Tag Archives: high school

A Disneyland Tease (or A Mini High School Reunion Steps Away From The Happiest Place On Earth)

Posted on April 24, 2014 | 1 comment

On Easter Sunday, I had absolutely no plans. I was going to do some cleaning in my house and get ready for my work week, but it was a pretty unscheduled day.

I had an errand that I had to do in Anaheim and was planning on putting that off for another day until I saw that a friend from high school was at Disneyland that day.

My friends Ali (who co-hosts The Super Fantastic Nerd Hour podcast) and Nhu-An (both of whom I went to high school with and are now engaged) were at Wonder Con in Anaheim and decided to take their day off to do a Disneyland adventure. I totally wanted to join them, but my pass was blacked out for the day. And I didn’t want to spend a lot of extra money on a blackout day ticket. I really wanted to go into the parks, but I knew that spending that money wasn’t the right choice.

I had messaged them both to see if they would be spending any time outside of the parks on Sunday so I could meet up with them and say hello. Even though it seems like I keep in touch with a ton of people from high school, I had not seen Ali nor Nhu-An since we graduated high school in 2001.

When they messaged me back, they said that they planned to spend the entire day at the parks. So I suggested that maybe we meet up for a drink or something in Downtown Disney toward the end of their day. We agreed to meet up around 9:15pm between the parks so we could have a quick catchup.

I did my errand in Anaheim and then hung out with a friend until it was time to go over to Disneyland. You can actually park for free at Downtown Disney for 3 hours, so at least I didn’t have to pay the $16 to park at the parks. I walked over to where we were supposed to meet when I got another message.

They were at dinner and running late. But they could still meet me when they were done. So I hung out between the two parks for a while. It’s actually not bad there. I was able to see the fireworks (even though I couldn’t hear the soundtrack that went along with it).

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While I waited, I did some work on my phone and played a couple of rounds of Words With Friends. And then Ali and Nhu-An came out and we had a mini reunion outside the gates of the parks.

It was actually pretty fun. We chatted about some random stuff from high school and Ali and I discussed podcasting. I’m trying to hook him up with a fun guest (and if it happens I’ll totally share it on here) for his podcast and he is having some technical issues that the hosts of the podcast that I work for can probably help him with.

We only hung out for about an hour before they were both ready to head back to their hotel (they had just had a full day at both Disney parks). Before we said goodbye, we got a quick picture together to prove that we had a (almost) 13 year mini reunion.

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While I haven’t really stayed in touch with a lot of people from high school in real life, I love that since we all stay in touch virtually it’s not awkward at all when we get together even when it has been a long time since we saw each other face to face. I also like how all the high school cliques that used to exist are pretty much gone now and everyone I stay in touch with over Facebook is very supportive of each other. I sometimes wonder if high school had been like this if I would have still felt like such an outsider.

Either way, this was a great way to spend a Sunday that was completely open for me! And in less than a week, I’ll be spending 2 days at Disneyland with my parents!

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More Disneyland (or The Post With The Ride Photos)

Posted on October 7, 2013 | 1 comment

Yesterday I went to Disneyland (yes, again). I met up with Jennifer, who I went to high school with. We actually hadn’t seen each other since our high school graduation (12 years ago!), so it was pretty awesome to get to see her again.

Besides Jennifer, her friends Hope and Jen were also there. Yes, in our group of 4 there were 3 Jens.

I met the group in California Adventure and we started our day on the Tower of Terror. I love this ride, but I don’t have many friends who do. So I usually either go on this alone or skip it so my friends don’t have to wait. But the 4 of us all went on and of course we took a silly picture on the ride.

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If you can’t find us, we are in the last row pretending to be asleep.

Our next stop was at Toy Story Mania. This is a 3D shooting game, and I’m pretty decent at it. Jennifer beat me, but I had better accuracy so I say that we were both winners.

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Next was California Screamin, the big upside down roller coaster in the Paradise Pier section of the park. We got to sit in the very last rows which is my favorite (you go a lot faster there than you do when you sit in the front). Since I’m at Disneyland a lot, I know where most of the cameras are on the rides. So even though it’s not all of us doing a silly pose, it’s still a cute photo.

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Then Jennifer and Hope wanted to go on Grizzly River Run which is a water ride. I hate having wet clothes while I’m walking around the park, so Jen and I sat off to the side and had some strawberry lemonades while we waited for the others to ride the ride. They came back pretty soaked so I think I made the right choice for me.

We then headed over to Soarin Over California, which is one of my favorites (one of the songs from the ride is actually the ringtone on my phone). Finally, we did Tower of Terror one more time, but when we went to see our photo, there wasn’t one there.

Then it was time to head across the plaza to Disneyland. We had some lunch and then went on Space Mountain (I love the Halloween overlay!). Again, we had to take a fun picture.

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As we were leaving Space Mountain and heading toward the exit (Jennifer, Jen, and Hope had to drive back up to Northern CA so they could all go to work/school today), I saw someone who I had to take a picture of. I’m not making fun of her size or shape, but I have to say that when I first saw this person, I thought she was walking around Disneyland without pants.

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No matter how much or little you weigh, you should never wear pants (especially yoga pants) that are almost the exact same color as your skin. I think if she was wearing bright colored yoga pants or even black ones (which is what I happened to be wearing yesterday), it would be a cute outfit. But with the nude colored pants, everyone was looking at her to see if she was naked in the park.

Our last stop before heading back to the parking lot was one of the stores on Main Street. The others had some things that they wanted to buy and I wanted to see if there was anything I wanted (you never know). I had seen this scarf when I was in the park last week and it was on sale yesterday so I got it. The pattern is very subtle so it won’t scream Disney if I wear it out and about.

And then I saw something that I had been searching for since I was at Disneyland with my mom and aunt in the beginning of the year!

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It is a plush Minnie Mouse hooded scarf! I saw someone walking in the park when I was with my mom and aunt wearing this and I’ve been looking for it in the stores ever since. I even looked last week and didn’t see it there! But yesterday, there it was. And of course I had to get it since I’ve been wanting this for over half a year and didn’t know if I would find it again. I’m now looking forward to wearing this to the park when I go around Christmas time!

Finally, it was time for all of us to head home (30 minutes away for me, 7 hours for the others). It was really great getting to see Jennifer again. I haven’t really seen too many people from high school since graduating and while I stay in touch with a lot of people on Facebook, it’s so different hanging out in person.

I’m hoping that the next time that Jennifer, Jen, and Hope are at Disneyland that I can meet up with them there! I had such an amazing time!

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