Last Saturday I was invited out to Great America with Pete, Eyrene and some others whom I hadn’t previously met – Mickey, Ryan & Chris. Oh and Shelley turned up during the day, too, along with a few others whom didn’t hang with us perpetually, but whom we lingered about periodically.
The invite came in a few weeks back (via evite, which I’d only a few days earlier heard of for the first time courtesy of Web Side Story).
I figured this was some kind of typical thing for them, though a it turns out none of them had been there for as much as a decade. So it was more a nostalgia thing. There was general surprise at how generally average the place was, as compared to hindsight. Theirs, of course; as my first time I didn’t really have any unusual expectations, and it was pretty much like I expected – a few fun rides but way too many yawners, kiddie things or just too bloody rattly rollercoasters. I don’t really recall now if it’s just that I somehow avoided crappy, violent roller coasters through my youth, or if my lower back and skull somehow had significantly more suspension and padding. A couple of the coasters really did hurt enough to immediately sour their experience. I recall some of the ones at Six Flags (Vallejo) being similar, though not nearly as bad overall. The boardwalk down at Santa Cruz has that rickety old wooden thing which is also in that vein, though not nearly as bad.
Anyway, it was reasonably fun overall – I did get quite a rush from the Drop Tower, which was significantly more like bungie jumping than I’d recalled… last time I did one of those rides was at Dreamworld, I think… over a decade ago, perhaps?
The best thing in any case was simply getting out and hanging out. After we all tired of the park we went and grabbed dinner at El Torito across the way.
During the day Pete mentioned a little lan party planned for the subsequent day, for his birthday, which he invited me to. When she subsequently managed to catch me while he wasn’t there, Eyrene informed me the lan was a cover for a surprise birthday party for him.
So that gave me Sunday’s entertainment as well – hanging out at Chris & Ryan’s place, meeting Pete’s family and assorted other friends, including a guy blessedly named ‘Holden’ who’s name I will never forget – all people should be named after memorable brands, it would make things so much easier – and single-handedly wiping out a good portion of all the hors d’oeuvres. [[ also, that is a stupid word that’s impossible to look up in a dictionary ]]
There was some thing made up of marshmellow cream and [I think] cream cheese, which was altogether quite similar to a thick cream cream, but slightly sweeter and inexplicably delicious (and yes, that’s inexplicable despite the already attractive contents). Anyway, I’m pretty sure I consumed my monthly allotment of delicious sugary fat.
After the party proper died down, and most people left, we did actually set up for and play four-way Halo for an hour or two. It was still just as entertaining as I recall – hooray for not growing out of some things :D – and I surprised even myself as to how quickly I reverted back to pompous, high-school trash talk. Light-hearted and occasionally self-deprecating of course, no offence intended, but in any case particularly well received thanks to my so-called accent. I’ll have to be careful, even so, if I get into it again, not to get too carried away. :)
So that filled out the weekend very nicely, and though I did feel it on Monday – weekends are traditionally about catching up on all that lost sleep – it was certainly a good weekend nonetheless.
