anyone who knows me knows that i don't exactly dig disneyland. in fact, if i were to rank all the amusement parks out there, disneyland would be dead last. i've been to disney world and epcot is more exciting than disneyland. growing up in southern california, i've been to disneyland many times and it's a privilege to live here considering all the things we have to do so i can't complain. however, i share the same birthday as mickey and i grew up having to watch commercials to come celebrate mickey's birthday at disneyland. hey mr. mouse, what about me?! this was all back before the creation of downtown disney and california adventure, the second disney park in anaheim which i still haven't checked out.

thanks to my mom's work, we got hooked up with free tickets to the park after dark last night. it was some sort of christmas party and tourists were coming from japan and they have the park booked after hours. one of the tour groups isn't coming afterall and this is how we managed to get free tickets. (thank you kintetsu travel.) technically, we could've been at disneyland 4pm-1am with free parking. due to work commitments, we didn't get there until closer to 6pm. in addition to the tickets for my mom and her boyfriend, me and twiddle thumbs, we also gave tickets to other relatives. i took my little big cousin (15 years old and 6'2"). his brother and girlfriend drove separate. twiddle thumbs's little sister and her boyfriend drove separate. we saw all of them at various moments in the park but mostly it was a core of 5 of us wandering around (me, cousin, twiddle thumbs, little sister and boyfriend). we left the park around 12:45am instead of going on just 1 more ride. i'm so used to going to bed early that i just couldn't get up this morning. i think i finally stopped being nocturnal.

naturally i wore my "mickey to tiki tu meke" shirt from new zealand

with the tour group booking disneyland after hours also came other special benefits. there was a private showing of fantasmic and a private christmas parade. we started to lineup for fantasmic but decided to ride the redecorated haunted mansion ride while the lines were short. it is now in the theme of the nightmare before christmas. while nostalgic for the old disneyland, the redecorated rides are much needed. you have to bring new life into theme parks or they go stay and visitors dwindle. this applies even to disneyland. other things that have changed at the park since i was a kid but it is for the better. i don't recall exactly when it was, but there was an accident at space mountain so they slowed it down and turned on the lights, basically ruining the ride. i guess enough time has passed that they said screw it and made space mountain a roller coaster once more. now it's in the dark again and the fans are on to make you feel like you are going faster than you really are but i don't care, it was great for a moment to not feel like you were at a park designed for children.

twiddle thumbs beat me? surely this game is rigged!

other rides we got on were splash mountain, thunder mountain, pooh (damn how i hate pooh most of all), the space blasting toy story video game ride, pirates of the carribean, the matterhorn, and the indiana jones ride. i can't tell you how wonderful it is to go to a theme park when the crowd is small and the lines are short. there is nothing like it. i have never seen disneyland lines so short. amazing and well worth the price we paid. and no, i didn't wear my mickey mouse "i am the god of fuck" badge nor did i wave my LED banner declaring "disney sucks". this time i didn't do anything to shock the patrons and that is shocking in itself. however, i did buy one of those rubber bracelets that are so popular these days. it is black with skulls all over it, how appropriate! no one ever believes me that i get the best skull shit at disneyland. it's where i got my skull earrings with moving jaws--just like the one in the movie "the doom generation".

funny little story of the night. while we were in line for space mountain, i saw there was a guy in line ahead of us that was wearing a system of a down sweatshirt. in fact, it was the same design of the system t-shirt that twiddle thumbs was wearing. when i pointed this out to twiddle thumbs, my little cousin got excited, "there's my brother!" i couldn't see him. then it hit me, the system sweatshirt guy IS my cousin! holy shit. how kids grow up. when the line wrapped around, we were close enough to be able to talk to him. anyone who likes system is cool with me, especially if they are one of my friends/family already. i realized that his girlfriend is wearing a mars volta sweater, the same as twiddle thumbs's sister is wearing. talk about coincidences! it turns out that both parties went to see system when they played long beach. our group went the first night, my cousin and his girl went the second night. we were representing the family at both system nights. how freakin' awesome is that?!