Friday, June 29, 2012

Paradiso @The Gorge

Paradiso at the Gorge was an amazing weekend! We got in Saturday morning, made new Canadian friends at the Premier campgrounds, and enjoyed the beautiful scenery at the concert from sun up to sun down. The VIP box seats were a GREAT idea, and it made the experience less chaotic and more pleasant (access to real bathrooms!).

We camped Saturday night and packed up before noon on Sunday to head out. The trip was short but sweet, and we had so much fun meeting people! Yay for new friends and remembering to take pictures with them, HAHA. =)











Friday, June 22, 2012

My 26th Birthday - Part 1

This year, I had my first birthday in Seattle! And 26 just so happens to be one of my lucky roulette numbers.

It started off just after midnight, when Alex and Andy called me to sing the happy birthday song. I seriously love them, so so sweet. The first person though, to wish me a happy birthday at 12:00AM on the dot was Victor! And then Albert, and then my beautiful serenade from my Al Pals. I went to sleep a happy girl.

And consequently, I woke up a happy girl! Heard Like a G6 on the radio on my way to work. THAT'S MY SONG!!!! The day went by without a hitch, probably because I was in such a good mood. It was also the first day of summer, and BOY WAS THE WEATHER GORGEOUS. After work I felt like getting crawfish - ended up texting people last minute to see who was free.

When I got home from work, I found a box of Trophy cupcakes on the stove. I got really excited, and immediately thought "IS THAT FOR ME??" -- thankfully it was. Otherwise I would have been waaaay disappointed, haha. Matt got me cupcakes <3 a="" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjp4t_ozaOi_Y1pBb1B8h7IdlCLaXQCAxCYC6hAa66LEsgvebxUcRiKSHxXi3DhJIE0ShxHB2L_7uODbqzTepfvkn0XggI7CSdJXdkbXDfOqsaNH5NQPlAgNYA4DC-vd0Qa6FPsFGflyLI/s1600/194819_10101382274677273_1721487280_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">



Had dinner at The Cajun Crawfish and people actually showed up! Paul, Dang, Theresa, David, David, Matt, and Victor were there - I totally thought it was just going to be me Matt and Victor (the obligateds, haha). Even though it wasn't a Red Crawfish kind of experience, it was still good. No garlic noodles unfortunately, but they had deep fried frog legs that were amazing.

After dinner Victor gave me the Game of Thrones book set (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) which I am SO VERY EXCITED to start reading, if you can't tell? Haha. This birthday was really low-key, but I enjoyed it so much. This year was about the little things, and quality not quantity. But as per usual, the partying must go on... this weekend, I just picked up tickets for Paradiso on Saturday..... TO BE CONTINUED!!!!

Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Electric Daisy Carnival 2012

This past weekend was, amazing.

SEEING EVERYONE FROM SF WAS SO AWESOME!!! I was really happy to see Alex and Andy especially, it's been a few months! Thursday night I stayed with Julian at the Mirage and everyone else was in other rooms. We all headed to Surrender for Bingo Players and even though we started the night late, I had to end it early. Lots of dancing, drinking too much, meeting new people, and a Vegas kind of night in general - LOVED IT ANYWAY. Except I woke up with a killer hangover.


Friday we checked out of the Mirage and checked in at the Embassy Suites. We got four suites total for the whole group, but only two of them were side by side. We actually had more than enough space and the hotel was pretty awesome! Swans in the lobby, daily happy hour, and free continental breakfast. Mmmmmmmm. It was a win/win/win.


Once at the hotel, a smaller group of us went to Capriotti's so I could get my CAPASTRAMI!!!! So good. Everything that I've been dreaming of! And we headed to Walmart after to pick up recovery beverages and snacks for the rooms. We got back to the hotel just in time for a brief nap, and then it was time to get ready for EDC.


We went early hoping to avoid traffic but I think it backfired because being "early" for EDC coincided with rush hour for Las Vegas. Kevin ended up having to urinate in a cup because we were stuck in traffic and there weren't any other options. Apparently Loan was forced to do the same in the other SUV. I made sure not to drink anything a few hours before we left because I was afraid! Getting into EDC was a pain. Worse than what I remember from EDC LA, and that does make more sense since LV is a larger venue. But finally we got in, and my excitedment level immediately spiked!






The lights were gorgeous, the people were just trickling in, and the music was pounding. We eventually met up with the people from the other car and spent most of the night at Kinectic Field. We did walk around for a bit, got watermelon wedges and orange juice from the fresh fruit stand, rode the YOYO ride (which I thought said YOLO), and frequented the port-o-potties, as well as the water fill stations. I got to see Kaskade, which was AMAZING. The reason I went to EDC was because I saw Kaskade at ID last year and I was SO entranced. It was that night that I decided I wanted to see him again at EDC! There were awesome LED flower balls, lasers for days, fire bursts, and fire works to go along with the awesome stage visuals. By the time we got back to the hotel I was exhausted but had an awesome time. The only regret I had from Friday was that I went into EDC with a hangover and didn't really start enjoying it until after midnight.







