Birthday Bonanza - This is gonna be a long post....
So my weekend actually started on THURSDAY rather than Saturday, cause my birthday was last Wed. I really didn't do much on my birthday, except order chinese food, an ice-cream cake and had dinner with my family and a couple friends who decided to come over. It was nice and I honestly didn't remember my birthday til meemee_chibo and my mom asked me what I wanted to eat on my bday. whoops.
Went to work Thursday morning and then went with chibo and a bunch of friends to watch PIXAR IN CONCERT THAT NIGHT~!
The whole thing was AMAZING~~~!!! They had a BUNCH of Pixar figures around the lounge areas and foods and drinks to buy. And the concert itself was BEAUTIFUL. They performed a lot of really good scores and then they would play on their projection screen the corresponding scene with the music so it was like you were watching clips of the movie without the dialogue. It got really heart wrenching when they were playing the garbage chute scene from Toy Story 3 and you hear the bell tolls and the dramatic music. I was like （ｉДｉ）the whole time.
We then ate out at Mel's diner afterwards cause chibo hasn't eaten there yet. And if I can make her happy, I'm happy. I'm that kind of sister (◡‿◡✿)
Nothing really closes off an evening than drinking milkshakes at 11 at night. They were really good milkshakes too.
After the concert I literally knocked out and didn't wake up till noon... I think. It was not morning that's for sure. But that evening I went to Baby's Neverland Masquerade Party. They had it at Forbes Island, a floating island restaurant at Pier 39 and it was GORGEOUS.
Well it was gorgeous at night. We got there round...6? and it was cloudy and COLD. Like the usual "oh you're by the water so here comes the wind and water" cold. They served us tea and appetizers before going down to the restaurant portion of the island. Then they served us a 3-course meal which was delicious~ I also got to sit at a table with some awesome lolitas and had a really great time chatting and hanging out with them.
from AKIRA's blog
Best part was they had both Tomomi-san, Alice and the Pirates designer and AKIRA-san, model for KERA and other brands including BTSSB and AATP and vocalist of DISACODE, as guests for this year's party and jpop summit. They were so amazing to be around, it was really hard to try and not to fangirl at them but I think I failed at that. (シ_ _)シ I wish I could have acted more casual around them or be able to talk to them more...
right photo by riotkittyx
Though the coolest thing was that they had a raffle throughout the event and I won one of them! My prize was handed to me by AKIRA-san and I was all like ☆*:.｡. o(≧▽≦)o .｡.:*☆ inside. It was awesome, I usually never win these kinds of things so I was really happy. But the real winners were the ones who won the fashion contest tonight. So most of the time during a lot of these baby events, there's always a fashion contest that you can apply for and the theme for this was the party "Neverland Masquerade". Catch is that you HAVE to wear pieces made by Baby or Alice and incorporate them into your contest entry, understandable, but you are allowed to add-on or make\craft pieces that compliment the entry.
I went as pixiedust!Peterpan and chibo made my peter pan mini hat. I thought it was a pretty cool idea, but the winners (the two in red and black above) really went all out and came up with some cool concepts. One went with the theme "Wendy if she was stuck in Neverland and became a pirate" and the other was "Rufio from Hook". I swear the execution and all the details on these coordinates are so gorgeous it's no surprise that they won. They really put a lot of thought, blood, sweat and tears into creating these so I'm honestly happy that both Tomomi-san and AKIRA-san were able to see that.
It was such a great party. I got to go to a Baby event, last event they had was like a few years ago which at the time I wasn't really into lolita but chibo really enjoyed it. I got to eat and walk around a beautiful venue, they have a lighthouse which you can go into that has an AMAZING view of the pier. And I got to hang out with Tomomi-san, AKIRA-san and other fellow lolitas that I don't usually see granted that I don't go to Japantown very often and even then I'm either working or don't have the money to constitute a reason to go into the city. I didn't get home till around 1am cause chibo was helping clean up post party, but it was such a great way to spend a Friday night.
