Last summer during lockdown, I played Sims for the first time. And me being me, I quickly became obsessed. By the end of summer, I had bought all but 3 of the packs. (I don’t have My First Pet, Kids Room, or Toddler).
Over the past year, Sims has been my way of relaxing and escaping from academic stuff. Building and creating are my favorite parts of the game. I’ve been uploading my houses and such into the gallery for other people to download. If you play and are interested in seeing what I create, my username is GingerSnap425. Look me up, follow me, download my shit! (haha!)
Screnshot of my Sims account, GingerSnap425
This summer is the summer of prelim exams for my cohort. Before I can start dissertating, I have to pass a prelim exam of 3 questions from my dissertation committee; one in pedagogy, one in theory, and one in history. There are a total of 70 readings to prepare for the exam; 52 on a general list, and 18 that I added. I’ve read some of them already in classes over the past 2 years, so I just have to gather the notes and annotations I already have for those. And, let’s be honest here, I have no intention of reading Phaedrus again. (Sorry, not sorry, Plato).
I get 3 days to answer the questions, and it’s open book. Right now, I’m planning on taking mine August 27-30. Doesn’t seem too difficult, right? Hahahaha! At least it’s not like the bar exam. That’s what they’re telling me, anyway.
So, as I’m reading and annotating and reading some more, I will be building and creating in Sims to relax from it all. It’s something completely mindless which is what I’ll need. I remember when I was studying for the bar exam way back when, and I would watch the MTV reality show “Sorority Life” for the same reason. Remember that show? It was gloriously awful as most reality tv is. Doing something that takes no brain power is a must when your work consists of nothing but brain power.
And I think I’ll be writing posts about my adventures in Sims. I’m not entirely sure what to write about yet, but here are a few thoughts:
write about each of the packs I have, and my favorite/least favorite parts of the pack
build a house using only the base game and one pack (this is very difficult for me)
have people give me building/character creation challenges to complete
If there is anything you want to see or read about, or if you want to give me a building/creation challenge, go for it! I’ll do my best to create it, and then I’ll write all about it here!
Nooooo! It’s our last day! Tabitha did not want to leave and asked if we could live there. I wish! We could be stowaways on the Falcon!
Sadly, we were going to have to leave though. While we were waiting to check our bags in the hotel’s luggage hold center, Pluto and Goofy stopped by.
We had some time to kill before heading to the airport, so we spent a couple hours at the pool and got some lunch. I’m also adding some pictures of the hotel lobby that I forgot to post from our first day.
Then, we headed to the airport! I love these photos of Tabitha copying Tim because they totally remind me of Omega copying Hunter in The Bad Batch!
We had a long wait before our flight, but at least there was a Starbucks! And apparently Kylie Jenner sells her crappy lip kits in airport vending machines. Haha!
After a delay and some auxiliary power issues, we were finally in the air and headed home! Tabitha wanted the window seat, and she took tons of photos! We made it home a bit after 11 pm (we should’ve been home at about 8!).
The next morning, we went to Star Diner for what we considered our last vacation meal!
And that’s it, folks! That was our Disney World vacation! Thanks for reading!
If you remember, we were unsuccessful on our first day securing a boarding pass for Rise of the Resistance. This is even after Quincy’s advice for the 1 pm queue of switching to military time, getting off the Disney wi-fi, and finding an unpopulated area of the park. That last part is almost impossible, btw.
After watching some YouTube videos and reading some articles, we had a new strategy. I really wanted to get in with that morning queue. For the 7 am queue, you can be anywhere to join. But for the 1 pm one, you have to be in Hollywood Studios which you would think would be good. But, like I said, finding a good signal AND an unpopulated area of the park is difficult.
Plus, I read that they consistently don’t load the last 10 or so groups of the day because they run out of time. And I just didn’t want to stress about it!
Now, buckle up, buttercup because this is was a PROCESS!