Saturday morning we slept in quite a bit. In the afternoon we rounded up the troops and went to Planet Hollywood to try EARL OF SANDWICHES! And my BLT was delicious! Alex's tomato soup was pretty darned good too. We split up after lunch and Alex and I had went to the tables to gamble. We played roulette and for the first time ever in my whole life I lost. But for the first time ever in Alex's whole life, he won. That is some twisted luck. After gambling, we shopped and got gelato! I picked up a super cute pair of heels from Chinese Laundry but they're so tall I don't know when I'll ever get to wear them. I'd better find a tall boyfriend.


We all met back at the hotel and got ready for EDC. We left quite a bit later this time, and arrived around 10. The crowd Saturday was noticebly more dense than it had been Friday, and the congestion made EDC less appealing to me. Especially when trying to navigate or when attempting to find a decent port-o-pottie. I was actually in a GREAT mood at EDC Saturday though, because my hangover was completely gone and my energy level was high. We got some dancing in and I was feeling hungry so Alex went with me to look for food. While we were crossing the back end of Kinectic Field, they shut down the stages due to the windstorms. And it was true - the wind was getting very dangerous. The crazy desert gusts were picking up rocks and chucking them at people. There was also tons of garbage cyclones and constant dust mists. Getting out of Kinectic Field at that point was scary, it reminded me of the stampede videos I'd seen from EDCs in years past. Luckily we made it out okay and waited for others at Cooling Station 27 where we had chosen as our meeting point.


We ended up leaving as they were closing down structures, and getting out of the parking lot would have been horrible if Alex hadn't used evasive maneuvers to get us out of the lot from the first exit lane. Genius! We met up with some other folks at Tuscany and had $3.99 steak and eggs! Then Matt, Charles, and Victor showed up to gamble with us. I played roulette again and won - I think it's because I had drank. Earlier in the day I was completely sober, that must be the key! We went back to Embassy at around 6am and dawdled until breakfast started. After realizing that we weren't hungry, we headed over to the Bellagio to hang out at Victor's suite. There I finally slept a few hours while the others stayed up to party more. I don't know how they do it! We migrated to Encore to hang out in Charles and Matt's suite where Kevin and I got to go to the pool. We were only in the sun for 20 minutes before we decided it was way too hot. I was probably getting a heatstroke because I felt very dizzy - good thing we left when we did.




We had a light lunch at a restaurant in the Encore and eventually all found our ways back to the Embassy. The whole day we were trying to sell our tickets for EDC Sunday because half of us were burnt out and wanted to lay low. The people who stayed back went to Del Frisco's!!! MMmmmmmmm, my fave. When Lina had her first bite of Filet Mignon, she said "THIS IS BETTER THAN EDC" hahahahaha. Then the conversation turned to, would you rather have 3 free days of EDC or 3 free days of Del Frisco's? Everyone else said they'd choose Del Frisco's. I said I wasn't sure! Dinner was amazing, and so was dessert even though I really didnt have room for it.




We went to the Hard Rock after dinner to get some gambling and drinking in. I played slots because my brain was too fried to play roulette. I started with $20 and was up $32 when I stopped! Not bad at all. We called it a night early because everyone had morning flights. When I got to the airport I volunteered to give up my ticket on my overbooked flight because I wanted to stay with the Seattle people one extra day! I was really hoping that it would work out, because I tried to change my flight at 4am but they were already marked unavailable.

All in all it was an amazing trip that ended too quickly. Will I do EDC again? Definitely not with a hangover, and probably not for all three days. I wish I had costumes that were as fun as some of the other girls there, and if I ever go again I will put forth more effort. Three EDC's down, what's next?

Wednesday, June 6, 2012

PrE-DC, Preparing for EDC Las Vegas

The last time I went to EDC, I was like 21? And it was in LA, where there were real bathrooms and where it was hot but bearable hot. This weekend I'll be at EDC Las Vegas, where it's 90 degrees at night, there are 5x more people than there were in LA, and I'm barely 25 anymore. Oh, and the kicker is, I'll be at the mercy of port-o-potties.

I am absolutely dreading it.

Since I'm going in with low expectations, I'm hoping that I will actually be okay. I'm hoping that I won't leave immediately after having to use the port-o-potties, and I'm hoping that the overstimulation won't discourage me from attending day 2 and day 3. Yes, I bought a 3-day pass. What did I get myself into?

I am, however, greatly looking forward to partying it up at Surrender with my Al Pals and Julian tomorrow night. It'll be the Vegas that I know and love, with the people that I miss and love! Other things I am anxiously awaiting are our dinner at Del Frisco, and capastramis at Capriotti's!

No matter what, this will be an amazing trip. I've decided to party like it's my birthday. I mean, it's basically my birthday. I can't wait to see what the next five days will bring!