tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-44306612819077325322024-03-14T06:27:49.685-05:00Two Steps Forward, One Step Back...I am a writer in search of my voice. Every now and then, the true Jenn peeks through the haze. Those are the best days of all.JennInAustinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11204200624825757810noreply@blogger.comBlogger506125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4430661281907732532.post-16603061815262772322017-07-05T09:48:00.001-05:002017-07-05T09:48:30.901-05:00Day 3 - Mamma & Daughter DC TripSunday was our last full day in DC. We arrived at the Air & Space museum just a few minutes before it opened.<br />
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A&S has some really fun toys, and we enjoyed them tremendously. We're definitely a couple of science nerds. I've often regretted that I didn't major in biology and become a scientist. It will be tons of fun to watch Kathryn pursue her forensic science degree over the next few years. </div>
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The A&S gift shop was AWESOME. We both purchased gifts for the men in our lives at that shop PLUS I bought myself Rosie the Riveter earrings (yet another feminist-themed moment in our vacation) and bought a NASA suit in a baby size with the idea that we'd dress our schnauzer in it for fun but one day it could become a cute outfit for a grandkid so it's TOTALLY fine and normal that I spent $30 on a gift for my dog. </div>
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After A&S we crossed the mall to head into the National Gallery and really enjoyed soaking up the art. It was perfect. It's always amazing to see original Renoir and Van Gogh and be just inches away from the actual brush strokes. However, it's just as incredible (but in a different way) to see new art. One of the highlights for me was walking through the special exhibit on Bazille. A month earlier, I'd heard the story about Bazille on NPR (<a href="http://www.npr.org/2017/05/31/529539229/meet-fr-d-ric-bazille-the-impressionist-painter-who-could-have-been" target="_blank">take a listen to it here</a> - it's great). What a great way to experience the art! As soon as we returned to the hotel room, I played that NPR story for Kathryn. We ate a delicious lunch at the art museum before heading over to the wing with the modern art then returning to the hotel to rest before our evening excursion. </div>
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I loved this piece of art - very fun and inspiring for me:</div>
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After our rest, our wonderful relative, Aunt L, picked us up and drove us to Annapolis for our final evening. What a gorgeous place. We wandered through the brick streets, admired the harbor and ate dinner at a French bistro. Heaven. </div>
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Afterwards, she drove us over the Chesapeake bridge just to see it and then took us to see the Jefferson Memorial at night. We were all exhausted but so glad she insisted that we go see at least one memorial at night. If you know me, you know I'm a HUGE Hamilton fan so I was thinking of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daveed_Diggs" target="_blank">Daveed Diggs</a> the whole time I was looking at Jefferson's huge statue.</div>
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The view of the Washington Monument was gorgeous.</div>
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After that we headed back to the hotel to get ready for our final morning. We calculated that we'd have enough time to run by the FBI building so I could grab a photo of Kathryn in front of it since she hopes to someday work for the FBI. Yea for our awesome relative who made sure we ended our trip with such an inspiring site!</div>
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JennInAustinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12672076120253993937noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4430661281907732532.post-78824081201818363862017-07-02T13:41:00.002-05:002017-07-02T13:41:56.991-05:00Day 2 - Mamma & Daughter DC TripSubtitle for Day 2 - And Yet, They Persisted...<br />
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Here's a lovely statue (sorry for the poor photo) of Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony. Three women who fought diligently for our freedoms.<br />
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And here we are, 21st century American women at our nation's capitol. Getting ready for the first tour of the morning. It was GREAT. We learned so much.</div>
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Our tour guide, Hal, knew so much. Here he is explaining that we are in the crypt, which (I learned) actually means a room that supports another room above it.</div>
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We saw a statue of Abraham Lincoln, commissioned by Congress right after his death. The artist was an 18 year old woman. How awesome is that? Especially since I was enjoying this tour with my own 18-year-old daughter. Feminism. For. The. WIN. </div>
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There's a tunnel that goes from the Capitol to the Library of Congress, which is gorgeous. (The library, not the tunnel, although there's nothing wrong with the tunnel.) The gift shop in the LoC is my favorite. I resisted buying the bag with this punk version of my favorite poet on it but only JUST.</div>
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Speaking of feminism...</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjF3A3Trh1914lye5JoH2TBe8Yjpf2WfeII-EhLSe8rLrW8SazwziWyA8IzZO8ix0QQD2GAxr5WJ3YivKrNLlFNoCX8Sm8IxfykGr9zkNhWFCHaeTXy1F5gR0B2TsVx_F4druZsOFGtnCA/s1600/1280.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="480" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjF3A3Trh1914lye5JoH2TBe8Yjpf2WfeII-EhLSe8rLrW8SazwziWyA8IzZO8ix0QQD2GAxr5WJ3YivKrNLlFNoCX8Sm8IxfykGr9zkNhWFCHaeTXy1F5gR0B2TsVx_F4druZsOFGtnCA/s320/1280.jpeg" width="240" /></a>After the tour of the Capitol, we headed over to the Botanical Garden, which is one of the most peaceful memories I have of my honeymoon. Kathryn loved it also. Woot!</div>
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Then it was time to head to the Holocaust Museum. We walked part-way then Ubered the last little bit. As you might expect, the Holocaust Museum was emotionally draining and I shed some tears but it was so well done and I hope everyone makes a point of seeing it at some point. Even the architecture is profound, it very much feels like some of the photos and videos you've seen of the railway stations and concentration camps associated with the Nazis and their evil regime.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhfPI6tI1MWuQD-zHSHIR889gRKvcoHQ9G8uXNk1yLxcv-rXBDYh4Dd6OaDw4zOe9PyrPm6dJwUG31nEYY9RRlq-W5LTgVQ_hs-bh6vBoDnMQAUEQ8M4HIrfYLV7rWT_XE0zIbyvY4sDA/s1600/20170701_114443.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhfPI6tI1MWuQD-zHSHIR889gRKvcoHQ9G8uXNk1yLxcv-rXBDYh4Dd6OaDw4zOe9PyrPm6dJwUG31nEYY9RRlq-W5LTgVQ_hs-bh6vBoDnMQAUEQ8M4HIrfYLV7rWT_XE0zIbyvY4sDA/s640/20170701_114443.jpg" width="480" /></a></div>
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This photo is from the Children's Tile Wall and I loved this quote: "I think the Sun should come out for Everyone."</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjo-vwak3nGyqddpOUSTZSNWQ8-VhJ-Q1ERGsXXM2JuH6bNuYp2lqIRlxqEPpS_BccllLYkFlVDClhq_BULAbOZ2hRRmn3Bk67kTa4Nvj7gbxZ0cptl2WmyPRu07jiQdd2YjXu1IBke3n4/s1600/20170701_114655.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjo-vwak3nGyqddpOUSTZSNWQ8-VhJ-Q1ERGsXXM2JuH6bNuYp2lqIRlxqEPpS_BccllLYkFlVDClhq_BULAbOZ2hRRmn3Bk67kTa4Nvj7gbxZ0cptl2WmyPRu07jiQdd2YjXu1IBke3n4/s320/20170701_114655.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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After resting at the hotel for a bit, we went on a cruise which we'd expected would include sights of the monuments and such but...not so much. Sigh. Oh, well. You can tell we aren't terribly thrilled.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgct7wBlQFKfnx3g48JyXKVXpeIMelbnYnbsPBTYzhDWopZxQjatr207mVgMLePqwTC9XlSheLoj2LVk1Tud6ySt1DMh45rUcc5NVYi-ZCdjbhVe4js8lCy0Rm1r3NTHx7qb0C71yU8DUU/s1600/20170701_183307.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgct7wBlQFKfnx3g48JyXKVXpeIMelbnYnbsPBTYzhDWopZxQjatr207mVgMLePqwTC9XlSheLoj2LVk1Tud6ySt1DMh45rUcc5NVYi-ZCdjbhVe4js8lCy0Rm1r3NTHx7qb0C71yU8DUU/s320/20170701_183307.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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JennInAustinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12672076120253993937noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4430661281907732532.post-61037771446846797842017-06-30T20:31:00.000-05:002017-06-30T20:31:00.891-05:00Day 1 - Mamma & Daughter Trip to DC<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfnm1r19AkRtHqtUiHYfEpO3ESGFNJlCTH2ljoxorZjmq_7O7xxrsKhahsJcFCEraNpBq6YrcjJ17uNFeHD5A3UA25a2kCkBIFB2YRtHFXT2FdB8ocjGWbVRMbqFdOkjrYDvZKRMpvZyo/s1600/20170630_143433.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfnm1r19AkRtHqtUiHYfEpO3ESGFNJlCTH2ljoxorZjmq_7O7xxrsKhahsJcFCEraNpBq6YrcjJ17uNFeHD5A3UA25a2kCkBIFB2YRtHFXT2FdB8ocjGWbVRMbqFdOkjrYDvZKRMpvZyo/s320/20170630_143433.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
My first born just graduated from high school so we are celebrating by traveling to D.C. together. (That might sound odd to some, but I told her to pick a place for a vacay and if I could make it happen I would. I raised her well to be a complete museum nerd so she was eager to return to our nation's capitol for a Smithsonian trek.)<br />
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We flew into Dulles then hopped onto a a bus to get to the metro and we both looked SUPER stylish after starting our day with a 5 a.m. flight out of Austin, Tx. Beauty comes from joy and we are pretty darn excited.<br />
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Man...I wish Texas had good metro systems. Sigh.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvS6x9Kx9vn4l_Eu7Zj8SsPZ0jRBWXlBIMZ_-VdHgiecZwTWNfR61nIXNcDpQUpRHc77i3kOem3KTcuczY61Fy21PaLbcDmpEpvt5x4ndbpXuBx32tKfvtau22CxONGUaJyFeRB2X7bzs/s1600/20170630_152551.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvS6x9Kx9vn4l_Eu7Zj8SsPZ0jRBWXlBIMZ_-VdHgiecZwTWNfR61nIXNcDpQUpRHc77i3kOem3KTcuczY61Fy21PaLbcDmpEpvt5x4ndbpXuBx32tKfvtau22CxONGUaJyFeRB2X7bzs/s320/20170630_152551.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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After checking into our hotel we walked to the International Spy Museum. This is yet another instance (there have been MANY in my life) when I am so glad to have Kathryn as a friend. I wouldn't have picked this museum but it was really cool. Lots of artifacts, lots of history and we each had to memorize a "character" that we were quizzed on throughout the exhibits to make sure we had what it took to be good spies. Pretty fun.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitNnEchl7jjX6LANdJzfLiQVRd5-RpDhztUHRW1F7qVuQWfuwHZstZVFgtYGATaenbrgxJMG_3TtmjB91hyphenhyphenmfk5vRKULuIzrAkDmewLNbgFEDyoqWRyAG0dbmL5P7GV54d6ieIxLEjJQY/s1600/20170630_171522.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitNnEchl7jjX6LANdJzfLiQVRd5-RpDhztUHRW1F7qVuQWfuwHZstZVFgtYGATaenbrgxJMG_3TtmjB91hyphenhyphenmfk5vRKULuIzrAkDmewLNbgFEDyoqWRyAG0dbmL5P7GV54d6ieIxLEjJQY/s320/20170630_171522.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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This is a toy truck brought into Canada by the son of a foreign intelligence operative. It had about three concealed tiny tools (like a reader for "microdots" - which I'd never even heard of until today - g<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microdot" target="_blank">o look them up on wikipedia </a>if you're curious) for spy work. Sort of makes me ponder the family dynamics in that case. Cool toy for the kiddo but it's so dad (or maybe mom?) could spy on Canada. Did the kid sometimes wonder why his toy was missing in action? Something tells me that child grew up with many interesting stories to share.</div>
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Speaking of interesting stories....I'll just set this photo out for your perusal. Hmmmmm. Spy work ain't so glamorous after all, is it?</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiH7nlwpfUnLABCCp1F3eUnMpUr5RgkwH3DKRiP4AqyAG2KHUXqug6C9uwYLOndk_MPX7YJAf9X7okN1sjpjm9eR-EYvSKq730Tugg4nx9WxV5wnsmgfbICqzKocwp9HvQpmrJZxxfQNwc/s1600/IMG_6660.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiH7nlwpfUnLABCCp1F3eUnMpUr5RgkwH3DKRiP4AqyAG2KHUXqug6C9uwYLOndk_MPX7YJAf9X7okN1sjpjm9eR-EYvSKq730Tugg4nx9WxV5wnsmgfbICqzKocwp9HvQpmrJZxxfQNwc/s640/IMG_6660.JPG" width="480" /></a></div>
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The photo below is an example of how spies and private citizens escaped from East Berlin before the East German government caught on to this insanely cramped way of escaping the communist regime and started examining cars more closely. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieHhyEFwOX5BC4JsTNljeZMwnkL1vaY99ZvEPzceVzTIZW1NOYEs7RIdVsoEAv4y9oc34rl5WmfdrtEQoDCUFMTyEKNiLyibe-uAosYfqFcEoY6hBkJuKfpVEj-Gs3clEVHQEVm3hBRt0/s1600/20170630_172037.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieHhyEFwOX5BC4JsTNljeZMwnkL1vaY99ZvEPzceVzTIZW1NOYEs7RIdVsoEAv4y9oc34rl5WmfdrtEQoDCUFMTyEKNiLyibe-uAosYfqFcEoY6hBkJuKfpVEj-Gs3clEVHQEVm3hBRt0/s400/20170630_172037.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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It's sort of hard to tell, but there's someone crammed up in the engine block area and two people behind the driver. What a nightmare. It really makes me grateful for the freedoms we have in our country and the fact that I don't have to figure out how to escape from an oppressive regime. By the way, happy almost July 4th. Let's make sure we protect everyone's freedom, ok?<br />
*shakes head, resumes vacation blog*<br />
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By the time we left the museum I was STARVING so we Yelped nearby options and found <a href="http://www.henquarter.com/" target="_blank">Hen Quarter </a>(this location just opened 6 weeks ago). This sounds insane but I'm not kidding when I tell you the food was a RELIGIOUS experience. I got the fried chicken plate primarily because it came with collard greens and everything was incredibly and perfectly delicious. WOW.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpXKShpLRtGNcb2pWZAaGf0mibI6g8VtzMFi8zAc_fjWHjbLYUA_MLIfbcnFakS4pOtM80MdwvO7xfaiCdVihYSoF3KWBEGCRLPMw7nRKrjvuj6fb6exbvDbEddIJKQ-mCNmaJjpyBi50/s1600/IMG_6662.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpXKShpLRtGNcb2pWZAaGf0mibI6g8VtzMFi8zAc_fjWHjbLYUA_MLIfbcnFakS4pOtM80MdwvO7xfaiCdVihYSoF3KWBEGCRLPMw7nRKrjvuj6fb6exbvDbEddIJKQ-mCNmaJjpyBi50/s400/IMG_6662.JPG" width="300" /></a></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzW7jYV_lcXoUrRHE-WNNwvKPZv_6ule-4jbV2nIBsHBOyam1D8J4-EfYrSOx6QL-tgNXQMcnkX-I8yRNITN5a-XEp4LO7FewWCKIT4-E2sBJoYf8oO-zycjTR9bNcUAGajfmP5pZxRes/s1600/20170630_185900.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzW7jYV_lcXoUrRHE-WNNwvKPZv_6ule-4jbV2nIBsHBOyam1D8J4-EfYrSOx6QL-tgNXQMcnkX-I8yRNITN5a-XEp4LO7FewWCKIT4-E2sBJoYf8oO-zycjTR9bNcUAGajfmP5pZxRes/s320/20170630_185900.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The food, my friends - the FOOD!!!<br /><br /></td></tr>
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Tomorrow we will be at the Capitol bright and early for a tour. Stay tuned!<br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjccXT8hQ4mf-YpqYZqfR76d8HbujhvZcALV5WLGL7fTP0oPNU8ujJxmbn7k2FRrF82CpuiRD3zdF7BKx4fWgkTLDY2KFVeU-rqobBrQYP0kYaqOWzSYoD0kBKy11kQ9VaWZGV0kv5h7_w/s1600/20170630_185723.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjccXT8hQ4mf-YpqYZqfR76d8HbujhvZcALV5WLGL7fTP0oPNU8ujJxmbn7k2FRrF82CpuiRD3zdF7BKx4fWgkTLDY2KFVeU-rqobBrQYP0kYaqOWzSYoD0kBKy11kQ9VaWZGV0kv5h7_w/s400/20170630_185723.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
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<br />JennInAustinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12672076120253993937noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4430661281907732532.post-46696757143888113992017-02-14T11:56:00.000-06:002017-02-14T11:56:12.536-06:00My Love Letter to the United States<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjX4vwd81OT1xkEtYc36sfWuZmYqnUrZak2DAfjRTziWdzRww7oursbIc2SXsIAveOqBi0pSyHgANZsue4TSfiW8W2mN778gd3b0S9sDdbiSlu6ErN1m4Djhyphenhyphenh6Iv_VCXVq2X2349yH-c4/s1600/roses.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjX4vwd81OT1xkEtYc36sfWuZmYqnUrZak2DAfjRTziWdzRww7oursbIc2SXsIAveOqBi0pSyHgANZsue4TSfiW8W2mN778gd3b0S9sDdbiSlu6ErN1m4Djhyphenhyphenh6Iv_VCXVq2X2349yH-c4/s320/roses.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
Today is Valentine's Day - a day to celebrate true love. It seems my country deserves a lot of love right about now. None of us are having an easy time of it and isn't that exactly when we should remind ourselves why we choose to be in this relationship?<br />
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<b>USA:</b><br />
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I love you because you push me. As soon as I get complacent and think there's no reason to work hard, you remind me that I owe it to myself, my family and complete strangers to dig deeper. You're not going to let me sit on my butt and watch the world go by.<br />
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I love you because you are beautifully imperfect. You came into being from the minds of men and women who disagreed (often violently) and kept fighting with each other long after the Revolution was in our history books. You pushed your way onto this continent, sometimes destructively, and continued to redefine yourself. You know democracy is a journey, not a destination, so you're only strengthened by imperfection.<br />
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I love you because you survived the trauma of a civil war. I love the fact that, even when you try to solve problems, you sometimes make them worse. I love you because when you mess up, you tend to mess up dramatically. When the pendulum swings the other way and you bring justice forward, that justice is so dramatic that it's louder than any other voice in the room. Drama is painful but you always bring forth new growth after pain.<br />
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I love you because you are confusing and messy. I love you because you're home to so many different kinds of people I don't understand and will probably <i>never</i> understand. I love you because you're complicated and I love you because you sometimes make life terribly hard, then give me the opportunity to find wild success.<br />
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True love is never easy. A life surrounded by others who think just like me might be easy and (seemingly) peaceful, but it would be a boring, pointless existence.<br />
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I love my country, and I'll never give up on it.<br />
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<br />JennInAustinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12672076120253993937noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4430661281907732532.post-3278833732978773262016-12-27T16:09:00.002-06:002016-12-28T01:05:05.326-06:00Requiem for Carrie & The Letter I Never Sent<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpIFvlD6jrB8T3qX6jDNAp4pDT4SB4PBE2fYoKQflP37DFS21J42amJSxATy31BjOWTWw8meArsN5euedToHJ9JY081mBPNz1PL-HLu2_JHb7HYzeFOSOmWuUCgsWR5ylb4OXf-j8zA98/s1600/DSC_0259.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpIFvlD6jrB8T3qX6jDNAp4pDT4SB4PBE2fYoKQflP37DFS21J42amJSxATy31BjOWTWw8meArsN5euedToHJ9JY081mBPNz1PL-HLu2_JHb7HYzeFOSOmWuUCgsWR5ylb4OXf-j8zA98/s320/DSC_0259.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Noon, CST. December 27, 2016.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This was the moment I learned that 2016 stole Carrie Fisher from the world. For days, I’ve lived in fear of losing her because 2016 already ravaged our world almost beyond recognition. We lost great artists (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Rickman" target="_blank">Alan Rickman</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_(musician)" target="_blank">Prince</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Bowie" target="_blank">David Bowie</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonard_Cohen" target="_blank">Leonard Cohen</a>) and great minds (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gwen_Ifill" target="_blank">Gwen Ifill</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Glenn" target="_blank">John Glenn</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harper_Lee" target="_blank">Harper Lee</a>). These deaths are a drop in the bucket of what 2016 brought and all of them pale in comparison to the horror so many Americans felt as we watched discrimination and nationalism sweep through the world, culminating in public displays of neo-naziism and unrestrained hatred in our own country. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It’s true that, as I sit alone in my house today, my time and energy would arguably be best spent on critical human rights issues or (at the very least) working my way through the pile of legislative summaries and other work I must complete before the close of this appalling year. But I have to pause because I’d intended to write Carrie Fisher a letter before the end of the year and now it’s too late. Before the sun sets, I at least want to send these words out into the universe to honor her memory.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>I’m going to write this letter in present tense, as if I hadn’t missed the opportunity to send it to Carrie in time.</b></span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Carrie, </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Beginning with the 1977 release of </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Star Wars</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, I adored you and wanted to be just like you. This is, of course, unsurprising as my adoration was matched by almost every other girl born in 1971 (of which an ungodly number of us shared the name “Jennifer”). Hollywood always put heroines in movies, but Leia represented an important shift. Our young eyes saw, for the first time, a princess who was notable for her bad-assery and snarky comebacks, </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">not </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">for her (undeniable) beauty. I was a very small, very shy first-grade girl who quietly hid some very painful secrets from my parents. Because of those secrets, I’d already accepted the “truth” that I was only valuable if men found me attractive. I didn’t have the words to express that painful belief as a six-year-old, but it was there and had been eating away at my soul for as long as I could remember.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Leia planted a seed in my heart that didn’t truly start to bear fruit until just a few years ago when I started to value myself (just a little bit) beyond what I saw in the mirror. Leia’s toughness nudged me towards sanity before I even knew I was ensconced in craziness. Was </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Star Wars</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> ideally egalitarian and was Leia perfectly powerful and feminist in every way? No and no. Neither am I. As a very young child who truly thought victimhood was my only option, I reveled in your portrayal of Leia. I imagined finding opportunities to toss out Leia’s brilliant one-liners. (Re: “Will somebody get this walking carpet out of my way?” and “That doesn’t sound too hard” as a response to an egotistical man bragging that he sometimes even impresses himself.)</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Although my adoration started with the way you brought Leia to life, that’s just the beginning. Every time I came across your distinctive intelligence and humor, it felt like I’d found a special golden prize. As I grew up with the rest of the Jennifers-of-1971, we were thrilled with your role in </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">When Harry Met Sally</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> and practically squealed with glee when we saw your cameos on the TV series that defined our generation (</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Friends, Sex and the City, The Big Bang Theory</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">). </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It’s pretty obvious that I’ve always put you on a pedestal, but I never considered writing you a letter until last week, when I finally took the time to watch videos of your recent appearance on </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="http://www.cbs.com/shows/the-late-show-with-stephen-colbert/" target="_blank">The Late Show with Stephen Colbert</a></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. Those clips led me on a classic YouTube hunt for more Carrie interviews, stretching all the way back to a 1983 David Letterman interview on </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Late Night</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. For the first time ever, it seemed to me that you were struggling with a fair amount of self-doubt and a belief that you weren’t beautiful. Maybe I’m just projecting my own insecurities onto you. If so, I do apologize, but I’m not going to stop writing this letter.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">My heart broke as I listened to you because, even in the 1983 clip, it seems so obvious that you were saddled with the same crappy “I’m only worth something if I attract men” baggage that wore me down for decades. I always saw you as this amazing, confident, talented and BRILLIANT human (because...you know...you </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">are</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> amazing, talented and brilliant) but as you spoke, I realized fame didn’t inspire confidence. Quite the contrary, I suspect.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Do you know what a gift it was for me when you told us about your relationship with Harrison Ford? In 1977, you were still a kid (19 years old), at your first big adult job, working with a crapload of guys who were DECADES older than you and holding your own like the boss actor you are. Everyone was working hard, you’re trying to prove yourself and then you get involved with a married guy who’s about twenty years older than you. During a recent interview, someone asked if you were in love with him during </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Star Wars </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">and it seemed a certain sadness flashed quickly over your features before you said: “It was infatuation.”</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Allow me to project my own perceptions on you one more time as I interpret what I think I saw on your wise and beautiful face. </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Carrie, infatuation probably played a part but I suspect it </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">was also</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> love - at least as you understood it at the time, which (news flash) means it was love for you. I also suspect that when it ended and you saw him and practically every other man in your universe move on to younger women, a piece of your soul was torn away. Not because he was the perfect guy for you or because you wanted to marry him, but because he represented society’s ugly but false “truth” that men determine our ultimate value. I’m afraid that at some level, you might have accepted some of that false “truth.” I hope you didn’t, but I suspect your reaction mirrored that of the young women in my generation as we tried to make our way in the grown-up world. </span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We 1971-Jennifers know where you’re coming from. After all, society ended up using our name as a freaking symbol of how older men wanted to hook up with much younger women. If you google “Jennifer Syndrome” you’ll see what I mean. (See </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Jennifer Fever</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> by Barbara Gordon. A book published the month I turned 19 and began college, about why older men prefer to hook up with much younger women. Thanks, society. That was an AWESOME image for me as I tried to imagine myself succeeding in business someday.)</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We all have our demons and you’re no exception. But you did a lot more than entertain us. You generously shared your struggles with family, addiction and identity as you helped all of us laugh at our imperfections. </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I’m just another regular woman who’s a huge fan of your acting, writing and all-around hilariously intelligent existence, so you might never see this letter. (I’m guessing you probably get a fair bit of fan mail.) Regardless, I hope you know what a difference you’ve made in my life. When I hear your voice and read your words, I laugh, smile and still see you as one of the most beautiful and inspiring women around. Since 1st grade, you’ve represented someone I want to emulate. By the way, guess what? Your positive influence extends far beyond my generation. My daughter (a few months shy of her 18th birthday) watched all those interviews right by my side, laughed with me and gushed about how you are one of the most fabulous women around.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">You are fabulous, Carrie. You're beautiful inside and out and you’ve done great things. Thank you.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">With undying admiration,</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Jennifer</span></div>
