Fantastic!

  Hello, world. I hope you've been having a good weekend because I did. My good weekend streak started on Thursday, when I went out to Bucca di Beppo for my Aunty Marsha's 60th (pictured..I know, she looks good)! (Ok, once again, she's only really my aunty but I call her that because I've know her for my entire life, literally). Almost everyone I grew up with was there, including my cousins Mickey and Giana (they're real cousins--Mickey is Aunty Marha's son). Mickey is a few years older than me while Giana and I are about the same age. While I've ran in to Mickey a few times here and there over the years, I hadn't really hung out with him until this past weekend. Giana moved away to the mainland a long time ago so my memories of her were very, very hazy and dim. It was her first time coming back out here in a while and we finally got to hang out. It was really fun seeing them again. We made plans to hang out on Friday (yesterday) because GIana will be leaving on Monday.

  Yesterday was a surprisingly busy day for me. After I took Brent's car with me to the mall, I went to Ala Moana's Shop a'lea event. What in the what? Yeah, I didn't really get it either but my mom gave me 2 tickets to go to this thing and I had no one to go with (since Brent had to teach). Luckily, I thought to call Trina and dragged her out with me. After standing in a long line, we traded our tickets for a wristband and a booklet. They explained to us that we were supposed to go around to participating stores and collect a stamp from them. If we collected 6 stamps in the back of the book, we were eligible to enter a raffle contest with cool prizes and we didn't have to be present to win. So Trina and I walked around to the various luxury-brand participants such as Coach, Gucci, Chanel, Tiffany's, Ben Bridge's, Neiman Marcus, Louis Vuitton, and..well, everyone. It was really fun. The best part was that every store had champagne and cool food samples from restaurants that I didn't know existed. When I said cool food, I mean things like ice cream cookies with gold flakes, tiffany box-shaped cakes, lavender-flavored sparkling water, and wagyu beef tataki rolls. I also got my nail done at Jimmy Choo (it was a nail, because she only decorated one of them) but it was cool. In fact, I was having so much fun wandering around with Trina that I felt very guilty when Brent called because he was still waiting for me to pick him up after class...oops! We picked him up and got back to my office where Jermaine helped with a photo shoot for Brent's portfolio. After the shoot, Brent and I got ready to meet up with Mickey, Giana and Ken at the nightclub Ka at Ward. It was our first time there and I must admit, I liked the vibe. It wasn't crowded and we had enough space to hang out and have fun. After the club, we headed over to a Millions, a Korean yakiniku spot. The food was delicious and we all went home smelling heavily of Korean food and smoke.

  ...and then I slept in all day today and I didn't mind it, not one little bit. Oh, and I also found out a few things today. **Warning: this is a total geek-out moment**. 1) I finally saw the trailer for Eclipse (yes, Twilight for lyfe). 2) I also finally hunted down the trailer for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 (I'm even more hardcore about HP.  I have to wait till November for it, but whatever) and 3) I found out that there's a HP theme park opening up at Universal Studios in Orlando, Florida....! I was super excited and now I really wanna go. Yes, really. Don't judge me.  Anyway, sighhh...I hope my good vibe carries on throughout the week and into next weekend too.

Me and Giana at 2 years old. 

20+ years later.