7:42 p.m. - 2005-01-10
Disneyland, part future
Man, every year I vow I’m not going to neglect my journal post holidailies, and every year I totally do. I still have a million things to talk about, though, so hopefully there will be more frequent updates than you usually see in January around here. If you’re positively desperate for a few words from my golden fingertips, don’t forget to check out the book log.
Things are a-changing around here. Shortly before I posted my last entry (which I actually wrote a couple of weeks ago), there was some discussion between the Raisin and me. Raisin didn’t think she was going to be able to manage our planned trip to Disneyland at the end of June, for a number of reasons. She proposed that perhaps the trip could be postponed until after the wedding.
Not shockingly, I wasn’t in favour of that plan. I am nothing if not incredibly impatient, and the prospect of waiting for months more to go to Disneyland was not appealing. We’d originally planned to go during spring break, but the news of the 50th anniversary celebrations starting in May led us to delay our trip until July. But, I reasoned, we weren’t really going for the 50th anniversary stuff. We were going to have an awesome time hanging out and being goofy and loving everything we did while we were there. A few parades and fireworks would have been great, but they weren’t why we were going.
And so I offered up a counter-proposal: let’s go in March.
It took about fifteen seconds for the Raisin to agree to this plan. There are a lot of really good reasons in favour of it. For one, it’s not two weeks before the wedding, so people will stop being incredibly annoying about that. (It would have been fine. Honestly. But I was getting really, really tired of people telling me what a horrible idea it was. If the groom planned a weekend trip to Vegas two and a half weeks before the wedding, nobody would have batted an eye, but all these stupid expectations about the bride’s freak outs right before the wedding meant everyone thought it was a horrible idea. It would have been perfectly easy for me to leave Jamie in charge of putting out any fires, and I sort of resented people telling me that he couldn’t handle it. So I’m glad to be rid of that.)
Secondly, it means we get to go three months sooner. And that is ALWAYS a good thing, especially when you’re as impatient and excitable as me. March! March is way sooner than July! And March also has the advantage of being really, really gross here but quite delightful in California. So the break will be way more impressive than if it were during perfectly nice weather here.
Also of note is the fact that it should be significantly less busy in Disneyland. It’s still going to be pretty hopping – we’ll be there over Easter – but the original plan called for us to be there over the Fourth of July, which would have been a complete zoo.
This way also means that my quality Raisin time is broken up much more evenly. I get to spend a week with her in March, and then more time again in July, rather than cramming it all into July. Given that I haven’t seen her since September, this is most definitely a large bonus.
Given that the only downside is missing the 50th anniversary celebrations, it was kind of a no-brainer.
So on Wednesday night, the Raisin and I agreed to this plan. I immediately went online to begin researching (because I’m a big nerd), and to my total delight, I discovered a huge seat sale between both Edmonton (where I live) and Calgary (where the Raisin lives) to Los Angeles. With taxes and everything, it’s less than $350 round trip each. That is incredible. I also found a great deal on a hotel across the street.
I couldn’t book yet, though, because I didn’t know yet if I had the time off work.
I went into work on Thursday, and all of my managers were at a meeting. So I couldn’t talk to any of them about the time off, but an email to Human Resources led me to discover that I was in fact getting vacation time from my second job, which meant it should theoretically be straightforward for me to get time off.
Except that I discovered that two others had already asked for that time off.
I despaired for most of the evening, sure that we wouldn’t be able to go. I sent about a million emails to my assistant manager at my second job, explaining the situation and offering possible solutions. I drove home and tried not to cry. I went to the gym to distract myself, but I spent most of the next morning pacing around my apartment.
Until finally, my assistant manager called. I could go.
She’d thought, at first, that I couldn’t. But she realised, just before calling me, that she had one of the vacation requests written down wrong, and suddenly it all fell into place. I could go. We could go.
I ran around my apartment squealing like a maniac. I was so, so excited. I immediately got online and discovered, to my chagrin, that all the flights from Edmonton were no longer on sale. It occurred to me, though, that since my sister has moved to Calgary, I could just drive to Calgary and leave her with the car for the week, and we could fly out of Calgary. Problem solved.
I waited and waited and waited for the Raisin to get off work so I could call her. I hadn’t told her that the trip might be off, not wanting to worry her until I knew anything for sure, but I was kind of wishing that I had. She wouldn’t understand how close we’d come to not going at all, and while it was good that both of us weren’t fretting all day, it meant that the news wasn’t as exciting as it should have been.
While I was waiting, I went to look for a hotel. The deal I’d found the day before wasn’t available any more, so I went hunting for another spot. I found a place quite close to Disneyland, and it was on sale online as well. I called them up to ask about fridges and microwaves in the room, and by pure chance got the manager, who told me he’d match the price I’d found online and throw in the fridge and microwave for free. Deal! I didn’t want to book until after I’d talked to the Raisin, but he told me if I called later and gave his name, it would be fine.
She finally called, and we booked our flights with glee, exclaiming over the good prices and squealing over how soon it was. The flights were booked. We were going.
I booked the hotel later that evening, and was delighted to discover that it was even closer than the first place I’d planned on. The manager assured me that their continental breakfast was better than average, and they were all very friendly and helpful.
We had a hotel. We had plane tickets. We were going.
We have a hotel. We have plane tickets. We are going.
March 25th through March 31st. Me and the Raisin, united once more in the warm California sun.
It is going to kick ass.
