But let's be real here. It's what brought EVERYONE'S life to a screeching halt.
Well, less so ours, in some ways. You make your own luck in some ways. I had been doing that at CGA. I actually got to work the entirety of the 2019 season. Did my usual interview that I didn't have a whole lotta hope for in the Spring, then whaddya know, Simone called me up and offered me a position as an usher! surprised So that's how I spent the summer. Jammin' out to Snoopy Goes to Space and Peanuts Block Party, and became fast friends with all the characters and Entertainment folks who were all impressed with my fun-loving attitude and energeticness. I did interview for a role as a Character supe, but the fella putting his d**k in Simone got it instead...
But along came HAUNT and guess who got his Supervisor job back?! And I got to run Cornstalkers, and man, what a delight that was, honestly. I mean, yeah, I had a slacker for a partner who was always late and sometimes absent too, but the crew really adored me, and I couldn't even put the accent down "out of costume." It was so great to don the yellow fleece once more and reprise my role as kickass supe who knew what he was doing and cultivated fun. We even went out bowling and mini golfing, and I made team t-shirts with my own design:
And we almost took Maze of the Year... it was so close. But they wanted to give Roadkill a nice send-off. xp Curiously, it was our first year without Sergio, and halfway through HAUNT, a new Entertainment Manager was selected, by the name of Brad. So I got myself acquainted; I put bugs in his ear, I chat him up, I made my desires known. Maybe that helped me get the WinterFest supervisor role, of which there were only two– northside and southside. Leo got the other. So I finally got to work a WinterFest. It was also definitely fun. Took good care of my Elves, who, yup, really liked me, haha. Between it all, I made a lot of new pals, and truly felt at home and in my element again, almost as if I'd never left!
I stayed on for off-season and assisted A LOT with teardown (so many string lights... @0@), and Keinan, who was my useless a** "superior" was looking like he was about to leave, and Brad was training me up to take his spot; we started doing rehearsals and hiring our Character/Shows staff and then...
COVID-19 ******** everything up. The park shut down for the entire season. Bye-bye, theme park job. Just like that.
It ******** up the remainder of school to a lesser extent. I only had the one class and it was halfway through the material anyhow, so we met via Zoom, wrote our papers (I wrote mine on ATARI) and called it a day. Or a degree? Whatever. I actually only just got my degree in the mail about a week ago. stare And they cancelled graduation, ofc. The only one I've ever felt a sense of pride about. I selected the option to have mine a year late, but... the way things have drug on...
Anyway, California went bonkers with its "mandatory staycation" bull crap, forcing everyone to stay home by shutting down almost every business in existence with the exception of grocery/department stores like Target. Social media had everyone tearing at one another's throats. The news was even worse. Somehow, thankfully, Neil and I's camping trip to Pinnacles didn't get cancelled, unlike pretty much everything else we'd had planned for the year (like FreedomFest), and getting to escape for a week was glorious. Coming back... not so much. : We hit up a Carl's Jr. on the way back and the TV was on blast about how many people had died in NY (you know, where Mike is living now– great timing, bro).
It became clear that there wasn't anything worth staying in California for. I'd been partially agonizing that I was going to be finishing my degree soon and that the plan to move to Texas would soon be in effect, yet I'd want to stay because at long last CGA had recognized my abilities and I was moving up the ladder like I'd always wanted. But COVID-19 demolished that. Mentally, it was hard to acknowledge that it was entirely beyond my control... that there was no fault of my own, nor even anyone else's at the park. Honestly, it was the powerlessness that drove people to madness and rioting. I buried myself in schoolwork and Netflix/videogames, mostly. David and Julie didn't dare return to Santa Clara... idk, they were kind of hook, line, and sinker on all the left-wing mandates and being good little scared drones. I was pissed and bought a Millennial-style Gadsden flag. xp
Beautiful.
Kehem, at any rate, I made my feelings known, and next thing you know, I'm on a trip with my parents in Austin, TX, and we found a house in Buda, which they purchased as a "landing pad" for me/Neil and Riordan/Shawna (who had decided they were done living so far away from family). And in August we moved. First me and Neil, then we flew up to Spokane to help Riordan and Shawna drive their two vehicles down. Then I flew over to Cali at the end of September and Dad and I drove over in the pickup with a U-HAUL trailer full of the rest of Riordan's crap. And two nights ago, Mom flew in (she'll be taking Dad back after Thanksgiving). So, the gang's all here.
