Enjoy this unrelated photo of a cute&quirky footpath.
In my last monthly post I floated the idea of weekly posts of links from around el web. Well I am a slacker and haven't done it yet. (Well nah, I'm a sometimes-slacker, but my dismal posting trends of late are actually due to sickness and a lot of short-notice travelling. I made the trip to NY and back this week which means I was in the car for 30 hours over the course of two and a half days UGH.)
I woke up really wanting to just.publish.something.already! But I'm in pain and gearing up for a few days of severe pain, vomiting, and exhaustion, so... nothing too long or inspiring or thoughtful to post for now. We'll keep it light and semi-sweet.
My favorite things on the web lately (okay - and some that are not recent but that I've only just stumbled on):
This is an old article but I just read it. A lot of the people commenting are angry/offended redheaded men. They seem to want to tell the world that no! I'm not sensitive! I tolerate pain more than most! And reading those comments made me laugh because 1. Calm down, egos. and 2. The article says redheads feel more pain and that anesthetics don't work as well on redheads. That doesn't mean you cry about everything, it just means you endure more pain. (Which, by the way, means yes, you probably do tolerate pain better than others. If you feel pain often you're going to have a higher threshold for it.)
A post filled of names this blogger loves but probably wouldn't use on a real child?! Right up my alley. (Though I think a lot of the boy names are just fine.) And you all know I'll have to make a list of my own now.)
I know this is controversial and that almost all of my friends are pro-choice. And while I definitely definitely think the debate needs to be less hateful (really, stop calling women who've gotten abortions bad names), I believe it's an important thing to talk about. I thought the points in this post were good.
I love pretty much everything Gabrielle at Design Mom writes. I especially loved this! Obviously things might change when I have kids (especially since it takes two and for all I know - whoever I am married to might have different opinions on schooling), but this is basically exactly how I feel about education. Also I love that she acknowledges privilege when addressing issues that exist in the social realm.
I wrote that very long name-related post the other day and Kate over at Sancta Nomina continued the fun, picking really great names for theoretical triplets! Go check out her choices as well as those in the comments!! I love this stuff.
It's been not-so-great here (according to everyone else... personally, I love rain) lately and that tends to get people in a rut. But there are so many fun things to do on rainy days.
1. Take advantage of a Shutterfly deal. Seriously, they have great deals all the time. Today you can get 101 free 4x6 prints if you use the code 101TREATS. If you're reading this on a day that is not August 10, 2015 don't fret - they have deals all the time. All the time. Hop on over to their Facebook page and look for the offers. Then go ahead and get yourself some free pictures. (Also, this is not sponsored. I just love them.)
2. Go read Harry Potter, ya doof.
3. In that same vein, go to the library. I neglected libraries for a few years. Amazon and my killer ability to find books on sale at Barnes and Noble meant I didn't really have any need for libraries - or so I thought.
Truth is, libraries are freaking amazing. There's nothing worse (other than like, poverty and sickness and terrorism and Donald Trump) than buying a book and really hating it. Libraries set you free. No more wasting $15 on a book that turns out to be horrid. You can read that awful book for free! Yeah! (Added bonus: I feel less guilt about starting a book and not finishing it if I didn't pay for it. Which means no more forcing myself to read a crappy story.) A lot of libraries also have used books for less than $1. Grab the change out of your pockets and head to the library on a rainy day. Emerge with a stack of new-to-you books.
4. Do some kind of craft or DIY project. I have a pair of shoes that were $14 at Target. Summer is almost over and the shoes are starting to wear, so I'm going to throw them in the washer and when they're done drying I'm going to take some Painters markers and go to town. Haven't yet decided if I want words, stripes, polka dots, zig zags or this or this! But really, there are a ton of awesome projects to do even if you don't happen to have blank shoes and a supply of paint markers. Peruse Pinterest and find something fabulous to make.
5. Call one of your friends. I called my bff Olivia the other day for no real reason. She mumbles a little bit when she's on the phone (<3 you anyway, Liv) so it's hard to decipher what she's saying sometimes, but it is always so nice to hear her voice. Texting/emailing/Facebook messaging is great but just not the same.
6. Similarly, write letters. I regularly write to some of my friends and it's wonderful. Even though most of us can talk online there are things that feel more natural when they're written in a nice, long letter. It always makes people happy to get something non-bill-related in the mail, plus you'll likely get a letter back! Postage is like 44 cents, so you can really go crazy! Go get yourself a 25 cent book from the library, call in an order for $1.71 wonton soup, and head to the post office. You'll wait on line a few minutes and and then your letter will be sent and you'll have precisely the right amount of time to get to the Chinese food place as soon as they bag your order. Congrats, you're having a great day at the low, low price of $2.50!
