Fin

Well, this is it. Before I get into any sort of reflection, I want to thank you all for reading my blog. I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I've enjoyed writing it. Seeing all your views (over 2,000 of them! Wow!)  has given me such a strong connection to home, and I don't know if I would have made it through this experience without that. Especially at some of my low points. So thank you all from the bottom of my heart. It means so much to me.

Alright, so, surprise everyone! I kinda don't want to leave California. Of course. I'm finally feeling at home here. Now. Of course. This semester has been incredible. It has been a time full of a lot of self discovery that I couldn't even begin to explain. Only a few weeks ago, I felt as if I'd accomplished a lot, but now I'm realizing that I've only experienced the very start of changes that are to come. Its a strange feeling. And going back to exactly how my life was four months ago is going to be even stranger. I've grown so much as a person, and I'm curious to see how this improved me is going to adjust to life back to Minneapolis. I'm excited to come home and see everyone, but it just...it feels wrong. I don't know why. I feel like there's something more I have to do here, kind of this heavy feeling as if I'm leaving at a time when I could really be discovering something about myself, which is a strange thing to think about, and even stranger to say to you all. But, I've done all I can here in the short time I was allotted, and although something in the back of my mind is whispering to stay, I know I need to come home.

I've met so many amazing people here. My roommates, Grace, Isa, Uno and Kristi, who have accepted all my little quirks without a word against me; my drinking buddies, James, Casey, Bren and all their awesome friends, who made me feel at home and provided me with many awesome drunken times to remember (hazily); Stephanie, who showed me a gorgeous side of California and gave me a lot of amazing advice and inspiration; all my Korean friends, especially Bill and Jeff, who made me laugh so much and took me into Korean culture as their 'nuna'; Jacky, Kat, Melvin and Alex, who showed me more of LA than I could have ever done on my own; and my tattoo artist friend Edgar, who made the end of my trip into something I will remember for the rest of my life. I love and will miss all of you more than you could ever imagine. Thank you for making my California experience more than I could have ever hoped for.




I named by blog "A Short Visit to LaLa Land" because before I came to L.A., my Aunt Karla told me to 'have a good time in la la land', implying that Los Angeles is kind of a day-dream, hazy-eyed city. I can see why she calls it that. This whole semester has been dreamlike. Thinking back on all the things I've done and seen and all the people I've met is surreal. This is all going to feel like such a dream. Such a roller coaster of a dream. But it wasn't, of course. I have this blog to prove it. And I have a strong feeling that I'll be back someday.

 

Deadgar Tattoos 

Someday.

Thank you everyone, and goodbye from my own personal LaLa Land.

Touching on Santa Barbara

So I'm going to squeeze one more post in before my last one because I had a really great weekend in Santa Barbara with some of my friends, but I'm really preoccupied with exams and thoughts of leaving at the moment and I don't feel capable of writing too much. So here are some pictures, and a fucking adorable video of some crazy-ass otters:

 

 

 

 

 

Santa Barbara is beautiful and I can honestly say I'd love to live there someday. I'm so thankful to my friends James, Casey and Bren for taking me. We ate at a really bomb breakfast place, went to some really cool spots that had amazing views of the ocean (as you can see), and went to the Santa Barbara zoo. I'd really like to write about it in more detail, but my mind is way too full of key terms and mixed feelings about leaving, so I'm going to end it here. Expect a final post within a couple of days. I'll be saying a bittersweet goodbye to California. <3

The beginning of the end

Less than two weeks left in LA! Crazy!

California Princess

I'm sitting in Laguna Beach, and I'm in heaven. But let's back-track a little.

 

If you read the last few posts by Courtney, you have a pretty good idea of the beginning of my amazingly busy week (the good kind of busy). I had such an awesome time hanging out with my best friend here in LA. As she said in one of her posts, when we're somewhere together it always feels like home (that home is where your heart is saying just keeps popping up in my experience here), so her being here really solidified my Californian residency experience. Even though I've only lived here for four months, I am happy to announce that I identify as (partially) Californian now, hahaha. We'll see how that holds up after a few months back in the Midwest, I guess.

