I've yet to eat breakfast today. I need to rectify that. *eats Cocoa Puffs* Mmm....
Well, today is "Update Day," where I'm going out searching on the Net and updating all my programs to their latest versions (except WinAmp, which will stay at 2.95).
OK, while my computer is downloading, I might as well type out some stuff to update you guys on my life.
A week ago Friday,
Jenny came over to stay the night so , we could go to King's Dominion on Saturday. We had a good time and we watched Phonebooth together. It was a great movie and I recommend it to anyone who likes psychological thrillers.Saturday, we went down there. She had bought e-tickets for us, so we wouldn't have to wait a long time at the front gate. We rode down there, setting out at about 7:30 AM, and I ended up sleeping about half of the time. We stopped at McDonald's and I got 2 Sausage McGriddles and a medium orange juice, my normal McDonald's breakfast. After that, I was much more awake.
We got down there, and there weren't that many people, so we parked somewhat close to the front. It turns out the e-tickets weren't very necessary, since the lines weren't very long anyway. So, we go through the gate, and I get that wand waved over me due to me setting off the metal detector. That was inevitable, I guess, since I wear steel-toed tennis shoes. Well, we're going through the main street trying to figure out where to go when we realize that we don't have a map, so we go back and get one. According to the map, we were in the north, and most of the rides we wanted to go on were in "The Grove" which was in the southwest, so we decided to make a roughly counter-clockwise circuit around the park.
Most of the rides in the "Old Virginia" section weren't interesting or were closed, so we just ended up going on The Grizzly, the only roller coaster in that section. It was a great old wooden roller coaster, even though
Jenny kept accidentally poking my kidney with her elbow. Also, there was one underpass we went under and I felt the need to duck or be decapitated. Well, after that, we went into "The Grove" and wanted to go on the Hypersonic XLC. However, the ride hadn't opened yet and the line was already a quarter of the way across the park. We were like, "Screw this," and went on the famous Rebel Yell. The backwards side didn't open until noon, so we just went on the forwards side. It was fun, and she said we should go on the backwards side when it opened.After that, we walked around the park for a bit, trying to figure out what to do. We decided to go on the Shockwave, a standing-up coaster. It was pretty cool, even though the line was long. I brought my book, Children of the Mind and got a dozen pages read before we got on. After that,
Jenny wanted to go on the Triple Spin, which has 3 wheels of seats that rotate, and the wheels themselves are connected to a central thing that spins. The line was very long, but I convinced Jenny that that was deceptive, since the ride could hold 42 people at a time. We got on quickly, and it was a fun ride, combining the fun of the Teacups down at Disney World with the up and down circling of the Tidal Wave at Ocean City.After that, we walked around some more, looking for something to do.
Jenny kept wanting to go on the Drop Zone tower, but I kept telling her I didn't want to. She finally convinced me to go on the Xtreme SkyFlyer, the only ride in the park where you have to pay to get on. The main way she convinced me was to pay my $20 along with hers. So, we went on it. It was kind of a combination of bungee jumping with swinging. It took her a bit to get into the harness, while I got into it easily. They walked us up to a platform where we got hooked up. They lowered the platform and we ended up on our bellies, which was a weird sensation for a few moments. Then, they cranked us up. We went up, and up, and up, and up, and up. It must have been about 10 stories high. About 3/4 of the way up, Jenny said, "Oh, my God!" and I said, "Yeah, and we're still going up." We get to the top and the woman at the bottom says, "Flight Zone Delta! 3, 2, 1, FLY!!!!" I went to pull the ripcord, and it caught for half a second before it released. Once it let go, we were in free fall. Let me just say that free falling is the FREAKIEST sensation I've ever experienced. Jenny screamed the whole way down and my body was completely rigid from extreme terror. Once we got to the bottom of the rope and started swinging instead of falling, it was pretty cool. I spread my arms out like Superman, while Jenny was still recovering from the shock for a couple swings. I was up there waving at the people on the ground who looked like ants and trying to comfort Jenny as much as I could. She came back around after a bit. The woman later said, "On the next swing, grab the blue loop." Jenny was telling me that she thought her arms were too short to grab it and I said, "I don't care if you grab it. Just try." We finally got down and off the thing. While we were getting off, another two people were getting on, and I heard one of the guys saying, "I'm going to kill my mom for making me get on this thing." Afterwards, we went to the little booth to watch our video. We liked it so much, we bought two copies, one for each of us. All in all, that was a fun ride I will never get on again. (Edit: Here is the video.) After that, we wound down by getting on the Rebel Yell backwards. I kept saying, "Synchronize them!" to the guys in the coaster booth, but they wouldn't listen. I must say that backwards is much different when compared to forwards, but it's still fun.After that, we were hungry, so we went to get something to eat, since it was just after noon. We each got two slices of pepperoni pizza and a soda. I ended up eating both my slices and one of hers, since she always leaves about half her food to be thrown away. I'm just the kind of guy who doesn't like food to go to waste.
