ANOTHER Adventure in Autism (4/15) A Taste of What's to Come...

[KathyRN137]

Chapter 32: We're Thankful for the Bird, but Not the Bill!



Our family arrived right on time to check in at Liberty Tree Tavern. We checked in at the desk, received our buzzer-thingy, and proceeded to wait for my DSis, Marilyn, and her family. They arrived not long after. Then it was five minutes of Hug-Hug, Kiss-Kiss!! All the kids were excited; they bounced up and down like this guy

I was excited, too. I wanted to catch up with my sister and find out how the girls were doing (their first WDW trip), and I was looking forward to some fun character interaction. We had such a good time here last year!

Six months ago, when I originally called for the ADR, the only time slot I could get for a party of TEN on this day was 4:30pm. At first, I was none too pleased with getting the “early bird special”. But as it turned out, I was glad for the early reservation. The Colonial-themed “tavern” was packed! Our mob-capped hostess led us to two tables in the main room. It was much more noisy here than it had been in the smaller (Ben Franklin?) room we had been seated in on our previous visit. We were, however, seated at tables along the wall as I had requested, so it was fine…we didn’t feel quite as enveloped by the crowd!


There is great theming here in these rooms, lots of pewter accents and stitched samplers on the walls. Even the background music is of the period. I remember the Ben Franklin room being a bit more "formal". This room was decorated in what I supposed was to be considered "Casual Colonial!" It would have been very cozy, had it not been for the noise level.


The characters started coming over right away! (Unlike a buffet meal, however, we did not have to worry about missing any of them when we were away from the table.) Marilyn and I had no time to chat; we were scrambling for our cameras!



Tricia & Chip

Billy & Dale

The food here is just all right…Stouffer’s-type stuffing and mac 'n cheese, but the kids all ate well without any fights, even the little ones, so it was great for them. Besides, we were really just here for the characters and not the "Thanksgiving Feast." The kids were having a ball! (But I don’t think we will be coming back here now that it will not be a character meal, unless they make some upgrades to the food.)


Turkey, Flank Steak, Ham and Stuffing on main platter. Fixin's on the rest.

Hey! You get away from those rolls!

My memory is a bit fuzzy here and Tricia is no help…she just told me she doesn’t remember anything about the meal, either, (except for the characters!) I’ll just need to let the pictures do the talking:


Tricia jumps in for a pic with her cousins

DNieces Emily, Josie, Beth & Friend - this Goofy really was goofy!!

Tricia & the Big Guy

Billy always says "Cheese" for the camera. Minnie likes it!

DSis Marilyn

I teased my sister because she was still wearing her “It’s my Birthday button”, even though her birthday had been two days earlier. But, my nieces were thrilled when the waitress brought her a special cupcake with a candle and we all sung, “Happy Birthday!” All was well. Even Aunt Rae was in high spirits. I felt that the bad karma that we felt earlier was fading away.

Until…..

There was a problem with the bill.


“Wait a minute,” you’re thinking, “don’t I remember Kathy saying that they were on the Dining Plan?” Oh, yes, you are correct dear reader: we were experiencing another Dining Plan snafu.

“I’m sorry, but you seem to have no more TS credits left on your (Key to the World) card,” the waitress said. I was stunned. I had most certainly paid for a full week of Dining plan credits when we checked in and now we were being told (again) that our credits had been used up. (Remember the snack credit problem back in Epcot?) Okay, perhaps you don’t. I don’t blame you, its not one of the more exciting aspects of the report. But, suffice it to say, I had taken the time to stop by Guest Services and I thought that it had been straightened out.

“Oh no,” I groaned to Ed. “I’ll bet this has something to do with our split reservations again.” Sigh. The last thing I wanted to do was to have to waste more R&R time at the Guest Services desk. But, it couldn’t be helped. The LTT CMs couldn’t help, so we just paid for the meal with a credit card.