So Courtney left early on Thursday morning, and I was picked up a few hours later by Stephanie, my roommate from home's older sister (who I got to adventure with last month). We headed northeast to Lancaster to spend Thanksgiving with Aunt Lynn and Uncle Dick. Now, I refer to Aunt Lynn and Uncle Dick by those names because after spending a wonderfully home-like couple of days being doted on at their gorgeous house, I feel like part of the family. Honestly. They were so welcoming, and I can't express how lucky I feel to have been able to spend Thanksgiving with people as amazing as Stephanie, Aunt Lynn and Uncle Dick. Sometimes it's unreal to me how privileged I am. (And thank you Samuel Leumas/Brzezinski for sharing your awesome family with me.)

My holiday weekend only got better from there. Stephanie and I left Lancaster on Friday and headed down a long stretch of the 405 (California's mythic, traffic-frenzied highway) to Laguna Beach, where Stephanie had invited me to spend the weekend. We got to Laguna just as the sun was setting over the ocean, and looking at this city, bathed in the oranges and reds of the setting sun, I knew I had finally found the California I had been dreaming about a few short months ago. Laguna Beach is breathtaking. And for any of you that have watched those inane MTV shows set here, I've been assured by Stephanie that the real Laguna Beach is nothing like the shows. Its adorable and charming, full of art galleries, quirky shops, and cute little cafes. One incredible thing about the city is the lack of corporate businesses. There's a Starbucks, a CVS, a Taco Bell, and maybe a couple other chain stores that I didn't notice, but other than that, everything is local small businesses. Its extremely refreshing.

My first night in Laguna was spent relaxing in Stephanie's adorable apartment. We drank through a couple bottles of wine and, although we're fifteen years apart, had a lot to talk about. (Sam, I hope you don't mind sharing an older sister because you don't really have a choice at this point.) After chatting, listening to some Indigo Girls and eating some delicious Persian fesenjan, we snuggled into a pile of pillows and blankets and watched a few episodes of the Kennedys, a series I highly recommend (its on Netflix). After that, I fell fast asleep in a pillow-filled bed that made me feel like a princess. A California Princess.

 

Stephanie's balcony

Saturday was supposed to be a day for work (I have an exam, a paper, and a presentation to be finished for tomorrow and Stephanie had work to do as well), but it didn't turn out that way at all. I woke up to the sun streaming in from every window of the house and knew that the sunny, 70 degree weather was not going to stand for any work being accomplished. Stephanie and I had toast, grapefruit and coffee on her sunny patio, and then took a walk down the beach and around her neighborhood. Then we met a friend of hers at one of the adorable cafes, called Madison Square & Garden Cafe, where we sat outside among fountains and flowers and ate a delicious lunch.

After lunch we did end up getting some (very distracted) work done, but we had a dinner reservation at Asada, a delicious Mexican place, at 7 so we didn't spend too much time concentrating. Asada was super fun, mostly because I got to experience being hit on by much older men. That sounded weird, but its true. I'm not sure if it was because I was with Stephanie (who is a hot mama) or if it was just the atmosphere of the bar, but we ended up hanging out with a couple of guys the whole time we were there and being chatted up by a few others. One of them was an extremely drunk British Indian guy who I really disliked at first, but he ended up growing on me, especially when I told him I wasn't single and he declared me his wing woman and we started talking about how his dog is actually his girlfriend. He made for great entertainment while Stephanie talked with his friend.

After dinner and more than a few drinks at Asada, Steph and I headed to a bar called the Marine Room Tavern where a local band was playing. This place apparently attracts a lot of locals, and was a lot less classy than Asada. It actually felt a lot like a Midwestern bar, so I was naturally very at home. We chatted up the really friendly bar tenders and met the owner of another local bar, who wrote us a note to give to his bartenders that said "Lauren and Stephanie. Don't charge". Although the idea of going to a bar and drinking for free is something I would never have passed up in Minneapolis, Stephanie and I decided that it wouldn't be a wise decision given how much we'd already had to drink, so we headed home after the Marine Room and I passed out in my princess bed.

