Sunday, April 18, 2004

Disneyland Again

Look, I don't want to sound like more of a wuss than I already do, but, um... my palms hurt from spinning the teacups.

We sorta rode the teacups a lot.  The other three had ridden them once before I got there, and told me that some of the cups were broken and hard to spin.  I thought this was just THEM being wussy, because the teacups are GENERALLY hard to spin.

So we go on the teacups and I'm gonna show 'em who's Teacup Spinning Boss, right?  We pile all four of us in a yellow teacup and all try to spin it.

We can't.  We can barely get that sucker moving at all.  We're pulling and pulling like crazy, and the teacup won't hardly move.

We get out of the teacups and I'm STILL making excuses.  "Um, the problem is that when you spin the teacup, you have to spin all your own weight, too.  We shouldn't have put all four of us in the teacup.  We need to split up, two and two."

So, later that night, we split up.  We wait in line and decide to ride the cups in pairs.  And which teacup does my partner run to?  The same crappy yellow teacup.  But, remember, I still don't think there's anything wrong with it.

I am quickly convinced.  Darned thing won't spin.  I look out down and see that our SAUCER appears to be moving at quite the little clip (relative to the ground), but when I look up, our cup is making leisurely little spins at best.

We pair up in different pairs, and ride the teacups again.  Now I'm avoiding the yellow cups like they're diseased or something.

And I get in a pink cup with another partner -- and it SPINS.  IT MOVES.  We start off making it go REALLY FAST, but, after all that struggling with the yellow teacup, I can't keep it going for the whole time.

We get out, run around the line again, and try out our last pairing.  This time, I'm paired with the other grown-up in the group.  I figure the two of us can get this sucker going something wicked.

We get a good teacup and, like before, get it spinning quite well at the start.  But then age starts catching up with us.  I'm pulling on that little disk in the center of the cup with all my strength -- throwing my body into it, just to get that teacup spinning.  I end up giving it all I've got.  By the time the ride is over, I walk out of that thing with my tongue lolling out the side of my mouth.  I'm not so much dizzy -- I'm SPENT.

And now, three nights later, my hands are still sore.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

You are such a kid at heart!  Very cute & adorable!  

Anonymous said...

Actually, um, there was an article in the LA Times recently about how disneyland has actually tightened the teacups because of accidents.

Actually, one.  Some idiot tried to get out while the ride was going.  They shut the ride down, tightned down the screws, and made it impossible to spin right.

The debate comes from the fact that when the ride first opened, Uncle Walt himself asked, "Can they go faster?"

Talk about spinning in your grave.

Anonymous said...

I LOVE the teacup ride! It was my favorite as a kid. Yup. Even more than the bumper cars, which make me laugh like an idiot! What was so neat about the cup, though, was trying to SIT UP once you got that sucker going. I could never do it! And it sure tickled my funny bone. What a dumb thing, huh?

Anonymous said...

HA!  I was right!  Those teacups were screwed down tight.  

 And it wasn't my palms that hurt, it was my forearms.  I'm surprised that I don't have bulging popeye arms after all that.

 I say we shoulda hit up those teenage guys and tried to get them to take our cup for a spin.

  -Katy