a magical vacation

Life can be hard sometimes.

And a little Disney magic can help a lot.

Which is why Mike and I just went on another whirlwind trip to Disney World and Universal Studios down in Florida. There have been some changes since the last time we went- like the new addition to Harry Potter World. And this time we stayed in a pirate themed room. So it wasn't an exact repeat of our last trip.

But did I mention the pirate themed room??!?! I love themes. A lot. Too much probably. But whatever. I also love sweet husbands who will do anything to make their wives happy. Which is how I got Mike to wear matching shirts with me and dress up like a pirate for a photo shoot with me. He pretends to do it just to make me happy but I know he enjoys it. At first he wasn't totally into the matching shirts but then we got about eight thousand compliments on them and he could see how it made people smile and made their day and so he grew to like them and even agreed to wear more matching shirts in the future- but only when we are at Disney. No matching outfits in Chicago.


Here is our amazing pirate themed room. The floor was carpeted but made to look like wood.

We even ran into some old friends. Here is Mike fist bumping Goofy.

You might notice that we are a little wet. We had two lovely days and two days where it just dumped buckets on us. It wouldn't have been so bad if it weren't for our feet being soaking wet.

The magic more than made up for the rain. We ate at the Sci-fi Drive-in where you ate at tables that looked like cars and there was a screen showing shorts clips from old sci-fi movies and some cartoons. Plus the food was great.

This is Mike standing with the Tower of Terror in the background. I told him to make a "terror face." We sadly did not go on the Tower of Terror because we saved it for last and one side of the ride broke down so the line wait time went from half an hour to well over an hour and we decided it wasn't worth it. Next time! 

This is our new friend Eric. He is the host at Be Our Guest restaurant (the Beauty and the Beast themed restaurant at Magic Kingdom) where sadly we did not have reservations (I did try, they were booked) but they do occasionally take walk-ins. He said that we should just check back every couple of minutes to see if something opens up. Well, I was bound and determined to go there for lunch. So we stood right next to him and literally asked every other minute if something opened. And we watched him turn away so many people who also didn't have reservations (they just started taking reservations a few weeks ago for lunch so it's a new thing.) But we just stood there and kept asking, but were slightly out of the way so that people who did have reservations could make their way in. And we were talking and joking with him. And then this group came up who did NOT have reservations but right at that moment something opened up (he had a iPad in his hands that tells him) and so he told that group that they could go in and I just shouted "Eric! How could you?!" and Mike said that he could see the fireballs coming out of my eyes. So whether it was because enough space opened that he could get us in too, or because he did not want to sit there and deal with me fuming, Eric finally let us in!!!! Yay!

The longest wait in line we had the entire trip was actually for Dumbo. Which I had never been on. It was actually more fun than you would think. And it was a classic.

The pool at our hotel was pretty awesome, and the perfect back drop for some pirate-y pictures. And I love my husband. He makes an amazing pirate.

But we're not the only freaks! There was a girl just randomly taking some mermaid photos on the beach near our room.

Wands at the ready! The new addition to Harry Potter world was worth the trip all by itself!

And butterbeer was just as good as I remembered. I tried all three kinds- hot, regular and frozen. Hot was probably my favorite. 

Luckily Mike was there because he was more adventurous and tried some of the other drinks like the Fishy Green Ale. Here is what they say about it... "Fishy Green Ale This murky pale green drink is certainly a head turner. Don’t be surprised when you get lots of inquisitive looks from fellow guests or when you’re asked “what is that?” as you sip on your specially sized, wide black straw. On its own, the intriguing combination of mint and cinnamon would be enough to make this an interesting drink, but then the component of pearl-sized bubbles bursting with blueberry flavor that rest at the bottom of the cup makes this one of the most unique beverages offered in either Wizarding World. (Note: this is a non-alcoholic beverage.) " 

It was tasty but really sweet so we couldn't finish it, but the little "fish eggs" that you suck up the straw explode in your mouth are really fun. I kept giggling every time I got one. I don't remember the last time I giggled. The trip was worth it for that alone. 

This is me taping the brick to let us get into Diagon Alley. Unfortunately a lot of muggles snuck in too. 

And now we're back in Chicago. I'm doing laundry. Mike is at work. It's gloomy and rainy. There's always a little bit of that post-vacation letdown. But at least I still have a whole week before I have to go back to school!

eye needling and eye lashes

I survived another semester! Um... school is really hard and it makes me a raving psycho. Mike tells me that I'm not really that bad, but I think he is just lying to me because he is scared of me because I am a raving psycho. He also won't listen to me complain about how hard school is because I keep getting A's. 