Well, we decided on no more jaw-dropping rides for an hour after we ate. I decided that I wanted to go to the Lazer Tag thing and I tried to convince
Jenny to go, too. Well, she wimped out, complaining about her knee. (It's a legitimate excuse.) I ended up going in alone. I like Lazer Tag because it's kind of like playing an online FPS, but in reality.When I went to suit up, I looked for numbers 4, 7, or 47. I couldn't find 7 or 47, and one of the guys got to 4 before I did. Oh well. I took what I called "lucky 13." We went in, and the warm-up part was going on. It was only just before the actual game started when I realized there were no green guys and only red guys. I had thought it was a team thing, like when I went down to Ocean City. It ended up just being us 3 guys against each other. Well, I went for cover when it started, trying to rethink my strategy. I popped out and had a ball. It was great, even though I knew I sucked. We got our scorecards, and I found I was in third place. Boo! But, I had fun, nonetheless, so I was like, "I suck, but I don't care. It was great!" My scorecard showed my stats. My score: -1400. Shots fired: 168. Player hits: 6. Accuracy: 3.6%. Shots received: 13. Yeah. I suck, but I had fun, which is the best part. I looked at my card and realized it wasn't AS bad as it seemed. Player 1 shot me 5 times and I shot him 4 times, so it was pretty even with him. Player 4, however, was much better, with him hitting me 8 times and me only hitting him twice. I think I'm out of practice with Lazer Tag. I didn't even realize I'd spent 20 minutes in there. It only seemed like 5 minutes.We then decided to go on the Anaconda, and tried to get to it my simply going straight towards the ride. However, amusement parks aren't designed that way. We ended up getting lost for about 40 minutes in the "WaterWorks" section before we figured out where to get out and go on the map. The map is a bit weird. Anyway, we finally figured out how to get there, and I began realizing how hot I was. It wasn't a bright idea to wear black jeans and a black Star Trek T-shirt on a hot day. (I was all blacked-out that day, with black underwear, black socks, and black shoes. WHAT was I thinking?) After getting to the "Congo" section,
Jenny wanted to get on the Volcano Blast coaster instead of the Anaconda, but that line was just too long. We tried the Avalanche, but the ride was closed to new riders, even though there was still a line to get on. Well, we got on the Anaconda and had a good time, with me getting a few more pages read in the line. We went back to the Volcano, and the line was still too long, so we went to try the Flight of Fear. That looked promising until we got right up on it, and realized exactly how long the line was. So, we were going to leave the "Congo" area, when we saw that the Volcano line had diminished somewhat, so we got in it. I was reading my book for a while, but it just got way too hot to think, so I put it away. People were just dripping sweat in that line. I mentioned to one guy that I thought we should be splashing through the line with all this sweat coming off everyone. I said, "They really get you into the Volcano mood with the heat." He laughed. Later on in the line, I saw a guy with a T-shirt I liked. It said, "Welcome to America! NOW SPEAK ENGLISH!" I laughed at it, knowingly, since I've worked in the McDonald's drive-thru. It was getting really hot in the line and I mentioned to another guy that they could make a mint if they'd merely turn one of the little theme-based shacks next to the line into a drink stand. I mean, that's what I do when I'm playing Roller Coaster Tycoon. We started getting closer to the ride and we started feeling the heat of the fire that bursts out of the top of the volcano every couple minutes. It had to be at least five stories up, and we could still feel it. Well, we finally got up to the ride and what do I see, but some guy who's noticed my shirt and throws up the "Live Long and Prosper" sign. It's always cool to find a fellow Trekkie. The ride was cool. You didn't know which direction you were going sometimes, since it twisted and looped so much.After that, we were so hot, we decided to go in the "WaterWorks" section. We went to get a locker to put our stuff in, but the lady said that they were out of keys. She said that that was the first time she'd ever seen that happen. I told
