Sick with Stress

April has been an interesting month for me.

The trip to Disneyland was fun, yet stressful. The stress of travel, crowds, money.

My mother-in-law's birthday was April 8th. She died eight years ago now. I always remember her during this time. First because of her birthday, second because Easter usually falls in April and it was her favorite holiday, and third because she moved into my house and died this time of year also.

And more death. Three. And not that I was too close to those who've passed, but death still leaves its dark mark.

And then there's my birthday. And, shhhhhhh, *whispers* keep this between you and me, but I'm not getting any younger. The back side of 40 now. Where did my youth go?

There are also things about my writing causing me to straddle the cavern between crying and laughing.

And my daughters. Thing one to be exact. Soccer to be perfectly precise. Try outs. Thing two automatically makes the "C" team as a sixth grader. Thing one had to try out, and while she has the talent, sure as snot, I worry about politics. It's always politics that get in the way of our dreams it seems. In my opinion she was one of the better players on the field all week. She has a strong foot, good moves, she's an awesome passer, and she can shoot and score. But some of the girls were on the team last year (Thing one did not try out much to my chagrin). And some of the girls know the coach from club play. So I worry. I worry that instead of writing today, I will be comforting a very teary teen.

But April often gives me hope for the rest of the year. Gives it new life like the pansies already in full bloom in my back yard, or the hydrangeas coming up in my flower bed. My Ella Bee (my grand niece, what? you say I don't look old enough to have a grand niece? why thank you) turns one tomorrow. She has been a ray of sunshine in my often dark world this year. And I have a new nephew, Levi, born just a couple days ago.

So, I guess what I'm trying to say is, no matter who dies, who ages, who mourns, who cries, there is always that tiny bud of life ready to bloom that makes you forget, even if only for a moment, all of it.

Edited to say: One worry crossed of my list as Thing One has made the soccer team. Whew!

How to Keep your Sanity in Disneyland

I'm not kidding. Seriously. You have to play Disney smart or you will stand in line and go crazy and spend every dime in your bank account.

Book through Disney. You get opportunities otherwise not offered. We got souvenir tickets, which also allowed us to use the fast pass, which I'll talk about more later. We were able to book a shuttle from the airport to our hotel and back, and we were able to get tram passes that picked us up right in front of our hotel and took us to the park and back. There are other options as well, character calls, dining packages, etc etc. Also, we stayed in a good neighbor hotel as opposed to the Disney Resort. This saved us about $1000. Now, if you're hell bent on staying at the Resort, go ahead, it is sweet, right in the middle of the park. If we did it again, we would probably save the money and do it, but this time, we wanted to take it easy on our bank account.

We arrived on a Monday night. We debated going to the park or not that first night, and decided to go. Good decision. We practically walked right in to Pirates of the Caribbean, the Haunted Mansion, and Splash Mountain. Three of the most popular attractions at the park. Rides are less busy later at night, or during the parades or the fireworks. That first night we stayed until about 11:00 pm.

The fast pass. These things are awesome. If you've never heard of them, basically you go to a ride (only the most popular ones offer the fast pass) and go to the fast pass distribution. You put your Disneyland (henceforth DL) ticket in and out pops a ticket telling you what time to come back to the ride. It can be anywhere from an hour to six hours for the most popular rides (we got a fast pass for Space Mountain around noon and it told us to come back at 7:30). The beauty is, you get to hop in the fast pass line, you do have to wait a little sometimes, but a fifteen minute wait beats an hour wait.

So what we would do, is get to the park, ride one of our favorite rides, because they aren't too busy in the morning, then grab a fast pass for it. We'd then find the rides with 30 minutes or less wait and ride on those while waiting for our fast pass time. Go ride our ride, get a fast pass for another, and lather, rinse, repeat. You have to be careful, the REALLY popular rides like Indiana Jones and Space Mountain actually run out of fast passes for the day, you if you want to ride those, you need to get your passes early.

Needless to say, we had ridden every ride we wanted to ride within our first 2 1/2 days there. The rest was just reriding, catching shows, and parades.

The only ride we had difficulty getting on was Little Nemo's submarine ride. It ALWAYS had a line, and there was no fast pass available. So, with our DL package, we received a voucher to get into the park early one day. We used that opportunity to get in line for that ride. We still had to wait 30 minutes, but it was worth it, and that was a short wait for that ride in comparison.

