Hurrying, pressing onwards.
I'm really sorry about the next long delay that I have put you through. Now I am going to hurry, and press onwards, and try to relate the rest of my story for you of the adventures I had in California.
I found myself wishing for the warm weather again as I huddled in the cold by the bus stop this morning. Snow was floating down from the sky, my breath came out in puffs from my mouth, I had my scarf wrapped around my face, and my gloves on my hands. And I recalled a time, not so long ago, when I had a T-shirt on and jeans. There was a place where the sun shone brightly, and the sky was blue! Well, except for one day. I suppose we shall get to that bridge when we cross it, yes?
Day two of our adventures in California*.
*If you are unaware of the events of day one I would have to re-direct you to the blog post titled "G.P" wherein I relate the details of day on for you.
Our plan on day two was to go to Universal Studios and experience the wild world that was movie making! I was quite excited, but plans had quickly changed. My brother wanted to go to California Adventure, and we were more than willing to oblige. We headed on the shuttle to Disneyland, turned left instead of right, and crossed the threshold into California Adventure!
We searched first for the Cars attraction, where everything was built exactly like the town of "Radiator Springs" in the movie!
My brother, he loved the Cars movie. He watched it over and over and over, and I began to dislike the story because I could recite it almost from memory, and that wasn't a voluntary thing on my part. I didn't try to memorize the entire interaction between Mater and Lightning Mcqueen, but oh did I ever!
Going to Radiator Springs though, was one of the coolest things I had ever seen! It looked so real, even the desert behind it looked real, with the plateau jutting up from desert ground. And there was a Cars ride! I'm almost ashamed to admit that it was probably my favourite ride! You get into a car and go moseying along on a nice little stroll. You Tractor Tip with Mater, get your car painted or the tires changed, and then you go racing! The ride speeds around on a track, up and over these crazy bumps, it's turns you onto your side as you zoom along the walls of the desert track! It was so much fun, I enjoyed it so much!
From there we went over to the cozy cone for an ice cream (wait for it) cone! My brother met Lightning Mcqueen, we went into Flo's V8 Cafe, we went on a floating tire ride! It was crazy! In California adventure, we saw the Bugs life portion of the park, the Monsters Inc ride, the Hollywood Tower of Horror! I myself, am not a fan of heights, and refused to go on that ride. My mom kept urging my younger sister, and my 12 year old brother to get on one of the scary rides.*
*This isn't my youngest brother, who got the heart transplant, but the eldest boy of our family. (Here's how our family goes--I'm the oldest, followed by my sister the flute, my 12 year old brother, 10 year old sister, and my hero of a brother, sitting at age 9.) This brother is definitely an E Flat Clarinet. Annoying. I love him, but his song does not bring joy to my ears most of the time. He makes me laugh though, with his random quips, and his "false facts." He brings something to the band, every instrument does. Maybe it doesn't always seem like it, but we need him in our family band. He makes us sound better. Somehow.
I digress! Scary ride! Hollywood Tower of Horror it was.
I was fully expecting my brother to come out crying. He talks smack all the time, and now he was going to pay for it! He unfortunately, really enjoyed the ride. I couldn't believe my brain! He liked it? I would have peed myself and he liked it?!
I had to swallow my pride, and carry on.
And carry on we did! We went on the river raft ride that goes up into the wolf mountain (and that was a blast! I somehow found myself precariously perched under every random stream of water that came my way though, and had to try and protect the bag I had so unwisely carried onto the ride with me. The Flute and I shoved our cameras and electrical things into a plastic baggie inside my bag, but we were not convinced they would survive. Spoiler alert: they did) we went over to the Paradise Pier. I loved that! It was like being at a fair, a real, honest to goodness, carnival! The roller coaster roared on the tracks, people shouted and screamed, the smell of corndogs wafted through the air, games blinked and flashed, and beckoned for your attention. It was magical. And of course--the Ferris Wheel.
My brother really wanted to go on the Ferris wheel, and I will tell you now, I am not a fan of things that turn a hundred feet in the air, and wobble, and squeak, and laugh in derision at the discomfort of those riding on it! (Okay, maybe that's a slight bit dramatic. Regardless.)
