Disney Part 2

Oooh, look at that, I never wrote part 2! I've been such a space cadet lately (lately?). OK here goes... Since we stayed at the movies resort at Disney, before we headed out to the parks we took a stroll through the grounds because I really wanted the boys to see the Toy Story section of the hotel since they (mostly Jordan) are currently obsessed with those movies. When Jordan laid eyes on the giant Buzz he held his Buzz doll up, looked at me, then looked at the giant Buzz, then looked at me again. It was adorable to watch. After our stroll we headed to Disney Studios. I didn't used to like that park before because I felt there wasn't enough to do there. This was of course, before I had kids. Now that we go mostly for the boys (at least that's what I tell myself), the park is all of a sudden more interesting. In fact, both times that we've gone recently, we haven't been able to do everything. I've yet to go on the Toy Story ride for example. There is always a crazy long line and I've tried with the fast pass and both times it's been too late (we've had to leave the park early both times because we were driving back that day). The skies were a little grey, but thankfully the weather was better than the day before. First we went on the backlot tour (since we missed that last time) and saw some pretty cool scenes and props. Christian loved the hall with all the costumes. He requested that I take his picture with a few key characters. I'm thinking he likes the villains. Wherever does he get this from? Next we went on the Great Movie Ride. Chris loves the part where the wicked witch comes out (see what I mean?) in the Wizard of Oz scene. After our ride, we stopped to eat lunch at the Sci-Fi diner. I really love this place because I'm such a sucker for gimmicky places. I had eaten there once before and I knew the boys would love it. They make it look like an drive-in movie lot. You sit and eat in a "car" while watching clips of old movies. So cute! After lunch we headed over to the Hollywood Tower of Terror (can you tell I like photographing trees?). Chris said he wanted to ride it (he liked it the last time he rode it). Unfortunately because he had just eaten, he didn't enjoy it as much this time. Oopsy. Fortunately the boy has a good stomach so there were no unfortunate incidents. We then headed over to the I shrunk the kids playground, but we took a detour because I wanted to show Chris the Star Wars ride set. Good thing we did because hidden in a little corner I found this guy. At first Chris was excited to take a picture with him (after all he took a picture with the costume), but then not so much when he realized that Darth isn't as friendly as Goofy. Side note: OMG chewie back pack! $54...um, no thanks. The kids loved the playground. I was wishing they were old enough to run around by themselves since Jordan kept ducking into holes where I could not fit. I kept freaking out because I never knew where those little caves led. Fortunately, they were OK and were not eaten by a giant insect. Ren however, found his long lost love. Since we had to drive back that day, we had to leave early, so we only had time to catch the parade right before heading out. It was a Pixar parade, so all our favorite characters came out to sing and dance and wave hello. Yes, even the Toy Story Gang! After that, we grabbed some cotton candy and boarded a bus back to the hotel. What a fun trip! Can't wait to do it again this week!

Disney Part 1

We went to Disney a couple of weekends ago as part of an extremely belated birthday present for Chris. He really enjoyed himself and I'm happy that he is now tall enough to ride all the mountains! Since I've been to the Magic Kingdom about 101 times already, we decided to do things differently this time. We went wherever the wind (and rain) blew us and visited the rides totally out of order. My inner OCD self was freaking out but I managed to keep her subdued long enough to enjoy the day.


Our first stop was the Haunted Mansion. Chris loved it, poor JJ was curled up in my lap saying "scary scary". I told him to close his eyes, but he didn't. He was scared, but he still wanted to see. I guess he's like those people that watch scary movies and cover their face with their hands, but still peek through the cracks. Ha ha. I remember Chris being OK with this ride when he was little. After that, we went on the Jungle Boat ride which they both really loved. Next up was the Pirates and then we stopped for lunch. We spotted Woody and Jessie signing autographs close by, but the line was soooo long, that we didn't get a chance to take a picture with them.


After lunch, it all became a blur (see, that's what happens when you ride things out of order!). I know we rode Splash mountain and Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. We went to Fantasyland and rode the carousel. Such a cute ride, but one that I used to skip before I had kids. We rode Snow White and Peter Pan and I loved how Jordan's face lit up on Small World. I sing that song to him at night, so he was like, hey, I know this tune!

Next up was Tomorrowland where Christian rode Space Mountain for the very first time. At first, I was afraid he'd freak out. You can't really sit next to anyone, so it's not like I could hug him or anything. The best I could do was reach over and grab his shoulders. After the ride, I glanced over at him with much trepidation and asked "Did you like it?" He said "YEAH!" and now I know I have a coaster buddy. Woohoo!


Since we missed out on Woody, they took pictures with Buzz and then we headed back to Fantasyland to go on Pooh and Dumbo. Ever since we experienced it quite by mistake one year, my friend C and I love to watch the fireworks from behind the castle because that way you don't have to deal with all the crowds and they're literally going off right above you. She told me once though that it's even cooler to watch them while you're riding Dumbo. This of course requires good timing. I looked at the wait time for the ride (15 minutes) and I looked at how much longer until the Fireworks began (15 minutes), perfect; I got in line and crossed my fingers.



Lady luck was on our side. It was so beautiful. The crisp night breeze in our faces and the fireworks finale going off over our heads as we flew in the air. It was quite a Disney commercial moment. I couldn't have timed it better and it was definitely the highlight of our day.

The crazy lady with the costume bin

Wow, this has been the craziest Halloween season yet! This year, ever since mid-September, I've felt like I've been pulled in all directions. It all started with my Adam Lambert concerts and then it was Christian's birthday (he had a little party at school) and then I went on a cruise to Europe for the first two weeks in October (which I STILL have not documented, yes, I know, bad blogger) and then I quickly put together the Thrill The World Miami event for this year at the last moment (I've lost several years of my life stressing over THAT one) and then I went to Halloween Horror Nights and then I went to 3 parties the night before Halloween and then I went trick or treating the actual night of. I AM EXHAUSTED! Hello November! I welcome you with open arms! The only craziness you offer me is Thanksgiving (which I don't cook, so it's not really crazy for me) and Black Friday (which I go to purely for sport).

