Disneyland

I got a lot of thoughts on this day, but its all going to have to sit for a few hours because between Plyo and trying to take on a whole family - this mouse needs some sleep.

Zzzzzzzzz's Zzzzzzzz's

Ok, I'm feeling better...rarely do I go to bed before 1-2am, but last night I knocked out by 11pm I think. I needed it. Carrying Blondie around or chasing after the Waterbaby work yesterday.

So Disneyland has changed - a lot. I haven't been there since I was 16. I recently went with some friends of mine from San Diego. They have three boys, one five and then two 2 year old twins. I was misguided in thinking that the twins would twitter out within 5-6 hours and then the moms would want to head home. I had no idea we'd actually go from open to close...but it was all good fun, even though the Captain threw up three times in the happy kingdom. I watched the moms handle it all in stride and it made me feel good about lesbians being parents. In fact, I dare say these two might have mastered it on many levels...their kids are very well-maintained and in control of themselves.

I came home from the Magical Kingdom though exhausted and headed right into my regular workout routine, which was Plyometrics for an hour...I only got 36 minutes in before another one of my personalities just shut us all down. She'd had enough of this go-go-go attitude the others had recently adopted from the punch bowl. She insisted we down some recovery juice loaded with mass amount of vitamin C, positive that she had been exposed to super-stomach virus cooties during the day's adventures...and determined not to let down her defenses. These San Diego cooties seem to be much worse than the LA cooties we usually get.

Ok, all that said...I expected to pull into the Disneyland parking lot and walk to the front ticketing booths...meet up with the family and head into the kingdom...and there I expected a few changes and upgrades. No.

There is now this super-four-level parking structure which from what little I could tell on the tram both ways yesterday is now across the street from the old parking lot? Ok, I am fine with that, but it was completely disorienting for someone who hasn't been to Disneyland for the last 23 years.

Tickets are uber-pricey. Ridiculously so in fact. Combine this with food and souvenirs and a couple could have flown to Hawaii for the weekend or taken a nice Mexican cruise. That is stupid on some level. And when you look at the price of just one regular day ticket compared to buying the annual pass, well then you know you should be buying the pass right? But to do that you are now clearly in the territory of general financing of said one day vacation. I'm sorry but I emphatically disagree with the pricing structure...its way too much for most middle-class Americans. And that my friends is another example of the Promise being broken to our kids, as well as to ourselves.

My friends paid for my ticket...which if you know me was something I struggled with the entire day before and day of. I am trying to learn how to "allow" things in my life though and so this was more of an exercise in that...even though they probably didn't realize the internal battle. I've always, always been the one to take care of everyone else. I can't tell you how many friends I have helped go to Europe, college or whatever their tasks at hand was. I am generous and have always been ok with that...its just part of who I am. But when you do it so consistently after a while you forget how to allow someone else to be generous back - it feels weird. Mo even mentioned it the other day that just buying me a hot dog is a task because I get kinda prickly about her paying...and she's right I do get prickly and she's right its just a hot dog for heaven's sake. Which is exactly why right now I am trying to learn how to allow others and to accept things. It is much harder than it sounds.

The magical Kingdom itself has undergone a major overhaul. Just about every ride was different than I remember it. A few remain classic and unchallenged, like Dumbo and the Jungle Cruise. Everything else has been tied to a more modern day telling of the Disney product line...my classic submarine voyage is now Finding Nemo and so on. It just makes me realize how time has gone by and maybe makes me sad that I don't have my own little ones to bring here - I am borrowing kids these days. Which thankfully, there was an extra pair of hands needed...but I once did have this vision of my own tykes running around me and being able to share Disneyland with them the way my grandparents had with me...and add my own spin on it. You can't do that with other people's kids.

I rather enjoyed having two little twin boys walking on either side of me, each holding on to a finger. It was a good solid feeling, even if they were borrowed. In fact, I feel so close to these kids that at times they feel like family...and that still baffles me. I guess my biological clock is going off big time...no longer ticking, just loud alarms at this point...with no snooze button in sight.