may we go back to may? part 3 (didn't realize it was a trilogy?)

like i said, may was a busy month!

shortly after the mock training, i was summoned to help support in ms, which was a good experience as well. i was able to help plan and then be available for additional support onsite. we had a good time, and it was great getting to know ann better!

the uber to the hotel was informative, it was like tourist-guide-ish. then we met that night to go over the presentation, and i didn't realize until after she'd dropped me back off, that my purse was nowhere...i couldn't get back into my room (but worse than that, my license was in there, and i couldn't help but think about my flight home!)...so i called a lyft to return me to the starbucks we'd been at...the hotel clerk offered her car, but i felt a little weird about that, so i waited and prayed! unfortunately the lyft driver had to go down several exits to turn around to get to me (20 minutes later) because there was construction along the freeway! fortunately the area where the starbucks was is in a great part of town and all the other shops in the little area had been closed before we finally left, and my purse, being black and sleek, was still hanging there, patiently waiting for me on the back of the chair out on the outside seating area.

our ticket out of the training!

the training went well, and i was off to the airport again, a good 6 hour wait for the next flight. ew.

then the following day one of my great friends from kamp came to visit! the great thing was that she has a job that allows her to work from home, so we were both able to work on friday, monday and tuesday before i took wednesday and thursday off! and since shea was also working, we played in the afternoons, and it worked out well!

fields of gold

old tree photo shoot

wembley photo shoot

lido beach waiting for...

hammocks on the beach, sunset pics, myakka park- we did see alligators, and the 'sea of gold' flowers were in bloom, which is seasonal, not more than two weeks later the entire meadow was under water... we got over to st. armands, lido beach, obviously we had to introduce her to the farmhouse donuts (the biscuit and gravy twist), fish tacos, nascrab races at a local favorite...then wednesday was our early morning and off to animal kingdom!

i decided at shea's suggestion to go ahead and get annual passes for the parks, and when we decided to parkhop to magic kingdom, i determined real quickly that it was so worth it! for parking, hopping, the pics, etc, it will pay itself off quickly enough! and to be only 2 hours away, it's an easy day trip. plus a great excuse (not that i need one) to go hang out in orlando with brandy, and not feel rushed at the parks! so yes, we went we conquered! we stopped to meet and greet pocahontas, walked through to see all sorts of animals, we caught the safari ride, everest, etc, then we wandered around a bit, we wanted to do the avatar ride, but the line...ohhhhh....the line! (although, in hindsight, i understand it may have been worth it, note to self, will have to return! even if only for this ride!) we ate in this land and loved it-such interesting burger pods and hot-dog bites and very unique drinks! it was almost a given we'd eat there, as we had prepped by watching a couple nights earlier with homemade ceviche!

at some point we decided that we would spend the second half of the day at the magic kingdom. we arrived as they were recognizing a veteran, followed by a small parade, which shea almost interrupted (oh the scolding)...

anyhoo, we took advantage of every photo op available! we did some of the smaller fun rides, as the lines weren't too ridiculous...probably the longest line was our meet and greet with ariel! yikes! but she did pull out the dinglehopper and combed shea's hair, so that was worth it! as was the fast pass on splash mountain!

celebrating our mentor, TRISH HELSEL's bday (who knew she'd just gotten proposed to!?!)

these are the pictures we love!

we caught the light show from one of the small diners, then tried to get to space mountain, but the line was ridiculous! we did end up doing the winnie the pooh ride, which i believe was our last of the night, and we took the ferry back. #productiveday

the following day, which i also took off, we did a little siesta key factory tour, and beach, then when shea was off, it was a little rainy, so we went down to the tiki-hut (we'd been wanting to try the food there to mark it off the list). it wasn't amazing, but it wasn't terrible, either. i'm pretty sure bmayes got the best option- hard to go wrong with coconut shrimp! eventually the little downpour passed by, and we made our way to a little ledge where you could sit and watch the sunset-which was pretty much set-still beautiful. and the lights were turned down because: turtle nesting season.

the following day, we got some more work done before taking bmayes to the airport for the late flight back. the issue on that 7:00 pm flight is always either traffic, or weather! fortunately we made it in a timely fashion, and despite all the other cancellations due to wx, hers went well!

and after that, i slept!

orlando...yes, as a matter of fact, it is a bit magical.

