Tales From The Outside...

And the clock starts again.

That's what I'm feeling right now. The 14 day countdown begins anew. Today I went to Target and to the grocery store to restock on supplies. I have enough that I think we can make it another 2 weeks without needing anything. So just when this countdown stops and I know for sure that I don't have the virus I'll be ready to head back out into the world and risk picking it up again.

Assuming that I don't pick it up from the mail or from something we have delivered.

Because that's the slight back of the head worry as well. That even when we are staying home we've had things delivered to the house so maybe we just imported the bug with that?

But you can't spend your day wrapped in plastic so we do what we have to do to still live.

Which means every few weeks we will need to go to the store. Or at least I will. Fewer people out means one of us at a time. And since I'm the one doing the cooking it really does need to be me so substitutions on the fly are, in theory, easier.

If you remember the last time (about a week and a half ago) Brent and I both went. It was crowded and uncomfortable and people were not understanding social distancing. We both felt just gross by the time we got home, showered and washed all of our clothes and still just felt kind of icky all day. Today wasn't bad. The shelves still aren't full, but neither are the stores. Not nearly as many people out shopping, and most of the people out there understood the whole distancing portion.

Most.

I did have a few wanderers at the grocery store. All men. Which may have been a coincidence or may be why men seem to be getting hit harder with this than women are. I told Brent that I think their problem is that they aren't used to moving for other people. They take up space. Taking turns isn't natural. They are used to people giving way, and so why change? So they tended to be middle of the aisles walkers and not checking to see if there was someone already in a space before they tried to go there as well. I only had to tell two of them I needed them to move though, so that wasn't too bad.

I also ended up with some GIANT sizes of things. I guess it's because people are hoarding and buying large amounts so what is getting restocked is the large sizes. Even with Brent and I both at home and eating every meal here we have enough dishwashing powder to last at least 6 months. And there were no cube tissue boxes so I will have rectangles without holders...like some sort of caveman! But I got TP and even snagged a container of disinfectant wipes. The grocery store had the disinfectant wipes and both places had TP so that was sort of exciting. In a this what passes for exciting now sort of way.

Still no dried beans. I was going to make split pea soup but no love from the dried peas department. I told Brent I would never take them for granted again. When we got home from Disney I almost picked up a bag (our first glimpse at the panic shopping day) but thought that there was no way this crazy panic buying would last so there would be plenty when I was ready for them. They've been gone ever since. Brent is fine with them being gone, he's not as big of a fan of split pea as I am. So now I'm wondering if he called the store and asked them to hide the peas before I got there...

Costs are going up too. Eggs were almost a dollar a dozen more expensive this week, for instance. And I spent over $200 on groceries for just me and Brent. I cannot even imagine how expensive it would be if we had kids in the house. So much money. But we are saving a ton on eating out so I think it will all be balanced in the black by the end. Maybe.

Oregonians can pump their own gas now. I know right? They are having a hard time keeping staffing up and they have decided this way will be safer. It actually doesn't make sense. One person touching the pump handle is much cleaner than 50, but it will keep the gas station attendants safer, and will give the owners the flexibility to lay people off as sales dwindle. Which is what I think it's all about. Lack of sales because fewer people are driving. For instance I have a TON of fuel points from grocery shopping and gas is at its cheapest in years but I can't take advantage of it because I'm using zero gas. Even today my errands didn't take a full charge off of the car. No gas. Multiply that by all of the people staying home and you see why we now "get" to pump our own gas.

The president has finally gotten off the idea that we will be done with the distancing and home staying by Easter. Now he's saying the end of April. Which is good. He's lying about what he's said in the past, which is normal but so frustrating. The frustrating part is the number of people the gaslighting works on. His poll numbers are increasing for people thinking he's handling the epidemic well. It is mind boggling. He's lied. He's downplayed. He's accused hospitals of either stealing or hoarding supplies. He's tried to blame his failings on Obama. And he's taking credit for any good idea someone else has. And he's on TV every. single. day. putting these lies out and people hear them and believe them.

I'm so worried that we will end up with him for four more years because he's basically campaigning on TV every single day. It's horrible and so frustrating. He's a liar. He lies. I just can't put it any plainer than that. Don't listen to him. Follow the advice of actual health officials, pay attention to your local rules and regulations and for fuck's sake don't give him the credit for other people's hard work.

My insomnia is not getting better. Maybe tonight I'll sleep really soundly since I won't have a trip out to shop LOOMING like it has been for the past few days. Last night was the worst it's been. I think knowing I was going out this morning and not being sure how that was going to go added to a fight with someone yesterday over something non-Covid related just made sleep impossible. Now that one of those things is resolved I'm hoping to crash and snooze. Wish me luck.

So that's where I am right now at the end of March. It's crazy that the last day of February we were in Florida finishing our vacation and here a month later we're on lock down. What a year the last month has been...

Stay home.
Stay safe.

My countdown clock starts again now...

Pandemic Prose...

I probably should settle on a title and honestly I'm running out of ideas....

So where are we now? Everyone okay? Or okay ish?

I'm fine. I mean really. The big changes are Brent is working from home. We aren't able to go to the gym. And I'm cooking every meal. Every. Meal.

Okay, not every meal. We were able to get take out last week for two meals and I would guess we will get it for one this coming weekend. But for those of you that know me, you know that's really weird. I normally cook breakfast for us during the week, we go out on weekends. And I manage one maybe two in a banner week dinners. The rest of the time (especially during hockey season) we eat out. But for now I'm cooking.

Which is kind of hilarious.

