I walk in the air, between the rain, through myself and back again. Where? I don't know.

For those of you who don't know (which would be everyone except the Browns, Amanda, and Crystal--but you will see how that worked out), I just got back from Southern California. We had houseguests from Thursday evening to Saturday morning; they left around seven. I woke up when they left, scowled, threw my teddy bear, said my good-byes from the cozy confines of the couch, and went back to sleep. I woke up again at 11:30, called a "good morning" to my aunt, who came and sat down in the armchair opposite the couch. "Good morning. Are you sure you don't want to go to LA?"

Background info. The Browns are in Southern California. They spent four days at Disneyland and California adventures. They left Thursday morning, which means (if you can count that high) that they would be there until Sunday. My cousin lives in Southern California about ten minutes away from Disneyland, and he needed a microwave, a coffee maker, clothing, lamps, and light bulbs. My aunt and I had thought about going to So Cal, taking my cousin his things, and meeting the Browns at Disneyland. We'd also ruled it out and were going to go to Reno--just for the drive. Then the houseguests wanted to see scenery (and that's the best thing to do here--no, wait, the only thing to do here), so we drove them up-valley, through Angwin, and back down through Calistoga. We saw mountains aplenty. The desire to go to Reno to see the mountains was completely quenched, but we still wanted to go somewhere. I shrugged, packed my things, and we went.

However, I had told my aunt that I did not especially want to go to Disneyland because family vacations with the Browns can be tense, and I didn't want to be there making it even weirder. She didn't listen. She told my grandma that she was going to drop me off at Disneyland on Sunday, and I shrieked. "This is all a part of your evil plot to leave me somewhere, isn't it! Grandma, don't let her do it!"

Bethany called me around four on Saturday. "Hey, doll." "Hey. Guess what I'm doing?" "Driving to Southern California." "Yup."
So we arrived and gave my cousin his things, then camped out in his apartment. Here follows an excerpt from my journal.

[I'm in Southern California in Cousin Chris's apartment. Blues Traveler is encasing my mind, and I'm safely stowed in the little room off the main living room. This was Cousin Chris's room for two years when the girls were here, but they moved and he moved into the big bedroom. He just rented this room out to another girl. She'll be by in the morning, but there's a chance I might still be asleep when she gets here. A small chance, to be sure, but a chance. The drive here was really nice. Easy traffic for the most part, good weather (hot, but good), and of course, good company. Aunt Sarah's still the best driver. I was going to call David tonight, but my cell phone's running really low on juice and I don't have a charger with me. Aunt Sarah and I forgot it. Ahem. We have one for the car, but she didn't want me to use it on the way here because she didn't want to tax the car further. *coughs lightly* So I'm going to charge it on the way to Disneyland tomorrow.

"Canadian Rose" is still just ... delicious. *licks her lips*

Cousin Chris just knocked on my door and cheerfully announced that at six a.m., he would come in and wake me up and say that it was almost time to go. If I don't get up, he'll be back around nine. Let's hear it, audience, what will the Emma do? Yeah. He knows, too. He grinned widely at me. "I'll just leave you and come back, you know." I grinned right back at him, Cheshire-like. "Yeah. I know."
Oof. I'm tired. There's nothing else to report, really, except that I need sleep. My tummy is happy. We had pizza. There's nothing quite so healthy as mushroom pizza at 11:30. That is, if you're Californian. I don't know what the rules are for the rest of the world. Geez, they don't even have Jamba Juice and In-N-Out. *grumps*]

Sunday I met the Browns at Disneyland around eleven o'clock, and we had an absolutely awesome time. I rode Splash Mountain with the Brown kids. We sat in this order: Sarah in the front, then Nate, then Stan, then me, then Bethany. So. You want to know why they call it Splash Mountain? It's not because you get wet on the drop. It's because if the person sitting behind you happens to be a cute little hobbit like me, you get drenched. *grins* I realized that there was enough room on the side of the boat for me to lean over and send a good-sized splash at the people in front of me. Nate started to get really annoyed, so I then realized that if I cupped my hands, I could dump water specifically on one person. Well, I could only reach Stan, so... *coughs* When we landed back at the end of the ride, the parents saw him and started laughing outright. "Stan, look at you! I didn't know you could get that wet on this ride!" "I didn't, either. If a little hobbit like that one sits behind you, though..." He sat mopping his face with his sleeve. I didn't think it was a good idea to point out that his sleeve was wet, too, since he was ready to kill me, anyway. "Aw, you look good wet," I said charitably. "Shut up." "No, really, you do. Not as good as me, but..." "Well, remember that when I soak you." Nate has great plans to drench me, as well. Somehow I think by the time they get home they'll have forgotten, but we shall see.

Then Bethany and I got about five hours to ourselves. The family went back over to Cal Adventures, and I didn't have a hopper pass, so I had to stay in Disneyland. Bethany, who'd already seen Cal Adventures and generously said she didn't need to see it again, stayed with me. We decided that was the senior trip neither of us took. We both wanted to go to Disneyland for our graduation trip with our senior class, but neither of our classes did anything. (Not that I'd have been able to do anything with them, anyway, since I graduated long before, but the point remains that I did not have a senior trip.)

The coolest thing was that we had a pass for people with special assistance. I will not here divulge why the family needed it, but they did. One problem: it says "Stanly B." I sat and stared at the thing. "They forgot the "e." There has to be a way I can use that. Stanly. Stacey. Shannon. No, wait. Shirley. Um... Hmm." Then it hit me. "Starry!!! Look, if you tilt the card and squint, it looks like the "n" is an "r" and the "l" is a mistake for an "r." Bethany nodded. "Absolutely. Now you have to be Starry." So on Pirates of the Caribbean, the man accepted the little carte blanche. "Stanly?" "Starry," we corrected him, in unison, and he smiled at us. "Looks a little odd, doesn't it?" I nodded, took the card back, and shimmered past him. Hee. (Thanks, Starry, for the brilliant idea. Hope you don't mind that I used your name.)

So using this little pass, we rode Indiana Jones twice more for a grand total of three times, the Haunted Mansion once more for a total of two, Pirates once more for a total of two, Splash Mountain twice for a total of three, and I think that's it. Space Mountain was closed, and I just sit in Star Tours and cry, so I only had to do that once. (Techs don't wear orange. Shuttles aren't piloted by droids. Shuttles don't have "brakes." Star Wars doesn't have telephones. We couldn't have been using R2-D2 as our navigator at the same time Luke was doing his Death Star run. Rogue Squadron would NEVER take a civilian shuttle into the Death Star trenches. I don't think they'd even fit, for that matter. Endor is not on the way to Yavin IV. You're catching my drift?)

We saw the parade, and I have to say: getting men from the crowd to wear pink, purple, and blue tutus and dance around is.... Oi. And I wonder how much they have to pay Tarzan to ride a fake elephant in leopard-print underwear...
Ah, it was a great day.

So we get back to my cousin's apartment, and my aunt decides to drive home that night. It was 11:30. We packed ourselves into the car and went. We arrived home at 7, and I hauled myself up to bed and stayed sound asleep until 4:30 or so. My aunt's still asleep.
Anything I missed? Oh, yes. Mine, my aunt's and my cousin's cell phones all died on us. *growls* Oh, and Crystal and Amanda called me, which is how they knew I was there.

posted by Emma @ Monday, July 28, 2003