Oooh we’re not even done with February yet but already my 2011 concert line-up is looking pretty awesome. If you didn’t know already I’m kind of a concert-holic. Whenever I hear a concert announcement for an artist or band that I like I have this irrational tendency to swipe my credit card and get tickets ASAP usually through a presale or at least no later than general sale dates. It’s really like this impulsive habit I have to attend all these concerts. Seriously, I usually see myself going near-bankrupt from it. But there’s seriously nothing better than spending a night listening to live music and just getting caught up in a performance.
My usual partner in crime for most of these events is my sister. I usually have the easiest time convincing her (okay… maybe sometimes it’s coercion) to come to all these shows with me, but also because she just happens to have the same awesome taste in music as I do (of course that reason changes depending which sibling you're talking to). *I’d like to take this moment to thank Jennifer for always willing to go bankrupt with me to go to all these events over the past years* But I do love going to concerts with anyone who's willing to go with me. Here are a few of my favourites...
Vampire Weekend
100 Monkeys
Iron & WIne
Paramore
Kid Cudi
No Doubt
Muse
Lady Gaga
Kings of Leon
Currently my attendance is confirmed for the following shows:
100 Monkeys @ Venue, Vancouver
March 4th @ 7:30pm
Bonnie Dune @ Commodore
May 14th @ 8:00pm
The Black Keys @ Deer Lake Park
June 27th @ 5:30pm
Katy Perry @ Rogers Arena
July 19th @ 7:30pm
Taylor Swift @ Rogers Arena
Sept 10th, @ 7:00pm
These are just a few shows that I would gladly sell a vital organ for in order to go:
Adele @ Commodore
May 30th @ 7:00pm
Bonnaroo @ Manchester, TN
June 9 - 12
Granted Bonnaroo may be a far stretch, but the line-up looks amazing and I can only imagine how awesome it'd be. That and Coachella but due to how exam schedules pan out every April the latter is never an option.
Since it is only late-February, I'm sure more shows will be announced for later in the year that I'll probably want to/end up going to as well. Looking forward to what's ahead so far though.
This is really a blog covering a jumble of sorts. I’m almost at the end of my reading break and most of it has been spent working at my new tutoring job or shopping. The job has been… painful to put it mildly. I rather not taint my blog by going too deep into details (i.e. bitching) about it, but my more notable occurrences on the job will be duly noted here. So far it’s mostly been about just getting comfortable with everyone and trying to get a rhythm going between all of us.
Last Saturday I had a belated-birthday meal with family at a place called Fet’s on Commercial Drive. It was suggested by my uncle who always has the best recommendations for restaurants all over the lower mainland, and like always he didn’t disappoint with this place. The place has a wicked interior which I wish I took pictures of but being me, of course I was too engrossed in the food. I went with a brunch selection which featured everything.
I was unable to finish my plate even after sharing my pancakes with my uncle. They were these gigantic blackberry pancakes which tasted amazing (definitely recommend them over the blueberry ones). Some of the other ordered meals were burgers, quesadillas, and omelets which all looked delicious.
That’s me and my cousin, Sarah, goofing around as we waited for our order.
On Tuesday I got to go shopping with some friends. We went south of the border down to Lynnwood for a day-trip, making it a nearly two hour drive there and another two hours coming back. The company was great though and we had so much fun singing (awfully off-key) a lot of pop songs, bhangra-dancing and just joking around. We went to Alderwood Mall which includes an outside and inside shopping area. The place is awesome and has practically everything, but the stores we bought stuff were American Apparel, Forever 21, Urban Outfitters, and Borders. My main purchase of the day was a ‘vicose shawl cardigan’.
It looks better on the mannequin but it’s wonderfully comfy and will fit well into my spring wardrobe as the weather gets slightly warmer.
My shopping continued the following day when I made purchases at Urban Outfitters, Aritzia and American Eagle Outfitters. I don’t have any pictures of those items but I will add some if I remember to take pictures when I’m actually wearing them.
I couldn’t really seem to get away from my birthday even after a week because my sister gave me the last part of my present on Wednesday.
And that 'C' is not for 'CARO' apparently, according to my sister (kidding of course, I know what it stands for).
Isn’t it beautiful?! We’re going to our first hockey game March 30th when the Canucks takes on the L.A. Kings. We’re so pumped and now all my sister needs is her own jersey. It’ll be one game where we won’t have to listen to the radio, watch over the internet or at a bar. We’ll be there that night in person in row 4! I’m also partly excited to get a sippy cup-of-beer that night.
Today I also received a package in the mail.
It was my dress order from Le Muse. I’ve tried it on and it may not look all that flattering but as I thought, the fabric literally feels like the softest thing ever and I don’t care if I look like a huge ivory pillowcase because I am so excited to wear it!
Also this afternoon my friend and I went to go see I Am Number 4. I must say that the movie picked up in the last half hour when all the action finally started getting going. Overall it was just alright, nothing profoundly great. It did have its cheesy moments but at least Alex was shirtless in several scenes. I was mostly rooting for the dog, Bernie Kosar throughout. Despite that it’s not supposed to be a horror/scary flick, the movie had both of us jumping in our seats though.
