weeknotes 32.33
okay this post actually just took me too long to write because i actually did a lot things which was exhausting. and unfortunately being someone who likes taking pictures more than ever looking at them and determining any are actually "good" it takes me a while to decide if i like a photo or not. don't even talk about editing photos, i just don't do that out of laziness and lack of skill. its one of the reasons why i take forever to write up travel posts. and my flight back home from vegas which is typically one hour long was delayed 2 hours, had turbulence for maybe a third of the flight and two children crying which is actually reasonable because it was quite turbulent. they started out laughing and their mom tried their hardest but after like 10 minutes they started crying lol.
anyways heres the vibe
drinking: nice yummy california water because vegas water is so nasty!! and because i want a coffee and i cant justify another without a cup of water.
gas price in vegas: $4.93... thats so messed up how cheap it is compared to california
strings broken: at least 1 that i know of, but nick is on the phone so i dont wanna interrupt.
ventura is the last place i went before covid lockdowns. i always find it interesting how different things were pre-covid. i bought tickets to see anri back in october or november i dont remember. anyways i figured i would just drive to la and drive back same day because i really do hate being in la. la is different from southern california. i'm not gonna elaborate. but ventura is laidback and chill. i also wanna go to channel islands but nick had work the day before so we couldnt do it.
we went to see unknown mortal orchestra and sean solomon. sean solomon uses a VCR tape as his backtrack and has his self-animated videos as his background, super neat. this time unknown mortal orchestra was more jam band-y. jam band (non-derogatory) is the wrong word. but he had a sax and trumpet player this time so it was very nice. this venue (or ruban) single handedly is keeping the fog machine industry alive. the next day we went around ventura before needing to drive to la. nick has only ever gone to long beach with his family which he enjoyed. so after years of me being like "i hate la" he finally Got It since he went without being chauffeured around. los angeles suffers from sprawl. and needing to drive from ventura to the venue for anri was enough for him. we also ate dinner at sun nong dan which was right next to the venue. we went to a different location after coachella in 2022 with justin, where they salt & pepper diner'ed us with bigbangs still life. i also love their buchu kimchi, still very good 4 years later. we parked and their valet looked at nick and asked if he liked metal. then they talked about black metal, then specifically DSBM lol. that was his favorite experience i think. maybe the girl at the grocery store also asking/telling us that we werent from here. i told her i'm taking that as a compliment.
anri was great!!! i found Timely!! at a very crucial point in my life. i have loved that album for like 13 years? i remember i was in japan for record store day in 2015 and i spent all day trying to get that record. when nick and i started dating i told him how much i love that album he gifted me two copies of that CD. its a CD that stays in my car and 90% of the time its the one inside the player. so its interesting to see what songs were super popular outside of my car. i dont know when anri got onto spotify?? anyways i hate this venue they made me bag check my camera because it was "professional looking". no rules, just vibes to extort $5 from me. so the wiltern can kiss my ass. i dont know how to use my phone camera.
okay i'm actually editing to add i forgot to mention how fucking awful the crowds were. like for both shows, but anri was worse. talked soooo much i actually had to move because at one point i was surrounded by 3 separate groups of people talking while anri was singing. i have never gone to shows were people talked sooo much. and not like a "i'm getting a drink do you want anything", it was full ass conversations. if you want to talk dont go to a concert!!!! omg. just shut up!!!! it actually put me in such a bad mood for like a day. i felt insane and i was so close to asking them if they planned on shutting the fuck up but nick knows i love to fight and i don't think he wanted to deal with that while we were in la. in my defense, i think everyone should get the shit beat out of them at a show for poor etiquette, it builds community.
nick drove back home so i could sleep because i had work at 6am the next day. i did have to take a nap for my breaks, and even the next day i was still tired. on saturday i went bowling with my coworkers!! why was bowling $37 for two games. life is expensive and painful. i did break 100 and got 112 as the highest score out of everyone.
i went to vegas for bts. my aunt sent me the room info and i didn't really want to do anything before the concert so i stayed in the room. it was also 10 am and not much is open in vegas at that time. i thought about queueing up somewhere but it was also memorial day weekend? so i stayed in the hotel room and did Phone time. i realized that i knew one other person in town, aside from all the family that lives there. he was in town to see the jonas brothers with his gf, and then we both tormented my cousin who decided to pass on bts and the jonas brothers because ??? i'm not sure. fun to hang out pre-concert even though we went to two separate concerts.
allegiant is such a nice stadium. i think i was in the same section for one of the days i saw them for the ptd shows. but maybe the stage symmetry is fucking with me. this stadium experience was sooo much nicer than going to stanford. being able to see the stage effects because theres no sunlight was great!! the surprise songs for that day were black swan and spine breaker. amazing.
i ticketed for stanford, this day and the arlington days. i might also just go to the jungkook bday show in la. i know i just said i hate la. but its only like a 5.5hr drive and i regret missing namjoons birthday concert in 2018 because i was too cheap to pay $300 lol. if my aunt can get me a jersey when she goes to the brussels concert i will pull the trigger and even settle for nosebleeds for jungkooks bday concert.
okay on top of all of this, nick bought and built me a bookshelf because i think he didnt like the vibe of piles and piles of books everywhere occupying most flat surfaces in several rooms. so now i can buy more books. but in two or three weeks when we go back to vegas for family i'm gonna force them to bring me to the writers block which is one of my favorite bookstores.
i also called southwest to get some wheelchair assistance at the airport for my grandma and i eventually got all 5 people upgraded!! apparently a 9 hr flight gap is weird and when they asked why i was like "oh its for a funeral" lmao
and my coworker who is always on LOA just went on FMLA :) so its going to be a fun summer of working a lot. we have been tracking the amount of days we work and its kind of a winners lose situation. i just got the email from my boss asking for coverage but i'm tryna get turnt. its different when i want to work for AC.
uhhhhh no links this week because i'm tired and getting links will make me procrastinate posting this. wasnt this enough photos?? im not doing anything sunday/monday so i should be able to post on time. but my bookclub said we could meet up and go watch a movie... maybe... speaking of books, international booker winner was announced... that'll be next week.