An almost-girly trip ~ February 2009 TR!

[Charleston Princess]

Why didn't you tell me that you had a PTR going??? I am so glad that I was bored tonight and went exploring on the PTR board!

I'm here now to read about all the fun.

 

[CanadianWDWfan]

You have just over a month to go! You must be so excitted.

Sorry for the mix up with your BF and your Brother, I guess I wasn't paying attention to what I was writting.

I think its so funny that you and I both obsess over the lists. I should make mine on Word too, then I wouldn't have to re write mine either. Ive seen some very fancy spreadsheets here on the DIS but I havn't gotten any for myself. There are some very creative people here.

How perfect you got a new bag for the trip and all your stuff fits in.

 

[Megablocks]

Why didn't you tell me that you had a PTR going??? I am so glad that I was bored tonight and went exploring on the PTR board!

I'm here now to read about all the fun.

HEY! I'm so glad that you were bored, too! Thanks for reading!

You have just over a month to go! You must be so excitted.

Sorry for the mix up with your BF and your Brother, I guess I wasn't paying attention to what I was writting.

I think its so funny that you and I both obsess over the lists. I should make mine on Word too, then I wouldn't have to re write mine either. Ive seen some very fancy spreadsheets here on the DIS but I havn't gotten any for myself. There are some very creative people here.

How perfect you got a new bag for the trip and all your stuff fits in.

Yup, I keep on reminding my parents and Kailyn that in just two days, we'll be able to start saying that we're going next month. AND we're almost in the 30's!

No worries about the mixup; it happens, and like I said, they are both tall and beaded.

I used to be crazy over my lists! If they had too many cross-outs or scribbles, I'd have to rewrite it. It never bothered me, though. Rewriting stuff for school was a whole 'nother story. On my packing lists, I also write down what I'm planning to wear while we're going there, so I can make my lists accordingly.

I love the bag! It's all cotton, though, so I'm going to take the advice that I've seen on the boards before, and put some of my things (camera, phone, autograph book) into a ziploc bag, so that if the bag gets wet, everything else will be protected. I asked Charles if he liked it, but he said that the pattern reminds him of an "old lady bag." Whatever, he's a guy. I told Kailyn about it, and she laughed and reminded me that it's only "a guy opinion" on a bag, and that she thinks it's cute.

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I had some pictures-of-pictures that I wanted to upload from our 1994 Disney trip, when I was ten, Mike was almost seven, and Kailyn was 14 months old, but I can't find the cord for my camera. I really, really want to post the pictures, and I will when I find the cord. I have a scanner, but all the pictures are in an album and I don't want to risk damaging any of them. So, instead, here are some pictures from our April trip. I swear that I'm going to hunt down some digital pictures from earlier trips.

This was a shadowbox in the Pop lobby. Is anyone else glad that the Mad Hatter is a face character now?

Queue pictures from Soarin'.

(This was my desktop picture for a while)

This was inside Splash Mountain. I'm not sure what it was supposed to be but it looked like some little face to me.

And, finally, flowers at Pop.

I'll definitely be adding more later, and hopefully will be uploading the old pics sometime soon!

 

[CanadianWDWfan]

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Hope you have a great year ahead and you have fun!

YOU LEAVE NEXT MONTH

 

[DisKate]

Happy New Year! It looks like you had a great Christmas! I'm glad its getting closer to your trip, because that means that its even closer to my trip!!!!

 

[Megablocks]

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Hope you have a great year ahead and you have fun!

YOU LEAVE NEXT MONTH

Happy New Year to you, too!!! I hope that you had a great night and that the coming year treats you well.

I KNOW! I'm soooo excited to be saying that. And, I realized that when I go back to school on the 22nd, I'll have just under three weeks until we leave!

Happy New Year! It looks like you had a great Christmas! I'm glad its getting closer to your trip, because that means that its even closer to my trip!!!!

Thanks--Happy New Year to you, too!!

It was an awesome Christmas. How was yours? And your New Years?

I forgot that you are going! I'm hopefully going to come back with tons of pictures that I can post for everyone going later on. Will you do a TR?

 

[koolcatshelby]

Hey, just checking in. Have been busy. Can't believe only 5 weeks to go Hope all is well.

