I Know, I Know, It's Been A While.

Happy New Year. Heh. I figure now's the best time.

Yeah, yeah, but I've been busy. I had no Internet on Friday or Monday (though I did have it on Saturday and Sunday, but I was busy then as well). So here I am. Posting. Isn't this marvelous. I'm never going to hear the end of this, am I. Well, I guess I deserve it.

The trip was awesome, though. It was more fun than coating myself in a barrel of honey and running through a pillow factory. Why that would be fun, I'm not entirely sure, but it was the first thing that leapt to mind, and dadburn it, now I want to try it. I figure I could at least get some kind of amateurish tar-and-feather style effect ongoing while I do. Yes, we had a minor setback in that we did not, technically, win the game, but I'm actually not nearly as upset about that as I thought I would be.

I spent New Year's Eve at Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure. So that was a blast. Well, the beginning part of the day was a blast, as I was riding on new rides I had never before seen, like The Mummy Returns (neatly straddling the line between a fun time and naked terror) and Twister (completely and totally awesome in all aspects). That evening was not quite as great, as the group I was with went on a couple of roller coasters and I didn't have much to do during that period. Well, I did get to go to the arcade nearby when they went on The Hulk, and I did manage to stomp some arrogant jerk at DDR (he was gloating about beating nearby people while on Standard, I leapt to Heavy and brought that chorus in), so that was piles of fun. I also advanced further in House of the Dead III than I have previously. That game, instead of the traditional light-gun pistol, instead employs a pump-action shotgun, that you cock to reload. I love it. Blasting zombies has never been so rewarding.

The actual celebrating the incoming year part took place in a hotel room with about fifty other people. There was a lot of alcohol floating around, but in deference to my and a few other peoples' delicate sensibilities, someone had brought a couple of bottles of non-alcoholic grape cider, so I had a glass of that. I had an amusing conversation with the former tuba section leader, now staff member, Stanley:

Me: What happens if Mr. Watkins [director] walks in?
Stanley: Mm?
Me: What happens if Watkins bangs on the door and demands to be let in? The door opens, he sees all this...
Stanley: I'd offer him some White Zinfandel or some of that red wine someone brought.
Me: ...?
Stanley: Not much else I could do at that point. I mean, we'd be caught red-handed. Offering him a glass would only be civil.
Me: Well, what if Mr. Birkner [associate director] walks in?
Stanley: I'm betting that Birkner is already drunk. He's away from his wife and kid, he doesn't give a damn at the moment.
Me: Knowing him? Probably.

Lots of other stuff happened. I can't remember all of it now. Going to the Magic Kingdom, that was fun. A line appeared at the Tomorrowland tram like magic the instant we approached it, which is odd, because I never see a line appear for that. It was fairly busy, though, it being the Saturday after Christmas. Aaron, a fellow tuba player, bested me horribly in the Buzz Lightyear shooting-gallery game, but that's because he never took his hand off the spin-the-cart lever and messed up all my decent shots. After this, I christened him "Sir Spin-A-Lot." He deserved every second of it. This was the same guy who got our waitress at Pizza Hut to take down his phone number so she could come to a party he was throwing - after she already revealed that she had a boyfriend. I think he was doing it just to prove that he could. Or maybe he had a more nefarious purpose in mind. I don't know, because he got incredibly drunk that night, got sick, and passed out. He was staggering all the next day, which was just too bad because it was the day we had two parades.

On Sunday, we had pep rallies and practice in the morning, with the option to go to Downtown Disney in the evening. We would have done, except Stanley convinced us that there was nothing to do there except drink or go to Disneyquest, which is a video-game parlor that is tremendous fun, but you really need to spend more than just an evening there. So we went out to Sizzler instead. They make a darn fine mahi-mahi sandwich, and their buffet is quite magnificent. We all ate ourselves sick.

We have an odd custom on the tuba bus. When two people have a dispute, or one seriously insults another, even as a joke, the rest of us take up the chant "TWO MEN ENTER, ONE MAN LEAVES!" We chant and sing until the two of them begin to brawl, at which point we immediately switch to cheering on whoever is winning at the moment. I do not generally take part in these, as many of the tuba players are either girls (I'm not wrestling a girl, especially one who has a jealous boyfriend sitting next to her) or guys who are much brawnier than I, but I got set up in a fight against Joel, who is taller and skinnier than me and who also happens to be a real jerk-face. So I fought with vigor. I managed to get him in a headlock and administer many noogies in the beginning part of the fight, but he broke my hold and attempted to lock me. We grappled for a time, and it ended with me powerbombing him into his seat. The fight was declared a draw, which we all considered fair. I gained a new respect in the eyes of many of the onlookers, but being I'm not going to see several of them ever again, it came a bit late.

What else, what else...Two of my roommates failed to appear. One of them was asked not to come by the director, as he had missed too many practices, and the other "forgot," in his words. We later found out that he was on his StarCraft II forums pretty much the entire time. So each myself and my only remaining roommate had a bed to ourselves, and he spent several nights at his girlfriend's house in Orlando, so I had the room to myself for a good long time. Except one night, when Curtis, another tuba player, stumbled in at 1:30 AM and announced he was taking the empty bed. "Why?" I asked him. His response:

"Because that fat [expletive] Aaron passed out spread-eagle on the bed we were supposed to be sharing, and I'm not moving him because he might puke again."

Succinct. He took the other bed. I felt it was only fair.

Even during the practices, I managed to have fun. It was a generally fun trip. I spent pretty much all of the money they gave us without managing to save any as I had originally hoped, but as it turned out, that was kind of the idea in the first place. Oh well. I can get money from other places. It would have been better if we had won, but I guess you can't have everything. Our star quarterback Tim Tebow did managed to win the Heisman Trophy, the first sophomore ever to earn such an honor, so the season wasn't a total wash. And there's always next year. I think we'll do better next year.

Oh, one last thing: I'll update the Wednesday post and edit it to actually have content probably tomorrow. I can do that. I have the powah. And I'll also answer the Monday responses there, so I'll just handle Wednesday's here. This will result in comments displaced, but frankly, it's not that big of a deal.

As for my Luke-Approved YouTube Link of the Day? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYGCT4AQIR0 which is the song Paralyzer by Finger Eleven. It has gotten so completely stuck in my head, I decided to offer everyone a chance to experience it. Enjoy.

REPLIES.

Steve: Quiet, you.

Vic: Pretty much. After all, it's not tomorrow until tomorrow, and then tomorrow is today, eh? Eh?

Mom: I never really had a chance. Sorry. And I did have lots of fun.

Steve: Tuesday night.

Anon: Yep.

I won't take forever to update again. I promise. Regular schedule after this.

Promise.

Bye.