Shawn made some passing mention of, "It's funny - we never even go on Star Tours anymore." That was all I needed to hear!
I said, "I have been wanting to go on Star Tours for the last several trips. No one will ride it with me."
Shawn grumbled something about getting a headache from it but she hasn't been on it in 8 years so she has no clue how she will react now! In any case, I guess she figured she had better go on it to pacify me, and that's fine! I will accept that as a reason!
Reading into some of the stuff she does, I can't help but think that a small bit of what she does and how she communicates is something like me. Like, if I wanted to go on ST but didn't want to admit that I did, I might say something like that. And if I were in a particularly icky mood, I might respond like she did, when you said what you said, rather than just say "oh yay yippee we can go!"
And not wanting to lose the table...well for ME, and it might not be that way for Shawn, but for ME, I sometimes don't want to do things that might draw attention to me b/c I feel lousy about myself. It's this really weird combo of low self esteem along with a really bizarro seemingly HIGH self esteem, that EVERYONE is going to notice me, and then everyone is going to think bad things about me. When really, most people don't notice the things other people do, and few people think *anything* good or bad about the things other people do, unless it really impacts their lives.
I have given up countless things in the last couple years because I'm upset with how I look and feel, and then later think "why did I do that?" and then give up something else.
Anyway, that's just how I feel when I'm doing or saying things somewhat similar to your friend...it might not be at all what's going on with her.
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Your story of Bret Michaels and how everything started to change, and the layers between old friends and him got too deep...it's all very much like my mom's stories of when she was younger. She lived in SF in the 60s, and was friends with many people as they were starting out. Then they got a bit more money, got famous, they stopped living with 10 of their friends, got their own places, had "people" to keep others from them, and so on. They stopped trusting old friends because so many old friends just wanted things from them. And I can totally see how that awkward moment with you on the radio phone must have felt for him...it was totally innocent of you, but for him he didn't know if you were being goofy or if you were being a bad person. I feel so bad for you and also for him.
My mom was only able to hang on to one friend from that time, Paul Kantner of Jefferson Airplane/etc. They sent xmas cards every year until the year before she died.
I've always felt bad that I didn't write to him to let him know she had died, but she had said that he was starting to decline mentally and physically, and she figured that he just wasn't sending cards to anyone...so maybe he just wouldn't want to know about his old friend.
Anyway, the tale of someone becoming famous has happened time and time again...it just seems that those who become famous don't learn from others (lol, the scene with the old car from Cars trying to tell McQueen what he needs to do and McQueen daydreaming about nothing but success comes to mind), and so many old friends become money-attention-grubbing people, and there's just no way for the GOOD people to tell the famous people that they are truly good...it's happened a million times before and I'm sure it will never change.
Sigh.
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Oh and by the way, I would make an EXCELLENT celebrity who can rent out the parks, because I personally would LOVE it with absolutely no crowds. I'd bring my own friends and they could do whatever they wanted (you guys are all invited), but we would all be allowed to say "hey, get out of my shot!" when taking a picture.
I like being able to see all of the queue stuff (I routinely let others in front of me as I saunter slowly down a line, like in Indy etc), but I don't want to HAVE TO see all the queue stuff for minutes at a time while I wait and wait and wait.
. You cropped them out really well and I love the subject focus as well !
a lightbulb just went off in my head while I was reading your report! About Goofy's..... I have always done the breakfast character meal and never even thought about doing dinner. Last time we went I was disappointed with breakfast but just maybe... I might could get the guys to go do dinner... with more characters, huh? So what's on the dinner menu? and what time of day are the characters there? Gotta go do some research! Feel free to throw in any comments from your past experience! You got some wonderful character photos while you were there!
Heck, I'd be lost without lists! Perish the thought. 
We have much in common... I am also a last minute packer. 
