Disneyland Annual Passholder Fantasmic 20th Anniversary event - May 14, 2012

In honor of the 20th anniversary of the debut of Fantasmic, Disneyland announced plans to host 4 nights of special showings for annual passholders, on May 14, 15, 21 and 22.  These sounded similar to the Soundsational nights that had been held last summer, which we really enjoyed.

I arrived around 4:30pm on May 14 and looked around to see what the evening would entail.  I was able to obtain a copy of the program which included a lot of details.

Click on the picture for a larger version.

As indicated on the front of the handout, the special merchandise was available at Pioneer Mercantile (at the front of Frontierland, next to the restrooms between Adventureland and Frontierland) and at Port Royale (in New Orleans Square, in what was formerly Le Bat en Rouge).  Both locations had the same merchandise, a t-shirt and a zippered fleece with a hood.  Port Royale also had the soundtrack for Fantasmic, but I believe it was the same CD that has been available.  The items are behind the counter, so you need to ask a cast member for what you want.

The pricing for the anniversary apparel.

The logo on the front of the t-shirt is the same as the logo on the back of the zippered fleece.

T-shirt on display with stack of zippered fleece to the right.

The zippered fleece is not very thick but is a lighter fleece.  With the main logo on the back, the front top left has a smaller logo on it.

Both the t-shirt and the zippered fleece have the anniversary date on the sleeve.

I was really happy to see this date on the apparel.

The back of the event program gave details about where the party was situated and what treats would be available for the event.

Click on the picture for a larger version.

As stated on the program, only Adventureland, Frontierland and New Orleans Square would be open for the event.

French Market in New Orleans Square had several items specific to the event.

French Dip Sandwich with N'Orleans Chips at  French Market for $12.99.

The French Dip is what I ended up having for dinner, and I really liked it.  The bread was a nice firmness, not too hard and not too soft.  The meat was nicely cooked and had good flavor.  Rather than dipping the sandwich, I instead used a spoon to drizzle the au jus on each part of the sandwich as I ate it, so it didn't get too soggy, and the flavor of the au jus was delicious.  Instead of the chips, I was able to substitute cooked mixed vegetables instead.  With the meat and bread of the sandwich, having the vegetables and the grapes nicely rounded out the meal.

Popcorn Shrimp Basket with Slaw at French Market for $12.99.

The popcorn shrimp looked ok, but since I'd just had quite a bit of really good shrimp the day before, I had decided to have the French Dip instead.

Fantasmic cupcake available at French Market and River Belle Terrace.

The Mickey picture, the dragon and the ball are all edible.  Some of the cupcakes we saw on display were missing the dragon, and we joked that it was themed for the nights when the dragon is being temperamental and decides not to make an appearance.  I don't know what flavor the cupcake or frosting is.

River Belle Terrace had a few items we considered for dinner as well.

Open Face New York Steak Sandwich at River Belle Terrace.

An Open Face Turkey Sandwich is available as well.


The two table-service restaurants also had special items on their menus.

Special items at Cafe Orleans.

Special items at Blue Bayou.

The program also indicated that a souvenir popcorn bucket was available at the popcorn carts in Frontierland and New Orleans Square.  I had run into some friends, so we decided to go check out the popcorn bucket, which unfortunately was very disappointing to us.  The bucket said "Disney Parks" instead of Disneyland, which I don't much like but have gotten used to because it means Disney intends to sell that merchandise at both the Disneyland Resort and the Walt Disney World Resort.  What we found really odd, though, was that not only was there no reference to the 20th anniversary, Fantasmic itself wasn't even identified on the bucket.  It had Sorcerer Mickey fighting Maleficent the dragon, but the scene makes it look like they're on a theatre stage, with a few of the Fab Five characters sitting in cushioned individual theatre seats watching, as Ursula, Jafar, Scar and one or two other villains look on from Maleficent's side.  Neither the California nor Florida version of the show are performed in an inside theatre, so the choice of that setting was really odd.  I also wasn't happy that they chose to include villains like Jafar and Scar, who appear in the Disney's Hollywood Studios version of the show, but not Disneyland's version.  So we're celebrating the 20th anniversary of the show at Disneyland, which originated in Disneyland, but there is no reference to either the anniversary or the show name itself on the bucket, and they're more referencing the Orlando version of the show?  That just seems wrong.  A few of us had considered getting the popcorn bucket, but not once we saw the design they chose to use on it.


And while I'm on a rant, here's a note to the Disney folk on another topic.

 
Your program indicates that a premium chili cheese dog and the bacon mac-n-cheese dog are available at "Harbor Gallery".  You might want to know that the *actual* name of the dining location near Haunted Mansion is Harbor Galley.  I'm not generally bothered by guests who don't know the real names of restaurants, shops or attractions.  (If a random guest asks me if I know where the "haunted house" is, I just point them towards the Haunted Mansion without chastising them for not knowing its proper name since I know not everyone is as familiar with the park as some of us are.)  But I would think that an official publication from the park itself would properly indicate the names of its locations.


By the time I was done perusing everything, it was about 7pm, and the rest of my party were arriving at Disneyland, so we went to check in.  The person who has the voucher needs to check in at one of the ticket booths, and all of the guests also need to present their APs.  You then get a "receipt" that you present to one of the cast members standing next to the ticket booths, who then put a wristband on each person, and you can get your program from them as well.  Now in possession of our magic wristbands, we went back into the park and headed to dinner.


After dinner, the husband and I bid farewell to our friends and headed to Fantasyland.  We had a rather interesting and enjoyable ride on Storybook, and then we ended up chatting with a cast member at the nearby chalet kiosk.  By the time we were done, the park was officially closed since it was just after 10pm.  We headed back through Fantasyland to make our way to the Rivers of America, but we discovered that the big gate that leads from Fantasyland to Big Thunder Trail was closed.  We figured that was an easier way to help sweep the park of non-event guests since it was now a dead-end.

We then headed back towards the hub and then towards the Frontierland entrance, which was blocked off by cast members who allowed through people with wristbands.  We made our way in and made a stop at the restroom, and a cast member was stationed at the door to check wristbands as well.  I heard some women inside complaining about having to have a wristband to use the restroom, and I just metaphorically shook my head at their being so non-understanding.  There were other restrooms in the park that non-event guests could still use - it was just THIS restroom that they were monitoring, because it was inside the closed-off event zone.

We headed to the Rivers of America, which hadn't been all that crowded when we'd left French Market but which was now quite full.  We walked around for a bit and then found a little bit of space in the back of a section right in front of Cafe Orleans.  I'm used to not having a particularly good view of Fantasmic since I can't see over many people, made worse when people insist on placing children on their shoulders, turning them into 7 foot giants and making it impossible to see for those unlucky enough to be standing behind them.  If I really want to see the show, then I make it a point of planning and arriving earlier, but I was content to just be able to see part of the show.  I had a decent view of most of the stage, so that was fine.

The show started with a small extra segment, showing the 20th anniversary logo and then footage from some of the news stories at the time, announcing the debut of Fantasmic.  There were also glimpses of some rehearsal footage as well as credits for the show, which we thought was terrific of them to do.

And then came the show itself!

It was a terrific show as usual, even though it was unfortunate that Flotsam and Jetsam were missing from the show.  We laughed at the Peter Pan segment because the first cannon from the Columbia usually startles the audience, eliciting jumpy movements and shouts or screams from them.  In this case, nothing, no reaction.  That's how you can tell it was an AP crowd!  :)

During the Mark Twain segment, we were surprised to see some characters we don't normally see on there, like the characters from Splash Mountain (just from the ride, nope, there's no movie it's based on), and the very top back of the Twain is usually occupied by Woody and Buzz and 2 green army men, but instead on this night, it was the Three Little Pigs and the Big Bad Wolf.

