Outfit of the Day - Leather Vest and Moto Jacket

Kyle and I spent last night at our friends' place drinking and playing Betrayal at the House on the Hill. The game ended in a draw, but the haunt we received to battle was nearly unbeatable anyways, so nobody winning was sorta OK.

Haven't done an outfit post in a while, so here's what I ended up wearing for the night. Nothing too fancy since our friends have four dogs that love to sit on laps and tear stockings/snag leggings, so yeah. But on a happy note - it's finally jacket season so I can break out all my fun jackets and blazers. I'm really into blazers lately, especially the ones with draped and triangular hem fronts with cropped backs.

Vest - eBay; High-low tunic - Forever 21; Spike necklace - eBay; Boots - New Rock

Studded stocking - Hot Topic. I'm a fan of mismatched stockings and socks and it's finally cold enough to layer them!

Pleather cropped moto jacket - GoJane. I love cropped jackets with a super draped back hem peeking out from underneath. 

I'm busy preparing for upcoming press coverage of the Skinny Puppy and Birthday Massacre shows. Snow White Smile managed to get on the bill for the Birthday Massacre performance, so it should be a fun night! Only two weeks left for them to practice.

Until next time!

Haunted House Fail

Some cheap raven graphics to make up for this post's lack of Halloween material.  Also - long sleeves! It's finally cold enough to sport light-weight long sleeves, but not quite cold enough for jackets. P.S. The shrug I'm wearing was thrifted. I think I got it for under a buck! 

Last night was a failed attempt to go to a local haunted house. I saw this ad for a place called "Scream Park" that's not too far from us, so I invited a group of friends to tag along and go to the haunted house event with us. Many friends bailed or couldn't make it (which turned out not to be such a bad thing!), but when Kyle and I got there, right away we thought it looked janky and cheap, especially since we're so used to big budget haunted houses a la Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios in Hollywood. Once everyone else arrived, they all had the same feeling about the place, not to mention the Yelp and Facebook reviews were atrocious.

So we had a change of plans and ended up eating sushi together instead. I figured I'd have some artsy, creepy, Halloween-y haunted house pics to post, but instead, all I have are my outfit shots. I got all dressed up just for dinner. Damn, I hate it when that happens!

The night didn't turn out quite as expected, but I still got to see my friends and catch up, so overall, it was still a good night.

Until next time!

It's Finally October!

Yesterday was the first day of October! The weather was beautiful and it was a very pleasant day to work in midtown Sacramento.

Not only was the weather great, our next door neighbor, who owns a gym, got a new pitbull-mix puppy that she brought over to visit. So cute! I'm jealous.

Crop top - Lip Service; Mini skirt - Serious L.A.; Boots - New Rock

Started off the morning with a coconut water. Yum! Made me miss Hawaii.

We stream French radio at the store, and this song plays frequently. It's a French rap song and they sing so fast! Look it up and listen to it if you're at all curious. I think you'll get a good laugh out of it if nothing else.

My boss Darcy and the baby from next door. 

Her name is McKenzie. 

The trees are so green and there was such a delightful breeze. This photo shows what midtown is like and also gives a good example of why Sacramento is called "The City of Trees."

Until next time!

Outfit of the Day - L.A. Muscle Tank + Chiffon

Can we please have sweater weather already?? Come on Sacramento…give us some rain and gloomy, overcast skies. I'm tired of tank tops and layered pantyhose. I want to show off my massive collection of Black Milk leggings and long sleeves!

Today the weather wasn't scorching, but it was still hot enough to facilitate sleeveless tops and light-weight leg wear. 

I received a parcel in the mail yesterday from G-Stage that included this L.A. skeleton hand print muscle tank. Under $10 if you can believe that? I love G-Stage! Super affordable and super cute. Not to mention they had a decent selection of black stuff, which is really what I look for in a website these days. 

High-low chiffon blouse - Forever 21; L.A. muscle tank - G-Stage; Boots - New Rock

L.A. is my second home, even though I don't truly want to live there. It's a great place to visit and explore and get to know, but ultimately, all you do there is wait. Wait for opportunity, wait for traffic, wait for everything. I just can't handle spending that much time in the car in traffic, which is why I love visiting but am always glad to get out.

