A Fun Fact About Us

Let me first say that my first post on here sucked. I was drunker than I thought and allowed misspellings and errors all over the place. Example: In my list of performers for the Digital Short songs I refer to someone as "other guy" because I could not remember his name last night. It was Chris Isaak.

ANYWAYS, the three of us who are listed as contributors have a long and sordid history with one another. L.P. and Angela even more so because they are siblings. We are all almost exactly a year apart in age (L.P. is the oldest, then myself, then Angela) and have gone to school together since elementary school, been buddies since high school, and platonic soul mates since our late teens/early 20's when we spent a good deal of time drinking, dishing, and being smarmy. None of these things are the "fun fact" I mention in the title.

Two years ago the three of us traveled to exotic Orlando, Florida to audition for VH1's World Series Of Pop Culture. This was done kind of on a whim, but we thought we had the pop culture chops to give it a whirl.

L.P. and I flew down from Cleveland and Angela had to fly in from San Francisco. We had to plan on staying the entire weekend in the event we made it past round one.

Which we did not.

We called ourselves Vandelay Industries and, much to our chagrin, there was another team in Orlando with the same name. The first round was a ***** test taken ******, which probably did us in. I think we are all fairly strong on television and film, but could have used each other when it came to music. I know a decent amount about pop music, but filling in blank Beyonce lyrics is not my forte.

Oh. I think we signed something saying we would never discuss the nature of the test. *Gives VH1 the finger*

The test administrators were surly and vague. They refused to tell us how many questions needed to be answered correctly to move on to the next round. I'm guessing a lot because only a few teams made it.

Ousted in the first round, we started looking at pamphlets in our hotel of Orlando attractions. We considered going to Dolly Parton's Dixie Roundup (or some ridiculous title like that). Of course, what we really wanted to do was hit up the Magic Kingdom.

We almost agreed to discounted tickets in exchange for sitting through some presentation, which was no doubt a pyramid scheme for selling timeshares, but we thought better of it. Instead we paid a regular admission price for an amazing day of adventure and fun. The only true bummer: Space Mountain was either ridiculously packed or broken all day.

I have been to the Magic Kingdom on countless family Disney vacations, but I had never made it there before the park actually opened and was not prepared for all the hoopla that ensues. There is a dance and singing number with all the characters, the mayor of the Magic Kingdom comes out and welcomes you and then a bell rings, the workers take away the barriers and open the gates, and the crowd of people go running and screaming into the park. I think I both laughed and cried the entire time.

My favorite moment of any Disney vacation is entering the Magic Kingdom and turning onto Main Street: Behold! Cinderella's Castle. Brings a tear to my eye every time.

What we learned:

The World Series of Pop Culture blows.
The Magic Kingdom rules.