OK, I might be a redneck, too!!

Last week or so, my brother Greg wondered aloud on his blog if he was a redneck.

Here I am staying at an upscale resort on the Disney property wondering the same thing. This conference is being paid for by the state. Since I am speaking, I get to stay at the convention hotel which is one of the nicest on the property. I have my own room on the 7th floor. It has a wet bar, the snacks (that are WAY over-priced) and all. Last night when I was in the dressing area, I noticed a silver canister on the floor under the counter with a plastic bag in it...I thought, "Oh,how nice, they have left a wine bucket in here in case you decide to buy the bottle of wine in the wet bar (again, way over-priced)." Not that I was going to buy a bottle of wine, but a lot of honeymoons take place here too. I thought, "It really is pretty---silver (plated) and all." It was a fleeting thought that soon passed.

This morning, as I stood in the dressing area preparing for the day, I needed to throw some trash away and looked for the trash can---which I thought should surely be in that area. Then, it dawned on me, my beautiful wine bucket was just a TRASH CAN!!!

BUT, if I were a redneck....I am certain we could throw some ice in there and chill down some wine (or would it be beer??)!! ;-)

My Weekend Window

KTover at KT's Bunch had this idea last week to share her weekend on Mondays. Then when I emptied out ds 4's backpack this morning, I noticed they do an activity called: My Weekend Window. So I am merging the two ideas and will be sharing a Weekend Window thanks to KT AND DS 4!

We went to Disney World this weekend. Friday was just DSs 3 and 4 and me at Epcot. It was fun. The only problem is DS 3 is ready for adventurous rides and DS 4 is not. So that left ME stuck in the middle. I could not go on the things I wanted and leave DS 4 alone to wait...SO I waited with him.

We left around 5:00 and met my cousin Lynn and her family at the resort. It was a really nice place to stay and the kids had great fun swimming in the pools. Friday night was when we met Fabio (see yesterday's post).

Saturday we went to the Magic Kingdom. Now no one does Disney like Lynn's DH! He has it all figured out. He has timed the fast pass lines, the most popular rides and their location in the park and goes turbo to get through them all. In fact, he commented to me that he can be pretty much "done" by 11:30 when the crowds are the worst. And he's right. So, we sent the adventure crew: my DS 3 and Lynn's DD1 and DS off with her DH to conquer the Kingdom.

Lynn and I set out with my DS 4 and her DD 2. They are very close in age and very similar in their likes (and dislikes) in the ride world.

I must confess here that my FAVORITE ride (currently) at Disney is Buzz Lightyear. I suppose it is my competitive nature...but I find it really fun. So, I was thrilled when our two charges announced they'd like to start in Tomorrowland...the home of Buzz Lightyear.

I was certain they would say they wanted to start there too. But, NOOOO, they BOTH decided they wanted to start with the Wedway People Mover. I realize that some of you may not know what it is...suffice it to say it is like taking a slow-moving tram ride through Tomorrow land. It is my favorite thing to do when my feet are tired and I just want to relax a few minutes....it is NOT my favorite thing to do at 9:00am when everyone is racing to be first on the best rides.

Being the mature mother that I am (ahem), I suggested that we do BUZZ and THEN do the People Mover because that way we could walk right on Buzz. My DS and Lynn's DD would hear nothing of it...they WANTED to do the People Mover and THEN Buzz. I could almost feel the crowds closing in behind us....In my plan, we could have gone on Buzz TWO TIMES before the crowds arrived....Knowing that this trip was for the kids, I reluctantly put our tickets into the Fast Pass line for Buzz Lightyear and proceeded to the ramp for the People Mover. I think I even muttered something about the two "thrillseekers" in our midst. There was NO ONE else on this ride. We were it. I am sure the ride operators had a good little chuckle over the two young kids and their mothers who skipped the other rides to go on THAT! ;-)

And so it was, the two 7-year-olds...pretty much handled the rest of the day in the Magic Kingdom in much the same fashion. As we walked with them, listened to them navigate, and helped them check off the items on their agendas, I had two thoughts....

1. Their "favorite things" don't have to be MY favorite thing. (Oops, could I be losing a bit of that control freak in me?)

and

2. Although they bill it as a place for kids, I am changing my thinking on that. You see, I decided this weekend that I wanted to do DISNEY MY WAY someday...as a grown-up who is really a kid inside...maybe even ALONE! Thrill rides, fast passes, long lines and all....(OK so maybe the control freak didn't go anywhere.)

I realize though that true purpose of it all is to enjoy time with family and get away from the real world for a while. And since that is the primary purpose, in the words of Buzz Lightyear, I must say, "Mission accomplished!"

Who's FABIO??

My cousin, Lynn, and her family have been in Florida for Spring Break. DSs 3 and 4 and I went over to Orlando to join them for a little Disney fun. I have a couple of blogs about this, but HAD to start with this story:

On Friday night we went over to Downtown Disney. Lynn's oldest daughter wanted to eat at the Rainforest Cafe. Now I have eaten there several times (and tried to eat there MORE than I have actually gone in). You see, if you've never been there, the lines are horrific. They are often two or more hours wait....and people do it. So, Lynn's dh went to put our names in when we arrived at 7:00pm. In my head, I am thinking: "There's NO way we are going to get a seat before 9:30 or 10:00." And I told Lynn that we would eat somewhere else if that would reduce the wait-time.

SOOO....

Lynn's dh comes back and confirms what I thought...he told us that we could sit down around 9:35. It seemed like these words were no more out of his mouth when a man wearing a Rainforest Cafe uniform appeared in the darkness. He said, "How long did they tell you?" So we told him, 9:35. He said, "Oh, that's awful. How many of you in your party?" We said "eight". I think at one point we asked him if he could make the magic happen. He paused and said, "Wait right here, I am going to go see if I can get you a table. My name's Fabio." Quite frankly, I was wondering where the heck he came from and why us.

Well, Fabio came back and said, "I've got your table ready...go wait over by the TV inside. The only deal is, if you are asked how long you waited, you need to say a couple of hours." We dutifully rounded everyone up and went over by the TV.

I pictured the Rainforest Cafe workers staring at us through the TV where we were standing and saying, "Ha, ha we have some live ones here! They actually believe we are going to give them a table two hours BEFORE we told them and with all these other customers standing around."

That didn't happen. Fabio returned and escorted us to our table for eight. He took our two hour wait ticket and told us to enjoy our meal. I never saw him again.

I don't get it. We were wondering if he is paid to find people with young children and "squeeze" them in....

Whatever it was, it was a blessing. We were fed and out the door BEFORE 9:35!