Florida Trip (Actually that's kind of a lot!)

THURSDAY: Amelia arrived at my house at 4:45 AM last Thursday. We made it to Dunkin' Doughnuts by 5 and were on I-75 heading south by 5:05. I ate my Bismark, Amy munched on her chocolate glazed doughnut and we occasionally sipped our iced coffees. Our first stop was in some little trashy town. The reason why we ventured off the exit was the first bathroom break. Sadly, it was ten minutes until 6, so the McDonalds was unavailable for restroom facilities. Instead, Amy and myself walked down to the big hotel, where I hoped a "public" restroom would be for our use, but again, nothing. Finally we decided to stop in the Waffle House, where a large group of workers in blue shirts gathered. I made a joke about being happy I hadn't wore my blue shirt that day and we merged back on 75. I talked for a LONG while about HBO's late show called "In Treatment" and a lot of time flew by without suffering, at least I hope not for the driver. As we came to south Georgia (towns I really didn't care about logging into memory), I put in the Florida Mix CD that I had made for our trip. Amy favored a particular song titled "The One to Blame" by Anna Terheim. Every other song on the CD was a track by Lewis Black from "The White Album" and that brought many laughs along the way. After many jokes about the weather, drugs, and Miami, we stopped for lunch and another bathroom break at a Cracker Barrel. Amy ordered pancakes and I had French Toast - both of which had enough grease to kill a fetus. After filling up on food, we needed to fill up on gas. Amy swerved the car around a cool intersection and we pulled into the gas station, where she pumped for gas and I watched her work off the energy from the food. She ran far down to a payphone and back. We shook the gas hose ten times and got back on the road. After making good timing, we finally hit bad traffic around a town called "Barney." I only know the name of the town, because we had to look at the fucking interstate sign for a whole hour. Yes, traffic stopped for a long while, and we were forced to merge off the interstate and ride a scenic few miles on HWY 41. While stuck in traffic, Amy and I played with a yo-yo out the window, and watched cars and people through binoculars like voyeurs. Once the stress wore off from the vast traffic, we merged back onto 75 and hit the map for directions. We arrived in a town somewhere in Florida and needed another restroom facility. We pulled off an exit with nothing but one gas station. The sign on the unleaded sign read "4.07!" While having such disgust for a high amount, we peed and rushed back on the road. I believe the next stop was Melbourne Florida - our destination. We brought our luggage in and Amy decided to nap, while I fiddled around the house. We laid around the living room and I introduced Amy to some funny Family Guy episodes. "Oooh, that dog of mine!" We had many great laughs and Drew came home from school with a "cool" attitude about school. We all continued to watch Family Guy and relax until Mom came home. That night, we all dined with my grandmother, Nanoo, at the City Tropic Bistro. Amy had tasty black beans and rice soup and I ate the veggie wrap. We shared the meals every other bite. That night, we arrived home and decided to call it a night early.

NEXT DAY: Amy and I awoke around early-afternoon time, ate breakfast, showered and drove to the beach. The beach was excellent. I didn't think anyone could find complete happiness while being thrown around waves. Amy and I were pushed kind of far compared to where our towels and clothes originally were originally placed. We roughly fought through the waves and made our way past our clothes and towels, so that we'd flow back to the right place. After an exhausting attempt to make it back to shore, which took forever, we laid on our towels and tanned. The both of us found complete relaxation on the beach. Amy, like the caring person she really is, was concerned about me burning and frequently asked me if I wanted her to apply more sunscreen on by back. We tranquilly laid there for obviously more than 30 minutes, because when the two of us walked back to the car, a ticket sat under the windshield wiper, gradually flapping in the wind. After such a great time at the beach, we worked up a hunger for a great lunch. We made our way to the Publix and bought many greaceries (great groceries). Among the many items were ingredients to assemble tasty wraps. After getting back to the house, I took a shower and Amy shook more sand our of her clothes. We made egg, humus, baby Swiss, and Spinach lettuce wraps. We ate the wraps with Cape Cod Barbecue chips and watched Danny Boyle's "Shallow Grave" and LOVED IT! We rested around that evening and went to Barnes and Noble, where she bought a book on Chemistry (which I said impresses me, but really doesn't, because she's truly smart and loves tough challenges). We came back and took a nap. After waking, Amy got me to watch the "Perverts Guide to Cinema." It is really amazing! We came close to watching it all, but was interrupted with a hunger for dinner. While hit with a sudden lack to make any decisions, we went in search for a great sushi restaurant. After a lot of searching due to my lack of direction following, we decided to eat at some random Japanese place. (By the way, if anyone wants to know what I want for Christmas, it's a GPS device, so I can't get lost anymore. Just getting that out there). After putting our names on the list, we suddenly decided to ditch the place and run out to the car. On our way back while looking for another place to eat, we found the sushi place from the directions. We both had really great sushi! Amy's seaweed salad was probably the best out of the entire meal. She was craving good seaweed salad back at the house, which led us to the sushi decision. After dinner, we headed over to the A.B.C. Liquor store, where I bought a case of Jack Daniels' lemonade that the man wouldn't sell me, because Amy came into the store with me and was not 21. While understanding the store policy, we were still pretty pissed off. I took us down a back road that unexpectingly got us back on the main road, where we pulled into a Discount Beverage. A young woman approached our window and asked for a ride down to the BP. Normally she wouldn't have asked and if by myself, I normally wouldn't have agreed, but since Amy was also in the car and since Amy and I didn't feel like killing this particular girl, we gave her a ride to the BP. While on the way, Amy made a joke about us killing the woman and it was really funny. She mentioned that 100 dollars were stolen from her and her cell phone was dead. After dropping her off and creating many situations regarding her, we headed back to the Discount Beverage, where I bought a six pack of Smirnoff and Jack Daniels' Lemonade. That night, we saw John August's directorial debut "The Nines." Not sure if it's a good movie to mix with alcohol. Amy and I tore up the lemonade and by the time we finished "The Nines" we were so greatly confused by the movie. It was really great! We then went to bed.

