Santa Cruz!

Okay, this post is like a month late, but I have good reasons......not really. But better late than never...?

So anyway, a couple of weeks ago, a bunch of friends and I went to Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk. One of our friends' moms was nice enough to drive us all the way there and /coughpayforourfood. Of course I took lots and lots of pictures. (please ignore the date in the bottom right corner of the pictures, I'm too lazy to set an accurate date on my camera. lolololol)


Pointless picture of a bunch of trees on our way there.



And then Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk! (kind of cheated with this picture, as I took it from on top of a ferris wheel I will mention later on)
We bought 50 tickets to split among the four of us, sounds like a lot, but nope! An average ticket quanity for one ride was like 4 tickets. -.-

The first ride we went on was the......how am I supposed to remember the name? It's been, like, a month. I remember that it was spinny ride with "rock and roll" music and......um, here's a visual:

The ride claimed to be a purely rock n'roll music ride, but they played Cascada. Cascada =/= Rock n' Roll. Now that I think about it, I don't recall one actual rock n' roll song. But it was really fun to ride!

We walked around for a bit, and stopped by a candy shop:

Everything looked mouthwatering! But horribly overpriced. So no, I didn't buy anything. My friend however bought a bag of saltwater taffy which she barely shared due to the over-pricenessssssss.

Also:

Why?

Afterwards, we went to play laser tag because we had so much fun the last time we played laser tag. Once again, I got the highest score. Awuauhauhdfugh. It was a lot easier, however it may be because that it wasn't exactly the place to go if you're a diehard laser tag player.

Then we ate fud, blah blah, here's a picture of my partially eaten burger, yaaaaay.

It was bland, in case you wanted to ask. I guess it's my fault, since I prefer my burgers as dry as a desert.
I was full afterwards, but not my friiieeeennnndss, they wanted to eat:

F**KING HEART ATTACK IN A TRAY.
Actually, I stand corrected. It was two trays, one for the deep fried oreos and the deep fried twinkies and fuawkdamnhellbitchwhoreson why would you eat this?


Taken post-devouring-the-two-deep-fried-oreos-in-less-than-two-minutes. They didn't enjoy the deep-fried twinkie as much. Were the pain in your chests to unbearable to enjoy anything?
Ahem, sorry. If you're a deep-fried everything fanatic, I don't mean to offend you. It just goes against my standards of food. But just hearing the words deep fried makes my arteries tremble in fear.

And if that wasn't enough, they went to get ice cream afterwards. Well, 2/3 of them did. Why even auhdhgfusdjhbjfhgfhfg.

Then, the beach!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!111111



"Dear?"
"Yes?"
"Do you have to go away tomorrow?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
"It's the best for us."
"Dear?"
"Yes?"
"I don't want tomorrow to ever come."
"But then if tomorrow never comes, then the day will never come that I reunite with you with open arms. And then we'll have hundreds of neverending days together, not just here on this sand, but anywhere you want us to be."
"But you'll be away forever."
"No one said those hundreds of days have to be on earth."
"Dear?"
"Yes?"
"I'm an atheist."
"Damn."
Suddenly, heartwarming music.

It was the most fun part of the day, personally! We drew in the saaaand:

So talented, omg. ;_;

Collected seashells we were planning to make bracelets out of(never did....), chased the tides:
We had to leave the beach earlier than we wanted to, because the mom that took us there told us the park was going to close soon.(we later found out she read the time wrong, and it was in fact closing much later. Dammit.) So we went off to spend the rest of our tickets(by the way, it was a huge ass pain cleaning off the sand off our shoes).

Two of our friends went on a roller coaster which I forgot to take a picture of. Ffffff. I somewhat have a fear of heights, and falls....and hills......and speed, so I chickened out. One of my other friends was glad to go with me to thhhhhhheeeeeeeeeeeee SWWWWWWIIIIIINGS YAYAY FUN FUN FUN.


It spun and tilted and that's pretty much it.

Then we all met up to go on the ferris wheel. I forgot to take a proper picture of the ferris wheel, but here's an.....angle of it?

One of my friends is looking down at us, but it's so far away, I didn't feel the need to block out her face. Oh weeeellllllll.
On a side note, the ferris wheel was the scariest thing ever, UAHSFDUHSGFGFFF. Brings me back to my fear of heights. Also, it was awful fast for a comfort ride, and the little cars were as open as open can be. I'm used to being in an enclosed box for ferris wheels. ;-; But I guess since it wasn't an enclosed box, I got some pretty magnificent views of the park.

Afterwards, we walked across a bridge and back. Okaaaay.


Then we walked 20 minutes to a pier. The seagulls were huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuge, at least in comparison the the seagulls over where I live. We stopped by a rather crowded place where they selled fried seafood. Two of my friends bought fried calamari, and it was dericious. Calamari was usually chewy, but these were bitten through like buttah.

