Sigh.

This is pretty cool, really. I was off Wednesday, worked Thursday (last) night, now I'm off today, work tomorrow night, and then have Sunday off! That's nifty! I could get used to working every other day, really I could.. but then the whole paycheck thing really wouldn't work out. Ah well. Speaking of paycheck, booooy do I need one. Only a week. Only a week.

I sighed as a subject (rather like the sigh at the beginning of Poison's perennial "Every Rose Has Its Thorn", or maybe "Mother" by Pink Floyd.. sorry, I'm in a weird mood today :) because there are so many days, especially when I'm off, where I wake up and think how great a day it would be to go hang at Dinney World for a while.. and then I remember it's now a 10-hour drive. Sigh. See, for anyone just stumbling onto my journal, you should know that I moved from Orlando. (Pinky and the Brain flashback.. Brain: "Someday we will live in a world ruled by a mouse, where it's the *humans* who are forced to wait in line for silly diversions." Pinky: "You mean Orlando?") But I loved Orlando, I really did. I especially loved going to Disney World quite frequently--usually I'd go at least once a week, for a few hours. Depending on how busy it was. And I miss that, sometimes quite palpably. Maybe it's pathetic, but I realize how wonderful a part of my life it was to be able to go down there and just hang out, walk around, hop between parks, people-watch, ride the monorail around, pretty much feel like I owned the place. :) EPCOT was always my favorite, because there's so much there. But usually I'd start at the Magic Kingdom, take a spin around and ride anything that looked like a reasonable line (one learns pretty quickly what a reasonable line is when you're free to come and go as you will!). Sometimes I'd manage to catch the Tomorrowland Brass, a great jazzy drum and brass band. Then I'd hop on the Peoplemover for a leisurely spin around. Part of all this, see, was always a bit of nostalgia. Disney seems to have always been some part of whatever big was happening in my life, ever since I was a kid. I went there a few times with Kristen (my last somewhat serious girlfriend), and with Carolin (the German girl I was with for a while), and one of the best days of my life to date was back in high school, when I spent the day at EPCOT with my best friends and the girl I had the bigggggest crush on back then. That's definitely a day I'd go back and relive if I could, you know the type? Anyway, I'm just writing this, really, to sort of jot down some of the little things I miss, just in case it's a while before I get back. I miss the way the DoomBuggy tilts backwards at one point in the Haunted Mansion. I miss the international Coke product sampling place at EPCOT. The dancing fountain I loved! I miss getting that yummy potato soup in Germany, and following it with the German chocolate I love. Especially if that beautiful blonde German girl was there. :) I miss the lobby of the Tower of Terror--such a great moody and nostalgic feel there! I miss the marbled doors in the lobby of the Rock'n'Roller Coaster, and watching the coaster take off with a fake tire screech. :) I miss the bridge that was always 'mine' at EPCOT. I miss Cranium Command, something I traditionally almost always had to see when I went to EPCOT. I miss just relaxing on Spaceship Earth, and then playing the global idioms game afterwards. And the cool glass floor there! I miss lunching at the Land, next to the fishy fountain. I miss strolling around at Downtown Disney, especially the LEGO store! :) I miss checking out the bonsai trees in Japan, seeing the living statue in Italy, the beautiful French movie, the nifty American Adventure. And all the Mountains of the Magic Kingdom. I miss just sitting down to relax and people-watch on a sunny bench on a cool day. I miss throwing popcorn to the baby ducks. :)

Okay, I think that's enough of that! I'm pathetic. :) But all that makes me think I'll definitely be back in Orlando at some point, or else rich enough to go back for a day or two whenever I feel like it. :)

Speaking of pathetic, I've done some bad things in the past 2 days. A bit of prologue to this--when I was a kid, I was always a big fan of video games. I started with an Atari 2600 (actually the Sears version thereof!), then moved on to a Commodore 64, then a Nintendo, then PC, then N64, and always with a good amount of quarters spent at coin-ops here and there. :) I wouldn't say I was ever a true video game geek, but it was a great way to have fun with my friends. My best friend as a kid was a guy named Tommy, and we played lotsa games. In high school it was Scott, and we shared many a moment playing arcade games, mainly at the theater before a movie. But on to my point. Wednesday I downloaded an emulator for the PC that can play all of those old arcade games. Lots and lots of old arcade games. So I was reliving some serious memories with that thing. The games Scott and I played at the theater were Sky Shark (for me) and 1941 (for him). We were the masters of those games, and we'd get the top spot on the high-score board and, in that pathetic high school crush way, put something representative of the girls we respectively wanted. Ah, those were the days. :) Anyway, I got those games. Think I'll e-mail Scott with everything he needs to play 1941, see if he digs that. :) So I spent Wednesday playing with that damn thing, and I'm still downloading more and more games to play with it. Ah well, I had too much free time anyway. ;)

And even worse, yesterday I let the guys at work talk me into buying--get ready--EverQuest. I'd wanted it for a long time, but I was always rather afraid of it, because I'd heard too many stories (working in the computer industry and all) about severe cases of EQ addiction. But I tried it last night, and I'm happy to report that while it does seem fun and interesting, so far I don't like it a whole lot because it's much like a souped-up Internet chat room, which I've never gotten into. That could change, I guess.. But anyway.

Sorry for the long and rambly entry! Time to go play EverQuest. Ack. ;)