Doing it Right: HARD Summer 2012

One of the best parts about living in Los Angeles (and trust me when I say there are a lot of great things about living here), is that there is never a shortage of fun to be had – especially in the summer months.  The sun is bouncing down on the city, and the city bounces back with some crazy fun parties located anywhere and everywhere: hotel rooftops, parking garage rooftops, warehouses in the depths of downtown, and sometimes even a Tiki Boat!

Just last weekend, HARD Fest hosted HARD Summer at LA State Historic Park in downtown Los Angeles.  What’s typically a relatively quiet sanctuary in the middle of a bustling city was transformed into a menagerie of colors, glowing objects, and kandi covered ravers.   The festival lit up the downtown skyline for two days from the early evening deep into the night and boasted top notch acts in multiple genres.  A definite perk of HARDsummer was that riding the Metro was free; no one had to worry about traffic, parking or who would be tasked with driving us home.

First, let’s get real for a second, and I love getting real: the lineup for the first night was less than impressive; however it was also a lot less packed.  The crowd was easier to navigate and even though I lost my phone, I didn’t lose my friends. Secondly, let me tell those of you that have yet to attend a multi day festival: it is aggressive!  Admittedly, my exhaustion after day one was mostly due to running from stage to stage in search of a danceable beat – but there were a few DJs that made my heart happy and made faces in the crowd melt.
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Introducing: Stella

ImageIt’s only right that my first ‘realpost is about one of the loves of my life – and I should give fair warning now: I love a lot of things; but not all things are my cats!  That’s right, *surprise* I’m a cat lady.  Now that we have that out of the way, meet the littlest meow face of the bunch, Stella.  I got Stella in the summer of 2008; right after I moved to Los Angeles.  I was living by myself for the first time and Sake needed a friend, so I took myself down to a local chapter of the Los Angeles Animal Services to see what I could find.

Now, I’m going to jump on and off of my soap box SUPER quick: Adopt, adopt, ADOPT! There are so many worthy, sweet, smart, cuddly animals at the shelter – why would you deny them the chance at a fabulous life with yourself? You know you’re awesome, now get a pet to prove it! // end rant.

I walked into the cat room at the animal shelter, took one look around and immediately my eyes were drawn to the center aisle – the most adorable bundle of fur was rolling around, screeching with delight as another cat whimsically batted at a toy in the corner.  I turned around to the aide, and before I could say a word – they knew and immediately laughed my way: “You want to see the grey kitten, don’t you?” And oh, did I ever.

Now, I’ve had cats the entire 27 years I’ve been alive – but never have I ever raised a kitten!  Bringing Stella home turned into a glorious challenge, thankfully there’s a book for that; The Cat Biblecame highly reccommended, and I can see why – for cat owners new and young, and for those that just fancy felines – this one’s for you.

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Now, time to introduce the little lady of the house – Miss Stella!

Full Name: Estelle Bearington

Nickname: Stella, Stell, Stellz, Stella Bella Bear, Kitten face

DOB + Age: May 2008 + 4.2 years

Type: Grey and White American Shorthair Tabby

Favorite Place to Sleep: With her head on the pillow and anywhere inconvenient: laptops, keyboards, heads

Hobbies: Knocking lighters off of coffee tables, sleeping like a real person, singing, turning off my alarm clock

Favorite Toy(s): The laser pointer, Sake, paper bags and shoelaces

Pet Peeves: Not being allowed to drink from my cereal bowl, loud noises

Hello, Kittens!

Well, hello hello my lovely readers – I hope everyone is having a splendid Friday!

Time and time again, I start blogs with very narrowly scoped intentions – through the past year, my BlogSpot – which was once my dumping ground for this, that and everything – has become my personal safe haven where I vent about my sometimes interesting anxieties and issues; my Tumblr is now an aggregate of my varied musical tastes and videos of adorable animals – but the one thing that I missed about blogging was connectingConnecting to both my surroundings, my friends and myself.

To me, blogging is cathartic.  It gives me a chance to lay it all on the line and walk away with a new outlook on life; but in a way, my blogging lately has become so segmented – and I’ve been looking for a way to cohesively gel the different aspects of my personality into one stream of consciousness.

So please, bear with me as I get my barrings one more time; there’s so much worth sharing and engaging in, that it’s almost a shame I haven’t created a space like this earlier.  I want to provoke different ways of thinking and provide insight to those who are looking for it; in the past year I’ve become a fan of cooking, DIY projects, photography, and travel.  Add to that my lust for live music, engaging discussions, street art, adventures and my two adorable cats – and this blog will be full of fun for just about everyone.

So sit tight, hold onto those pretty little heads of yours and let’s get down to business.