Some of you can probably guess what this blog post is about, based on my recent Facebook statuses. Don't worry, this blog post has a happy ending. Just sit tight, we'll get through this together.
Last Thursday night my sister arrived in town for her long-awaited weekend trip. I'd been working an extra hour every day so I could take a half day on Friday and we had big plans. After hitting a bit of traffic, we arrived in plenty of time to pick Marci up and then we headed back to Provo. Drew had rehearsal for the stake play so we planned to pick up dinner on the way. Our original plan was Gandalfo's but as the time got later, we switched gears and went to In-n-Out instead. We loaded up on the burgers, milkshakes and fries and raced onward to get Drew to his rehearsal only an hour late. We arrived only to find out they didn't need him after all so we turned around and went home instead, where we feasted on our delicacies.
Some friends joined us for the Project Runway finale and a good time was had by all. Eventually we all went to bed, where I for one totally passed out. Fast forward to around 4:00. I woke up, thinking something fell on my head (nothing had). I tried to go back to sleep but was really uncomfortable and kind of sick to my stomach. I thought it was just Aunt Irma's doing, but a while later Drew woke up, also feeling sick.
Do you see where this is going? I'll tell you: the bathroom. The vomit fairy visited me first, then several more times before poor Drewbles managed to finally throw up. In between episodes we sat in the bathroom, laid in bed or fell asleep on a pile of clothes on the floor (that'd be me). As we like to say now, In-n-Out has a whole new meaning for us.
The short version of all of this is that we spent Friday lying on the couch, feeling gross. By the early afternoon we'd stopped throwing up but we couldn't do much else. Do you want to know how many times I threw up? Do you?? Nine. NINE TIMES. That's a personal record. Don't worry, I'll spare you the other details.
So, Friday was pretty much a bust. My sister felt kind of blah all day but luckily it didn't go beyond that. I say luckily because who else would have made us toast and gone to get us medicine? We passed the hours by watching movies, TV shows and falling asleep.
Saturday dawned and we felt better, though not quite up to speed. I mean that literally because we went off to do a 10K. Was it crazy? Well, what's crazier--doing a 10K after food poisoning or wasting $70? But luckily we all survived--Drew even placed! It was Marci's first 10K and she did great, coming in under an hour. I was *ahem* after an hour BUT I ran the whole thing, and no one else in our trio could say that. I'll take my bragging points where I can when it comes to running.
(Since it was a Halloween costume race, Drew dressed as a ninja.)
The rest of the weekend was spent by trying to cram in everything we wanted to do in the time we had left. We saw Three Musketeers (better than expected, though still flawed), ate Thai food, saw Captain America in the dollar theater, got shakes from the Purple Turtle, had friend time and occasionally felt queasy. I also made a cake--but that's a story for another blog post. Before we knew it, we were going up to the airport on Monday morning (at 5...gross), dropped Marci off and went back to workday routine.
And that, my friends, is the story of the weekend. It began very unpleasantly, but it turned out all right in the end. If we had gone for our original Gandalfo's plan, things would have been different. If we had known Drew didn't need to be at rehearsal, things would have been different. Maybe I've been seeing too much LOST lately, but it seems like it was meant to be. Fate can be a vomitous task master.
So, to pick up where I left off, during our big Florida trip we planned to spend a day at the Universal theme parks. I'd been there once before and even without Harry, I wanted to go for a day just to take Drew on Spider-man (long held as my favorite ride) and Jurassic Park. With the addition of Harry Potter land, there was no way we could pass Universal over. When the day arrived, the bus service picked us up at our resort (about a half hour later, mind) and off we went. It was a bit of a drive and everyone on the bus was a bit annoyed when we had to stop at Sea World to drop off TWO people, but in the end we arrived and we were gleeful and excited.
We could see Hogwarts from the park entrance, but, correctly assuming everyone would rush there and leave other areas deserted, we first went to Spider-man (and walked on). I loved that ride so much when I went before, and luckily it was just as much fun as I remember. We then went along to the Jurassic Park area, which is always awesome, and walked on to that ride as well. Unfortunately it wasn't *quite* as exciting as I remembered (I swear the t-rex used to move). BUT it was dinosaurs and stuff so I was hardly disappointed. I will add that it was also wetter than I remembered, which caused me some trouble with my bangs. They dried all flippy and weird. Exciting, right?
