Invasion of the flesh-eating reindeer from Uranus

That most romantic time of the year is almost upon us.

That's right, it's been almost exactly 2 years since my bf and I first met. To celebrate the occasion we are going to Los Angeles for about a day and a half. Woot, woot!

Why Los Angeles? Well you see, one of my latest obsessions is Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab, a "purveyor of fine esoteric goods, perfumes and potions". This place makes perfumes that are, well, weird. There are a bunch of different themes, like "Neil Gaiman", "The Graveyard Book", "Mad Tea Party" and "Pharmacopoeia" and the perfumes have both unusual descriptions and obscure ingredients. Here is a sample from their "Carnaval Diabolique" series:

The Parliament of Monsters
You pass through the golden mouth, and find yourself inside a narrow, cramped corridor. Large wooden paintings of skeletal hands crook their bony fingers, leading you forwards. At the first turn, you hear a bizarre jumble of sounds: the high-pitched sound of gears grinding, metal on metal, the sound of sultry, low-pitched laughter, a clattering, wings flapping, soft hissing. Suddenly, a sharp howl pierces the darkness. As you make your way around the corner you are momentarily blinded as floodlights flicker to life, and thirteen gold-gilded stages are illuminated, bathed from beneath in sinister caramel-colored light.

Dust, incense, wet tobacco, and a curl of opium smoke

Actually, some of the ingredients are much odder. "ozone", "ethereal white resins", "Balm of Gilead", "thin lubricating oils", "drooping seaweed", "the blackness of space".

There is even a huge forum dedicated to talking about and trading these scents. A forum which even has exclusive scents not available anywhere else. The one thing PBAL doesn't have is a physical store/location. Well, except during the full moon. On the night of the full moon, BPAL has a few locations open for several hours and you can get scents without having to wait and even get to smell some of them ahead of time, in case you're not sure if you're going to like a scent called "Banana Peel In a Graveyard".

It just so happens one of those locations is Los Angeles, and it just so happens that the full moon is February 9th and it just so happens that Feb 9th is ALSO that romantic day of the year I referenced above. AND it ALSO just so happens that on Feb 8th a store called "Dark Delicacies", in beautiful downtown Burbank, which carries some exclusive BPAL scents (like Invasion of the Flesh-Eating Reindeer from Uranus) is having it's OWN special BPAL event.

So I figured it would be a REALLY GREAT IDEA if my bf and I went to Los Angeles for our 2 years since we first met anniversary. Cuz we're always talking about going places but we've never actually made it further than wine country unless you count last year for my birthday when I dragged him to the San Joachim Valley (and by drag I mean "made him drive me") so we could spend the night at a rather weird B&B at a weird winery (so I guess we didn't escape wineries/wine country after all) and buy raw almonds. Except we turned out to be two weeks early for getting raw almonds...ooops.

I also wanted to go to the Fashion District because I want to buy fabric. So really I'm afraid the trip was looking like another big "let's do what Jinx wants", just like that trip on my birthday, so I was feeling kind of bad and guilty about that. Then two things happened and now it's exciting again..

1.) We got tickets to the Craig Ferguson show! We are going to be part of a Live Studio Audience! And I think Craig Ferguson is funny. Our choices were either Wheel of Fortune or Craig Ferguson and I'm pretty happy with our choice. My bf was happy we got the tickets even though he seems to think I'm going to yell out something embarrassing like "ILOVEYOUCRAIG, YOU SEXY SCOTTISH RECOVERING ALCOHOLIC...RUN AWAY WITH ME AND LETS MAKE BABIES!" He's wrong though, cuz I'm totally not.

Nope.

Not.

Totally not.

Probably not.

2.) Before we go, I am going to get my hair done, and a bunch of other girlie things at the salon in San Francisco I always go to. And by "always go to" I mean that I theoretically go to every 3 months but it's probably been more like 7 or 8 by now and I'm soooo way overdue my bf is THRILLED that I'm going. He's convinced I finally made an appointment because I'm going to be on television and I think he's plotting how we can go to Los Angeles every three months to be in the studio audience of any lame show that will have us or even sign us up to be movie extras if that's what it takes to get me to a salon.

Not only that, but I looked up "vegan" on Yelp in Los Angeles and a TON of fantastic restaurants showed up. I don't think we'll be there long enough to eat at more than 3 or 4 places, but I'm so excited because it's like, the mecca of vegan food and since we love to eat but we are now eating a plant-based diet, this is perfect for us.

Hollywood here we come! (or Studio City or Burbank or wherever the heck we're going.)