Final Gladiator, Dark Harbor and the plague...

I did it!

I did 3 Gladiator Rock N Run’s in one year and earned myself the “Beast” medal!

This was Fatima’s wild idea last year and I totally jumped on board.  Unfortunately I was sick as a dog.  It’s that time of year I suppose when most of the human race gets nailed with some sort of Cold/Flu.  And no – I did not get a Flu Shot.  I don’t buy em.  I did it one year and got sicker than I’ve ever got and got more sick than I did any other year.  So no.  No flu shot for me. 

The Wed before Saturday’s Gladiator I had a scratchy throat that night and I was exhausted. I knew it was coming.  You’re most contagious the 1^st 48 hours.  I was a good little girl and stayed home from work Thursday and Friday, staying in bed, hydrating, taking Zicam, doing all the shit you’re supposed to do when you’re sick.

Sat – Gladiator arrives.  No, I probably shouldn’t have done it.  But I was already sick.  I wasn’t getting better and the virus had already attached itself to my body.  I was fucked.  If it was any other race I would have skipped it, but this was my third damn Gladiator and I was going to get that Beast Medal if it killed me!  So I did.

Since I wasn’t “feeling it” really.  I forgot to take any pre-race shots.  They had a giant warm up session that I attempted and realized how crappy I was feeling.  Fatima, Nancy (who was also getting over being sick) and David and I headed out the starting line together.  I tried jogging a bit but my lungs burned and I was coughing every other breath it seemed. 

This Gladiator was at The Rose Bowl in Pasadena and our 1^st obstacle was going up and down the stadium stairs 4 fucking times!  I normally wouldn’t post such a crappy picture of myself but it’s so sad.  You can tell I was so sick.  My nose was burning and I was feeling miserable.

After that we headed out to the Dumpster Dive.  It was much easier this time around thanks to David hoisting our asses out of the thing.  Now time for fuzzy remberances.  I’ll try to be brief:

·         Some kind of chain link fence thing we wiggled under.  On the ground was plastic so we zipped through that pretty quick on our backs.

·         Walked for what seemed like forever out and back.  Lots of dust.  Not good for sickie girl. 

·         Climbing walls – check.

·         Monkey Bars – learned that the gloves actually make it harder for me.  I fell off half way thru but hopped back on to finish.  Next time I won’t wear my gloves.

·         Crawled through some tubes and mud.  Always mud.
-     Cinder Block Burpees - nailed.

·         Hopped over Barricade things.  I usually hop over these no problem, but for some reason I nailed my shin on one of them and have a nasty wound to boot.  Ouch.

·         Carried the bag (Buddha’s Burden) around a building.  They were actually heavy this time.

·         Cargo climbs – easy.

·         Then there was this weird Weeple Wriggle they called it.  It was some weird seatbelt like thing that you crawled under on your back.  It was pretty rough on your back and it was so low, it was not an easy obstacle.

·         Hopped over some busted up cars – fun!

·         And of course the Beast Wall.  Funny thing – I aced it!  I think it’s because it wasn’t as muddy and the soap they had applied to make it slippier had dried enough.  I went over the thing like a pro!  When I crawled over I turned and looked shocked down and Fatima and David and let out a pained holler (it hurt to yell – stupid cough).  I was stunned and stoked!  They also sailed over it like it was nothing.

Then of course the always fun mud obstacle.  These pictures are always my favorite and I don’t look as sick here.  

Muddy David

Muddy Nancy.  That's me helping her.  Her hair kept getting stuck!

Muddy Fatima

Muddy me

Mudd apparently makes me laugh

We all four crossed the finish line together.

Afterwards we hung around for a bit, did the Brommers soap hose down thing, and took some fun photos.

This pic was actually in the Thank You Email that went out from Gladiator!  It said "Gladiators showing off their bling!"  Fatima and Maryanne had the good idea to bring all the medals...Nancy and I did not..oops!

Dan Nitro and the gals

David loving the ladies

I'm a Beast!!

We headed out, David and I grabbed In & Out (I love a good burger after a race) then I promptly showered and went back to bed.

Sunday evening I attended the wedding of Jack and Robert that was absolutely lovely but it was outside and it was cold.  Jewish ceremonies are so interesting and beautiful and I was so glad I went but when I awoke Monday morning I felt horrible.

 

I made it through most of the work day but went home coughing daggers.  Tuesday landed at the doctors was given antibiotics and been recovering since.

My favorite holiday – Halloween - was spent drinking tea alone watching horror movies with the girls.

This past weekend I skipped one of my favorite events – Noches de Altares since Taylor had purchased us tickets to Dark Harbor at the Queen Mary.  Since I’m not a 100% I didn’t want to risk two outdoor night events in a row and Dark Harbor was paid for so that won out.

 

Taylor was worn out for a big work event all weekend so we planned an early night.  Dark Harbor isn’t one of my favorites.  It’s always too crowded and the mazes just aren’t up to par.  We did have fun though.  His tickets had front of the line access so we never waited too long.

He paid extra for the extra event we thought was a tour but when we had to sign a waiver realized it was another interactive experience.  I actually enjoyed it for the most part.  The best being we were down in the bowels of the Queen Mary.  Down in the engine room.  We saw the haunted hatch 13.  It was all super creepy and super cool.  We were put in the haunted changing stalls and the ones across from us moved (There were 6 in our group).  We had one guy freak out who I thought was part of the bit but actually was just a dude who was really claustrophobic.   We then had to crawl through a really dark drainpipe thing and couldn’t see shit.  I kept getting my scarf stuck.  (I was so not dressed for this).  Taylor was “sacrificed” and we had to find him.  It was all very cute and fun, but nothing too dramatic.  My favorite part was when we went under this weird area of the boat and it was inside but outside and we saw the giant boat propeller under the water.  It was so spooky and cool!  The little ghost gal came to scare everyone and we were all so enthralled by the site we didn’t run away. Finally someone shrieked and we jogged out.  They guy said we were the slowest evacuators ever.  Ha ha!

Taylor and I were actually able to hit all the mazes and be out by 10pm.  It was fun but doesn’t hold a candle to Universal or really even Haunt.  We had a ball though and I thank Taylor for choosing me as his buddy to go!  The end of another Halloween season has come.  I’m a little bummed I had to stay in on Halloween and miss Noches but dammit did I do a lot of cool shit this year!!!   Knotts Haunt, Hayride, Universal, Delusion and now Dark Harbor!  So much fun!!

Hopefully I’m on the mend now.  The cough is still lingering and my nose is still a little pissed off but I’m going to try to fall back into my normal routine again starting tonight.  Stay well my friends and on to the Thanksgiving and Xmas holidays!  Yikes!!!

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!