DAY 3: Amy cutely woke me up and while she ate fruit for breakfast, I decided to eat a Boston Creme roll. It was Drew's birthday, so we told him "happy birthday" that morning. This afternoon, we decided to just lay around. After a while, we headed out to Barnes and Noble again, where I bought the new book from Chuck Palahniuk called "Rant" and Amy bought this really cool game for me called "Alibi." Sadly, we didn't have enough time to play Alibi. Amy bought an iced Caramel Maciatto, and I bought a hot one. We arrived back at the house around lunch time, so we ate wraps again. Drew so diligently worked on writing his final paper for his film class on Danny Boyle. Amy didn't have the rest of her drink, so I acted like I got Drew a hot one, which was mine and I downed Amy's drink. While I heated the pan, Nanoo came in and was surprised with intent, so we cooked her a wrap as well. Amy, Nanoo and myself ate at the dining room table, where I fed their dog, Doogie, scraps from my wrap. Nanoo left, and so it was time that I helped mom get some things at Home Depot. First, mom and I ventured off to Barnes and Noble, where I bought Amy a laprest for her Macbook (it fits and matches perfectly), drew a birthday car, and picked out a Bob Dylan guitar songbook for mom to give to Drew. From there, we drove to Home Depot, where I exhaustingly lifted four heavy bags of salt and four bags of soil for my mom. I convinced her also to purchase a small lawn gnome for Drew's birthday present. We also stopped at a gas station, where I bought 18 scratch-off lottery tickets for Drew's 18th birthday. We arrived home and helped unload the large amount of stuff. After doing so, I surprised Amy with the lapdesk, and Drew with the gnome. Amy really loved the lapdesk. I hopped into the shower, but when I got out, I started feeling sick to my stomach and jittery. I laid down and decided not to go to Drew's birthday party for the fear I might get sick, and if I got sick, I wanted to be at home. Amy decided to stay home as well and took good care of me. One of the things she mentioned was that she typically is the type of person who gets freaked out by sick people, but I only saw her as a loving person giving me aid. I thanked her for taking such good care of me and she responded, "It's easy. Anytime I ask if you need anything, you just say nothing, and so I don't have to do anything." That night, I felt better and watched Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. I had trouble sleeping, so I took a Tylenol PM and fell asleep while reading Andrew Sarris.

