NO DOUBT (1)

No Doubt was amazing, to say the least. It was definitely the concert of my life! When Victoria and I pulled up to the Cricket parking lot, the line was already stretched all the way to the back, bordering Soak City. Ran into Manny’s friend Bianca in line, and she gave us Star Trek lights she got from cereal boxes.

Victoria and I bought matching tour shirts for $35, and a cute tote bag for $25. I’ve got my eye on the cute $85 houndstooth hoodie for next time… AND the suspenders shirt…

After changing into our matching shirts and buying $5 water, we found our seats in the 200’s section, which was a lot closer to the stage than I thought, which was a really nice surprise. The Sounds opened up first. I’d never really listened to them before, but they’re pretty catchy. Definitely need to download their discography.

Paramore was the next opening band, which really got the party started. Victoria & I were jumping and singing along, and LOL @ Victoria pretty much memorizing their entire live CD. I really wish their set was a little bit longer… I definitely need to get tickets for their next show when they come to town.

At last… No Doubt finally made their appearance on stage. The intro was beyond epic, as you can tell from the video:

Their set list was as follows:

Spiderwebs
Hella Good
Bathwater
Underneath It All
Excuse Me Mr.
Ex-Girlfriend
Simple Kind of Life
Guns of Navarone (Instrumental)
Hey Baby
New
Running
End It On This
Don’t Speak
It’s My Life
Just A Girl
Rock Steady
Different People
Sunday Morning

I was so happy when they played End It On This! That’s one of my favorite songs off their Tragic Kingdom CD, and I really didn’t expect them to play it. I danced and sang my lungs out, and I’m really glad there wasn’t anyone monstrously tall in front of me and Victoria. We had a perfect view of the stage, and I managed to get some decent pictures.

I’m beyond stoked for their August 8th show – Victoria’s mom got us pit tickets! Definitely an upgrade from the 200’s. I can’t wait! Seeing No Doubt in concert was literally at the top of my list of things I HAVE to do before I die, and I’m really glad I get to cross that off… twice!

PROM

So, tonight was prom. It was really fun, and I’m glad I went with Jonathan. He actually got a limo! I’d never been in a limo before, so that was cool. I felt like I was in a teen movie or something, with the way he picked me up at my house and put on my corsage, and with our moms and his sisters taking a whole bunch of pictures. Talk about ultimate teen movie moment!

We even popped open a bottle of sparkling cider on our way to Balboa, while we reminisced over elementary school and high school, and even talked about the usual nerdy stuff, like video games and books and movies. We were among the first to arrive at the Hall of Champions, which was actually set up real nicely. When I’d been there before, I thought it was a horrible place to have our prom at, but the decorating job was done perfectly, and the dance floor was really nice with the sparkling disco ball overhead. I told Jonathan straight up that I’m not much of a dancer, and I prefer slow dancing to dirty bumping and grinding, and he was totally cool with that. We talked with friends most of the night, and took advantage of the yummy cream puffs and chocolate-covered strawberries they had at the desert table. We took pictures in front of a big backdrop and everything, which reminded both of us of Beauty and the Beast. We got in a few slow dances, which was really nice, but it’s a shame they didn’t play too many slow songs. Jonathan told me he praciticed his dance moves and everything, and he was a lot better than me, even if it only was in fact slow dancing… no matter what, I think I’ll always have two left feet, haha.

^ Victoria sandwich! (Happy 18th birthday, Vico!)

^ Mendoza Elementary School kids<3

^ LOL @ Xander’s pants splitting open!

^ Prom Queen Codallos :3

Carlos won Prom King, but I couldn’t find him all night!

^ Kinder buddies <3

By the end of the night I was surprised my feet weren’t killing me in the $8 heels I bought at Factory2U, and my hair managed to stay tame in the puppy curls. The limo driver took us over the Coronado bridge, which was really cool, and we listened to random top 40 music on our way home. I kept my corsage on for the rest of the night, even after changing out of my dress and into booty shorts and a wifebeater, and before going to sleep, I pinned it right next to my Audrey Hepburn poster.

