artykins

Well, it certainly it certainly is beginning to look a lot like Halloween around here.

Yes, hello!  I'm back.  We had a great time at Disneyland, thanks.  But I'll let you know more about that later.

Currently I'm at work.  I know.  Shame on me for using work time to blog.  You have to understand that I take a couple breaks during the day and this is one of them, which I'm choosing to use for blogging purposes.

The office is slowly getting decked out in Halloween goodies.  Yesterday afternoon I spent some time decorating Linda's desk with orange and black crepe paper streamers and some fake cobwebs.  Today, Debby was in during her break and she put up a ceiling thing.  I say 'thing' because I don't know what else to call it.  It's a strip of orange plastic with dancing skeletons on it and from that strip of plastic, many cut-out bats are hanging and swinging merrily in the wind by the door.

I've named one of them Archie.  Archie the bat.

I also put up some cobwebs around the door going back into the copy room and I put up a couple signs that look like road signs.  One says 'Low Flying Bats' (appropriate, no?) and the other says 'Haunting Ahead' and that one is near the boiler room.  Because the boiler room is a creepy place.  Even I don't like wandering back there when the lightbulb is burned out or I'm the only one here.

Still, I'm excited about Halloween.  I'm thinking about dressing up in a costume since I do work at a school.  Hopefully my mother still has her witch hat in the attic at the house.

Southern California was a blast.  An awesome, exhausting blast.  There wasn't a night when I was in bed before 1am, so needless to say I'm dragging a little this week.

It started out Wednesday evening, after I wrote the last blog.  I got a call from Uncle Benny telling me that there had been a death in Craig and Julia's family.  After asking about Craig and Julia, we then set to work deciding whether or not we wanted to still go.  Craig and Julia were our accommodations at Chez Ta-Tas, but with a death in the family, we didn't want to go through with plans if their family was going to be around.  Family trumps all else and we understood that.

So we set to work looking for a place to stay.  After a night of searching and a morning of phone calls, Uncle Benny informed me that Alfredo (who is now currently hob nobbing it up in Spain) was able to get us a room at a hotel for a couple nights on the house.  Alf travels so much that he collects hotel points and because of that and his extreme kindness, we were able to find a place for a couple nights.

So Wednesday night, we got the rental car, a candy apple red Toyota mini van with room to boot.  The only real complaint I have is that it doesn't have arm rests in the middle part of the car.  But that's beside the point.  It was a nice mini van.

Thursday was a day at work followed by the much anticipated departure.  Matt and I drove over to the house, shuffled our bags from one car to another, said our goodbyes and were on our way with the uncle and brothers in tow.

Uncle Benny drove the first leg through the Altamont Pass because it was rush hour and I didn't really love the idea of doing that part myself.  He drove into the Central Valley and we stopped for dinner, after which I took control of the beast (a.k.a. the mini van).  I drove to the bottom of the Grapevine and then Uncle Benny took over again.  We had agreed from the beginning that he would do the driving once we got into Los Angeles and the San Fernando Valley.

We got to the hotel late and were settled by about 1:30am.

Friday, we were up at 7:30 and slowly moving around.  One shower for five people takes some patience.  After we were all cleaned and dolled up (I'm speaking of my brothers when I say that last bit), we piled into the van and made our way to Knott's Berry Farm where we enjoyed breakfast at the Farmhouse (the restaurant on site, but one that I just call the Farmhouse because I never remember the actual name).  I had the world's best oatmeal...or so I thought until Sunday morning...and was also delighted to find that they brought out biscuits and chicken gravy on the house!

You really have no idea how excited I was for that.  It's kind of sad, but if you've had Knott's biscuits and chicken gravy, you join in my sadness at knowing how exciting it is to have those things in front of you on the table.

After we got seated, I cried at the table and Jeff and Jeremy both made a scene of how 'embarassed' they were, hiding behind their menus and making noise.  I cried because we used to go there all the time with my grandfather and I have very strong memories of him and that place.  But I got over it and I enjoyed my breakfast thoroughly...as did everyone else, although no one mustered enough courage to try the fried chicken breakfast.  I bet it's muy delicioso.

