spring break!

post-recital update. let's see...the recital went pretty much as well as it could have gone. certainly it was not flawless, but when i got off, i was able to get back on again. i was happy. and then after it was over, i was a little sad. for the first time in 10 years, i don't have to practice. it feels strange. there are so many pieces that i love and never played, like the albright and the lennon symphonic rhapsody. hopefully i'll be able to take lessons when i'm in law school...hey, next year maybe i could take lessons again with my old teacher.
james's recital was right after mine and of course he was wonderful. then we got trashed. james got a little too trashed.

the next weekend, we left for universal studios in orlando, florida. hooray! the full set of pictures is available here.
day one: we fly down.
j: mel, do your homework.
m: no.

orlando=food. for lunch, we went to an ale house right by the hotel. though we never ordered drinks there, they claimed they needed two kinds of identification, which made me nervous. that night, we went to a super sweet restaurant called "the samba room" where we had awesome food as well as awesome mojitos.

day two: disney marketplace! we went to disneyquest, which has lots of fun video games and vitual reality-type rides. for lunch, we went to a cuban place which i think was called "bongos" where we split a sampler for $20. delicious and probably the cheapest food around. james at this point was kind of sick, so we went to see "v for vendetta" where he fell asleep for only a couple of the crucial points. we did a fun experiment to see what a regular cab would cost on the way back. and it would have been cheaper than the call service had the meter not gone up $.25 every seven seconds.

day three: blizzard beach! i was too scared to do the big slide, because if you sit up, you would probably get decapitated. however, i did the second-to-biggest slide which was plenty of fun for me. it gave me the biggest wedgie of my life, my contacts nearly fell out, i got "slide-burn" on my arms, and the water shot up my nose so fast that i think it poked little holes in my brain.
i ate a $4 hot dog for lunch. blizzard beach also had a new mini-golf thing which was cool. i think we ate at the ale house again for dinner. "james, i think my throat hurts too." "uh oh."

day four: first stop: walgreens. i think i spent about $100 on cold medicine. we're talking two bags of cold-eeze, two boxes of sudafed, one nasal spray, one robitussen cough, two boxes of dayquil, etc. finally, we go to universal! the first day, we went to the old park which had a cool new mummy ride, as well as a new shrek show. ooo, and a new fear factor show where people ate a delicious blend of old meat, spoiled milk, and grubs. instead, i chose to eat at margaritaville for dinner, which was probably better.

day five: islands of adventure! but wait! i forgot my purse! time to frantically 411 my hotel and make sure it wasn't stolen and then walk back! all was not in vain, because we discovered how close the park was to the hotel. (less than a mile). after coming back, we hit all the big stops: jurassic park, the hulk, spiderman, dueling dragons. i think this was the day it looked like it was going to rain, so we walked back early and passed out.

day six: finished up at the old park with twister, earthquake, and another ride on the mummy.
i don't recall having anything to eat.

day seven: our best food day ever, with emeril's for lunch. i got a mojito, lots of free bread (jalapeno corn muffins and focaccia), a pepperoni pizza, and james and i split a grand marnier souffle for dessert. james had a strawberry daquiri and a duck-truffle pizza, which he said was very good. i would guess that james drank more than $5o worth of strawberry daquiris over the course of the trip, without puking. go james, go.

last day: i have the worst tgi friday's experience ever. i really would have left without paying. all we ordered was a soup, a salad, and a three-for-all. i'm pretty sure that none of these items require any kind of preparation. it took them about 45 minutes to bring the food, and then i didn't have a spoon, or my breadstick. when i finished eating, i was starving.
we wandered around islands of adventure for a bit afterwards, going on the hulk again. also at the park were about 8 million middle and high school cheerleaders in lots of makeup and very little clothing for some national competition. they made me feel very fat.

we took a cab to the airport which mysteriously cost $25 less than it took to get from the airport to the hotel (bastards). our flight was delayed by an hour, which gave me that much more time to not do any homework.

now i'm back in bmore where it is cold, and my nose has been bleeding. oh to be back in orlando, od'ing on sudafed and riding coasters. sigh.