hello kitty for the kiddy in me

when the sanrio small gift pop up tour rolled into town (i love sanrio and their super long names for everything. i'm surprised they didn't call it, "the sanrio really cute small gifts shopping galore pop up tour) i knew i had to attend. i mean, i was a hell0 kitty fan from way back when and who wouldn't want to visit some nostalgia while it's in town? i for sure didn't want to miss it.

so i convinced my fiancee that he HAD to attend the cutest pop up shop in the world with me and off we trekked to santa monica for the last day of the tour. once you enter the space, three words immediately came to mind: hello kitty clusterfuck. can you spot the sea of heads at the bottom of this picture? good lord it was dense with humans...and er, cats.

i saw a lot. some funny. some cute. but honestly, i kinda wanted to bolt out as soon as possible. i mean, wouldn't you if you found yourself in forced body contact with complete strangers? some were hairy too, might i add. *shudders* this ain't a rock concert peeps.

anyways, the event was geared towards hello kitty fans and children...though the line blurred sometimes when i saw some of the get-ups there. wooooweeeee. i saw a sanrio ferris wheel, too. i made sure to capture my most favorite sanrio characters ever, kerokerokeroppi and my melody (the little twin stars were on the other side). in fact, i must make a teensy weensy confession right now. my favorite was never hello kitty. i thought that white cat was just way too played out. did you have a favorite?

folks taking nostalgia to another level perhaps? i definitely saw A LOT of older peeps (like in their late 20's and 30's mind you) in some rather creative get-ups. but what-evs, everybody was there to enjoy themselves. these folks here are playing dress-up.

then we mosied through the art gallary portion and i saw a few interesting pieces inspired by the white kitty with the big head. i think there was a definite trend in portraying hello kitty with more grit and less innocence. hello gritty perhaps?

this one was pretty cool. i didn't know schools of fish were hello kitty fans as well. nice.

this one is made out of a million jelly beans. not sure about its relevance to sanrio though. am i missing something?

after walking rather briskly around the small space, we picked up some eats at a food truck before we headed out. there was no need for us to wait in the insanely loooooong line to get into the shopping portion of the pop-up. seriously, age and patience is inversely related for me. besides, i used up all my patience at work and have none left over for loooooooong lines.

i would love to say we sped off in this ride (seriously, only hello kitty cars will shoot out rainbows! look at the bottom right of the photo), but we didn't. all in all, it was an interesting day full of furballs and things that were really pink. i have a feeling these pop-up tours will come around again even though this one in particular was to celebrate their 50th anniversary. it was positively a money maker for all that were involved. i'm glad hello kitty is rich. she needs a lot of money to supply herself with a lifetime of red bows for her left ear.

happy howl-o-ween!!

halloween is that special time of the year when my fam (2 and 4-legged) geek out more than necessary. is it to the point of ridiculousness and downright embarrassment? sure, probably. hence i say geek out.

after a long day at work, i came home on friday to a very excited sis. VERY. a lot of the geeky excitement actually originated from her so we got in her car and drove to target to look for doggy costumes cuz our local dog park was hosting their 3rd annual "howl-o-ween" costume contest. omg. like you had to ask if we were going to participate.....

it went from us browsing the aisles, to figuring out a theme, to laughing hysterically at our brilliance when we figured out our plan.

we ran across a white rabbit costume (from alice in wonderland) and also a generic kingly robe. since charlie was going to be the white rabbit, i suggested that lucy go dressed as the queen of hearts. all i had to do was sew a red felt heart on her robe which i did and a smaller red heart on her crown to emphasize our point. hearts + more hearts = the queen of hearts. that's how we roll.

although lucy did look super cute as the white rabbit if i must say so myself but we wanted to stick to the gender roles. besides, the robe was waaaaaay too big for charlie. we tried. we really did as he struggled to get away.

unlike last year when charlie was the only participant, we upped the heat and wanted to make sure that we won SOMETHING this year, so we decided that the WHOLE family had to be a part of the act. since my sis had a blue dress, she was dressed as alice and my fiance and i became the playing cards. brilliant. you know you love it.

