OCD and the Pumpkin

When the boys were 6 and 3 we decided to finally make our first pilgrimage to "the World". We checked out the Disney World website  (http://disneyworld.disney.go.com/) , picked our hotel, food, ticket package and booked. Easy enough. I would go back to the site once and awhile to check out park activities or hotel info etc. Totally unaware, I had just opened the floodgates of Disney magical sunshine upon that semi dormant seed that was planted all those years ago. Each visit to the site I was whisked away, right there in my own home, into the magical land that was created right in front of me online. I loved the photography, the music and the promised joy that was waiting to greet me. I was still "normal" then, you see. Who doesn't go onto that perfectly designed piece of magical marketing and doesn't feel just a bit of Disney wonder? If you don't, well then I truly feel pity for you! (Eat a cookie, feed the birds, listen to a baby laugh and get some joy in your life for Pete's sake! What the heck is the matter with you!!!) For me, it was great just to check back once and awhile and get a bit giddy thinking of our vacation and the first time my children would see the magnificent mouse. The seed hadn't fully sprouted, yet....

My husband had mentioned to one of his co-workers about our upcoming visit to my future "Mother ship". He and his family had visited the parks several times and gave him the book The Unofficial Guide to Disney World. My husband brought it home to me and had told me several of the stories, tips, and experiences his co-worker had passed on to him. I set the book aside for the time being, not quite ready to delve into the large amount of reading yet. I mean how hard could this trip be? Disney online seemed to have everything all neatly wrapped up into a little bow for us. What more did we really need to do besides show up? So there the book sat. In the following weeks hubby would come home with another story about Disney here or there from other co-workers. Eventually, I started the get the feeling that maybe I was missing something or maybe Disney doesn't have everything tied up into a nice little package like I thought. Maybe I should be doing a little more planning and research about the magical land.

I finally picked up The Unofficial Guide to Disney World and started spot reading through the chapters on subjects about the parks that seemed interesting. I also noted that they too had a website, Great! I am getting rather fond of playing on Disney based websites. http://touringplans.com/ along with the "guide" turned into a wealth of ideas and information. I was starting to realize that I needed to take a more active roll in this vacation to make it more unique to our family and add the great extra-magical experiences that we should be having! I was blindly unaware of character meals, fastpasses, line time tricks, and breakfast at Cinderella's Castle! Gasp! When did Cinderella's Castle actually become a feature you could enter? Panic almost set in. We now only had a few months until our trip and I am fully unprepared! I haven't been planning for over a year, waiting up all night to call in for character reservations, and can someone please explain the fastpass to me, again?! They didn't have a fastpass the last time I was at a Disney property.....ugggh, maybe we should just cancel and re-schedule for the next year when I have had adequate time to prepare!! I can't just lead my family into the wilds of the big bad Disney World unprepared! There we would be, looking around the parks at all the families that clearly read the books, blogs and boards way ahead of time and have planned amazing magical adventures. Watching them frolicking to and fro with their matching t-shirts, homemade scrapbook autograph books, chatting about their exclusive character meet and greats complete with meals, strolling hand and hand with the mouse himself and here we will be just roaming around lost, confused, and having Mickey ice cream be our only claim to current Disney joy. No sir, I'm not going down with that ship! My family has to have that extra special magical trip too! I can't let them down. I can't let them be looked at as "oh, how charming. Look at that first time Disney family! (giggle,giggle,)" How could my little piece of magic at home, my little magical online get-a-way, my Disney World website let me down like this? What happened to my pretty little package with a nice, neat bow?

Now those of you who are unaware, I have been referred to as a little OCD on occasion. It might be an adequate labeling...neurotic, headstrong and raving lunatic may be interjected here as well. I just like to think I like to be prepared, have a great since of organization and attention to the little details in life. When I worked in the hotel industry, in the days before Thing 1 and Thing 2,  those were great attributes to have. Anyone who is involved in Reservations, Front Desk, Event Planning and Group Billing really does need to be a bit compulsive and consumed with the task at hand to provide a great guest experience. Unfortunately the OCD isn't really carried across the board with me. Oh, don't get me wrong, I fully admit it's existence in most realms of my life. Unfortunately, there are some areas it is sorely lacking. I am sure it has already been noted, despite my best attempts at editing, that I can't spell to save my life. My parents, bless their hearts, tried their best to improve this skill within me since I was a child. My teachers tried more fervently once I was in high school. They loved my creative writing, the ease I could pass English Literature, and my hunger for reading. Yet, sadly my English scholar career and I were never the whole package. If I didn't have my best friend become my constant spell-o-matic, spell check and thesaurus.com, things would and could be much worse!

Along with a healthy dose of OCD, I have also been gifted with a very sarcastic wit. I'm am giving this as fair warning now. It is my favorite brush and I paint broadly with it. When I was in elementary school, I got picked on quite a bit. I never got why. I was quiet, behaved myself, always had a smile on my face, tried to be friendly and help those in need when I could. Yes, I was a regular mini Mother Teresa. Recently, in the "I have old pics of you!" facebook war that occurred between my friends and I, I came across quite a few older pictures of myself. Big buck front teeth, thin, fine, straight, oily hair, a bad taste in fashion and chicken poo boots to top it all off......Well, with a cover like that on this great book, any elementary school kid in their right mind would be crazy to pass up the opportunity to goad. To say the least..... Yikes! Clearly my parents loved me, because love really is blind! In those times of adolescent trials and torment, I would always pray, "God, please give me something to say back. Please give me something to say at all to help this daily public humiliation. Please give me....give me.....sarcasm!" Well, God does hear all prayers and he does answer them in his own time. Just like the fairies and Maleficent gifted Sleeping Beauty, God finally gifted me with sarcasm!! AHhh HAHAA! (for those of you that didn't catch it, that was an evil snicker right there) It, of course, came right about....um, oh yeah, graduation from High School. Who says God doesn't have a sense of humor? Needless to say I am now loaded with it. I think I got an extra dose for every prayer I said. I'm Catholic, you do the math. God, in all his infinite wisdom, thought to gift my children with this same power, at very young ages no less. Oh sure, you can cheapen it and say it's a learned behavior, but I just choose to credit God here. Sense of humor indeed.

Faced with the dilemma of a ticking clock and wanting the best magical experience I could produce for my family, my obsessive headstrong nature stepped up to bat and swung for the 2nd star to the right! I got a binder, divider tabs, page protectors, several highlighters, post-it's, lots of printer paper and ink. Armed with my Unofficial Guide to Disney World, a long list of suggested websites, blogs, boards and trip reviews, I set up my command center and began my Disney "Book". The creating of "The Book" lead me straight into the the heart of the mouse. I dove headfirst right into the sparkling fairy dust that intertwines all wishes and dreams that magically bind together to compose the Happiest Place on Earth. That's when my little seed was finally fully exposed to the enchanting spark that it needed to grow and bloom. My little seed took root, grew vines and produced a beautiful pumpkin complete with mouse ears. The more I learned about Disney's magical world, the Sorcerer's Apprentice worked his magic. That pumpkin became spellbound and was transformed into my own personal Cinderella carriage. A perfect vehicle to carry us all away to a life long obsession and love of all things Disney. The best part is, that spell isn't going to end at midnight.....this princess is going to stay at the party all night! So, let's dance.......