Tim and I headed outside our hotel building at 6:45am. I got off the Disney wi-fi and got 4 bars worth of signal pretty much right outside the door. I had the Disney app pulled up on my phone, and Tim’s phone next to me, and I was watching the second hand like a hawk! We realized the night before that his clock changed to the next minute at the 59 second mark. So at 6:59:59, I hit the join button for the virtual queue. For the next 2 screens, I didn’t look at anything and just hit the buttons I needed to as fast as I could. If you stop to read anything, you lose valuable milliseconds! And I got it!! We were in group 75! A high number, but we didn’t care! We were going to ride Rise of the Resistance! Notice the time on that screenshot? Wooo!
With that stress behind us, we hopped on the Skyliner and headed to Hollywood Studios!
We got to the park before it opened, but they still let us in. We headed straight for Smuggler’s Run, and there was already a line forming.
We realized while in line that we were in a part of the park we hadn’t seen on Monday!
Once they opened, the line moved quickly. We might have been in line 20-30 minutes before we were able to ride. We had the same roles as the first time, Tim and I were pilots, and Tabitha was a gunner. But, Tim and I switched spots, so he got to make the jump to lightspeed. (Tabitha still yelled ‘punch it, Chewie!’)
After Smuggler’s Run, we headed to the blue milk station. I don’t know what’s in it, but it’s some kind of frozen concoction. It’s a cool novelty thing to do. But in all honesty, it upset our stomachs, so we. probably wouldn’t ever get it again. We headed to Star Tours and rode that twice.
The character encounters were phenomenal that day! Tabitha had so much fun antagonizing the Stormtroopers, and she was recruited to be a Rebel spy!
We headed back to Smuggler’s Run to ride it again, but this time we had no intention of waiting in the 70 minute line! So, here’s a trick to skip it. If you don’t care about your party being split up or what role you play in the mission, then go to the single rider line. You will be on the ride in about 5-10 minutes! We rode it twice in like 30 minutes this way! The first time, Tim and Tabitha got to ride together too! I got to be an engineer both times, and the second time, my team got 2 containers of coaxium AND over 10,000 credits! Woo-hoo! Hondo would’ve been proud!
Tabitha and I walked around the little shops for a bit. The details of everything are really amazing. And yes, I took a picture of the sink in the bathroom. Because look at it! Don’t judge me!
It was getting close to our lunch reservation AND our boarding time for Rise of the Resistance. So, we headed toward lunch, and, on the way, we saw Chewie and Rey! We also found out that once our boarding group was called, we had an hour to board. It was gonna be a close one!
Lunch was at the 50’s Prime Time Cafe. Tabitha got chicken tenders and more fruit which meant more pictures of tiny grapes. I got a chicken Caesar salad, and Tim got the sampling of Mama’s favorites (fried chicken, pot roast, and meatloaf). No photos of these meals because we were in a rush! Plus, they just weren’t that exciting (except for the tiny grape, obviously).
So, here’s a fun fact about our weird little family. I watch Mystery Science Theater 3000 almost every day on Pluto TV. And there are a lot of repeats, but I don’t care. They will sometimes play a short before the main movie, and one of them is called, “What to Do on a Date.” We’ve seen it a lot.
It’s a typical corny 1950’s how-to video where Nick wants to ask Kay out but doesn’t know what she likes to do. At one point, he asks her if she likes a few things, and one of them is a weenie roast. Literally every time it comes on, I say to Tabitha, “Say Kay, do you like weenie roasts?” in my best Nick voice. She pretends to be annoyed, but laughs anyway.
So, as we’re sitting there eating lunch, who pops up on the televisions but Nick and Kay in the exact scene where he asks her if she likes weenie roasts!! Hahahaaahaaa!! Poor Tabitha! Photos were necessary to preserve this momentous occasion! (They’re the last two-haha!)
Our boarding group got called while we were eating, so after lunch we hauled ass back to Rise of the Resistance! Luckily, it’s in the front part of Galaxy’s Edge! They scanned our magic bands, and we were in! We still had a bit of a wait, but like many other rides, there was a lot to look at and take pictures of.
Our journey started with a mission from Rey and BB-8. Then we were loaded onto a transport ship where Lieutenant Bek would take us to our mission. Poe Dameron and Nien Nunb flew alongside the ship. We could also watch as we “took off” from Batuu. And then…oh no. Oh crap! It was the First Order!
