Halloween Horror Night at Universal
Oct. 21st, 2005|10:50 am: I’m the middle of my 2 hour layover in North Carolina right now. I’m sitting in some airport bar called The Stock Car Cafe which appears to worship all forms of Nascar. This is my first time in this airport. I’ve visited a lot of airports for the first time this year – Salt Lake City, Kansas City, JFK, Minneapolis, Charlotte, San Francisco and soon Orlando. I guess most of my airport experiences were limited to the west and the south before.
Had to get up at 5:00 this morning to make sure I got to the airport on time. Got some Angel Cream donuts to eat on the drive there. Been a pretty uneventful trip so far, just reading more Mark Twain biography. Tried to sleep for some of the flight but that didn’t work too good so I resorted to reading again. Guess I should go find my gate now…
Oct. 24th, 2005|6:10pm: I’m sitting at my gate right now, waiting for them to start boarding our flight. There’s this guy a few seats away from me who’s playing all his voicemail messages on speakerphone at full volume. It’s really obnoxious. Funny thing is, he’s broadcasting the phone number and message of everyone that has called him to everyone in listening range. I can tell by the automated prompts that he uses T-Mobile. I bet I could easily SE his phone number out of the people that have called him, then SE his passcode from T-Mobile. Wonder how he would react to me playing his messages on my own speakerphone at full volume. Of course, that’s evil and I just wouldn’t do that.
6:30pm – Okay, on the plane now, waiting for takeoff. My weekend was great. Jammie and I just split ways since we leave from different terminals. Our friend yo_mama and his wife flew out too, so we all spent the weekend together. On Friday I met up with them, we checked into our hotel, ate steak, then picked up Jammie. We did the Halloween Horror Night thing on Saturday evening until 2:00am. Then Steak N Shake until 3:00am, then back to the hotel.
Jammie and I got up the next morning and spent some time in the various pools and the hottub. Then checked out of the hotel, checked into a new one, ate lunch at Carabbas and went back to Universal. Yo_mama & company had to leave after just one show (Terminator 3-D) since we arrrived kind of late.
Me and Jammie stayed behind and did a lot of the basic Universal-type things such as E.T, Back to the Future (I got a picture with a Doc Brown lookalike!), Men in Black, the earthquake subway ride, etc. I am now officially spoiled with the Express Pass which lets you cut in lines. We didn’t have them for Halloween Horror but we did for regular Universal. Never again will I not get them!
The park closed at 7:00pm and we caught a cab back to the hotel. This morning Jammie and I decided to get some breakfast at Dennys which was 2 or 3 blocks away. Normally this wouldn’t be such a problem but there was the outskirts of Hurricane Wilma passing through town. It had been storming all night and I thought it looked better outside when we left but I was wrong.
After just a few minutes our umbrellas were broken and, for the most part, useless . The wind and rain were really strong and we had to cross two busy highways. I think the entire walk/run took maybe 15 – 20 minutes and we were soaked and a little disappointed that Denny’s didn’t didn’t have electric hand dryers in their bathrooms.
We dried off, had some breakfast, filled out a few postcards and then TOOK A CAB back to the hotel. A few hours later the rain and wind disappeared and the sun came out. Jammie and I took a stroll around the huge hotel property for awhile, then got a cab to the airport. And that brings you to now – I’m in a plane and nearing the Charlotte airport. I did this entire entry with my Pocket PC’s on-screen keyboard. Impressive, eh? It’s actually quite speedy with its word-completion feature. Hopefully there aren’t too many typos.
One of the more bizarre things about the past 24 hours were our neighbors at the hotel. Our room had a connecting door with theirs and all they seemed to do were scream at each other and beat their kids. At one point we heard the dad (we assume) yell at a kid to stop crawling on the floor, lots of slapping, lots of crying, then the dad screaming at him to stop crying. Sheesh, poor kids. This went on all Sunday evening and today until we left. Luckily they slept at night. It must suck to be angry and screaming 24/7. It must suck even more to be their kids. You’d think people like that would eventually die of a heart attack from being so stressed out all the time. And to think, they were in a resort, likely on vacation. Wonder how pissed off and stressed out they get when they’re not on vacation.
Ahhhh, landed at last. Time to upload all this dribble while i wait for my connecting flight. Here are some pictures…
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| Our hotel room | View from our balcony – the hotel’s atrium | Bill & Ted’s Excellent Halloween Adventure show |
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| Jammie – she’s not posing, she’s actually gripped in fear here | Jammie holding a crocodile | Forgot to mention the kickass present Jammie got for me from Ebay – a Mark Twain doll! Mark hung out with me all day. |
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| Mark getting a little crazy after a few drinks | Be somebody! First my name in the phone book and now this! | At some hotel, while waiting for the water taxi to take us to Universal |
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| Me and a Doc Brown | Apparently this is the actual Delorean used in all the movies | Me feigning genuine shock and surprise as a Delorean crashes through the wall towards me. |
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| Me by the Universal globe | Us and Jaws |
Oct. 24th, 2005|09:04 pm: I think this flight attendant is either hitting on me or screwing with me. Before we departed she sat next to me and the dialogue went something like this…
“I’m going to sit next to this cute guy for awhile.”
“I’m not cute. I think you’re mistaken.”
“Oh, you’re cute. Believe me, I’ve seen some dogs get on this plane before and you’re not one of them.” (her rant actually went on longer than that but that’s the most I can remember.)
“Well, okay, you win.”
“You want me to bring you back some first class food?”
“Ehh, that’s okay.”
“How about some of their popcorn?”
“Nah, I’m really okay.”
“A cocktail?”
“Hehe…I’m not that much of a drinker. I’m pretty happy with the Pepsi and pretzels we usually get.”
“You don’t drink?? I like you even more now.”
Eventually she left to make flight announcements , but 30 minutes later she comes over, puts my tray down for me (seat in the middle since I have a whole row to myself), sets down a full can of Coke (as opposed to the half can we usually get), apologizes that it’s not Pepsi, and 2 bags of pretzels. It’s so nice to have a delusional flight attendent mistake me for cute and give me extra stuff.
Only 30 minutes or so left until St. Louis…then a 45 minute drive home to Alton. My house will probably be freezing since it’s in the lower 40’s out and I haven’t had the furnace on since last Spring.
Oct. 24th, 2005|11:30 pm: As I pulled up to the booth to leave long-term parking, I noticed the booth attendent was sleeping. I waited for a few seconds but she didn’t move. I revved the engine and she didn’t budge. She appeared to be in a pretty deep sleep, mouth hanging open and all that. It’s too bad they had the thing blocking me from leaving or I could have saved paying the parking fee. I tapped the horn a few times and she stirred. A few more taps on the horn and she finally awoke and took my money. One thing I didn’t think to do was take a picture of the sleeping parking attendent. Ah well…