Lazy Hazy Days

Ahhhh....the official first day of summer. As of late, I have had no motivation whatsoever to blog. Perhaps it's the weather...when it gets so hot, one can't help but feel lethargic- no energy to move, to think, to eat, or even talk. If I could, I'd sit at the beach all day long without conversing to anyone. Just give me a good book and/or a blank notebook and I'm good to go. When the sun is just beating mercilessly on you, you can't help but be tamad. Lazy. Got a bloggable moment? Eh...it's too hot. Then of course when you're good and ready to sit at the laptop and type away, all of those bloggable moments seem like old news. Oh well....and so it goes.

Speaking of hot weather...

The temp down in Southern California last week was ohmygosh H-O-T. I accompanied my sister and her family on a trip to the happiest place on earth...that's right, people, I went to DISNEYLAND!!! Y'know, when you haven't gone in so many years, you can't help but feel like a little kid again. Now let me say this, I've always been a fan of anything Disney, but seriously, being there and being surrounded by everything Disney, you can't help but have this big ass grin on your face! Plus, seeing how happy my niece and nephew were made it all worth it, too. The only downside, if I may, is that we stayed there for four days...FOUR. We had a four-day hopper pass to both Disney and California theme parks. The first two days were totally awesome....the third, oooh, cutting it close.....come the fourth day, dude....I've had enough. Don't get me wrong, there were so many things to do and see there, but really, here comes the weather thing again, it was so freaking hot that by day three, I was ready to come back to da Bay for some fog! Plus, with the heat being so intense, we did the whole inside-outside-inside-outside thing....we'd watch a show for the A/C, stand in line for a ride, watch a show, go back outside. Get my drift? Day three heat hit with a vengeance and I was left with a pounding headache all day long. Boo. Hiss. A plus of our trip was that our hotel, the Paradise Pier Hotel, was located minutes from Downtown Disney. A hop, skip, and a jump, if you will. We didn't have to worry about parking and traffic...just the looooonnnnnng walks back after walking all day. Lol!

Since there's just way too many sharable moments, let me just give ya'll some of highlights (and a few lowlights) of the trip...in no particular order.

1. The "It's Not Fair!" incident
2. Meeting the Disney characters ("Hey! Yesterday's Pocohontas is today's Jasmine!")
3. Riding the "Matterhorn," "Space Mountain," and "Indiana Jones" while the kiddies took a nap!
4. Getting whiplash on Autopia...twice
5. Alladin (the first time around)
6. Buzz Lightyear
7. Monsters Inc. incident ("Young lady in the third row...nice glasses...")
8. "Are we there yet???"
9. Nico's trauma on Pinocchio
10. "Rodeo Nico"
11. Fast Pass Karma
12. The Chris-Sandwich

The California theme park was very cool, too, and you simply can't miss the mini-replica of the Golden Gate Bridge. We didn't get to ride the big roller coaster ride or the Tower of Terror, and although we didn't spend as much time here than we did in Disneyland, there are a few attractions that I would recommend:

1. Soarin' (feels like you're really flying!)
2. Alladin Musical Spectacular
3. Talkin' with Crush (interactive)

Of course, the evenings wouldn't be complete without the huge fireworks show. Turns out that the Electrical Parade has been moved to the California theme park, but we didn't get a chance to hang out long enough to see it, but the fireworks in Disneyland over the castle was most awesome! Again, the whole feeling like a little kid thing...fireworks has the same exact effect. You can't help but do the "ooohhhh and ahhhhh" thing! Add the background music to the exploding sky and even the flash of Tinkerbell making her way across the sky was enough to end the night perfectly.

Overall, it was a really great trip with the family- we all got to do and see what we wanted, and heck, between my Ate and myself, we've got about 1,000 pictures to show for it! The kids especially had fun and just watching their faces light up at every little thing was too cute. It really is for them, isn't it? After spending four days in Disneyland, I can honestly say that I do NOT have to come back for a good five years or so. I came. I saw. I rode. I'm good. I'm done.

Interestingly, the other day Chronicle columnist Jon Carroll wrote the following:

There's a show at the Oakland Museum about the creation and refinement of Disneyland. It's a love letter to kindly Walt Disney, king of product placement and cross promotion, never mentioning his union-busting activities or other right-wing projects, and certainly skipping over the odd pervasiveness of shaking rodent butts in his cartoons, but it's still interesting if you can discount the hagiography.

