pictures

Magic In the Magic Kingdom

6 March 2013 / disney, disney world, pictures, vacation, yay

These February Disney trips were a stroke of genius, an idea devised by Adam during the fall of 2011. He knows how depressed I get with too much cold and snow (although I have to admit this winter hasn’t been that bad) and he knows Disney World is the happiest place ever for me. So, off we go, every year, to enjoy a piece of summer in the winter months.

I’ve decided to break the trip report into parts because it will just be too long for me to do all of the days in one post. So, without further ado, let’s start with Part One: Magic In the Magic Kingdom.

Please note: Adam and I are the worst tourists ever. We don’t tour the park in sections; we criss cross back and forth several times throughout the day. I like to get the exercise, and we do most stuff on whims. So those of you who have been and are wondering WTF, that’s why our day is all over the place.

We started off by waking up at Disney O’Clock (3:15am) for a trip to Midway Airport. The cab was picking us up at 3:45am. By the time we got through security, we both had time to scarf down a hash brown before it was time to board! (Surprisingly, I hadn’t been already up from the night before! I actually tried to get a decent night’s sleep so I wouldn’t be half out of my mind at Magic Kingdom like I typically am on the first day of my Disney trips.)

I slept most of the flight, but I do remember waking up and eating some of Adam’s cinnamon roll graham crackers because well, I had to. I also remember having to pee constantly and being really cold. I was SO looking forward to that 80F waiting for me in Orlando!

After a freezing cold ride on the Magical Express to our resort Port Orleans French Quarter, and a wait behind some slow pokes in the check-in line, we dropped off our carry-on bags with luggage storage, I did a bit of freelance work, and we were in Magic Kingdom by noon. Of course Adam was already hungry! So we had lunch at Columbia Harbour House, stopping to take pix along the way, and to listen to the band.

After lunch, we headed to the new Fantasyland to see what we could see. And this is what we saw!

He told me to put my arms around him and try not to faint. I heard him ask the girl behind me if she liked his teeth. My what a guy, that Gaston.

Fantasyland was super crowded, so we looked around a bit and headed to Tomorrowland. Had to do Carousel of Progress, because they have this awesome kitchen scene:

I want that kitchen.

We puttered around Tomorrowland before popping into some gift shops. I love taking pictures of merchandise and snacks.

I think this popcorn is so pretty. We saw three people spill their popcorn during our vacation. I’m sure the gulls were happy about that.

These Mickey Butt mugs crack me up.

We headed back to Liberty Square for Haunted Mansion and Hall of Presidents and random wildlife.

HAD to do it’s a small world. Had to.

It was in here that Adam and I wondered what it’s like when they turn on these massive attractions. Does it start off all slow and warped like a record on a record player, or do things just instantly light up and they’re good to go? And none of those puppets were dusty. That means there are people TO DUST ALL THE PUPPETS in those rides. HOLY CRAP.

After it’s a small world, we headed to Be Our Guest for dinner. OH MAN. They really do it up, you guys. They escort parties in one by one. And they open these big doors. IT’S JUST LIKE WALKING INTO THE MOVIE. It’s beautiful!!

We ate in the West Wing.

It was dark and a thunderstorm roared through every few minutes. Torn tapestries and paintings were everywhere. It was definitely amazing.

On top of all that, the Beast pops in the bow to his guests. And the food was super yummy. I had steak with pommes frites and truffle mayonaise. Yummy! 🙂 For dessert, they roll a cart to the table with all of the selections right in front of you. I had a lemon meringue cupcake. Delicious. We also got to try The Grey Stuff.

The Grey Stuff really IS delicious. But only for people who are having celebrations. And maybe for people who ask nicely but probably not usually. We were lucky. Personally, I think everyone should get to try it, but it’s not my restaurant so….

We met our host after dinner.

These guys were talking but I have no clue what they were saying. One of them was sleeping and snoring pretty loudly.

I feel VERY lucky that we got a chance to experience Be Our Guest. The place is booked for a solid six months, and the lunch line usually runs at least 45 minutes during peak times. I am not sure when we’ll get there again, but I’m glad we got to do it once.

All in all, a very lovely day at the Magic Kingdom. The weather was hot and muggy and I loved it. I was wearing shorts and a tee-shirt. Even though I had to do some work, it was nice to sit on a bench in the Magic Kingdom rather than a freezing cold office. It was way more crowded than I’d like, so most of the rides we love had lines that were way too long, but as we were going to Magic Kingdom later in the week, I didn’t fret about it.

