Happy Splashes!

Hello everyone! So I'm attempting to get back into the swing of blogging regularly. As usual, I would like to thank my latest follower:
Mizuki
Thanks so much!

Last Friday Lin and I took a trip to the OC to go to Soak City. I had a free ticket, and she wanted to go with her coupon from work.

We decided we wanted to get pedicures before going there, and it was relaxing! The nail salon is a local one, and they had Beyonce's "I AM . . ." tour on DVD. I also ran into an old friendly co-worker there. My only gripe is that the young lady who did my pedicure kept giving me mix signals as to what she wanted me to do with my feet, and she had a bit of an attitude! Which is very rude considering they had my wait so long before they started working on me.

Anyway after pedicures and a quick lunch of delicious fake Chinese food, we headed out to the park. Unfortunately traffic was pretty bad, but not as bad as it could have been.
When we finally got to the park we were lucky we didn't have to struggle too long for a space!


Once we paid and entered it was time to change into our swimwear. Now, let me say this: For all the money that Knotts makes on  Soak City, you would think they'd invest some of it into better changing rooms! I don't know about the men's room, but the rooms for women were gross! While they were big and filled with lots of showers, it was horrible hot in there. It was sticky and humid, and the floors were filthy. Also, while I know it's a water park, the changing room floors were extremely wet and I almost tripped twice while walking.  I felt bad for the poor attendant who was working the changing room. I'm sure she was trying hard but it was still horribly uncomfortable and again dirty dirty.

I made as speedily a change as I possibly could and met Lin outside. We headed over to the lockers and put all our things away. The one nice thing about the lockers is that they will give you back $5.00 when you return your key, so make sure to hold on to safely! It knocks the price of a regular size locker from $13.00 to $8.00. Not bad.

Once we were changed and ready, it was time to get wet! I wanted to go to the tidal pool first, but for whatever reason,they shut it down temporarily so we decided to go on the lazy river instead, It was so nice and relaxing, just bobbing around in the inner tube and playing around. Soak City always has a a very 'Feel Good' track of music playing in the background, so I spent most of the river bobbing along to the music and harassing Lin.

Once it was over we headed back to the Tidal wave pool, since it was open again. The whole thing with the tidal wave pool is that it lures you into a false sense of security. It starts out as being calm and docile like a little lake, and then suddenly to hear a siren from no where and it's ALL WAVES AND SCREAMING. I kid you not, and these are little pish-posh baby laps either. I'm talking like actual potential danger of not coming back up, waves. Unfortunately we couldn't get a inner tube and that makes up like 85% of the fun, so after the first round we left.

Please do not be fooled.

Lin wanted to get onto one of the big slides, so we stood in line for the Storm Watch. All the tubes are super windy so you never know where you're going to splash out of! It was actually my first time on a high velocity twisty water slide. When I came out of the end I was not completely pleased, and I had water in my nose.

This thing is a MONSTER.

When we left storm watch, Lin wanted to go on Bonzai Falls as our last major ride. It wasn't really to my fancy, and the wait line was very long. Also, of course they make you take off your shoes/sandals while you wait in line, and the icky ground made me feel so gross.

:| Worst attraction, ever.

Once we finished that, Lin took one last dip in the tidal wave pool, and I tried to dry off a bit before heading back to the germ breeding women's changing room. We then bid farewell to Soak City and headed home for dinner. I was craving ramen, so we went to this great local place called Mottainai.
If you are in the local to the Gardena area, and looking for a great chill back place to enjoy some good ramen, Mottainai is it! Like all the reviews say, it's clean, delicious, and the service is great. Also the portions they give you are huge. I always have some to take home the next day. Whenever I go back I want to try more of their side dishes.

And that was our Friday at Soak City! Before I close this post out, I'll leave you with some pictures I took on Saturday, and my latest magazine haul! Lots of inspiration to be found here!


Okay guys! See you around!

Labels: friends, fun, outings

Labels: cooking, friends, fun, life

As some of you know my birthday is one week before Christmas, falling on Dec.18th. This past year I just turned 22, and I was fortunate enough to share it with some awesome friends. Lin took me to one of my favorite haunts, Little Tokyo in downtown LA. One of the good things about having my birthday in late December is that nearly everywhere I go, everything is decorated in beautiful lights and ornaments! It always makes my birthday a little more special and Little Tokyo was no exception!

The tree in the middle of Japanese Village Plaza

This is beautiful site that will greet you when you walk into the main square of Little Tokyo. It was so pretty I just had to get a picture of it, of course! Sadly none of the presents under the tree were real. Or for me. :| What's up with that Little  Tokyo?

I love the blend of Western Christmas with Traditional Lanterns

And this is how it looks on the walk ways up throughout the plaza! The center keeps up the lanterns until after New Year's, I believe. They add to the festive feeling, and look so pretty at night when they're lit! Since Lin and I had some time until Alexa arrived, we decided to walk around the square and explore. We had some quick snacks at the Mitsuwa, and then of course true to myself I dragged her into the local Sanrio store.

