I was on vacation with my family at Universal Studios Orlando for the past week and a half, which may be why I haven't posted in a while (plus I'm just lazy. It had to happen sometime). The trip was in honor of my sister's graduation from high school, and our primary focus was the brand spankin' new Wizarding World of Harry Potter (shorthand: Harry Potter World). It was, in a word, AWESOME. You enter through a stone arch, under which hangs a sign that says Hogsmeade Village: Please Respect the Spell Limits and has a picture of a boar. The first thing you see is the huge scarlet Hogwarts Express, steam billowing and everything. To your left is Zonko's Joke Shop, one of the few actual shops in the area. It sells about five things, but everything is so cleverly arranged that you think there's a lot more variety than there is. It's appended to Honeydukes, which is a wonderful mix of Potter-themed sweets (Sugar Quills, Chocolate Wands, Fizzing Whizbees, Cauldron Cakes) and regular candy. Beyond that is the Three Broomsticks, done up like an old British pub and complete with food like Cornish pasties (which are delicious) and butterbeer, which is wonderful frozen.
Beyond that are empty storefronts, including Scrivenshaft's, a parchment and quill store, and Dogweed & Deathcap, an exotic plants store, which has an animatronic mandrake in a pot that moves, and occasionally screams. Beyond that is Hogwarts Castle, rising splendidly above a lake. Within that is the park's hottest ride, Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey, a part 3-D and part animatronic Harry Potter adventure. I did not appreciate the sojourn through the arachnid part of the Forbidden Forest.
Back in the village is Olivander's wand shop, makers of fine wands since 382 BC. If you're pressed for time, I recommend getting your wand in Dervish and Banges, which has the "personalized" wands for sale in the back, because a) you're not getting into Ollivander's without at least a 40 minute wait, and b) the wand show, which is what goes on in there, happens to only one person in a group of thirty, and that person is invariably a younger child. It's worth it to wait on the line, though; the wand show is glorious, even if it's not happening to you. Dervish and Banges is the real gold mine in Harry Potter swag, however. That's where you can get normal wands, character wands, robes, house pillows, house sweaters, plush dragons, Remembralls, Sneakoscopes, the Monster Book of Monsters, house ties, and just about everything you can think of. Yours truly is prepared for the premier of the final movie, with her house (Slytherin) uniform and her very own wand.
Other than HP World, the park is a lot of fun. The age group is generally two or three years older than the Disney World set, and that meant there were less little brats zooming around underfoot. It also meant less temper tantrums in lines and at gift shops, which was marvelous. Plus my family had the express pass because we stayed at one of the Universal Orlando resorts, the Loews Portofino (decked out like a port town in Italy), and thus we got to cut most of the lines.
So if someone can tell me why we needed to get up at 6:30 every morning and charge around the park for 7 hours, I will give them my sincere thanks (because I'm a poor college student, or at least I am now after I got through Dervish and Banges). I seriously need a vacation from that vacation, although getting up at 8 for work at 9 seems kind of like heaven, after it seemed like such a drag before. It was really nice to come back to Cecilia, however, and not just for obvious reasons. Being the wonderful, caring, considering person she is, I came back to find my room actually clean for once (I soon got to work on dirtying it again), my bed made, and a vase of truly fresh tiger lilies on my desk (she picked them from the huge stand of them outside our dorm), and my birthday present, finally come from the Lucky Dog Leather leather workshop: a lovely wrist cuff, custom made and sized for my wrist.
And, of course, her.
I missed her more than I can say. Bear in mind, we dated for three weeks our freshman year before we went to separate sides of the country for summer break: me to Connecticut, and her to an undisclosed location in the Midwest. We created a relationship through copious texting, letters, three-hour Skype sessions, and Facebook chat when her phone fell into a river (that was hell, let me tell you). You'd think, after three months of not seeing each other, that one week would be cake. It wasn't. It was really hard. I never realized how much I needed her and how very much I relied on her until she wasn't there to hold, to bitch to, to kiss, to cuddle. I missed her like crazy. And now I'm glad to have her back.
That's pretty much it :)
Note: Cecelia is so awesome that I have created a new tab category for her: My Girlfriend Is Awesome, abbreviated as MGIA.
No comments:
Post a Comment