Getting this out of the way: Ramen Fest was the WORST idea to combine with Jpop summit. Parking was a nightmare whether you arrived early or not, you couldn't walk ANYWHERE and food took forever to get, and I mean ANY food. From ALL the booths, the restaurants, even Nigiya market. And it brought people who were total assholes to the festival and you can tell. They were the "we just came here for the food" types and if you were like any one of us who wore lolita or anything out of the ordinary, you were either treated like you were part of the festival staff or just weirdos who dressed up weird. Regardless the worst part was that people would automatically assume that because you weren't dressed casually, and I mean the US version of casual, that it was ok to just go and start taking photos of you. And people were really rude about it too. Apparently a friend of mine mentioned that after she told someone that they could have asked to take photos of her and her friends they first responded with "it's not as fun when I ask" and then this whole encounter eventually derailed to this person getting very confrontational and sexist at her.
Ramen fest could make it's own festival with the crowd it brought in not a very nice crowd either, it didn't need to be added to Jpop summit. I'm already hearing from others that if Jpop is going to be like this next year, they're not going to even bother. As sad as I am to say it, I might consider it too. I really miss last year's Jpop summit, that was fun. This felt like it was heading into the direction of SF Gay Pride, like just another free for all party where you can do whatever the hell you want. Only good thing at Jpop is that I don't think it will get that crazy, but it had the same feeling. I honestly didn't feel like I was in a festival, I was just in this huge big crowd who wanted ramen and other foodstuffs.
OK done with the ranting.
The only good things I got out of this was hanging out once more with friends and other fellow lolitas, especially if they went to the party Friday night, and trying out mochi waffles. Those were super good. On Saturday, I had a drink and some SUPER good food at this restaurant called Pa'ina. Their pork gravy fries are the BEST, followed by the fact that we didn't have to deal with crowds of people and got to sit down for a good 2 hours.
Sunday was pretty much the same thing, except that I worked that morning at 2 and didn't get to the festival until the afternoon. Yeah I know great idea, but I honestly wasn't planning on going on Sunday. What changed my mind was that ONE: I caved in with my friend and bought tickets to the May'n concert for that night two weeks ago and TWO: I went into the Baby store on Saturday, heard that there was going to be an autograph session with Tomomi-san and AKIRA-san on Sunday if you spend $50 so I caved and bought something. (シ_ _)シ
So Sunday got busy REALLY fast. It was worth it though. Chibo came up with ingenious idea that I draw something for both Tomomi-san and AKIRA-san to give. Again this was Saturday night at like...11pm? I was like "girl I have WORK in like 2 hours!! how is that going to work?!!!" and then ten minutes later, there I am figuring out designs in my head to sketch I was like "I really hate you right now". I didn't actually get to them until after work but I did make it in time to give to them at the autograph session. They were super happy about it so I'm glad that chibo pushed me to draw them. They were super quick and super small drawings but they were still happy about it so I'm cool with that.
Then that night I got to see May'n perform at Slim's. It was so much fun, had a couple of drinks, ate some nachos, was waving my hands in the air, using my phone like a glow stick and singing along. I only heard a few of her songs prior to the concert which I love listening to, but the ones she sang at the concert really made me a more die-hard fan. The only other person who made me fall in love with their music at once was Nami Tamaki. May'n has such a bubbly personality on stage and she looked like she was having a good time. Last time I had that much fun at a concert was when I got to see The Pillows perform a few years ago, at the same venue how about that~?!
I was literally a zombie by the time Monday afternoon came around. Since Thursday, I've been going home between 11pm-1am every night and Sunday and Monday I worked at 2am, so I probably slept a total of....*counts fingers* 12 hours? Yeah, bad idea but totally worth it. Think it's cause of high school and college, all those late nights and all-nighters have made my internal clock go off kilter. Even now it's like 230am and I'm up finishing this. *shrugs*
So overall this year's birthday turned into birth-weekend? and was really SUPER SUPER fun. I always assume that I'm just going to not do anything on my birthday, usually because back in grade school my birthday wasn't part of the school year so I couldn't bring cupcakes and stuff to school and everyone would be out during the summer and that has stuck with me since, so I'm always pleasantly surprised when I do stuff for my birthday, or anything near it. I hope my future birthdays will be able to keep up and have something interesting every year.
