I believe I can flyyyyyyy

Don't ask about the weird title.

So on Thursday, me and my family flew out (in a small airplane that my step-dad can now fly for fun purposes since he got his pilot's license) to Santa Ynez down south from San Jose and got a taxi to a small Dutch like town of Solvang which would've been an almost four hour drive but instead was a one hour flight. We got some lunch and then just went around looking through all the small shops, mostly antique stores which are always fun to look at all the old stuff.

Then later that afternoon we flew north to the Oceano Dunes for a few minutes and we luckily got there in time for the sunset which was just gorgeous. Got a bunch of shells that washed up on shore. Then we flew back to San Jose and got a late dinner at Wendy's which I haven't had in over a year. Their fries are awesome!

So nowadays my mom's friend Carrie from Indiana has come over for a visit and my mom's been hanging out with her. They went to Napa Valley yesterday. We went to the Gilroy Outlets today and I got a couple shirts from Forever 21 and a cup of Starbucks hot chocolate. The entire town of Gilroy smelled of garlic because of their Garlic Festival but when we went last year it wasn't as well as I anticipated other than getting garlic fries. They even had garlic ice cream which wasn't uber great. Anyway, we went out to Chevy's for an early dinner and came home.

Tomorrow's gonna be the first day of August and I have less than three weeks to finish my summer assignments. I've finished reading all the books I'm required to read and have started on the whole typing up and searching for meanings and what not. Really really should get on that. Oh, and me and my sister still need our Whooping Cough shots so we can even go to school which I'm not psyched for at all. Out of my phobias one of them has to be needles for medical and drug use. Always makes me shudder when I see it on TV.

On another small note I finally got access to Netflix for the first time in forever and added a crap ton of anime to it. Cannot wait to get on that.

XOXO,
Liz

Should Toddlers be in Tiaras?

Most of us would answer no. But there are moms who dress up their little girls and put them in pageants. And of course the famous (or infamous) show Toddlers and Tiaras gives us a view of what these little girls go through preparing for these pageants.

I've seen this TV show too many times to get that what these moms do to their kids is insane.

In the most recent episode I saw, there was a woman with a three year old who was completely disrespectful to her mom and hitting and screaming at her. But the mom didn't do anything about it and just let it happen. And during pageant practice whenever the girl did well at something the mom would award her with sugar cubes. Is your kid a horse? Cause it sure looks like it. But I mean if I were this mom I wouldn't take the behavior that kid would give me. I see a lot of moms on this show who don't really have control of their children's behavior and that's not exactly good parenting if you can't set up boundaries for your kids and suck it up and say no to them when they misbehave.

There was also another woman who was just yelling at her kid and scolding her over stupid stuff and forcing her into pageants. When she went on the stage, the lady announcing said, "So and so says thanks to her mom for fulfilling her dream in being in a pageant." All I thought was bullcrap. Earlier in the episode this girl said that she wanted to be in the US Olympics gymnastics team. No where in that did she say anything about being in pageants as a dream. And this girl's really talented and she's seven years old, but her mom complained that she had too much muscle in her arms so she made her quit.

So is it me or did most of these moms have crappy childhoods and making it up for it with their girls? They practically make their kids do this kind of stuff unless the child wants to do it and they just throw away hundreds of dollars for dresses, hair pieces and all that crap. And then they make their kids practice their catwalks and talent routines to win ten thousand dollars. I mean, women can be more than stay at home moms so get off your butt and get a job so you'll be able to pay your bills and not magically get money from wherever.

It's really crazy what will be done to the girls to make them "pretty". Not only do parents waste money on dresses but they get their kid's eyebrows plucked and waxed, give them spray tans, and give them flippers for their teeth. For anyone who just got confused by the word flippers, they are dentures for kids and are used in pageants when a girl's lost baby teeth or has crooked teeth. And it's pretty obvious when someone has them on and it just doesn't look attractive.

This stuff does more damage to the kids other than their behavior. A lot of these moms put down their kids whenever they mess up on their routines; even on the slightest mistakes that seem to get noticed. That really affects the self-esteem of their girls. And girls who pursue like modeling careers or something will feel like they aren't pretty and may get bulimia or anorexia so they'll be "pretty".

And some of the outfits these girls are dressed up in a bit provocative for their ages. I mean, I know audiences at beauty pageants are small but doesn't anyone think that there may be the slightest chance a pedophile might be in the audience? Who remembers the 7 year old girls going hard on Single Ladies video? Those girls can dance very well for their age but a lot of their moves were very inappropriate for their age and they just wore such revealing outfits too.

