Castle

     HORY SHET
     The amount of things that had to be addressed these last 2 weeks has surpassed my zen threshold.

Personal shet
Moving shet
Work shet
Noob Charms shet
Money shet
Keeping it together shet

Now eyeball shet


I won't burden readers with my personal problems though, I know you guys wanna read about not that, so... (ungrateful dicks.)

just kidding. heart yoooouuuu guiiiise

Well, almost exactly 2 weeks ago was that particular Wednesday I had mentioned previously, that was a thing. It was SUCH a thing that I didn't want to mention it until it occurred. 

E L A B O R A T E Y   T I M E S | Y A Y -

It began with Mr. Flower's formal (Facebook) invitation to attend a very special evening in company of his Halloween Horror Nights colleagues. Cool, right? Sure. Where at? The Magic Castle. OH, okay, cool. Sure, sounds fun!

[goes to work]  hay guise what's the Magic Castle? 

co-workers: OMGURD YUR GURRIN TUR DUR MURGURK CURRSUR? WHOA

me: you're talking in all caps. why

Long story short, they informed me that this Magic Castle location is a little bit serious.

I had to dress nice (ohfuk) like... fancy nice, like... evening wear.... and it's invitation only. Some kind of high end exclusive house/gallery/mansion of all the magic things where the only way to attend is to get invited by a member and it's serious. 

Not gonna lie. When my co-worker told me the guidelines I got really nervous for a moment. Because in all honesty I don't know how to cocktail dress. Like... wat.

So I went home and called upon some of you for assistance, then scoured around on Ebay for like 2 hours in a panic looking for something to wear so they wouldn't lift me and throw me out into the street for even resembling something that dances at a goth club and offend everything that breathes on the way there.

I wasn't able to find anything in my shitty budget that would arrive in time, so I dug anxiously through all my old clothes and found something that might pass. And found some heels I haven't worn since like.. 2001. I knew they'd come in handy again eventually. Glad I didn't toss them. 

Yeah, fuck shoe shopping.

Eventually I was able to put something together that looked passable. It was just a matter of figuring how to tame my ... liberal hair situation. 

That evening, Mr Flower stopped by to come get me with 3 of his colleagues/friends. Sneaky Sneak was driving! I don't have nicknames for the other two. =\ But I know that the one in the front passenger seat skipped around a lot around the park. We'll call him Skippies. I know all their real names, but it's more fun this way!

 He was driving a stick. My favorite part was him trying to move up a steep hill in heavy stop-and-go, bumper to bumper traffic in Hollywood. That was my first time smelling burnt clutch.

note: Walking in heels is stupid.

I hate heels. Who the shit invented high heels? Why? ghad...

Walking in them is like... too much effort for me. I don't wanna concentrate on not wobbling my ankles and watching how I land each step on the concrete with each stride. The dumb shit chicks wear to feel more attractive, ugh.

 

Well... to me heels are dumb. Someone might think my piercings are dumb too, despite their desired shallow affect on my vanity of my liking. ANYWHO

Mr. Flower said I looked nice, so that was good. It meant I wasn't gonna get thrown out. Everyone was all in their snazzy tuxedos and such. Ties and bow ties. I was like dang! This is serious!

When we got there I couldn't process that I was there. There was a pretty fountain out front, and we took photos before going inside. 

 I don't recall interacting too much with him at HHN, but we'll call him Beardee.

 Ugh I'm like a teacher.

Mr. Flower, Skippies, Sneaky Sneak, Beardee.

UNMASKED, YA'LL

There ya go.

Sneaky did a good job at not destroying his clutch going up that hill. I'm proud of him. 

Those foot burdens people call heels added 6 inches to my frame, vertically.

I'm. so. short.

It's okay, I love it.

Okay so, RULES:

No photos or video capture allowed inside the Magic Castle.

Yeah =\

The best way I can describe is... if you take the Titanics' interior and give it a Hogwarts flare. 