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<br />JennInAustinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12672076120253993937noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4430661281907732532.post-46299085964698349402016-07-29T17:58:00.002-05:002016-07-29T17:58:42.308-05:00<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Marginal Haiku</b></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3Oci9TLZLT68nJPfRbbK-EYlD_Z9S3TFCpYVmrKFVfUln6n2C69EYpSx-Q77Tkalr8xqGrcaPDbe_L0lY3OQ72rIPVgYy4428gZAgNmdk_Uuim1Guytc597j6d_igR8rv-x3ODI0ayj4/s1600/20160729_122150.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3Oci9TLZLT68nJPfRbbK-EYlD_Z9S3TFCpYVmrKFVfUln6n2C69EYpSx-Q77Tkalr8xqGrcaPDbe_L0lY3OQ72rIPVgYy4428gZAgNmdk_Uuim1Guytc597j6d_igR8rv-x3ODI0ayj4/s320/20160729_122150.jpg" title="Marginal Haiku" width="240" /></a></div>
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I may or may not have previously mentioned that my best long-term friend (<a href="http://meganwillome.com/" target="_blank">Megan Willome</a>) is an incredible poet and recently published a book which makes poetry compelling and accessible to all of us. (<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Joy-Poetry-Poems-Masters-Living/dp/1943120145/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1469832279&sr=8-1&keywords=joy+of+poetry" target="_blank">Joy of Poetry</a> - check it out.)</div>
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At any rate, I credit Megan with creating a buzz in the back of my head so that I now see poetry as a constant presence. Fast forward to today's plane trip, when my 13-year-old son fell asleep on my arm and I was pretty much stuck in my seat with the <a href="http://swamedia.com/magazine" target="_blank">Southwest Airlines magazine</a> and a pen. (The crossword was crazy easy, so it only took a few minutes.)</div>
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I didn't have access to the typical electronic distractions so haiku bubbled forth from my head onto the margins of p. 98. (I've always loved haiku - it's like a puzzle to me.) Wonder what might happen if I put down my electronic distractions more often? Hmm.</div>
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For your amusement, here are my nine haiku poems presented in the order they jumped onto the page. They start out obviously smarmy/corny but become more real as I relax a bit (or at least that's my interpretation of it). At any rate, I highly recommend this as an exercise in stream of consciousness writing. I go from motherhood to political conventions during the course of about 20 minutes (maybe less). It sort of makes me wonder why.</div>
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Flying with my kids</div>
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They sleep throughout the whole ride</div>
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My joy is complete</div>
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Babies remind me </div>
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To cherish each adventure</div>
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Although life is hard</div>
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We always forget </div>
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To bring jackets on airplanes</div>
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AC freezes us</div>
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My dog shows her love</div>
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By crying for me each time</div>
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I leave her alone</div>
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Busy moms and dads</div>
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Look for snacks and read to kids</div>
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As my teens sleep on</div>
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The space for haiku</div>
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Is now very limited</div>
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So my writing shrinks</div>
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Almost forty-five</div>
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My ankle objects each day</div>
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But my smile is strong</div>
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Friends are always there</div>
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But they can't be everything</div>
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I give myself strength</div>
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Watching Conventions</div>
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Is like watching a family</div>
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Have holiday fights</div>
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JennInAustinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12672076120253993937noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4430661281907732532.post-8125049733832083142016-04-05T13:29:00.000-05:002016-04-05T13:29:29.551-05:00Turning Mountains Into Molehills with Lin-Manuel's Music<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvEIFZtiZjEGJnfg1lbtWSX5sQvqQxAwKfOReEJbelKYDX6QgkC6fcw8lO85TeJ4vZyBDW8ghO1TYDR5XYys1OC5G1tj03nDiHXigmjkO-y5omQe5y0JO0qtoq-w6BdwaplAK8bVjcTQg/s1600/20160401_215656.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvEIFZtiZjEGJnfg1lbtWSX5sQvqQxAwKfOReEJbelKYDX6QgkC6fcw8lO85TeJ4vZyBDW8ghO1TYDR5XYys1OC5G1tj03nDiHXigmjkO-y5omQe5y0JO0qtoq-w6BdwaplAK8bVjcTQg/s320/20160401_215656.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Jenn's Sad, Sad Closet</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; line-height: 1.38; white-space: pre-wrap;">I have a confession to make. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; line-height: 1.38; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; line-height: 1.38; white-space: pre-wrap;">< ------- THIS was the normal state of my closet for a shockingly long time.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I know….trust me, I know. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I’ve lost clothes (not to mention shoes, jewelry, exercise equipment and my sanity) in there. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I don’t </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">enjoy</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> living in clutter - it stresses me out to no end. The problem was that every time I thought about tackling this mess, I gave up before I even started. It seemed like way too big of a problem. It was too time consuming and too complicated. (What if I don’t have enough room for my shoes or clothes?...What if my favorite necklace </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">isn’t</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> at the bottom of that pile and I have to admit that it seems to be gone for good?) </span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnsPJBTgHE8McZxP7xsy9XVTToFCtbzWilK_-xuy8-GxwpcO5p_vS2iDlS6PO0630e6iXrNFm1qWc_YPC3IZtNocDDpwjGbg6SBspjCmDCecbEa70pTQW0dtg0cldEw7Io_3ZbiQ0bmXw/s1600/20160405_131455.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnsPJBTgHE8McZxP7xsy9XVTToFCtbzWilK_-xuy8-GxwpcO5p_vS2iDlS6PO0630e6iXrNFm1qWc_YPC3IZtNocDDpwjGbg6SBspjCmDCecbEa70pTQW0dtg0cldEw7Io_3ZbiQ0bmXw/s320/20160405_131455.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Jenn's MUCH Better Closet</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; line-height: 1.38; white-space: pre-wrap;">This is my closet today ------ ></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">But don’t be impressed yet because this ain’t my first cleaning rodeo. I go through the clean-clutter cycle on a pretty regular basis. It’s not actually all that difficult to organize my closet. The hardest part is starting the job. After that, I just have to set a timer for 5 minutes and clean until the timer ends. That keeps the work from seeming insurmountable because I’m not actually trying to do ALL the work right away. I’m just working for 5 minutes. No big deal. Sometimes I really get into my podcasts and accomplish 30 minutes of good solid cleaning. I even end up </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">enjoying</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> the process. Totally weird but it works.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The tricky part (which I’ve yet to master) is making sure that I don’t allow my closet to become a mountain of work again. The only way for me to succeed is to make sure I spend 5 minutes, 33 seconds on my closet each day. Luckily, that’s the EXACT amount of time it takes for me to sing along with </span><a href="http://www.linmanuel.com/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Lin-Manuel Miranda</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> as he belts out “My Shot” on the </span><a href="http://www.hamiltonbroadway.com/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: italic; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Hamilton</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> soundtrack. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Oh, yes. Hamilton - that groovy but scampy Founding Father is going to be the secret to my success because I’ve got 23 fabulous hip hop tracks to give me short bursts of organizational inspiration.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Wondering what my next success story will be? Weight lifting.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Wellness, general good health and having a free-from-pain and moderately muscular body is the Everest of mountains in my life right now. I have SO FAR to go and so little time to spare for exercise. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The idea of doing a 30 minute workout feels like the impossible dream, because it sounds draining and I also seriously doubt that it will make much of a difference. Luckily - science and hip-hop are coming to my rescue!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Science</span></div>
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<a href="http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/a-little-bit-of-walking-can-add-up-to-improve-your-health/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A recent Scientific American article</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> reported that 30 minutes of walking each day (even if the walking happens in bits and pieces) reduces the risk of dying over a three-year period by 33%. That might not be enough to turn me into a svelte athlete, but it’s a darn good start. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">As far as weight training goes, there’s some really great news in that department as well. This article from </span><a href="http://greatist.com/move/how-often-to-strength-train" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Greatist</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> gives me a lot of hope because it turns out that a couple of basic strength training workouts each week could result in huge benefits. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I’m already doing a good job of getting plenty of steps in each day. (There’s nothing like a little bit of marital </span><a href="https://www.fitbit.com/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">FitBit</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> competition to inspire a more walking, amirite?) Now I need to find a way to add two 20-minute strength training workouts into each week. I panicked just thinking about the idea of setting aside time to build muscle until I remembered my new hero - Lin-Manuel. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">My hip-hop </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: italic; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Hamilton</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> plan!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Workout #1 - Start the </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Hamilton </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">soundtrack at “Ten Duel Commandments” and keep going all the way through “What Comes Next.” It’s not quite 20 minutes (15 minutes, 39 seconds) but I’ll be pumped up enough that I know I’ll keep going…King George is my new favorite villain so ‘ending’ with him is perfect because I won’t let him have the last word!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Workout #2 - Start </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Hamilton</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> at “Non-Stop,” skip the two tracks that bum me out (“Take A Break” and “Say No To This”) so I don’t lose my fight and keep pumping iron (or, in my case, heavy plastic) all the way through “The Room Where It Happens.” That’s 19 minutes and 14 seconds of heart-pounding patriotism.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">So there you have it - I’m going to use my favorite music to break my emotional mountains (organization and creating a healthy, strong body) down into tiny pieces. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I am NOT throwing away my shot!</span></div>
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</span>JennInAustinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12672076120253993937noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4430661281907732532.post-42873581353222967512016-03-29T23:35:00.001-05:002016-03-29T23:35:27.541-05:00Google + Jenn's Insomnia = W.T.F???<img 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w7o1jV48OD6egeTSbRNlgSAkydPhkKhO+64Y9CgQfRnn322h7HS09O7ndiPAGDQIOL06dPDhg3rcilFUefPXwiFQuF/yeG5ET/++OOJEyfOnet6iiW6PbQVheHrheEyIhDwnzhxYsqU+5lMoneTMRHqjCTJmpqa1NTUuDganc4I37cZCoXOTJw/6uAm6K56wLoBDR486NSpH4YOvXoiS05ODoVaTp48efz48RguWKCeCAQCSUlkIBBobm6OVGldunQJZzP8ZIXrg7YhB4+nCYA2cuTIixebu90WoZ4IBAIcDptGi6MoatiwYXR662TGuLi4lpaWcFnQk4EH9JMVPpH5/YHm5ub2TzFITh46aNDglpaWGEYdUA+FhxPOnDkzdOhQ/PeJ2murG8JTJAOBwLFjx37xi1+kpKT08LZMhHqCRotjMpkHDx5ITU2Ni4uj0eLCb0Xhd6TwIMQAdxHd3MJTa0+dOtXh4judTmcwGN0/Cw/Fyu/3jxw5Kj4+/sSJE5cuXYr+9Aj00xG+QhEMBltaWgKBoMfjcTgcw4YNHT9+fIfnXyF0nfx+/6RJ96alpTkcDoryBAL+QCAYHujq9glCCAGA3++/4w52fHz88ePHm5ubw08KaUN76623BrqHt6eWlpZBgwb7/T78V4q6xGKxxoy5a8KECX6/H4ccUJ9jMBjx8fG1tfv379+PtSnqnZaWFoIY5PV6O8zEol24QEXaBiHUn0KBQMDr9eHsSNRP4uLiCILJYDDabslEqE8wKApLB4QQug0Fg8HmZrzjF/U9Bg6nI4QQQqjnbtzNmQwGnUbDWZkIIYTQre0GjTowGPTa2gMNDQ34iH6EEELolnYjRh0YDMbRo0f9fp9cPq/zV0oihBBC6BZyI64gxMXFURQlkUiwbkAIIYRudTfmgkUoLi7utvxyUoQQQuin5sbMW8RnnvYXPLIIIYRusNjmOoS/ew2uPN0aAEKhUE8eaINnOIQQQuj2EMOoA51OP3jwIJ1OBwAajfb888/97ndLe1wTYOmAEEII3Q7iQj0TFxe3ffu2P/zh1a1bt8bFxYVCoYSEhMGDE3qybZT0gUDAbDaXlpauXLmytLR09+7dPXzW+ltvvfXhhx/20UG4xt///ve///3vbS+PHj0qkUiSkpLEYnHvAmZlZc2dO7dzcA6H88orr1xnbxFCCKEbrEejDnQ6fefOnVu2fDR27NhPPvnEZKoEgEmTJiUkJPQwTZeDE36/f/369RaLhcFgjBs3jk6nf/XVVxs2bOhJ9fDPf/7TYrH0MHtMdu7c+cUXX7S9fP75548dO7Z+/fri4uI+D44QQgjdcrqf60Cn07/++ut163QcDjspKWnIkCEbNmwgSfKZZ541GLb2ME2XpcOePXucTufUqVPFYnF4FsXu3burqqqqqqqys7OjBzSZTD1MHatNmza1f3nw4MHc3NxHHnmkP4IjhBBCt5xuLljExcXV1Hz37rtlo0aNSk5Ojo+PT05OHjlyZFlZWU3Nd3PnPhYIBHp9waK2tjYtLW3atGnhwoJGo2VnZ6emptbW1nbb7/ZXAYLB4P/7f/+Pw+EkJCRIJJLDhw+H2ydMmLBkyZLXX399xIgRKSkpTz/99MWLF7td9PDDD0+fPh0AvvjiCxqN1tjY+MYbb9BotK1bt0bK5XQ6aTTaX/7yFz6fn5ycHKXbbcE7WLVqFYPB2LFjR5TdOXXq1Pz581ksVkpKyqxZs44cOdLtUUIIIYT6XLQLFnQ6/dChQ2vWrBk+fPiwYcPCEyTpdPqwYcOGDx/+9tur9+/fH27sVpejDhRFpaWldWgcMWJErF/m+fzzz7/99tsrVqz49NNPL168mJOT01YHvPfee//973//8Y9/qNXqjRs3vvXWW21bRVkU9sADDxw7dmzYsGEvvvjisWPHfvOb30TPVVBQMG3atMLCwpg6DwCffvrpa6+99te//nXGjBlRUshksgMHDmzYsOHDDz90Op0SieTy5cux5kIIIYSuU8QLFnQ6/dixY//3f2+mpKQMHz68fYlAp9NTUlJaWlrefLP49dfVY8eODQaDvchNkmRjY2OHxjNnzkT/4N7BoUOH3n///bKystzcXAD42c9+lp6evnXr1qeffhoA7rvvvo0bNwLAr3/968rKyt27d2s0mvCGURaFDRo06K677oqLi0tOTr7rrrui5HrooYcAQK1Wv/baa7EehNra2vnz56tUqueffz5KCplM9vXXX//tb3/79a9/DQBsNvsvf/nL6dOnY02HEEIIXaeuL1gAgNPpfPPN4iFDhgwfPpzBYIRCoctXhEIhBoORmpqamJhYXFzkdDoBoBcXLCZOnNjY2Lhr167wOqFQaNeuXW63e8KECT3fgZ07dwLAnDlzwi9Hjx49duzYb775JvwyPT29bc2RI0e2r1SiLLr+XD104cKFRx55JDs7+89//nP0FImJiXw+v7i4WKfTnT59evz48Rs2bAgXNAghhNCN1PUFi1AodOedd37wwQeDByfEx8cDQHNzs0QiKSwszMnJaW5uBgAGgzF4cMI//vGPO++8M/odmBDhgsWUKVM4HE5VVZVWqzUYDFqttqqqCgBiGsMIn/JZLBbtiu+///7HH3+MtF+R4nS7C7Hm6gmdTpeWlrZv3z6Px9NtisrKyv/5n/9ZtmzZHXfcMWXKlH66wQQhhBCKLuIFC7/f7/E0tbS0nsW9Xl9W1q+ami7+6lf3f/LJtiFDhgBAS0vQ42nq9kxPo3VdOsTHxy9YsGDPnj0HDhw4cuQISZIikejSpUtff/21zWabM2dOTz7HJyUlMRiM6urq9pdUhg0b1u2GvdDnuR599NENGzYIBILFixevX78+egoWi/XXv/61tLT0u+++W758eU5OzqFDh65jbxBCCKHeiPb1V6FQKBAIhH/2+bwtLcFQKOT3+30+b7ix7faK6DmiLGcwGGKxuMPTlg4ePNjc3Lxly5bHH3+82+rhgQceCAQCZ86cCU9jBIBDhw6NHj06+la9EylXQ0ND7wKOGTOGIIj33ntv6tSpM2fOfPzxxyOlsFgsr732WvgixS9+8Yvi4uLx48cfPHiwb3YMIYQQ6rEYHkTdVgH0ZGy/vUijDpHMnj2bTqf7/f7Nmzc7HI7oKwuFwkceeeS3v/2tVqutrq5evXo1n8//7LPPYuphD/VTrvvvv3/x4sVKpbKhoSFSinvvvffIkSMLFiyorKz86quv1Gp1cnLyL3/5yz7ZL4QQQqjnelo6xFouXCu2b7/KyMh44oknGAxGIBD45JNPul3/ww8/zM3NLSgoEIvF7733XllZWfgux/7QT7n+8pe/JCcnP/3006FQqMsUQ4cONZvNQ4cOnTt3rlQqPX/+/L/+9a/Ot7YihBBC/Y129Oj3kZbR6XSVKn/UqFEAcOrUqaKi4mAw2GVj9BxJSYkHDhx86KEHY+pZfX39xx9/nJGRMXv27M5LJ0+enJ6e3k9fY3ELafsuU4QQQujG6P5B1F0+dyjGhxH15ju309PTX3755S4Xbdu2zW63h59wgBBCCKEbiXbkyNFIy+h0+tChV5/OdP78hfCoQ+fG6DlIMungwYMPPhjbqEMUQ4YM+eUvf7llyxYcscdRB4QQQjdYtFGHYDB49uy5njR2J/Yxh6janv2MEEIIoRsshjssrk8fVw8oDIccEEII3WDRnuvQV0KhEJ1OD1/s6O9cCCGEEOpXN2LUIRAIJCcnu93u3n1LFkIIIYRuHrTDh4/0d464uLjExMQzZ85cuND9nEqEEEII3cxohw4dvgFp4uLiEhISmMz43tymiRBCCKGbRvfPdegTLS0tTU1NNyYXQgghhPrPjZgmiRBCCKHbxg27ORMhhBBCtwNGbW3tQPcBIYQQQrcMfIwxQgghhGKAFywQQgghFAMsHRBCCCEUgxt0cyYAfHPSd8NyIYQQQqif4KgDQgghhGKApQNCCCGEYoClA0IIIYRigKUDQgghhGJw46ZJRsGkA8GgBVug2Y8PmUAIIYRuagM86pAQTxuXFj/pDua4tPjxI+N/zmGmDulJly4fqfjTetOJ/ujScdOq903tvojcueNvS2c+mT3pyaUVZ3sT78yOpZPmLP+yU/Da9x+btPidG/goT69z74YVbyx98oWnHl269KXS8soT3v5L5tpZ8OgLq6tj2sZ3rFJf9JL6mUdfeOpptWbV9j3OfupcO87PNY8uXVvT/4kQQuj2MZClQ0I8bdyI+CSC5gvCj5damv0hOg3GpjBGJNG727TxqOVLy97+OPddOP7FDssXRz2tL8+Y3nztC/fPnvnTe+qXpgzv4+A3kuPzwlfW7fFmzFr6e/XK5x7Lgv1r31hW/n0/Vg8xOrbxDc1aO4hn5a38vXrR9HuoqrWvvLXzBlQPCCGEYjOQFyxGD2PQaeC+2HLsXCDckjokbmwKY/RQ+o/NQV8w2qYzVltm9EunkkWrLKKrL08cbYAxDyslorv7IfiNc+7ztduPcWatWjmdHW7IzLyLfGNZ+dZdM1+dzhqIHnVk2/bpidSZy1VzRwMAQMa4rJG+5974aKv9waWZA9w1hBBC1xiw0oFJh/B4Q1vdAADuiy1JREvqkLhhCfQznii1w5kdS3PeJ9+qWPFQ+OV3m1Ztrthz1E2MmjzjiZeWiTgAcOLjZ2Z+xvvzoqTP1u+oOu5JHjN16dIVc8ZA9EWXLcuEq+HPm1bNIGx/evqFTWcB4INZ0g8I0Rv7VKIIuVwVyx9fxXxuWeJXqy3OB9Tb//zzrrvdLvi1C45XPLPsnUbRGxteECZH2B0A6puP3yz5bG/tWW/ymMkzHm1r757LtscB9y59gN2ujS2eu8j7PbNt2MF7es/GrdvM3/9AMVMz+Y8tmjuFw+x+EWX/aPXWnTWnfazRE2c+yDav25P56urc0Z06YN9Wvn1XzQk3kXKveNb83MnsDit4fT4vM4lktmvK+HXuwrsgpbsIp/eUh/sGqZn8WbnyB7lMAHBXvrW0nPlYbuK3G/e6BS+uXZoJTttH5dv32E+7IWWs4MH5Sx8cd+WX4HXZtq3Y/nnNaQ858r65CxfNHN3h14MQQqidAbtgQTBoAHDR19Kh/cdLLQDAiKFfl79buaDwg8a7nyt94+1lWd4dq1/904Ery87uWLW+YcoTK95Tv/KA76s/FZVdncQQZVEr/rLSbf/3cCoxZt57H3xuyRNFz3Wh+l1dE0+x6KXfjOl53wEAwGN9reidoxNe++sLwuTIKU7sePXZze6fLXhjwxtvL/uZp6Lod69919PLDc7vf/CmjOUmXtNIZkyZO/2XrdXH6c9XvLG2Gh5c9PuCN+XTCfvaV0o/d3a/aNvrpducKdOXvpi/6EF2zfZt9q6eGOq1r329dLsr47Hlr6pzJ3vN64rXft9xHSLjvkzm4U/1H9Wca2tjZz3wYNbIqBGa9qx4K9y3VW8unAJ27Yp137QdFMr20dame2bKnxKPBGrv6tff3Qn8x5a/WrBs+h3O7cWv72xoXa/p2/LtxwSz8la+mCuAb9e+u93Rw8OKEEI/TQM26hBsAbhSQLTXuaUbzk3rv7jw89c+ekaSDAB3r/Aenb3qE9OyCRIAAJi0VL1iznAA4E9ssuxYXXfgLNzdOmUhyqJWg5JYaUwCmMy04WRytFx8ACDGv/RX9ZxOn7e75dAX//HLxCffy5eMjpZCVFtTBxNeWybiDwKYePdrQHxwoIkC6MnVBi/l8xKJSVFWqN7+kT1x9jsvTucAwOixy0d6XlqxbaMtexkfIi8iaj7/3JHy4Jsvzs4EABgnSHQ/XXq4U/CGT7fuoTIXvTl3CgkAo/O8379Q/vme3BenXPPRPuXBZS+eXb1u2+uqzzmZ94knTxE/cC+nuwhe+zdO5pTc56ZnMQFGP7boxJ6Xdn5rh18KAACAyHhqebjb0LDx82+Bn7ds1i8JABi9aNm5pS/t3OV48CkCAJj35L64NCcFAMZlTv/WvG6//dxj3BRACCHUtQEbdWj2h4IhSLs87CQAACAASURBVIintb+lgk4DdjIdAH5s7jgaEYlnX9VxuE8kSm59Td4nSL98fF/rnQtMVtqVamBQIjkIPBfaPhZHWdS7XMNTY68bqG//9sdVxyctVz8/kYiegpg4ngffffDyx6ZvTlEAnBnPvL5M1KtZCk17Vrzw+G+effw3zz7+mxeKzD4AOFbzvZfFv+/q9Y+R92eN9Djsx6IuarCf8LAy7rs6FSExqYuB/qbDNachc/J95JU9ysy8w3v6cOdP9mTGY8sL//bOc7MEzGOV+sLnVJpymzt6BHLy0ncLF2VducxBpgwHn/fqUEzKcM6VPthPA5d/b1v3OLNWf1z4FDf8gpnKaisUUlJJ8Hrx21YQQiiKgZwmeeLHwNgUxtgURhLR8uOlFoJBYyfT6TTwBWN4wMM56oLPu6coe1xRu8ZEdr/cOdDXubzHv9Al8kZ7Gr497p0xgYieYvSjb29IfEf72TvPvv9HGDV5xiMLl83gJ7ePtrfoyXe/9QIAMAULV698IPXKEoJMJLyn3a39TLwvd/mq+T6g9q5dsTPc5KGagExpPyxBsBLB1eQBgMiLCK8Pog5mAABAk4fy+RzvLvjNu+336I4IB43kTp69aPLsRU3HPl1XUv5uCWt5wUyIFsG5d0P5zm8dJ9wunw8AgHl/V33weYFgJeIMBoQQ6gsDWTq4L7bQ44Kjh9JTh8S1jT34gsCkw/iR8Wc8QffF7sceEolkJvnQor/mtbsFYhCTNRqg75/6EDGXt6JX8YjhU/+4YkXalmeeKnnzodLXHyCi7Q4AMVHyyl8lr4DHUWV5d8X7v/s9c8v7kqsDDwQ/953C+a0/p6S2T8TJuIvYe9h+DrgpAEBwRo4FAOpE21k/iUwBR1P7s7nXdQ7IkUkAEHkRk2SCt6m7wolJkMykLPmK3Iz2rUkdZng6bTvtcE8O/8rkx8SxMxfOqlaVV39PzcyMGIHaW/T6uh8EC5UrM8dyEglXVcFz+q76kJhEgpdq8gJg9YAQQtdtgB8JdcYT3PeD78T54A9U8AcqePC0f98PvmZ/KCGeNjaF0ZPHQw3n3T3Ke/So5+4x3Nb/RpJECtntdr3R57kSWWkETFzwijzxixUllgvRUth0hUtfs7gAAJK4D8x4ad7P4EBN/TXRmKmckezwfyzmNUtY/AcFzMOfbt9/TQlw9cexgtGEy/bvqw9ROP3v6nNEZsbYqIvYmaOTqO+/tbctOufuYqg/5R5uitd5wtPWN04K0fmguWwfrd66vab95k0eLwDBJKJEcNgPUyOz504ex0kkAMDbFOFKQ+JdmSPBYbu6+66qopfaJnsihBCKycB/h4UvCGc8wYYLwYYLwfB1irbbMntUPfCUT0y9/MXyZ943fXPEUfvdjtdeXbBgrfVyv/S1n3Lxlj0zh6h+8zULFTkFbzSzvuL9lasttiPH66pM71YcJe7L4vU0Q+KURfL7YG/JS+9uM9sP2b/fb95Zvnp7LYy8h8sEACJr1mOZ57atePfz6hMNDtvnq0q3uUbPmj+ZiLoIMqdP5577fHXpNvP3h2r2frRC/29XF7nHzp11n7eq5PWte+wnGhz2navfWPa6fn+HwQrBrKeyfLtWvbV269799hOHavZuW/XudkfKlJl8IkoE1ug74PSu8s/31Ni/MW8vWrH9sBd8Xc1UYOdMvw9sG1d9vsd+4lhNVfmqrYeJjIk9vbcVIYRQezfFd1h04L7YAhAYm8IAgLEpjGafP+rUh2TRio+YZSs2v/viDjckpd8nevm9Z4SD+qdrEXJ1dcaMyYSXlj9sffZvK3eMXzUjwu48pPrb/73/jm79q7qz3kGjJj30zNvLRTEMeLAmq95M2bnx8883vvuR00ewUu7KfCDvnelTWk+fI6cvf5VZrt++9o0N3sTUTP6ilXN7smj28hd9q7d+vvqtj1gj78t58H7n9v92viRATl76JvOjtds/WrHTDYl3ZE7OXT733o6rpUxZvnz4p9u3V24v2XjOSySmcjNnLZ81W8CMFoHzYN6yc+XlO9euaEriZE7PlcPqdT84zwGM7KIPK2FD+ecbXt/uIVLuyZqrXvRAx2dLIIQQ6hFaKHSDvnHqm5OxzVsPP1my2R86dMYf7NjHMzteyHk/te2RUOhm4N1b9OQ6WFqkEid2vzJCCKFb1c046hDmvtjS7PN7A6FOdQMcsGyy1sOoSXcORL/QVd9veG7dD+JZ07NGJ3lPfLtx634WPy8L6waEELq93byjDlE8mT0paZJ80YplP++f6ZCopyh71datO7+xn/ZA4h2Zk2fntl3LQAghdLu6JUsHhBBCCA2Ugb/DAiGEEEK3ECwdEEIIIRQDLB0QQgghFIMbN9cBIYQQQrcBHHVACCGEUAywdEAIIYRQDLB0QAghhFAMsHRACCGEUAywdEAIIYRQDAa4dAgEAmazubS0dOXKlaWlpbt37/b7/T3YjqrWqQuMjn7okdeuV6v19rbvhPY6DPkyEZ/H5ct1zt4EdOpkXJ7S6O0YvKZAxBUV1PRNr28Me5GEy+Vy5frr/qZQhBBCt66BLB38fv/69estFguDwRg3bhydTv/qq682bNjQg+rBVWc0GisdVN93iqozGY2muiuRnXqVusKVmVeyUauWsPo4OEIIIXTrGchvztyzZ4/T6Zw6dapYLKbRaKFQaPfu3VVVVVVVVdnZ2VE35SoMNkW/dIol09lkV186HU5fumyJIiezH4IjhBBCt56BHHWora1NS0ubNm0ajUYDABqNlp2dnZqaWltb292m7a8CAIDTrFVKhTwejy+Rq42OcLNDK+WK1MbKIoWEz+PyhFKlrqb1836URS6DnMtVGCgAqM4XcudvckN92Uwul6esjJwr3B2tfomUz+MvMUfsdrvg1/DadTI+T5Rf6Yq8OwCucDOX26H92iNj1i6Rifg8Ho8vki3RVrdeW6AMci6Xy5UXGVtDC6VKvd3lMKhlIj6PxxfJ1Ma26zFUjV6tkAh5PC5PKFF0yuR1mIoUEj6PxxPK8g1tC7vZCiGE0G1iIEsHiqLS0tI6NI4YMYKiYhrRpyrz5blaJ1+l1esKRWDMU6jNVwI0GNRrnKK8Et1ajdBrLlRp7W2bRVnUSqAxmktmJAF7XrnZbCkSR8/lM5VoPXylSiXjxtJ7AHBVqpWFDoFGV5zDipzCoVUoS5w8lXbrVq1GSBnz5Fd38+qhWCLPLd5ha/CSLNLbYNtRPF+W334ta1leSbULCJ/PXWfSyCUylcHhJcDnabBtytcYXAAADp1CrtlkcRKZAj6LqrdsypPnV7bPZFun0dm9BOHzuW0VapXe2aOtEEII3SYG8oIFSZKNjY0dGs+cOZOcnBxDFLu2uMIlKjIUylgAIOBSdaKCdSaNWAYAwBSotGvkHACATJ/JlGe1OiGTA90sakWQLE4qSQBBsjgcVrRcQgAAXp5Op4y1bACvXadUGcmF+hI5N1oKic1S5xMUaWRiEkAg4ACU1HhcAOS1h2JHAwB73kZjYRZJmfOluRUNFcV6pVjZOk0jSVRk0slYVOUS0aIdHg+RVWLSSlkug0KksviqzTVeWY5dr7P5APgag0HeusRtMlZ7c3KI1jTsOeXGYjFJVSpFi0wem8lKKTiObrdCCCF0mxjIUYeJEyc2Njbu2rUr/D0aoVBo165dbrd7woQJPQ/islnrmVnStimMLD6f47PXtA4hEKnsK9UAmZREgNfbNooeZVGvcjE5HE7kTSOgTGploSOrUKcRkNFTkHwRj1lToioyVDtcXuDKCtcUSq8tVJxWaz0ApEvlWSQAkGKFJB0A6izWtjsiWDweCwBIbrhI4gj5LABgpaezAMDn8XgBBBqLw+FwGOSdllzBEWSSAEBmCjkAAJTL1ZOtEEII3SYGctRhypQpx44dq6qqOnToUFpaWmNjo9vtBoBgMNjzIC4nBT6bSsBVtWtk8iiA674fIoZcvdRQoa/jsb32ajslE5PRU2Qp9XqyaI2uYH6Zh5nKlyjzNYqsa/aRclEAACzOlVaSQwIAxHgBCFzVuqI1eovd6fb4oq/ZfkSh51shhBC6pQ1k6RAfH79gwYI9e/YcOHDgyJEjJEmKRKJLly59/fXXNpttzpw56enp3QYhWSQwRWpDvrBdI0FyAPr+4QORcxl6FzBJUqgvYZdI5Sq1xLQmh4yWAoAUyAt18kKvy242rCksVCjBZFC0G+lgcVqrD1dr3UQ5XQAAJNn+qkZ37EWK+WV1kCpaqJEJSKehoNji7q+tEEII3YIGsnQAAAaDIRaLxWJx+8aDBw82Nzdv2bLl8ccf77Z64PD5bJ/J7uIqxK2fgSmnEzhkf5QOEXP16llRAECy2SQhUBXJLXKNyijQSlmRUnirixTFLllJsYxDsDJzlPn1RlNJjR2uKR34wnSw1deb9NXKwiySMutMDQDAEwljGIBxWq11AJAuy9fIM4GqrOzHrRBCCN2KbsYHUc+ePZtOp/v9/s2bNzsc3T0yUqBUSbwVKkWBwVxjr6nU5culss73HvSN/slFCFQFMsKkVhmcEVMQ3EzSWVGgKjBW2+01lbpivYMpyOrwsIlMZf4MNkD9pvlCoUgozK1oAGDPyZfHMneTxeOlAkB9mUIik4pEi3a4AaDbiSC92wohhNCt6GYsHTIyMp544gkGgxEIBD755JPuVmdJS/RrpYS1SDl3plyjd/M1+mJxLEP0MeinXESWqmgeaSlQ6Z2RUrCkJfoSGWEtUMycKVfpXHyVXivvOC+TzFmjL8+X8NgE1UARbL4kv9wQY/+ILI2uYA6fzXTX210siXqhkAkAjproT2no3VYIIYRuRbTw3Q03ofr6+o8//jgjI2P27NmdFjp1MnERa61Ni/f+IYQQQjfUAM91iCI9Pf3ll1/uclF1pd7oABafhXUDQgghdIPdvKMOUfC5PIIvK9AW5vT9DZgIIYQQiuaWLB0QQgghNFBuxmmSCCGEELppYemAEEIIoRhg6YAQQgihGGDpgBBCCKEYYOmAEEIIoRhg6YAQQgihGGDpgBBCCKEYYOmAEEIIoRhg6YAQAIDLbjbb+/6L2hFC6PYzwKVDIBAwm82lpaUrV64sLS3dvXu33+/vwXZUtU5dYOzu+7h7w2vXq9V6e9s3PnodhnyZiM/j8uU6Z28COnUyLk9p9HYMXlMg4ooKavqm1+g62YvkM3NzZ8qL7APdE4QQuukNZOng9/vXr19vsVgYDMa4cePodPpXX321YcOGHlQPrjqj0VjpoPq+U1SdyWg01V2J7NSr1BWuzLySjVq15Lq/MaND8D5nXsLjcrn8Jeb+SnCj3IAduTYFK5PHZjLZPD5+KwpCCHVnIL85c8+ePU6nc+rUqWKxmEajhUKh3bt3V1VVVVVVZWdnR92UqzDYFP3SKZZMZ5Ndfel0OH3psiWKnMx+CI5uGizpGot0oDuBEEK3hoEcdaitrU1LS5s2bRqNRgMAGo2WnZ2dmppaW1vb3abtrwIAgNOsVUqFPB6PL5GrjY5ws0Mr5YrUxsoihYTP4/KEUqWupvXzfpRFLoOcy1UYKACozhdy529yQ33ZTC6Xp6yMnCvcHa1+iZTPi/ZRuV3wa3jtOhmfJ8qvdEXeHQBXuJnL7dAeZi8QcXN3+ADAsyOXy5UbXK2hlshEfB6PxxfJlmiru7iY79BKuVwuT6YuUkr4PC6PL1EWma+uFyVChEXdBGyHqtGrFRIhj8flCSWK1l3qekd61tsuAwIAZVTwuFyurEBfIBfy+I89/UCHFE6djMvlcqXa1otgXmdlkVIq4vN4PKFEUVDpvHKwKbs+Xy7it/4W8vU1/TaEhBBCN6uBLB0oikpLS+vQOGLECIqK6e2YqsyX52qdfJVWrysUgTFPoTZfCdBgUK9xivJKdGs1Qq+5UKW9eik7yqJWAo3RXDIjCdjzys1mS5E4ei6fqUTr4StVKhk3lt4DgKtSrSx0CDS64hxW5BQOrUJZ4uSptFu3ajVCypgnv7qbAACkQCLhswEAgM2XzBCxCaAql8hzi3fYGrwki/Q22HYUz5flm7s+uD7bpjKziyCZPk+9qUypDE/siBKhu+BdB2zPoVPINZssTiJTwGdR9ZZNefL8SqqrHelhbyMEvMq2TrPO6vZ5WkZnR03hMubJFpWZ6hq8JEm46y3rFsnCB9upV8o1FVYXK2uGREA6rRUauULXH1NuEELoJjaQpQNJko2NjR0az5w5k5ycHEMUu7a4wiXS6AplYkGWVFOiErqM60ytJwymQKVdo5CKs3LkhXlZzHqrte0EFmVRK4JkcVJJAgiSxeGwSKKbXLw8na5QqZCLObEcBK9dp1QZyYW6Ejk32u5QNkudT6DQyMQCgVhWWKKZJyQ87T+Pc6Qa7RI+EwCS+Eu0a5RZpF1bvKMBgD1vo9VqsVrL57ABGiqK9V2f6thz1lpt1tbVfDadzg4QJUL3wbsK2F6NXmfzAfA1BoPeYCgUMQHcJmO1t/OO9LC3kQK22yxV+HxJ+datRUsKoqWoKSkyuVv3zWr9NJ/PBHfFGoMTKKvJ6gHg5Wl1a7R6nUbC43HBXof3ZSCEfloGsnSYOHFiY2Pjrl27QqEQAIRCoV27drnd7gkTJvQ8iMtmrWdmSdumMLL4fI7PXtN6miJS2VdO5GRSEgFeb9uJJMqiXuVicjgx1QwAAECZ1MpCR1ahTiMgo6cg+SIes6ZEVWSodri8wJUVrimURh3fcFqt9QCQLpVnkQBAihWSdACos1i7PNWxMjPDq8klbABoqKtzRYnQg+BdBLwmoUBjcTgcDoOcBQCs9HQWAPg8nm5/CxGDdx+QLc1XScUCATfqZEiH1dZwdd+ITImECwB2q81LsNmpAFCnU6l1RrNXUmI0Gg3FUpxaiRD6aRnIaZJTpkw5duxYVVXVoUOH0tLSGhsb3W43AASDwZ4HcTkp8NlUAq6qXSOTRwH0/Rt65Fy91FChr+OxvfZqOyUTk9FTZCn1erJoja5gfpmHmcqXKPM1iqxo+0i5KAAAFufKSiSHBACgqOgHh2SRAA3gpbxRIrReVOo6eMSAHRa4qnVFa/QWu9Pt8UXZkaiuCd4XAQFcThcAQH3ZTG7Z1VYfRVGEVKVVu/OKTLZNhXmbAJhsoaKgRCXG2gEh9JMykKVDfHz8ggUL9uzZc+DAgSNHjpAkKRKJLl269PXXX9tstjlz5qSnp3cbhGSRwBSpDfnCdo0EyQHo+2HkyLkMvQuYJCnUl7BLpHKVWmJak0NGSwFACuSFOnmh12U3G9YUFiqUYDIoIo90sDitxYirtVKgwqdEkuzqCsBVrQUDQRIsImIEFtnz4FcDXtNsL1LML6uDVNFCjUxAOg0FxRZ31I5109s+Cti6D25IFc6R8trtDZdHAJAChdYid9aYrVaTXldhs5blaTItWmn0Q4oQQreVAX4kFIPBEIvFixcv/sMf/rB48WKxWDx9+vSEhIRLly5t2bKlvr6+2wgcPp/tc9hd3MwrOCTZetbsa32ei2SzSUKgKpKTJo3K6IqSwltdJJflG5wAQLAyc5T5ct7VyzLtEADg9XkoAGDxhekAUG/SV1MAQJl1pgYA4ImEXX5IdtbYKQCgqg2mBgBI5/NYUSL0IHgXAa/JZ7XWAUC6LF8jl0pF6UkRd6SHve0mYGeRUnBFwlQAoCiWNE+j0Wg0eXKhQKKUC8hqtYjP50uLXJk5MmWxTiUEAI/TiXMdEEI/LTfjg6hnz55Np9P9fv/mzZsdju7mrwuUKom3QqUoMJhr7DWVuny5VKaOcBvB9eqfXIRAVSAjTGqVwRkxBcHNJJ0VBaoCY7XdXlOpK9Y7mIKsjg+b4GRyAMBnyhcJ5TpHpjJ/BhugftN8oVAkFOZWNACw5+TLu54h4d6xSCgUCUXzNzUAMIUKeSZAlAjdB+8qYDssHi8VAOrLFBKZVCRatMMNAFdmnFy7Iz3rbdSAnUVOQWTlaSSp4Ksrmyvki0QivjBnUZ5SY6RAIJOwPJ66dQqZYskShbzACgDpIlGst9QghNCt7WYsHTIyMp544gkGgxEIBD755JPuVmdJS/RrpYS1SDl3plyjd/M1+mJxPw0g91MuIktVNI+0FKj0zkgpWNISfYmMsBYoZs6Uq3QuvkqvlXe8WsGVF+SL0pOY4AWCIIDMWaMvz5fw2ATVQBFsviS/3BCxu7wZz0tYXsrDTEqX5OtaY0eJ0G3wLgO232eNrmAOn81019tdLIl6oZAJAI4ah7fzjvSot1EDdhYtBUuqNZTnz+CzCW9Dg4vgCOeotQVSEgiBRr9RPUfIclbv2FHtJPkz8sv1qj55WhhCCN06aOG7G25C9fX1H3/8cUZGxuzZszstdOpk4iLWWps2p6vzCoqFQyvNKa4DvtocbebEQAa8YcERQgj1wEBOk4wuPT395Zdf7nJRdaXe6AAWn4V1A0IIIXSD3bylQxTKRTqCP69AKRjojiCEEEI/OTfvBQuEEEII3YRuxmmSCCGEELppYemAEEIIoRhg6YAQQgihGGDpgBBCCKEYYOmAEEIIoRhg6YAQQgihGGDpgBBCCKEYYOmAEEIIoRhg6YAQQgihGAxw6RAIBMxmc2lp6cqVK0tLS3fv3u33+3uwHVWtUxcYu/s+7t7w2vVqtd7e9m2LXochXybi87h8uc7Zm4BOnYzLUxq9HYPXFIi4ooKavul1t+xFEi6Xy5XrXTcoYd+7DXYBIYRuCwNZOvj9/vXr11ssFgaDMW7cODqd/tVXX23YsKEH1YOrzmg0Vjqovu8UVWcyGk11VyI79Sp1hSszr2SjVi1h9XHwm595CY/L5fKXmAe6IwghhG4aA/n1V3v27HE6nVOnThWLxTQaLRQK7d69u6qqqqqqKjs7O+qmXIXBpuiXTrFkOpvs6kunw+lLly1R5GT2Q3CEEELo1jOQow61tbVpaWnTpk2j0WgAQKPRsrOzU1NTa2tru9u0/VUAAHCatUqpkMfj8SVytdERbnZopVyR2lhZpJDweVyeUKrU1bR+3o+yyGWQc7kKAwUA1flC7vxNbqgvm8nl8pSVkXOFu6PVL5HyedE+orcLfg2vXSfj80T5la7IuwPgCjdzuR3a2zi0Ui6Xy5Opi5QSPo/L40uUReZrhve9DlORQsLn8XhCWb7hagSnWbtEJuLzeDy+SLZEW+0CAHuBiJu7wwcAnh25XK7c4Iq0ZhhVHe4ejy+Sq9UKPpfLlRTZASijgsflcmUF+gK5kMdXGFwAQNXo1QqJkMfj8oQSxdWd6c0uhLfhitStV3+q1UIul8uVaiP+HhBCCF2HgSwdKIpKS0vr0DhixAiKimlEn6rMl+dqnXyVVq8rFIExT6E2XwnQYFCvcYrySnRrNUKvuVCltbdtFmVRK4HGaC6ZkQTseeVms6VIHD2Xz1Si9fCVKpWMG0vvAcBVqVYWOgQaXXEOK3IKh1ahLHHyVNqtW7UaIWXMk1/dzWv4bJvKzC6CZPo89aYypbL9FA3bOo3O7iUIn89tq1Cr9M7wAVwizy3eYWvwkizS22DbUTxflm+mSIFEwmcDAACbL5khYhOR1gQAcOgUimJTndvHJAlvzaZNFk+HbtnWadZZ3T6PFwhw6BRyzSaLk8gU8FlUvWVTnjy/st3OxLYLXImUBwANFqMdAKDGZHEDAE8qifH3gBBCqEcGsnQgSbKxsbFD45kzZ5KTk2OIYtcWV7hEGl2hTCzIkmpKVEKXcZ2p9TzEFKi0axRScVaOvDAvi1lvtbadhKIsakWQLE4qSQBBsjgcFkl0k4uXp9MVKhVyMSeWg+C165QqI7lQVyLnRtsdymap8wkUGplYIBDLCks084SEp+sJg+w5a602q9VaPocN4LPpdPZ2i8qtVovVslaSBOCzmawUgF1bvKMBgD1vo9Vqad2qoaJY75VqtEv4TABI4i/RrlFmkZHWdADU6LQ2X2t8q9VaPo/dqVupwudLyrduLRCRNXqdzQfA1xgMeoOhUMQEcJuM1d7e7kJb7WBxANhNlgYA4MuksZZwCCGEemQgS4eJEyc2Njbu2rUrFAoBQCgU2rVrl9vtnjBhQs+DuGzWemaWtG0KI4vP5/jsNa2nGiKVfeVETiYlEeD1tp2foizqVS4mhxNTzQAAAJRJrSx0ZBXqNAIyegqSL+Ixa0pURYZqh8sLXFnhmsIIJ0dWZiYJAKRYLmEDQENdXVuJwRGEF2UKOQAAlMsFTqu1HgDSpfKs8FYKSToA1FmsHQuTKGs6bXVuAEiXKsXh+JmdjgVbmq+SigUCLgsEGovD4XAY5CwAYKWnswDA5/G0O/6x7QJwpTIeANSbLA6H1VIPAHypJPbfBkIIoZ4YyGmSU6ZMOXbsWFVV1aFDh9LS0hobG91uNwAEg8GeB3E5KfDZVAKuql0jk0cBXPf9EDHk6qWGCn0dj+21V9spmZiMniJLqdeTRWt0BfPLPMxUvkSZr1FkRd9HkkUCNICX6qIoIq78QLkoAAAW50oskkMCAHS+bBRlzdaVWdweHnRXta5ojd5id7o9vuvfBQCORMYvLLTZjHo91AEw+TKsHBBCqL8MZOkQHx+/YMGCPXv2HDhw4MiRIyRJikSiS5cuff311zabbc6cOenp6d0GIVkkMEVqQ76wXSNBcgD6/vb/yLkMvQuYJCnUl7BLpHKVWmJak0NGSwFACuSFOnmh12U3G9YUFiqUYDIoop0hW8/1BElEWYnFaa1ZXK3VFuV0AQCQJNnzNUkiXES4XAAdN+vMXqSYX1YHqaKFGpmAdBoKii3u69kFAOBIpPxCm822bh0AMAVYOSCEUP8Z4EdCMRgMsVi8ePHiP/zhD4sXLxaLxdOnT09ISLh06dKWLVvq6+u7jcDh89k+h93FzbyCQ5KtJ7m+1ue5SDabJASqIjlp0qiMrigpvNVFclm+wQkABCszR5kv5129LNOBs8ZOAQBVbTA1AEA6nxdtX0JslQAAIABJREFULIDFF6YDQL1JX00BAGXWmRoAgCcSsgDCH+29Pg8VfU0On8cGgDpD6yKHPcrjs5xWax0ApMvyNXKpVJSedL27ABAed2CGf2QKpNf/CA6EEEKR3IwPop49ezadTvf7/Zs3b3Y4untkpECpkngrVIoCg7nGXlOpy5dLZRHuPbhu/ZOLEKgKZIRJrTI4I6YguJmks6JAVWCstttrKnXFegdTkNX1wybcOxYJhSKhaP6mBgCmUCGP/kyKTGX+DDZA/ab5QqFIKMytaABgz8mXcwGAk8kBAJ8pXySU6xxR1hQolUImQP26+SKhSCicv6khckIWj5cKAPVlColMKhIt2uEGgGvnmsS4CwAAHIlMwAQIjzlg5YAQQv3nZiwdMjIynnjiCQaDEQgEPvnkk+5WZ0lL9GulhLVIOXemXKN38zX6YnG/jDr0Wy4iS1U0j7QUqPTOSClY0hJ9iYywFihmzpSrdC6+Sq+Vdz0qz5vxvITlpTzMpHRJvi7SWleROWv05fkSHpugGiiCzZfklxta94orL8gXpScxwQsEQURbkyPX6tUSXirTQ1Es8cIZvGh7q9EVzOGzme56u4slUS8UMgHAUdPuQRWx7gIAAEso4gIAM0smwsoBIYT6ES18d8NNqL6+/uOPP87IyJg9e3anhU6dTFzEWmvT5nRzDfwnxaGV5hTXAV9tjj4Hon84q81UpjiTBACnQSFVWTxMSYlVK42psrqOXXDoZNJCG4iKrDpZP1WOCCGEYGCnSUaXnp7+8ssvd7moulJvdACLz8K64abh1OUpCm2Qms5lgctR7/YBk6d4XnJjzuEug1JWYGrwAKTOWXiDciKE0E/WzXjBolvKRTond55aKRjojqA2HJm6cJ6ICy5HndNL8kTzCvR6leCG1XZeystM5UnUWk1/XatCCCHU6ua9YIEQQgihm9AtOeqAEEIIoYGCpQNCCCGEYoClA0IIIYRigKUDQgghhGKApQNCCCGEYoClA0IIIYRigKUDQgghhGKApQNCCCGEYoClA7rRXHaz2e4a6F4ghBDqpQEuHQKBgNlsLi0tXblyZWlp6e7du/1+fw+2o6p16gJjd9/H3Rteu16t1tvbvsTR6zDky0R8Hpcv1zl7E9Cpk3F5SqO3Y/CaAhFXVFDTN72+morL5cpi66jXqORxuVyhuvran/uJvUg+Mzd3przI3m8pEEII9aeBLB38fv/69estFguDwRg3bhydTv/qq682bNjQg+rBVWc0GisdVN93iqozGY2muiuRnXqVusKVmVeyUauWXPd3OXcI/pPEyuSxmUw2j4/fjI0QQremgfzmzD179jidzqlTp4rFYhqNFgqFdu/eXVVVVVVVlZ2dHXVTrsJgU/RLp1gynU129aXT4fSly5YocjL7IfhPEku6xiId6E4ghBDqvYEcdaitrU1LS5s2bRqNRgMAGo2WnZ2dmppaW1vb3abtrwIAgNOsVUqFPB6PL5GrjY5ws0Mr5YrUxsoihYTP4/KEUqWupvXzfpRFLoOcy1UYKACozhdy529yQ33ZTC6Xp6yMnCvcHa1+iZTP4y8xR+x2u+DX8Np1Mj5PlF/pirw7AK5wM5fbob0jqkafLwtvrigyX51U4HVWFimlIj6PxxNKFAWVzkgB2kdSKyRCHo/LE0oUV1NSRgWPy+XKCvQFciGPrzC4KIOcy+Vy5UXG1q4LpUq93eUwqGUiPo/HF8nUxvBllNarKlKtI/x74HJ5Cq1BLReFfxNL2l8sirnDCCGE+t9Alg4URaWlpXVoHDFiBEXFNKJPVebLc7VOvkqr1xWKwJinUJuvBGgwqNc4RXklurUaoddcqNJevcAeZVErgcZoLpmRBOx55WazpUgcPZfPVKL18JUqlYwbS+8BwFWpVhY6BBpdcQ4rcgqHVqEscfJU2q1btRohZcyTX93Na9XvKDM6gCR8nnpLmVKpC08JcRnzZIvKTHUNXpIk3PWWdYtkkQK0cugUcs0mi5PIFPBZVL1lU548v7L9FrZ1mnVWt8/jhStfrm0tyyupdgHh87nrTBq5RKYyOLwE+DwNtk35GkPXcyN9lmKVwQ4EAT533Q6NqtcdRgghdCMMZOlAkmRjY2OHxjNnziQnJ8cQxa4trnCJNLpCmViQJdWUqIQu4zpT6ymGKVBp1yik4qwceWFeFrPeam2bQRhlUSuCZHFSSQIIksXhsEiim1y8PJ2uUKmQizmxHASvXadUGcmFuhI5N9ruUDZLnU+g0MjEAoFYVliimSckPF2filMlJRab1WrdujAdwGfT6WsAoKakyOQGYM/baLVarZ/m85ngrlhjiDKhskavs/kA+BqDQW8wFIqYAG6Tsbr9J/9U4fMl5Vu3FojI1oYkUZHFZrVa1s5IAgAPkVXy/9u797io7jt//O/355y5MMAgyiAK3sAbXhJIo5gmwVyK3VbStJomLW2/jW13a77drbu/fvWx+1j9fbur2d2a/W5rvm2jbTek24b8kq25NJom0kQlGiFqwWjAG3gDERguDjDMmXPO5/37YxAQzgADAxj7fj7Mxbmc85kzPPi8zudaUlFWVrI91w4QLD1Ybt1skLr6uZKKkrKS51YnAUBVSVnTiArMGGNsXExkdFi6dGljY+P+/fuJCACIaP/+/V6vd8mSJcM/SFNFWY19RX7PEEZPVlZasLK8uwnBkZR6oyJ3x8c7QNN6Kq9BnhrRuexpaRFlBgAA8BVvXr+tesW2wi3Z7sFP4c7KzbSX79i0fXdpdZMGGWu3Pbst37p9Iy0nywMAjuy1eekAUFdV1QTVZRV1AJCeX7DCDeBYlJeXAQCVZRXhP3T2lpLq6urq3QUeAPCkp3sAINje3ucNqfkbN+WvzM7O6Bnx6MnM9ACAO2NRWp+SWL65b4FXZHsAwL0o2wMA4PP5YCQFZowxNi4mcpjkvffee+HChUOHDp0+fTo5ObmxsdHr9QKAaZrDP0hTrQ+CFZuyMzb1edCe6QOI/gj+8OcaobpXi6oyU7XK0krf2pXuwU+xYn1RkXv7s4Vbv7ar3Z6Ulbd+45Z1Kwb/jG6PGyBUFTfVNgEA1Ox6JGNX7wuCg/cNNZUWbn+2qKSy1tseHOEnjJCj5/8GKzDPzWCMsYk0kdHBZrN94xvfOHz48KlTp86ePet2u3Nzc7u6uo4cOVJRUbFmzZr09PQhD+L2uMGeu3n3xpw+DzrcaQDRX3Qo/Ll2j+yA8Xnbinak7sgv2LQ5r/jZVe7BTgHgzi7YVliwTWuqPLj72W3b1q2H4t3rBmvp8DX5AADcbje43W4ALyTlrMnPdPe+IiPTEe7NULl93dd2VUFS7pNb1ma7a3dvfabEO7KPORIjKDBjjLFxMZHRAQBUVV25cuXKlSv7Pvjxxx/7/f5XXnnl8ccfHzI9pGVlpQaLK5sy1q3srlR8tbWQ5h6L6BD2XCPtgHenprod2Zu2F5QUbNm0J3tnvifcKbTS7eueaVq745m1aQ7PolXrN9bsKd5RXglW0aG2vKJpXZpHq9xTUgMAqemZHsjIzUnaVeP1+Tz5GzZluwF81ftKmrLzs90QpgegtqysCgDS127cUrAIfPv2jfAzjtAgBWaMMTahbsWFqB999FFFUXRdf/nll6urh1oyMnv9pjzt1U3rtu4+WF5Zvq9wY0H+mI3EH5tzObI3bV3rKN68aXdt2FM4Mha5a1/dumnrntLKyvJ9hc8UVduzV1gvNuHduyE3Jzcn55FdVQD2zIJ12QCOFRu25CVBsGrXYzlZubm5WTmrntqwfsue8GX3ZGYmAUDNrnV5a/Nzc5/a6wWA4YwIiY7IC8wYY2x83IrRYe7cuU888YSqqoZhvP7660O93JO/o+i5fEfZ9vWPPVKwpcibtaXomZVjdG86RudyrNi0/avukq2bimrDncKTv6Nox1pH2dZ1jzxSsKmwKWtT0c4Cy96K+NwnN670aL52e3x67nd3Fq7P6C76zt3Pb1ydlerQ6uqaHGk5azbv3JofvuyOFVsKt67JSrV7ayqbPHmbn8yxA0B1edjlJKIt0gIzxhgbHxia3XALqqmpee211+bOnfvoo48OeLK2cO3K7Z7nKnau4q5vxhhjbDxN8FiHQaSnp//gBz+wfKp0X9GeavBkeTg3MMYYY+Ps1m11GERWRqYja+3WndtW8TQ9xhhjbHx9IqMDY4wxxibKrThMkjHGGGO3LI4OjDHGGIsARwfGGGOMRYCjA2OMMcYiwNGBMcYYYxHg6MAYY4yxCHB0YIwxxlgEODowxhhjLAKf1OjQVHnwYGX0t9Ueh4PfIm7vzxjpp7u9rwZjjEXXBEcHwzAOHjz405/+9Omnn/7pT3964MABXdeHflvl9oJHvvWtRwq2V45BmfofXKves7kgLyczIyMzf+fIT6jtWZ+ZkZGRs7k0SuUcTQH6fsbawrUZGRkZawtrJ6hgg+suXv7OwXdf7/uy4fx4fEKvBmOM3QImMjrouv6b3/ympKREVdWFCxcqivL+++//9re/HTo9eBZlptrtqZmLxmIPixsHzwodvHLH+g0vldV4g/FJHvftst9Wv894m4n0093eV4MxxqJtInfOPHz4cG1t7f33379y5UpEJKIDBw4cOnTo0KFDDz744GDv9OQ/W5I/VsW6+eC+mqpaAIhf/XzZsytvl+Rw02e8/W6vI/3xuL2vBmOMRdtEtjqcPHkyOTn5gQceQEQAQMQHH3wwKSnp5MmTQ7yzqaggIyMjI6+nT6F23/b1+blZmZmZOXnrtu6r1QAAoHpnfkZGRua6nbs3F+RmZWZk5uR/v6hSG+KpPk3fB7+flb2hJAgA7Xu/tainsyHM6Xx71mVmZGSs3Vq0tSAnM2vd7kE7z2sP7vz+2tyszMzMrNy1399Z2v3i7oKt3bx9fV5WZkZmVt767Qd7DxTm1Ae/n5XR32BN/GF7AZr2rM/JyMjIyFm/u3bQMwL4Kos2FuRmZWZkZGblFWwsKvdZnMhXXrR5XV5OZmZGZk7eus17qrWbPqbV9QeAptKd6/NyMjMzc9ZuLKq0Ou6gL7v50w1dznG7GowxdluYyOjg8/mSk5P7PTh16lSfL7Jfu017Nqx9aldxVZ3mdju8NSUvPLV288HeQwRLntm0uxIcDgh6q/Zu2VRYPZynAADAsyIvLzMJAMCempO3Oi/bM/TpoOKFLS+UeYPtGoRvpPDt+37Bt57ZW1GnuT1ura5i7zNfW7uxb5krXtp1sMnhtgfba4p3rV/f3fMe9tSOtIz0bqnxdgAASEpPj7T9XavcuX5jsRfs6U/u2L42bdAz1hatL9jyalmTZ8XqvGx3bdmrWwrW9b98UF24rmDLSyW1jkXZWR5fTclLGwo27utzqayvf23RhnXPFNd4g+CG6j27Xq2xLu3wXjasco7P1WCMsdvEREYHt9vd2NjY78GGhoaEhIRIDlO+Y3uxFyD1qy+WlZWVvbkxyw7eV5/d3dvynLr6uZKKkrKS51YnAUBVSVnTcJ4CAFhU8Mz2dYsAADx5G3c+u21txjBOB0k5393x/O9+tzXXHa7IlTuf2VvXfYySsrLn16QC1L36TFFvZZO65rmyirLup4IVhYWVg37SFZt2FxcXFxcX79ma6wkCQFLeli2rwp7filZbvHn9MxVBiM/dUrhlhXvwa+srKy5rB8jcsLPw2Z1FhVvyMjMzoLLq5stXXlRYEQTI2rJ7d9Hu3dty7QDe4j2lWu8rrK5/eeHOsuCNc1aU7MhLsizv8F42rHKOz9VgjLHbxURGh6VLlzY2Nu7fv5+IAICI9u/f7/V6lyxZEsFRqssq6gAgPb9ghRvAsSgvLwMAKssqemqotBXZHgBwL8r2AAD0bdQY5KkRny41f+Om/JXZ2Rlhb/pry8pqeo8B7pXr8tLh5uTiWbQo9FRBXioA1FVVNQ3j1L7SrZteqgFIWr11a36EbQ7VRdtfrQNIWr19R0HakB/WkZqaBABVhZs2F+45qOXt2LNnz+5n+p0ze0tJdXV19e4CDwB4Qq0gwfb2PtHB4vo3VVXVAUBq3toVbgDwZOWkgYVhvmxY5Ryfq8EYY7eLiRwmee+99164cOHQoUOnT59OTk5ubGz0er0AYJpmBEdpqm0CAKjZ9UjGrt5Hg5YpYJBhjsMdARnJ6cLxNfkAADxpN+oWd5obwDq5uD1ugDrQfNqgp/YAgO/g1k0v1QEkrd66bVXE1VYwGAQA8FZVVGurskOXI/wZHfmbdm72btheXPHStg0vAdhTc9Zt3bFpZb/TNpUWbn+2qKSy1tseHPz0Pde/+yL0Xhxrw3yZY8WwyjnAmFwNxhi7PUxkdLDZbN/4xjcOHz586tSps2fPut3u3Nzcrq6uI0eOVFRUrFmzJj09feijuN1uAC8k5azJz+zTQp+ROTbTIaJxOk8oKTTVNoXqfPCFKiW3e2AXQ3fMcLgdQ5zad3DrplfrAFLXbN8WWVdFN3tmzqLasoqawi2F+XvWL+opUJgzurPX7SwpqC0/WFZWXFT4akXZrg1bFpXszO/zusrt6762qwqScp/csjbbXbt76zMl3iGL0X0Ruj/3aF8Wtpx5Q7wt+leDMcZuFxMZHQBAVdWVK1euXLmy74Mff/yx3+9/5ZVXHn/88aHTQ0ZuTtKuGq/P58nfsCnbDeCr3lfSlJ2f7YaxGKc2yOmG3e7gycpJh4qamuKi0vXbVrh9BwuL6wAgMzen5za1trzSty7N7SvdXVwHAOlZmZ7BTg1N+zZvetULkLpm65aVI6qvMjfsKMqvWJe/qaRqx5bCvN3rMgb7sKWbc9fv8aWtLdy9ZW32qjxPXfamsvba2iaA3pPXlpVVAUD62o1bChaBb9++YV6crHQo67k4TRXllvMlh/my8OUc76vBGGO3jQmODpYeffTRV155Rdf1l19++fHHH8/IyBjs1Y4VG7bkFW8ortr1WE5Rqsfta6prD8bnQcnOMVn5ISqnW7R+4+o9T+2teelrOcWpbl+dNwiQumZjQQbciDvevU/llKW6tTpvO4A9Z13BIgAIe+q88u1b9noBAHxl29bmbQMAAM/a7UXrs4f/wRwOSFu7eUNR/raKiu1bivKKCtLCf9i8tXmel16oemHd2prcdKgpKQOA9Nzcm74pT2ZmElR4a3atyyvzaNVVde0AAJqmWZ6/9+IUrMsp3FJW89LXcotTHaGLM+KXZYctZ9U4Xw3GGLtt3Ip7WMydO/eJJ55QVdUwjNdff33I13vyd+5+fuPqrFSHVlfX5EjLWbN559axayqOxuncq54ten5jXmaqw1fnc6Rm5W18fvczfVsLMld/N8+j+drt8el5Gwt3dg/VC3dqX11dd09Ae13NDdXVQ9TRVjIKtq5LBwiWbd+yu3aQMzqytxS9uHlNjqe2dO/e0lp31uqNzxdtWnTTsRwrthRuXZOVavfWVDZ58jY/mWMHgOryocqVVrCzcGNeepK93ad5Vm58Mtc+8pcNp5zjczUYY+y2gaHZDbegmpqa1157be7cuY8++mj/5yq35z2yqwYyN+7bs/42u7Wr3pm/6pkqyNp8cPc6yzkDjDHG2IS6FTssQtLT03/wgx9YPpW1dlc7AKTm5NxmuYExxhi75d260WEQWtCelJm3Yfum4ffkM8YYYywqbt0OC8YYY4zdgm7FYZKMMcYYu2VxdGCMMcZYBDg6MMYYYywCHB0YY4wxFgGODowxxhiLAEcHxhhjjEVAffPNNye6DIwxxhj7xMBLly5NdBkYY4wx9omhxsXFTXQZGGOMMfaJocbExEx0GRhjjDH2iYGGYUx0GRhjjDH2icF7WDDGGGMsAjw5kzHGGGMR4OjAGGOMsQhwdGCMMcZYBDg6MMYYYywCHB0YY4wxFgGODowxxhiLAEcHxhhjjEWAowNjjDHGIsDRgTHGGGMR4OjAGGOMsQhwdGCMMcZYBDg6MMYYYywCHB0YY4wxFgGODowxxhiLAEcHxhhjjEWAowNjjDHGIsDRgTHGGGMR4OjAGGOMsQhwdGCMMcZYBNSJLgBjjLH+TAkdAWrtlA3XoamdWv3UGSDdIAJQFLQrFO8UCS5MduPUBHTHYJwTBU50odmfDY4OjDF2q+jUoLbFPHOVzl0zL3llg48COgUN0E0gQsAb6YCkItCmgF0Flx2nJsCcZGVeilgwTUybJJy2Cf0M7M8AEtFEl4Exxv6sBQ245JVHa8w/XTQvNEmfnwgUAoLu38+D/JZGQABAAFSFTIiBhdPF8nT1rjkiZRIK5IaIPyOSZKt23bSq0xXEREeCwKgNUeDowBhjE8av0ckr8r1KvfyibO4gQAVIDpoVBoeAQkGZmoj3zlcfWKSkJwvuyPgz4Q20/T8l/9qstfb/8UGY4kj8j9x/SHJOita5uMOCMcYmQNCAikvG3grjTxdNf1B0/7onA2A0VT0BmSbB5Ra89EHwQJXy0CLx2TvV1EQeEX/7kyS9gZYmq+hARJJkFM/F0YExxsZbTaN87ahecsbs0BAIAXp+rUepiYBMRKy/LouOyNLz5mPLbbmZKo+BuO0hIJBFoxVG6+fqBo4OjDE2frp0ePeU8bsP9SvNoV/w0bwX7AMBAKQkxOom3PFO8MQVs+AeW+pkbn5gUcDRgTHGxkl9m3zxsP7ex4ZmCui+PRzLkQihYZJkBnR8+yPzYpP8Vq7trjkqj55ko8QJlDHGxkNlnfmjN7U/nDA0A0CaADDs3IAACIiA4sYf7H5wuG8nIDpdD//+VvCdj3TD5NHxbFS41YExxsZc6Xlz17vBy82hvxEMduNPvVkBUEHTaQOnDewqOG2kKmhK8GukGajpFNBBogIUmsY56BxOACDZ6MPn3jOCBqzOVhWeesFGiqMDY4yNISI6dFb+vFhrbO8ZDjlonY0KkExwwawknJ8iZnvUlEnoiccYOwoEgUAAhkmdGjT6ZF0r1TTKs/VU20Jdugi1LgCFiSbdj5OqjGk3Cbv9cXRgjLEx9ME5+bNirakdgcywoSFUqaNQhZybjDlzbcvS1RlTMM4ZrorHpHiYlSSWAZgSfF10vkGWnjc+rDbr25BQ3FgcAm8+hYiPgW8/YF91hyq4s5qNAkcHxhgbKycuyV3v6k3tANIcrJNCCAVpUSquWupYMVeZHBdBo4AiIDEWl6Urd81WvnCXPFBl/vGUcbUVuoc4dHdV9OaGz92hqpwb2OhwdGCMsTFxySt/sT9Y10pAcrAeBMSUBHwkW1211BZRaOhHETArSfyP+8R985VXj+oHqoxATxdG39ygjPwTMRbC0YExxqKvvYsKDwZP1xPAYLlBINydjt+837FgWnR2nECEjKni+591LJmhFH2gX21DAOLcwKKLowNjjEWZKeH35XppNVmMOQghAhQOG6zOUr96z6gaGyw5bPC5O9UZU/AX7wVrW/DJXJVzA4sijg6MMRZlp2rl74+buhFmsgMRoHA58PEc5bHlthj7WE13WJKmbFztqGuRyzJUhcc3sOjh6MAYY9HUHqBXynRvBxBJtM4N6LDhV1aoX85R7erYTpOcMUXMmMKpgUUZRwfGGIumQ6eNP10wgcgiNwABoqrgI3cpa5bZ7PwLmH0ycRpljLGoae6gPRVG0EAgq7UdCQHF8nRRcI8txj7uhWMsSjg6MMZY1Bw+a1Y3gPVsTCJAnDEZvnm/PcHFyzmyTzCODowxFh2+LtpfaegSAC2aHAjRbsMvLVPnpvAvXvbJxj/BjDEWHSevmOeuSSBpORsTUdw5Ax9aZJuIojEWTRwdGGMsCgwTjpwzA7qwHuWAGGOj/GxbvHPcS8ZYtPEAX8YYi4KmdnnyiiTrXSsJQFmUilmzbv+7NTIMCgRAD5JphpbDQkUBmx2dTlQnosaROkg/SQ3I6F6eC1UQDhQuEBPQAqTpENDJlCAJAEAR5FAxxm41HedWQlqAAgEwDJAmcHRgjLGoOFsvG69Ly6UjgVBV6f4FavidMD/hpJQtzUbNOf38WVl3WTY2yLZW6feTNFCowuUSkxJF8lSROtM+b4EyZ66YPAXGdu9OSdo16DhF7eXUdQ4DVyjYREYHkAGoohoHdg84ZoBrnnBnQ+wSdKSMaRu8SdDkk+eu0bl6eaVFNvpkexcFDRICXXZMiscZU8SCaSIzVUxNEH03Jwsa4OuyasQCEAiTYlGM5Q8UGYZsajDOVhnVZ4zLl8nbKH3XKagBRwfGGBs9SVB1VeqkABoDswMheuIxa/btuBB0V1ew8qPgkUPBE8dkwzXydyoAobqu598SIDT6wwQIuGLF1Gm2Oz/l+PT9auZSjImJcnnMTvKVUtMeai2hwEUwfIpAAkDqs5GoBuAHBDAlSdUNztkwKVd48jFhBSix0S2OplNlnSw5Y5RfNBuvk2aKGz8evT8kF7xw9IK0CcPjhmXp6meWqAumoSIQAE5cNn66LxjQBx4YJ8fB0192Rn0J8xDy+/VTJ7T339VPlEtvIwa10NXrSTEcHRhjbLT8GlU3SCLLNgdAFIvSMMV9WzU5kKYFyz/U/vD74Ik/YUc73KhXzIGv7PP/0t8JF85rF84H/viW7c5PuVY/astaBvZorHFhBmTrfrr6n9RaIsxWBAQCAjSlVWG6/4NgtGPnSej8yLz2IibmitTvYOKDIBxRKI6Ej+vMN/9kHK0x2gMCILTUhxzwwu6i6CZcbRNvHDcPnzXzliqPfsrmicegAU0+0gyLnxwiktbtEaNChqFXHOt6c7defgz9nXRzYujB0YExxkarzQ91LURElltkCqSF01TbGK85PZ7Myxf8vysKlrwHHe1gVR8OIvRi7Gg3Dh+4fuK4Y+XDMWu+qs6aM5ryUGcVXXmWGnej0QqE0irAWb8RQqNaEY029L5htpZg8lox4/sYlzma8rR00hvH9LdOmC0dAIDDvUJkAqC3HV8uNc7W0/qHbQJDYyAsMsJYjI0wmxoCr72svbOHrrdZJoZm+AFBAAAgAElEQVQeHB0YY2y0alukXwckshzoEOugeSm3SW4g0wx+cND/X780L1TDoLXLEMcJdR90tGt7XzOqTsV+8y/t96wcwQAIIpOa3qQLW6HjI4AIQoNFeQjRaIOrvzJ9HyrpW9DzhZENgDh3TRYeDB67IE0JEV4hBAAgKSUevyD/4w9a1izFcr7OWDDOVHb+58/08mNAQ5+TowNjjI1WfZsM6ARo1WGBGOeAlITbIjoEg117Xu16sRCut5L1buKRkQAIKGvOd/zkRzGNjTGrvxRZ54XUqO6XdPFfUW+UoeQ2ugJJAkQUnR/Rmb8mrU5M/06knRfll8zn/hisbiCAMPumDqn7LbKyDmoaKTiwB2gMBMuP+n/+Y+PC+WF+rRwdGGNstJrbSTfC/MpFTIpHZzR21pYEbZ1j0sMdIhASXBhue24KBrtefSlQ9AL5O0PDHkf/kUJHMAFEa4u/cCfoQecXn8BhpgepycvP0qV/Q7PdlIgYhTb80BGkRBFspOr/l8wunPE3w08Pxy+Yz76j1bbeGFM4ugIhgKaPR5uDfrK84/8+Q5cv0o3zDomjA2OMjZavK5QbrNafBpgci1HZXLutk/7xvwMtHTCKjoJBYEIM/OMXHbOSLLIDmWbgrde7igrJ77daLPPmA/WZRdAzz2KQEofGAgh/p//F58EZE5O/Zhg9F1LWF8LlH4HRbg5VRyMC9hkcQNQzxCFsgUwJgtrlxX9DJU6k/hXg0D0XZ+rNne/ptS3QM5zD6lXUfXmw7zwLAuoZjzjerVPmpQudO3fQ5YtDDsfAUP8NAnJ0YIyx0fMHAdB6t0wEiLFDuFv5iEiC5nZq7hir2qUjIBuu06wki6f0o0e6Xnx+yNwgAKQQ6E4QU5JE4hR0OEjTzBYvNXuh3SekDFc/daeHzs6u3/6nmjLdtvzTgxeVvO/Imm1o+OSguUEIkFKAbQo5ppE9BYQTZIC0etDqwWgRGLZAiCAJhOmji09TzGyc8heDl6epnX61X69pkGEzUqjzAhUgGeekpHicEodOGwYNaukEbzv4uoBAAZIj7OYYEepo7/yvX5pnKsN9L3QjMZDNJpKSlVnpwpOMDgdHB8YYGy0j/C0bIjpsoESpLrgx3n4sWh2kKbHNLwH6rz9h1td2/PoXsrXFMjf01i4Oh7r4Dvs9ubYldwrPVLTbUSgkTQoGZeM1/dQJ7UgJVZ4ETbO8vw6lB2xp7vj1L9wzZinTUsMVlLpqzJp/FnpDqJ+i/7MEiCCQJLpo0j0iKV9M+jQ5ZqBwglBAmiADFLhM1z+gpj1wvVSQX5LFOAlEkBKU4DWz5p/V2AXgDDsHJGjQ78r0isuDfi8oFAEZU+Heebas2WpqItpVEAhEEDTh2nWquGS+f9o8dw1MKcbm+7Wg/fFt/cj7MnxzhwAAu11depfjoTzb0mwxeQraHSAERwfGGButwYMBRWME39hDQ4I/2P9R0vWu1/6bzp+xXifzRveEmLcwZs1XHCvuw3j3TQcFQFesmJSozs905n1eO/K+f/dLsvoshE8PcLaq643/jvvO90C1WiiadHnl59jxJ0lhcwMiUNxdYsb3RdLnwZYIfU8kACAe7R50fwqmfZ2a9ppXdmDHiZ733lQeBEmI7cfllZ+Luf8CaL1w9fEL5jsf6VJafqbQ0teY7MZHP6U+vFj1xPcvtAtgkgsXThN5S9R9J/U3jptNPhiH9GBcvuh/478hqIUpNCCAMmOW87EC58rPYFx83xdwdGCMsdGyhV8okogCQTKJxLh3Y0eKALUBCxfqVacC771NVstddVcwQjhyH4755l+pM2YNfnyMdztXrVYXLva/sEt7/z0Mc0xJpL37juO+B2xLsiwKeb2MGl4GstgtpDs3CAU8a8Sc/42x84f4wGoiTvu64l4ma34ITa8hSMtjAhA0vEyeL+Kkewcew9dFrx8z2jUBZFrFQwTAhdPEXz1ou2OmMnh8nBKHX1lhnzfVeO5d/WITAMkxzJtSBv74lqy9ZJkIQ7lBXZIVt36DunDxwHff/nuxMMbYWHPZw467I4KuIIzdtIhoIui39iLoenDfXmxrDVvBCGF/+C9iv/eDIXNDD3Xm7Li/2eh4+LNoteVT93LRrc3avr2kDwgyMijrf6MYDZatOIiAKCD5K2Lej4fODT3vil2gLNiBU58AsChQaASL0K9R/W9ADmiTAThaY56sldbVPBEBZk4Xf/c5+52zhsgNPae7O13d8Fn7jCkIGGYX1miQ167q7++3XMIhtG63uuTOuL/9e8vcABwdGGNs9BJciGGGICBCU7sceDd/CyIAgTd9BONSTeDoB+G6KgSC7a5lcd/+nkicHNGJROLkuO/8tZp1t0CLSxbqttA+/MC8dKH/STsrqfkdaV1Ng0CAxIfE3KfRkRxRecCerMz9F0h8QFhV1qFBD7L5beqs6veUPwjvfWxohtUIWSJAkZIA333YNndqZFXtHTOVJ3Ntcc7Q2JYxSQ+Bo6Wyvm7gGmYEIAAwZVrsd76nzk4P93aODowxNloet7CrYVY6IGrphE4tOici6r65Hvmf8P0mAqHfJNLgsVJsbbG+MQWAKcmur39bJHlG8EFEUnLsN76Dkz2WdSMBUEtz8Fhp/8ebi4V+zaKaBhAI0p4q5vwjOqaPoDzgSFXSN5NtumWaCTU8yObifo9XN5iVdZIsmxwQ7SqsXaYunTGSbc8+PU99eLECgGC5uPnoUKBLP1YKhjHw2EiAqhrzyGO2xXcOcgSODowxNlrTE9Guhrk/JOoMUF1LRPs8WEMkjxuT42nEfzxxlBATri4igRTTZ+kq6uzUy4+DtOhsQQBEdD60ypa5dMQfx7Z4qePBVcKq24IAUMpgxTHy+3sfNdqp9QCQtKzwAFGkfAUTVoy4PJhwD059HAXiwGiCACCh9QCYHX0f/9NFsz2AaNnqjyJzOn5mifXIyiHZVfh8ls3jHpPNKszGBvP8GWm1bDoiiNkZzoc/O/h5eZgkY4yNVkoCumPAF0CLW1Ykv47nrpl3p4920+3EWLH1y07TtJpaMGwlp/Vd7+mGxfLGaFMgztn7d+ltNC9WWy+cQIBTpjge+iwoo/hQimp/KK/rvT9Ac0u/SgxDa0JfrJbeRmXm7O5zarXU+bHlPiGIQPYUJeUJwFGUB1WY+oS89hLIhv7PhMrT+TEEaiF2YehBfxAq62Ro86z+hyK0qfTwEnuCa+Tf1OwksSxd+cNHRNJiJ/fRMC6cl762gYckAIFoX3FfuJYkklI21AePlnJ0YIyx0Upw4cwpoq6NrMa1IRFW1cuATk7bqCoAgTA5drQLQAeCYJJisTk2gU3BxNjepmjjYrVs91meTSCoi+9Qb1TqI2ablW7LvMM4fMCiTQZB+nzGxere6ND5MegtlscRAmTCPeBaOMryiLhFlLACm9+wWCqKgPRm6vwYb0SH1g55udl6u1RCTI7Hu2aPKiyqCixLV977OBgwMbqzc8xLFzCoDVylAwFkjMt+56cGhiEKBMzqs9rhA8HSw2bdZY4OjDE2WrEOnJsiSqtNslpch0ieuSrqWiEjwtF7UWeYcKUlzMaIiE47TontLbxxtTbcpH8Swr74TrBHtjWUBYfTtvgO40gJSWkx8zOomXW1vQ/5qwUEBi47TQSSBCbcA8IJoyRicNI90PwmkRx4FoUC5K/uebi+jToDZLldKqKYnwJT4kZb4c9LURJcENCjOViSDF021KNl4w2AmDRZmTGz74OypTlYcTRYsj94shyut4WKwtGBMcaiIDNVOG26X7Oa4EfQ6oej1XpGciTbQo6BjgDVNMowe4ODJx5ieypfImpuElZTBxCAHE5lVtjVFSOizk4npxP7jmm4cRYBIJubbizVRBCsFwD9I0aot0K4ROyiqJQHXYukcKHs6P84gkCQwfqeQaLedtIM6+1SEWiWR7GPuoJ1x8D0SeKaj6yGU4yUrsuWZoslNULX3OPBGBcAkK6bVy5qH7wf/OCgebEGgxqEVt0A3sOCMcaiZN5UZXqi6N5tuR8k04T3z5irltLkUd+JjsblZnmtbWDlCwCAIGYmiVjHjScNQ/p8lhUWAqDTqXii04SieKai3QF+v/U8i3YfGAbYbCB10FvClQeUWHSGXbg6IhiTBsKF0GFZHtBbQOog7ADQ5ifT+lqCgjI5YYQDJPty2DApPsrjJEnXqaM93FhZ4YqV/k7z1EdaybvB8g9lY4O4eeXz0Ps4OjDGWBQkuPCuWUpNk0nmwKl6SCSrG0XpefPzWRP5W/fEZbMzaLXuIREizfH07rhNpgFBzeqOGgAAFBVcsdEpkysWVOtrggSkBUiaCDYiA2SALFvuEQhtoLotDjECihvQZrkNKhGQ2dUzTEQzgEBYjBoBUBWMG3VnDgAoCLFORAzTxzQiSJL0YLg5sfrF6vantxg1Z/FGmDOtfgR4ciZjjEWBImDFPCXOQWR1l4hIugF7yvVGXxRmaY7M9S46WmNazgggxFgHLZjWt0ZACrvPJQy+PkREUFiuKtlTMgpVcQhAFOYeHyA0FjUq5SEQ4T5a995jN6pxabmLxo1XimgU58ZxotnuQAThvlkJQPVXzVMVoS1SQ5/T8twcHRhjLDoWTFOWpAm0Xj8YgeT5Bnqrwui/2PN4OXHJrG4kIqvZDCjSJuPMJKXvQ2i3h62OTROC0VnligIBMi1u3CG0moJqQyEAgECgcIS7+UYwQHZFpTwo/QSG5ahEIgC098z/VBWwvJgAICVoRhQKY0oKGhTNNgcAFELY7NYjZW+MZrDUkyQERwfGGIuWGDt8ZonNoUrLhgdAMiXsLTfKL1nXlGOqI0DvfGQGdKv1i4gQIGumEt+njR1VVcRaj8sgAApq1NoclYLJ1mYKBsPVZCIunhQFAFDYQHVbXlciINkFwf6LMYwMBa+B2RVmDgqgLQGwu3slzimQpFXDP+gmtFkM3oiYboSOE83oQIqCsXEDl70akgIABDh5iu2BVTzWgTHGoubuOeKOmcrRGgI5cB9FJJItncoLB7Xpk2KmJ47reMmS00bFZUkkLbd4inPQ8rmK6HsvqSiYODm0+ZNFQQNdRu1l1Wpny0gZtZepy285BRQQMHEyhladQoVsU0OrRA/obgEwO8F/Dqx2towUdZ4Ds3PgaULlIdvUnlaHybFgV0HTLRZdkCDqWkjSaLstunSobyXrr2Ck0G4Xk6cMf+xlqGuKbDacMct1z/2OT69U5mRwqwNjjEVNnBO/cJct1nFjPuHNEBFAVl2FXx7QWjvHr9/ifIP83YdGIGg1x48IUCxKFfNS+lcHImW6qagDqxgCEKahn6mEMB0Nw0emYZypVEzDco0BqdqUlN4NKTBmtiltlqtEK6hL3zGQo+4kIAPajymoW651LcmOMb2rYE1LFDH2cIs10dl62RkYbXHq26jRJzFsH8JIoM0upk4Dq606evT0TSAAxLvVnHvj/vbvJz3949h1T6kLFqHdwa0OjDEWTZ+ardw/X3n7pAQpreoVAoBDZ2S80/jOA3Z3zJiXp9FHv9ofvNRMNxZIuBmiXZEPLXG47P2fUmfNQVcsXb9usUq0BOOjcultElNTRlM22dSof1QuyaoCJsAYV9/VIzA2k1Q36P07SkLlgevvQ/AqOGfCaGi1svV9tB7pCqTEi9jMngeS3ZgUL1r9NLBqJ5IXvXi+wcwe3YKS5ReNjmC4lp+RU2el+1UbDtzTHABubJ4JioJTp9mXfdpx3wO2hYtCiz304FYHxhiLJocNHltumzEZIOx4SZKS3j5h7HpXa7FYPiCa6tvkz4qDxy5IoNDiRTcjAhSLZyjL0y1uI5Xpacq0VOvhBQjyaq1WemiUxdM+OEj1dZaDMQWCMj1NmZ7W+1BMBsTMsewCIALsqpbevaMsj2x8UwQuWI5KFAgYk46ujJ5H4p24YHpo964BzUtEHRoeqDKs9goZrtZOKq2WRGjxxY2OmjFXJEwK1+yAAMrc+a7vbpj0Lz+J/59/Z8++u19uAI4OjDEWdXOSxVdW2GLsBGi5HCMCkSlp30nzJ3/QLjSNVc/F+Qb54z8ED501iQgsBgkQIMbY5BeyVcvGD4xzq0uyrHb0AgIgXQ+8/XvzWt2Ii2derdPe2UOGYb34EoK6JEvE967WgLZEnHQvWF1RIgAZpKsvUNfFEZeH/DWy/tdAuvXxEXDSfWBL7HlQEXDnTGETpsW8UEQgefis+XHdyLPD4XPmuWsSaOBeE6MlklPUuQsttxcHAAGgpM5w5a9R0maG296MowNjjEXfg4vVz92hCgTLQQ+h9CCJDp+TT7+uHaw0NIsKdOR0kw5WGf/6e+14qL3BanAhEAKKlZnq8gzr6gEVxb78HnJZzLMIfSSz+mzX7v+PtJF06VOgy/+7F82a85aLTiEBxMY7lt8DfYduooKTV0mRYNXrApIAO07IK8+COZJZmmT65eUfY+dJy51CEYGUSZi0ql+luXSGkpqIlg0PQNTWhS99oLd2juSbvdxMbxzTdQOsGq5GC2NctmX3kKJYNmdIAP1oaeDQ/kGOwNGBMcaiz6HCVz9tW54hAMMsMdRd39CFJvo/fwj+333B8w1SRqOauNwsd72n/8db2sUmurGI8MDcQIAi3QNPrLAPsp+numCRunCxCLPyIEkZePvNrr2vgxnZ+EQyjK49r+rFb1kuWUAAAknJXKIuGLAtRcJycC8TVqsrEoEkCfUvmFd/BRTheEmpy7pfYMOLZFUgIhBI4M7B+GX9nkqKx/sW2hDBsuGBpDx+wXzxcNCvRfa9XvfTCyXBmqYww1OiwbH8HpGaFrZJyd/ZVVSon60K93blhz/84VgUizHG/szF2HFusnLumtnUHm7nw+5aQTfx3DV5/IL0tlOCC+NjeheEHj5TUm0L7a0wnj9olFabQaPnpNa5IcEFTz1sXzpjsHF8aHeAUPRjR8DoXxmHjo6Gbpw+BXaHLWNeuPWk+5+8y9/1xn8HXnxB+jusmxwAwBET+43vqPMz+z8lnIgKNe8D6j/E78Y80iD5jpJwivg7AYe1iwSZnbL253j530j3hRlICiRilfTN6L5r4FOJLvywxugIoEVEIyLAmkYK6DR/mjLMLddbOuk/DwTfqzSIwHJvrdCZXQ5YnWVzOXqf7TS63qj5Y6cxoNEFIVaN+WLGZ2Jtvf1SIjZOXm8zT50Y2KrR/XPT2mJeuajOXSAmTxl4eo4OjDE2VibFYnqyOHfNbOnAsA0AAKHOg44AfFxnlp6X1Q2mpoPDBjYFbUON0A/o1NwB5ZfM148bvz2sHzoj27ogbCcFdOcGlwP/x/1q3hLbkAsPKFNT9OpzVHtx4LLL3bVlMKifrJCtLUrqDJEwafCjGZcu+P/rV9prL1NXp2UfPhEoCLace11PfAPtFhuNYsxM6DiBXWcsyoNABIIC1HYYgg3oygBb0uDloc4qqtkKtT8Do92yq4IIFEGQ9Dkx63+BsNiXwu3CQBA+uiKtRsQiEJkEZ+plXYucloiT48QgjQiS4Ey9uevd4MHTpiQYtMlhtNEBENXkFK38KLS1DvxBQQBApMZ6/XSlSJyiTEvFmwc9cHRgjLExlBQv0pNFTaNs7t7GOeyddugpfxAuePHDauPQaeOjy7K60axroVY/XfeTrwt8XdTcSdfaqLrRPHHZPHTa3FNuvFymF580K69CewCICEiG3WOCCFA4bfjECuVLy+xD5hIAQLtdSfJox8rQauGm7jtU0zDPVukVx6nDh3Fx6IxB2013/OTvNC9fDLz1uv+FXfqxUjINy6tAoYkMSZ7Y725QZ8yyLpBwgGM6NRej7BhYt3a3PZAOvuPUdgD0NrAloBIb2uuy90RGO3SepqvPU80/Qes+krplNU0EQgDYU8Xc7Rg73/r6IKROFmeuyobreOPK9y8QAV5uhmMXZGsnuRzosmO//bj9Gl3w0hvH9V+/b5y+SgSD5waIQnQAwHg3qqpefhQMi68jtHMItTQHj5XJa1fR6URXLNpsodEnUd2QizHGmJXzDXLnH4PllyXQ8DuwEVAAgADTYUNVQE8vhinJkKjpJCFU+cvhDaYjABFjxydWqF/OUYfZfg4AIKX/dy92/XqX1ILhqvzQ1gYSUUyeYsuYL2bNUSYngcMBmiZbvMbFGr36HLU2C+peujnsQRx255PrY9cW3DRAcmCBLv4YLv6TNAPhqvzQxlGSEBzTRNwdFJuJjhQQTpAB0K5RZyW1fwT6NQEkw3whoQdRccKcHyoz/zb0XYTzp4vmj97UvO1gkR56PxwC0CQXzElW5ngwKV44bRA0qKUTLjTK6kbZ0t2BM0jrVA9MioefPRmTFN/7ssaulnXFf98YaOnfOYaQ7JxcmPdvyTGT+xfL39nx03/X9u0d5Ken+wSxcerM2Wr6PJGcgrGxvCQUY4yNublTxf9abX+hRD9QZepmuKEP/RCQCQASoKt/ld1zhIjm/inxMfS1e9VH77LZI/rdL0TM6i+ZtZcDf/h96HbTon07tDszETV79WYvHv3AJEKhkCmVPstbmD1rFN6su2oVwvGZz7tWf2nQ3AAAQqT9pdl1Dq4WhjakHnirDwCmBETC4FVsvSra3jZMAlSATEVBJAglBjOUD8LlBhSY8nWR+peD5wYAyJolvnav7Zf7db8mrNJD6K8SANv8WH6JKi4DSR1BSkAhFOrdp0KGuUJjAl2xrq9/y6yvM09WDLHrVWeHWXVKVp2iUEAcn/IxxtifuZRJ4q9XOb6Za5sc192cEOG8O7r5z/DfF2p7FqmJ8DerbF+6W40sNwAAAMbGxT75XWfuQ2FmIgL06XSRAKG9vUlKQDAJBt/BuTs3INrvf8j1ze+iK3boAqluJf2HInkNIlqunQE3AgQRmBIMEwAwtEaCaYJ5o5km3H5aiICImLxGpP9vUOOHLI5A/Owd6pdzbE4bhlkKDHqvEEmSZk+fBEkTyBz0Co0hZfqMuO9uUObO7/n6LHV/raF9NYk4OjDG2DiJc8ITK2z/8Ig9exYqAkGEuhvGrteYAACEUAQuT8d/+IL94cU2daQ7MonJSbFP/Z39gTwUI5j/MeiRAVAI+4Or4tb/reV4fmuOFDH/3yH5cURllLtM9S8PAqACyU/gvGfAPnW4xVHxy8vVJ1YoMXYYspViGAjCJJuoUxcujvubTcq8hQg0zAYxHibJGGPjBxGmJYq754hJLmzwSV8Aum80ozyDv2f4AaZMwseX29attM+YMtr6DF2xtjuygaR54Tzq+nD65IdVxNhY5xcfj123XkweYkJEf6obJ90PIKHzlKDgEJMShixP9wgJAjVBzPieSP8ndES2Q4dNwYWpIt6J1Y3UpSPAaBZmEEnxuGyOUt9GpkVfQhSGSd50suSptszFZmODrK+z2CNtAI4OjDE23mLsuDhNyZqluOzY3EmdWug+NXrNDygAcJILHl6s/NWDttxMNWbA7lYjPLAzxr40W6RMM+pqoa2ld2ZIJAfpDQ0ASvpc17e/F/Pol0Vs3EjKo8TipPvBOUt2VaPeiCOKYd2hQQAiQOwdImObSHsKVffQ7xxAFbhgmpLuEQ3XpbcdqPtrHfYV6u4sEVMTcP3D9oyp4vBZ0xgYHSjK0QEAxOQp9uy7QVXNK5cwEBj8Z5GjA2OMTYzEWMyerdw9R5kci/6g7NDAJDG6tgcEVBSklATx8GL1Wyvtn8+2JbsHW0tgJBRFTZ9nz74bHQ6zqYE6OpVBd3C2OAAAASjJKc7VX3J9+3v2rLsxzF4Jw4Iqxt+Bkx9E4aRALRjXFRHZhlGKAALCmFk4/TsiYxtOfgBw5HMIEGF6ovjUHOFyYKOP2rsIhTLcXCgUgXTHTPHUZ+z3zFWvtMj3z1hFB4RYJ35+QHR4vabYbwZCL+j7x6U6v5iRN3h0AACMcdnvyFbnZ8rODtnsFWG21gQAnmHBGGMTRiDMShKz7hOfz1Y/rjWP15inamWjDzoDgIrSvW1Vd6UzYMpd93+7Z/05VJrkwvkpeNdsR/YcZdokVMdyMJsyY1bsd75nfzAvePC94IeHqe4KalpPKS3L2l1ip1NMn+Fcca/j/ofV9LnhNliKFLrmQ8bTYurj1LCbWt4G/3lBfgC86RL2LU/3xAoijJUxGSLpc5i8FuPuAIxOeTxu8fX7xL3zlf1VxpGzZl0r6FLp7sIAuPkKhYqCNiFnJeHDi+0PL1GndO8cEqb3AFEZsFG5QJHknIwDF5dGmOJIFMMcfqGo9ruW2xYu1iuOawf+qH10HFtbhGnSzd8sr+vAGGO3ClPCdT9daJLVDfKiV9a2UJNPBnQwTDAkhZaEEAIRSBGgKmhXaXKsmJYoZk4Rczw4N0VJikfHON8SEsnmJqPq4+CpE0b1WfNqLXX5QQ+CaZKUKAQoCtjsGONSpqfZ5s5XF9+pZi5WpnjGbBAgkXYVrn8o2z6AjhPUVQNmO0gNyACSgAJQBeEAJR5j0jE+CxLuQfdydEwfo/IQQaNPnqqVJ6/Ic9fMxuukGaCbJCUggiLAYcPJsTh/mpI9W8maKTzu3mIcPG3+6PeaxdZoiLOn4L9/zZkY2/tiSbJVu25a1ekKYqIjYbjpoafkQU3W1eqnKvSqU8aFatncBJpGhg5ScnRgjLFbkWFCl05+Ddr85OuiTo10k4hQINhViLFjfAwmxECsQzhtMIL5lmOBOjpkh096m2RbK3X5yTBQVTHGJSYliiSPiHNj3EgGNIyccZ30VtDqQPeS0Q6kA9pQjSdbEjpS0ZYIasK4lcWU0BGgNr/0dkB7FwV1EAJcDkiKF554jHOCTemfXd6q0H/ydnDgMEkCsSQVnn7cGR8zLnMwDEN2dsi2VmrxynYfadqt8ePGGGPsZqoC8QrGO2FqwnjP9R8xjItT4uKUlOkTXZAb1ARUEyBmNgxYUWv8KQISXJjgUmYNex5JSwdJEqHFFPpChASXGM464tGhqu6umrEAAASVSURBVCJhkkiYBLPmhB7gdR0YY4yxW44poa5VUpidM5PcaB/+UuLRxtGBMcYYi6bWTqq6KoMDxyhEwtcFNY1EZDU1E+S0BIjuQlgR4Q4LxhhjLApMCbUtsvS8eeis2dJBf/+IY+mMkVfvZ+vNq61kMe+V0GmnWZ5x666wwNGBMcYYGxV/EKrqzPfPGEdrzMbrIAGB4I3jesZUu2tEi3EFDTp4xvDrAsjoN/WDECfH4aykiew04OjAGGOMjVCTTx69IEuqjMo6szMogCC0wRUgHjlHfzxpPnKXgpFP+/zosiw9Z1qti0mIYkGKSHRF6QOMCEcHxhhjbCSIYN8p4zeHpG4CEPZOhUAEooCOLx4OetyOe+ZF1rlw7Tq9eDjY5gccEB2I0KZQ9mzhmLgxksDDJBljjLGRQYSsmUq8UwKZ/adQIgJJbwf8rFg7dMaQwx4x2XCddr2rnawlBMsmB5w2Ce+aPcG3/RwdGGOMsRGaP008uMgGGNqw+maIALK+DX7ydvDlI3pr5xDxwTCh/JK5fY/2/hnZvQZ5P4SIkLtQTZ7opT54NUnGGGNs5K40y39+TatpBCAzzGrWqAjKnC4+s9SePQunxKHT1jv+QTOgI0DnG+Th08bh82ZbZ6jjY8Bmm0SAIm0ybH3MOXNCx0gCRwfGGGNslA5UGj9+O9gRgNAAyf5P39hKWxWUFIezPThtkoh1IhF1BcHbTpeaZeN12aULsGxsAAglCbsqvv2AunaZbax2/xg2HibJGGOMjcqn5ysXvepLRwzDRItpEaG/kjRMuHYdrvkQsTcidN/AEwxccLrvIQBFzlzxF3dMfG4Ajg6MMcbYKNlVfGy5rc1PeysMKa3SQy8CstzecnBiwTR8Mtce5xxlSaODowNjjDE2WnFOXLfSTgTvfCR1kwBkNLbZIgAExPQk+J8P22Yn3QINDgDAYx0YY4yxaOnQ4Hdl+mvH9A4NgaxGO0YKcXEqPvUZR+b0W2hGJEcHxhhjLGp0k94/bb50RK9pDFWvNMIAgSLGRg9kKl/9tC018RbKDcDRgTHGGIu6K820t1w/cNps8lFoeahhvxUBhV0xF0wTj37Kfs884ZzQhSMtcXRgjDHGos+UcL5BHqwyys6b9W2kmaJ7VsXAahdD/6CCMsEFmdOV+xaI5RnqJNctFxpCODowxhhjY0USeNtlVZ2srDMveqG+VXZoZEqQkgBACFQFOG3gcYuZU8TcqWJRmkhNxJgR7bc5bjg6MMYYY+PBHwS/Rtf9slPDoEEAYFch1oHxTnA5RIwdlFtrSENYHB0YY4wxFoFPSMJhjDHG2K2BowNjjDHGIsDRgTHGGGMR4OjAGGOMsQhwdGCMMcZYBDg6MMYYYywCHB0YY4wxFgGODowxxhiLAEcHxhhjjEWAowNjjDHGIsDRgTHGGGMR4OjAGGOMsQhwdGCMMcZYBDg6MMYYYywCHB0YY4wxFgGODowxxhiLAEcHxhhjjEWAowNjjDHGIsDRgTHGGGMR4OjAGGOMsQhwdGCMMcZYBDg6MMYYYywCHB0YY4wxFgGODowxxhiLwP8PhFml8OCjyjYAAAAASUVORK5CYII=" /><br />
