Day 1 Part 1
Ok we are overly packed and ready to go! This is something that throughout the years, I just cant quite grasp.
I am amazed how much stuff I think we absolutely MUST have while we are in WDW. I pack as if we are going to some exotic island in the South Pacific hundreds of miles away from any survivalist emporium. Most people call this Survivalist emporium
Wal-Mart! Every year I say this is crazy
.next year, ONE suitcase each
.THATS IT! However, this year was 3 suitcases, and the largest heaviest carry on the Law will allow. Not to mention James duffel carry on with Buzz, Woody, Slinky dog and Superman action figures. Yes, James
reads the DisBoards, and read about people who decorate the room/windows with Disney stuff. He thinks this is the greatest idea and its a MUST do every year.
My sister will be diving us to the airport and when she sees all the luggage she informs me that it wont fit in her car. Wanna bet? I replied. I took everything out of the car trunk, which when empty, is quite big for a Kia Sephia! I smooshed all the bags in
.and announced lets go! Oh! If only life was
THAT EASY!
SIDE NOTE: For some very strange reason, and I dont know why
nor do I want to know why
My sister has in the trunk of her car garbage bags full of old clothes and car tools. Someday when she passes a Goodwill box or Salvation Army drop off, she will bring the clothes to them. She has been lugging these bags around for 4 years now!!!!! She is still waiting for that elusive drop off to appear. (btw...She passes a SA depot everyday of her life while going too & from work. There is just never enough time to stop). If you ever need a car tool for ANY CAR, look in my sisters car trunk. Years ago and oh such a long story she was dating a guy who was a car tool fanatic. Seriously, every birthday or Holiday she received a new car tool. All he did (and I mean ALL HE DID) was tinker with cars, no matter whether the car needed it or not. Most often when he was done tinkering with the car, the real Service Mechanic could always undo the damage that was done. Anyhow, they broke up and she got the tools.
Throughout the whole planning of the trip, I announced on numerous occasions that
I AM NOT SOUVINEAR SHOPPING FOR ANY ADULTS, KIDS ONLY! I hate, abhor and despise to purposely shop for adults. If I happen to notice a particular item that I think someone will get a kick out of, I will buy it. But to say I have to get So and So something and go look for it
DRIVES ME INSANE!
James Step-grandparents gave him $100.00 and his Mom & StepDad gave him $50.00. This was all very nice. Except as we are literally walking out the backdoor to go to the car, James Mom, my niece is writing a list of what James has to buy everybody while he is in WDW. Two Tee-shirts for step dad & step-grandpa, one sweater for step-grandma, a Christmas Tinkerbell ornament for Aunt Nancy
.and so on and so on and so on. In a 10 second span, she wrote out a list for a dozen people, which added up to about $500.00 of Disney magical mementos. If she thought that I was about to whip out my tightly packed WDW Passporter, from my very overstuffed carry on, and file this
she is crazy!
SIDENOTE: In me 
Irish Catholic family, originally from Brooklyn, there is NO such thing as keeping ones mouth shut. If you have something to say, just say it! We will scream, fight, yell, curse and quite possibly slam a few doors and maybe just maybe if things get really heated a good old fashion punch to the wall is in order. Then 5 minutes later its all over with. We normally are hysterical laughing making fun of each other on how we reacted. Is this normal, probably not! But thats the way it has been for many screwy generations, and we are all very comfortable with our dysfunctional behavior! Besides, we also have some really funny Christmas gathering stories to tell over the years. Now why is DisUnc telling all this to us? you ask. Because there is ONE exception to the family frivolity, this is my niece who is James mother. Everything has always, and will always be very serious with Amy. It has got to the point where if anything bad does happen in the family, we get into a fight as to who will tell Amy. This is done as an Only on a NEED to know basis. She has her dramatic fathers gene!
I then tell my six month pregnant
(just adds fuel to the dramatic fire here) niece that there is NO way I am shopping and buying any of this. But Stepparents gave James all this money, He has to buy them stuff! foot stomp on the ground,
.
Yeah! they gave James the money to buy JAMES something for himself
not for themselves
(but quite frankly I wasnt too sure on this! You just never know where James step grand parents are coming from. I could very well see them giving him $100.00 to buy THEM something) Now my niece is all puffed up, turns around in a huff and the inevitable words are screamed in a hysterical manner
I am not going to the Airport to see my ONLY son off
yadda, yadda, yadda, I hate you! and pushes her way past my mother and runs upstairs throws herself on somebodys bed being all hysterical. Then I get the inevitable look from my Mother
along with the inevitable You have to start with her? You cant just keep your big mouth shut? Oh this is a crazy house I cant take it anymore...I am moving
Now mind you, this scenario and these exact words are spoken pretty much on a weekly basis around here. Only take out the word Airport, and replace it with Movies or Wal-Mart or Friendlys, or any other place you can think of.
Deep breath
exhale! Ok! Lets GO to Disney World I command. Yippie! We all say our goodbyes to each other, and whoever
(family, friends and neighbors
this is a BIG sendoff every year) is there at the moment wishes us a great time. However I am starting to think that these people are not so much happy for me to go, but happier to see me go. Say Hi to Mickey for me, I want Tinks autograph, Take a picture with Nala, Dont eat any yellow snow!
SIDENOTE: I know! I know! But get use to these, I have a much interwoven life!
My father is approaching his 80s. For as long as I can remember, or anyone else for that matter, no matter what anyone is talking about, somehow he relates it to his experience in WWII, The Big one. Now being the Old Salty Dog Navy man he is, his WWII experience seems limited to drinking at many, many, many various water holes around the Globe. And Disers think they are drinking around the world at Epcot...Ha! Pikers!
Really, no matter what the subject, he relates it to a story at some bar in a foreign port of call. For instance, if I was to talk about the high price of gasoline today, he would tell me that he met a guy named Guy in a Bar in Zanzibar, called ZuZOOs Toot who once struck oil in the Philippines and lives with a woman of questionable values in Switzerland. I got a thousand of these stories stuck forever in my head. Get the picture.
Ok I am walking off the deck to the car
.
nanoseconds to freedom, and amidst all the goodbyes, my father yells out If you go to Cocoa Beach, go to a Bar called Dolphins and see if Redd is still the bartender there, tell him Andy still has the gum hahahahaha, he laughs to himself!
Now I have traveled quite extensively over the world and everywhere I was going my father has given me a Heads Up on all the hot spots and all the bartenders names. So I am quite use to his erratic requests. Dad, that was 60 years ago, I am sure neither the Bar or Redd is their anymore
(No! I cant keep my big mouth shut)
How doooooooooooooooo you know that?
Cause I just do!
Just go there, he will remember me!
Yup! I will go all the way to Florida and drag James to a seedy bar and give some dead bartender a cryptic message!
Mumbles, grumbles and groans. ACH! You never do anything I ask and he walks away in pure disgust!
This happens quite regularly.
However this turns out good for me, since my Mom is now so annoyed with my father and his stupid babble about things that happened over 20 years ago
(more like 60 years, Ma) She is no longer peeved with me for getting my niece upset!
As my sister, James and I are finally getting in the car, walking from the deck to the now VERY packed car. My niece comes out of the house all blotchy faced and sits next to James in the cars backseat
very quiet!!!
We pull away and I tell my sister to
Floor It! Dont worry about any tickets I will gladly pay them! If we are to be pulled over, I dont care
.JUST KEEP GOING!
Please grab your Penny Presses, and join me in the next installment titled
"The Angst of Flying"
What took ya so long to post this DISUNC??? 
!
!!!! Yes I am needy! 
that the greatest desert loves my TR!
