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MY FIRST DATE WITH YO GABBA GABBA.

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We decided to get tickets to take Milo to see Yo Gabba Gabba this November when they are in the Bay Area. It occurred to me that I will need to get front row seats for Milo and Matilda due to their vision and hearing impairment. I called San Jose Civic about accessible seating and they directed me to tickemaster.com. The process turned out to be super easy and I was told that my accessible seats are on the front row. I was thrilled and told Milo how we are going to see them and he was ecstatic. Later that day, I went to check the seat map of our seats and discovered that the tickermaster representative had booked us at the Fresno location!!?? I called ticketmaster.com and luckily I was able to get a refund. (It almost seemed too easy when I did it because they made a big point about how the tickets are nonrefundable and blah blab blah.)
FORESHADOW OF THIS LITTLE EXPERIENCE: THIS WAS JUST A PRACTICE RUN AS TO WHAT IS TO COME.

Between Muno and Plex, Milo picked Muno as his Halloween costume because they didnt have Plex in his size.

Here comes the craziness and I will try my best to refrain from using bad mouthing language:

CALL TO TICKETMASTER.COM – OCTOBER 26, 2011 AROUND 9PM (SPOKE WITH KIMBERLY):
I called to get tickets for the correct location and was told that there were no accessible seating for vision and hearing impairment for this event but they have wheelchair seating on the balcony level in the back. WhatWhatTheWhat was in my head so I repeated my question and I was told the same thing and that I should contact the venue because it is up to them to release those seats. AND she made a point to tell me (more than once) that it is very rare that they get requests for accessible seating for vision and hearing impairment. I did not respond to her because I was confused and surprised by her comment and not sure why she felt the need to say that to me. Was I suppose to say oh in that case never mind, let me just get some regular seats for my vision and hearing impaired kids so that they can go and sit super far away and won’t be able to see or hear a thing.

CALL TO SAN JOSE CIVIC BOX OFFICE – OCTOBER 27, 2011 AROUND 9AM:
I asked to speak with someone that can help me with accessible seating and he told me that they have no control of the seating arrangement and how it is up to the producer of Yo Gabba Gabba and I should call them to complain. I told him that I called ticketmaster and they informed me that the venue itself should be able to accomadate accessible seating for me. He then told me again that he cannot help me because they are not selling tickets to this show and that I need to call ticketmaster.com or call the producer of Yo Gabba Gabba and question them about accessible seating because they are the ones that have the ultimate control. Our conversation ended. I was pretty confused and a bit frustrated at how difficult it is to get accessible seating. It reminded me of speaking with lame-O airline representatives and how you get a different answer for the same question based on who you speak with.

I took a break since I had to take Milo to his weekly swim class. On the way, I kept thinking how I should approach this because it’s a bit ridiculous how NOT easy it is to get accessible seating and how ironic it is that it’s so hard to do it. AND the thought of reaching out to the producers of Yo Gabba Gabba did crossed my mind because I want to share with them how hard it is to get accessible seating and how they need to accommodate since it is part of the ADA law. I decided that I will call San Jose Box Office again to get more information about accessible seating and how it is arranged so that I can have all my information and start my complaint and get my answers. At this point, my goal was NOT about getting accessible seating for my kids, it’s about fighting for my kids’ rights. (I know it sounds kind of like a breakthrough point in a movie but unfortunately this is FOR REAL people.)

CALL TO TEAM SAN JOSE – OCTOBER 27, 2011 AROUND 10:30AM:
Instead of pressing 4 to be connected with the San Jose Box office, I pressed 0 under all other information (I was hoping that there would be someone else that I can speak with aside from the person that I spoke with earlier this morning at the box office). Claudia answered and I asked her who should I speak with about accessible seating for an upcoming venue. Right away she told me I should call the box office and Kevin or Peter can help me. She kindly transferred the call.