We were captured and taken onto a Star Destroyer! We were taken through the hangar bay and into the ship. Ok, this hangar bay? Unreal! It was like we were in the movie and actually on a Star Destroyer! And they gave us plenty of time to take it all in and take videos and photos which was definitely needed because talk about sensory overload!
Once we were in the ship, we were lined up and instructed to remember the color we were standing on. Ours was red. Easy to remember. The people playing the First Order officers were amazing! They were so in character! We were taken into an interrogation cell where General Hux and Kylo Ren made an appearance. We were then rescued (kind of) by the resistance, and this is where the ride part of the ride began. We had to remember the color we were standing on because it told us where to sit for the ride portion. Finn showed up to let us know he had our backs, basically.
The rest of it was a fast moving, amazing, thrilling ride! Below are some pictures I managed to get. These are the least blurry ones!
I can’t even call this a ride. It was an entire experience! And it was phenomenal! It was the last thing we rode in the park, and it’s a good thing because nothing else would’ve seemed worthy after this!
We picked up a couple more souvenirs, then relaxed at the hotel. Tabitha got a Bad Batch shirt, a Clone Wars Jedi set with holoprojector, comlink, and macrobinoculars, and a Porg. And I got a cool hat!
Yeah, Chewie had the right idea about roasting and eating these things.
Total steps: 13,601 (My feet were like, ok that’s enough now!)
Day 5 took us to the Magic Kingdom. We weren’t expecting to do too much here because a lot of it is for the wee little kids, but we ended up doing quite a lot! I waited until we got closer to take the obligatory photo of Cinderella’s castle, and Tabitha was happy to see a statue of Donald Duck. Then, it was off to Adventureland!
Pirates of the Caribbean was first on our list. Tabitha loved it so much, we had to ride it again!
We took a ride on the river boat. Not all that exciting, but kind of relaxing, except that my feet didn’t touch the floor when I sat down (short people probs!).
We went next door to the Haunted Mansion. This was fun ride! I managed to get a kind of decent photo of the witch.
And, I mean, did you really go to Disney World, if you didn’t ride It’s A Small World? It’s like Disney law or something! At least that’s what we told Tabitha. Haha! Plus, I couldn’t miss my can-can and hula girls!
And, if I had to listen to this over and over, then so do you! Mwaahaahaahaa! (Just be happy I didn’t put it on autoplay!)
The spinny-spinny rides get a big ‘no, thank you’ from me, so it was all Tim and Tabitha on the tea cups!
We went to Tomorrowland where we rode the cars at the speedway, the Carousel of Progress, and Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin. Despite its name, it does not spin in circles (thankfully!). It’s a shooting gallery kind of ride. It was fun. And we got to see Stitch! He’s so stinkin’ cute! Then we headed back to Fantasyland for our lunch reservations!
Lunch was at Be Our Guest restaurant. This place was so cool! The three rooms to eat in are the Grand Ballroom, The Castle Gallery, and the West Wing which is normally forbidden, but our waiter told us Beast was in a good mood and allowing people in it that day.
We had a great table in the Grand Ballroom that gave us front row seats for when Beast made his appearance! He actually made 3 appearances (bit of an ego on that guy), and Tabitha loved each one!
As for the food, we got served a 3-course French-inspired meal, and it was so good! For the first course, I had French onion soup, Tim had a meat and cheese plate, and Tabitha had a fruit and cheese plate. She kept finding little grapes that she thought were so cute, so I had to take pictures of them. And let’s talk about that French onion soup, shall we? Literally, the best French onion soup I’ve ever had!
For the second course, I had the herb-salted pork tenderloin, Tim had the filet mignon, and Tabitha had mac n’ cheese. She said it was good, but she’s had better. At least she got a giant fry (that I, of course, had to take a photo of).
The dessert course was so yummy! A lemon and raspberry macaron, a dark chocolate truffle, and a white chocolate “Chip” cup with “Grey Stuff.” We were encouraged to “try the grey stuff, it’s delicious!” And it was. Tabitha got to “paint” her “Chip” cup. Our favorite of the three desserts was definitely the macaron!