UNIVERSAL STUDIOS 2009

Universal Studios 2009 was a success! It was an very bittersweet success. Hard to believe this is the 4th and final Universal Studios trip I’ll be going on in high school. I can’t believe I’ve gone to every single one of these trips since 8th grade. I was getting sort of worried, because when we arrived at the park, Monica was having problems getting the tickets for all of us, but everything straightened out and we were released into the park like the pack of animals we were. The first stop was the House of Horrors, which scared the buh-jeezus out of every single one of us, like always. We all ran out screaming and laughing and came face to face with the lovely Vin Diesel. Photo op had arisen *wink wink*

The second stop was Terminator 2: 3D, which is something we always manage to miss out on every year… except this year! LOL @ “kinves… and stabbing weapons.” I still get a hoot out of that!

Third stop was the much-anticipated Simpsons Ride. I really wanted to see what it was all about, and hot damn. We were all completely blown away! That ride is most definitely a major upgrade from the Back To The Future Ride. You can just tell from the looks in our faces just how much we loved it.

After nom nom noming on some delicious Cinnabon, our entire group (which included Kim, Victoria, Vico, Fernando, Jessica, Yvonne, Ruben, Jeffrey and Ximena) made our way down the never-ending series of escalators to the lower lot… with the pre-Jurassic Park and Mummy ride adrenaline already pumping in our veins.

We had our rounds on the Jurassic Park Ride and the Mummy Ride a few times each, and all with failed attempts to drag Ximena and/or Vico onto Jurassic Park. There was literally one point when we all tried to drag Ximena on Jurassic Park -carrying her and everything- but still a fail. Major props to Yvonne, who is known to be terrified of dinosaurs to toughen up and get on Jurassic Park! Definitely a great Yvonne-moment milestone. Before heading back to the upper lot, we all got some group pictures with one of the most legit-looking Beetlejuice characters I’ve seen.

We hit up the backlot tram tour before getting food from City Walk and heading on back to the bus. Everyone was already pretty drained by the end of the day, and the bus ride was about 3 hours because we got stuck in Friday evening traffic.

BLAME IT ON THE A A A A A A ALCOHOL

^ LOL, I <3 Louie!

^ I called it quits after 2 shots: Blue Raspberry Vodka & Jäger -minus the bomb. I think if I downed a few Jägerbombs, I’d have been sloshed for the rest of the night, but it’s safe to say that I’m glad I stayed sober.

I spent the rest of the night helping Matt clean up & taking care of all the drunk hoes! I was even a “designated driver” to take a particular fuckwad home.

^ Sober @ 1:20 in the AM :]

& LOL @ watching Camp Rock with Robin the next morning. He was totally on the edge of his seat the entire time! *Note to self: edit/upload a picture of Robin watching Camp Rock…*

SKATING ROBIN

The weather was rainy & gorgeous today<3 Went ice skating in La Jolla for Victoria’s (extended) birthday celebration! Drove up there with Victoria, Kim, Robby, Blake & Brian. Met up there with Vico, Ximena, Trey, Zack, Ed, Ruben, Josalle, Jeffrey, Tina, & James. I’m pretty much a wuss when it comes to ice skating. LOL @ holding on to Blake’s hand (& other willing peoples’) for dear life 50% of the time. I only fell once! But that was because Robby & Brian were messing with me, those jerks, haha-! The ice skating music included Wonderwall (first song that was playing), some Miley Cyrus crap, No Doubt’s Just A Girl, Ryan Cabrera, and… I don’t remember what else. Afterwards, we ate at Red Robin (YUMMMMMMMMMMMM). I ordered a bacon cheeseburger… YUMMMMMMMMMMMM. I love Red Robin. Never ending refills on drinks AND fries?! Amazing. Throwing sugar packets and inhaling helium balloons are fun. After that, we all went our separate ways; me, Victoria, Kim, Robby, Blake & Brian went back to Robby’s casa and played with his kickass synth, and watched Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist. LOL @ tug of war with Robby’s sock, that’s some pretty intense stuff right there. After THAT, we dropped Kim off and got Taco Bell. Drove to the airplane wing park -AKA Montgomery Waller- and watched people boning in the car parked across from us while nom nom noming on food. T’was a good Saturday indeed. OH YEAH! New game, which is called “chap,” hee hee.

