Unnie's WWU: Unnie sees BigBang & Dongsaeng!

I guess I'll start with how awesome it was to see Dongsaeng again.  It has been 3 years, this Christmas, since we left the bright sunshiny state of AZ.  18 months in St. Louis MO followed by 18 months here in Wisconsin.  I was ecstatic to get home & visit with my sister for the day & then to meet up with Dongsaeng for an evening of laughing & visiting with my bestie & awesome friends from yesteryear.  I had a blast.  Thanks ladies for making me feel loved, missed & special.  Then Friday morning we hit the road.  6 hours of K Pop & more laughing & chatting & we were on the 91 headed toward Anaheim.  It was awesome!  Something I have truly missed...driving fast in crazy traffic.  Ahhhh....California drivers I heart you!  You terrify Dongsaeng but you made me feel right at home!  Thanks for that.

Dinner that night was Ah-Mazing!  Sincerely so delicious!  Thank you to the hostess w/ the mostest' hubs for all the hard work.  It certainly paid off.  My fav part of the dinner was when our hostess' family stopped by to say hi to her & we were introduced to a brother, sis in law & sis.  Upon meeting us the brother seemed in shock to see 4 non Asian women on his sister's back porch eating Korean food & giggling like crazy.  When he heard we were in love with all things K & trying to learn to speak Korean as well he seemed shocked, until one of our group pointed out that she is 1/16th Korean.  {{Liar liar pants on fire}} I think he believed her until his sis, our hostess, pointed to Dongsaeng, introduced her & then said, "And she is 100% Korean." He looked really confused & quite obviously doubtful that the uber fair skinned, freckle covered, red head, sitting at the table could be 100% Korean.  {{giggle}}  So much laughter.  My cheeks hurt from all the giggling.  They were all extremely nice to us & I enjoyed meeting them thoroughly.  We continued eating & we took a trillion or so pictures of us being silly, lots of "aegyo" to go please?

Besties...Unnie & Dongsaeng together again.

Another highlight was when our hostess' hubs announced that he wasn't sure if we would really like Korean food & so just in case & since we were white he made us sugar cookies.  We thought he was joking but sure enough we all about died laughing when he sat a plate of sugar cookies down on the table in front of us.

It was all in jest, we knew he was having fun teasing us.  And what's more is that we thoroughly enjoyed & encouraged his teasing.

Now Dongsaeng already filled you in on the Noraebang experience.  Nothing like getting a young girl to think you're cool by telling her you prefer K Pop music over US music for your night at the Noraebang.  Of course I think she was in such a shocked state that she didn't give us the full how to instructions.  We thought we were so cool telling her to load Big Bang on the machine.  We giggled her out of the room & got started singing...and NO I will not be posting that video.  Its for blackmail purposes only. ;)  However, right after we finished singing Fantastic Baby, yes I sang Fantastic Baby at a Korean Noraebang in So Cal. Loud & proud & most definitely off key & probably screwed up half the words...at least!  Anyway right after we finished that first song, something went wonky on the machine the volume went screaming loud & all of a sudden the 6 very cool quasi-ahjummas turned into very definitely ahjummas with their ears plugged screaming that the music was too loud. Bahahahahahaha...  Yeah we definitely lost cool points for that.  But we were so busy laughing at ourselves we didn't care.  We were in "K" heaven.

By the time we got to bed that night it was actually the wee hours of the next morning.  Totally awesome!  We got breakfast, headed to our favorite Hostess' house & hooked up w/ our girls.  We all rode in Dongsaeng's car, plenty of seats.  And zipped off to Korea Town in LA.  The whole mall was great.  We headed first to get make up & masks & talk BB Cream.  Then we headed upstairs & found the now infamous "Crack" store.  So many wonderful things in there.  I could have spent so much more money than I already did but then CA would have filed for divorce.  Pretty sure.  Of course I kept using the excuse... but I'm not buying JUST for me.  I bought things for my kids & for a friend too.

My Swag

After the mall we headed into K town further & found the Face Shop in another shopping center.  And I found, as Dongsaeng pointed out...  My Hyun-y!

