You know all the queens are evil, right? Ch. 8 - The one where we keep an ADR.

eliz991

Mouseketeer
Joined
Oct 20, 2009
Messages
454
I’m sure I’m neither the first nor last TR writer to lament that knowing where to start is the hardest part. (Well, it’s the hardest part so far. It’s also the only part I’ve done, but let’s not start splitting hairs this early or we’ll never make it.)

But I knew I had stories to tell, and pictures to share, and maybe, somewhere out there, is someone who wants to know about a trip with two women, no kids, and possibly way too much drinking. And a broken toe (not related to the drinking).

Nonetheless, how do you start? I was sitting here staring at this blank page, wondering where to begin, when I heard a little song in the back of my head.


Let’s start at the very beginning...a very good place to start.
When you read you begin with A,B,C; when you sing, you begin with Do, Re, Mi.
The first three notes just happen to be....Do. Re. Mi.


Well after that happened I didn’t have a choice did I?



I promptly jumped off the chair, stuck my fingers in my ears and ran around the office yelling, “LALALALALALA” until that infernal song got out of my head. I’m telling you, when The Sound of Music is your senior musical, you get earworms for life.

Anyway, starting at the beginning doesn’t really work. I really need to start before the beginning. For one thing, I’ve got to tell you who we are.

First, there’s me. I’m first because it’s my report and therefore it is too confusing otherwise.

Here is a picture of me at my wedding in May 2008. Setting up the “drinking” theme for the report.

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Here is a picture of me at WDW in July 2009. As you can see, it rained a lot.

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Sorry, this one won't resize for some reason.

My name is Elizabeth, aka Liz, E, Beth, and Black Betty.

Just seeing if you’re paying attention. Just don’t call me Bertha or Liza and we’re all good. I’m 40, married, no kids by choice. I’m also a lawyer, a smoker, a joker, and a midnight toker. (The smoking will come up in this report but before anyone feels compelled to tell me that smoking is bad for you, I can read. :) I have gone from a pack a day to “only when I drink.” My doctor is not worried about the amount I smoke now.)

The other member of the trip is Donna Sue, aka Donna, aka Mama although I never call her that. It’s bad enough other people occasionally refer to her as my mother. She turned 56 during our trip. She had never been to WDW before and always wanted to go, but knew I was the only person who would go with her. She told me it was the best birthday she ever had. :cloud9: What more could a friend ask in return for planning a WDW trip? Here’s a couple of pictures of Donna:

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She’s in the oil/pipe business and loves to dance. She has a boyfriend who lives in NY (we live in Dallas). I’ve known her for over 10 years and at home we are workout buddies as well as drinking buddies. She is more of a smoker than I but less of a joker. And honestly neither one of us is big on midnight toking.

That feels like a start. Tomorrow maybe I’ll actually tell you about the part before the part where we leave for the trip. Because a teeny little factor had us wondering whether we would leave at all.
 
That feels like a start. Tomorrow maybe I’ll actually tell you about the part before the part where we leave for the trip. Because a teeny little factor had us wondering whether we would leave at all.
I'd say it definitely qualifies as a start! And a good one at that! can't wait to read more! OH, and I got your TR linked in on my last bonus feature. :thumbsup2
 
Love the beginning. Looking forward to more:thumbsup2
 

I'd say it definitely qualifies as a start! And a good one at that! can't wait to read more! OH, and I got your TR linked in on my last bonus feature. :thumbsup2

Thanks, I'm so glad you came over! And thanks for the link pimpage. :yay:

I hope to have more up today, work permitting. Sometime this weekend I need to sort pictures but I think I have two more chapters before there are any pictures to include.
 
Love the beginning. Looking forward to more:thumbsup2

:welcome:

Thanks for reading! And thanks to your husband for serving our country! Hopefully another chapter will be coming soon. No need to drag out the pre-WDW part too much.
 
Great start. I can't wait to read about your adventures!

Laura
 
I followed over from Jordan's thread !!!! We have something in common other than OCD Disney !! I too am a smoker !! At my age please don't tell me it's BAD !!! Believe me I know and my doctor has given up on lectures:rotfl2:
 
Any TR that references the Sound of Music I'm in, but damn you for getting it stuck in my head! :rotfl:

Great start and I can't wait to read more! :goodvibes
 
Funny beginning! Thanks for sharing! :thumbsup2

Thanks for reading! Are your boys twins?

Great start. I can't wait to read about your adventures!

Laura

Thanks! Another installment coming soon.