I would like it all on my doorstep by 3:00pm tomorrow, please.

I was able to ninja a quick photo of the inside of the store. It's actually a very large store and sells great variety of Sanrio and some San-X items. The staff is usually very friendly and helpful, and I could browse around for so long. One thing I was sad to hear is that they wouldn't be doing their yearly fukubokuro (Lucky Packs) on as grand a scale as they had before. The sales girl informed me this may change on New Years Day, but I shouldn't hold my breath. SADNESS. They were however selling mini-mini lucky packs for $5.00 so in the spirit of things I picked one up.

Bonus Cinnamonroll trinket holder!

We'll find out what's in there at the end of the post! ;3 After the square, we decided to take advantage of Max Karaoke's happy hour! At the time we went it was only $5.00/hr per person. Lin absolutely loves karaoke and is amazing at it! I usually end up derping around to anime openings, 90s pop, or whatever random thing I can find and sing. XD; Alexa arrived just when Lin and I were finishing up karaoke. I went to meet her and we walked around the Little Tokyo "mall". One thing I always take advantage of when I'm there is the nearly always open Para-Para machine.

The songs are pretty much older from the early 2000 era, but still so much fun. Unfortunately since I only had my cell phone camera, none of the pictures of the arcade came out right. (It's so dark in there!) I apologize guys! Much to my defeat I couldn't trick convince Lin nor Alexa to try it out, so after I spent up my tokens we left, and had some delicious boba at Cherry on Top. It's a fusion Boba/Frozen Yogurt place.

The inside has great lighting, and the staff and atmosphere there is super friendly and fun. Plus they have SUPER old school Mario on a Sega Genesis for customers to play and nice variety of board games. When we got there some girls were loudly playing Candy Land.

It was delicious!

Their drinks and their yogurt are both great! I ordered the passion fruit (one of my favorites) and even I was surprised by the nice portion size for a regular. Of course no trip to a fun place with great indoor lighting would be complete without a little cam-whoring! X3

Obligatory My-Space angle is Obligatory.

Just this one, I promise! Behind me you can see Alexa, enjoying her drink and leaving me to my own "En Vouge" devices. I love her for putting up with all my silliness. Once bobas were drank it was time for us to have some real dinner, and I suggested the best ramen place on earth Daikokuya.  For those of you who are near one of their locations listed on the website: GO AT THE FIRST OPPORTUNITY! It is seriously, some of the most delicious food and ramen ever. The staff is attentive and friendly, the portions are huge, and did I mention how delicious the food was? I did? Okay good. Delicious delicious delicious. Of course since the place is so wonderful, there was a waiting list. We were number 38 and they were just calling number 25!

;___;/ Ahh, the things we do for dinner. Since that left us with more wait time, we did the old school Gal thing and hang out some steps and chit-chatted. Alexa and I had a nice talk about the era when Gal was monkey-squatting while putting your make up on in public, para-para routines, and chunky boots. Ran Kotobuki Days

We were finally called in and ordered. The inside of Daikokuya is just as great as the food. The moment you walk in, you're hit with the happy bustling environment of the restaurant. The decor pays homage to 60'-80's Japan with his array of nostalgic posters, ads, and wall hung knick-knacks. They even play Japanese oldies everything from Enka to Pop.

I swear to you guys, Daikokuya has in no way paid me for this post. And enough of my rambling, have a food picture!

I want some right now. Seriously.

 I took this with Lin's ipod since my phone had long since died. (Androids, I love you, but yeesh that battery life stinks!) I ordered their traditional ramen combo with the donburi bowl. After dinner it was time for us to go home, and we took Alexa back to her car and bid her adieu. Once I got home, I was happy and exhausted and eager to open my presents!

Packaging!

Inside!

Look at all these great things! moko-moko socks, Victoria Secret, nail art supplies, AND make up. Seriously, Lin is after my own heart. Btw, those socks are amazing. I wish I could have everything made of out that material.  And then Alexa presented me with some amazing gifts as well!

Aaaaaahhh~! *explodes into hearts*

My first pair of Diamond eyelashes! And they're bottom lashes at that. I can't wait to crack these open and try them out, also some great Kyary eyelashes, facial mask, make up and a jewelry compact! I was so upset that when I showed my mother the awesome eye shadows, she dropped the compact and some of the make up broke. *weeps* both of the lip balms smell delicious and feel great on my lips!

So, remember that baby lucky pack I spoke of earlier? Well, here the contents!

Small but cute

I'm pretty happy with all the items that came in it! The stamper is adorable, the notepad will be very useful, and the pen in addition to being a writing tool also has a maze and a pin-ball inside it. I will be amused for days on end. While we were heading back from the restaurant, we decided to pop into one of the general stores, Tokyo Japanese Lifestyle. They're a decently sized store which sells everything from anime, manga, snacks, plushies, cooking utensils, make up and more! While we were in there, they had a sell on facial masks for $1.00 each!