MF PWNS

Medford Falling was amazing last night-! Me and Victoria met up at Val’s casa with Robby, Laura, Jessika, Gina, Kevin, Casey, Moriah (and of course, Val). LOL @ Laura’s holler to that guy as we drove to the back of Soma. Victoria and I met our new “biffle” (LOL) Amantha while everyone was setting up for the show. We had interesting talks in that one dark hallway next to the kite shop. MF’s set was kick-ass, and I’m glad I got to hear my new favorite song by them performed live

After their set, Victoria, Amantha & I went to In-N-Out and sat around talking for about an hour. We drove back to Soma and sat talking in Amantha’s car some more, then eventually met up with everyone else after the show was over.
A bunch of us met up at Casey’s casa for “ghost” stories and hookah fun, wished Victoria a happy 18th birthday at midnight, and around 1:30ish Amantha drove me & Victoria home. I’m hella excited for next week’s MF show in Anaheim!

CHRISTMAS IN JANUARY

007 FINALLY had our Secret Santa gift exchange!
I got Kim the copy she wanted of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest; Kim got Victoria a necklace from Forever 21 and a really cool carved box with an owl on it; Victoria got Tina a few canvases and paints; and Tina got me a new “buddy,” *WINK WINK*
It’s a damn good thing we didn’t have our gift exchange at Luzita’s, like I suggested we should! After the gift exchange we walked to (can you guess-?) Luzita’s. On our way back we made the usual stops: Factory2U, 99 cent store, and Northgate. Tina bought a whole bunch of bread and me & Victoria bought some yummy Oreo cake from the bakery. We all sat in my kitchen, eating and talking like usual… and eventually made it back to my room, only to go into a food coma on my bed, haha.

HAIR CUTS & SUPERBAD

Okay, so today me & Victoria walked to Luzita’s for some California burritos… in matching Twilight hoodies, haha. Ruben took his precious time in meeting up with us, but he made it-! We all sat talking, then walked over to Factory2U, because it’s just standard protocol when coming home from Luzita’s. Victoria bailed on me & Ruben to watch Yes Man, that Judas. I bought a bright pink shirt that says: “FRANKIE SAYS RELAX”, and a really cute zebra print dress for like, $8 (and the shirt was $2). We breezed through Northgate really quick, in hopes of seeing James Franco, but no luck. Ruben and I eventually made it back to my house, where I gave him a haircut in my bathroom, haha. After that, we watched an episode of Maury (sex-crazed, out of control teen girls) and Superbad. Ahh, I love Superbad.

UPSIDE DAY

This morning I sort of felt like shit, partially because of the phone talk I had last night, and because I was jut flat-out sleep deprived… because that’s how it’s been lately. Sorry if I was such a downer. Everyone has their off days, right? I brightened up for some weird reason towards the end of second period, and felt better – more or less. [There really is no damn point in being upset over something I can't change, as much as I'd like it to. Like the song goes: While truckin' down the road of life, although all hope seems gone, I just move on. When I can't find a single star to hang my wish upon, I just move on, I move on. I got all the closure and clarity in the world, and that's all that matters, really. I think my (very) newly found glee has left me feeling more ready to be forgiving and civil about it all. Call it a random epiphany, if you will. And... new inspiration, can't forget that.]

