Friday:
So the plan was to leave Vallejo at 10am, pick up Chris in Merced at 12pm, stop to eat lunch on the way, and check into our hotel in Torrance between 430-5, and then be at the Nokia Theater in Downtown LA for the pre-concert soundcheck party between 5-530, with the concert starting at 8. I thought I had left some wiggle room for some traffic, so it seemed like a good timeframe. Well, I happened to underestimate LA traffic by almost 2 hours. We were in LA by 4, but traffic on the 405 was horrendous. Even the carpool lane was backed up, bumper to bumper. At one point, we were going a mile every 10 mins. We didn’t check in till around 630, and didn’t get to the venue till around 730. So we totally missed the soundcheck, but at least we still got our VIP goodies bag, which came with the following:

From then on out, things got amazing. When I bought the tickets, I got sec ORCH row D, which I interpreted to be the 4th row in the 2nd section from the stage (VIP Pit is right in front of the stage). So we’re walking to our seats and it turns out it we had the very 1st row in the section, and in front of us is metal fence that separated us from the VIP Pit area. So we were hella close.

The entire concert was hella dope. Aside from the slower songs, the whole thing was high energy. CL was on one the entire night. Seemed like she had downed a case of Red Bulls and chased it with a couple 5 Hour energies. You could tell they were actually singing, no lip syncing here, and they were singing with a live band (they were dope too). All their performances and choreography were really good. Even Park Bom, the one in the group known for not being a good dance, was actually dancing and trying hard. We were all standing for more or less the entire 2 hours. By far, hands down, best concert I’ve been to. The SMTown concerts aren’t even close. Girls’ Generation needs to have their own solo concert here too. If 2NE1 can do it, they should too. Girls’ Generation is still my favorite group, but now 2NE1 is my #2. The price of the vip tickets, the long drive down to SoCal, the waiting in traffic, it was all well worth it. We didn’t even mind missing the soundcheck party.

The scrolling marquee at the Nokia Theater.

CL, DJ-ing on raised pedestal. She got everyone all hyped up.

Bom during her ballad solo. Absolutely no dancing involved.

Minzy doing her usual dance thing. She's a dancing machine.

(Sexy) Dara during her "Kiss" performance. She chose a random guy from the audience and gave him a kiss. Unfortunately, not one of us

A very fancy mic holder. And they're wearing trench coat dresses?

After the concert, we went to LA Family House for dinner. Cheap, all-you-can-eat korean bbq. We were all still buzzin over the concert. When we got back to the room, Jayr hooked up his laptop to the tv and we looked at our pictures and watched all the videos. I think we were up till around 230am.
 
Saturday:
Had lunch at Santouka Ramen, inside the Mitsuwa Japanese Market that was close to our hotel. Pretty legit ramen. Me likey.  Two thumbs up!

Then we headed off to the Taste of Brews beer festival at the Shoreline Park in Long Beach. It was supposed to be unlimited beer tastings for 4 hours, but at the last minute, the Alcohol and Beverage Control (state agency) made them regulate it us by giving us 18 tickets at the gate. But it was cool though, cause some breweries didn’t even ask for the tickets. 18 wouldn’ve been pushing it for me anyways since I was driver. I mainly stayed with the ciders and the sours. Crispin apple & pear cides FTW! New Belgium had a sour called Lips of Faith - Tart Lychee. It was really good.

Jayr being Jayr, he thought “sugartits” was a good term to flatter women and use as a pickup line. Chris’ girlfriend Chrissy vehemently disagreed, so the two proposed to survey people at the beerfest. Mainly surveyed guys, only a few women, but the general consensus was that it was not a flattering term and would be a very bad idea to use that term. But we also determined that it would only be acceptable to use with someone you know, possible a loved one or someone you have a familiar relationship with, only as a term of endearment. And that it would probably only work with certain personalities.

Me, Jayr, & Ricky  passed by a couple of the guys that we surveyed, several times, and each time they turned to Jayr and said “hey, sugartits!” and raise their beer cup, and we all laughed and carried on. Well, the last time we passed that group, Chris & Chrissy were with us, and they did the same thing again. Chris thought they were talking to Chrissy, and he got hella pissed. He was ready to fight the guy, but Chrissy held him back and talked him out of it. I’m pretty sure the guy meant it for Jayr, from the other times he said it, but I don’t blame Chris at all. I wasn’t about to stop him, but I had his back. Then somehow it got brought up that if Chris and Jayr were going to fight, Jayr said “I’d let you win”, and Chris was like “LET me win?!?”. When we heard that, Chrissy was like, “go, let’s just go”, so the rest of us just walked away and let Chris & Jayr talk it out. Lol, Jayr being Jayr.