Went to work Thursday morning and then went with chibo and a bunch of friends to watch PIXAR IN CONCERT THAT NIGHT~!
The whole thing was AMAZING~~~!!! They had a BUNCH of Pixar figures around the lounge areas and foods and drinks to buy. And the concert itself was BEAUTIFUL. They performed a lot of really good scores and then they would play on their projection screen the corresponding scene with the music so it was like you were watching clips of the movie without the dialogue. It got really heart wrenching when they were playing the garbage chute scene from Toy Story 3 and you hear the bell tolls and the dramatic music. I was like （ｉДｉ）the whole time.
We then ate out at Mel's diner afterwards cause chibo hasn't eaten there yet. And if I can make her happy, I'm happy. I'm that kind of sister (◡‿◡✿)
Nothing really closes off an evening than drinking milkshakes at 11 at night. They were really good milkshakes too.
After the concert I literally knocked out and didn't wake up till noon... I think. It was not morning that's for sure. But that evening I went to Baby's Neverland Masquerade Party. They had it at Forbes Island, a floating island restaurant at Pier 39 and it was GORGEOUS.
Well it was gorgeous at night. We got there round...6? and it was cloudy and COLD. Like the usual "oh you're by the water so here comes the wind and water" cold. They served us tea and appetizers before going down to the restaurant portion of the island. Then they served us a 3-course meal which was delicious~ I also got to sit at a table with some awesome lolitas and had a really great time chatting and hanging out with them.
from AKIRA's blog
Best part was they had both Tomomi-san, Alice and the Pirates designer and AKIRA-san, model for KERA and other brands including BTSSB and AATP and vocalist of DISACODE, as guests for this year's party and jpop summit. They were so amazing to be around, it was really hard to try and not to fangirl at them but I think I failed at that. (シ_ _)シ I wish I could have acted more casual around them or be able to talk to them more...
right photo by riotkittyx
Though the coolest thing was that they had a raffle throughout the event and I won one of them! My prize was handed to me by AKIRA-san and I was all like ☆*:.｡. o(≧▽≦)o .｡.:*☆ inside. It was awesome, I usually never win these kinds of things so I was really happy. But the real winners were the ones who won the fashion contest tonight. So most of the time during a lot of these baby events, there's always a fashion contest that you can apply for and the theme for this was the party "Neverland Masquerade". Catch is that you HAVE to wear pieces made by Baby or Alice and incorporate them into your contest entry, understandable, but you are allowed to add-on or make\craft pieces that compliment the entry.
I went as pixiedust!Peterpan and chibo made my peter pan mini hat. I thought it was a pretty cool idea, but the winners (the two in red and black above) really went all out and came up with some cool concepts. One went with the theme "Wendy if she was stuck in Neverland and became a pirate" and the other was "Rufio from Hook". I swear the execution and all the details on these coordinates are so gorgeous it's no surprise that they won. They really put a lot of thought, blood, sweat and tears into creating these so I'm honestly happy that both Tomomi-san and AKIRA-san were able to see that.
It was such a great party. I got to go to a Baby event, last event they had was like a few years ago which at the time I wasn't really into lolita but chibo really enjoyed it. I got to eat and walk around a beautiful venue, they have a lighthouse which you can go into that has an AMAZING view of the pier. And I got to hang out with Tomomi-san, AKIRA-san and other fellow lolitas that I don't usually see granted that I don't go to Japantown very often and even then I'm either working or don't have the money to constitute a reason to go into the city. I didn't get home till around 1am cause chibo was helping clean up post party, but it was such a great way to spend a Friday night.