Anyway, that having been said, back to the Halloween blog. This year, someone commented that they had seen me in 3 different costumes in one season! Oh how true that is. I'm a Halloween nut and I have a costume bin at home. Every year I just pick from there and mix and match to make my costume. I hate the pre-packaged ones, they're just so void of creativity and ingenuity. Christian is starting his own costume drawer as well because this year, he too had on 3 different costumes (Wolverine, Spiderman, Darth Vader). Jordan on the other hand, hates costumes. He clearly got that from his father. I had to struggle with him to get him to wear a superman pajama (not even a real costume, but whatever) to go trick or treating!

On to my costumes, for Thrill The World, I dressed up as a zombie of course.. For Halloween Horror Nights, you can't dress up, otherwise, you know I would've had a 4th costume. No crazy costumes there, just good ole crazy me (in the asylum house no less).

On Saturday night, our Thrill The World group performed again at Hellrotika. This was a fundraiser for Save Dade (which truly deserves its very own blog post for the vast number of outrageous and creative costumes that were in attendance...I LOVED IT!). For that gig, I was dressed up as Alice Cooper in Wonderland. I picked this because later that same night I went down the rabbit hole (not a dirty euphimism I swear) to my friend Melanie's Alice in Wonderland party. She totally went all out with the decorations and her backyard looked awesome. She goes all out with decorations just like I do (even more so I would say).

And last, but certainly not least. On Halloween night I dressed up as Junice Merill. For those of you unfamiliar with Juney, she's a character from SNL. Here's the video of the skit. I was recently introduced to her via a friend's post on Facebook and once I saw it, there was no turning back. I had to be her!

Unfortunately, I didn't really go anywhere with the costume on, I just took the kids trick or treating (and went to Jenny's Halloween campout later on). I don't think that many people would have recognized who I was anyway, so the costume was purely for the self satisfaction of being able to put it together and be a freak for a night...oh wait, I'm a little strange all the time.

Melbourne or Bust!

I went to my very first Adam Lambert concert in Melbourne on Friday and what a whirlwind trip it was. I asked my friend Melanie to come along for the ride, we jumped in the car (Dukes of Hazzard style) and we were off. She, not being a HUGE Adam Lambert fan that I am, was promptly introduced to his music on the drive up. I was going to convert her for sure!

After a 3 hour drive, I met up with a bunch of fabulous ladies from the FLGlambs fan group in the hotel room and we all got dolled up for the concert. Once our eyes were painted, fake lashes glued-on and glitter tattoos applied we headed out to the GlamFest Party at the King Center where we met up with even more fun folks from the FL Glambs and from the FLamberts group too. There was food and raffles and Lambertinis (very strong or maybe my stomach was a mess cause I was so nervous/excited). I bought two tickets to the raffle and I ended up winning two items. A framed photo of Adam and a tshirt. Yay!

After that, it was time to go sit down. My friend Melanie and I went to take our seats (row E) and the audience was having so much fun! Everyone was standing and dancing and singing along to the music. There was even an Adam look alike that fooled many people that were sitting far away. He was in my row, so I managed to get a picture with him before he got "famous" for doing the Single Ladies dance. Ha ha. Dang it, why couldn't I come out looking this good in the real Adam picture...grrr. I digress. If you'll notice, at this point, I only have rhinestones under one eye..after a long battle between the eyelash glue and the sparkly strip, it won, and I just ripped the offending sparklies off. I figured if Adam can do a one-eye make up thingy, why can't I? Oh...I digress....

The actual concert felt a little rushed and a little tamer than I'm used to seeing on YouTube. Since it was my first show ever though, I loved it anyway! Too bad I spent so much time fiddling with my camera's settings. Most of the pictures came out crappy, but this one was pretty cool.

I promised myself, I wouldn't take pictures at the next show (Hard Rock) so that I could really enjoy it. A funny moment in the concert was when he reached down to touch the ladies in the front row and I was sooo jealous. My friend Melanie then said "Claudia, you're going to get to meet him on Sunday...and hug him...and he will say 'Claudia I love your hugs'...don't be jealous of the lady touching his fingertips" LOL! That really put things in perspective. The entire show was quite a visual feast. I loved Adam's outfits and he looked so stunning that I often caught myself drooling (jk-ish). I especially loved the intro to Sleepwalker with the cool picture in the background and the long coat. Unf, sexy man. I sang and screamed like a 13 year old girl. I danced till I could no more (I even brought a change of shoes!)....and just like that, it was over. My ride-mates were very tired, so we didn't hang out by the buses to see if we could sneak a peek.

I was so pooped by the day's events that we headed back to the hotel. Once there, I was super thirsty, so I left our room on an expedition to find a soda, but I got lost and found a hot tub instead! HooYa! I ran back upstairs and convinced Melanie to join us (Julie, a new friend I found in the elevator, that was also in search of a soda, was with me too). Aaaah relaxing, now if only Adam could join us too, that would be....um anyway. I digress again....

After the midnight soak, I returned to my room and noticed this
on the bed. Quite appropriate. With a view like this and a day like the one I had. It was easy to comply with their wishes.
___________________________________

Stay tuned for Part II of my AdamFest weekend blog series....

The Hard Rock....coming soon.

Make of that, what you will.

Happy 2nd Birthday Weekend!

