Rollercoasters! Yay!
Oct. 27th, 2003 08:27 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kjpepperGreat weekend. Positively smashing! :)
Friday after my hustled post, and after a ride was given by beatgoddess (who is both beat and a goddess, even when she's all silly and not awake yet sometimes) to the mall,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
gossamer_gull and inle_rah whisked the sundart and me off to her house for a fun filled evening of Buffy. Mmm, Buffy. Grr. Argh. We had left off at some point in the middle of season 2, and we devoured a few episodes that evening. Oh, before the Buffy, there was Atkins Farms (always a good idea) where we bought provisions for cooking that night's dinner. I do recommend the cranberry and herb spiced stuffed chicken breast. Yummers. :)
You know, the pioneer valley is really fucking gorgeous in the fall. Wow. All these gently rolling hills carpeted in these wonderful red yellow and orange tones... sigh...
After Buffy addict one and two went to sleep, g.g. and I went for a long walk in the dark and chill and did our usual gee, we're the only two people up at this obscene hour! Let's talk! thing. I vented a lot of crap that I've been carrying around for a few weeks and now feel a little more balanced in general. Shot out to g.g. for patiently listening to me babble for over an hour. Went back home, thawed out with cider, and fell asleep to I love the 80s. zzzzz....
The next daysundart was up way before anyone else was, and then I woke up, then the two actual denizens of the house woke up. Which was okay with me because I got some writing done, and some sappy music played, so that was all good. Then we went to the local convenience store for caffiene and snackies, and amused the hell out of the clerk and a customer for being our usual completely inappropriate selves. I swear we were the high point of the clerk's day. Money was procured, and to the strains of a mix tape I had made gossamer_gull a whiles back, we set off towards the park.
Okay so Fright Fest kicked asses of every size, color and shape. We had sooooooooo much fun! And we took pictures. They get bigger if you click them. :)
When you first walk into the park there are all these misty graveyard type things set up all over the place, with creepy statues and manniquins everywhere. And lots and lots of fog machines! There was a gated off cemetary area in the middle of the main street, but the gate was open and there wasn't a sign saying we couldn't go in, so g.g. and I did, got a quick picture, and got soundly yelled at by a park employee, who conveniently ignored the fact that the gate that they "had up for a reason" was wide open. Silly bopper. At least we got a picture.
We hit the Houdini as our first ride, because we didn't get to go on it last time. Actually, I don't think we repeated a single ride this trip that we went on last time due to ride closings and the fact that we were running around doing other things. Oh we did repeat the Cyclone, but come on that was a roller coaster. Anyway the Houdini, though not fast or heartattack inducing was nevertheless really cool because it cheerfully fucks with your sense of balance and motion. Without making you motion sick. There was a little pre-show before the Houdini ride, and we were stuck in the same group with a bunch of ridiculously susceptable 10 year olds who would scream at every candle flicker, which made enjoying the pre-show kind of a pointless pursuit, but we still had fun.
Onwards to the Tomahawk, which was having a minor technical difficulty, so we thought we'd go on the Rodeo instead in the meantime. Due to the world's slowest and most unenthusiastic park employee, it took maybe forty minutes to get through the line and the ride when it should have taken ten minutes. inle and I were entertained thoroughly by a group of black and latina preteens that we later dubbed The Gaggle. They were in line ahead of us and spent much of their time being mean to a skinny little girl named Whitley that was a little nervous about going on the ride. It turned out that you couldn't go on the ride alone, so the unenthusiastic park employee, heretofore referred to as Joe (yep, his real name) was about to kick this middle aged guy off the ride, but after much taunting by her friends Whitley climbed into the ride with him. Immediately her friends started yelling things like "Go Whitless!" and "No touchy no grabby over there." *shakes head* With friends like these... though I ultimately felt more sorry for the guy than for Whitley.