The first room we go into is where all the guests get signed in. We were all graciously invited guests of 3 amazing gentlemen who entertained us with their leet Magic skillz that evening. 

The first room has a desk, and the walls are covered with shelves, with idols, trinkets, and a ton of books. There are seemingly no doors to anywhere else. 

This was the only room in the Magic Castle that photos could be captured in.

Ugh, my legs.

UGH, THOSE HEELS. UGH

See that owl on the wall to my left in the photo? You say the magic word, and a secret door opens, revealing the entrance into the Castle. :O

INORITE.

I was so overwhelmed I couldn't speak. We went forward down a little corridor that led us to what looked like a very lovely, dimly lit, speak-easy. To one side there were a flight of stairs going upstairs, to the other was.... more Castleness. The velvet lined chairs in Houdini's seance room probably cost 4x my rent.

The Castle has several bars, and many show rooms. Like, I can't even describe the grandiose of the interior. 

I looked up the Magic Castle on Youtube and found this video, which surprised me a little bit. Have a looksie

Mr. Flower was especially excited to show me all the highlights. First we went into a room with a piano, played by the ghost of Urma, who takes requests of everything ever. Even Zelda songs. A random piano rendition of the LoZ theme song.
It was pretty sick.

Following that, Mr. Flower led me back through the speak easy area and up the stairs to see an owl he calls Christopher :P
This owl is a fortune teller owl! We set at the bar and asked it yes or no questions. It answered everything correctly. Mr. Flower was more astute with his approach to 'Christopher,' so I let him do all the questioning.
MF asked the craziest things, like leading up to ... whether or not the city I was born in is like.. lima bean. Guessing my nationality correctly, my mom's initials- after going through several letters prior to the correct one. The owl would nod its' head yes or no, and got everything correct. Madness.

He also took me down to the area that has the original miniature designs for the Haunted Mansion at Disneyland that were proposed to Walt Disney. It was reaaaaallly coooool.

So... in the HHN clip I put together, there was a chainsaw guy towards the end that was making silly sounds, kinda like how the Sims speak, lol.
Turns out he's a magician! And he put on a few shows for us.
I've never seen a magic show in my life, so seeing all this right in front of me was pretty impressive. His wrists and fingers were lithe and agile with his card deck. Watching, right before me, the cards seemingly teleport from his hands into someone's tuxedo pocket was amazing. His precise movements and attention to detail and memory.... coupled with a mastered dance of illusion, totally a skill worth revering, I feel.
I'm someone that doesn't believe in magic-- at all. I believe in science, perception, and illusion.
His hand movements were scanned viciously, carefully analyzed, watched ever so intently with a cynical concentration that broke only when he finalized his trick, leaving us all astounded.
He impressed the shit out of me.

 

 MF took me around to look at all the areas, including the Dining Hall, and Houdini's seance room. 

Yeah.

All of his shit is in there. Well probably not all of it, but a lot of it was. The milk canister thing that he escaped out of is in there, just chillin'. 

 

MF grabbed me a pamphlet. 

It looks soooooooo awesome. You can have a dinner in there while a Medium does their thing and ... holds a fucking seance. What the hell else is there to say? It's a damn seance, with, they say, Houdini's.... spirit. 

Believe or not, it's still probably really awesome to experience.

And who the hell is a Medium?? UH, THESE GUYS.

Shit, I wanna be a professional Medium. 

"hey, so what do you do?" 

"oh you know... just the usual day job stuff."

"oh?"

"yeah... I'm only just a MEDIUM"

Yeah.

There was also another show we went to, where MF even was picked out to be the magician's assistant. He kept poking me to volunteer but I'd start hyperventilating and crying on stage and then go into shock, so I couldn't. I would've liked to but you know... sometimes ya just can't. 

It was really neat. The guy did a mind reading thing at the end. He gave a stack of cards that had movie posters printed on them and picked a random guy to go through them and select a card, remember it, and he would guess which movie he had selected.

The magician was very very practiced in his way of reading voice intonations and listening to pitch differences, because he guessed correctly every time.

