SPRING BREAK

*prepares for insanely long blog post*
Alrighty! Here's a full write up, written to the best of my abilities. I hate to say this, but the week was so freaking busy that some of the stuff at the beginning feels like it happened on a different trip. But you all know plenty of band kids, and will probably hear a bunch of different stories.

Thursday night after school we had to go drop off our suitcases/uniforms/insturments with the band peoples. Nothing really eventful, except my mama owns and bought me books and candy on the way home. Nothing like sugar to help speed trips along!

Friday was one of those bright and early days when you're too spazzy to care about the time. Made it onto the busses with little incident. Jess and Erin managed to get behind Ash and me, naturally, with Jess's mom behind them. James usually haunted the spare seat next to her. Made for fun times. We drove a lot. Totally spazzy for a while. Bus was cold. Made it to Tenessee, bought prizes for bus games. Erin and James bought the first piece of their plastic arsenals at the dollar store. Stayed the night in a dingy little hotel room that had one lightbulb and a very, very tiny bathroom. It was great. We called Beenish twice; once as a prank during lunch when we told her Jess was in a coma due to a freak roller coaster accident in Kentucky, and the other time to tell her that Jess was bleeding from the head. Believe it or not, the second one was true. Long story that I gave James much crap about. :3

Left bright and early Saturday morning for another day of bus ridage. Made a stop for lunch. Nothing sticks out particularly in my memory, except Erin going totally whack-job stir-crazy toward the end of the ride. We arrived in Florida and eight or nine (Pacific time!) and got out, had to sit and listen to important band figure heads say the same thing over and over, then got to head to our room on the second floor. Naturally, it's about 85 degrees, even though the sun's gone down, and I could literally drink the air. Kicked myself for only packing one pair of shorts. Suprise suprise! Our room keys didn't work. Had to wait and get that sorted out, and thus I was pretty crabby by the time we met with other peoples for dinner. We went to the food court (our resort was HUGE. There was a gift store, too), bought $13 cups (everything is crazy expensive in Disney), and enjoyed dinner. Minor incident that ended in me requiring a borrowed pair of shorts from Ash the next morning.

Went to the parks! Started out in Hollywood Studios (MGM). Got a pair of shorts while mes amies went on the Tower of Terror ride (13 story drop. Jess said it was a let down.) We hung out there for a while. Wasn't TOO impressed. But after a while we ran back to the hotel and caught the Animal Kingdom bus. Animal Kingdom was AMAZING. Disney puts God only knows how much detail into their work. The park was divided into sections, and we spent most of the day in the Asia section, because it was gorgeous. They had 20-ft-tall bamboo all over the place, and really elegant architecture and scenery~ And the stores were great, too. Spent a ton of money I'll never see again. I have very few regrets. Sucked it up and bought a very expensive bag to carry my stuff in. I love it. We went through a little mini-zoo while in Asia, and got some truly amazing pictures of tigers. ((Will post soon.)) This one came up to the glass, stood on his hind legs and put a paw against the glass. He stayed there long enough for us to get good pictures. We stayed in Asia forever, but eventually headed over to the Africa section and did a few, not-much-movement-required things. We went on a safari. Got some kewl pictures again. I have a bunch of just scenery pictures. Inspired a new story. Was beautiful. Erin, Jess and I left early while Ash, James and Mrs. Johnson went on the Mt. Everest roller coaster. Had to stop in a store. Erin bought a Stitch plushie, and I went into debt for a baby Simba one. Erin called Stitch her firstborn the rest of the trip. I locked it in the safe at some point...

Monday morning we got up early again and got back on the charter buses and headed for Cocoa Beach. It was Ash's first time seeing the ocean, and my first time in the Atlantic. Water was semi-cold, but Erin and I played in the waves most of the day anyway. I taunted the ocean a lot, because the waves weren't that great. I'm not sure if it was when I called it a Whimp or when I told it that the Gulf of Mexico could do better than that when a big wave came and knocked my over. I got dragged like, ten feet underwater. It was amazing. We made a big Sand Palace, too. We being Erin, Ash, me, Mary, Jess, and James. Nicole helped too. Got bored eventually and went back to the water. Had to leave and go to Ron John's Surf Shop. OMG I spent so much money there. And none of it was on me! It took a rather sizeable chunk out of my credit card. Then we went out to lunch at Pizza Hut. Went back to the hotel and hung out for a while, then went to dinner at Living Waters, which is basically a restauraunt built around a huge aquarium. Ash and I had pretty bad sun burns by then~ Anyways, after that we wandered around Epcot Center for awhile, which is basically a big World Showcase. Jess and I spoke French a lot in France, and were stunned by the masks in Italy. Went to the Japan store and didn't come out forever. Ash and I got pwetty silk fans with our names on them in Japanese, and Jess got a paper one... But they had all kinds of stuff! Kimonos, katanas, lucky cats, chopsticks, food, bonsais, bamboo, wall posters, and a huge anime section. The park closed before we got to the last two or three countries, but the best part came AFTER it closed, anyway. Epcot has this fireworks display called Reflections of Earth, and I swear to God that it is one of the most amazing things I have seen in my entire life. After the park closed, they turned out all the lights but these big torches, and the intro to the fireworks show ended with the narrorator guy making a noise like he was blowing out a candle, and all of the torches went out. Then the music started. The fireworks were perfectly synces with the music, both of which were amazing by themselves. But there were also lights on all the major parts of the park that popped on, and a gigantic fireball, and a floating globe that had different pictured on it, which opened at the end and shot out more fireworks. That was probably my favorite thing on the trip. Definitly in the top two.