Today was nice and relaxing. Stephanie and I walked around the downtown Laguna area and checked out the cute shops and the beach area. I wish I could describe to you how gorgeous Laguna is. It was sunny and 75 degrees and everyone was out and about. Being able to look east and see the huge houses built into the cliffs and then being able to look west and see the ocean sparkling and blue made the whole weekend feel so dreamlike. Laguna doesn't feel real. As Stephanie put it, its like a bubble. A pleasant, relaxing bubble. I loved spending time there. We drove down the Pacific Coast Highway on our way back to Northridge in the early afternoon, the convertible top down and the warm ocean air blowing through my hair. Truly, a California Princess.

 

  

 

So I have to tell you. I lied. I know at the beginning of my post, I said I'm in Laguna. And I was when I first started writing. But now I'm back in Northridge, procrastinating my return to reality by finishing this blog post. Ugh. If only Northridge was in Laguna. Life complete? Close to it, I think.

So I have to include this the Mamas & the Papas song because I have a strong inclination that in a couple months I will find myself sitting in my bed, listening to this song, and longing for my weekend in Laguna Beach. But at least I will have something as amazing as that to long for. Talk to you all soon. <3

Happy Thanksgiving from the girl who's leaving!

Hey guys, you get one last post from me before you're turned back over to Lauren.

Yesterday, we had a really chill day where we got breakfast at Joyce's Coffee Shop, which is this really cute cash only diner straight out of the 70's. It was super cheap and super great. After that, we ran errands to a bunch of stores - including 99 cents only, a dollar store where you can actually do groceries - and then came to chill and hang out at the apartment, which was great since we've been so busy. Around two, Lauren's friends picked us up and we went to Venice/Santa Monica for touristy fun and the best Sangria ever. After that, we hung out at their place and drank peppermint schnapps hot chocolate (which everyone agreed tasted like christmas) and played some really fun drawing games.

As of right now, I'm getting ready to leave LA. It was a blast, but what was most fun was just being with my BFF for a whole week. It's funny, but anywhere we are together feels kind of like home, so it was a great first experience with Southern California because I had her around. I'm excited to go back to the Midwest - but I'm super glad that I got to spend time with my other half. I hope she has many more adventures in Lala Land!

See y'all somewhere east,

Courtney

There and back again, an LA Transit Tale

After a rainy start to my trip to visit Lauren, things became instantly better on Monday with the reappearance of our friend the sun. If you'll remember from the last post, Lauren had class which left me to my own devices after a really, really large breakfast at Geronimo's (aka, that campus place). I updated the blog, played some Neopets (shut up, we still do that), and then took a really nice nap before going out to explore campus. I zinged through the art building (mostly illustration and design work) and then headed to where Lauren's building was. I sat around and drew pictures for awhile, and then Lauren showed up after class so that we could grab food on campus and commence our plans for the day.

We got a late start, but we headed out to City Walk around 6pm with the intention of walking around, getting some frozen yogurt, and having a few drinks at one of the bars. Unfortunately, the bar we wanted to go to closed early, so we headed to one called 'Howl at the Moon.' It's normally a dueling piano bar, but Monday night was local band night. We had a drink while the band was setting up and then opted to head home and find something to do closer to campus. The only problem with this was we (apparently) didn't really know where we were going, so when we left we got on a bus that over shot campus by quite a bit. This was okay, though, because we found our way back with minimal scarring and spent most of the ride dreaming up a dinosaur/pizza chain complete with dinosaur/pizza themed pizza names (tricheeseatops, velocipepper, tar pit, brac-and-cheesey-saurus). When we finally made it back to civilization, we grabbed the left over Franzia and headed to Lauren's friends' apartment for some drinking and socializing, complete with non-dino themed pizza. Boohoo.

Despite our late night, we got up early this morning to cram in everything that we wanted to do today. After a quick granola bar breakfast, we headed down to LaBrea and Melrose to eat at Pink's, a super famous hot dog stand. Lauren had the Walk of Fame Dog and I tried the Baja Veggie Dog (complete with guacamole). We were totally not disappointed. After our classy meal, we headed down Melrose for shopping galore. They had so many cool/unique/interesting stores, including a bunch of great vintage places, and by the end of the day we were completely shopped out. Lauren found a really great pair of Doc Martens, and I snagged a shirt and some jewelery. Once our feet and wallets started to hurt, we headed to Union Station (aka downtown Los Angeles) to meet up with friends who were taking us to a restaurant specializing in weird kinds of Bratwurst and Papas Frites. Yeah, it was our second hot dog of the day, but we feel okay about it since it was a) classier and b) came with beer while you were waiting in line. Pink's, that's something you should probably think about.