i don't know that this is the appropriate time to be writing a blog post, as i do have other things i should be doing...i mean it when i say today has been a day of procrastination-for real though, i even cleaned the bathroom; that is some sort of major stall. that's when it hit me. i really had to take a step back and re-evaluate. i have been feeling guilty over spending time with people and not getting work done. but the work that i agreed to do isn't a part of my job, it is in addition to, mostly as an opportunity for extra cash. but is it worth it, when it is hanging over my head and i can't truly just enjoy community? hmm...i submit it is not worth it. for that very reason, i made a call today to scale back a little of what was being asked of me. don't get me wrong, i did not drop it altogether, i am still involved in the work, but in a different capacity. relief.

so, since the last time i actually posted, much has happened!

for starters, olivia has had perfect attendance up to this point-so proud of her because she is so proud of herself...her students might even say boastful-she insisted on a perfect attendance award, so there it is.

and she posted it in front of her door...flaunting it? perhaps...still, it's a great accomplishment to be proud of!

 and then there was the trip to orlando for inacol (eye-NAY-cole) yes, i still pronounce it incorrectly-oh well. sue me. (just kidding, please don't)

friday i was up way too late packing. i'd taken the boys to joanne's, got them set up and they were happy to be there! they knew exactly where they were. as soon as i opened the car door, they were trotting to the front door. smile. i love it that they feel so comfortable staying somewhere away from home!

when i woke up the next morning, i called nicolette to make sure she was awake, because we were taking lyft to the airport. pretty sure she'd woken up and fallen back to sleep-thank God for wake-up calls! i then proceeded to the lyft app, and i had a momentary panic, because the notice said: NO DRIVERS AVAILABLE. uh oh. break out in a sweat, trying as quickly as possible to download the uber app, and then realizing i had to set up all the payment, etc...thoughts went through my head about the cost to park at the airport...so i tried lyft one more time with a quick prayer...and lo and behold, there was indeed a driver available...his name? fabian. so he called to inform me that he was coming from downtown-ish. i got my necessities together and headed out the door, because at that time, i was unfamiliar with how our gate-code worked (it was recently replaced with new instructions). i didn't want to take the remote opener, because it is somewhat bulky and i didn't want to be responsible for it, therefore i had to go out the side, pedestrian gate. so i checked my mail first, then made my way up front. i found a great spot that was out of the drizzle and easy for him to see me, when i realized that i had forgotten something. so all of this leisureliness was for naught.

i rushed back through the side gate, (flip flops making a mess in the puddles), and i raced upstairs to grab my pillow and blanket for the plane. at that point fabian was calling me to let me know he was at the front gate. game-over, i had to get the stupid remote and deal with it. then we drove around the corner to the complex down the road to pick up nicolette.

she did a double take when i said to the driver, "so, fabian, how long have you been doing this?" she mouthed the words: shut up! our principal's name happens to be fabian, as well. it doesn't seem like such a common name. it just so happens that he'd only been doing this about a month, and truth is, he was slightly unfamiliar with this area, and ended up not getting on 635, but instead taking the super-toll around toward i-35, in my heart of hearts (not really sure what that means, so i may or may not have just looked up that phrase so that i could continue to use it) i was hoping that perhaps he knew something that we didn't. but alas, 'twasn't so. we ended up doing a little u-turn and getting back on track. fortunately we'd built in time, so we were fine. and while i wasn't thrilled about the line a dfw (spoiled by love field's security), in hindsight, after the fiasco that is orlando, i would gladly go through the dfw line twice..wait a minute..

we saw olivia as we were going through security, so we all stopped to get coffee and breakfast to take to the gate, where solange and susy were waiting.

cue uneventful flight...oh, wait, nicolette was originally sitting by me, in the exit row, but changed seats to be closer to the front, so i got stuck by a very tall, muscular, young man who seemed very serious. so i read my book and listened to music. it was all good until i asked him (ever-so-kindly, i might add) if i could retrieve the drink tray from the arm rest-which he was hogging (jerk) he also acted a little annoyed when this really nice girl (me) had to go to the restroom. when i got back and settled in, he fell asleep and imagine my surprise, as i leaned forward and with an impulse reaction, he hit me (jerk-literally it was a jerk reaction). surely it was inadvertent...or WAS it? perhaps it was a suppressed desire to express his annoyance...ok, no.

great way to start a flight!

finally we got into our rooms!