Theeeeen we looked at some sea lions:

They were all sleeping. I wonder if they got splinters like that...?

My other friend and I came back to the same seafood place. Might as well get quality seafood, while we were there. My friend got three fish tacos, and I got fish and chips for ten dollars. At first I thought was a little overpriced, but then I realized how much food was in the tray. It took my whole family to eat it when I came back home! Although, it was super fresh tasting, like they were caught that morning. Mmmmmh.

On the car ride home, we played a game where we described movies super vaguely, and the people had to guess what the movie was. Ex)

"This was a story about a guy trying to find something."
"Finding Nemo?"
"YEAH!!!!!1111"

I was pretty bad at that game. I said stuff like:
"There's a green guy and a donkey trying to save a princess."

If you don't get it, then.......

Well that's it for Santa Cruz! I actually went to Fanimu this year for the 27th-29th. Expect a huge post on that. (: Also expect a seperate post for art. I was about to post my art on the same post as this, but it would get too cluttered.
Also, another seperate post on my new dog. Pweesh, this is what I get for slacking off on my blog.

San Francisco!

So on Sunday, three other friends, Jessica #2's(number additive due to there being a total of three Jessica's in the group)parents and I went on a road trip to San Francisco. But before I get to the actual trip, let me tell how scary foggy it was in the morning. Like seriously, I could not see over a 20 yard radius. I thought I was going get run over by a truck before I even make it to my friend's house.

We first stopped by Mountain View--where the said parents owned a pizza place. We stayed there for two hours, where we stopped by CVS pharmacy. The first thing we did was try to find Tangled Valentine's Day cards. No, we did not find any. ;_; Then then we bought chocolate. By the way, Wonka's Scrumdiliumptious(hope I spelled it right!) bar is not that scrumdiliuptious. Then we bought a bag of vegetable-fry-chip-thing at Trader Joe's and acted like obnoxious teenagers in the middle of the street. Afterwards, we went to Party City, where we had no choice BUT to find the Tangled party supplies.

I didn't buy anything, since there wasn't much worth buying. But it was still pretty cool that there was a whole shelf completely dedicated to Tangled party supplies, so yeah, picture. :)

We went back to the pizza place to eat free pizza. I only ate two small cheese slices, because I'm such a slow eater, and everybody else had at least three normal-sized slices. T_T

AND NOW BACK TO THE ROAD TRIP WE GO, where Caitlin screwed up my hearing by blasting 'So Happy I Could Die' by Lady Gaga in my ear. Last time I'm accepting earphones from her. I fell asleep in the car, well, kind of asleep because I kept zoning in and out of conversations held by my three other friends. And then finally came the big city! (I suppose the words 'big city' doesn't hold much meaning on my part, since I already live in the big city)



Tall skyscrapers~



Fountains.



Gorgeous archictecture. We kept seeing this type of structure throughout the city.

Traffic....

Angry owl on the wall.

THIS IS A VIETNAMESE PHO PLACE. I SAW IT AND I GOT OVER-EXCITED BECAUSE I LIKE PHO. Well, almost as excited as when I spotted the Disney store from a distance.

We eventually found parking near a billboard advertising whiskey. /shrug

We went to a huge Urban Outfitters first, where we skimmed about for less then ten minutes. So we walked across the street to the three-story, church-looking Forever 21. I felt compelled to spend my Forever 21 gift card I got from the Secret Santa Gift Exchange while in San Francisco. After going up to the top floor, and eventually coming back down, I decided to buy a plain, pink cardigan for only 13 dollars:

I'm happy with the purchase. It has pockets! xD

And then we stopped by at Ross to meet up with the parents to let them know we haven't been shanked yet we were safe, and sprinted over to the Disney store!



DISNEY STORE, YES. WHAT I'VE BEEN WAITING FOR. YES. Of course we had to go over to the Tangled merchandise!



No Tangled Graphic novel though, even when my friend, Jessica #3 called in a week ahead of time to see if it was in stock. ;_; But she did find a 'reusable' Tangled sticker book. We're actually not sure if the stickers are reusable, since they just look like normal stickers...She's not willing to find out. And then we found Beast, the mentally challenged fairytale character.



I'm sorry, but are my friends and I the only people that laugh at this Beast-doll costume?

Then we went upstairs where Caitlin found a Mr. Pricklepants and Eeyore plushie to buy for only fifteen dollars total. And there on that floor, we found a huge honking screen with a Disney playlist for visitors to customize. Of course we had to put the Tangled trailer next on the playlist:




Jessica #3 doing the typical tourist thing in front of Flynn's smolder. Mmmm. Then we went back downstairs to get in line for the cash register when all of a sudden, the faces of Disney villians projected onto the walls! The lights darkened, and thunder played....And then a random employee ran up to hug me in an attempt to act scared. She told us rub our hands together to call forth Tinkerbell, who came projected on the walls and SAVED US YAY. Then we all cried tears of happiness and agreed that working at the Disney store is a dream job.

