Universal
It all started almost three weeks ago with the 21st birthday of one of my neighbors from back in Arizona. Her name is Doodles, and we've been friends since the two of us were just five or six years old. For her birthday, her mom took Doodles and several friends out to Orlando for a week, and I spent the first day of their visit with them at Universal Studios!
However, I kept an open mind heading into Sunday afternoon, and it served me well; Universal's actually a pretty awesome park! We started with Transformers, which was probably my favorite ride of the day. It's like Star Tours at Hollywood Studios but taken to a whole new level. Same 3D, same tipsy motion technology, but with the added element of the whole thing being on a track, taking you from scene to scene through the building. A very fun start to the day.
Actually, it turns out many rides are just like that at Universal: The Simpsons, Despicable Me, and one or two others as well. That's one of the things that disappointed me about the park; there isn't quite as much variety in their thrill rides the way there is in the Disney parks. Still, I didn't get a full sampling of the attractions so maybe I shouldn't judge just yet. We stuck to the primary park rather than wandering over into Island of Adventure because Doodles and her friends were planning on spending all day there on Monday. That's where Hulk and Harry Potter World are, so I have a feeling I missed the best of Universal. I'm going back though! Now that Diagon Alley and King's Cross are open, connecting Harry Potter World to the main park, I'm planning on heading back with my roommates for a thorough tour of the entire park before I leave on August 6th!
But I digress. Another fun attraction that wasn't a 3D simulator like Transformers was Hollywood Rip Ride Rocket. If you've seen the video of Jimmy Fallon taking Kevin Hart on a roller coaster that frightens him half to death - this is that ride. It frightened me too, but not because of the drops and loops and corkscrews. It frightened me 'cause the flipping thing felt like it was gonna give me a concussion from all the shaking and bouncing. They need to shim the wheels on the vehicles' bogeys, because those worn-down things make for a very bumpy, albeit exhilarating, ride. And yes, I do feel like a smartypants engineer for diagnosing problems with other parks' roller coasters. Thanks for the experience, Disney!
After making our way through half a dozen other attractions, we ended the day with our jaws unhinged as we stared enviously at King's Cross - the train station that connects Harry Potter World to the primary park by means of the Hogwarts Express. It is an extremely impressive facade. Seriously, it's uncanny to the movie sets. In fact, they even had the real Knight Bus movie prop on display outside! I cannot wait to get back there to experience it in person, rather than from behind a metal barrier!
All in all, a very fun day. And if you're wondering what our shirts have on them, it's "Happy 21st, Doodles!" with a picture of an infant Doodles with an allegedly empty Bud Light can she "found in the recycling," according to her mother. She's come full circle now, though! On her 21st birthday, the one thing we didn't do was get her a beer.
Top Gun? Nope, Never Heard of It!
The following Wednesday evening, instead of heading to the gym, Rug, another intern friend of ours named Biter, and I went out to Mickey's Retreat for some volleyball. Every Wednesday evening since back in January lots of interns have gotten together for volleyball, but this week was the first time Rug and I decided to join.
The three of us strolled confidently out onto the sand and pulled off our shirts to reveal our chiseled pecs and washboard abs as we took our side against three equally muscular guys. I was wearing jeans 'cause I forgot to bring a pair of shorts to the beach, but it's whatever - I look good in jeans. Sixty sweaty minutes later, I sealed the rubber game with a particularly powerful spike that flew just past the diving arms of the best-looking of our opponents, Kil Valmer. He'd been talking crap to me all evening so I underscored my dominance with a clever one-liner of my own invention: "Son, your ego is writing checks your body can't cash."
And that's what happened.
Back to the Valley
A week later I headed out to the airport to celebrate the Fourth of July and my mom's birthday back in Phoenix. Getting there was a bit more convoluted than I imagined it would be, however.
My flight was supposed to leave at 4 pm. I got a text at noon that day saying it would be delayed to 4:55; an hour later, I got another text pushing it back further to 5:25, then again to 6:30. Still, I didn't want to waste my friend's afternoon by continually delaying his favor of dropping me off at the airport, so I had him take me several hours early. I sat down outside security and read my book for awhile, thinking I had a lot of time to kill. I didn't bother looking at the flight status panels since I was receiving text updates! Smart, right?
Wrong. After awhile, I sat down to eat Panda Express and pulled out my phone to respond to a text from Hannah. Instead, I found a text telling me my flight was to leave at 4 pm as originally scheduled. My eyes grew wide as I double and triple checked the time; my phone and watch both agreed that it was already 4:07. I grabbed my bag and my food and rushed over to security, waited in line, hopped on the shuttle to the terminal, and rushed to my gate (which happened to be at the very end of the terminal). By now it was 4:30. "Where's this flight headed?" I calmly asked the attendant standing outside the boarding walkway. She responded, "Albany!"
Then, much less calmly, I asked, "Do you know whether the flight to Phoenix through Nashville has left yet??" She told me that the gate had been changed to 121 - at the other end of the terminal - and that she wasn't sure whether it had left. So I bustled over to gate 121, where the attendant there asked me, "Headed to Nashville, honey?"