Last month, I went to the Beer Olympics beerfest at Fort Mason in SF with Mark & Albert. Mark had the nifty idea to make a shirt that had the olympics logo with a frothy beer bug behind it. So he ordered the shirts, but they didn’t make it in time for the beerfest. I wore that shirt to this beefest and I got hella responses to it, like “Beer olympics....alright!!”, “dope shirt”, and “go for the gold!” just to name a few. A guy even took a picture of it.

So we stayed the whole 4 hours, drinking for more the less the entire time (except for me, I stopped an hour before to sober up). Despite being the youngest one out of us, Ricky was the most “gone”. On the drive over to Mr. Pizza, Ricky was knocked out and Chrissy wasn’t feeling too good and almost ready to yak. On our last visit here, me, Shann, & Chris finished 2 medium pizzas, so we figured 2 large pizzas, be enough between the 5 of us. Complete miscalculation. Did not account for the beer. We barely finished. Probably wouldn’t have if it wasn’t for the eating machine that is Jayr.

Since everyone was just pooped from the beerfest & pizza, we just chilled at hotel for the rest of the night. We watched 21 Jump Street and The Dictator, both hella funny.

Sunday:
Had Road to Seoul for lunch. Yummy, yummy goodness. Then hit up the music store in Koreatown to buy come cds, The Hundreds store to get some new shirts (love the logo), Magnolia Bakery for the banana pudding, and then Porto’s in Burbank before driving back home.

For originally planning to do nothing for my birthday, I actually did a bunch of things, and I was totally ok with it (but for the record, I am still totally against surprise parties). Started off my bday with Haile. We were originally supposed to go to Mizu’s, since my meal would be free, but just recently Mizu’s changed their free bday meal policy from “free bday meal with 1 other paying customer” to “2 other paying customers”. It was only going to be me & Haile, so....donkey balls. Luckily I had a plan B. IHOP had sent me a free bday breakfast coupon, so we went there instead. Rooty Tooty Fresh N Fruity FTBW (for the bday win)!

Afterwards, we went to Etorre’s European Bakery. Haile had to pick up a cake for a family party. I picked up a slice of their raspberry cheesecake, which I guess counts as a bday cake. Then we watched Expendables 2. I enjoyed the sh!t out of that movie. Turned off the brain and just soaked in the mindless action & violence. It was awesome and I can’t wait for the next one. Then we got drinks at Tapioca Express.

Before heading back to Vallejo, I dropped by to visit Elway and baby Zoe. She’s getting so big now! Maybe it’s cause I haven’t seen baby pics of Elway or Patchi, but I don’t think Zoe looks like either one of them. I’m sure it’s just me. She'll probably start looking like one of them as she gets older

Shortly after getting back to Vallejo, me & Shann went off to meet Chris & Chrissy, who were coming from Merced, and Tj at Zachary’s in Oakland. Chris had suggested it and I was like “hell yeah”. I can’t even remember the last time I went there, it’s been that long. And it was as good as I remember. We had asked about any bday specials, and they only asked for my name, which I immediately knew that they were going to sing a bday song. So when they brought out the pizza, there was a lit candle in the center, and then they sang:

Luckily for me, it was kind of late already and there weren’t very many people in the restaurant, so it wasn’t too embarassing.

After, me, Tj, & Shann went to Triple Rock for drinks. Chris & Chrissy had to drive back to Merced because they were going to Yosemite the next morning. Kind of crazy how they drove so far just for my bday (4 hours roundtrip). I really appreciated it, cause they really didn’t have to do that. Also kind of crazy how I ended up drinking with my two youngest cousins of legal drinking age. Man, I’m getting old.

On Saturday, I kicked it with Kev. I had received a free bday sandwich coupon from Ike’s Place, and since I hadn’t had Ike’s in hella long, I wanted to redeem the coupon. They opened up a shop in Oakland, so we went to that one (saved on gas & toll). I had the Damon Bruce. It was delicious. After, we went to Ikea (did some reconnaissance on a new mattress and bed frame for my room in Sac), then chilled at my place for a bit.

Later on that night, I watch Bourne Legacy.....with my parents. I honestly can not remember the last time I watched a movie (at the theater) with them, and I don’t think I’ve ever watched a movie with my dad. But yeah, they were watching it only because half of it was filmed in the Philippines. And I didn’t have anything planned that night and wasn’t doing anything anways, so why not?