The end of the show was met with much applause.  We hung around to listen to the end of the exit music as we normally do.  I happened to look up at what used to be the Disney Gallery and is now the Dream Suite, and I remembered the one time I attended the dessert buffet up there.  It is the perfect view of Fantasmic.  I'm still sad that we don't have the opportunity to see the show from there anymore, even for one more time.

After Fantasmic was completely finished, we then rode Haunted Mansion, and then hung around some more as we stood near Harbor Galley to watch the Columbia being docked.  We eventually made our way toward Main Street, noticing that some of the restaurants were still open.

As we neared Main Street, we could hear the strains of Fantasmic and realized that they'd replaced the normal Main Street music with the exit music from Fantasmic, which can be heard as part of the music loop being played in the esplanade between Disneyland and Disney California Adventure.  We wondered if the music was repeating so sat down to listen, and yep, it would finish and then start up again.  At 1:00 am, in the middle of the song, the voice of Disneyland came over the intercom to thank everyone for coming and to wish everyone a good evening.  We waited a little longer to see if that would be the end of the loop, but when it started again, we got up to leave.

Heading towards Town Square, we noticed that various of the Fantasmic characters were standing up on the train station, much like how they had characters there at the end of the 24-hour Leap Day earlier in the year.  The last ones to leave were the florescent monkeys and the Evil Queen herself, so we got to see them for a few seconds.

We had a wonderful time, and thanks to Disneyland for putting on these kinds of events for annual passholders.

One More Disney Day - February 29, 2012

Early in the year, Disney announced a promotion for Leap Day this year in which Disneyland and the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World in Orlando would be open for 24 hours, from 6am on February 29 through 6am on March 1. We thought it was a bit of an odd promotion and didn't give it much thought, but over the course of a couple of weeks, the husband and I and some friends decided that it would be fun to do. In the days before, Disney announced some special food offerings as well as special entertainment additions to the event that sounded intriguing.

We had decided to get a hotel room nearby so we didn't have to drive either before or after the event. We checked in on Tuesday, February 28, got a few hours sleep (while people were already lining up since Disney was allowing a line to form starting at 10pm), and then the next morning, we walked to join the line, arriving at about 5:45am, with the end of the line at the corner of Harbor Blvd. and Disney Way. By the time we made our way to and through bag check and through the front turnstiles, we got into Disneyland at about 6:30am.

As we were waiting at bag check, it amused me to see this sign with the posted park hours. Not something you normally see!





Disney had announced that they were giving away free event ears hats to the first 2,000 people who entered the park. We weren't in that group of people, but we did get the event buttons they were giving out, which was pretty cool.





They had banners hung up by the tunnels under the train tracks for the promotion.





We had planned to get a locker for the day, but everyone else seemed to have had the same idea, and the line extended to Main Street and further down, so we decided to skip that. Instead, we decided to have breakfast. We had already decided that there was going to be a lot of food involved in our 24-hour adventure.

We headed to River Belle Terrace for breakfast. On the way, we passed by the Indiana Jones Adventure, and I was amused at the posted Fastpass return time, so several of us got Fastpasses just for the heck of it.





We enjoyed a leisurely breakfast at River Belle. (Meal count = 1.) It was a good thing we got there when we did, because by the time we left, the lines for both sides were extremely long and out the doors.

As we exited River Belle, we saw a section along the Rivers of America blocked off and went to investigate. Turns out the television show "Modern Family" was shooting in Disneyland in various locations that day and the next, and they had disclaimers and signs up to alert people.





We headed back to Main Street so our friends could put some stuff away in their locker. The jumbo and large lockers were already all sold out, but they still had small lockers available, so we got one of those. Even though the locker wasn't very big, we managed to stuff a couple of jackets in there that we wouldn't need until later in the evening.

It was then off to go on rides! We spent most of the 24 hours with a group of about 5 other people. One friend was with us for almost all of that time, other friends had met up with us while we were in line to get into the park, and we met up with yet other friends during the course of the day. Sometimes, we'd split up to do different things for a little while but then we'd end up getting back in touch with each other again. It seemed that many of the people who had lined up overnight and earlier in the morning than we did had come into the park, gotten their free hat, maybe purchased some of the event-specific merchandise and then left entirely or at least to go take a nap. The park wasn't terribly crowded, and we ended up going on most of the Fantasyland rides without any long waits. The longest wait was for Peter Pan, which was about a half an hour line. Usually, even that's too long a wait for us, since we're all annual passholders and so aren't inclined to wait very long for a ride because we can always do it another time. But, given that we had so much time to spend in the park on this day, we figured the wait time wasn't going to be an issue.

After going on a number of rides, we decided it was time for lunch. Some people got food from the new Jolly Holiday Cafe, some people like me got food from Refreshment Corner aka Coke Corner (they had available the mac and cheese bacon hot dog that they had debuted at the annual passholder Soundsational event last year), and some people got food from the Tomorrowland Terrace, which had a special burger, and we all ate our respective lunch at the tables there. (Meal count = 2.)

We then decided that for dessert, we would try the cherry pie being offered at the Golden Horseshoe, so we wandered over there. We discovered that the Golden Horseshoe had the pie a la mode but that the adjacent Stage Door Cafe had just the pie, and since none of us were interested in the extra ice cream at that point, we just got the pie from Stage Door and sat down at nearby tables. (Meal count = 2 + 1 dessert.)





The pie was a nice little size, and the husband and I really liked that it was fairly tart. We're not fond of overly-sweet cherry pie. I would love if they'd add that dessert onto one of Disneyland's restaurants. Oh, and notice the hidden Mickey in the whipped cream?


As I'd been thinking about the event in the days leading up to it, I was debating whether I was going to adhere to having to spend all of the 24 hours actually inside Disneyland, or whether it would count if I went into Disney California Adventure (DCA) at all. I hadn't really decided one way or the other, and I had decided that being in line by 6am counted. Many of our friends wanted to go over to DCA to see the new Carsland preview exhibit at the Blue Sky Cellar, and that was something I'd wanted to do in the course of our stay as well, so we decided that as long as we were on property and within the boundaries of bag check, it would still count.

We headed over to DCA and spent a little time inside the exhibit, looking at the drawings and models and mockups and watching the new film previewing Carsland, which is due to open this summer. I had already been impressed with the plans when we saw the models and such at the D23 Expo in 2009, so the film just solidified how much I'm looking forward to having Carsland open, and how much I'm going to enjoy just sitting in Radiator Springs on a summer evening, enjoying the sights and sounds and atmosphere.

Eventually, we headed back to Disneyland, and we figured it was going to be getting crowded at the restaurants, so we decided to have dinner at French Market around 7pm. It wasn't too bad there yet, and we enjoyed a nice dinner there. (Meal count = 3 + 1 dessert.)

After dinner, we went on a few more rides, and as we were heading back to New Orleans Square from Critter Country at about 8:30pm, we noticed that the lines for Haunted Mansion and Pirates of the Caribbean had gotten significantly longer from when we'd seen them right after dinner, and there were also long lines at Harbor Galley, the Royal Street Veranda, and other food locations. I had figured that a lot of people were going to be coming after work, and it looked like they had started to arrive.

For the next few hours, our group was separated into smaller groups as different people wanted to do different things. After hanging out in the Opera House for a while (we didn't actually manage to go inside and see Mr. Lincoln because the timing didn't work), we then went outside to stake out a place to watch the added second showing of the Soundsational parade, which I love. We found a spot in Town Square across from the restrooms by City Hall that wasn't terrible crowded and waited. As we were people-watching while we waited, we did notice that while there were many people leaving during that time, there was an equal if not higher number of people who were arriving through the other side of Town Square. The scheduled 10pm parade didn't actually start until about 10:20, but it was still a lot of fun to watch.

When the last float went by, we waited in the same area for a while for the crowds to clear out, but it took much longer than we expected as we could see the people trying to head up Main Street but at a standstill. After waiting for quite a while, we eventually joined the crowds and eventually made our way to New Orleans Square.

