The Queen CW's (Mellemel8) Bday Celebration at Universal Studios

Well, the weekend was here - Melanie's Bday is on Sunday the 5th and we made plans to hang out at Universal Studio's Halloween Horror Nights to celebrate the anniversary of her 25th birthday! LOL.

My day started early - went to Disneyland with Mom for a special event signing and artist meet and greet (will be posting pics and blog under a separate Disney blog currently under construction).  Over 4 hours in line but I got my merchandise, met the artists, had my stuff signed, and even ran into old friends I had not seen in 5 or 6 years!  One of the highlights of the day was standing in line behind a guy who also had Haunted Mansion tattoos so we were talking about our ink and I got to show off my new leg piece.

 Mom and I had to race home so that I'd be there when Silvina arrived so we could get up to Glendale and grab the Queen on the way to Universal.  I was worried about the weather since it was raining some before we left for Disney and I just prayed it would dissipate by the evening time. 

Colton (Burner1313) and his wife Marissa (Travchick) were going to join us for drinks/appetizers beforehand.  They couldn't come play with us at Universal since Colton had to leave early Sunday morning for a business trip.  Booooooo!  We arrived at Universal and wandered around a bit, planning to head up to the Howl at the Moon Piano Bar (thought we could have a redo of the Melanie adventures at the one at the KC meet up in June!! LOL).

  We were walking around some of the stores, found the Halloween costume place - I am still in desperate need of a costume idea for Belize this year!!! I am going as a prostitute for a local party in town, complete with my own pimp, but don't want to do that for Belize as I will be pimpless! :-) We messed around in there for a bit and headed back to meet Colton and Marissa when I recognized the guy I was about to literally run into head on.  It was one of my old bosses from my job I left in 2004 when I moved to Las Vegas.  I knew he since moved to Colorado and was running one of our old offices out there.  He came out just for the weekend to attend the event at Universal.  We said we'd try to meet up later inside and hang out if we could.   What are the odds of that, especially considering the place was wall to wall people!?!?!

Trying to find some place to have a quick drink and appetizers with Colton and Marissa turned into a fiasco with Howl at the Moon being closed, 20 minute waiting times elsewhere, and finally we ended up back at Karl Strauss Brewing Company which worked great as they had happy hour specials. SWEET!! And since it is October, no better way to celebrate than with a great beer! :D  We were treated to some more of Colton's crazy magic trips and a special palm reading.  I learned a lot about myself that evening...both good and bad.  My love line is great...I will do whatever it takes to try and make a relationship work but my health is all over the place (no joke) and I will die an accidental death!  Lovely.

..I will fall in love, probably become an emotional wreck due to it, and then the creep will push me down a flight of stairs or something. Hmmm.  HA HA HA.  Ok, maybe not so funny nor likely but I guess I'd rather know I might die an accidental death versus being murdered like other people at the table might be! Mel said my death would be a result of failing to get her Bday cupcake but Colton said I will die later in life, not now.  That's good to know I suppose! LOL.  Mental note, make sure to get Mel her cupcake on her 50th bday!!! :D

We stayed there for a while, munching on nachos, spinach dip, these awesome sirlon strips, and calamari when we realized it was time to go.  It was already 7:15 and the gates opened at 7pm.

  We were on a mission to get our money's worth of all the macabre mayhem we could handle!

We finally got inside and headed for our first maze.  We were like little kids pushing each other ahead, not wanting to be the first inside.  Silvina had the smart idea that we should be looking to stay in line with big guys ahead of us who will "protect" us.  Well, we ended up working it so we had big (and somewhat cute guys) behind us.  They got an absolute kick out of us and we started talking with them through the line queue so by the time we got inside, we were like old pals.  One of the guys ended up grabbing on to me when he got spooked and I almost jumped on the back of another guy when one of the dead people scared me.

  We all laughed when we got outside and they said we made that maze a lot more fun, especially Melanie and  her stealth "feel ahead" of all the walls for potential dead people.  We parted ways and it was off to Texas Chainsaw Massacre for us.  OMG, that maze freaked me out beyond belief.  The props, the hanging bodies, and the stench....WOW!!!  This was also the part of the park that had chainsaw wielding pigs present who would not let you take pics under any circumstances.  Mean piggies! LOL. 

We moved on and pretty much did all the rides that were themed.  We didn't have time to hit the shows which was fine - I'd rather concentrate on mazes and rides anyways.  One of the two best of the night though - had to be the Hollywood Studio Tram - OMG.

..first time ever - you actually get out of the tram and walk the movie sets (normally you just ride through them).  We were walking through the Bates Motel, Crystal Lake, outside Psycho house - Melanie was in LOVE!!! We walked the War of the Worlds and out there were the various Freddy Kruegers running around. I saw this one who was amazing and he was hopping on the back of a bus when all of a sudden, he swung on the door, right into me, the Freddy claw in my face.  Holy crap! I had seen him and was watching, just didn't expect that - scared me half to death! LOL  What an experience to walk the sets though - Mel being the movie buff was truly in heaven!  It was during this set of mazes we made more friends with the guys from the "I. E." (Inland Empire).  They were really cool and Carlos hung out with us quite a bit since his friends were disowning him.  HA HA HA.  And of course, had to get a picture with him since he was rather easy on the eyes! :D

The second best attraction was the Simpsons ride.  Holy cow!! It's not themed for the Halloween Haunt but it is probably one of the best rides I've ever been on in my life.  It's a motion simulator that puts Star Tours at Disneyland to shame (sorry Disney!).  Without giving anything away, you are at Krustyland, riding a roller coaster.  It surpassed any notions I ever had about the possibilities of the motion simulator experience!!   If you go to Universal, make sure you ride it!! We almost didn't.

  We snuck on about 5 minutes til park closing and Silvina got so tired during the line, she almost decided to skip it but we trucked on.  She's so happy she didn't - she would've totally missed out.  I can't wait to go back, just for that ride alone....OMG, it ROCKED!

Sadly, it was 1:30am now and they were closed at 1am so we made our way to the front....through the throngs of both chainsaw wielding pigs and clowns.  OH if only JillianJ had been with us - she has a serious phobia about clowns...imagine them dead with chainsaws Jilly!!!  I decided to be the brave one and literally walked right down the middle of them as they stood motionless, waiting for their next victim.  Got almost all the way through when a dead person came out of no where and I let out a few blood curdling screams!  I texted my friend David who we ran into beforehand but sadly, he was already back home.

  His godson got spooked so they ended up having to leave the event early!  :-(  Hopefully we will get to catch up sometime soon!

What a fun night! I didn't get back to my house until almost 3am and poor Silvina still had a long drive home.  By this time, I was wide awake and decided to start blogging and uploading photos.  Next thing you know, I am chatting on IM, and I didn't get to bed until 5:30am.  HA HA HA.  Good thing I had nothing but a lazy Sunday planned!!!  

Silvina and Mel - had an awesome time and enjoyed celebrating Mel's birthday - the first two to wish her a Happy Bday at midnight.  Although I couldn't find her a cupcake, I got her a turkey leg and that sufficed (if anyone knows Mel and her meat on a bone...yeah, you'd understand!).  :-)  Happy Birthday Mel..until next year.  Same time, same place to celebrate your 25th again?  LOL