DAY FOUR: Amy and I woke up around 9:00 and hit the road to Universal Studios. we stopped at a Target, where I bought another bathing suit for Amy. It was kind of awkward for the both of us. Okay, more for her than me. After getting Starbucks in our systems, we shot off to Orlando. We arrived at Universal around 12:00, parked for $11, and walked a little ways before noticing that I had left the tickets in the car. After that minor setback by muah, we walked through the great arches of Universal and were in a world of fantasy. The first thing we did was Terminator. They showed us a video about industry taking humans into the new world of technology. Amy pointed out the irony in Universal itself being a corporation partaking in the same ideas described in the video. The 3-D show was really cool! After that, we walked down the recreated Sunset Boulevard and looked around for a bathroom. We passed this Villa-looking place that looked like the courtyard in Mulholland Drive and discussed how cool it would be to live in it. We found a bathroom and walked over to the Jaws area, where yes, we rode Jaws. I was "lucky" enough to get the seat on the front right where Jaws approaches the boat once in the the progress of the ride. Jaws is a great ride for being about 25 years old. I forgot how the boat itself tilts towards Jaws. One particular part, I jumped in the air and Amy pointed out later how scared I was and only from barrels of water falling. After that, we walked around some more and worked up an appetite, so we ate in the "Monster Cafe." The entire restaurant was filled with monster paraphernalia, pictures, props, you name it, it was on the walls. Amy had the cheese pizza and I got some pasta dish. If only the food was as cool at the restaurant itself. After digesting the large quantities of grease brought on by the food, we needed something to cool us off, so Amy treated us to Dippin Dots. We ate them back in the Monster Cafe, so we could enjoy to cool air some more. While eating, I played with a little girl, but she didn't notice. Although, her grandfather didn't think it was too funny. He gave me the most disgusted look I have ever seen. Amy joked about it, but I tried remaining inconspicuous. It was even funnier to her than to me, because she was having a lot of fun with it. We then went on Mummy the ride. At first, we tried to ride it with Amy's bag, but the guy wouldn't let us on, so instead of paying money to rent a locker and give Universal anymore money than we want to, we hid the bag behind a door and picked it up when we got off. Probably the best we rode on! It's a roller coaster/ terror ride. Most of the ride took place in the dark, and you go in the Mummy's mouth and there's a lot of lit smoke and fire, especially towards the end, where the ceiling becomes ablaze and it gets really hot. The ride was so great, we rode it again! We eventually found out that through a really technically advanced fingerprinting device, we could put our bags in the locker free for an hour. But after the Mummy ride, my neck was really tense. I guessed it was from gripping on tight onto he ride and getting sort of whiplash. After that, we "rode" Disaster. This was a unique addition to the already established Earthquake ride. We got to see Christopher Walken act really cool. After that, we walked around some more and saw that the Horror Makeup Show had a 5:30 showtime and at that time it was 5:00, so we rode the Jimmy Neutron ride and made it back in fifteen minutes. The Horror Makeup show was amazing! The host and the makeup expert were phenomenal. There were so many jokes thrown that we laughed so hard. I noticed that in the corner of a table was a picture containing the gentlemen and from what I could tell with a good bit of distance looked like the gentlemen with Tom Savini in the middle. During the show, they displayed a cutting trick, with the mention to the creator Tom Savini. After the show, it was about closing time and so we rode the Men in Black Alien Attack. It was fun to shoot a bunch of aliens and have a lot of fun. Once we got off, the park began closing. We made our way out and all the way to the car. We drove to the hotel that Jan got us reservations. I pulled up to the check in area and walked in. The guy pulled our reservations up and gave us welcome cookies that just so happened to be Ghiradelli chocolate cookies. Amy and I walked into the room and were amazed. Not only was the room on the 15th floor (out of 17), but the room contained a flatscreen TV, fridge, pillows that read "Sweet Dreams," and a view to kill for. We were in heaven, but verrry hungry! So, we went looking for food. At first, we stopped at a Walgreens to get "snack-like" foods, but they didn't have exactly what we wanted, so we drove for a while and found a great little Italian pizza place. Amy ordered and bought a four cheese pizza from a guy she claimed probably had a fake accent. We walked outside and thus began our lovely obsession with the song "Debaser" by the Pixies. We crazily sang along. I bought us drinks and snacks at some gas station. When we placed our items (Dr. Pepper, Powerade, Butterfinger, and a Scor bar) by the register the clerk asked, "Is this all?" probably only seeing her stuff. Amy comically responded, "Actually that's kind of a lot." I looked over at her and held my laughter in as best as I could. She claimed that the guy let out a tiny smile, but when we got out of the gas station, we busted out laughing hard. Back in the car, we blazed Debaser again, singing loudly. Our pizza was ready and we took it up to the hotel room, where we saw Knocked Up for the fourth time and ate the pizza. Amy ate her pizza on one of the hotel wash clothes. We laughed loudly and didn't worry about the neighbors getting upset. There was one last pizza left, and so Amy and I split it. I began eating my piece and Amy finished hers. I wondered how she could have finished hers when I was just starting mine. Then, she informed me that she only broke off a small piece. We laughed at that as well. The day began catching up to us and we grew tired during the movie and fell asleep.

