Able to dream again!

 Yesterday we went to the Magic Kingdom. Amber's mom is paying for all of this as her graduation gift. Amber keeps looking at me saying, "Thank you so much for coming with me! This is so much more fun with you here!" and I keep telling her, 'you keep making it sound like I  am doing the favor to you! You've got it backwards! Thanks for bringing me along!!'

 We were ridiculous. We spent about an hour and a half just on Main Street looking at stuff and shops and the little hidden surprises Disney has hidden everywhere you look. And we kept looking at each other going, 'Hey! We're GRADUATED! We're ADULTS! We're in DISNEY UNSUPERVISED!!!' and reveling in the freedom, acting like little kids when we wanted and mature adults when we wanted and it was AWESOME. Speaking of little kids, there were plenty of those and we spent a good amount of time just watching them - trying very hard to do so in a non-creepy way of course ;-)
(can you see the ducklings in the picture below?)

 We found Graduation-hat-Mickey Ears. They were overpriced, of course, but we wore them ALL DAY LONG and random people would shout "CONGRATULATIONS!" at us so it was worth it. We are totally wearing them the rest of the week. We made friends with this little girl and her dad in Tomorrowland at the Monsters Inc laugh floor - which was actually very well done and funny. It was a stand-up comedy show. We made her smile while we waited in line by pretending that since she was dressed like Belle from Beauty and the Beast she really WAS Belle and her dad wasn't sure if he was the Beast, Gueston, or just her Bodyguard. So we had fun with that :-)

 We did Tomorrowland last, (my pictures are all out of order. Sorry) and did the Buzz-lightyear ride and I creamed Amber in the shooting competition. Then we went to Space Mountain. Its an indoor roller-coaster almost completely in the dark. I screamed the entire three minutes. I'm usually not a screamer or whatever on rides - I bottle everything in until I explode - but we got off and I turned to Amber and said, 'Man it felt good to just scream for three minutes.' She had screamed occasionally too but mostly just laughed at my squawking and howling. "Dude it feels good to be EXCITED and happy about something!" she retorted. Yeah ain't that the truth.

 Its funny because people will say, 'Wow! You are graduates! you are adults! Time to step into the real world, right?' and then we'll all laugh and say, 'Yeah thats why we came to DISNEY the week after Graduation!!!' But its been awesome. Going to rides I remember and seeing all the fun old characters I used to love and dream about from the Disney stories and remembering the old games my sister and cousin and I would play with our dolls etc. And remembering what it felt like to be carefree and happy and young again. I know Disney is the cesspool of materialism, but quite frankly its been a huge relief to just relax for a couple of days and get my dream-machine fixed up and re-tuned.

 Another funny story: yesterday we went to dinner at Disney Studios and one of the security guards asked if I was a character. I said know but I wouldn't mind being one and then there was this huge crack of thunder from one of Florida's obligatory daily rainstorms. The security guard laughed and said, 'that was God giving you your cue: GO work at Disney World!" We all laughed. I think I would LOVE working as a character for a summer. No plans to pick up an application or anything though ;-)

 Amber has been an amazing tour guide, pointing out 'hidden mickeys' and explaining the histories and back stories of certain rides etc. She keeps asking if she's boring me or ruining things for me and I'm like, 'are you crazy?! No! This is awesome!' My own private tour guide :-D

 The other thing that is so dang AWESOME is that I'M IN FLORIDA AGAIN!!! Grandma used to take me and my sister in the summer to her Condo for about a week per summer but I haven't been in about 10 years due to her focusing on younger cousins which is fine. But I didn't realize how much I missed it. Just the weather, the way the water tastes, the exotic wildlife EVERYWHERE (like we saw a cool lizard at the bus stop and the herons and ibises perching on all the outside vendors) and the way the air is just wet but in a unique humid sort of way. We are planning on going to the beach on Thursday if it doesn't rain us out. Shoot I don't care if it does rain, I haven't been to the beach in 10 years I want to go!!!

 The nice thing about going as an adult is that there is no one to tell you 'no' to things that make amazing memories but aren't technically worth it 1. financially or 2. nutritionally. Like Mickey Head Ice Cream. $3.50 worth of pure goodness, however its about the same amount of money as I usually spend on lunch. Not to worry, simply substitute the mouses head for lunch. You eat a huge breakfast with characters and a huge dinner in a 50's cafe and play play play in between stopping only for ice cream!

 Not sure that this will be our plan of attack every day but for our first day in Disney World it was totally an amazing idea ;-)

 This breakfast was awesome. The food was amazing and the characters did a great job. It was so fun to see the little kids and their reactions to the characters. The babies especially were fascinated and just could not figure out why these huge stuffed animals kept trying to kiss them and hold them and why mom and dad kept wanting their picture taken with them. The characters did enough to keep mom and dad satisfied but not freak the babies out. Then when they got to our table they would kiss our hands and dance with us while the picture was being taken :-) Our waitress was SUPER friendly and nice as well. Did I mention the food was amazing?

Thats all for now. :-)