Comic Con-templations, 2015 Edition

Comic Con this year felt kind of more chill than recent years. Maybe it's because I'm older and have less tolerance for waiting in lines, or maybe it's the pictures that got small. Either way, it was still a ton of fun, as always! Tomorrow, I will post more details and pictures, but to tide you over, here are a few observations and thoughts I had over the course of the 5 days.

• Thursday night = Oh god, 3 more days?? Saturday night =  Oh god no, it's almost over!!

• Having a condo nearby the convention center means spending the morning at the exhibit hall and in panels, then taking a break at the condo before you go do your evening activities. It's just too convenient not to!

• It's literally impossible to know how Hall H will be in advance. People camped out for days for panels we walked right into. For others, thousands camped out and still didn't get in. Hall H is unknowable.

• The playbook room in the Omni is such a great alternative to Hall H and Ballroom 20. But shhh, don't tell anyone!

• I really didn't take enough pictures. But you try taking pictures of a place you go every year for 12 years and see how you feel.

• Accidentally cutting in line is annoying when you see it done, and confusing when you might be the one doing it.

• Most people are completely oblivious while walking around the exhibit hall. Considering becoming a pickpocket.

• Now I can go back to being a hermit. Whew.

Anime Expo 2015!

On Friday, we went to the Los Angeles Convention Center downtown for Anime Expo! We went for a few hours last year, when they opened the exhibit hall to people without badges after 6pm. Seeing that brief glimpse of it, we knew we wanted to come back this year!

We got there around 11am, and there was still a long line to get registered. It moved fairly quickly, though, and then we were in the Expo!

The exhibit hall was huge and filled with a ton of stuff to check out!

It's-a me, Mario, at every con you-a go to-a!

We saw a Squishable booth! I restrained myself and didn't buy any. 

Squishy!

I don't know why there are sweatshirts with corgi butts on them, but I love them!! Why didn't I buy one?!

Butts

So, I have to confess, I don't really watch anime. As a result, I saw a ton of things I couldn't identify. Such as this:

What are this.

Zombie alpacas! With kitty loafs on top. I bought a purple one. And then carried it around with me. Literally at least 25% of everyone there were carrying around a stuffed animal of some kind. I just didn't want to feel left out.

So many alpacas...

A Rilakkuma room!

Giant marbles?

What are this.

There was a wedding chapel? And a guy in a suit? I think this was in the romance anime section.

Why are this.

Action figures in take out boxes! Too cute!

Batman/DC cosplay! Not anime? No matter!

A line of Luigis at an ATM is a thing that I witnessed, and am I ever glad I did.

They had a huge setup of a ton of different kinds of gaming systems, as well as a little museum set up of old machines and a timeline of the history of video games.

What are this.

I literally don't know if this is an anime or what. They could easily just be wearing those heads for fun.

First time I've ever seen Cinderella cosplay from the new movie!

Space alpacas?

Are these guys actually a basketball team, or is this anime cosplay? 

Despite not knowing much about anime, I still managed to find a bunch of stuff to buy! A lot of booths had mystery grab bags, so of course I had to get a couple of those! The group of things on the upper left were in a grab bag, and several of the stuffed animals on the upper right were in another. I also bought some villain Labbits, Inside Out mini mystery Funkos, 

I had a ton of fun at this year's Anime Expo! Maybe by the time next year's rolls around, I'll have watched some anime!

Weekend Roundup - Anime Expo, Jaws, Max

I hope everyone had a great Fourth of July weekend! I was lucky enough to have Friday off, so we went to Anime Expo at the Los Angeles Convention Center. We did/saw a ton of stuff, so I'll be making a separate post on that tomorrow!

After an exhausting day at the Expo on Friday (13,000 steps, according to my Fit Bit!), we mostly took it easy on Saturday. I caught up on watching my YouTube channels and playing Candy Crush. That evening, we had dinner at R+D Kitchen in Santa Monica, where I drank a very delicious Dark & Stormy and had some excellent deviled eggs, before going to see Jaws at the Aero! Carl Gottlieb, one of the writers of the movie, did a Q&A afterwards. I hadn't seen Jaws in a very long time, and never on the big screen, so it was pretty cool.

On Sunday, we went to the Cinemark Playa Vista to see the movie Max. It's the story of a bomb-sniffing dog, Max, in the Marines who's handler is killed in action in Afghanistan. The dog has PTSD and won't behave, so the family of the handler adopts Max. He won't answer to anyone but the younger brother, who's kind of a teenage jerk and only reluctantly accepts the responsibility of helping the dog get over his trauma. It was a really enjoyable movie with a great story, plus, you know, cute dog!

Marvel Collector Corp Unboxing - June!

I got my latest Marvel Collector Corp box in the mail yesterday! It's Ant-Man themed, since the movie is coming out this month!

First up is the patch and pin that seem like they're going to be in every box.