Today was probably my favorite day in LA so far. The weather was perfect - sunny and 70 - and the area we were in was totally up my alley. We're ready to get up and do it all again tomorrow!

When Lauren's Away... (Guest Post)

Hola blog readers! For those of you who don't know me, my name is Courtney, Lauren's other half and bff from way back when. I still live in Milwaukee (where I am an art student at MIAD) and since it was getting pretty effing cold out there, I decided to hop on a plane and come visit the west coast for awhile. Or something. While Lauren is doing the whole class thing, she thought it might be a good idea for me to update you all on what we've been doing since I got here in Saturday - so get ready for a lot of pictures.

I got to the CSUN area early Saturday afternoon and was totally psyched to see Lauren. I hadn't seen my bff since summertime, and the last time I had seen her I had been about to go to a Britney Spears concert (read: in no shape to see anyone). We decided that we should take Saturday pretty easy: my head was spinning from the two hour time change and I was STARVING after a meal of ginger ale and small cookies on the airplane, so we headed to a place near campus called Emle's. They serve breakfast for the better part of the day, so we ate a ton of food and then made the educated decision to spend a sleepy night in drinking Franzia, watching movies, and being girls. This was overall a pretty great decision, because it let us be super classy (see picture of Lauren, right) and let me pass out mid conversation with minimal embarrassment.

The next day we got a pretty early start, which is necessary because everything in El Lay is SUPER SPREAD APART. The big cities I've spent the most time with are the complete opposite - everything is crammed together and real estate is pretty hard to come by - so it was kind of shocking that everything is a) under five stories in the areas we've been and b) far enough apart to have lots and lots of pine trees. It's kind of nice to have space, but it's not so nice to have to travel through that space in the chilly rain. Which is what we did. We managed two buses and a train to Hollywood sharing one umbrella, and eventually made it to Madame Tussaud's with the hope that we could kill enough time until it stopped raining. Alas, this wish was not to come true, but we still had a lot of fun in the museum. All of the figures are SUPER life like, and it's really surreal when you first go in and realize you can't tell which is the person posing for the picture and which is a wax statue (we later learned the eerie realness of them is called 'uncanny canyon'). My blurry cell phone pictures don't do it justice, but we promise we have others, complete with us posing.

As we left Madame Tussaud's, we swung through the gift shop where I snagged an umbrella, which upon opening it I realized was meant for kids and has a funny monster face painted on it (with ears sewn to the top). It made things a little bit better, but by this time our feet were pretty soggy and we were feeling really hungry, cold, miserable, and unwilling to go very far. Luckily, there's a mall thing on Hollywood & Highland with a few restaurants in it, and we happened to stumble upon one that specialized in 'Shabu Shabu.' Shabu Shabu is kind of the Asian version of fondue: each person has a pot of boiling water in front of them, and you get a plate of uncooked vegetables/meats/whatever. You cook 'em yourselves and them dip them in these really awesome sauces that they give you and eat them with rice, noodles whatever. It was super awesome and warm and filling and was just what we needed to go back to adventure.

After we left, we got a little distracted in the mall area looking for souvenirs and also at some cute boutique shops. We found a really great one called Koromo Shop that had a huge jewelery selection for a pretty reasonable price, and we both picked up some funky rings. After a quick glimpse at the Kodak and Chinese Theaters (and some silly walk of fame feet pictures) we snagged a bus and headed to the LACMA. We were already pretty drained, so we didn't spend a whole lot of time there, but we did go through the entire contemporary art building. We explored the Richard Serra sculpture on the first floor, and then we headed up to a pretty sweet Glenn Ligon exhibit. On the top floor, there was a whole room devoted to Baldessari (cool), Andy Warhol (alright), and Jeff Koons (blech). I'm not really a fan of Jeff Koons' art (although he might be the most brilliant marketing mind of our time), but Lauren thought his balloon animal sculpture was pretty funny - not to mention the pool toy ones. After a quick buzz through the modern art wing, we headed back to Hollywood and Highland to buzz through a few more souvenir shops and then head home.