Friday was Jordan's 2nd birthday. We celebrated the whole weekend. On Friday, his Daddy took happymeals, cupcakes and goodie bags to the daycare. That evening we drove to Tampa. The following day we went to Busch Gardens and had lunch with the Sesame Street characters because Jordan is so in love with Elmo lately.

On this trip, we learned that he only likes Elmo (et. al.) from a distance. Ha ha. At least he didn't cry or anything, but he was kind of shy and didn't want to get too close to them. Christian on the other hand took numerous pictures with all the characters. He found it hilarious that he could poke them in the butt and they wouldn't feel it. I can't tell you how many butt poking pictures I got. The cookie monster one was the funniest because his hand practically disappeared in all the fur and it looked like he was sticking his whole hand... um anyway. After lunch, they played in the kids splash zone and it felt soooo good to cool off from the Florida heat.

Our friends (who came with us) then met up with us for the water rides. Chris rode the flume ride and the congo river rapids ride for the first time ever. Needless to say, he loved it. He even went on twice. By that time we were pooped and ready to leave since we had a 5 hour drive back home. Chris was sad because he wanted to ride the Scorpion but Dad wouldn't let him because it goes upside down.

The following day, we invited a couple of friends over for cake and goodies at the house. I figured JJ is still too young to know what's what, so no big party this year. We'll save the crazy effort for when he's old enough to enjoy it. Wow, my little baby is two...how did that sneak up on me?

The San Francisco Treat!

Hey buddies I have returned from California, um, I guess I forgot to mention that I went to California. Well, yes, I left on Thursday and came back on Tuesday. I went with JJ (his first plane ride!) and my brother because my sister Patti was having a big ole birthday bash.

Jordan behaved very well on the plane. He slept some and played some and all was good and merry and bright. On Friday my brother and I (and JJ) took the BART into San Francisco. We went to the huge mall on Powell and did a little shopping (wherein my brother was asked if I was his mom, damn, I'm old, but not THAT old; he's 23 for Christ sake!). We walked around for a bit and looked at the pretty buildings and then rode the little trolley down to China Town where I bought a new duffel bag for 12 bucks because the one I took ripped on both ends (heavy packer eh?). Then we found a little All you can eat Dim Sum place for $5.99. It was a little scary because some of the food was completely strange looking (what the heck is that gelatinous black stuff? I still don't know), but I'm all for trying new things (chocolate covered crickets anyone?), so I braved it out. I still don't know what some of those things were. If you know, and it's gross, please don't tell me.

After our mystery lunch we got back on the trolley and headed down to Fisherman's Wharf and Pier 39 where we hung out with pirates, did a little window shopping and walked around. Once again I was not able to go to Alcatraz. I've been to SFO like 5 times and I've never been able to go because the tickets are always sold out. This time, I planned ahead and was going to buy them online, but I had the stroller with me and I read on the website that the tour involves climbing hilly terrain, so, once again, that wasn't happening. Besides, the weather was super cold out by the piers so I would've been freezing the whole time. The wind almost blew me away stroller and all. Brrrr.

On Saturday, I went to the salon and got a(nother) haircut, mani and pedi. I had to sit Jordan on my lap during all the pampering because the child will not go with anyone else. Doesn't that defeat the purpose of going to the salon?

That evening was my sister Patti's birthday party. Because I had el niño with me, I wasn't able to really let loose like I am wont to do, but that's alright, I had fun anyway (not as much as they did though). Unfortunately since I was on baby duty, that means I have no embarrassing photos to share this time. Well, no drunk ones anyway. The following day we went to brunch with a bunch of the party guests, friends and family and then we all headed back to my sister Patti's house again for some more relaxation and good times. These people really know how to party, what energy!

On Monday we went back to my other sister's Geraldine's house and I stayed home alone with the baby the whole day. I needed to rest from all that hustle and bustle. I was super tired and I hadn't really done anything! It's hard being the only one on baby duty and not having someone else to hand him off to for more than 2 minutes to take a break. I gotta hand it to those stay at home moms and those single moms. During the afternoon, my Godmother came over for a little while to visit me and meet the baby. She brought me a box of delicious chocolate (which is now all gone). That evening we had dinner at my sister's home and I cracked open the ole' stalkers journal and entertained my niece and nephew with sad/hilarious (I'm not sure which is the better adjective here really) Prom and Grad Nite tales (mine of course). Ah good times...

On Tuesday, I woke up nice and relaxed and lingered in bed. I glanced at the clock and saw that it was 9. I wasn't packed, but I figured I had time since my flight was at 1:50pm. Hm, let's double check that, I have the paper right here...OH CRAP...it's at 12:50! Yeah, I kinda freaked out because no one was bathed or dressed or fed or packed and this meant we had to leave in one hour. FREAKOUT! Needless to say, my super packing skills (it's called throw everything in the luggage) and I made it out on time, but just barely (why must there always be drama?!). We went from the check-in counter to security to buying our lunch and right onto the plane (reminds me of the NY trip). The flight was not as nice as on the way back. JJ slept in his car seat for 2 hours, but then he refused to leave my lap for the rest of the flight. Oh well, at least I got to watch a movie and eat some lunch while he slept.

Overall the trip was fun, but I don't think I'll be doing that (traveling with baby) again by myself without my mom or my husband. Yeah, I'm a wuss, I know, whatever. Hey, I've got some free samples to give away in my next blog post so stay tuned.

Stilts, drums and fire balls

You know the bad thing about having Chris sleep in a big boy bed is that he can get out of said bed when he wants to sleep with us. Last night he threw a tantrum because I wouldn't let him come to the "big bed". He eventually showed us who's boss by getting out of his bed and hoping into ours. Although I should have put him back in his bed to discourage such behavior, after fighting with him for an hour, all I really wanted to do was sleep. He stayed in our bed. I think it's time to putup a baby gate at the door.