Tabitha got an awesome light up cup too!
After lunch, it was a quick walk through Cinderella’s castle to the front of the park to catch the bus back to the hotel. We just missed Pooh and his friends which was a bummer. But, Tim and Tabitha got to see Merida riding a horse and a few other characters in a mini-parade. I was inside a shop at the time making a purchase.
The purchase was Tabitha’s Pride shirt! She also got a Haunted Mansion shirt (it glows on the dark!), and a “Stay Weird” Stitch shirt earlier in the day.
Back at the hotel for a goofy photo with Ed. And while Tim was napping, Tabitha and I had dinner in the room with a cookies n’ cream cupcake that was way too sweet!
Total steps: 13,134 (at this point, I can’t remember if I had any new blisters or not. My feet just hated me.)
Don’t be like a Stormtrooper and miss tomorrow’s post about our second day at Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge! It was the best of the two days there!
Day 4 of our trip took us around the world at Epcot. Well, mostly around the world. We got on the Skyliner again, transferring twice before arriving at Epcot.
We decided to go for the rides first, so we hit Soarin’ right away which is a hang-gliding flight simulator around the world. Very cool! We rode Living with the Land next and took a boat tour through the greenhouses of Epcot. The last thing we rode was Spaceship Earth (it’s in the big Epcot ball). We headed to Test Track, but it was broken down when we got there. The whole center area between Spaceship Earth and the lake is blocked off. Major renovations going on. But at least they had the cute butterfly thingies for pictures!
We headed to Mexico, and the loop of countries around the lake. But, we ended up skipping Mexico, most of Norway, and China. Each country had a popular ride or attraction which made it a very congested area (thanks, Anna and Elsa). I did manage to get a photo of the gate to China.
We were also able to walk through the Gods of the Vikings exhibit because it’s out in the front of Norway. Tabitha represented Loki well.
Tabitha got to show her love for some of the princesses.
We still visited America, even though we’re literally here every damn day. But, we got to listen to some great live music from a mariachi band and an acapella group, so that was worth it. We also watched the animatronic show “The American Adventure.” Tabitha kept pointing out all the whitewashing. And there was one song in it where they would sing “America” all dramatic-like, so she decided to sing “Captain America” instead, but just as dramatic. I fricking love this kid.
We saw some bonsai trees and a dragon topiary in Japan.
Some cool stuff in Italy, including a weeping angel. (Don’t blink!)
Got to see the Eiffel Tower and some expensive artsy fartsy stuff in France. (I love artsy fartsy stuff!) We also found a Paris box with all the Marie stuff in a shop. Savannah has always loved Marie and Paris, and she actually owns this box! A photo of it was a must.
Side-note: The blue cloth Tabitha has on her head was a life saver from the heat! We got two of them. You just wet them, wring them out, then snap them a couple times. Snapping them does some sciency stuff, and they stay cool for a couple hours. These and her portable fan/mister made the heat a little more bearable.
Tabitha tried to make a call, but there was no bloody phone! The Pooh Bear, Rabbit, Tigger, Piglet, and Eeyore topiaries were so stinkin’ cute! And I really want to analyze the rhetorical significance of placing the Shakespeare Garden directly in front of the bathrooms. (Can’t escape rhetoric even on vacation – haha!)
And then there was Germany. I saved this for last because it’s where we ate lunch and dinner. Of course, Tim had to check out the model train.
Lunch was at Bauernmarkt. Tabitha and I had the toasted pretzel bread with black forest ham and melted gruyere cheese. It was so good! Tim only had a beer flight. He was saving room for dinner.
Dinner was at the Biergarten. This was easily the best meal we had all week! It used to be a buffet with all the tables together to represent an actual biergarten during Oktoberfest. Because of the pandemic, tables are now separated, and the food is served family-style right at your table. I actually preferred this because I’m not a fan of buffets (gross!). It’s still all you can eat though!