Jenny that people were probably going in and out of lockers every few minutes, so we should wait about five minutes and one would free up. Sure enough, that's what happened. We got a locker, changed, and went out roaming the "WaterWorks" section. Well, Jenny, for the life of her, could not decide what ride to go on. After ten minutes, I finally had enough and said, "I'll decide where to go," and I went to the Spiral Slide, where there were two water slides that twisted around each other. In line, Jenny was impatient, while I got into a nice conversation with the lady and children behind us. Anyway, we got to the top and pushed off. I got stuck at the top, and had to pull myself along until enough water pressure built up behind me to push me down. It was pretty fun and Jenny didn't even have any trouble. We then had more trouble figuring out what to go on next, so we ended up going on the Lazy River, which is just a slow-moving water ride where you just float on a tube. That was fun for ten minutes, and I had fun talking to a couple and their daughter while riding. After that, I wanted to go on another, faster tube ride, but Jenny was adamant that she didn't want any more water, so we changed and left.We finally went to the Hypersonic, since the line had gone down. However, we spent two hours in the line. The ride broke down twice and they tried to "upgrade" it once.
Jenny finally got pissed and we left the line. I had gotten to page 109 of Children of the Mind while in that line.After that, we got some drinks at a Chinese food place and realized that most of the food places were shutting down. We went on the Hurler after that, and it was a fun coaster. While in line for that, the guys behind us were putting up different gang hand signs, so I put up the "Live Long and Prosper" sign. One of the guys said, "What gang is that?" His girlfriend punched him in the arm, pointed at my shirt, and said, "Dummy! That's the Star Trek thing!" I was like, "Yeah. It's the "Live Long and Prosper" gang. It's the Vulcan gang." They all laughed at that.
Jenny saw a ride that she wanted to go on, but we couldn't figure out how to get to it. So I decided we should stop, pull out the map, and figure it out. I pulled out the map and tried to calculate our position from what we could see. I had figured out where we were, and was figuring out where the ride we saw was when Jenny got impatient and snatched the map out of my hands, saying, "Gimme that!" Well, I snatched it back, we got into a fight, words were exchanged, and she stormed off. Well, I stormed off in the other direction. I finally sat down and my phone rang. It was her. I put her on ignore the first time, but answered her when she called back the second time. She was looking for me, so we guided ourselves to each other. She said she was sorry, but I was still angry, and she didn't sound very convincing. I ended up snatching her "precious" Joe McIntyre pictures out of her hand and said, "How do you like things snatched out of your hand?" She got REALLY pissy at that, said some expletives, and stormed off again, after I jammed her pictures back into her hand. So, I went back to sitting down somewhere and I called my mom, since Jenny was my ride. In the middle of my conversation with her, Jenny called back, so I went out to find her again. We tried to make up, but it didn't really work, since I asked, "Why do we DO this to each other all the time?" I told her that it's gotten worse over the past few years. When she asked if we were still friends, I told her I didn't want to be friends if we were going to do this all the time. She went off crying. I thought a second, then went after her, asking, "Can you at least give me a ride home?" She nodded. My mom called while we were walking towards the car. She asked if we'd made up and I was coming home with Jenny. I said I was coming home, but we hadn't really made up. So we get out to the parking lot and we are trying to find the car, but we can't seem to find it. I asked Jenny where she parked it. She told