And now, a tidbit from the "they grow up too quickly" files:

CMan: Mommy?

Me: Yes babe?

CMan: I want an iPod.


So my trip to El Sal was great, but I haven't really had the time or inclination to tell you all about it, so here goes:
On Friday I got there and that night, they had a nice home made dinner waiting for me. Yum. The following day I got to go to the beauty parlor and have my hair and nails done...Aahhh much needed pampering. The wedding was that evening and it was quite lovely. I've never seen so many photographers at a wedding. The bride and groom (my cousin) looked like they were celebrities being hounded by paparazzi.

The reception was at a nice hotel in San Salvador. At first I walked into the wrong wedding and was happily snapping pictures of the cake, when I realized that I didn't really know ANYONE there, so that couldn't be the right wedding. Fortunately this happened within the first 30 seconds after I got there and not after sitting down and eating the meal. Ha ha...that would've been hilarious (wow, this food is good, but who are those two people dressed like a bride and groom...uh...oops wrong wedding).

Once I made it to the correct room, we found out that our table was too small for all the people that were assigned to it, so mid-wedding, they took our table away and gave us a new one. We were stuck all the way at the back, so my mom convinced them to move the table right next to the dance floor...much better. They had a live band that was playing pretty good music and after a while, the bride took the stage and sang 4 songs with her band as well (she sings in a nightclub once in a while). This really got the party started and got some people out of their seats.

The party was in full swing, everyone was having a great time and then things got crazy....the drum players, fire juggler and stilt walkers showed up.

I'm not kidding.

They were passing out wigs and masks and noisemakers and veils and all sorts of fun carnival type things. It was so crazy, I've never seen that at a fancy hotel wedding before (or at any wedding for that matter). It was really fun and I would have participated more if it weren't for the fact that my shoes were killing me and for some reason I felt weird taking my shoes off and dancing with my pantyhose (yes, I know, feeling weird about that amidst stilt walkers really doesn't make sense, but hey, I didn't want to rip my spanx!). I was standing by the dancefloor to see the fireball lady, but I backed off a bit because I was scared that she was going to hit me with one of those fire thingies...she didn't seem to be very careful about looking around to see who was standing close by.

This was only the second wedding that I'd ever been to in El Salvador, so I noticed some differences between it and the weddings that I had been to here. I didn't see a bouquet toss or garter toss happening and the first dance was not really a big deal in the sense that there was no DJ or MC announcing it or anything. The cutting of the cake wasn't a big deal either. I don't think the couple ever cut it or took pictures with it (the hotel staff cut it up and served it)...and well, there's no need to mention the whole circus atmosphere either. It was definitely fun though. The party continued until 5 am (have I ever mentioned that these people like to party?), but I called it a night at around 12 or 1. I heard that after I left there were also mariachis that came later on. Wow, what a night!

The following day, we headed out to the beach house nice and early. On the way there, I noticed an accident on the side of the road. The police were there filing their reports and looking at the car, but there was a clown directing traffic away from the accident lane. Yes my friends, only in El Salvador do the clowns direct traffic and the cops make you laugh.

The beach house was so nice and relaxing. I got to vegetate in a hammock for a little while and go swimming in the pool. Good thing too, because it was so freaking hot, I thought I was going to melt. During this time, the cicada skins are still on the trees. I love seeing them all over the place because it reminds me of my childhood when my cousin and I would have contests to see who could collect the most.

The following day, it was time to come back. Boohoo. Oh well, it was nice while it lasted.

More pictures are up on Flickr (check them out over on the sidebar thingy over there --->).

Greetings from Central America

Well, my pirate eye is doing much better and is back to normal. It all started because I was trying to put together the bed rail so that Chris could sleep in the twin bed (instead of the crib, we need to make room for the new tenant). He took the instructions away from me, with the intention of ripping them into itty bitty pieces, so I pulled them away and the rest, as they say, is history.

Anyway, I am in El Salvador for the weekend because my cousin is getting married, so R is holding down the fort. CMan stayed in Miami too. I was just telling my mom that I don't know what to do with myself; I've never really had this much time to just DO nothing and have no one to look after (since the NY trip). It just feels strange. He he.

It's freaking hot here...I'm gonna go find a fan and stand under it. See you in 3 days!

I did not fall off the face of the earth

I'm finally back! I guess I got a little lazy with my blog updates while I was away, but then again, it was hard to peel my cousin off the computer and away from his World of Warcraft game.

So, um...here's what we did (I hope I didn't forget anything):

We went to this street festival in a little town where the local people make mini parade floats and decorate them with babies and children. My mom said that they were supposed to represent the innocent children that were killed in biblical times when they were trying to kill baby Jesus. They had tons of street vendors selling yummy stuff. A giant tree decorated with lights and a huge nativity at the foot of said tree. There was a parade of the floats and some dudes dressed with masks and fireworks overhead. It was quite an experience for Christian and I as we had never seen anything like that.

He still hated the nanny, but this time, there was no biting involved. It was a different girl, but he still didn't like her.

We went to the mall...ALOT...and did a little redecorating.

We only got to go to the beach one time (plus he got sick that one time). We went to our family's beach house which I found out is about 40 years old. I took a picture of Chris standing on the porch of that house because there is also a picture of me standing there and I wanted to compare them. Now if only I could find my picture...

We went to the park. It was on a mountaintop and very beautiful. They had food vendors and swings and a basketball court and a clown. The clown was a bit scary, but he was selling balloon animals for 25 cents. Cman loves balloons, so he was willing to put up with the clown.

We visited my grandfather at the nursing home. My grandmother feels bad about his condition (Alzheimer's) and him being there, but the other guests told us that he smacks the nurses on the butt and shows off his muscles. It sounds like he's having a grand ole time.