Anyway, our detour hardly took any time at all and soon we made our way to Harry Potter and it was just like a dream! Everything was so...REAL and right there. It was crowded, but honestly, I didn't even notice the crowds because it was exhilarating to be there. Seriously, there was nothing that disappointed. NOTHING.
The food: We ate lunch at the Three Broomsticks and for a bonus, our lunch was Cornish pasties and shepherds pie. It felt like being back in our beloved England. We tried both the regular and frozen butterbeer (regular wins), and naturally got the commemorative mug. We also bought a bottle of pumpkin juice that was DElicious (the juice, not the bottle). When we were in the Disney parks we were quite thrifty with our food. We refilled a water bottle the whole time and we brought a lot of snacks with us. But here? We were ready and willing to give them any amount of money necessary for such authentic fare, and the same went for souvenirs. Luckily the food was pretty reasonably priced, but really, I would have happily paid $20 for a cup of butterbeer. I mean, how often does the opportunity come along, right???
The rides: The family-friendly Buckbeak-themed coaster was fun. You go right by Hagrid's Hut and Buckbeak bows to you. The much wilder Dragon Challenge roller coaster is also fun. I went on it before, and really, not much has changed except the queue theming--which on its own makes the ride worth it. The real gem of the place though is the all new ride housed in the Hogwarts castle: Harry Potter and the Final Journey. No, that's just what I always THINK it's called--it's actually Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey. It's amazing and SO much fun. First, the line goes through the castle, which is a treat on its own, and you see classrooms, talking portraits (including the founders), the Fat Lady, the sorting hat, Dumblydore's office--so many things! The ride itself is an amazing concoction of characters, creatures and places and is also a mix of video, motion and actual creatures (I mean like things that are real that you could touch [if touching were allowed]. Is there another way to describe that?). Truth be told, my head was spinning a bit after but it's totally worth it.
The shops: There are bunch of very authentic shops to explore. You could spend hours just in the shops (we did) checking out all the goodies they have. You could also spend a LOT of money, very easily. We spent a tidy bundle ourselves, but again, how often do you get the opportunity?? They're very clever to sell a lot of things you never see anywhere else, which makes it seem all the more like you MUST buy it, haha. Naturally we both got wands at Ollivander's but we also got a set of playing cards, a magnet, a photo frame that looks like the mirror Erised and various other little goodies.
Okay, that's a lot of words. Time for pictures!
I would like to take this moment to say there was a total lack of anything BSG related! I made up for it by ding-ing the prologue music as we stood in front of the globe.
It's a pretty sweet entrance. What do they got in there, King Kong?
I'm happy to report that Drewbles liked this ride a lot too. So fun!
Hogsmeade! Do please note the shirts we bought in advance especially for this day.
Hogwarts!!!! Seriously, it was so exciting to look up throughout the day and see it there, looking down on us benevolently.
ANY AMOUNT OF MONEY.
Don't touch it! It's a portkey!
This makes me look like a huge Sirius fangirl, but really, I wanted to do this to pretty much everything. (Though also I just love Gary Oldman and this movie.)
Oh please take us to Hogwarts! Never mind, we can just walk there.
Little bitty Cornish pasties! Oh Harry Potter, you really are magical.
It just looks so real. I mean, it is real. But REALLY real.
Lemon drop!
ANY AMOUNT OF MONEY. (No, that second straw is not going up his nose.)
Drew tried on Voldemort's wand for size. 
I was a little taken with Sirius's (again with the Sirius, but I mean look at it!).
In the end, we had to go with Hermione's and Harry's. How could we do otherwise?
(When we go again, I might definitely have to get Sirius's.)
We tried on some robes at one of the Universal stores. Not only do they assume you will, an employee will even offer to take your picture with other goods! Nice.
Ah, beautiful.
I'll admit that I was a little sad to not be going back to Hogsmeade the next day. But going on Dinosaur first thing did lift my spirits.
