Happy Columbus Day. Yeah, I didn't even know it was Columbus Day until well into the afternoon. I left for work this morning and all of the neighbors had their flags up, and I was thinking, "Guh? (That is seriously what I think when I'm confused. Guh.) What deviltry is this? Hug Your Local Hobo Day?" Eventually I figured it out, and we all had a good laugh at my hilarious ignorance of our noble American heritage ("we" meaning me).
So we spent all of last week (okay, two weeks ago) in California, where we took Ting-Ting on her first ever Disneyland trip. Love and magic abounded at every turn. Well, almost every turn. Some of the employees were kind of on the cranky side, probably on account of the RIDES KEPT BREAKING DOWN. Seriously. Haunted Mansion and Winnie the Pooh both broke down while we were ON THEM, Haunted Mansion also broke down twice while we were waiting in line, and Pinocchio was broken down for several hours at one point. But it was fun, and Ting-Ting mostly enjoyed herself. Her faves were of course all of the ones yours truly would consider to be in the "we just happened to be in the area and the lines were short" category, such as Small World, Dumbo, and The Tiki Room. But that's a 3-year-old for you. The low point for Tingers? Probably meeting her hero and life coach Minnie Mouse. Seriously. You'd think she was meeting an axe murderer. But put yourself in Ting-Ting's shoes. Over the course of several months, you come to adore this cute little squeaky-voiced mouse with a polka dot skirt and a bow in her hair. You have stickers of her all over your wall, and there's a picture of her on your bedspread. You even dress like her sometimes, you 3-year-old fashionista you. Then you come to Disneyland, the place where dreams come true, and your parents have been talking your ear off about meeting Minnie, and you finally do meet her, and she turns out to be a SIX-FOOT-TALL FREAK MOUSE WHOSE MOUTH AND EYES DON'T EVEN MOVE. Of COURSE you're going to be a little put out. After that, though, she started getting more used to meeting the characters. I think she actually gave Winnie the Pooh a hug. But who wouldn't? (Although it is interesting to note she's had a four-foot-high picture of Winnie the Pooh in her bathroom ever since we adopted her, so maybe she was already used to seeing him in his giant freak form.)
Besides going to Disneyland while we were in California, we went to the beach (second time for both me and Ting-Ting--she's been as many times in three years as I've been in 34!) and also to Downtown Disney, where Alyssa was quick to buy herself a keychain sporting a Lego Gimli (from Lord of the Rings) for the sole reason that she's Alyssa and Gimli is like her celebrity crush. (You should have seen her reaction when somebody mentioned that John Rhys-Davies is going to be one of the guest stars at the Mormon Tabernacle Choir Christmas concert. I think she nearly fainted.) We also made the mistake of signing up for one of Trendwest's "presentations," figuring it would be an easy way to net ourselves a sweet 100 smackeroos. How wrong we were. The two-hour-long presentation can be summarized as follows:
SALES GUY: Dude, Mormons are awesome. Buy a timeshare. Did I mention that Mormons are awesome?
US: We're not interested.
SALES GUY: You're dumb.
Yeah. Ahem. But we did get the $100 in the end. Trendwest should be glad to know we wisely spent their money on Bubba Gump's, a stuffed cat for Ting-Ting, and a creepy hourglass for myself. Because, you know, creepy hourglass.
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