Now, the plan originally called for our two groups to stick around the MK for awhile so the cousins could do some of the attractions together. But, believe it or not, it was now almost 6:30! We had been at dinner for two hours and the little kids (not to mention AR) were getting over-tired. Marilyn and John had been at the MK all day without a break, too. As much as we hated to, we decided to part ways and each go back to our respective resorts. (They were at CBR) But, we had such a good time together...I'm glad we had planned that meal!

So, not only did I have to leave my precious MK, but I had to do so knowing that I needed to straighten out this Dining Plan business before I could rest and hang out with the rest of the family. Blech!

I have no further pictures after dinner, so Ed had probably been getting on my case again about spending too much time photographing our trip and not enough time enjoying it!

We got back to the VWL and everyone just sort of flopped down to rest a bit. Then I gathered up my things and prepared to leave for the Guest Services desk, which was located in the Lobby of the main Lodge. The plan was for Ed to take the kids swimming while AR could rest in her room. Sounds great, huh?


Well, remember the Robert Burns poem about “…the best laid plans…”


I got over to Guest Services and I recall a fairly long wait, as there were lots of folks checking in to the WL. You can’t beat those surroundings, though. At least if I had to wait in line, I had a lot to look at! Without my notes I cannot recall the names of the two CMs who helped me (one was a trainee, I gathered), but they really tried their best to straighten things out. The only problem was that I was a DVC member staying in the Villas and, even though DVC guests check in at the WL desk, it was only DVC Member Services that could help straighten out the mess.

This may seem complicated, sorry! Because of the way I needed to procure my reservation at the Wilderness Lodge, which is not my “home” DVC resort, I had resorted (no pun intended) to making a day-by-day reservation because all of our dates were not immediately available. I was able to get all of our dates on DVC points except one, Wednesday, which I needed to make as a cash reservation. Our dining plan was actually on two separate sets of key cards, one of which I was just being told, I would need to pick up the next morning, or I would not be able to use any Dining Plan credits the next day. I know, sorry, you are now even more lost.

Perhaps this will help:

DVC Points / regular "cash" reservation / DVC Points​

Now, normally when you got the DP, you could use the credits whenever you like: You didn't have to use 1TS 1CS and 1S per day. For example, it was okay to use 2TS one day and then 2CS the next. So six months earlier when I made those ADRs, I hadn't planned on the "split" reservation situation above, so I messed up.


Then, there was another thing. The first time I had come to GS (Monday??) to get this straightened out, they specifically told me I needed to come back on Friday, not Thursday. (This I know, because I wrote it in my PassPorter, which I have in front of me.) Now, I would have to make another stop at the GS desk the following morning. Great.

Really, all I wanted was to be able to get a refund for the TS credits we did not use at LTT. (You give your credit card for the DP when you check in, but they don’t actually charge your account until you check out.) So, it seemed to me that all they needed to do was to credit me the value of five TS credits. They couldn’t do that either. Not today, nor tomorrow. “That’s something you need to call DVC Member Services to help you with.” Double Great. DVC Member Services was now closed and would not open until 9am. (They had "banker's hours then: Mon-Fri 9am-5pm.)

There goes our plan to be at the Studios for rope drop the next day.

I left the desk feeling very dejected, and not like the biggest fan of DVC. (*Since then, there have been some changes in DVC booking policies and hours of operation for Member Services, which I hope will help in the future.)

“This area is being refurbished for your future enjoyment.”

(But, I have to give those 2 CMs at the desk credit; they did their best to help, so Thank You!)


*Sigh* Oh well, I thought as I walked across the covered walkway to the Villas side, perhaps we could all use an extra hour of sleep tomorrow anyway.

I stuck my card in the door. The green light came on, and I turned the handle to let myself into our Villa.



And that was when all Heck broke loose…..


Kathy

 

[mrsksomeday]

I love the pictures from dinner!! I loved Billy interacting with the characters. Looks like you had a great time until you had to deal with the dining plan disaster. That had to be so annoying.

