1. Clint (I don't know his last name). I call him Dr. Mike. He gets his name because of a series of events. He was the last person to pick up of the 8 of us who went. We found out that he is getting/maybe already received his PhD. So, we called him Dr. Clint, which sounded very similar to the well-beloved Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman. Well, during the trip I accidentally called him Dr. Mike (the nick-name of Dr. Quinn) and it just stuck for me.
2. Paul. Everyone loves Paul. You can't no like Paul.
3. Eric. We like to call him Erk. We found out that he is very smooth with the ladies and that when it comes to cruise control, he has never used it.
4. Lindsay. Who doesn't love Lindsay? We stayed at her home, ate her food, and while the rest of us stressed and , she just smile and said, "don't worry about it."
5. Bill. Really it is Billy, but he goes by Bill and I call him Uncle Bill. Uncle Bill is what we refer to as a "2nd year." Most of us who went on the trip are in our first year of the MPA program at BYU (obviously excluding Dr. Mike). Billy is a 2nd year and speaking with them is practically unheard of.
6. Amy. I like to call her Aims. Jarilyn likes to call her "Brennan!" which will be explained later.
7. Jarilyn. Jar Jar, Jare Bear, etc. This girl can drive through any storm in any kind of conditions with her eyes closed.
8. Me. I'm still pathetically skinny. I laugh a lot, but don't contribute as highly when it comes to quick wit and amazing quotes (again, we will deal with this later).
Are you kind of getting the picture? I would explain all of the intricate details of love on the trip, but it would take far too long. I need to get to the important stuff.
Chapter 1: And it begins
On Thursday, Jarilyn, Amy, and I are all sitting in our non-profit finance class. I am across the room, but can tell that Jarilyn and Amy have decided to leave the class early. We communicate via g-chat and with 15 minutes left to go in the class, we all promptly stand up and walk out of class. Not only are we dancing down the hallway because we are headed the happiest place on earth, but Amy is yelling for all to hear, "We are free! We're going to Disneyland!"
Chapter 2: The Big Storm
As it turns out, we started a bit late on our journey, (mostly Paul and Erk's fault). It happened that Eric drove with Paul, Lindsay, and Clint in their car and Jarilyn drove with Billy, Amy, and I in hers. Despite a sporatic and anti-cruise control Eric, we made it fine until we hit Beaver. Just before Beaver, Bill and I witnessed a roll-over. To make a long story short, we had to take a detour around Beaver, through Minersville, UT, and an hour later made it to Cedar City. The snow was miserable and there were several accidents along the way. Jarilyn drove like a champ. The rest of the drive was shared between Jar and I as we made it into Cali by like 2:30 in the morning.
Chapter 3: DISNEYLAND
The next morning was Disneyland. Of course, I was acting like a 9 year old. We parched in the Timon parking lot amidst the belting voice of Josh Groban. The rest of the day was utter magic. I think that some picture will best describe our experience.
This is a picture of us at City Hall in Disneyland. Seeing as we are good MPA students, we felt like this is the first place that we should visit!
Snow White really did sing back to us at the wishing well! My wish DID NOT come true...Chapter 4: The Downpour
So, the day was beautiful. Before we had even gone to Disneyland, Bill and I had been debating about whether or not to wear shorts or pants. As we were about to load the car, Bill came out of the bathroom in his shorts, looked at me with an expression of excitement and exclaimed, "Raymon! Shorts!" I promptly changed into shorts. Luckily for us, the poured most of the day at Disneyland and shorts ended up not being as cold as long jeans.
Just in case you are thinking that the rain made us miserable, I am attaching some photos of us in Tarzan's tree hut in the middle of the hurricane itself. Not only did the rain make us happier, but we ran/skipped from ride to ride and found our moment of greatest happiness in Tarzan's very tree hut!
Take a close look and guess who is the happiest in this picture! Look closer. Yup, Lindsay. Far in the back, her excitement definitely outshines us all...