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Have you tried the late night Google game of typing in your name to find out what Google has to say about you? It's actually an excellent activity* while you're in the midst of insomnia, but if you're easily insulted....you might want to try YouTube instead. </div>
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Wait...then you have the YouTube comments. </div>
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Never mind.</div>
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Back to Google's late-night-Jennifer theories:</div>
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- Why is Omaha #1 on my likes? I've never even been there. (Although I'm sure it's perfectly fine.)</div>
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- Pooping at parties...I just....maybe it will pull up one of those funny Poopourri ads? Let's assume that's the case.</div>
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- I keep seeing "photography" as "pornography" every time I re-read this screen shot. Don't ask me why because I'm sure as <i>heck </i>not exploring that one.</div>
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- Now this is odd. I had no idea what a "bellarmine" was. Turns out it's a university in Louisville, Kentucky. (That's where I was born so I'm thinking it's some significant sign. Of what....? I have no idea, but I don't want the poop or photography-pornography to be a sign so I'm going with Bellarmine as my sign.)</div>
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<i>*Muchas gracias to my favorite author, <a href="http://thebloggess.com/2016/03/jenny-needs-to-stop-googling-herself-google-needs-to-stop-making-assumptions/" target="_blank">Jenny Lawson</a>, for reminding me about this game as I was trolling her blog during tonight's insomnia.</i></div>
JennInAustinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12672076120253993937noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4430661281907732532.post-15901292570333566982016-03-19T13:35:00.003-05:002016-03-19T13:35:44.552-05:00Directions? I don't need any stinking directions!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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April 8th is my last day at work. No, I'm not yet sure what I'm going to be doing to make money on April 10th...but I am insanely excited about the possibilities. For the VERY FIRST TIME in my life, I've got confidence and excitement as I head into the unknown. </div>
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I am ready to do GREAT things! </div>
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A week ago I was ready to crawl into a hole and die. </div>
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I'm going to post this picture on my bathroom mirror to remind myself (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impermanence" target="_blank">as Buddha taught</a>) that life is impermanent and transitory. Sometimes things suck....but then they don't. </div>
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Plus....I'm ready to <i>finally</i> be in the driver's seat of my own life. (So you probably want to hang on!)</div>
<br />JennInAustinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12672076120253993937noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4430661281907732532.post-46338487386470046992015-09-26T12:27:00.001-05:002015-09-27T15:19:27.497-05:00Is There Such A Thing As Too Much Honesty?You don't have to answer that question.<br />
<br />
I actually know the answer, because many friends (and not-quite-enemies-but-also-not-fans-of-me) repeatedly tell me directly and (more often) indirectly that YES there is such a thing as too much honesty.<br />
<br />
Not only is there such a thing, but I have SO MUCH honesty that I tend to come across as disingenuous.<br />
<br />
That sounds weird, doesn't it? Let me try to explain.<br />
<br />
You know how sometimes Life gets to be just a little bit too much to take? Like maybe you find out that the IRS thinks you owe them $16,000 because some criminal in New Hampshire (or China, who knows?) stole your identity and filed fake tax returns but you had no idea because the IRS was sending all the threatening letters to New Hampshire until they finally sent someone to your REAL house in Austin, Texas to tell you they were about to put a lien on you real house? And then while you're trying to figure out how to solve this problem you are also starting a new job which is actually pretty fun and exciting except for the fact that you aren't sure if someone in your new office is going to love you or scream at you on any given day?<br />
<br />
Yeah - so sometimes those sorts of things happen to me. I'm not saying those EXACT things happen to me but you get the idea.<br />
<br />
Anyway - when those SORT of things happen to me, I wear my stress and anxiety all over my face and my fingernails (which are probably torn to pieces) and probably my butt (because I've gained 25 pounds). So people at work who are much more important than me tend to notice and ask if I'm ok. This is polite, and it's supposed to be good for morale because - you know - you don't want your employees to completely fall apart so when you notice inordinate eye twitching and panicked breathing, it's a good idea to check in with them.<br />
<br />
NORMAL people respond to such questions with "Of course! I'm fine." Or maybe they say "You know, I'm a bit stressed but it's fine. Thanks for asking! By the way, where did you get those great earrings?"<br />
<br />
I don't do that. I'm honest. VERY honest about how it seems like things are falling apart and I feel hopeless.<br />
<br />
This is rarely wise. I'm 43 years old (44 years old on Monday...) and I've known that this approach is almost always a huge, huge mistake for AT LEAST two decades now. And yet....an Honesty Tsunami spews forth from my mouth, causing most people to figuratively flee in terror.<br />
<br />
This is usually the moment where one part of my brain begins to realize that the other person doesn't think I'm telling the truth (because there's no logical reason for anyone to be SO BIZARRELY honest, so I must be trying to manipulate them). And THAT would be the point in the conversation when I should, perhaps, stop talking. By a show of hands, who thinks I shut up once I reach that milestone?<br />
<br />
...<br />
<br />
And who thinks I probably keep babbling but with more emotion and a LOT less logic?<br />
<br />
*hands wave wildly in the air*<br />
<br />
<img alt="Hagrid - I should not have said that meme" src="http://media.makeameme.org/created/i-should-not-tfoh9w.jpg" /><br />
<br />
Otherwise, you know....I've got everything under control.JennInAustinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12672076120253993937noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4430661281907732532.post-68617240045082002032015-08-11T14:25:00.002-05:002015-08-11T14:31:55.867-05:00Wait to Sing<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Just a small grey bird</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">tapping the window -</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">She sees the pain and fear of others.</span></div>
<b id="docs-internal-guid-23358642-1e38-97b6-35ad-3fbdc01ffaa4" style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Tries to join their song.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Fails before she even completes the first measure.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Others warn “You don’t understand! You don’t get it.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It’s true. Wanting to understand isn’t enough.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Listen. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Don’t tap.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Don’t sing...not yet.</span></div>
<br />JennInAustinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12672076120253993937noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4430661281907732532.post-10366318728101060172015-08-06T19:28:00.001-05:002015-08-06T19:31:06.380-05:00Ronald RavenOnce upon an afternoon dreary, as I pondered weak and weary<br />
Over the many quaint and leading questions of that FoxNews lore<br />
While I read tweets, my own face slapping<br />
Suddenly there came a tapping<br />
As of something gently rapping, rapping at my psyche's door<br />
"Tis some prankster" I muttered "false-quoting the debate."<br />
"Only this and nothing more"<br />
<br />
Ah, my distinct memories of these appalling Primaries<br />
As FoxNews egged on extreme opinions 'neath the Stars and Stripes.<br />
Eagerly I wished the morrow - vainly I had sought to borrow<br />
From YouTube escape from sorrow - sorrow for lost sanity.<br />
For the rare and radiant history of politicians' maturity<br />
Sadly gone forevermore.<br />
<br />
Perry, standing lonely on the placid stage, spoke only<br />
The name that almost sounded right.<br />
"Almost" said Twitter "But not quite."<br />
<br />
Truthfully the silken, smiling creatures<br />
Thrilled me as I read their speeches<br />
Speeches filled with gems comedians will treasure...writing skits forevermore.<br />
"Ah - but this was but the prequel,"<br />
I knew as the clock was turning<br />
And my soul continued burning<br />
Burning, for the Don's Reveal.<br />
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<br />JennInAustinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12672076120253993937noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4430661281907732532.post-51183003942077017872014-12-22T16:27:00.000-06:002014-12-22T16:27:05.597-06:00Things I Want To Do When I'm 50When I'm 50, my youngest kid heads off to college (he's in 6th grade now...I've got a few years to go). I love my kids and love being a mom (<a href="http://jennstwosteps.blogspot.com/2014/12/im-weirdly-normal.html" target="_blank">see previous post</a> in which I confess that I've always had weird, Religious-Right-ish-type maternal feelings) BUT that doesn't change the fact that I'm already fantasizing about the day when I don't have kids at home anymore. I imagine all the freedom I have. (I know, I know, I know - they're always my kids, I'll always worry, I won't be as free as I think I will - SPARE me the logic. Let me have my fantasy.)<br />
<br />
Fifty is such a perfect round number and it seems appropriate that my kids won't live with me anymore at that point, so here's my plan...<br />
<br />
1. I want to start cussing a lot more. (This will annoy my husband to no end, but who gives a fuck?)<br />
<br />
2. I want to go back to school - probably so I can become an Applied Behavioral Analyst and help autistic children. (I won't cuss at the kids, OBVIOUSLY.)<br />
<br />
3. I want land (just a few acres but it MUST have a pond and a little hill).<br />
<br />
4. I want a goat to live on said land.<br />
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5. The goat will be named Gabrielle. Gabrielle la cabrita. (Incidentally, I always thought that was gabrita - with a "g" - until I just now looked it up because if I'm going to put it on my blog where 2 whole people MIGHT see it, I wanted it to be correct. Now I'm bummed because I've always been so proud of my alliterative naming talents for Gabrielle. I don't want to change her name now. I suppose I could go with Celine....but I still thing Gabrielle is better.)<br />
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There are other things I want, but those are the highlights. I find it interesting that cursing is at the top of my list. (Notice how I called it "cussing" up top and "cursing" down here? It's because I don't even know what to CALL it. Let me know in the comments, please, because clearly I need help.)<br />
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<br />JennInAustinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12672076120253993937noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4430661281907732532.post-8089797163154933162014-12-19T23:52:00.000-06:002014-12-19T23:52:37.769-06:00I'm Weirdly NormalIt's been a while since I've written.<br />
<br />
Again.<br />
<br />
I know.<br />
<br />
But I've had a profound epiphany (I just did a word search on my blog to make sure I've never used "epiphany" previously and...oddly enough...I haven't). Here it is: I've spent my whole life feeling like I'm a freak -- but I'm not!<br />
<br />
Actually, to be honest...I am, but you are too. Chill out. It's nothing personal. I've decided we're all freaks, so being a freak is actually NORMAL.<br />
<br />
It's just that for some bizarre reason most of us walk around pretending that we fit some sort of mold when we actually know that PIECES of the mold fit us, <i>sort of</i>....SOME of the time...but <u>not</u> on a regular basis. So we feel like a fake most of the time.<br />
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I'm not making sense, am I? Maybe this will help.<br />
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I'm a feminist. A proud feminist. I'm also super girly in quite a few ways (not in the "I love purses" way but the quote matched the theme and I totally relate to Jess). I am MAJORLY MATERNAL. Since I was 4 years old, I knew my greatest ambition was to be a mom and I also knew I'd have a girl first, then a boy - and that's really all I wanted in life. Other than a few years when my life fell apart and I lost my mind, I've really been in heaven with family life.<br />
<br />
Get it? The Religious Right could point to me and say "SEE????? It's true that the natural instinct for women is to want to nurture and be mothers!"<br />
<br />
I. Hate. That.<br />
<br />
So this conflict has always been an issue for me. I work outside the home and am doing a damn fine job of raising super open-minded kids but my <i>natural instinct </i>is to be a mom to every single child in the entire world. (Plus to co-workers, which can be a problem but we can talk about that another time.) I am a nurturer on steroids. I'm stereotypical about the whole mushy, gooshy mom image but I often try to hide that fact because I'm actually a freaking radical. I'm a radical feminist who is super into nurturing her kids and baking cookies.<br />
<br />
Oh...and I LOVE fairytales. It's an apparent nightmare of annoying girly-ness.<br />
<br />
The only thing that makes me feel a little bit better about the situation is that I don't TOTALLY fit the female stereotype. You see, I'm the messy one in the relationship. If folks are coming over - it's my HUSBAND who stresses out about whether the house is straight and he notices things that I don't even see. (To his credit, he does a lot more cleaning than I do...which is only fair since I'm not bothered very much by clutter.) I have LITERALLY walked over a new rug my husband bought us and not noticed it was a new one. (Don't judge me, it was essentially the same color and almost the same size.) My husband will get a haircut and then ask me if I noticed. Weekends are awesome for me because - <i>two days without makeup, people</i>! (Not that my coworkers even realize I wear makeup...)<br />
<br />
From a "keeping house" and personal style perspective, I'm completely UNstereotypical.<br />
<br />
My friend Holly linked to <a href="http://www.renegademothering.com/2014/01/16/hey-hi-i-want-off-all-mothering-teams/" target="_blank">this post</a> today and it pretty much summed up how I've been feeling. Then I watched a bunch of New Girls with my amazing daughter tonight and saw the whole "I'm a DAMN feminist who loves purses" quote and it all came together for me.<br />
<br />
I don't spend much time worrying about the cleanliness of my house until someone in my family gets a stomach bug, at which point I turn into June Cleaver and bleach the hell out of every doorknob and flat surface in the house so that I can protect my kids. Ironically, a guest will never see my house that clean because it's pretty uncool to have people over when your kids are barfing. While my family is well (and I might consider hosting friends), I don't lose much sleep about the piles of crap on the staircase or whether there are water marks on the mirror. Thank goodness I'm married to David and can afford to hire a housekeeper twice a month.<br />
<br />
I like my job and work pretty hard, but honestly have very little career ambition and am still not sure what I want to do when I grow up.<br />
<br />
Nobody fits the mold. There are women who love to stay home but get annoyed with the whole cooking and baking thing and there are professional women (like a few of my lawyer friends) who are such amazing bakers that they could start a side business with it. (<a href="http://www.iffyssweetsandtreats.com/" target="_blank">One of them has</a>.)<br />
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So, I'm totally weird and don't fit any of the typical molds. I'm not the Religious Right's perfect mom image (I work and teach my kids that they need to fight back against sexism) and I'm also not an ambitious career woman. </div>
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The great thing about our super connected culture and honest women who write blogs (I'm looking at you <a href="http://www.renegademothering.com/" target="_blank">Janelle</a> and <a href="http://thebloggess.com/" target="_blank">Jenny</a>) and the many, many, many people who comment and say "That's exactly how I feel!" is that it becomes obvious that NONE of us fit the mold. </div>
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Remember when your mom told you they "broke the mold" when they made you? It's true. And that's cool. The people who go around trying to stuff themselves into molds that don't exactly fit are going to end up contorted and grumpy. Who needs that in their life? Not me.</div>
<br />JennInAustinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12672076120253993937noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4430661281907732532.post-26012292423266734152014-10-31T13:46:00.002-05:002014-10-31T14:55:42.662-05:00Finding My Badass-Self on HalloweenThe WORST part of my personality (and trust me, the competition for that honor is fierce) is that I worry way too much about what other people think of me and have a tendency to bend over backwards to make other folks happy.<br />
<br />
Even when that makes my life more sucky.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTktj9lcXrIze84vFEU6XnBOI0d174mO0eMnCAi8JAwy-JDvo6Qn3xFXGSLQMJif1U15X_qtg90umFZ_9KEeKBbb-2Rp6qCLxBQ5l_g5wLTYEndcqz1XeQhWbVRhGSyf72QFsVILPnu28/s1600/photo+(7).JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTktj9lcXrIze84vFEU6XnBOI0d174mO0eMnCAi8JAwy-JDvo6Qn3xFXGSLQMJif1U15X_qtg90umFZ_9KEeKBbb-2Rp6qCLxBQ5l_g5wLTYEndcqz1XeQhWbVRhGSyf72QFsVILPnu28/s1600/photo+(7).JPG" height="320" width="240" /></a>Today, on Halloween - the best day of the year as far as I'm concerned - I'm sitting in my office dressed as Snow (the huntress from the Enchanted Forest in <a href="http://abc.go.com/shows/once-upon-a-time" target="_blank">Once Upon a Time</a>) with my bow and arrow on my desk. As I posted on Facebook this morning, it makes me feel pretty badass.<br />
<br />
Badassery has become, in fact, a consistent Halloween theme for me (albeit an unconscious one).<br />
<br />
2010 = no costume that I recall but I attended John Stewart's Rally to Restore Sanity<br />
2011 = Elphaba<br />
2012 = Rosie the Riveter<br />
2013 = A Suffragette<br />
2014 = Snow (the badass huntress)<br />
<br />
My goal for this next year is to take my tough attitude into the rest of the year with me.<br />
<br />
Watch your butts, people....I'm on the march.<br />
<br />JennInAustinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12672076120253993937noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4430661281907732532.post-25389712098190000782014-07-26T11:06:00.000-05:002014-07-26T11:06:56.727-05:00Honoring My Ancestors<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A few brief generations ago, some of my ancestors watched their relatives starve to death in Ireland. They ate grass until their lips turned green and watched nourishment travel along country roads, guarded by soldiers, in route to England. There was no hope for them on that island, none at all.</span></div>
<b id="docs-internal-guid-bd61c8ee-7365-b0fc-a4c0-e32c0e759b5c" style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">So, the most ambitious and ingenious of my ancestors envisioned a better life and refused to accept the idea that their children had no future. The crowded onto hellish ships and came to the United States. For all I know, my ancestors may have been some of the Irish who smuggled themselves into the country illegally. It would hardly surprise me if that was the case.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Life wasn’t easy here. Prejudice against Irish immigrants abounded. According to a number of sources, the Chicago Post wrote: "The Irish fill our prisons, our poor houses...Scratch a convict or a pauper, and the chances are that you tickle the skin of an Irish Catholic. Putting them on a boat and sending them home would end crime in this country." My relatives ended up living as sharecroppers in Texas to achieve some sense of independence and freedom. It was hardly a life I, in my suburban comfort, would consider independent and free. And yet it paved the way for me to enjoy all I have today.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Long before my Irish ancestors came to the United States, some of my other ancestors were quite comfortably ensconced on this continent and had been here since (it seemed) time began. As the Europeans arrived, my Cherokee ancestors stood out among Native Americans by doing their best to adapt to the New World thrust upon them. Many adopted European-style clothing and Sequoyah even created (or documented, depending upon your point of view) the Cherokee alphabet. I see these ancestors as flexible and intelligent as they tried their very best to survive in this foreign culture that was suddenly in their backyards.<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmR8KjoanUcDS8NIQRiNjLoiCfwZliZk-iv7T5L-CqvWA9YbAa3stXAAMzJxRUZYXniBu_0u0fW1SNd3a-_-4aOpVP8A7FRHKvnXv05qzAGQlb7zLppv5RsCAlCMauT0u04DLA-WL-pGI/s1600/photo.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmR8KjoanUcDS8NIQRiNjLoiCfwZliZk-iv7T5L-CqvWA9YbAa3stXAAMzJxRUZYXniBu_0u0fW1SNd3a-_-4aOpVP8A7FRHKvnXv05qzAGQlb7zLppv5RsCAlCMauT0u04DLA-WL-pGI/s1600/photo.JPG" height="320" title="My great-great grandmother" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My great-great grandmother</td></tr>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In the end, all their efforts to assimilate failed (their skin, after all, was dark and they couldn’t hide who they really were). Members of my family were part of the Trail of Tears and, as the story goes, my great-great grandmother was the sole survivor of her immediate family. She was a child or young teen at the time, she found a white husband (of the McCourt clan, whose family were refugees from Ireland) and began to build a life as a white woman.</span></div>