And look!  A sale just for me!!  He really knows his Noona, right?!

Why yes. Yes, of course, I will be your princess!!!    Silly Hyun-y, you don't have to ask, it's a given.

BTW yes I felt like an absolute idiot for those poses.  The girls in the Face Shop were cracking up as I posed with his cardboard cut out self.  I was okay with it.  It was all in fun.  Would I do it again? In a heartbeat!  He was all over that shop & I loved it!  So much fun!

We wandered the shop for a long time & I saw the cutest little perfume for my daughter & some hand creams & a Hello Kitty toothbrush.  I had to get all of it for her.   I was going to give it to her as stocking stuffers for Christmas but I just couldn't wait.  She LOVED them!!  My sweet little girlie girl.  While looking around Dongsaeng showed us all how she stays so slender...

Yup "Skinny" in a tube!  I have got to get me some of that!

And how much fun is Dongsaeng in this picture?!?!?!  Omo!!  My bestie is so stinking cute!

After this it was back to our Hostess' where the girls quickly changed & we all headed over to our hotel where we all put our "Glam" on for the concert together.  It was so much fun!  There was make up flying & hair styling in every corner of that little room.

That would be me sitting in the corner & one of the new besties from our trip.  

And then it was time!!!  OMO!!!  So incredibly excited!!  We danced & squueeeeee'd as we headed across the street to the Honda Center.  The concert was THE EVENT!!  I am going to include some pics found on Pinterest here because our pics were too far away they simply do not do justice to the event of a lifetime.  The pics do not belong to us as you can tell they came from Pinterest but they were from the official BB FB page originally.  

Although these first two are mine from our seats.  

Now you can really see how far we were & why our pics are not going to turn out well.  

With the regular lights on before the show.

I LOVED the sea of  BB light sticks waving in the air to the music! 

With a different set of lights lighting up the Honda Center.  So cool!

Now...onto the concert.

It was spectacular!  They came up in the cryo tubes & came out singing "Tonight".  And the screaming was mind boggling loud & I'm just talking about mine!  I screamed so much & so loud & so long that it took me till late the next day to get my voice back completely.  Like Dongsaeng it is all in a beautiful, lovely, obscure haze in my brain.  I remember catching my breath every time G Dragon's face lit up the TV screen on the side of the stage whilst he was singing.  The man is sexier & so much more intense when he is singing then you can even imagine.  Like weak in the knees & um ...well that'll do.  Although, I will say Naughty Unnie was going berserk every time the camera did a close up of that man's face or, OMO!!, when he laid down on the stage?!?!  Holy crap!!  She went insane rattling her cage like a lunatic!!  And listening to TOP rap in that deep throaty way he does Omo!!  So sexy! Every time sweet beautiful Daesung hit a note just right, which was EVERY TIME, my heart skipped a beat & my knees melted.  Taeyang danced & sang his way across my fantasies & between Seungri's cute personality & amazing vocals I was just in an absolute fantasy land all night long.  Each member of the band brings out the best in the other members & compliment each other's voices & stage presences perfectly.

Daesung was sweet & shy when talking.  Meanwhile, Seungri was at his game show host best, talking to the audience & even taught us how to dance the Fantastic Baby dance.  Taeyang, we decided, is a total "attention whore".  That boy couldn't stay dressed if we glued his shirt on.  And thank goodness he is, because he was absolutely delicious every time he ripped off a shirt.  It came off twice & he made sure to make the rounds of the audience allowing the crazed fanatical fan girls, that I am supremely jealous of right now, stroke & fondle his chest, abs, arms, & face happily.  Lucky rotten fan girls in the standing area.  And when TOP wiped his sweat on the cloth with his name written on it & very sweetly & kindly handed it back to its proper owner, I turned to Dongsaeng, who turned to me at the same time, & we both mouthed, "OH.  MY.  GOSH!!"  I've never really cared for sweaty guys.  However, that night I totally changed my mind.  Never have I wanted a sweaty piece of cloth so much in my life!!  TOP was so sweet when we all got to sing him Happy Birthday & his celebratory dance was one of my absolutely favorite moments of the night.  This leaves G Dragon.  My unabashedly favorite of all the Big Bang members.  Omo!!  Omo!! Omo!!  I think he knows exactly what he is doing when he is on stage & exactly how to drive the female mind insane with rampant desire!!  We'll keep this from CA but Oh. My. Gosh!  Whenever he was on stage he was perfection!!  For the first time in any of the BB Alive Concerts he performed the entire Crayon song.  Not an A Cappela snippet but the entire song.  It was awesome!

