I've decided that for every dull day where I have nothing to say, I'll post one of the journal entries I wrote back in September when I was on vacation in Florida. I was going to wait until I had all the photos up and online, but...never mind, I'm never going to get those things done. Anyhoo, let's go back in time, to when it wasn't 29 degrees out and I didn't care that I had no heat...

Journal entry, 9/13:

4:10 a.m.:
Went to bed at 11 p.m., Mom whined at me to help her pack- SHE HADN'T YET! I'm all forget it, I am sleeping while I can. Had to get up before 3 a.m. UGH. She went to bed at 12:30 and yet is somehow all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. Grr.
Ended up watching on TV at 3 a.m.:
(a) this movie, which was kind of amusing and has John Locke with hair in it.
(b) some 80's concert on PBS. Huh? Done by the band who did "Under Pressure." Lead singer wears tight white pants, no shirt, pornstashe
We're supposed to BE THERE (at the airport) at 4 a.m., 2 hours ahead of time, since Oakland security generally takes a long-ass time. 4 a.m. is when we left. Now we're in the car and she's insisting on listening to some horrible cancer survivor CD. I do not need to hear about anyone's ass cancer at 4 a.m. I objected to this multiple times and it did no good.
Oh well, at least it's not totally frigid this morning- in the high 50's. Could be worse, it's not like I could wear a heavy coat today if it was a breezy 40.

5:15 a.m.:
Other than being up at an ungodly hour, it is actually quite pleasant to be at the airport this early. NO lines were longer than 5 minutes, including security. The security people were even pleasant! Even coming in late, it only took 20 minutes to go through the entire ring of fire that is airport entry.

11:30 a.m., Denver time:

After getting a half hour layover and doing the panic run across the entire Denver airport (which looks cool and I really wish I had time to check out the stores), the plane was an hour late. They even admitted at one point that "the pilot wandered off somewhere." I don't think I'd have told that.
I think we're not hitting Disney today (as planned). I think we'll end up getting to the hotel, eating, and keeling over, given the whopping sleep deprivation.
My seatmate is a nice quiet kid who just sits there. (Ideal on an airplane.) I am being horrible and reading Bitch magazine in front of him. I'm glad his mother is behind us and can't see this.

7 p.m., Florida time:
OMFG, I am so overwhelmed by the massiveness of everything. I wasn't dead tired until we hit the concierge, where MY BRAIN IS FULL took on a whole new meaning. I can FEEL my brain exploding RIGHT NOW trying to keep track of it all.
So, I was told that you have to make reservations six months in advance to eat here. This freaked me the hell out and sounded quite wrong in so many ways. You can't be spontaneous? You have to know where to eat ahead of time SIX MONTHS in advance?!
I told Mom this awhile back. She did not make any reservations.
Well, thank goodness that this is not entirely true. You can get tables at places, it's just a lower number of options. And you can eat at counters whenever. That said, I'M CONFUSED AS ALL FUCK on everything. Let Mom and the very nice and patient concierge guy pick whatever places for the most part. I don't even know how to get to where we booked dinner tonight. Mom insisted on booking the "Hoop-Dee-Doo Revue" tomorrow, which takes like 3 hours just to get there, and you have to get there a half hour early. Oh, and I have no idea where that is.

I tried to research this place before arriving, I swear (we even have a book on it), but it is just SO BIG and I am SO LOST AND CONFUSED. Apparently it is not as easy as "Okay, Monday we go to the Magic Kingdom, Tuesday we go to Animal Kingdom," etc. Especially juggling the restaurant reservations into this, and some of them aren't even in the theme parks. I tried to say, "Can we make reservations in the park that we're trying to go to that day?" but that only happened like twice. We also couldn't get the schedule for which days the parks have early/late hours for Disney resort guests on until AFTER we made reservations...so basically, we are going to have to park-hop at least once on a daily basis to take advantage of early/late hours and make it to the completely-different park where we're eating at that night, or whatever. Note to anyone planning a trip like this: get the list of extra hours BEFORE you make reservations. Also, stay longer. I wish we had a seven day park pass (we have five) so I wouldn't feel so rushed, dammit.
We need a game plan for what to do, and my brain is short-circuiting and Mom has passed out on the bed until dinner. I wish I could. Part of me feels like it could, but I don't nap well, and someone here is going to have to figure out where dinner is tonight.
Incidentally: Florida is beautiful, not nearly so OMGHOT as I was told, it's humid but quite pleasant. (The room, however, was so frigid when we walked in that I had to go out on the balcony to defrost.) I am already exhausted and feel like there will be no time to sleep. Especially when Mom made a reservation for a "character breakfast" at 8 a.m. tomorrow- that's 5 a.m. my time, kids. How the heck do people find time to go in the pool here? I brought 2 suits and don't think that's happening. (Note from later on: never once went swimming.)

9:30 p.m:
Walked around the outside of the hotel- we're staying at the Yacht Club, which is one of five hotels all located around the same lake. This is a darned good location to stay at, since there's a lot to do and it's close to 2 out of 4 main parks (you can walk or TAKE A WATER TAXI, woot!). The entire area is gorgeous. I took a lot of photos, but for some weird reason my "steadicam" camera is taking 98% of my pictures blurry and I CAN'T FIGURE OUT WHY! So those might suck. Shame, because it is a beautiful full moon night. (Note from later on: eventually had to take all photos on "night shot" or "kids and pets" motion shot to get the blurry to stop.)
Dinner was pretty good (Spoodles). Amusingly enough, Mom and I ended up swapping dinners when we decided we liked the other person's meal better.
Still trying to figure out A Plan for where to go tomorrow...and we really should go to bed tonight even if for us it's like 6 p.m....though since we were up by 3 a.m., it's been a long-ass day. If I somehow don't fall asleep tonight, I will be very mad! Need rest!
I am overwhelmed here, but it's so awesome. I love the warm night. It feels right to me, like I am supposed to be in this climate.

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