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Vacation

2012 in review…

Hello dollfaces! It’s been a hot minute since I have had the chance to sit down and update my lovely little blog. There has been a ton going on in life, which I will touch on soon. I hope everyone had an incredible Christmas, and I can’t believe that it’s New Year’s Eve! So instead of rambling on about what’s going on, I’m going to take this time tonight to look back on some moments from the past year.

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JANUARY:
1 – One of the first pictures of me earlier this year in January.
2 – Did a ton of dancing at Asylum, which I so lovingly called my $4 therapy session. Barcode shut down in January and Asylum moved to The Park.
3 – I attended Baconfest with friends and had my first maple bacon donut from Doughbots here in Sacramento.
4 – Started hitting the gym to burn off some feelings instead of eating them.

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FEBRUARY:
5 – Spent a lot of time at parks on the swings.
6 – Dug out my old Game Boy and started playing some old games.
7 – Finally moved my bed out of my closet.
8 – Something died in the wall at work and we tore the office apart trying to find exactly where. We were unsuccessful.

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March:
9 – I had some really blue hair for a while.
10 – Richard and I went to Knotts Berry Farm after foiled plans to go to Disneyland.
11 – Despite the minor hiccup, we did spend 2 days at Disneyland and it was one of the major highlights of my year.
12 – We also hit the Santa Monica Aquarium and saw a bunch of awesome creatures that had been right under my nose for the 14 years that I lived in the area.

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April:
13 – In March I also took a pole dancing class which ran into April. I had never been more bruised and banged up in my entire life. I also felt myself getting stronger, but ultimately had to quit because it’s freaking expensive.
14 – I made this fancy pants Easter basket for Richard.
15 – We visited my parents and had a chance to show Richard my Dad’s studio.
16 – I packed up my toy collection due to lack of space.

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May:
17 – My hair grew exceptionally long.
18 – I worked a few shows that I actually enjoyed the music that was being played.
19 – I changed my name to apron according to Starbucks.
20 – I found this pallet at work and it worked perfectly to display my toy collection.

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June:
21 – Hung out with friends and kicked serious laser tag ass.
22 – Played at more parks.
23 – Started really getting into The Guild and comic books.
24 – I also tried my hand at painting.

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July:
25 – Played lots of video games to win tickets for junk.
26 – My roommate is engaged and we celebrated in Reno, NV in June and had a nice shower for her that I designed the laminates for in July.
27 – Richard and I bought an arsenal of fireworks and had a great time with friends in the driveway.
28 – A friend left for med school and we had a great time at her going away party and her now fiance’s parents house.

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August:
29 – In need of a change, I cut 14 inches off my hair. It still feels weird.
30 – Finally saw Iron Maiden in concert. AMAZING.
31 – Worked Outside Lands in San Francisco and had a great time.
32 – I was a bridesmaid for the first time for my roommate.

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September:
33 – Started to try to enjoy reading.
34 – Richard and I went to Effie Yaw and threw rocks in the water.
35 – More comic books and video games passed through my hands.
36 – Spent more time outside.

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October:
37 – Tried my hand at fancy nails that I saw on Pinterest.
38 – Spent a lot of time hanging out with a handsome fella named Midnight.
39 – Moved out of my old place and put a bunch of my belongings into storage.
40 – Started a new blog that took off.

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November:
41 – Found out that this cat has extraordinary skills.
42 – Blogged lots about food.
43 – Started writing to my best friend.
44 – Had an amazing Thanksgiving feast with my parents.

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December:
45 – Lost my job for the first time. (Hopefully the only time)
46 – Started taking an online class.
47 – Christmas!
48 – Had to put this sweet boy down way too soon.

Here’s looking to 2013 – please be safe tonight if you plan on going out!

31 December, 2012
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Weekend Recap 6/22 – 6/24

Hi all! As usual I like to start my weekend a little early. Despite having to work at 8 AM on Friday, a bunch of friends went to see Brave at the midnight showing for our friend Jonny’s birthday. I didn’t feel nearly as tired as I did when we went to the midnight showing of Prometheus, but sadly I dozed off for a brief bit towards the end of the movie. It had been a really long week, and the movie didn’t really grab me. The visuals were stunning, but the story was a little on the hokey side. Sorry Pixar! The short before the film was extremely cute, as always. Stay through the credits, there is a little gem at the end.

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rocking my super cute shoes while waiting for the movie

That weekend a bunch of girlfriends and I were going to Reno, NV. for my roommate’s bachelorette party. Not only had I never been to a bachelorette party before, I have never been to Reno. I hit up my favorite pizza joint Celestino’s before heading over to Shawn’s house to meet Anna and Kayla, and low and behold, Shawn and Anna were pulling into the parking lot the same time I was. Great minds obviously think alike. We got our food to go and enjoyed it at Shawn’s place while waiting for Kayla to show up. The drive to Reno was quite scenic, and I was surprised to see snow at Boreal this time of year. It was nice to be in the backseat and take it all in, vs. being the driver. We met up with Jen and Sam (the bride to be) and checked out our hotel rooms. We stayed at The Sands, and despite the dodgy exterior, the rooms were actually really nice. Smoking indoors has been against the law for ages here in California, so it was weird to step into a casino and see people smoking inside.

