Halloween (spoiler) Nights

On Friday night, my friend Juliane and I got in the car and drove down a packed I-4 to get to Universal Studios to meet up with an old friend of mine - Dori- from summer camp and some of her friends. Meeting up with Dori was an awesome bonus and a great way of solidifying a date to actually go to Halloween Horror Nights. We had actually been wanting to go for a while, but picking a day was proving a problem. We had gone to Howl-O-Scream a couple weekends before and been decidedly un-frightened (don't get me wrong, I was entertained but not freaked out in the slightest) so our main reason for wanting to go to Halloween Horror Nights was to make sure our "fear switches" weren't broken. I'd been told that "Disney does Christmas and Universal does Halloween" and that when they do it, they do it large - so I was excited.

We stopped for lunch at Toojays because I decided I needed a large half-sandwich with some matzo ball soup and also that Juliane needed to try a potato knish. . . on a related note, no one seems to be able to explain what a knish is without thinking about it for a minute, saying "um" and then going on to say some things that make them sound entirely unappetizing. And apparently "delicious" isn't enough of a description for my friends.

"What is it? Uh. . . . . well . . ."

I then decided Juliane needed to try my favorite gelato place which was just down the road. When we pulled in I was extremely sad to find that it had closed down. I would have just gone right to the park then, but I was all set to creamy gelato goodness AND Juliane had never had it before (gasp!) and that simply would not do. So I half-unwillingly took her to the gelato counter in Whole Foods. I couldn't stop thinking about how much I miss that other gelato place. . . until I actually ate the gelato, then I was all good.

We got there a good hour before Dori and her posse did, so we decided to hit at least one house before hand. On our way there we passed through one scare zone. . . maybe two . . . I don't really know, that map was hella-vague. First there were commando guys with chain saws - who I loved. My favorite part? Them doing a good minute and a half scene to lull the audience into a

sense of security and draw them in closer, then ending it by playing hokey-pokey with their chainsaws and running at the by then über close audience. Hi-lar-i-ous. Then we walked through some other scene, the theme of which i really wasn't sure of - but there were a lot of sweet,

sweet costumes and a couple people on stilts in sweet costumes.

Then we made it to the first of two houses, Havoc and the Catacombs, and for god-knows-what reason decided to go into The Catacombs. Now, the theme of this house was pretty self

explanatory. I knew I'd be walking through catacombs. What I did NOT know what these these were catacombs filled with victims of the plague. I was only a little nervous until I saw a picture of this:

(after the jump)

Back to. . . normal??

Well, I am finished with the Disney College Program. Of course what always happens when I go go go happened - I got sick. I'm still sick, actually. Head's stuffed, can't hear out of my left ear, all kinds of fun. Plus its like 20 degrees out. This is Florida, right?

The last few weeks as a CP were pretty crazy. After a lot of back and forth, I was finally

approved to be a seasonal cast member - which reminds me that I still need to post my availability. I celebrated my birthday - or didn't really celebrate my birthday - by making "birthday dumplings" with Lily. I only got to mix the filling and try my hand at forming the dumplings (regular and won ton) as I had to go to birthday lunch with my parents at Bahama Breeze. But she brought them to work for me for dinner and they were pretty darn tasty. :-)

I had to work Glow that night, which I was dreading, but it turned out alright. I actually had

a lot of fun and came out with my lowest variance ever - go me! Then, after work, I went with Carmen Maria to Colton's for Christmas cookies and milk. Now, we thought he'd just bought cookies - but no. Apparently its his tradition to bake cookies, so he actually baked cookies. They were damn good cookies too!

They were some kind of amazing peanut butter cookie. To quote Colton: "They're called Jailbreakers. Its an inside joke between me and my sister. . . Actually, I don't really remember why we called

them that. . ." The night actually lasted for quite some while for I don't know what reason - it was a lot of fun but not a lot happened. For the rest of the program I

hung out at Colton's a lot, and I guess we were kind of "seeing"

each other? I don't really know what to call what was going on, to be honest. But I can say that I'm a little sad that whatever it was didn't start happening sooner.

I was terrified for New Years Eve. I'd heard horror stories throughout the whole program about

how terrible it was going to be - how crowded it would get and how messed up the stores would be (I was on a stock shift, so that bit of info was especially scary.) But New Years was honestly fun. Admittedly, I did have a bit of a panic attack when it took me 10 minutes to get back from

the shed to the store before the first set of fireworks (it usually take like 2 minutes.) Other than that it was nice. Don and I went outside to watch the special New Years Eve fireworks at 11:40 and I'm so glad we did, they were amazing! Other than that, the night was pretty uneventful.

Well, except for that huge group of Brazilians that came passed the store at around 1:30 - they had bongos and noisemakers, best party ever. After work we all met up at IHOP for what was not that good of a meal, but a lot of fun regardless.

In short, I kinda miss my college program experience - living with everyone, seeing people I enjoy being around every day - but I will not miss being treated like a CP. By that I mean I will not miss having a roommate IN my room, I will not miss inspections, I will not miss having to be out of my friend's complex by a certain time at night . . . though I suppose that actually means that I will not miss Price Management. So, I guess what I mean is - I don't miss the program, I miss the people.