me that she'd parked it between the green signs of E3 and E4. (Emphasis mine.) So, we're searching for the car. We still couldn't find it. We searched up and down the E3 and E4 sections and still couldn't find it. We expanded our search to E2 and E5. No luck. During this time, I told her that I took it back and I still wanted to be friends, but apparently, she didn't pay attention, because later this week, she's calling and e-mailing me, asking why I'd want to break off a friendship of 19 years. So, this right here is my call to Jenny: I still want to be friends with you.We split up several times to cover more ground, always calling each other after about five minutes to regroup. One of the times, though,
Jenny asked me to hold her bag for her, and I did. We split up again, and after about five minutes, I found a lady that tried to be helpful, but wasn't. I thanked her anyway, and called Jenny. The bag I was holding started ringing. I'm there like, "Oh, crap!" So for 15 minutes, I'm not only searching for the car, but searching for Jenny as well. I'm yelling, calling out to her, with people looking at me like I'm crazy, which by that point, I was. I was praying to God, "Dear Almighty, Infinite, Loving, Heavenly Father, please help me find the car and Jenny. I don't care in what order." We later found each other, but she never heard me calling. Oh well. After 2 hours of searching, we FINALLY found the car. Guess where it was. It was in the BLUE section, between D3 and D4, right near the gates.We got in the car, and left, stopping at McDonald's afterwards. I was so tired of walking, I just got a soda, and was half-asleep in the line and in the car.
Jenny got a cheeseburger and fries and munched on them as we went home. I fell asleep in the car, even though she was keeping some loud punk music and rap music on to keep her awake while driving. We went back to my house and just crashed.(Here's a link to the story from her point of view.)
Sunday,
Jenny was gone when I awoke, and my parents had already gone to church. When they came back, I found out that they'd gone to Brooklyn Bible Chapel instead of Loch Hill. My mom thought it would be a good idea, since my dad's been having problems with Loch Hill, as I mentioned in a previous post. They said they had a pretty good time there and felt quite welcome, especially since a large amount of people who emigrated from Loch Hill after the merger went to Brooklyn, a sister church. I don't know if this is supposed to be a permanent change or not, since we didn't go to any church this week.Well, my mom and her friend Mary went to California two days ago to meet another friend of hers, Lois. I think they're staying there a week. I'm alone with my dad until she gets back. It is pretty cool with my dad, though. For dinners, we had KFC two nights ago and pizza last night.
Yesterday, my dad and his friend David were working on the roof and they are doing so again today. Yesterday, after David went home, he gave my dad a kitten to bring back to our house. The mother had a litter and he said we'd be a better home for it, since his fat neighbor accidentally killed two of its siblings by not watching where he was walking and stepping on them. *severely beats the neighbor* *mutters* Inconsiderate, stupid
Anyway, my dad took him home and named him Stripes. He's a cute thing, but he wouldn't eat. I wanted to get a picture of him, but none of them turned out since he was too dark for my camera. Stamps ran away from him, Mittens hissed at him, Frankie just walked away, and Squiggy wasn't bothered at all. The dogs were fascinated by him, and he had a good time playing with Galaxy, our ferret, since she's the same size he is. However, my dad had to take him back since we determined he hadn't been weaned yet. My dad told David to not let that neighbor in anymore. Now David isn't the brightest grape in the bunch, since he got kicked in the head by a horse when he was five, but he does follow directions, so we should get the kitten back in a week or so.
My dad and David are out on the porch, building chairs and I just ate some lunch of pizza and orange juice. Now, to get back on track with all the posts I've missed while typing all of this.