Because regular readers know that for years I kept SWEARING I was going to cook more. I would make it a goal and hit that goal then as soon as it was over I was done. I remodeled my kitchen thinking if I had a better space I would cook more. It wasn't the space. Except maybe the space between my ears. It's just not something that I found enjoyable. Even though I'm a pretty decent cook. Trying to plan meals and timing (we have one car so cooking and picking up Brent at dinner time is a challenge at times) was always a pain. Now? I have to plan, and then change plans when things aren't at the grocery store. And I don't have to worry about leaving in the middle of cook time to pick up Brent so that's actually made that part easier.

So all I needed was a worldwide plague to turn me into a home cook.

No biggy.

I hate not going to the gym. There I said it. I love sleeping in in the morning. I mean we are still getting up by 6:15 or so but it's not 5:30 and there is no alarm. Not waking up to an alarm is like the best thing in the world. So that is really going to be hard to go back to when things open back up. But...I miss feeling like I'm getting enough exercise. I hate that all of my strength gains are going to go away. I hate that I know the habit will be extremely hard to rebuild. I hate that at 51 the gym is necessary not for vanity but for vitality. I've been trying to get some work in at the house but it's so fucking boring...there is a reason why I have a gym membership. But honestly, it's not a big deal.

So really I'm fine. Brent still has a job. We have a safe place to stay. We've got food and options to get more. Hell, we even have enough toilet paper for probably another month. So we are fine. And I know I'm super lucky.

BUT...

I'm also having super crazy stress dreams. When I can actually sleep. So I know that I'm not totally fine. I'm worried. I'm worried about Christopher, though he's fine. But he's not here, he's WAY over in Bend so of course I'm going to worry. I worry about Skippy. Who is trying to figure out the best thing to do right now as far as cutting her massive, super cool, road trip short and racing home or taking care of a few things she needs to do and then heading home, or finding someplace to park and ride it out, which is getting more and more complicated as places shut down. I'm worried about my friends and family that work retail and are still going in daily and facing hundreds of people breathing in their spaces. I'm worried about my friends and family that are in health care that are facing a huge influx of illness already. I'm worried about friends who are losing businesses. I'm worried about friends who are losing jobs because of all of the businesses that are closing.

I'm fine.

But not everyone is fine.

So I'm worried.

And I'm pissed the fuck off at people who won't do what is best for everyone and stay home. Or people who are so worried about the economy that they are suggesting we do stupid games like crowd into churches for Easter. Mr. President, you hadn't gone to an Easter service in your entire fucking life before it looked good politically so please don't act like you will miss it too much. And his sycophants who talk like sacrificing Grandma and Grandpa for the good of the economy is a fine idea.

The people vs. profits argument is about as clear as you are ever going to see.

If the economy dives while we are all quelling the surge in sickness it can be revived when we all can safely get back out there. If people suffer from lung damage due to the virus that damage is going to affect their health forever. If we keep having lulls and surges because we can't knock this out we are going to face more issues with health and with the precious economy for a very long time. And most importantly, if people die they are going to stay dead.

Wrap your heads around months, not weeks. Do what you can to help those that have to be out in public services or in healthcare. Be prepared for some group sacrifice that is easy, like staying home, instead of listening to people who think group sacrifice should be with people's actual lives.

Stay home.
Stay safe.
Keep others safe as well.

And I Think This Should Wrap Up the Vacation...

Okay, so we are down to Magic Kingdom and Disney Springs. Those are the equivalent of Disneyland and Downtown Disney in California. The whole Magic Kingdom being Disneyland thing still throws me off. I think it should be Disney World (which it was before they started adding things) and all of the parks together should be the Magic Kingdom, but they didn't ask me so I didn't get to say.

But anyway...

Disney Springs. It wins over Downtown Disney as far as size and restaurants go. It's huge. Which is kind of the Disney World theme. More is more. BUT...it loses to Downtown Disney in how far it is from everything else and the lack of Disney specific stores. That was the weirdest thing to me. There was a World of Disney which is like all of the Disney parks stores in one space, but in Downtown Disney there is that and a few extra clothing stores and Disney snack places and Disney art studios. Disney Springs had more just regular mall stores instead. And the ton of restaurants.

And when we got there on Saturday? Forget about it. It was so packed. We tried to do a little shopping and a little looking around and just couldn't. We met my family for some dinner and chose a quick serve place that we had heard good things about. We were in line for 30+ minutes just to order and then had to sit at two tables outside. Which wouldn't have been too terrible but it was cold. Right? Florida was so freaking cold. We went from cold to hot and then back to cold during our trip. And Saturday night it was cold. I felt badly for my niece, I think by the time dinner was over she was really regretting coming to see us. Now, that could have been the company but I'm going to pretend it was the wind.

We would have spent a lot more time in Disney Springs if it had been closer to the hotel for sure but the night we went for fancy dinner (so good, I mentioned it in the first blog) we waited for close to an hour to get our bus shuttle back to the hotel. Just not at all convenient. If it had been it would have been really bad for our budget and our waistlines I think. I really did like the variety, the space, the much better during the week than on the weekend parts. But it just can't beat Downtown Disney for convenience. We hit up DD probably daily when we are in California. To grab food, to shop, to walk around outside of the parks. It's just so easy.

Dinner with the Fam. Love them. 

There was also a cute little photo place that was tied to our Memory Maker. I was not happy to see that our "act scared" was due to Mal. I would have acted "Fan Girl" if I had known!

Posing with the Lego Hulk is a tradition...now I've gone coast to coast.

And now the main event. The Magic Kingdom. Disneyland is The Happiest Place on Earth and The Magic Kingdom is The Most Magical Place on Earth. All things being equal I'd rather be happy but there is something to be said for magic.

It's similar but not the same. It's bigger. The streets are wider. The lands are a little more spread out. Cinderella's castle has turrets and gates that spread it out wider than Sleeping Beauty's castle. And there is a restaurant in Cinderella where you can walk through Sleeping Beauty's and see her story. So a little different. They have a few rides that are different, and few different spins on rides that are the same. And like all the rest there is just more to it. More rides, more areas, more space, and a ton more people.