I went on for him though, and at first I had to close my eyes and grab the Flute's hand while breathing hard through my mouth. Then I grabbed my brother's hand, and eventually I could open my eyes and look around a little bit. (I couldn't think about it too much though.)
It was kind of neat to look across all of Paradise Pier, and see the water beneath us, and the coaster rolling beside us. I sort of wanted to go on the roller coaster, but I do not regret that I didn't. It would have been fun I'm sure, but everything else was so amazing that I seriously couldn't be upset about anything!
I can't remember at what point we were travelling from one part of the park to the other, but a Churro stand was just sitting there, and I informed my mom that Churros were supposed to be really good. She bought one, tried it, and decided that she wasn't sure how she felt about them. They must have a bit of an addictive quality though, because everyone said the same thing at first, and by the end they were pretty certain they wanted another.
Once we finished our adventures in the California Adventure theme park, we went back to Disneyland to see some more things that we had missed our first go around.
"You can go to that Thor exhibit," Mom told me.
I had a moment where I stopped breathing.
"Really?" I asked.
"Yah," She said, letting me know that she would just give me and my sister, the Flute, a phone and that we could text when we were finished. The E Flat Clarinet wanted to come too, and we let him. Perhaps it was a little begrudging at first, but we had a good time getting each other going as we waited for the exhibit.
But back up.
I was overjoyed. I was about ninety eight percent sure that the Thor meeting was over though, as that had been the day before and during hours that I was pretty sure we would have missed if it was again that day, but still! I had heard it was just like Asgard inside of the Inventorium, and I was so exited to see that!
Except that it wasn't. It was some weird exhibit, and there was a station where you waited to play a game on the "X box one" and there were a few other things that I didn't understand. A glass case housed some of the weapons from The Warriors Three, but it was nothing overly impressive. I mean--what they had was cool, but I had been expecting so much more.
Well, we would check out the Iron man exhibit, I thought, and me and me two younger siblings got in line to see this "Iron Man thing" that would undoubtedly be cool. We didn't even really know what it was, and we joked as we waited about how we "didn't even know what we were waiting in line for, but it had better be awesome."
And it wasn't.
For the E Flat lad, it was cool. A sort of a game, simulation thing where you "Become Iron Man" and they scan you, throw a suit on you, and then you fly around Tony's garage all on a virtual screen. There were some of the Iron Man suits on display, Mach I through V I think. They were neat, and I snapped a quick picture, but it wasn't what I had expected.
There was another line, a longer one, that ended at a blue wall on the other side of the glass cases where the Thor weapons were. I hadn't the slightest idea what they were waiting for, but there had to be a wall, and a further exhibit beyond, so we got in line! And waited for something else that could have promised to be just as much of a bust as the Iron Man thing.
We talked, and waited, and talked, and waited. We thought about "What if" Thor was really in there, but we knew that the chances were very slim, and that likely we would be seeing some more articles from the world of Asgard.
I kept repeating that "it had better be awesome", and my E Flat brother kept asking what I would do if Thor was in there. And Loki! (Loki's just about the coolest character ever in my books, so I kept responding that I would probably faint, and he probably wasn't in there, but if he was that would be awesome!)
We kept speculating, making guesses, the like. We laughed, and my brother as a slip of the tongue, ended up calling Thor "Thoki" and we laughed so hard that I almost started to cry.
I had a tiny ray of hope inside of me though, and I fished out my pen in case we met somebody, and they could sign my autograph book. The day before I had told the Flute that if I met Thor I would say "Mighty Warrior of Asgard, would you sign my mouse shaped tablet?"
We laughed about that and as we waited and speculated, and my sister asked me "do you even remember what you said you would say?"
"Of course," I said, offended. Then, taking a cue from my brother's book, I told her that I would say, "Uhm--Thoki?"
We laughed some more, and finally reached the front of the line. The doors slid open and revealed--
A small room. It was neat inside, don't get me wrong! There were glass cases with Loki's helmet, and shackles, there were dark elf masks, and little descriptions over everything. And there was a door labelled "Exit" and that was all.
I wasn't disappointed. Not really. You can't be too disappointed in Disneyland.
