RANDOM ACTS OF BLOGGING

1) Oooooh, y’all. I messed up.

Here is the thing: I like rocks. I like rocks and crystals and gems, and the gem and mineral show came to Huntsville. Anthony and I decided to go because he, too, likes rocks and stuff. I am a budding, late-in-life collector, and I knew I'd want to get some things, so I put aside some money to do just that. The first booth we saw had hundreds, and I mean hundreds, of strands of beads out on the table. Out where you could pick them up and touch them. There were pearls and colored gemstone beads; pretty much anything you could imagine. I wanted to get some pearls, because I recently learned how to properly knot a pearl necklace (which, if Bruce Wayne’s mother had been wearing, her necklace wouldn’t have broken and spilled her pearls all over the street. That is a pet peeve of mine, but I digress) and I've always wanted a string of real pearls but can't afford a nice one. I looked at the prices, and they weren’t bad, but I decided I’d wait until I’d gone to all the vendors before I got the pearls in case I changed my mind or spent all my money. Whichever came first.

I grabbed a few things I wanted on my way around the room and came back to the bead table. I perused the cultured pearls. 

-TANGENT- I have only recently done some rabbit holing about pearls, because I received a string of pearls from a great aunt that I needed to clean and re-string and had to learn how to do it properly. We always thought they were real, but they turned out to be costume jewelry. Also, they were in terrible condition, so I had to strip off the outside layer and was left with antique milk glass beads. Still pretty, but not pearls. At any rate, I learned a LOT about pearls in a short amount of time. - END TANGENT-

I found the exact ones I wanted. They were not the best, most ideal pearls, of course. They were not perfectly round, being slightly flattened, but still all matching in shape and the same size. They were the most delicious, delicate shades of subtle lavender, peach, gold, and white, too, so not just white pearls. I looked at the price tag and saw $54.00, and thought WOW, that's a steal. They must have imperfections that I can't see in this light. So I got that strand, a small carved bone pendant, and a strand of polished pink opal beads and handed them over to the guy behind the counter. He was THRILLED that I was buying these beads, and as he began to ring them up, I saw that I had misread the price tag on the pearls. They were not $54 dollars a strand, they were $540 dollars a strand. I almost swallowed my tongue. I did stop him and asked him to take off the opal beads, and thankfully the pearls were on sale for a hefty discount, but I still ended up paying almost $300. Thankfully, that was just about what I'd scraped together for my shopping trip.

I knew I could have told him I didn't want them after all, but he was an older man who was genuinely ecstatic that he'd made a sale, and I legit didn't want to disappoint him. Plus, the price I paid was still well below retail for that number of size-and-shape matched pearls. So now I'm the proud owner of these pears that I will need to make into something beautiful that one of my nieces will inherit and probably sell someday. Either that, or I will be handing out single pearls for every birthday, holiday, wedding, and funeral until they're all gone.

Moral of this story is: Read and re-read the price tags, friends!

2) After the Gem Show debacle, Anthony and I went to the Huntsville Museum of Art to see the Andy Warhol exhibit. It was a lot of fun, even if I have strong opinions about Andy Warhol, but I did see some stuff I had never seen before and didn't hate! We also wondered through some of the permanent exhibits, which I'd never done before. I think I'm going to get a membership, because it is reciprocal at a lot of other museums across the country. I do love a good museum, so I'm sure it'll be worth it!

3) You all know I'm a very vivid dreamer, and one of the best/worst things is when someone who is gone comes back in your dreams. I dreamed about my dad a while ago, and I was so excited to see him, but waking up from that was hard. I dreamed about Sara, and I can't prove it, but when she comes back into my dreams, it's less about visiting, and more like she's haunting me. I still love her, though. But one of the hardest things is when you dream about someone that is dead, or even just not around anymore, and they don't have their normal face. I don't know if, subconsciously, it hurts too much to see that person as they really are, or if it's just one of those weird quirks of the brain, but that happened recently. I had this elaborate, long, adventure-time dream about a friend I haven't seen in years, but he didn't look like himself, I just knew it was him. I was like "Dude, I know your family is Scotch-Irish and you were born and raised in Alabama...why are you Korean?" He didn't have a good answer for that. I guess it was still good to see him, though. 