I swear Bill and Ed are related. I have also heard the "spending too much time photographing our trip and not enough time enjoying it!"

I don't think you and I can help it, there are pictures to take and we are going to take them!! They need to just love us for who we are: OTP's!!!

Oops forgot to add, your teaser sounds ominous!!

 

[DisMomAmy]

Sorry about the big Dining plan fiasco! What a mess! I'm glad you shared your review of the LTT food - it was on my maybe list, but since there aren't going to be any characters there (which I already knew), I think we'll skip it. The food doesn't sound great...

I hope you got the dining plan thing straightened out without much trouble.

 

[Hedy]

Sorry about the dining fiasco. (I will not make a flippant comment over waiting a year to find out about it. You said it would be on the test).

 

[whgrn]

OMG Kathy what a teaser! "All heck broke loose"???? What? What? What?!?!?!?!?!!?!?

Please, don't keep us hanging!

 

[KathyRN137]

Sorry about the dining fiasco. (I will not make a flippant comment over waiting a year to find out about it. You said it would be on the test).

What? Who, Me??

Kathy

 

[starrzone]

Love this TR! Kathy (from a fellow Cathy!), I'm so glad you took the time to come back to writing with the extremely hectic spring/summer/fall it sounds like you had. What's even more amazing is that you remember so many details, even without trip notes!

I must say, it sounds like you handled all the bumps along the way with a calm outlook; I guess we'll see for sure when we hear about all Heck breaking loose...

 

[DearDaisyinDurham]

love your tr... but I shouldn't have started reading just before midnight last night... you got me hooked and now I am so tired ack!

anyway, love it, thanks for sharing!

 

[MRYPPNS]

I just hope the Villa doesn't look like a crime scene!

 

[tiggerbell]

Wow! I have been accused of some really mean cliffhangers - but that one takes the cake!!!

 

[whgrn]

Good gracious, tiggerbell, how many Disney trips do you have planned this year?!?!

 

[mousescrapper]

wow I was way behind....

3+ installments.... and

I can barely remember what I wanted to comment on in one...but just to say:

Thank you for all your honesty of the bad moments including your own

It's always good to remember even at Disney everything isn't Poppin Perfect all the time and sometimes our inner needs to come out.

Thanks for the mini AG update, we love going there too!

and Jack's PT for Ed!

Can't wait for more...hope it's not too bad

J-

 

[KathyRN137]

Ch. 32: The Velcro Crackles and the Pop-Off Valves Pop!

No pictures this post, and definitely TMI.
(But we're friends, right?)​

As you have probably noticed, the state of my emotions had been up and down like an elevator on the Twilight Zone ToT all week! There were moments of pure Disney joy, but there had been a growing number of worries, miscommunications, and minor irritations as well. And, as the week progressed, I had been beginning to feel as though the latter stressors had been slowly growing and threatening to negate all the magic that I had so been looking forward to all these many months.

The pressure had been building, slowly and steadily, and it was about to reach its limit.


Which brings me to the rather odd title of this post: The Velcro Crackles and the Pop-Off Valves Pop. Unless you are or have ever been an EMT (Emergency Medical Technician) such as I had been (in my “former life” before having children), you will not recognize the reference. I apologize for using one that is so very obscure, but it truly the first metaphor that came to mind when I thought about the situation and let me tell you, it fits!

I’ll try to make this brief.


There is a device used in the field for trauma patients called MAST Pants. (Well, at least they were used twelve years ago when I was active in EMS.) MAST Pants were used to stabilize patients whose blood pressure had dropped dangerously low, usually due to massive blood loss secondary to trauma.

Think of them as giant blood pressure cuffs that are applied to both legs and the lower abdominal/pelvic area like a pair of pants. Like a BP cuff, they are fastened with Velcro and inflated using a bulb, but you use your foot to pump it, not your hand.

