winged orange

I’m back from California. I caught a cold on the plane and am sick as a dog, and I had to go back to work today, after having spent the last two and a half days in bed, mostly asleep. In fact, I should still in bed because I still feel a lot like death, but I feel bad taking more than the two days off work. To erase any doubt, though, I did indeed ride every ride in Disneyland and most of the ones in California Adventure, barring Tower of Terror (never again) and California’ Screamin’ (I was going to, but one of the features of the ride is apparently a stop on a 108-foot incline as the ride runs out of momentum from the power launch and is manually hauled up the rest of the hill. Can we say, “panic attack”? I think we can). The final Mountain total: 3 trips ’round the Matterhorn, 1 trip down Grizzly Peak (it was a rapid ride; my shoes were squishing when I was done), 3 voyages to Space Mountain, 3 train rides through Big Thunder Mountain, and 3 trips down Splash Mountain and into the Briar Patch (and I was always in the front!). Oh, and a trip through Jurassic Park at Universal.

But I just wanted to direct you to my Flickr account, which contains an obscene amount of pictures from the trip, including this gem here, in which I look horrible but which I took to express my geeky love for Scott:

When you wish upon a star,
It makes no difference who you are.
Anything your heart desires
Will come to you.

It’s time to Remember the Magic! From June 17th to June 24th, I’ll be in sunny Anaheim, California, livin’ it up at Disneyland, California Adventure, Universal, and maybe Malibu. I’ll be back in a week…if you’re real lucky! ;)

…Zip-a-dee-ay, my oh my, what a wonderful day. Plenty of sunshine comin’ my way, zip-a-dee-do0-dah, zip-a-dee-ay!

So can you tell I’m in a really good mood today? :D You know why? Because in a week, I’m leaving on vacation with my family and I’M GOIN’ TO DISNEYLAND! I can’t wait to go back to California. We went when I was 8 and again when I was 12, and then we started going to Disney World Florida because they have more Disney property (which I think is sort of a shame, because a.) CA is Disney’s birthplace, b.) the weather is worlds better in CA, and c.) my mom used to live out there and I’d like to visit more often) and because it’s closer and a shorter flight. Disneyland has expanded their park a lot in the decade since I’ve been there, and they actually cram more attractions into a smaller space than Disney World does. Some of the better attractions from Epcot and MGM in Florida have been copied into Disneyland as well, so I don’t have to miss Innoventions or Muppet Vision 3D (yay! Bean Bunny!) They’ve also added California Adventure and Downtown Disney, complete with Rainforest Cafe. Even Universal’s been souped up! Universal Studios in Hollywood always kicked more ass than the one in Florida because the Hollywood Studios are still functional for shooting purposes, while the FL Studios were meant to be just a theme park. Then FL added Islands of Adventure, which was really cool…but now Studios Hollywood has Jurassic Park and Back to the Future, the two best rides from Florida, and it’s still got all the things about it that made it the better park anyway. I’m good. ;)

I’m driving my whole family nuts because I’m bouncing off the walls. I have a whole other week to wait before we leave, and I promise you, it will be the longest week of my LIFE. I’ve got big plans, man. The week we get there kicks off the park’s being open until midnight almost every night, so I fully plan on staying until closing every night (and I’m dragging my brother along with me). My big thing, though, is that I want to try to ride all five mountains (Space, Splash, Big Thunder, Matterhorn, and Grizzly Peak rapids) as well as California Screamin’. I’m afraid of heights, but I’ve done most of those, save for California Screamin’ and the rapids, before, and I can muster up the courage for Splash Mountain if someone goes with me. My goal is to ride everything that before I would have passed up, because I’m only going to be 22 in Disneyland once – might as well enjoy it! :)

I’m a little upset that Pirates of the Carribbean is closed until two days after we leave. They’re renovating and adding in Captain Jack and Barbossa, which I don’t think I appreciate. I guess I’ll just have to ride Big Thunder Mountain Railroad three or twelve extra times to make up for it – it’s my favorite ride. :)

I’m going to bounce off now and continue reading about all the Disney funfacts that I’ve been amusing myself with the last few days.

Scott and I went to New York City last weekend. We were hoping to try the Wicked lottery again (we did. No luck there), go down to Columbia so Scott could see my school and so I could get a sweatshirt, and then go down to the East Village to eat dinner at The Life Cafe. Unfortunately, we didn’t get any pictures in the East Village, although we will next time – I really liked the East Village, right in the Thompkins Square Park area. We did get some photos of Columbia, though. :)

We took a quick walk around the main Columbia campus at 116th street. Scott was just in awe of the main library. I thought it was really beautiful…and then I remembered that there are 20 more libraries all around the various Columbia campuses and got a little intimidated.

My classes will be at Columbia Teachers College, which is four blocks up, at 120th street. The building is practically a block-wide loop, with seven halls that are all interconnected. You can go outside to get to the various halls if you want, but you don’t have to. This is the first section of the TC building:

This is the middle of the same side of the TC building. This is probably my favorite shot, as you can see the pretty architecture on the top:

And the third shot of the building. A bit plainer, but it gives you an idea of how LONG this thing is:

And finally, a picture of me in front of the “Teachers College, Columbia University” sign. It’s a really BAD picture of me, but I wanted my mom to see the sign.

I can’t believe it’s June already. That makes me happy because it’s that much closer to our vacation (I leave in 16 days! Huzzah!), but frightens me stupid because Scott doesn’t know about a job yet and we don’t have an apartment, although we do have an appointment to look at a one-bedroom at Valley Manor next Saturday. We’re hoping Scott will have a job by July, or at least know what his prospects are, because July 14th is the last day to sign for an Aug. 1 lease.

I’m sort of preferring not to think about that right now. So let’s talk about happier things. Like yarn. ;) I’m still in the process of cleaning out my stash…oh, who am I kidding? We all know I haven’t really started, other than taking a mental inventory. I was supposed to do it last Friday before Scott showed up, but…I fell asleep. *looks sheepish* I’ve been jotting down things as I remember that I have them, but the major cleaning will hopefully take place this weekend, barring any unforseen naps.

Since WebSense has blocked any sort of online game from the work computers, I’ve taken to trolling the messageboards. Today it’s the Knittyboards. This is not a good idea for someone who’s trying to clean out her stash! For example, after looking at the wealth of topics on Clapotis, I decided to make one in this Katia ribbon yarn I have. This is all well and good, except, I’m supposed to be making Knitpicks’ Candle Flame Shawl for The Amazing Lace knitalong, and, well, I haven’t started. Yarn’s not even wound, which in honesty, is probably why I haven’t started it.

I think I might also sit down and make the Booga Bag I bought yarn for back in February. I started it over spring break, but had to frog it (slippery metal needles + bumpy car ride = bad idea), and I want to finish it before I leave for CA because I don’t have a purse big enough to hold all my flight essentials, but there’s not so much stuff that I can justify taking a backpack. The flight essentials include: my iPod, my GBA, a small Sudoku puzzle book, a novel, my wallet, and a knitting project (probably the Candle Flame Shawl). I really wanted a plain black leather bag, rectangle-shaped, but I can’t find one anymore, so maybe I’ll just make my own damn bag to hold me over until I find one I like.

Urg. Back to work. :P