Then, the voice of Loki came on over the speakers, and a woman dressed in Disneyland uniform started talking over him.
"Oh Loki's talking now," She said, "We're not scared of you."
I wanted to shush her to hear what he was saying, but I couldn't. She kept talking, spinning a tale about how she was our stewardess to Asgard. She said that a deal had been struck between mortals and Odin, and that for each of us to mutually understand our worlds better, he was allowing us to enter Asgard. She huddled us into the middle of the room and said that the Bifrost was going to be opened.
I started getting excited, and I stood in the middle of the room, whispering to my sister about what was going to happen. Was the floor going to rise up? We had no idea, but we pulled the E Flat Clarinet into the circle we had been ushered, just in case.
Fog started to fill to room, and lights flashed across it, all around our circle.
I remember thinking that it was cool, but that if that was all that happened it would actually be a little lame.
Lightning sounded, the fog got thicker, I literally couldn't see anything and then--
The fog started to clear and there was a door where there had not been a door before, and a figure stood on a throne, covered in darkness.
Loki, Heimdall, Odin?
THOR!
I think I stopped breathing for a moment. I still don't remember walking into the room, or the doors closing behind us. I just remember that it was suddenly light, and we were surrounded by golden pillars, and the giant throne of Odin, and Thor was standing before us.
He started talking and I just kept freaking out on the inside. I was taking pictures, just awed, amazed, and star struck. Thor instantly became my favourite superhero of all time, and I couldn't figure out what to do to make my lungs work.
He allowed someone to try and pick up Mjolnir, and they couldn't, and he helped them, and it was so cool!
Each person got to go up and take a picture with him, and our little clan was absolutely last. I was about to stand on one side of him, but the E Flat Clari was in the way, and I went to the other side so that he would have to have his arm around my shoulder, and he did and I almost died!
I then asked him--"Mighty Warrior of Asgard."
He responded with a "Yes" and all now I can't help but shriek when I think about it. He WAS THOR! The REAL THOR! (Not Chris Hemsworth, that would have made me freak out even more probably, if that's possible.)
I then asked if he would inscribe my mouse shaped tablet, and he said "of course!" and took my "parchment."
I handed him my pen, which I had slipped into my sleeve, and he tried to use it to sign my book but it died! And the guys who were there with Disneyland said something like "why is it that everything you touch, dies?" And he chuckled.
I was so flustered that when I went to pull out another pen, anything that he could sign the book with, I whipped out a sharpie and another pen and I almost gave him the pen. And then I realized, and sputtered something about how the Sharpie would probably work better.
He laughed, and grabbed the pen in one hand while holding my "mouse shaped tablet" in the other, and he got me to pull the pen from the cap. I almost couldn't though and was going to say something about how I was supposed to be able to pick up Mjolnir if I couldn't even open a marker, but I thought better of it.
He took the pen to the page and then said "oh, died!"
And I almost did just that!
But he was joking, and we all had a good laugh about it, and I expressed how that would have been terrible, and then everyone else got their books signed, and my brother got to try and pick up Mjolnir, and Thor helped him, and we left, and I almost couldn't breathe.
It was amazing! Magical! A dream come true! I love Disneyland!
The whole trip was so Affrettando, so hurried along, so fast, so furious! But it was amazing! Everything about it, I just somehow wish that we were still there, walking around the theme park, eating a late night meal at a restaurant just before it closes, watching the amazing fireworks explode in the sky, turning my head on a swivel in the "Small World" ride. And that was all just on day number two!
Day number three will have to wait for another time though, and so much more awaits! We were there for a whole week and the whole things was this crazy wild ride!
Another story for another time. I know that it's Affrettando. It's hurried along, I'm pushing through, I'm pushing onwards. It's a task, for sure. But I want to share it regardless. Perhaps that's how composers feel as they write an Affrettando into their music. There is so much to do, such an immense amount of emotion that they want to convey, a story they want to tell, and they only have one section to do it in so they write Affrettando. They hurry it along, they push onwards, because they have to share it. They can't stop themselves, even if they wanted to. It's better to share a piece that is Affrettando than it is to try to keep all that information in.
That's how I feel. So I hope you enjoyed it, and I hope to share more with you soon.
--Trumpet Player