 

[Megablocks]

Thanks for checking in--I hear you on the busy thing. Luckily I'm only working and not back to classes yet, but work has been crazy the past few days! We're supposed to get snow or just ice on Wednesday, so I think that everyone has been going kinda crazy with making sure that they're stocked up. I think that the idea of ice is what's making people panic, because of last month, when there were ice storms. Some areas got absolutely slammed, some didn't, but there were TONS of homes without power for at least a week.

I can't believe it's getting so close! On Sunday, we'll be able to start saying that we'll be in Disney World one month from then. And I'm not totally dreading going back to classes because that means that there'll be just 3 weeks left!

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I still can't find the cord to my camera, so I can't post old pictures, but I have a couple of updates.

First, our flight from Boston to Orlando was changed...it was bumped back an hour! Instead of leaving at 10:20 and arriving in Orlando at 12:36, we're leaving Boston at 9:30 and getting to Orlando at 12:45. I'm really excited because that means we'll be there almost an hour earlier, and hopefully that will equal into an hour more of Pop Century or park time. I had to ask my mom about twenty-seven times if that would affect our taking Magical Express, but she said no, because they operate according to flight numbers, not flight times.

Second: I got a text message from my mom while I was at work today--OUR MAGICAL EXPRESS TAGS CAME!!! That one thing just makes the trip seem so much closer. 36 days!

Not too much of an update, but I had to share it b/c it is EXCITING!!!!

I will have old pictures soon, I swear. It's funny to point and laugh at what we were wearing.

 

[Charleston Princess]

Hurray for ME tags and an earlier flight! Your trip is getting closer and closer!

 

[MeMom]

I can't believe it's getting so close! On Sunday, we'll be able to start saying that we'll be in Disney World one month from then. And I'm not totally dreading going back to classes because that means that there'll be just 3 weeks left!



First, our flight from Boston to Orlando was changed...it was bumped back an hour! Instead of leaving at 10:20 and arriving in Orlando at 12:36, we're leaving Boston at 9:30 and getting to Orlando at 12:45. I'm really excited because that means we'll be there almost an hour earlier, and hopefully that will equal into an hour more of Pop Century or park time. I had to ask my mom about twenty-seven times if that would affect our taking Magical Express, but she said no, because they operate according to flight numbers, not flight times.

Second: I got a text message from my mom while I was at work today--OUR MAGICAL EXPRESS TAGS CAME!!! That one thing just makes the trip seem so much closer. 36 days!

Not too much of an update, but I had to share it b/c it is EXCITING!!!!

I will have old pictures soon, I swear. It's funny to point and laugh at what we were wearing.

Classes will much easier to transition back into knowing you only have three weeks until your trip.
I have a feeling there will be times you should be taking notes that you'll be making Disney lists.
I do that, anyway!

Do you mean you're getting there at 11:45? Yes, every extra hour is a good one! Check in and head out to get some park time in.

Magical Express tags make it even more real. I've got to call in our flight information, because I didn't know it yet when I booked the room. I need to do that today, actually. I meant to do it this weekend and forgot.

I've got 50+ years worth of old pictures to make fun, but just remember, as stylin' as we might think we are these days, we'll be making fun of this some day. Our kids and grandkids will have quite a good time making fun of what we think looks very nice right now! I've done it all - the short shorts and knee socks, flower power clothes, short skirts, wide-legged pantsuits. Oh, yes, I was quite stylish!

 

[Lady Lallie]

That's so awesome that your flight was changed to an earlier time!

 

[Megablocks]

Hurray for ME tags and an earlier flight! Your trip is getting closer and closer!

I was SO excited to get that text from my mom, because I was saying a couple of days ago that we should be getting them in a couple of weeks. I didn't think it would be so soon! I forgot to ask her where she put them, because I want to look at them and take pictures.

Classes will much easier to transition back into knowing you only have three weeks until your trip.
I have a feeling there will be times you should be taking notes that you'll be making Disney lists.
I do that, anyway!

Do you mean you're getting there at 11:45? Yes, every extra hour is a good one! Check in and head out to get some park time in.

Magical Express tags make it even more real. I've got to call in our flight information, because I didn't know it yet when I booked the room. I need to do that today, actually. I meant to do it this weekend and forgot.

I've got 50+ years worth of old pictures to make fun, but just remember, as stylin' as we might think we are these days, we'll be making fun of this some day. Our kids and grandkids will have quite a good time making fun of what we think looks very nice right now! I've done it all - the short shorts and knee socks, flower power clothes, short skirts, wide-legged pantsuits. Oh, yes, I was quite stylish!