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Anna doing a stellar driving job

We had tickets for a show called The Hootchy Kootchy Girls – which we thought was a cabaret/burlesque show. We were partially right. We got all dolled up, well the other girls did I should say, as I don’t wear make up or really style my hair outside of the occasional bun or pony tail. I slipped on my favorite dress and boots, and of course looked like the rebel of the group. Most of the girls ended up wearing an item of clothing of Sam’s which was quite funny. We decided to grab dinner before heading to the show. We were scouring Yelp and Urban Spoon looking for a place to eat that was delicious and not crazy expensive. We settled on The Gas Lamp. Their food was extremely good. Sam and Kayla got impromptu mixed drinks (the bartender just made them up in her head), and we were joined by Kristin. We all piled into Jen’s tiny car and made our way to the show.

Sadly dinner took a while to get to our table, which left us rushing for time to get to the theater. We all had to settle for seats all over the place because they were the only ones left, luckily there was a large section that was reserved that didn’t show up and they allowed us all to sit together there after the intermission. Now when I hear burlesque, I think of curvy voluptuous babes, shimmying off their clothes and prancing around with tassels on. Let’s just say my vision was a bit different than what we were greeted with. Apparently The Hootchy Kootchy Girls is a class that women can take. They have 8 weeks to learn a routine of their choosing, come up with an outfit/persona and what music they want to dance to. It takes a lot of confidence to get out there and shake it, but this was totally not what I was expecting. AT ALL. I was not expecting the girl next door, or grandma, or my friends mom to get up there and rip off various items of clothing. You could tell some of the girls were really nervous, but they all did a great job. Sam, Kristin, and Jen even got up there during the audience participation portion and worked it with a feather boa, it was awesome.

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Us on stage at the end of the show, when did I get so short?

After the show we went back to the hotel and changed into more comfy clothes to hit the town in. We walked down to The Silver Legacy/Circus Circus and wandered around a bit before deciding to make up a scavenger hunt for Sam to complete. It consisted of the following:

  • – find a sweet mustache
  • – dance with an old dude
  • – find a guy with a mullet
  • – get a condom from a guy
  • – make a wish on a bald guys head
  • – wear a guys hat
  • – get an Asian high-five
  • – get a piggy back ride from a stranger
  • – take pictures with other bachelorettes that we found
  • – find a guy that looks like her fiance and take a picture with him

We had an awesome time completing the list, most memorably Sam dancing with an old guy at the bar. He dropped it so low I thought he broke his hip. Jen and Sam ran into a friend of theirs that they play volleyball with, I ran into my friend Paul David from Redding, and Kayla saw a friend of hers from afar – apparently everyone was in Reno that night. We made a few more rounds and headed back to the hotel room. Most of the girls crashed but Sam and I went downstairs to gamble. She likes to play blackjack, I am more of a slots kind of gal – I was extremely good and only played a whopping $7.00. Sam lost her $20 at the table and we ran into more people we knew. We decided to call it a night and went back to the room.

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Our view from the room

Sunday was low key and we hit up a local bakery called Homage. I had a hard time choosing what to get because it all looked so good. I settled on a cinnamon brioche and an iced chai latte. Holy mackerel it was good. I think I would make the 2 1/2 hour drive again just to have another one. We went back to the hotel, said our goodbyes and hit the road back to Sacramento. Next time I go, I think I would like to play some of the games at Circus Circus but there just wasn’t enough time.

And of course we did our Sunday ritual of Asylum – Viva Los… Reno.

25 June, 2012
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Another year older…

Posted in Vacation by

…but I’m not sure if I could say another year wiser. But at least I can say that this year my goal is to have as much fun as possible. Somewhere along the way, I lost all of the joy in my life, all the fun, all of the awesome. So I’m on a personal crusade to bring it back. For my 28th birthday, Disneyland was in my sights. So after almost 3 months of waiting and 7 grueling hours of driving after work last Thursday, I snuggled into my extremely uncomfortable hotel room. Who cares, all I needed was a place to lay my head at night, because I planned on spending as little time as possible there. I couldn’t believe how much gas and jumped to by the time I got off work to the time I arrived in Los Angeles. I about had a hard attack.

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We had no plans for Friday, so we decided to head down to Santa Monica Pier. I couldn’t have asked for a more perfect day at the beach. They were installing a new Wizard Of Oz coin pusher that I really wanted to dump my entire net worth into, but alas I only played 1 dollar. Talk about self control. We hit the Santa Monica Pier Aquarium and checked out all of the local species. I was lucky enough to snap a picture of this cute little jelly fish and narrowly avoided a water spitting shark by mere seconds.