The French Market had a few special menu items that were available during the day, and more menu items and a dessert that would be available starting at midnight. We were interested in the dessert - bananas foster cheesecake - and so ended up being behind a group of other people also waiting for the midnight menu changeover. The changeover was a bit disorganized (different cast members told us completely opposite things in a span of about 3 minutes) and took longer than we'd expected, so the menu items weren't actually available until about 12:20am. We got our desserts, which a cast member put in to-go containers as we'd requested, and we found an empty table by Harbour Galley to try them. (Meal count = 3 + 2 desserts.)

The cheesecake was ok but wasn't quite as "bananas foster" as we had expected. There was banana flavoring inside the cheesecake, but I would have liked if there were several thin slices of banana on top as well as a caramel drizzle over the whole thing. Granted, there was caramel on the plate somewhat underneath the cheesecake, but we didn't really get any of that since we had the desserts to-go.

Disney had announced a 1am showing of Fantasmic, which was all the more special because Fantasmic was currently not scheduled to be shown at all and wasn't due to be back on the schedule for several more days. Also, the Mark Twain, which is utilized in the show, was also not currently in operation, and when Fantasmic runs when the Twain isn't working, the normal sequence of the characters riding by on the Twain is replaced by the characters coming out on stage on Tom Sawyer Island instead.

We had planned to see Fantasmic, which was apparently full, and we found out later that announcements had been made elsewhere in the park, but since we were already in the area, we never heard the announcements. After finishing our cheesecake and with the show due to start shortly, we made our way to a spot that wasn't as crowded as others. There were several rows of people in front of us, and we had a side view where I could barely and only periodically see the stage, but we still had a great time. Fantasmic is a favorite show for many of us, and oftentimes, even just hearing the soundtrack is enough. I was able to see a couple little bits, including the magnificent dragon and the characters on the stage, and it was a wonderful show as usual.

After the show ended, we waited around in the area until the crowds cleared out, and then we headed back to Fantasyland, where friends were waiting for us.

I forget all the details of the origins now, but it has become tradition for many years now for some of us that if we're in the park when it's open very late, we have to ride Dumbo at midnight or after. I believe it originated because we noticed that the lines for Dumbo were always outrageously long, no matter what time of the day it was, and a friend came up with the phrase of "Must.Ride.Dumbo" as an explanation for why so many people were always in line for Dumbo. One of the nights that the park was open late (likely either Fourth of July or New Year's Eve), we walked by Dumbo at about 1am and noticed that the line was minimal, so we decided to ride it, and from there, the tradition of the 1am Dumbo ride was born. I believe the 1am tradition stems from the park usually being open until 2am on some holidays, so the 1am ride is easy to fit in. We've done the Dumbo ride at midnight as well on occasions when the park was only open until 1am. In this case, since we had the 1am Fantasmic to attend and things to do afterward, we had picked 2am for our traditional Dumbo ride. Usually, our late-night Dumbo ride only involves waiting through one cycle before we make it on, but there were a lot more people in line this night, so we ended up having to wait through several cycles before it was our turn to ride.

After our ride, we headed over to Frontierland as Disney had announced that Billy Hill and the Hillbillies had several early-morning shows at the Golden Horseshoe. We got there with a little bit of time before the 2:45am show, and the downstairs was already full, so we headed upstairs. All the seats were taken as well, and it was just standing room only, so we found some spots with a decent view at the back of the theatre, and a few people found the random stray chair to sit in as well. Based on what we saw and heard, it was a packed house for each of the early-morning shows, and I was pleasantly surprised that the four Billys were the ones I was used to seeing in shows. There have been rumours and discussions on a Disney-related board about Disney doing away with some of the live entertainment in the parks, so I hope Disney is paying attention that the Billys are popular enough that they can have SRO crowds at 1:45am, 2:45am and 3:45am shows. Everyone was cheering and having a great time during the show.

After the show, it was time to head back to New Orleans Square as we had a 3:30am breakfast reservation at Cafe Orleans, which does not customarily serve breakfast anymore. By that point, we were all a bit bleary-eyed, and it was getting colder out, and we were seated at a table outside (most of the seating at Cafe Orleans is outdoors). Many of us were loading up on coffee or tea for the caffeine and warmth, and there were some complications with breakfast, but I did very much enjoy my crab meat quiche. It was very delicious, even at 4 in the morning. Maybe Disney will decide to re-open Cafe Orleans for breakfast and put the quiche on the menu. (Final meal count = 4 + 2 desserts.)

We finished with breakfast at about 4:40, and we were deciding what to do for the rest of the time. Not all of the rides were open, and there was also the chilly weather to consider if we were going to do an outdoors ride. We discovered that Indiana Jones had a wait time of about 55 minutes, and with most of the queue being indoors, I figured that was perfect. Some of us got in line while others called it a day, and while the outdoor part of the queue was indeed chilly, it got better once we got inside. The wait time was actually shorter than posted, and we were done at 5:30am. We decided to get our things from our lockers and just spend the last bits of the day on Main Street. As we approached our lockers, I was amused that at 5:47am, the Cone Shop was open, and there were actually people in line to buy ice cream.

We sat on a curb on Main Street to wait for 6am to come. When it did, the Disneyland announcer came on to tell us that the day was over, and that there was only one thing left to do. That was followed by the ending song of the Mickey Mouse Club. Maybe it was just the perfectness of the choice or maybe it was because I'd been up for 25 hours at that point or maybe it was something else, but hearing that song made me tear up. The end announcement and song were met with cheers from those still on Main Street. Afterward, we made our way down Main Street and then noticed that Disney characters were standing in front of the train station in their pajama costumes, waving goodbye to guests.





When we finally left the park, it was about 6:15am and the sun was out. We went back to our hotel room to sleep for a couple of hours.


Yes, a couple of hours. Because I'd had the bright idea previously that it would be funny to spend 24 hours at Disneyland and then be there again when Disneyland opened "the next day" aka Thursday, March 1, aka "4 hours later". The park opened at 10am, and the husband and I finally managed to get there at about 10:15. We did several rides that we'd meant to do the day before and hadn't had a chance to, and then we had lunch before heading out of the park around 2pm and back to the hotel to get some more sleep.

Before the event had started, we had joked with friends about which rides we could go on where we'd be able to catch a quick nap. Well, none of us ever actually did that. Except for a couple of times on it's a small world and one other ride which I forget which one now, where I was falling asleep for a second or two, I was awake the entire rest of the time. And yes, we sat for meals and a few other times when we were waiting for people and shows and such, but we did actually spend quite a bit of that 24 hour period standing or walking.


I've read some reports of the massive crowds that showed up late in the evening, causing Disneyland to close their gates to entrances for a time, causing massive backups in the esplanade, at the parking structure and even on surrounding freeways. Thankfully, I never encountered any of that, and I expect that it was a very different experience for those who came earlier in the day versus for those who came in the evening.


I will say, though, that I had a great time. We kept ourselves busy, and there was never a time when we sat around bored, with nothing to do. We sometimes had to figure out what to do in the amount of time we had before something else we were scheduled to do/see, but we always managed to find something to occupy ourselves with. And the best part was having friends and people around you, crazy enough and interested enough in spending 24 hours at Disneyland as well.

Tapestry of Nations - once was all it took

In November of 1999, the husband and I made our first visit to Walt Disney World. We were already big fans of Disney and regular visitors of Disneyland, so it was kind of weird to be in Disney parks that were so completely new to us. We had a lot of friends who had been to WDW before, so we asked them for some opinions and recommendations.