I'm sure I'll be doing that eventually. Or, I will be on my laptop in the library, pretending to write a paper while I'm really just polishing my packing lists. No one will know!

Oops, the flight info was a typo. We were originally leaving at 10:20 and getting there at 1:36. Now we're leaving at 9:30 and getting there a little after 12:30. I'm glad that you caught that. We'll have to leave earlier, but I'll probably be up really early anyway.

You're very right about how we'll be making fun of these clothes someday. I was only ten the first time that we went to WDW in 1994, but the clothes just kill me. My dad and my brother (almost 7 at the time) wore shorts with high socks. I wore my water shoes everywhere for some reason, and I loved leggings under dresses or skirts. I was obsessed with the Baby-Sitters Club series and always wished I could dress like Claudia. Oh, and I had this outfit that I absolutely LOVED--it came as a set, and it was basically polka dots and stripes. I'll be showing that off as soon as I find the camera cord.

The ME tags do make it seem so much real. One of my cashiers at work is going in June, and when I got back from my break, I told her about the text from my mom, and she got so excited for me. We've had many, many Disney conversations and have been talking about much we want to try TSM lately.

That's so awesome that your flight was changed to an earlier time!

I know! I was so psyched. I'm so tempted to ask my dad when we're leaving. I'm one of those people that prefer to leave early and get there early, b/c I HATE being late and I get really anxious about getting through security and stuff, even though I check the TSA website routinely just to make sure that nothing changed.

 

[Megablocks]

So it's almost a week after New Years, but I'm going to do a mini-2008 review--just things that stick out in my mind, so there's not a recap for every month.

In February, Kailyn turned 15. She's nine years younger than I am, and she used to seem REALLY young to me. Now she doesn't. We went out to eat at TGI Fridays.

Charles, his brother, and SIL have a friend who's in a band, and we go to see them often. They played at a nearby club on the night of my sister's birthday, and the four of us went to see them, along with Charles's parents and uncle. We got there pretty early, but there was some entertainment going on, the entertainment being belly dancers. Totally wasn't expecting that. The small bar + loud music + loud people (some intoxicated) = not a happy Meghan. I don't do small, loud, crowded places, and we found a bench to sit on along a wall, but I was still not happy. Charles tried to distract me with taking pictures (NOT of the entertainment.) This is me being unhappy and Charles hoping that I didn't start panicking.

April was a big month for me. Charles and I celebrated our two year anniversary on the 7th, and I turned 24 on the 13th. For Charles's and my anniversary, we went to the Cheesecake Factory, and were incredibly confused by the Christmas decorations. It turned out that they were filming a movie--"Paul Blart, Mall Cop," the Kevin James movie coming out soon, was being filmed.

My birthday was pretty low-key, because I'm not really a party kinda girl. We went out to eat at one of my favorite restaurants. The real celebration was coming just a few days later, when we went to Florida! Our Disney trip was from April 18-24, and it was such a good time. I'll be posting more of those pictures at some point.

In May, I finally made the decision to cut off and donate my hair. Originally, I was going to wait a little longer, but I ended up making the appointment not longer after we got back from Disney. My hair is pretty thick, and it was down to my waist by the time that I cut it off--you can kinda see how long it was if you look closely in some of the Disney pictures. I wanted to have it shorter for the summer. I had just over ten inches cut off, and it was still long.

June was a busy month as well. Charles turned 22! There was a party at his house, mostly with family, his best friend, and his best friend's family.

I also had my first-ever doggie reunion. My dog, Caesar, was rescued as a stray in Puerto Rico. PR has a huge stray dog problem, and there's an organization there called Save a Sato that actually rescues these dogs from the streets, gives them the medical attention that they need, and place them into "foster" homes so that they can learn how to live in a home among people and other dogs. They work with several no-kill shelters, and when the dogs are ready, they are shipped to these shelters and put up for adoption. That's how we got Caesar.

At the beginning of June, I got an email from Caesar's foster mom in PR, saying that some of the rescuers were coming up for a "sato reunion" in a nearby city in a few weeks. My dad, Charles, and I took Caesar and got to meet Caesar's foster mom and other adorable former strays that had been happily adopted. Maritza, the former foster mom, was sooooo nice and sweet. Just a couple of minutes after we arrived at the park, a lady approached us and asked who "this" (the dog) was. When I answered, she said, "AHHH, I knew it!" She was crying and so happy to see him. Before we left, we made sure to get some pictures in.

