Universal Studios

So today's Book Club post is being rescheduled for tomorrow, because yesterday was too wonderful of a day to not post about!

We went to Universal Studios!

Well, first I arrived on the Megabus at 5am, got 3 hours of sleep, then went to Universal Studios. It was really fun! I went with my mom, Cinthia, Brian, and my cousin Marcia. We always manage to have a grand time together.

We started off with a quick Starbucks run, then went to the park. It's an amazing park with great special effects on all the rides that just make your mouth drop. 

We went on The Revenge of the Mummy rude, which was pretty awesome. It was one of those rides that when it started, I was expecting it to be a subtle, built-for-kids ride. I was pleased to be wrong. Right when you think the ride is going to across some doors, it falls backwards and a crazy wild ride begins! It was really fun, and it scared Marcia and my mom.

We also went on Twister, which is one of few rides in all of Orlando that I remember from when I came when I was little. And Shrek 4D was awesome! So many crazy surprises!

We left the park after those rides and I got to watch my not-so-little brother play basketball. They lost, but according to my mom it was the most points they've ever made in a game, so I'm proud of him. And my mommy added me to the family YMCA membership so now I can go to the Y to work out and do other recreational things for free in Atlanta. I'm excited! Hopefully, knowing that my mom is paying for my membership will encourage me to get up off of my lazy butt and go work out.

Finally, we went back to the park until 10:30 PM. We went on Disaster! and the Simpsons rides, which were really cool simulations. Then my mom got all emotional on ET, because she went on the exact same ride 20 years ago when she first came to the States, and I schooled everyone at the Men In Black ride, with 160,600 points. Cinthia came in second place with only 60,000. I was pretty proud of myself. 

Then while everyone else ate, Cinthia, Brian and I waited well over an hour in line at the Rock It ride, which was awesome. You go up in a 90 degree angle and then speed and turn throughout the entire park while listening to the song of your choice. Both Cinthia and I picked Pump It by Black Eyed Peas. After being tossed and turned, we joined the rest of them to stand another hour in line for Despicable Me. I haven't watched either one of the movies, but after going through that simulator, I'm in love. I want a minion for myself! And now I have to watch the movie.

We might be going back tonight just to go on Transformers and watch the fireworks, which will be nice. Having a season pass definitely has its perks.

Now for a lazy Sunday!

Independence Day

Happy 4th of July!!!

I hope it's bright and sunny wherever you're located, because the rain is unceasing over here.

Between the rain and me being almost too sick to breath, I don't think I'll be doing anything extra fun today other than putting my feet up from a long day at work (yes, I worked today. And I had to clean behind machinery which was oober gross) and watching Netflix with Luis.

I hope you guys have a better day than I do! And enjoy the fireworks!!!

Adventures In Tennessee

I went whitewater rafting yesterday!!!

It was soooo intense!

A while back I found a Groupon for a white water rafting trip for four on the Ocoee river, and naturally, it ended up being me, Luis, Jessica, and Rodrigo. Whenever Luis and I do double dates, it's always those two who we go with.

We woke up bright and early to start our trip up to Tennessee at 6am, but we didn't end up leaving until well after 6, due to the fact that we somehow lost my car keys. (Lulu gets the best mileage out of all our cars, so we decided to drive her up... I didn't do any driving though. Rodrigo drove up there and Luis drove back.) It was actually kind of a disaster of a morning. Usually I'm super organized and extra prepared when it comes to these things, but I just failed yesterday (I'm blaming it on the fact that I worked over 50 hours last week). I brought 3 pairs of shorts for me for the weekend, but didn't bring a single top, so I borrowed one of Jessica's shirts. I also forgot to send everyone the packing list from the website, and ended up sending it at 5 30 am the day of. 

We finally got out on the road, had breakfast at a McDonald's out in northern Georgia, and made it to our destination by 9 30. Turns out, I also forgot to print out the Groupon that we had bought! Luckily, the lady gave me an email address that I could e-mail the voucher to so she could print it for me. Whew. That would have been bad.

We finally got suited up in our life jackets and helmets

Then we grabbed our paddles and went out on our great adventure!

It was about a 3 and a half hour trip. We had two of the rafting company's staff on our raft and we went through many many rapids, ranging from class 2 to class 4. It was pretty intense! There was a part of the river that didn't have any rapids, so we jumped out of the raft and swam for a while. The water was FREEZING! I swear we all looked purple after we got back into the raft.

After the rafting trip was over, we ate at Zaxby's. They all ate hot and insane wings while I sat there nibbling on my Nibblerz. I will never understand how people can stand to eat such spicy things, but they do it and they enjoy it. Go figure.

Then we decided to get to know a Tennessean mall. We ended up finding a shoe store with an amazing sale, and I bought the cutest pair of heels ever. They are officially my new favorite pair!

The mall trip lasted a short while. The boys weren't having fun following us around into stores, and we didn't have money to spend anyways. So finally came the next crazy part. We didn't want to end the day quite yet, and we had driven so far to come to Tennessee! We needed to do at least one more thing before heading home. (One more failure to plan on my part. I had intended to find something else for us to do in Tennessee to occupy the whole day, but never got around to it)

We ended up going to a fireworks store and buying lots of goodies. What else is there to do in Tennessee other than things that are illegal in Georgia right? So we went to this huge fireworks store and browsed all the wonderful selections and ended up buying a good amount of fireworks.

We had to wait until night time to properly enjoy them, but when the time came, we had the time of our lives!

That is me setting off a roman candle, and Luis aiming the thing so I wouldn't hit any trees or hurt myself. Jessica always takes the best pictures of me and Luis. Some of my favorite shots of me and him were taken by her.

And here's a video of one of the atomic bomb things going off. We had six of those.

We also had some that whizzed away when we lit them, sparklers that also shot off, some things that sounded like gun shots, firecrackers, and more. It was a lot of fun.

We wrapped up the night by sitting on Luis's couch watching Fast and Furious. Well, they watched it while I lied down on Luis's lap reading my book (Yes, it was that good!). 

When everyone went home, it took me all of a minute to fall asleep after my head hit the pillow. It was an extremely long day, but totally worth the exhaustion I felt at the end.