Happy Birthday to My Mother 2011 Edition

Today is my Mother’s Birthday.

She is an amazing woman who raised four children who turned out well. She has many other achievements in her profession as a Professor at the Emory University Nursing School which she retired from a couple of years ago and finally stopped altogether this past year.

She enjoys teaching. Whether it is roomful of students or one of her children, she would always seem to be teaching us something. I learned so many skills from her, some consciously and other subconsciously

She is a great believer in leading by example. She didn’t swear so we didn’t swear. She would say please and thank you to us and expected the same courtesy. She raised us right and we became polite productive members of society.

Since she has retired she had received her Master Gardener certification from the Georgia Extension service, gone on trips around the world including a recent safari to Africa, and finally finish those mystery novels that she always wanted to get around to reading. She may have retired from the job but she is still active in the world.

She is also active in the lives of her granddaughters. Because of iChat and Facetime, she can spend time talking to them and getting to know them better than just letters and telephone calls. She reads this web log to hear about Caroline’s adventures and later asks her about them. From a young age Caroline knew what her grandparents looked like because she saw them on the computer, so when we got together there was no hesitation for hugs and kisses because these faces were not strange to her.

She has always been there for me no matter what the circumstance. I know I have her in my corner in both good times and bad and that has helped me through some pretty tough times. I know she loves me unconditionally and I love her the same. She is my Mom and she is wonderful.

Happy Birthday Mom! Hope it is a good one and we’ll try for an iChat this afternoon.

I am so so grateful that my Mother is my Mother.

LJ Idol Season 7 Week 16 Open Topic

Or as I will be calling it
Disney Magic

Disney has been a touchstone for both Peter and me. We had our second real date at Disney World. We got engaged at the Adventurer’s Club. We took the Disney Cruise for our Honeymoon. A number of our happiest memories happened there.

This past weekend we went down to Florida as guests of the Vulcan Events who were throwing a convention in Tampa. They wanted us to leave either Tuesday or Wednesday so that the ticket price would be less. We chose Wednesday to have a few days in Walt Disney World.

This trip was a little different from previous trips because we have our Silver Gate Passes because Peter is a full time employee at Marvel. So we had some very nice discounts on housing and other things. Also we could get into the parks for free with those cards. Lots of great perks for working for the Mouse.

It is amazing how much pressure is off of you went you aren’t paying for your entrance. Pirates line too long? Go onto something else. Grab fastpass tickets and find other things to do in the area until it was time. (A fastpass is a ticket that allows you to come back to the ride between two times (10:50 to 11:50) and get into the fastpass line which is much shorter and faster than the regular line. There are only so many given per day so they know how many people they are feeding into the system in a pretty timely manner.) We found out that the parks had been slammed until Sunday and the running of the marathon and then it slowed down which was great for us. Also cast members treated us a little different because we are part of the House of the Mouse.

But there was something else this trip that seem to follow us around. We seemed to be on the receiving end of some Serious Disney Magic through out our trip.

A little Pixie Dust is all you need
Caroline’s favorite ride up to this point was the Peter Pan ride. Peter wrote a wonderful story about the first time she rode it which can be found here. It is also one of the longest lines in Fantasyland for some unknown reason with the wait time usually being 40 to 50 minutes. They do have fastpass for it. Since we were some of the first resort guests into the park because ours was the first bus post marathon to go directly to the park rather than the transportation center, we had a jump on the crowd going into the park. We went to the back to the Magic Kingdom and got fast passes for Peter Pan then looked at the line where it was less than 5 minutes to get on the ride. So we rode it around, used our bonus passes to Philharmagic, and then rode the ride again. She was very happy with that.

A Pirate’s Life For Me

The Pirate ride can go either way. It can be very crowded or you can get on with a little bit of a wait. Lunch time is a good time to go because a lot of people are eating. Caroline and I went the first time down the left tunnel and got through pretty quickly while the right tunnel had a much longer line. We got to the end and Caroline declared it her new favorite ride every. So we looked at the time coming out and it said 10 minutes which in Disney Time is next to nothing. This time we went down the right tunnel and practically walked on while the left tunnel had quite a line. We did this a couple of more times and seem to pick the right tunnel each time for shortest wait.