We went to Universal Studios the next day. Don't ask me too much about this one. I was sick and fell asleep against a wall at some point. I do know that Erin bought Wolverine Claws, which she wore for pretty much the next two days straight. When I woke up I saw someone walk by with a Shadow the Hedgehog plushie, and it became a mission to get one. I had to pay ten dollars, because it was a prize at a game and the lady made two people play. So Erin and James played, and I got my Shadow. *huggles* That made my life. Then we saw a magic show, went to a counterfeit money stand, where Jess and I got Celtic necklaces... And then we got to go to our suprise event. Which, by the way, OWNED. Seriously. If you get the chance to see the Blue Man Group ever, take it. I rarely laugh that hard. And the percussion was amazing, too~ But the best part was when they took Castor back stage, strung him up by his ankles and threw him into a board thingy. It was an amazing sense of satisfaction. We all pitched in and bought a DVD there, simply because the show was the only thing that rivaled the Epcot fireworks for best part of the trip. That took a couple hours, but it was totally worth it. One of the blue guys (they walk on top of the arm rests when they go into the audience) stoped on the armrest between me and Ash and had a hand on top of Ash's head to keep his balance. She and I were trading OMGOMGOMG Please Let Him Go Away looks the whole time. He did, eventually. It is the only show I have seen that gives the first few rows plastic ponchos to put over their clothes. They pour paint on top of the drums before they play. Make total messes.

Wednesday we got to actually sleep in, 'cuz we weren't allowed to leave the hotel until it was time for our parade. Shopped in the gift shop, and bought the soundtrack to the fireworks show. :3 *is listening to We Go On on repeat currently* Erin's funny "I dream of being a two-legged deer" quote comes in here. ANyway, morning was boring. Went backstage Disney to be the lead in the Magic Kingdom parade, which owned. It was hot, but the parade itself wasn't bad. Got free T-shirts out of the deal. After that we went back to Epcot and finished off the last few worlds, then went back to the resort to meet for the suprise event, which was a Luau at the Polynesian Resort. I took a freaking ton of pictures when the fire dancer came out. I also have a really good blackmail picture involving James and Josh slow dancing and wearing pink leis. Luau was great, though not as awesome as the Blue Man Group. After that, we got on the monorail and rode to Magic Kingdom. All of us but James rode the Dumbo ride. :3 You know, the one made for three-year-olds? Well, we screamed at the top of our lungs pretty much the whole time, and acted like we were racing. Erin freaked the guy running the ride out when she handed him the ticket wearing a red lei wrapped around her Wolvering claws. *She* says she lapped me and Ash three times, but she's crazy. We TOTALLY beat her and Jess.

It rained Thursday, which didn't matter, since we were leaving anyway. We made it to our lunch stop in Georgia before the other bus broke. At the time, we thought it was kewl because we got to stay in the nifty book store longer. Erin, Jess, and Ash all got hardback copies of Magic Study, library edition covers, for under three dollars, and Ash got Poison Study there too. Jess and I went searching for Lynn Kurland, but found none. It was sad. Eventually they made us get back on the busses to drive to a mechanic. We stopped there and got to go into Dairy Queen and the gas station, which was a mini souvenir shop. I bought a couple dream catchers there, 'cuz I love those things and they were cheap compared to Disney prices, before we went and had a meeting where they told us that it would be 3-4 hours before the bus was done. They took two trips to send us back to the little shopping mall we'd been at in the first place, and let us hang out there for a while. Went shopping at the Dollar Store and ended up sitting and hanging out in the shade in front of the Big Dog Store until they called us to the bus again, told us that it wouldn't be done until seven, and then drove us to the movie theater/mall, depending on where you went. They paid for the movie, but Jess and Ash and I wanted to go to the bookstore. In the end it turned into a race to see who could find Lynn Kurland's books first (Ash was well into loving Nicholas by this point, and Jess and I have both been dorks for a while). In the end, Jess got a Furuba and one of her books, I got three, and Ash got Nicholas and a Yurara. In the end we saw the newest Max Ride book, but no one had the money left to get it after our little excursion in the store. We hung out and talked to Rani for a bit, split up for dinner, 'cuz Ash and I wanted Chick-fil-a and Erin and Jess wanted Chinese, then Ash and I went shopping in FYE whle waitning for them to finish eating. THEY HAD FUSHIGI YUUGI DVDS. It was amazing. They also had a Mokona hat. But in the end I bought a speaker pillow for my iPod and a bunch of AirHeads. Met up with the band, which told us that the bus STILL wasn't done. Erin and I played in the photo booth for about half an hour. First round we got them done with Ash, second with just us, and James joined us for the third. Were bored forever, because the bus didn't get done until past nine. Got on bus, watched Pirates 3. Got off once at one in the morning when they switched drivers, then tried to sleep. Highly impossible.

Drove all morning this morning, stopping once for breakfast in Kentucky. They offered to stop for lkunch, but by then everyone just wanted to be back home. We got back to Joplin right around two. And I am about to pass out, considering I've had about eight hours of sleep in the past two days, and very grateful to be home.

It has taken almost an hour to type this, just for the record.
Hope you all had a great Spring Break! Happy Easter on Sunday for those who celebrate it!