I am telling myself "it has been too long, you have GOT TO post a new blog post." But then my excuses follow with thoughts like not having anything to write about, then I thought about what I did last week and then all excuses were gone. You see, Michael was assigned to follow sales consultant families that had achieved trip rewards through his company. Within a two week time he was flying to Disneyland then a few days later flying to Disney World. So processing not having him, being by myself, and him getting to go to Disney World without me. After talking to my parents I was able to get a standby pass to go hang out with him on his day off. In that process my husband was also working behind the scenes and his boss decided to invite me to work while I was out there....That's right, see Michael, go to Disney World, and do a little power point work...and get paid.
For one I realized I needed to expand my freelance work to power point presentations. One thing that sets me apart is my ability to work with several different people with a dozen different presentations and still please my main client, the marketing department.
Next there was Disney World...I haven't visited since I was in 2nd grade, and to go with my husband was even better. We started at Disney Hollywood Studios and checked out Star Wars, the ridiculously crazy Rock n Roller coaster, and a couple other iconic rides.
We have a pass that let us get into any of the four parks so we went to the next park after hours and we toughed it out even though it was raining. I'm a big whimsical kid, so Magic Kingdom is my jam! We checked out iconic rides, a really cool 3D theatre that showed a musical montage of all the "real" Disney movies that kids of the 80's and 90's grew up with. Later in the day I convinced the 6 other people we were spending the day with to go to dinner with us at "Be our guest" the beasts's castle. HELLO! SO COOL!! One of the three or four places to eat that were as iconic as the movie they come from. Come to find out that all three of these places had a reservation waitlist of 6 months, but me being naive as I am thought I would just embarass myself, go up to the reservation stand, and ask. They said "yes it will be just a 40 minute wait is that ok? I said HECK YES!! But then I thought maybe I misunderstood and the reservations were just for a no wait situation. However we had two people come behind us and they were
everything but laughed at and said they would need a reservation made 6 months ago, so I have NO IDEA how it happened, but the "Spangler Family" party of 7 got to eat at the beasts castle...and it was AWESOME!!! By halfway through the dinner the rest of our group was catching on to my whimsy childlike excitement. After finishing up our dinner with some "gray stuff" (if you don't know this reference, go watch Beauty and the Beast again, either one) watched the fireworks on our way out.
At this point, as much fun as we are having, after 10 hours and a monsoon of rain, I am really feeling my age....it's sad. But of course you can't pay attention to swollen ankles when the group wants to go to a third park, the one with the big attraction that everyone is waiting five hours to go on. So we go at 11:30pm at night when it is only open for Disney Resort guests. We waited about 80 minutes to ride the legendary Avatar: Right of passage 3D ride where you literally feel like you are riding on the back of a living breathing banche. It was pretty awesome and just getting to the ride and walking through the Land of Avatar that has been recreated and at night all of its neon elements made it even more breathe taking. After we finished that ride, 6 minutes before the extended hours of the park ended, we SPRINTED (well for everyone else it was a light jog, I on the other hand passed out like three times while moving) to the last, more calm Avatar ride that was a slow boat ride through the world of Avatar. It was an amazing way to end the night watching the hardwork of the Disney Artists on display, making you really feel like you have entered another world.
So, I work for 3 days straight, then "played" for 48 hr
s straight (maybe a nap, and day 2 we attempted to go to Epcot, but my poor ankles and Michael's work was calling, so we only made one ride, a gift shop, and fish and chips in united kingdom part of the Epcot) needless to say I was barely walking by the time I got to the airport, then had to sprint accross the airport trying to make any flight since I was flying standby.
It was an adventurous exciting work trip that wore us out, but in the end made me want to embrace this awesome season we are in. I have got to realize that everyone season that has ups will come with downs. It won't ever be a perfect case scenario, but it will be a whole lot more enjoyable if I choose not to focus on the things that happen but I can't change. So I came back and realized I needed to take care of swollen ankles and dehydration but I constantly had to choose not to let it bring down this amazing experience.
Now, a week or so later, I am back home stuck in this season with everyday life staring me in the face again and I realize that part of the reason that these days seem so dark and gloomy is that my natural tendency is to focus on the everyday stuff that is failing. So my goal now is to take some of the reckless abandon vacation DeAnza and bring some back to my everyday. I'm sure those around me will appreciate it too! lol.