February 2003 Archives

I will not forget the events of the last few days. Its difficult to say which day was the one with the biggest impact, but if I had to pick one it would be February 26. It is actually difficult for me to put into words the range of emotions that I have experienced. I will say, that despite the pain, sadness, and tears that well beneath the surface, deep down inside I know that things will be better for everyone involved, and if anything, this is the beginning of another chapter waiting to be written. I do feel that I have neglected the site, but sometimes life takes precedence over virtual life.

The biggest change in my life is that for the first time in over 5 years, I will be living alone. I am scared and excited all at the same time. I'm glad I have had the experience of doing it before, so I know what I am in for on those long nights. Certain people's actions have also changed my opinion of them and in some cases made me realize my true feelings. Part of my 2003 To-Do list is to make sure that I am more open and honest about my feelings, so once feelings are realized, I have this new habit of telling people. I think I just need to work on my timing.

So in short, I will be moving out of my apartment of almost 3 years sometime in the next week or so, I just need to find a new place. I am looking in Orange County so I will cut my park commute time.

If February 26 was the day of shock and realization, February 27, was a day of mourning. You know you are on an emotional roller coaster when hearing "Deep in the Hundred Acre Wood" sap version in the queue music for the umpteenth time starts to make your eyes well up with tears. I remember listening to the radio in the car on the way in and hearing the about the death of Fred Rogers. Mr. Rogers was one of the few people who always told me that I am special and that there is only one me. I always wanted one of those cool trolleys around my house to go off to the Neighborhood of Make Believe. The PBS site has a good page of helpful information on how to tell children and explain his death. It certainly helped me to read it.

Thanks to all who have expressed their support and have helped out during this week, it means a lot, especially you mom.

Pooh craziness has abounded this week, especially when Daniel and I finally got to work together. However, the real fun was Saturday when I experienced my first stay awake for 24 hours day in a while. Here is my best effort to recap of the events of the day:

2/22 3:45am: Alarm first goes off, do my best to ignore.

2/22 4:00am: Finally amble out of bed.

2/22 4:19am: Getting ready to walk out the front door, I am forced to grab onto something as the earth shakes the entire apartment (m5.4 Big Bear Quake)

2/22 4:45am: Enjoying KFWBs coverage of quake, so far only minor mention on KNX

2/22 4:59am: Clock in at TDA

2/22 5:10am: Trainer shows up at Matterhorn relieving my doubts that I had somehow shown up on the wrong day

2/22 6:30am: Ride the elevator in the Matterhorn for the first time - cramped and takes as long to go 4 floors as the Stratosphere elevator takes to go 108.

2/22 8:30am: Pass my written KA for the Matterhorn

2/22 9:00am: Lunch! Well, breakfast really - Wiser Miser!

2/22 10:00am: Pass my PA, manager tells me its too bad I'm going to Pooh, they need me at Matterhorn.

2/22 10:15am: Same manager who pays me big compliment sends me to the Routes to finish off my shift instead of letting me go home early or work Matterhorn.

2/22 10:30am: At least I get to start at the Carrousel

2/22 11:30am: An hour of the tea cups make me feel queasy

2/22 1:20pm: The day is such a mess, I get bumped out of rotation to go home 10 minutes late.

2/22 1:55pm: Finally on the way home after making side trip to turn in ADOs for weekend to see mom, get to ride the TDA tram instead of walking through the entire park again.

2/22 3:00pm: Arrive home after a quick detour through the Golden Arches for a quick lunch

2/22 5:00pm: Arrive at Alex and Ricardo's to hang out with Roger and them for a bit before they head out to dinner, freeze up on the roof

2/22 7:30pm: Leave Alex and Ricardo's to head to Daniel's house

2/22 9:30pm: Mmmmm In-N-Out with Daniel

2/22 11:00pm: Mad TV is counting down the top videos, we miss most of the hour due to Daniel's brother having a tiff with his girlfriend

2/23 12:15am: After two and a half Smirnoff Ices, Simpson's Road Rage proves waay too amusing.

2/23 1:30am: Road trip to the Star Mart to get some more booze, good thing Tim is still sober

2/23 3:00am: Activating the mini-DAC buttons in double-dispatch mode almost sends Daniel to the floor in a convulsion of laughter

2/23 3:30am: Frisky the cat tries once again to get attention to be fed

2/23 4:30am: Realize it is really late and I should think about getting home - point reinforced by text message from Roger wondering if I'm still alive

2/23 5:15am: Finally leave Daniel's, pretty sure he passed out the moment we left

2/23 5:50am: Arrive home safely

2/23 8:30am: Finally go to sleep

It's weird when I think about how long we all just sat around together and talking and having fun. That's what makes friends special: sometimes you can yammer on and on about nothing and still have a good time doing it.

