Friday, October 20, 2017

Tis the season...

For Jami's Halloween Events!!!

Due to the amazingly generous friends I have, I'm able to hit these all again this year!

1st up - Universal Horror Nights.

So, usually I spend Halloween weekend up in WeHo with Jay and stay the weekend.  This year I'm not going to be able to get up there for Halloween but did still get to spend a wonderful weekend with him and friends!

Taylor was joining me this year and got to experience the lovely weekend getaway that is - chilling with Jay and the babies.
This is how I like to start off a weekend

Ready to party!
We got up there Friday evening and I staked claim on the awesome cabana like pad outside.  Taylor shacked up in the guest room.  Jay, as per usual, had the place decorated for Halloween!  I only took a few shots of my digs and the outside since drinking was involved and I forgot.

Backyard


My swanky cabana!

The other side of my swanky cabana!


BABIES!
That evening Eric and The Shock's all came over for tacos and margaritas and then Candy Darling made her appearance and hosted Drag Queen Bingo!!

Taco Time!
Taylor and Candy

Pink Kitty and Candy

Love the floof

Susie and Candy
Bingo!!!!

Candy was done with the shoes

Saturday was spent recovering.  Later that afternoon Taylor/Jay and I grabbed lunch at Hamburger Marys.  Delish!  Then that night - HORROR NIGHTS RIP TOUR!

Horror Nights Crew

I love this man

Monsters!
They did the RIP (VIP) version once before then took it away.  They brought it back this year, but it wasn't as cool.  No private scare, no decorations in the VIP area and our tour guide took us on a marathon to hit all the mazes in under 2 hours.  It was cool but super exhausting.  All that aside though, it was an awesome evening of great fun with great people as always!  My 2 favorite mazes were The Shining and Ash vs Evil Dead.  The detail was spectacular.  I didn't get any good scares though this year though, but that's no surprise. Ha!  The VIP Dinner was super delicious and we did land back there for some desserts and coffee which were yum.  The Jaborwockeez show was awesome as usual and we all had a total blast!!!  Thank you Jay!!!

Sunday was a very lazy, lounge around day.  I found myself in the pool a bit and we just hung out, chatted and played with the babies.  I love this time with Jay.  It's so relaxing and one of the very few times I'm forced to actually just relax and do nothing.

After glorious lounging with Jay, Taylor and I headed off for our last 2 events of the weekend.  We decided to grab sushi (my Visa is going to explode) and kill time down at the Americana for a bit.  We were so tired!
We did this like the whole time
Then we headed to our 1st stop - The Ghost Train!  Taylor knew of this and grabbed us tickets since it's right down the street from our other stop.  There's this park called Travel Town near Griffith Park that is full of trains.  I stumbled across this by accident a few months ago and had fun wandering around taking photos of the old trains.  There is also apparently a little train you can ride that takes you around the park. Well - I guess there used to be a Ghost Train during Halloween that they discontinued. They brought it back! It was so damn cute!!!

You def want to get there right when it opens. It only runs 3 weekends and the line was already long when we got there 45 minutes early.  They have these teeny trains that are kind of like benches on tracks.  You straddle it sort of like a horse and take about a 25 minute ride around the park at night. I was blown away by all the decorations!! They had little areas you drove through, lots of lights, different themes, so much fun! It's family friendly so bring the kiddos.  I was super impressed by all the work that was obviously put into this. I tried to take pictures along the train ride, but it's a bit tough when your moving. Will totally revisit this next year!!


So cute!

Boarded and ready to ride the train!




The cool creepy tree talked to us before we head off!







That bear tho...


Seriously - best decor!


Next up was Haunted Hayride.  Now, I used to do this every year but unfortunately it's gone way down hill. I skipped it last year in fact. But Taylor was determined to give it another shot so he bought our tickets. Sadly we were again super disappointed. It was supposedly a clown theme this year but it's just not good anymore. The Hayride is way uncomfortable. They put too many people in the thing (which is so unnecessary because NO ONE was really there.) There were a couple of cool stops - a dancing clown marionette group that you didn't realize were peeps that ran at you - awesome. But that was probably the only good part. You got out at one point and walked through a so called maze, but all it was, was people hitting the almost falling fences. It was super uneven and dark and so fucking lame. Plus your sinuses go to hell because it's so dusty. So - this event is a huge bust and I for sure won't be returning. But we did get the front pictures. The best thing about the damn thing is it's entry display.
Hayride


My last Halloween Event was Knotts Haunt. Taylor works there now so he treated us to the evening and was the best tour guide ever!  Knotts has been a bit disappointing over the past couple of years but they have stepped it way up this year!

We grabbed dinner at TGIFriday's which was also adorably decorated, then headed in.  We snapped some fun shots right of the bat!

"Act Scared"


Adore these two!
Our 1st maze was the Zombie Fight!  You're handed some guns and off to kill zombies!  We were rushed in, so I got a quick blurry shot first.  We then were lead through the area by different soldiers and shot at zombies.  I did pretty good!