This is the t-shirt, close-up, since the actual size Ant-Man picture is quite small! Unlike the medium t-shirt I got, which is enormous.

OMG I love this Ant-Man Funko, with little bitty Ant-Man (world's smallest) bobble-head! I literally squeeed when I saw it!

Oooh, mini mystery blind boxes!!  I got Yellow Jacket and Ant-Man!

And an Ant-Man comic book! 


This was a great box!! It was chock full of really cool items, and I'm looking forward to the next one!!

Weekend Roundup - Junk Food, Conan the Barbarian, Wings!

Happy Monday and Happy Almost-Fourth-of-July! I hope everyone had a great weekend. 

On Saturday morning, we went to a Junk Food sample sale! Junk Food is a clothing brand that specializes in pop culture related graphic tees. Their office is only a couple miles from our apartment, so we hopped on over to check it out. They had 4 rows of boxes set up, full of t-shirts for 5 bucks! They were in no kind of order, so we ended up spending nearly an hour sifting through almost every box. We ended up with 13 shirts total, since they had a 'buy-10-get-3-free' deal going.

We spent the rest of the afternoon watching the final season of Wings, since it's being removed from Netflix at the end of June!

That evening, we went to Boardner's in Hollywood for a quick meal and drinks, and then went to the Egyptian Theater for my boyfriend's special screening of Conan the Barbarian and Conan the Destroyer, with a Q&A with special guests Sandhal Bergman (Valeria) and William Stout (production designer)! After the movie, we went to Miceli's, a nearby Italian place that's become our usual post-screening spot.

Sunday was a super lazy day. I pretty much just lazed around on the couch, and watched A Million Ways To Die In The West on HBO Go.

I'm glad it's a short week this week! I have Friday off, and I'm really looking forward to the long weekend!

How To Get A Good Night's Sleep

Getting a good night's sleep is a challenge for me. My mind races and it's hard to shut off when it's time to sleep. I've come up with a few ways that help me unwind, relax, and ultimately get a better night's rest.

• Go to bed at a set time every night. Resist the urge to stay up just a little longer, for just one more chapter, one more game, one more internet.

• Try reading a book first -  a real book, not your Kindle.

• Get off the computer an hour before bedtime. Yeah, right!

• Consider using an eye mask to block out the light that's keeping you awake. I can't sleep without mine now.

• In order to slow your mind and body down, take a deep breath for 4 seconds, hold it for 7 seconds, and then exhale for 8 seconds. Do this a few times.

• Take melatonin supplements. I like to put on this melatonin lotion called Maxasorb from Vita Sciences before I go to bed. 
  

• Take a natural sleep aid, like this one, Restful Sleep from Healthy Directions. It helps you relax, and it prolongs your sleep cycle so that you don't keep waking up in the night. The key ingredient is Astragalus, which helps quiet your mind and support nerve function. I've been using it for the past couple weeks, and it really does help me feel sleepy and get a better night's sleep. YOU can get your very own bottle of Restful Sleep for 20% off with this code: SAVEREST. Click on the link above!

Disclaimer: I was given a bottle of Restful Sleep for review purposes. My views are my own.

Things I Love Thursday - Astronaut Wives Club, HP Phone Case, CoverGirl Powder, Sriracha Ketchup!

The Astronaut Wives Club!

This show is a limited run (just 10 episodes), based on a book about the lives of the wives of the astronauts involved in the race to the moon in the 1960s. Their lives seem pretty typical on the outside, but they are in actuality, of course, full of drama. The women are bitchily supportive of each other, and competitive over who's husband will be the first in space or on the moon. It's kind of like The Right Stuff meets Mad Men. It's great!


Harry Potter Phone Case from Vista Case Cover!

I needed a new phone case since my old one started to crack, but choosing one from the millions of phone cases on Amazon, eBay, and Etsy is SO hard. I found this seller who had a few dozen different designs. This one, above, is one of the 3 I picked out! It's a reference to the Very Harry Potter Musical; there's a song that talks about going to Hogwarts and how "it's gonna be totally awesome!" So of course I had to get it! It fits my phone perfectly and every time I look at it, I get that song stuck in my head.


Cover Girl Ready Set Gorgeous!

I've been looking for a new powder to wear over my foundation, and randomly picked this one up at Ulta last week. It's proven to be pretty great. It immediately makes my skin look flawless, and my face doesn't get oily halfway through the day (which was the case with the old powder I was using. It comes with a little sponge, but I just use a regular brush to smooth it on.

Heinz Sriracha Ketchup!

I know a lot of people are like HUGE sriracha fans, but I've never really tried it before. Sue me! I got a bottle of this to try from Influencer and wasn't super excited about it, until I actually tried it. I was shocked by how good it was! It was like a slightly enhanced ketchup that was also spicy! Somehow, combining ketchup and sriracha worked really successfully! I keep thinking of ways to add this to more of my food!

My First Stitch Fix Box Review!