We took hundreds of pictures at Hogsmeade, many of which I've posted on Facebook. If you would like to see them and don't have Facebook, I would be happy to email the link to any interested parties.
Until next time, Harry!
*is spooked out*
It was a long 68-day wait, but I finally went to Utah this past Friday the 13th to pay my man a visit. You know how they say anticipation is half the pleasure of a thing? Well, I think I would have enjoyed the trip just as much without all the time to anticipate it so take that, Anne Shirley.
Instead of just throwing random pictures and anecdotes at you lovely readers, I am giving you a handy top ten list. I may or may not have stolen this idea from my lovely man.
10: A Wedding! A Wedding!
We stopped in Salt Lake on the way back from Logan to check out my friend Jaime's wedding reception. It was delightful in many ways and included some very tasty eclairs. Speaking of eclairs, the father of the bride told a guy at our table that I made all the food. We thought this fellow knew it was a joke, but...somewhere there is a guy thinking I made every food item at that reception. 
9: Shamrock Shuffle!
Things started off with a bang in Logan where we did a chilly 5K. Silly me, I forgot to pack my running pants in my excitement over new running capris.* And yes, his Mum ran it too and she totally beat me. At least I was capable enough to beat his Grandma, but she's still way more hardcore than me. 
8: What the pho?We ate pho (or fawm, if you prefer) at the Saigon Noodle House. It was very tasty and noodle-ly. I tried eating it with chopsticks, but apparently I can only eat things like cupcakes with chopsticks. Drew showed off his chopstick skills and I used a fork, as you see here. 
7: School!
Technically we were at BYU together already, but it was more fun to do it knowingly. I hung out in the hall and fell asleep on the grass (hello, sunburn) while Drew was in class and then we made out on the grass like all those other BYU couples. OK, just kidding about the making out. Just replace "made out" with "ate bagels and read the newspaper."
6: Get LOST!
I have been hearing about this LOST club for months on end. They eat gummi bears and sticky rice and cookies! They have t-shirts and assigned characters! And finally I got to be there and it was just as good as I had been told. Gummi bears, red velvet cupcakes and yes, I got myself a shirt with my character name on it (Juliet).
5: A birthday! A birthday!
So far we have been apart for all the important dates (aside from New Year's) so it was nice of spring break to include his birthday on Monday. We may have missed Thanksgiving, Christmas and Valentine's, but dang it, we got a birthday. The celebrations included Hmong egg rolls, a delectable chocolate cake and my first outing of laser tag. I hit the birthday boy 10 times, which did wonders for my score. 4. Going forth!One of the best things about proximity is that you get to do things. Together. In the same place. I mean it was fun and all watching movies at the same time in different states, but this was much better. We went to many exciting places like Wal-Mart, the gym, Borders, Bajio and locations in general. Did I mention the Bean Museum? It was very exciting and we took a lot of pictures there (we had a goal of taking more pictures).
3: Various and sundry peoples!
I finally got to meet some of the people I have heard about (and corresponded with) for many months. Plus I got to get better acquainted with people I met only briefly in November. Unfortunately I have this problem where anytime I leave my primary base of operations I'm tired all the time and need 10 hours of sleep. I..did not ever get 10 hours but hopefully I wasn't *too* lifeless and dull. Anyway, it was great meeting more of Drew's friends and family and then shooting some of them at laser tag. Speaking of which, can I play the Wii?2: All manner of togetherness!OK, so maybe this one is kind of similar to #4, but it's totally more encompassing. Watching movies and TV, eating meals, driving about, taking walks, conversating...all of these things were great because we got to do them together for once. No webcams required. Even when I thought I was going to die of suffocation in the gym's steam room it was okay because I was trapped in there with my favorite and my best.
1: Other forms of togetherness!
Some things you really just can't do with a webcam. Like this:
Only ## days to go!*Except I totally did pack those pants as I discovered days later.