<br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I know very little about my ancestors other than the stories passed down to me, but I know they had courage and strength as they faced prejudice and tried to create a good life for their children in a world that was often harsh and disdainful towards them. I’m proud of my heritage and <u>I refuse to bring dishonor to my ancestors by failing to empathize with people who are following in the footsteps of my family.</u></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Immigrants continue to see our country as a land of hope and many know that their children will only have a future if they risk everything to start a new life. Wouldn't we all do the same for our own children? </span>JennInAustinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12672076120253993937noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4430661281907732532.post-71300095115711734372014-07-02T09:02:00.000-05:002014-07-02T09:02:19.797-05:00Day 6 - June 12th, Last full day (*sniff*) - back to EPCOT<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #003366; font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">[Note to my readers: It was extraordinarily hard for me to write this final post for my trip report...sort of like leaving my happy place all over again! But...I powered through and did it…]</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #003366; font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">So...here’s the deal peeps...since we closed out MK the night before, I wasn’t going to make my family rope drop EPCOT again on our last day. To be fair, what I really cared about were the countries (I love the countries!!) although everyone else was sure excited about re-riding Spaceship Earth (did I mention it’s a big hit with my kids), Soarin’ and Test Track. I switched out our top tier FP to Soarin’ for our last day because we knew we’d be perfectly happy doing Test Track as single riders.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #003366; font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">On June 12th I learned that the second time was definitely NOT the charm for me when it came to Mission: Space (orange, not green). I was a little dizzy after riding it the June 8th, but I felt downright DRUNK on the 12th (and no...I hadn’t had anything to drink...YET). I felt so icky that I skipped the Spaceship Earth FP time because even that didn’t sound fun to me and I decided I would much rather wander around the countries. There were rain showers off and on all day and the weather felt great. </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-gskEVpYDrtu9hqx2VqP4ub5ZXD3rQYZO7TEZc0fqpq9AspGXrh16L0S5Tt0qT0J0MdgnGNJ7p1xTamQV6qQkNwMXHb4HHdV4z8q2GDu-BRHpiyhkihQTHJ6NkpaUKPY7mkefqKVO3A0/s1600/DSCN0544.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-gskEVpYDrtu9hqx2VqP4ub5ZXD3rQYZO7TEZc0fqpq9AspGXrh16L0S5Tt0qT0J0MdgnGNJ7p1xTamQV6qQkNwMXHb4HHdV4z8q2GDu-BRHpiyhkihQTHJ6NkpaUKPY7mkefqKVO3A0/s1600/DSCN0544.JPG" height="213" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #003366; font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #003366; font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #003366; font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">- I insisted that my family join me for the a capella singers at the American Experience then watch the movie. I’m so glad I did that, even though that meant they had to practically run all the way to Spaceship Earth and all the way back to make it in time. (It’s good for them...we were eating a ton of food.)</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #003366; font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">- My son, who loves history just like I do, walked out of the American Experience saying “That was AWESOME!!!” So nice to have a kid who gets into history with me.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #003366; font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #003366; font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">- My daughter went up to one of the singers after the show and complimented her. My daughter was just chosen for varsity choir herself and we had a great conversation with this amazing soprano. We learned that one of the singers there has been there from the very beginning!</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #003366; font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #003366; font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">- I used one of my last sets of little stickers for a very good purpose. In Morocco, I hunted for Jasmine and asked a CM who told me that Jasmine and Aladdin were just finishing up a visit but if I wanted to get in line behind “this sweet girl and her mom” we could wait for the next visit (to start in an hour). The little girl looked blue to have just missed out but she was determined to meet Jasmine! (Who can blame her, really??) I wasn’t going to wait, but I wanted to give her some pixie dust so I gave her a bag of stickers and a glow stick (a.k.a. magic wand). She looked a lot happier after that! I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again - those gifts for random kiddos were the best $10 I’ve ever spent on a vacation!</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #003366; font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #003366; font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">- I HIGHLY RECOMMEND counter service in Morocco. Not only was the food delicious, but the building itself is intricately carved - so beautiful. I truly wish we’d had hours to spend in Morocco. This is just a tiny section of the ceiling…</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgH5fE9w0RSNeJEkNk9kykqeHXK_n9w3HJUES8ZkVLg-s3ero4NzH3qD06MLgCJBS-gRV69_LWCvr-4ISFNAj5EYvdqLHH8gSjgchgn5Omv9Oap6Ud290LFsXZDddwnVSzmmJe0bw71TYw/s1600/DSCN0606.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgH5fE9w0RSNeJEkNk9kykqeHXK_n9w3HJUES8ZkVLg-s3ero4NzH3qD06MLgCJBS-gRV69_LWCvr-4ISFNAj5EYvdqLHH8gSjgchgn5Omv9Oap6Ud290LFsXZDddwnVSzmmJe0bw71TYw/s1600/DSCN0606.JPG" height="266" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #003366; font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">- In some ways, I was a little bit frustrated by this day because I wanted a LOT more time in the countries. There were shows I wanted to see (at least we caught the last 2 songs by Off Kilter!) and more atmosphere I wanted to soak in. If it had been a solo trip, I think I would’ve stayed until they shoved me out the door. As it was, we left on the earlier side (to be fair, we had to wake up at an ungodly hour for our flight back) but at least we got a photopass picture with Olaf as we left - woot!!!!</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUHSHHBuIbBlEEMmW-uUlqrlFMri6IHzvNPls4H4QWUrNQ0ebX3opC4oAhzgjP_0y6JkVswZm0l5idJfpzuGd78Q5-k9pCtOUf_0LAJEb1CoG-W975r4wZtrUC1H5fwOJ6UAqu7BuxEJU/s1600/wdw201416385729111_6995857933_18.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUHSHHBuIbBlEEMmW-uUlqrlFMri6IHzvNPls4H4QWUrNQ0ebX3opC4oAhzgjP_0y6JkVswZm0l5idJfpzuGd78Q5-k9pCtOUf_0LAJEb1CoG-W975r4wZtrUC1H5fwOJ6UAqu7BuxEJU/s1600/wdw201416385729111_6995857933_18.jpeg" height="266" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #003366; font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">There’s not much to say about our last day except that we had to be down at the Magic Express place by 5 for our 8:00 a.m. flight. I was impressed. They were able to check our bags for us at the hotel (even that early) and those babies showed up in Austin like a charm. </span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: white; color: #003366; font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">If anyone is going back to the World in the next year and has room for me in your suitcase, I’m in! Thanks for reading along and I hope all of you get to your happy place with your family (wherever that may be!) very soon.</span>JennInAustinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12672076120253993937noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4430661281907732532.post-80127010518261634922014-06-28T21:43:00.000-05:002014-06-28T21:43:31.835-05:00Day 5 - June 11th Part 3 (Animal Kingdom Lodge and closing up Magic Kingdom) <div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #003366; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">When I last updated you, my family was reunited after the ER adventure. Our ADR for Boma was at 6 but I wanted us to have some time to enjoy looking around the resort a bit, so I insisted that everyone get ready so we could get to Animal Kingdom Lodge by at least 5. Grabbing a cab was the best plan and very affordable.</span></span></div>
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<b id="docs-internal-guid-b29fead1-e54a-8d6c-1a9a-001cbfd60701" style="background-color: white; font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #003366; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">As soon as we walked into the lobby at AKL, I was just overwhelmed with the African art everywhere, the enormously tall thatched ceiling, and the window overlooking the savannah. It did NOT disappoint.</span></span></div>
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<a href="http://i.imgur.com/O3IpH06l.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="background-color: white; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><img border="0" src="http://i.imgur.com/O3IpH06l.jpg" height="213" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #003366; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">We went out the back door to look at animals and had to laugh a bit because right before we headed out, there were 3 older kids considering going outside but they said “It’s too hot out there.” After they left, Kathryn observed that they were obviously not from Texas because it felt great to us. It was humid, and you could tell it was getting ready to rain, but with the overcast skies and the nice breeze - we really liked it!</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #003366; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Someday I want to stay here so I can look out my window and see the animals. Someday….</span></span></div>
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<a href="http://i.imgur.com/8LiqLTcl.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="background-color: white; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><img border="0" src="http://i.imgur.com/8LiqLTcl.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #003366; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">We met some very nice young men from Botswana who worked at AKL, had a great conversation, and they took our family picture. </span></span></div>
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<a href="http://i.imgur.com/oFc1wJhl.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="background-color: white; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><img border="0" src="http://i.imgur.com/oFc1wJhl.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #003366; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">It started to rain and it was time to go in for dinner. We made our way to Boma and were seated immediately in the PERFECT location. It’s a noisy restaurant, but our table was off in a little alcove with lots of windows. Especially with the rain coming down outside, it was a very nice atmosphere. I look really happy, don't I? I had a Long Island Iced Tea. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">'Nuff said, right?</span></span></div>
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<a href="http://i.imgur.com/oiDDqXWl.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="background-color: white; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><img border="0" src="http://i.imgur.com/oiDDqXWl.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #003366; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Boma was on my list of things I wanted to do for two reasons: first, I’d always wanted to visit AKL and second, I’d heard the food was great. Many people who wrote reviews of it were particularly blown away by the soups. The continuous stream of compliments about the soups fascinated me so we started there. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #003366; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Whoa. I have no idea how they make such delicious soups, people. The Nigerian fish stew made my tastebuds sing. Needless to say, I think this restaurant will always be on my list although my husband rightfully pointed out that we would not have enjoyed it as much if we’d been in the middle of the noisy dining room. Maybe not….but I would stand in a long line in Texas heat just to get some of that fish stew again. I can only guess that the Soup Nazi in Seinfeld must have made soup like this for people to put up with his abuse. I would totally be willing to be yelled at ("No soup for you!!") to get more of that stew. No kidding!</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #003366; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #003366; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">At the end of the meal, while the rest of the family waited for the bill, I went upstairs to the bar and asked for a glass of any African wine that I couldn’t easily find in the states. The nice bartender provided me with a glass of this and I was not disappointed.</span></span></div>
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<a href="http://i.imgur.com/m3UuJDLl.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="background-color: white; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><img border="0" src="http://i.imgur.com/m3UuJDLl.jpg" height="320" width="240" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #003366; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">After that we went outside again and I sat in a rocking chair, finishing my wine while David and the kids looked at some interesting snails on the foliage. I was slowing us down a bit, everyone was eager to get back to the MK and attack it with everything we had, but I needed that glass of wine and enjoyed every last drop of it!</span></span></div>
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<a href="http://i.imgur.com/H7bbenTl.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="background-color: white; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><img border="0" src="http://i.imgur.com/H7bbenTl.jpg" height="320" width="240" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #003366; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Once I was properly wined up, we made our way to the buses and went back to the Magic Kingdom. We all stayed in our matching shirts because we didn’t have any family photopass pictures from today. It was time to change that! I told my husband how much I loved the special Disney balloons-inside-balloons and he got a nice picture for me.</span></span></div>
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<a href="http://i.imgur.com/anX3ZwIl.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="background-color: white; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><img border="0" src="http://i.imgur.com/anX3ZwIl.jpg" height="214" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #003366; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #003366; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Ok - a good trip reporter would be able to tell you exactly what time we arrived, exactly what rides we rode, etc. But...I’m not a good trip reporter. Too bad for you. ;)</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #003366; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #003366; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Before Dennis and I left the park that morning, we’d changed our Space Mountain FPs because our whole family wasn’t together. Sadly, the only time available was pretty late - like at 9:30 at night. Or maybe it was even 10:30. I forget - but it was late. That was still our 3rd FP so I wasn’t able to take advantage of the “get a 4th FP, then a 5th FP” plan at MK as I originally planned. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #003366; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">We were, however, able to repeat a number of pictures from our trip 5 years before - such as this lovely one of my husband wearing the hanging flowers as a hat. </span></span></div>
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<a href="http://i.imgur.com/4fahtLol.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="background-color: white; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><img border="0" src="http://i.imgur.com/4fahtLol.jpg" height="320" width="213" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #003366; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">One of my goals will be to figure out how to do some sort of fun art thing with all our re-do pictures...to see how we’ve changed in 5 years!</span></span></div>
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<b style="background-color: white; font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #003366; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">When we got to the Magic Kingdom after dinner, I think the first thing we did was wait in the Under the Sea line for an annoyingly long time. Over and over, I’d read tons of comments about how if the sign said the line was 20 minutes, it was probably just 10 minutes. This ride wasn’t high on my list but I figured, what the heck - the line will be short. IT WAS NOT SHORT. The time was understated and then the ride itself kept stopping. Although I didn’t time it, if I had to guess I think the whole experience at the Ariel ride sucked up the first hour of our time back at Magic Kingdom. Luckily, it was a cute ride and there was an ADORABLE little baby in the clam shell right behind me and Kathryn. No problem, really!</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #003366; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Then we enjoyed some of the other charming sections of New Fantasyland like the gorgeous Tangled bathrooms (I know that sounds weird if you don’t know what I’m talking about but I'm actually ok with you thinking I'm a freak for taking pictures of the inside of bathrooms because they are JUST THAT FABULOUS.)</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">We were finally able to walk through the Castle together and David took this picture of me in front of the amazingly gorgeous mosaic. (Heaven...I'm in heaven just remembering it...)</span></span></div>
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<a href="http://i.imgur.com/UBSU0pVl.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="background-color: white; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><img border="0" src="http://i.imgur.com/UBSU0pVl.jpg" height="320" width="240" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #003366; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">We rode Dumbo and it was very nice because the sun was just setting as we were up in the air.</span></span></div>
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<a href="http://i.imgur.com/23Z3zECl.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="background-color: white; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><img border="0" src="http://i.imgur.com/23Z3zECl.jpg" height="213" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #003366; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">In case you’re curious, it’s very much worth it to get a few lovely sunset castle pictures with your family when you see those PhotoPass photographers…so STOP and get those pictures. Trust me!</span></span></div>
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<a href="http://i.imgur.com/jvXpV3Al.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="background-color: white; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><img border="0" src="http://i.imgur.com/jvXpV3Al.jpg" height="213" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #003366; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Once it was dark, we went to Gaston’s Tavern where we ordered a LaFou’s brew (way too sweet for us) and a cinnamon roll. Then David insisted that Kathryn take our picture like this. Yay for embarrassing your kids at Disney World!!</span></span></div>
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<a href="http://i.imgur.com/wWHmPqtl.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="background-color: white; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><img border="0" src="http://i.imgur.com/wWHmPqtl.jpg" height="320" width="240" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #003366; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">It was getting dark so I wanted us to head over to Adventureland so we could enjoy the Jungle Cruise at night and hopefully Pirates of the Caribbean as well. As we went by Peter Pan and It’s A Small World, we were able to ride both of those without much of a wait at all. As we came out of IASW, we heard the fireworks and although I tried to rush my family (I had this list of rides I wanted us to try to knock out before 1 a.m.), they smartly insisted that we stay right where we were so we could watch the fireworks. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #003366; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">It was cool, people. My family was TOTALLY RIGHT for telling me to chill out and watch the fireworks. We were near IASM and some of the fireworks were over our castle to our right and some were further back, to our left. Pretty cool. Of course, it's difficult to tell from this photo but I'll try to incorporate the video into our big trip video and hopefully that will give you the feel. If you don't like crowds, it's a cool option!</span></span></div>
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<a href="http://i.imgur.com/YgUge6gl.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="background-color: white; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><img border="0" src="http://i.imgur.com/YgUge6gl.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #003366; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">In Adventureland, Jungle Cruise was a walk on and so corny of course. Pirates of the Caribbean was also a walk on at that time of night. After that it was time for our Space Mountain FastPasses - yea!!!</span></span></div>
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<a href="http://i.imgur.com/DyncLoGl.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="background-color: white; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><img border="0" src="http://i.imgur.com/DyncLoGl.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #003366; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">We were all very excited because, of course, Dennis learned he loved roller coasters on this trip and Kathryn was looking forward to the ride. Too bad the SM cars don’t fit 4 people - my picture didn’t show up at first on PhotoPass but I’d taken the wise advice of many on the advice forums and taken a cell phone photo so I knew my PhotoPass number and they were able to track it down for me. Dennis loved the ride but Kathryn did not like it at all. She said she felt like she was about to fall out all the time and I can see what she means - the walls are rather low on those cars!</span></span></div>
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<a href="http://i.imgur.com/UfkE7jFl.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="background-color: white; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><img border="0" src="http://i.imgur.com/UfkE7jFl.jpg" height="213" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #003366; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">I knew my son was very much looking forward to a spin on Carousel of Progress and it surprised me to learn my daughter was as well...so we rode that. And I will spare you the argument I got into with the rest of my family (it was them against me) because after the ride stopped three or four different times and started replaying the last scene for (I believe) the third time, I joined others who arose and tried to exit out of impatience. The very young teen boys running the ride hollered at us over the loudspeaker saying it was our fault the ride was stopped. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #003366; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">What?????</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #003366; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">I was not happy (we had rides to do before 1 a.m.) but my family told me I should have been much more obedient and remained in my seat. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #003366; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">I’m such a rebel. Luckily - I was able to access my inner rebel on Buzz because there was no line at all. Kathryn’s gun didn’t work AT ALL and the confused look on her face contrasted with her father’s intent look cracks me up. </span></span></div>
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<a href="http://i.imgur.com/JjR4ATsl.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="background-color: white; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><img border="0" src="http://i.imgur.com/JjR4ATsl.jpg" height="213" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #003366; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">My family was ready to start heading out. I was a little bummed we didn’t make it to Monster’s Laugh Factory, but that’s ok...we planned to find ice cream. As we got close to the front I asked if they’d do “one more thing” for me and we rode the carousel - all of us had big smiles. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #003366; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">As I was soaking in the carousel, I noticed the insane line for Elsa and Anna (even at 12:40 a.m.!) but wondered about seeing Cinderella and Rapunzel. They were listed as 20 minutes but I asked the CM - is it really 20 minutes? She shook her head. We followed the line around (passing all the Elsa/Anna people on the other side of the rope) and walked right in. Oh, I”m so glad we did! One of the best parts of the whole experience was the 2 year old boy behind us who told Cinderella “I just saw your CASTLE!!!” It was great.</span></span></div>
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<a href="http://i.imgur.com/kIeNDebl.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="background-color: white; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><img border="0" src="http://i.imgur.com/kIeNDebl.jpg" height="213" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #003366; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">As we left, we picked up a couple of ice cream sundaes (yum) and my only regret about that is that by the time we got to the front of the park, it was past 1 a.m. so my last minute idea to meet Tinkerbell didn’t work. Oh, well….next time!</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #003366; font-family: inherit; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: large;">We were all very tired, but what a day! We truly did so many rides together at MK (especially considering the fact two of us were at the ER for a few hours, we had a nap, then dinner at AKL). It turned out to be a wonderful MK day, although I’d love to have so many mor</span></span><span style="color: #003366; font-family: inherit; white-space: pre-wrap;">e days there very soon!</span></div>
</span>JennInAustinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12672076120253993937noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4430661281907732532.post-3612515364156013742014-06-27T14:05:00.004-05:002014-06-27T14:06:25.271-05:00Day 5 cont'd - June 11th MK (when I cover my head with a pillow for a while)<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #003366; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">As I mentioned in my previous report, everything turned out ok with my lovely daughter although she and my husband spent quite a few hours at the ER. He entertained her with corny jokes and did a great job of keeping me up to date via text. (In one he texted that they felt sure it wasn’t appendicitis because when they hit the bottom of her feet she didn’t feel the pain all the way up her legs and into her abdomen. Hmmm. Who knew? That’s a handy little tidbit for you guys to keep in the back of your heads, I suppose.) But it took a while for x-rays and answers. </span><br style="color: #003366; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><br style="color: #003366; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="color: #003366; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">After the cute pictures Dennis and I grabbed right outside of the First Aid station, we found him a frozen lemonade and one of </span><a href="http://www.disneyfoodblog.com/2013/09/23/review-new-gourmet-cake-cups-at-magic-kingdoms-cheshire-cafe/" style="color: #003366; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" target="_blank">the new cake cups at Cheshire Cafe</a><span style="color: #003366; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">. It seems like they are actually “icing cups” (which they sort of are, but how is that a bad thing?) - they were rather tasty, to be honest.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #003366; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Then we headed over to Adventureland for more SOTMK. My son enjoyed SOTMK until it was time for the two of us to go to Be Our Guest. We had a FP for lunch and I told them at the front it needed to be for 2 instead of 4 since my daughter was at the ER. (I think I was still freaking out a bit and wanted some sympathy. In hindsight, I was telling EVERY SINGLE CAST MEMBER my daughter was at the ER. Can you really BLAME me??) They said that was fine to just be 2 people and the FP option turned out to be highly preferable to waiting in line on the bridge (of course). We still waited in a short line but the building was so beautiful, the knights in armor were really cool, and the food was…..WOW. Super high quality, especially since it’s a counter service meal! In case you’re curious, I had the ever-popular braised pork and my son had potato leek soup. (Both my kids are huge fans of potato leek soup. They are also - apparently - huge fans of Carousel of Progress. I have no idea if those two factoids are related…perhaps someone could conduct a study?)</span><br style="color: #003366; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><br style="color: #003366; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="color: #003366; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">How’s about if I just insert some various BOG pictures here. You won’t see great food pictures on my TR because other people are SO MUCH BETTER at food pictures than I am. You also won’t see great pictures of the building because I was busy trying to capture video to show my missing family members later. (I failed miserably at that effort.)</span></span><br />
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<img alt="" border="0" src="http://i.imgur.com/aQX0m59l.jpg" style="border: 0px; color: #003366; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: #f5f5ff; color: #003366; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> </span><img alt="" border="0" src="http://i.imgur.com/Uz6a8gsl.jpg" style="border: 0px; color: #003366; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #003366; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Can we all just give Dennis a round of slow-clapping for his patience as his increasingly stressed out mom insisted on repeated blurry camera pictures? (Bravo, Dennis.)</span><br style="color: #003366; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><br style="color: #003366; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="color: #003366; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">The ONE exception I will make in terms of food pictures is the before and after picture of the Master’s Cupcake that I saved for Kathryn. Be Our Guest is so beautiful and the food is beyond scrumptious. It was the only point I allowed myself some sadness that David and Kathryn were missing this part of our day. So...I got a very fabulous to-go cupcake holder and saved my cupcake for her. (That’s right, I didn’t eat the Master’s Cupcake even though I’d wanted one for months and months...what a mom I am!) I was dying to try the grey stuff but I didn’t even put my finger in it! (It was something I could do to show my girl how much I loved her while she was in the ER.)</span><br style="color: #003366; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><br style="color: #003366; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="color: #003366; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">You may remember the fiasco we had when I tried to save a cupcake in my baggalini at DHS. Well, that was just in a plain ol’ box and I carried it around for hours. In this case, I had high hopes that it would work because we planned to head right back to the hotel and I carried this cupcake in its fancy plastic container. HOWEVER...it was getting pretty warm. And, as it turns out, the Grey Stuff melts when it gets hot. That, in turn, makes the cupcake much less attractive. I wish I’d opened up the container for a better picture, but I think you can still see the change here. Not. Terribly. Attractive. </span></span><br />
<img alt="" border="0" src="http://i.imgur.com/BQi2f3dl.jpg" style="border: 0px; color: #003366; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #003366; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Dennis and I did a little shopping as we left Main Street I was still worried at this point that Kathryn might end up with an appendectomy...sooooo... if that happened I wanted to buy a get well soon card and have the princesses sign it for her. Luckily she didn’t need surgery because there were no get well soon cards to be seen. (And the folks in the store looked at me sort of oddly when I asked for one. Maybe I’m the only one who’s ever needed a get well soon card at Disney??) I guess it’s also lucky she didn’t need surgery because that would have… you know... sucked. </span><br style="color: #003366; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><br style="color: #003366; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="color: #003366; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">On our way towards Main Street we came across the cool dance party parade (which I know has an actual name...I have no idea what it is right now) and I swear on all that is holy, if I hadn't been so stressed out I would have been in heaven dancing with those characters. That is my idea of heaven on earth! But....that wasn't going to happen. Too hot, too tired, too worried (although even with all of that...I felt the siren song of pop music calling to me...).</span></span><br />
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<img alt="" border="0" src="http://i.imgur.com/UM5cLZtl.jpg" style="border: 0px; color: #003366; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #003366; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">I learned first hand how strict Disney World is about the whole “costumes must stay in a certain area” rule when Dennis needed to go to the restroom as I was hunting for a get well soon card or a magnet or something villain-y (I forget which at this point in time) because when we got directions from a CM about how to find the bathroom outside and around the corner, I told him to go on and just come back and find me later. Approximately seven minutes and thirty-two seconds later I regretted that decision with a white hot intensity. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #003366; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">He’s 11 and, although I’m protective in many ways, I’m also aware that the MK is a super safe place and he’s growing up. NORMALLY, I wouldn’t worry. Of course, NORMALLY my husband and daughter wouldn’t be at the hospital in downtown Orlando. </span><br style="color: #003366; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><br style="color: #003366; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="color: #003366; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">So perhaps I should cut myself a little slack that I suddenly began to go a little insane with worry. What if he made a wrong turn? What if something happened? I waited outside the bathroom and he didn’t come out. It probably wasn’t very long but it felt like FOREVER to me. I went back into the store and asked a male CM if he could help me. </span><br style="color: #003366; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><br style="color: #003366; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="color: #003366; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">He immediately seemed very, very stressed and said “Let me see if they’ll let me do that.” He came back and apologized, explaining that they can’t go past a certain boundary in their uniforms but he pointed out a custodian and suggested I get his help because the custodians “can go anywhere.” So I got the nice custodian’s help and he informed me that Dennis was in there, he would be out soon, and was fine. I learned that they aren’t kidding about keeping those uniforms in a certain area! (No problem of course - the CM in the special uniform made sure he helped me find someone who could go into the forbidden no-plaid zone.)</span><br style="color: #003366; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><br style="color: #003366; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="color: #003366; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">In hindsight, I was fading fast. Not only was it warm and we’d gotten an early start, but I was worried about my girl. Right after arriving at the hotel (and happily finding it clean with a towel swan holding Kathryn’s Ariel - picture inserted again below just because it’s so adorable), I got word from my husband that Kathryn was fine and they’d be back in a few hours after dropping by a pharmacy for the necessary medicine.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #003366; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">It was at this point that I put a pillow over my head and pretty much passed out. I was barely coherent when they came in the room a few hours later. I think the rest of my family joined me in napping when they got back but I'm honestly a bit fuzzy about the middle of that day. I know that I managed to get everyone up and going later in the afternoon and we caught a cab to Animal Kingdom Lodge so we could enjoy those grounds for a little bit before our ADRs at Boma.</span><br style="color: #003366; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><br style="color: #003366; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="color: #003366; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">I do remember them coming in, I remember the big smile on my daughter’s face (and their funny stories) and I remember she was thrilled with the melted cupcake and said it tasted amazing.</span></span>JennInAustinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12672076120253993937noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4430661281907732532.post-1333954855795029482014-06-25T16:14:00.001-05:002014-06-25T16:14:23.432-05:00Day 5 - June 11th - Magic Kingdom Part 1 (the morning with the trip to the ER)<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: small; line-height: normal; white-space: normal;">(Yes....you read that right A TRIP TO THE ER.)</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: small; line-height: normal; white-space: normal;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiE55UsadDsA7V2qQcztV0F9okiJdKecjr3qJkznYn7j6HWdaGB-htOm0UQaoyJBtiUczmC58cLCOf731BZfSIamQ8adSvI9u08uerIRVOreGnHsJkKvv6kAn9KDKRmzKJK_4VUPPyk_xI/s1600/DSCN0293.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiE55UsadDsA7V2qQcztV0F9okiJdKecjr3qJkznYn7j6HWdaGB-htOm0UQaoyJBtiUczmC58cLCOf731BZfSIamQ8adSvI9u08uerIRVOreGnHsJkKvv6kAn9KDKRmzKJK_4VUPPyk_xI/s1600/DSCN0293.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">No DisneyBounding for me on this day, it’s the only day we wore matching t-shirts. We bleach-decorated our t-shirts with Mickey. Here we are on the bus to MK…</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">By the time we got through bag check and scanned our handy-dandy Magic Bands, there was plenty of room on the left side of the entryway and we grabbed a spot right near the tree. We waited 30-40 minutes for the Welcome show to begin (I think), I told my family they weren’t allowed to laugh at me when I cried during the countdown to open MK, and we made our way down Main Street. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Side Note: For those of you who haven't been to a Magic Kingdom opening show yet and have no idea why it's worth being right up there for it (other than making it onto the rides without a long wait!) - <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNcbJ20-hEs&feature=youtu.be" target="_blank">my 14 second video of it might give you a little bit of a feel for it!</a></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Our plan (which began well enough) was to go straight to Frontierland for Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and Splash Mountain. We made it over to the spot where some CMs had the sidewalk sort of blocked. They warned us that BTMRR might not be up and going yet, but Splash was, then they had us put our hands in our pockets and mosey down the street behind them. Although I could see some guests who’d sort of gone around them I have to say I thought the mosey-ing down the street was rather fun.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We hit Splash Mountain first - the kids couldn’t wait and I think we were probably on the second or third boat with humans because the boats going down the hill as we floated around it were totally empty. I highly recommend taking an artistic 15 year old on all family trips. Kathryn instructed all of us to put our sunglasses on and look cool as we went down the hill for the Photopass picture. As an added bonus for our picture, it turned out that the couple in front of us kissed on the way down the hill. </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYdD5PrkUmhmdv_XsTCkXROv_VPpBxaLyqhWl_mkAFshphR2qowjCyXK3tDIGBXDqv7IiLbl1csv0uJc0Xf-7gXypvtrbsgzI0dLZ6h67UQaxV_ynbFvwmzwXph00yaaNrNDI7P-P1nK8/s1600/wdw201416285043149_6994750022_18.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYdD5PrkUmhmdv_XsTCkXROv_VPpBxaLyqhWl_mkAFshphR2qowjCyXK3tDIGBXDqv7IiLbl1csv0uJc0Xf-7gXypvtrbsgzI0dLZ6h67UQaxV_ynbFvwmzwXph00yaaNrNDI7P-P1nK8/s1600/wdw201416285043149_6994750022_18.jpeg" height="320" width="213" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.15; white-space: pre-wrap;">After Splash, we went on BTMRR with no wait, then I led my family over to Liberty Square so that we could pick up Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom trading cards for my son. I figured we’d all 4 use our Magic Bands so he would have 4 packs, then we’d go on Haunted Mansion together and split up (boys playing SOTMK and girls doing other things) before lunch.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">As we were waiting for our cards, Tiana walked by. She is so gorgeous!!! There was no line yet since she’d just started visiting with people, so my family humored me and we went over to meet Tiana. I guess there wasn’t a photopass photographer there, but my husband took pictures. Dennis wouldn’t join me and Kathryn so it’s a ladies picture. I was terribly impressed with Tiana. She had a perfect accent, asked if we’d ever to been to New Orleans and I told her I went for the first time last year with my husband. She asked if we’d eaten at her restaurant. I thought for a second and told her we tried, but the line was so long we just couldn’t get in. She told me that does happen sometimes but we should at least have her beignets at some point, and informed me that the restaurant over at Port Orleans French Quarter uses her recipe. Too cute! And, honestly, the most naturally lovely princess we met on our trip!</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Then it was the Haunted Mansion, no real line at all at this point in the morning. The interactive queue is fun, even when you’re walking right by it. Dennis had a little bit of ambivalence (as mentioned previously, he doesn’t like “spooky”) but I assured him it was a jokey-scary sort of ride, not a ride with spooky surprises or anything. We had a good time and I had fun noticing some of the details along the way this time. After that, our FP+ time for 7 Dwarfs Mine Train was open, so I had us boogie on over to that ride.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Thank goodness for FastPass when it comes to the 7DMT because….the line, people...THE LINE! We waited a bit with FP but no more than 10 minutes. As we were waiting, however, my daughter almost doubled over in pain. She suddenly started hurting pretty badly. We finished the ride and we all enjoyed it. It really is a cool ride. Lots of fun with great details.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">David and Dennis went off to start SOTMK and made a point to stop for a PhotoPass photographer "so Mom would be happy." What great guys...</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMn1cLLWuPGwgoOTzco1ro6MOePI_v_nGu0rFaVl3cut1TXHlH9vM56DjkP9ggvn8lDJjcGbvjumNJk0VcDd6EzFQUFnoH_YwLesPWryPBevmgja99o5odyYRxtITdGfTmGWo3Q3TydiM/s1600/wdw201416285098165_6995862947_18.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMn1cLLWuPGwgoOTzco1ro6MOePI_v_nGu0rFaVl3cut1TXHlH9vM56DjkP9ggvn8lDJjcGbvjumNJk0VcDd6EzFQUFnoH_YwLesPWryPBevmgja99o5odyYRxtITdGfTmGWo3Q3TydiM/s1600/wdw201416285098165_6995862947_18.jpeg" height="400" width="266" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Kathryn and I went off on our own. I was beginning to think that I might need to get her to first aid and I was also beginning to fear appendicitis. At first, she insisted that she would be fine and she didn’t want to stop because she knew this day was a big deal for me. She said maybe she should get some food and something to drink. We went over to Cosmic Rays and got some french fries and orange juice for her. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">As we sat there, she was in more and more pain. When she finally said “Maybe I should go to First Aid,” I feared it was a serious situation. Kathryn always puts others before herself, to a fault. If she was stopping our only Magic Kingdom day because of pain, I knew I needed to get her right to First Aid and probably the ER. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">As we head over to First Aid (which is near the Crystal Palace restaurant), I’m texting David. The First Aid guy (who was awesome) calls an ambulance after telling me that Disney will pay for the ambulance. Kathryn wants her dad to go with her because, as she said, “You’ve planned this day, Mom, and I want you to enjoy Magic Kingdom.” (She actually started telling me this at Cosmic Rays and repeated it many times so I didn't argue. I just began to stress out. A LOT.) :(</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Although I gave awful directions to David via text, he finally showed up to join Kathryn and the nice EMTs while I went off with Dennis. In case you're curious, it's an important but very difficult mental exercise to coach yourself through something like that as a parent. You know that things will probably be fine and that your awesome co-parent is right there. You also know that you have another kiddo still in the park with you and you want to do your best to keep the morning calm and fun. Luckily for me, I have a very sweet son who was also worried about his sister but probably was trying to stay calm for MY benefit. He didn't even fuss when I asked him to stop with me for photos right outside the First Aid station where I don't THINK I cried when I told the photographer all about how my daughter was in an ambulance on the way to the hospital. She was very supportive and took some cute pictures. You can just tell that Dennis is doing a great job supporting me through this morning!</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Since I’m sure you’re very curious at this point - the good news is that Kathryn did NOT have appendicitis. I won’t go into the details of her diagnosis, but they figured out what was going on, it wasn’t anything critical, and she and her dad ended up back at our hotel around 1 or so that afternoon, after spending a few hours at the children’s hospital in downtown Orlando. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.15; white-space: pre-wrap;">There are always silver linings, my friends...even in situations like this! Here were our silver linings:</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">- We were able to enjoy our morning rides before the pain started and the pain wasn’t anything dangerous.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">- We all ended up back together later that afternoon and had a great day after all.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">- Dennis got more SOTMK time. According to our original schedule, he really would have just played one round before I insisted the family do stuff together again. Once it was just him and me...and he preferred SOTMK to rides, I wasn’t going to argue about it and I enjoyed doing the Adventureland SOTMK with him.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">- Kathryn got to ride on a gurney and in an ambulance. “How is this a silver lining?” you may ask. Well, Kathryn’s always been fascinated with medicine and her dream is to someday be a pediatric ER nurse. She ended up bonding with the ambulance driver, the doctors, and the nurses at the hospital. They told her she was the best patient they’d had all day (yes, it was still morning, but still!).</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">There’s a lot more to our MK day, which will probably take up a few more posts. I’m proud of myself for powering through and finding the joy with Dennis, even though we were both worried about Kathryn. I’m so grateful to David for being an awesome Dad, going with Kathryn, and keeping me in the loop and keeping her laughing all morning. I’m grateful to Dennis for taking pictures with me and being great company when the two of us were on our own (we ended up having a son/mom date at Be Our Guest for lunch - such a gorgeous restaurant!). So, although I had grave worries about the status of our day that morning, we all ended up loving it and actually having an excellent family vacation day. (More details about the good stuff in future posts!)</span></div>
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<br />JennInAustinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12672076120253993937noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4430661281907732532.post-54361643303702111752014-06-24T17:23:00.000-05:002014-06-24T21:15:02.443-05:00Day 4 continued...DHS (Here comes the rain...)<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">During my last spellbinding report (well, other than the towel and window decoration mini-report), I told you about our great start at DHS. I was DisneyBounding as Princess Leia, our whole family fell in love with Rock n Roller Coaster right off the bat, and we met baby ducklings. Of course, no day is perfect, even if you’re at Disney World. My mission for this trip report (other than my obvious attempt to share family photos) is to let you know what worked for us and what didn’t work for us, in hopes that another family might benefit from our experience.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Here are some touring/itinerary notes, which might come in handy as you plan your own trip:</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">- Although the animation class used to be a “hidden gem,” as indicated in some of the forums, that’s not really the case anymore. The word is out and it’s quite popular. We went over to the Animation Building right after David and Kathryn rode ToT and made it into the waiting area for the next class. The waiting area was already pretty full and we needed to wait a while to go in as the class before us finished up. There were people behind us that ended up waiting through our class also, so I’m glad we went straight there after ToT and didn’t have to wait through 2 classes. The animation class is definitely worth the time - it’s cool. Warn any perfectionists in your family that there won’t be an eraser on the pencil and they need to try to go with the flow. My daughter is an artist and I love the picture my husband got of her as she was concentrating. </span></div>