We knew that we wanted to see Illuminations at Epcot, and one friend gave us a suggestion on where we could have a good view of the show without having to stake out a spot for hours beforehand, so we took his advice, and it all turned out really well. (Loved Illuminations, btw, still do.) Another friend had suggested that we see the parade that was running at the time at Epcot's World Showcase - Tapestry of Nations. It sounded interesting, but we weren't sure we'd really be able to fit it into our schedule on that trip. As we sat in the Mexico section of World Showcase, waiting for Illuminations, I got my first introduction to Tapestry. The parade was on the other side of the lagoon, which is huge, so I never got a very good look at the floats and puppets (giant puppets, for lack of a better description), but what really got me was the music, which was played over the speakers. I was mesmerized by the music and the narration. The husband and I decided then and there that we had to MAKE time in our schedule to see the parade on another day.

We sat in the U.K. section of World Showcase, just after the step-off point of the parade. And seeing the parade itself was even better than just being able to hear the music. I remember sitting on the curb and watching as the gorgeous and beautifully-colored puppets walked by me. The puppeteers were amazing, and the crowd was just loving the interaction with them. Some might know my affinity for drums and drummers, so you can imagine my reaction when the giant drums rolled past me. The husband said I was just staring at them in awe.

I'm a big fan of Illuminations, and Fantasmic at Disneyland, and numerous fireworks and shows and other parades at Disneyland. But I think Tapestry of Nations is definitely in the running for my favorite Disney entertainment ever, which seems odd considering I only saw it that one time. But it just really touched me. If I'd been living anywhere local to Epcot at that point, I would have been at Epcot on many nights to watch Tapestry and then Illuminations.

We didn't return to WDW until January of 2007. I knew that Tapestry was long gone and was sad that I wouldn't be able to see it. We went to the same spot to watch Illuminations, and after the show was over, the husband and I stood around talking to friends that we were there with. And then I heard it. At first, I didn't know where it was coming from or if it really was. And then I was sure - they were playing the soundtrack of Tapestry over the speakers. I knew the music well because after we'd seen it on our first trip, we bought the WDW CD that had Tapestry and Illuminations on it. We weren't near a speaker at that point, so I ran over to where there was one and I stood there and listened to the whole thing. Yeah, I'll admit, I completely abandoned the husband and our friends. He did tell them the story of our Tapestry experience, and they completely understood me being engulfed by the music.

Currently, the music to Tapestry (minus the narration) is played as the third song of the exit music set after the conclusion of Illuminations. When we were at WDW last month, there were 3 evenings when we were at Epcot, twice to see Illuminations, and once at dinner, ending just after Illuminations finished. All three times, we stood there and listened to the exit music, including the entirety of the Tapestry music. No, it's not like that's the only place I can hear it - I can (and do) pull out the CD to listen to. But it's a completely different experience hearing that music as you're standing in World Showcase looking out at the lagoon and the various pavilions of different countries.

A few months ago, the husband found an amazing video compilation of Tapestry. It doesn't really do the parade justice, but short of seeing it in person and letting the entire experience and music wash over you, nothing really can. I love being able to watch the video and re-live that particular moment of sitting on the curb, soaking in those amazing performances. I hope you enjoy it as well.

sometimes, pre-conceived notions are funny

For various occasions, my side of the family has family dinners out, and who is in attendance depends on who's available. For a particular dinner a number of years ago, the husband and I were there, along with my sister and her then-boyfriend/now-husband, as well as my sister's then-teenage daughter and son, at a Chinese restaurant.

We order family style, so we'd put our order in, and my sister asked the waiter for two forks.

When the waiter brought the forks, he didn't give the forks to my sister (normally, they bring the forks to whomever actually asks for them), but rather, put one fork in front of each of the husband and my sister's boyfriend - the two white people at the table. Both the husband and my sister's boyfriend knew very well how to use chopsticks - the forks my sister had requested were for her two kids, who preferred to use forks to chopsticks.

It was obvious that the waiter assumed the kids were old enough to know how to use chopsticks, so the forks *must* be for the white people, who, you know, can't possibly know how to use chopsticks.

The rest of us all laughed when the forks were put down, though I think the husband and my sister's boyfriend were offended at the assumption that the forks were for them, simply because they were white.

This counts as a magical memory for me partly because of the waiter's erroneous assumption, but mostly because of the looks on the faces of the husband and my sister's boyfriend when the forks were put down in front of them. :)

How about a movie and some cake?

I happen to be a fan of the movie "The Princess Bride". There are a ton of great lines and scenes from the movie, but there is one particular scene that has had specific significance for me for some time now.








Oh, and after the movie, how about a slice of cake?








;)

magical memories - themed dinner nights at Cal

This probably counts more as an "amused memory" as opposed to a true magical one, but when I was remembering and thinking about it, I did have some realizations about how habits and inclinations present then are still in evidence now. And it was pretty memorable at the time in any case.

I think I've already mentioned that when I went to Cal, I actually lived in a dorm of another college, in a nearby city. That college had one extra dorm building available, so they rented out that space to Cal since Cal was notoriously lacking in student housing. Well, that meant that the Cal students kind of congregated together, and the students from the other college congregated together, and with a few exceptions, this was also true in the dining room during meals - Cal students sat and ate with Cal students and other college students sat and ate with other college students.

Well, the college made a couple of attempts to try to get the two groups to mingle, and these manifested themselves in the form of themed dinner nights. They'd pick some unifying food topic - like Mexican, for example - and they'd decorate the dining room and have food all themed to that. They seemed to think that putting everything in a more festive mood would make everyone want to mingle more. Nope, that didn't really work.

The next time they tried this, they then handed out tickets with numbers of them. Ummm, ok, what's with that? I then found out that they were table designations - they were going to force us to mingle by telling us where we needed to sit, so that people from each of the two groups would be seated at the same table. That also meant that I and people I liked to sit with were at totally different tables.

Yeah, good luck with that.

I wasn't big on sitting at a table with people I didn't really know and also didn't have that much in common with. I was used to sitting with a number of different people at meals - not always the same people, but at least from a larger group that I knew and liked - and I liked it that way. If I got to the dining room, and none of the people I might sit with were there, I usually then just went and sat at an empty table. And really, I was in college. I wasn't a little kid anymore. I was away from home and on my own - to some degree. I didn't appreciate being told that I had to be sociable with people I didn't feel like being sociable with, and for no other reason then that someone randomly decreed it. I didn't like being forced to "make friends". So, I didn't.

A few of us weren't keen on the whole "you will sit THERE" attempt, and we noticed that some of the tables in the very back were empty, free of themed tablecloths and decorations. The dining room was never full, and there were always many more tables available than people there, so they didn't bother setting up the ones in the back. So some of us headed for those tables. And we sat together. And then when others noticed that we were doing it, they came over and sat with us as well instead of at their assigned tables, and others came by after they were done eating, just to hang out. And pretty soon, we had a group of Cal students at the bare, undecorated, ordinary tables, away from the rest of the people.

Yeah, we were rabble-rousers.

magical memories - AIDS Walk at Paramount Pictures

An AIDS Walk fundraiser is held every year in many cities, and Los Angeles is no exception. The course changed after 2001, but previously, the start and end of the course was the Paramount Pictures studio lot in the heart of Hollywood since Paramount was the major sponsor of the Walk. My sister convinced me to do the walk with her one year, which was a huge mistake on my part, because she's actually a runner, and even though she said she'd let me go at my pace, and I was fully planning to just walk the route, she pretty much wanted to run the thing and got impatient at my slow pace, and there was no way in hell I was going to be able to keep up with her. It was not a good day for me. After walking that one year, I started volunteering for an organization that would help at various AIDS fundraising events, including AIDS Walk, so for several years, I helped to set up things or do things along the course during the event - the actual task would vary from year to year.