But it's still the favorite park. The rest are fine, but The Magic Kingdom is just Disney. It's what you are thinking about when you think about going to Disney, it's what you want. But there are some differences. Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, Be Our Guest, they still have Country Bear Jamboree and The People Mover, and the Carousel of Progress (which was hilarious and sad at the same time), and I am sure more that I can't think of. We tried to hit things that we couldn't do in California or were different in Orlando and then work our way out from there. 

Christopher tried the Citrus Swirl which you can get along with Dole Whip in World. We were both excited to try it, as it was something new and he got it first. When he told me what it was I decided to pass. It's basically frozen OJ concentrate with vanilla ice cream. When I was a kid we would eat that as a replacement for being able to get Dreamsicles. I never want to eat that again. I told Christopher I already knew that it tastes like poverty and sadness. I'm kidding, but only kind of. He liked it and I bet if I didn't have baggage I would think it was fine as well, but I stuck with Dole Whip. You can never go wrong with Dole Whip.

Seven Dwarfs Mine train was like Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, but with smoother track action. That was the other game we played, trying to see which rides were the same frames with different skins. There are a lot that are Small World but...and a few Big Thunder Mountain with...styles. We liked it. It was fun. Still like Big Thunder Mountain Railroad better. And we think Big Thunder Mountain is actually longer in Magic Kingdom. Which is when the more is more is the best idea! AND...the line is covered and has things to look at and do while you wait so that's cool too. 

We did a special dessert buffet to get a reserved space to watch the fireworks show one night. The dessert was just okay, the weather did not cooperate and we were freezing, but the view of the projections on the castle was AMAZING. We were so impressed with what they can do with that now. They also used a lot of that technology the night we did the after hours Villian party. There was a stage show and they changed the castle for each villain. It was pretty darn cool. 

The after hours party was also really great. It was an extra ticket, but the crowds are small and you can ride things easier and just walk around without having people breathing on you constantly.  And it was villain themed so I loved it for that as well.

Space Mountain...well. This might be the biggest disappointment of our trip. We LOVE Space Mountain in California. It's a multiple rider for sure. And we were kind of impressed at the start for the Orlando version. The line is much cooler. In both ways. It's inside so you aren't baking like you are in California and it has some really neat things to look at. But the ride itself is awful. Like old school Matterhorn before they smoothed that out a bit awful. It's jerky and the cars are small and uncomfortable. It was one of the rides that was going to have a special theme for the Villains night so we rode it twice just to see the theme. Ugh. Not worth it. They added a little bit of a laugh and turned the lights out completely. California has a GREAT soundtrack and when they do overlays they do actual changes to the lights and music. It was just so not good. 

Pirates had the other additions for the Villains night and they added live actors into the ride. You had a pirate warning you in line that there was trouble ahead and then at a couple of spots in the ride there were pirates interacting with your boats. It was fun. Pirates overall is a better ride in California, but it wasn't bad in Orlando. 

I could talk about each area but I'll cut it off now.  The overall feeling for The Magic Kingdom was that it was the favorite park in Disney World, it was bigger than Disneyland, there were some real plusses to it. But it was super crowded. I think, for me, if you could change out the castle from Cinderella and put in the better Space Mountain then figure out how to get rid of a few hotels or streets or something in California I would like it better. In California. But since it's in Florida it's not my favorite, my favorite is the OG Park. But it was close.

This is actually from the restaurant of our hotel. Great view of the fireworks.

The monorail went right through our hotel.

Mal making her appearance at the Villains night

End of the night the Villains stand on the balcony and insult you as you leave! It was hilarious!

Waiting for Big Thunder...in the rain, it worked

It was a little wet

Giving our Meh instead of Ta Da reaction to Space Mountain

Christopher and I rode Splash Mountain at the Villains party but they weren't quite on the ball with the photo!

Our bundled up (it was 40) goodbye to The Magic Kingdom

So I think you've got the theme. It was big. It was crowded. Like crazy crowded. But we had a really good time. We got to spend a week together enjoying something we all like. We got to see things we had never seen before. We were able to see family not at a funeral so we weren't all crying at each other. We got to have some good food. We bought some fun things. But mainly we just enjoyed ourselves. 

Right now I'm even more grateful for that. I have no idea when we will see Christopher face to face again. We were going to go to a football game in September and then have the holidays together but I'm not sure that any of that will happen now. Our lives are all changed for the moment. And I am beyond grateful that it happened after we came home from vacation and not before. We planned for almost a year, just like everyone whose vacations were and are being cancelled right now. I am so sad for them and I hope they get a chance to go soon and have as much fun as we did. 

Disney.

Love it.

Back To Disney! The Unique Parks Edition...

Okay, so where were we?

Oh! Animal Kingdom. We were looking forward to this one. There is no equivalent in Disneyland. The pictures always look really great as well.

And it was...

Well...

The Expedition Everest roller coaster was a lot of fun. It was like the Matterhorn but with more. We really liked it. And the Pandora world was one of the most fully realized spaces in Disney. Very much like Galaxy's Edge. Just well done. And the Flight of Passage ride was brilliant. We had FastPasses for that one (thank goodness) or the wait would have been close to three hours. Insane. We weren't impressed at all with the safari. We were expecting an actual animal park, like free range animals in a large area. More natural interaction with nature for them. And there was a little bit of that, but it was mostly a drive through zoo. We have a great local zoo so it just wasn't really impressive. I wanted it to be more of a nature preserve and less of a traditional zoo.

