Nothing to See Here...

[rentayenta]

Sherry.

 

[WDWJonasGirl]

I love the Mickey picture Sherry!!

 

[mariezp]

I think you certainly managed to capture a new and unique, near impossible to match photo from this year's trip!

Good eye. I'm not sure how many of us would have noticed Mickey hanging out on the wall. I love it!

As for you trip report.... I can't believe you would even think of leaving us hanging! You should know by now that your fans are here eagerly awaiting the latest installment and the continuation of your marathon run trip report. After all how many years have you been going to Disneyland... and sharing it with us? Gotta keep this baby rockin along!!! So bring it on!

 

[deejdigsdis]

Great Shadow Mickey pictures! Yep, can't say that I've seen any pics similar to those before.

 

[ddwlms]

As for you trip report.... I can't believe you would even think of leaving us hanging! You should know by now that your fans are here eagerly awaiting the latest installment and the continuation of your marathon run trip report. After all how many years have you been going to Disneyland... and sharing it with us? Gotta keep this baby rockin along!!! So bring it on!

ya,....what she said

 

[bumbershoot]

I love the shadow-Mickey picture. Love it!


Thank you so much for sharing your room! I'm bummed that you got sick, but it was lovely to meet you. I'm so sorry your friends treated you so poorly, I'm still in shock that they were so awful. Especially since you are so nice!

 

[Sherry E]

Thank you, everyone, for the nice comments on the Shadow Mickey pictures!

Thank you, Molly! It was great to meet you too! I had a feeling you must have gotten sick again (not that you haven't already been sick enough in the last year!) and that's why we hadn't seen too much of you for a few days here on the DIS.

I didn't get nearly as sick as I have gotten in the past. This was pretty mild for me. I had already been loading up on the vitamins in the weeks before I left for DLR (to kind of shore up the ol' immune system since I never 'go' anywhere and I feared that as soon as I stepped out of the house I would pick up every illness floating around out there!). Also, I wash my hands constantly (not in an OCD kind of way, but I will always do it after going out to check my mail or take out the trash, or when I touch any 'common' door handle that is touched by many hands in my building, as well as after going to the bank or the store or wherever). So I think I kind of managed to keep the illness from spiraling out of control and getting into my tonsils or chest, which is something I am prone to experiencing.

The only odd thing is that this illness - though quite mild as far as my illnesses go - is hanging on a little bit. It doesn't seem to want to completely go away. I don't really feel awful. I am not bedridden and I can certainly function and even sleep without the aid of decongestants or DayQuil/NyQuil, but I am not 100% better. All the 'stuff' that is floating around in my head/nose doesn't seem to want to go away completely. Last night I was feeling very weird - achy shoulders and neck, hot face and forehead, a bit woozy & lightheaded - and thought I was getting a fever, or that maybe some of the 'stuff' had settled in my ears and I had an infection. This morning, after a decent night's sleep, all of that weird stuff like the achy neck and hot forehead is gone!

Anyway, I am hoping that in a few days it will all be gone for good!

​

Soooooooo.......I have decided that I will do a Trip Report!! I was thinking about some comments I wanted to make and some observations I had and I thought, "I should share that in my TR!"

Also, the other day I came up with the idea to do a "photo countdown" to Christmas on my Facebook page and I have been posting a different photo every day as the days wind down. So as I have been doing that and kind of keeping the Christmas spirit alive for myself in that way (since I don't have any family or any actual Christmas day celebrations to enjoy with other people), I was inspired to do a TR.

It's going to be very difficult to do this TR because this PC is literally giving out on me a little bit every day and sometimes it just will not cooperate at all. But I am doing it for all the kind souls who have spoken up and posted since I returned from DLR (that means you, Molly, and deejdigsdis, tksbaskets, ddwlms, deesquared [hi, Dianna! Thank you so much for joining in!], Marie, Michele, Jenny, Kaitlin, Laurie), and those who posted here before I left such as Bret, Mia, Liza, Jillian, etc. Please forgive me if I skipped you. I was trying to remember people off the top of my head, without having to scroll back in the TR to remind myself who had posted in recent months.

And I am also doing this for any lurkers who happen to be out there too!


So stay tuned!!! "Return to the Cone of Death..." was supposed to just be the working title of the TR until I came up with a new title that would be inspired by this recent DLR trip. Well, so far I haven't thought of a good title to pull from last week's DLR visit. Hmmmm...... Maybe something will come to me in a vision as I start the TR. For right now, though, I got nothin'...

 

[tksbaskets]

It's like Christmas today hearing that we'll get a TR! No pressure as I know writing a quality TR takes time and effort (and a working PC).