On Sunday, I more or less spent the entire day building this:

Lots of wood, lots of mitre saw action, lots of sawdust, & lots of screwing (hey-o!). Just another thing I can point to a say, with pride, “I did that” (I hoping to do that my child some day).

And that’s how I spent my 31st birthday weekend.

bday count: 11 (not including the label of this count)

One of my favorite shirts has (what I think is a) bleach stain on it. I have no idea how it got there, and is kind of mysterious as I don't use bleach, and it was the only piece of clothing with a bleach stain. I ran it through the wash several times, but the stain is still there, so it's effectively ruined. This saddens me deeply. It will be missed

So my birthday’s coming up in less than two weeks. I already know that I want to do nothing. Absolutely nothing. That’s the plan. (I don’t get how some people can’t/won’t comprehend that.) Raised a spoiled only child, I am used to getting what I want. If need be, I will go out of my way to get what I want. And if somehow, things still don’t go according to plan, I will be royally pissed the f@ck off.

The main reason that I want to do nothing is because doing something/anything requires planning. To be honest, I’m tired of planning stuff. I more or less plan everything (cabin trip, cousin trips, kpop trips). Planning takes a lot of time & effort. Most of all, it stresses me out, even if it doesn’t show. As if I need more sh!t to in my life to worry about, celebrating my birthday shouldn’t be one of them. The ironic thing about this is that doing nothing still requires planning. Yes, I have a plan to avoid doing something (if something comes up).

I suppose I’m the exact opposite of most people when it comes to birthdays. Most people want to celebrate, party, or whatever. Me? I don’t want to do jack sh!t. I just don’t. I don’t know when I became like this, maybe it’s just cause I’m getting older and just care less.

I know this is a bit insensitive, but for fuck's sake already. My Facebook feed is full of baby pictures. Some people aren't so bad at over-sharing every little thing about their baby (kinda glad my fam's not like that), but others (this is really only directed to one friend/acquaintance in particular)......man, I just wanna say:

"Ok, OK, WE GET IT. You have a cute baby. We were all well aware of that from THE FIRST THOUSAND OR SO PICTURES THAT YOU'VE SHARED. For the love of your baby, please stop."

For me, fittingly enough, the only exception, the only time that I don't mind my Facebook feed flooded with baby pictures, is if the baby is wearing Oakland A's gear. I have an old high school classmate, who happens to be an A's fan, and has decked out both her babies in A's gear. They're soo cute!! This, I do not mind one bit.

(spoiler-rific for multiple kdramas)

So I just finished another korean drama, Big. (The main girl is from Smile, You. The main guy is from Coffee Prince. One of the side characters is from miss A, a kpop group that I like). I was hooked from the start. The main characters had good chemistry, the side characters were ok and even funny sometimes, and there were multiple love triangles. There are 16 episodes and there weren't really any "filler" episodes, more or less every episode had a purpose. Up until the final episode, it had been good, not really disappointed, and I was very curious as to how there were going to resolve the love triangles & other issues. So I'm watching the final episode, eying the playtime counter basically the entire time, basically thinking "ok, they've got xx amount of time to wrap all this up....". The typical kdrama formula is some kind of partial resolution, then a fast-forward to some point in the future to see how everything played out.

Well, this kdrama was no different. And just like the last 4 kdramas that I've watched (Dream High, Smile You, Creating Destiny, and My Fair Lady), I was not satisfied with the ending. They really didn't resolve anything and they didn't wrap up any of the side stories. They basically left a lot of loose ends, and I thought it was crap, probably the worse ending since My Fair Lady, which also had a crap "ending". Dream High's ending was ok, but not really happy. Smile You had an ok ending, but was HELLA drawn out (they could've cut out the last 15 or so episodes). Creating Destiny's was ok, but was hella rushed (exact opposite of Smile You).

It's partly my fault, but mostly the writers fault. It's my fault because I guess I set my expectations kind of high, but that's a direct result of the writing. If the writers didn't write most of it to be interesting & compelling to get me initially hooked and emotionally invested, I would've lost interest and stopped watching, like I did with Hello Miss, Cinderella Man, and Miss Ripley.

There are only a few kdramas that I like everything about. Soulmate and Couple or Trouble are probably it. I happen to own both, and they are my #1 and #2 fav romantic comedy kdramas (I have different list for the cry-cry-cry kdramas). Princess Hours is my #3, but it was waaayyy too long. More than half of it was filler episodes.

I'm probably not going to stop watching kdramas, so I hope they get better, or at least start ending better.