I may or may not have just divulged my most frequent rainy-day sched.
7. Do what you'd be doing if it was sunny. Really. Unless it's thundering and lightening (I never go outdoors in storms, no sirree.) or raining to the point where it's dangerous, go ahead and have your outdoor adventure. (Within reason.) I drove to a mountain "river" (in quotation marks because it feels more like a creek, but hey) the other day with my younger cousins. It ended up pouring as soon as we got out of the car. My ass did not just waste five dollars and thirty minutes of our precious lives, though, so I insisted we swim anyway. It was incredibly fun, we all survived, and the rain only lasted about ten minutes. The one thing I'd say is to wear clothes that aren't important.
Playing basketball is fun in the rain. Going to the park is fun in the rain. Going on walks in the rain is fun and you can pretend you're super fancy/romantic a la The Notebook. Or something.
8. Have a new blog you love? Hang out with some hot chocolate and read the posts from the archives. I've done this a bit with Design Mom (houses, travels, backyards to die for), Held by His Pierced Hands, and Emma Lou. But any blog or website will do. Or, start your own blog!
9. Pick your favorite topic and create a new Pinterest Board on it. Pinterest can get out of hand but I think, in general, occasional binges are fine. I have a Christmas board, a library board, and too many home design/decor boards to mention. I love adding to them on rainy days. (And trying to create things inspired by them on rainy days, too.)
10. Write a list of things to do instead of actually doing anything.
Whew. This book – this book was a doozy.Not in a Dickens or Shakespeare way,
either.It was good, not great.As implied by the title, it takes place over
the course of a day.There’s some
dialogue, but mostly it’s the train of thought of a seventeen year old
boy.
Probably time to admit that I
bought this book because I really liked the cover very much. (This method usually works well, contrary to
the old adage.)
Back to the doozy-ness. After I hit the 100th page I could
never go very long without looking at the page numbers to see if I was almost
done. The answer was always, almost
always no. Like I said, it’s a day’s events and thoughts
of a teenage boy; to make matters worse, the boy is one of those
fake-philisophicals. I’m all for philosophers
(minored in it and everything), I’m not all for obnoxious kids pretending to be
ponderous and turning every little thing into a question. It’s dense and rambling.
Also, there are no effing
paragraphs. I mean there are, but one
paragraph can go on for two pages. Maddening,
especially when you need to stop reading to get a drink or something.
I started this book around
three or four years ago, when I was only two or three years out from being that obnoxious kid, and I remember
liking the book a lot when I first picked it up. For the annoying philosophy but also because
I related to the kid – dysfunctional family, playing the role of parent, etc. Fast forward a few years and I still enjoyed
the book, but I was very annoyed by it as well.
I have my own bothersome, exasperating train of thought, so it felt a
little wasteful spending my time reading that of someone else.
Would I recommend it? Eh. If
you’re crazy about coming of age stories, yes.
(But with the disclaimer that it’s filled to the brim with eye-roll-inducing
musings about girls’ eyes. Among other
things.) And also if you can handle a
lack of riveting plot.
But! There were a few good things. One, he paints a beautiful picture of the
city. From the smells to the sounds to
the little butcher shop, you feel like you’re there and you never want to leave. In one scene the boy, Wes, and his friend and
little sister are sitting on the front stoop of his townhouse, the former two
drinking a beer. The friend, James,
thinks that’s the best thing in the world.
Wes agrees and I agree. If you’ve
ever lived in a city or wanted to live in a city, you can understand why. Sitting on a stoop with your friends taking
everything in IS the best thing in
the world.
Pretty sure I’ve digressed.
The really good thing about
this kind of inner-monologue writing is that it sometimes puts into words
thoughts that many of us have. I jotted
down a few lines from it:
“It had not been a string of thoughts at all, but a moment of pure
insight.”
Hey! I know how that feels! You’re talking about an epiphany of
sorts!
“...but the anger that, by rights, should have been expressed as
love. There was hardly anything to
choose between them, the love and the anger, but James’ uncle and Wes’ father
had just missed coming down on the right side of the divide, and it had
destroyed their lives.”
Wowsa yeah. I made a mental post-it note of sorts to keep
this in mind.
