Bittersweet Birthday

My birthday was pretty cool, but I had to say goodbye to one of my best friends' Courtney. She was the last one of my friends to leave for college.

Courtney took me out on a picnic, but it was raining so we went to the civic center. I was a little self conscious at first, scared people would come in, but it was fun.

Note my ugly fever blister. haha. 

Our last picture together :(

One cool thing though, my work got me a cake, with.. a panda! Even they know of my obsession:) I didn't get a picture of it till after it was half eaten. I turned a little crazy and was forbidding everyone from eating the panda part. It said 'Happy Birthday Karmen' but all you can see is Karmen.

California - San Diego Zoo/LA/The end :(

The one thing I knew I wanted to do months before we even went to California, was to see a real panda at the San Diego Zoo. Panda's are only in 3 or 4 zoos in the US, and San Diego is one of them. I almost forfeited the opportunity; it was kind of tricky to plan everything to get there. Thankfully, the Saturday(?) before we left, we went :) I took pictures of a lot of different animals but I only feel like posting the pandas. 

It was pacing around and around then all the sudden sat up all alert. It was so funny.

Mia got the best picture, this one, on her cell phone.

The next day we went to Los Angeles. It was an interesting drive and even more interesting there. We went to Hollywood Boulevard first. It seemed extra busy, people all over the place. There were people dressed up as certain characters (Spiderman, Tigger, Transformers, the Little Mermaid, Spongebob, Michael Jackson, and a lot more) This guy was dressed up as this terrifying..something. I was literally scared, really scared, as silly as it sounds. He was supposed to be a 'demon' apparently. I was so worked up over getting away from all the fakes that I didn't take too many pictures.

Mann's Chinese Theatre

Inside the Kodak Theatre. It was really cool and fun to look around.

Look familiar?

We drove to most of the known places, such as Rodeo drive, which, as only a North Dakotan could, I thought was pronounced rodeO, as in cowboys and horses. Hmm.  

All together we saw or went to 4 different beaches. Corona Del Bar, Laguna Beach, Venice Beach, and Santa Monica, below. It was my favorite of all the beaches. A very cool vibe and awesome view!

Santa Monica Pier.

and that concludes my California pictures! I didn't take any on the way home. We had a good trip back though. We flew Jet Blue from Long Beach to Salt Lake city, then rented a car and drove the rest of the way. I highly recommend Jet Blue airlines. Not everyone can say they watched cable tv from 30,000 feet in the air, but I can :) OverallI had a wonderful time and still miss it. I don't think I fully appreciated everything at the time. I adopted the Californian laid back attitude and didn't realize how truly amazing and awesome the things I got to experience were. I was also really surprised at how un-stereotypical it was, at least not in Irvine and Orange. My friends asked me "Is everyone tall, tan, and blonde?" and really, no, they weren't. Of course, I did see a lot of fancy people, but not to the extent that you tend to expect from what you hear about CA. Mia and I would walk places in Irvine, and I (who tends to be kind of paranoid in bigger cities) never felt scared or anything of that sort. Also, the weather, which I expected to be so hot at all times, was so much nicer than ND summers. It was never unbearably hot and it would cool down quite a bit at night. Did I mention the frozen yogurt? Well, they have it ALLLL over the place down there. So many different kinds and flavors, it's amazing. Ice cream is a thing of the past. Anyways, that basically sums up everything!

California - Corona Del Mar/Balboa Island/Laguna Beach

The day after the concert (or maybe 2 days after?) me, mom, Mia, Sheree, and Charles decided to go to Corona Del Mar to watch the sunset. It was a pretty spur of the moment decision but I was excited!

Beautiful isnt it?

I couldn't figure out why this sign said "Newport Beach" yet we were at Corona Del Mar. ??

We then decided to take a ferry to Balboa Island. It was only minutes long but pretty cool. The island was really neat. We ate some really good pizza and explored. Mia and I wanted to go on the Ferris wheel, so mom paid and off we went!

I haven't been on one is years and was freaking out a bit. It was a really little one but was going pretty fast.

A few days later Sheree and Charles took Mia and myself to Laguna beach. It was really pretty and fun to be at such a known place. Mia and I were in our clothes but we waded in the water. The waves had something else in mind though and we were completely overtaken and in the water we went! We rode waves (or they rode us) for quite a while. It was really fun, although pretty scary at times. Some were really, really powerful.

Here's myself on Laguna Beach(before the waves took us captive) This is the only picture of me(besides the ferris wheel ones) taken in the whole 2 weeks we were there. Oh well.