We went to the country club for lunch and Cman played on the swings and on the little slide. They have two pools there, but unfortunately the weather was a bit chilly (72 degrees...hey, that's cold by El Salvador's standards).

We played cards....alot.

We took Chris to El Mundo Feliz (Happy World) which has tons of little kiddie rides. My parents used to take me there when I was a little kid, so that should tell you how long it's been there. They had these puppets that would dance when you put a coin in. I saw them and they looked very familiar to me. My mom said they were the same ones from when I was young. Damn, those are some old puppets.

My cousin Camila gave us a ballet performance in the living room.

I went to the movies several times (The Game Plan, Enchanted, I am Legend).

I didn't gain any weight while I was over there. I guess it had to do with the fact that I was sick for about 5 days and after that I didn't really feel like eating much. That made up for the eat-fest that went on towards the end of my trip.

Fortunately there were no tremors while I was over there, although the lights did go out once. Chris had a ball walking around with the flashlight.

Amazingly enough, I didn't get eaten by mosquitoes, but poor Cman did on the last night we were there. He only has about 8 bites though. I usually end up with about 100 and I don't even have one.

We were supposed to come back on Sunday, but just as we sat at the gate waiting to board the plane, they informed us that the flight had been cancelled. They gave us our luggage back and sent us to hotels/our homes. I can't quite express how annoying that was. The next day we were placed on a 6:30am flight which meant we had to be there 3 hours earlier. My grandmother lives 45 minutes away from the airport. Go ahead, do the math and figure out what time we had to wake up. He didn't sleep on the ride to the airport, but he did sleep at the gate for 30 minutes, which meant he didn't sleep a wink in the airplane. What fun. I don't think I'll be doing that again anytime soon.

In prego news, I still don't have any morning sickness. I'm supposedly 8 weeks today. I only feel slightly queasy once in a while if I haven't had something to eat, but it's hardly noticeable. I have my first doc's appt tomorrow, so we'll see what's up. I called the office and they said that they don't do ultrasounds on the first visit. That sucks. I had already had two by this time when I was prego with Cman. What can I say, I'm a worry wart...I need the reassurance.

Check out my flickr badge on the right to see more pictures.

Let's hope I don't watch a TV special on Australia next

Last week I was watching a travel channel type special about how Disney is celebrating the holidays this year. I love me some Mickey...and I love me some holidays...put them together and well...It's overwhelming.

They showed how the castle was lit up with a jillion lights this year and I just lost it. It was such a beautiful sight that my mouth was open and the tears were flowing from my eyes. I can't say I've ever had that reaction to a Disney TV special before, but there you have it. At that moment I decided that I needed to see that in person. I needed to see that!

So..um, guess where I went this past Thursday?

Here's a hint....and here's another...and there's several more on flickr, so check out the little badgie over on the right!

Carnival of Carnage Review

Oct 24th, I hopped in a car with Jenny, Amber (her niece) and Ricky (Amber's bf) and drove four hours North to Orlando. Our friends Claude, Meg, and Laurie met up with us over there. Once again it was time for Halloween Horror Nights (HHN). Unfortunately the little camera that could...couldn't anymore, so I had to take my old camera hence the sucky pictures.

Crappy camera + they don't really let you photograph inside the houses + there were no scare zones = I didn't take more than 5 pictures that night. Jenny and I were discussing what haunted houses we liked better than others (Dead Silence, Friday the 13th, Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Psychoscareapy) a couple of days later and we decided that we needed to make a little video on youtube of us sitting at a table drinking coffee and discussing the pros (lots of houses) and cons (no scare zones!!!) of the event and then we decided that we needed to be in a focus group for Universal so we could tell them what we thought about their event (because we really did sit and discuss details and such) and then we decided we needed to get a life.

The haunted houses were great (except there weren't enough people to scare you inside of them) and the Bill and Ted's show was fun (especially the SAW and Michael Myers bits), but the fact that there was only one quasi-scare zone really sucked. I look forward to getting the crap scared out of me on the streets of Universal because unfortunately, I've become somewhat immune to the haunted house scares, so not having that made the event feel somewhat incomplete. Oh well, at least I still had the backstage tour to look forward to.

The following day, we headed to Universal again for our behind the screams tour of HHN. We were in the far left lane of the parking entrance, and unfortunately the preferred parking entrance was on the far right (can we say BIGGER SIGN people? especially since the day before the prefered parking entrance was on the LEFT), so of course I missed it. We had to go up and down the parking garage and out all over again and wasted 10 minutes. Because of this we got to the tour late and some guy named Philip was quite mean to us. He treated us like children that had misbehaved "you're two minutes away from not going on the tour"...yeah OK dad. Last year we arrived to the tour on time and they had us waiting for a couple of minutes, so we assumed that the same relaxed attitude was in play here. Wrong. Philip the drill sergeant was going to make sure we were put in our place.

Thankfully we had David as our tour guide again (we requested him from last year since he was so nice...unlike Philip). When we finally broke free of Philip, Dave was just outside the door and was calmly telling the rest of the tour group about the history of HHN and was not on his way to the haunted house and was not angry because he was waiting for us to get there and we were not holding the group up (like Philip had led us to believe). David greeted us nicely "hey, it's nice to see you guys" and it almost seemed like he remembered us. I figured that was impossible since he must see thousands of people a year while leading tours. He must say that to all his guests. So the tour began on a crappy note, but nothing was going to kill my buzz because I love HHN.

Our first stop was the Dead Silence Haunted House (eeeeek! jumps up and down with excitement). The attention to detail was awesome and they had some pretty cool effects with mirrors and such. This is the only house that really startled me the previous night. I was taking furious mental notes to see what I could incorporate into my own haunted house. I was pleasantly surprised to see that many of the scenes that I had planned for my house were also in this one. Their wall of dolls left alot to be desired though.