Zombie Killers!
We then hit a couple of really cool mazes.  The decor this year has totally stepped up.  It looks great!!  My favorite maze was Shadowlands.  You walk through a broken down amusement park ride. The monsters and decorations were fucking awesome!!!  At one point you walked into the big room and it was like a broke down circus. The characters were walking around, including a clown on stilts, and it was very creepy and surreal! I loved it so much!

The best Haunting Crew EVA!
 We got some game cards, and my only complaint is they don't have many Halloween themed toys to win. But Jay and I did play the claw games and each one a Muertos! Yay!

Next up was Elvira. This is the last year she's doing this show. She was just fantastic! The dancers were great (and so pretty!). She even did her titty tassel twirl at the end!

Waiting for Mistress of the Dark!
We watched The Hanging after this, which was actually pretty funny. Very political of course. Then we hit up the rest of the mazes. They were all so great! I took some random decor pictures when I could.



Burning the Wicker Man!
I can't believe we stayed as long as we did. It was close to 1am when we were heading out, but we hit all the mazes and both shows. Having front of the line is the way to go. If you get a chance - hit it up this year! It's totally worth it!!!

Huge Huge Thank You's to Taylor and Jay for making it possible for me being able to even do this things.  Halloween is my favorite time of year and I had such a great time!

Had to throw in a few pictures from the fun Halloween themed Burlesque show my amazingly talented friend Miss Erika runs!  It was up at the Gravalx in LA.  It's a tiny little bar and the gals were lovely and fun!  Erika sang a few numbers beautifully.  Her lil sis made her dancing debut.  Her hubs was the MC.  Great band.  Great fun! 

After the show

One of the gals gave me her baby

Pisces Trifecta

Laughing the night away

Go girl!


Happy Halloween Bitches!


Tuesday, October 17, 2017

Coffee Meets Bagel...

Yup.
That's the name of the latest dating app I tried.
I'm already over it.
My takeaways:

First of all the name...I mean, ok I can kind of see the cute factor but really?  I was trying to look at it for the originality of the name but let's be real.  It's lame.  You should have see the eye rolls I got when I told people the name of it.



It's a free app, but you can buy more "beans".  Get it?  Beans.  Sigh.  It pulls from your Facebook but you can edit it.  When someone looks at your profile it'll list your Name (only given to you when you "match"), Age, Location, Ethnicity, Height, Religion, Occupation, Employer, Education.  Then you fill in the "I am..." the "I like..." and the "I appreciate when my date...".  You can put up to 9 pictures.  It will also tell you if you have mutual friends on Facebook but you have to pay with "beans" to find out who that is.

Then at noonish each day your sent 1-6 "Bagels".  You can like or pass and if they like you too you're matched.  You have to send the 1st email and you're timed.  If the dude responds back then you have a chat window in the app that only lasts a week.  It basically pushes you to exchange digits.  I did like that part.  I mean shit or get off the pot right?

Then you're also sent a bunch of other "Bagels" that if you're interested in them you can buy them with beans.  Lord.  It will tell you if they "liked" you but you don't see much on these.  Plus you only see the main picture which half the time you can't even see the damn guy because he tried to get creative.

There are other features, and a lot of other features you can purchase but it's a bit confusing and I didn't bother trying to figure all that shit out.

Coffee Meets Bagel:
  • There are ALOT of Asian men.  I don't know why.  Maybe they like bagels.
  • There are ALOT of religious people.  I got mainly Christians.  I assume that's because my thing says Spiritual not Religious so maybe I didn't get the hardcore religious dudes.  Maybe religious people like bagels.
  • I will say this did not feel like a "hook up" site.  The dudes at least filled out all the stuff and had plenty of pictures so that shows me they put in the effort.
  • Sometimes the dudes I could buy with beans would pop up on my free daily 6.  So if you're patient they may come back.
  • I didn't "Like" a lot of people and I rarely heard from the dudes I did.
  • I matched with a dude who worked at Chapman.  We didn't seem like we'd be compatible dating wise, but I figured we could be work friends.  So we met up for a drink and BAM - possible work friend, so that's cool.
  • There's a filter to set to choose preference of age, distance and ethnicity for the dudes but it's only for the ones you have to buy with beans. So the handful they send you daily is a total crapshoot.  It also resets every day - because according to CMB they want you to keep your options open.  Really CMB?  You want to tell me what I want? 
  • I did go on a date with a British Dude who was really cool and I enjoyed our date, but he wasn't interested in me.  So I did get one date out of it. (Funny side note - I told him about Bumble on our date, he said he wasn't familiar with that one.  Guess who showed up my damn Bumble today.)  I'M RUNNING OUT OF MEN!
  • The site emails you and sends you notifications on your phone.  It's kind of annoying.  
  • It has a "Tips" section but it's literally the same tips all the time. 
So, Coffee Meets Bagel - FAIL.
I got bored with it really fast.  They did not send me good matches at all.  Most days I passed on every one.

I think my next venture before I dive into a paid one will be OK Cupid.  I haven't really tried that one yet.  So - you'll probably see another blog.

Fuck.

Where is my person?!

Monday, October 9, 2017

Halloween Season has arrived...