Those were the best words I'd heard all week. I thought I'd missed my flight entirely, but it still hadn't left. I later learned that they got a new plane for the flight because the original one was having mechanical issues, hence the sudden change from delayed to on-time. It was one roller coaster of an afternoon.
But it wasn't over yet. After further delay in Nashville, we were set to land in Phoenix at 8:30 pm their time. However, right as we were about to start our descent, the pilot informed us that due to intense thunderstorms over the airport and a lack of gas needed for us to circle around, we were being diverted to Tucson to wait out the storms. We finally landed in Phoenix at 10 pm, three hours later than the original landing time, and I had a happy reuniting with Hannah and my family. Then we waited another hour for my checked back to come out. But I was home at last!
Independence Day
The next day, Independence Day, my family and Hannah and I went over to our neighbors' house for a few hours, where I got to spend some time catching up with several friends I hadn't seen in a very long time. After that, Hannah and I headed to her house for a BBQ and pool party, which was a ton of fun. I got to see Hannah's niece Dayl again, as well as Dayl's little brother, niece, all of Hannah's siblings, and even some of their family friends I hadn't seen in awhile, including Sugar Daddy. It was a great party, but the best part was just getting to spend time with so many people that I hadn't seen in several months. We drew the evening to a close with some store-bought fireworks and patriotic music out in the street. 'Murica!
Batting Cages
On Saturday, Hannah and I went on a date to Ned's for lunch, followed by a trip to a place I hadn't been in many years: the Home Run Stadium batting cages. I spent hours there every week back when I played baseball, but since I stopped playing in middle school, I hadn't paid the cages a single visit. It was fun to be back; it brought back all sorts of memories, and I actually did pretty well for not having swung a bat in so long! I was reminded of why I always wore batting gloves, as we ended up with blisters on our thumbs, but it was a really fun date nevertheless.
Happy Birthday, Mom!
One of the primary reasons I came home that weekend was for my mom's birthday. I won't disclose her age, as that might not be a piece of information she wishes for me to share publicly, but it was a very significant birthday that I was happy to come home to be a part of. We went bowling in the afternoon, then out to dinner in the evening, where we ordered more Italian food than even the Dwight family could handle. My aunt, uncle, and cousin joined us at the end of the day for birthday cake and Farkle, a fun dice game that we always play together during large family events like this one.
Though it was yet another difficult goodbye that evening and the next morning, it was lessened with the knowledge that I'd see everyone again in just one month. That's not to say I won't make the most of my last few weeks here at Disney! But I do think that, when it's time to go home for good in August, I'll be more than ready.
EverEverEverEverest and Dinosaur
As always, a long weekend means that the following week of work is difficult to get through. To keep my paycheck its same healthy size, and to sustain my productivity, I always work ten-hour days for the remainder of the week. However, I've been so busy lately that the longer days have flown by even faster than normal ones!
I thought that I was pretty close to finishing my current design project at the start of the week. I was even naively optimistic that I'd finish the drawings for my design by the end of the week, whereafter I could send them off to someone else to begin production! On Thursday, I went and had a meeting with one of the Design Assurance leaders to have him look over my design. I figured I'd just be showing it to him and earning his quick approval, but as it turned out, he raised several concerns that Rawlings and I had overlooked. I guess that's why he's in that position, but it was very frustrating. I was sent right back to the drawing board to revise my design further - something I've been doing for many, many weeks now - and will meet with him again next week to show him my updates.
With only three weeks of work left, I'm beginning to worry about finishing this project on time. I stayed extra late on Friday (I worked from 7 am to 7 pm), and it looks like it may take a few more of those days over the course of the next three weeks if I'm to finish in time. But I'm up to the challenge. It's important for me to remember that as difficult as this is, I'm developing my engineering skills in proportion to the difficulty of my work, and that's the entire point of this internship!
Still, it was nice to take my mind off of work for awhile on Wednesday evening when Rug and Biter and I went to Animal Kingdom to participate in Magic Band FastPass+ testing for Expedition Everest and Dinosaur. If you remember when I did this same thing at Splash Mountain back in March, we basically get to cycle through the ride over and over again for an hour or two. As if that's not incentive enough, we also get a free comp ticket to be used at any of the parks in Disney World! Of course, I have free access to the parks, meaning the ticket is pretty much useless to me. So if any of you are interested in a bit of brown-nosing, now would be the time to start.
We got to ride Everest four times in a row (twice with the lights on), and then went and rode Dinosaur once as well before we left. It was a fun evening, and we weren't out quite so late as for the Splash testing since DAK always closes about five hours earlier than Magic Kingdom. That was good, since the next day was of course another ten-hour work day for me.
So yeah! Things are getting close to wrapping up around here. It's ridiculous how fast the past six months have gone by, but that's all the more reason to cherish this final month. One thing's for sure: the four of us roommates will be spending as much time as we can in the parks. In fact, I'm about to head out to Magic Kingdom with Francisco and another intern to go visit as many characters as we possibly can! I need signatures!!
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