2008 is gone forever and there will never be another one, isn't that sad? I don't generally tend to be a fan of one year more than the other--they are all good for different reasons usually--but I did really enjoy 2008. 2007 was all right for the most part but 2008 had some really great things. Here a few of my favorite 2008 things/happening/stuffs (luckily 2008 included a new camera so I am not without a visual record of these lovely things):
- Adult Reader's Advisory. Still my favorite SLIS class...which maybe is not saying much, but it is my very very favorite!
- Sundry foods: Haagen-Dazs Fleur de Sel, Gatorade Rain lime flavor, oatmeal chocolate chip cookies (aka BCE), Inn-n-Out burgers, gummi coke bottles and probably some other stuff.
- Travels: Chicago, Washington, Utah (twice)
- Summer in Bloomington. Just in general.
- D'CALC! The best librarian apartment that ever existed.
I also did a number of new things, and they were all fun and exciting so I'm putting them in their own special section of specialness:
- Disneyland! Oh how do I love thee... In some ways I'm jealous that I never went as a kid, but I also wouldn't trade my maiden voyage for anything. I'm still hoping they'll have a librarian job at the Beast's Library in May...
- Las Vegas. OK, so I never actually got out of the car, but I saw the city from the ground and that is the closest I have ever been. Maybe next time I go down that way I can stop for the loo at Caesar's Palace.
- IKEA. What was my favorite part? Probably seeing those wooden drawing figures available in a variety of bright hues.
- I got to introduce the Boyfriend to my parents which was...not a big deal at all as it turns out.
Other runnerups (runners up?) for interesting events: turning down a co-worker (sorry, Nemesis), dying my hair red, nightswimming with a frog, the museum in Ohio, a crazy awesome first half of season 4 of Battlestar Galactica and some other stuff I can't remember. Anyway, 2009 is looking full of nice things as well. Since I like lists, let's look at a list of things I'm looking forward to, in rough chronological order:
- Spring.
- Spring Break! (Disclaimer: ! is not an accurate indicator of the level of excitement.)
- Graduation foreverty ever from school
- Moving to Utah, where I never planned to live again
- Disneyland! Again!
- Getting a job? Maybe? Making real money?
So I can start paying those loans back. - Spring Break! (Disclaimer: Multiple listings do not accurately indicate level of excitement.)
So until one of those things happens,
I will try in vain to enjoy winter and salivate over pictures of Disneyland. What, illustrious readers, are some things you look forward to in 2009?
As some of you know, I got a nifty new camera in April. In addition to being red and small, my camera also came with the nifty panorama feature. To sum up, it helps you take overlapping pictures and comes with a program that stitches them together. Neato, right?
I've used it a few times, starting in Logan, Utah, in May. We were staying on the side of the mountains so it, to say the least, a great view. Check it out!
The tricky thing about panoramas is that you want them to be big enough to see the details but the bigger it is the longer it is and the more you have to scroll. Which is maybe why I'm partial to the last of the Logan panoramas.
I tried to get a panorama of Disneyland from the hotel but it was night and it just didn't turn out. One more thing to try again when I go back! Anyway, so on that same trip I got a 360 degree of BYU on the south border. It's super long.
In more pedestrian panoramas, this is the luxury pond at my old apartment complex. Why I took a panorama of it, I couldn't say.
And finally, in August we went to the art museum in St. Louis, which is in Forest Park. And Forest Park is so lovely I had to take a picture of it. Look at all that lovely Missouri-ness! 
A few weeks ago I stumbled on this gorgeous nighttime panorama of Paris. Unfortunately I don't have the URL and I have no idea who did it, but luckily I saved a copy. So look at it and imagine a photographer and a website and say "Wow, imagined photographer, you got mad skills!" 
Wait a second...I'm supposed to be doing homework right now. My bad.
(Since it was a Halloween costume race, Drew dressed as a ninja.)
The rest of the weekend was spent by trying to cram in everything we wanted to do in the time we had left. We saw Three Musketeers (better than expected, though still flawed), ate Thai food, saw Captain America in the dollar theater, got shakes from the Purple Turtle, had friend time and occasionally felt queasy. I also made a cake--but that's a story for another blog post. Before we knew it, we were going up to the airport on Monday morning (at 5...gross), dropped Marci off and went back to workday routine.