CALL TRANSFERRED TO SAN JOSE BOX OFFICE – OCTOBER 27, 2011 AROUND 10:32AM:
I started out the conversation again with can I please speak with someone that can help me with accessible seating. I was told by the other end that he was the one because he did not transfer me to another party and he responded by a yes. I told him that he might have been the person that I spoke with earlier in regards to accessible seating (I knew he was because I recognized his voice) and I would like to get a better understanding on this subject. He confirmed with me that I did not speak with him earlier (but I am sure it was him.). I told him that I want to find out more about accessible seating for the Yo Gabba Gabba event and he quickly told me that I will have to talk with the producer of that show because they do not sell tickets to this show and that San Jose Box Office has nothing to do with the seating arrangement and I should call ticketmaster to get the ticket. I told him that I did talked with ticketmaster and was told that I need to talk with the venue because they are the one that has control over the seating arrangements. Again, box office guy told me that he cannot do anything and that I need to call the producers of Yo Gabba Gabba. (As you can see, this is pretty much the same conversation that we had earlier that morning.) I then proceed to ask him how does accessible seating work for any shows that takes place at the San Jose Civic and I shared with him that I was booked by mistake for the Yo Gabba Gabba show in Fresno and they had accessible seating and it seems strange that the producer would make arrangement for Fresno location to have accessible seating but not at the San Jose Civic. The box office boy’s voice got very irritated and told me to stop calling him about this because 1) he cannot solve my problem and 2) he does not work at Fresno location so he has no idea what they do. With that being said, he pretty much confirmed with me that he was the one that I spoke with earlier in the day because he told me to stop calling him about this subject. I was too pissed off at this point to point this factor out to him. I told him that 1) I am not asking him to solve my problem 2) I am simply asking and gathering information as to how accessible seating is arranged so that I can have all the correct information and make complaints to the appropriate party and 3) he needs to calm down because I am not blaming him for anything. The all worked up box office guy kept on going off about how I need to stop calling him and that there is nothing he can do and how if I want to discuss SJBroadway he can tell me all about that. I pretty much tuned out at this point because I was getting very upset. SO, in a very calm voice, I said to box office guy, let’s get this straight, if I am to come into the box office today in person and told you that I need to get tickets for accessible seating for Yo Gabba Gabba you would tell me sorry I cannot help you. He said yes that’s right. I knew with that I was so done with him and that this is turning out to be even more crazee than what I expected. For reference sake, I asked him for his name and he did not say anything. I asked him if he was Kevin or Peter and he paused for a bit and said Kevin is not here. I said you must be Peter. He paused again and said no. I asked him again for his name. He paused and said there is no need for you to know my name because I am not selling you anything. I said are you refusing to tell me your name, he said yes. I told him that your name must be ASSHOLE because you are a complete ASS on this and he better read up about the ADA law. He was going off about something but I tuned out and was livid and almost in tears because I cannot believe the words that came out of that guy’s mouth.

CALL TO TEAM SAN JOSE – OCTOBER 27, 2011 AROUND 10:45AM:
I chose option 0 again because I want to find out the name of the box office guy and to file an official complaint. Claudia answered and I reminded her that I had called earlier and I told her what had happened. She was quick to apologize and assured me that she will go and find out the name of the guy and she will put in the compliant. I was a bit emotional when I was speaking with her because I was filled with so much frustration. Claudia told me that I should talk with Peter who is the ticket manager and he is extremely nice and would be able to help. I thanked her and was put on hold to be transferred to Peter.

TRANSFERRED TO PETER, TICKET MANAGER AT SAN JOSE BOX OFFICE – OCTOBER 27. 2011AROUND 10:50AM:
I got his voicemail.

CALL TO TEAM SAN JOSE *OPTION 0 – OCTOBER 27. 2011 AROUND 10:51AM:
I informed Claudia that I was not able to reach Peter and she told me I should leave a message for him and that Peter is extremely nice. She suggested that I should mentioned my bad experience with the box office guy to Peter.

TRANSFERRED TO PETER, TICKET MANAGER AT SAN JOSE BOX OFFICE – OCTOBER 27. 2011AROUND 10:52AM:
Peter answered and I told him that I need help with accessible seating for Yo Gabba Gabba and before I even told him what had happened, he quickly told me that yes he can help me even though they do not sell the tickets directly. I then told him what had happened and that I was told that they are not able to help with accessible seating and he confirmed with me that it is not true. He said he is able to look at the same seat map as ticketmaster and he saw available seats for accessible seating. Since he cannot sell tickets directly from his box office, Peter put in a request for Kathy from ticketmaster to contact me with my reserved accessible seats. I think at this point I was relived because there’s actually someone that is reasonable and know what the hell they are talking about. But at the same time I think I was still thinking about that nasty useless box office guy and how stupid it is that I had to go through all that just to get seats.

All this ended pretty much when Milo was done with his swim lesson and I am sure parents and teachers at the pool were wondering what was wrong with me since I was on the phone and was so emotional. Milo had no idea of course what happened.

When I got home, I called Claudia to thank her for her help and to ask her for the name of the rude ass box office guy. HIS NAME IS MICHALE. Claudia assured me that a verbal complaint has been made to a supervisor and that an internal talk has happened and that he is or has already gone through some people skill training. (In my opinion, Michael needs more than people skill training.) She again apologized and said that box office staff should have excellent customer service and she did not know what happened.