We did not ride the other ride in Pandora, the Na'vi River Journey and that was a bummer, but it was the only truly hot and humid day we had and the line had a strong fuel odor. The thought of being in a hot line with that smell for an hour was too much for any of us to think was a good plan. So we looked at some pictures online of what we were missing and bailed.

It's a half day at best park for us. By far our least favorite. To be fair, part of that was the weather, but with only 2-3 decent rides in the place those lines are crazy. But again, because everything is so spread apart and the FastPass system is so wonky you can't really capitalize on that extra time by hopping over to another park real quick.

One of their "magic moments" add ins. I think they are fun. 

About the time I realized that there were going to be multiple Ta Das!

It was a random time for a picture so we don't look like we liked it, but we did.

And Dinosaur, a ride so lame I didn't even talk about it up there...

Okay, and then the other park that there isn't a comparable one in California. Epcot.

Brent and I went to Epcot in the late 80s when it was still pretty new. I honestly only remembered the giant golf ball, the Michael Jackson ride (before we knew anything), and the hydroponics exhibit which fascinated me. 

There was a ton of construction going on getting ready for their big anniversary celebration so we had kind of an odd experience getting around. It's also not really for us. We don't drink a lot. And we don't eat that much. Epcot is all about drinking and eating. There are people that that is their entire purpose for going to Epcot. To do an around the world pub crawl. We are too cheap for that! And the lines were really off putting. A margarita sounded good, but not good enough to stand 30 people deep to get one... At 10 in the morning...crazy.

The funny thing is even though it wasn't really a park geared toward our tastes we ended up visiting Epcot 3 times. We went Sunday evening because we wanted to make sure we got a chance to see the Arts Festival. Which was not what we expected. It was more like pop up shops from Downtown Disney's art store than anything else. Some really cool things, but not really what we had thought it would be. We had our normally scheduled day, rode the Frozen Ever After ride that everyone loves, walked around and looked at the lands. Did some shopping AND rode the ride with the hydroponics! It was not nearly as cool as I remembered, but it was cool because it was what I remembered so that balanced out. Then we went back Saturday morning and rode Test Track when it reopened to the world. It was fun.

We rode a few other things, one was a trip to Mars for Christopher and a trip around the world for me and Brent. The effects are so strong on the Mars version that they were having trouble with vomit so they had a toned down version. We took the toned down version. Brent would have been fine getting the simulated Gs that Christopher did (he said he could feel it pressing his cheeks back and his face was a little numb for awhile after riding) but I would have been in the vomit group so...

We also had a really lovely breakfast in France on Saturday morning. Breakfast was a tough meal at Disney World. Just not their best. But this was really good. So that was nice. 

Epcot was fine, but again, it could have been a part day park for us. It just had to be spread out because of what rides were operating when, and our mistaken thought that the Arts Festival wasn't to be missed. Oh and that Frozen ride? It was fine. There was a part where you went backwards and that's always fun but it was just kind of It's A Small World Norway...with some really disturbing skin masks for the animatronics...

THE big get ride. 

The Festival of the Arts wasn't a complete bust, I mean I got this...

And these...

The photographer was very confused by Christopher...we thought it was hilarious.

I cannot even begin to tell you how mad I was when I saw this shot. The ball is perfectly framed in the gate. I ASSUMED the official photographer would line us up to get the Gate, the Ball, and us...*sigh*

TA DA!

The part I remember...

So this one is funny...we saw an "official photographer" everytime we were there taking shots with the Iconic Ball in the background. The lines were long, we were headed someplace else, we were coming back so we would hit it then...until the last bit of time in the park on Saturday and they were NOWHERE to be found. Oh well...we handled it. 

So our take on these two parks was they are fine. Part day parks for us. Would need to plan that next time. Factor in a commute time between them and hit them both in one day maybe. But, again, hard to do with the way their FastPass situation is set up. Epcot when it's all done with construction might be worth another crack. And maybe that time we'll decide to stand in that margarita line...

The Lockdown Library...

Taking a side break from my Disney World posts to talk about the latest Covid 19 happenings.

Last week was the first week a lot of people spent actually staying home. Oregon was under this sort of vague "Stay Home Stay Safe" model. Basically our governor said "you're adults, you don't need me to make it a crime to be out and about. You know what to do. Stay home for 14 days, it's super easy." And Oregonians responded by crowding the beaches and the hiking trails. So today it became a mandatory Shelter in Place or get a fine until I say differently.

It won't really change anything Brent and I are doing. Grocery stores and quick take out food and delivery are still open and options. Though our favorite restaurant did a week of take out before realizing the risk reward ratio wasn't really worth it to them and shut down. Which makes me so sad for them. Lots of businesses aren't going to recover from this time period. BUT...we still need to do this. Because if we don't our hospitals are going to be slammed and a lot of PEOPLE aren't going to recover.

Just imagine those images you saw of people crowding Florida beaches and California boardwalks and Oregon hiking trails and put those people in to a hospital instead of on the beach. Now do you see?

The good news on the home front is that Christopher made it through his first 7 days of quarantine with no symptoms. They can still show up, of course, but for most people it's day 1-5 where they are most likely to happen. So hopefully he wasn't infected. They are working on getting all of their workstations delivered so they can move forward with working from home in a more in depth way. He'll have to figure out where to set up that rig but a good problem to have considering the number of people out of work altogether.

Saturday Brent and I did our "BIG DAY OUT" Yeah, I know I just lectured you all about how we all need to stay home except for essentials...and it was just that. We got takeout from our favorite place (really glad since I don't know when or if we will be able to again) then we went to the grocery store. Which was crazy. It wasn't as crowded as it had been a week and a half ago, but it was still busy. The store had set up things a little differently to help with the social distancing. They had two feeder lines for registers with tape marks on the floor where to stand to wait. So that was great. But people just didn't get the spacing thing when left on their own. Like, you know, if I am standing here, YOU stand over there! One couple kept cutting me off over and over. One of them laughed, "Oh we are in your way again!" It's not funny. It's not business as usual. Watch me...see how I wait WAY OVER HERE while he grabs flour, then when he is done I step in to get mine. SIX FEET APART! But no...people would walk down the middle of an aisle. Or stand in front of things just staring for ages. Grab and move, people! Grab and move!