Well I think that about wraps up most of the highlights of my week so far. And to end with a song that nicely sums up the shopping and clothes extravaganza of my week…
Seventeen-year-old Amy joins her parents as frozen cargo aboard the vast spaceship Godspeed and expects to awaken on a new planet, three hundred years in the future. Never could she have known that her frozen slumber would come to an end fifty years too soon and that she would be thrust into the brave new world of a spaceship that lives by its own rules.
Amy quickly realizes that her awakening was no mere computer malfunction. Someone of the few thousand inhabitants of the spaceship tried to kill her. And if Amy doesn’t do something soon, her parents will be next. Now, Amy must race to unlock Godspeeds hidden secrets. But out of her list of murder suspects, there’s only one who matters: Elder, the future leader of the ship and the love she could never have seen coming.
Review: I had this book on my shelf and once my friend started telling me how much she was enjoying it I had to move it to the top of my pile and read it immediately after midterms. And I’m so glad I did! The book was fantastic and had so many different elements but written to the power of ten – drama, thriller, suspense, romance, dystopia. I was worried about all the attention this book was getting prior to my reading it, but all the praise is well due to Beth. The book raises a lot of questions and, for me, a lot of fears that I have about the nature of man and society: the corruptibility, the structure, the liabilities, etc. The re-organization of society on Godspeed reminds me of the same feelings I had reading The Hungers Games and makes me ask the same question: How did it get this way? I honestly cannot say enough great things about this book without sounding entirely cheesy (which the book is absolutely NOT) or without completely giving away spoilers, but I will say... READ IT! I would definitely recommend this book doesn’t matter whether you are a science fiction fan or not. I definitely cannot wait for the sequel to this because Amy and Elder’s story has really only begun now.
Beth does include a couple lyrics from the song "Across the Universe" right in the beginning which fit perfectly into her story. I thought I would include the song just because it does have incredibly beautiful lyrics. Granted, it's not the Beatles version but Rufus Wainwright does the song great justice (and Dakota Fanning was adorable back at that age). Enjoy!
It’s funny how whenever I should be doing homework I always opt to blogging instead. Coincidence? Probably not.
On Friday night some friends and I hit downtown for dinner at the Earl’s on Robson. My friend Jennifer (pictured below) let me get ready at her place and did my hair for me that night so special thanks to her for that. Although you can't really tell in the picture she actually achieved the impossible - making me look semi-pretty and now I am considering harrassing her weekly to do my hair.
Unfortunately my usual eye-candy there was M.I.A. which was disappointing at first but by the time we were all together it hardly mattered. Drinks were flowing and we were all chatting for nearly two hours by the time the last person arrived and we finally got around to ordering. Food was great and the staff was extra nice to us.
Although I deemed the occasion was to celebrate a belated-Groundhog Day, it turned more into a birthday shindig what with people giving me gifts and there being a cake and all.
Isn’t that cake gorgeous? My lovely sister got it for me from a small place in Yaletown called “Ganache”. There is kind of an embarrassing story that goes with the cake ordering which involved someone thinking how pathetic I was for ordering my own cake and wanting to sell me a single slice instead, etc. etc. I am not up for re-hashing details so you’ll have to harass one of my friends for the full story. Regardless, it was a beautiful red velvet cake which I managed to take 3 bites of before I decided it was too sweet and I was just too full.
Throughout dinner we were taking tons of polaroids since I had so much film that was bordering its expiry date. Here are some of my favourite:
It was all fun until they started taking pictures of me doing shooters and those were not attractive. At all. These things were little mini-sized devils. They were called “Heat Wave” and the ingredients were: cuervo tequila, agave nectar, lime juice and serrano chillies. Sounds pleasant but the reality was quite different. Nonetheless I gotta give my friend Cecil (pictured below) props for buying them and doing them with me.
Yeah, don’t I look so excited about having them? >_<
After dinner, most of us made a last-minute decision to go dancing so we packed it up and made our way to the Roxy. We waited in a line for a little bit which wasn’t too bad once we made it to the part underneath the heat lamps. The bouncer, Huggy, wished me a Happy Birthday, which was really sweet of him. The live band was pretty decent and the rest of the music mostly consisted of old-school rock with an occasional modern song in between. I was extra-excited once P!nk’s “Raise Your Glass” came on, just for the fact it was a song post-2005.
I had so much fun just dancing with my friends. We had a blast just gawking at the crazy cougar-ladies and singing extra-loud and totally off-key to the songs.
But what would a clubbing experience be without one’s share of STRANGER-DANGER stories. I guess I should be flattered that a guy, let alone 3 in that night’s case, would take an interest in me and attempt something considering there were hotter, thinner (and drunker) women there but, seriously, these guys were just creepy. I think I know the reason behind it though. See the girl in the picture with me below?
Don't mind the mustache... it's just kind of one of our things.