The most memorable year, though, was actually also the easiest time and most fun I had. Paramount has several entrances onto the lot, and the main entrance was obviously closed to street traffic since that's where all the runners started and ended the course. There was a side entrance on the west side that they decided to use as the one for VIPs and other invited guests to use to get onto the lot. There were some celebrities who had agreed to come to the event to speak to the crowds and cheer on the runners, and it was people like them that needed to drive onto the lot, as well as vendors and other staff working the event itself. Paramount had their own security guard at the entrance, but they needed someone from the staff there as well. There was a list of names of people associated with the event who were cleared to drive onto the lot, but in case a problem arose, they wanted someone who had the ability to contact event staff management. I was someone who had a radio and headset anyway, so they decided to assign the job to me. That really just meant that all day long, I sat in the nice cool guard shack, and I didn't really have much to do. The guard on duty was the one to talk to all the people arriving at the gate, and he was pretty nice, and in between visitors, we chatted about this and that for the couple hours I was there. The Walk is usually held in September, and sometimes, it can be rather warm out, and during prior years, I was out in the heat and sometimes doing manual labor and otherwise working hard during the event. That particular year, I totally got a cush job. I just monitored the conversations coming over my radio so that I knew what was going on and in case anyone was trying to get a hold of me. I think they asked me about specific people a few times, to see if they'd come through the gate yet, and I think there were a couple other people who I had to radio to let them know had arrived. I don't recall any particular problem coming up of someone trying to get through the gate who wasn't on the list.

My favorite part of the whole day was when Robert Downey, Jr. came up to the gate. He was one of the celebrities who was there for the event, and I had been particularly enamoured of him at that point in time. It was after his really bad bouts with drugs, and he was clean and sober then and seemed to be enjoying life again. He drove up in a Jeep-like vehicle, and both the guard and I recognized him so it wasn't like he was asked to present ID. The guard knew that he was on the list of people coming to the event, so he just asked Robert if he knew where he needed to go, and Robert said yes, so the guard opened the gate and Robert drove through. I never said anything, but I smiled at Robert as he drove by, and he smiled back. He had three friends in the car with him, and they all seemed to be happy and enjoying the nice day - it looked like they were just going to enjoy a day at the beach.

It was the easiest job I'd ever been assigned in all my years volunteering for that organization, and then on top of that, I had the added benefit of seeing the various celebrities as they came through the gate. I hadn't really thought about that day in a really long time, but since I've seen Robert Downey, Jr. in so many films over the past year or two, the memory of seeing him that day was triggered, including remembering how cool it was to see him.

magical memories - nice car, dude

This is a different kind of "magical memories" entry in that it wasn't something that happened to me but rather, something I witnessed. This happened a long time ago, but I still think about it periodically, and it *still* just really amuses me.

So I've mentioned that I went to college at Cal (that would be the University of California at Berkeley), so once I got a car, I would drive back and forth a couple times during the year (start of school in August, Christmas/semester break, end of school in May) instead of flying, which is what I'd done previously. Highway 5 northbound is B.O.R.I.N.G. There's really nothing to see (except for the other cars similarly packed to the gills with other students making the afternoon drive to college), and the road is pretty much straight all the way. There was just regular radio, so I was at the mercy of whatever stations were along the way, and let me tell you, there are a lot of stretches where there's really nothing to listen to. I didn't have a tape player in my car, so that was out, and this was way before CD players were in the car, much less things like iPods and such. And, they kind of frown upon reading books while you're driving the 5 if you're the one actually driving.

OK, so I mentioned that it's a boring drive, right? So, northbound and southbound have a divider in between, and each direction is a two-lane highway, and I'm in the right lane like a normal person (we won't get into the lame-ass people who drive 45 miles an hour in the left lane). I'm driving normal speed, just a little over the posted speed limit. And this guy in a bright red convertible goes flying past me in the left lane. OK, yeah, dude, your car can go 400 miles an hour, and you have a spiffy car, whatever. A couple minutes later, a Highway Patrol car races past me. Hmmmmm. A few minutes further down, I see the Highway Patrol car on the side of the road with said red convertible. Have a nice day, dude.

So I'm driving further along, and maybe 20 or 30 minutes later, the red convertible dude flies by me in the left lane again. And a couple minutes later, a Highway Patrol car goes by me - I don't know if it was actually the same one as earlier. And a few minutes later, Highway Patrol car and red convertible are on the side of the road again. Two speeding tickets, for going at excessive speed, in less than one hour. Have a *really* nice day, dude. If you're going to drive a "please give me a ticket, Mr. Police Officer" high-profile might-as-well-have-a-blinking-beacon-on-top car, you might not want to drive like a homicidal maniac. Twice.

And no, the red convertible didn't fly past me a third time.

magical memories - birthday party for a one-year-old

Today marks the 14th anniversary of my employment with the company I currently work for.

I met Liza when I joined the company. It was a bit of an adjustment, getting used to a new company, where I barely knew anyone in the company and no one in my new department. Most people weren't particularly outgoing to meet the newbie in the department, and I'm not good at that sort of thing myself. Circumstances were such that for the first several weeks, I was in a completely different building than the rest of the department, so it was even a bit more isolating. Liza was the first person to make it a point of saying hello to me and trying to make me feel welcome. I remember one day, I was fairly swamped with work, trying to get up to speed on things. Liza came by and asked if I was going to lunch. I told her that I was really busy, and I'd try to run out and get something later. She told me that she was going to get lunch and if I wanted, she'd bring me back something. At this point, we didn't know each other very well and probably hadn't had much time to talk to each other, so I was really amazed at how nice she was to even make the offer. Over the next few months, we got to know each other better, as she would stop by to chat periodically, and we discovered that we had a lot in common. That's why I was really sad when she came in one day about three months later to tell me that she was moving to the Bay Area because her husband's job had transferred him there. I'd just begun to make a new friend, and it seemed like our friendship wouldn't be going any further.

I was glad that I was able to see Liza and meet her husband on one of my trips to the Bay Area. They were both so incredibly nice to me, and it was so much
fun getting to know both of them better, and they introduced me to a great restaurant (Crustacean), which has a branch in Beverly Hills. The few times that I've been to the Beverly Hills location, I make it a point of telling my dinner companions about the two people who introduced me to such a great place.

They moved to another state shortly thereafter, so we didn't see each other again, though we exchanged Christmas cards and occasional emails. I knew she'd had a hard time getting pregnant because there were various complications, so I was so happy when she told me at one point that she was expecting. Because they still had family in Southern California, they decided to have a first birthday party for their daughter out here, and the husband and I were invited. I was a bit apprehensive about going - this was someone I'd known for only three months many years ago - how would we get along now and what on earth would we talk about? I am so glad we went. It was a fairly large dinner party held in a restaurant in Koreatown, and we had the best time. Though she was busy as hostess, we were able to spend a few minutes here and there catching up, and it was like nothing had changed - we just chatted about everything, one of those friendships where you just immediately pick right up again. I was glad that the husband was able to meet her and her husband. We ended up sitting at a table with her husband's boss and his family, so we had a good time getting to know them as well, and I was also able to spend some time playing with their beautiful and fearless little girl, Sophie.

I was so pleased to see how happy they all were, how much Liza and her husband and their extended family obviously loved and adored Sophie, and what a darling Sophie had already become. I remember at one point near the end of dinner, I was accompanying Sophie as she was puttering around. She was basically holding my fingers to keep herself upright, but she was doing all the steering. We were kind of walking around the restaurant, and then at one point, when she saw Liza, she headed straight for her. I told so many people what a wonderful time I had and how great it was to see all of them.

A couple years later, I came home from work fairly late one February night and decided to check my email before heading off to bed. I could tell from the sender and subject matter of one email that something was not right. Liza's husband had sent me an email, with apologies that it had taken him so long to send the note, but he'd just found a bunch of addresses in her PDA. She died about a month prior as a result of a rare form of cancer. She and I usually exchanged Christmas cards, but I didn't think anything of not having gotten one the previous year. I didn't normally get them Christmas gifts, but for some reason, I'd stumbled on something that I thought they might like, so I'd bought and sent it. I thought it was a bit odd that she hadn't emailed me to let me know that she'd received it, but I just figured she was busy and would get around to it sometime. It never occurred to me that her silence meant something was wrong. She was hospitalized the previous November from a stroke, and that's how they eventually found the cancer. The cancer was extremely aggressive and had already done a lot of damage, and Liza died in January.