Though I do get it, I walked back and forth in front of the meat case a few times. Trying to stay out of anyone's way while contemplating the menu change I was going to need to make because the shelves were bare. That and my mint tea were the two things I needed that weren't there. The rest was okay. Some things I would have picked up (more dried beans, a little more pasta) but couldn't because they were still out of stock. But we should be good for another week and a half to two weeks.

Which is good because we both felt like we were crawling with germs by the time we got home. I have a feeling this is going to spur a whole new group of germaphobes. But a shower and a complete change of clothes and laundry helped that feeling.

We also picked up takeout dinner. Call in. Pay over the phone. Hand it to you. Minimal contact. And I went in because though both of us were bothered by the store I was less so than Brent. I have always fallen into the camp of let your kids eat some dirt, it's good for them and helps build their immune systems. But, like I said, even I am feeling pretty squicked out when around too many people. I've never been a fan of crowds, they make me uncomfortable, but now it's almost a physical feeling, like I can feel them in my air. Not sure when that will go away.

Which is where we are right now. Not sure when this goes away. Not sure what else is coming. Not sure how bad it's going to get. I think we missed our chance to contain the virus at the beginning and then missed our chance to slow the spread over the past few weeks. I think within a week or two our hospitals will be completely overwhelmed and hard decisions are going to be facing those in the medical community. I think we are going to face two waves of financial implosions. This first one, where things are closing and people are being laid off in mass, and then the second when the people who got sick are hit with their medical bills.

The president is still giving daily press conferences where he gives the wrong information and his health department people try to come in after him and clarify. He's also starting to tweet about the how this whole stay at home thing is wrecking the economy so we need to stop it. Money, money, money...who the hell cares if a large chunk of the population gets sick and or dies? Who cares if the hospitals are overrun with people and completely lacking in supplies? Put your mask on and get your lazy ass back to work...

It's extremely frustrating.

It's all up in the air.

I'm afraid we haven't even begun to see the worst of it.

Stay home.
Stay safe.
Wash your damn hands.

Park It Right Here!

Okay, so now that I have the food out of the way...

We are Disneyland fans. I love it. I've talked about it before. I don't know why because it's not like we are huge Disney movie people and people in animal costumes that cover their faces freak me the fuck out..but still. Love Disneyland. And Christopher loves Disneyland. We've done more family vacations there than anywhere else, including his high school graduation gift.

But Land. Not World.

Brent went to World once as a little kid and he and I went to World and Epcot once when we were first married and stationed in Orlando and that was it. We've talked about it over the years but the flight is long and why would we go to Orlando where the weather is worse and the flight is longer when we could just go to California?

But once Christopher started reading more about Disney World and the things they had that Land didn't he wanted to go check it out. And as I am a sucker for Disney and the opportunity to spend time with my son I was sold. And as Brent loves us and wants us to be happy he was on board too. The one shift we made was Christopher was in charge of the planning. He and I talked about things and he gave us all options, but the planning was on him. Because let me tell you World takes planning.

So what did we think?

We thought it was a lot. Like a lot. We also realized that for us even with it being a lot what would take other people 6 days still only takes 4. Our biggest problem was that everything was too far apart to really capitalize on that.

See in Disneyland we stay at one of the resort hotels which gets us early entry into one of the parks each day. We knock out a good chunk of the popular rides in that time and then use MaxPass to get our first FastPass for the day and go back and forth between the two parks as needed. We are often "done" with our top list by the afternoon of day one. We generally go for 2 to 2 1/2 days and hit up our favorites multiple times and have plenty of time for shopping and goofing off. It's so easy.

World is not like that. I got us the park hopper passes but would not bother with that going back. It's too much time to start at one park and then ride the bus to another. You can't use the FastPass system the same way. Your passes are booked out months before you get there and you have to use all three before you can book another. Which usually means that there aren't any left to be had. Because you can't book out too many FastPasses you are inline for rides quite a bit, and even with the FastPasses we were often in line for 20 minutes or so.

Because it's crowded.

Like insanely crowded.

Christopher chose the time of year that is historically the lightest attended. It was still crowded. Part of that was the opening of Galaxy's Edge so people who had put off vacations came during what was usually an off time. And part of that is Disney has been aggressively marketing those downtimes to markets where people are on vacation in February. So even though it wasn't as bad as it can get in those parks it was as crowded as a holiday in Disneyland.

Crazy crowds.

The parks are bigger though. Like Hollywood Studios is bigger than California Adventure (the equivalent park) and The Magic Kingdom is bigger than Disneyland. The streets are wider. The lands have a little more open space. So that's nice, but they fill all of that extra space with so many more people. Staying on park doesn't really get you much benefit, because there are SO many more on park hotels that most of the people are staying at the park.

We did do an after hours event on Friday and that was great. It was an extra ticket and limited people so the lines weren't terrible at all. It was cold and we did end up in a couple of long lines at the beginning that if we had known we would have avoided but it was still really nice. You could walk without getting elbowed and lines moved super fast. But again, another ticket, so added expense.

I didn't want to carry my camera around, sometimes it's an extra trip through security if you have one and if you can skip that bag line, then skip that bag line, so I only have a handful of pictures I took myself. And then I have a TON of pictures from them. I bought the Memory Maker and made the boys stop at almost every place I saw a camera person. So I have a lot of those shots. The funny thing (to me) is that they had you do the same poses at each stop no matter where it was; which would be odd, EXCEPT...one of them was TA DA! So I have a Grand Finale Series of TA DA shots with not only Christopher and me but all three of us! At about the third shot when I realized this was going to be a thing I started to get giddy thinking about it. A game within our visit. Gotta love that.