Hope you kick that bug to the curb very soon~

TK

 

[kaoden39]

Oh I am excited to read it!!

 

[ddwlms]

Trip Report!!! Yay us!!!!! can't wait.

We were at DLR thru 12/3, and I came home with this weird, quasi, half sickness thing that sounds familiar to what you described. Like my body wasn't quite sure if it was sick or not, and it lingered, going kind of up and down, but not down real low, for over a week. My husband experienced just about the same. -didn't have it at the parks though, thankfully. and feeling better now. Hopefully you will be 100% par real soon.

Would it be too much effort to add your facebook's photo countdown here? -I know, I'm like the kid who asks for a cookie, you say yes, and they say, can I have two?

 

[Sherry E]

It's like Christmas today hearing that we'll get a TR! No pressure as I know writing a quality TR takes time and effort (and a working PC).

Hope you kick that bug to the curb very soon~

TK

Woo hoo, TK!

I'm glad you're still here! Hopefully I can make progress (and even be done!) on this baby before you leave for your DLR holiday adventure! I didn't even take half of the photos that I took last year (very sadly), so I should be able to get through it faster...but then add in time for this stupid PC and I could be working on it in 2012!

Oh I am excited to read it!!

Michele -

I don't know that it's all that exciting of a TR, but at least the issues of what exactly happened with the friend that led me to crying on a bench in DCA will be addressed! Inquiring minds want to know!

Trip Report!!! Yay us!!!!! can't wait.

We were at DLR thru 12/3, and I came home with this weird, quasi, half sickness thing that sounds familiar to what you described. Like my body wasn't quite sure if it was sick or not, and it lingered, going kind of up and down, but not down real low, for over a week. My husband experienced just about the same. -didn't have it at the parks though, thankfully. and feeling better now. Hopefully you will be 100% par real soon.

Would it be too much effort to add your facebook's photo countdown here? -I know, I'm like the kid who asks for a cookie, you say yes, and they say, can I have two?

DebraDi -

Yes - exactly! It's like my body can't make up its mind if it's sick or not. I don't feel horrible, by any means - not like I have during other illnesses - but I don't feel up to par either. And yet, whatever this bug is just seems to be lingering in the background, going up and down, getting better and then a tad worse and then better again. It's odd.

I don't mind posting my Christmas photo countdown here too - it's easy enough to do (one I have selected the photo to use for each day) to just post it there and here. It's just a basic "12 Days Until Christmas" sort of thing, with a Wall picture. Nothing all that snazzy.



Here are the countdown to Christmas photos so far:

Unofficial countdown start photo (from 2010):

13 days to Christmas photo (new picture from last week!):

12 days to Christmas photo (from 2010):

11 Days to Christmas photo (from 2010):

10 Days until Christmas photo (new picture taken last week!)…

​

I haven't decided on my countdown photo for tomorrow (my '9 days until Christmas' selection), but I will be sure to post it here for you!!

 

[bumbershoot]

I just want to lick that last picture.

 

[tksbaskets]

Hi Sherry,
Of COURSE I'm still here. When I get an email notifying me of activity on one of your threads I always follow along.

LOVE the Christmas countdown. We all need a little Christmas.

TK

 

[kaoden39]

I think that all trip reports are exciting. It is like reading a book, some jsut move slower than others.

 

[DizNee Luver]

[/CENTER]

Where was this from?? Very cute!!!!

 

[Sherry E]

I just want to lick that last picture.

Molly -

Even though they are fake cookies, I was craving gingerbread after seeing them!

Hi Sherry,
Of COURSE I'm still here. When I get an email notifying me of activity on one of your threads I always follow along.

LOVE the Christmas countdown. We all need a little Christmas.

TK

TK -

I find the e-mail notifying system to be very spotty. Do you? Sometimes it will only send me random e-mail alerts and skip over a bunch of posts in different threads (not just the TR). I find that when I finally log on to the DIS and go to the thread in question, there are tons of posts I missed because I didn't get an e-mail alert. So annoying!

Anyway, I'm glad you're still here!

I think that all trip reports are exciting. It is like reading a book, some jsut move slower than others.

Michele -

So true, so true.

I get impatient with my own TR's when it seems like they are taking too long to wrap up (though it couldn't be helped for the 2010 holiday trip because there were so many photos). As you may recall, with the recent Halloween TR, I wanted to hurry and be done with Halloween so I could move on to thinking about my Christmas trip so I just sped through the rest of the Halloween TR by posting the remaining photos and calling it a day!!

