05 July 2007

Ah, People.

I forget how much time I spend avoiding the General Public. I teach at a small private school. A lot of the things I attend are small events, among friends. I live in a highly touristed area, but I generally avoid the main resort areas.

So it's a shock to the system to spend Independence Day at Universal CityWalk.


First, bringing a baby to a movie? What? At least they left the theatre when he or she started to get fussy, but when did it become de rigeur to even conceive of bringing the child to a movie in the first place? If one can't get a babysitter, one just doesn't go out! I know that may come off as harsh, particularly from someone who does not yet have children, but I certainly recognize that parenthood will bring with it some changes to our priorities, routines, and ways of doing things. Apparently, I'm the only one. Of course, I like to think my opinion is not entirely selfish - certainly if someone has their infant with them, they are not getting their full enjoyment out of the movie, and movie tickets are expensive enough as it is.

Second, if you're going to take pictures of fireworks, please turn your flash off. All you're doing is blinding the people around you, and your images will not turn out well at all.

Third, even at a theme park, the moving sidewalks are not rides. Continue walking, or else move over to the side, please.

Finally, Orlando doesn't have the strongest metropolitan personality, given its history, but it's unfortunate that tourists who visit may never see anything other than Disney and (heaven forbid!) International Drive. Disney is very good at what it does, but I-Drive might very well be a special circle of hell. It's painfully overprocessed, inorganic, and packaged tourist crap. I realize central Florida doesn't have much in the way of cultural experiences, when compared to, say, New York City or Seattle or Monterey, but they do exist. I promise.

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