October 2006 Archives

It has been a whirlwind week and a half of birthday celebrations. Not like the good old days when it was just a big party with some friends, nowadays it is mainly a smallish group of friends and then a family affair - both taking me out to dinner. i did manage to go to two of my favorite restaurants - Miceli's and Outback so all is well. I also got some good staples from the family including a toaster oven. You know you are getting old when you get excited about receiving small electrics as a birthday present.

Mom and Gary sent cookies as well as a gift card to the Gap to replace my long-destroyed pair of pants - Yay! I also finally got a new wallet from Daniel. I still need to get a watch band for my watch but other than that it was a good year for presents. I already spent my Best Buy gift cards and purchased a Cruzer Mini 4GB flash drive. Retail: $169.99 after discount and gift cards it only cost me 47 bucks!

On Friday night, the gang got together and sang Happy Birthday to me and Leslie and we made pizza and watched movies. Tiffany couldn't be there because she had her baby on Monday via C-Section so she is recovering. Daniel and I made a mad dash to the hospital on Monday only to arrive as everyone was leaving and visiting hours were over. Tiffany's mom snuck us in for a quick peek and then we left. We decided to give her a bit of breathing room and wait awhile before we go out to Hemet to visit.

All in all a good week or so. Work has been going well as I like to say - "We are at a very interesting stage!"

I have never been to the Deep South save for a few trips to Walt Disney World. That will all change in November as I attend Mark and Jen's wedding in beautiful Mobile, Alabama the week before Thanksgiving. I guess it will be sort of a mini vacation for me since it will be the only travel I will get to do for the rest of the year save for the occasional trip to Arizona to see the relatives.

Being the Geography nerd that I am, one of the things I want to do is drive to Mississippi a mere 40 minute drive away. This will give me 28 US states visited and that much closer to the elusive 50 goal. If I was really bored or had an extra day, I might try and drive to Georgia. Given that it is at least 100 miles to the nearest border, I will just wait for a chance to visit properly at some other time. I had toyed with flying into Atlanta and then to Mobile - just to visit the state, but it was way cheaper to go via Dallas.

Mark was one of the last holdouts of my friends to get married. I am sure he will have kids at some point as well to join the ranks of my friends with kids. Now it is between me and Holmberg to see who gets hitched first. I think it is even odds for both of us.

This weekend was a rare conjunction. Most of my friends were out of town and I had the weekend off. This is the first time in over a year that I have not been on vacation and have had an entire weekend to myself. I decided last week that I should contact my friend Mandel and try and hang out. I met Mandel many years ago (I was still working at Edmunds so that is at least 5 years now) and we have kept in touch now and then. I see him at the park with his friends and he invites me to these crazy parties that he and his friends throw. I have great memories of the Weakest Link part as well as the Match Game party.

As it turns out, Mandel was attending a birthday party for some people he knows through the TV Show he produces - Reality Remix. While talking to him on the phone he asks me if I watch "The Amazing Race". I responded with my, "It's only the best show on television, of course I do." He asked if I had been watching awhile to which I responded - since Episode 1 Season 1. It turns out that he was attending a birthday party for Lynn of Lynn and Alex fame from TAR Season 7. (For those of you in a fog - this was the season that Rob and Amber from Survivor were competing on the Race)

I met up with Mandel and after some dinner and a few classic episodes of "Starcade" - you know you remember the TBS game show from the 80's - we headed out to West Hollywood. Thanks to some parking karma, we found a great spot right out in front of the place we needed to go. It turns out that a friend of Lynn and Alex was holding the party. I was a bit worried since I didn't know anyone other than Mandel and he reassured me he only knew Lynn and Alex and the lady hosting the party (sorry short term memory I can't remember her name). As we walked up, I was introduced to Lynn and Alex and they mentioned BJ was there. My mind raced and I remembered that he was Mandel's friend who won TAR 9.

At any rate I ended up talking with the racers who were all fun and very down to earth people. I am not sure what I expected, but I liked the fact that despite the fact these people were on my favorite show they were just normal people. The people you saw on the show really were them. As the night progressed there were some strange events that transpired:

1. Some old drag queen with one tooth sporting a Cher wig who kept talking to the dogs
2. A very tired looking stripper performing for the birthday boy (sorry Alex, I know he was third tier)
3. Lynn offered me a beer and I drank most of it (shocking since I hate beer, but love being polite)
4. Excellent Chocolate cake from Costco
5. Mandel liked the Sears portraits with the ghost profile of the subject above the main photo - he wants his myspace photo to look like that.
6. Karaoke!

All in all it is one of the better times I have had at a party - lots of good people and good food. I think when #35 rolls around next year I want something like this. Of course 34 is just around the corner and as far as I know I'm going to dinner with friends and family - equally good, but there is something about having a party that brings out the weirdness in some people.

I like the new Star Trek the Original Series more and more. A couple of shots in 'The Devil in the Dark' of the mining colony stuck out at me, but the space work on 'The Naked Time' really was seamless. I haven't watched this week's episode "The City on the Edge of Forever" yet, but again I presume it won't have too much in it. Thanks to the Star Trek.com web site, I now present the episodes and tentative air dates that excite me:

10-21-06 - Arena - somewhat appropriate since it's my birthday weekend and it's the Gorn episode. Will we finally get to see the Gorn ship? I just hope they don't put any of those CGI Gorns from Enterprise in the show.

11-25-06 - The Menagerie - I want to see how they re-edit the footage from The Cage

12-9-06 - The Corbomite Maneuver - What will Balok's ship look like?

1-20-07 - Where No Man Has Gone Before - Like the Cage and Menagerie, I want to see how they update an episode that is not like the other established episodes.

2-10-07 - The Doomsday Machine - I can't believe I have to wait 4 months to see one of my favorites.

3-31-07 - The Tholian Web - this one is for Mice

4-6-07 - The Immunity Syndrome - I want to see what the Amoeba will look like.

That is all for the 40 episodes they have posted. I guess some will have to wait more than a year until they are revealed.

Apologies for the lack of updates this month, but I am finally getting some time to sit down and write.

This past weekend, I celebrated my fifth anniversary at Disneyland. I remembered when I started that it was just a simple job to bring in some income while I looked for a better job or realized my dream of traveling for a living. As the months stretched on, I remember that I wanted to stay for the 50th Anniversary of the park. I don't know why, but I felt that it would be a truly memorable experience and I wanted to be a part of it. Sure enough it was something that I will look back at fondly, knowing I was in Town Square 50 years to the moment that Walt dedicated the park.

I also knew that if I made it to the 50th that I wanted to make it to my fifth anniversary so I could get my 5-Year pin. I am still waiting for that since it takes up to two months for them to come to my department. In terms of longevity with the company those were the only goals that I had and now that I am here I wonder where I will go next.

I have been privileged to do many things I never thought possible when I first hired into the company. I have helped open two attractions: The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh and Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters. I have also had the opportunity to be a trainer and a leader on other attractions in the resort.

As I begin my sixth year I am at a crossroads. I am putting Buzz behind me (not entirely since I am not moving areas) as I shift focus to the Lagoon and the new Nemo Subs attraction. Since May I have been working on the project and things are beginning to heat up as we prepare for the coming months ahead. What I like most about projects is that is something that is all encompassing and engrossing and above all else fun.

I have mentioned a few times about where the road goes from here so I won't bring it up again (Short Version: Lots of Choices, No Clue). What do I know for sure? Dive! Dive! Dive!