Yeah so yummy when he sings.

Pardon me while I fantasize here for a moment or two or an hour or three...  >:}

My absolute favorite moment was when while singing Haru Haru, one of my top 3 favorite BB songs btw, which they sang beautifully, oh so beautifully, they turned their mics toward us the audience, like they have in Asia, & we got to hear the entire audience sing the chorus.  It was truly a moving moment to know that such a mixed audience, at a US concert for a Korean Pop group, and yes it was filled predominantly by Koreans & Korean Americans, were able to sing a song, in Korean, in harmony so beautifully.  It really did move my heart to hear so many beautiful voices sound like one voice.  If only we humans could do that on a regular basis.  I loved it the most!  As G Dragon walked back up to the top of the stage he was applauding us.  I felt like a kid getting approval from an authority figure & so happy he enjoyed/liked our singing.  ^^

But eventually all good things come to an end & the concert ended & I wanted to cry.  I was so sad it was over so quickly.  I just want to replay the entire day over again & again.  Such an amazing day.  We all met back up in our room, although we seriously toyed with the idea of stalking Big Bang & seeing if we could figure out where they were staying.  Yeah we had it bad.  One concert just was NOT enough.  I'm sure absolutely sure I was not the only one in my group or of any of the people that went to the concert that night or any night that Big Bang is performing.  I feel like I got to be a part of something amazing & huge & big & history making.  They promised they'd be back to So Cal soon.  Fingers crossed they are...next time?  I WANT THOSE VIP standing only spots!  And a backstage pass!  >:}  hehehehe...

We managed to get our friends back to their house & I believe we crashed around 3 or 3:30 am So Cal time.  I'm not quite sure.  I know we woke up early & then both fell back asleep only to wake back up again & realize we had very little time left before breakfast would no longer be available downstairs.  And once back in our room we collapsed in bed again.  But check out was at noon & by 11:30 we were out & in the car headed for Huntington Beach.  My favorite beach to just hang out.  I love HB.  I grew up there.  I loved it there as a kid & I still do.  There are a lot of great beaches & piers in So Cal.  But HB is my favorite of them all.  It's like going home for me.  I sat there on the sand & just soaked up as much Southern California sun as I could.  In the hopes it would get me through the dark dreary months here in South Eastern Wisconsin.  I listened to the sound of the waves crashing & the sound of children & families playing in the water & heard birds in the distance & re-charged my weary heart as much as I could.

It was wonderful & we called our friends & met up & said our goodbyes & drove through my old neighborhood, which is so ghetto now, & headed for the 91 East.  It was time to go home.  All I can say is that as my plane made it's way back into the Chicago O'Hare International Airport my heart sank & I wanted to cry as we descended through the thick gray cloud cover & into the chilly, rainy, dreary weather of the Midwestern US, in the fall.   I want to go home.  I miss my family, my friends, warmth & the sun so much.  I think CA sees now how much I want to go home & hopefully he'll intensify his search for a job in either Phoenix or So Cal.  Phoenix is cheaper & a better place to raise kids & it's only a 6 hour drive to So Cal.  But So Cal would still be my first choice.  ^^  Fingers crossed.

I hope you enjoyed our fan girl accounts, although they were very similar to each other, of our road trip to see Big Bang live in concert in California.  I tried to cover stuff Dongsaeng hadn't already talked about.  She got to go first so she got the better end of the deal.  :)

Sending you all lots of love & dreams of Big Bang...just not GD, he's in my dreams tonight AddiKts.
{{insert naughty eye wiggling giggle here}}

And to give you a little more BB joy here they are singing Monster...


Saranghamnida,