So let's see what are the highlights? First off that Christopher planned everything. I know I keep mentioning that but honestly I think I would have been overwhelmed or not at all prepared if he hadn't done the research and set us up. It's hard for a Land person to understand how complicated World is. Dinner reservations 6 months in advance? FastPasses picked 3 months out? What? Why? But he did it and that was perfect.

Parks:
Hollywood Studios: This is where their Galaxy's Edge is. If you are a big Star Wars fan I bet this is awesome. As it is we aren't that kind of fan so it was cool but not COOL. The new rides were really interesting. The Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run is a really cool concept. It's a video game inside a ride. Everyone has a part to perform. I think if you are the pilot it is the most fun and you get the best view. As a gunner my controls were off to the side so to see what I was supposed to be doing for our mission I couldn't really watch the front of the ride to see what the ride actually was all of the time. But still pretty cool.

The boys were the pilots. I would have rather been an engineer because they have the least to do.

For Rise of the Resistance you have to get to the park and be scanned in before it opens and then use the app to get a boarding group if you want to ride. And even then you might not get a boarding group, or you might get a high number and the ride shuts down so you miss your chance to ride. All sorts of maybes. We did this park our first day so we would have other chances if we didn't get in the first time. And since there was a marathon we didn't know about so all of the roads were closed around our hotel and it took an hour for our Lyft to get us and get us to the park we were ready to do just that. But we slid into the park with 3 minutes to spare and got Boarding Group #24. Whew! Better to be lucky than good!  And it was a cool ride. I don't have pictures, there are a lot online if you are interested, but I didn't take any. I was too busy looking at everything. And there is a lot to look at. I think you could ride it a few dozen times and see something new. And the cast members are full on in character the whole time. No friendly Disney smiles here. It was very fun.

These are not the crowds you are looking for...

The other highlights of Hollywood Studios was the OG Tower of Terror. I have nothing against the reskinned Guardians of the Galaxy version in California Adventure, except that Tower of Terror didn't need a reskin. It's a great ride with a fully realized story. I would have rather seen them do something new but I get it that in California space is an issue and since they are turning that area into Marvel Land it will fit. But...

Also Toy Story Land was amazing. Technically we really explored this on Friday when we could get Slinky Dog Dash FastPasses but still...it's very cool. Much better than Cars Land in Adventure. But to be fair, we aren't Cars fans so that whole area is kind of lost on us.

The boys also really enjoyed the Rock n Roller Coaster. Me? Not so much, it goes upside down and that's not my favorite. But they really liked it.

Over all Hollywood Studios vs. California Adventure is kind of a wash for me. Hollywood Studios has a few better rides and the aforementioned MORE ROOM but it's still a 3/4 day park for us and since it's not just across a walkway it's not convenient for park hopping.  And did I mention the crowds? For instance if we hadn't gotten passes for Slinky dog the lines were well over two hours almost the whole time! Crazy!

And I just realized I need to pare this down because I'm not giving highlights so much as breakdowns. So let me sum up...

Or break this into another blog. Which given I just had major download issues and I want to take a nice socially distanced walk while it's still sunny I'm going to go with that...And I'll leave you with these two shots from HS.

So here we are just chilling at Hollywood Studios...

And here we are Brent still chilling, Christopher having a ball, and me FREAKED THE FUCK OUT...

It's A Whole New World!

Okay, so we went to Disney World.

Let's start with the reality. Things have obviously changed so much in the last few weeks that anything I write about will have a touch of Covid...not like contagious touch, but you know what I mean...it will be impossible to write about it without having that really weird, Wow things have changed so much! feeling going the whole time, but I still want to talk about it and what we thought (Or what I thought and what I think the boys thought).

So yeah...we've been home for 2 1/2 weeks. It seems like we were there ages ago already. Disney is so immersive while you are there and then the real world always seems a little disappointing to come back to. This time it was with an added level of surreal. We missed the first build up to panic shopping while were there and the first real wave of "oh this is going to be bad" so we were in crowds constantly and just knew we were going to get sick, but only with colds. Which Christopher and I both did. He got a mild one and I got a pretty nasty one. But just colds so thank goodness. Brent and I had the shock of going grocery shopping on Sunday morning and seeing all the empty spaces. Of course we had no idea that it was only slightly empty that Sunday, it was going to get REALLY empty the next week.

But anyway...while we were there we were fairly out of touch with the news. Completely out of touch with politics. And barely in touch with anything that wasn't ride wait times and food.

It was awesome.

Really it was.

Christopher started planning for this trip about a year before we actually went. He looked at best times to go. Best things to ride. Best food to eat. What we would need to do to make all of that happen. Now there were some things that threw a few wrenches. One being we are not big food planners. We eat two meals a day with a snack basically and so trying to work around reservations wasn't really going to be a thing we wanted to do. We picked one breakfast specialty, one lunch place, one dinner, one snack and called that good.

The breakfast was yummy, but the real sell was the coffee. Kona coffee French press from Hawaii...sigh...after a couple of days of truly mediocre coffee everywhere it was wonderful. The lunch was disappointing. We went to Be Our Guest which is Beast's castle. We did lunch instead of dinner, less expensive and supposed to be less of a hassle. I really wanted to do this one. I love Beauty and the Beast, and the castle was cool to look at. But the meal wasn't great. It was expensive, we waited an hour for counter service food, with a reservation. If it had been faster and a little less expensive it would have been much cooler. I would have liked to have just done a walk through like you can do in Sleeping Beauty's castle in Disneyland.