“Somewhere along the line, everywhere at every moment, there must be a
lot of people in the process of becoming the very thing they swore they would
never become.”
Okay, so it’s typical
coming-of-age stuff, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be alright.
“Wes thought there must be a way to make life more like cooking – a series
of recipes that could be followed faithfully to predictable results.”
I’m of age and still wish for
this.
And of course, some random
thoughts I had while reading the book:
·There are a lot of literary references. I read a
lot now but there are a lot of classics still left on my list so I did not get
all of the references. It occurred to me
that this might be a book 19 year old Rory Gilmore would read (and she’d
understand all the references!), though I don’t think it’d be one she
loves.
·“Burdens in hand” is nice writing.
·Wes would like Agatha Christie
·It’s intense.
·The author must really like Bob Ross.
Overall, eh. In the beginning of his day, Wes begins the
process of cooking sweetbreads.
Throughout the book he carries out certain steps of the cooking process. Let’s just say I was more concerned with how
the sweetbreads (which sounds disgusting, btw) would turn out than I was with
how his love life would work out.
The storyline just wasn’t too
intriguing. Fine but not special.
At the end, Wes learns a few
good lessons (I won’t share them in case any of you choose to read it – no spoilers! Book review, not book report, I guess.), and
all is semi-well with the world. It was
a sweet story… it just would have been sweeter if it was shorter. And less bulky. I don’t regret reading it, though.
Toward the end of the novel,
Wes says this about War and Peace:
A thousand pages of nothing; even ten thousand would have been
insufficient to describe one minute of a real person’s life.
And yet, that’s exactly what
the author attempts. And you can feel
how hard he’s trying.
"I'm going to publish my monthly posts on the last day of each month!"
Liar
"I'm going to publish four posts a week!"
Liar
"I'm going to post several book reviews!"
Pants officially on fire.
What a strange month. It was filled with so many great things: first time going to Disney, having Stephanie over for a few days, losing a few pounds. But I also found myself in the hospital twice, had an unhealthy dose of family drama, and spent a lot of time questioning my own plans for el futuro.
1. Disney trip
Already wrote an entire post on this, but I forgot to include this story. About 40 minutes before the park closed on our last night there, we jumped on line for Space Mountain. At this point my aunt and one of my cousins decided they were done and sat it out. When we got off of the ride it was 19 minutes to closing time. The girls really wanted to do Splash Mountain and, if possible, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. Those rides were on the complete opposite side of the park so we booked it. (I'm fairly certain I lost about 10 pounds on the way there from the running/speed-walking. Thanks, Disney. :D )
We made it over in seven minutes, ran up the line, and got onto the coaster. The 11 year old and 8 year old were paired together that way Rebecca and I could be paired together (to maximize fun, obv).
Well let me tell you. I'm not the smallest person around. The bars on every roller coaster would NOT go down all the way. I mean, it was fine, it was keeping us in there, but with more wiggle room than some might be comfortable with. My aunt rode with me on another ride and genuinely feared falling out. At first I thought it was happening because I'm.. curvy? My stomach maybe was in the way? But then Rebecca pointed out that the bar wasn't even close to my stomach and that it was actually my legs that prevented it from going down all the way. I don't know if it's because I'm tall or because my legs are thick - probably a combination of both, but wow were we mobile. The very first real bump on the roller coaster and Rebecca and I went so high out of our seats. It wasn't scary at all, it was just unbelievable. I was cracking up and holding on to the side (as to not crush the poor dear) and Rebecca was scream-laughing. This happened on every curve and bump.
At some point we realized the woman and her daughter behind us are also cracking up. I thought they had just been having a good time, but then she screamed, "You two went so high! You're flying! I can't believe it!" And the laughing did not stop. I said something like, "I think I peed a little" and the woman (I think, though maybe it was her daughter or Rebecca?) yelled, "Me too!"
A little Disney camaraderie.
When we got off people cheered us on as we tried to get to Splash Mountain. We were successful. We were once again given a lot of wiggle room thanks to my legs. A good time was had by all. I think.
2. Stephanie Visited
Wrote a post on this, too. It was a ton of fun and I miss her already.
3. I was in the hospital - twice
I don't want to go into detail just yet but let's just say it's a nightmare. Hopefully over the course of the next few months things are straightened out with medicine. And it's becoming more and more clear that the best bet is the excision surgery (the one that is performed in only a few places throughout the country, joy).