Finally, after an excruciating period of time, inle and I got on it (it was deliciously stomach turning) and finally we got out of there and joinedsundart and g.g. (who had found a cute little leaf hat in the meantime) and we went back to the now running Tomahawk. That was spinny and swingy, and even though I wasn't quite sick, I did feel a moratorium on the spinny rides was in order. It was a cool ride though, made cooler by the neat "FWOOM" noise the ride made as it swung back and forth.
After the tummies had all been shaken but not stirred, naturally we decided that we were hungry. So we began to make our way back to the area where there was mondo food. On the way there was a ghost/ghoul all in white wearing one of those Scream masks and, inexplicably, Mickey Mouse hands standing in the pathway and grooving to his/herself to the music playing on the loudspeakers. It looked like such a nice, cute ghoul, and there was country fiddle playing, as we were in the section of the park called Crackaxle Canyon. So I skipped up to it, grabbed it around the waist, and danced around and around with it for a few moments, after which it jumped up and down for joy and waved goodbye to us. This little stunt charmed the hell out of my compatriots, who certainly weren't expecting that. Hey, I made the ghoul happy, and the skirt I was wearing was made for dancing. :)
A quick trip to the bathroom was had, and then we procured greasy french fries and other park food entrees before sitting down to chow and fearing the fact that the Gaggle was sitting not far away, and there were more of them than we had seen on the Rodeo. Eep. After we were done gorging ourselves, we stopped to stare in horror at one of the stage shows that were going on all day that involved people in the CHEESIEST monster costumes butchering Dead or Alive's "You Spin Me Right Round" and dancing. You could tell these guys did bad karaoke the rest of the year. Yipes.
Next stop! We revisit the Cyclone, which was a much more pleasant experience than last time, when my seat belt (but not the bar) popped off midway through the ride and I had to hang on for dear life. I screamed anyway. Especially after realizing that the first drop was high enough to really stop and admire the view around the park and the autumn hills lining the horizon. Then we dropped and it was scream scream scream from there. I think I do prefer wooden roller coasters to the metal ones (that whole rickety this-thing's-about-to-cave-in thing). And that one was a good one. Got off it slightly dizzy anyway. :) Inle and g.g. got on it the ride after ours, so we got to watch them sailing about in the Whiplash seat and admire the fact that their hair was flying straight out behind them the whole time. After they got off we all ordered pictures of ourselves, which took a little longer since the chick behind the counter had to go behind the picture booth and rescue sundart's runaway superball. (inle - will send you link for hi rez cyclone pic later today.)
Back to the other end of the park, with another bathroom stop in the same place. "Hey, wait, we were on this ride earlier!" Whilst sitting on the bench waiting for g.g. and sundart to come out, I saw this very frazzled guy with two kids and two GINORMOUS prize bears wearing pjs under each arm. This guy was not tiny and I swear if it came down to a fight between him and one of those bears, I'd put my money on the bear. "Guessing you're going back to the car after this," I teased. The parent just gave me a stressed out nod and a "I dunno if they're going to fit!" before leaving. We also stopped at this neat coffin photo op place and got all see-the-bat. Or in g.g.'s case, die-from-fright-of-the-bat.
We went towards the arcade with the skeeball part of the park next, which they had outfitted as a kind of Area 51 alien invasion thing, which was just cheesy rather than scary, and g.g. and inle went on the Twister whilst sundart and I quite vehemently sat that one out (while I love rides that turn you upside down for a hot second, I'm not all that kosher with rides that turn you upside down and then hold you there). Then we got on the swing ride (cause we just had to) and flew gently around and around... hee.
At that point, g.g. bid us adieu, and the rest of us got on line for the Superman. We went at a really good time too - I had heard horror stories about three hour lines and shutdowns just as you get on the platform and all of that. but amazingly enough it only took maybe 40 minutes to get through the line and on the ride. Oh. My. God. I have never screamed so much in my life. But again, the view was pretty for a second before we went over a NEARLY VERTICAL DROP and were flung mercilessly about for 2 minutes screaming out asses off.