Tune in next time when I talk about our AWESOME DAY at Animal Kingdom, where we got to see a baby elephant poop and pee, we got to watch an injured turtle get a bandage change, and we got to ride Expedition Everest FIVE TIMES.

See ya! 🙂

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Back to Life, Back to Reality!

4 March 2013 / life, pictures, shenanigans, to do

On this lovely first Monday of March 2013, I am getting back to reality. I spent a magical five days in Florida at Disney World and loved it. I came home and spent the weekend taking it very easy. Reading, playing on the computer, talking to Aidan on the phone. It was nice.

But now that it is Monday, it’s really time to get back to reality. And here is the list of things I need to do:

1. Unpack my bags from my Disney trip
2. Take a shower
3. Freelance work
4. Mail off important paperwork and bills
5. Put things back in their places

The rest of the week, I need to do the following:

1. Finish and turn in thesis
2. At least one yoga class (preferably 3)
3. Attend a thesis
4. Get a massage
5. Work 2 workshops
6. More freelance work
7. Edit and upload Disney pictures
8. Blog about Disney World! 🙂

I also have 4 King Spa vouchers I need to use before the month is out. I suspect two of them might already be expired, which sucks, but oh well. I know I have 2 I can still use. Once I have my car back. It’s in the shop now. Thanks for that, Mercury Retrograde.

Just… let me vent a bit about the havoc Mercury Retrograde has brought upon me. It hasn’t been anything I couldn’t handle, thank goodness, and somehow, things are still working out. But there have been some nervous-making moments, that’s for sure!

1. The big project I was working on for Nancy? Remember how it kept crashing and I finally sent it to her? Well, something was seriously wrong with the Word docs I was using to create the manual (which I turned into a PDF at the end). Those docs crashed my entire hard drive. Yup. Guess who was up until 3am doing computer surgery and then trying to transfer files over? THIS GIRL! Fortunately, I got the hard drive into an enclosure and was able to get all my important stuff on the new computer. WHEW.

2. Had decent luck all week at Disney until our last day. We had to catch the Magical Express at 6:10pm. We got to the bus stop from the Magic Kingdom at about 5:35pm. It takes about 15 minutes to get back to our hotel from Magic Kingdom. Now, this was partially my fault because I underestimated the time it would take for all of this to go down, but normally, a bus back to the resort shows up within 5-10 minutes. WE DIDN’T GET A BUS UNTIL 6:13PM. And it had someone in a wheelchair, so further delays to get him all loaded up. We got back to our resort around 6:30pm. I was for sure thinking we were going to miss everything and be late to the airport and miss our flight, etc. Fortunately, a 6:40pm Magical Express bus was coming, and it wasn’t full so he let us on. We got to the airport in plenty of time and all was well. The security line was smooth. We’d checked in at the resort, so we already had our boarding passes, and our bags were already at the airport. Our flight was delayed five minutes, but I never care about delays on the return flight.

3. On the plane, a man sat next to us who was clearly very sick. He had a really nasty sounding cough and it was relentless. Of course, once we were in Chicago, he wanted to shake Adam’s hand. (I gave Adam hand sanitizer when the guy wasn’t looking.) Adam is susceptible enough to getting sick. He does not need airplane germs to make it worse.

4. Adam went out to start the car yesterday to find that the battery is completely drained. He went to the mechanic (they are close by) and they gave him a portable charging kit to borrow. EXCEPT SOMETHING IS WRONG WITH THE HOOD LATCH and Adam couldn’t get the hood open. He called for a tow (the guys only charged us $5), and now my car is sitting at the shop until we figure out how to get the hood open and the battery charged again. I guess they’ll work on it tomorrow.

5. I was working on my domain when all of a sudden, NOTHING WOULD WORK RIGHT. And I checked my control panel to find that somehow I’d gone over my quota of space when just a few minutes earlier it was fine! I freaked out because I’d been with this company forever and couldn’t understand why I was out of space. I put in a support ticket to get some answers and looked into upgrading. I got an email back within 20 minutes. Because I’d been with this company since 2004, they doubled my space for free, and told me where the high usage was. I fixed that and now everything is working smoothly again. I also cleared off a bunch of files that I’d put there to access in other places. I have PLENTY of space now.

So all things considered, I’m OK. And I can look back on it and giggle. Kinda. 🙂 But I’ll be glad when Retrograde is over on March 17. That’s two weeks. I can make it.

‘Til next time….