4. A week without wifi or cable
I needed to stay with my cousin in Georgia for a week while her dad was out of town. There was no wifi or cable. This isn't actually the end of the world for me, though it is hard when you become so used to having the internet at your fingertips 24/7.
Luckily they have a tv so I brought the vcr/dvd player and some of my grandpa's old movies. I finally watched all the original Star Wars movies. I told my friend I liked the last one because of the teddy bears and he was quick to let me know they are ewoks, dammit.
I brought a bunch of books, too. I gathered everything I've started but not finished over the years. I ended up reading three or four.
5. College Football
I decided I want to follow college sports. Or, college football and basketball. I've decided, after not that much debate, that I'm an Ohio State fan.
This was definitely the most important thing I did this month and I couldn't NOT include it in this post.
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Books!
This sounds so dramatic but I feel like I'm longing for a good book. I've read a bunch of books this year and I've liked many of them, but none have been exceptional. (Well, almost. Better Than Before was really great, but I guess I'm looking for a novel that moves me.) I always end up going back to Harry Potter because I love it more than anything else I've read. Other than HP I think the last book to have a profound impact on me was The Twelve Tribes of Hattie (wrote about it here) and that was over a year ago! Someone help me.
This month I read six books:
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (for the second time in 2-3 months..)
Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince
Seizing Your Divine Moment by Erwin McManus
Everything Happens Today by Jesse Browner
Bossypants by Tina Fey
Walking With the Comrades by Arundhati Roy
and I've been working on Flannery O'Connor's short stories.
Still have not finished Pride and Prejudice
Over all, not bad but not as many as I want to be reading.
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Links worth looking at.....
Except not. I'm going to try and just do a post with some links once a week because doing it once a month is hard. Not only does it mean too many links, but some of the stories are no longer in the news.
_____________________________________
Happening soon:
'scuse me as I go wipe my drool.
I'm going back to NY sometime in the next two months. I'm simultaneously filled with excitement and dread, so maybe that's another day's post. I am looking forward to NY food though. I'm also supposed to make a little trip to Albany in October and I can hardly contain the joy I feel at the very thought of it.
By now you all know I like talking about/reading about/thinking about names. (Thisremains one of the most popular posts on the blog.) I love names in general, whether we're talking about future kids, characters on a show, characters in a book, etc. Sometimes I think it's a little nutty to love talking about baby names, but then I come across things like this and I'm comforted by the fact that there are others out there! Woooo, I'm not alone!
I'm going to get around to that article (and of course divulge triplet name choices) but first enjoy some name-related links and a random assemblage of name-related thoughts. (Or just scroll to the bottom for the fun part.)
I've mentioned it before, but I really lovethis blog. Every Monday there's a new "name consultation" and Kate, the author, gives naming advice and suggestions to parents expecting a baby. The suggested names match the style of older children and often have special meanings/connections to saints. There's a lot of other great stuff that goes on over there throughout the week, such as history of a name or discussions regarding naming trends, but the consultations are my favorite and I always look forward to them.
Here's another site that offers name advice and daily spotlights on all kinds of names. My favorite thing I've read over there is this post discussing potential names for North West's sibling. Totally kind and thoughtful and... I never imagined I'd say this, but I hope Kim and Kanye name their son Wild West. Not going to lie, I rolled my eyes when they decided to name their human child North West. But it's their style, not mine, and if they're going to roll with it then I think Wild West sounds awesome as a brother to North West.
Also, check this out. Another example of great names in movies. (Annie also happens to be one of my faves.)
Do you remember the Youtube sensation, Charlie Bit My Finger? Their children are named Harry, Charlie, Jasper, and Rupert. I think those sound perfect together.
Other great namers: Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick. Their kids are named James Wilkie, Tabitha Hodge, and Marion Loretta Elwell. I remember reading somewhere that the middle names were family names.
While at my cousin's fifth grade graduation we overheard the name Fritzraldo. I'd never use it but I loved it immediately.
This little girl is named Heavenly Joy. Normally I'm not for that much play on names. Somehow, she ROCKS it.
One of my best friends, Olivia, has a family chock full of great names. Olivia is a great name and she has a brother named James (one of my personal favorite boy names). Her dad is named Edwin and he has brothers named Michael and Francis. Her Uncle Fran's boys are named Brian, Michael, Frankie, Pauly, and Terrence. They remind me of Good Will Hunting - the scene where Will says he has 12 brothers named Marky, Ricky, Danny, Terry, Mikey, Davey, Timmy, Tommy, Joey, Robby, Johnny and Brian. Big Irish family!
