Epic Weekend...

Yup – I have two more fantastically ghoulishly fun events to share with you!

I’d like to 1^st start off this blog by thanking my dad and Jay a thousand times over for seriously spoiling me rotten!

My weekend started off Friday night when dad offered to take me shopping for some new duds.  You see – I wear my clothes out.  Seriously.  My work blouses are getting holes in them and my boss has been razzing me saying I look like a homeless person when my safety-pinned tank top strap shows.  So my generous dad took me out on Friday and got me some new shoes and some new clothes!  Thank you Daddy!

Saturday afternoon I headed up to LA to meet up with Jay.  Jay is such a huge fan of Halloween as am I.  You can see here his spirit as I was trying to photograph.  Notice the zombie on the window?!  Ha ha!

That evening we met up with The Shock’s – Danny and Susie for some Halloweeny cocktails and snacks and Jay gifted us with the most awesome VIP swag bags eva!!!!!  Then off to Universal Studios Horror Nights we went.  Now – let me back up.  I have done this event before and as cool as it is, it’s soooooooooooooo crowded.  The lines are so long and you spend most of the evening waiting.  We didn’t even get to all the mazes last time we went which was about 5 or 6 years ago.  Jay and The Shocks did it VIP style last year and were raving about it so Jay treated me to the VIP experience.  And HOLY SHIT BALLS was it epic!!!

My friend from work Taylor who you have seen now in previous blogs who is also a Halloween Whore like the rest of us joined us as well since not many folks are willing to shell out the big bucks for VIP.  Luckily he got there early and got our spot early on for the Private VIP Tram Tour.    Let’s begin:

After a bit of a tense and hairy parking situation that caused some very unnecessary anxiety we found our way inside through a zillion different lines and ID checks and headed off to the VIP lounge.  Um – RAD!!!!  There were our own private monsters scaring the hell out of us as we walked into the VIP area.  We checked in and they gave us a 9pm time slot.  Ha ha!  Just kidding – Taylor was already there and got our name in early – 7:30 was our time.  Hells to the yes.  We were the Blue Pallbearers.  They told us to grab some food and drink and hang until we were called.  There was a fridge stocked with waters and sodas that we can grab from anytime.  A buffet style dinner laid out with pretty much everything you can imagine with very creative Halloweeny names for everything.  My favorite was the “Terminus Cannibal Salad”.  Hilarious.  In the back was a bar and our ticket allotted us 2 alcoholic beverages if we wanted.  I of course grabbed a Cabernet which was quite delish.  With my plate stacked full we all sat down and enjoyed dinner gushing about VIP treatment.  I think I told Jay thank you and I love him a 100 times.

VIP Bitches!

Blue Pallbearers was called and off we went.  Bianca was our guide.  We followed her through the park with her lighted stick and were led to a private trolley.  Our group was probably about 10-15 or so of us.  Off we went with hilarious commentary by Bianca on our own private tour.  We then got “diverted” and had to exit the trolley in the back of one of sets.  Dark Alley.  Um set up?  Of course!  Out jump a bunch of monsters from the surrounding dumpsters.  Rad.  Our own private scare.  We were then led into the 1^st maze – Walking Dead.  We waltzed pass the HUGE LINE in the VIP line and right into the maze.  WOW!!!  The maze of course was awesome.  The zombies in a giant pile of rocks totally got me!   Most scares had accompanying lighting and sound effects making them all that much more cool.  The monsters were rad!  Fantastic makeup.  Fantastic Sets!  I mean yeah – it’s Universal – but damn!!  So rad. 

Right after that into the Dusk till Dawn maze and then into Alien vs Predator.  Now I think I’ve mentioned before I don’t get scared anymore.  Really at all.  Monsters jump out at me and I usually just giggle and or cheer if it was a good attempt.  These effects and monsters were so awesome I started getting jumpy.  The Alien vs Predator had some brilliant animatronics sometimes coming at you from both sides of the maze.  I found myself squealing and jumping with delight and fright!