Now, we’ve all had our blood pressure checked many times so I know that you have probably experienced the sensation when some health care professional just pump-pump- pumps that bulb and the cuff squeezes your arm so hard that it hurts. That is because the blood flow has been completely cut off. Now, with MAST pants the goal is to exert enough pressure without cutting off the blood supply to the lower body and getting a complete tourniquet effect.

Well, you already know how easy it is for someone to overdo it when pumping up that blood pressure cuff. So, the creators of the MAST pants made them idiot-proof by placing little pop-off valves on the device that actually POP like the button on a Perdue oven-stuffer roaster when the pants have been inflated to the proper level. (Cool, huh?!) Just prior to the valves popping, there is tension on the Velcro fasteners that results in that crackling sound you get when the two sides of Velcro are being pulled apart.

So, when Ed and I taught EMT students (that’s how we met, incidentally), we would drill it into them over and over again:


Q: How do you know when the pressure inside the pants has reached a safe limit?

A: When the Velcro crackles and the pop-off valve pops!


Everyone in the family, it seems, had been slowly getting stressed out on this trip. The crackling sounds had been getting louder and more frequent over the past couple of days.

Because of this, I had been thinking, as I walked from the Lobby back to our first floor villa, how good it was that Ed and the kids were, at that very moment, splashing and playing out in the pool and that Aunt Rae was enjoying some peace and quiet in her room (hopefully with her feet up.) At least that was what was supposed to be happening, according to my operational plan.

And so, it was with complete surprise and dismay that I opened the door and beheld a scene of utter familial discombobulation….the pop-off valves had popped!

The first thing that struck me was the sight of Aunt Ray, crying, and wringing her hands. She looked up as I came in and began to wail, “I’m sorry, Kathy, I’m sorry! I’m sorry I’m ruining your trip!” I took a few steps inside to the living room area and beheld Tricia with tears streaming down her face.

“What’s happened?” I asked. “What’s the matter?”

I heard Ed’s voice coming from the Studio side of the villa, which Tricia and AR were sharing. He barked for Tricia to, “Get in here, young lady, right now!” and judging from his tone, she had better do it. Tricia jumped up from the couch and ran into the Studio side, where I heard Ed shouting at her, which produced a fresh round of wailing from Aunt Rae.


“What is it? What’s happened??” I begged, but no one seemed to be paying any attention to me! Aunt Rae just sat down in a chair, dissolved in tears, and mumbled over and over that she was “ruining everything.”

I threw my bag down on the table and followed Tricia into the Studio, past the bed area and into the bathroom/dressing area where she was being yelled at by her father to, “Clean up this mess, right now!!” His face was red and hers were covered with tears. “I can’t take it anymore,” she sobbed. “I don’t want to be roommates with Aunt Rae anymore!” Ed shushed her and motioned for me to follow him out to the living room. He strode off and I turned to Tricia and made a motion with my hands upturned and mouthed, “what happened?”

“Aunt Rae yelled at me,” she said, hiccoughing. “She got upset because she thinks I’m not keeping the room neat but I’m trying to be neat and I’m not a slob she just wants everything perfect and I can’t even relax in my own room and…..” her run-on vent was interrupted by her father calling for me.

(Aunt Rae yelled at her? YELLED? I’ve never heard her raise her voice, never. And, for this to happen with one of her precious nieces and nephews? It was incomprehensible!)


I looked around the bathroom area. It looked fine to me. Other than a few toiletry items of Tricia’s out on the sink and a pair of dirty socks balled up on the floor, it wasn’t really that messy. Well, perhaps it may seem that way to you and me....

I sighed and patted her on the shoulder before turning to go back into the living room, where I found Ed trying to reassure AR that everything was all right.

“Oh, Kathy, I’m so ashamed! I’ve been forgetting everything and….I was so angry at you and Ed because I thought you were treating me like a child!”


“What?” I looked at Ed, hoping for an explanation. This didn’t sound like what we had just been talking about; about roommate problems with Tricia. She went on:

“I’m just going to stay here tomorrow, you all go off without me, I’m just ruining everything…oh, I’m so sorry,” and she proceeded to cry harder.