when we actually got to the hotel, it was a hot mess trying to figure out what all was going on with splitting bills to get everything right for the receipts for reimbursement. we filled out our tax exempt forms and found out that everything pretty much had to be paid up-front. one person from our group, who was splitting the room with nicolette wasn't coming in until the next day, so we were figuring out exactly what to do with that, and they ended up messing up her account. why wasn't i surprised by this, you might ask...well, if anything could go wrong monetarily, it would go wrong for her...this year's theme: i need a dollar.i say this in jest, but seriously...it might not be nearly as funny if the number 666 wasn't involved (umm...could it be....saaatan?-church lady). anyhoo, the lady at the counter immediately got on the phone with the bank to make things right.

waiting for the shuttle

after checking in, we took off for the magic kingdom. i'm so glad we went-i wasn't originally planning to, but hey, it's not every day that you get to play, and it really was a good time. although i would've been wise to have worn a short sleeve shirt and perhaps capris, because hello, we were indeed in orlando. it turned out fine because pirates of the caribbean was cool, splash mountain was wet, and by the evening, it had cooled down substantially, and the long sleeves were welcome!

so glad we took the ferry! but please look at my sunglasses. it looks like i have stars in my eyes-cartoon-esque

but let us back up a minute. we started out all together. i have a problem. i'm not big on shopping-traps and just looking, add to that, i am a fast walker...sorry, nope, not sorry. we visited tinkerbell and got pics, then we made our way to pirates together...i'm not sure exactly at what point we lost each other, but we were texting pretty much all day our whereabouts until phones began to lose juice. time was limited because it was a partial day pass, so we wanted to get in everything we could. the most annoying line of all time was thunder mountain. ooooohhhmyyyyyygooooooodness. the tribe in front of us with 7,258 children and an exhausted single mom, who had no inclination toward maintaining any semblance of urgency. okay..i may have exaggerated about the # of children, but it was somewhat like the old woman in the shoe, only she didn't realize that there were 2 more lines to the poem. so, yes, we were stuck behind this brood...each of whom was intent on touching, pulling, spinning and yanking any lever, wheel, siren, alarm, switch etc. that stuck out. EVERY. FREAKING. ONE. i wish i could've done what that man on the airplane did and pretend i fell asleep in line and be a jerk...and 'accidentally' give them a reason to want to move faster and stop piddling around (that word...) we did try to sneak around them once or twice, but somehow they were able to figure out what we were doing and after we'd get about 5 steps past them, and it seemed semi-hopeful, they'd race past us to the next set of levers, wheels, and switches...it was rough.

from there, the haunted mansion, and it was creepier and a little more nausea-inducing than i remembered. but let's face it, i was in elementary school back in the 80s, and the only part i really recalled was the funny ghosts that showed up in the mirror.

straight from there, we were off to space mountain-fortunately nicolette has great directional memory, even after 6 years; it was the longest line yet! but it was completely worth it. the ride was single file cars, so i was in front and kept trying to get a picture behind me, but no dice. it was the most exciting ride, but the best part about the ride was hearing this crazy girl behind me giggling and laughing throughout the entire ride out of sheer enjoyment-even now it makes me giggle a little at the recall. ha!

by now it was getting dark, and we got a text as soon as we got off and met up with the rest of the group for dinner. afterward, susy and solange went souvenir searching, and olivia joined us and insisted on the mad hatter teacups. oh my. i died a little inside when she suggested it-the centrifugal force messes with my equilibrium in a bad way, so i tried to keep my eyes shut pretty much the entire ride!

let's not lie, it was beautiful!

attracts kids and gets energy from them

then we made our way back to the castle to get a spot for the parade of lights. we found the best spot after some maneuvering. the people behind us were like an invasive species of kudzu...nuisance. so what made that less annoying? emma! emma, from canada kept nicolette entertained for the remainder of the evening and through the parade. solange and susy found us and we were all taking pics and enjoying the parade without the viewpoint of a child-we missed out! at the very end, it began to drizzle, so we made our way back toward the shuttle. the only thing was that we were all exhausted and a little lost-we were going to take the tram, but ended up getting herded onto the ferry-which was fine (apart from the bridge/dock, which was swaying in a rather uneven motion, making it seem that the whole crowd was drunk), it was probably better to be on the ferry to be able to spread out and sit.

it was a long day-it was a good day. i haven't taken the time or spent money on anything fun like that in a long time-i need more purposeful experiences.

 julie