I really have nothing to say about the food. You have to eat. You can bring your own, but we didn't feel the need to haul a backpack through the park, so we bought lunch and dinner usually. Now, our hotel gave us breakfast vouchers, so we actually got to eat breakfast three times for free. The other two days, we ate fiber bars we brought from home. AND we had a Starbucks in our lobby. That was a perk. You can pretty much forget about eating healthy at the park. But on average, if you're there for 12 hours a day, which we were, you're going to be walking ten miles a day. So, it doesn't really matter what you eat. You'll work it off.

As far as the shows go, like the rides, if you get there during parades and such, they're going to be empty, but we didn't really have to wait in line for shows.

The last thing is souvenirs. We bought almost everything the last couple days after perusing every store. And we didn't buy much, that will easily drain your account. Each girl got a sweatshirt, and I got a t-shirt and knit hat (totally cute Jack stuff). Rusty (the husband) opted for nothing.

We also bought some items across the street at Target to cut costs from room service and vending machines (an $8 bottle of wine as opposed to a $28 one at the hotel restaurant).

If you want to see the parades, you have to get there early, and claim your seat. And it's easier to find a seat at the end of the parade route than anywhere else.

I think that's all the tips I have. Though I had complaints (see yesterdays blog) we did have a blast, and I think we did both parks wisely.

Favorite Rides:
Screamin' California
Soaring Over California
Thunder Mountain
Indiana Jones
Pirates of the Caribbean

Least Favorite Rides:
Roger Rabbit
Buzz Lightyear's Astro Blaster
Autopia (totally lame and a really long line)

Favorite shows:
It's Tough to be a Bug 4d
Aladdin

Favorite parade:
Pixar Parade
Electrical Parade

Favorite food:
Thunder Ranch BBQ (we had to wait for an hour, but it was worth it, all you can eat bbq)

Thanks for reading

Kisses

:*

Megan

Disneyland

I just got back. It's the reason I couldn't blog last week. Five fun filled days at Disneyland and California Adventure. But while my family had a blast, there are definitely irritations, annoyances, and other distractions.

Things I saw too much of in Disneyland:

Lines. Some people waited up to two hours (that was the posted wait, I'm sure in reality it was longer) Thank god for the fast pass. Never go to Disney without one. With a fast pass you get a time to come back and you get in a special line and zip right through with hardly any wait at all. The longest we waited was about thirty minutes.

Screaming spoiled kids. Seriously parents, teach your kids a lesson, don't buy them the Goofy ears, or the ice cream cone, or let them ride the tea cups if they're throwing a fit. Take their ass outside the park until they calm down. That's what the hand stamps are for. Well, not specifically I guess, but it's a good way to use them. By the end of the trip I had vowed to become a hermit if only to stay away from the chance I might hear another screaming child.

Any chance to make a buck. They're around every corner. T-shirts, mouse ears, hats, gloves, stuffed animals, games, slushies, ice cream, cotton candy, balloons, lighted necklaces, pins, lanyards, it's endless. Commercialization hath vomited throughout the Land of Disney. Don't get me wrong, I totally bought into it, a little. We actually tried to be frugal, but it's nearly impossible when your spending $5 on an ice cream cone, and $50 on a sweatshirt.

Rude people. Cutting, standing in front of you, walking into you, letting their children do the same. I cannot stand rude people.

Bad food choices. The best the park offered was salads. Salads with an over abundance of cheese and fatty dressings. Salads that were double the size anyone really needs to eat. Other than that it was the usual choices, burgers, fries, hot dogs, chicken nuggets, etc. We were going to have a sit down dinner in the Blue Bayou, which is a restaurant that overlooks the Pirates of the Caribbean, but after seeing that each meal was $30 (which if course didn't include beverages, or tip, or tax) we canceled. Like we weren't spending enough money.

Fat people driving motorized carts. Okay, you may think me rude, but this sight bothers me. You're so fat you can't walk, yet, you don't walk so you're fat. AND these people get preferential treatment on rides as if they're in a wheel chair or had some other kind of disability. I saw a woman coming into a ride, she probably weighed about 350 pounds, and was riding a cart, using the wheel chair access, and ten minutes later she was walking behind the cart while one of her kids drove it. Um, if you can actually walk, get your ass to the end of the line.

Okay, it sounds like I'm bitching, but we really did have a good time. Tomorrow I'll give you some tips on how to get the most out of the parks.

Kisses

:*

Megan