I followed over from Jordan's thread !!!! We have something in common other than OCD Disney !! I too am a smoker !! At my age please don't tell me it's BAD !!! Believe me I know and my doctor has given up on lectures:rotfl2:

I try very hard to be a considerate smoker. It always surprises me when people rudely comment on it. I mean, I'm fat, but people don't come up and tell me I shouldn't be eating that pizza or whatever (they may think it, but don't usually say it!) I think some people would be surprised the sheer number of people who feel compelled to tell smokers that it is bad for their health.

Like, just in case we are Rip Van Winkle? :confused3 Most smokers would stop if they could.

Any TR that references the Sound of Music I'm in, but damn you for getting it stuck in my head! :rotfl:

Great start and I can't wait to read more! :goodvibes

:rotfl2::rotfl2: I honestly didn't even think about getting it stuck in other people's heads. Here, think of something else. Um....Oooooklahoma, where the wind comes sweeping down the plains....

Never mind, that's probably worse. :rotfl:

for the roller coaster ride.......

:welcome: Off we go!
 
*(Not necessarily in that order)

Okay, continuing with things you need to know before we can actually get going on the “trip” part of the “trip report.”

Number one, I broke my little toe about a week and a half before we left. Come to think of it, I guess that is the “trip” part. :teacher:

I’m a naturally clumsy person. I had to take four semesters of P.E. to graduate college and I almost failed two of them. When a ball comes towards me, I duck. I have broken my ankle walking down the street. I have dislocated and chipped my knee by standing up. Seriously on both of those. Even my trainer is constantly surprised by my ability to hit myself in the head with a weight or walk into a machine at the gym.:headache:

So, I was at home one day going to the closet to hang up my suit from work when I tripped on the futon. The wooden leg got caught in between my fourth and fifth toes. When I looked down, four little piggies were lined up and facing front like they should, and the fifth was sticking out to the side like he had one too many margaritas. :scared1: So, in a rush of adrenaline, I reached down and moved him back into place. I then sat on my couch and howled for about a half an hour. Seriously folks, that sucker HURT. Way worse than breaking my ankle. Way worse than my knee. Not in the long run, but kind of like a really bad paper cut hurts worse than cutting yourself with a kitchen knife? Kind of like that. :sad:

I did get a lot of sympathy from the men in my family though. My father said, “why weren’t you wearing shoes?” :rolleyes1 My husband informed me that he had not moved that futon in the eight years since I bought the condo. :rolleyes: Uh, thanks. (In his defense, my DH did carefully buddy wrap the toe for me as he was telling me why I shouldn’t have tripped.) So that’s the toe part.

Because of the broken toe, the only closed-toe shoes I could wear (it was winter, after all) were my Texas A&M crocs. I wore those for two days and then I found another pair of black loafer type shoes I could wear. Neither of these shoes had heels on the backs of them, which led to the second issue. I had done all my Disney shopping, but this new-found need to display my heels led me to decide I needed some new socks. Don’t want any holey or worn-out socks on display. :snooty: I also needed to make a quick run to the liquor store to bring along some rum (to add to cokes) and baileys (to add to coffee). So that’s the shopping part.

During this whole time, I had many discussions with Donna Sue about what we were packing. See, there are three kinds of packers. The first kind is my husband and probably 99% of men. The day before we go somewhere, he pulls out a suitcase and starts putting stuff in it. He may pause to ask me which of two shirts he should bring. Otherwise, he plows straight through and is done in 30 minutes or so.

The second type is me and probably 99% of people reading this report. List-makers. I used to have hand-written packing lists that I keep in a file in my file cabinet so I can refer to them if I go back to that same place. Now I have a file on my computer called “master packing list” that I adjust (and save, of course) depending on the trip. :surfweb: For WDW I also printed out a couple of packing lists from the internet to see if I was missing anything. (I wasn’t.) I spend a week or so tweaking the list, then the day before or day of, I start to methodically gather up the stuff and put it in the suitcase and cross it off the list.

Donna Sue is a third type. She packs like no one else I’ve ever met. She gets out her suitcase like two weeks before she leaves and then just starts taking stuff out of closets and drawers and wherever. She doesn’t pack it yet, though. She just puts it all in piles around the house. Then, at some point, she decides which piles she’s actually taking. :confused3 We had a lot of discussions about packing because she makes a lot of piles. Each time, I would refer to my list and give her thumbs up or down on whether I was taking a similar item, and she would adjust her piles accordingly. So that’s the packing part.

Now none of this (other than the toe) would matter except for one thing. We were leaving on Saturday February 13. During all of these packing conversations, Donna Sue kept telling me that I needed to go to the store to buy these last minute things, and that she had bought all her last minute things, because it was going to snow. We probably had this conversation four or five times that last week, until finally on Wednesday I broke down and went to Target at lunch to buy the socks. But I was still adamant - it was NOT going to snow. :mad: We live in Dallas, y’all. Right by downtown. Even when it snows in Fort Worth or Denton it doesn’t snow here. They always say it will, but it doesn’t. And I told Donna Sue that it wouldn’t snow. Repeatedly. Vociferously. Adamantly.

And it didn’t snow, either.





Not until very early Thursday morning. :headache:



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Our patio seems to have lost its tropical feeling. But at least it's still got that lovin' feeling.



I had to go to work Thursday, but most people left early. I volunteered to stay because I live 3 miles away. It took me 45 minutes to get home that day. Luckily my husband is from New York and had no idea what we were all riled up about and insisted on driving to the liquor store (which, in all fairness, is about 8 blocks away) so I could finish my shopping. That night I finished about half of my packing and then we did this:


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Yes, my mouth is made of a leaf and my eyes are prunes. What do you want, they didn't have any coal!

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Me and my best buddy. Right up til he melts.

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Can't believe I caught this picture. And can't believe I didn't get that snowball in the face!

The nice thing about not having kids is that you get to throw all the snowballs and no one cries.

Well, DH might have cried a little. :rotfl:

We still had over 24 hours before we left, but this was a big ol’ bunch of snow. It was actually a record amount for Dallas. 12 or 16 inches. I think we actually got about 5 at our house, but the “official” amount was higher, and somehow keeps climbing as time goes by. Would we make it out to WDW on time?

Oh, and hey, before I upload more pics - is the size of these okay? I never know how it looks on other computers. I'm using the "medium" size on photobucket - I want you to be able to see them, but I don't want it to take all day (and I'm not Great Biscuit or topdog, so you don't need to linger over them :thumbsup2). Let me know please!

And if you're reading, please say howdy!
 
Thanks for reading! Are your boys twins?

Yep. As an only child, it came as quite a shock to me to have not only a kid, but instant sibling rivalries... ;)

I’m a naturally clumsy person. I had to take four semesters of P.E. to graduate college and I almost failed two of them. When a ball comes towards me, I duck. I have broken my ankle walking down the street. I have dislocated and chipped my knee by standing up. Seriously on both of those. Even my trainer is constantly surprised by my ability to hit myself in the head with a weight or walk into a machine at the gym.:headache:

Now, see, I'm thinking you may be my long-lost twin... :rotfl:

So, I was at home one day going to the closet to hang up my suit from work when I tripped on the futon. The wooden leg got caught in between my fourth and fifth toes. When I looked down, four little piggies were lined up and facing front like they should, and the fifth was sticking out to the side like he had one too many margaritas. :scared1: So, in a rush of adrenaline, I reached down and moved him back into place. I then sat on my couch and howled for about a half an hour. Seriously folks, that sucker HURT. Way worse than breaking my ankle. Way worse than my knee. Not in the long run, but kind of like a really bad paper cut hurts worse than cutting yourself with a kitchen knife? Kind of like that. :sad:

I did get a lot of sympathy from the men in my family though. My father said, “why weren’t you wearing shoes?” :rolleyes1 My husband informed me that he had not moved that futon in the eight years since I bought the condo. :rolleyes: Uh, thanks. (In his defense, my DH did carefully buddy wrap the toe for me as he was telling me why I shouldn’t have tripped.) So that’s the toe part.

Because of the broken toe, the only closed-toe shoes I could wear (it was winter, after all) were my Texas A&M crocs.

My aunt & uncle were/are (she's retired, he's not) professors at A&M. Did you go?

Now I have a file on my computer called “master packing list” that I adjust (and save, of course) depending on the trip. :surfweb: For WDW I also printed out a couple of packing lists from the internet to see if I was missing anything. (I wasn’t.) I spend a week or so tweaking the list, then the day before or day of, I start to methodically gather up the stuff and put it in the suitcase and cross it off the list.

Now I'm positive about the twin thing. :thumbsup2

Well, DH might have cried a little. :rotfl:

:rotfl2:

Oh, and hey, before I upload more pics - is the size of these okay? I never know how it looks on other computers. I'm using the "medium" size on photobucket - I want you to be able to see them, but I don't want it to take all day (and I'm not Great Biscuit or topdog, so you don't need to linger over them :thumbsup2). Let me know please!

Looks good to me!
 
How can I not follow this TR since I got an honorable mention. :goodvibes

I am still in shock it actually snow in Texas. That day you had snow, I was on my way to Hartford, CT for a business trip after a foot and a half blizzard from the night before.:eek:

Sorry to hear about your toe incident. I can only imagine how painful that was.
 
Ouch about the toe, I am clumsy too. It was so great you got to go to WDW with your friend. If I lived in Dallas I would have been in denial about the snow too.

My opinion about the pictures, I like them one photobucket size bigger, I have old eyes :rotfl:.

Great report, can't wait to read more :thumbsup2.
 




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