when we got to the dog park, it was PACKED. it was quite the celebration indeed because everybody was in a jovial mood and all i heard was laughing. i love that people celebrate with their pets in all manners of silliness.

i did see a not so happy butterfly. perhaps pink wasn't her color.

here's a dog straddled by an angry cowboy.

a cow that jumped over the moooooooooooon. omg, so cute!



and a dog with the largest set of muscles ever. what a great body guard he would make!

a mummified dog. so scary!

marie antoinette with her one eye.

and the smallest giraffe in the world. i was floored when i found out that the costume was all handmade by the owner. i'm telling ya, the heat was on!

but in all seriousness, my dogs were 10,000% cuter! come on now! C-U-T-E! <3

we saw another themed group there, but ha! please don't cry when we dominate you captain america...especially since yours is not a cohesive collection.

cuz we are rockin' it alice in wonderland style!



and we won! THE END.

it all leads back to prada

not too long ago, ucla hosted the annual l.a. times festival of books. as an undergrad at ucla, i would go because it was convienent and i had a parking pass. nowadays, if i want to go, i would have to make a real effort to do so because it's on the other side of town and driving on the 10 freeway is not my idea of fun...not so much going there, but the going back home traffic. though i technically don't drive much since my fiance does the chauffeuring, but my butt still gets numb from sitting too long. either way, BAD...and yes i do ramble.

anyways, when my sis found out that an artist she jocked was having a signing at the festival of books, she suggested that we go. not wanting to say "no" to my little sis, the whole pack of us piled into my fiance's car and off we went to ucla. oh my, i forget how lovely this place is!

walking around the campus sure brought back a lot of memories....

and the day was crazy crowded. look at the human ant hill we have here. i'm just amazed people still read given the fact that every day in my teacher life, i struggle to GET children to read.

but seriously, reading for entertainment has gone down the dumps as people trade print for other distractions no? oh sadness if that is the case. there is something magical about getting lost in a book...which reminds me:

as we milled about, the sheer number of people closing in on us made our decision clear and quick. do we book ass to the signing and then GO HOME? boring? probably. sane? most definitely yes.

we finally found her artist, james jean. he looks like a young dude, but probably not. you know what they say about asians looking young right? he is no exception. this mofo is 30 years old! but holy crap, he looks like a baby.....anyways, he creates some pretty amazing artwork. disturbing, yet beautiful, with a touch of disneyland. it's hard to describe so go google his work and you decide for yourself.

i was pretty taken by this particular print that was available on site, but did not want to cough the $80 to take it home, even if it meant he was going to sign it which would have made it extra special. it is rather clear to me the things i choose to spend my money on. but pretty though, don't you think?

after the signing, we visited the ucla student store to pick up some gear. during the ride home in horrible traffic, i asked my sis if james jean ever did anything else because his artwork looked so familiar to me but i couldn't figure out why. as soon as she uttered out, "he designed some bag..." i yelled out PRADA! of course, james jean designed the fairy bags that i was drooling over in 2008 but it was too late for me to nab a bag during that time because it was so popular (check out post 1 and post 2). dude, if i had that bag, i would have TOTALLY asked him to sign it...and i wonder if it would have looked weird if i did. anyways, what i wouldn't have paid for a picture, i would have certainly paid for a bag and that fairy bag james jean designed was hawt!

well, no bag or picture for me, but i got charlie a new ucla collar and leash. he looked sooooooo collegiate with his ucla gear on. smart doggy.

weezing out

i would need more fingers and toes than my body has sprouted to count the number of years i've been a weezer fan. methinks at least 16 blue moons. i was rocking out to them in highschool with my walkman as i rode the school bus. walkmans?! remember those?! holy shit right?!

on friday, weezer played at the palladium and we scored tickets to go. instead of being good weezer fans and lining up by 4 or 5 when doors opened at 7, we got there about 6:30. you see, if i was truly hardcore, i would sit my ass down way before it's called for so i can guarantee a spot at the very front. but i'm old now and i don't like the idea of sitting for 3 long hours on the street. nope.