I never used to care about grades. What the hell has happened to me? In college all I cared about was getting good enough grades so that I could continue playing soccer. Now I feel this compulsive need to get A's. (And technically I don't think that writing A's is grammatically correct but if I write As it just looks weird. So there you go.) Anywho, I think maybe one of the main differences is that if I messed up speaking French (my college major) nobody got hurt. However, if I mess up sticking someone with needles, that could get hurt so I better study my ass off and make sure I know what I am doing. 

The next few paragraphs are not for the squeamish...

Speaking of getting hurt, we had to needle points around the eye ball the other day. (Don't worry, nobody actually got hurt.) It was the last week of classes, we built up to it and saved it til the end when we were more experienced. But basically the two we did were Stomach 2 and Urinary Bladder 1. Stomach 2 is directly under the eye just below the bone of the eye socket (Stomach 1 is actually even closer to the eye ball but thankfully she didn't make us do that one!) And you pinch up the skin and slide the needle in so that the needle lays flat against the person's (closed) eyelids. That one wasn't actually too bad, but it is really easy to give someone a black eye while doing it, and of course the red head with the fairest skin asked me to be her partner that day. I was sure I was going to give her a shiner, but actually did it just fine! 

The second point was a lot more freaky. So you know the pink part of the inside of your eye? That is called your inner canthus and there is a spot directly above it. And you stick the needle in going directly into the head. You actually have the person close their eyes and you take a finger and hold their eyeball out of the way so that you don't accidentally needle it. Yup. 

So my partner sticks the needle in just a smidge because we are both super nervous. Then the teacher, an old fearless Chinese lady, comes over and says, "Good job, but you can stick it in much further." And the teacher inserted it another half inch or so. And it didn't hurt but I was super freaking out because I could feel a metal needle touching the side of my eyeball!!!!!!!

It was fine but I swore to never have that point needled again! 

So the next week during our final we got assigned partners instead of being able to pick them ourselves. So I got stuck with a woman who is very sweet, but definitely not the best needler in the class. And she did all the points on the body just fine but she got to the face points and I asked her which points she was going to needle so I could prepare myself. She said, "Gall Bladder 2 and Urinary Bladder 2." Which was fine, because those aren't scary points....

And then she starts pinching up the skin under my eye to needle Stomach 2 and I said, "Nope, wrong point." Now, normally I wouldn't cheat and I would let them needle the point and just get it wrong and have points taken off... but I'm not about to let someone needle near my eye if I don't have to, especially when they aren't particularly good at it! 

So then she goes, "Oh right!" and starts putting her finger on my eyeball to move it out of the way, which meant that she was going to needle a different wrong point! I believe I said, "Hell no! You're not needling there." She eventually figured out what the point was that she was supposed to needle. 

And yes, having incompetent people needle you IS the scariest part of going to acupuncture school! 

I've been fairly burnt out, so to motivate myself to get good grades, I bribed myself with eyelash extensions. There was a groupon for them that I could only buy if I got straight A's. I've wanted to try them for years and finally did. 

So I am waiting in the reception area and this girl comes out with stunning lashes and is super happy with them and can't stop staring at them in the mirror there. And then the worker takes me into the back room and she starts working on me. You lay down on a massage table and they put this patch under your eyes that glues your eyes shut. Which was weird at first but you quickly get used to it and wasn't that bad because I knew that if I really tried I would have been able to open them which helped me get over the claustrophobic feeling. 

So the woman says to me, "Your lashes are really thin and fine." And I replied, "I know, that's why I'm here." Duh. But she continued, "I just want you to realize that you aren't going to end up with lashes that look like the girl's who just left. Her lashes were really thick to begin with." Which was super disappointing but actually made me feel a little better. I always just thought I was terrible at applying mascara because I could never get the look my friends did, turns out though that my lashes just suck. 

I'm still super happy with the results though. Unfortunately it is really expensive so I won't be able to do it often, but for big special occasions I will probably splurge again. 

This is me with no make-up. 

This is me with mascara and my lashes curled. 

And this is me with the eye lash extensions! Awesome because it also involves no work at all on my part. Just wake up and go and doesn't smudge or smear!