After that we saw the wardrobe and makeup areas and then headed towards the next haunted house, Psychoscareapy: Home for the holidays. This is an old favorite of mine, so we really enjoyed getting a closer look at this one. The premise was that the asylum patients were on a field trip when their van crashed into a community of homes, letting loose all the wackos within it (including the one standing by the door in this picture). This was a pretty cool house because the whole time you really felt like you were in someone's house. The path would lead you in and out of different homes. It was very effective and I was able to get the perfect picture for my Christmas cards this year. The only bad thing about this house was the lack of asylum actors (I think it has to do with what night of the week we went though).

Side note: On our way to the haunted houses David our awesome tour guide asked me if I was having a haunted house again this year. Can you believe that people? He remembered my crazy ass a year later? That's pretty impressive.

Our next stop was a lovely home on Elm Street (oh look it's for sale!). Our favorite scene from that house was Johnny Depp's bedroom (not for the reasons you're thinking) because they had completely turned it on it's side and had you walk right through his bloody bed. Pretty neat effect. I never got a sense that I was in the boiler room though, and the Freddy masks were kind of cheesy. I mean, if you're going to use $5 Walgreens masks, then at least don't shine any lights onto your actors...keep them in the dark please so I can at least imagine that it's real for a split second. At the end of this haunted house Philip was bugging David on the phone that we had to hurry up, so we went over to a little museum they had set up for HHN freaks fans such as ourselves.

The museum had little stations set up for each house where you could see the wardrobe and floor plans of each house. My first love was architecture, so I wanted to pocket the floor plans, but unfortunately I wasn't wearing a trench coat, so...so much for that. Oh and Philip was there once again ranting to poor David about how he thought we would be done by now (you know, since it was 1:01 and the tour was slated to end at 1:00pm and all). Put a sock in it Philip...you really put a damper on our tour experience (can you tell I didn't like Philip too much at this point?).

After the tour we headed over to the Twister Ride, the Mummy ride (awesome) and to the Jaws ride. We all had a good laugh later when we were comparing pictures because Meg and I had more pictures of the tour guide than of the shark. After this we went on a couple more rides and then it was time to leave. I wanted to hide in the bushes and stay for another night of HHN, but I don't think everyone was on board with that plan (there's roaches in the bushes). We hung around for as long as possible, but the security guards had their little kick-everyone-out-parade and that was the end of that (Noooo, but it's only 6pm!).

After Universal Studios, we headed over to City Walk to grab some dinner. While we waited for our table at Bubba Gump Shrimp Co., we heard that Thriller was playing on the loud speakers outside so of course Jenny, Meg and I did what anybody in that position would do and broke into a choreographed Thriller dance in the middle of City Walk (oh, you mean you wouldn't do that?). The song played three times in a row until they finally noticed that there were lunatics dancing in the street decided to change the CD for some reason.

Once inside Bubba Gump, we got a lovely table with a view of the whole restaurant. I quickly picked out my favorite waiter to stalk admire and shared him with the rest of the ladies at my table (aka Mr. hot-shrimp-waiter-man from hereon in), but unfortunately he was not our waiter. Jenny and I never have the same taste in men, but she grew fonder of him as the evening passed and repeatedly got busted staring at him. This situation led me to share a humorous story with my tablemates (which I will also now share with you) about the time that I was 15 and my friends and I went to Bennigans to celebrate my friend Ayleen's birthday. We had a cute waiter named Dan and the whole evening I kept talking about Dan and how cute he was and how I wanted him for dessert (you know stupid 15 year old stuff). When Dan actually came to ask us what we wanted for dessert Cristy's mom pointed at me and blurted out "well she wants YOU for dessert". I have never wanted to be swallowed by the earth as much as I did that day. Fast forward 17 years and there we were sitting at Bubba Gump and I knew I shouldn't have shared that story because I had paid too much attention to our waiter that evening. I had a feeling that would bite me in the ass later.

At this particular restaurant, they have signs on each table that you're supposed to flip when you need the waiter to come. This is pretty cool because ANY waiter that passes by has to come and help you regardless of whether he is your waiter or not. You can see where this is going right? Well, someone had immense luck and good timing and flipped the sign at a moment when NO other waiter was in sight and Mr. hot-shrimp-waiter-man was walking by. He stopped at our table and everyone pointed to me saying that it was my birthday and that they should sing happy birthday to me. I denied the birthday accusations and refused the proposed serenade. But alas, my tablemates were not satisfied because they noticed that they had not embarrassed me, so of course they threw this little gem in at the end of the conversation "...oh and she wants YOU for dessert". It's amazing what 17 years will do to you. I wasn't embarrassed at all this time and found the whole thing to be hilarious as did Mr. hot-shrimp-waiter-man.

After our lovely dinner. Claude Meg and Laurie headed back to the hotel because they were driving home that night. Jenny, Amber, Ricky and myself went to the movies at CityWalk and we watched the Nightmare Before Christmas in 3D. I think that was the perfect end to a wonderful Halloweenyfied weekend! Sigh. Goodbye Universal...see you next year (maybe)!



ps. I didn't forget to get gas before leaving this time.

You may want to read this in installments

I'm feeling alot better now...and that was the shortest lived weight-loss ever. I guess Lilli's birthday cake from Saturday night didn't help, neither did the chocolate chip cookies I had last night, neither did the cake I just ate here in the office for someone else's birthday. You can see where this is going, but I bet you didn't come here to read about cake. Ah yes, California. Have a seat, we'll be here a while.