I wanna do that again! Not so much for the ride as for the fucked up adrenaline high afterwards. Whoo boy, the brain chemicals! :)
After adrenaline, we needed to eat, so we grabbed some more dinner like munchies, and g.g. insisted that sundart and I do this cute soda shoppe thing. Which we did. And then I forget why the subject came up but sundart insisted I write down my response to it so I did, here it is:
"Get thee behind me Satan? I've never understood that. I wouldn't want Satan behind me. He might give me a wedgie or something."
After food we found it was finally getting nice and dark, so Six Flags was sending out its army of real ghouls to wander about and scare people. We headed for one of the featured haunted houses called Brutal Planet, which was MC'ed by this loud redneck persona and this effectively creepy girl in ghoul makeup who was a cross between Sara Gilbert from Roseanne and Wednesday addams. Somehow the fact that the entrance to the area was next to the large open dark kitchen area was more creepy than anything else. Brutal Planet was a very well done haunted house thing and I quite enjoyed it once I remembered that the living ghouls inside weren't allowed to touch anyone, just walk around making creepy noises and stare wide-eyed at people.
Bathroom again... "Really, we've been on this one!"
We went to the arcade to play skeeball for a while, and then sundart and I split up from g.g. and inle to go on the Colossus, which is this positively massive Ferris Wheel. Of course we only admired the view once. We spent the rest of the time kissing. Tried to take pictures, but I guess they didn't come out. inle and g.g. tried to get on the Mind Eraser, but then that ride got a case of the technical difficulties.
We decided to call it a night and made our way back to the gate of the park, pausing once for inle and I to take a pic in the Area 51 part of the park (mmm, zombies) and again further up for g.g. to have one last photo op. And then, like last time, we ended our afternoon with a ride on the carousel...
Hee. Thanks, g.g. That was an awesome birthday present.
We went home and watched quite a bit more Buffy, making it as far as four episodes before the end of season 2 - at the same time I began tearing - er, unbraiding the yarn from my hair. Every so often me scalp needs a brushing and the hair needs a thorough scrubbing, plus unbraiding it every so often keeps it from forming interesting dreadlocks. At some point I have to put it back in, as I want to be fully raggedy-anned for the pirate party.
Morning the next - more proof that you can technically get cozy with another person on something as small as a loveseat and still sleep.sundart came downstairs and tucked up with me for a little while. :)
g.g. and inle wanted to head to Sprawl-fart to get the pictures from yesterday developed, so we went, dropped them off, and then went to Friendly's for lunchies. I think that may be the first time I actually had room for dessert after gorging myself on things involving batter fried chicken. Oh, man, but their apple pie sundae was good. :)
We headed back to Wal-mart to pick up the pictures, and then through a vast comedy of errors lost and were lost by inle and g.g. That and on top of that - ugh, got box store itis and remember sitting on a bench fidgeting and whining. I hate florescent lighting... and Wal Mart. But pictures were procured (as you can see) and we went on our merry way home to finish up the second Buffy (ye gods, the angst! I don't think even anime series lay it on quite this thick) and then head back to Northampton, where we related the short short version of our good time tobeatgoddess - and I got that email from Mom. *sigh* *sings* Back to life, back to reality, back to the here and now...
Actually, that story has a more or less good ending. I called up Stan to freak out - er, talk about the fact that I wasn't cool with the location of Thanksgiving. He was all like "well, if you're not comfy with it don't go." Which I knew, but needed to hear from an actual blood relation at least once. I can't say that didn't come without a little bit of guilt tripping but he did have a point about it maybe not turning into such a big deal if my "presence" wasn't such a precious commodity these days. Well and good and point taken, but I didn't really want to talk to anyone I was related to after Father's Day (ee ee oh, ee ee oh...) I felt like they were also responsible for what happened to me then, and I still do, sorta, although I generally don't like holding grudges against people for inaction in a volatile situation, especially as I myself have a tendancy to freeze in the presence of intense confrontation. Although intense confrontation is different from actual abuse. hmm. moral quandry. Must explore further. Stan also brought up something interesting about the family cranial wiring which confirmed a lot of my own suspicions on the matter and also got me thinking. Will probably ramble on about this subject in a later entry. Anyway, it was a good talk, and I'm glad I called him.