Little did we know, heading home would be the coldest, longest trip ever. As it turns out, the bus that takes us from Reseda back to CSUN does not run very often. Like, every 30-40ish minutes-not-very-often. Unfortunately, we must have gotten to the stop right after one left, so we had a loonnnggg cold wait, and the only place that offered any shelter was an ice cream shop. Needless to say, we did not seek shelter in the ice cream shop. Instead, we shivered it out in The Coldest Weather Ever (read: 50 degrees, give or take) in our still slightly soggy shoes. When we finally got home, we treated ourselves to some Hot Cocoa and Peppermint Schnapps and left over pizza, all of which was perfect.

I'm here until Thursday morning and we still have a lot of adventuring to do - today we're heading down to the Universal Studios/City Walk area to explore and do some quality day drinking, so stay tuned for more updates - and hopefully more pictures. See y'all soon!

(Check the photostream above for more pictures)

A nasty habit called rock and roll

Hi guys!

I figured I'd give you a quick update now so my posts while/after Courtney is here aren't uber long and discouraging to read, haha.

So the concert last night was amazing. I went with Jacky and was very excited to be there for her first concert! It was great, albeit a little strange compared to my past concert experiences. Most of this was due to the venue. Oh the Wiltern, how you spoil and disappoint at the same time. I will explain.

 
The Wiltern was built in the 30's and was originally a vaudeville theater, which explains its set-up. Its gorgeous and ornate inside, reminicent of what the Eagle's Ballroom at the Rave probably looked like before it got nasty and smoke-stained and run-down (my Milwaukee friends know what I'm talking about). Upon walking in, there is a large lobby with a chandelier, beautiful wall carvings and pretty much all things classy and expensive-looking. The actual stage looks just like a performance theater. There are four levels, including the orchestral pit and a balcony. Jacky and I were in the pit area, closest to the stage. Here's a couple pictures I stole off the internet to give you an idea of what it looks like inside:

So, as you can see, the barriers between the levels and the fact that only a certain number of people were allowed into the pit area (you had to get a wristband to be allowed down there, which Jacky and I did) really kept the crowd from getting too dense, which was both good and bad. Good, because I wasn't constantly getting shoved around and bumped into by crowd surfers, but bad because that's kind of what I expect at a show. I wouldn't say that it was a chill concert; people were pumped and jumping and dancing and everything, but it was like there were four separate crowds. I didn't feel immersed in the experience and connected with the rest of the crowd like I normally do. Kind of strange, but I did get a really good view of the whole show, which meant I got a really great video!

Sorry its so shaky. Its really difficult not to dance to the Sounds.

 

I'm going to skip talking about the opening acts in great detail because they weren't anything spectacular to me. The Limousines were great entertainers with a super flashy show that demanded crowd participation, so that was fun. Funeral Party played their set like it was a crowd of their own devoted fans, and, because that wasn't the case, they were shut off by the sound people before finishing their last song. Awkward. In between sets a really sweet DJ duo called Kids at the Bar played. I enjoyed that a lot, especially when they mixed a wolf howl into one of their songs, haha. Oh me.

On to the Sounds. I've been waiting to see them live for a very long time, and I was not disappointed. Maja Ivarsson, the lead singer, was just as crazy and crass as I expected her to be. There were a lot of crotch-flashing dances and ass-baring cat crawls across the stage, along with much cigarette-smoking inside a no-smoking venue, in her ordinary fashion. Sometimes its hard for me to get over how full of herself she seems, but I always seem to be reminded why her ego is so huge: cue the guy with her face tattooed on his chest at the show last night. And she is pretty bad ass, so I can't really hate on her. At all. I actually kind of love her a lot.

What made me most happy about the show is how much of a variety of songs they played. The Sounds just released a new album this year, and most bands in this situation would be playing primarily off this new album at their live shows. The Sounds surprised me by playing songs off all four of their albums, which was amazing. They skipped a couple of my favorites, but being able to hear a lot of their old stuff definitely made up for it.

So! That was my LA concert experience, and it was a great one. Today and tomorrow I will be writing a research paper, and then Courtney comes on Saturday! I'm sure I'll have a lot of awesome shit to talk about next time I post.