“Aunt Rae, it was just a little mistake, it could have happened to anyone,” Ed reassured her, uncomfortably. “Don’t talk nonsense, you’re coming with us.”

What mistake? What “could have happened to anyone?” What did I miss?


Frustrated, I looked around for Billy. He wasn’t anywhere to be seen. I went in to the master bedroom and he was there on the bed, happily watching the Stacy show, oblivious to the drama next door. I stretched out on the bed next to him. Well, at least someone in this family hadn’t popped their valves!


Ed came into the room, shaking his head and taking deep slow breaths as if to relax. “I thought you guys were going to go to the pool,” I said questioningly. He told me that, after I had left to go to Guest Services, he had told Tricia that he was too tired and it was too late to go to the pool, which had sent her stomping off into her and AR’s side of the villa in a pout. He had been watching TV with Billy when, suddenly, he heard arguing coming from their room and when he went to investigate, he found AR in a terrible state. She was yelling at Tricia (he couldn’t believe it, either) and pacing around the room, stressing out over how she couldn’t live in this messy room and that Tricia needed to clean up her things. Tricia was protesting that she had not left her hairbrush and hairdryer out for good, she had been planning to go back to finish putting it away, etc, etc, and that she was tired of her (AR) “picking on her” all the time for “nothing”.

Crackle, POP!


Well, in fairness, I should have seen this coming. The two of them were like an elderly Felix Unger and an eleven-year-old Oscar Madison.


When Ed tried to placate AR while chiding Tricia for being messy, AR turned on him. (He must have made a light-hearted comment about her OCD tendencies in an attempt to diffuse the situation.) He said she started a long rant about how she was tired of being treated like a child by Ed and me and that it was bad enough that we wanted to confine her to a wheelchair “like an old lady”, but that we didn’t even give her an “adult” room key, because hers wouldn’t work.

Again, with the stupid room key card!

He said that at this point, he demanded to see her room key and said that he would walk them both down to guest services so she could hear it straight from a CM that there was no such thing as a “child’s” room key, and that we certainly would not have arranged for her to have one if they did. Figuring that the key must have somehow become de-activated, he asked her to show it to him. Shaking, she drew it out of her wallet and handed it to him. He looked at it closely and could not believe his eyes.


You’re not going to believe this, either.


The dates on the key card were from 2006.

2006.


“Aunt Rae!” he said, “This is your room key from our stay at Old Key West last year! No wonder it doesn’t work!”


At that point he said, Tricia had stomped over to the little table next to the connecting door, pushed aside some park maps and Times Guides, and produced Aunt Rae’s key card. “Aunt Rae, I told you a hundred times your card was on the table, but you wouldn’t listen. Now do you believe me?” She was still quite upset that AR had yelled at her. At that point, AR had become hysterical and ran out of the room.


I lay there on the bed with my eyes wide and my mouth open in disbelief as Ed related the whole sorry tale. I honestly didn’t know whether to laugh or to cry; it was so absurd.


“Well, what’s the big deal? So, now she’s got the right card; what is she so upset about?” I asked him. He went on to explain that she was acutely embarrassed that she had made such a dumb mistake.

“Well, like, DUH,” I said. “Who keeps old room keys in their wallet, anyway?”

Aunt Rae does, that’s who.


So now, not only was she embarrassed by the mistake, she was upset because she had been resenting us all this time, thinking we had given her a “dummy” room key, and now she was afraid that we would be resenting her. She was also wracked with guilt that she had scolded Tricia and made her cry.


Crackle, Crackle…POP!!


Reluctantly, I got up and began to get Billy ready for bed. As I was making up the pull-out sofa for him, Tricia came out of her room and asked if she could sleep with Billy. I understood how she felt. I explained that Aunt Rae was feeling bad enough about what had happened; if Tricia slept in the other room it would just make her feel even worse. She vented to me about how hard it had been all week; how AR had constantly been telling her to pick up her things, to not put her feet up on the table, to make her (sofa) bed up first thing in the morning, etc.

