Pretty good, huh? I have absolutely no idea what chapter this would be, so I switched from numeric to alphametic. If I lose track again, I'll have to switch to something else.
Maybe diabetic.
Lady Mar, you can come back in now, just put the remaining ones back under the seat cushion where you found them.
And Monica, I'm sure you look just fine in socks and crocs, I'm just a teasin'.
Sunday morning arroved quite early. (Arroved?) Why not?
Quite early because I never really got into a good sleep, Ol' Pop Warner was in fine form last night.
Diane made another call to the front desk in the night, and she told me she could tell they were getting a lot of calls.
Fine, then DO SOMETHING about it!
Turns out they did which we didn't find out until later.
3 families were kicked out in the middle of the night, for kids fighting. The bizarre part is the two were from Baltimore, and one from Hawaii, or the other way around.
Hawaii? Get out!
Kind of brings a picture to your mind of a kid yelling "I got your Aloha right here"!
Today plans: MGM rope drop, break at the pool, meet up with Jill and John and their friend Kim by the pool, then back to MGM for Fantasmic and the Osbourne Lights.
Now, just to show how incredibly OCD I can be, it was 3 months ago to the minute as I type this that we met up with them at the Dawa Bar in Animal Kingdom for a beer. (eastern time).
But, I digest.
This terrific Sunday morning was met with the news that most of the PW'ers will be leaving today, a cast member told me as I was getting my coffee.
I then asked when the shop opens so I can get a newspaper and she told me in ten minutes, at 7, I had five minutes to wait.
I walked out the front door to the bus stop area to have a smoke, and was in a bit of a sleep-deprived goofy mood, especially after hearing the news about PW leaving.
And what to my wondering eyes should appear?
Are the Magical Express benches, filled with their gear.
I couldn't really tell if these were Pw people or not, it seemed like there should have been more kids, but I didn't care. They all seemed so sad, and I know the feeling. Been there, done that.
If they are regular Disney folks, I feel for them. And if they are PW, well, I can feel for them a bit too, probably had to spend too much of their Disney time watching football games, and now it's time to leave.
After having my smoke, I had to walk right past them to go back inside and I paused. Most have their head in their hands, almost all slumped forward on the bench, some silently weeping. And from around the corner I could see the ME bus making the turn into the Music resort.
One of the doomed also noticed and announced to anyone outloud "Here it comes".
The weeping increased, while some starting grabbing their gear.
Well, I just couldn't resist.
"Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I feel no fear, for thou art with me. Thy rod and thy staff.."
One guy looked up from the bench and did his best Archie Bunker on me,
"OH SHUT UP YOU"!
I just smiled and went inside and got my paper.
About 15 minutes before it was time to head to the MGM bus stop, Smidgy and I went to have a smoke at the smoking section near the piano pool, only she took the main path, while I went along the room walkway. Her way was shorter, and by the time I got there, she is hugging some strange woman, who turns out to be Jill, also having a smoke.
Soon her husband John and their friend Kim come up, and after introductions, we all then stand around and look stupid wondering what to say. They are going to MGM too, and if we want we can ride with them.
I declined the ride, graciously I hope, I felt like we just met, which we did, and didn't want to impose already on them.
Besides, we still haven't had the "official" meeting yet, that's not supposed to happen until two, and another besides: Hey, they are from Ohio! Cleveland at that! You can never be too careful.
heh
So they drove, we took the bus, but I was looking forward to getting to know them more by the pool. Here's what you are greeted with just outside of the park.
Not a great tree, but a tree nonetheless.
and then just inside on the main drag.
At the park, I've got the schedule firmly set in quicksand.
The first thing I don't want to do is Aerosmith, RNRC. Then I don't want to do Tower of Terror, at least not this early in the morning. I'm always afraid I'm going to lose my glasses on Aerosmith, or lose my coffee or my life on TOT.
But I do know enough to get fastpasses, which I did for TOT while Diane waited in the nearby smoking area. Yes Emily, I did actually do the running once for the fastpasses.
When I got back, Diane is now accompanied by Jill, while she waits for John and Kim to do the coaster. This is when they learned they have a lot in common, Jill loves amusement parks like Diane, but not thrill rides like Diane doesn't either. Smidgy really doesn't like going any higher than her knee, she sometimes gets vertigo standing on a shag carpet.