Day 1
Well, I got there on Friday around 11am and Jen picked me up at the airport and we headed over to Downtown Disney. Our first stop was the Rainforest Cafe where we met up with a hairy friend. Afterwards we walked around and looked at the pretty stores and restaurants. We went over to Disneyland and California Adventure so we could get a preview (we were going to go on Monday) of the Halloweentime decorations they put up during this time of year. After that we headed back towards the car because I was kind of pooped, but not before walking into a store that had a couple of Halloween decorations in the window. "Should we browse in here? sure, why not". Well, I'm glad we decided to go in because that store contained the mother load of all Halloween villages. If you think the Michael's spooky village display is large, you ain't seen nothing yet. Jen and I almost collapsed at the sight of it. The people around us were staring at us because we were freaking out so much and going "wow, look at this...and look at this one...oh my god, look at the little arm....and this one has dangling legs...oh there's more back here....there's a train...and a carousel....a swing!...and look at this little bench and check out the lights...." You get the point.

Day 2
The next day we headed out for some shopping at the dollar store. They have so many Halloween things at the dollar stores over there that we don't have here. I bought so much stuff it almost didn't fit in my suitcase. After that we spotted an Ecuadorian restaurant and a Salvadorean restaurant next to each other, that was funny (R is from Ecuador)... of course we picked the Salvadorean one where I promptly ordered one of everything in sight....to go. We went back to Jen's apartment and I was amazed at the size of the pupusas from the restaurant. They were almost as big as my hand! After my eat-fest we stayed in and rested. We would need all the energy we could get for Knott's Scary farm that evening.

After our nap (you know you're getting old when you start scheduling naps into your vacations) we were on our way to Knott's Bery Farm Haunt, but first we made a quick stop for some aspirin for me because I had a major headache (another sign of old age) and a funny stomach (hmm...I wonder why). We went into the park and stopped at the buffet for a quick bite and something to drink and then we were on our way. Knott's had 13 haunted houses and 6 shows (plus the rides), so we had our work cut out for us because we only had about 6 hours to do everything. Fortunately Jenny had the hookup, so we got a VIP wristband that admitted us to the front of the line for (mostly) everything. We saw all but one of the haunted houses, but we only saw one show called the Hanging. It had alot of funny pop culture stuff in it (kind of like the bill & ted show at Halloween Horror Nights) and alot of men jumping around and fighting in their underwear. Who's complaining? Not me. We got on a couple of cool roller coasters and this thing that drops you from a height of 254 feet (excellent for those of us that don't like heights). After all the rides, houses, underwear, decorations and scares, we were pooped and called it a night around 2:30 am.

Day 3
On Sunday we took it easy and stayed home most of the day. We needed to recuperate from the last couple of days and we needed to save up our energies for Disneyland the next day. At night we went to the movies to see Good Luck Chuck. I live in a cave and hadn't ever seen Dane Cook before, so I kept saying "hello...who is that?"....of course all the gratuitous naked Chuck shots in the movie had nothing to do with it. The man has dimples on his ass...that's impressive.

Day 4
The following day we crawled out of bed, grabbed a muffin and headed to Disneyland to enjoy the day. I snickered silently at the throngs of parents struggling with small children, trying to navigate the park, and I thanked my stars I wasn't one of them that day. Ha ha. Sorry Christian, you're going to have to wait till you're older, theme parks and toddlers (that don't like strollers and don't like to walk) do not mix well. Thankfully the weather was gorgeous and the park wasn't very full, so the lines were manageable.

First we went to Adventureland and we rode the Indiana Jones ride, then we headed over to New Orleans Square to ride the Pirates of the Caribbean and the haunted mansion (which deserves a whole post to itself) which had been completely converted (inside and out) into a Nightmare before Christmas haunted house. After taking 999 pictures (there's always room for one more) of the haunted mansion, we headed over to the Winnie the Pooh ride in Critter Country. Afterwards we took a stroll through Frontierland to go ride on Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. Splash Mountain was next in line (with a fastpass), then we got on the Disneyland Railroad and headed to Fantasyland. We didn't ride It's a Small World because the line was outside in the hot sun (wimps) and there was no fastpass for it, but we did go on the Matterhorn (very short line). The Alice in Wonderland line was long and the teacups make me nauseous (getting old), so I just said hi to Alice and went on my way to Tomorrowland. The line for Space Mountain was only 15 minutes long, so our fastpass was useless since the lines were combined into one.

Although I had been to Disneyland twice before, Space Mountain had been closed for renovations both times. This was my first time riding it in this park. I was expecting it to be the same as the one here, but boy was I wrong. Florida needs to get with the program, the Disneyland ride is so much better! It's darker, longer, faster and plays spacey techno music (sounded like something else for a second there). After our ride through space, we went over to Sleeping Beauty's Castle to take a jillion pictures in every pose known to man (of which I will spare you). We walked through the castle and were once again in Fantasyland where we went on the Snow White and Pinocchio rides (and faked it on the teacups). We hopped back on to the Disneyland Railroad and this time we passed through these weird caves that have animals and dinosaurs in them. I don't remember seeing this in Florida, but I haven't gone on the little train here in a while, so perhaps we have it here too.

Our next stop was the Blue Bayou which is a nifty little restaurant in New Orleans Square. You have to make reservations (Jen made them a week in advance) and it's an indoor sit down dining experience where you really feel like you are outdoors (except for the bugs and heat). Jen and I ate there the last time we came and we liked the ambiance so much that we wanted to come again. The last time we got a table that was in the middle, so we were disappointed, but this time we were happy because we got "waterside" seating which meant that the people in the Pirate's ride would pass by your table in their little boats and wave to you.