Getting this out of the way: Ramen Fest was the WORST idea to combine with Jpop summit. Parking was a nightmare whether you arrived early or not, you couldn't walk ANYWHERE and food took forever to get, and I mean ANY food. From ALL the booths, the restaurants, even Nigiya market. And it brought people who were total assholes to the festival and you can tell. They were the "we just came here for the food" types and if you were like any one of us who wore lolita or anything out of the ordinary, you were either treated like you were part of the festival staff or just weirdos who dressed up weird. Regardless the worst part was that people would automatically assume that because you weren't dressed casually, and I mean the US version of casual, that it was ok to just go and start taking photos of you. And people were really rude about it too. Apparently a friend of mine mentioned that after she told someone that they could have asked to take photos of her and her friends they first responded with "it's not as fun when I ask" and then this whole encounter eventually derailed to this person getting very confrontational and sexist at her.
Ramen fest could make it's own festival with the crowd it brought in not a very nice crowd either, it didn't need to be added to Jpop summit. I'm already hearing from others that if Jpop is going to be like this next year, they're not going to even bother. As sad as I am to say it, I might consider it too. I really miss last year's Jpop summit, that was fun. This felt like it was heading into the direction of SF Gay Pride, like just another free for all party where you can do whatever the hell you want. Only good thing at Jpop is that I don't think it will get that crazy, but it had the same feeling. I honestly didn't feel like I was in a festival, I was just in this huge big crowd who wanted ramen and other foodstuffs.
OK done with the ranting.
The only good things I got out of this was hanging out once more with friends and other fellow lolitas, especially if they went to the party Friday night, and trying out mochi waffles. Those were super good. On Saturday, I had a drink and some SUPER good food at this restaurant called Pa'ina. Their pork gravy fries are the BEST, followed by the fact that we didn't have to deal with crowds of people and got to sit down for a good 2 hours.
Sunday was pretty much the same thing, except that I worked that morning at 2 and didn't get to the festival until the afternoon. Yeah I know great idea, but I honestly wasn't planning on going on Sunday. What changed my mind was that ONE: I caved in with my friend and bought tickets to the May'n concert for that night two weeks ago and TWO: I went into the Baby store on Saturday, heard that there was going to be an autograph session with Tomomi-san and AKIRA-san on Sunday if you spend $50 so I caved and bought something. (シ_ _)シ
So Sunday got busy REALLY fast. It was worth it though. Chibo came up with ingenious idea that I draw something for both Tomomi-san and AKIRA-san to give. Again this was Saturday night at like...11pm? I was like "girl I have WORK in like 2 hours!! how is that going to work?!!!" and then ten minutes later, there I am figuring out designs in my head to sketch I was like "I really hate you right now". I didn't actually get to them until after work but I did make it in time to give to them at the autograph session. They were super happy about it so I'm glad that chibo pushed me to draw them. They were super quick and super small drawings but they were still happy about it so I'm cool with that.
Then that night I got to see May'n perform at Slim's. It was so much fun, had a couple of drinks, ate some nachos, was waving my hands in the air, using my phone like a glow stick and singing along. I only heard a few of her songs prior to the concert which I love listening to, but the ones she sang at the concert really made me a more die-hard fan. The only other person who made me fall in love with their music at once was Nami Tamaki. May'n has such a bubbly personality on stage and she looked like she was having a good time. Last time I had that much fun at a concert was when I got to see The Pillows perform a few years ago, at the same venue how about that~?!
I was literally a zombie by the time Monday afternoon came around. Since Thursday, I've been going home between 11pm-1am every night and Sunday and Monday I worked at 2am, so I probably slept a total of....*counts fingers* 12 hours? Yeah, bad idea but totally worth it. Think it's cause of high school and college, all those late nights and all-nighters have made my internal clock go off kilter. Even now it's like 230am and I'm up finishing this. *shrugs*
So overall this year's birthday turned into birth-weekend? and was really SUPER SUPER fun. I always assume that I'm just going to not do anything on my birthday, usually because back in grade school my birthday wasn't part of the school year so I couldn't bring cupcakes and stuff to school and everyone would be out during the summer and that has stuck with me since, so I'm always pleasantly surprised when I do stuff for my birthday, or anything near it. I hope my future birthdays will be able to keep up and have something interesting every year.