CALL FROM KATHY AT TICKETMASTER.COM – OCTOBER 27, 2011 AROUND 12:30PM:
Kathy got Peter’s message and helped me processed the accessible seat tickets that Peter had reserved for me. I asked her why is it that Peter can see the availability of the accessible seating in his system but the representatives I spoke with at ticketmaster.com could not. She said that she could not see them as well. I was confused because Peter told me that his system for the seating map is the same as ticketmaster.com. Why do they make it so difficult for people that need accessible seating to get a ticket? It’s already annoying that people that needs accessible seating have to call or email versus getting it online like a regular seat. And since San Jose box office does not sell tickets to this show directly how will people get accessible seating if ticketmaster cannot see those accessible seat or if they get someone like Michael that is no help. ANSWER THAT TICKETMASTER.COM AND SAN JOSE BOX OFFICE??!!!! Please refer to this ADA requirements on ticket sales ticketmaster.

CALL TO PETER AT SAN JOSE BOX OFFICE – OCTOBER 27, 2011 AROUND 12:50PM:
I called to say thank you to Peter and told him that I got my tickets. He apologized for my horrible experience and told me that they had talk about it internally.

Yet again, I learned a lot via my kids’s disabilities and how hard things can be and will be for them and for many out there. When things like this happen, I really wish I have more time to get involved to help. But as of now, all I can do is to be a constant advocate for my children and to blog about it so that others can see and will pass it along. I will for sure share this eperience with Early Start’s teachers and parents. Please kindly re-tweet this or share this on your blog and pass it along. I have every intention to email this to the producer of Yo Gabba Gabba, to City of San Jose, to ADA.gov, to my local news team and to other places that I can find along the way. If you can think of anyone else, tell me. I love sharing!

THIS SHOW BETTER BE GOOD.

BOO!

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HAPPY HALLOWEEN EVERYONE.
TRICK OR TREAT.

I have to admit that halloween is so much more fun when you have kids. This will be the first time for Milo to go trick or treating. His cousins are coming over and we shall attack our neighbors’ treats after pizza dinner and my homemade pumpkin cupcakes with my special made cupcake toppers! I hope most of the candies will be nut free (Milo is highly allergic to peanut).

Oh. I almost forgot. Milo decided to be Muno for Halloween this year. It took him about 15 other different costumes before coming to this decision. You don’t know who Muno is? Well, not many do for some reason. When people ask him who he is, this is how the conversation goes:

Person: “Who are you?”
Milo would quickly replied with his hands up in the air: “I am Muno, the one eye monster from Yo Gabba Gabba!”
Person: “Oh?!”
Milo always ends his descriptions by saying: ” It’s kind like dancing around in a movie theater.”
And with that, the Person who has no idea what Milo is dressed as gets even more confused and would just smile and slowly walks away.

Milo’s vision teacher at Early Start thinks his costume is too perfect for him because of the one eye. We love it and he is so proud!

Matilda was going to wear the pumpkin outfit that Milo had for his first halloween but then the day before her halloween parade at Early Start I realized that it was too small. I went and got her a bumble bee costume instead.

DEAR AUTUMN: YOU BETTER COME KNOCKING SOON.

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seriously guys. autumn is my most favorite season. its the perfect weather for fashion, at least in my book, its the beginning of all the wonderful holidays and the colors of autumn is pretty rocking too. i always miss living in the east coast around this time with the foliage and the sounds of my feet crunching the leaves. it all sounds so wonderful but guess what people, AUTUMN HAS NOT ARRIVED YET!!!! and this year i better get it because autumn cheated on me last year and i will never forget. i am ready for my boots-tights-wearing-and-much-layering-but not necessarily a winter coat wearing weather. this household has been ready for you since summer, SO get going and push that heat loving summer out of your way.

thank you very much.

SLEEPOVER WITH OVERNIGHTER DOER.

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milo had his first sleepover last weekend with his two cousins (ages 3 and 4). they all slept in our room with their sleeping bags. it was a kind of a last minute thing so i didnt even think about what milo would sleep on. but right before we were setting up the kids on our floor, i remembered about my old skool Fisher Price sleeping bag which my dad scored for us via his connection back in the day. it was still in its original box which i kept after all these years. we have one in blue/yellow and another one in pink. it was perfect. we opened it and was very impressed with its simple design. you just roll it up and secure it with velcro and it has pockets on the end for him to put his goodies in. the bestest part is that it is blue which is milo’s favorite color (the pink one i am saving for matilda). i think it is pretty hard to find a sleeping bag with no designs or characters on them these days. i am SO glad that i kept this and i do love my old skool Fisher Price items. thank you thank you dad, i bet you never knew that someday it would be your grandson that would be using this.(because i certainly never imagine that it would be my kid that i am saving this for.)

dont get jealous people. sometimes its good to be keeper trapper (not a hoarder or at least not a dirty messy one). i have things that i kept from my childhood and most of the stuff are still in its original packaging (especially my hello kitty stuff) and it is not because i am hoping to sell them. it is because i love my stuff.

