thematics
my favorite part of walt disney world is the monorail. it's the closest thing florida has to a subway system. the people waiting to board, the lines and chrome and details, the design of the stations, the vintage retro modern design of the trains. for a brief, fleeting and misguided second- i'm in new york cramming into a car at cathedral parkway headed to lincoln center... and then the magic kingdom stop arrives.
this last wednesday, we arrived at the gates of the kingdom- without kids, no ev, no norah, no ellie. yes, jess and i left to our own devices among the shadows of cinderella's castle. this trip was an ersatz rain check for our 9th wedding anniversary trip to disney (the trip that ended up being a family trip thanks to our best friend, stomach bug). but truth be told, it felt like i was cheating on our kids. it felt horrible. i guess that very moment is the very moment when you realize you're an actual parent. when it dawns on you that the all fun to be had is the fun you share with the other little pieces of your heart.
despite all those dad feels, i had a crazy boat ton of fun with jess including photobombing a winnie the pooh selfie, crazily driving her around the tomorrowland speedway, spending time with good friends and helping them navigate their family around the park, being the only one not spooked by the haunted mansion ride, seeing the happiness in jess' eyes. she's a full blown disney nerd. we can't budget in the annual passes, so every trip we can work out is like Christmas to her. someday, i'll be santa and make it rain. and we'll be at the parks every other weekend. until then, when a random deal pops up like our wednesday one, i'm on it like cheese on mac.
and this trip was as cheap as mac and cheese at the dollar store. so we went, sweated, got rained on and closed the park down - as in one am. as in catching the last ferry ride to the last tram ride to the parking lot where your car is the third to last left as far as the eye can see.
those days are the days that deserve a bottle. where you can pull it off a shelf in case of emergency and break it open. work has been crazy and remains crazy as all get out, just way too much to get done and heavy amounts of brain draining. jess bussing ev back and forth to school, guiding him through tiny piles of first grade home work while homeschooling norah and helping ellie battle a fever. adulting is so hard to do. sometimes we want adult to hand us the pink slip. we'll take capri suns and phineas and ferb on netflix all day for 500, alex.
that's why one day being a kid without the kids is pure magic. i forgot all about work, she got to get her disney fix. and we got to just be us. some dates aren't a movie and a dinner. sometimes it's hotdogs and fries while tinker bell dusts the fast pass users with firework fairy dust. i guess here is where the instagram generation drops the the #takemeback hashtag. cus i know we'd go back to wednesday any day. #memories