John and Kim join us and we now have a pre-pre- meeting.
Then we part again and Smidgy and I go to Little Mermaid and Good Movie Ride. THen it's over to Echo lake smoking area, while we wait for the 11 o'clock Indy Stunt Shoe.
Show.
Geesh let's not get started on that again.
Wanna guess who was walking up to the smoking area at the same time we were?
So this has now become a pre-pre-pre- meeting. I'm sure if we had ridden with them and planned the day together we wouldn't have seen as much of them.
We split up again with Jill saying we'll see you by the pool, and I just thought, "yeah, right".
"Or the next smoking area, whichever comes first."
We just got into the Indy show in time before it closed the doors. Ended up seated in the second row, but way over on the right.
Have I told you before that Smidgy was once picked as an extra and spent the show on the stage?
And you know me, the only thing I ever got picked for was a face they kept showing on the screen in Laugh Floor, and that was just recently. I was, the invisible man always at Disney.
Shoot, not just Disney, all through my life, even here at home.
Next to my picture in my high school yearbook, most kids signed it with "Who?"
And as far as "King of the Castle" goes, it should be, "What I say goes!" (right out the window).
But not today. Uh UH! I'm tired, but in the mood for making a jerk out of myself.
Mama always said to do what you're good at.
The girl comes out on the stage, does her thing, and now she is looking for volunteers.
So here's Ol' Nebo, jumping up and down, with his fishing hat on backwards, (like it makes a difference), and acting like I'm trying to get on "Let's Make A Deal".
She walks way over to the left side of the stage, almost right in front of me, (you see, I was sitting on the right side, which would put me on the left side of the stage, you see, her left, then becomes my right, right is left, and left is right, got it? Geesh), and she points right at me!
We're going to take a short break here right now, time for a manhattan, even though the suspense is killing me;
Out of her mouth, comes the words; "You there, the one in blue," (I look down, I'm wearing blue!), (boy, I've really got a parenthesees thing going this chapter don't I? Hope you all appreciate the time it takes to find them and hit the shift key at the same time), "Yes, the lady next to the guy in the stupid hat, COME ON DOWN!"
I was aghast, agape, and agog!
Yes, I was so intent on watching the girl on the stage that I wasn't paying any attention to the woman jumping up and down right next to me.
Would anyone care to venture a guess whom that said woman turned out to be?
No, I don't mean Jill, I mean,
take a good look, it's our very own,
for an encore performance,
INDIANA DIANA!
I could have killed her.
Three vikes I had been saving bit the dust right there, just in spite.
Without water!
She's now jumping up and handing me her fanny pack and screaming, "Oh me! Again? What are the odds of that?"
I threw her on the stage.
And all I have is a crappy throw away camera with me, the one she just handed me, I had left the Canon in the room. That photo you just saw is the best of the batch, as she was running off the stage at the end.
So I tried to cheer myself up, by taking it out on a kid sitting next to me.
He was wearing a baseball cap, only had it on backwards, like kids do all the time nowadays. So just like I had done once before to a kid, I said to him,
"Hey, that's pretty cool, they put the bill on the back of the hat instead of the front like they normally do, know where I can get one of them?"
He didn't even look at me, next thing I knew he had swithced places with his older sister.
When the show started, I kept hoping they would mistake Diane for the planted guy that gets beat up, but no such luck.
On the way back to Music, I put on my best La La permagrin while I listened to what she had to say.
We changed went down to the pool and our alter egos were already there.
All uncomfortableness was gone now, (is that a word?) and we all got along just great. Kim is very sweet, and John and Jill like to make jabs and cracks just as much as I do. After a while, John said he was going up to the room for a beer, and , not being raised a fool, I said I'd join him, "Always wanted to see what one of the new suites there looked like."
Diane came with so that ended up costing him two more beers than expected.
THe best part was everywhere I looked, you could see people filing out, it was bye bye time for the rest of Pop Warner.
By the way, I think the suites are great for a large family, they knocked down part of the wall, made it two bedrooms and two baths, plus a small kitchenette.
We set up a smoking area meet for an hour from now, to go back and see Fantasmic and the Osbourne Lights. This time since drinking will be involved, we all agreed to take the bus.
turns out we shoulda walked
coming up, Photos? Oy, we have photos, even some of Jill and the group.
later