Until then! <3

I've been deader

Hello all!

This post is going to be quick. I just felt the need to whip something up because I'm afraid you all thought I was dead. But look! Not dead! Typing! HELLO! I have been far more dead than I am now, I can assure you.

Anyway, sorry for the long gap in posts. I've been busy, but not with anything exceptionally exciting. I have finally, after two and a half months, settled in to a steady routine of things normal college students do: class, reading, drinking, sleeping, papers, hanging out with friends. Every Wednesday night I walk over to an apartment complex where I meet up with a group of really awesome people, and we drink and play pong and watch TV and act like college students. I read a lot, mostly for class. I sleep and eat at weird hours. Things are pretty typical.

I still go out exploring frequently. Last week I was bored and trekked to the somewhat-near-by mall and had a chance to feel like my old middle school mall-rat self. Last weekend I went to a comedy show with Jacky and company, and afterwards we hit up a really awesome diner where parts of The Big Lebowski were filmed. Friday night I check out two of the local bars with my drinking buddies, and sadly was only impressed by how insanely low my alcohol tolerance has become (they were really weird bars). These things were all really awesome, but I didn't have the urge to blog about them like I have about other things. Meh.

But! This is all about to change, because this next week, starting tomorrow, will probably be my most exciting week in California. Tomorrow night, after two months of waiting, staring longingly at the ticket taped to my wall, I get to see the Sounds! I haven't been to a show since CSS and Sleigh Bells this summer, and I'm dying to get sweaty in a crowd of strangers and scream until I lose my voice. Its very therapeutic, trust me.

And then on Saturday, my one of my bestest best friends from childhood and beyond is coming to visit! Courtney and I have known each other since 7th grade and we, being the two halves of the anti-christ and all, are sure to tear shit up.

We pretend to be confused so you'll let your guard down.

Tentative plan: LACMA, shopping on Melrose, Madame Tussauds, day-drinking somewhere trendy, going to a taping of Chelsea Lately, Amoeba Records, and hopefully seeing Venice or Santa Monica. Who knows. 

So watch for some exciting posts in the next week! Serious shit is going down.

On a completely random note, Pepero Day is awesome. Thanks Bill Choe!

Finally, I want to remind my Minneapolis friends (and anyone who is interested in reading about a Minnesotan's experience teaching college-aged students in China) to keep up with Mitch's blog. Its hilarious and I love it.

I miss you all, and I'll be in touch soon!

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:

All I have left to say is I CAN'T BELIEVE HALLOWEEN IS OVER. D: D: D:

p.s. If you want to see more costumes, go here.

Cop out

I'm sorry, I'm sick. D:

 

I LOOK LIKE I GOT THE CRAZY SICKNESS. BE AFRAID.

Goth weekend

Hello readers! After rereading my last post, it became clear to me that it was kinda super depressing. I really don't want you guys to think that I'm not enjoying my time out here, or that I regret doing this at all. As my good friend Derrick put it "Even on your lowest day, just remember: if you hadn't done this, you would still be that girl longing for California", and I totally agree. This whole experience has been cliche-ly life-changing for me. Its taught me a lot about the concept of home and what I really want after graduation in the spring, and its given me a new perspective on aspects of my life that I'm not sure I would have ever even thought about. (Can I please mention that while in California I decided what I want to do when I'm out of college? Fuck, that sure feels good.) What I wasn't expecting was how much I'd miss Minneapolis. I wasn't homesick when I moved from Milwaukee to Minneapolis. Not at all. I think the first time I felt homesick was just this past year when I visited Milwaukee in the end of June after not being there since the beginning of January. Naturally, I thought it would be the same coming here. But its not. I guess its because I like where I'm at in Minneapolis: on my own, lots of friends, partying, chilling, knowing the area. Life's good.

Anyway, in order to prove to you guys that I'm not giving up on my adventure out here (WHOOOHOO ADVENTURE YEAH), I did two really fucking awesome things this weekend (actually, I just did them because I wanted to. But you felt really important for a second, right?). On Friday, I visited LACMA (the Los Angels Country Museum of Art), and I can tell you that the two hour transit ride was totally worth it: I got to see the Tim Burton exhibit!

