Where is my Leverage t-shirt?

Day 236: Leap Day
Pop Culture Reference: Disneyland
Where I got it: Disneyland
When I got it: 2012

A story: I can’t believe I haven’t posted this shirt yet - completely missed the boat on Leap Day. But rather than hold onto it for four years (cause who knows if we’ll all still be here then), I’ll just toss it up a couple of months late.

So one of my friends is on a 6 month sabbatical from her job. She went to London, and I just got an email from France, and in between she decided to visit me for Leap Day at Disneyland. We got to the park a little before noon, which was pretty perfect. Rode everything we wanted to at California Adventure by 3 and the crowds weren’t too bad, so we headed over to Disneyland. Where the day started to go downhill. Let me bullet it for you:

1. Modern Family was filming that day. When we were trying to get in the cast was at the main entrance, so it took FOREVER to get into the park.
2. There is such a high concentration of annual passholders that in the late afternoon (when school/9-5 jobs got out) there was a multiple hour backup onto the freeway to get to the park.
3. The park filled to capacity.
4. You can imagine what this did to the lines.

We still managed to do almost everything we wanted - including an early dinner at Blue Bayou, but the crowd was out of control. After waiting 1.5 hours for Star Tours, the only thing left on our list was Space Mountain. The wait time said 115 minutes. Now, because I live here, I would normally never wait that long. I’ll just catch it next time. But my friend is from Washington so I couldn’t deny her the right to ride Space Mountain. We got in line. However, the ride times completely forsook us. Instead of 115 minutes, it was more like 210. Which, if you do the math, IS 3.5 HOURS IN LINE. Still worth it.

We left Space Mountain and headed for the exit around 5 a.m. (super weird to be driving home with the sun coming up). Even though the park got crazy after dark it was still an awesome day and I’m SO GLAD my friend was able to visit!

(Source: disneyparks.disney.go.com)

Day 232: Justine
Pop Culture Reference: None
Where I got it: Homemade
When I got it: 2012

A story: My niece is running for sophomore VP and made these t-shirts to wear to drum up support. Her whole campaign is a pink/green theme, which I quite enjoy. She has so much more design ability at 14 than I do…at a much older age. Anyway, go Justine!

Meanwhile, I have not seen this much puffy paint since I was in 5th grade. You know, in the stone age, when it was being introduced as a brand new product and we were all astounded at how it rose up from the fabric.

(Source: amazon.com)

Day 231: District 13
Pop Culture Reference: Hunger Games
Where I got it: RedBubble, via Tumblr
When I got it: 2012

A story: Ah yeaaaaaah, all ready to go for The Hunger Games. And you know I had to support my blown-off-the-map District 13 (shh) and their nuclear technology. It was this or District 4, and I am not pretty enough to be a representative of Finnick’s district. May the odds be ever in your favor (of seeing the movie this weekend).

(Source: redbubble.com)

Day 230: Treat Yo Self
Pop Culture Reference: Parks and Rec
Where I got it: Busted Tees
When I got it: 2012

A story: I wanted to commemorate Leap Day in some way, but realized there’s no shirt I pull out once every four years (come on, I love them hard and they fade after approximately 2.5 months). Instead, I’ll just tell you what I’m doing today, which is: Treating my self to Disneyland! They’re staying open for 24 hours for Leap Day, so my friend and I are sticking around as long as we can. I went ahead and made reservations at Blue Bayou for 12:50 a.m. It’s not weird to eat dinner in the middle of the night, right?

P.S. Treat Yo Self 2012!

P.P.S. I was wearing this shirt when I met up with a friend and her son a couple of weeks ago at a park in Sherman Oaks. As I approached I noticed crazy amounts of trucks and filming equipment and gigantic catering tents. And then I saw the Pawnee filming sign (they try and “disguise” the filming signs in LA with a code word). It was one of those defining moments in life. If I were a cooler, more confident person, I would have gone over and showed them my shirt and told them how much I love the show. But I am stupid shy, so instead I took a picture and slunk away quietly.

