Time flies when you’re working 80 hours a week. I’ll try to do this update as quickly as I can since I honestly don’t have the time to sit and write thoughtfully.
Back in October, I attended my first ever air show. We went to Wings Over Atlanta at the Dobbins Air Force Base and I was simply amazed, to put it mildly. We saw the Blue Angels and the Canadian Snowbirds perform, among others; the tricks and maneuvers these planes did was nothing short of outrageous and it made me want to a) go for a ride-along and b) learn to fly. Great, just what I need, another expensive/time-consuming hobby… Let’s hope I forget about this pipe dream in the near future.
The next day, Erik and I decided that we wanted to take the Miata for another autocross adventure. It had been leaking coolant very, very slightly at the last event so we figured it would be okay. NOPE! On my very first run, not only did I get lost on course (haha OOPS! *so* embarrassing) but the car started pissing coolant, hardcore. Ugh. Great. So we called AAA and had her towed home. Turns out that there is a very small little coolant blockoff line that is at the back of the head and the cap on it commonly fails. A silly $4 part cost me an event (although the Atlanta Region SCCA was nice enough to refund us) and a ton of peace of mind. Either way, she’s all fixed up now and should be good to go for the 2011 season!
Every year for work, Erik has to travel to the Gartner IT convention in Orlando. Now, I had never been to Disney (seriously) and Erik knew I was jealous that he was getting to go essentially for free while I was stuck at home so he did the only logical thing a boy could do – he planned a Disney adventure weekend for us! I flew down on a Thursday and we went to dinner at the T-Rex Cafe in Downtown Disney with our friend Julius who lives in FL. I know, it sounds cheesy (and it was) but it was SO much fun! They had these huge animatronic dinosaurs and the restaurant itself was done to look like different prehistoric types of land (ice cave, forest, undersea area, etc) which was really interesting. Before/after dinner we wandered around and played with Disney stuff, went to the Lego store and got a huge ice cream sundae at the Ghirardelli shop. YUM!
Friday we went to Epcot and I was just as excited as all the small children we were surrounded by. I’ll admit, I actually got a bit emotional as we walked in and saw Spaceship Earth to the point where I even got a little teary. After taking some pictures, we got straight down to business. Our mission was to hit every single area of the park. First we got in line for Soarin’ which was a lot of fun. Next, we got in line for Mission: Space and decided to do the “advanced” part of it, which we instantly regretted. Normally I don’t get motion sick but ohMYgod that ride made me almost barf, it was terrible! Luckily, the rest of the day was much better. We rode Spaceship Earth, drove around on Test Track, saw Captain EO, hopped on a boat in the Maelstrom, partied with the Three Caballeros and even met Snow White! We toured the world and enjoyed the Food and Wine Festival, ate lunch in Morocco and watched a lot of neat cultural shows. By the end of the day we were exhausted and my feet were killing me but we toughed it out for the fireworks show, Illuminations.
Saturday was the “big day” – the day we were going to the Magic Kingdom! Our plan was the same as it was for Epcot in that we wanted to see every bit of the park possible and we managed to make it happen, too. We rode all the classics: Pirates of the Caribbean, Jungle Cruise, Splash Mountain, Peter Pan, It’s a Small World, Big Thunder Mountain Rail Road, the Haunted Mansion, Snow White’s Scary Adventures, Stitch’s Great Escape, Swiss Family Treehouse, Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin, saw Mickey’s PhilharMagic, caught a show at the Enchanted Tiki Room, rode the Liberty Belle river boat and more. You’ll notice I left out Space Mountain. Oh yes, we did that, too. I *hate* roller coasters. I’ll admit, I’m a wuss and they scare me (even the little kid ones). Erik suggested we do Space Mountain which is in the DARK and somehow he convinced me that I should agree. Needless to say, I screamed like a terrified little girl the entire time but it was actually so much fun!! I couldn’t stop smiling, even though I had convinced myself I was scared. After we had ridden everything possible, we wandered around the park and tried to really take it all in. We caught the electrical parade and watched the fireworks over Cinderella’s Castle. It was a perfect end to a perfect day.
Sunday was our last day in town but we still managed to get in a few hours at Hollywood Studios before catching our flight home. We didn’t get to see or do everything in this park since we were on a limited schedule, but I enjoyed the time we spent there. We did the Studio Back Lot Tour, saw Lights! Motors! Action! and even met Buzz and Woody!
My real life Prince Charming. *awww*
Click here to see the entire album from Disney! YAY!
This past week has been a pretty busy one, despite not actually traveling anywhere. We went to go see Metric with some friends at the Tabernacle which was pretty good.
Saturday night some friends had a Halloween party and it was decided that we were to do a Jersey Shore theme. Since I’m short, I called dibs on Snooki. EJ, my best friend, was (E)J-Woww and Erik and Mikel were The Situation and Pauly D, respectively. I got an awesomely trashy black/leopard mini-dress, teased a huge pouf in my hair and wandered around wearing a pair of huge, pink fuzzy slippers. All four of us used a disgusting amount of bronzer and the results were hilarious. On our way to the party, we stopped at a liquor store to get some booze and the people working there gave me candy. YAY trick or treating in a liquor store! How perfect is that given the costume? HA!! My only regret? That I didn’t get to use the costume a second time!
(E)J-Woww and Snooki: real-life and Halloween BBFs. …does anyone have any pickles?
The next day, Erik and I went to go see Bad Religion and The Aggrolites at the Masquerade. I was stoked because despite the hundreds and hundreds of punk shows that I went to in NYC growing up, I had never seen either band! They both played awesome sets, we met up with some old and new friends and got sweaty and screamy just like I used to do ten years ago. Man, I had a blast. I miss those days… UP THE PUNX! 😀
Anyway, that’s about it for now. I rode a new mare at Huntcliff this week who, despite being a wiggley baby, seemed promising. We’ll see what happens with that. Lastly, tomorrow, I’m heading up to Maryland for the weekend for some car stuff.
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