The line. With reservations. Ugh.

But the castle was cool...

The room we ate in. Ahhh....

This room had the snowy windows. And it is snowing.

SLASH!

The petals fall.

Lovely mosaic

Lovely embroidery

The dinner was probably one of the best meals we've ever had. Honestly. Morimoto Asia. Get reservations, eat there, you won't regret it. Oh my goodness... We tried the Kobe beef as well. That was pretty cool. It's a little fattier than I prefer but Christopher loved it and it was yummy.

The snack was the bar in Galaxy's Edge. It was another one you did reservations to stand in line and so that was a little frustrating. But the line moved fast. You can only stay inside for 45 minutes so they keep the crowd moving. 

The DJ droid

The bar (Everything is premade so you get what they have)

Atmosphere for days

Our drinks, that is black salt and a mango puree so it looks "alien"

Snacks. I don't recommend them.

So it was kind of cool, super crowded, REALLY expensive. Unless you are a huge Star Wars fan it's just okay. 

Okay, so looking at this and thinking maybe I do another one for the lands themselves and just call this the food blog...

Dinner with the family at Guy's Chicken place.

The food was okay but the company was outstanding

EVERYTHING in Galaxy's Edge is themed.

 This actually made me laugh because I think the writing looks

 like it's saying 7-Up instead of Sprite.

Christopher and I tried Blue and Green milk.

We had about 5 sips and tossed them. SO sweet.

The restaurant in our hotel. You could get the full menu in the lounge.

This was potato pizza. Interesting. But we got to watch the fireworks from there and it was awesome.

We also did a dessert buffet to get fireworks seats in the Magic Kingdom. The buffet was just okay, too sweet for us, but the view for the fireworks was great. 

Okay, so that was just the taste...

HAHAHAHAHA!!!

whew....

I'll talk about the parks themselves next time. Really. 

The It's Not the Flu Review....

Things are starting to really shift. People are taking it a little more seriously. We've had action in Congress on support for workers and businesses. That's how you know it's serious, they are actually looking at helping people who haven't incorporated.

The President has moved on to full blown, "I've always taken it seriously" mode. Watching the people who last week were sure it was all overblown trying to walk the line between the media is overhyping it and it's not that bad and well Trump says it might be very bad so the Democrats better start taking it seriously. Okay...

And honestly whatever on one hand right? As long as they are now taking it seriously and staying the fuck home who cares if they believe fearless leader is actually leading. Though on the other, fuck those guys and fuck him. It's going to be worse than it had to be because of his lack of empathy and care for anything other than money. If he had come out strong from the start and actually sided with his own scientists it might have made a difference.

I think people are still not really understanding how long this is going to last. I had the realization last night that there is actually a good chance we won't see Christopher until next summer. No holidays with the family. It's not really going to be under control until we get a vaccine right? And there won't be a vaccine until next year. And we still suffer from vaccine resistant viruses, not actual viruses but stupid people who don't get their vaccines. Though maybe this will actually show them how important they are. People who were alive when polio was virulent aren't anti-vaxxers for instance...

And people are still not really great at social distancing. Limit your time around other people as much as you can. Go to the store once a week or every two weeks. Or have your things delivered and left on your porch. Don't have people over. Don't take your kids out to the park to play with other kids. Don't let your teens hang out with each other. People are still doing this. They need to stop.

Businesses are closing at a really rapid rate. It's also showing how precarious a lot of them were living. There isn't money to hold them over during a time of crisis. They are closing and laying off workers and some of them might not be back. Including iconic things like Powell's Books. For an Oregonian it's almost unimaginable. But there is going to be a lot of that. A lot of our smaller businesses aren't going to make it. A not insignificant amount of larger ones won't either. A lot of people are going to be out of work. Retirement savings for a lot of people is going to be wiped out.

And people are going to die.

Which is still the part that I think a lot of people aren't really wrapping their heads around. This is serious. We are at the start of the build right now. People are already dying and more will join them. Older people. People who are in fragile health already. And young and vibrant people. People who probably would have lived for decades longer.

It's all a little surreal right now.

I know it's serious.

I know it's going to get worse.

I know all of these things.

And even I have a hard time believing them.

Be safe.
Be careful.
Don't hoard.
Wash your hands.

The Pandemic Posts...

So this past weekend was the weekend before St. Patrick's Day. Also the start of Spring Break for a lot of people. Even if Spring Break is due to a pandemic shutting down colleges, schools and workplaces, but still Spring Break. But traditionally this past weekend would have been just wall to wall packed bars and people out partying and crammed together. Now because of the risk of infection and virus spread people were responsible adults and stayed home and...

Nah.

You know I'm kidding.

People went out. Packed bars in Miami, New Orleans, Nashville, Chicago...getting the picture? Everywhere. The message has gone out. You are going to be fine, this is all a hoax, American Exceptionalism! Whee!!

I'm disgusted but not really surprised. I mean people freaked out and got pissed off when sports were cancelled even when athletes starting testing positive. Showing that the risk was not just for the spectators but for the athletes themselves. Are you really willing to risk someone's life so you can watch them throw a ball around? I mean, I love hockey and I am really glad they put the season on hold. Still calling it a hold but I have to think they will cancel it outright here soon.

But to not be able to give up one weekend of partying? That's just crazy. Alcohol lowers your immune system response. Crowds spread viruses quickly. You don't show any signs when you are first contagious. How is this difficult to follow?

Restaurants in our area have been taking everything very seriously. A lot have added delivery options where there weren't any before. Others are going strictly take out or changing the layout inside the dining room to limit seating. They are trying to stay in business through all of this. And it's going to be extremely difficult. Thin margins. But the answer isn't to ignore the warnings and act like life hasn't changed. That's irresponsible. And honestly, if you ignore the recommendations they become mandatory and much worse, so those restaurants trying to hold on are told they have to shut down. It's not helpful.

