Fantastic Weekend at Kings Island

So, it's Rebecca's birthday right on the 4th of July weekend, which is absolutely cool because it's a long weekend and we got to do some really cool stuff. Fantastic stuff, actually. We ended up going to Paramount's Kings Island, which is an amusement park by Paramount Studios in the outskirts of Cincinnati. I had a really long day at work on Friday where me, Andy and Anindita went shopping twice, I got a haircut and ate lunch twice, all in the middle of the day. Just to make sure, the twice was for the shopping and lunch, not the haircut - I hardly even have enough hair for one haircut - but my haircut did spark some interesting conversation:

Andy: Hahaha, he looks like a marine, ready to kickass. Way to go. Rebecca (visibly mad): Marine!? I threaten to dye his hair red and blue. Allie: I'd like to see your friend Becca do that! Long hair rocks! Short hair sucks! Go away, shoo. SHOOO!

Anyway, after all that hard work, I ended up staying incredible late killing kittens - which I squarely blame Allie for. My deeds done for the day, I went to sleep at some unearthly hour after cutting my hand when I tried saving some children, a nun, and a puppy from a speeding car that was about to hit them (go figure). No guesses on whom I blame this on, either. And before I knew it, I was brutally awakened from my R-rated dreams involving Hawaiian masseuses by Rebecca early the next day morning, and I was surprisingly all too enthusiastic about it! I do remember having a very weird conversation, though -

Rebecca: Mornin'! Me: Becca! Mornin'! Happy Birthday! Rebecca: Heyya, good morning! You sound perky! Are you drunk? (where in the nine hells did that come from, God alone knows - and that too, the first line in the morning I hear is Rebecca asking me if I'm drunk; isn't that sweet?) Me: Uh? Noooo! I was busy killing kittens. Rebecca: Ah, okay. (as if getting drunk is somehow way worse than killing kittens) Me: Yeah. Rebecca: Get off your bed, I'm coming there in half hour. (talk of faith, can't I be like, up and running, or saving nuns and puppies or something? Do I have to be in bed sleeping everytime she calls me?)

So, she did eventually come and we rode to Kings Island in one piece. (just so that you feel happy and sorry for me at the same time, you should know that Becca hangs out with people who drive around in race cars for fun) After some fumbling with the tickets and signing away our souls and firstborns to the parking dudes, we were on our way to have some fun. To cheer ourselves up after having just given up our souls for parking (of all things) and having driven here safely without any interesting incidents (awww), Rebecca decided that we needed some ice-cream. So, we went ahead and had some Dippin' Dots, and waited while Andy and his fiancée Kristen came around.

[These Dippin' Dots were happy to be our food. "Eat us, eat us", they urged! So we ate them. All of them.]

We were busy eating ice-cream and trying out some funky cool hats, when the so-in-love couple showed up. After this, the four of us were for the most part having rides and chilling out. We did see some very, err, unusually dressed people and we were enlightened on why nudity is illegal - there are some folks you'd rather never see without any semblance of clothing. Ofcourse, I refused to be part of a ride where I'd be thrown down from an alarmingly tall structure when tied down tightly to a seat. (Kristen's reaction: "You climb mountains, jump off planes and do bungee jumping, but you do not want to take one stupid ride!?"). I tried mumbling something incomprehensible, to no effect. Anyway, soon after, Andy and Kristen had to go, and Rebecca decided it was time to force-feed me something (isn't that something?). That something turned out to be some pizzas and salad amongst other things. And oh, Rebecca insists that I force-fed myself some chocolate milk, although one would wonder why. But then, I'm quite weird and one would suppose that it's a perfectly normal thing for me to do. That done, we were having post-lunch-traumatic disorder. So, we spent the time loitering around and getting, err, let's just say, very wet. God, that sounded bad, but before you mistake me - all we did was go on some funky water rides to wake us up. That done, we decided to explore rides of various kinds. We did ride some cool things, like the Son of the Beast, which is apparently one of the coolest and fastest rollercoasters in the world. I thought it was fun, Rebecca's body decided otherwise. Poor thing, it was kinda a spooky ride though. (A little tip, Beck - keepin' your eyes open usually is more fun, ya' know?) We also saw some cool larger-than-life stuffed toys. Rebecca tried winning a Homer doll for me, since she knew that he's my inspiration in life. She tried hammering the hell out of something, but it didn't quite work out. But she did beat me at shooting and won a Spiderman, though!

[Homer Simpson, Karthik's inspiration in life...]

We were dog tired by then and had headaches, and it was not even five in the evening! So, we went and caffeinated ourselves with an aspirin and were up and ready in no time. To have more fun (yay, aren't y'all happy for us?). You're probably wondering right about now, well, it's a theme park. And it's a birthday celebration. Usually, birthdays involve cakes and candy, right? I mean, do these two just hang out all day and do nothing fun? Like, eat candy? You, my dear reader, have no idea. By the end of the day, between me and Rebecca, we had consumed the following in some form or the other: gatorade, dippin' dots icecream, cherry icee, pizzas, salads, chocolate milk, candy of all sorts, chocolate mint fudge, double dip chocolate and vanilla icecream, tacos, fruits and funnel cake. I'm sure I probably missed out a lot, but that ought to give you an idea. Anyway, getting back to the topic at hand. We also noticed that there were several cheesy t-shirts that folks were wearing out there, here's some that caught our attention:

PETA: People for the Eating of Tasty Animals. Vegetarian: The village idiot who could not fish, hunt or ride. (I thought it would be cool if I were to wear one, particularly considering the fact that I'm a vegetarian...) Draft Beer, Not People. (bah!) It does not suck itself. (go figure) But the most priceless of all things was what Rebecca said - her Mommy dearest called her asking if there was a Starbucks in downtown Cincinnati, when her eminence comes up with the following: "Mom! There's Starbucks in Amazon." One of a kind, Rebecca. You're one of a kind. *shakes head*

Update: I just had this weird conversation with an Einstein of a Friend of mine -

Einstein Friend says: but seriously... is there starbucks in amazon? Einstein Friend says: you can order online? Karthik says: Amazon JUNGLE, fool! Einstein Friend says: i so knew that !

Damn geeks! *shakes head again* Anyway, by this time, it was getting quite late and we decided to go for a ride called the Italian Job, which was said to be an awesome ride involving stunt rides of Mini Coopers. There was supposedly a fireworks show at 10 PM, and by the time we got to the Italian Job ride, it was almost 9 PM. We decided that this would be our final ride before we went and saw the fireworks.

[The Italian Job]

It was a long wait, but it was well worth it - the Italian Job ride was a lot of fun. But the best part was that the fireworks started just before we got on the ride, and we got to see the fireworks while we were having the ride. It was simply fabulous and the best ride ever! Nothing can beat a cool ride with helicopters and cars burning, and fireworks in the sky! We were simply awestruck. We had some fireworks glasses on and saw some funky lights stuff. I got myself some wacko psychedelic thingy. I mean, who needs acid when you've Rebecca and psychedelic stuff for company, eh? That done, we wrapped up the day with funnel cakes and pictures of us with Spidey. Whew! And by the time we got home, it was almost 12 AM - we had left home at 10 AM in the morning, and had stayed in the park for a good 13 hours. Needless to say, I'm extremely tired right now and have urgent issues in life that need to be taken care. These are strictly between me and my bed, so forgive me while I go back to my Hawaiian Masseuses. Have a great Fourth of July weekend, y'all!