And that, kids, was my weekend.
Friday after my hustled post, and after a ride was given by beatgoddess (who is both beat and a goddess, even when she's all silly and not awake yet sometimes) to the mall,
gossamer_gull and inle_rah whisked the sundart and me off to her house for a fun filled evening of Buffy. Mmm, Buffy. Grr. Argh. We had left off at some point in the middle of season 2, and we devoured a few episodes that evening. Oh, before the Buffy, there was Atkins Farms (always a good idea) where we bought provisions for cooking that night's dinner. I do recommend the cranberry and herb spiced stuffed chicken breast. Yummers. :)You know, the pioneer valley is really fucking gorgeous in the fall. Wow. All these gently rolling hills carpeted in these wonderful red yellow and orange tones... sigh...
After Buffy addict one and two went to sleep, g.g. and I went for a long walk in the dark and chill and did our usual gee, we're the only two people up at this obscene hour! Let's talk! thing. I vented a lot of crap that I've been carrying around for a few weeks and now feel a little more balanced in general. Shot out to g.g. for patiently listening to me babble for over an hour. Went back home, thawed out with cider, and fell asleep to I love the 80s. zzzzz....
The next day
sundart was up way before anyone else was, and then I woke up, then the two actual denizens of the house woke up. Which was okay with me because I got some writing done, and some sappy music played, so that was all good. Then we went to the local convenience store for caffiene and snackies, and amused the hell out of the clerk and a customer for being our usual completely inappropriate selves. I swear we were the high point of the clerk's day. Money was procured, and to the strains of a mix tape I had made gossamer_gull a whiles back, we set off towards the park.Okay so Fright Fest kicked asses of every size, color and shape. We had sooooooooo much fun! And we took pictures. They get bigger if you click them. :)
When you first walk into the park there are all these misty graveyard type things set up all over the place, with creepy statues and manniquins everywhere. And lots and lots of fog machines! There was a gated off cemetary area in the middle of the main street, but the gate was open and there wasn't a sign saying we couldn't go in, so g.g. and I did, got a quick picture, and got soundly yelled at by a park employee, who conveniently ignored the fact that the gate that they "had up for a reason" was wide open. Silly bopper. At least we got a picture. 
We hit the Houdini as our first ride, because we didn't get to go on it last time. Actually, I don't think we repeated a single ride this trip that we went on last time due to ride closings and the fact that we were running around doing other things. Oh we did repeat the Cyclone, but come on that was a roller coaster. Anyway the Houdini, though not fast or heartattack inducing was nevertheless really cool because it cheerfully fucks with your sense of balance and motion. Without making you motion sick. There was a little pre-show before the Houdini ride, and we were stuck in the same group with a bunch of ridiculously susceptable 10 year olds who would scream at every candle flicker, which made enjoying the pre-show kind of a pointless pursuit, but we still had fun.