Stop thinking this isn't a big deal and look at what is happening in other countries. You know what happened in the ones that have taken it seriously and people stayed home? There are STILL infections; just far fewer. The ones that ignored the warning signs? They are suffering under mass strains to their systems. And now they are trying to lock down something that's already running wild.

What will happen to us? My guess is we are about to blow up with a large number of infections because people aren't paying attention. They aren't taking care of themselves and those around them. We are just at the start of this. There will be months of virus spread and we are going to have to figure out how to live with the new normal for awhile. Let's try not to have the new normal be thousands hospitalized and thousands more who should be but there is no room.

It sucks. I know. But be a grown up and deal with the suckage. Seriously. Don't tell people that it's all overblown and they should be going out (Nunes, you ignorant Fuck), don't think that you are invincible (all of you out partying and posting your selfies like that will protect you). Wash your damn hands. Don't gather in large groups. Think about the people out there that you are putting at risk with your actions. Including the people working in those bars that had to go to work in a sea of humanity because your ignorant ass couldn't stay home one year.

This shouldn't be so fucking hard.

The Corona Chronicles...

Trying out new catchy titles. What do you think?

So...I was sitting down to blog about where we are and what we are doing as things shift when my phone rang for my weekly call with Christopher.

And now my mind is in a totally different place.

Someone in his office is showing the classic symptoms. They are all on work from home now and self quarantined. Not sure if his co-worker will be able to get tested because we are still in the boy tests would be a good thing to have part of this cycle. Basically it's a wait and see. Do they have it or just another bug? How exposed were the rest of them? Two weeks to wait. Which isn't that bad, right?

Except when it's your child.

Then it's time to tell yourself over and over that it's fine. Honestly even if he was exposed and he does get it he's in his 20s and the odds are that it will be a mild case and he will be fine either way. And we don't even know for sure that the person has Covid, it might just be the flu or a cold or...

*breathe*

So yes, it's easy to switch from totally fine to edge of panic in just a few short words. And this is just the start. We will all know someone at some point that was solidly exposed, or has it, or had it, or it will be us that has it. It's a pandemic. That's how it works.

So same advice. Wash your hands. Don't go out if you don't feel well. Social distance even when you are out. Be careful without panicking. And don't hoard.

Now back to what I was going to write which you can imagine me writing while a screaming meemie of panic is still trying to claw its way out of my gut...

Last night while I was laying in bed I thought of a "fun" new game perimenopausal and menopausal women can play. "Hot Flash or Sudden Onset Fever?" It made me laugh. As I waited for the flash to fade away trying not to think "Is this lasting a little too long? Should I get up and take my temperature? I've never actually taken my temperature during a flash, does it go up? I bet it goes up. How could I be this hot and not have it go up? Is it fading yet? Whew.... Ding! Ding! Ding! We have a winner! Hot Flash!" Who knew I'd be grateful for the night sweats?

We are still doing the severely cut back outings but not locking ourselves inside routine. We went to breakfast yesterday and today. Got pedicures today. Went by the grocery store yesterday morning. I'm worried about my favorite restaurant surviving this stretch. It's going to be months before everything is back to normal and that's a very long time in the restaurant industry to stretch. And I would imagine that within a week or two the recommendation is going to switch from limited activity to everything has to close.

I had a moment last week that kind of blindsided me for a second. Listening to the way the conservosphere has been downplaying all of this and thought for a second that I hoped my mother was taking it seriously with the chemo and the age and...oh wait.

We did call Brent's mother to make sure she was doing okay. She's 70 and has been a smoker most of her life so super high risk group. So far so good. She retired at the end of last year so doesn't have a parade of people coming in and out of the house anymore. The housing board she sits on has been cancelling events so that's good. She was on her way to dinner and then the grocery store when we called. I don't think she was prepared for the lack of stuff at the store, but hopefully she will get what she needs.

The President is taking it more seriously now so watching the whiplash from the conservophere on how they cover it has been interesting. Now instead of it all being a democratic hoax that we should ignore because it's just going to go away soon we are supposed to believe that the President has been on top of the situation from the start. Seriously, watching the retcon of his actions has been amazing. Supposedly he did the perfect thing by shutting down flights from China because it slowed the progression and gave us time to prepare. Well, sure that would have been a thing if he had actually started to prepare anything. Instead he shut down flights AFTER the virus arrived, same with flights from Europe, AFTER new pockets of infection. It's too late. It's here. Shutting down borders isn't a real strategy if you do it after the spread starts. And it's definitely not a strategy when you don't do the actual preparing for the spread part. Tweeting about a hoax, falsely claiming there are tests available when there aren't and worrying about the stock market do not count as prep work.

He supposedly has tested negative for the virus now as well after coming in contact with people who have it. I say supposedly because I find it impossible to believe him on anything. That's what happens when you lie about everything. When people really need something and someone to believe in it's not going to be you.

So personally still in that not panicking portion. Mostly. Like I said, it's harder when it's your child. Even if your child is a grown ass adult. Also still in the limited movement cycle without cutting out all movement but I've been trying to decide if we stick with that or go into hard lockdown and drop the gym and any non-takeout food. Not sure. I've read positives for both sides and negatives for both sides so I'm not sure just yet. But mostly at home for sure. Brent is working from home. I'm cooking the majority of our meals. We aren't going to the movies, sports have been cancelled so none of that, shows have been cancelled or rescheduled so none of that. Mostly at home.

This week should be an interesting one as we are seeing the curve of cases ramp up. It's not an if or a when it's a now. What will people be doing and saying this week?

Stay safe.
Stay clean.
Don't hoard.