So Today was the day...WDW turned 40!

Edit to add: You know what was really funny about this? I think after a certain point there are certain things I just kind of stopped taking pictures of because I had so many pictures for every possible angle... So it took me a while to remember the last year I took I picture of each these things without people standing in front of them... I just found that funny. okay... enjoy your day now.. 

In just three days...

In just three days Walt Disney World will be turning the big 4-0. And while I would love nothing more than to write a really long post about the history of this culture altering theme park, the people who created and how i have come to personally love it, I feel like all I ever do now is write.

I go to work and write patents. I go to class and write notes of the lectures. I come home and write papers on theology, and responses to articles and reflections on experiences and oh.. yeah.. I'm suppose to be journaling every night. After all of that I feel... wordless. Like my brain has exceeded it's maximum number of  characters... except here I am writing about not wanting to write?

ALL of that to say... I'm just going to post pictures of the People of the Park. Because to be honest, it's the people  from the Imagineers to the VPs to the everyday cast members who, more than any ride or show, makes Walt Disney World the most Magical Place on Earth.

Marty Sklar - Celebrating Epcot's 25th Birthday
 Vice Chairman and Principal Creative Executive of Walt Disney Imagineering
Started with Disney back in 1955 is the only person to have been involved with the design of every single Disney Park.

Joe Rohde - Celebrating Epcot's 25th Birthday
Executive Imagineer
Joined Disney in 1980 during the design of Epcot. He is most famous for designing
Disney's Animal Kingdom and it's signature ride, Expedition Everest.

That guy in the suite with the blue shirt is Jim McPhee,
That girl in the pink baseball cap is ME!
This picture was taken in 2008 during the fan celebration of Epcot's 25th birthday.
At the time, McPhee was VP of Epcot. He took time out of his day to take photos, shake hands
and answer both informed and ridicules questions. The man went above and beyond to make sure
a bunch of nerds from a message board felt welcomed into the History of his park.
McPhee is now leads the WDW Operation's team.

Eddie - Greater and all around awesome Cast  Member
at Disney's Grand Floridian Resort in 2008.
For years we have made it a point to visit the Grande when ever we are at the World.
Until our last trip, in 2011, Eddie was always there with a smile and story of what
was happening "in town."

Charlie - Main Street USA Cast Member
controlling the crowd for the Boo to You Parade
I'm not sure what his job title is, but he's the guy I always see before parades at the Magic Kingdom.
When people line up hours before the parade starts, someone has to keep the peace,
and Charlie knows how to do it. 

Day Last

On the last day of our holiday we woke up early to catch the monorail to Polynesian.

Blueberry pancakes and Kona coffee were calling my name.

We killed some time at the Magic Kingdom before we had to go to the airport. Here is a line from A.A. Milne which I saw while waiting in line for Winnie the Pooh's Adventure. It seemed appropriate for the day.

Later, while we waited for Grandma and Grandpa to turn in their scooters I noticed something out of the corner of my eye. Could it be? Ye Ol' Pay Phone complete with Phone Book! Amazing.

I'm not going to lie, I was sad as I watched our Magical Express bus drive away after depositing us at the airport. I don't know when we will get to go back. Absence makes the heart grow founder... or so I'm told.

Day 6

This was our last full day at the Walt Disney World Resort and all the hip people wanted to rent speed racer boats and head out on Seven Seas Lagoon and Bay Lake, but I don't have any pictures of that because my mom and were at the Magic Kingdom.

We went on the Jungle Cruise which is an all time favorite before hitting all the rides in Fantasyland. Yep, this is a picture I took of Fantasyland. They are expanding and reimagining this space which will open some time in 2012... or later.

Everyone met up with us for lunch after the boats. We ate that the Plaza  which is a little restaurant on Main Street, right across from the castle. Sigh, isn't it beautiful? I hope Cinderella is living happily ever after in there....