California - Jonas Brothers

Here's a video of the intro of the Jonas Brothers. The screaming might drive you insane (don't blame me, I tried not to scream when I was filming:) , but it'll give you a first hand look at the craziness of this all.

They had a light show during everything. It was pretty unbelievable and gave Trans Siberian Orchestra a run for their money.

Thankfully they had 2 screens that were zoomed on them, otherwise it would've been so hard to see. Especially since it was outdoors and nighttime.

This is Kevin, the oldest. He mostly just plays guitar, sometimes sings.

Nick, the youngest & most talented.

The colors and just about everything on stage was constantly changing.

Not a very good picture but I was trying to get a picture of Joe's purity ring. They all wear one and it probably makes up alot of the reason that I like them so much. Just that they're so huge and in such a secular scene yet they still take such an obvious stance for purity. Their songs aren't necessarily christian(mostly about girls or just life) but they definitely are. Their dad was actually an Assembly of God pastor before they became famous. Pretty cool :)

Here's a clip of Nick singing his song 'A Little Bit Longer'. He got diagnosed with diabetes 2 years ago when he was 13 and this was a song he wrote about it. I wish I had the full song. It was a pretty powerful song, lots of people crying and yeah, it was really good :) He's the youngest of the brothers but seems to kind of run the band :) He was on broadway when he was younger, and they only got famous because he got a record deal, then they found out he had brothers, thus they became Jonas Brothers :)

During one of their songs, they all of the sudden started rising on these really little circle podiums. They couldn't finish their song because the applause was absolutely unbelievable. I've never heard anything like it. They did -finally- finish the song and came down off those crazy things.

All the hands look so crazy :)
Just another stage shot. During their most recent single 'Burnin' Up' hence the fire.
Running off the stage before their encore.

So that was it. Mia and I thought it was pretty much amazing, little did we know we'd get home to find an even more amazing surprise. We got to Mia's house to find some sheets of paper laying on her bed. She read them and told me we got cast in the audience of the Jonas brothers 3D movie. I didn't really believe her, not till the next morning. But alas, we did in fact get in! I have my height and birthday to thank for that. haha. We didn't really know what was in store for us. We had to be there by 10AM (actually, I think it was 11, but we weren't taking any chances) We stood in lines for hours and hours. There was supposed to be about 600 people but ended up being 1,000. Basically, they'd take a couple hundred girls down at a time, they'd surround the stage and catwalk, and scream their heads off while they filmed the Jonas Brothers singing bits of their songs. Mia and I had to wait till about 3:30 before our chance came. We weasled our way to the front of the right side of the catwalk. It was pretty surreal. They quit filming around 4 then we ate, and waited some more. We met some really nice girls, but mostly, everyone was crazed fans. Like, 'I'll do ANYTHING to get ANYWHERE near them' kind of girls. Mia and I were determined to get to the front of the stage once the real concert started. Only the casted audience was allowed on the floor/pit. If we were really attending the concert, those seats would have cost close to one thousand dollars, yet we got them for free! Eventually we got to the floor, and began the daunting task of getting as close as possible. We weren't being mean or pushing (like a lot of the people) mostly just moving up into any space available. Demi Lovato once again opened the concert, she was even better close up:) We were a few people from the front, but by the time the Jonas brothers came on, we were at the front and center of the end of the catwalk (best location, basically). Well, Mia was, I was right behind her though. I still can't believe that out of 18,000 people, we were right at the front, while filming a MOVIE! They would come right up to us in almost every song. Grabbing our hands or kneeling by us. It was unbelievable, but at the time I was pretty much so hot and sweaty and hoarse from our hours of being told to scream, that I didn't fully realize how big of deal it was.

We were told not to bring cameras, so sadly these are the only pictures I have, from my phone.

This is Joe during my favorite song 

No zoom:)

Taylor Swift was the surprise guest. This is a bad picture but at least I got one.

So, that was it. Afterwards I was so near passing out(not from excitement, from being dehydrated, squished, and so so hot) , I physically couldn't talk or move barely. Being in movies is tough work I tell you what! Anyways, the movie will be in theatres in January. I wouldn't count on seeing myself in it, but you never know. At least I'll know I'm somewhere in that huge crowd :)

California - Demi Lovato performance

Demi Lovato was the opening act for the Jonas Brothers. She isn't very well known but she's very talented. She was on Barney when she was younger (lol) and was just in the Disney movie 'Camp Rock' which the Jonas Brothers were also in. Her voice was really impressive live, especially since she's only 15 almost 16. She did very well on stage and it was cool to watch her and think 'Hey, I met her today!' 

  Here's a little bit of one of her songs. Her style was more rock but this song was pretty mellow.