Caroline was interested in joining the Pirate League which is an additional thing that you can do at Disney for a fee. You get made up as a Pirate and join Jack’s crew. It is very clever and tells a story as you go along. There are a limited number of slots per day and it is usually booked out before the park even opens. We checked at the desk and were informed that there were no other slots that day. Caroline was disappointed but the cast member at the desk did a neat trick of asking how old she was and said that they had 25 8 year old pirates but they really needed 9 year old pirates and she could do it next time promise. The other cast member told Peter to check back in an hour where if there were any cancellations, they could get Caroline in but it didn’t look good. We went back and the Disney Magic was working in our favor and she got a cancelation slot. She had a great time becoming Kelly Ropewalker and she took her pirate oath very seriously.

Toy Story Mania
There is a newish ride in Disney Hollywood (Disney MGM to most of us) based on Toy Story called Toy Story Mania which has a minimum wait time of about 50 minutes. The fastpasses are gone by noon for the whole day. It is one of those impossible rides to get on unless you make one heck of a time commitment.

Caroline and I had ridden it but the last time Peter tried, the ride was flooded out by torrential rains. Caroline wanted Daddy to ride this ride with her. Peter was dubious about standing in line for an hour. We talked to the young lady at the ride trying to determine if it really was an hour and explaining what had happened last time. She didn’t have an extra fastpasses. Caroline convinced him to try the line. The Disney Magic happened when we got our glasses after about 15 to 20 minutes in line. A woman came out of another door and pulled us out of line. She took us to the handicap entrance and we got right onto the ride saving us a half an hour in wait time. When we got out we saw that the time had gone up to 90 minutes and there was a line out the door.

Oswald the Very Very Lucky Rabbit

Our largest piece of Disney Magic happened with a toy. Peter worked on the comics and graphic novels that are on the Epic Mickey App (Yes there is an app for that). He is friends with the creator of the game Warren Spector. We decided to take our plush Oswald with us to Disney World and take pictures of him in various places all over. We paid special attention to places that were recreated in some form in Epic Mickey. We got of really good shots all around the place and had a lot of fun getting some of the shots.

Fast forward to our last night on Disney property. We went back to Disney Hollywood to meet up with some friends and spend some time together. Through Peter telling a good tale and some really great Disney Magic, we got to ride Toy Story Mania again with all our friends. Caroline did particularly well this go ‘round.

We walked out the gate and were headed back to the car when I noticed I didn’t see Oswald’s Head peeking out of Peter’s backpack.

“Where’s Oswald?” I asked.

“He’s right….” Peter reached into the backpack, No OSWALD!!!

I took Caroline to the car while Peter went back into the park to see if he could find our beloved plush. Our Oswald is a one of a kind because there was a slight stitching error over his left eye that give him a very interesting face and makes him very much a one of a kind.

20 minutes passed and no Peter. 30 minutes passed and no Peter. Now I am starting to get worried that I lost both a plush and my husband to the park.

I finally call Peter after I really can’t take it anymore. He answers, ‘Hello.” I can’t tell from the tone in his voice if he is happy or mad.

“Where are you?” I ask.

“Look up.” He says and I watch him striding towards the car. “Hey want to see me pull a rabbit out of my hood?” and he pulls Oswald out of the hood of his sweat jacket. I felt such a sense of relief.

What had happened in that half hour is that Peter went back to the park and got permission to go to customer service then he traced his path back to Toy Story Mania. They found Oswald on the tracks of the ride in their last pass of the day and returned the toy to him. Getting Oswald back was true Disney Magic. Peter held Oswald up to the sky and shouted, “Thanks Walt!” much to the amusement of the cast members left in the park.

Disney Magic is real. Uncle Walt did create a place for the large and the small to play and wonder. It is fun to watch even the most jaded adult’s face soften at something as simple as Goofy walking through giving people high fives or watching the electric parade at night or the fireworks over the castle.

We believe in Disney Magic and are very grateful for all of it on our latest trip to the Happiest Place on Earth.