After breakfast, we all wandered around the gift shop, or in this case the series of gift shops, and I cried again.  This time it was in front of the moccasin display and yes, I agree that I lost all dignity then.  It was kind of great.  You should have been there.

With my crying done and some merchandise in hand (we got a couple boysenberry pies and a couple keychains to commemorate our visit), we piled into the car again and made our way to Disneyland.

Disneyland was a blast.  We rode many rides and the boys and I all had Dole whip related things.  It was uber yummy.  I wish Dole whips were avaiable at my behest...behest being a word I've never used before, but am pleased to use now.  I'm telling you, pineapple soft serve is the best thing on the planet and if I rule the world, my first supreme order will be to have pineapple soft serve flow like running water.

Of course, then I'd probably have a population suffering from Type II diabetes and possibly obesity...

So my second supreme command would be that everyone exercises rigorously and drink lots of water.  Problem solved.

Friday night we got freaking AWESOME seats for fireworks thanks to the awesomeness of one Justin from Fullerton.  He was a cast member that gave us seats front and center facing the castle.  Jeff and I scored those seats while everyone else was off riding Space Mountain.  And we scored big.

As if the seats weren't enough of a treat for us, Justin from Fullerton also gave us a pass afterwards with the number '6' written on it (there were six of us by that time because Chrissy had joined us before dinner) and told us it was good for fast pass status on any ride we wanted.  Even the rides that don't have fast pass options.  So the six of us, after thanking Justin from Fullerton profusely and singing his praises, all looked at one another and said, collectively, 'Indy!'

We then ran over to Adventureland and hopped on Indiana Jones, which we all loved.  It's such a great ride!

Needless to say, it was a long day and we got in after 1am that night as well.

Saturday morning, Alfredo met up with us for a late-ish breakfast, so we got to spend some time with him, which was really nice.  After that, we went to pick Chrissy up (who was staying with our cousin, Sara...and both girls were bridesmaids in my wedding) and went back to Disneyland.  We actually spent most of Saturday at DCA riding rides and wandering around, going through things like the 'tortilla' ride, which is a working Mission tortilla factory on site.

After a late lunch with Sara (she joined us about 2ish), we did a couple other things at DCA before going back to Disneyland for the night.  That night was fabulous.  Sara and I decided that we wanted ice cream for dinner, so we went to the Gibson Girl on Main Street and got some.  Of course, because of our late lunch, we had our ice cream about 9 o'clock that night after riding the Matterhorn, Thunder Mountain and watching Matt and Jeremy go crazy on the Teacups.

We ended the night with fireworks and some shopping along Main Street before saying goodbye to Sara and taking Chrissy back to Azusa (where she goes to school).  We crashed at Craig and Julia's place Saturday night because we wanted to see each other and their family things were done by then.  We got to their place about 1am and were amused by all the black lights that Craig had put throughout the house.

Shortly thereafter, Matt and I said our goodnights and passed out in bed until 10am the following morning.  It was great.  After hearing that Julia needed Craig somewhere for something, we threw our packing into high gear and said goodbye to Craig.  Breakfast was on the road at Corner Bakery, despite Jeff's protestations that he wanted to go to Islands for breakfast.

It was at Corner Bakery that I had the world's yummiest oatmeal.  I was having some serious food lust, but I was happy with my eggs and potatoes and something else that I can't remember right now.  Sunday is kind of a blur to me.

I spent the rest of the trip in and out of consciousness until we arrived at the house, where I showered, did some laundry fromt he vacation and partook heartily of my grandmother's and mother's green enchiladas.  Oh man, they were amazing.

And now you find me here...back at work, wishing it was Friday already for more than one reason.  Still, Friday should be partly fun.  It's a staff training day and we're getting a couple different seminars.  There are no kids that day, so we'll be good to go.  The only questionable figure there, I'm sure, will be Annie, the CPR doll.  I'm especially looking forward to seeing Linda take that one on.

And now, if you'll excuse me, I need to go grab something to eat so that I can, in turn, have my mid-afternoon slump in energy and then pep up again about ten minutes before I actually leave for the day.

- A