P.S. I must be running out of original title ideas. I apparently used this one a few years ago.

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Five

3 March 2013 / meme, pictures, ronni

I found this on Lesley’s blog. (She found it on another blog.) You know I can’t resist things like this…..

five

…. things you’ll find in my purse
* wallet
* small notebook w/pen
* gum
* lotion
* keys

…. things you’ll find in my bedroom
* at least one cat (unless they’ve been shut out b/c someone peed on the bed again)
* stuffed animals
* toys
* clothes all over the floor
* snacks

…. things I’ve always wanted to do
* write a best selling novel
* go to another country
* act in a hollywood blockbuster
* walk the red carpet
* be interviewed on a talk show

…. things I’m currently loving
* that there is technically only 18 days of winter left
* my cute new headphones
* tang
* my new stuffed bear (but Pandernoodle is still #1 with me!)
* looking forward to Disney World this coming June

…. quirks I have
* a strong sense of smell
* a hatred of people crowding around me when I am trying to concentrate and/or shop
* a need to sleep with an electric blanket
* a hatred of the sound of footsteps, especially clicky high heels on hard wood or laminate flooring
* a need to read before I can fall asleep at night. There is a big stack of books by my side of the bed.

What about you? If you do this, let me know in the comments so I can check out your Five!

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My What a Guy… GASTON!!

2 March 2013 / disney world, pictures, ronni, vacation, yay

This was one of the highlights of my Disney trip. Gaston was hilarious. I heard him ask a girl if she liked his teeth. He told me to put my arms around him and try not to faint. He was so much fun, and the character I’d hoped to meet this time around. 🙂

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Just One of Those Weeks

23 February 2013 / life, pictures, ronni, shenanigans, yoga

It was just one of those weeks. You know the type where it seems like you’re doing ALL THE THINGS ALL DAY LONG but you only check one or two things off the to do list. Or when you get so far in a big project on the computer only for the software you’re using to crash, not only once, but at least five times.

Yes. That really happened.

BUT I eventually got the project done and my recipient is very happy. 🙂 And now, another yoga teacher training milestone is out of the way. Customized yoga is done. Here I am with my student:

nancy is awesome

Not much more to go. I need to attend two thesis presentations, write up my book reviews, write up my private lessons, and turn in my thesis. And my final exam, which hasn’t been announced yet. Closing circle is April 26. That gives me about two months to tie up all the loose ends and finally have that certificate in my hands.

Earlier this week, I got to see a truly disgusting side of humanity but in the next instant, I saw things that were heartwarming and beautiful. It was a week where I felt like I could not get enough to sleep, and a week where a cold decided to come along and make me feel slightly off-kilter and very cranky.

I realized I like Slim Jims.

I got to work at Trisect, which I love. And because I was working on a special project, the proofreader I usually cover for was there. It was awesome to finally meet her. She was really nice, and she has big hair like me. 🙂

Went back to Mysore Tuesday night. I like the evening Mysore and I am thrilled that a Thursday evening Mysore is going to start in a few weeks. At least, that’s the word out on the street. I never expected to like Mysore as much as I do. Believe me, NO ONE is more surprised than I am that I like Mysore as much as I do. I got four more poses on Tuesday, and I think I’ll be here for a while. I’m up to Uttitha Eka Padasana. Yea. I’ll be there for a while. Heh. Funnily enough, I am great at that one. It’s the two before that I suck at. It’s Utthita Hasta Padangusthasana and Utthita Parsvasahita that’s gonna keep kicking my butt, and those come BEFORE Uttitha Eka Padasana. And then once I get those, the next big move is handstand, but before that is Utkatasana, where I’ll be stuck for about 95 years because I cannot do handstand (yet?). It scares the poo out of me. (But I like Utkatasana so I’m OK with that.)

I got to watch the pilot for Golden Boy, which made me happy. I thought that I would miss it because the television premiere is February 26 (you know where I’ll be!) but CBS.com is nice enough to have it streaming now. I am not a huge “cop show” girl but this one is intriguing. I like it and will continue to watch it for the time being.

Yesterday, snow came and that, coupled with usual Chicago Friday rush hour that starts at freaking 1pm, made running errands annoying and frustrating. I’ve gotten spoiled by the new Target in town. Yesterday, we went to a more crowded one and I wanted to smack everyone who kept getting in my way. And that really was almost EVERYONE. It seemed like as soon as I’d go to an empty aisle to look at something, 90,000 other people would need the exact thing I wanted. OR I’d go to an aisle and there would be one person standing right front of the item I needed, and standing SO CLOSE TO THE SHELVES there was no way I could go up and look myself without being a creeper.