once in there, we stood around for an hour before the opening band played. some old school folks called WAX (dude, i have no clue)...i bobbed my head when appropriate and deleted some old messages from my phone when i got bored. it was an eternity before weezer came out and rivers cuomo did his thang. love this dude...so adorable like a teddy bear though he is 40 years old with a bald spot. but the best thing about being cute and adorable is that you're never too old to be called that.

i tried taking a pic of his bald spot :)

minus the annoying shoving from a wannabe mosh pit that erupted right next to me (OH HELLS NO DON'T GET ME STARTED ON HOW RETARDED THAT SHIT IS), the bumping of very sweaty smelly folks, and shoving a bitch out of my way, weezer played an awesome set!!! a mix of old music and new. they also threw in a few suprises like a guest appearance from chamillionaire (an experiment of weezer meeting hip hop) AND a lady gaga rendition which was hilarious!

listening to weezer made me forget that i was old and that i shouldn't be shoving folks who get in my way. instead, it reminded me of walkmans and unraveling my sweater. good times, good times.

a grave saturday

when i was invited to watch a movie this saturday at the cemetary with a few friends, in my brain, i thought "wtf?" but with my mouth i said "yes." it's like a batter fried twinkie...it feels wrong but i still want to try it kwim? so my main squeeze and i packed our reusable costco bag with blankets and potstickers for sitting and eating and checked out "cinespia" at the hollywood forever cemetary (http://www.cinespia.org/calendar/). holy guacamole look at the line! who knew hanging out with the dead was so popular?! it took almost 30 minutes to get to the front of the line.

cool ivy covered building shot.

if watching a movie in a cemetary isn't weird enough, you are also encouraged to bring a picnic basket and drinks. somehow, eating amongst the dead did not make it on my list of "must do's" till that saturday. i think if i think about it too much, it is creepy. so i didn't...i started people watching instead and noticed all the bags folks were carrying their food and libations in.

i definitely see a trend towards reusable bags. YAY, gooooo green!...trader joes, whole foods, and even a big blue ikea bag were hanging about the line. my main squeeze has a few himself, a big ole costco bag and trader joe's bags which we use for groceries and quick picnics. good thing he carries them most of the time because they are ooooglly....does chanel make something of the like? i kid....

when we finally got in, a brisk walk to the seating area meant tombstone sightings. eewww...may you rest in peace....all of yous.

this picture has an anne rice-ish quality to it minus the overtly sexual vampires that usually romps about in her books. still spooky. i wouldn't be caught dead hanging about here....hey wait a minute! movie...yes, gotcha.

if you squint a bit, you might be able to see marilyn manroe in "some like it hot." total tangent, but dang, she wore some pretty risque outfits and the funny thing is that her tits hung pretty low. perhaps firm and perky is a more contemporary thing because those boobies DID NOT look sexy to me at all.

and then the night ended and we went our merry ways...alive and kicking.

the raging renaissance

on saturday, i was overwhelmed by an incredible urge to go medieval. did you guess renaissance faire?! ding, ding, ding, you are correct. a few friends and i drove our bums to irwindale to stare at a group of people stuck in time. the ladies there seemed to love it because they get to be wenches and flop their boobies around (shameful hussies) and the men just love any excuse to look like fabio with their billowy white pirate shirts (inner gay?).

methinks these bazookas are illegal in 40 states!

first things first...let's get grub was the battle cry!! there's something about attending a fair that makes you overeat. let me rephrase that. there's something about attending a fair that makes ME overeat. and overeat on bad stuff too. damn it! thank god i was wearing an empire waist dress because my expanded belly required coverage. apparently cheese squeezed out of a can was popular during the middle ages. boy did i feel robbed when i found that squirted on my food! can't believe i ate them anyways. *head hung low*

and as always, my peepers were on the look out for bags or any baglike things. although there were no chanels or marc jacobs back in da days, renaissance fashion seems to indicate that small pouches or leather bags were hawt. see anything you like? they kinda remind me of the silk pouches that japanese women carry on their wrists when they are wearing their kimonos.

here's a dude with his pouch. i wonder if these pouches were the medieval equivalents of fanny packs. what say you?

whatcha put in your pouch sir?

boobies and bags oh my!

great things to look at. this gypsy dance was probably my favorite out of the whole lot.

pretty fun for a medieval day in irwindale.