Hellogoodbye: Round 2

Playing: Ocean Avenue-Yellowcard
Reading: Proust Was a Neuroscientist by Jonah Lehrer

Last Monday, Sarah, Chad, and I went to see Hellogoodbye together for the second time. We left for the Roxy Theatre in Los Angeles as soon as school let out. The concert was supposed to start at 7:30 p.m. but the lead singer of Max and the Moon showed up late, so the concert didn't even start until an hour later. They sounded pretty good, but Sarah and I just sassed the lead singer for most of the time, asking him why he put his shirt on inside out and if he got dressed in the dark. He definitely heard us, but refused to answer any of our questions.

Say Say was really friendly, when we talked to them after the show and we appreciated that they had a cute drummer, Nick Jordan, because cute drummers are such a rare commodity. Before the show, they also passed out some CDs to everyone in line. They were pretty good too, but I preferred Max and the Moon.

The main reason we went to the Hellogoodbye show (other than to see Hellogoodbye) was that we were hoping they would remember us from last time. Even though Sarah, Chad, and I were in the front row, we didn't have a good view during the show. All of the key boards were set up on these boxes that blocked off the view of everyone in the band other than Augustine. At times, the three of us were peeking underneath the keyboard to see what the rest of the band was doing. Despite our bad view, I still really enjoyed the concert because Hellogoodbye is great live.

Afterwards, we stuck around to talk to some of the bands, while we waited for Hellogoodbye to come out. Talking to Hellogoodbye is great because it's not like other bands, where you tell them you liked their show, ask for a photo, and walk away. You get to have actual conversations with them about anything and it feels like you've been friends with them for awhile. The only one that is kept busy is Forrest Kline, since he's the lead singer. However, I got to talk to Michael Garzon about the differences between oxfords, wing tips, and brogues for awhile. I talked to Augustine Rampolla the longest about French class, clothes, and anything that came to our minds. When I was taking a photo with Andrew Richards, Andrew jokingly told Augustine to get out of it, but I told him he could be in it if he wanted. It's just fun to hang out with them because it feels like you're friends with them and because of that, I probably will go see them again and again.

PS I'm still in shock that my parents let me out on a school night to a concert in Los Angeles. I ended up going to bed at around 2 a.m. and the next day at school was horrible. I was so tired and wanted to go out to Starbucks with Chad and Sarah, but my journalism teacher forced me to stay in at lunch to work on the paper, so I went through the rest of the day in a haze.

into the flow

Playing: Winter Passing-The Academy Is...
Reading: The Look by Harry Brant (Actually pretty interesting...)

Over fall break, I took a trip over to Zara to get a few more flimsy pieces of clothing that flow nicely. I got a cream version of my favorite black tank top along with another slip dress. Slip dresses are super easy to style and are very comfortable, so I've taken to wearing them around quite a bit. I bought the red skirt because it's very simple and I've been wanting to add skirts into my closet. I like skirts and dresses, but it's not as if I'm excessively girly and want floral prints/bows/lace on all my clothes, so it's difficult to find things that I like. However, Zara can always be relied on to supply great basics.

I recently also bought some beauty products, which I've been meaning to show you. When it comes to makeup, I try not to wear too much. I usually just do some foundation for my skin and some sort of lip product. I really like this lip crayon from Korean brand, IASO, in Sweet Liar. Even though it's a mint color, it goes onto your lips a nice, muted raspberry color. It looks natural enough and is super moisturizing. Lately, it's become my go to lip color and I don't even need to carry around chap stick if I'm wearing it. I also like this berry shade from Chanel, Envoutante. It goes on sheer with a slight shimmer to it and is easy to put on.

My dad retired last week and a lot of patients brought in goodbye gifts for him. One of them brought in a box of macarons from Lette and included one of every flavor. I've always wanted to get one of each flavor from any macaron store, but they're so expensive that I could never justify doing so. Therefore, these obviously made me very excited. Sorry about not blogging much lately. With school going on, I find it difficult to do anything vaguely blog worthy such as go on adventures and such. However, I did go to two concerts with the past two days, so I'll get a post together of that. Hope you're all doing well!

je t'aime plus qu'hier moins que demain

Playing: Young Blood-Birdy
Reading: The Tempest by William Shakespeare

It's been six months, or half a year, since I was in Paris yet I still miss it tremendously. Rarely do I miss people or places, so the fact that I miss Paris so much is still a strange sensation for me (and comforting to my parents that I do in fact have human emotions). I miss waking up to a magnificent view of La Tour Eiffel, starting off the day with a buttery croissant, and walking along the River Seine. I expected Paris to be completely overrated, but I found myself to be completely in love with the city more so than other places I have visited. Other than San Francisco and New York, Paris is the only other city that I have visited that I would like to live in one day. Ideally, I would like to go back to Paris as soon as possible, but without knowing which college I will be attending in the fall, I am currently unable to purchase plain tickets there. Until then, I will continue to oggle over Rumi Neely's Paris photo diaries and wish that I was back in the city of lights.

stuck in the rain

Playing: Romance is Dead-Paloma Faith
Reading: You're Cute and Fired by Marisa Meltzer

I skipped out on Black Friday once again because a) the sales are never as good as I hope they'll be, b) crowds of deprived shoppers stress me out, and c) usually everything I want is still too expensive to buy on sale. Instead I visited Los Angeles again with my family because the Los Angeles Auto Show is back in town. We stopped off at Little Tokyo for lunch at Wakasaya and I grabbed a box of macarons from Lette. I kind of regret not getting a wider range of colors, but at least they look semi-autumn appropriate.

For some reason, we always park next to MoCA and they moved this statue into the parking lot. Apparently, it cost a lot of money to ship it to this specific location. However, I still struggle with finding the artistic value of this piece because it looks like a discarded chunk of metal in the middle of a parking lot.

My favorite part about rainy days other than the chance to run around in a trench coat, pretending I'm a secret agent, is taking photos through windows. I  really love this photo set and I want to take more photos like those, but living in Southern California doesn't really give me the opportunity to do so.

We actually went to the auto show because my dad's birthday is coming up and he really wanted to go. I wasn't all that impressed with the cars other than the smart cars and Porches. I really liked this Jeremy Scott smart car because the wings are such a simple addition yet so playful. It also looks fairly unisex and makes me want to collect designer cars. Unfortunately, I don't have an extra $43,200 to spend, so I'll have to give up my dreams of owning this car.

The Lincoln display had these cool planters hung up on their walls. My dad and I are planning on making planters like these either from wood or clay. We thought it would be good for planting all our herbs and smaller flowers. As you can tell, cars aren't really my thing, but after living with the two car fanatics I call my dad and brother, I have picked up a little knowledge here and there from them on cars. Even so, I still think these planters may have been one of my favorite things that I saw at the car show.