I should have mentioned this earlier

Last week Steph and I headed down to L.A. for an extremely brief sojourn. We went to the 35th anniversary party for Hello Kitty. Normally a Hello Kitty party in and of itself would not usually be an impetus for a 24 hour trip to L.A. (I had an unbreakable tattoo appointment the next day) Don't get me wrong, in a girls quest to be 'cute' a little Hello Kitty goes a long way and I respect that, but I don't love spending more time in the car than in the actual destination itself. But this was different because A. Steph made some accessories for the event and B. Stephs peeps were organizing the event. These two things made it totally worth it. The party was held at Royal T in Culver City. It's apparently where a great deal of L.A. Lolita girls like to congregate for High Tea. I had no idea what to expect even though I knew it was being sponsored by Sanrio but it was also being organized by a couple of Stephs friends and to my knowledge throwing these types of events isn't their main gigs. Upon arrival we quickly discovered that this a very 'Hollywood' bright lights event. There was a line which stretched down the sidewalk. There was a news crew and b-list celebs. And of course there were plenty of peeps in flashy attire. We ended up standing in line for about an hour and a half which to me seemed ridiculous considering Steph was a participating artist. We eventually made it inside and I was astounded by all the contributing artists involved. Some notable peeps were Gary Baseman, Toki Doki, Buff Monster, Huck Gee and Steph's friend Michelle who made some headbands that looked like giant red bows. They were quite a hit. I picked one up for Steph and apparently she got lucky since it was the last one. Michelle's a cool girl and good for her. Among the other exciting things was chiefly the open bar. I very much appreciated drinking free beers. At one point Steph and all of her colorful haired girls were called out by the news crew for a little interview sesh. I ended up taking the opportunity to walk around and check out some of the paintings and some general people watching. When I met back up with Steph we ended up getting to check out the super awesome Hello Kitty Airstream trailer. Afterwards we went over to Swingers diner for some eggs with a whole crew of peeps. We got up the next morning and went to Milk, one of our new favorite L.A. spots to nosh, and grabbed some road eats before heading back to S.F. I ended up skating back to the city with minutes to spare before my tattoo appointment. Needless to say I was bit tired and worn out from all the driving, not to mention a bit hungry. the problem with that is that I think it might affect one's pain threshold because this was probably the worst I've felt ever. Holly (the tattoo artist) spent most of the evening working on of all places my armpit area which on a good day is my very least favorite of places. I endured and walked away closer to being done. Anyway, pics away!