Disneyland. Allergies. Sisters. Pizza. Kings fans. Too much luggage. Exhaustion

Just a few of the topics I hope to cover in this much belated blog. First off, allow me to say that I am sorry I haven’t posted lately; it’s been pretty busy. Second let me tell you that the last three days have lasted a LIFETIME. Which is good, cuz I’ve been having fun, LOADS of fun, but it seems that it has been a week since I left Irwin on Thursday afternoon!!! And thirdly, I am exhausted, I have no idea if any of this makes sense, or if anyone’s interested or what. So if you care, that’s nice, if you don’t whatever. But this might have lots of typos and plenty of nonsense, if fact, I’m sure about the nonsense part.

To share my weekend in brief with you, we start with Thursday. There were no classes on Friday or Monday, because of Columbus Day. But Dr. Rose, for some unknown; completely unreasonable; ridiculous reason, decided that his English 1220 class had to go see Twelfth Night in Ashland: which means not only having to pay for the ticket, gas, and food, but leaving Redding around 5, the play starts at 8, gets over at 11, finally making it back to Redding around 2 am. Now, on a normal Thursday that would mean that I’d be really tired on Friday, which I am anyway, so what’s new? But nope. Being the psychotic individual that I am, just having the play one weekend was not enough! My sister Jocelyn decided that this year for her birthday she wanted to go to Disneyland. And guess who she picked to go with her?!?!? ME!!!!!!!! And the weekend that we chose to go was Columbus Day weekend. And then Dr. Rose assigned that stupid, uh, time and money consuming play. So what I did this weekend, was go to Ashland Thursday night and get home at 2 am, get up at 7:20 on Friday, drive to Sacramento, fly to Anaheim, go to Disneyland and California Adventure for Friday night, Saturday and Sunday. Get up Monday morning, fly to Sac, drive home to Biggs, do some laundry (the folks don’t charge for it!!!) and then drive to Redding: which is what I’m doing right now, although when you read this I will hopefully already be asleep. (I love my laptop!!!! His name is Jimmy – don’t ask me why, it just is.)

So, I’m extremely exhausted, but I had LOTS of fun!!!!! To break it down a little, but I must warn you, this is very detailed, so well….just deal, my blog: I’ll post what I want. If you are not interested in a play by play, go to or wait for the next post, if you are, take a deep breath and (for those of you who have heard me speak) imagine me saying all of this…. (And don’t hurt yourself laughing at me! I might feel bad….nope, I wouldn’t.)

Thursday Teddy Jo drove Stacy, Sarah (Volleyball girls) and me to Ashland. I sat up in the second level almost right next to Elise (Lives across the hall from me). The play was really cool. Interesting of course to see the way this particular set of actors and actresses personifies Shakespeare’s characters. And the staging, music, and costumes were very amusing. We got home just before 2 am, and Teddy dropped me off at Jocelyn’s. We talked for a little while, got started getting ready to go the next morning, and went to bed.