I was in dance for years since I was little and we always wore costumes that weren't too revealing and did dances that weren't provocative. Even those rules applied to the older kids. Cause you never know when in one of our competitions or end of the year performances there may be a pedophile in the audience. I get kinda irritated when I think of this when I see all these girls dressed up like Barbie dolls.

So anyone thinking of putting their kids in pageants for extra money, forget it. Just give them as normal as a childhood as you can.

XOXO,
Liz

A Day of Highlights

So yesterday I went out with my friend Andreas to a popular amusement park in San Jose called Great America. After living here for over a year, I wonder why my family hasn't gone. Oh well.

I hung out with Andreas the whole day. He dragged me on a roller coaster called The Demon which I kinda didn't enjoy too much since I'm not the hugest roller coaster fan ever. Though I was glad he didn't take me on the roller coaster where you stood up the whole time. Rode some normal rides and we rode bumper cars twice and the carousel twice. I got to ride a pig the second time I was on the carousel and me and Andreas pretended to be an arguing couple when we rode together the first time in the bumper cars. Had some pizza for a late lunch and after walking around for a little bit we went home.

Now here are the so called highlights I had in my day.

Highlight #1: Buying a pink octopus with a skull face
Highlight #2: Hearing a guy scream "THANK GOD! CENTRIFUGE IS CLOSED!" at the top of his lungs in his joy that a ride was closed for technical difficulties.
Highlight #3: Roaming all over kingdom come to get out of traffic cause the freeway was closed to an explosion of a truck that killed a guy (Found out on news).

So that was a good day, and I'm glad I went to Great America.

I can't believe how close the new school year is. I'm almost done with my summer assignment for English 10, and I should start memorizing verb tenses for Spanish 3. Though we start school on a Thursday of all days which is a little weird. Oh well. Probably should get to my assignment and finish reading Anthem.

XOXO,
Liz

It's official!

I'm back online thanks to my uncle Chris!

Now that all is kosher, here's what has been going on in my summer since my Yosemite trip.

After Yosemite I wasn't really doing much of anything. Since the computer died all I had to do was read, play video games, watch Scrubs, and take an occasional walk around the neighborhood. And of course Fourth of July. Went out with my family and some friends to see fireworks at a golf course and then went to a block party a couple days later.

Afterwards, my friend Mikayla's sweet sixteen came up, so obviously I went. My sister's present was belly dancing at her party for her which a lot of people got a kick out of. Even her boyfriend, Garrett, dressed up so Marina wouldn't feel like the only one left out cause it was a formal party and everyone else was dressed up in fancy dresses and what not.

The weekend afterwards, my friend Jamie invited me to a Potter Party at her church, and am I gonna pass up an offer to hang out with my friend before school starts? Of course not. It was really fun cause we played a fun version of Quidditch, went out to Taco Hell for lunch (dressed up), and watched all of the first seven movies. Quite literally. I passed out three times during this marathon of Potter madness. By the time we finished the first part of Deathly Hallows it was like seven in the morning. Totally worth it though.

After going to our friend Jenn's 40th birthday party, we went to San Francisco and picked up Uncle Chris. His first meal in Cali consisted of Togo's and Jamba Juice which he loved. Did a ton of sightseeing which included Monterey Aquarium, Japan town (mostly in search in food), two rose gardens in San Jose, and the small beach side village near Santa Cruz called Capitola. I had a great time hanging out with my uncle. He even got me and Marina a Bamboo tablet for drawing and stuff which I'm psyched to finally be able to use. And me, Marina, Garrett, and Chris got to battle each other in Super Smash Bros. Melee which is the most fun thing ever.

I'm kinda sad though cause Chris had to go back to Indiana today and I'm gonna miss him a lot. Oh well, hope to see him again someday soon.

As for the rest of my vacation, it'll mostly likely consist of more block parties, playing video games, reading, and, of course, finishing my summer projects... And I'm now NOT psyched about that. Heheheh...

XOXO,
Liz

Quick update

So I'm kinda sorta back but as of now my uncle's out with my mom looking at some technological stuff that hopefull will fix her laptop and we can use it again. Then I'll be able to share what's been going on during my summer since Yosemite and I probably won't do a blog post about that cause I just lost my patience for it. And yes there will be some pictures too.

But while I'm on here and no one else seems to be waiting for computers I'm gonna update my anime review blog and get something new up there.

For anyone interested in checking out my other blog it's right here: http://otakusloveforever.blogspot.com

Hope to see you again super soon!

XOXO,
Liz