I'm so thankful we were in town this year and were able to resume our many-year tradition of spending the day with good friends at Disneyland. "Why Disneyland?" many people ask. It's something that a friend of E's, Wendy, who he has known since he was a kid, and her friend Jeff started a long time ago. Neither of them have family in Southern California and they travel for Christmas, so they launched an "orphans" day at none other than The Happiest Place on Earth. We joined them for the first time back in 1995, I think. We've missed a few...once I went to see my family, another year E got severe food poisoning the night before, and then of course last year, we traveled back East for
E's 20th high school reunion. I was really, really excited to rejoin Wendy and Jeff this year!
Another thing people say when hearing about our odd holiday plans is, "Oh, the park must be empty on Thanksgiving!" Um, no. I've heard and been told by Disneyland
employees cast members that Thanksgiving is in the top 3 busiest days of the year. What we have noticed though is that around 6pm, there is some crowd thinning and then a mass exodus after the nightly fireworks. This year's crowd seemed somewhat light overall though. We walked right on to most of the laugh-in-the-dark rides. Of course, Peter Pan still had a ginormous line, up until midnight, which I just don't get. We did go on it, for a change, spending our last half hour at the park in line. It was worth it as it is a cute ride, but why does it
always have the longest line? Can anyone explain that to me?
Over the years the size of our Thanksgiving group has varied, from just the four of us, to 10 or 12 people. For a few years, a friend of mine from high school was living in the area, so he and his wife joined us. One of the most memorable occasions was when four English guys who worked for the software company E was working for at the time, experienced Disneyland with us. They were slain by the It's A Small World ride (we take anyone who has never been to the park before on the scariest ride there).
This past Thursday, we had a nice group of six people. Wendy's niece from Philly, Julia, joined us, as did my friend Cheryl. Julia had come with us a couple of years ago and apparently we didn't scare her off with our silliness and dorkiness. Cheryl was our Disneyland virgin, so yes, we tortured her with a go on
It's A Really Repetitive And Annoying Ride. I sure do hope that
Ren checked her voice mail because, being the good friend that I am, that's when I called her to wish her a Happy Turkey Day.
Highlights of the adventure-filled day included accidentally catching the parade and seeing the
Presidentially pardoned turkeys,
Flyer and Fryer, practically walking on to several rides due to relatively short lines (we didn't even really use the
Fast Pass system very much at all as there just wasn't a need), laughing ourselves silly at our
Jungle Cruise driver...he was really dorky and funny, checking out the updated-with-Jack Sparrow
Pirates of the Caribbean attraction, watching the
fireworks and
snow, getting some great seats for
Fantasmic, near perfect weather, and generally acting like big kids, laughing and giggling ourselves silly. I did observe a lot of people who just don't seem to loosen up and have a good time at Disneyland and I don't get that. At all. Stop scowling and find your laughin' place people! You paid at least $60 to get in, make it worth it!
Another inquiry I get is, "Well, what are you going to eat?" It's not that big of a deal to me. Thanksgiving has definitely come to mean more to me about the company I'm with than the food I stuff into my face. The meals have varied over the years from Mickey cheeseburgers to barbecued ribs to a nice feast at the
Blue Bayou. As you can now make advanced reservations over the phone and I didn't call until a week and a half ago, the Blue Bayou was a no-go. Wendy made a reservation at a place just outside the park, but we decided to optimize our time and have dinner at one of the cafeteria style places in New Orleans Square. I went with the
traditional meal, which included turkey, andouille sausage stuffing, green beans, and garlic mashed potatoes. It was all quite delicious. I was able to snag the last piece of pumpkin pie, which is the Thanksgiving staple I truly cherish.
That of course leads me to The Great Pumpkin Pie Incident of 2006, where I ended up with pie on my face, quite literally. I'd really had my heart set on a slice of pumpkin pie and had gone on about it for quite some time. I was nearly devastated when it looked like they'd run out, but they managed to find one last slice for me. So, we're all enjoying our dinner and E started taunting me, saying things like, "Too bad you're too full to eat that pie," or holding up his fork and pointing it toward my dessert. I'm not sure what came over me, but I got really protective of this piece of pie, picked it up, and proceeded to lick it...you know, like a little kid does so his sibling won't touch his food. Well, it would have been clever if the pie hadn't flipped off the plate, landing on my shoulder/in my hair/on my face. Yeah, I'm an ass. Of course this was also the moment when everyone, who were previously engaged in their own conversations, turned to look at me. We laughed about it for hours. In the end, I gave E the very last bite of the pie. Naturally it was the piece with the most spit on it.
By the time we left Anaheim, at 1am, we were all super-exhausted, but quite contented. Luckily there was no traffic and we sped home, fed the dogs, and were passed out by 2:30. I had to get up around 9:00am to feed
Daizy, but promptly returned to bed once I was home and slept until about 3:30pm. E got up at 4. I was that special kind of tired that I'm sure new parents experience and that I can only handle a couple of times a year.
I do still have my fantasy Thanksgiving where serve friends buttered toast, popcorn, jelly beans, and pretzel sticks...on plates that I toss to them. All the while, my pets will be preparing a fabulous turkey for us to eat when everyone leaves to go to Charlie Brown's grandmother's condo. For now, Disneyland will more than do. Click
here to see photos from the day.
I had intended to write about something completely different today, but I'm not feeling very well and it's distracting me. I've had some stomach issues for the past few days and then this morning while I was walking down the stairs from the 7th floor of the parking garage, I suddenly experienced a massive spasm in the middle of my back. This is not an issue I normally have. Ever. It's pretty sore and making me really grumpy. It's also making it really difficult to do a lot of my job. So those are my excuses for this disjointed, rambling entry. I'm off to lie on the floor for a bit.