Friday (this one’s gonna be long!) – We got up and left before 9. We stopped at Win Co for bagels and gum (a must have for any flight and/or Disneyland Trip) and then hit the road. We made it to the Sacramento Metropolitan Airport (it’s actually SMF, but we don’t know what the F stands for.) around 11:30. We parked on the back 40 in economy parking, caught the shuttle to the terminal, and checked in. Ate lunch (Chinese, it was REALLY good!!!!), and boarded the plane: half and hour late. Then we waited on the run way for a while, and then FINALLY took off. Landed approx forty minutes late, and then…..and then there was the shuttle. Oh the shuttle. We got on the shuttle. An hour and a half later we got off the shuttle. It was a thirty mile drive. You do the math, and no, it wasn’t cuz the driver was driving slowly. It was because, first: he drove around the airport twice (this is LAX, it is not a small place), TWO TIMES mind you, trying to find ONE passenger – so not worth it. And then we got on our way, only the driver didn’t know where he was going – and so it took forever. Thankfully, I got a nap, but really – an hour and a half to go thirty miles is REALLY bad. So then we got to the hotel. And my Grandparents were there waiting. They live in Pomona, and we had called them to join us for dinner because we hadn’t seen them since graduation (good times, good times). So they were there waiting for us when we got there; and then we checked in and went to our room – which was no castle. The pictures on the internet were LIES. And then we went to dinner with the Grandparents; which was an adventure (but the steak was REALLY good!!!). And then they dropped us off at the main gate and the real adventure began. Friday night once we got into the park we started with FANTASMIC. And for those of you who don’t know; FANTASMIC is my absolute, most definite, without a doubt, unquestionable, pure, unmovable, implacable irreplaceable favorite of all time. I really like it. I whole lot. We got pretty good seats, or stands as Jocelyn says because we didn’t actually sit, we stood. AND I recorded some of it on my phone!!!! Now I have a FANTASMIC ring tone!! After FANTASMIC we watched the fireworks show that was above Cinderella’s Castle from the lake just in front of New Orleans Square, (very pretty!) We rode Pirates of the Caribbean, and then we headed to Indiana Jones. Indiana Jones is my favorite ride at Disneyland, and it’s got really great music!!! Then we rode the Matterhorn. Jocelyn had been on it before, but every time I’d gone it was shut down. So it was my first time, and I loved it!!!

Then we walked back to the hotel, with a little difficulty and some scrapes and bruises, we made it. And went to sleep, ah blessed sleep. On Saturday, we got up and headed across the street to the Howard Johnson to catch the Anaheim Resort Transit. We got on the bus (Interesting Fact (not my opinion, at all, a fact, I’m just sharing information): There is a shortage of Bus drivers in the LA area because Arnold passed a law that pulls the bus licenses of any bus driver who gets three tickets – even in their personal vehicle. So the bus drivers are not very happy with Arnold at the moment.) The point of that being that that bus was doing two routes, so every time we got on a bus for the rest of the weekend; it took longer than it should have. Ok, back to Saturday. We got to the park and went into California Adventure, and shopped. The BEST thing we got ALL weekend (in my opinion) was Mr. Potato Head. And this wasn’t just any Mr. Potato Head – we got to pick ALL the accessories we wanted, as long as they fit in a special box, for one price. It was SOOO fun!!! I’ll set mine up soon and take pictures and post them!!! Then we had lunch, watched the Muppet 3D thing, (I must say, I was not too impressed with that); rode Tower of Terror, LOVED IT, (haven’t been so scared on a ride in ages) and then we went on Soarin’ Over California. Again, fun stuff!!!! Smells of the sea, the desert, and the orange groves – very cool. The one thing I wish though is that they had a segment on Shasta Dam, how cool it would have been to be able to see it on a Disneyland ride!! After Soarin’ we walked the Paradise Pier, rode the Maliboomer twice, and then the Orange Stinger. We watched It’s Tough To Be A Bug, and headed to Downtown Disney. In Downtown we sat, a lot; walked through the stores, got Dad a shirt that says ‘Old Guys Rule’ and a candle to make our room not stink. Then we went back to California Adventure and road Soarin’ again. Then it was off to Disneyland!! We ate (Bengal BBQ – meat on skewers, LOVED it). We got good seats for the fireworks that night, so I recorded on my camera while Joce took pictures on hers. Then we hit Star Tours, Honey I Shrunk the Audience, and the Monorail before heading back to the hotel.

Sunday we went to the Rainforest Café for lunch, and then rode the monorail into Disneyland to start our final day in the Happiest Place on Earth. We did kiddy rides today: Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride, King Arthur’s Carousel, Pinocchio’s Daring Journey, the Tea Cups, Alice in Wonderland, and It’s a Small World. Then we walked through Toon Town and Frontier land, finished up the shopping and got pretty good seats for the parade. After that we rode Indiana Jones again (I told you I really like that ride) and Pirates (that’s Jocelyn’s favorite) and then we got on the Storybook Land Canal Boats just as the fireworks started. So the driver lady stopped the boat and we sat and watched the fireworks on either side. The best part was that this lady had seen this show over 100 times, literally, so she knew every word and every cue for the fireworks. After the fireworks we finished up the ride, and then we rode Space Mountain (I like that one too J ) and then Indiana again, and then we rode Splash Mountain. By this time is like 11 o’clock, but we hadn’t ridden it yet, and it’s just kind of a must at Disneyland.