We also took some other pictures--the reunion was held at a park in Gloucester, MA, right on the ocean. It was gorgeous.

Kailyn, Charles, and I also went on a whale watch in Gloucester. It was a first for Kailyn and I, even though we've lived in Massachusetts all our lives. It was really cool! It was very tiring for some reason, though. I guess being out in a boat in the middle of the ocean for a few hours will do that to you.

He was wearing my sunglasses because he forgot his and the sun was REALLY strong!

Like my sweatshirt?!

It started raining during the tour, but it wasn't a big deal. What was really cool was that when we were out in the water, we could see lightning on the coast. It was surreal. Anyway, since it was raining, I pulled my hood over my head and tied it tightly. Kailyn couldn't look at me without laughing.

Charles took all of these. He had been on a whale watch before and wanted Kailyn and I to get the full experience.

Continued in next post...

 

[Megablocks]

We made a couple of day trips to Salem, MA, in July and August, and my cousin Elise came with us a couple of times. She and Kailyn are just six months apart and she is seriously one of the funniest people that I know. On one of our Salem trips, we visited the house of the seven gables, and Elise noted that a painting in one of the rooms looked like Shia LaBeouf...I looked, AND IT DID. We were trying so hard to stifle our laughter. Elise even told our tour guide about it, and he said that he'd probably start mixing up the names.

The first picture cracks me up--we were on a trolley, and the guy in front of Kailyn and Elise didn't smell pleasant at all. Naturally, they were downwind of him the whole time. Kailyn looks disgusted and Elise was trying to get fresh air after he got off.

Witch trials memorial. An ancestor on my mother's side of the family was once married to Bridget Bishop, so I had to take this picture.

In August, my parents, Kailyn and I went out to Ohio to visit my grandmother and some other family. Mikey couldn't get the time off work.

This was taken at like 7 in the evening. Pulling an all-nighter and driving for 12 hours is tiring, even though she slept in the car pretty much the whole time.

This was the trip where we found the weird glasses featured at the beginning of the report. [[I removed the picture of me wearing them b/c they really are very, very strange and it was definitely a creepy picture )

My dad:

My aunt has an awesome dog--his name is Brady, he is an American bulldog, 100+ pounds, solid as a rock, and very, very friendly. Despite his size, he likes laps. You can see her other dog, Abigail, in the second picture, with my aunt.

At the end of August, we went to a Red Sox game and sat on the Green Monster, since my dad had won tickets. Michael turned 21, my dad turned *1 . In October, my mom had her birthday, and November and December were an amazing blur of Trans-Siberian Orchestra, snow, the decision to go back to Disney World, Thanksgiving, etc. Sometime around then, this PTR was born, and through the DIS, I've gotten to "meet" some awesome people.

So, there's my quick year in review. It will be cool to look back at this later on!

 

[MeMom]

Wow! Your year has been much more exciting than mine!

Whale watching would be awesome. Glad to see you 'represented' with your sweatshirt.

I loved hearing about the rescue organization. I know many lucky doggie pals find great homes through that. What a good work.

And as for the Babysitter Club - Jill probably read them all and had several of the movies, too. They were well-worn. If we didn't sell them at a yard sale, then they're still around here somewhere.

Jill's wardrobe - well, just watch Full House. The bold colors, geometric designs, leggings, and layers - she was all that!

 

[Lady Lallie]

Your family seems like so much fun.

I love the picture of your dad in the glasses, it cracks me up!

 

[CanadianWDWfan]

for 1 extra hour in WDW!

You had a great year in 2008. The dog rescue is so wonderful. How kind to cut your hair for charity. Whale watching looks fun. The glasses....so funny.

 

[Megablocks]

So I was re-reading my posts, and I realized that I wasn't clear with the whole Cheesecake Factory and filming thing. The Cheesecake Factory is in the mall that they were filming "Paul Blart, Mall Cop," and the mall had Christmas decorations set up everywhere, including a Santa's village. Sometimes I forget to elaborate, because it's in my head, and I forget that not everyone knows immediately what I'm talking about.

Wow! Your year has been much more exciting than mine!

Whale watching would be awesome. Glad to see you 'represented' with your sweatshirt.

I loved hearing about the rescue organization. I know many lucky doggie pals find great homes through that. What a good work.

