B a t s | 2 0 1 4 [Disneyland]

  Saturday, May 17th ;  My alarm went off at 7:30 a. m.

It went off again at 7:45 a. m.

Fett mumbled in a half-asleep stupor as I dragged myself out of my bed, unwrapping the red beanie-baby skin throw from my legs.
The activities from the night prior (shhh) taxed my preparations for the weekend. I hauled ass to get everything together by 9:00 a. m., when Ponies would be out front ready to go- chocolate muffin in stow. 

I grabbed all my shit, prettied myself as best I could and headed outside, Fett holding my hand. He waved a greeting and good-bye to Ponies. I got in and we were off to Anaheim. The Clarion, to be exact.

| B A T S   D A Y  -   B L A C K    M A R K E T 

   SO MUCH SHIT TO HAUL INSIDE, YOU GUISE. Poor Ponies, he did about 99% of the loading in. It was just us two setting up the booth this year. I played the watch tower over our belongings while he brought things in.
Whoops, did I mention that load-in was an hour and a half later than what Ponies had previously read? We got there just before 10:30 a. m. and sat in the line that was just budding. We waited, and waited. 

11:00 a. m. drew nearer with no news of check-in status, or load-ins. Um, like... wtf.

Once they finally got the check-in forms, we checked in and headed to the car to start bringing things inside.

JUST KIDDING. Load-in isn't until noon. 

WELL. SHET.

...

UGH.

 ALRIGHT THEN.

Let's go take this shit back to the car.

We'll just go get breakfast, then.

Our food was good. We had breakfast in the hotels' very cafe, in the lobby.

Once we finished there we headed back to the check-in desk. The doors were opened, so we confirmed where our booth was and headed inside. 

 Once we got to our table we had to establish where the t-shirts and standee were going to fit. There isn't a lot of room, unfortunately.

 We made it work, regardless :D

Poor Ponies went back and forth several times, hauling in tubs of stuff while I stayed behind and watched our personal belongings. At last, he returned one final time with a cart, loaded with more boxes and tubs. Woohoo! Time to set up!

 I think his booth looked awesome. The purple cloth and hangers really accented it!

 Hooray for Ink Bleed Books!

 This was the first year he would have a standee. I was stoked to see it. He told me about it and said it was a 6 ft standee of Maddie and her BFF. It looked great :D

 d'awww, Pooooniieez.

I kept telling him to go look at how his booth looks from the other side and take it in. He accomplished it!

 His books and t-shirts were like, super dupes discounted for Bats Day Black Market. If you find them on Amazon or on the Ink Bleed Books site... tough shit!
Just kidding. It helps him get his work out, so go buy them! 

They're great. "So this bitch..." is my favorite XD

The vendor next to us actually purchased it and started reading it right then and there. She raved to me about how funny it was and how it reminded her of herself at clubs. 

I was glad to hear it ^^

 He was also giving away free buttons!

 Suuu manies

 

Every now and again one of us would get up to roam around the floor and see what the other vendors had for sale.

 I've seen her at cons. Her stuff is really cute.

 Stained porcelain. So cooooooool :3

 That's Thomas. He's a derp.

 Coolizt display case ebar.

 No wait. This one.

 Fett's friends were running a booth here too!

 In payment 

Ponies got me a porcelain doll, as well as a Bats Day t-shirt. I was thrilled.

Look how cute she is!!!

 She is from the Deceased Art vendor. They had many like her.. and I swear I'm gonna get more.
I regret not bringing my porcelain dolls with me from Pennsylvania. Here's to a start of a new collection ^_^

 I also purchased another coffin from Stark Graving Mad. This one has The Bride on it ^_^

They both now rest atop my bookshelf, amongst some of my other fun collectable yaysies.

 The vendor across from us sold vegan candy

 Jillian Venters! 

She is the writer of Gothic Charm School. She also has a couple videos on YouTube outlining what the book highlights. They're funny, you should go look em up.

 The coolest part was that she had heard of Ponies' books.

 Bernadette is a returning fan of his that stopped by the booth last year. Sweetest girl ever. And I'm jelly of her name.

 She bought the first 2 books!

 Fetts' friends were in the booth right behind ours, haha.