I really wish I had been able to capture photos. Le sigh.

We also saw another show by HHN chainsaw magician friend guy who will be dubbed as Merps, because that's what it sounded like he was saying in the video, who was followed by another magician that somehow manifested a torn piece of a card inside of a lime. Wat? Yeah, I don't know. It was impressive. I tried to deduce it, because that's just what I do with everything in life, and I couldn't figure it out. 

My evening ended with the final attraction that was the big show.. with the hot, flexible assistant and doves and capes and wands and shit, and crazy background music for ambiance- just like they show on tv. It was nuts. I forget the guys' name, but he was one of those Vegas magicians. Super lively and upbeat with the charisma level. He did the trick with the assistance in the tiny box jabbed with 4 swords in it, and the illusion of her disappearing from inside another tiny box. And did stuff with doves that looked like they appeared out of nowhere and manifested right in his hand behind a red, billowy scarf. You guys it was pretty fancy. I felt important. Not gonna lie.

The only sucky thing is that... here it comes.... ready....? I HAD WORK IN THE MORNING! :D

So of course while everyone stayed, I had to go home. I had little options because we had car pooled there, and there was no way in hell I could ask for a ride home. No way. 

So maybe a taxi? I asked Rot, but he was wasted again. Then asked Rot if Josh could get me, and Rot said Josh was.... not... mentally able to. So I was about to call a cab when Josh texted me asking me where I was. Phew! I felt like a total shit texting throughout the show but it was important =[

The magician did another trick with a few of the audiences belongings and shoved them into nothing, that appeared on the other side of the stage coming out of the box the assistant was holding. I totally know how they do that, but it was still really neat to see it in action. He also did that thing there he destroys a belonging, and it somehow is returned completely untouched. 

Before I had to leave, MF said we had to go take the group picture! It's a thing they do every year, so I was excited and really flattered to get to be a part of it.

We all lined up on the stairs in the hall, trying to be as organized as possible. 

Tall in the front, short in the back!

Nope! Mr. Flower couldn't leave my side! So he had to huddle down a little bit, hahaha.

 And a silly one!

OH, also. 

Remember the movie Jumaji? Yes you do, don't lie. Get out.

The little boy actor... who got turned into a monkey.... he's in this picture. Last row, waaaay in the back, on your right, my left-- holding the deck of cards-- not the bald guy. That's him! MF told me and I was like OH SHIT. That's awesome! I love Jumanji. In fact... I'm gonna watch it right now.

Oh just kidding. Netflix took it off.

Well. Anyway, that's what happened that Wednesday.

Josh was super awesome and came to pick me up. 

Mr. Flower was a perfect gentlemen and walked me outside to greet him. The parking attendants were rushing him because apparently he came in the wrong way-- which didn't make sense because we came in that way... but I had to leave immediately =\

Quick snapshot of the fountain, and Josh waiting for me outside. It was raining, too. So weird. 

The Magic Castle was .... really.. a wonder. What a beautiful place, and I can't express the gratitude I feel for having been able to attend. I totally went in not knowing anything about the place or knowing what to expect and left there in total wonderment. 

Thank you for an unforgettable night, Mr. Flower! I'm flattered you invited me to attend with you! 

Everyone was really, really nice and looked amazing. My only regret is not trying the nachos at that one bar. Perhaps another time ;)

In quick other news... the moving process has been keeping me all kinds of wonky. 

Things are a little more settled now. There only one more thing to finish up before the move is completely finished. My room is done basically. The other room we're still working on, but I'll save the details on that for another entry. :D 

A lot has been going on! Kind of exciting!

On the 17th I have my registration appointment with my school. I'm crossing my fingers that my idiot mistake did not cost me another semester. Here's hoping... 

Then I visit my family in Pennsylvania for Christmas. Not sure what I'm going to be doing for New Years yet. We'll see. I know that I prefer a rather tame, quiet evening though. 

Who knows, we'll see! 

Stay tuned ;)