DAY FIVE: The LOUD alarm woke us at 7:00, thus began our full day of "adventure." My neck was feeling better and so we showered, packed up and headed down for the breakfast Jan also paid for. The breakfast buffet that sounded like something you would find at a Days Inn ended up being something you would eat in a castle. Amy literally was in heaven. I didn't eat much, but drank about two cups of coffee. Amy pigged out on the bar and ate eggs, grits, a BIG waffle, fruit and a banana, which she ate on our walk to Universal. We finished breakfast and yes, instead of driving, we walked across the intersection to Universal. It was a powerful walk. Amy and I discussed many deep things and solved an issue before arriving at the Universal gate, which makes every bad feeling go away. We made sure to get there just as it was opening and that is what we did. The first thing we did was go on the newly developed Simpsons' ride. That was really neat. Amy and I, while in a pretty short line, discussed my story idea regarding working in Universal or should I say "Utopial." The ride was funny and cool all at the same time. After that, we needed someone to take our picture inside Jaws' mouth. A man, I think was from England, asked me to take a picture with he and his assumed wife or girlfriend. Upon giving me the camera he said, "Cheers." And afterwards he said, "Cheerio." We got him to take one of Amy and myself next to Jaws also. Next, we rode the Mummy ride two more times. Come on, you cannot resist it! After that, we were ready for Islands of Adventure! The two of us exited the part and walked across the bridge to the park. Upon entering, we ran straight into Dr. Seuseland. We rode the Cat in the Hat ride, with no wait AT ALL. It was okay. Something fun and entertaining, but Amy wanted to see dinosaurs, so we went onward. We came across the next area, which was like a Medieval area. We got in line to ride the "Dueling Dragons" roller coaster. After walking through a line of ten minutes that was supposed to be for the wait in line, we finally reached and road the ride. After we got off, my neck began hurting badly again. I worried about ruining Jurassic Park for Amy, but sucked it up the best I could and we rode the Jurassic Park River Adventure, which was EXCELLENT! Amy remarked how cool it was how unexpected the raptors could jump out, and that we're supposed to one way, but makes us go another. She also mentioned how climactic the T-Rex is. We were in the front, so it was pretty scary, and then we DROP! We were a little wet from the ride, but then we headed towards Toon Lagoon. We saw that the Dudley Dooright log ride only had a wait of 10 minutes. We then not only got in line for the ride, but also eternity. While standing for a LONG period of time in a CRAMPED space and DARK lighting on us, STUPID kids decided to act like assholes and play around with us, cut in line and SMELL. we literally waited miserably in line for more then thirty minutes. The ride was really cool. We became SOAKED! I mean SOAKED! I wanted to kill the moron who decided to put the mist fans in the area of the park with the water rides. I then developed my top 5 list of things that make me go insane at a theme park. I originally created a top 10 list, but I can only remember 5 now. Here they are:
1) Kids who cut in line.
2) Groups of people who come to a theme park with matching shirts.
3) Fat people who walk slow.
4) Kids.
5) Kids.
After that, we walked around a little bit more and finally rode the Hulk. This ride has been on many top 5 lists of the greatest coasters of all time. The only list its making from Amy and myself is the top 10 coasters that make your head and back hurt worse. It was okay, but not something to go on if you don't want to hurt. After that, the line for Spiderman had died down, so we jumped in line, where we saw Toby from the Office. Not really, but a guy who looked just like him. Spiderman the ride was really intense, surreal and appealing to the eye. The use of lighting really was awesome, but what wins the medal is making it look like you're going up and feeling like your going up. It had everything the Simpsons was and more. We were beat after that, and it started dripping. We decided to call it a day and head on back. We walked back to the car, which seemed a lot longer going back then to the park. On the way, Amy found the utter most entertainment watching lizards come out and run back when we'd pass. We got back to the car and it began raining more. The drive home took practically two hours. Painful two hours. My neck was killing me, Amy's head was killing her, my feet were killing me and I wanted to kill every car that cut in front of me. Amy saw how eggs sticking to the pan and people cutting me off in traffic reallllly makes me angry. After receiving "directions" to get home, we took so many wrong way turns that getting back took twice as long. Once we did get back, we crashed inside! I began feeling sick again and even gagged hard outside and curled up next to the large trashcan. Amy took care of me again and I started feeling better. Amy helped me figure a number of excuses it could be. While Amy filled up her car, I made her the entire Anna Terheim CD and another mixed one. When I walked by her room, I noticed she was laying on her bed tired. I sat next to her and tickled her back for a while, and then we watched a movie called "Murder Party." It was GREAT! It was SICK! It was ART! The perfect nightcap, and sendoff for Amy.

TODAY: Amy woke up this morning at 4:00, kissed me goodbye and got on the road. I received a call from her a few hours ago and she was making EXCELLENT timing. I'm glad she could enjoy the ride home by herself. I know that's what she wanted and am glad to see her happy doing what she likes. I'm not sitting at the computer doing nothing. I've managed to log everything we have done together the past few days. I had such a great time with her. I always have the best time with her. It sure is going to be different without her here. We should try setting up our next vacation. That's it for now!