A Magical Weekend - Wait for It - Away From Disney

Every Engineer's Favorite Date

First of all, sorry this post took so long. It's been closer to two weeks instead of one, but this past weekend was too busy and fun for me to sit down and write! So, without further ado, let me tell you all about it.

Actually, one more thing, then the stories:  Most of you who read this blog were probably with me for a good portion of the weekend, so you may find that you have an exceptional ability to predict what's coming in this post. Just making sure you don't think you have ESP and go quit your job to pursue your newly realized ambition of fortune telling.

The weekend began on every engineer's favorite date (other than an extremely sexy and equivalently intelligent woman):  Pi Day. You might remember from last week that I was assigned the extremely important task of memorizing 30 digits of pi, so as to compete and kick butt in D&E's annual pi recital competition. To ensure the win and Rawlings's subsequent approval, I went above and beyond and memorized 51 digits of pi. Then I memorized 9 more because I was afraid my roommate had overheard me telling my parents I memorized 51, and would memorize just a couple more so he could beat me.

Clearly I was a bit paranoid. But I needed to win it for the Sustaining department! Unfortunately, I couldn't bring home the gold. Or the silver.

That afternoon, the contestants - all four of us - lined up, ready to recite the digits of pi one at a time, down the line until someone missed a digit. Well nobody missed one until digit 50. As that poor sap sat down, I began to panic; I only knew ten more digits and there were three of us left! But we restarted from the beginning, so maybe I'd get lucky and someone else would mess up prematurely.

Guess what? Someone did mess up prematurely, right around digit 30:  Me.

I lowered my head and made the walk of shame back to my seat, with Vince Guaraldi's sad piano tune from Charlie Brown Christmas accompanying me in my head. I mustered the confidence to look up at Rawlings, who smirked and shook his head. Guess I'll have to find another petty means of winning his approval.

Many of you might be wondering where exactly I found the time to memorize 51 - and eventually 60 - digits of pi. Well, Hannah's niece, Dayl (no, that's not her actual name) was turning three years old on Pi Day, which was also the day I was heading home to Arizona for the weekend. Since her party was the next day, I needed a present.

Paterna loves the new Disney film Frozen, especially the two princesses Anna and Elsa. What's more, it was going to be a Frozen-themed party, so what better than a Frozen-themed gift for the birthday girl? Working in Disney World, I knew I had to take advantage of the fact that I worked near all the Disney characters. So the Saturday before Pi Day, I headed to the Norway Pavilion at Epcot for a couple of princess signatures.

I knew that the wait for Anna and Elsa was usually two or more hours during the day. What I didn't know was that, even though I got there right as the park opened, I'd end up waiting for 3 hours and 15 minutes. Turns out there's a breakfast place in the Norway Pavilion that opens up a couple hours before the park opens; guests who finish eating can then go stand in line for Anna and Elsa, meaning those of us who arrive at park-open are all but the first in line.

By the way, Anna mistook me for an ice harvester. You know, those big beefy dudes with the low voices at the beginning of the movie? I mean, I can hardly blame her. I'm like Kristoff but without the "unmanly blondness."

So yes, I had a lot of time on my hands that morning. The funny thing is, I only spent about 20-30 minutes on memorizing the first 51 digits of pi. I also spent some time reading, thinking, and losing my enthusiasm my seemingly perfect idea for a gift. What's more, Francisco was supposed to be with me so that I wouldn't look like a creeper, standing in line to meet a couple princesses next to little girls just a fraction of my age. But he ended up sleeping in.

Thankfully the guy standing behind me (for his wife and young daughter, of course) was good to talk to. He'd actually done the Disney College Program back in the day, so we talked for awhile about the company and how things have changed over the past couple decades. Best of all, I could explain that I was getting a signature for my girlfriend's niece, so at least one person near me knew I wasn't a creep.

Best Weekend Ever

All of the waiting was worth it, though, once I was able to give the gift to Dayl. I included a picture of me with the princesses so that she'd understand better that I had met her favorite Disney characters, and I think it helped! (Credit for that idea goes to Hannah!)

In fact, the whole party was pretty awesome. There was a bounce house, which Hannah and I made good use of when the little kids were distracted. One of our friends and a fellow engineer, Sugar Daddy, decided to join us; he got a little bit too crazy and fell into one of the sides of the bounce house, sinking backward to the ground and pulling part of the bounce house back with him. Who knows what might have happened if Dayl's dad Búbble and I hadn't been there to save him!