My inner goth child LIVES AGAIN! Hahaha. Oh man, but it was amazing. I remember being in middle school and loving his art; stuff like The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy and of course, Edward Scissorhands and the Nightmare Before Christmas. It was so amazing to see his earlier works, and there were a lot of pieces I'd never seen before. I totally feel in love with this one:

I wish I could have taken pictures, but there was no photography allowed. There was an amazing black light room with a totally nuts mobile and the actual Edward Scissorhands suit and gloves and ahhhh! So much cool shit.

 

I spent close to two hours in the exhibit and then explored a few of LACMA's permanent collections, but I had another two hours on buses and the subway to look forward to, so I didn't get to see much of the rest of the museum. I did, however, get a closer look at the La Brea Tar Pits, which was awesome. I hope I'll get a chance to go back to LACMA, and that I'll be able to go to the Page Museum, which is where the fossils that were found in the Tar Pits are exhibited.

 

My Friday night was spent hanging out in my friend Bill's apartment, where we watched Tosh.0. I haven't seen that show in forever, and its a lot crazier than I remember it to be. For example (Grandma, you might not want to watch this):

...woah. Okay.

Saturday morning I get a text from a friend of mine who moved to LA from Minneapolis this past summer asking me if I want to go see the taping of the Spike SCREAM Awards, and I was like "HOLY SHIT YES". I spent the day trying to come up with a costume, because apparently the better your costume is the better your seats are, but my car-less-ness and the fact that I'm poor left me with very little to work with, so I ended up wearing a Misfits shirt, a really short plaid skirt (I didn't remember it being that short, so either the washing machine shrunk it or my butt got bigger...in a good way /winkwink), fishnets and boots (inner goth child released part deux). But fuck, some of the costumes were really awesome. Unfortunately, we weren't allowed to bring phones or cameras in, so I have no pictures for you. Sad day.

I brought Bill and Jeff (another one of my Korean friends) with me, and we got down to Universal City around 5. After we parked, a bus took the three of us up into the studios. We saw a lot of movie sets on the way up, so that was pretty awesome. The set for the show was freaking sweet. Kind of a circus-sideshow feel, with a lot of cool costumes and vintage-y patterns and colors. The whole thing was set up outside, which kind of sucked because it got really cold, but we had good seats. And they had free catering! Waiters brought burgers, fries, sandwiches, cakes and BOOZE up and down the aisles. Yes my friends, free show AND free booze. I didn't want to be shwasted though, so I only had a couple glasses of wine. I was supposed to be able to order whatever mixed drink I wanted, but the whole thing was extremely disorganized, and even though I ordered from four different people, I never got my gin and tonic. Oh well.

The show itself was pretty awesome, mostly because I saw my FAVORITE ACTOR, Joseph Gordon-Levitt (insert major swoon). And he WAVED IN MY GENERAL DIRECTION. So happy. I'm not really one to get starstruck, but this was different. Ever since I saw Mysterious Skin back in high school, and then Brick, then 500 Days of Summer...ugh, in love. Annnnyway, haha, some of the other celebrities were Quentin Tarantino, Anne Hathaway, Robert Downy Jr., Colin Ferrell, George Lucas, Nicolas Cage, Ron Perlman, Bradley Cooper and a bunch more. It was also really interesting to see how the whole thing worked. First of all, I have no idea how the make the audience look so huge on TV. There really weren't that many people there; at least a lot less than I expected. Second, hearing the celebrities fuck up was awesome. A couple of them had to do a couple takes, and the crowd's reaction was pretty priceless. The show had cool pyrotechnics, we got sweet signs to wave when Robert Downy Jr. came on set...god, I just wish I could have taken pictures. I tried to see if any had leaked, and this is what I could find to help you guys visualize the whole thing a little better:

 

But you know, you could always just watch the awards show on Spike TV, Tuesday at 9:00 (I don't know what time zone though). Who knows, maybe you'll see me in the crowd!

Well, I have a long week ahead of me. Three midterms and hopefully doing some volunteering at the school's writing center. I don't have any concrete plans for next weekend, but don't worry, you know I always find something to do.

Until then! <3