J.K. Rowling is great at naming her characters. I swear, I read HP and all the sudden names like Albus, Rufus, and Neville seemed great to me. I particularly love the names of everyone in the Weasley family. (In case, for some grave reason, you're not familiar with them, the parents are Arthur and Molly, and their children are Bill, Charlie, Percy, Fred, George, Ron, and Ginny. Not sure if Bill, Charlie, Percy, and Fred are short for William, Charles, Percival, and Frederick - if so they still sound great together. We know Ron is Ronald and Ginny is Ginevra.) The only names I don't really like in her books are, go figure, Harry's kids' names. James Sirius, Albus Severus, and Lily Luna... eh. The names are all fine, but they don't sound great together. I saw something once that said, "Harry named his kids like some nerd who had just finished reading Harry Potter." Quite right.
Speaking of Harry Potter - is Hermione out of the question for names? I think it's an awesome name - it's long, it's got a great history, there's a saint Hermione - but does that universal association with HP make it less wearable? (At the very least, I think people would assume you were a Harry Potter nerd, and that there was nothing else behind the name choice. Maybe for a middle name, though?)
Parenthood is one of my favorite shows. (Naturally, I started watching just before it ended - good thing Netflix exists.) The four Braverman siblings are named Adam, Sarah, Crosby, and Julia.
At first, it bothered me a little that Crosby seemed like a totally different style than the other names. (I started this blog post by saying that I'm nutty, so don't judge me too harshly for analyzing names in tv shows, okay?) After watching for a little while, though, I started to feel differently, and now I think it's totally fine to mix up name styles for siblings. They can still sound perfect together. (This is different to me than naming one child something really out there while giving the other child(ren) very traditional or common names, though. Theo, Michael, Amos, and Claire - yes. Different styles, for sure, but still lovely together. Theo, Michael, Skyscraper, and Claire - no. That just seems mean [and strange] to me.)
Buuuut where were we? Styles. I'm glad that Parenthood came along and changed my mind because I like a lot of names that aren't necessarily matching styles. Catherine, Elizabeth, Suzanne, Anne - all great. But then I also like Margot, Loretta, Evangeline, etc. Hell, I even like Beatrix and Winnifred from time to time. We're talking years down the line, obviously, but when I have to start naming kids I'm cool with combining styles, both within each name (different styles for first and middle) and between siblings. I'm also totally into the idea of two middle names - you get to use more names plus it's easier to include saints names, or family names if theoretical future husband wants family names in there.
One last thought before the article's prompt.
When it comes to names that invoke a sense of power, I think there's an imbalance between names for boys and names for girls.
Heavy-hitters for boys: Augustine, Alexander, Theodorus, Miximilian, Maximus, Ignatius, Aquinas, Leonardo, Nicodemus among many, many others.
Heavy-hitters for girls: ....it's hard to think of any that give the same feel as the names above. I think Victoria and Elizabeth come closest because they're royal names. Anastasia and Antoinette close behind. But still, none of those seem to pack the same punch as the male names. I mean, Maximus???
I think it's probably a result of history being written largely by and for men. So maybe we'll see a shift.
(Alexandria and Cleopatra also feel like contenders, but then you might not be able to escape the feel of Egyptian influence. Not a bad thing, but not what everyone might be going for with a name.)
There are plenty of powerful and influential women to name girls after. The names themselves just don't seem as grand.
OKAY. So, that link. It's a Nameberry prompt to name your theoretical triplets. My kind of people. I'd be terrified at the thought of carrying and birthing triplets, but naming them? f-u-n
There are a couple hundred responses so far. I haven't read many, but I did read one from a woman who loves Frederick, Theodore, and Edward - but then has the Fred-Ted-Ed dilemma. I feel her. I love those names as well.
IF I had triplets, I'd probably try to incorporate the archangels in their names. You know, groups of three and what not.
(If I had to name triplets, I might not necessarily use the same names I'd pick if I were to have le singleton or twins because if I had multiples I'd want to connect their names in some way, which means I might pick different names based on sound. Example - I love the name Harriet but might not use it for triplets since I'd want to use the Archangels' names and I don't love the sound of Harriet paired with any of them [Michael, Gabriel, Raphael].)