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<a href="http://i.imgur.com/bzkh1Zql.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://i.imgur.com/bzkh1Zql.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://i.imgur.com/Td0uM5yl.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://i.imgur.com/Td0uM5yl.jpg" height="294" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">- As mentioned above, we only waited in line to meet Ralph. After the animation class, we went down to find him. He and Vanellope weren’t out yet and there was already a line that looked sort of long but as it turned out, it was just a 15 minute wait (and I think that included us waiting for them to start meeting). The Wreck it Ralph queue is sort of fun, so don’t be scared of the wait, especially if you get there before they start meeting. </span></div>
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<a href="http://i.imgur.com/v78eXLFl.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://i.imgur.com/v78eXLFl.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I told Wreck it Ralph that we wanted to meet him since our last name is Reck. He went bananas with excitement when he heard our name and started pounding his hands up and down showing us how to pose for the picture. So we did. Perfect! Here are the Recks wrecking it up with Ralph….</span></div>
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<a href="http://i.imgur.com/AAJlOarl.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://i.imgur.com/AAJlOarl.jpg" height="212" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">- Some of our most fun PhotoPass pictures are from our DHS day. A word of advice, if a photographer asks you to be silly, you should totally go for it. Luckily for me, I just had to follow my kids’ lead…</span></div>
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<a href="http://i.imgur.com/eY7G6Utl.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://i.imgur.com/eY7G6Utl.jpg" height="320" width="212" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://i.imgur.com/YXVvqnMl.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://i.imgur.com/YXVvqnMl.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">- When we went to Star Tours the first time, it was our FastPass time and the standby line was just 10 minutes. I was going to use our FP anyway, but my brilliant daughter pointed out that we should do standby then come back through to do it again with our FPs. Of course! I’d even read that suggestion on the boards but I was so singularly focused on my plan that it didn’t occur to me. As it turned out, that was a fabulous suggestion because by the time we got back around to use the FP, the standby line was much longer. And....(I can't believe I forgot to mention this when I first posted)...I was chosen as the Rebel Spy the first time we rode!!! So fabulous. (And...I was hoping for a repeat of that later because, you know, I was dressed as Princess Leia so...DUH...of course I'm the rebel spy, right? Nope - just the first time, but that's still great!)</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">- If one of the outside shows is important to you, make time to go earlier in the day so if you run into a hitch you’ll have time to go again later. (See disappointment discussion, below.)</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">- Family traditions are fun. Back in 2009, we sprung for a Star Wars family portrait and we all four wanted to do the same thing this time around so after our first Star Tours ride, we posed again. This is our 2014 portrait which looks almost EXACTLY like our 2009 portrait. Except....now that I look more closely at this, I can tell that I look rather older and more worn out in this one. So...if I was a smart blogger I would post the 2009 version and tell you it's the 2014, but that would require me to go find it on my other computer and right now I'm very comfortable...plus you guys have already seen me without makeup in the other pictures...so....whatever. What was I writing about? Oh, yeah....our Star Wars family portrait tradition. Voila!</span></div>
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<a href="http://i.imgur.com/xXB3Q0Ol.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://i.imgur.com/xXB3Q0Ol.jpg" height="320" width="276" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">-</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Ponchos. Pack ponchos. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">- We ate lunch at Starring Rolls because I’d read good things about the food. It was way too much food (we used 4 CS credits there instead of splitting meals like we did on other days) but it was pretty tasty, especially the obscenely huge butterfinger cupcake. </span></div>
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<a href="http://i.imgur.com/dGiabUHl.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://i.imgur.com/dGiabUHl.jpg" height="320" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">- We tried to carry my daughter’s cupcake with us for the rest of the day but that was a big messy fail in my Baggalini. (No photographic evidence of that, but trust me….if you really think you will want to carry leftovers, use a bigger backpack and bring plastic containers.) For those of you wondering why on earth I would even consider carrying leftovers…I don’t have a good explanation other than the fact that I have this thing about wasting money and food. By the end of the week I got over it….</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Now for disappointment #1: my son and I were both very, very excited to see the Indiana Jones show. I thought we’d catch an earlier one but it didn’t work out (we were so busy re-riding Star Tours and such) - but no worries, right? The shows happen all day long and we made it in time for seats way up close for the 4:00 show. Dennis was looking forward to it. I told David I was going to try to get picked as an extra. I jumped up and down like a crazy woman when they wanted volunteers and was chosen first off. So far, so good! Sadly, once we got in our outfits, the casting director said bad weather was heading in so they had to cut the whole show short. We went on stage in our outfits and “acted” a bit (really, nothing) but that was it. I’m in the red robe.</span></div>
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<a href="http://i.imgur.com/T2Zocvbl.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://i.imgur.com/T2Zocvbl.jpg" height="213" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">But, hold the phone sister! The casting director said that if we wanted to come back for the 5:15 show we could be volunteers then. My Disney math brain started buzzing. Our ADRs for Jedi Mickey were at 5:50. Hmmmm. I posted on the Lines App: “Fast! Tell me...how long does the Indy show last?” Got the answer - 30 minutes. (whew) Called the ADR line and asked “If I’m a few minutes late for my ADR will I be ok?” Got that answer - yes as long as you’re there within 15 minutes. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Good news for the family! We went on Star Tours again (so much fun!) - I think we got two more FP+s for this ride during the evening since nothing else was available that we’d want like RnR. Then we came back for the 5:15 show. Long story short - it was a total repeat. We got there early and got great seats, I got to be a volunteer, but they canceled the show AGAIN for weather reasons after Act 1. Same jokes, same spiel. My son said “Well...that sucked.” Yup - but we tried! In hindsight, the 2 hours we spent either waiting for the 4:00 and 5:15 shows to begin (so we could have good seats) and watching the same Act 1 two times would have been better spent elsewhere in the park. HOWEVER, this was a big thing for us so I’m actually glad we gave it our best shot.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUt4S-N23XhrWHUuC8uOIBPxcGqT1mI2KEyZ5neWPtUGp05Zf9kVJJ6_g-jrtTmSe_FwAuJVAfBb61zvF0oiKUHQahzrgvJ7AI-j1BuQqRpOO7MR7ZsQ4QQ9ohkUzgMc-teIRUaCftc0E/s1600/DSCN0257.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUt4S-N23XhrWHUuC8uOIBPxcGqT1mI2KEyZ5neWPtUGp05Zf9kVJJ6_g-jrtTmSe_FwAuJVAfBb61zvF0oiKUHQahzrgvJ7AI-j1BuQqRpOO7MR7ZsQ4QQ9ohkUzgMc-teIRUaCftc0E/s1600/DSCN0257.JPG" height="213" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQ-qolhu_qAU46Rh6CAYfFip0LjZ2kxV-AuZA9WYBw9f6manbVKBAZiJXl_oEFch6uj3nstCVzF4bflipyDL63AcwpbuQnIINmIydR5Wf5Q5POd8udvippn-FN3eTZyDSYPgQ2tTrVJww/s1600/DSCN0259.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQ-qolhu_qAU46Rh6CAYfFip0LjZ2kxV-AuZA9WYBw9f6manbVKBAZiJXl_oEFch6uj3nstCVzF4bflipyDL63AcwpbuQnIINmIydR5Wf5Q5POd8udvippn-FN3eTZyDSYPgQ2tTrVJww/s1600/DSCN0259.JPG" height="213" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7ef-gWMG2UZ6eyXphy8uEbSfr0wh09oOZ3s1-VrAO5dyDB84GxwlO-0lKqyIS_0wpJY0gekH_kq5fMB-LMal9IFDiLn9fHahqP4BJFKwIxqynKGcoXavgYen9FrE7oQFEYwEVpk7hHVQ/s1600/DSCN0263.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7ef-gWMG2UZ6eyXphy8uEbSfr0wh09oOZ3s1-VrAO5dyDB84GxwlO-0lKqyIS_0wpJY0gekH_kq5fMB-LMal9IFDiLn9fHahqP4BJFKwIxqynKGcoXavgYen9FrE7oQFEYwEVpk7hHVQ/s1600/DSCN0263.JPG" height="214" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqLXS82wtpePyNaZ7wZhxIPpfUFzdUJp3ocg6BNXydWpSAu8y5oz8EoPvL_5d7AkfCmyO5uLjV4j_UzH8OxwpAArTE4r2u_ekXajJgEhQphwg4bF3TuQ8l5kcJNuPldnbb7rMmq1uDtKg/s1600/family+with+chip+and+dale+ewoks.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqLXS82wtpePyNaZ7wZhxIPpfUFzdUJp3ocg6BNXydWpSAu8y5oz8EoPvL_5d7AkfCmyO5uLjV4j_UzH8OxwpAArTE4r2u_ekXajJgEhQphwg4bF3TuQ8l5kcJNuPldnbb7rMmq1uDtKg/s1600/family+with+chip+and+dale+ewoks.jpeg" height="213" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The food was (of course) not entirely impressive, especially for two table credits, although none of it was BAD and I have to say the lobster mac and cheese was rather tasty. My husband still talks about it. Here’s a picture of the Yoda cupcake.</span></div>
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<a href="http://i.imgur.com/Cdy6wrAl.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://i.imgur.com/Cdy6wrAl.jpg" height="320" width="213" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> I insisted that my daughter pose with me in a lightsaber battle. Everyone had a paper placemat thing that you could roll into either a blue (light side) or red (dark side) light saber. My kids prefer the dark side, which is probably not a parenting “win” on my part, although it could just be that they’re way cooler than me. ;)</span></div>
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<a href="http://i.imgur.com/K37bOjDl.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://i.imgur.com/K37bOjDl.jpg" height="214" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> From a weather perspective, we lucked out because it poured while we were eating and wasn’t as bad when we got out (at least not at first). Our H&V dinner was a Fantasmic dinner so I had our passes for the first show. Back in 2009 I hadn’t seen any nighttime shows (Kathryn and I rode Spaceship Earth while Dennis and David took Illuminations photos on that trip) and it was a big deal to have one planned for this trip. Yea!</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Except...not so much. It was raining off and on all afternoon and this led to disappointment #2. Sadly, the rain increased during the course of the evening so the 9:15 Fantasmic was cancelled and nobody (not even me...the insane Disney mom) was up for staying for the second showing because who knew if the second one would also be cancelled, we’d been there since 8:10 a.m. with no break...and </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">tomorrow</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> was Magic Kingdom.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Other than those two let downs it was a great DHS day. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Great but exhausting….we were very wet at the end of the day from all the rain, as you can tell from these lovely before (at the bus stop) and after (heading out of the park) pictures…(notice I'm smiling just as much at the end of the day because I am THAT MUCH OF A DISNEY/STAR WARS NERD - who wouldn't be on cloud nine when she's dressed as Leia and exploring Disney World???)</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Regardless of our exhaustion, we found our new favorite ride that day (Rock n Roller rules!). I loved singing the wrong words to Aerosmith as I rode it although I didn’t realize until later that it’s “Dude looks like a lady” - not “You look like a lady.” I was a nerd in the 80’s. And that was before being a nerd was cool. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Anyway...we went back to the hotel and even though I missed my shot at a night show, I was secretly glad for the extra sleep. The next day was Magic Kingdom rope drop. If my family thought I was being a dictator for an early start at DHS...well they hadn’t seen anything yet! </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">But we were all going to have a nap tomorrow and I had a great MK touring plan. I wasn’t worried at all. I went to bed confident that our Magic Kingdom day would run perfectly.</span></div>
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JennInAustinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12672076120253993937noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4430661281907732532.post-19541538831121390802014-06-24T15:12:00.002-05:002014-06-24T15:12:46.723-05:00Mini-update about Mousekeeping, Towel Decorations, and Room Decoration<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">You didn’t expect my trip report to go in chronological order, did you? </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Silly readers!</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Instead of talking about room decorations and such in the order in which they occurred, I’m lumping all of them into this post. Why am I doing that, you might ask? Um. I saw a towel decoration picture and it reminded me I hadn’t mentioned it earlier. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">But... now I’ve convinced myself that it was an intentional artistic decision on my part to post all towel and window decorations in one post. <*POOF! Memory that puts me in a better light inserted here…*> </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Moving on with this decorative post….</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">On Monday (our water park/HDDR day), we were in our room for quite a few hours at the time when Mousekeeping was on our hallway. (Actually my family was in the room and I was doing laundry...minor detail.) So our “do not disturb” sign was up for a while...but we made sure to take the sign down when we left. Unfortunately, when we got back late that night, the room wasn’t cleaned. So...I needed to call for towels and such. The nice lady on the phone was very apologetic and told me to be sure and call her tomorrow so it wouldn’t happen again. It wasn’t a huge deal - I got my lovely H2O shampoo and a clean towel - I’d be fine.</span></div>
<b id="docs-internal-guid-b29fead1-cf7c-30e0-60a2-d2a26cd85366" style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It seemed odd she wanted me to call the next day but I was tired and said “ok.” I’m nothing if not obedient. When I called the next morning before we left for DHS, I assured them we planned to be gone all day. When we got back to our room that night, we found these lovely towel flowers.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Oh, happy day! (Or, technically, happy evening…)</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Speaking of decorating the room and doing fun little extra things for your family...I’d brought some window decorations with me. I didn’t see any others up at Coronado Springs but I didn’t let that stop me. I had our window decorated before we went to Animal Kingdom on arrival day! Here I am with my teddy bear (he’s been with me since my freshman year of college, longer than my husband!) as he and I peek out of our decorated window.</span></div>
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<a href="http://i.imgur.com/PAG5Wi8.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://i.imgur.com/PAG5Wi8.jpg" height="266" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">You’re about to read about our Magic Kingdom morning, which (spoiler alert!) was particularly rough for my daughter. After an exhausting morning, we came back to our room and I wasn’t expecting it to be cleaned yet - but it was. Not only was the room clean, but Mousekeeping set this on the edge of our bed. </span></div>
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<a href="http://i.imgur.com/AGxdM0H.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://i.imgur.com/AGxdM0H.jpg" height="320" width="240" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Ariel doll was my daughter’s Tinkerbell present that morning (yes, I had Tink gifts for my 15 and 11 year old every morning). After a rough morning (that turned into a wonderful afternoon and evening), it was a beautiful thing to find on the bed!</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Needless to say, I made a point of going down to the concierge and leaving a compliment card for our great Mousekeeper and telling them how much we appreciated her! (We didn’t get any towel animals during our last trip and I was always sort of bummed about that. If these towel animals showed up out of guilt because Mousekeeping missed one day of cleaning, then I am totally fine with missing a day of cleaning!)</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">(Yes, we tip Mousekeeping in case you’re curious - but we tipped last visit also. They deserve tips no matter whether or not you get towel animals!)</span></div>
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JennInAustinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12672076120253993937noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4430661281907732532.post-73110568619812139942014-06-23T16:49:00.000-05:002014-06-23T16:49:40.760-05:00Day 4 - Disney Hollywood Studios - Part 1 (Star Wars and Aerosmith)<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The hot chocolate bribe totally worked. It was a long morning walk, but to be perfectly honest - it wasn’t a burden at all. I truly enjoyed the early morning light, the quiet, the huge polka-dot bird I saw flying noisily over the lake (I know that sounds strange but it seriously had polka dots...wish I’d had my phone with me to take a picture) and loved starting the day with a private walk as I began to get excited about our Star Wars Day.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 17.25px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Sure enough, the kids were perky and ready to tackle DHS - they hopped up on the rocks outside our building to prove it. (Spoiler - this wasn't what caused the trip to the ER...)</span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyilwV3WOyCwj8mQq_LPkbm_MqMiUH0_w5ZzwEo6wqSpsJuT_vzKVw0Pj9r0ae7Xp0YR4Ij6uLht4_hs_d6CS-U7VGHSsXp11kGDc96JGZfwvS5mt01zWaT8kqdLm5-fXaahPiZ_BkK0E/s1600/IMG_0219.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyilwV3WOyCwj8mQq_LPkbm_MqMiUH0_w5ZzwEo6wqSpsJuT_vzKVw0Pj9r0ae7Xp0YR4Ij6uLht4_hs_d6CS-U7VGHSsXp11kGDc96JGZfwvS5mt01zWaT8kqdLm5-fXaahPiZ_BkK0E/s1600/IMG_0219.JPG" height="400" width="300" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Do I even need to tell you how I Bounded on my Disney Hollywood Studios day? This was the day we had our Jedi Mickey meal so I was Princess Leia, of course! (Yes, Leia counts as a DisneyBound now that Disney owns Star Wars.) <*sticking fingers in ears and pretending not to hear anyone who disagrees with me on that point*></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I informed my family that there would be none of that “back-of-the-rope-drop-crowd” nonsense on our DHS day. No, sirree! We were going to be up there near the front. To be honest, we are ALL certified Star Wars fans so this is probably the day that excited all of us the most. This becomes obvious because we had SO much fun with the various Star Wars stuff hanging around the park during the day.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPVa45kgQSR8-EWL-7UuDbaPfbJpC-Sf9VKbr1ctXaEUlT96Doq0Jp9HXNRwAE54j_mKsHzhruBIC9KWKTXZH7UQexKJ3a2bUIki9-bCbYy-zbpsG1oLVfHaT5958mjV35dnq2DjhaG2w/s1600/star+wars.jpg.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPVa45kgQSR8-EWL-7UuDbaPfbJpC-Sf9VKbr1ctXaEUlT96Doq0Jp9HXNRwAE54j_mKsHzhruBIC9KWKTXZH7UQexKJ3a2bUIki9-bCbYy-zbpsG1oLVfHaT5958mjV35dnq2DjhaG2w/s1600/star+wars.jpg.png" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZkpSF8JtppCOXd5NwKjLLuEHB-LKtfAWeLU5nZJseMnSuc243fee9_LiziY9YxHIRSboJ3PmGXkJ7vil8cwpat-SCA90YfYIxWDzKV-SML01vNkmARVMN3bBjF8AdnKORyREWJ_fo2nI/s1600/kids+on+speeders.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZkpSF8JtppCOXd5NwKjLLuEHB-LKtfAWeLU5nZJseMnSuc243fee9_LiziY9YxHIRSboJ3PmGXkJ7vil8cwpat-SCA90YfYIxWDzKV-SML01vNkmARVMN3bBjF8AdnKORyREWJ_fo2nI/s1600/kids+on+speeders.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I grabbed a Jedi Mickey dinner at Hollywood and Vine the first day they became available (it pays to stalk those Disney forums, people) and Dennis asked a few times each day for the exact date we’d be going to the Star Wars dinner - so he was clearly excited about that meal, just like me. Truthfully, we were all pretty psyched about getting to DHS and I’d warned them it would be a looong day so everyone needed to be rested so we could make it all the way from “true” rope drop to the first Fantasmic. (That was the </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“plan”</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">…and you know what they say about the best laid plans, don’t you?)</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The PhotoPass photographer at the front of the park came up with another kissy shot for us (we didn’t even ask for it but loved it!). </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBoLT-aMlKUBkUOBBGbf7wDGFCPsNHw24ItHC-GJ80R30DkRcnH1GrUGSkDPGjOD1s7SoOE_V0Zu59yUjaMATKA5nHoaMJN6vf8HJeBfc2Zn6CxYEMlc_3CYy2pW00LEpzpjTiwx4KvBU/s1600/DHS+kiss.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBoLT-aMlKUBkUOBBGbf7wDGFCPsNHw24ItHC-GJ80R30DkRcnH1GrUGSkDPGjOD1s7SoOE_V0Zu59yUjaMATKA5nHoaMJN6vf8HJeBfc2Zn6CxYEMlc_3CYy2pW00LEpzpjTiwx4KvBU/s1600/DHS+kiss.jpeg" height="212" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And I’m sharing this one because it perfectly sums up how my kids relate to each other. We’re lucky parents - they look out for each other no matter what.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmMITDaC922xS5JTOUPnPOk62Ya7mWldTF6JcqgqKmUU-9cY_yw0V5PT19WYwHMa-TISCrYuZHJCM5F8Iju1YExdg8u_-woECRzd3vJjviLekeDxZ13BXmBglnYDSAHSmYXBwRsoOsLXs/s1600/D+and+K.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmMITDaC922xS5JTOUPnPOk62Ya7mWldTF6JcqgqKmUU-9cY_yw0V5PT19WYwHMa-TISCrYuZHJCM5F8Iju1YExdg8u_-woECRzd3vJjviLekeDxZ13BXmBglnYDSAHSmYXBwRsoOsLXs/s1600/D+and+K.jpeg" height="213" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I’m glad we stopped for those pre-rope drop pictures.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">During the bus ride to DHS, my son announced he planned to try Rock n Roller Coaster. I was pleasantly surprised and his decision was probably one of the highlights of our trip. The original plan was for my husband and daughter to do RnR themselves and I didn’t think I’d get to do it. Not only did I get to do it but my son LOVED, LOVED, LOVED it. (We all did.) He sat with his big sister on all the rides he could and my husband and I could hear him yelling during that first ride. We asked him later what he was saying and Kathryn told us he was yelling “I am so awesome!” Gotta love it. We rode it again that night before we went home.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Here we are on our first RnR ride:</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLJACD8zkdD1LuVKxpsgBY4JpVv5G7jc6SPB6YWX9z_Rg93ldwUUvdAwZSJNV4K6MUWMWtbg8GJQLfXX1iCnP5rq9TINtnig8D1R7iFZ-B2pMBzd5WpJsUxyvBHgiDuNF6zhDfP-OPYkQ/s1600/RnR+1.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLJACD8zkdD1LuVKxpsgBY4JpVv5G7jc6SPB6YWX9z_Rg93ldwUUvdAwZSJNV4K6MUWMWtbg8GJQLfXX1iCnP5rq9TINtnig8D1R7iFZ-B2pMBzd5WpJsUxyvBHgiDuNF6zhDfP-OPYkQ/s1600/RnR+1.jpeg" height="266" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And here we are that night, when we rode it again...I was so proud I managed to hold onto the heart shape with my hands long enough! When I saw that my daughter and husband had matching expressions I couldn’t stop laughing. :)</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgal0vCaFlJpqzFvqPPxMtizZTyqBKqRmfDArpxzEaqKmD3UnqcL0e6Rgfc2y_Ss3m3b22_4_65ybLZ4hGbJfAjRAhJU1TkSs0hf6UW_rEze1MlRRrHhXJqbQ7ZUONPsv6xl-Dtuopzprk/s1600/RnR+2.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgal0vCaFlJpqzFvqPPxMtizZTyqBKqRmfDArpxzEaqKmD3UnqcL0e6Rgfc2y_Ss3m3b22_4_65ybLZ4hGbJfAjRAhJU1TkSs0hf6UW_rEze1MlRRrHhXJqbQ7ZUONPsv6xl-Dtuopzprk/s1600/RnR+2.jpeg" height="266" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The entire family loved that coaster and couldn’t wait to go again. After RnR, the plan was to go straight to ToT. (In hindsight, I should have gone again with Dennis while David and Kathryn went to ToT.) My son was less sure about ToT but I encouraged him to go through the queue because I told him we could enjoy all the theming then get out before getting on the elevator. I also told him it was bound to be less scary of a ride than RnR or Expedition Everest. Here’s the problem: I was thinking of velocity, loops, and G-forces - I wasn’t considering the spook factor. That turned out to be a mistake. This is the ride that taught me that my son doesn’t like “spooky.” Scary, fast rides are fine - but the Twilight Zone, spooky aspect was NOT OK with him. We didn’t ride it (of course) but even the line bothered him until we took the optional exit out. Now we know. David and Kathryn liked the ride all right but said they wouldn’t have waited in a long line for it. Hmmm. I’ll probably try it some day but I don’t feel as if I was missing much.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Our touring plan worked brilliantly all day long with two important exceptions, both of which happened at the end of the day. Before that point, however, we did so much and enjoyed DHS a ton! </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We rode:</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">- Star Tours 3 or 4x, </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.15; white-space: pre-wrap;">- RnR 2x </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">- David and Kathryn did ToT </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">- we all went to the animation class early (thanks to advice I got on the boards) so we didn’t have to wait very long for our class </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">- we met Wreck it Ralph with only a 15 minute wait (it was only character “line” we waited in...but it was important for us because we are the Reck family)</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">- TSMM with our FP</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">- GMR with FP (the Alien scene wasn’t pleasant for my son….because the creepy/spooky factor isn’t fun for him.)</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">- we all enjoyed the museum and movie at One Man’s Dream</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">- and we also spent a good amount of time in the Star Wars shop where my daughter bought most of her goodies and my son made a lightsaber. (That line was a bit long, but worth it.) </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Oh - and of course we went to the Muppets. They were great! You might be thinking that this schedule doesn't account for all our time but there was quite a bit of time we spent in the Indy theater (more on that later) and also just wandering around a bit, getting the kids' pictures taken on the Star Wars speeders, grabbing a vodka lemonade for yours truly, and other enjoyable activities. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We particularly loved the ducks wandering all over the place. It was a pretty rainy day after about 2:00 and at one point we came across a momma duck with her babies following her. They just hung out under a bench during a rainstorm so we all oooohed and awed over the cuties. Don’t let yourself get so caught up in your mission that you fail to stop and smell the roses, or play with baby ducks as the case might be. </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGZtdGJmLjHGnEq5uvrg6O-uHPFUzrbwybKvEz2Hr-o3nXWoIZJAH3UvPlWW_pDMEGRxceBM2o1OGpcRLwcZT5kb4VCS_9Oo3K0w3YmppcyGqCR_6pfVllkilZRvScMkPd0PyJnpRgLDo/s1600/DSCN0193.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGZtdGJmLjHGnEq5uvrg6O-uHPFUzrbwybKvEz2Hr-o3nXWoIZJAH3UvPlWW_pDMEGRxceBM2o1OGpcRLwcZT5kb4VCS_9Oo3K0w3YmppcyGqCR_6pfVllkilZRvScMkPd0PyJnpRgLDo/s1600/DSCN0193.JPG" height="266" width="400" /></a></div>