After lunch I had to attend to some business so I went to the Business Center at our hotel. There wasn't a lot of stuff there to take pictures of so I present a wall of clocks, showing the current time in every Disney Park. I know, EXCITEMENT! Really the best part of my time spent there was this lovely couple who were shipping three gigantic boxes of presents to their grandchildren back home in Mississippi along with a huge, $12,000 Thomas Kinkade painting of Bambie. The most memorable quote, "If something gets mixed up its okay, we all live on the same 32 acres." That's code for they all have trailer homes on the same plot of land. I know this because some of my best friends live in double wides on their parent's property. I'm not passing judgment, only it leads me to wonder if they were really spending the settlement they received after their son died in an industrial accident wisely.

Day 5

On day 5 we went to Epcot again with the rest of the family and headed straight to the Land Pravilion to ride Soarin. I took this picture from the entrance of the ride, and yes, those people up stairs are in line. I started to explain ride cycles, but realized that if you care you probably already know. Let's just say the capacity of Soarin is low which makes wait times insane.

Then it was back to the World Showcase where we stopped in Japen to see the candy lady. Here she is making the candy monkey that Alex requested.

When the afternoon Florida sun was just too much we went back to the hotel for a nap to play in the arcade. Lots of games equaled lots of fun.

The evening closed with cheese and ice wine from Canada. Wonderful.

Day 4

Alex and I ditched the rest of the group on day 4 and headed back to our favorite park - Epcot.

After riding some rides in Future World, we headed to the World Showcase, where we teamed up with Kim Possible to save the world from evil villains.

After reporting to an Agent Station you are given a Kimmunicator. This allows you to talk to Kim, her sidekick Ron, and their technical guy Wade. Here we are in Germany where the villain is using special salt on pretzels to control the minds of unsuspecting citizens.

And now meet Duffy the Bear. No, he's not a Disney character, but he has invaded the parks. You see, you buy the $30 bear and then you can buy all sorts of $20 costumes to dress him up in. I didn't buy one because, I don't need a $50 stuffed animal, but he is cute - and everywhere  - so I took a picture for prosperity.

Finally, before we left the park we stopped at Innovations. Innovations is meant to be that part of Future World that really lives up the the Epcot mantra of keeping up with the newest technologies so the space is a made up of interactive exhibits that are easily changed. Our favorite was the build your own roller coaster exhibit. You start with an introduction about how roller coasters work and then you get to step up to a computer and build your own virtual coaster. At the end you are strapped to the end of a robotic arm and you get to experience all the twist and turns of the track you created.

Day 3

Our trip fell during a time at Disney's Hollywood Studios known as Star Wars Weekends. DHS turns into one large Star Wars Extravaganza so on Day 3 we had to go and be a part of it.

I don't know if the insane lines for character meet and greats we saw on this trip are a reflection of the time of year (it's summer so there were a lot more kids than when we go in the fall) or if people have just really lost their minds. At one point there was a 60 minute wait to see Princess Belle and Aurora on main street. As a rule, I don't wait more than 30 minutes for anything, but I especially can't imagine waiting that long to see a person dressed in a costume. That said, Alex and I were really excited to meet two of our favorite celebrities, Phineas and Ferb while we waited for our Fast Pass return time for our favorite DHS ride.

We took a ride on a hunted elevator and lived to tell about it.

We ended the day with a nice wine tasting meal at the Wave restaurant in our hotel. I had three examples of Pinot Nior - New Zealand, California and Australia - California was by far the best. Oh, and I had stake too.

Day 2

On day 2 we lined up two hours early to see the Main Street Electrical Parade. There are a lot of advantages of lining up so early. Besides having the best viewing spot for both the parade and the fireworks is that you get to take pictures of random things that happen by... like balloons!

...and hot dogs....

...and wedding! No, these people aren't getting married, this is the picture of the happy couple getting a family wedding portrait  made in front of the castle. (Well, the back of their family anyway).

Alex bought a light up mo hawk. Sometimes its best not to ask why...

When the parade started I handed my camera off to Alex. I've taken so many pictures of night time parades, it was time to pass the torch... or lens...

One of the things I found really funny was the fact that no one around us knew that this was Elliot and Pete from Pete's dragon. I don't often say this, but parents need to do a better job educating their children.