This place does feel like home. When we were touring places, this was the one that I looked around and felt like smiling when I entered it, that I knew I'd enjoy coming home to. It's got colorful walls downstairs, an upstairs with a loft gameroom, a three car garage. I painted the third bay Sharks colors and put up memorabilia in it (plus a CLAW MACHINE?! eek Yup, finally made that life-long dream come true.), and ofc I got all my Sonic/MLP stuff up in the bedroom (bought three new display cases from IKEA and they're fantastic), along with decorating the gameroom too. At first I ran aground of Riordan and Shawna who were pissed off about any decorating I'd done downstairs, and I basically had to relinquish everything down there unless I asked permission first, but whatever, I got over it. xp The two of them have been... erm, a little stupid about certain things, but stuff's been on the upswing now that they got the doctor thing sorted out.
Cuz Shawna is preggerz, y'know, bee-tee-dubs. She's actually due fairly soon, like January (if the little one doesn't come poppin' out early). We've got the front room downstairs set up as the baby room. That'll be a big change and we'll see how it shakes out. xp Cuz Shawna is lazier than a sack of s**t, and we can barely get her to leave the master bedroom, let alone the house. I mean, she's gotten a bit better lately than when we first arrived, but... sweatdrop
It has been really fun playing videogames with my bro again. Minecraft and L4D2 in particular, ofc. Though now we've started a new project involving reviewing Sonic games for YouTube. xd Everyone's schedules are wonky AF cuz Neil got a new job at the Amazon warehouse... graveyard, 12 hours, three days a week. Then Riordan got a job at a retirement facility... graveyard, 8 hours, five days a week. SMH.
I haven't bothered getting a new job yet. We got here just as Schlitterbahn's season was ending (yeah, they were actually allowed to open in mid-June, unlike Cali's choking out of every fun industry out there), so I'm kinda just waiting on it to resume next Spring. Even so, it won't be CGA. My bro and I did go there for funsies its last weekend of operation. But I won't know anyone. I won't really know the operation/layout/rules/what-have-you. I won't have the confidence. The feeling of belonging, effortless fitting-in. I dunno. Cuz right now, it doesn't necessarily feel like I'm living in a state 1,600 miles away from the Bay Area. The only reason it FEELS like I'm not working at CGA right now is because of this COVID-19 thing. Like, once that lifts, I'll just go back to working there. But I won't. Cuz I can't. Cuz I'm in Texas.
Mind you, I do wanna still see about working there for HAUNT 2021. I'm sure I have enough pals I could couch-surf a week at a time for the duration, lol. Assuming theme parks are allowed to be open even then. @_@ Cali's governor is a douchebag. And this whole thing has drug on longer than anyone wanted to admit it would. Just endlessly, "oh whoops, change of plans, guess we won't reopen after all." But again, Texas is awesome. Most things are open. We hit up restaurants and arcades and stores. Yeah, you gotta wear the gay mask, but you can DO THINGS. That's really nice. sweatdrop Even though the rest of the nation or whatever is looking at you like YOU'RE THE PROBLEM when, um, no, there are intelligent ways to take precautions and still do things...
But anyway. I was just enjoying being on UI for once. I've soaked up almost the entirety of the $12k I was entitled to. Now SEMI has me doing projects for them again. Decent timing. "HAUNT@HOME" was a success. We had so much excess cardboard that I just started painting walls, which we then hung from the ceiling in the garage with fishing line, and we put up all our glowing gadgets and spooky themed props, and made up a soundtrack (from movies like Ghostbusters and Hocus Pocus, games like Sonic and Minecraft, and classics like Thriller and Monster Mash), and got dressed up (me as Lady Ghoulga, Riordan as Slenderman, Dad as the Reaper), and had ourselves a little walkthrough. And what do you know if there weren't A LOT of trick-or-treaters on the street, and we got a lot of love. heart So, again, we made the best of it, and had a lot of fun. It's been forever since I've been home for Halloween, and even longer since I've had a yard/house to gussy-up. Now I've got autumn colored lights on the banister and am making foam leaves. And next'll be Christmas. biggrin
You make your own luck.
Pretty much everyone I kind of "knew" is still stagnating in Cali. A lot of s**t still looks really hopeless and pointless. But being able to focus on family is a nice "distraction." Or maybe the other stuff was distracting us from the importance of family, eh?
Oh, and I set a goal to run 2020 miles in 2020. What a dumb year to have picked to do it. Y'know, it was fun the first couple months. Even ran a couple half marathons. Felt awesome each time. Aaand the rest of it has been motivating myself to go out almost every day... alone, with nothing to train for. Though I am signed up for an in-person Turkey Trot here in Buda. See? Again, Texas saves the day.
Well, that seems to catch things up as well as it ought to. A wonder this site's still around. Time to post it, then screenshot it. rofl
