the disney day

monday has always been the unofficial extension of the midsingles conference, during which attendees will spend the day at disneyland.  i've never participated before, and i wasn't originally planning on it.  but i was on the fence.  my local friends have told me that it's their favorite day because it gives them a chance to interact with people in smaller groups and for more than five minutes at a time. i had waffled on the decision, but on sunday, i pulled the trigger.

 earlier in the weekend, jamie had introduced me to travis, an old friend of hers whom she had known when she lived in philadephia.  our introduction was brief, and though he was also on the kayak trip, we didn't really interact (we were both paired off with other people).  i thought he was cute -- not my usual type -- but quiet cute.  i saw him at the aquarium, but again, we didn't really interact.  i knew he was planning on staying with us on sunday night since the rest of his group was leaving sunday, but i didn't think too much of it.

after i decided to take monday off and spend the day at disney, i thought we might carpool, but that we would probably meet up with the larger group and maybe go our separate ways, so i didn't think too much of it.

monday morning brought it's fair share of logistical challenges.  he had come in late on sunday night and had had trouble finding parking.  by monday morning, he didn't really know where he had parked.  so, we drove the neighborhood in search of his rental.  it took about 45 minutes, and we finally arrived at the park at about 9:30.  not bad.  except that when we got to the ticket booth, which comes after the tram ride and after the bag check line, it turned out he had left his id in the car.  so we went back.

it's fair to say that i was unimpressed, bordering on annoyed.  but i also wasn't in a huge rush and i've been trying to practice patience.  so, we eventually -- about 10:30 -- made it INSIDE the park.  and we were starving! we found the closest place with fast, but 'real', food, and sat down to enjoy.  things were starting to get better at this point.  after getting past the poor planning, it turns out, we got a long pretty well, pretty quickly.  in fact, it kind of felt like we'd been friends for a really long time.  it was easy and natural and fun, and it was turning out just fine that i was stuck with a stranger.

while we were eating, my friend jen texted that she had arrived.  we continued eating while we waited for her to join up with us.  i don't get to see jen very often, and she had been partially responsible for talking me into disney day, so i was looking forward to spending time with her.

adding a third definitely changed the dynamic. travis got real quiet real fast, but we hit our first ride - star tours (which apparently made both of them nauseous) before heading to the tomorrowland terrace for the second conference meet-up.  travis and i talked while jen ate, and we checked out the 'scene'.  there were about 20 others meeting up, but we decided that for the time being, we'd keep to our little group.

with stomachs a little more settled, we hit a couple of rides, and were then joined by jamie.  having a fourth balanced the group again and travis and i continued getting to know each other.

the rest of the day included meeting up and separating from other friends (old and new) who were also enjoying the day off.  the park was crowded for a random monday in may, but we still managed to accomplish a lot. space mountain broke down once for about 10 minutes while we were in line, and after we finished the ride, we were given front of line passes to go again.  splash mountain broke down while we were on it.  we were evacuated and given front of line passes for any ride in the park.  so a pretty eventful day!

jamie left before the last ride of the day (space mountain - the second time), so jen, jessi, travis, and i rode the beast one last time before calling it a night.

travis and i headed home, utterly exhausted.  despite the fact that he had a 5am flight, we stayed up for a little while talking before calling it a night.  it was so fun to meet someone who feels like an instant long term friend, and it was a great end to a great weekend!