Triplets - three girls
Starting with the archangels - Of the three, Michael is my least favorite name when it comes to the feminine forms. I wouldn't use Michelle (nice name, just not my taste) and I'm not overly fond of Michaela, either. But... would scrambling some of the letters in Michael to form a new name count? Because if so - Alice is a nice name, and includes all but two of Michael's letters. The other two options I'd consider would be just using Michael, but making it a middle name, or using Mico/Miko. (Miko is a real name - I don't know if Mico is, but Nico is so it's not that far-fetched.) I like both Gabrielle and Gabriela, and Raphaela is nice, though I'd only use it if I found myself having to name triplets.
Margot Raphaela Elise
Mico Grace Victoria (probably would go by Grace or Victoria)
Catherine Rose Gabrielle (or possibly Catherine Gabriela Rose)
While I like the names, I don't love the cadence in all of them. I guess that's what happens when you feel the need to include three masculine names....
Triplets - three boys
Gabriel Francis Owen (would go by Gabe)
James Patrick Michael (possibly nicknamed Patch)
Hugo Lewis Raphael
If I'm using the archangels in the names, I definitely prefer the boy options.
Two girls, one boy
Margot Raphaela Elise
Mico Grace Victoria
Gabriel Francis Owen
Two boys, one girl
Margot Raphaela Elise
Gabriel Francis Owen
James Patrick Michael
If I didn't try to use the names of the archangels (which... after seeing how difficult it is, I probably would not) the names that come to mind first are:
All boys: Teddy, Sam, and Arlo.
(Well, Theodore and Samuel, but you get it.) Those might change after looking for middle names that sound good, but that's another day's post.
All girls: Madeleine, Loretta, and Vivienne. Again, might change with middle names.
I asked Liz what she'd name theoretical triplets. Her choices are swoon-worthy.
All girls: Abigail, Felicity, and Genevieve
All boys: Samuel, Alexander, and Oliver
She and I have some overlapping taste in names.
(Nameberry also did a what-would-you-name-quintuplet-boys - maybe we'll tackle that another day.)
The last time we saw each other was a year and a half ago. She came to Albany and stayed in my apartment for a few days and it was wonderful! ...except I got the stomach bug. So there was a lot of sitting on the couch and doing nothing. Still, it's always so nice just to be physically around the people you love best. BUT it was a bummer not to be able to do anything.
Wellllll well well fast forward a bit. Steph and I had been talking about visiting for a while and then two days before we embarked on our trip to Disney I get a text from the lady herself -
"What are you doing Wednesday?"
I said something like DAMMIT to myself, worried that we'd be in an entirely different state the one time Stephanie could travel. But! I looked at the calendar and phew, we'd be back in time. Superb.
I responded and it was set.
BUT there was a storm and another crazy turn of events (don't want to get into it here) and we were held up a bit. Instead of returning on Tuesday, we returned on Wednesday. And instead of returning early Wednesday, so I'd still be home before Steph's arrival, we returned late Wednesday. There was a lot of traffic.
(Side note: I feel like I've become really patient as I get older, and I'm so glad. This traffic would have been so much worse if I had been in a piss mood from it. The kids were asleep during it [God is real and cares about me] and I spent most of it hoping/praying people in the accident were okay, listening to my Glee soundtrack (go on and judge), and cracking up because my gps asked me if I'd like it to switch over to pedestrian use. Over all - not bad.)
Stephanie was cool about it and we pushed her visit back a day. And then she overslept, and she arrived HOURS later than planned. I laughed at how smoothly everything went.
SO, the visit. We went hiking/walking in a nearby park, we played tennis (wow I need practice. and to lose weight. and just general life changes???), we looked at goats. We did my two favorite NC things: watched the sun rise while sitting on a cliff and we went down Sliding Rock - mountain turned water slide.
It was so, so nice to see her again. There were times we were in the car and I felt like everything was back to "normal" even though living together hasn't been our "normal" for years. We've both changed in some ways, of course, but some of our tendencies have remained the same. I rolled my eyes real hard when we got in the car and she turned off the air conditioner and said, "Can we just open the windows and have real air?!" smh. JUST like old times.
I sooo enjoyed the whole thing. The conversations, the drives, the cracking up during Spy. (btw - go see Spy.) I was so surprised that she made it through Sliding Rock. Stephanie is fun and adventurous... but she does not like the cold. No sirree. As we were driving deeper into the forest the temperature kept dropping and I hoped she couldn't see it on my dashboard because I really, really wanted her to try it. I didn't want the fact that it was 70 degrees change her mind. But! She did it and it was hilarious. We didn't take pictures, but omgosh. It's like ice when you hit the water. Luckily, you go numb, so you can't feel it long, but damn it's cold at first. The video makes it look tamer than it is.
