Friday, March 6, 2015

Three days.

I missed two days of blogging, first because my laptop kept crashing and Juanito wasn't around to fix it, and then because by the time i got home at midnight, i could hardly keep my eyes open. So i have three days of blogging to do here. So.

March 4:



Beth's aunt's boyfriend Larry works at Universal, and because he is an incredibly generous soul, he gave each of us 2 free days at Universal, which is INSANE and made us all completely freak out with joy when we were told. We got emails with our confirmation numbers, and when we got to the park yesterday, we entered our numbers and the machine spit out two tickets. We tucked one safely away and used the other one. Perfect!

Except that then when we went back on Wednesday, we handed our tickets to the guy at the gate, and he was all, "Nope. These can only be used on the day they're issued. Go talk to Guest Services, and they'll sort it out easily!" We went to Guest Services, and the guy was all, "Nope. Nothing i can do. You can ask him to re-send them, but it can take 24 hours. Sorry," in a totally bratty, non-sympathetic way. Beth's ticket had been issued differently and worked fine, plus her niece Emily was with us, so they were already in the park. They came back out and we re-grouped and went back to talk to a different Guest Services person. She was much more sympathetic, but basically told us the same thing...except that it usually gets re-issued in about 10 minutes, not 24 hours. Much more hopeful!

So at this point, our options were:
1 - Hope and pray that we could get ahold of Larry and that he could fix it.
2 - Just pay and go. (Bearing in mind that it's $150 for a one-day pass)
3 - Go home.

Obviously, option 1 was the best, so Beth called and left messages and texts, and eventually got ahold of her aunt, who drove over to Larry's house to drag him and his computer back to her house (for the internet) to sort it out. And after 2 very stressful hours, we were in! YAY!!!! It was not the best start to the day.

BUT! Once we were in the park, we went straight to the biggest, most terrifying roller coaster, where we screamed our heads off. And it was all good from then on.

Emily hadn't been to the Diagon Alley side of Harry Potter world at all, so we "had to" go back through everything so that she could see it. That meant re-riding the Escape from Gringotts, which ... awesome. We ate at the Leaky Cauldron. (Beth and i are supremely un-adventurous and got the fish and chips to split again. And they were delicious again.) We basically soaked it all in and looked for all the little bits that we might possibly have missed the last time.

But then we also went to all of the other parts of the parks as well. We did the rides in Springfield (my favorite part was when Maggie used us as a pacifier) and Despicable Me, and we walked through the other areas and took pictures and had fun.

By the end of the day, we were all exhausted. I'd have felt REALLY OLD, except that Emily was with us, and she's only 18, and her feet hurt as bad as the rest of us. Whew!

March 5:



Last day in Florida!

We went to breakfast with Beth's family in "Celebration," a town created by Disney to look like "everytown." Cute. But weird.

And then we relaxed. Beth and i went to the big pool for a bit. She stayed to get burned, i went back to the house to sit in the shade by the house pool. We sat in the hot tub and swam in the pool and went back a forth a few times. I read for the first time all week. We took a short walk, ate ice cream, talked and talked and talked.

And then i had to leave. Sniff.

On the plane, the guy sitting next to me sat quietly for about an hour and then asked, "So what are you reading?"
Me: "It's called, 'Quiet - The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking."
Him: "That sounds really boring!"
Me: "Actually, it's really interesting!"
Him: "Talk, talk, talk, talk, talk....." For the next 2 hours. Sigh.

Juanito and Emma picked me up from the airport. Emma was completely beside herself with glee at seeing me. She thought i was gone forever.

March 6:

Emma comes with us to drop the kids off at school every day. Most days this is not a problem. Today, i was holding her collar, and she totally backed out of it and took off out the door as the kids were piling out at the curb. I parked as fast as i could and ran to catch her. She was gleefully running from person to person, saying hello and then dashing off to see who else was around. And, of course, nobody could catch her because she wasn't wearing her collar. Grrr. I had a treat in my pocket (Yay for treats!) and caught her attention with it. She came over, and the kids converged around her to make a tight circle while i hooked her collar back on. And then a dozen kids came over to ask to pet her. (On the bright side, nobody seemed the least bit upset or worried. So THAT'S good.)

I came home and took a nap until i had to get up to go cover lunch in Zane's room. Vacationing is exhausting.

So almost the first thing Zane said to me today was, "It's funny that you went to Florida and you came home without any tan at all!" You're SUPPOSED to say, "Wow! Look how lovely and tan you look," child! Geez.

Tonight i started reading the last book of Harry Potter with Katrina. The LAST BOOK! And then i helped Houston get Facebook all set up, because he'll be 13 tomorrow. They're both getting so old! Sniff!

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