It's been a while... (Warning: It's a long one!)
I can't say we didn't know it was coming. I mean we knew it wasn't going to be too long but we expected her to go into the hospital for a while and maybe do hospice care. We weren't prepared for her to go so quickly. She went peacefully and was unconscious for most of it. She did regain consciousness briefly, unfortunately I missed it cause Elly had dragged me to go get dinner despite the fact that I wasn't hungry and nothing really sounded good to me. I try to console myself that while I sat and held her hand and told her that I loved her in those final minutes I felt her squeeze my hand. I like to think she heard me and she was responding. I still cry a little everyday but not as badly as I used to. After she passed Elly and I drove down to the city to The Stud where Bruce does his kareoke shows on Wednesdays. I proceeded to get very drunk and sing songs she liked or would have liked. Somewhere during that night Elly left and went to the Cat Club nearby. I stayed at The Stud and after the show took a nap as Bruce shut down and loaded up the car with his things. Then we walked over to the Cat Club where they do this little after hours thing for a special few. It's there that I found Elly hugging a garbage can. She claims that she was making herself throw up but I think honestly that at first she didn't have much choice in the matter. I didn't want to stay the night in the city but of course neither of us were in any shape to drive. A friend of Elly's drove our car to his place and generously offered his couch as a place to crash. I wasn't comfortable with staying at a strange guys place so I elected to sleep in the car. In hindsight I probably would have been safer on the couch but what's done is done. When I woke up several hours later I seriously had to pee. While trying repeatedly and unsuccessfully to rouse Elly on her cell I made the judgement to ditch her. I found a nearby gas station that allowed me to use their bathroom and in return I brought a couple of sodas and a pack of gum for the road home. Tried again to unsuccessfully rouse Elly. I was yearning for my bed so I left a message informing her that I was going home and she could call me top come get her later or she could take Cal Train and I'd come to pick her up from the Castro station. She chose the latter.
The following week was the previously scheduled Disneyland/Universal Studios trip. I thought about skipping it but I'd already payed for much of it and wasn't sure how much of my money I'd be able to get back. It was a nice trip. Had a very nice dinner on the way there at The Black Cat in Cambria. It's one of those resteraunts where the menu is whatever the chef feels like cooking that day and they post it just before they open. I got some fried olives to share, stuffed mushroom and I think I had ravioli as my entree. The olives were meh, the rest was pretty good food but not what I was expecting fro the way my friends raved about the place.The Disney was fun but felt a bit rushed. California is undergoing a lot of changes so I look forward to seeing what that's going to look like when it's done. The fireworks show was pretty awesome considering I havent seen a fireworks show I really liked since I was a kid sitting on the banks of the Charles river in Massachusetts. I rented one of those motorized scooters. Those things are dreadful and I seriously want to redesign them. They need a break, mirrors, and a horn that actually sounds like horn so people will actually pay attention. Unfortunately I didn't get to see Ursula or the Evil Queen at the villians stage. The crone was there though. The next day at Universal Studios we opted for the wheelchair instead. It was cheaper. It was a fun day. The King Kong 3D thing on the tram ride was fun but I miss the big animatronic Kong with the fake bananna breath. Also the tram ride didn't seem to have as much cool stuff going on as usual. Best ride was the Simpsons ride. The Mummy ride was way too short and Jurrasic park wasn't as cool as I remembered, Although the face full of water I got at the very end from one of those spitting dinosaurs was interesting. The special effects show was kinda dull. Shrek 4D was the best show but I should have sat in one of the theatre seats to get the full effect. The Terminator 3D things was interesting but not as cool as it would if I had seen it when it first happened. When six rolled around we went back to the wheelchair desk to see if we could reserve the wheelchair for when we came back at 7 for the Halloween event. They were pretty snotty with us and told us we couldn't reserve it and that we'd have to pay for it all over again. We went to guest services to complain and got a really cool guy there who in exchange for holding onto my CDL we could not only hold onto the chair but we also got to take it out onto Citywalk. Went out onto Citywalk and stopped at the candy store. A necessary evil. However they were charging a ridiculous price for Pop Rocks or I would have purchased several bags for my sis, Amyone tried the chocolate covered Pop Rocks? I know it sounds bad but they're really quite good. We also stopped at hot topic where I purchased two t-shirts. One was a blood spattered white with the words Brains & Brains repeated over and over again all down the front. At the very bottom in red blood it says zombie meal time. The other is black and it says this shirt just got 20 percent cooler and to the side there what I think looks like a cat but my friend asures me is a pony outlined in rainbow. Wore it last night and my friend Tim Eh didn't get it. I've decided that I'm so cool that when I put the shirt on some of my cool rubs and makes it cooler. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.Well then we headed back to universal and after retrieving my license we headed to the tram again which was the terror tram now. It was fun but not truly scary. A lot of other people were scared by the chainsaw weilding manics and Norman from Psycho but after being chased through the Screamworks maze by chainsaw wielding maniacs these guys were cake. One of them pretended to take his chansaw to my chair at which point I very calmly told him that if he damaged the chair he'd have to pay for it. At which point he broke character and laughed and then pretended to hang his head in shame. We went to the Bill and Ted show which was fun but a bit long for my tastes. Went through several haunts. Not much to say about them. I didn't like The Thing haunt. It was too in my face and started to trigger an anxiety attack. Was dissapointed by the Zombieville haunt. It didn't have a hell of a lot to do with zombies. At one point of the night I was looking pretty miserable because I was tired and in pain from cramps and my back was hurting from lack of lumbar support. One of the clowns came up to me and said "You don't look happy." Now while I consider clowns (with possibly the exception of Ringling Bros. and Barnum and Baileys) rather creepy. However this one had a sexy voice so I said I wasn't happy and why. Then she said something about did I want to laugh and disappeared from view. And the we continued on our way or so I thought. My friend had previously been pushing the chair and all of a sudden I realized we were going a good deal faster than normal. I looked to the side and saw a clown running alongside me which made me twist around to see the clown who'd spoken to me at the handlebars and then I did laugh. I was little concerned about my friends and hoped they'd kept up so I peered around the clown to see them strolling up behind us. That bit of excitement and mirth kept me going through the remainder of the night. This concludes part one of a multipart series.