I worked the Tantric Restorative workshop last night. Doing the workshops at the West Bucktown location is 99x less stressful than doing them at River West. Except for always worrying about running out of props, but we were actually OK. There were fewer people there, and although the lobby got a little crazy with one class ending, the workshop starting and *another* workshop starting, it was still OK. And the actual workshop itself was great. I almost fell asleep in some of the poses. I know some people DID fall asleep. I might have been one of them.

I was glad to get home, eat some pasta, and read. I’d planned on cleaning the apartment today, but they dropped the bomb yesterday that the manuals were due to our students this coming Thursday. And well, Thursday, I’m going to be playing in Animal Kingdom or something. So I had to get it done today. Which brought on the histrionics when Word kept crashing. And crashing. And crashing. So I used Pages and managed to get it working–although Pages has its own issues. But no matter. It’s done, and I think it looks OK. And Adam ended up doing all the cleaning.

Mercury went into retrograde today, which makes me a little bit nervous, considering I had the computer issue, and I had an issue with one of the games I play causing me to possibly inadvertently spam non-playing FB friends. Folks, I love some of the games on Facebook. They’re mindless and cute and they just help me calm the eff down. But I don’t want to be subjecting people to all of that if they don’t want to be, so I am very careful about filtering my game posts so only fellow players see them, and only sending requests to people I KNOW are active players (and I know this because they send active requests to ME). So when I’m clicking through my requests and realize that the game company has thrown in someone I KNOW doesn’t play but I’ve already clicked it (and didn’t realize it until after the fact), I get really angry. Because that’s bullshit. It’s deceitful and greedy and I can guarantee they’re not getting a dime of my “real money” for doing underhanded crap like that.

OH and also, they recommend that Sagittarius people don’t travel during Mercury retrogrades. This is what the Farmer’s Almanac says:

In Sagittarius: It is not a time to travel, so reschedule or just expect delays, lines, and lost directions. Instead, take care of local affairs. Patience and a sense of humor are needed.

WELL ISN’T THAT JUST FREAKING GREAT. But I’m not going to buy so much into this because I don’t want to be blaming every little silly thing on retrograde and making a big deal out of something that’s probably nothing or just typical annoying things that happen any time one travels.

Anyway, I expected long lines. For some reason, this February has been insane with lines in Magic Kingdom, so *Kanye shrug.* And yeah, we’ll probably get lost in Magic Kingdom, but it’s happened before and we got through it. It’s the delays that have me worried. Well, you know what? I will throw my own retrograde energy into a March 1 Friday night flight delay. That flight back to Chicago can be delayed as long as it freaking wants and I won’t care one happy little bit. And if I have to stay an extra night in Orlando… OH DARN.

I forgot to mention: a couple of weeks ago, someone told me that someone told her that I had a singing voice like an angel. Which is nice to hear but really CANNOT BE RIGHT. She has to be mistaken or have gotten me mixed up with someone else. My voice changed when I was about 12 and hasn’t been that good since. I get lazy and don’t hold keys right or I just get out of my head and sing everything completely WRONG (i.e. 9000 octaves above what it’s supposed to be and off key). Now, when I am paying attention and working hard, I sound OK. But I mean just OK as in, it’s OK to listen to me when I’m in the shower and the water’s running really hard. I can OM like a mofo. But sing? Nah, dude. She had to have been mistaken.

Something else I forgot to mention: One of the 50¢ CDs I got from Half-Price Books was Karsh Kale. I first heard his music by accident, browsing around on emusic.com, and I really liked it! So THAT was a treasure find for sure.

And now I’m calming down by blogging, listening to music, and neurotically arranging folders and files on my computer. Because that’s how people like me feel some sense of order and control in the world.

Oh my God. I think I need to go to bed. I’ve got to sleep off the rest of this cold. Maybe I should go to King Spa and sit in that really hot sauna. That’ll burn the rest of this crap out of my head. And they ARE open 24/7….. yea right. Like I’m going anywhere NOW.

Anyway, tomorrow I’ll be packing and charging various devices. Gonna TRY to make a yoga class too. I need one that’ll kick my ass. There is a vinyasa 2-3 at 11:30am and also one at 5:30pm. I’m going to try to make the 11:30am class. I will be able to do exactly 0% arm balances, but it’ll be fun to try.

OK, OK. TL;DR. Whatever. Night!

4 Comments