On top of the bounce house, Búbble and Reeses (his wife) had a snow cone truck come and make us all snow cones, instead of a birthday cake! Brilliant! But most of all, the party was a perfect means for me to see all the friends and family I'd been missing for the past two months. I loved every minute of it.

Later that evening, my parents and Hannah and I went to one of my all-time favorite restaurants:  Oregano's. Of course, it's unique to the Phoenix valley, so I couldn't simply pop down to one for dinner here in Orlando. It was a delicious dinner, capped off with my own pizookie, which I finished without a bit of hesitation. My parents each had their own as well - awesome, right? - but Hannah simply had a bite or two of mine. We'll work on that.

After dinner we went to see Yakov Smirnoff's stand-up comedy at Chandler Center for the Arts. He was absolutely hilarious, and all the humor was very clean, which was refreshing compared to most stand-up comedy. He also just had some genuinely noble messages, which was pretty unique for his profession! I highly recommend him.

The following day, Hannah's family and I, along with Sugar Daddy and a few other family friends, played street hockey down by Choppie's house. It was a ton of fun, and half a dozen falls and five "game-winning" goals later, we drove down to Joe's Farm Grill for dinner. I got this delicious burger called the fontina burger, which had mushrooms, peppers, pesto, and fontina cheese on it. A very unique and very delicious meal! What's even cooler is Guy Fieri tried that burger himself when he came to Joe's for his show, Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives. So I guess we're pretty much spiked-hair, died-goatee, sports-car-driving bros now.

I finished off the evening by visiting two of my closest friends, Heavin. I refer to them using a single pseudonym for two reasons: (1) they're literally an inseparable couple, leading me to believe that they're physically joined to one another, making them one and the same person; and (2) they're names morph quite nicely into one. Though they're not as angelic a couple as their pseudonym might suggest.

Any way, Heavin and another friend of ours and I hung out for a few hours, just chatting and playing Mario Party 6. Then, when I came down to drive home around 12:30 am, I couldn't find my brother's truck that I'd been using to get around the valley for the weekend.

What you have to understand is that in the parking lot next to Heavin's apartment, there's a bunch of parking meters that have all been broken for an unknown length of time. All, that is, except for maybe two or three. And these meters are peculiar in that, when they're working and have money in them, they don't blink green, they're just dark - the same as when they're not working at all. So, when I pulled into the space and the meter wasn't blinking red, I assumed it was broken! Turns out there must've just been a bit of time left on it from the last person, because when I came down to where my car should have been at the end of the night, it was blinking red at me, teasing me for the trick it had played.

Conveniently, it was also right below the sign that gave information on the towing company responsible for removing cars from empty meters, so I gave them a call to make sure my car had truly been towed, rather than stolen. I found out that a dark gray Toyota Tundra had "literally just come in," and that I could come pick it up immediately for a nominal fee of $170.

So I called my amazing friends who had just went to bed, and just a few minutes later Heavin came down to take me downtown and pick up my brother's truck. Though it was annoying paying such a large fee for probably only 30 minutes of the tow company's business, I was thankful it had been towed and not stolen. And it also reminded me how great my friends are! So still a great evening, in my book.

I finished the weekend with a fun afternoon of St. Patrick's Day bowling with my mom, brother, grandparents, and Hannah. I started out with a solid 160, though didn't come very close to that promising first score for the rest of the afternoon. After a delicious home-cooked dinner with my family, Hannah and I watched The Hunger Games:  Catching Fire, since we hadn't seen it in theaters, and ended the night with a couple rounds of Scattergories. It was a great, relaxing day to end my blissful trip home.

Back to Work

It was tough to come back to Florida on Tuesday. Last weekend was a like a little teaser of how great it'll be to come home in August and see everyone regularly again. But it should be a good next few weeks! Splash Mountain is gonna open up to guests again in just a couple days, and today Rawlings and I got to ride it ourselves while they cycled the logs through the ride! I can't wait for my family to come in late April so we can all ride it together. It's not the same without them.

Ironic that my most magical weekend so far has been my first away from Disney World. But I guess that just goes to show that family and friends are the fundamentally magical thing about Disney; without them, Disney isn't quite as powerful. In my opinion, at least.

And Dayl, by the way, is an exceptionally good hugger.