Instead of taking the bike path back to the car we decided to walk along the beach and avoid the waves as much as possible. I had vivid memories of doing this as a child – most especially of digging for sand crabs. I never liked to actually catch them or hold them because they tickled my hands, but I always liked digging for them. I don’t recall ever seeing so many shells on the beach and I took a few home with me for good luck, as well as a few rocks that I plan on creating something with. What I plan to create, I’m not overly sure – but it’s the thought behind it that counts, right?

After the beach we went to one of my favorite resturants in Marina Del Rey – Jerry’s Famous Deli. I remember as a kid we used to frequent it often, and I honestly had a hard time choosing out of the 600 items on the menu what I wanted to eat. I chose a hot dog on homemade pretzel bread, which was absolutely divine. I also decided to splurge on an order of their homemade bagel chips and ranch, something I had been dreaming of the entire drive down there. We also raided the deli bakery for a feast of confectioneries later that evening. I bought a smores brownie and a couple of carmel chocolate cookies. Richard bought shortbread sprinkle cookies, red velvet whoopie pies, black and white cookies, and we split a chocolate chip canoli. I had never had a canoli before, and I cant say that I cared for it.

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After that, we toured my old neighborhood. My old house hasn’t changed one bit on the outside. Same colors, same flowers, same trees, same everything 13 years later. I loved that house, and I miss it a lot. I dream of being rich one day and knocking on their door and offering to buy it from the owners with cash. We visited my old elementary school and middle school, both of which have been remodeled to the point that I barely recognized them anymore, but I did see a door of the equipment room that still had my hand stamped on it. We killed some time at the Fox Hills Mall, which also had changed quite a bit since I last stepped foot in it. We headed back to the hotel and made a detour at downtown Disney. I felt like I had died and gone to Disney heaven. I had been there once before a couple years ago, but I don’t recall it being so amazing. I picked up a few Vinylmation figures, and to my surprise, I didn’t get cursed with any doubles. We went back to the hotel room, where I proceeded to beat Richard repeatedly at R2D2 operation.

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We woke up insanely early on Saturday with the intent of being one of the first people into Disneyland. We trudged out to the bus stop, still hardly awake ready for a long day of magic, but once we arrived at the park we were notified that the park was on lock down and the police had called in the bomb squad due to a suspicious package found in a tree outside of the ticket booth. We returned back to the hotel room, where I proceeded to rule Richard again in a few rounds of R2D2 operation before we decided to head to Knott’s Berry Farm. A brief drive over and we were in. I was pleasantly surprised how short the lines were for a Saturday – I think the longest we stood in line was maybe 15 minutes for a ride. I was disappointed that they took out a lot of the rides from when I was a kid, but I guess you cant expect everything to stay the same.

I honestly had never ridden any of the roller coasters at Knott’s because I was too afraid as a child to. My school would go twice a year and I would just stand at the bottom and watch. It wasn’t until a few years ago that I got over my fear and have been somewhat of a coaster junkie since. There was one that I refused to ride, especially after seeing that it was down for a few hours of the day – I had a big enough heart attack at the top of the Silver Bullet when we got stuck at the top. I dont think I’ve ever been so scared. I brought my old spare glasses with me just in case I lost my other ones but I opened my glasses case I saw that the superglue had degraded over the years and they exploded into bits. Woops.

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On sunday, my birthday, we arrived at the park just as it opened, made our way through the ticket gate and we were unstoppable for most of the day. Surprisingly the lines weren’t overly long and we managed to ride most of the rides 2 – 3 times each. I was excited to ride the new star tours because it had recently been overhauled into 3D and has a ton of different possible places to visit, and luck was on our side, we went to three different places! Sadly the people that sat behind us when we went to the death star had seen that one 4 times prior that day, I would have been quite disappointed had I been them, but we got to visit Kashyyyk, The Death Star, and Hoth. We also figured out where all the cameras were in the attractions such as Space Mountain, Splash Mountain, Astro Blasters, etc, and were able to pull of some seriously epic faces. I wish I had taken pictures of the ones we did on the first day because I think they were some of the most hilarious ones. I like to think that we were enhancing the memories of the other passengers on the rides with us 🙂 Monday at the park was bitter sweet – I had an incredible time, but I couldn’t believe how quickly our time in LA had come to an end. We shut down the park and bought some things. I bought some R2D2 mouse ears, a set of classic ears that I had as a child, a bunch of vinylmation figures, including Star Wars park exclusive ones, the bakery collection, and two zipper pulls, the bakery collection pin set, mickey ear key pin, and sheriff badge with my name on it.

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I can’t wait to go back!

9 March, 2012
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