Monday. Today has seemed to last FOREVER. I got up just before 8, Grandpa was supposed to pick us up at 9, but he showed up at 8:25, so we rushed to get ready, and got out the door at five after nine. We made it to the airport safe and sound, checked in, and waited for an hour and a half. We got on the plane, took off (that is what naturally follows boarding). We watched part of pirates of the Caribbean on the way, and once we landed, another Adventure began. We got some lunch (steak quesadillas – WONDERFUL!) and then got our bags, and then we headed out to the car. The problem was, (here’ the adventure part of today.) we couldn’t find it. It was hiding. But SMF has this really cool thing were you can call this number on a courtesy phone, and give them even just part of your license plate number, and they’ll tell you exactly where your car is; so that saved us. We finally got to the car, got it loaded, and then we couldn’t find the parking ticket. We made it to the check out (for lack of a better term), were (PRAISE GOD) not charged for the lost ticket, and started home. We got into Biggs around 3:20, and unloaded most of the stuff that was in the car (I had brought stuff from my dorm to leave at home, and of course my laundry). We passed out presents to my nieces (fun hats) and my parents (Mom – giraffe stuff, what else. And Dad – a shirt (Old Guys Rule!!!), Disneyland’s Official CD, and a soda sleeve with the Disney 50^th sign on it.) I did my laundry, and packed my immense amount of stuff and got it all in the car, and headed out. Only not really cuz we stopped in Oroville (food) and Chico (more food) and Corning (gas) and now were only a mile outside of Red Bluff!!! Of course I started this after getting food in Oroville, and have been diligently typing (making SEVERAL mistakes (hurray for backspace) – Mom, mean secretary lady, if you see any typos, I don’t care, I’m tired.) ever since. And let me tell you, we are really tired. The slightest thing makes me and Jocelyn just fall to pieces. Good times good times. (And as she watches me type this, she says “Help! Help! I’m in pieces!!!”) And I have to confess, by the time this is done, I will not have worked on it just from Oroville to Red Bluff.

One because my batteries dying, and two because I skipped whole portions because we couldn’t remember, so when I get home, I’ll fill those in, and it will all make sense. Well, hopefully it will all make sense. And if it doesn’t, that’s just too bad, because I’m so tired now I can barely think. So I’m going to go, and when I get back to Redding, I’ll finish this, and then I’ll post it. And considering that it’s two and a half pages not finished, it’ll be the longest blog post in the history of ever. Oh, and for those of you who asked for updates, consider this it. Unless you want me to copy and paste it in an email to you, which I suppose I could do.

So all of that, well, the last paragraph, was written in the car just before I shut Jimmy off. Since then, I have unpacked all of my stuff, made my bed (I took my sheets home to wash them) put EVERYTHING away, and I think finally settled down. So now I’m going to go to bed - but before I do, I realize I forgot to cover some of the things mentioned above. Disneyland is obviously taken care of; I’ve been really bad about taking my allergy pills lately, and I’m started to pay for it; my Sister is AWESOME and I love her!!!! In Oroville on the way to Redding tonight, we stopped and I got a pizza from Pizza Hut, so pizza for me!!!! The Kings Fans thing was because I saw someone with a sticker, and the luggage thing – not only in trying to find the car this afternoon, but in getting all my stuff back into my room!!! Now, I’m really going to bed because I’m tired, and I have an 8:30 class tomorrow, and it’s 10:53. and I’m tired.

Love you all – yes, that means you.

Natasha

P.S. With any luck the next blog will be PICTURES!!!!!!!!!!!
P.P.S. I think this is the longest post in the history of forever!