Glorious.

The scent selection was really good, and I got: Lovely Strawberry, Juicy Pomegranate, Sweet Honey, White Rose, and Moisture Green tea. I can't wait to use them!

This December I had an amazing birthday, with wonderful people! I had a lot of fun and I can hardly wait until next year to do it all over again! Thank you Lin, Thank you Alexa! Next time, I'll be posting about my Christmas Eve! See you all soon!

Labels: friends, fun, life, outings

"It has been my hope that through live concerts, motion pictures, recordings, international competitions, and interesting public forums, a larger group of people will learn to love classical music and attend live concert performances." - José Iturbi,

Hello, everyone! How's it going? Did you all have a good 11/11/11? Did you make wishes? My 11/11/11 didn't start off so well, but it ended pretty nicely. I also have a lot of gets from the day to show all of you too! I can't believe November is ticking by so steadily! It'll be Christmas so soon!
But before that, I'm happily waiting on those Black Friday sales. I love shopping so much! I need many more things. :3

So, I'd like to thank my newest followers:
Madam.Momo (no link available)
Aki
Thank you as always! It means so much to me!


So, just as promised, I'm doing my absolute best to get through my backlog! After this only one more post to go! I want to be a good blogger worthy of all my followers!

On October 30th, Alexa invited me to accompany her to a classical piano concert in Hollywood. The concert was put on by the Jose Iturbi Foundation and featured the musical talents of Anastasia Markina & Dmitri Levokivich. The concert took place in the grand ballroom of The Hollywood Museum.
For those of you who have never been to the Hollywood Museum, the name pretty much gives itself away. It's a huge show case of everything Hollywood, from the classic dramatic 1940s, to the 2011 HBO hits. In addition to the display cases, they have actual replicas of starlets make up/dressing rooms, large photographs and a collection of costumes used on set with an explanation behind the design and the materials.

The original crime family.

 When we where there, they had the display of costumes from The Borgias out. I have never seen the show due to my lack of cable television at home, but reading about it and looking at the outfits, it seems right up my alley! Plus it has Jeremy Irons. And I do love myself some Jeremy Irons. (Right up there with Rick Allen)

The concert took place on the third level, so Alexa and I decided to take the stairs. Normally I would be against such a crime towards my high heels, but the stair way was lined with classic movie posters and it was very interesting to read them all!

:3 Lots of 'splosions

Once we got to the ballroom, we had some time before the concert, so I looked around and watched the world burn people mingle amongst themselves. The set up was to be expected, they had some very comfy looking sofas on the side of the ballroom, but we were sat in chairs. Our seats were closer to the back, so it didn't provide much of a view of the stage, but luckily the foundation set up plenty of TV screens for us to look on in comfort.

 Before the concert, Mr.Iturbi's God-daughter and CEO of the foundation gave us a a long winded very detailed speech about the history of her God-father and his foundation. They finished with a fifteen minute film reel high-lighting the major points of Mr.Iturbi's career and his personal history. After the film, the concert began.  Of course I photos and filming was not allowed, and even if they were my crummy cell wouldn't have gotten anything good, the room was so dark.

The opening song was a duet of "Danses Andaloues, III, Gracia (El Vito)" for two pianos by Anastasia & Dmitri. After it was over, Anastasia began her set. We had a brief intermission in which we were treated to another movie about Mr.Iturbi accompanied with cookies. After the intermission Anastasia and Dmitri performed "Brazileira from Scaramouche (Mvt. 3)". When it was over Dmitri was to begin his set, however there was a delay in the transition period due to technical difficulties. Once everything was sorted out, Dmitri  took the stage. On the whole, I had to say that I enjoyed the songs he performed more than the ones Anastasia did. The concert ended with a final duet of "Rhapsody in Blue".

After the concert we were treated to a fabulous dessert reception!

The lighting was so dark!

 A lot of the desserts were a bit too 'chocolatey' for me, but the fruit based ones were devine! I wish I could have gotten better pictures, since all the dessert was as pretty as it was tasty! I am not shocked to say, people and myself went back for seconds. We were also able to meet and greet the artist for a small time after the event.

Since we still had a little bit of time until the museum itself closed, Alexa and I decided to browse around the display rooms.

We're all in this together!

A display of fashions from HSM 3. I only watched the first one, but the dresses were so pretty I had to take a quick shot. After looking around, the museum was finally about to close, so Alexa and I were on our way. Before we walked back to the car, I decided to snap some shots of Hollywood, since I'm so rarely down there, and especially at night!



And that was the end of our evening out! So before I go, the sweet Miss Banny tagged me to do a little survey!

Anyone who wants to do it! LOL COP OUT.

So tell me, do you guys like classical music? Classical Hollywood? What's your best concert experience?

Labels: events, friends, fun, outings