I recently subscribed to StitchFix, a subscription box that delivers clothing tailored to your taste profile. I love clothes, and I love shopping, but I often find shopping for clothes difficult, for some reason. I have a hard time spending a lot of money on clothes, even when they're better quality than the $20 tops I can get from Forever 21 or wherever. I also feel like I don't know what my style is anymore. When I read about StitchFix, it seemed like a good way to jumpstart being able to spend more money on quality clothing.

First, you fill out a style profile, which includes not only your sizes and your shape, but also what kind of clothes you tend to like, what you're looking for, etc. They send you a box of 5 items, and charge you a $20 styling fee. You try on all the clothes, and then decide what you want to keep and what you want to send back. If you decide to buy something, that $20 goes towards it. If you buy all 5 items, you get a 20% discount. 

Liverpool Anita Skinny Pants - I actually like these pants a lot - they fit perfectly and, though they were fitted, they didn't feel tight. However, they were a smidge too long, and looked a little too much like jeans for me to be able to wear them to work, which is something that I requested in my style profile. That, combined with the price, means I have to send them back.

Renee C Berham Blouse - This blouse is just not for me. It fit weird in the chest, gave me armpit fat bulges, and was just overall really unflattering. It's a 'no' for me.

Crescent Sage Dress - I like this dress in theory. The pattern is pretty, and so is the lacy part on top. However, it's so huge it's like a muumuu. I could belt it, but I think it would still be really unflattering. Definitely not for me.

Market & Spruce Talia Printed Pencil Skirt - I like it! It's a pretty pattern; not one I would normally pick out, though, which is kind of what I wanted, since I tend to buy the same things over and over. It's really soft, and it fits really nice. Keep!

41Hawthorn Benson 3/4 Ruched Sleeve Blazer - I love this blazer!! It's soft, like it's made out of sweatshirt material, and I love the lining that you can see when you roll the sleeves. It's a definite keeper!

I can't wait to see what's in my next Stitch Fix box!!

BTW: I need new poses. How do the fashion bloggers do it??

Home Stuff: New Kitchen Shelves!

I've been trying to do a little redecorating around the ol' apartment here and there. We have this long counter separating the kitchen and the living room that's kind of hard to decorate. I like it because it makes the living space seem more open than if there was just a solid wall there, but it's so much flat space I just haven't really been sure what to do with it.

It started to get pretty cluttered with various things, both useful and aesthetic. I purchased these cool shelves on Amazon, and my boyfriend manfully installed them. They were the perfect size for these Disney mugs and Mickey balloon-shaped popcorn bucket that I got the last time we went to Disneyland. I think the mini wall-o-Disney looks pretty great!

I also got this hurricane glass candle holder thing to dress it up a bit, and added these little bird figurines and black candlesticks (both from Target), and voila! I think it looks quite pretty, and a lot more organized.

Weekend Roundup! Inside Out, Target, & TV!

How was your weekend? Mine was pretty nice - relaxing but fun! 

On Friday, after work, we walked over Playa Vista Runway, an outdoor mall near our apartment that's been under construction for quite awhile, and has only recently started opening up businesses. We had dinner at the Astro Pub at the brand new Whole Foods. 
They had a lot of food options; you could order food from the menu in the restaurant, or order other food from various counters and then bring it into the restaurant. We tried the Classic Burger, Rainbow Roll, and Pork Belly Mac & Cheese, along with a few drinks, since it was happy hour ($2 off drinks, 4-7pm everyday!). It was all very delicious, and I can't wait to try some of the other food they have there!

Then we went to Cinemark to see Pixar's newest venture, Inside Out. I loved it (even though our theater was full of kids)! The voices were all so perfect, and I wish I had a Joy making my decisions for me! My favorite part was when they showed other characters' guiding emotions; it was interesting that the mother's main emotion was Sadness, and the father's was Anger, although those emotions weren't as strong as Riley's, the main character, seemed to be. In a way, everyone has an emotion that they fall back on, I think. If only all of our Joy's could be as strong!

Saturday morning, I went to Pacific Eyecare Center to pick up my glasses, because I was having new lenses put into my old frames. We went to Chocovivo after (where we went to the Chocolate & Bourbon Tasting), since it was right next door, and got a frozen hot chocolate. It was a vanilla coffee base, with some ice cream. So yummy!


On Sunday morning, we went to Carl's Junior for a nutritional, healthy breakfast. In the afternoon, we made a Target run. I could seriously spend an entire afternoon there. Later, we played Marvel Ultimate Alliance on my Wii. We hadn't played in a while, and I was itching to punch some bad guys as Iron Man!

In the evening, we watched the season premiere of True Detective and the series premiere of Ballers on HBO Go. I've never see the first season of True Detective, but this season seems like it'll be pretty interesting. Plus, Taylor Kitsch is in it, so, you know, clear eyes, full hearts, etc. Ballers is basically Entourage but for football players, and also The Rock is there.