It was super cute:

"Hello people eating" ...frantic waving from the boats

"hello Pirate peeps"...frantic waving back (oops I dropped my butter knife)

After you've done this throughout dinner though...it's not so cute anymore, you just start ignoring the people in the boats and wishing the pirates would let you eat in peace.

After a very heavy and delicious dinner I ordered dessert to go because I didn't want to miss the parade. If you're paying attention you will notice that this is really my first meal of the day because I had been feeling queasy all day long; that right there, is a sign that there is something very very wrong going on in stomachland (I didn't see this area on the Disneyland map Claudia).
We didn't make it on time for the parade, so we decided to go to the Finding Nemo submarine ride during the parade in hopes that the line would not be an hour long as it had been earlier in the day. Unfortunately our passage from New Orleans Square to Fantasyland was blocked by said parade, so we had to find our way around it. I stopped for a couple of quick pictures before I expertly navigated around it (by this point, I didn't need a map anymore...what a pro). We made it to the Nemo ride, but the line was still long. We had no choice...we had to wait because neither of us had been on it. Fortunately the line went pretty fast and before we knew it it was our turn to get in the sub. The ride was just as I remembered it (the old 20,000 leagues under the sea ride closed in 1994) with pretty fishes except it was souped up and it had screens with Nemo scenes playing on them, so it seemed like he was right outside your sub. It was lovely and all, but all these days of walking were beginning to take their toll (oldness strikes again) and we were tired. That is...until we discovered that the dude that drives the sub was standing on a platform right there behind us...ha ha...Hey Jen...I dare you to grab his crotch. Nothing like a little mischief to perk you right up.

The line and the ride took 45 minutes, so by the time we got out, the park was closing. I ventured over to Fantasyland to see if perhaps we could sneak in one or two more quick rides, but nope...everything was deserted (that sure made for nice uncrowded pictures though). Reluctantly (it was only 8pm!), we headed down Main Street towards the exit and hit the gift shops where it took me ages to decide what to buy for Cman. I ended up getting him two tshirts and a small mickey mouse. I didn't get anything for R there because he hates all things Disney and wouldn't wear whatever I got him anyway. I just realized that I didn't buy anything for myself (another sign that something must be wrong)

Day 5
My last day there I found out exactly what was wrong. I woke up with the worst nausea and I couldn't handle the smell of the bacon that Jenny was cooking. I know what ya'll are thinking and if I didn't know better I'd swear I was pregnant, but fortunately, I did know better, so no, that wasn't the case. I spent the whole morning making trips from the toilet to the couch and then I had to go and sit on an airplane for 5 hours. Good times, good times I tell you.

So that was my trip, very exhausting and very fun (I've put most of the pictures here) and we're not even done. Jenny is coming to Miami in 12 days (on my birthday!) for part II of our Halloween Extravaganza (Halloween Horror Nights). Hopefully no one will get sick this time.

Until next time my friends...

If you're still reading this, you deserve a cookie because this was a freaking long post.

Ten more

In the past three weeks, the little man has picked up even more wanna-be words:

cheche/checha = leche/lechita = milk
who = jugo = juice (or anything that isn't water or milk)
momo = moco = booger (yes, only I would purposefully teach my son that word)
poo poo = self explanatory
abo = arbol = tree
fa = fresa = strawberry
che = chicken
baw = ball
bubba = bubbles
ta = fruita = fruit

I especially love how he says bubbles. Unfortunately every time we blow bubbles he has a shit fit. The problem is once you open the bubble container, you must be prepared to blow bubbles for the rest of eternity because the moment you decide to stop all hell breaks loose. OK Christian time to put away the bubbles and go inside. WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA! BUUUUUBBBBBBAAAAAAA!
Yeah, so you can imagine we don't do bubbles too often around here.

On a separate and totally unrelated note, I was having chinese for lunch yesterday and decided to crack open a fortune cookie. I picked one out of the bunch and read my fortune:

Sometimes travel to new places leads to great transformation.

Funny. Real funny. When I got home, the travel taunting continued because I got a postcard in the mail from Rome. How nice.

Tea, a drink with jam and bread

OK now I want to go to London.

M, one of the employees in our office just got back from a study abroad program in England. She was telling us all about the wonderful things she saw and the wonderful places she went to. The more she told me, the more the envy spilled from every pore in my body. Why is it that when you want to go somewhere really badly everyone around you just went there and is dying to tell you about it? Or did this happen the other way around? Is my new-found "I want to go to Europe" obsession rearing its ugly head because so many people around me seem to have just gone to Europe, or are in Europe right now, or are planning on going to Europe in the near future? A further question to ask is...have there always been many people around me that are going to or coming from Europe, and am I just noticing them now because I'm thinking about wanting to go myself?

Anyway, I veered a bit off subject there. M told me that she went to a sing-along show in London. How fun is that? And it's not just any sing-along, it was a Sound of Music sing-along. They show the film in a large movie theatre and it has subtitles with the words so that you can follow along with all the songs even if you don't know the words. The people that go to this really get into it too because they show up in elaborate costumes as well. Wow, singing AND costumes...where do I sign up?

I immediately turned to Professor Google to see what I could find out about it and to see if the show was playing in the U.S. Fortunately, the sing along was such a great success in London that they brought it to New York as well. I was just about to go online and book a trip to NY so I could go to this singing phenomenon until I looked at the date on the review and realized that the show had been in NY .....a full 7 years ago. Hmm...last to find out (L2FO) strikes again (do I live in a cave or something? WTF?)

Awww, the sadness. Then I found this. Unfortunately I really can't justify going to Missouri or Indiana just to dress up as a hill and sing in a theatre with a bunch of strangers (NY is more doable). But wait, just when I had given up on the whole prospect, I subsequently found this. A show in Los Angeles! YAY!..... 3 months before I actually go there. Nay.

Oh the IRRRRONY.