A long week

Well it has been a long week, but that's not necessarily bad. Last week was three day weekend, and I spent most of Monday relaxing and sleeping, which was great. Wednesday I got Amy and Jessica together and we Settled in the land called Catan. Since they have played very little previously, we decided to play two games, the first being more of a practice where I helped them place their settlements and gave advice.

Well, apparently I gave advice that was too good, because I got the beating of my life in that game. When Amy won the game, I had three points. I won't try to excuse my failing here, but for those of you who think Settlers doesn't involve luck, you're sorely mistaken. I had all sorts of luck in that game - it was just the bad kind.

The second game went better, and I redeemed myself, although perhaps the bitter taste of defeat fueled my quick victory. It also could have been that bedtime was looming and we had to finish quickly so that I could get home. Thursday Rachel and I hung out since nobody else showed up for HP group and enjoyed ourselves at Applebee's. Then on Friday I got to talk a half day off and head down to the OC with Rachel for our funfilled trip to Disneyland.

After meeting up with Susie and John, we headed somewhere to meet with her great uncle, and from there to a nice little restaurant by the bay (or at least I think it was a bay). After a nice meal and a huge piece of chocolate cake split by the six of us, we headed home to rest before the big day.

Bright and early Saturday morning, we headed to the Magic Kingdom for our fun filled adventures. I should explain - it was John's company's day at Disneyland or something like that, and since they have season tickets, passed along the company tickets to Rachel and her friend of choice (last year she took Chris, this year she was reduced to take me since he's out of town). But when we arrived, we discovered that the company had a goody bag for John, consisting of a hat, fan-spray-y thingy, M&M's, trail mix, and a nice little backpacking thing to carry it all in. Since I was the only one without a hat or bag, I got to carry the stuff, and had a fun day randomly spraying people while in line. We proceeded to get our first Fastpass to Space Mountain (well John did while we got in line for the Matterhorn) and our day was off to a running start.

We went on Space Mountain twice (it so happened that the line was about as long as the time remaining until our passes went active, so it was great). This was my first time on the new ride, and while I really enjoyed it, I don't think it was necessary to update the music. I especially enjoyed one of the opening moments when it really feels like the whole car is spinning due to moving lights. All in all, we went on Space Mountain three times, Astro Blasters and Big Thunder twice, and just about everything else once.

But the best part of the day was Fantasmic. We we pretty tired by about 9, and decided to eat and see if we could get good enough seats to see it during the first show. For those of you who don't know, Fantasmic is sort of a light show, sort of a live action show, and completely awesome. They project clips onto waterscreens in front of Tom Sawyer's Island, and it's great. Anyways, I had never seen it before, because most of my Disneylanding is done by the time 9 PM roles around (the trips with band and chorus in Jr. High) and the one time I could have seen it, my brothers opted to go on rides with shorter lines due to the many people watching the show.

It was great, a truely well made show, and I hope that whoever created got paid a lot of money. Of couse, it could help that I can easily slip into a 5-year-old's mind, so I could experience it that way. But still, great.

After this, Rachel and I headed to Rob's apartment for the evening, which he was kind enough to share with us. It was the first time I've seen his place since I helped him movie in, and it really hasn't changed that much. He still basically has most of it empty, with a mattress lying on the floor. In his defense, though, he does now have more appliances, and a nicely stocked bar and blender. I forsee more trips down there in my future.

Yesterday I got back just in time to play in my soccer game, although they really didn't need me and the field was a swamp (how one can manage to create a swamp in a Bakersfield summer is beyond me).

The thing about this weekend is - I didn't watch tv or get on a computer at all. From Friday afternoon until this morning when I arrived at work. I don't know if I should be proud of myself or dismayed.

And if you read this, you have way too much time on your hands. Get a job or something. Or go watch a movie. May I suggest To Have and Have Not, which I will be watching this evening? It's supposed to be a good one.