UMMM…I HATE BREAK UPS. WELL, SORT OF.

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in april and may, milo had tired a prosthesis scleral shell and they both failed horribly. the first time only lasted one day and the second time he had it for about a month but it was a bad month and he ended up with a bad cornea infection. you can go here and here and here and here for more detailed postings.

we recently went to meet with another ocularist to see if he would be a better match for milo after discussing the matters with milo’s opthamologist. just to clarify, our first ocularist was a super nice guy and i dont want to give the impression that he is bad in any way. he did come highly recommended to us but sometimes you are just not compatible. this new ocularist we saw was very nice as well and we told him about milo’s history of scleral shell and what our concerns are. we left feeling confident and milo will get his impression of his third trial of a prosthesis scleral shell in november. i am already anticipating the anxiousness of it all and also we were informed that we should take it out of milo’s eye every night or every other night. EEK!

to prepare him, i have been showing milo how i take out my contacts (or shells is the term i used for him) every night and how it tickles my eyeballs and its not scary at all. i remind him that a new big boy shell will have to be place back in his big boy’s eye. so far, his reactions has been positive. fingers crossed you guys, i really hope this will work out. i dont want to see my little milo to be suffering like last time.

if anyone out there would like to know more in details about my experiences with the ocularists and who they are, please email me and i will tell you as much as you want.

and to our first ocularist: thank you. you are nice but because we love our little milo, we have no choice but to try another ocularist because we cannot see him suffer again and maybe his eye and you are not meant to be. this is hard because its a small eye world and i am sure we will cross path again. all our best to you.
(i honestly believe that he kind of figure out that we will find someone else because of the bad experiences milo had from talking with him at milo’s recent EUA.)

p.s. i am always so thankful that we live in the awsum SF Bay Area because we actually have the choice to go see another top rocking ocularist.

I SWEAR TO YOU PEOPLE.

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i am a huge fan of Anthropologie and i was checking out their fall item and came upon their Hampden Pea Coat and i seriously did a double take as i saw the picture. i was confused at first because i have the exact same coat hanging in my closet which i know i got last fall and i know i did not get it at Anthropologie. i had to think for couple seconds and confirmed to myself that yes indeed i did not get it at Anthropologie because i remember my mother got it for me at Zara. i studied the pictures and i looked at my jacket and i cant get over the fact of the similarities.

i had the chance to go to the store last week and seriously people, its almost exactly the same thing. i was overly excited (not sure if that is the correct term) to share my discoveries with the sales lady but she wasnt overly surprised for some reason or maybe i was expecting her to be like what the what and to be more surprised/excited than i was. in fact, i told two sales lady at two different locations and they both seem kind of like, oh wow thats great and thanks for sharing with me. well actually, the one sales lady told me that i have the future fashion since i got the jacket last year, but in my head, i want to tell her no lady, you are totally wrong because i dont think i can ever have the future jacket because there will always be another jacket year after year.

i cant get over it people. is there anyone out there that knows about this and would like to talk about it or if i can talk to the buyer of Anthropologie or Zara??! i dont know who designed the jacket at Zara but it is Elevenses that makes this Hampden Pea Coat at Anthropologie.

and yes, i will be sharing this news with another Anthropolgie staff the next time i am at the store.

I CANT GET OVER THIS PEOPLE! someone explain these things to me. PLEASSSEEEEEEEE.

AN ILLUSTRATION JUST FOR YOU BECAUSE YOU ASKED ME TO DO IT.

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i met this lady friend via my supergood friend a little bit ago and when we got to talking and liking one another, she had asked me to make her an illustration of her MR CAT. it took me awhile but i never forgot and i finally did it and pretty happy with it. i have never met MR CAT but this is what MR CAT looks to me based on his awsum rocking master (a.k.a my new lady friend).
i shall and am calling this piece of work, THIS IS A BEGINNING OF A BEAUTIFUL RELATIONSHIP VIA MR CAT.

MEOW TO YOU, MR.CAT.

WHO WANTS CUPCAKES BECAUSE I WANT TO MAKE YOU SOME CUPCAKE TOPPERS. CALL ME.