The first course is pretzel bread, potato salad, a tomato and cucumber salad, and macaroni salad. I wasn’t fast enough to get a pic of the tomato/cucumber salad because Tim and Tabitha inhaled it! The main course is bratwurst, roasted chicken, nudel gratin, sauerkraut, red cabbage, spatzle (noodles), warm potato salad, regensberger wurst, franks, schnitzel, frikadellen (meatballs), and green beans. And, of course, I didn’t take a picture of all of it, only my plate. I almost forgot to do that because I just wanted to eat!
I opted for the spatzle, chicken, schnitzel, and frikadellen. The noodles and chicken weren’t anything special. They were good, but just tasted like noodles and lemon-pepper chicken. The schnitzel was very tasty, especially with the sweet mustard. And the frikadellen? OMG! FRIKA-AMAZING!
Dessert was cheesecake with berry compote, black forest roll, chocolate chip cookies, and warm apple strudel with vanilla sauce. The cookies were cookies. I actually gave mine to Tabitha because compared to the other desserts, they just weren’t happening for me. The apple strudel was very good. But, I still can’t decide if I liked the cheesecake with berry compote or the black forest roll more. I mean, you’d think cheesecake is pretty generic, right? But let me tell you, this cheesecake was so amazing I wanted to cry!
And as if all the amazing food wasn’t enough, there’s live music! It was such a great dinner experience!
Interesting side-note: As we were walking in, we ran into Tabitha’s principal from her old school! How crazy is that?!
Rain and storms seemed to loom overhead all day. There was one rain burst during the day, and one was on its way after dinner. We tried hard to get back to the Skyliner before the storm hit because we knew they would stop running it. We didn’t make it, so we had to walk even further to the bus. And another evening storm meant no pool time. I wasn’t complaining though. I was ready for sleep!
Total steps: 17,515 (The most of our vacation! And two new blisters! Woo hoo!)
Come along with us tomorrow as we go to the Magic Kingdom!
Early on our third morning, Tim took a survey asking about our experience so far. He said everything was great now, but did include how it took longer to get the room, the safe wasn’t working, and only one side of the coffee maker was working. He didn’t really expect anyone to read it. But within 90 minutes, a room manager called the room and said they would send someone up to fix the safe and bring a new coffee maker. Sweet! Right after the person left who had fixed the safe, there was another knock on the door with someone bringing gifts! We got some popcorn, chocolates, a frame, and a handwritten note! How awesome is that?!
After that we were off to Animal Kingdom! There were 3 must-dos on our list for this park: Avatar Flight of Passage, Na’vi River Journey, and the Kilimanjaro Safaris Expedition. We headed for Flight of Passage first because it had the longest wait time. Wait times always seemed a bit off during our stay, but in a good way. They never seemed as long as predicted. But as we waited, we had a lot to look at.
Avatar Flight of Passage was amazing! It’s a 3-D flight simulator where you’re riding a banshee through Pandora. It’s an immersive and breathtaking ride!
From there, we went right next door to the Na’vi River Journey. A relaxing boat ride down the Na’vi River that wasn’t nearly long enough!
Last on our must-do list was the safari. I knew the Animal Kingdom park would be a hit with Tabitha, if only for the giraffes we would see on the safari. She had already loved the Avatar rides, so now it was time to go see some giraffes! And wow! We got to see them up close, along with a lot of other animals!
Giraffic jam!
Since we were able to get through our must-do list pretty quickly, we just winged it (haha) the rest of the time at the park. We took a walk through the Gorilla Falls Expedition Trail and saw some more animals.
We had a fabulous lunch with an awesome view at Flame Tree Barbecue. I had pulled pork mac n’ cheese with coleslaw and onion rings and cornbread. YUM!
We watched It’s Tough to be a Bug in the Tree of Life at the center of the park.
And we ended our day at the park with the ride, Dinosaur. A ride Tim and I had gone on 13 years ago with Savannah, but neither of us remember it being so jerky and rough. I didn’t like it, and I don’t think Tabitha did either. I did get a great shirt in the gift shop though!
Spending the evening at the pool when we got back to the hotel was another no from Mother Nature. So, we ate some pizza and relaxed.
Rain!
Total steps: 14,766 – Another blister! Yay!
Join us tomorrow as we go around the world at Epcot!