Really, this is an example of why I love going to Disney World so often. I know for most people a trip to "the World" is a once, maybe twice in a life time event. They have five or perhaps seven days to see all four parks with all the rides, shows and parades not to mention shop and swim in the hotel pool. So for a lot of people a trip to Disney is whirlwind. While we were sitting there I actually had someone stop and ask, "Why sit on the curb for two hours when there is so much to do?" Because I've seen/ridden it all, well most of it, the parts I care to see/ride, and now I want sit with my family and make goofy faces and take pictures of complete strangers.

Day 1

On my birthday we left the house at the crake of dawn and headed to the most Magical Place on Earth.

When we arrived in Orlando we headed for our hotel, Disney's Contemporary Resort. The Contemporary was one of the two hotels that opened with the Magic Kingdom Park on October 1, 1971 so this year, as Walt Disney World celebrates its 40th, the Contemporary celebrates hers.

After check-in we caught the monorail to my favorite park, Epcot. Its no secret that Walt first concived E.P.C.O.T. not as a park, but as the Experomental Prototype Community of Tomorrow. It was Walt's dream to create the ultimate city of the future, but after his death it became clear that this particular dream just wasn't practical so it was left to the Disney Imagineers to figure out how to bring the spirit of Walt's dream to life. The Epcot of today is not a city, but a perminate World's Fair of sorts. Future World explores cutting edge technologies while the World Showcase celebrates the cultures of the eleven countries represented there.

 

We rode some of my favorite rides in Future World, including Spaceship Earth, Living With the Land and Journey Into Your Imagination. Above Alex is holding the famouse 18-story geodesic sphere that holds Spaceship Earth. Below are pictures of dragon fruite and a tomato tree taken inside the Epcot greenhouse as seen on the Living With the Land ride.


Then it was off to the World Showcase and a stop in Canada. We visited with the local shops and of course watched the movie, O'Canada staring Canadian Martin Short and featuring on of my favorite songs.

We toped off my birthday evening with a beer meal in Germany.

Tomorrow we are leaving...

Tomorrow we are leaving for Walt Disney World AND tomorrow is also my 29th birthday. Although I think I reached a point several birthdays ago where turning a year older wasn't a socially acceptable thing to celebrate, I've relished in them. However, I have to say that this birthday in particular is the one I haven't been running towards with open arms. There is nothing even remotely redeeming about turning 29; it doesn't come with special privileges, and there isn't even a "turning 29" section in the birthday section at Hallmark. It's totally forgettable, and the only purpose it serves it to remind me that I'm still not even 30.

I guess I'm scared more than anything, not of getting old, but of what could possibly happen to me in this 29th year. I honestly thought my life couldn't get any more hectic than when I was 27, and then I turned 28 and all HELL broke loose: Alex went to middle school, I lost my job and started working for French people, I started hanging out with a guy, I've been accepted into seminary, moved upstairs, AND taught my daughter how to take a shower daily. You could say I'm a bit fatigued.

It's also weird because I've always been the youngest person in any group. I'm the youngest of three children, I was always one of the youngest people in my class at school, I'm always the youngest parent among Alex's friends, and I've always kept much older friends. Now this is all starting to change, and I'm the granny in the group. I find that when I tell a kid in college my age they sort of shudder with this look in their eyes, like, my god, this woman is ANCIENT, she actually remembers what it was like to be alive in the 80s! At church when I mingle with parents my age, their children are potty training. When I talk about my daughter's ipod downloads and ask for opinions on cellphone usage and study habits, all I get are blank stares. Really, it was almost better when people my age had no children.

I've decided that for my birthday I'm going to ask for things I know I can't have so that I won't be disappointed when I actually don't get them. Had I learned this trick at the age of five life would have been a much more enjoyable.

This list includes:

1. A vase of fresh flowers that won't die.

2. A brand new ibook.

3. A two and a half hour 3-D movie that contains nothing more than footage of  Anderson Cooper reporting live from war-torn countries dressed in Prada and looking at the camera with those bright blue eyes.