I'm still trying to get the gallery up and running for the Club House pics. I'm hoping Tuesday will provide some time in the morning. Looks like Feb 2003 is another short month for posts, but I think length wise these have been some of the longer ones.

A great time was had by all in the first ever Anti-Valentine's Day on the road in Las Vegas. Vegas veterans and newbies alike found something to enjoy from strolling through the casinos singing "Luck Be the Lady Tonight", riding the Star Trek Experience with Ensign Thomas, gazing over Southern Nevada from the top of the Stratosphere, and listening to the Pink Panther theme played on the Bellagio fountains. We also had a good time back at the Suncoast Hotel and Casino, our lodging for the weekend. The casino featured a bowling alley and a movie theater. We were going to do Cosmic Bowling, but instead went up on Sunday night where Susie and Wendy each won a game. I scored a respectable 126 in the second game, despite completing the first frame with a grand total of 1 pin.

I promise to post the pictures soon. I need to get a version of Gallery up and running in the Club House format and then post some other pictures I have been neglecting to post. I also seem to have misplaced my Smart Media reader for my desktop, but I am sure it is around here somewhere.

Back at the park, I finally was able to operate the new and improved Carrousel as well as ride on the Matterhorn. Both are improved and different experiences than before. I still prefer the old Carrousel, but I did get a thrill as my old spiels came back to me. I am still nervous about my early shift on Saturday for my update at the Matterhorn. I'm just going to take lots of notes and hope for the best. Meanwhile at the Pooh ride, they have announced April 11, 2003 as the official opening date. We began training the new leads this week, and I am sure the ride operators will come soon thereafter. It is weird having a lead around after spending a month and a half on our own.

More Pooh this week as A-V Day gears up for this weekend. On Wednesday, the folks from Walt Disney Imagineering working on the ride treated the operators, fellow imagineers and some of the maintenance folks to a dinner at TGI Fridays. It was nice to have a chance to chat and talk to folks outside work. The food was good and the drinks potent. We are also way ahead of schedule for the testing so it looks like next week will be a slow week trying to adjust doors and other misc. items.

I do have a Matterhorn training shift next Saturday. I am a bit nervous since my last shift there was way back in the first week of September and I feel that I have lost the groove that I was in when the ride went down for refurbishment. I have had a few Matterhorn nightmares (mainly about adding and removing sleds from some crazy spot up near the top of the lift - I think its Pooh track switch meets Matterhorn). It is still over a week away, so I hope my nerves settle down by then.

As mentioned before in this space, this year's Anti-Valentine's celebration is on the road in Las Vegas. (For a somewhat complete photo archive of A-V day check out the Club House.) Our parties have fluxed in numbers wildly over the past 12 years from massive house party to intimate gathering. This year's effort includes mainly the "core" group minus Alex and Mark. They both have valid excuses - Alex is getting married in May and just bought a house, and Mark wants to spend a quality weekend with his squeeze. they will be sorely missed, but I'm sure we'll have drinks in their honor somewhere on the strip. And if we are lucky, maybe even Charo will join in.

We were going to rent a minivan, hoping to create the hilarity of the 10th Annual A-V Day, but sadly, the rental agencies were all being stingy about their mileage allotments - something to do with a shortage of vehicles since there were so many accidents in the LA area due to our recent deluge. So instead, we are caravanning in the CR-V (It has over 19000 miles and it is the first major trip other than Santa Barbara) and in the Rivello Prius. Me thinks the Prius is going to get a wee bit better gas mileage. Having two cars in Vegas does give us some added flexibility so that we are not all tied to each other for the full weekend. A full report and pictures will be here sometime Monday night or Tuesday afternoon.

Friday, I sat down to do my taxes anticipating a nice refund to give me some breathing room in the finance area. Was I ever surprised that I owed money big time. Must be those crazy W2s and the odd jobs and success with SeaGranite Multimedia this past year. Oh well. I am still trying to figure out how even though I made considerably less that 2001, but owe almost as much as I got back last year.

On Saturday, I received my update training on the newly refurbished King Arthur Carrousel. It looks a million times better since the restoration, and the wheelchair bench is a nice addition. Some of the cool things we used to do on the old Carrousel can't be done (no more doubles), but they did add a cool "Band Cycle" for when the Disneyland band rides. That's right folks: four minutes of Carrousel. Since Daniel was over watching Logan's Run on Thursday, every time someone mentioned Carrousel, I kept thinking of the fact that I'm 30 and that at any moment I'm going to go flying up in the air and explode.