I like to only have to explain things and do a lot of commentary in the beginning and then taper off on the commentary as I move along, if I can, just focusing on photos. This time, there will be at least a couple of things that will have to be explained later in the TR, and there will be far fewer photos than last year to punctuate the story. (Seriously, I skipped soooo many things this year!)

But, I'll do what I can do.

Where was this from?? Very cute!!!!

Laurie -

It was a window display, though for the life of me I couldn't begin to tell you which window display or where it was. They all blend together in my mind after a while! Also, just when I think I have hit all the window displays, OR I think "I don't need to get photos of that display this year because I got photos last year," then I round a corner or walk a few feet and, lo and behold, there is another one I have not seen before.

Sometimes I could even swear that some of the items in displays from 2010 were relocated to different windows altogether in 2011! I'm sure I am losing my mind and just imagining that they have moved, but a few of the things I noticed this year just didn't seem like they were in their same window spots from 2010. It seemed like they had been moved to totally different store windows.

 

[kaoden39]

Okay, I am one of the strange kids. I like the words as much as the pictures.

 

[WDWJonasGirl]

I'm excited to read it Sherry!!

 

[DizNee Luver]

Window displays & even in-store displays pretty much got missed.....I had to cut corners somewhere. With this being such a whirlwind trip, I just dabbled in a little of everything, just to get a taste so next time I'd have a better understanding of what to expect & where to even begin!!

 

[Sherry E]

Okay, I am one of the strange kids. I like the words as much as the pictures.

Michele -

I think the stories and descriptions work well for some TR's and not others. But the thing is, because there are so many TR's to read, after a while it starts to feel like we have seen most of what can be covered in photos (doesn't it?), so the actual 'report' part of the TR and the stories/back stories that go along with it are the main things that differentiate one TR from another.

Yes, yes, there are always new things to discover (in photos) at Disneyland, and there are always new Quests to embark upon (says the person who came up with Heart Quest, Tree Quest and Wreath Quest!!). But not everyone who does TR's has the desire or, quite frankly, the time to take on these photo missions. So at the end of the day, the stories and words may make the biggest impact in some TR's!

I'm excited to read it Sherry!!

Thank you, Kaitlin! I hope to have an installment or two up today!

Window displays & even in-store displays pretty much got missed.....I had to cut corners somewhere. With this being such a whirlwind trip, I just dabbled in a little of everything, just to get a taste so next time I'd have a better understanding of what to expect & where to even begin!!

Laurie -

That's okay! We don't all catch the same things at the same times. You'll get the window displays and store displays another time (like if you and Mike take the kids to DLR for a Christmas trip next year??).

I know exactly what you mean about not having the time. In 2 - or even 3 - days, there is simply not enough time to get into all the photo-taking opportunities because there are so many details to capture.

Last year I had to skip some things in photos. I was all over the 3 hotels, I was all over Disneyland (including window displays) and I was all over Downtown Disney. But I didn't delve deep into DCA - not like I wanted to. This year I spent more time in DCA but I skipped New Orleans Square and Toontown in photos, for the most part. I also skipped the Disneyland Hotel this year. It was not a huge deal because I got plenty of pics of the DLH, NOS and TT last year, but I know I will want to go back to those spots next year and get back in the photo swing again...and I will probably have to skip another area if there is just not enough time. I even skipped some of the window displays that I hit last year.


I'd say that over 1000 photos is plenty more than dabbling, Laurie! You do realize that, don't you? "Dabbling" would be taking 20 pictures or even 50, or even 100. Normal people - and I am not a normal person, either! - don't take over 1000 pictures at DLR in 2 or 3 days, especially when focusing on the sorts of things we focus on in photos.

You should see the looks on the faces of my friends when I say I took 1600 photos in my 2-1/2 totally solo days last December (meaning I was completely alone, and no one was around me at all for that entire block of time). They cannot conceive of such a thing. It's not what most people do if they are not: (A) enormous Disneyland fans; (B) enormous Disneyland at Christmas time fans; and (C) massive shutterbugs.

But that's exactly why I want to be alone a lot of the time at DLR now - THAT is when I can really get on a roll and get the most photos, whether it's capturing a shadow of Mickey on the hotel room wall or honing in on the intricate details of the window displays. That alone time is when my mind limbers up and I am inspired!







ddwlms/DebraDi -

I hope you caught my Countdown-to-Christmas photos yesterday (which I posted at your request!). Here is today's installment (this photo was taken at DL last week!):

9 Days Until Christmas!!

​

(deejdigsdis will recognize that candy cane arrangement at the bottom of the photo - she was the first one to capture it on camera a couple of years back, as I recall, and I have made a point of remembering that fact ever since...just like I remember that Molly was the first one to really take on the "light fixtures" in photos!)