Ahhh, I love planning me a vacation. There is nothing better, although opening up a brand spanking new jar of peanut butter is pretty high up on my list of favorite things to experience. My mother-in-law usually lets me bust into the new tubs of butter when we eat dinner at her house, which is nice, but it isn't the same as peanut butter. Anyway, we are going to Disney, and I am so excited I could squeal (and I am not a gal who squeals).
How time changes one's state of mind. There was a time, not even 5 years ago, when the prospect of going to Disneyworld was anathema. Something horribly uncool that I feared I would be forced to experience when "one day I had kids." Ok, so now I have a kid, and I am totally stoked to go to Disney. N isn't as excited as I am.
Have I made a Princess Dining Experience reservation? YES!
Have I entertained the thought of having N go to the Bibidi Bobidi Boutique? YES!
Have I already picked out the scrapbook I am going to put all of N's pictures in? YES!
Have I lost my ever loving mind? YES! YES! YES!
So is it Disney itself that I am excited about? Partly. I am excited for N because I know she will lose her 3-year-old mind when she sees Cinderella's castle and the Disney Princesses and the parades. I mean, she went nuts last night when my MIL gave her a 30+ year old Mickey Mouse pillow case that D used when he was a boy.
But I am just excited to go somewhere and have a little adventure. Prior to N that was the one thing I loved to do: travel. In the 6 years before N, D and I took some great trips: Iceland; Italy; Greece; Las Vegas, NV; Death Valley, CA; Assateague Island National Seashore, VA; Savannah, GA; Jeykl Island, GA; Toronto, Canada; Niagara Falls, Canada.
Traveling always made me feel free and smart and alive. The "traveling" part of travel I'm not so great at... I hate flying and get motion sick while sitting on a glider, so long car tricks are not really my cup o'tea. Despite this, I love seeing new places, tasting new foods, learning. You'd recognize me straight away if you saw me while vacationing: I'm the geek with the journal who hangs on every word of the tour guides, jotting notes and asking 8 million questions, laughing in earnest at all their tour-guide jokes.
By the time we visited Iceland, I was ready for our lives to change a bit...as in start a family. And voila...the pregnancy test said positive 2 days after our return from Reykjavik. As with anything, even something great like traveling gets old if you do it frequently. Now with this Disney trip, I'm having that same cool feeling of excitement I used to get before we became a family of 3.
And the best thing about travel is that no matter how badly one's trip SUCKS, it gets better after time passes. it's like parenting. All those material things--tvs and cars and MP3 players and clothing and comforter sets--get old and fall apart, but memories become more fluid and lush and luxuriant over time, and it's because of that that I can't wait for my vacation (although I know as mom, it won't really be a vacation--just a change of scenery, but who cares. I get tired of looking at the 4 walls of my cubicle).
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