It's December 1st. I've got exactly ten hours before I'm suppose to rally a whole lotta people up (100+, not including alts) for a guild photo. I am also suffering from a wonderful case of insomnia. The rain, however soothing, has done nothing to improve this. My RP partner is no doubt waiting anxiously for my next reply. I do not have the heart to tell him I'm completely stumped. I will sleep, hopefully, and have a good response in the morning.
I believe it's time for a journal entry.
Last November I was going to a manget school in Las Vegas. As a requirement to stay in that school we were suppose to do 60 hours of community service. The school made it easy to aquire those hours by joining a community service club named Key Club.
I had to move away from that school before I flunked, but I knew I would anyway so huzzah. (I refused to wake up at 3AM for my education. Fuck you, Valley.)
Anyway, as a perk of joining this club we got to pay $80, and they would take us on a trip to Six Flags Magic Mountain. I, of course, jumped at the chance to get away from my parents for a nice weekend. Not only that, but I would be with my school chums and 1000+ students from the Clark County School District.
12AM, November 16th. My mother has wistfully gotten us lost on the way to the meeting point. I call and irritate our supervisor a total of 12 times.
1AM, November 16th. My mother refuses to let me into the building because 'she's not sure where I need to go'. I am completely prepared to kill her with my pillow and claim temporary insanity.
2AM, November 16th. Myself and about a hundred other North 28 (I can't remember, but I think that was the name) kids sitting in an auditorium. Most of us are clutching our pillows or something.
We leave thirty minutes later, after getting our panda t-shirts (I find that mine is two sizes too small, but I manage to wrestle it on.). I get onto the bus and choose my seat, only to be told to move so one of our supervisors can sit there. I sit next to a very nice young man. We're aquantances, not friends. We mutually uncomfortably situate ourselves to keep from touching one another.
I have a feeling this will be a great trip.
Half of the bus is asleep thirty minutes outside of Vegas. The other half is making 'Jeepers Creepers' jokes like we haven't heard them before. Though I willfully packed a bunch of manga, a sketchbook, and a CD player, I have not used them. I will not for the rest of the trip.
We arrive in California around 5AM. It's been raining and it was winter, so I was not entirely enthused when one of our supervisors forced me off the bus so I could get food (she noticed I was looking pale, she explained later. I pointed out that I was naturally pale when there was a lack of any light at all.).
Imagine 1000+ high school students crammed into a McDonalds for a little over an hour. That was the situation.
Now, I hate McDonalds. The food is terrible and incredibly unhealthy, but I hadn't eaten anything and I had a feeling Park food would be too expensive, so I bought hotcakes and a bottle of water. The hotcakes were okay, but I loved that water to death. It was gone in thirty seconds*.
*I tend to drink a lot of water. Not too much, but more than your average Joe. No soda, no fruit drinks. Just water, iced tea, occasionally coffee, and yogurt smoothies.
I'm back on the bus just as it was about to leave. My seat buddy was there before me, munching on whatever aweful mix of rubbery egg, hard buicuit, and 'sausage' he ordered. I later find out there was a Starbucks across from the McDonalds. It took everything I had not to break out of the bus and huddle in the Starbucks until my parents came to get me.
Once again, we all magically fall asleep and reawaken just as we get to the park. Don't ask me how this happens, it just does. All I know is that I'm usually the first awake (call it snorer's intuition) and usually the last asleep.
The park is exactly what one would expect it to be. Large, full of Loony Toon characters, and rollercoaster city.
...I, for one, do not like rollercoasters. They go high and fast and do all sorts of twirrls and
I just don't like it get me off now. I suppose it was growning up with the Circus Circus rollercoaster. It was not nice, nor gentle. You literally couldn't keep your head up long enough to see any of the horrified faces of your puke victims.
That being said, going to a rollercoaster-themed park was, how do you say, boring, for me.
I attempted to get one one, though. A dangling one that I can't remember the name of. Key word is attempted. Just as I was about to get on the ride (after waiting 40 minutes), they tell you something. You need to take all the shit you have in your pockets and put them in lockers so they don't fall out and kill someone. They don't say this when you're at the bottom, near the lockers. No.