Onwards to the Tomahawk, which was having a minor technical difficulty, so we thought we'd go on the Rodeo instead in the meantime. Due to the world's slowest and most unenthusiastic park employee, it took maybe forty minutes to get through the line and the ride when it should have taken ten minutes. inle and I were entertained thoroughly by a group of black and latina preteens that we later dubbed The Gaggle. They were in line ahead of us and spent much of their time being mean to a skinny little girl named Whitley that was a little nervous about going on the ride. It turned out that you couldn't go on the ride alone, so the unenthusiastic park employee, heretofore referred to as Joe (yep, his real name) was about to kick this middle aged guy off the ride, but after much taunting by her friends Whitley climbed into the ride with him. Immediately her friends started yelling things like "Go Whitless!" and "No touchy no grabby over there." *shakes head* With friends like these... though I ultimately felt more sorry for the guy than for Whitley. Finally, after an excruciating period of time, inle and I got on it (it was deliciously stomach turning) and finally we got out of there and joined
sundart and g.g. (who had found a cute little leaf hat in the meantime) and we went back to the now running Tomahawk. That was spinny and swingy, and even though I wasn't quite sick, I did feel a moratorium on the spinny rides was in order. It was a cool ride though, made cooler by the neat "FWOOM" noise the ride made as it swung back and forth.After the tummies had all been shaken but not stirred, naturally we decided that we were hungry. So we began to make our way back to the area where there was mondo food. On the way there was a ghost/ghoul all in white wearing one of those Scream masks and, inexplicably, Mickey Mouse hands standing in the pathway and grooving to his/herself to the music playing on the loudspeakers. It looked like such a nice, cute ghoul, and there was country fiddle playing, as we were in the section of the park called Crackaxle Canyon. So I skipped up to it, grabbed it around the waist, and danced around and around with it for a few moments, after which it jumped up and down for joy and waved goodbye to us. This little stunt charmed the hell out of my compatriots, who certainly weren't expecting that. Hey, I made the ghoul happy, and the skirt I was wearing was made for dancing. :)
A quick trip to the bathroom was had, and then we procured greasy french fries and other park food entrees before sitting down to chow and fearing the fact that the Gaggle was sitting not far away, and there were more of them than we had seen on the Rodeo. Eep. After we were done gorging ourselves, we stopped to stare in horror at one of the stage shows that were going on all day that involved people in the CHEESIEST monster costumes butchering Dead or Alive's "You Spin Me Right Round" and dancing. You could tell these guys did bad karaoke the rest of the year. Yipes.
Next stop! We revisit the Cyclone, which was a much more pleasant experience than last time, when my seat belt (but not the bar) popped off midway through the ride and I had to hang on for dear life. I screamed anyway. Especially after realizing that the first drop was high enough to really stop and admire the view around the park and the autumn hills lining the horizon. Then we dropped and it was scream scream scream from there. I think I do prefer wooden roller coasters to the metal ones (that whole rickety this-thing's-about-to-cave-in thing). And that one was a good one. Got off it slightly dizzy anyway. :) Inle and g.g. got on it the ride after ours, so we got to watch them sailing about in the Whiplash seat and admire the fact that their hair was flying straight out behind them the whole time. After they got off we all ordered pictures of ourselves, which took a little longer since the chick behind the counter had to go behind the picture booth and rescue sundart's runaway superball. (inle - will send you link for hi rez cyclone pic later today.)
Back to the other end of the park, with another bathroom stop in the same place. "Hey, wait, we were on this ride earlier!" Whilst sitting on the bench waiting for g.g. and sundart to come out, I saw this very frazzled guy with two kids and two GINORMOUS prize bears wearing pjs under each arm. This guy was not tiny and I swear if it came down to a fight between him and one of those bears, I'd put my money on the bear. "Guessing you're going back to the car after this," I teased. The parent just gave me a stressed out nod and a "I dunno if they're going to fit!" before leaving. We also stopped at this neat coffin photo op place and got all see-the-bat. Or in g.g.'s case, die-from-fright-of-the-bat.
We went towards the arcade with the skeeball part of the park next, which they had outfitted as a kind of Area 51 alien invasion thing, which was just cheesy rather than scary, and g.g. and inle went on the Twister whilst sundart and I quite vehemently sat that one out (while I love rides that turn you upside down for a hot second, I'm not all that kosher with rides that turn you upside down and then hold you there). Then we got on the swing ride (cause we just had to) and flew gently around and around... hee. At that point, g.g. bid us adieu, and the rest of us got on line for the Superman. We went at a really good time too - I had heard horror stories about three hour lines and shutdowns just as you get on the platform and all of that. but amazingly enough it only took maybe 40 minutes to get through the line and on the ride. Oh. My. God. I have never screamed so much in my life. But again, the view was pretty for a second before we went over a NEARLY VERTICAL DROP and were flung mercilessly about for 2 minutes screaming out asses off.
I wanna do that again! Not so much for the ride as for the fucked up adrenaline high afterwards. Whoo boy, the brain chemicals! :)
After adrenaline, we needed to eat, so we grabbed some more dinner like munchies, and g.g. insisted that sundart and I do this cute soda shoppe thing. Which we did. And then I forget why the subject came up but sundart insisted I write down my response to it so I did, here it is:"Get thee behind me Satan? I've never understood that. I wouldn't want Satan behind me. He might give me a wedgie or something."
