Beautifully Rough

潤んだ瞳 I like your eyes

ぎこちないescortも悪くない

Like it バレバレよ

Truth is 好きなんでしょ

寄り添う you and I

さぁ この瞬間 fall in love

I took my wife and 2 year old daughter to Disneyland during the post-season, and I gotta say, it was a rough one. After working from 600am - 230pm, I headed home to round up the family, and I drove down to Anaheim from 330 - 1130pm. After several pit stops, for lunch, restless toddler, buying dumb gas station toys, dinner, etc. We finally arrived in Anaheim close to midnight. 

We went with another family with their toddler, and the following 2 days were a chaotic blur, chasing our kids around Disneyland and California Adventure. On the second day, we made it into California Adventure around 1100 am and my wife wanted to “quickly” shop at the big store by the entrance. For the next hour, my wife shopped, and I had to play the bad guy and tell my kid that she can’t have all of the toys in the store. Afterwards, we ran into Mickey and we had to wait another half hour to take photos with him. 2 hours later, I finally made it to our first planned attraction, Guardians of the Galaxy, Mission: BREAKOUT! 

Also, please note that I had just put our child down for her nap while we made our way to the ride. 

Two families with a toddler each made it difficult to ride some of the rides as the kids were not tall enough to get on (shut up Tang). So we took advantage of switch passes, which allows a parent to wait in line for the ride, and after the ride, the other parent can then go to the front of the line immediately after. So the two dads waited in line for 1.5 hours for a 2 minute ride. By the time the dads got off the ride and met up with the moms, my child had just woken up and was ready to jam. We gave the passes to the moms and took the kids to the Pym Test Kitchen to take a quick break in an air conditioned room while we waited for the moms to return. We waited, and waited…

15m. 

30m. 

45m.

60m…

Time marched forward and no one was really sure when the moms would even return. I don’t know if you guys have gone to California Adventure recently, but there is absolutely no cell reception in the area. 1 hour in, we finally received a text message that the ride was broken, but they’re right in front. But by now, the kids had just been waiting all day, so they’re restless, hungry, and freaking out. I stop by San Fransokyo to feed the kids because they’re hungry, but they don’t want to eat because they want to do fun stuff instead.

Literally long story short, we sat around waiting for 1.5 hrs before the mothers finally returned. 

After we finished up our meal, the mothers wanted to take a photo in front of the Castle at Disneyland before the sun sets, since we weren’t able to the previous day. So we go all the way to the other park to snap some photos, ride the carousel 3 times, then make our way back to California Adventure to get ready for the World of Color. 

Disneyland is getting ready for the fireworks show at this point so the park is just jam packed. They rerouted us all the way around Disneyland just to get out. A 1.5 mile journey through crowds of people, and the kids are crying because they want to do all of the fun things that they saw on the way out of the park.

We finally make it to the other side 30-45 minutes later. I’m usually pretty easy going, but it was the end of day 2, and I’m exhausted. We stopped a castmember that was  working the World of Color to ask which area was the best to watch the show. He told us the red area was his personal favorite because it has the best view if we didn’t mind getting a little wet. We didn’t mind.

The water starts to spray into the air, and the music begins. Immediately we’re drenched, and we definitely do mind getting wet. It was like those barbershop pranks where the barber won’t stop spraying his client with water. Our clothes were soaked, our strollers were wet, and our kids won’t even look at the show.

I left the park that day frustrated at the shitshow of a day. It’s easy to overlook on your successes when you ruminate on your failures. It’s only when I look back at photos and really reflect on our trip, I can see Zoe trying to make sense of the spectacle in front of her. Nervousness turned to awe. Awe turned to excitement. The lights, songs, and humanity all in one place singing and dancing the night away seemed to give her permission to partake. Finally seeing Mickey Mouse in person, she looked at mom and dad real quick before going in to give Mickey a hug.The mastercard moment. 

600 dollars for tickets. Hours of waiting. 60 dollars for parking over a mile away. Watching your 2yo laugh, sing, and dance at Disneyland? Priceless. Her joy seemed to give us permission to let all of that baggage go. We didn’t get close to seeing everything both parks had to offer, but she didn’t know that. She had the time of her life. 

We watched Zoe fawn over her favorite celebrities and get their autographs. We saw all 5 members of 4-Town performing their greatest hits, her favorite superhero Spidey, and even seeing Dory in a submarine, to which she exclaimed, “look! Dory!”. Zoe had her first taste of treats that she never gets at home, like churros, Dole whips, even apple juice. 

“But Tony… wtf does this have to do with bowling?”

Even if it didn’t have anything to do with bowling, I needed to get that off my chest ok? That was some bullshit.

Look, this season didn’t start out the way we thought it would. Even though I was able to negotiate the return of the summer pass, it wasn’t as great as previous years. We get pushed back to the end lanes. And the only alternative bowling alley is full of dickheads at the desk. Life continues to make it difficult for us to just bowl (Congrats Isaac on the new kid!). The bullshit seems to continue to pile on year after year. For some, we’re so far removed from our first experience that BSL is losing some of its shine.

But I knew when I walk into the building every Wednesday night, I’ll see Hieu bowl with both hands… Separately. Stephen closing all of his frames. Adam throwing a strike every time a girl walks by. Ado will bowl like he’s trying to break land speed records. Thanh will deliver the slowest strike of the night. Jait will strike an awkward pose, and there was a moment of clarity. We will cheer, laugh, and compete. We are the performers. We are the singers. We are the dancers. We are the fucking show. 

As usual, the returning cast had a responsibility to deliver an unapologetic BSL experience for our new members, and there were a lot of them this season. Despite all of the obstacles we had throughout the season, the struggle is always worth it whenever we see the newbies nervousness turning into awe..  And that awe turning into excitement… then the inevitable recognition that they too have permission to partake. And as season 8 comes to a close, I wanted to take a moment to reflect on what a fantastic journey it has been. Whether you were new to the lanes or returning for another exciting season, I hope each of you had the time of your life.

Every year, expectations get higher and higher. I hope that these expectations were not only met but exceeded, and that you leave this season with great memories and a sense of accomplishment.

Thank you all for the best season BSL has ever had and look forward to another amazing season ahead.