One Heck of a Weekend

The past few days have been very fun and entertaining!  Friday started out with my set visit to "The Middle".  I slept in a little longer than I had planned to, but I still woke up with enough time to catch my 11:00 ride to the Warner Bros. Studios.  The group I traveled with was the first to get there.  Everybody else got there by 11:30, which was when the tour was supposed to start.  It started a little late, but it was so neat!  The lady who showed us around started by taking us through the production offices.  She showed us the writer's room, the area where the PA's work, the place where they make graphics and such for the show, etc.  Then we went outside and walked around the lot.  She showed us the area where they film scenes at the car dealership.  Apparently, Frankie doesn't work there anymore (I wouldn't know since I've only seen the first 2 episodes), so they don't use it much.  It was cool to see!  We saw some other outside set areas, and then we walked down a street with several houses.  They've used those houses for "Desperate Housewives", the National Lampoon series, "Lethal Weapon", and other such shows and movies.  Near the end of that street, we saw the house they use for "The Middle".  Just across from that house, we saw a little pool.  They use that pool for "The Middle" and other productions as well.  The family went to the pool in the first couple episodes, so I recognized it.  As we kept walking down the street, we came across a fountain.  I thought it looked nice, and then I learned that it was the fountain in the theme song for "Friends".  It was really neat to see that!  The lady said that tour guides in New York City will go past a fountain and claim it was the one from "Friends", but the show was entirely shot in California.  We stopped and took plenty of pictures, and then all the students in our group posed for some pictures in front of it.  After that was done, it was about time to go into the actual sets.  We passed the area where all the actors' trailers are, and I took a picture of the giant "WB" sign nearby.  We started by going to the building they use a little less.  It had the set for the schools featured on the show, and it was cool.  There are a few different schools because the kids are different ages, but they use the same area and just change everything up depending on the school.  In the same building, we saw the set they use for Mike's trailer.  The lady said they were about to film a couple episodes using that set.  After we saw that building, it was finally time to check out the main set.  We wandered into the parents' bedroom and sat down in there.  They were filming an episode, and the scene they were filming was in the living room.  There were some headsets in the bedroom, so some of us could listen to what people were saying backstage and what the actors were saying!  After they filmed several takes, Neil Flynn (Mike Heck on the show) came back and greeted us!  He's actually an alumnus of Bradley!  We knew he was going to chill with us because we arranged for it - it's cool for Bradley students to meet successful alumni!  He talked to us about how he got where he was, and then he had to go back and do some more.  After they filmed several more takes, he came back.  This time, however, he brought Patricia Heaton (Frankie Heck) with him!  It was so neat!  They both took the time to meet us and tell us about themselves!  They were interested in knowing our plans and goals!  They were just great to be around!  Eventually, they had to leave again, but it was awesome meeting them!  At one point, Atticus Shaffer (Brick Heck) also walked by and said hi.  We watched them for a little longer, but then it was time to go.  Everybody began to leave, but I didn't go back with the same group that took me there.  I had made plans to get lunch with a girl who drove separately, so I met up with her.  She had to get back to her internship quickly, so we ended up just going through the drive-thru at Bob's Big Boy.  I tried a patty melt this time, and it was fantastic!  She took me back to the apartment, and then I just relaxed for the day.  I finally managed to call Universal Studios and make sure I could take advantage of their "Buy a day, get 2015 free" deal.  I had tried calling them a million times before, but they were always really busy!  I figured out that I could buy one of those tickets!  Since it's the 50th anniversary of the (re-)opening of Universal Studios, you can get a season pass for the price of a 1-day pass!  What a deal!  I bought one of those after I figured out it wasn't only for California residents (as someone had told me).  I relaxed and watched some GSN for a while.  I had some dinner and then continued chilling for the rest of the night.  I think my roommates went out and did something, but I wanted to rest before my big day at Universal Studios.  I woke up nice and early on Saturday morning and made my way there.  Once I got off the subway at Universal City, I had to figure out how exactly to get there.  I found the right direction pretty quickly, and I saw there was a Universal Studios tram parked nearby!  I love free trams that take you to amusement parks!  And this one was especially nice because there's a big hill going up to the park!  It dropped me off in front of CityWalk.  I walked to the park, got in, and tried to figure out what to do.  I wandered over to an escalator going to the Lower Lot, so I decided to make my way there.  You have to ride down 4 escalators to get to the Lower Lot!  And 3 of them are really tall!  Once I got down there, I found the Mummy roller coaster.  