on the balcony, listening to House music (I don't know how to explain it, I'm not cool enough). But it was chill. Everyone was dancing again.

 We saw this mystery guy (pictured below). His signature look seemed to be a fedora hat (I only say this because we saw him at SoHo the night before with the same hat on). His bboy name turned out to be Lucid and he was in fact visiting from San Francisco. How do I know this? Because he showed up at the dance battle that Brent judged at today. He was very noticeable during the other two nights because he was clearly talented as a dancer. Sure enough, at the dance battle today, he won in every dance category there was to enter. It was almost unfair for him to even enter in the first place. Anyway, he was someone to look for and the craziest thing was that he was only here on vacation. Imagine going on vacation and saying, hmm, I think I'll go win a few dance battles today...ridiculous. Fortunately for our local boys, they had someone inspirational to look up to. I hope we get to see more of him in the future.

On that note, I'm really itching to dance now. After watching other people up on stage, being fearless in front of the crowd, I wished I could join them too. I wonder since when I became so shy? I guess I'm self conscious about the fact that I haven't been dancing much lately. I'm scared that somehow, I won't be able to keep up with anyone and prove that I just shouldn't be dancing anymore or something stupid like that. Bleh, how depressing. I had a great weekend, I made new friends, I wanna get back in to dancing and now I'm going to sleep. Good night.

 Vicki's sparkly version of the dessert that we got from Sweet Home Cafe. It was shaved ice with tapioca, pudding and sweet goodness.