“Mom, she wigged out on me because she went in the other night to take a shower and my wet bathing suit was hanging from the shower rod!” She rolled her eyes. “Like, doesn’t everyone hang their bathing suits up in the shower at Disney?”

I had to take some time to explain, in a reasonably hushed voice, that these quirks were all part of a disease…that AR was acutely sensitive to germs and messiness and such, much more so than the average person. “Tricia, when she sees your hairbrush on the counter by the sink where she brushes her teeth, well, there just might as well be worms crawling in the bristles instead of your hairs resting in there,” I said, adding, “It really grosses her out.”


Then I felt bad that I hadn’t done a better job of policing her side of the villa; perhaps this could have been avoided. Crackle, Crackle


After encouraging her to be more tolerant (and more tidy), I sent her off to bed and tucked Billy in tight.

“Tomorrow, we go to Disney MGM Studios!” he said, happily.

“Yes, Billy.” Ugh, I groaned inwardly. I still had to deal with our new key cards and the Dining Plan business the next day. We had an ADR (again with my DSis and family) for an early lunch at Play ‘N Dine, and I would have to get the table service credits straightened out before then.

Crackle, Crackle


Billy was gleefully unaware of my worries.


“First, Rock ‘N Rollercoaster. Then, Playhouse Disney, Live on Stage. Then, Star Tours, then…..”

“Yes, yes, Billy, we’ll do all that…”

“….and then, Play ‘N Dine at Hollywood and Vine, and then….”

“Yes, yes, Billy. Go to sleep now.” I kissed him and trudged back to the bedroom, where Ed was watching TV. We talked a bit more and shared our concerns about how AR was going to be able to handle the next day, if in fact she decided to go with us to the Studios at all.

“Well, we’ll just have to cross that bridge when we come to it,” I thought. I didn’t want to talk about it anymore; I was feeling emotionally drained. Ed was watching something that I wasn’t particularly interested in seeing, so I announced that I was going to run the whirlpool tub and have a nice, relaxing soak. It had struck me that this was our third stay in a DVC Villa and in all that time, I had never taken advantage of the whirlpool tub in the master bath. Now seemed like the perfect time to try it out!

But Ed began to grumble! He wanted me to hang out with him and watch TV. “Ah, the beauty of the master bath is that it has these nifty little shuttered doors that I can push open, thus, having my soothing bath while being able to watch TV with you in the bedroom at the same time!” I laughed.

He grunted. It wasn’t the same, but at least it was a compromise.

I filled the tub with steaming water and put my hair up so it wouldn’t get wet. I poured in some of the lavender-scented baby bath that I had brought for Billy to use in case he needed to “decompress” in the tub. Well, it’s Mommy who needs to decompress, now!


Ahh, this was it! This was what I needed!


I rolled up a towel to use as a headrest and placed it on the edge of the tub. I stepped into the water and pressed the button to activate the jets. Then I sat down and leaned back to rest my head on the towel.

Oh, Drat!

I couldn’t get myself under the water!

The tub’s jets were working away, making a nice surface layer of lavender-scented bubbles, but I couldn’t get myself to fit under the water! It seems as though the tub had drain holes at the water’s surface designed, of course, to prevent overflow and flooding of the bathroom. But, the water level was so low!! As I sat in the shallow tub, the water only came up to my waist. Safety-wise, it was great for kids, but for adults?

I’m 5’8’’, which is tall but not that tall. (Is it?)

I tried to reposition my towel-pillow a little lower and to scoot down a bit so that I could rest back and really soak in the tub. It was not working. I sat up again. Now I was beginning to get cold and this was not turning out to be the soothing spa-like experience I was craving. I repositioned myself again.

Great. I was able to bend my knees and wriggle a bit further under the water, but there was one problem. (Well, two to be exact.)

At the risk of giving TMI, there were now two islands that rose above the steamy, bubble churning water, and those islands were cold!

This was not comfortable at all, and I was now extremely frustrated.


Now, throughout this entire operation, Ed was talking to me through the open “window”, even though I had told him I didn’t want to discuss the whole AR/Tricia situation anymore. I decided that this was most decidedly a very un-relaxing experience and so, very disappointedly, I got out of the tub, opened the drain, and went in for a long, hot shower instead.


When I rejoined Ed after drying my hair, and getting into my pajamas and robe, he still wanted to talk, but now the conversation had turned to me (and my OP.) I stood there by the bedside table, cleaning out my baggallini and getting it ready for the next day.


“You do this every time, you try to squeeze too much in,” he said, flipping the channels on the TV. Then, for what seemed to me the hundredth time, he went on and on about how we don’t have enough time at the resort, that we spend too much time in the parks, that we make too many reservations for meals that lock us into having to be somewhere at a certain time, etc, etc,etc.

Crackle

“You know what I think we should do?”

Crackle, Crackle

He sat up on one elbow. “I think we should get to one of the parks when it opens, stay until lunch, and then just leave and spend the rest of the day relaxing at the resort.”

Crackle, Crackle, Crackle

“I never come home from my vacation feeling rested. That’s what you’re supposed to do on a vacation; relax. You’ve got us running around all the time so we don’t get to relax….”

Crackle, Crackle…..POP!


That was it; I had had enough.

I launched into my (second) tirade of the day. Relaxing? I’ll tell you about relaxing! Who does all the work researching and making arrangements for our WDW trip every year? Me. Who logged in dozens and dozens of calls to Member Services because Ed wanted to stay at the Wilderness Lodge this year? Me. Who spent the better part of the last six months planning and preparing a touring plan specifically designed to make everyone happy? Me!

I waved the OP in his face.

“Look, Here! Here! And Here!!” I pointed. “What do these say? Resort Time! Resort Time! Back to VWL for swimming and down time! And what about Sleep-In Day?!”

He interrupted, “When did we have a Sleep-In Day???”

“We’re having it Saturday, the last day of our vacation! Absolutely nothing planned except dinner at Ohana!” I said, completely exasperated. “I only showed you the plan about a hundred times! Don’t you remember telling me how happy you were about that?”

(From the other room) “Mom! Mo- -om!” It was Billy.

“ I shouldn’t have to wait until the last day of my vacation to sleep in!” he growled.

“Your vacation!! This is our vacation, the entire family’s!!” Big, fat tears were rolling down my cheeks. "Do you have any idea how it feels to work so hard to please everyone…you, Tricia, Billy, and Aunt Rae..."

“Mo- -om!”

“…And the worst thing is, none of you are happy! No one is enjoying this vacation except the one person who should be having the hardest time here, and that’s Billy!”

“Me!”

Ed went to the door and told Billy to go back to sleep. He came back and shut off the TV. The man shut off the TV. He was beginning to realize, I think, how upset I really was.


I continued. “You don’t want a plan?” I ripped up the rest of the OP. “Well, bye-bye plan! And when I get back, I’m changing the title of my trip report from Adventures in Autism to Adventures with Aunt Rae, because this entire trip has been about her and her problems!”

“Kathy, lower your voice,” he said.

“Mom! Mo- -om!” Billy called.

“You’re upsetting Billy.”

You know what, I thought, he was right. So far, Billy was the only one who was not upset. I had had enough of trying to please everyone and then getting blamed for everything that went wrong. From then on, I thought, I was just going to focus on Billy (and Tricia.) The rest of them could do what they wanted.

Ed continued to sit there, studying me. Then he spoke:


“Kathy, are you getting your period soon?”


Aaarrrrgghhhh! Why is it whenever a woman gets upset, a man always thinks it’s not his fault, it’s got to be PMS??