That being said, I tried. I put my stuff on the little red shelf they have for shoes. I sat in the chair for a good minute before I decided I liked my things and did not wish to give them away. (Everything my mother had equiped me with; cellphone, money, tickets, etc)
Did I mention I'm doing all of this alone? My friends, I have quite a few for someone as socially impaired as myself (I am not good with people face to face. Which is why I'm so good with people on the Internet I guess?). Though all of my friends are either too old, not in Key Club, or simply too far away (Intarweb friands). Not that I mind. Being socially inept I am used to finding ways to entertain myself. I don't get bored by myself and thrive on dark rooms and rain softly colliding with the roof.
That being said, I had as much fun as a lonely fifteen year old girl could.
I rode the rides that stayed on the ground. A demented version of the ferris wheel, the teacups, the pirate boat ride, etc. When I found a ride I liked I usually rode it five to ten times afterwards, just because I needed to kill time.
The one ride that's worth mentioning. A water log ride. It's where you get in a log and ride it on water for a few minutes. For those of you who've been to Disney Land, think Splash Mountain.
Now, let's set the sceen. It's the middle of November, cold as fuck in California despite it being, you know, California. My dumb ass decides that 'LOLZ, WATER IZ FUn' and decides to get on it. This boat ride is actually quite pleasent the first thirty seconds. Then you get to the first hill.
I say first because there's more than one. ;_;
The first splash is okay. Sure, you get a little wet and there's some water in the boat, but generally it's okay. I thought this was the end of the ride. Oh no, there's no end in sight, deary. I'm going for a
ride.
There are various checkpoint ladies stationed throughout the ride in case anybody gets injured or falls off or something. I actually had a convorsation with one of them as I was waiting to drop off.
Me: ;_; WHY?
Her: Um? Yes?
Me: IT'S NOVEMBER. IT'S FREEZING. WHY?
Her: Well, you didn't have to get on. ^^
Me: AUUUUGGGGGGHHHHH-
I made that noise until I hit the water.
SPLASH
Except it wasn't a nice, playfull 'splash'. It was more of a 'YOU FUCKED MY WIFE? YOU FUCKED MY WIFE? -BITCH SLAP-' splash.
I'm soaked to the bone when I get off. That being said, I made my way back across the park to the tea cups ride because I really, really liked that ride. It was fun because of a few things.
1) No pullbars
2) Going fast without actually going into the air
3) The guy working it was cute.
It always comes back to cuteness, doesn't it?
After that, I went shopping. My mother had given me $20 for the trip. To Six Flags. I spent 1/4 of it on food, so the rest must have been spent on stuffs. I bought two Golliath shotglasses (one tall, one small) and a purple pimp hat.
Why the hat? I'm not sure myself. In fact, I still have it. It's sitting in my closet right now, being useless. I know I'll eventually use it for something.
I think I'll wear it to the next anime convention I go to.
After that the day was pretty much over. But what's this? A-a group meeting?
Why yes! The entire reason for the trip was to 'show Key Club pride' by screaming until our voice boxes sued for stressful work environment.
Our group lost, but another group from Clark County won, so it wasn't a complete waste of time. Though one of the speakers had the gull to say, "WOW! This is the most lively group I've seen all month! :D"
About half of us were thinking, "Fuck you, buddy. We've been running around a park all day and you expect us to give anything but 50%, you're mentally unstable."
We got back on the bus around 7PM. I got their early, though. Of course, I took a few rides on the trolly that runs you from the from enterance to the bus area just for kicks... and I was still wet. I thought the freezing cold would dry my socks.
I. Was. Wrong.
When we're finally ready to leave it's around 8PM. I take a Nyquil I stashed with me and swallow it down with collected saliva because I couldn't afford water. Ahem. Most of us are asleep within an hour and we wake up around Midnight.
I call my mother around 12 to tell her we'll be arriving at 1AM. She says nothing but I can hear her "You want me to say out here in THIS weather for another fucking hour?"
When they let us off the bus I spend about twenty minutes looking for my mom's car. I'm actually near tears because I was wet, cold, and my pimp hat kept flying off.
I pass out in the back seat, cradling my Chrno Crusade and Saiyuki mangas.
Summary: I will never again go on a trip without my family. They're disfunctional fuckheads, but at least they'd talk me out of the goddamned water log.
---You know, as I'm going over this now, I've noticed quite a few mistakes.
I'm tired.
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