Yes.  Season.  Those who know me know how much I love Halloween and this brings Halloween Season!

Caboose is sort of decorated!  I would have done more, but there's a lot of shit going on in the world and in my life right now that this was about the extent I could muster.  Quite pleased though.




It's like I decorated for her

The other thing I love to do this time of year, is hit a Pumpkin Patch.  An actual Pumpkin Patch.  I just can't bring myself to get my pumpkin at a Grocery Store.  The closest and I think coolest is the Irvine Park Pumpkin Patch.  It can get pricy if you want to do all the stuff they sell, but if you want to just go take some pictures and get yourself a pumpkin it's totally rad!  I love doing this!  This year mom, Libby and Hailey came along!

Taking a stroll since we got there early



Besties for Life



Mom had the hots for the FrankenScarecrow

Cat? Tribble? Gremlin?

I love this kid


Our pumpkins!

When did she get so big?!




Great morning Pumpkin Patching!





I can't wait to carve my Pumpkin and make my favorite Pumpkin Seed Snacks!!!!


Thursday, October 5, 2017

Guns...

I don't understand America's obsession with guns.

It's just us.

No other country is as obsessed with guns as we are.

We even have a fucking amendment that was put in the constitution. "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."  

Nothing.  And I mean nothing.  Is as hot of a topic as guns.

Hear me out:

I'm a liberal.  Most of my friends are liberals - some to the extreme.  Most of my friends are extremely against guns completely.  Others, like myself, don't want to take away you gun people's guns necessarily, we just want better laws, regulations, etc.  Oh and AR Rifles banned for fucks sake.

Personally I hate fucking guns.  The fact that this little (or larger) piece of metal can take away the life of a living creature with one pull of a trigger freaks me out.  I also have some sort of trauma from childhood that relates to loud noises that any sort of loud noise (firework, car backfire, gunfire) actually scares the shit out of me and gives me severe anxiety.  I don't know why, but that's the way it is.  When I get scared, my knee jerk reaction is to cover my ears.  I can't explain it but it's some sort of phobia I've had since I was a kid.

But I know people, responsible people, that have guns.  They have handguns.  Maybe shotguns.  They lock them up.  They obey all the rules and laws and regulations.  They are very respectful of them in fact.  I have absolutely not one ounce of concern or worry that something accidental will happen because of their guns.  If you want to have a handgun for protection - so be it.  If you want take your guns and go shoot crap in the desert or at shooting ranges - so be it.  But no one, NO FUCKING ONE, needs an automatic anything.  Here is where I'm confused.

Why is it so easy to get your hands on the weapons meant to kill multiple people at a rapid speed.  Yes, some states are way stricter and you probably can't get a hold of these as easily but you can get them if you try hard enough.  Why the fuck are they not banned?!  Why in the ACTUAL FUCK are there now things called bump stocks that you can purchase that can be added to a non automatic gun and make it automatic?!  

My other confusion is why the Hell are we so obsessed?!?!  Example - the nano second someone opens their mouth about gun control or gun anything really, the gun people say "Don't take my guns!!"  They may start spouting off the 2nd amendment.  You can't even have a discussion about it.  People with guns seem so fucking protective of their right to have a gun they flip right out.  A lot of these assholes are the same ones who think it's ok to take away people's human rights but don't you dare touch my fucking gun! (Not all of you).  What is that?!  What's with guns?!  

A guy I dated a while back - on our 1st date (he knew I was liberal) he felt the need to tell me he had guns but not to worry because he obeyed the law and was careful and blah blah.  Honestly I didn't care.  You didn't have to tell me that 5 minutes into our date.  It's ok dude, settle down, I'm not a liberal here to take away your gun - but again - WHAT IS THAT?  And he's not the 1st.  I have so many people I've had conversations with that are all chill and cool and most of the time pretty left swinging politically.  Then if guns are mentioned, as if you stuck them with a hot poker they tense up and get all defensive saying "Well I have guns and I have a right and I'm careful and BLAH FUCKING BLAH!" 

We have an NRA.  We actually have an organization that is a national GUN ORGANIZATION.  Not only that - it's seriously one of the the most powerful organizations in the country.  

Other countries have no fucking clue why America is so obsessed with guns.  I keep using the word obsessed because that's what we are.  A school - A FUCKING SCHOOL WITH CHILDREN  - can get shot up yet nothing happens.  A nightclub in Florida gets shot up and holds the record for the worst mass shooting in US History and nothing happens.  And now the Vegas shooting took that record from Florida, killing a bunch of innocent people trying to enjoy a music festival.  WHAT. THE. FUCK.

While my heart is breaking, and I've been crying for days, and crying more reading the stories of the victims and I can't even begin to imagine the fear and the horror these people went through that awful night, I come back to this - why was this 60 something year old gambler able to buy that many guns and bump stocks and no one raise an eyebrow?!  I'll tell you - because we're obsessed with guns. 

We can't even talk about it!  I look to you - the gun people - calm the fuck down and stop worrying so much about people trying to take away your guns or take away your rights and try to get our backwards ass country right now to step the fuck up and fix this.  Because they're certainly not listening to any one else.