This was the Deceased Art booth with the rest of their dollies. I want all of them :(
They'll be a Comikaze this year. GUESS WHO'S GONNA GET ANOTHER DOLL THERE

In the end we sold over his goal of 40 books, in addition to some t-shirts. It was a great turn out; he earned back his booth and profited. I'm proud of him! The event ended at 10 p. m. that evening. Jess showed up later and helped pack everything up. We were hungry, as we had only had breakfast that day, and the person who said they were bringing us food showed up without any, lol. So afterwards we went to go have some Japanese food and called it a night. Saturday was a total success! 

| B A T S   D A Y  -   f u n   in  the   p a r k 

Basically.

Jess and I stayed at the hotel.
We got a late start, agreeing to meet with Ponies in the lobby at checkout; 11 a. m.

 Some things Jess bought at the Black Market.

 Ready to go!

Armored with parasols and 100 spf, we braved the solar photons and headed towards the park. XD

Except not. The parking lot for Disneyland was full. So we had to take a detour to the Anaheim Convention Center parking lot and take a bus from there to the park.

This bus wasn't as gross as the metro busses, so that was nice.

 Once we got in the park we had to take an official Disneyland picture ^_^

We took 3. And Jillian Venters joined us.
Winning.

 So it was well after noon once we got settled in.

Jess wanted to be in the group picture that was scheduled at 1:30 p. m.

We decided to sit and have lunch beforehand. I traveled across the land for my bread bowl, while they stopped for eats at a cafe.

 I was excited to use my little coin purse that I purchased at the Black Market.
This fabric is blowing up, I swear. EVERYONE'S using it. Not complaining, just sayin.

 We waited, and waited.

 I read my fan service manga-- 

until it was time to head over to the castle.

 The man standing in front of everyone is Noah. Creator and Executive Producer of Bats Day.

We stood with the "vanillas." hahaha

Didn't really care much to be in the picture, really. 

Then it was off to get on some rides.

Aw yeah.

I was doing the Uncle Rico face.

You know, Napoleon Dynamite's uncle?

yeah.

 There was a meet up at the Jungle Cruise ride. So we headed to that. It was organized by Kaira Thirteen. I know her through Ponies. Super cool chick.
The idea was to get as many Gothies to show up and fill a single boat.

 With a count of 91, we filled 4.

Later on that afternoon Jess split off to spend time with other friends, while Ponies and I got on all the rides ever.

 Lol, we headed to the Haunted Mansion before the 8 p. m. meet up because we didn't wanna waste time being in line. 10 minute wait. Worth it.

 We took the tram thing to downtown Disney for din din.

 I told him to smile and he does that.
There's a secret word that gets him to smile normally. So I had to capture it.

 HORSE TEETH WHOA

 SMILE, PONIES!

Noms.

We had a blast. 

Got on all the roller coasters we could, even Splash Mountain. And got Dole Whip. mmmmmm!

It was a lot of fun. We were SO beat afterwards though. Like.. on the drive home Ponies was falling asleep, and I was out cold. Couldn't stay awake.
He dropped me off at Fetts and I told him to pull over on the street and sleep as long as he needed to. There was no way he could make the trip back on a 10 minute power nap.

Before we left I had to get one more thing!

 Ears! 

I'm gonna cut the ears up all cute and deco it for next years' Bats Day.

dats me! :3

One more thing I'd like to address before we conclude this entry.

I'd like to extend a greeting to a girl I met at the park named Bella. She stopped me originally because she liked my bag and thought I looked cool. Then, somehow, in the darkness of night, in the middle of Tomorrowland, she found me one more time and stopped me for a picture. 

A sweet little Baby Bat, I like to think. :)

She was very polite, and was incredibly stoked to have found me! I'm glad that we met, and hope to run into her at the next Bats Day.

You guise. 

Alright. 

Fett's sleeping in my bed right now, and we're due to go have Ramen in a bit. I gotta go put my face on so as to not scare people so...... 

I hope you enjoyed this entry. 

JUST WAIT UNTIL VIDEO GAMES LIVE. 

Did I mention Fett and I are going? 

And let me tell you... about that time we ate $80 worth of sushi.

Wait no. That'll be for another time.

Alright, bye guise. Feel free to share this post and pictures!

/hugsies

R I S K

  There's a talent out there that has taken our generation by surprise with her creativity and passion.