Until next time!

Outfit of the Day - Blouses with Crosses

Look - I got a hair cut! Asymmetrical, shattered bob! Hahaha - just kidding. I styled my hair a bit differently and my extensions are on my off-camera shoulder, so it just looks that way. 

Nothing exciting to report today. My weekend is lining up to be super busy with a birthday brunch for a friend, the release of Kevin Smith's new horror flick "Tusk," and a small concert at a local club though, so I'll probably have lots more to say after the weekend.

Just an outfit post for today. I scored some sweet things at the local Goodwill, including the chiffon cross-print blouse I'm sporting today. I have several tops with cross prints, and sometimes I feel a bit odd wearing crosses because I associate myself with Christianity in NO WAY, so really, if you know me, it's kind of a sarcastic commentary on my atheism if anything.

Anyways, I had work to do when I got home from work (*sigh* the dilemma of working from home), so really the highlight of my day was hearing my boss inhale leftover helium from some decorative balloons at the store and then proceed to sing "We're Off to See the Wizard" from "The Wizard of Oz."

Cross blouse - second hand; High-low tank top - Love Culture; Boots - New Rock

Until next time!

Hawaii Tropical Botanical Garden and an Unpleasant Surprise

After our horseback ride in Waipio Valley, we had a short drive to Hilo, where the Botanical Gardens we wanted to visit were located. We got a bit lost trying to find it since it seems nowhere in Hawaii has a physical address to input into a GPS. All the directions are something like: "Make a slight right onto the road with the two flashing lights, pass mile marker 11.2, and turn up the driveway with the banana trees on either side."

The botanical gardens were definitely beautiful, but since I don't know much about plants or trees, all the gorgeous flowers started to look the same, even if they were different colors and shapes. My favorite section was the orchid area of course.

Because I know nothing about any of the flowers and plants pictured below, I'm pretty much going to be skipping captions on them. Also, if you're not a fan of pretty flower pictures, skip ahead because the unpleasant surprise is still yet to come.

Front entrance sign.

Me and Eden reading about the statue of the Hawaiian god

Mom on the bridge down into the garden. It starts out level, but then you go down a lot of stairs, which are not fun on the way back up and out of the gardens. When we left, I felt like I had just taken a shower because I was that sweaty. 

I'm pretty sure this one is called beehive ginger. They also had these flowers for sale at many of the farmer's markets.

Of course there were geckos!

There was a bird area with a cage that had a few macaws in it. This red guy here liked to talk.

At the end of the trail downwards, you hit the ocean and can read about the legends of the rock formations and how they got that way.

Eden doing some reading.

I appreciated the botanical gardens for their beauty and all the plant life they contained, but I can't say I wasn't thankful to get back into the air conditioned car. Plus we had ridden horses all morning and then taken a mile and a half hike around the gardens with a lot of steps at the end of the trail, so I was beat and ready to go back to the hotel and take a shower. Turns out, that was not in the cards.

Eden wanted to check out Hilo since it was only a mile or so down the road, so on our way there, Mom stopped at an intersection to let a pedestrian cross. We heard a terrifying screeching of tires and everything seemed to go in slow motion like it does in the movies when something traumatic happens. BAM! We were rear-ended by a pickup and the rental car was pushed through the intersection.

Poor rental car. Simply not drivable anymore and not our fault. 

Eden was in the back seat and bore the brunt of the impact, but it seemed that everybody was OK aside from being very shaken up. I had never been in any sort of collision of that nature before and I just couldn't believe our bad luck. Luckily, Mom had purchased the additional insurance through the rental company, so we were fully covered.

All of our phones were dead, so we didn't really have any way to communicate with the rental company, tow truck, or insurance agents. Luckily for us, the man who hit us was a gentleman and loaned his phone to make calls. He even drove Mom to the Hilo airport to get a new rental car because we still had two hours to drive to get back to the hotel. Me and Eden stayed on the side of the road with the broken car until the tow truck came and it was really funny because we had no way to communicate with Mom to know if she had contacted the tow truck and we were supposed to ride to the airport with him or what was going on. The tow truck dude was also very nice to us and made some calls and found out that we had to wait just a bit longer because Mom was on her way back with a new car.