After training, Roger and I spent a nice day in the park taking in the new Aladdin stage spectacular at DCA's Hyperion theater. overall, I liked the show, but felt that the ending was undermined and rushed and that if they would have not added the extra musical number for Jasmine, it would have had enough time for it. The only other aspect I didn't care for was the actor who played Aladdin. Of course, I have high expectations since I loved the original movie, but I felt he was a bit lacking for the part. The Aladdin that performed in the wire scenes had a stronger stage presence and left us wondering if they switch off. Overall, it was a great musical experience and blows away any of the recent Fantasyland Theater shows. The rest of the day was spent admiring the new sound at Small World as well as wandering around the park.

Sunday, after my first eight hour R.O. shift in a month, I headed to the family celebration restaurant, North Woods, where we all gathered to toast my great uncle Bob. My paternal granny's brother lives in Ohio, and the last time he was out here, he was coaching the 1984 U.S. Olympic Wrestling team. It was kind of weird meeting him, especially since I see all of my other great aunts and uncles on a regular basis. As we left Granny's place I was struck with an odd sensation: It was nice to see Bob, and I wonder if our paths would cross again before either one of us dies. Not exactly an uplifting thought, but one I pondered all the way back home.

Today, I had a four hour "Teaching Disney Magic" class to help cement my standing as a trainer over at the Pooh-Choo Train. This kind of material is difficult to teach in a classroom environment, but with some role-playing and some Play-Doh, a good time was had by all.

Thanks to my auto-recording of my Charo wish list on the TiVo, I managed to catch a classic Charo appearance on the Wayne Brady Show. The usually fast-on-his-feet Brady was completely blown away by Charo. She talked circles around him, leaving him speechless. Charo also sang a cover of "The Ketchup Song" by Las Ketchup. She sings the song in her Bravo 2003 show, and personally, I prefer her version to the real deal. She puts more "passion" in it. repeat after me: "Aserej? ja de j? de jebe tu de jebere seibiunouva
Majavi an de bugui an de buididipi Aserej? ja de j? de jebe tu de jebere seibiunouva Majavi an de bugui an de buididipi". Yeah it doesn't make any sense to me either, but it doesn't matter when you see Charo perform it. If I can, I will try and digitize it and present the video or audio on the Charo site (anyone out there who can help??)

I caught a random episode of Celebrity Mole Hawaii the other night. I almost wish I would have watched the show from the beginning. Personally, I think Erik from Dinotopia is the Mole. I really only watched the first Mole, and then even only a chuck of episodes. I liked the fact that it was a reality show that took care of the contestants instead of making them eat bugs or sleep outside.

Mc Donald's recently introduced the 10 Nugget Value Meal. One wonders how many meetings were held at the McD HQ to determine just how many nuggets they should offer.

I was shocked when I wandered across CNN's web page Saturday morning. I was just expecting to see more of the same news: US getting ready to go to war with Iraq, The intense cold in the rest of the country, Tsi-tsi fly mating season beginning in Southern Africa. I didn't expect to see such a world shattering piece of news on a web site. I guess its my first notification of a disaster by web. Of course, I am talking about the breakup of the Shuttle Colombia over Texas and Louisiana.

Like most people around my age, I remember where I was when the Challenger exploded back in 1986. I still get sad when I think of that accident, and this accident just re-opened old wounds. Why do I mourn seven astronauts that I barely even knew. I knew the basics of the flight: a very rare all scientific flight, good ol' Colombia, the second shuttle and the first one to orbit the earth, and that at 16 days, it seemed like an awfully long time to be up in space.

But why do I mourn this group of people? I think because they are very similar to the firefighters and policeman who ran up into a burning crumbling building on September 11, 2001 and those passengers on United 93 who told some terrorists what to go do with themselves and sacrificed their lives to save others. These astronauts: Rick D. Husband, William C. McCool, Michael P. Anderson, David M. Brown, Kalpana Chawla, Laurel Clark, and Ilan Ramon were doing something that most of us only dream about doing. They were visiting the stars and expanding our knowledge of the universe. They transcended earth-as-normal and worked for all of us. They helped us believe that no matter what sort of zaniness goes on in the world, that somehow it is all insignificant, and maybe, just maybe things will turn out all right.

I certainly hope that the investigators will be able to figure out soon what exactly happened, and that it doesn't take us years to recover. Part of me hopes that it will spur innovation and maybe new types of shuttles. Another part of me worries about those guys up on the International Space Station whose ride has just broken down and they don't know when the next taxi home is. Deep down though I feel that things will be all right.

Some useful links:
CNN's Shuttle Coverage
Nixlog's Columbia coverage including Infographics links