I spun on my heel and went back into the bathroom to brush my teeth. While doing so, I made a few calendar calculations in my head. (When you’re in the Disney Zone, you lose all track of time.)

Oh, POOPS! He was right! (I hate that!) No wonder I’m an emotional mess!


I went in to the darkened living room where Billy was sitting up in the middle of the sofa bed. I climbed in beside him and he chuckled.

“Mo- -om?”

“What is it, Billy?”

“Me!”

“Yes, you.”

“Can I snuggle?” (Translation: will you snuggle me.)

“Yes, Billy.” He cuddled up next to me and chuckled some more. Then he reached his head over to sniff my hair, which he does a lot. It’s part of his stimming behavior. When he did so, his cheek brushed against mine and he felt that it was wet.

He took my face in both his hands (the way I do to him when I want him to focus his attention) and put his face right up to mine and peered at me in the dark. Amazingly, he held my gaze for a long time. Then he began to wipe the wetness off my face with his hand.

“No cry, Mommy,” he said. “No cry.” He pushed my mouth into the shape of a smile. “We go to Disney MGM Studios tomorrow!”

Yes, we are at Disney. And for my boy, Billy, there’s no crying in Disney.


Kathy

 

[tiggerbell]

No crying in Disney - but you don't say anything about no crying at my desk! When you and you family have a melt-down, you go for broke! But after Billy's concern, things have to relax and get better... I'm hanging on every word!

Also, one of the reasons I'm no longer married is because if a husband said, "Are you getting your period?" to me in that instance, he'd be eating the OP!

 

[mrsksomeday]

Oh Kathy, I could just feel the tension reading that . I had a huge meltdown on our trip in October with Amy, I am so sorry for you having to go through that.

AR, I just don't know what to say, from her yelling at Tricia and Ed to the key card from 2006 ? I hope she realized you weren't treating her like a child and she started acting like an adult.

As for Ed getting upset about the OP? You do like many of us here, try to make everyone happy, you also plan things out so you can help Billy understand when and where you are going, that is essential to him having a good trip.

Bill was doing homework, but stopped so I could read your installment aloud, when I got to the:

“Kathy, are you getting your period soon?”

I said "oh no he didn't!!"

Billy really helps put things in perspective, I am so glad you decided to just focus on the kids. I was crying reading about how Billy wiped away your tears, he is such a sweet soul.

I hope your next day was much better.

Sometimes you just have to cry in Disney and just get it out .

 

[mom2mek]

Kathy, you had me reading with such anticipation through that installment! What a wonderful storyteller you are! Even if it's a story that you don't particularly want to tell!

Aren't kids amazing? I mean, seriously, for Billy to take your face in his hands like that....they just know how bring us back from the pit of despair!

My heart was breaking for you reading that - I know all too well the pressures we planners put on ourselves...it's so hard. But the rewards are usually worth it - I hope, in the end, you found that!

Sara

 

[Disneylvr]

Oh Kathy, this post has me in tears. Billy is just precious!!!! I hope there is no more crying in Disney for you and the family.

 

[whgrn]

Well I feel like I am THERE, in Disney, WITH you, as I'm reading this report! You are an awesome writer Kathy.

What an amazing little guy that Billy is, huh? He's probably more "aware" than the rest of the family combined. Give him a big hug.

I won't tell you what to give Ed...

 

[IluvXU]

That just is a day you probably can't ever dream of having at WDW... but take it to heart that you worked so hard and indeed Billy was having a great time, inspite of all the chaos!

 

[MRYPPNS]

Wow! I was really feeling for both you and Tricia in that update.
I mean it must have been hard on her sharing her room with someone with real OCD that you have to tip-toe around her feelings all the time. Poor kid.

And if my husband had pulled that he would have been sleeping at a Motel 6 that night!

I won't be surprised if later you tell us that there is someone more going on with AR since she seems (to this point in the story) to be in such denial about her health.

And Billy....had me in tears when I read about his kindness.

Excellent update!