Now she is a gorgeous girl and for whatever reason unknown to her or me she just attracts the weirdest guys. Ever. And of course these weirdos she attracts brings their weirdo friends to me. And then she and I are suddenly dancing a lot closer to each other and further away from them, giving out false names or just ducking behind huge, beefy guys. That was just one scenario. Another scenario had me totally freaking out because some guy decided that it was ok to stick his hands into my shirt from behind (it was partly backless) and sliding his freakin’ cold hands around my waist (God knows why because seriously, there were guys there with hotter waists than mine) and then I just hightailed it out of there. Anyways, here's a picture of my top (from Urban Outfitters):
Ugh. Trying to feel flattered but failing miserably. I will make this disclaimer though that if Kellan Lutz/Hugh Jackman/Ian Somerhalder/Common wants to try this move on me, ONE (or all of you at the same time) are more than welcome to anytime.
One word to summarize the pain in my ass du-jour = MIDTERMS! You know those things that are supposed to keep you on your toes in the middle of the semester; that way of testing to make sure you’ve been doing the homework and the assignments and/or keeping up with the course readings? Yeah those. Those things that are only like 20-30% of your grade. Yeah, no big deal. <-- sarcasm. I honestly don’t get those people who can easily shrug off or say something worth TWENTY-THIRTY (caps on for full effect) of their grade is not a big deal. That’s like 1/5 *pause while I do some simple math* of your grade all determined within 50 minutes. Safe to say I’m pretty sure that these bad boys are 15% of the reason why my hair is prematurely gray-ing out. Well, it’s a good thing I look good in gray.
See! Gray hair on young women is COOL!
For the past 36 hours I’ve been living on a diet of green tea and carbs (mostly smothered with cheese) as I cram my brains out with information that will evaporate from my brain faster than Charlie Sheen can trash a hotel room (I actually would put my money on Mr. Sheen though). Sadly not a lot of the information from lecture is retaining so rather than my knowledge expanding... my waist size is *cue ‘Psycho’ music*
I figure rather than online-shopping during my break I would take the opportunity to go strong on my blogging (huzzah)! I’ll just be glad once I make it to 12:55pm tomorrow because I will be officially finished for the week. From that point is for some good ol’ downtime with friends in downtown. There’ll be eating, drinking, chatting, some hockey spectating (FYI Blackhawks are going DOWN), polaroid-taking, and even a cake. Guess which one I’m least excited for? (Hint: rhymes with flake.)
Before I hit the books there’s just one thing I want to share. It’s this incredible song my friend told me about today. Do you remember these guys?
Yes, they ARE guys. They had a big hit called MmmBOP back in like 2002* or something (maybe even earlier). *CORRECTION: I'm told it's 1997.
Well they actually look like this now.
And low-behold they are STILL making music. Good music actually. Their newest-ish song is called ‘Thinking ‘Bout Somethin’’ and if you don’t feel like jumping up and doing some form of the twist then... well clearly I’ll be the only one that does then.
Check the video out although just listening to the song is stellar too.
And they play their own instruments and you know I’m pretty big into artists that do although not as much as a really good dance routine/sequence/move. You can bet your ass that if this song comes up on my ipod that I’ll likely burst into dance no matter where I am. Yes, I’ll be embarrassed for my friends or whoever may be with me at that moment too.
Well I’ve jabbered on/ignored my notes long enough now.
Wow. So embarrassing enough this is not my first attempt at a blog. I hate even thinking how many of these I’ve even attempted. So what makes this time different than my previous failed attempts? I have no idea. Will power? Persistence? Determination? Sheer boredom? I guess after all that’s really happened to me and my family over the course of the years, I thought someone – and I don’t know who – deserved to know about what goes on in my life only they’d get the “behind closed doors” view. I wouldn’t be surprised if now that I try to record everything that happens my life will become mundane and boring, which actually wouldn’t be the worst case scenario. I’ve had enough of the drama-rama. Well maybe if that becomes the case and all I ever write about are the cute dogs I see on the street or the amounts of clothes I only wish I could buy, perhaps some humour will shine through. I am excited to share the books I read, the movies I see, the crazy stories I hear about on the news or ‘celebrity world’, the foods I eat, and the things I experience in general. So without further ado... MY FIRST BLOG! *fist pump*
What better way to start than sharing the amazing new dress that I purchased earlier this week. I honestly fell in love with it the moment I came across the picture. It pretty much looks like the most comfortable piece of clothing; as if a cloud manifested itself into fabric and was wrapped around you. I found it from this amazing designer off etsy (which by the way if you haven’t checked out before, GO DO IT NOW! They carry everything and 99% are hand-made by the artists and designers). This particular purchase, called the Milk and Honey Muse Dress is by Le Muse who is based out of Europe. I love the dolman-sweater look on the front, but that plunging open-back simplified with a single black bow. If you are into the bohemian, slouchy, layered look, Le Muse is perfect for you. Each item looks gorgeously comfortable and if money weren’t an issue, one of each of her creations would be in my shopping cart. What I particularly like about Le Muse’s clothes is that she seems to tailor for women of all sizes, even providing a plus-size/custom-size option so long as you provide measurements. I’m so excited to receive this item and will definitely post pictures when I do.
If you’re interested, take a look at the link below and browse through Le Muse’s other clothes.