We then piled back onto our private trolley and were taken over to where the regular tram folk get dropped off.  I snapped a few quick shots before we moved on.

The Shocks

Horror Whore Sandwich

We then were on our own.  We walked through the zombie filled crash zone and hopped back on the normal tram back.  Now, even though we no longer had Bianca we still had front of the line access so our lines always breezed past GA and right into the mazes.  I think we may have waited 10 minutes at the most on a couple.

I’d like to pause here and point out how awesomely organized the lines and entire set up was here.  There were never clusterfucks, never messes (Except for parking), never any hassle.  Universal has it down!

Next up the crew wanted to go on the Despicable Me ride, but Danny and I opted out due to our motion sickness.  (Danny is my motion sick buddy).  We instead headed back to VIP – grabbed some bottled water out of our VIP FRIDGE! Then played a water game – Danny knocked me off my winning streak and beat me.

The crew returned and we decided to head back to VIP to have one last snack and another drink before they closed down.  Another Cab and some more food.  I think I of course ate the most since I’m a fattie like that. Then we headed out again.

We hit the Dracula maze followed by the Face Off maze.  The effect are just incredible.  People are jumping out of doors, windows all kinds of things!  The Face Off maze was very strobe lighty and loudly blasting dubstep.

The crew went on the Transformer ride, Danny and I people watching.  Then we hit the 3-D Clown Maze.  RAD.  Some of the coolest clowns ever.  I was a fan of the bearded ones.  Too awesome!  They had this great effect with mirrors.  Some weren’t mirrors but doors that clowns jumped out of. 

After that we hit the American Werewolf in London maze.  Now this movie gets me.  I finally got a really good scare here!!!  The animatronics were off the hook and this giant wolf leaps out at me and I actually fell back into Danny and Susie shrieking.  After that every damn wolf that jumped out had me squealing like a little girl.  Rad!  Plus the special effects of wolves eating people looked almost too real!!

All of us but Susie decided to go on the Jurassic Park ride. I forgot how big the drop his.  Holy crap!  Totally fun though. 

Then everyone except myself went on The Mummy roller coaster.  This was some of my favorite people watching because in the ginormous crowd before me were stilt walkers with freaky horse skeletal masks on scarring the shit out of people.  How they didn’t fall, crash into anyone, kick anyone is beyond me.  So much fun to watch.  

Lastly was the Simpson Ride which Danny and I had to skip so again - water game!  This time I won!  Woot!

Exhausted, happy, worn out and done sometime after 1am we all rolled out.  Seriously the highlight of my Halloween Career!!!

I stayed the night at Jay’s house and Sunday was a lazy, lounge around except our excursion out to have lunch and shop a bit.  Jay bought me the most beautiful dress I can’t wait to wear to a wedding next weekend and a really cute pair of jeans.  I got some puppy time and became Jay’s #345 in his scream series called “Puppy Love Scream”

I was scheduled to meet up with Taylor for dinner then Delusion.  I gave my hugs and thank yous to Jay and headed out.

Love this man to pieces!

Nap friend

Dinner at El Cholo where I randomly got sat at the Nacho Table that gave us a free plate of nachos.  Um totally random but cool!

I followed Taylor to the house and we were told to turn off our headlights as we pulled into the dirt lot in front to park.  We walked up and checked in and were told to hang until we were called.  There was a little area with some fun little props and a bar that served coffee and goodies.

Love gobos

Delusion is an interactive horror play experience.  This is their 4^th year doing it and you have to get tickets early.  They sell out almost immediately.  I’ve been dying (pun intended) to try it.  Our little gal came and got us and off we went.  Our group maybe had about 15-20 people in it.  Each year is a different story line and this year is about an author whose characters are all apparently loose in this house.