We started and ended our theme park reservations at Hollywood Studios where Galaxy’s Edge is located. This post will be about our first day (Monday, June 21st). But trust me, there is more than enough for a post for each day, so I’ll post about our second day (Friday, June 25th) soon!
We took the Skyliner to Hollywood Studios and ended up in the same tram as Quincy from www.allears.net. She gave us a lot of great advice which was awesome because we hadn’t done our homework before going. And we really should have. We were unable to get reservations for Droid Depot and Savi’s Workshop for the week, so Tabitha wasn’t able to build a droid. But she was still able to get 3, yes 3, lightsabers! Two of which she built. More on that in a bit.
There are landspeeders, x-wings, and droids (even gonk droids! – Tabitha’s favorite) as you walk through the beginning of Galaxy’s Edge. Because of COVID, interactions with characters are different, but still a fun experience.
Stormtroopers miss EVERYTHING!
Droids!
Then around a couple more corners, and there it is. The Millennium Falcon.
Behind the Falcon is the queue for the ride, Smuggler’s Run where we got to see a lot of cool stuff!
On this ride, you get to play one of three roles: a pilot, gunner, or engineer. But there are 2 of each on each mission, and for the most part, you get to choose your role. Tim and I were the pilots, Tabitha was a gunner, and 3 random people were the other gunner and engineers. The mission is to fly the Millennium Falcon to Corellia to steal some coaxium for Hondo Ohnaka.
You sit in the cockpit of the Falcon, and then a computer simulation takes you through the mission complete with all the jolts and shaking from crashing to jumping to lightspeed. I was the lucky one who got to pull the lever to make the jump to lightspeed, and as I did, Tabitha yelled, “Punch it, Chewy!” It was awesome.
I had been unable to get a boarding pass for Rise of the Resistance at 7:00am, so Tim tried again at 1:00pm using the advice Quincy gave us. But, it didn’t work. So, we would miss that ride the first day. We still had 2 more chances on Friday though!
If you can’t get a reservation for Savi’s Workshop to build your own lightsaber, you can still get a Legacy Lightsaber at Dok Ondar’s Den of Antiquities. There is a virtual queue for it, but we happened to be right outside the store when they put the sign back out with the QR code for the queue! Woo hoo!
Dok Ondar
After trying Rey’s, Leia’s, and Darth Maul’s hilts, Tabitha decided on Obi-Wan’s. She also got a Jedi holocron with a white kyber crystal and a Sith journal.
We ate ronto wraps from Ronto Roasters (sorry, didn’t get pics of them!), then headed to Star Tours because the wait time was very short (5 minutes compared to the 70 minute wait for Smuggler’s Run). Tabitha loved this ride too!
Like most rides at Disney, it exits into a gift shop. This is the gift shop where you can build your own “cheaper” lightsaber, if you can’t do it at Savi’s. Tabitha got us for 2 lightsabers here! LOL! She got to choose all the parts of the hilts and the blades’ colors. She picked a white one for Ahsoka Tano (her favorite character), and a red one for Darth Vader. It’s all interchangeable too, so if she gets bored with the way they look, she can switch it all around. She also got some really cool light up Star Wars Mickey ears!
Light up Star Wars Mickey ears!
At this point, we were getting overheated and tired! Well, at least Tabitha and I were. After spending over a year barely leaving the house, being out in public and walking a lot was not agreeing with us! We went back to the hotel for a quick nap, then headed to Disney Springs for some shopping and dinner reservations at Ragland Road Irish Pub. The food was amazing, and I found Loki ears! The only ears I wanted and that Tabitha commandeered within a day!
That pretty much wrapped up Day 2 for us. We thought we could get some pool time after dinner, but the weather said no. It was storming by the time we got back to the hotel, and the bus driver even warned us to watch out for flying debris!
Total steps for the day: 14,272 – I had 2 blisters at this point – smh
Come back tomorrow for our exciting adventure into the Animal Kingdom!
At about 4:00am on June 20, 2021, we left the house and headed to the Detroit Airport to fly to Disney World.
