I'll start with last Monday, since that was when we ventured over to The City That Walt Built (yes - I'm talking about Orlando, or what my son calls "Lando") for some theme-packed good times. We'd gotten vouchers in the mail for a free admission ticket and about half-off up to six additional tickets for one-day two-park admission to the two main Universal parks, to be used before the end of summer. Since the little guy was getting a short break in between pre-K and actual school, I wanted to seize the opportunity to have "family time". I will preface this by saying that my husband does not enjoy these kinds of activities. I think he's an alien, but I haven't been able to prove it. Yet. The DNA tests were inconclusive.
Anyway, back to the point. Without the vouchers, the regular one-park admission alone for the three of us would have been over two hundred dollars. With the passes it only cost the price of one regular admission ticket to get us into both parks. We went. We had fun. We were exhausted by the end of the day. I enjoyed Universal, but there weren't as many rides for kids, so we only spent a couple of hours over there (spent mostly walking in a giant circle and bemoaning the end of the Back to the Future ride - although we did take pictures in front of the Delorean, for posterity).
Back to the Future - a thing of the past...
My son got to have his picture taken with Jimmy Neutron, and he loved the Nickelodeon and Shrek rides (it was incredibly hot, so we spent as much time doing "indoor" things as possible - thank goodness they were running the misters at pretty much every ride), and then we headed over to Islands of Adventure, which I think is the superior park. My son loved the Cat in the Hat, and Red Fish, Blue Fish. He got to meet Spiderman and have his picture taken (which later cost me $25 and came with a terribly cheap plastic frame that didn't even have plastic or glass in it to protect the photo -- what a racket), and we had fun riding the Flying Unicorn and Accelatron (think Disney's spinning Tea Cups, and you get the general gist of this one). I swear, my son would have ridden the Hulk coaster if they'd let him. He's so fearless when it comes to rides. I have no idea where that comes from - lord knows his dad and I are weenies when it comes to that stuff.
"Dale Hart Junior" used to drive the #8 car
We had dinner at the NASCAR Cafe between the parks, to make the little guy happy (since this was his day) and to get out of the rain that had thankfully held off until the early evening. My feet were killing me for days, but it was great fun. I think I'd like to go back to Seaworld later this year, or maybe Epcot. We're saving Disney World proper for next year. Or maybe the year after. As much as I like theme parks (and my love of theme parks, amusement parks and fairs is equal to my husband's aversion to them), the main Disney park is not one I especially enjoy. It's just too much - too big, too crowded, too expensive. But, my son wants to go, so we'll make the trip eventually.
I had some time off between then and now, mostly filled up with resting, wasting time and vegging out, generally. It was rough going back to work in between those times of rest, and each time I had a little break my resentment over the situations at work would build up again, leading to stress. It's just tiring. And it is probably best to speak of it as little as possible at this point.
My son's first two days at school have gone well, although he really wants to be a bus rider. I keep telling him "Maybe next year". It's probably more likely than maybe, since his school is on the "short list" of those going to be closed by the county due to decreased enrollment and budget cuts.
I got caught up in some movie watching. In the past week I've watched Bedazzled (the remake - not the original, and thought it was kind of cute, but not something I'd pay money to see), Girl with a Pearl Earring (I love Colin Firth, and he was great at being the moody, brooding artist, and Cillian Murphy is in it as well, but I'm not a fan of Scarlett Johanssen...I thought she did a lot of standing around blinking her eyes and looking appropriately vacant, which reminded me of a cow - although I've never read the book that the movie was based on, so I don't know if it was a product of the material or the actress), and Mansfield Park, which is based on both the story written by Jane Austen and some of her other, more personal writings (yes, it is a little cliched and trite that she is one of my favorite authors of her era, but, again, unlike one quarter of the U.S. population, at least I read!). I thought this was a beautiful movie, filled with a wonderfully accomplished cast and brilliantly nuanced performances. I could see a couple of the events coming from a mile away, but it's Jane Austen - no one does the "quietly enduring love from afar that no one quite realizes until it's almost too late" in the way that she does.
We were supposed to go out to dinner with friends on Sunday evening, up in the north side of the county. My son had a stomach ache that morning, but he'd been acting like he felt better all day, so we figured we'd be okay. As we were driving I kept glancing in the side mirror (since my husband's truck is designed in such a way that I have to sit in the uncomfortable little seat in the extended cab), and noticed my son getting paler and paler. And sweattier and sweattier. As we pulled into the parking lot of the restaurant, my husband and I noticed him make a face, and just as my husband said "Oh, no...", the poor kid got sick. All over himself. My husband ran inside to get some paper towels and tell our friends, who were already waiting for us at a table, that we wouldn't be able to make dinner. On account of a vomit-covered kid. Thank GOD it didn't happen a couple of minutes later inside the restaurant. My son got sick three more times on the half hour drive home. I can only imagine what the people driving next to us must have been thinking. I tend to think he picked up a little nasty bug at his school orientation the day before, since the next day he really was perfectly fine. The joys of parenthood, people!
My son would like to go swimming now, and since it's just shy of a hundred degrees outside, I'd say that's a better idea than going to the park.
2 comments:
OH! he's so damn cute!!!!!!!!!!!
I know. How did that happen??
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