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milo and matilda’s ECE school had their annual BBQ this past week and everyone is asked to bring something to share. this year i decided to make Giada De Laurentiis’s chocolate chip and mascarpone cupcakes. i did not have time to do a test run and my theory is that its chocolate and you probably cant really tell if its too bad. i decided to make cute little cupcake toppers to go with it and if the cupcakes turn out to be bad, maybe the cuteness of the toppers would distract the people from the bad taste. but really, i have been trying to incorporate all my creativity and love of making and drawing into everyday things. i must admit that i was overly excited for this project and finally had an excuse to buy tons of circle and scallop punches . i went to Paper Source to get them but they had sold out on their last circle punch. i ended up going to Michaels and they were on sale so i got even more punches than planned. whenever i go to Michaels my head gets all crazee and my brain goes in all kind of directions because i get so many ideas and want to do a million zillion projects and want to buy all kinds of crazee sticker making/scrapbook making machines. i wish they would have a rent center for those things so i can actually try it out before making an actual purchase.i should call Michales and tell them to get on it.

milo and i did the cupcakes and the cupcake toppers and we had so much fun. instead of getting wooden picks for the cupcake holders i got these tiny bartender’s cocktail sippy straw things. they are just as thin as the wooden picks but i like how it has stripes on them and it goes with the stripe backgrounds on my illustration. the only thing i didnt care about and would like to figure out is to make some kind of pocket for the straw/wooden picks to avoid the little bump after putting on the illustration.

the cupcake actually turned out to be quiet delicious. everyone was pretty impressed when milo showed them what he had made. i kept thinking about how to transport my cupcakes the night before the BBQ and i ended up going to my local bakery asking for an empty cake box (thank you nice bakery lady!). i also got two disposable aluminum foil tray for the cupcakes to sit on and then placing that in the cake box. the aluminum foil tray worked well (even though it seems repetitive to have both) because without the foil tray the cake box is too flimsy and it was hard to balance the cupcake on someone’s lap or when carrying it.

p.s. – someone came up to me and told me that she really appreciate the i am nut free sign because she has a nut allergy. i told her that i appreciate her telling me and i like to announce it whenever i can since milo has a high nut allergy and its nice to know instead of asking or banning your child from the food. its just nice to make it known to the non nut allergy community because i was certainly not aware of this before milo.

p.p.s. – i enjoyed making the cupcakes and the toppers so much (well i really enjoyed toppers more and in order to make more i had to make more cupcakes) that i made more two days later for the friends we were visiting. this time i went to Whole Foods and they were kind enough to give me empty cupcakes holders to transport and i used Starbucks’s wooden stir (cut it in half) as the pick. thank you to the consuming world for letting me use your tools without even knowing.

and try the recipe people. its pretty darn good.

HAPPY MOONCAKE DAY.

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go outside tonight and look at the moon because its moon/mid autumn festival today. and if you like your mooncake, have one under the moon. i dont not like it nor do i really care for it. i have introduced the mooncake to friends before and out of all of them, theres only one that actually really likes them but she is under Berlin moon tonight. i think of her every mooncake day because i still cant believe she likes them.

XOXO.

SUMMER FUNFUN GOODBYE BUT WE CANT WAIT TO SEE YOU MR. FALL.

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summer has officially (kind of?)ended with the end of summer vacation and all the back to school sale being over. but weather wise, it is still summer warm here and i cannot wait for my favorite season to arrive. fall was a huge disappointment last year because it cheated on us and it never came. when fall does fall, it makes me miss living in the east coast with all the foliage and all the beautiful colors.

milo started his new preschool last week and it went off pretty well even if he missed his first day of school due to his scheduled EUA. speaking of his EUA, to our surprise and to his doctor, milo’s eye pressure was at 17 which is super good so he doesnt need surgery yet but as the doctor stated it wont be long before he grows out of his valve and need a replacement. at the same time, his occularist was there to take another impression of his left eye for his future sclera shell (so NOT looking forward to that again).

this is the second week of school for milo and he is there three times a week for about 4 hours each time and so far, he is liking his big boy school. his main teacher and his VI (vision impaired)teacher are super great. milo is doing pretty good with his potty training! a HUGE yeah.

matilda has her behavioral hearing test this friday and we will hopefully get a better idea as to how much hearing loss she has. she is sitting up very well on her own and is doing everything except for moving forward. she gets up on all fours all the time and i bet she will be crawling in no time.

as for stuff, this is all the update i have so far. i am just waiting for the weather to be fall so i can really look forward to the beginning of all the great holidays beginning with halloween. i am never a big fan of halloween but now that i have kids, i really do love it and its also a kick start to the upcoming wonderful holidays like turkey eating day and christmas. lets get it started people.