After food we found it was finally getting nice and dark, so Six Flags was sending out its army of real ghouls to wander about and scare people. We headed for one of the featured haunted houses called Brutal Planet, which was MC'ed by this loud redneck persona and this effectively creepy girl in ghoul makeup who was a cross between Sara Gilbert from Roseanne and Wednesday addams. Somehow the fact that the entrance to the area was next to the large open dark kitchen area was more creepy than anything else. Brutal Planet was a very well done haunted house thing and I quite enjoyed it once I remembered that the living ghouls inside weren't allowed to touch anyone, just walk around making creepy noises and stare wide-eyed at people.
Bathroom again... "Really, we've been on this one!"
We went to the arcade to play skeeball for a while, and then sundart and I split up from g.g. and inle to go on the Colossus, which is this positively massive Ferris Wheel. Of course we only admired the view once. We spent the rest of the time kissing. Tried to take pictures, but I guess they didn't come out. inle and g.g. tried to get on the Mind Eraser, but then that ride got a case of the technical difficulties. 
We decided to call it a night and made our way back to the gate of the park, pausing once for inle and I to take a pic in the Area 51 part of the park (mmm, zombies) and again further up for g.g. to have one last photo op. And then, like last time, we ended our afternoon with a ride on the carousel...
Hee. Thanks, g.g. That was an awesome birthday present.
We went home and watched quite a bit more Buffy, making it as far as four episodes before the end of season 2 - at the same time I began tearing - er, unbraiding the yarn from my hair. Every so often me scalp needs a brushing and the hair needs a thorough scrubbing, plus unbraiding it every so often keeps it from forming interesting dreadlocks. At some point I have to put it back in, as I want to be fully raggedy-anned for the pirate party.
Morning the next - more proof that you can technically get cozy with another person on something as small as a loveseat and still sleep.
sundart came downstairs and tucked up with me for a little while. :) g.g. and inle wanted to head to Sprawl-fart to get the pictures from yesterday developed, so we went, dropped them off, and then went to Friendly's for lunchies. I think that may be the first time I actually had room for dessert after gorging myself on things involving batter fried chicken. Oh, man, but their apple pie sundae was good. :)
We headed back to Wal-mart to pick up the pictures, and then through a vast comedy of errors lost and were lost by inle and g.g. That and on top of that - ugh, got box store itis and remember sitting on a bench fidgeting and whining. I hate florescent lighting... and Wal Mart. But pictures were procured (as you can see) and we went on our merry way home to finish up the second Buffy (ye gods, the angst! I don't think even anime series lay it on quite this thick) and then head back to Northampton, where we related the short short version of our good time to
beatgoddess - and I got that email from Mom. *sigh* *sings* Back to life, back to reality, back to the here and now...Actually, that story has a more or less good ending. I called up Stan to freak out - er, talk about the fact that I wasn't cool with the location of Thanksgiving. He was all like "well, if you're not comfy with it don't go." Which I knew, but needed to hear from an actual blood relation at least once. I can't say that didn't come without a little bit of guilt tripping but he did have a point about it maybe not turning into such a big deal if my "presence" wasn't such a precious commodity these days. Well and good and point taken, but I didn't really want to talk to anyone I was related to after Father's Day (ee ee oh, ee ee oh...) I felt like they were also responsible for what happened to me then, and I still do, sorta, although I generally don't like holding grudges against people for inaction in a volatile situation, especially as I myself have a tendancy to freeze in the presence of intense confrontation. Although intense confrontation is different from actual abuse. hmm. moral quandry. Must explore further. Stan also brought up something interesting about the family cranial wiring which confirmed a lot of my own suspicions on the matter and also got me thinking. Will probably ramble on about this subject in a later entry. Anyway, it was a good talk, and I'm glad I called him.
And that, kids, was my weekend.