Anyways, I was seriously trailing off topic… but like I was saying, today really seemed to lift my spirits, for a number of reasons. I actually got into the musical at school. (Oh yeah, I actually did try out, by the way. I sang That Thing You Do! for my audition song.) I can’t believe I’m at least a little good enought to get in. I must say, I’m proud of myself. High School Musical, here we go! Had lots and lots of LOLs with Victoria and Kim after school. “Will you eat my insides, Catherine?” LOL @ burned potstickers. Mad Libs is about a million times more amusing when you’ve got perverted word choices, in MY opinion. *WINK WINK*

About an hour ago, my mom tells me my sister, Ana’s genius plan of having me & a friend (I pick Kim right off the bat, because it’s just a given) meet up with her and my brother-in-law, Don, and niece, Colleen, and nephew, Sean at Disneyland for TWO DAYS while she and him attend to work-related matters. HELL YEAH. Now, I’m listening to Disney music, getting myself really pumped up. Nothing else gives me such a wonderful feeling the way Disneyland does… that’s just how it is with me. Disneyland is my sweet escape, and it really could not have come at a better time.

The last two-ish months of the year are always my favorite, and this year is no exception. I’ve always got so much to look forward to around this time of the year, and I love that. Twilight at midnight with Victoria and a whole bunch of other people on Thursday, Thanksgiving weekend is next weekend, and the weekend after THAT will be Disneyland, and the weekend after Disneyland will be the first week of winter break! You should all know by now know all the things in store for winter break: 18th birthday (which has a bunch of cool sub-plans/events on its own), I’m going back to the Disney Store (or so I’m told) after I turn 18, and then there’s Christmas… AND New Year’s! Whooooooooo. This is a wonderful time for things to be looking up for me. I’m glad. Lord knows I needed it, and for that I’m very thankful

P.S. Better than Jacob Black.

LOPEZ x4

Friday, November 7- I got an extra hour to myself in the morning, since I was technically excused from first period, because the bus wasn’t scheduled to pick us up until the beginning of nutrition break. Went to Fashion Valley for P.R. and photo class. Walking all around the mall left my feet screamingly sore, with a few blisters here and there. OUCH. We met up with the P.R. lady for about 15 minutes before we got the next few hours to ourselves. Ate at Panda Express with Fernando, Ximena, Vico, and Katrina. I bought the cutest Catwoman shirt at H & M… the remaining balance on my ATM is about $19. YIKES.

I kind of, sort of ditched fourth period when we got back to school, which is something I never do, so give me a break! Stopped by at a couple Game Stop stores to see if they even touched my applications. Apparently, they’re not busy enough to be hiring. Greeeeeeeeat. I’m going to be unemployed for the fuckin’ holidays. I can only dream that I’ll get a call in the next week or so saying that one of those locations want me. I NEED A JOB.

A little while later, I went to Victoria’s house, where I gave her some tips on Mafia Wars and we discussed our increasing obsession with Twilight *WINK WINK* We also both decided to try out for the school musical… High School Musical, to be exact. I don’t really have a huge desire to actually be in it… because it’s just High School Musical, but… it would be cool if I actually got a part in it or something, then I’d have to be in it, but I’m not going to get all butt-hurt if I don’t make it. My singing voice isn’t exactly wonderful. (I’m still deciding on whether or not to sing “The Mixed Tape” by Jack’s Mannequin or “That Thing You Do!” by The Wonders… I have until Wednesday/Thursday to make my decision!) A little later into the night, we watched Diary of the Dead, because we couldn’t get around to it on Halloween. It left me paranoid, like all zombie movies, and I was glad my mom insisted on driving half a quarter mile down the road to pick me up, because walking home would have been a nightmare, lol.

