Sunday, March 16, 2014

Weekly Update: 3-16-14 Disneyland

I know the sights and symbols of Southern California pretty well by now: the palm trees, the ever-blooming flowers, the mission style houses, the sunshine.  But for some reason, when I walked into Disneyland, it felt like California intensified.  Everything just seemed brighter.

My cousin's fiance, Krystal, works in Disneyland and got us in for free.  We hit several good rides like Indiana Jones, Star Tours, and Big Thunder Mountain.  Technically, Big Thunder Mountain wasn't open to the public yet, but cast members and their guests got to preview the ride.  They'd cleaned it up and added more special effects.  It was fun.

But the funniest moment came on the Indiana Jones ride.  We were bumping around on our jalopy, avoiding snakes and bugs and lava.  Right at the climax of the ride, Indy hangs on a rope in front of a huge boulder.  We'd all been on the ride and knew the boulder was supposed to plummet toward us.

"Save us, Indy!" Krystal cried.

The ride came to a dead stop.

We waited as the seconds ticked by and the boulder stayed put.  The Indy animatronic doll continued to wriggle suggestively on the rope, its legs squeezed tight.

"I hope you don't need to go to the bathroom," Krystal said.

It was hilarious.

We had to go on Pirates of the Carribean and the Haunted Mansion.  I swear, everytime I go to Disneyland, I end up on those rides.  There's something about them that sparks my imagination.  We also went on the Jungle Cruise and the Buzz Lightyear shooting game and saw Mickey and the Magical Map and the Main Street Parade.

We dined at Cafe Orleans after the parade.  Being Disneyland, prices were outrageous, but Krystal's employee discount got us half off menu price, which bumped it back down to reasonable. I ate a triple cheese Monte Carlo sandwich.  It was like a savory beneign, fried and puffed up and crusted with powdered sugar.  It was so rich, I couldn't eat it all.  So I gave half to one of Krystal's friends and ate some of her blackened chicken and vegetables instead. 

* * *

Other than that, I've been attempting to write short stories this week, which is turning out to be pretty impossible because I can't write short.  For proof, look no further than my "Three Floating Coffins" story, which was originally supposed to be a simple fairy tale.  Today I officially reached the 50,000 word mark--200 pages--and I still have another 12 chapters to go!

I began trying to write a story of a plain girl given false beauty, a magic ring with spikes around the inner circle, and a talking raven.  My tentative title was "Counterfeit Diamond."  Unfortunately, after some 2,000 words, I realized I had a good excuse for the girl and raven to head off on many adventures together.  So I moved on to "The Sword in the Lake," an old story inspired by Lake Tahoe about a man who lost his son and a boy who lost his home struggling to fish the magic sword out of the lake.  That story had an ending, but it was longer--maybe 20 pages--and I couldn't finish it in the few days I had left.

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