Her name is Lindsey Stirling, and I was lucky enough to have had the chance to view her in concert, all thanks to Fett.

It all started in December of last year when, admittedly, Fett took a huge risk and got me a peculiar Christmas gift.

May.

Who knew what the future had in store for us.
But he went all in, balls to the wall. And every part of me is happy that he did so.

5 months later we find ourselves in downtown L.A., still very much in our "honeymoon phase" (as my roommate put it lol) holding hands and making our rounds in the square.

Lindsey Stirling, I remember first hearing about her back in 2012 I think during a King of the Web competition. A podcaster mentioned her in one of his posts to help get certain artists exposure. I clicked on the link and instantly became so charmed by the way she played her instrument and danced with such joy that you don't often see amongst musicians anymore. She looked happy, like she was enjoying playing her music for people. 

This was my favorite song of hers at the time. Her spirit just... beams, and I couldn't help smiling while watching her. It's contagious, and it's so so rare!

In addition to her spirit, she also writes her own sheet music. So. She's like.... my favorite composer ever. She speaks to her audience through her violin in a booming wave of joy and enchantment that other pop artists could never even come close to achieving.

I don't even want to like this shit.
And I don't fancy dubstep in the slightest. She's just .... enjoyable.

So when I saw that Fett had this in mind for us, yes it was a shock but at the same time was exciting, and it made me feel like he wasn't a shithead, and someone who genuinely enjoyed my company and sought to retain it.

We walked around the square, grabbed some Sbux and walked around some more until it was time to go upstairs and get in line to get in. It was hot out. I'm neurotic, so this only gave me an excuse to bust out my fan and start fanning myself like a boss.

We finally get inside and get up close to the railing that surrounded the 'pit.'

There was another band that opened for them. They started out with a cool song; lots of drums. The keyboardist played a taiko or something. I don't even know, but it was cool.
I also ran into someone I know there. It was too dark to take a picture, but always good to see a familiar face.
Then Lindsey came on.

The crowd went all kinds of cray cray.

 Just like in her YouTube videos, she prances around while playing her violin.

I don't know why it's so ugly and pixelated. I promise my phone captures nicer video than this... BLOGGER.

They did a beautiful acoustic piece as well.

There was a performance that stood out to me most which was "Shatter me"
Lzzy Hale joined Lindsey on stage that night for an exclusive show in L.A. Their chemistry was awesome, and Lzzy's powerful lungs met Lindsey's chords in a way that basically made the entire song a fucking crescendo forever until it stopped. It was epic.

This song also resonates with me in a massive way.
The music video centers around a porcelain ballerina encased in a glass globe. She sees butterflies beyond, but then thinks they're bats as her curiosity peaks to break out. Eventually she shatters her barriers, risking losing herself, falling, and breaking into pieces. She needed to get out of her comfort zone, despite her fear of breaking.

This is HUGE for me, as I know that feeling so intimately. Introverts, man. Introverts are hilarious under pressure.

P U B L I C   S E R V I C E    A N N O U N C E M E N T |
          If you are attending a concert and are taller than 5'9... the least you could do is not be on your phone ignoring the performance in front of you while you block the view of the people behind you. Move to the side if your text messaging / social network activities are more important than how much tickets cost people to see the person you're needlessly blocking from their view.

THEENKS.

All in all I was very fortunate to have had the opportunity to see this girl live. She deserves her light. She prances in it like a little pixie, ever dancing and playing for her audience. As long as we continue to shine it, she will play. I hope she goes on to much larger things. Large enough to reach more and more of our generation in hopes of inspiring them to not listen to horse shit, and compose enchanting melodies of their own that tell their stories.

Thank you, Fett for opportunity. I know it may not have seemed like it, but I was taking in every note and moment of it. Just... not moving as much, lol.



As for the Bats Day blog entry, it may have to wait until tomorrow.
There are WAY more pictures than I thought there were. Thankfully I finished correcting the last batch of them today. And that's not the only thing I have to finish! (Ahem, Noob Charms :P)
So, apologies for the anticipation ~ it must be killing you!! Well, don't let it!

In the mean time you can check out some of the footage I took from this weekend instead. :)



Also, it is early for most, but it is late for me as I have been awake since 3AM this morning due to work. With that said; Good evening! And happy REMing. xoxo