We hung out on a creek for a while and she skipped rocks for the first time ever. We ate some overpriced ice cream and chatted and it was lovely. Nothing like running mountain water for background noise.
She's also a vegetarian now, which miiight have brought on a few eye rolls and a couple rounds of "well, she can just eat cookies." But it all worked out and I made tomato tortellini soup (one of my favorites) and kept the vegetarian-mocking to a minimum. Good friend that I am and all.
I was sad when she had to leave, but I'm so super glad we were able to visit before I head back north. And I think I need to start making it a point to see my friends more often when possible.
I also just realized I haven't done a person post for Steph! That's got to go on my to-do list this month.
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Oh, you want to see a ton of low-quality phone pictures? Your wish is my command!
I've got a bunch of blog posts floating around about life, politics, visits with friends, etc.
But first let's talk about the happiest.
If you know me, you probably know that I love Disney. Not the place, just the whole damn thing. The movies, the brand, the old store in the Massapequa Mall. SO of course, I've been dying to go to Disney since I was a bebe. (Fun fact: In the days leading up to the trip I played some of the old movies for my sister and cousins. They were VHS. 1. The kids were like, "What are those??" 2. During the previews/coming attractions there are commercials for Disney World. If you're older than 20 you probably know what I'm talking about. The commercial starts with kids dreaming of Disney and the parents are smitten, knowing the little darlings WILL TOTALLY BE TAKING A SURPRISE TRIP THERE WOW OMGOSH. The girls got a kick out of them.)
So yes. I've wanted to go for forever. The 15 year old has wanted to go forever. The 11-and-unders were excited, but they had nothing on our excitement. Go figure.
My uncle decided he was going to send us to Disney... and wanted to book the trip for just a few days later. This is the part I'll probably block out. Many, many phone calls were made to Disney. For the most part, their customer service people are really helpful. Their website was slightly less helpful. And by slightly I mean it kind of sucked. (Once the trip was booked the website was really great, though.) Finally, the trip was booked, everything was paid, and I let myself start to get excited.
Being the occasional over-analyzer, I read blog post upon blog post - I wanted to know as much as possible. I've never been on a real vacation (Not trying to sound like an ungrateful b - I've been camping and gone to cool tourist-y places while visiting family and friends and I've thoroughly enjoyed those things. My point is just that the vacation thing is new to me, and I needed to glean a little insight on planning one.) so I felt like there was a lot for me to learn in a really short period of time. I got a few eye rolls from my family when I told them I was researching Disney and figuring out how we should plan the days. They were pretty much in agreement that we should just go and wing it. And really, I think the trip would have been amazing even if I didn't plan things out a bit. But, I'm very glad I did. And I'm just a little proud of myself for doing a damn good job with the itinerary. If (jk - when) I go back, I'm going to plan similarly.
I made some super corny itineraries for each of us (I thought it would be cute for the littles to have a personalized copy with their names on it as a sort of keepsake). Giving them to each kid worked out great. It kept them quiet for a little while during the ride as they each read it, it gave them things to discuss, and it got them pretty excited. It was also good for the littlest one. She's working on reading and needs all the practice she can get - she loved reading things off to us and she did a great job of retaining the info. Throughout the trip she'd come up to me and say things like, "Charlotte, the parade is at 9, and it's not too far from Frontierland and and and..." It was very sweet.
From my Disney-blog-post reading spree, I learned which rides were prone to the longest lines, which restaurants were good for certain times of the day, and for which rides we should try to get Fastpasses. I didn't want to be an over-planner and have the schedule be too rigid, so I only included a few rides/attractions. Of course, the Fastpass rides were scheduled, but I also put on the itinerary that we'd need to do the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train and other popular rides first thing in the morning. There were certain rides that almost every blogger said had insane lines, so I got Fastpasses where possible and suggested early morning or late night times if the passes weren't available. I made sure to include a list of what attractions were in each area, so that while it wasn't a strict schedule, everyone would have an idea of what rides they'd want to hit up while we were making our way to or from the Fastpass rides. It all went really, really smoothly. We were only in Magic Kingdom for a day and a half, and we all got to ride everything we wanted. We rode our favorites at least twice. And the longest we waited on any line was half an hour and that was only once. Beforehand I read horror stories of 2-3 hour waits, so I think we lucked out (/planned well). Other than the 30 minute Splash Mountain wait, we typically waited under 10-15 minutes. It was awesome.