And then we went back outside to take a group picture:

I JUST DON'T WANT BLIND YOU PEOPLE WITH OUR ACNE.

Then we went to the Apple store to check a Tangle fansite and finally went back to the car, where I took a picture of all the Disney merchandise we bought:

A Tangled tote bag for me, a Tangled sticker book for Jessica #3, and a Mr. Pricklepants and a Eeyoore plushie for Caitlin. JESSICA #2 DIDN'T BUY ANYTHING, HOW COULD SHE?

...Wow, you'd think a bunch of three year olds bought that stuff.

And then we drove up to Chinatown, a.k.a the Asian hills of doom. I didn't take any pictures of Chinatown itself, since the I was too tired from walking up and down steep hills and stopping every five minutes at some cramped store. Jessica #3 bought a 'I heart SF' shirt at one store to match her 'I heart NY' shirt........We eventually stopped at a small restaraunt thing-a-majig where we shared a plate of the parents' selection of food:

A variety of wonton thingies--I don't even know. They were good though! And then Jessica #2 and #3 ate a Chinese sticky bun, followed by my eating a sesame seed round thing with a red bean paste....I should really learn the names. I eat this stuff almost everyday. v_v

And then onto the final part of the day: Yesstyle! It was quite a long trip deeper into SF. I remember at some point, the elevation was so high that our ears popped. I did recognize the Stonestown Galleria almost immediately though. When we got into the mall, we jogged up the escalator, ran to the wrong side of the mall, and finally sprinted to Yesstyle...Where we saw the dad at the entrance. Okay, lovely, even with our sprinting, the parents whom we got a five minute headstart over still beat us.

The store was rather small--not suffocating--but small. But they had a REALLY nice selection of clothes. My friends and I were tearing apart the store, looking to buy as much as we can! Sadly there was only one dressing room, so the wait time just to try on clothes was rather long.

At the end, I bought the same dress as Jessica #2(xD), Caitlin bought a hoodie, and the mom bought a questionable dress for Jessica #2...very questionable indeed. The prices were awesome though! The dresses were only $25 and the hoodie about $30.(I think, correct me if I'm wrong Caitlin)

And then we went back to Jessica #2's house where we did an -ahem- art project. An art project I imagine would offend a lot of people so I'll just keep the picture of the art project in my Facebook. ^_^; And then Jessica #3 showed us that the whole Yesstyle site was having an up to 80% off sale! We all agreed to do a group order before the sale ends. We're trying to hit $150, so we could get free shipping, even though shipping is only $10. US FOBS. I still have the whole Yesstyle site to look through before January 24th!

I'M A LITTLE KID AGAIN!

Halloween on Sunday was rather fun. My friends and I did a very non-Halloweeny thing--which was go to Gildroy Gardens. However a lot of little kids went in thier costumes.
At first it was fun, just ridin' the little kiddie rides. Then we got hungry and blew eight dollars a dish at some Italian specialty restaurant there. (why am I always in the only Asian group at an Italian restaurant?) Even if it was eight dollars, it was still too much food for me, but I somehow choked it all down. We went on a garlic spinny ride immediately after and it was AWFUL. It spun too fast, everybody could feel the food solids hitting the walls of their stomachs and traveling up their throat, it was just...FFFFUUU. Nobody vomited luckily, and we were very reluctant to go on another spinny ride.
Then it hit us. Every. Single. Ride. Spins. We could survive Great America(which isn't that bad in the first place) but not a garlic-themed amusement park. Lovely.
We went on nearly every ride anyway, even the only "roller coaster" there, which surprisingly didn't give us as much of a lump-in-the-throat-feeling as the spinny rides. It wasn't much of a thrill ride anyway, the only thing exciting was that it went really fast. And the carts were rather tall, so that eliminated the fear of falling out during the ride.
My favorite part of the day was going on the paddle boats shaped like ducks and swans. The first time around, my friend and I could barely paddle the entire length of the pool-lake thing. We kept going around in circles or hitting rocks or even hitting another boat. I could see my other friends on the docks laughing. :<

Ah, I hope my friend uploads the Gildroy Garden pictures so I could steal it from her. 8>

Then 3/4 of us went back to a friend's house where we printed out last-minute masks for Halloween.(I already had a costume, but I was too lazy to go and get it)

My friend--Pedobear--kept saying 'Hi' to the little kids that passed by and commenting(really loudly) on how cute they looked. She would've done it with or without the mask though.
We went out for 20 minutes and got tired. We got a decent amount of loot though. Pedobear however, ate about nine Dum-Dums in under ten minutes.


And chapter 66 of my favorite manga(Vampire Knight) came out today. ;w; :

AWKWARD SNIPPET IS AWKWARD.