Ok, hear me out...
We went to Disney World today. It was one of the things that we’d
planned to do, the tickets were bought, and it’s literally Steve’s
favorite place on earth. That’s not an exaggeration. It holds a lot of
sentimental value to him and the trip there meant a lot to him. I felt
very weird about going, but I didn’t want to disappoint him. So we went.
I expected that it wouldn’t be crowded, because things have been
getting hairy with COVID-19 since we left Huntsville last Sunday and people were being told to stay home. I’d
hoped that, if it weren’t crowded, then we wouldn’t be in as much risk.
As it turns out, I was very, very wrong.
People won’t go to work. People won’t go to school. People won’t go
to church, the grocery store (except to hoard toilet paper for some reason), or to the mall. But people will
absolutely go to fuckin’ Disney World. They will go and take their kids,
their tiny babies, their old grandmothers and pawpaws. It felt like the
whole state of Florida was in those parks with us not giving one damn
about anything else going in right now. It was crowded beyond anything
I’ve ever seen when I've been there. It blew my mind.
I’d like to think it was society
bravely giving the finger to danger, but what it really is, is misplaced
priorities and bad judgement. I include us in that statement.
I can’t really throw stones, since I was there too, but I genuinely
thought more people would have better sense than to brings kinds and
elderly people into the parks, but I give people too much credit.
Look, I enjoyed the day as much as I could. It was hot, crowded,
and loud, but it was fun watching Steve have fun, and he (knowing DW is
not at all my favorite place to be) wanted so badly for me to have fun
with him that I did my best to oblige. We rode in the Millennium Falcon
and had blue milk in Galaxy’s Edge, we went all around the world in
Epcot, and we went into the miserably packed Magic Kingdom and only
managed to get on one ride before we had to leave. I did begin to lose
my sense of humor about being there around the time I got packed into a
queue line with roughly a million other people to ride Pirates of the
Caribbean, and that was the end of our day. I just couldn’t deal
anymore. We made one last stop at a shop and then hopped a bus back to
the car to drive out to our final hotel near the airport.
I had fun, I truly did, and I am so glad Steve had fun, but I’m not
going to lie: I felt like an asshole for going to that theme park. I
knew I was exposing myself to a potential illness that I could pass on
to someone else, and it seems so dumb in hindsight. Earlier in the week,
I didn’t feel so much that way, but after being inundated with
everything going on in social media, and people getting asked to stay
home from, well, everything, and finding out even Disney would be
closing next week, in the end, I really, genuinely felt like an asshole
for the possibility of what could happen. I still do.
Ah well, nothing can be changed now. I’ll have to deal with the
fallout if it happens. I don’t expect sympathy if it does. Maybe I
really am just an asshole.
Two funny things happened: 1) Steve and I were riding the sky
bucket/gondolas things from one park to another, and four other people
got into our pod. Since we are in the South, of course pollen was super
thick there. I have awful seasonal allergies, and had taken medicine to
help, but I got a tickle in my throat while in that pod. I knew if I
coughed, it would scare those folks, so I had to stifle it. Have you
ever tried not to cough? It is impossible! I finally had to turn to the
people (who were eyeing me quite warily by this point) and say “Sorry!
Don’t be scared! I swear I’m just allergic to pine trees!” They laughed
and seemed to relax, but I felt so bad! 2) Steve and I had lunch at the
Rose & Crown restaurant, which is located in the UK part of EPCOT.
(Aside: will they remove England from that part of EPCOT after Brexit?)
It was hot, and we were pretty dehydrated by that point, but I ordered
something called a Welsh Dragon, which was electric green and mildly (I
thought) alcoholic. Apparently, being dehydrated and drinking booze is a
bad mix. By the time we were done, and in the Canadian pavilion
“Circlevision” show, I almost lost the ability to stand under my own
power. Luckily, though, I got a hold of myself before face planting in
the theater. Also, just FYI, being slightly (or more) tipsy makes Disney much more
fun! Hehe!
One very not funny thing happened and it was possibly karmic in
nature. I wore a pair of baggy linen pants to the
park. During the course of the day, they got wet (as pants do in theme
parks with water and such) and I don’t know if it was a problem with the
inner seam, or because of the way they fit, or what, but they chafed my
legs so badly that it drew blood! Oh, dear heavens, I’ve never
had that kind of pain with walking in my life before! It was like
walking with knives stabbing me right in the thigh! If you ever want to know about places
your body rubs up against itself that you had no idea about, let me know
and I’ll let you know where to get pants like that! Youch.
Tomorrow we drive home. I'm going to miss being in Florida, but I think I"ll feel better not having to go out into crowds for a bit until all the craziness dies down.
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