4. A never ending pan of chocolate chip cookies that will not make me fat.

5. That my daughter will stop grunting and rolling her eyes at me.

6. Fresh, minty clean breath (and farts) for my dog.

7. A promise from God or Allah or whoever is in charge that this trip to Disney World where I spend six nights sharing a hotel room with both my mom AND my dad is not going to totally suck.

8. A functioning national public school system where the curriculum is set by educators and not self-serving political hacks.

9. Three fiery meteors hitting the earth, one on the headquarters of FOX NEWS, one on the headquarters of AT&T Wireless, and one on the head of Texas Governor Rick Perry. (Rick Perry is the devil, which should be obvious from his hair.)

10. Free health care for everyone.

I have a nasty habit....

I have a nasty habit of cramming an entire life span of things to do into a short period of time, eventually abandoning everything on my to-do list and crawling up into a ball on my couch underneath my comforter.

I think that is why I picked the last Sunday in May to move. If anyone has a school age child or knows a school aged child - you will understand that in the month of May is especially crammed with activities. For well over a month it seems as though my life has been driving Alex to one MUST attend event after another. However, my old lease official ends on May 31 and just to give myself a bit of breathing space we leave for Walt Disney World on June 2 (happy birthday to me!) so in my defense I don't have much choice.

Aside from packing and playing warden to a still grounded Alex I have been enjoying all those fun things that come with moving like making sure the new apartment has electricity.When I called my energy provider today I simply wanted to transfer my electric account from my soon to be old apartment to my soon to be new apartment. Only "Ultra Green Energy Company" (which was recently purchased by "Corporate Energy Giant") is in the middle of a systems upgrade and their friendly customer service representative (CSR) informed me that while they can disconnect the old apartment electricity on May 29, the earliest they would be able to connect the electricity at my new apartment would be June 2.

This news lead to the following discussion:

Me: Seriously? That sounds dumb. I’m going to be in the same address, I’m just moving to another unit.
CSR: Well, Monday is a holiday.
Me: So? What are Sunday, Tuesday and Wednesday?
CSR: Uh?
Me: Never mind. I don't want to transfer my service anymore. Just disconnect my service on May 29 and I will get a new electric provider.
CSR: Well, let me tell you about our very competitive rates.
Me: I don’t really care about your rates. I can’t live in an apartment without electricity for 4 days.

Now I am all signed up with "Wind Energy Company" who is going to connect my electricity on Friday, May 27 because their technicians don't do connection work on weekends or holidays. Thank God for the deregulation of the energy industry. I'm so impressed by the wonderful costumer service all of these privately owned businesses are forced to provide to consumers so that they can be competitive in the marketplace.

Seriously, I just want to go to Walt Disney World so I can sit in the darkened theater of the O'Canada attraction and sing-a-long to this great song while Alex dies of embarrassment....

The Animals Come Parading In

If you are listening to NPR right now, you might be hearing the Carnival of the Animals, or at least that's what I'm doing right now. That and telling Alex to go away. I feel bad of course, but really, when I say things like, "this is my favorite part!" she takes that as her cue to start telling me why, in excruciating detail pink is and always will be her favorite color.

I love the Carnival of the Animals because I grew up a bassist and it is one of the few orchestral pieces that features what I believe to be one the greatest instruments ever invented. And also, I love Camille Saint-Saens. He was a child prodigy, with perfect pitch and a fantastic memory. He learned the piano and organ, composed nice waltzes and gallops by the age of five and wrote his first symphony at sixteen. During his lifetime he was most famous opera was Samson and Dalila He was always surprised that the greater public gave him such high praise, yet constantly wanted to hear Samson and Dalila and ignored his other work. Over the course of his lifetime he composed more than 300 pieces and he was the first major composer to write specifically for the cinema. He might best-known today for Carnival of the Animals, a collection of pieces written for piano and orchestra, but it was never published or performed in full in his life time. Saint-Saens was afraid that the frivolous work might hurt his reputation.