(Source: bustedtees.com)

Day 229: Using Your Melon
Pop Culture Reference: Muppets, Bunsen and Beaker
Where I got it: Shirt Woot
When I got it: 2012

A story: I have a special place in my heart for The Muppets. As I kid I remember distinctly sitting in my grandma’s kitchen (she had a yellow Formica table that was fantastic) and reading an issue of Dynamite magazine with Jim Henson. I want to say it was maybe even a day in the life of Kermit, although I could be confusing that with an interview of Soleil Moon Frye, because MAN ALIVE did I want to be Punky Brewster. Anyway, back to Kermit. I very seriously and studiously wrote a letter to Dynamite for them to pass along to Jim Henson saying that I would pay good money (in the form of a check) if he wouldn’t mind making me my very own Kermit. The man did not write back. Not even with instructions on how to make my own! Talk about encouraging the imagination of youth.

And for one choir performance (are all kids still forced into choir?) in, I think, second grade we did Movin’ Right Along from The Muppet Movie. My mom came and it was really special because she was a nurse and couldn’t always make it to my stuff and she said it was her favorite of all the songs we sang because she loved Kermit and Fozzie. My favorite song on the choir roster was Somewhere Out There from An American Tail. I did not have good taste. I did, however, have a Fievel sleeping bag and backpack.

But, as we all know, my love is fickle and as an adult I really have a fondness for the hapless Beaker and Dr. Bunsen Honeydew. Of course, if you asked me next week I might say Swedish Chef. Or Sam the Eagle (“It’s called A Salute to All Nations, but Mostly America.”) Or Piggy. Okay, I love them all.

(Source: shirt.woot.com)

Day 228: Sea
Pop Culture Reference: None
Where I got it: Gap Kids
When I got it: 1996ish

A story: FOUND! One scrap of Sea t-shirt. Sea is the companion shirt to day 85’s Sky. As I’ve mentioned a few times before, my mother’s washing machine had no fear of eating through my beloved t-shirts. I clearly complained enough that my mom took the designs and cut them out and sewed them onto new shirts. She finished Sky, but apparently never got around to Sea. Hence the disembodied design sitting on my table. But I was still overjoyed to find it. And how did I that happen?

Well, here’s the depressing part of parents getting older. At some point it’s time to start thinking about when they’re not going to be capable of living on their own. And maybe you start planning ahead for that, by making a trip with your brother and sister to clean out the family homestead. And you find that your mother was a hoarder and saved every Christmas card from 1960 to the present (well, 2004 actually). And old lids from cans, and buttons, and candles and thousands of articles cut out from the newspaper. All of that you would throw away. But you’d also find old t-shirts, all your childhood artwork, a boomerang your grandfather brought your dad from Australia during WWII, and all of the love letters your mom and dad wrote when they were courting. That’s the stuff you save.

(Source: gap.com)

Day 227: AT-ATs
Pop Culture Reference: Star Wars
Where I got it: Time Tunnel T-Shirts
When I got it: 2012

A story: In the fall of 2007 I had moved to LA, but was still working for a company in Seattle. Through a weird series of circumstances all of the higher ups were out of the office for an extended amount of time and I ended up being the “senior” person who was clocking in and out every day. They decided to put me in charge of the office for a couple of months! Which was ridiculous because the kids (I call everyone “kid,” even if they’re older than me) were all super responsible and it’s not like they were going to start drinking and smoking on the job if there was no one to supervise them. But anyway, our office manager found me a weekly rental place down by the Space Needle. I wandered down there after work one night and it was completely terrifying with like people shooting up in the hallway and iron burns on the floor of every room I looked at. And possibly venereal diseases gestating on the furniture. Yes, that sounds judgy, but I’m trying to convey exactly how sketchy it was. I slept there one night (in a similar mental state to Tom Hanks when he first journeys to New York in Big) and then insisted on a transfer. Reprieve arrived in the form of the Extended Stay Marriott with included waffle bar and warm chocolate chip cookies at the desk.

To bring this back on topic: While staying at the Marriott it came to my attention that Lego had introduced an AT-AT model. I had already talked myself out of a Star Destroyer ($300! The price of an iPod!), but this was affordable. And glorious. It had a battery pack and actually walked! Because I need instant gratification I immediately went to the Lego store and purchased. And then had to figure out how to get it home. My plan was to put it together and pack it onto the plane as my “tiny dog,” but there wasn’t time to assemble before I had to leave.

So yeah, I put the package in an overhead bin on the plane, got the AT-AT home, put it together and now it’s sitting in my kitchen. Boy, that story really ran out of juice. Still better than Phantom Menace, which is out in 3D today. I promised my nephew I’d take him, and I swear on the force, if he loves it more than the original trilogy I will disown him.

(Source: timetunneltshirts.com)