That's the tow truck driving away with the crashed rental car. At least Eden and I had a grassy area on the side of the road to hang out on.

So, once again, we had a THIRD rental car on the island. I could hardly believe we had gone through three cars in under a week! Our luck was so bad that I could only laugh at the situation because there's really nothing else you can do in a situation that bad.

We all had some much-needed alcohol when we got back to the hotel. And I got my hot shower. What a rough day.

Until next time!

Horseback Riding in Waipio Valley

Mom was kind enough to take us on an excursion to the other side of the island - the Hilo side. This is the side of the island that gets much more rain (200 inches annually versus 20 annually in Kona) and is also near where my Dad bought his land to build his Hawaiian home. It's about a two hour drive from one side to the other, so we were up really early to get to our horseback riding session at 9:00 a.m. Thankfully we didn't get lost and we arrived on time with no issues and only one pee pit stop (that's unusual with a car full of girls).

We had to wear long pants, so I grabbed my suspender leggings and BEVERLY THRILLS tank top from Love Culture. So thankful to wear New Rocks. They worked out perfectly for horseback riding since it was mandatory to wear closed-toe shoes. 

When we arrived at the ranch and parked our car, there was a friendly tiny cat that came up and demanded petting. He even jumped right up into the car.

Mom and Eden cracking and snacking on macadamia nuts from the ranch.

A funny sign. As I mentioned previously, many jobs don't pay minimum wage and the employees get paid in tips only.

I managed to get a close-up of one of the dreaded zipper spiders. Now you see why I am afraid of them…so scary!

When everyone on our tour had arrived, we piled into a four wheel drive van and headed down into Waipio Valley. In order to get into the valley, it is mandatory to drive a 4WD vehicle and go through a checkpoint where they make sure you know what you are getting into. The descent into the valley is extremely steep and the road to get down is a windy, one-way affair that is simply terrifying. Down in the valley, all of the land is privately owned. The people have no electricity and live off of the land. If they want food, they grow it and harvest it. If they want to shower/wash their hands/drink fresh water, they generally catch rainwater. What a very different way of living than what we on the mainland are used to.

The van drove through rivers to get all the way to the bottom of the valley where the horses were penned.

The DEAD END sign cracked me up. It made the perilous drive all the more hilarious. (Ok, Ok, so it was only perilous in my head. I'm 100% sure those guides knew exactly what they were doing and have made that drive millions of times.)

The van was parked and we hopped on out. I dropped my sunglasses and the lens popped out, so I had no shades for the entire ride. :(

All the horses started coming out of the pen. My horse is the white one. 

Mom mounting her horse. 

Eden introducing herself to her horse, who was named George. All the other horses had hard to pronounce Hawaiian names, but Eden's horse was just plain old George. She said he was a doofy horse.

Eden mounted her horse and the guide was checking to make sure everything looked good before he let her loose.

Me on my horse. He was the only white one and I was one of the last people to mount. His name meant Scab or Scar in English, but I can't remember the Hawaiian word for it. He was the leader of the pack and got grumpy when any of the other horses tried to pass him up.

One of the streams we crossed on horseback.

The view from atop my horse.

View from horseback down in the valley. It's easy to see how far down were were based on the height and scale of the mountain.

Only at the beginning of the ride was there another person in front of me. Mom and Eden got separated from me and I basically had the entire ride to just look around and take the scenery in. As I said, my horse was at the front and I got to listen to all the things the guide in front of me said and didn't have to talk to anybody else. For an introvert like myself, it was paradise. Hahaha. Although I wouldn't have minded being close enough to Eden and Mom to have a conversation with them.

The guide picked me a pumpkin cherry. It tasted sour and not like a pumpkin or a cherry. Also, my gel manicure held up well the entire trip. 

Very long waterfall.

Me and Eden on our horses.  The horses look kind of sleepy. Maybe because it was very near the end of the ride and they were just thinking about it being their lunch time.

All of us girls on our horses.

I loved horseback riding. It was my favorite activity by far.

This was a wild horse that came up to the van on our drive back up the mountain. 

We made it safely back up the mountain and our next stop was a restaurant to get some Portuguese donuts for Eden.

Up next - the botanical gardens!