Interesting to me, anyway. I was growing up in Southern California when Disneyland was being built, and I followed its progress avidly. I examined the schematics; I tried to envision the rides. (Particularly Tomorrowland, because I was a reader of science fiction and tomorrow was my destination. Tomorrow is all of our destinations; it just took wise little Asimoviacs like me to realize it.) I went within a month of its opening.

It was an overwhelming, if not entirely pleasant, experience. I loved Autopia, which was a sort of fourth-generation-refined bumper car experience. You drove little cars on little highways -- and my, is the portmanteau word "autopia" interesting, combining as it does "automobile" and "utopia" to describe an attraction in Orange County. Kids, can you say "irony"?

I can be scornful now; at the time, I just wanted to ride it as many times as possible. Interestingly, Disneyland was also the site of a monorail, a technology heartily endorsed by train nut Disney. It was the future of transportation! Someday our great cities will be linked by these swift, silent capsules, unless the residents of San Jose vote down the transportation bonds.

Tomorrowland later was the site of a 360-degree surround-view Michael Jackson video -- I assume that's gone now. Michael Jackson; happy little children -- not a great combo.

I liked Tom Sawyer's Island, too, and I disdained the Carousel in Fantasyland, and I was scared witless by the Abe Lincoln robot that held forth at a theater on Main Street. It was supposed to provide patriotic uplift, the improving message at the end of the fun seeking, but it didn't really look that human, and the thought occurred to me that it could be very easily programmed to slice the throats of little children. (Maybe that idea came from reading too much science fiction.) I stayed away from Honest Abe after the first time; he was just too weird.

Later on, when they were built, I liked Pirates of the Caribbean and the Haunted Mansion. I had no interest in the Matterhorn or Space Mountain; recreational fear has never been one of my pleasures. But more than either of those rides, I liked the Monsanto ride. It's gone now, since it didn't really fit with anything.

The lobby of the ride was dominated by a giant replica of a hypodermic needle. You rode in a cart and got "shrunk" into a microscopic particle (remember "Fantastic Voyage"? -- like that) and were injected into the bloodstream of a human being and, look, there are red blood cells skimming past and oh, here comes the heart, nooo ... In other words: sort of like trying to understand the drug problem from the point of view of heroin.

When Disneyland opened, the world was so naive that injectable substances suggested nothing more than a penicillin shot. Later on, a new generation of citizens began visiting Disneyland. The Disneyland brass did not like that development -- as the brochures displayed at the museum made clear, Disneyland was a park designed by white people for white people, and employees were forbidden to wear beards, mustaches and a long list of other offensive things that might suggest deviation from the norm.

Which was ironic, because people soon discovered that getting loaded and going to Disneyland meant a day of big fun. It was an endless playground for people who said "oh wow" a lot. You could, you know, shake hands with Goofy. ("Shaking hands with Goofy" would be a pretty good code phrase for any number of proscribed experiences.) The lines were a drag, but the lines were always a drag, no matter what your synapses were doing. Go early on a weekday in winter and take your chances; that was always my advice.

At some point, it is my theory, the folks at the Disney got the idea -- they had a market. How else do you explain the Main Street Electrical Light Parade? At night, floats juiced to the gills with flashing spinning blinking lights and waving Disney characters would go by, and -- well, you know, wow. It went on forever, for longer than forever. And then there were fireworks! Yes, it was the happiest place on earth.

In any case, much thanks to Ate and BruthaMan for including me on the family outing. I had a blast! Hangin' out with you and the kiddies was awesome! Thanks for the memories...can't wait to do it again sometime. Much love to you all...

Goodbye for Now...

We all know that life is too short and for many, that the end of it comes far too suddenly and much unexpectedly. When I was younger, death was always a scary thing. To some point, it still is, but I'm trying my best to understand that it is part of life and it's a part of our journey. All the same, it's undeniably painful for those who are left behind to deal with the sadness and the grief because it's so hard to let go. It is a comfort to know that we will be reunited with our loved ones someday.

With that said, to the Susbilla and Cereca families, you're all in my prayers...until we see Tito Nato and Uncle Bob again. May they rest in peace.