Saturday, November 8- I had to wake up around 6, 7AMish for this lame college prep workshop/Filipino pride event down at Sweetwater High School. I walked into their gym, and the first thing I saw emblazoned on the wall was a huge mural of Satan. WTFFFFFFFFFFFFFF. I had no idea their mascot was the Red Devils! Opening speeches/remarks were about 2 hours, and I noticed they did not stick to the time schedule and the first workshop rotation had to be cancelled. The second one I had to go to was about applying for financial aid, which was nothing I hadn’t heard before. The third rotation was some workshop regarding stereotypes and the importance of accepting all races, genders, etc. Tyler and Sam were there for that one, so it wasn’t as painful as it could have been. During an activity, I was randomly labeled as a “poor person,” LOL. Tyler was a “promiscuous male” and Sam was an “ASB member.” After all the workshops were done, I stayed a little longer for free food (abobo, pansit, and rice–nothing special) and I got two free shirts. I wasted a good 5 hours of my life at that damn pointless workshop.

A little later, I called Victoria to come over and help me kill time. After swooning over the newest issue of Entertainment Weekly (which had Edward and Bella on the cover… OH BABY) and kicking ass in more Mafia Wars, AND looking at the over-priced Twilight shirts and hoodies on the Hot Topic website (and then hatching the plan of making our own Twilight shirts), we went to Old Navy with her mom and sister. After getting back to her casa from Old Navy, we got picked up by Manny and chilled at his house for a while with Jo, and his college buddies- Janis and Angel. Michelle Bush stopped by with brownies.. YUM. Victoria and I obsessed over Twilight even more with Janis and Angel, which was really cool… and kind of nerdy, but oh well!

Sunday, November 9- Went to church, as usual. I felt really bad, because the sermon ended before I even started listening… I just zoned out for some weird reason. Kim came over after church, and then Victoria. We  went to go pick up Tina, and watched Diary of the Dead at mi casa. Halfway through the movie, my mom took us to Michael’s, so Victoria and I could get fabric paint for our Twilight shirts. We also got really cute iron-ons for the back design of the shirt. We had to swing by Old Navy so I could get my matching black wife beater. OH YEAH! The weather that day was really nice: cold, windy and rainy. I love fall/winter weather, and I can’t wait for it to get even colder and grayer. Back at my house we ate sweet and sour pork, then finished Diary. After that, we ended up watching Planet Terror. BRUCE WILLIS IS A BABE ;D

Monday, November 10- Spent most of the morning in Eastlake with my mom, because she wanted to check out this new Goodwill book store around there. It was a small store, but really well organized. I bought the entire Chronicles of Narnia collection for $5! I was hoping I’d see Eclipse somewhere amongst the old, used books… but that was wishful thinking. We hung out at the cutest Borders book store I’ve ever seen. And I had no idea there was even one in Eastlake-! I was looking through Eclipse, when this chick on crutches asked if I’ve read any of the Twilight books, and we ended up having a nice little chat about the series before she had to leave. I found one of my favorite genre sections (Reference books) and holed up there for the rest of the visit. I skimmed through a writing reference book about writing/publishing your first novel, which gave me more inspiration and motivation to get back into the habit of writing at least once a day, everyday again. I wish I could have bought it, but it was $16… and I had $0. On the way home, my mom and I picked up some food from Johnny Carino’s, which kept my mouth watering all the way home.

[Random quote from my mom while driving: "This driver in the red car must have itchy balls."]

I indulged in some delicious pasta and chicken when we got home, and shortly after, I was in a damn food coma. When I woke up, I had some phone talk, then went to Victoria’s casa to make our Twilight shirts. The first part of the shirts are a total SUCCESS. Picture this: black wifebeater, and silver text that says “Stupid lamb.” It might sound lame to you, but those shirts are our little masterpieces. You have NO IDEA what it took us to make those. We still have to put the iron-ons, but that’ll come later on this week, perhaps. We even decided to do our makeup and everything for the midnight show. OH YEAH. We’re going to the midnight show, since next Friday is a late start day at school. HOLLAAAAAAAAAAAA!

And if you haven’t noticed, I spent 4 out of my 5 day weekend with Victoria, hence the title of this blog, LOL.