Tourists...

We have all been guilty of being one at one point or another in our lives. My dad cracks me up that he is the worlds best tourist. I fondly remember a trip to the Mayan ruins of Tikal in Guatemala. The beauty and the spectacular architecture was enough to take your breath away – as was the fact that my dad and I climbed every single ruin – just plain breathless and close to succumbing to the state of unconsciousness. We were part of a tour group and the last temple was supposed to be the best one the problem was, however, that the excavation had not yet been completed and so they tied ladders (yes, wooden ladders) to trees (yes, the green things) with ropes to allow the tourists to climb to the top to get the breath taking view. Oh yes, you too have seen the breath taking view from the top of the temple – didn’t you know? Did you see Star Wars? At the end, when Princess Leah gives Luke, Chewy, and Han Solo the awards – did you see the jungle with the stone tops popping through? You betcha – that was our view after about a 20 minute climb. My whole favorite part about that climb was that my dad left the video camera on…so you see the camera crashing into the ladder or the tree, hear my mom complaining, and then hearing my dad say something like “Aye Dios mio! La camera!” Which translated is “Oh my God, the camera!” But I bet you figured that out my smart following.

So this morning, since I parked on the side of the street where you have to be gone by 8am or you reap the wrath of the “Parking Enforcement” police AND it was a holiday (have you hugged a Vet today?), I got to work at about 8:15am. In my wisdom and need for sustenance I opted to walk to McDonald’s for a sausage mcmuffin with egg and found myself with – you guess it, TOURISTS! At 8:15am? Don’t these people sleep? Well, sleep in at least? They had the cameras, fanny packs, and shirts from amusement parks – they were standing out louder than a drag queen in church. I remember working at Universal and just being floored by people and their all out tour de force to have a great time AT ALL COSTS! Its no wonder I’ve never actually had a vacation, when I travel and use “vacation time” its to go do something somewhere else…most likely a wedding. Ahh, tourism – the economic force that keeps certain cities otherwise in the red – floating comfortably in the black. So to see people pay good money to come see where I live and where I work, it’s a little mind boggling at times. When an out of town friend or family would come and beg to go to Universal or Citywalk my first reaction was to go “UGH” – why? Because I worked there!!! I usually bit the bullet but it was funny that they would be excited about the tram ride and taking pictures while I sat back and talked to the tour guide about the party last weekend. But I digress – I had great times at Universal, on of the best was at a Christmas party when Scott and (cough) came with me and a friend of mine gave us a special backlot tour which involved the boys going INTO the Psycho house. Yeah, no thanks, I’ll happily freak out in the car with (cough). Back to the tourism thing – so I always find it funny to see people taking pictures of places I work and I realize where I am. People come to see my home, my place of business – dare I say…me? Ok not me, but there are some fetching pictures of me with a group of Japanese girls that loved me when I jumped in their group shot at Universal a long time ago.

Speaking of Kodak Moments, saw a homeless man peeing in an alleyway when I was walking back from McD’s this morning. Yet another reason to get a camera phone.