4) I have had the most irritating situation with my doctor's office for the past few years. Don't get me wrong, I really like my actual GP. She's nice, and she listens, and she's very personable, but I'm starting to take umbrage with the rest of the place. I go once a year to do my yearly blood work and oil change, or whatever you want to call it. I get my levels and my prescriptions, and we call it good. Usually. However, there have been times that I needed to be referred to a specialist for tests. They did not refer me. I assumed that maybe they decided later that I didn't need the tests, but when my appointment came up the next year, I was asked if I'd seen the specialist. I said "No, because I didn't get referred." They said that they would refer me. They did not! This went on for about three years before I told them that I STILL hadn't been referred, and again they said they'd refer me, which they did, ONLY after they saw my chart and noticed I'd had a surgery related to the tests that they kept telling me I needed. They also won't allow the pharmacy to call them if a prescription has ended, so I have had to suss out on my own that the reason my prescriptions aren't getting filled is because the two places will not communicate! THEN, this past visit, I had four prescriptions that I needed filled. Two are not that important, but good to have on hand, one hadn't been refilled for almost a year (I had an extra bottle and kept forgetting to take it, so I still had some of those) and one is EXTREMELY important. None of them were sent for refills, I checked with the pharmacy. So I waited a week to give them some grace, and then called and requested the refills on the recorded "Refill" line. No joy. I waited another week, and then physically had to drive down to the doctor's office and look someone in the eyeballs and request the refills, which actually worked, although they still haven't refilled the very important one, but I'll cross that bridge when I'm almost out of those. All of those things are annoying, yes, but the thing that ticks me off the most is that I know other people (men people) who go to this same office and even have the same GP I do, and this has never once happened to them. They need meds? Always refilled. They need referrals? Always referred. Not once have they fallen through the cracks, but I am continually being forgotten about. 

I'm beginning to wonder if they know I'm real.

5) I don't have a number five, but I hated to leave things on that note. Hope you're having your best day so far! READ THE PRICE TAGS TWICE!

A SHORTIE

I think AI bots have been scraping my blog for training purposes. Stealing, I mean. I'm getting way too much traffic lately for it to be actual people to be reading this blog. 

I know it's basically inevitable, but good Lord, there doesn't need to be a computer version of my personality out there. You all know me, you know that with the unlimited power of computing, both regular and the eventual rise of quantum, a version of me in that form would become too powerful. 

All I can hope is that the AI version of me is a kind overlord. 

I apologize in advance, and may God have mercy on your souls.

DIXIELAND DELIGHT

I was invited to a real-life college football game!

This is a great honor in our culture, apparently.

One of the corporate customers sent tickets to the Alabama-South Carolina game, with passes for something called "The Crimson Village" beforehand, and I was included in the invitation. Mainly because the first choice of invitee had to bail, but I'm not going to let that hurt my feelings.

All of my life I've been embroiled in the Alabama college football shenanigans, but at a certain point, I took myself out of the equation because I'm pretty neutral on sports. I didn't go to a college that had a football team, so I don't have a dog in the fight. HOWEVER, that being said, I can still enjoy a sports game. Just point me in the direction of who I'm supposed to be cheering for and I'll cheer my face off for them. I may be neutral, but that doesn't mean I don't know how it works!

So my friend and I jumped in the car last Saturday and drove down to Tuscaloosa. I've never been there before, which I find pretty weird now that I think of it. I'm almost 50 years old, and I have never been to the campus of one of the biggest universities in the state, especially one that my immediate family has been cheering on in football all of my life. If nothing else, I would have expected to go for some high school function. I've been to Auburn University (the most beautiful village in the plain. Or maybe *on the plain. I dunno, but it was very nice.) while looking into a scholarship, but not the University of Alabama. It was really something to see, especially on a game day!

It took us so freaking long to drive down the main road that runs in-between the stadium and the Greek housing. I tell you, I've never wanted to be in a sorority so bad in my life, though. Those houses are gorgeous, and can you imagine living in one while a college student? I'd have gladly traded my jeans and ringer tees for a big, sparkly bow if I could have had that experience! 

There were so many freaking people walking around, too. I expected that, but not at that volume. At least not so early before the game. We got there 4 hours beforehand, but I assume Game Day is an all-day event if the crowds were any indication! Some were really dressed up, some were shirtless and in overalls, but all of them were in Crimson and White! *spirit fingers* I had to buy a shirt before the game, because the only college football gear I have is a Georgia shirt, and I'm still not going to tell you why I have that.

So we drove until we find a place where we could park for $40, which feels steep, but we wanted to park the car at some point before the game started and walked back to the campus to find The Crimson Village. We kept having to call our contact, because it was so confusing. We finally found it, and it was a little circle of white tents just outside of Bryant-Denny stadium where the corporate folks do their tailgating.  It was so awkward. Neither me, nor my co-worker, had ever met the person who'd invited us, so we had to schmoose and make small talk, and it was uncomfortable. He and his wife were really nice, but they were also much younger than either of us, so we had zero in common other than working in the cyber field. Well, they do, I just assist administratively, but it still counts. There was BBQ, and the dance team came in to do a meet-and-greet, and I even got a photo with Big Al. It wasn't taken with my phone, so I can't post it, but I swear I met him/her!