Tabitha and I at the airport
It was Tabitha’s first time flying, so I wasn’t sure how she would react. I have a love/hate relationship with flying. I love that it can get you places faster than driving, but I hate the thought of crashing or the plane losing power and falling from the sky. Look, I watched Lost back in the day. I know what can happen!
Plus, we have the added issue of people being buttwads and not wanting to do the simplest of things like wear a face mask. “No! My civil liberties are being violated because I’m being minorly inconvenienced by having to put this piece of cloth over my face!” Shut the fuck up.
Anyway, back to the vacation. After being told she couldn’t take her peeps (stuffed animals), Tabitha managed to fit 4 in her backpack and 3 in my bag. Grogu was coming with us no matter what.
Once we were in the air, it was time for snacks, games, and loads of pictures of the sky! And Tabitha loves flying! Woo hoo!
We made it to Orlando and took the Magical Express bus to the Art of Animation Resort where we waited…and waited…and waited for our room to be ready. In the meantime, we had some lunch (which totally reminded me of Fazolli’s!), and Tim and Tabitha played in the arcade.
After about 5 hours of waiting, our room was ready! A lot of the waiting was because we got there so dang early, but about an hour was after they had promised the room would be ready. And after asking what was happening (nicely because we aren’t Karens), Disney gave us a $75 credit. That was nice, especially considering we had already spent about $150 in the gift shop and for lunch! Haha!
Our room was amazing! We stayed in the Lion King suites. A separate bedroom and bathroom for Tim and I. Tabitha LOVED having her own bathroom! A small kitchenette area, table with a murphy bed, and a pullout sofa. The tile in the showers was gorgeous! And we got full size shampoo, conditioner, and body wash. That’s like full-size candy bars at Halloween!
Below are pictures of around the building and our room. Also, some of the pics were taken on the last day of our stay, so don’t mind the mess! The room had been lived in for a week!
Once we got settled, it was time for some dinner and the pool! Yeah, that thing that looks like a piece of cake? It’s a turkey sandwich! And it was delicious! I got it 2 more times during the week!
And that was Day 1, our travel day! Come back tomorrow to read and see all about Day 2, the first of the 2 days we spent at Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge!
Today is Christmas Day, and not having to go anywhere is actually really great! Because let’s face it…
GIF by sweartrek.com of Spock saying “This whole planet is bullshit”
This pandemic is going to last forever in America because people are stupid. One thing this pandemic has done is allowed me to listen to Christmas music more often. And I mean really listen to it. Now, I’ve had issues with “Baby, it’s cold outside” for some time with the whole emphasis on rape culture and all. But, I noticed another song that bothers me.
Gif by Warner Brothers Archive of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer pulling the sleigh through the air.
Yep, it’s Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. This song is straight up bullshit. All the other reindeer bully Rudolph, and no one, especially Santa, does a damn thing about it! In fact, Santa ignores the whole situation until he needs something from Rudolph. Nice exploitation there, Saint Nick.
Then when Rudolph saves Christmas, all the other reindeer suddenly love him and want to be his friend. Well, unless they acknowledge their wrong doings and expressly say they learned not to be assholes anymore to others who are different, then fuck those other reindeer! Simply shouting “you’ll go down in history” is not an apology.
And Santa isn’t even mentioned again at the end of the song, so who knows if he even apologizes. My guess is no. He’s a typical corporate owner. Exploiting his workers and barely acknowledging their existence until he needs something from them. He even ignores the asshole reindeer until Christmas Eve. If it weren’t for the reindeer, he wouldn’t even be able to deliver the toys that his sweatshop workers, I mean elves, make. The reindeer really make Christmas happen! They’re the ones who haul his ass all over the world!
Maybe this explains their anger toward Rudolph. They can’t express their frustrations with Santa, so they bully someone who is different. I mean, we see it all the time! Then, by the end of the song, they see Rudolph really is one of them. He’s in the same boat, so to speak. Santa takes advantage of Rudolph as much as he does the others.
So, what am I saying? Santa is the real asshole here, kids! I bet he forbids unionization, and that’s why they feel they can’t stand up for themselves! These are hard times, especially during a pandemic. They can’t just stomp into his office and demand things. He’d fire the lot of them, then where would they be? Trying to collect unemployment?! I’m sure the job market isn’t the greatest for a reindeer. It’s outrageous, I tell you!