And as for the Babysitter Club - Jill probably read them all and had several of the movies, too. They were well-worn. If we didn't sell them at a yard sale, then they're still around here somewhere.

Jill's wardrobe - well, just watch Full House. The bold colors, geometric designs, leggings, and layers - she was all that!

Whale watching was wicked cool. I didn't realize how far out we'd have to go! It took at least an hour and a half to get to the spot where there were lots of whales. I think we were out there for about 4-5 hours total, and I was really surprised by how tiring it was. Kailyn fell asleep at our table inside the cabin.

That rescue organization is so great; they do so much for the dogs that the rescue. I would love to be able to foster animals (well, dogs--I'm allergic to cats), but I would have such a hard time parting from them.

I was absolutely obsessed with the Baby-Sitters Club books! My great-aunt gave me the first five in the "mystery" series, and that was what started it. I had several of the movies, too, and I think that I might have some of the books still down in our cellar.

Oh, yeah, I had a similar wardrobe. I think Jill and I must be close in age. I had a special fondness for leggings underneath skirts or long t-shirts, and socks work over the leggings. I took a picture of a pamphlet from our first trip to Disney because the girl on it was wearing an outfit exactly like what I used to wear.

Your family seems like so much fun.

I love the picture of your dad in the glasses, it cracks me up!

Thanks! We have a lot of fun. Even being stuck in a van for 12 hours is sometimes entertaining.

When my sister and I got back to the room, he wanted to get in on the weird pictures, and was even giving us ideas. I think that one he suggested was Kailyn holding a box of mac and cheese upside down, wearing the glasses. I can't post that though because she'd kill me. She let me add them on Facebook, but only because I didn't tag her.

for 1 extra hour in WDW!

You had a great year in 2008. The dog rescue is so wonderful. How kind to cut your hair for charity. Whale watching looks fun. The glasses....so funny.

Thanks! I'm so excited about it. It's just an hour, but getting there around 12:30 just sounds so much better than 1:30.

Sadly, I don't think I'll be able to grow my hair out long enough to donate it again--it was SUCH a pain in the butt to maintain, and I'm itching to get it cut before we leave.

Whale watching was really cool, but much more tiring than I would have expected. We had a choice of 2 times--one left at 8 AM, and the other left at 12 or 1. We took the later one, because we were required to show up about 30 minutes beforehand, and weren't really feeling leaving around 7 AM. I'd definitely do it again, though, and my cousin Elise wants to go on one, so I'm hoping that there'll be another one over the summer.

 

[koolcatshelby]

Great update for the year. Looked like lots of fun. First, Cheesecake Factory is one of our favorites! My husband got me and each of the boys gift certificates for our stockings. The boys were as happy as if they got a new toy(and they are 9 & 5)! Love it! Second, great about your pooch. We have had more than a few used(as I like to call them) dogs, rescued from the pound or random bad situations. They are the best. So loving and happy to have a loving home. Wouldn't trade it for puppies. On a side note, we "dog sit" for my SIL and have 2 rescues and one puppy. Could not do the puppy thing again(especially since it was not ours). Nothing like an older dog. Anyway, our trips are fast approaching, and I'm thinking of revamping some of our park days. Most of our ressies are for 5:30 and some of the parks are not open very late. A change from when I booked them . I'm trying not to worry too much (yeah right). Cool re: the extra hr/flight change. I hope that doesn't happen for us as I would have to take the oldest out from school early . Take care.

 

[Megablocks]

Thanks!

I love love love the Cheesecake Factory. They have so many different things! That's so cute about your kids being so excited over the gift cards.

We've had three dogs, 2 of which have come from shelters. The other was born on a farm, and we got him as a puppy, and he was WILD. I was only eight when we got him, but I know that it took a long time to get him housebroken. Caesar was rescued at 3-4 months, and when we got him, he was about 6 or 7 months old. He was kinda in between puppy and adult, so we had to housebreak him, and it took him a while to learn that shoes aren't toys, but he also had a pretty good idea of what to avoid (outlets, cords, my brother's games and game systems--except that he chewed my cell phone charger once. ) I couldn't do the puppy thing again, either! My boyfriend's family got a puppy, and he's adorable, but wow, what a handful.

Yeah, I heard about some of the park hour changes. We decide what we're doing day-by-day, but I know that we're at least going to AK on our arrival day for nighttime EMH, and maybe another park. I think that we're also doing morning EMH at MK on the 12th. I'm hoping to run in to you!