Even though it was late, I ran upstairs in tears and woke up the husband, who was alarmed at my disposition, and I told him what had happened. I'm tearing up now thinking about it all again.

It might seem weird that her death hit me like that. Liza definitely held a unique position in my life. I'm not one to lightly use the word "friend" to describe someone, but even though I'd only seen her literally twice in a period of 9 years, and had only occasional email contact, it was a friendship that I can't even find the words to describe.

I also finally realized why the news was even worse in my mind. I had forgotten that her daughter was born early in the year. That means that Liza died shortly after her daughter's third birthday. Sophie was old enough to know that her mom was gone, but not old enough to understand why, and Liza's husband would be raising her alone. It wasn't supposed to be that way. Liza wanted a child, and she went through a lot to have one, and she and her husband were blessed with a beautiful baby girl. They were supposed to have a happy life together, and Liza was going to be there to watch her daughter grow up and guide her through her teenage years and her adult years - Liza was a great mother and would continue to be so as Sophie grew up and needed a mother's helping hand. She wasn't supposed to only have 3 years with Sophie, and Sophie wasn't supposed to lose her mother at the tender age of 3. A lot of people talk about how this thing and that thing is unfair. None of that comes close to touching this. Losing Liza so early was definitely unfair.

At the suggestion of friends, I sent Liza's husband a letter, expressing my condolences and telling him the stories I've included above. I told him that I couldn't imagine what he and Sophie must be going through, but that if there was anything I could do, to let me know. I know, they sound like empty words, but I didn't know what to offer them. What could I possibly do to help, especially with the distance since they lived in another state? He sent back a very nice note, which was very sweet of him. I have kept up exchanging Christmas cards with him, and he's been nice enough to include pictures of her, so I've seen how Sophie has grown. We don't keep in touch otherwise, just the Christmas card once a year. Normally, with that little contact, I probably would have stopped the Christmas cards by now in any other case. But it's my only connection to Liza. This all happened about four years ago. I don't know that I'll ever see Sophie again or even know anything about her, but I'm not ready to give up Liza yet. Sounds silly, doesn't it?

As I recognize that it's my 14th anniversary at my job, I also remember one of the best things that has come out of working there. And that's my friendship with Liza, and the wonderful birthday party for Sophie that we attended. The husband and I took a lot of pictures during the dinner, and we made a webpage out of the pictures so that Liza could share it with whomever she wanted. I later sent the link to her husband, and he said he was going to print everything out for Sophie to see when she got older.

Here's the webpage that we made with pictures of the party. They followed some traditional Korean traditions, which accounts for the table of goodies at the front of the room. Sophie was put down amongst the goodies, and the tradition stated that depending on what she chose to go for, that would determine if she would be blessed more with talent or riches or long life or other good things. I can't remember what it ended up being that she chose or what it meant. And I really don't remember what the last two pictures were about. I think that was Liza's husband's boss, and that was the boss' daughter, and somehow, it turned into a wrapped-like-a-mummy thing. It was pretty funny at the time.

Relatively speaking, Liza occupied a very short time in my life, but I'm never going to forget her.

the trip to the top of The Lady

I had remembered hearing the announcement a while back, but I had forgotten about it until I saw a news headline today that the crown of the Statue of Liberty reopened for visitors today.

Access to the inside of the Statue was closed after September 11, 2001, and while parts of the Statue were reopened several years later, access to the crown has remained closed. Until today.

On my first trip to New York in the 90s to visit a friend for her graduation, we did some sightseeing, and we did go to the Statue of Liberty and waited and made the trek up to the crown. It's a pretty small space, and the climb up the stairs was a little tiring, and it was a pretty long wait. But it was all worth it. Being up in the crown, seeing the amazing view of New York and knowing about the history and meaning of the Statue was all pretty amazing. It was one of the rare occasions when I asked to have my picture taken, inside the crown, because it was that amazing.

It makes me very happy to know that people will be able to visit the top of The Lady again.

magical memories - Who are all those people at the bus stop?

My senior year in high school, one of the classes I took was AP Calculus. I liked the teacher, and I liked the class ok - I was pretty good at math even though I wasn't particularly interested in it. A lot of the people in the larger group that I hung out with was in that class, so that made it even nicer. Even better is that when you're viewed as one of the "smart" kids, they also tend to think you're going to be better behaved, and so authority figures tended to be a little more lenient with us.

Substitute teachers particularly liked our AP classes because they pretty much had a free ride for that period. One day, later in the school year, our regular calculus teacher was out that day, so we had a sub. He took roll call and then looked at us and asked if we all had work to occupy us, and we said yes, and he went and sat at his desk all day, leaving us alone. Most of us worked on a calculus assignment, as well as helping each other when we'd be stuck on a particular problem or concept. I think some people worked on homework from other classes, and some people probably goofed off. As long as we never got too loud, it wasn't an issue with our sub.

At one point, and I don't know how or why it had happened, I noticed that one of the guys, Tim, was at the chalkboard, and he was drawing. I'd look up periodically at his progress, and it was just really cool. Eventually, we were all looking to see what else he'd add to it, and at one point, a bunch of us mentioned that this really needed to be documented. Somehow, someone figured out that people from the yearbook staff were wandering the halls taking candid pictures, so they got them to come into our classroom and take a picture of what Tim had drawn, and the picture did end up in the candid pictures section of the annual.


Click on the picture for a larger version.
I think Tim started with one of the people who ended up being in the middle of the line of people waiting at the bus stop. I think it's funny that he ended up drawing one of the people around the break in the chalkboard. I think that once he had the line of people, he then added the "bus stop" sign and then started drawing the bus pulling up.


Tangent - The only time I really use "yearbook" is when I'm referring to the staff, not the book itself. We always called it an "annual", instead of a yearbook, as in "do you know when the annuals are arriving?" or "will you sign my annual?" or "how awful was so-and-so's picture in the annual?" However, I used the term "annual" recently to someone when referring to the yearbook, and they looked at me like I'd sprouted three heads. I think I used that term in junior high school and high school, so maybe it's a regional thing? Or just something that was used in my neighborhood?

Anyway, Tim was the same age as me, and we ended up in a lot of the same classes and activities together. We were also in AP English together, and while I enjoyed the story of "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn", I had a really difficult time reading it because it was written phonetically. At one point in our class, the teacher had us move all of our chairs into a big circle because it made discussion easier since we could all see each other, and then she picked different people to read passages as well. Tim was chosen one time, and he read with the perfect accent, and whereas I had trouble reading the words written to show the accent, I had no problem understanding him at all, so I really enjoyed experiencing the events of the story through his reading without having to struggle through the words myself.

Given that, it may not come as a surprise that Tim was also involved in Drama Club, as was I. In our junior year in high school, we were in two plays together, the regular school play ("Time Out For Ginger") and the annual performances of "A Christmas Carol".

Tangent - In "Time Out For Ginger", I played Jeannie, the middle daughter. People laughed and joked that mom must have been having affairs with the milkman and mailman because the girls who played the three daughters were all of a different nationality. There were a lot of things that went wrong during the course of rehearsal, but it was fun, and all in all, the performances turned out really well.

