Mood:
cheekyTopic: special events
I know when I was a little kid, all I wanted was to have magical weekends all the time at Walt Disney World! It seems to be the happiest place on earth and that is where I ventured to last Thursday evening, which turned out to be very early Friday morning! I left the office and headed to JFK where my 8:30PM flight quickly became a 10:10PM flight because of a mechanical malfunction. True, better to find a mechanical malfunction while on the ground than in the air, so I let it slide. When we finally board, roughly around 10:30PM, having had to wait for a new plane to arrive, I find my seat all the way in the rear of this giant plane. I didn't even know planes were this long! Regardless of my seat, I was ready for bed and quickly utilized the blanket and pillow provided to me for more comfort. That is until the captain came on to welcome us and informed us he had some good news and not so good news. The good news: we would be taxiing to the runway. The bad news, we were number 30 or so for take off and would probably be another hour or so before we were air-born. Well, there really wasn't much we could do than sleep at that point and simply wait until I was in Orlando! I arrived I believe just shy of 2AM and finally made it to the hotel where my friends would later meet me at around 2:30AM! It didn't take me long to secure a bed and jump in as quickly as possible! My Friday was spent incredibly relaxed. I woke up at a decent time and headed to get some breakfast at the buffet. Then I strolled back up to my hotel room and got ready to lounge by the pool. If only there were drinks poolside, it would have been heaven. Regardless, it was still fine. I heard a voice through my music saying, "Is this the famous Paul Gosselin?" and I look up to see my friend Shari standing over me who had also arrived the night before, but much earlier! We chatted for a bit and caught up while we waited for the rest of the entourage to arrive. We ended up meeting them at all places: Wal-Mart! Of course!
The night didn't go as smoothly as planned, but I think it was the only bump in the road. Laura and I got to hang out on the Boardwalk and catch up, which was fun. We did our photo series, "sad faces at Disney" which caused some confusion to those we asked to take our picture and we enjoyed seeing the space shuttle launch, which we thought was part of a new Disney attraction. All in all, it wasn't horrible, just not what we had anticipated. It was however, the start of the most magical weekend yet!
Our Saturday morning began much later than usual for this type of weekend. I remember having to be up at 3AM to be at the park at 4AM but thankfully those days are WAY behind us. We woke up, had a full breakfast and headed to the park at a normal time of 8AM I believe. We strolled into the park with the COMP passes and headed through Disney's Hollywood Studios. Well, Laura and I managed to veer off and head toward the Rockin' Rollercoaster, which was rode not once, but twice. Shortly there after, we decided to utilize the free park hoppers and galavant around two more parks at Disney: Epcot and The Magic Kingdom! Stories from these parks in addition to the rest of the weekend are appearing in upcoming entries. Stay tuned...
blogged by paul
at 7:59 AM EST
accident prone
a-ok
Last night, Absolut Mandarin and I headed to Lincoln Center to protest outside of the Mormon Temple on West 65th Street. We truly had no idea what to expect, how many people would show up or what exactly we needed to do. We got there relatively early and headed inside the Barnes and Noble prior, so that I could grab a cup of joe. Exactly at 6:30 we walked back out and were shocked and amazed at the number of people that had gathered in the little park area outside the temple. Why exactly were we there, well, as one sign put it: "It's about love, stupid!" Plain and simple! We started chanting and the chanting grew and then we realized we were in fact moving forward. This protest became a march and we kept marching and chanting and I'm pretty sure I heard someone break out into song, "Welcome to the Sixties" from Hairspray. We ended up traveling down Broadway, stopping traffic along the way, rallying support and ending up in Columbus Circle. It was a moment where people of all backgrounds came together to stand up for this civil right that everyone deserves, no matter who they are! I know Absolut Mandarin and I were proud to have been a part of it! 
chatty
quizzical