I think what endures Saint-Saens to audiences still today is the way his music tells stories. Of course, who is better to interpret those stories than the artist at Disney Animation Studios. Here is a segment from Fantasia 2000 where flamingos tell the story of the Finale of the Carnival of the Animals.

Mega Movie Weekend

This morning I am doing laundry and what a gift it was to have a whole weekend that was devoted to play and not chores. I hardly ever see movies in the theater but this weekend I took life by the horn and saw two very different, very well done movies.

The first was Dreamworks Animation's Megamind. I walked into the theater -3D glasses in hand - with great anticipation and apprehension. The previews looked great, the buzz from industry insiders was promising, but I had been lead astray before. Does anyone else remember the Monster vs. Aliens disaster? What had promised to be a spoof on the great B monster movies turned out to be a slightly less than funny pile of jumbled potty jokes and goo.

Today I am happy to report that I think Dreamworks is slowly learning its lesson. Megamind managed to have a story that made cliche gags and fart jokes unnecessary. They still tend to fill holes in their script with sound track and I think the villain Megamind is destined to defeat could have been more developed, but this outing is the best I've seen* from Dreamworks since Kung Fu Panda. I don't think the studio has surpassed the bar it set for itself with the spoof on the 1970s kung fu films. Still, I think Katzenburg and company are giving the Mouse and Lamp and solid run for their money in the story department.

That said, I agree with a review I read earlier on the Huffington Post. What Dreamworks has done by elevating the story is great, but I hope they continue to improve their overall animation skills. All the characters in Megamind had large foreheads and a plastic look about them. So bravo to the animators for thinking story first, and even throwing in some fun 3D gags that made wearing those stupid glasses almost worth it, they still have a ways to go if they are going to catch up with Disney or even the styling we saw in the background art of Kung Fu Panda.

Overall I give the movie a 4 out of 5 stars. I would encourage anyone to see it in the theater, and spring for the 3D the cheese ball gags are worth it in this one.
*It should be noted that I have not seen How to Train Your Dragon ...yet.

The second movie Alex and I saw the weekend, thanks to the movie passes I've been holding onto since May, was Secretariat. I have to be honest - I had no desire to see this movie. They've been advertising it on the Disney Channel and Alex wanted to see it and let's face it there isn't much on right now. Other useless observations - 1) I was shocked at how packed the theater was. How many weeks has this been out? 2) The crowd that goes to the movies on Saturday night is a lot better dressed than the afternoon crowd. 3) I guess Disney knows what its doing after all.

Yeah, when I first heard that Dick Cook gave the green light to another horse movie after the success of Seabiscuit I thought he was slightly insane. How many dark horse horse movies can a nation be expected to embrace? I guess we know that they can embrace at least two. (Full disclosure - I haven't seen, and don't care if I ever see Seabiscuit.)

All that back story and my own personal grinchness aside, I was delighted with Secretariat. It had a great story that was heartwarming but not in a gooey, overly cheese ball way. The photography was beautiful and though I was not surprised by the ending, the script did a good job of getting us there. My only issue was with the casting of John Malkovich as a French Canadian. Maybe he tried to have an accent and he discovered that it sucked, but really I found him entirely too distracting. While everyone else seemed to become their characters, I could never get away from thinking ... There is John Malkovich... why is he speaking bad French? ... oh yeah, he's suppose to be French Canadian...

Malkovich aside I liked the movie. I would give it a solid 3 out of 5 stars and would encourage anyone to see it when its available on Netflix.

When Life Throws Dung Balls

Sometimes life throws dung balls at you, but you just have to roll with it.

I was laid off yesterday. I can't say I'm terribly surprised.

Its an unknown path full of uncertainly.


Still, I can't help but be glad to see the back of the place.

I'm looking forward to having time. Time for prayer and reflection. Time to spend with Alex. Just time.

Maybe I'm naive, but I honestly think I will come out on top. I learned a lot from my time on the job, but it was never a place I wanted to spend my whole life.

Photo Credits: All photographs taken at Walt Disney World in 2010. First five photos taken by Katy. Final photo taken by Tim and used by permission. -Thanks Tim!