The Mummy is one of my favorite rides at Universal Orlando, so I was excited to get on!  I practically walked onto the ride, too!  It was a lot of fun, but the one in Orlando is better.  I immediately went on it again and then went to the Transformers ride.  I walked onto that one thanks to the single rider line!  The perks of being a single rider are so nice!  The only other ride down there is the Jurassic Park water ride, but it was closed for refurbishment.  I stopped at the NBCUniversal Experience attraction, which is basically a mini-museum full of artifacts from the history of Universal Studios.  It has a lot of info about the history and even more movie memorabilia!  I took a picture of the main DeLorean used in the "Back to the Future" series and a few other things.  It was neat!  After that, I went to the Upper Lot to go on the studio tour.  It's the main attraction at the park.  A big tram takes you all around the lots they have used for various movies and shows.  They still use some of them, and New York Film Academy was filming something in one of the lots.  We passed the Bates Motel from "Psycho", which is one of the oldest standing sets there.  While we were going by it, an actor portraying Norman Bates carried a "dead body" out of the motel and put it in the trunk of his car.  Scary!  I was happy that I watched it on Monday!  I didn't expect any of the "Psycho"-related stuff that happened throughout the week!  Later in the tour, the tram went through a King Kong 360 3D experience.  There were also some areas where we saw how they make certain special effects.  They showed several videos throughout the tour, and it was all interesting!  Once that was over, I went back to the Lower Lot because I thought the Shrek 4D movie was down there for some reason.  I discovered it wasn't, but I stopped for lunch at the Panda Express down there.  After lunch, I went to the Upper Lot to ride all the remaining rides.  The lines had gotten much longer, but I did everything I wanted to do.  The Upper Lot had a Simpsons ride, a Despicable Me ride, the Shrek 4D movie, and some shows.  I enjoyed it all, but I especially liked the Simpsons ride and the Despicable Me ride.  The Simpsons ride starred Sideshow Bob (a.k.a. Kelsey Grammer), and they gave out free 8 oz. water bottles at the Despicable Me ride!  Once I had ridden everything and taken a break for an ICEE, I saw a couple of the shows.  There was a show called "Animal Actors" where they had some trained animals do a few tricks you might see in the movies or on TV.  A lot of those animals had been in famous movies or TV shows from the past decade.  However, they had a bird who was in "Ace Ventura:  Pet Detective"!  It was a pretty neat show.  After that, I went to "Waterworld".  The show was apparently based off the movie, but I've never seen the movie.  It was all new to me!  There were a lot of breathtaking stunts, and it was great!  By the time I got out of that one, the last showing of "Special Effects Stage" had already started.  If I go back, I'll see that show.  I was ready to leave, so I got out of the park and explored CityWalk for a while.  It's a different place at night when all the lights are on!  I walked around and found a place to eat.  Then I went back to a magnet shop I had seen earlier and bought souvenirs for a few people.  After that, I boarded the tram and got back to the subway station.  From there, I went home and relaxed for the rest of the night.  Thankfully, I didn't have a bad sunburn because I was in the shade or inside for most of the day.  I got some sun, but it didn't hurt.  On Sunday, I got up and ate at the continental breakfast.  Then I went to church with the guy who normally takes me there.  It was a very nice sermon!  After I got home from that, I relaxed and watched some GSN.  Just before I made dinner, my roommates got back to the apartment.  They had gone to Long Beach without me!  I was a little upset that they didn't even tell me they were going, but I couldn't do anything about it.  I ate dinner, and then I went to the pool and the hot tub for my own little "beach" trip!  After that, I continued doing nothing.  On Monday, I slept in for a long time and then dragged myself out of bed.  Not long after I got up, it was time for lunch.  On most Mondays, I go out and get lunch from the food truck that's parked outside the building where the UTLA center is.  We obviously didn't have class because it's spring break, but I went out there anyway.  I didn't really want anything from the food trucks out there (it's different every week), so I got some food from the deli inside the building.  I went back to the apartment and took care of a few necessary tasks.  There's a theater that plays recent movies for only $3, so I planned a trip to go there and see "Paddington".  I made myself a little sandwich and then headed out to see the movie.  The concession prices are still a little unreasonable, but they're better than most theaters.  The movie itself was fantastic!  I see why it has 98% on Rotten Tomatoes and why Phil is obsessed with it!  It's got some great humor, and it's a wonderful story!  I remember reading Paddington books in elementary school, and it was nice to see a movie adaptation.  I came back from the movie, and I've been chilling since then.  I don't know exactly what I'll be doing this week, but I'll keep you updated!  I'll post some of the pictures I've taken tomorrow.  By the way, I know I titled an earlier post "One Heck of a Month", but I had to reuse that format because the family from "The Middle" has the last name Heck!  I couldn't resist that opportunity for a pun!