Back on topic - Tim did such a good job as Ebenezer Scrooge junior year that he also played Scrooge in our senior year, when he and I co-directed the play. I wasn't supposed to be in it, just co-direct, but someone dropped out really close to the performance date, so I think I ended up filling in for a bit part. Tim was really good at improvising, which ended up coming in really handy for one of the performances senior year. We had several different performances scheduled, some for the other students during the daytime as well as a few nighttime performances for friends and family and the public. During one of the daytime performances, the girl playing Scrooge's sister came out on stage and delivered her lines like she was supposed to, but then instead of leaving the stage, she just stood there. I was backstage trying to figure out how to get her offstage without making it really obvious, but Tim, in character as Scrooge, walked over to her and said something like, "Oh, how I loved my dear little sister, too bad she has to go", and gently ushered her offstage. Brilliant!

Senior year, I was the director for the Talent Show, and Tim ended up being the emcee (no surprise there either, huh?), so we worked together on that as well.

Tim and I weren't friends in the sense that we hung out together that much out of school, but we got to know each other some because of all the school-related things we worked on together.

Wherever you are, and whatever you're doing, Tim, I hope everything's well with you.

magical memories - J's baby shower

J is one of a group of friends that I made in college. I went to Cal (aka U.C. Berkeley), but because of the student housing shortage, I stayed at a dorm off-campus which was really a dorm building for another college that rented the space out to us Cal students. J was a couple of years younger than me, so when I graduated, she was still at Cal, though she moved to an apartment with other mutual friends.

When J was graduating from Cal, she sent me an invitation to her graduation, and since I'd been making regular visits to Cal anyway, I decided I'd go. I met her parents and her sister and her boyfriend, and she had other friends who also attended her graduation. Her parents hosted a dinner after graduation at a terrific Korean restaurant (J and her family and her boyfriend are all Korean), and I think that was my first introduction to Korean food, which I really liked and still do.

When J went back east for grad school, we stayed in touch, writing letters. Yes, pre-email, at least the home version.

Some time after that, J got engaged and then was getting married in Berkeley, in a rose garden north of campus, and I accepted the invitation she sent. I had a terrific time at the wedding - her mother was dressed in traditional Korean clothing, and the groom's best man was actually a woman - decked out in tails and everything and looking great. I ended up getting lots of great pictures and made an album for them.

Again, some time later, J announced that she was pregnant, and closer to her due date, I got an invitation to her baby shower. My first thought was that I wished I could go, but I'd come home to L.A., and while J's husband's family lived in L.A., J was from Sacramento, and J and her husband had decided to live in San Francisco.

And then I thought about it some more. Why couldn't I go? It wasn't like they were living in the North Pole or another continent or even the other side of the country. They were at most a 6 1/2 to 7 hour car ride away. She was only going to have her first baby once. I was out of college and had a decent job and had started to accumulate some spending money. So I sent word to the friend throwing the shower that I would be attending.

Before I actually made any travel plans to go, though, the friend throwing the shower called me and said the shower was postponed. J was several months away from her due date, but complications in her pregnancy were arising, and she'd been put on strict bed-rest, which she was having a hard time with anyway because she's such an active and outgoing and outdoorsy person. We obviously couldn't have the shower without her, and the extra stress and people and stuff associated with a shower would not be good for her or the baby, so the decision was made to postpone the shower until after the baby was born. That would have the added benefit that we'd actually all get to see the baby.

J suffered through her bed-rest, which required quite a bit of reprimanding from her husband as she really wasn't supposed to get out of bed AT ALL, except maybe to go to the bathroom. However, eventually, she made it through, and she gave birth to a beautiful baby girl. Once everyone was pronounced well and healthy, plans were made for the rescheduled shower.

The shower was set for a Saturday afternoon, but it was during a time when I really couldn't take any time off work, as I'd planned to take the Friday off to drive up there. So, I decided to splurge, since I had some disposable income anyway. I decided to fly up for the day to go to the shower, which would mean I wouldn't spend any extra money on a hotel room (just the flight itself and parking at the airport and such), and I could go to the shower and not miss any days from work.

The shower was booked for something like 3pm, and I think it was at a teahouse of sorts in San Francisco - I can't remember exactly. I know it wasn't in a home or a full-fledged restaurant. I remember having finger foods, but there were also couches, and it was very homey.

I had booked a 10:30am flight, and with the hour flight, it would get me there in plenty of time. I was flying from Ontario to San Francisco. The BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit - a subway/metro system, and I'm not even sure if it's still called BART now, since it's been so long since I've been up there) had a train that went from the airport to a couple blocks away from where I needed to go. Perfect.

Since I was only going up for a couple hours, I didn't need a change of clothes. I had on a nice blouse and skirt which were dressy enough for the shower but comfortable to travel in as well. I brought the gift, but even back then, I knew I couldn't bring something wrapped, so I brought all the fixings - gift itself, gift bag, tissue paper, card - that I could assemble once I got there. So all I had with me was a purse and a tote, all as carry-on.

I got to the airport when I needed to and waited. And the flight was delayed half an hour, now not departing until 11am. No biggie for me, I'll just keep reading my book. Others scrambled to the pay phones (pre-cel days, you know) to call people who would be picking them up at the other end to tell them the change in plans.

Then another announcement - flight was delayed another hour, so now, it wasn't going to leave until noon. More panic in the airport, more phone calls to people and being upset that people would now be missing connecting flights and such. I think I was the only person not panicking. I had all kinds of time to spare.

Our flight did finally leave at noon, and I got to the San Francisco airport at about 1pm, and then I took the BART train to the San Francisco stop that I'd mapped out. Originally, I was going to have a couple hours to get something to eat, wander around, put the gift together and kill time before the shower. Because of the flight delays, I didn't have nearly the amount of time I had thought I would. I think I grabbed something to eat once I got there, and then I looked for somewhere I'd be able to put the gift together.

I walked for a bit, and eventually, I found a laundromat with nice big tables for people to fold their clothes. It wasn't very busy at all, so I settled myself at one of the tables, wrapped the gift with the tissue that I'd brought and then put it in the gift bag, wrote out the card and then put it into the bag as well. And by then, it was pretty much time to find the location of the shower.

The tea house was maybe a couple blocks from the laundromat, and when I arrived, most of the guests were already there. I don't remember details of the shower other than that J was really happy to see me and was glad that I'd been able to make it, and I enjoyed being able to meet her daughter, and J's mother spent a lot of time holding her first grandchild, and it was a lovely picture. It would have been lovelier if any of the pictures I'd taken had actually come out, but I wasn't a very good photographer back then, so most of the pictures sucked.

During the shower, I talked to the other people in attendance, and of course, questions arose about how everyone knew J, and when I mentioned that I'd gone to Cal, I was asked if I still lived locally, and I said that no, that I'd gone home to L.A. and was just in the area for the shower. They asked when I'd arrived, and I said a couple hours ago. They asked when I was leaving, and I said later that evening. Most were surprised that I had literally just come up for the day to go to the shower, and I explained the whole "too bad I can't go/wait, why can't I go?" thought process that I'd gone through. And really, the slight expense was really worth the whole trip and being able to see J and her family and the new baby.

The shower ended probably around 6pm, and I had booked a late flight to make sure I'd have plenty of time, so I think I had something like a 9pm flight. I was one of the last people to leave, and J had eventually learned about my travelling up for the shower. She thanked me for coming, and she and her husband (and of course their little baby) ended up taking me to the BART stop so that I wouldn't have to walk.

I took the BART back down to the airport, waited a bit for my flight, and made it home just fine.


J and her husband came down for the wedding when I got married, and they have two daughters now. We keep in touch mostly at Christmas time through cards/letters.


Most of what I remember from that day is just the journey itself, how relaxing it was, even with the setbacks, how much fun I had meeting everyone and just being at the shower and seeing the joy on the faces of J and her sister and her mother and everyone there. And it probably sounds stupid, but the fact that I was actually flying up for the day to attend the shower was huge. I've subsequently driven and/or flown to other cities and states to attend weddings, but this was the first time I attended an event by flying to it, and at the time, it was a big deal to me. And all worth it because I still have the picture in my mind of J's mother smiling down lovingly at her granddaughter in her arms.

magical memories - Big Thunder BBQ at Disneyland, then and now

One of the restaurants that used to be at Disneyland was called Big Thunder Barbeque. When I got my first annual pass and started hanging out with a bunch of people at Disneyland, Big Thunder Barbeque was one of our favorite places to go. They had great-tasting barbeque in a nice setting with dirt floors to match the theming of the restaurant. There was also a nice firepit that would have a roaring fire at night. It was nice to have lunch there, but it was really great to have dinner there. Either way, our group was usually big enough to take up a couple of tables, and we'd sit around after we were done eating to just chat and enjoy each other's company. If we had dinner there, we'd watch and listen to the crackling fire and watch the kids who would invariably be gathered around it. Even in the middle of summer, we'd still want to go to the barbeque, but if it was a really hot day, we'd just wait until dinner time to go, when the heat had died down some.

There were a number of times when I'd just sit at one of the tables, maybe having bought just a drink. A stage show called the Festival of Fools was performed in the adjoining arena, so you could hear the show from there. If they were in the middle of a show, they wouldn't let you in anymore, but you could hear the show from the barbeque seating. And I became enough of a regular at the show that I could generally recognize the voices and so knew which actor/actress was playing which role for that particular show. I'd wait in that area until the show was over, and then I'd wander into the arena to wait for the next show.

One of the most memorable times at Big Thunder Barbeque sort of involved the Festival of Fools show. There was a little alcove nearby where the show performers might come out to talk to people. One of the people we were friends with, K, had gotten to know the performers, so she'd wait around in that alcove for them to come out. One night, after we'd seen a show, we wandered over there with her. We said hi to them, and she stayed and talked to them for a while, and we ended up heading to dinner first. K said she'd meet us at the barbeque in a bit, after she was done talking to them, so we said ok. We made our way to the barbeque and got in line. The husband had wanted to order something, but for some reason, it wasn't available that night. I can't remember what the item was, though. We all put our orders in, got our food and found a table to settle ourselves. He had also ordered an apple cobbler for dessert (a dessert item that was quite popular at that location), and they said they'd bring it out to the table. After we'd sat down and had started our meal, someone came out and was very apologetic that they had APPARENTLY (TM) run out of the apple cobbler. The person asked the husband if there was any of the other desserts he wanted, but there wasn't anything else, so the husband just asked for a refund. The person apologized some more for the mixup.

The person was gone for a little while and then came back with the refund of the cobbler - as well as a humongous plate of food. There were several pieces from each of the meat items on the menu - beef ribs, pork ribs, chicken, and I believe even a turkey leg. It was just about closing time for the restaurant, and I guess they had all that leftover food anyway, but they felt bad that two times that night, the husband had been disappointed that something he wanted wasn't available, so they decided to bring out the extra goodies for us. We thanked them very much for bringing all of that out to us. We each helped ourselves to one of the items from the plate, but there was still plenty left. Very soon thereafter, we saw our friend K about to get in line to buy her dinner since she was done talking to the performers, so we yelled out to her that all she needed was to get a drink. She was confused but complied, and it wasn't until she came to the table with her drink that she saw all the food on the table. We explained the situation to her and said there was no point in her buying more food since we already had so much at the table.

We had such a good dinner that night!


Then on a weekend in January of 2001, the husband and I happened to decide to go to the barbeque for lunch. And we were stunned to learn that it was closing day of the barbeque. We'd not heard about that, and not very many people seemed to have known ahead of time either, and this was way before the days when any little bit of news immediately hit the internet and Twitter and Facebook and such. They had made souvenir plastic mugs that they were selling, so we of course bought one. It was cute regardless, but it was also a nice commemoration of the barbeque.






We were sad that the barbeque was closing. They've had barbeque items at various times since then at some of the other Disneyland restaurants, but none of them have matched the flavor of Big Thunder Barbeque's, and none of them even came close to matching the atmosphere.


Well, as of earlier this month, barbeque has returned to the Big Thunder Ranch area. It's a bit different, and it's really kind of funny how much of a geek some of us were to be so happy just to be able to eat in that area again - and then we were having barbeque there again no less!

Here's my review of our Easter lunch visit to the new barbeque at Big Thunder Ranch. We won't be going nearly as often to this barbeque meal as during its previous incarnation, but with our Easter visit, we've already started making more magical memories.

magical memories - where everybody knows your name

I am going to be spending part of my day at the Disneyland Resort today. Yeah, I know, big surprise. Those who know me probably don't find that odd, but there are people who know me who still don't understand how I could possibly spend so much time there without being bored, and how many times can I go on the rides, and what the heck do I DO there all the time anyway?

Well, if people don't get it, there's really no explaining. But, the times that I have tried, I've told them that it's really not that different than spending time at the park or at the mall or wherever else one wants to just hang out and sometimes even be with friends - it just so happens that when we're done shopping and browsing and eating, there are always rides nearby that we can go on or a show to see.

But oftentimes, it's the seemingly mundane things that I've enjoyed the most out of my experiences at the Resort.

Years ago, I spent a lot of time at Coke Corner on Main Street. There's a piano player there, and while different people would work at different times and days, the perennial piano player for years and years was Rod Miller. He played and talked and joked, and because of being around other people, I got to know him a bit as well. There were a lot of people who would regularly gather at Coke Corner to hear Rod play and just hang out with other regulars. I guess I could liken it to the bar at Cheers - a comfortable place to hang out, with the assurance that at almost every moment, you'd run into someone there that you knew, and whether it had been a good day or a bad day, that's where you wanted to be at the end of the day to either have other people commiserate or celebrate with you.

One night, I was there with the husband (I think he was the SO at the time), and friends J and K were there as well. We sat at a table that was right next to the piano, which itself was on a raised platform, so people could stand next to it and kind of lean on the piano. The four of us just sat around talking about various things and joking around, a non-moment of sorts, but a really fun one. For some reason, either J or K had a pad of post-it notes, and K was playing with it, and she ended up just writing stuff and tagging things, like she'd write "table" and then peel the post-it off and stick it on the table. She'd write "nose" and then stick it on J's nose - stuff like that.

And then somehow or other, we noticed the guy that was standing behind where she and I were sitting - we had our backs to the piano - as he was listening to Rod play and talking to Rod. We didn't know the guy, but he was wearing a light jacket, like a Member's Only jacket. I don't remember how it came about, but she and I made some comment about the guy and how she should tag him with a post-it. She ended up writing "random dude" on a post-it, and it took a while for her to work up the nerve and opportunity, but she eventually managed to surreptitiously place the post-it on his jacket without him knowing. And, of course, as soon as she was able to do it, she and I melted into silent peels of laughter (didn't want to draw the guy's attention and risk him immediately noticing that he'd been tagged). For a couple of us, "random dude" became a code word for all time, and it still instantly evokes that night, that moment.

Rod Miller retired several years ago, back in 2005, I think. I ran into him once or twice after that, but I haven't seen him since. I heard a while ago that he sometimes stops by at the piano for a little bit on Saturday nights, but I'm rarely at Disneyland on Saturday nights. I don't really know anyone who has kept in touch with him, but if anyone has, and you care to do so, please pass along my greetings and well wishes to him. I think about him every time I pass the piano, and I hope he's well.

I don't know if I can really say that K and I were friends - we didn't really know each other all that well, though we did hang out at various times. I really liked her and would have liked to have gotten to know her better, but that just never seemed to pan out. We did have a lot of good times, many moments of laughter and some moments of personal sharing, and I'm thankful for all of them. I think about her periodically as well, wondering what she's been up to. Just the other day, I heard the song "All Star" by Smash Mouth, and I've always associated that song with her because she would sing the song, mostly the beginning of the chorus, often. YouTube won't let me embed the video, but here's the link.

Wherever you are, and whatever you're doing, Kaz, I hope you're happy, healthy and well. Thanks for some amazing Disneyland memories.