The following week was the previously scheduled Disneyland/Universal Studios trip. I thought about skipping it but I'd already payed for much of it and wasn't sure how much of my money I'd be able to get back. It was a nice trip. Had a very nice dinner on the way there at The Black Cat in Cambria. It's one of those resteraunts where the menu is whatever the chef feels like cooking that day and they post it just before they open. I got some fried olives to share, stuffed mushroom and I think I had ravioli as my entree. The olives were meh, the rest was pretty good food but not what I was expecting fro the way my friends raved about the place.The Disney was fun but felt a bit rushed. California is undergoing a lot of changes so I look forward to seeing what that's going to look like when it's done. The fireworks show was pretty awesome considering I havent seen a fireworks show I really liked since I was a kid sitting on the banks of the Charles river in Massachusetts. I rented one of those motorized scooters. Those things are dreadful and I seriously want to redesign them. They need a break, mirrors, and a horn that actually sounds like horn so people will actually pay attention. Unfortunately I didn't get to see Ursula or the Evil Queen at the villians stage. The crone was there though. The next day at Universal Studios we opted for the wheelchair instead. It was cheaper. It was a fun day. The King Kong 3D thing on the tram ride was fun but I miss the big animatronic Kong with the fake bananna breath. Also the tram ride didn't seem to have as much cool stuff going on as usual. Best ride was the Simpsons ride. The Mummy ride was way too short and Jurrasic park wasn't as cool as I remembered, Although the face full of water I got at the very end from one of those spitting dinosaurs was interesting. The special effects show was kinda dull. Shrek 4D was the best show but I should have sat in one of the theatre seats to get the full effect. The Terminator 3D things was interesting but not as cool as it would if I had seen it when it first happened. When six rolled around we went back to the wheelchair desk to see if we could reserve the wheelchair for when we came back at 7 for the Halloween event. They were pretty snotty with us and told us we couldn't reserve it and that we'd have to pay for it all over again. We went to guest services to complain and got a really cool guy there who in exchange for holding onto my CDL we could not only hold onto the chair but we also got to take it out onto Citywalk. Went out onto Citywalk and stopped at the candy store. A necessary evil. However they were charging a ridiculous price for Pop Rocks or I would have purchased several bags for my sis, Amyone tried the chocolate covered Pop Rocks? I know it sounds bad but they're really quite good. We also stopped at hot topic where I purchased two t-shirts. One was a blood spattered white with the words Brains & Brains repeated over and over again all down the front. At the very bottom in red blood it says zombie meal time. The other is black and it says this shirt just got 20 percent cooler and to the side there what I think looks like a cat but my friend asures me is a pony outlined in rainbow. Wore it last night and my friend Tim Eh didn't get it. I've decided that I'm so cool that when I put the shirt on some of my cool rubs and makes it cooler. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.Well then we headed back to universal and after retrieving my license we headed to the tram again which was the terror tram now. It was fun but not truly scary. A lot of other people were scared by the chainsaw weilding manics and Norman from Psycho but after being chased through the Screamworks maze by chainsaw wielding maniacs these guys were cake. One of them pretended to take his chansaw to my chair at which point I very calmly told him that if he damaged the chair he'd have to pay for it. At which point he broke character and laughed and then pretended to hang his head in shame. We went to the Bill and Ted show which was fun but a bit long for my tastes. Went through several haunts. Not much to say about them. I didn't like The Thing haunt. It was too in my face and started to trigger an anxiety attack. Was dissapointed by the Zombieville haunt. It didn't have a hell of a lot to do with zombies. At one point of the night I was looking pretty miserable because I was tired and in pain from cramps and my back was hurting from lack of lumbar support. One of the clowns came up to me and said "You don't look happy." Now while I consider clowns (with possibly the exception of Ringling Bros. and Barnum and Baileys) rather creepy. However this one had a sexy voice so I said I wasn't happy and why. Then she said something about did I want to laugh and disappeared from view. And the we continued on our way or so I thought. My friend had previously been pushing the chair and all of a sudden I realized we were going a good deal faster than normal. I looked to the side and saw a clown running alongside me which made me twist around to see the clown who'd spoken to me at the handlebars and then I did laugh. I was little concerned about my friends and hoped they'd kept up so I peered around the clown to see them strolling up behind us. That bit of excitement and mirth kept me going through the remainder of the night. This concludes part one of a multipart series.