A Short Visit to Lala Land: Its the most wonderful time of the year!

Hey everyone!

Well it has been a hot minute since I last posted, hasn't it? After recovering from last week's random sickness and getting through another week of classes, I have some fun shit to tell you guys about! Because it was FUCKIN' HALLOWEEN.

My Halloween weekend didn't start out spectacularly. As I mentioned in my video last week, I had a paper due on Monday, so Friday night and most of Saturday was spent writing about how "the tattoo machine revolutionized humans' ability to outwardly express their inner selves by making tattooing simpler and more accessible, and by allowing tattooing to flourish as an art form in which people use their flesh as a medium for personal expression" (POW look at that killer thesis). I probably would have enjoyed writing on that topic a lot more if I hadn't been constantly thinking about how I should be in my costume, drunkenly wandering around Como (my neighborhood in Minneapolis, in case anyone doesn't know). Oh well.

Sunday is when my celebrating really started. At 10am, I hit the road with my friends Melvin and Alex and we headed to Six Flags Magic Mountain. Oh man, it was so good to be back at a Six Flags, especially during Fright Fest! During our 11 hours there, we hit pretty much every big ride and the majority of the Fright Fest mazes. So much success. Now, the Six Flags I grew up going to, Six Flags Great America in Illinois, was a different experience than Magic Mountain. My favorite roller coasters have always been the ones with the insane, piss-your-pants drops. I am terrified of them and I love it, and Great America has a lot of coasters that give me exactly what I want. Not so much at Magic Mountain. It seems that this Six Flags is more focused on really insane, cutting edge designs, which I can definitely appreciate. I wish I could do some of them justice in my explanations, but I really couldn't. On X2, which is said to be the craziest ride in the park, you spin around like you're on a Zipper at some church carnival (SJV, Milwaukee people?), but you're also on a roller coaster. Wtf. My second favorite was Tatsu, which had you in a Superman sort of position that really made you feel like you were flying, but of course my favorite was Goliath, because it had that suicide drop I love so much.

Fright Fest was perfect end to the night, even though I wasn't so sure it would be at first. I hadn't been to a haunted house in such a long time that, I'll admit, I was a little nervous at first. But only because I couldn't remember if I liked haunted houses and just hadn't made it out to one in a while, or if there was a reason I hadn't been to one in so many years. Well, I can definitely say I love them; I don't know why I doubted myself. Every time someone jumped out at me I would get startled, but then just break down and laugh uncontrollably. I don't think I've laughed so much since I got to California. And I got called handsome by a man-princess zombie. Night-maker right there. And as I've mentioned before, my friend Jacky works in one of the eight themed mazes, called Aftermath, and hers was by far the most well done. Aftermath's theme was a zombie apocalypse, and after seeing Jacky scare a guy so badly that he practically crawled away, I've never been happier that we are friends, hahaha. All in all, an awesome time.

Then last night, Melvin, Alex and I met up again at the annual West Hollywood Halloween Carnival! First of all, my costume was a total success. I hand-sewed the tail, ears and fur trim and ripped up the flannel myself. I think it would have been perfect if I would have gotten some yellow colored contacts or something, but I'm pretty happy with the turnout. Definitely surprised myself with what I was able to do, haha.

The carnival itself was awesome. It was basically just a shit ton of people dressed up in amazing costumes, walking along about a half mile strip of Santa Monica Boulevard, which is closed to traffic for the event. West Hollywood is known as the gayest part of Hollywood, so there were a lot of really slutty dudes which was hilarious. I quote: "What started out as a bunch of gay men in drag stumbling in heels on Santa Monica Boulevard in Boystown has become the largest Halloween Carnaval in the world". A lot of people go all out. I saw an spot-on Obama, Maverick from Top Gun, Keyboard Cat, a flock of Black Swans, a lot of Gagas, Bettie Page, Toddlers and Tiaras, a woman dressed as a slutty horse pulling a gladiator on a cart with her mouth...yeah. We walked around until probably like one in the morning just looking at costumes and taking pictures with people. Here were some of my favorites: