Signs of the Times, Issue No. 118 - 08/22/10

Sorry, I'm here for the rides.

Greetings to one and all. It's Aaron again and this is a special edition of "Signs of the Times." I was in Disneyland all of last week, thus the lack of Newsletter... but judging by the lack of concern shown by my inbox last week, you're all doing ok, so I guess that's a good thing. The topic to be discussed today: The Week in Review. On we go!

It has become a tradition of sorts for EFY counselors to take a yearly trip to the Happiest Place on Earth at the end of the summer. This year was no exception. I knew early on that I wanted to go, so I put my money down. I wanted some of my good friends to go, too, because I knew what this would end up being - a flirt fest/popularity contest where everybody would say, "Oh hey, EFY's over, let's do whatever we want." After weeks and weeks of begging, my friends turned down the offer and I realized that I'd be going basically by myself. It wouldn't be that big of a problem, though. I had met a lot of counselors and I feel comfortable making new friends. What I was most afraid of going into this trip was essentially being the "third wheel," so to speak - being stuck with a large group of tight friends and basically following them around all week. So I prepared myself mentally to walk around the park by myself for three days and hoped for the best. Who really cares, though? At least if I had to go and be alone, I'd be going alone in Disneyland. I was going for the rides, not the women. I hadn't been to Disneyland in five years and I was determined to have a great trip, no matter the circumstances.

Buenos dias.

We had a meeting on Sunday night where all my suspicions were confirmed. Only one person even acknowledged my presence when I arrived and I quickly noticed that I didn't even know 70% of the counselors there. To make a long story short, it ended up to be perhaps more of a flirt fest/popularity contest than I expected initially. This didn't bother me - like I said, I was there for the rides, not the ladies - but I did get stuck with a certain stalker I once had at Snow College following me around all week (See Issue No. 24). That was unfortunate, but hey - at least she shared my desire to ride as many rides as possible and I didn't have to worry about flirting with her, so that was kind of nice. I know what my mom would have told me - "Get out there and make some new friends!" - and I would have been fine with that. But the problem was that none of those counselors were at Disneyland to make new friends. They were all out there to celebrate a successful summer of romance or to start one of their own. And I wasn't down with that. I kept this on the D.L. all summer (and for good reason, as you'll soon see), but I dated an EFY counselor for about a month and a half over the summer. At least I thought we were dating. I guess that was debatable. She eventually shut me down, citing distance as the main problem. She lives in Cedar City, which is, understandably, pretty far away from Sandy, but I didn't want that to be an issue. Oh well. It was. She was at Disneyland, but I had planned on keeping my distance from her - she once told me that she would be ok with spending time with me on the trip, but let me know that she would also be going with "60 other friends," so if I was expecting anything more than a few rides, I was crazy. The week was an awkward one with her. She hardly even looked at me throughout the vacation, only taking one time to speak to me, in which she encouraged me to flirt more - just not with her. Point taken. So, if any of you wanted to know whether or not I had a little Disneyland romance last week, you can bet your sweet bippy that I didn't even consider it for a second.

Here's something that bugged me all week - Our hotel was like four or five blocks away from Disneyland. That didn't bug me. What bugged me was that counselors would often go back to the hotel to take naps during the day. As they say, there will be plenty of time to sleep when I'm dead. On Thursday night, they ordered a bunch of pizza for us so we could have Pizza Night. Good idea. But I didn't end up going because they wanted us to go back to the hotel to eat it. If they would have just had us meet up for pizza at one of the places in the park, I would have done that, but I didn't want to have to leave the park to eat. Instead, I had a $3 churro. As they say, there will be plenty of time to eat pizza when I'm dead. And what confused me the most was that many of the counselors left the park entirely on Thursday to go to the beach instead. Remind me for a second why you paid $275 to go to Disneyland if you didn't even want to be there... Especially when you have a swimming pool at your house at home! Strange. Like I said all along, I was there to be there. I was there to have fun in the park. If I wanted to hang out with my buddies and flirt with the ladies, I could have stayed at home and gotten an account on eHarmony for about the same price.

Driving the Indiana Jones ride.

On a lighter note, Disneyland is sweet! A lot of things have changed in the last five years. There are a few new rides, most notably Toy Story Mania in California Adventure. It's similar to the Buzz Lightyear ride in the sense that the ride is an interactive game, but Toy Story Mania is 3D and features four or five games instead of one. The only ride that was shut down this time around was Star Tours, which will reopen in 2011. The rumors I've heard insist that, when the ride reopens, it will be based on the new trilogy of the Star Wars series - possibly based on podracing. Since I last visited the park, It's a Small World has also undergone renovations and it now includes characters from popular Disney movies like Toy Story, Alice in Wonderland, Pinocchio, and Lilo and Stitch, among others. The submarines are in working condition again, now featuring an entire ride based on Finding Nemo. And this was the first time I had been on the renovated Pirates of the Caribbean ride, which now features several sections of the ride centered around characters from the movies, like Jack Sparrow, Captain Barbossa, and Davy Jones. As always, I loved going on Splash Mountain, Indiana Jones, Space Mountain, and the Tower of Terror. I went on at least 67 rides in three days (I lost track on Thursday), including those rides at least five times each. Good times.

One of my faves!

One of the newest features at California Adventure is a water show called World of Color that they do every night. I wasn't too excited about spending so much of my time going early to save space for us to watch it, but it ended up being amazing. Water fountains spray water probably hundreds of feet into the air and then lasers project images from some of Disney's most famous movies onto the watery canvas as music is played and it ends up being quite the spectacle. I posted a bunch of pictures on Facebook. Go check them out. There were a few other activities that all the counselors did together, including one of the parades during the day on Tuesday. We're all crazy and love to dance, so the performers loved us, which made it a lot of fun.

Buzz and Woody at World of Color.

Eventually, my worst fears came true as I spent an hour and a half alone in the park on Thursday. It was actually really enjoyable. I didn't have to worry about stalkers or who to talk to or who not to talk to. I just had a few hours of Aaron time. This was when I went on the Nemo submarines and also saw the Captain EO 3D show, which was originally released in 1986. That thing is hilarious! And the funny thing is that, back in 1986, that show wouldn't have been funny at all. Imagine Michael Jackson (the Black one) fighting evil with his music, dance moves, and rainbow shirt. Imagine him and a cast of Muppet Star Wars characters breaking into song and dance and turning the villains into back-up dancers with bad mullets. (Was there ever such a thing as a good mullet??) That show was hilarious. Well worth my half hour. I was laughing the whole time.

Whoa! 3D!

On the way home, the ride should have taken about 10 or 11 hours, but it ended up taking us 14 hours to get back. Most of the other cars that were driving back got home about four hours before we did, if not earlier. I didn't get home until 12:45 on Saturday morning. Some blamed traffic. That was partially the case, but I just blame really, really slow driving. For a period of time - maybe two hours - I don't think we went faster than 65. I never want to spend that much time in a car in a single day ever again. However, the ride turned hilarious at about 9:30 or so that night when the sleep deprivation really kicked in and we had ourselves a Backstreet Boys concert and dance party in the car. I also came up with a brilliant plan to create a new Broadway show called "Avatar: The Musical." It's going to be amazing. Who wouldn't go crazy for that showstopper, "I Can't Believe You're a Paraplegic!" or that age-old classic, "Welcome to the Armed Forces - We Just Incinerated Your Brother, You Loser"? I'm telling you - it's going to be a hit.

Here's a quick Shoutout of the Week to Amelia Parker and Christian Hong, my two homedawgs last week. You guys are great.

SHOUTOUT!!

That's about it for now. I suppose I should go to bed. Tomorrow I start my final semester at the University of Utah. I'll have another Newsletter for you on Tuesday. EFY is over and I'm back to my so-called normal life. Love it or hate it, you know you'll keep reading.

Until next Time,

Move It! Sell It! And Leave the Door Open!

Aaron