Dear Life Experiences...: Today, I professionally auditioned and was lost (in amazement).

The birthday weekend did not come to an end. Oh, the fun continued! On that day, I had my first professional dance audition. This audition was for Diamond White, a Top 5 contestant on X Factor, searching for young looking backup hip hop dancers. I was scared out of mind. First of all, I wouldn’t call hip hop my strongest style, but I am good at one it’s derivatives: jazz funk. When I entered the room, I was terrified of the competition because there were some amazing poppers, breakers and hip hop dancers. Then there were some that shouldn’t have been there…

When we got to learning choreography, I picked it up. Parts were choppy, but I was able to follow along. Luckily, I had my butt handed to me for three years when I was in high school by a lovely choreographer: Webster. This man pushed me and made me learn three minutes worth of choreography within one hour and fifty minutes. So learning a minute’s worth of choreography was a piece-of-cake…sort of… There were some moves that were harder to execute than others, but I did fairly well with rhythm. Near the end of audition, I started to die.

My idiotic self forgot bring water in the one hundred degree weather; I was in that audition for an hour and a half. So we danced and we were split into groups. I was feeling pretty confident about the choreography. Then they told us to freestyle. Kill. Me. Now. If there’s one thing I can’t do, it’s freestyle hip hop. So I did what I did best: the splits, with some flourishing turns and such…Oh! And being sexy! When we did the final round of auditions, I was put into the group of dancers that were actually really good and I knew that I was doing something right!

At the end of auditions, they were impressed with my dancing.

Diamond: You did really well! How old are you?

Asian: Oh…I’m…22 hahaaa…

Diamond: What?! Oh my goodness you look so young! I thought you were younger!

Diamond’s Aunt: Mm! I know! I couldn’t believe it! I saw your age on the audition form and was like, “Uh uh! He is not!”

Diamond: Well, you look great.

I’m happy to say that even if I don’t get opportunity to be her dancer, I can at least say later on in life that I auditioned for a star…and she liked me. After the audition, I drove home and Lux, Philly, Panda and myself all went to The Last Bookstore.

Now, this bookstore was breathtaking. When you stepped inside, it felt so peaceful, calm, and serene. The art was intriguing and we got to experience “The Labyrinth”. What was interesting about the set up was that it was an actual labyrinth and some of the structures were held up by force! They still have shelves to stock and areas to complete, but it’s a pretty amazing place. When we finished out grand exploration of the amazing bookstore, we got hungry and decided to walk around ‘til we found a restaurant that piqued our interest; it ended up being Blossom Restaurant.

This restaurant, my friends, was one of the worst experiences I have had since moving here. The service was bad, the food was so-so/the portions were ridiculous and the staff members were laughable.

Service: The moment we entered through the door, there was no happy greeting. Instead, we were greeted by drones that did not function properly and were just reciting words. When an order was incorrectly made, they didn’t make an attempt to offer the food to us, rather, they told us they were taking it home for themselves. The least they could have done was be a bit more sly about not giving us the food.

Food: The food wasn’t all that amazing. It was tasty, but it wasn’t something I was dying to go back and eat. On top of which, I didn’t understand why the portions were so small! The portion was enough to feed a child, a first world child. Third world children would have suffered starvation. The food was set in to be a taste; the gimmick was to have people buy more. Let me tell you, this food was NOT cheap. Prices were reasonable, but for the amount of food we received.

Staff: They just didn’t seem like they wanted to be there. They just sounded like they hated their jobs. I don’t care how tired you are or how pissed off at the world you are. You are working in a customer service industry where the customer comes before you. We all have problems, deal with it and face it on your own time. I may sound crass, but I am saying this out of experience. Furthermore, they never once came to check on us to see how our food was and the only reason why we even had a refill on our water was because I was making fun of how we only had one glass of water for the evening.

Asian: So…is this all the water we’re going to get?

Philly: Yup.

Asian: Awesome.

Less than a minute later, a server comes by to refill our glasses.

Asian: Thank you.

Server: …

Philly: I guess they heard you.

Needless to say, they did not receive a good tip from me. We have this theory that the reason they didn’t come to us was because I had the Book of Mormon out on the table. In my defense, I had nowhere to set it and if I did, I would have forgotten about it. And no, readers, I am not Mormon. I just find religion to be a fascinating thing and like to read theological material. It broadens my perspective about how others may think.

It got a little late and Lux couldn’t join us for karaoke bowling. So she went back home and we decided to go to All Star Lanes. It was pitiful. The karaoke was located in the bar, which meant that Panda wasn’t allowed in there because she was too young. By months by the way! Boo. So we hung out there, hoping they wouldn’t check IDs. Boy, were we wrong. When it got close to karaoke, this guy goes to a table a booth away from us and says that he’s carding people. Immediately I told Panda to scram and hideout in the bathroom. Instead, she decided to sit in a chair in a dark corner of the already dark arcade room. This guy was on a search. He literally went around the entire bar and in and out of it in search for someone. We were pretty sure that he was after Panda. Well, Philly and I rocked out our songs and were crowd favorites and left with Panda when we finished. It was a very interesting evening… With that entire debacle behind us, Panda and I prepped ourselves for the happiest place on earth: Disneyland.