Fun fun fun.
Just before the big drop on Splash Mountain, Rose, the youngest one (sitting next to me in that picture), excitedly yelled, "Okay girls! Here we go! Hands up, girls! Hands up!"
And then she chickened out. And everyone other than me ignored her. I have no shame, though.
So yes. Favorite rides. Space Mountain was my absolute favorite. We rode it twice. Oddly, I liked it better when I wasn't in the front seat (weird, because normally that's the most thrilling spot - it certainly was with Splash Mountain). I thought riding a roller coaster in the dark was just the coolest thing ever. Some of our party didn't go the second time because it had been broken earlier in the day, and Rebecca told me after that she didn't enjoy the second time because she worried about it breaking down the entire way, but I thought it made it more exciting.
I guess my second favorite was Splash Mountain (though, fun-sucker alert, I don't love getting soaked when I'm in regular clothes). It was everyone else's favorite. I loved the balance of thrill (sort of? you know, drops and stuff) and beauty. Some of the rides, like the Ariel and Peter Pan rides, were very slow and somewhat boring but I loved them because they were soooo pretty. I liked that Splash Mountain had the fun but was also really beautiful.
Little aside - the demons kids were just a leeeettle irritating regarding the rides. We used Fastpasses mostly for thrill rides, but we used two of them for the slow rides (Ariel and Peter Pan). When we got off of the roller coasters, some of the kids complained that they were too fast! too scary! and when we got off of the scenic rides, some of the SAME KIDS complained that they were too slow! too boring!
Shut up, kids.
Personally, I always thought Disney would be more about the whole magic thing and less about thrill, so I loved the slow rides that make you feel like you're in a different world. IT'S SUPPOSED TO BE MAGICAL, KIDS, ENJOY IT. I also liked that the "thrill" rides weren't the same as "thrill" rides at places like Six Flags because I totally forgot my motion sickness medicine at the hotel. Luckily, the lack of flips and sharp drops meant I was okay, though Space Mountain left me feeling... less than stellar.
HA. Sorry. Okay, moving on.
So yeah, the rides were great. The amount of detail is crazy. Also, the shows were pretty awesome. We did Mickey's PhilharMagic the first day and looooved it. The air conditioning was a welcome reprieve from the nasty great outdoors and the show itself was so fun. It was nice to see throwbacks to the old Disney movies, and the special effects were amazing. I'm purposely leaving out detail because one of my two blog readers is Liz, and she and I are planning a Disney trip and I don't want to ruin the surprises for her. All I'll say is that I'd be content to go to Disney and just watch this show over and over and not-under again.
Monster's Inc. Laugh Floor was also really cool. Won't lie, I expected it to suck. I thought it would be a five or ten minute clip of lame jokes or something. But! It was interactive and it was hilarious. I want to meet whoever is behind it and be good friends with them. I laughed my ass off the entire time. (One of the guests who was picked to participate was reluctant and it was clear she was nervous... during the mind-reading act, she was told to think of a number between 1 and 40, and she says, "35." Out loud. It was funny.) If it hadn't been after 9 on our last night there, I definitely would have gone for a second show. My cousin remarked that I should look into working as one of the people who make fun of members of the audience. The highest compliment!
The first night, we ate dinner at the Plaza Restaurant and it was perfect because there was a great view of the Castle. The reservation was for 8:45, and by the time fireworks went off, so few people were inside that we were able to watch out the window while eating ice cream. The next night we did the whole stand-in-the-massive-crowds thing for the real experience. The fireworks were terrific and I may or may not have teared up at the very end of Celebrate the Magic when Walt talks about it all beginning with a mouse.
Overall - incredible. I totally get why people go back every year. I also get why they call it the happiest place on Earth. Every single person working there was wonderful. Everywhere you look there's something beautiful. The rides are fun. The "magic" is believable. It's awesome. I can't wait to go back.
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I didn't take as many pictures as I normally would because I wanted to make sure I was actually enjoying the experience. I didn't take ANY of Wishes! But I'm happy knowing I didn't miss anything while I was looking at a camera. Here are a few of the ones we did get:
"oh wow look even the bathrooms look appropriate to movie"
Literally took this as I was standing up to run for the bathroom because, fun! I got sick that night. Charlotte's the name, throwing up is the game.
I'm like, not sure if I got enough photos of the castle.