Our gal (in character of course) told us we were going to break into the house.  Mind you this house is friggin huge!  So we break in – literally.  We all had to climb in this little tiny window and climb down into a desk, chair and in a room.  We got locked in and a gal inside a closet was yelling at us to help.  We had to find a key.  I found it!!!  I unlocked her and she went on into her monologue. 

We were then herded into another room where we were attacked by one of the characters that was a fireplace but turned into a monster!  Rad!  Throughout the evening the actors are asking you to do things, find things, help them etc.  We then ran to another room where we were attacked again and our group separated into two rooms.  Our “friends” (fellow group members) were going to be killed if we didn’t help.  That kind of thing.  So fun!  This went on for about an hour.  Us being shuffled into different rooms with different scenes and tasks.  We had a guy from our group get taken then turned into a “puppet” and we had to rescue him.  We ran up and down really freaky steep stairs.  I was put in a bed and told to pretend to be the authors daughter.  We went underneath the entire house at one point and one of our group volunteered to go find this thing out in the blackness – nuts! 

The actors were dedicated 100%.  They were all fantastic, very into their characters and fantastic portrayals.  The way the scenes and props were set up were awesome and there a few really cool special effects.  The whole event lasted maybe not quite an hour. 

I am defiantly going to do it again.  It was worth the $60 ticket price for sure!  I highly recommend it to all my theatre friends for sure.  Taylor and I had a blast!!!

Sunday night as I sleepily drove home from my epic LA weekend my eyes welled up with tears.  I’m so grateful for the friends I have in my life.  I am so grateful for my rad family.  I’m so grateful I have the opportunity to experience really cool fun stuff like this!!  I love enjoying every single moment of life!  This weekend was truly a highlight in my books! 

L.A. Haunted Hayride...

Halloween Event #2 was the Los Angeles Haunted Hayride!

This year’s group – Julie and her man Gabe and my co-worker/friend and fellow Halloween Junkie – Taylor.

The foursome

I left work a bit early and Taylor and I headed up to LA nice and early so we’ have time to grab a bite to eat.  He led us to San Antonio Winery.  Yay wine!  The area was a bit dodgy but nestled amongst the industrial area was the winery.  You picked out a dinner from a select set of choices buffet style, chose a glass of wine and off you went.  The place was really beautiful!  I was trying to get the pretty barrel lights in the back of our selfie.

Food was yummy.  We split calamari, I had an Ahi salad and Taylor had spaghetti.  The Pinot Noir I chose was decent.  Off to the hayride!

We arrived, parked for free (love that!) and were there just as it opened.  Gabe/Julie arrived not far behind us and we got in line for the Hayride right away.  A really cool giant clown fellow was walking around and Julie snapped a photo with him.  (Most pics are taken with Julie's iPhone.  My phone hates the dark.)

The line moved right along and we were smashed in the back of the trailer in no time.  I got a little sneezy due to the hay and wanted to break the woman’s foot who kept kicking me (after I pointed out she was) but other than that I was nestled comfortably between Taylor and Julie.

We 1^st passed a giant eyeball, very cool, then people crawled out of it.  Very physical actors somewhat Cirque de Solei like.  After that we came upon a giant skeleton that opened up as we got closer and inside was a giant monkey bar body that these folks were climbing all over.  Very cool.

(Of course I may be out of order…my memory never serves hence the blog).

Next up was a church like thing where hooded actors were sacrificing babies.  Very theatrical.

Now I want to point out – after every setting the folks will chase after you and run around the trailer startling people and messing with people.  No one really got me good this year, but always fun to watch.

The of course a clown one.  One of the gal clowns had an adorable laugh.  Loved her!  Another clown rode our trailer quite a ways with us making some of the folks very uncomfortable.  Tee hee!

There was a long snake like thing that people were doing some shadow play in that was super cool.  I’m not sure if they were trying to look like they were fighting with the snakes or dancing but it was certainly cool to watch.  At the end though was this rad mechanical dragon thing!  Loved him!

