Dizzy Day

Glenna's long-awaited reward for finishing school finally arrived. I had carefully saved several fast passes for everyone, good for ANY ride at Magic Kingdom. We drove to MK, parked the car, and took the bus to Animal Kingdom to begin our adventure. When we got into the park, Glenna turned to me and asked, "Mom, you got the fast passes, right?"

I stared at her. The night before, she had been carefully gathering everything for her and her friends. I even saw her dividing the fast passes into equal piles.

"Are you kidding me?" I answered.

"Are YOU kidding?"

"You've GOT to be kidding!"

"Wait, which one of us is kidding?"

The day soured in an instant, but I grabbed her hand and insisted that both of us accept responsibility and then let it go. Somewhere in line for Expedition Everest, I was feeling better. Glenna was having a harder time, though!

Her friend, Bekah, and I began a hilarious dialog (complete with southern dialect) about how happy we were feeling and how our other two companions (Glenna and Grace) needed a sprinkling of pixie dust or something! While in line for the Safari, I grabbed Glenna's hands and twanged, "We are going to reLEASE this. We are just going to reLEASE this into the air and let it go!"

Grace, gleefully clapping her hands and grabbing the accent, "Oh, I love this. I just LOVE this!"

We had a little ceremony of "releasing the bad vibe," which we had to repeat, and then things started to look better. I began to feel burnt from the heat and realized I had forgotten my phone in the car, so I decided to let them go on to Hollywood Studios without me. I went back to MK to retrieve my phone and see if I could secure some fast passes from my castmates.

On the bus back to MK, I met the sweetest couple. They were visiting from Philidelphia and we began to talk about different things they could do in Florida. They wanted to go to the beach, but I also recommended seeing some of the natural springs and swimming there for a truly refreshing time. I had three fast passes in my backpack, which I had reserved for myself, and I gave them to the couple. Since I was working that night from 4:15 to 11:15, I invited them to come by and say hello. They were also Believers and handed me a Bible tract that they were leaving with everyone, encouraging me to give it to a castmate or someone. =)

Back at MK, I got my phone and headed for Space Mountain. Though I was in street clothes, my cast I.D. allowed me access to everything. It was so hot! There's no areas of coolness in Tomorrowland, so by the time I got to the break room I was soaked in sweat. The ride happened to be down at the moment and while I was walking up the corridor I saw Rony (he gave me three fast passes) and then ran into TJ.

"TJ, do you happen to have any fast passes?"

"Are you kidding me?" (There's that phrase again!) The coordinator had just asked him to go through the trash at merge for these special fast passes in case they ran out while they were evacuating the building. TJ picked up 27 of them, and then they weren't needed! Since they expired that same day, he gladly handed them to me so the girls could use them.

He saved the day!

I texted the girls with the news. I think their day just got better as well.

Two hours later I put on my costume, met the girls outside to give them the passes, clocked in, and then went to work. I wasn't at grouper very long when I turned and saw the sweet couple I had met on the bus! We hugged like we were old friends. I had just been thinking about how impossible it would be for them to actually find me - they could have been sent to the other track, they could have appeared while I was on break, or they could have come while I was in tower.

Oh, but wait - I never got to tower last night!

I know this post is alread too long, but one more thing.

Last night was a Grouper's nightmare. NO ONE was listening to instructions. We had a million Brazilians (another post for another time) and the noise level was insane. I literally had to fight to get my rockets loaded and for people to stay where I put them.

Right in the middle of all of this, I turned to the next group in line and faced a party of three very calm, very logical, very patient people. They smiled. I smiled. I said, "Look at you. You're calm and logical and I LOVE YOU."

"Awww, J-! We love YOU, too!"

"It's a love-fest, right here on Space Mountain!"

"It certainly is!"

I then placed this calm and logical mother with her two, early-twenties/late teen, calm and logical sons in the FRONT CAR, because that's what I do for the ones I love. We were all still smiling.

I grouped another party behind them. As the calm and logical party stepped up to the front and were about to load into the rocket, one of the sons turned around to look at me one last time.

He found me looking back at him with my hands in the shape of a heart.

Love. It's a beautiful thing.