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JennInAustinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12672076120253993937noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4430661281907732532.post-51325263308343952802014-06-23T13:41:00.001-05:002014-06-23T16:05:34.454-05:00We interrupt this ongoing Trip Report for an important snack report:<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Verdana; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Before my WDW trip, I read about food at Disney obsessively (hardly shocking, as I read about EVERYTHING obsessively). At some point in my surfing, I came across a blog article regarding the food options at Typhoon Lagoon and I paid particular attention to that as I didn't expect much from water park food options and wanted to have my best shot at enjoying the food there. The </span><a href="http://www.disneytouristblog.com/typhoon-lagoon-dining-reviews/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Verdana; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Disney Tourist Blog</span></a><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Verdana; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> clued me in to the glory of the mini donuts and how they are only found at Typhoon Lagoon. Tom went on and on so much about these donuts that I was truly intrigued and wanted to find them. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Verdana; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Luckily, Dennis and I found them after riding Crush'n Gusher. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Verdana; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Ladies and gentlemen, there ARE NO WORDS to describe the deliciousness of these mini donuts. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: blue; font-family: Verdana; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I've never put anything so amazingly delicious into my mouth </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Verdana; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">(except maybe the soup at Boma...but that's in a different category and we're not to our Boma day yet in the trip report....so I digress). I honestly believe I stopped in the middle of the sidewalk in stunned silence.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Verdana; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Some people think Disney made a financial mistake by investing so much into their new technology instead of new rides. That might be a valid point, but I don't pretend to have great accounting and financial insight so I remain agnostic (although who wouldn't love new rides?). I will tell you one thing...Disney is passing up a GOLD MINE by not having mini-donut carts every 15 feet in the other parks. Wow. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Verdana; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Just.....wow. You must buy mini-donuts, people. Here's the only picture - 2 left for my kids in the bucket sitting next to my daughter's chocolate covered funnel cake (which was also pretty good but not very photogenic). A side benefit of this picture is that you can see how small our reserved table was under our Typhoon Lagoon umbrella. </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGJZazgN1yLCR1CBJ0rCRPh8tOMsMrgcdhWJl00YuwdmwAoXq-YUcxx9XQnoO0vNXtpLQs4bGO5HFOmbNLiGfaburIpGep1aVLJHBXGUiv0XCPMvSvpt37kW7KGZMRxzzhT6r1ds3wXEo/s1600/IMG_0196.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGJZazgN1yLCR1CBJ0rCRPh8tOMsMrgcdhWJl00YuwdmwAoXq-YUcxx9XQnoO0vNXtpLQs4bGO5HFOmbNLiGfaburIpGep1aVLJHBXGUiv0XCPMvSvpt37kW7KGZMRxzzhT6r1ds3wXEo/s1600/IMG_0196.JPG" height="320" width="240" /></a></div>
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JennInAustinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12672076120253993937noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4430661281907732532.post-12551091653912235192014-06-21T13:57:00.000-05:002014-06-21T13:57:11.457-05:00Day 3 - June 9th - Typhoon Lagoon and Hoop De Doo Review<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This was our non-park day, but true to form, I’d still made….you know…. “plans.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We got to sleep a little longer that morning because rope drop at a water park isn’t the same as rope drop at MK or EPCOT. Sadly...the wait for the Typhoon Lagoon bus was way, way too LONG. I admit it...I began to stress out. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A lot.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> I started babbling about how we should have taken a cab...and how we wouldn’t be there at rope drop. I don’t think anyone in my family specifically </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">told</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> me to shut up but I suspect they were thinking it. To my credit...I realized I was going a little psycho and admitted (out loud to my loved ones) that I knew I was being a bit crazy. But...I really wanted to be there when Typhoon Lagoon opened. I’d read how crowded the water parks could be and we were all excited to swim at the shark reef.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Of course, it was all fine. I’d sprung for the $50 reserved umbrella and chairs (you also get 4 towels and a locker, which is nice but less necessary than you might at first expect - we didn’t even use the locker and sort of dried our faces at the end of the morning with our towels *shrug*). </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Before I get into more details - if you’ve never been to Typhoon Lagoon during a Disney trip, I highly recommend that you make time during your next visit. It was never a big thing I wanted to do (after all, I tend to be focused on rides and enjoying the resort) and I grew up going to Schlitterbahn in Texas. I figured I knew water parks. The only reason we went this time was because we had free tickets from our travel agent. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Thank goodness for that freebie because I learned that a Disney water park is nothing like a typical water park. The theming at these parks is like all of Disney’s theming - incredible. Even walking in, we felt like we were suddenly on an island in the middle of the ocean. You know how at regular water parks you can see the structures supporting the slides? It’s not like that at all at Typhoon Lagoon. We had so much fun noticing the details waiting in lines here - just like we did at the parks. (Although thankfully the lines weren’t much of an issue.) I didn't get many great pictures but to get a feel for some of the cool details like a tractor that the “typhoon” deposited on a roof and a surfboard through a tree, you should really look at some of the pictures on this site: </span><a href="http://davidgalletly.com/blog/2011/10/23/typhoon-lagoons-theming.html" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">http://davidgalletly.com/blog/2011/10/23/typhoon-lagoons-theming.html</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> There’s a great written description of the Typhoon Lagoon details on the Allears site: </span><a href="http://allears.net/ae/issue643.htm" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">http://allears.net/ae/issue643.htm</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> .</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A few words of wisdom about Typhoon Lagoon:</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">- Most important tip: We went to the Shark Reef first and didn’t have a wait (apparently later in the day you might have to wait for quite a while to swim across the reef), but you might notice on the discussion boards that there is </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">quite a bit of talk</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> about how the stuff they use to clean the masks stings the skin on some people. I was moderately concerned about that. My son and I have very sensitive skin and I’d warned him and my husband that might be a small issue. I debated about whether I should take snorkeling equipment, at least for him, but ultimately chose not to do that. That was the wrong choice. The stinging was a </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">big</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> issue, not a small one. We were both in a lot of discomfort as soon as we put the masks on. I’m 43 and decided to tough it out. I enjoyed seeing the sharks way below me and a group of Dory fish swam right under me where I felt as if I could touch them. Dennis, on the other hand, said - no way, Jose - and chose to forgo the swim so he could remove the mask. We both continued to feel the stinging for a number of hours after the swim (and he only had his mask on for a few minutes). It certainly wasn’t bad enough to ruin our fun and we never got red marks but whatever they use on those things was very painful for us. If you think your kiddo might react in a similar way, toss in a mask and snorkel for them. It’s worth it.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">- I picked Monday as our Typhoon Lagoon day because Josh (EasyWDW) had only one park as green that day. Since the “regular” WDW parks were predicted to be more busy on Monday, I figured this would be as good a day as any to use our free water park tickets. It was great. I’ve heard the water parks are sometimes quickly overrun with people and it certainly became more busy later in the morning, but I always saw plenty of empty chairs. Maybe the reserved umbrella wasn’t as critical as I first assumed, but it was still nice to have that spot and we felt very safe just leaving our stuff there all morning.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">- I sort of wish I hadn’t planned Hoop de Doo Review on the same day as the water park because I think we all would have enjoyed staying at Typhoon Lagoon all day long.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">- I was pleasantly surprised to run into PhotoPass photographers at the water park! There was a photopass photographer as we entered the park and we got a magic Sebastian shot. </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwlYFyWRaPrOQfCK_HGudK5nu8u8r0NajOSubW6hFlQlQ56YJQMl7L237k0d2p1YBBGPjAAz7dbJ03djDYglT9H3rnU5QS5cLpBYwmLk7tmdmrcoE3oGfg5NHgAG8nkGR2XtjIV9cFCS4/s1600/sebastian+at+Typhoon+Lagoon.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwlYFyWRaPrOQfCK_HGudK5nu8u8r0NajOSubW6hFlQlQ56YJQMl7L237k0d2p1YBBGPjAAz7dbJ03djDYglT9H3rnU5QS5cLpBYwmLk7tmdmrcoE3oGfg5NHgAG8nkGR2XtjIV9cFCS4/s1600/sebastian+at+Typhoon+Lagoon.jpeg" height="266" width="400" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbgO5nw7LfvIVyJh8mhaZo-WQkwmlQ3Atri5yJkd67-w9jTApoY3rEY6YaOV_nRlgSDAJOHi0Yr8vQj6t30j7mEyTlJ_91jc_zDnlxesJMeOSSva4iO_3du7Kcv6nZfU-HFKNZuNgcVKo/s1600/David+and+K+on+slide.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbgO5nw7LfvIVyJh8mhaZo-WQkwmlQ3Atri5yJkd67-w9jTApoY3rEY6YaOV_nRlgSDAJOHi0Yr8vQj6t30j7mEyTlJ_91jc_zDnlxesJMeOSSva4iO_3du7Kcv6nZfU-HFKNZuNgcVKo/s1600/David+and+K+on+slide.jpeg" height="320" width="213" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZhQVycEBuBkCJqPS6JfTcaefEn223Y9AIchCJKPkAs2FT4oj2-Xd-OZk0k4khhwHk_pavJaPz4n4CFDrmhEPmgTOYM6NAMawSibq_r5pJhA1vclpe-hIa2dCv4A5xakXw_Y2r8CRfybk/s1600/mom+and+dennis+on+slide.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZhQVycEBuBkCJqPS6JfTcaefEn223Y9AIchCJKPkAs2FT4oj2-Xd-OZk0k4khhwHk_pavJaPz4n4CFDrmhEPmgTOYM6NAMawSibq_r5pJhA1vclpe-hIa2dCv4A5xakXw_Y2r8CRfybk/s1600/mom+and+dennis+on+slide.jpeg" height="213" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">- A lifeguard had to jump in to help a kid in the wave pool at one point and it took FOREVER for the waves to start again. Seriously...it seems like it must have been 45 minutes. Maybe that was a coincidence but I don’t think it was - so if someone gets rescued (the kid was fine, just needed some help) and the wave machine is turned off, you might as well go do something else if the waves are fun for you because it will be a while for the waves to start again.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhy5ek_Q8YBHI3VuhajUBzaEjMqPC6VPY3fVp40todmJdtAxanH1mDxFSuC_elJpZrVe16Cfs77mj6Eit8BgcXw_Ko3SMZJxuDFaXObAbtzKU8nYOinA0phrWbekNlxWpqycX80n7thHRM/s1600/raft3.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhy5ek_Q8YBHI3VuhajUBzaEjMqPC6VPY3fVp40todmJdtAxanH1mDxFSuC_elJpZrVe16Cfs77mj6Eit8BgcXw_Ko3SMZJxuDFaXObAbtzKU8nYOinA0phrWbekNlxWpqycX80n7thHRM/s1600/raft3.JPG" height="193" width="320" /></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">- Although plenty of people posted that Gangplank Falls (the ride where you can get your whole family in a big raft) was no big deal, I’m very glad we did it. It was FUN to ride in a raft together. I handed my husband our waterproof camera and he snapped a few fun pictures during the ride.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjR5zdXi0E01X2m4Ml1Uey5HKdIgnwgT0utSEraoTuq2rPD-Yy7UyTqDeOQIbzR_yIKc-mTLolZAUoODGkauLw2FMzjGNjaxOKDKxHCc2YbBs_wNLS9tgiqZOKMXmzm4jjG2IOzcTuktzQ/s1600/raft1.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjR5zdXi0E01X2m4Ml1Uey5HKdIgnwgT0utSEraoTuq2rPD-Yy7UyTqDeOQIbzR_yIKc-mTLolZAUoODGkauLw2FMzjGNjaxOKDKxHCc2YbBs_wNLS9tgiqZOKMXmzm4jjG2IOzcTuktzQ/s1600/raft1.JPG" height="244" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">My daughter and husband rode more slides than Dennis and I did, primarily because Dennis really loved the wave pool and the lazy river. I mean...he REALLY loved those two things. He did a few slides with us but wanted to spend most of his time with the waves or in an inner tube.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">As you can tell, I’m posting a few of the crummy pictures I got with the waterproof camera because these are, by far, the most expensive pictures of the entire trip when you consider the per-print cost of buying the camera and having old-style film developed. (Not to mention the number of wasted pictures because I’m so spoiled now with seeing pictures on a screen before I get the shot. That’s not exactly an option with a water camera.)</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Here’s David with the two kids in the wave pool.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKXF4Kc_CAyarUPBK2zrr4rQtRZJs5qyYM37XaEZStRW_CENULJ_DdLjnRJeYfEzYtq0DlSES5mChyphenhyphenBwsNhadoC3bQbA_3SQg9jy-sDgZM4jWGfLc7Gey42Ft2N_tc18paHbct3r8ycRo/s1600/wave3.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKXF4Kc_CAyarUPBK2zrr4rQtRZJs5qyYM37XaEZStRW_CENULJ_DdLjnRJeYfEzYtq0DlSES5mChyphenhyphenBwsNhadoC3bQbA_3SQg9jy-sDgZM4jWGfLc7Gey42Ft2N_tc18paHbct3r8ycRo/s1600/wave3.JPG" height="400" width="252" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> All four of us ended up on the lazy river (girls at one time and boys at another) and I’m actually surprised how relaxed I was after that loop. The final stress I was carrying around about schedules and late buses, and getting things done finally melted away. It was honestly better than a muscle relaxer….ahhhhh…...and a lot of that peace stayed with me for the rest of the trip! You can see my fancy Magic Band (created by Kathryn, of course) as I hold onto her inner tube so we didn't get separated during the lazy river float.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCGKBSvRHewPTex4UwhtRK7sDuHRFhrYMUFILfo-t2u1GHQBJAnnUuE_C9AkZ-TdpIBRiAMB-07vhhgAU4zPJTGgOjeXmmyUn40M56OUFWTUlG5E1ZV65IKAsVGdZR-8Y1ylaWwxltaSI/s1600/river1.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCGKBSvRHewPTex4UwhtRK7sDuHRFhrYMUFILfo-t2u1GHQBJAnnUuE_C9AkZ-TdpIBRiAMB-07vhhgAU4zPJTGgOjeXmmyUn40M56OUFWTUlG5E1ZV65IKAsVGdZR-8Y1ylaWwxltaSI/s1600/river1.JPG" height="237" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We would have enjoyed more time at Typhoon Lagoon but we needed to get some rest and get ready for dinner at Hoop De Doo Review. We went home and all Recks without the first name Jennifer went to sleep while I did laundry. (So although “we all" needed rest, I opted for the Energizer-Bunny-Mom approach while the other three napped.) Our photopass pictures were already up and I had fun looking at the pictures, drinking Diet Coke, reading Freakonomics and doing laundry all by myself. (It’s funny how your idea of fun shifts in your 40s…)</span></div>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkEV0UCf61z_alZyi8wiNV3Q9dEBnALWpDGhqjxlKb75Jodnrlna3wlsvgrSIvs2ejUifV3I9r17J6769vZmBh7d5wWROovCtAkzdes0-hX1RLxsA4CPKFDl2k1b5R8WoBSPtzFOk1CcQ/s1600/DSCN0085.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; display: inline !important; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkEV0UCf61z_alZyi8wiNV3Q9dEBnALWpDGhqjxlKb75Jodnrlna3wlsvgrSIvs2ejUifV3I9r17J6769vZmBh7d5wWROovCtAkzdes0-hX1RLxsA4CPKFDl2k1b5R8WoBSPtzFOk1CcQ/s1600/DSCN0085.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; line-height: 17.25px; white-space: pre-wrap;">I was in charge of getting my family out of bed and heading to the bus. I also made sure my husband put on his Anniversary Button - we wore these babies every day, all the time, unless we were in our swim suits. It’s a fun thing to be told “happy anniversary” all day long and we even got a couple of phone calls from Mickey and Minnie, singing happy anniversary to us during the week. </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgj4EJURCmbRbCBtfi6oZSkYznZlKA5eISlD8flmIduQmP8jgJFA2wRjnur0dmXIqH_Ik_vV0INklopoh7ZybjDY3SwvSR2IfQYzWmwTbUKVVwniH6UkqpqtCbgztp5kyiYNGiJgOgGtpU/s1600/kids.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgj4EJURCmbRbCBtfi6oZSkYznZlKA5eISlD8flmIduQmP8jgJFA2wRjnur0dmXIqH_Ik_vV0INklopoh7ZybjDY3SwvSR2IfQYzWmwTbUKVVwniH6UkqpqtCbgztp5kyiYNGiJgOgGtpU/s1600/kids.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Back to waking up the family. My insistence upon limiting their naps to just an hour or so annoyed some (possibly all) of my family members because it was </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">hours</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> before our dinner reservation. Certain individuals (understandably) wanted more sleep. But I wanted to take the bus to MK so we could ride the boat to Fort Wilderness and I also wanted to have time to enjoy the area. I’m glad we did it that way. The boat ride to FW is lovely and it puts you right next to Pioneer Hall. It was so pretty, quite breezy, and even a little cooler over there...very, very calming. We saw the ponies and went into the horse stables to admire the huge horses. </span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkmppaPC0GFyLNqQ2mO_ei7UFLqyJkGX_-A1d3nCWNBsteM8KRmAgFBLHWwtc-mdkJa89dkKoROVcPhwHwJd_u9SQLoJKD_COiBu6IRRDkOe5vydxmpQoQUyFUnCMKMorDg6vgLiwO9lc/s1600/DSCN0069.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkmppaPC0GFyLNqQ2mO_ei7UFLqyJkGX_-A1d3nCWNBsteM8KRmAgFBLHWwtc-mdkJa89dkKoROVcPhwHwJd_u9SQLoJKD_COiBu6IRRDkOe5vydxmpQoQUyFUnCMKMorDg6vgLiwO9lc/s1600/DSCN0069.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Huge horses...</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTqEZYiLcumkG0QM5EBrHOpC7n35xgR9lDp8xX4HVqXLhPYueSJxNg3uS7BAuiokSxqd_pzO9Ayop8TUE1hnn7uzHZjJSLgocOe-2e8K1o2bt6BrmiZftXIcS2qZhp0oKTOdOFN6yIbBc/s1600/ponies.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTqEZYiLcumkG0QM5EBrHOpC7n35xgR9lDp8xX4HVqXLhPYueSJxNg3uS7BAuiokSxqd_pzO9Ayop8TUE1hnn7uzHZjJSLgocOe-2e8K1o2bt6BrmiZftXIcS2qZhp0oKTOdOFN6yIbBc/s1600/ponies.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ponies!</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.15; white-space: pre-wrap;">Then I gave my son $20 for the arcade and he played some games (my daughter joined him after about 15 minutes) while my husband and I had a drink at Crockett’s Tavern. After finishing our drinks, we went to get the kids and David re-lived his youth as he played Galaga.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2_iFDfPFE0s6WbHPEXzP9L51sOwJoO9v6o-q9nQOnBYelxw7mR7YIfY0jB9eaze5_8pqR1grkUP8mF7tYRY04E5y6SKqNHfhi1uxMtQTn-wUMunUaVYN-7G3uCQLXDuz15WAOfuFy_pw/s1600/Galaga.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2_iFDfPFE0s6WbHPEXzP9L51sOwJoO9v6o-q9nQOnBYelxw7mR7YIfY0jB9eaze5_8pqR1grkUP8mF7tYRY04E5y6SKqNHfhi1uxMtQTn-wUMunUaVYN-7G3uCQLXDuz15WAOfuFy_pw/s1600/Galaga.JPG" height="320" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I don’t think I’ve ever seen a negative comment about HDDR. I’m sure they’re out there somewhere but considering how many negative comments you can find about EVERYTHING ELSE at Disney on the forums - I had pretty high expectations for HDDR and I was NOT disappointed. It was such a funny and fun show. Our waiter told the corniest jokes on the planet and we had beer and fried chicken before bed. Gotta love it! </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOfiOzl_R3ii3mJaa68XiVLrTlx-DWyuVWpmCFNS9ApS4tOGH4renPIJWXi5Bm4B_7cr2d5dDYgwxNRaUdkC7KhJfECJX2v7ylJ713RLajRnRRG9a3v-QY59NrtGn5bON9qzsHUH83ZeM/s1600/DSCN0091.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOfiOzl_R3ii3mJaa68XiVLrTlx-DWyuVWpmCFNS9ApS4tOGH4renPIJWXi5Bm4B_7cr2d5dDYgwxNRaUdkC7KhJfECJX2v7ylJ713RLajRnRRG9a3v-QY59NrtGn5bON9qzsHUH83ZeM/s1600/DSCN0091.JPG" height="150" width="200" /></a></div>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifE5tPQKnsF2EH1hYy6W61yK5K2A9KvW5kQCNAnfcyOXrDUM_cRzm7i0pnKsJYv3Bq6z3iQB-xA1JsWBSlShb4MEL97tzapnIPiOXZ7lFQkh9aOOfPAl26CooZXIlYVXtu_2bezoglKGk/s1600/DSCN0092.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifE5tPQKnsF2EH1hYy6W61yK5K2A9KvW5kQCNAnfcyOXrDUM_cRzm7i0pnKsJYv3Bq6z3iQB-xA1JsWBSlShb4MEL97tzapnIPiOXZ7lFQkh9aOOfPAl26CooZXIlYVXtu_2bezoglKGk/s1600/DSCN0092.JPG" height="150" width="200" /></a><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">They take your picture before the meal and I respected the fact that, although they brought the printouts into dinner and gave you the option to buy them, they also said "We see you have Memory Maker so you will have access to these online and don't need to buy them if you just want to have access that way." That's what we did!</span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOJEqTv_TMw3nYP40ci01Azicpkb6_GneG7xBe_QL4uJvux8RNk8-7295Kbm7eQjqvFCzIScR_OgvOYcST3tsPiekxjlx3C2rZWRajcO5fYpVzZ72DxbrwIMUcuCjhVkk-36AEi53df0U/s1600/HDDR+family+picture.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOJEqTv_TMw3nYP40ci01Azicpkb6_GneG7xBe_QL4uJvux8RNk8-7295Kbm7eQjqvFCzIScR_OgvOYcST3tsPiekxjlx3C2rZWRajcO5fYpVzZ72DxbrwIMUcuCjhVkk-36AEi53df0U/s1600/HDDR+family+picture.jpeg" height="400" width="266" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">It's sort of obvious which Reck has the best fashion sense, isn't it?</td></tr>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Oh - I DisneyBounded as Merida for dinner (because, you know, there are horses at Fort Wilderness) by wearing a dark green t-shirt and a bow and arrow necklace. </span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">You’re probably wondering if I bounded as Ariel that morning by wearing a purple bikini to Typhoon Lagoon, aren’t you? No. No I did not. </span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">After dinner, they had buses waiting for all the resorts and I handed out glow sticks to all the kids in the bus, telling them they were magic wands. </span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Once we were at our room, I told everybody to go straight to bed because tomorrow was going to be a “real” rope drop and it was important to be at the front of the crowd. We’d be staying at Disney Hollywood Studios all day long to watch the first Fantasmic so we needed our rest!</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I think the last thing I told my kids as they went to sleep that night was that if they got up without complaint the next day, I’d walk over to the main building to refill their mugs with hot chocolate for breakfast.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Really, Mom?” (They knew it was a seriously long walk.) I reiterated my promise and had high hopes for the morning. Stay tuned to hear about our Star Wars day!</span></div>
<br />JennInAustinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12672076120253993937noreply@blogger.com0