Please don’t mistake this as excusing the reindeer’s behavior toward Rudolph. They’re still assholes who should apologize properly. I guess this is more of an understanding of the reasons behind the behavior. I’ve had a lot of shitty bosses and being in a toxic atmosphere like that can make you act batshit crazy.
I think Santa needs to get his shit together and remember why he’s able to do his cushy little once a year job in the first place.
Gif by Our Cartoon President of Jeff Bezos saying “I’m the richest person ever. I can do whatever I want.”
Anyway, thanks for reading my holiday rant!
GIF by https://gif-weenus.com/ of Cousin Eddie from National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation emptying the RV’s toilet in the sewer and saying “Merry Christmas!”
Excuse me as I clear out some cobwebs and dust here. There. Ok.
So, I started this blog this year with the hopes that it would become a much bigger thing than it did. But like a lot of other stuff, it crashed and burned. Why? Because most of the time, I couldn’t put into words what was going on around me. It wasn’t just all of the celebrity deaths, or the utter shit show of our presidential election. There were some personal things too. And when the world seems to be collapsing in on itself outside the walls of my home, anything good tends to be overshadowed by the bad. And that fucking sucks. I mean, Christmas wasn’t even as enjoyable as in years past. And I’m a total nutjob when it comes to Christmas (like the type of nutjob who wants to put up the tree on November 1st). But by the time it got here, I was just so done with this year that for the first time, Christmas couldn’t even save it.
“Does anyone feel like they’ve been Keyser Soze’d?”
Because wow. I mean, really. Just wow. Are there any other words that can describe this year? Oh, I know. Horrifying, appalling, catastrophic, or pretty much any other word that falls under these in the thesaurus. It was so bad that an awesome friend of mine dubbed it The Year That Shall Not Be Named (a moniker which I promptly stole and have been using ad nauseam – thanks Rita!) I mean, Azealia Banks revealed yesterday that she’s been sacrificing chickens in a closet in her home for the past 3 years, and my reaction was basically “yep, that seems about right.” No shock, no “OMG! Can you believe that?” because of course I can believe it. It’s 2016, and it will be bizarre and “WTF?” until the bitter fucking end.
Seriously
Not that all of this year was bad. There were some good parts. I started a new career as an English professor, and I got a real cash money paying job in said career. Two jobs, in fact. And then they completely monopolized all of my time. Like literally all of it. Preparing lectures and grading papers until 2 or 3 in the morning was not uncommon. But teaching British Literature renewed my love for writers like Shakespeare, Milton, Marlowe, and Swift. It renewed my love for literature, in general. A love that I wasn’t even aware I had lost. It also renewed my love of writing. Something I will try to do more of in 2017. I won’t make it a resolution because that’s a guarantee that I won’t do it. So I’m just going to say, I’ll try.
This next semester shouldn’t be as time consuming (I hope). I will still have a shit ton of papers to grade, but I’m only at one school now, and I’ve already taught one of the classes. I’ve got a better handle on what to do, and I’ve had more than two weeks to prepare for these classes. I’m really looking forward to teaching some of my favorite books too. The Road, Station Eleven, Wool, and Ready Player One. Some brilliant dystopian themed novels that perfectly reflect where we are as a society, but hopefully don’t foreshadow our actual future.
But even with the good, am I happy this year is coming to a close? Abso-fucking-lutely. Am I worried about what next year will bring? You bet your sweet ass I am.
But, I will go forth into the murky future with my new mantra of “I am one with the Force, the Force is with me.” (Because Chirrut Imwe is awesome!)
And also this, so much this…
(Did you really expect anything else from me? I am a nerd, after all.)
It seems fitting that I launched this blog with a post about Prince’s death, and the last post of the year is about the death of 2016. So, all I can really say at this point is good riddance. You, Year That Shall Not Be Named, are an asshole. And unlike so many of the amazing people you stole from us, you will not be missed.
Coffee with Laura Leigh 