My favorite of the night was as we came upon some corn stalks there were 3 actors attached to these giant poles.  They were dressed as scary bird creatures and the poles bent forward and backwards like a pole vaulter would use.  The one in the middle was incredible – spinning and flipping as the poles bent forward.  Absolutely stunning and so fucking cool!!!  They defiantly got a round of applause from our group. 

Then we came upon the awesome mechanical three headed dog monster thing.  So very awesome!!!  I wish we could take pictures dammit!

I was super excited when we rolled up and recognized my friend Micah.  He was a ring leader of sorts and introduced all these different monsters that were going to attack us.  He had someone spin the wheel and let them all loose.  He did such a great job and I hollered his name as we pulled away hoping he knew I was in there.  Here’s his costume:

Next up was an army one.  I didn’t care for this one too much.  I think they were trying to be more serious, but there were only 4 of them and they didn’t do anything.  Weird.

Next up was a psycho version of Trick or Treaters.  I loved these.  The “kids” were holding human heads as bags and one of them was even stirring something in one.  The actors giggled so maniacally it was awesome!  Another great effect was this huge giant pumpkin monster thing fell from the ceiling and scared the hell out of most of our trailer.  Very cool!

The finale was a very loud heavy metal music filled room with this ginormous pink fucked up bunny head.  Rad.  There were also some very disturbing monsters that ran around and tried to scare you.

As we rolled toward the end it seemed to go by so fast!  I wanted to do it again but of course you can’t. 

We made our way out and Julie and Taylor wanted to ride the neat backwards scary carousel. 

We found the photo section they had last year, but they didn’t have nearly as much stuff as before.  I’m not sure if they had an issue with people stealing stuff or what, but we still took a couple.

I think this is my favorite shot of the night

After that I really wanted to catch the performance of Blood Drums.  There were 3 guys and a gal, all done up in fun makeup.  I’ve seen the perform before and this was a much tamer performance but they still kicked ass.  I grabbed this photo of the net to give you an idea:

A couple of them came into the crowd at one point and handed the stick off to an audience member to bang away at a giant pot.  They chose me at one point and after a few hits I fell into it just like old times.  I picked up a bit of a funky beat and when I handed the stick back the gal gave me a thumbs up and showed her appreciate that I actually knew what I was doing.  Lord did I miss playing after that!  They kicked ass!

Our last stop was the Theatre Macabre.  It was 4 actors all dressed the same in black with ghouly makeup on.  Their bit was they would play a clip from a well-known horror flick and pull volunteers from the audience to act it out along with the movie onstage.  It was very cute.  They had two gals come up and do the Psycho shower scene.  One gal (I think she was drunk) portray the girl from the Ring.  An unwilling volunteer did the Alien scene.  Then an adorable little kid came up and nailed the Danny on the bike scene from Shining.  When they asked for volunteers for the Birds I was in.  One gal was to portray the birds attacking the phone booth and I was Tippi Hedren screaming in the booth.  When I got up there the guy asked “So, do you have a good B movie horror scream?”  I smiled and wished some of my theatre friends who know my scream were there to appreciate this question.  I opened my mouth and let em have it.  The crowd applauded and the guy was super impressed.  That’s right friends who aren’t aware – I have a weird gift – I have an amazing B movie horror scream.  As I shrieked and shrieked in the faux phone booth and laughed a few times, Julie was video recording it.  You’ll see below.  The gal who was the bird was hilarious and at one point sounded like a dog.  You can hear the MC call her out on it at one point I think.  It was super fun and super silly and as I handed my costume back to the gal she said “Wow!  You are seriously the best one we’ve had up here this entire run so far!  Like forever!”  I was flattered and beamed but didn’t have the heart to tell her I was actually an actress.  

The next Tippi Hedren

The video is a bit dark but you get the idea!  Ha ha!

Julie and Gabe had paid extra for a couple of other things so we said our goodbyes and parted ways.  I was home before 10pm. 

All and all a very fun night with a very fun foursome!  Yay Halloween!