When we reached the pinnacle of the hut, we all solemnly meditated on the meaning of life. Can anyone describe what emotion I am feeling? Whatever it is, it is profound and very emotionally charged. The rest of the day was perfection. Let me give you some more of the highlights. I happened to be sitting next to Amy on the animal safari ride. It was pouring rain still and all of the rain happened to be falling off the canopy right over Amy's head. So, being extremely intelligent, either she or Jarilyn told me to push the canopy to knock the the collected rainwater overboard. I tried and it dumped water over all of us.
Also, Amy and I were riding Thunder Mountain and Amy was trying to make Jarilyn jealous. So, in the middle of the ride, Amy and I were facing each other and pretending to flirt in front of Jar Jar. Of course, the train veers suddently to the side and the next thing I know, I have Amy across my lap. An accident? I think not.
The entire group was kind enough to let Lindsay take Amy and I on a quick trip to California Adventure (we only had three park-hopper passes). We ran the entire time and had an incredible time. My goal on the trip was to ride on the Tower of Terror. As we boarded the ride, we were assigned a seat in the back of the elevator. I sat in between Linds and Aims. As a joke, we were all holding hands. That is when the conductor of the ride boarded to give us some last minute advice. She looked around and asked if anyone was riding for the first time. She took one look and me and said, "Oh, there is a first timer!" I realized that I was still holding their hands. Well, this lady went on to make fun of me in front of the entire group. All of the 14 year olds in the group were definitely laughing about the wimp in the back. So, I was crying because I was laughing so hard and the ride was so much fun that all three of us just continued to laugh and cry the whole time. The conductor was nice enough to ask me if I was ok afterwards. :)
Other incredible moments included Bill constantly carrying around a banana peel and dropping it in front of people and then Bill connected one of the line chains to Lindsay's jacket. She walked and talked to us for a couple minutes with a chain attached to her jacket. Even better than the entire line of people laughing with us was Lindsay's confused face when she realized that she had a chain attached to her.
A million other amazing things happened over the course of the trip, but to spare you the details I will just end with the best quotes of the trip:
"Raymon!? SHORTS!!!" (Billy)
"You're kind of the on the awkward side." (Jar to Billy)
"Westminister Ave.? Why all these Utah names?" (Amy)
"You all just go hom eand Lindsay and I will have dinner with her parents." (Dr. Mike)
"Where are you?" (LoJo responding to the fact that we are lost) My response, "El Pollo Loco!"
"Brennan!" (Jar with a Scottish accent)
"What the Billy!?" (Jar Jar)
"Raymon?! PANTS!!!" (Bill)
"Where are we going?" Billy asks Jarilyn. "to bright our lights in their front door." Jarilyn responds.
"Yeah, I think it's just strawberries though." (Amy in regards to the sour milk that she and Raymon were drinking)
"Pollyanna!" (Raymon with the voice of the annoying boy in the movie)
"I'm adopted. We're going to make prizms for the rest of our lives." (Raymon)
The annoying boy in Swiss Family Robinson is talking and Raymon says, "I hate him."
"True or False, you didn't see that semi?" (Billy)
"True of Fale, your mom dropped you off to come on this trip?" (Raymon said to Billy)
There was a running joke about Jar and I adopting Amy and this quote goes along with it. "You were adopted," Billy said. Amy responds with "Offish?" (the shortened form of 'official?'). I responded with, "Yes, we finished the paperwork last night while you were sleeping...for the 3rd time." Jarilyn yelled, "QUOTE!"
5 comments:
I know it's a good post when my stomach hurts after reading it.
btw, I talked to my mom about the thursday lunch idea and her only request is that I make her a peanut butter and honey sandwich.
oh, and in case you didn't get the email, the MPAA has got me down for a medley talent of some sort. I'm hoping you are going to join in.
haha. I'm glad you enjoyed. Thursday it is! If you are dancing Bill, I will just have to join you.
Aww, the magic of disneyland
dying. this post is HILAR!!! Glad you had so much fun at the happiest place on earth :)
Okay, so when my car-mates said that I drove the whole way, they meant that I was the only driver for the whole way—not that I didn't use cruise control. I♥Cruise Control! I used it for most of the time... except for those white out conditions, and the times that we were floating on the icy road.
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