There are moments in life where everything stops suddenly. Perspective shifts almost instantly, knocking the breath out of you. For that moment nothing else matters, even if it should. I had one of those yesterday.
Escaping the Numbness
Did I forget how to be happy?
That’s similar to what my friend Norbert explored in his poignant essay on his discovery of his own depression for the The Good Men Project. I revisit that piece often. It’s become a benchmark of sorts for me: have I too become numb to what’s going on around me?
I think maybe I have. Continue reading
Strolling with my Homies
I was not raised with a love of outdoor activity and the only time I’ll run is if I’m being chased. I certainly wasn’t planning on running through any of the four Disney World parks on our visit, but I’ve also seen the security lines in the Orlando airport, so I wasn’t ruling out having to run through the terminal to make our flight home. It’s bad enough traveling alone as an adult, but once you get a tired kid in tow, all bets are off. I also wasn’t sure just how tired the aforementioned child would be by the end of a 5-day Disney experience. That got me wondering if we were all going to make it through this trip at all.
Stalking Disney FastPass+ Reservations
One of the nicer things about traveling for work is getting a break from whatever is going on at the office for a bit. Fortunately for me, that meant I could focus on my next big deadline for our upcoming Disney World trip: FastPass+ reservations. Unfortunately, that meant praying to the WiFi gods for a strong connection in a hotel right before I needed to leave to actually attend the conference. Priorities really get you sometimes, don’t they?
Trick or Treating Disney-style
Over here in the Jackpot, we love Halloween. Like, drive around looking at neighbors’ decorations, dress up for work, family costume wearing, LOVE Halloween. The second I found out about Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party at Disney World, I knew Miss O needed to go. We had just entered the “what time of year should we go?” phase of our trip planning and I laser focused on fall so we could go to the party, too. Then I looked up the ticket price and almost died.
Planning the Magic
One of the hardest things to get sorted for a Disney Trip is a park plan. Once you’ve figured out when you want to go and where you want to stay, you’ve got to sort out your wish list of things to do. If you’re doing a week-long, multiple park, family trip like us, then comes sorting out what days for what parks, what dining reservations to make, and what rides/shows/character meet and greets for FastPass reservations. If it sounds daunting, it absolutely is.
Finishing K
My baby is finishing kindergarten and I’m a mess. Everyone tells you that time with children goes fast, but I didn’t realize just how fast until it already zipped past me waving goodbye. I was prepared for the first day of school tears, but the last day of school tears came out of nowhere. They’ve actually been coming off and on for a week now, but seriously, between the insane pollen count and decompressing from the end of graduate school, who can tell?
Tickets! Tickets, Please!
Ticket prices for Disney are insane. I’m not going to argue that with anyone. The value and ROI for those prices are always debatable and, I will always maintain, are relative to your situation. Many of us take for granted the fact that we can even consider whether we’d like to spend the money on this kind of thing, so I make no presumption everyone agrees with me on this. For our first trip together as a family, I was ready to go all in, but it didn’t make entering my credit card number any less painful.
Gluten-Free Disney for Me?!
There’s a vast sea of pins out there featuring Mickey waffles, Mickey ice cream bars and even Mickey Pretzels as the highlight of anyone’s trip to Disney! There are t-shirts devoted to pledging love for churros, Dole Whips and all sorts of treats from Pandora, too. Yet there I was drowning in a great swell of despair. I’ve gotten used to disappointment from being unable to eat gluten, so this wouldn’t be any different for me, I guess. Then I started digging deeper…
On a Wing and a Prayer
Miss O adores travel. Which makes sense since she spent most of her first year on earth stuck in the HOV lane with Hubs and me. We carpooled to work so it was most convenient that Miss O’s daycare be closer to our offices. Most of our family lived out of state, too, so on holidays and special occasions we drove several hours to visit. We didn’t have plane money yet, so trust me, driving was the only option. For a while there, she spent more time in the car than out of it.
Suburban Jackpot 