One of our friends from the golf club I'm a member sent out a FB message asking if anyone else was there, and I answered and got invited to visit where they were, so we did an Irish exit and headed off to the tailgate field. I've never seen anything like that in my whole life. It was a sea of white funeral tents with TVs, food, booze, and all kinds of people crammed in and yelling. I didn't know a soul under that tent except the lady who invited me, but she was tipsy and we got introduced around. Those people had more money than I could ever hope to make in my life, but they were very welcoming! Someone handed me something called a "Yellowhammer Mimosa" that was so alcoholic that I'm surprised I could walk back to the stadium, but we finally did. We went back to where our corporate guy was, and I found it was much easier to small talk when I couldn't see him clearly! Heehee.

We finally went inside the stadium, and it was so huge. Thankfully, we had gotten pretty good seats! Not the best ones, and we were in the visitor's section, but we were in the top seats in the lower bowl of the stadium, so we could see everything without anyone walking in front of us.

It was so much fun! I only see little bits and pieces of football usually, so I didn't know there was that much that went on, but there was music, and dancing, and more call-and-response than a Baptist tent revival. The lights and the drama of it all were so cool!  I sat next to a guy who was completely stone faced until the game started and then he started yelling and getting animated, which I thought was funny. The frat boy behind me repeatedly hit me in the head with the fluffy end of his pom-pom shaker, and my ears are still ringing, but it was a good time. It didn't hurt that Alabama won their game, so everyone was in high spirits, too! We ended up leaving after they played "Dixieland Delight" which was about five minutes before the end of the game, but the score was so uneven that we didn't miss anything important.

Trying to get out of Tuscaloosa was a mess, but thankfully we didn't get caught in major traffic until we got back out on the highway, and most of the backup we experienced was because of a traffic accident. We did decide to stop at a truck stop and get something to eat to let the traffic clear out a bit, and after that, it wasn't too bad. I fell asleep on the way home because doing football game stuff tired me out!

The next day I was sick as a dog. I blame the food at the truck-stop, and I was still sick on Monday, but I was back at it on Tuesday. I do still have Dixieland Delight stuck in my head, which causes me to suddenly shout out "Roll Tide" and "Beat Auburn...and LSU...and Tennessee too!" at odd moments, but that will fade in time.

Now I just have to go to an Auburn game to even things out and compare! Anyone got some tickets?

; )

RANDOM ACTS OF BLOGGING

 1) I'm bummed.

I worked with a very nice, very silly man who was a smart computer programmer. He'd always bring in donuts, and he had a dog he loved that we'd talk about all of the time. Unfortunately, our company lost the contract he worked for, and he was laid off, but he rallied and decided that he would retire. His wife still worked, and they had enough money coming in for him to do so, and he was excited that he could finally work around the house and volunteer at his church more.

He died unexpectedly last week.

I only knew him for a short time, relatively speaking, but he was a good dude. He deserved better than to go out while he still had a lot of living to do.

Have you ever noticed that bad karma never really gets to the people who deserve it? Shitty people lie, cheat, steal, hurt people and whatever else, and they still get the new job, and the fancy house, elected president, and all kinds of other unearned things, and good people die unexpectedly right when they start retirement.

It sucks.

2) Speaking of bad karma: My freaking debit card info got stolen over a week ago! Thankfully, I had a safety feature set to send me a text if my debit number was used and I caught it, but not before someone local (I know, because I could see they went to the Sam's Club near my work in person, probably with my card number in their Apple wallet) took a sizable chunk out of my bank account. I called the bank, reported the theft, and had my card disabled. That, of course, kept me from being able to go grocery shopping or getting gas without some fancy-footwork, and since I had so little of my bank account left, all of that went to groceries and gas. I don't carry checks, or a credit card because I don't trust myself with one, but I may have to rethink that so I don't get stuck having to transfer money to other people so I can pay for things. Also, getting the money that was stolen returned from the bank-secure department is taking so long!

Sometimes I am a bad person, so maybe I did deserve this one, but geez. It's been a pain in my ass!

3) Sorry for the grumpiness, I'm just in a low mood today. Everyone at work has been sad about our late colleague, and its catching. Also, I just kind of hate people right now for a myriad of reasons. I remember having a conversation with someone years ago who told me that they were a misanthropist, and I was like...no one is really a misanthropist. That's silly.

Nope, you can really hate almost everyone on earth sometimes.

4) Ok, here is some good stuff so you don't think everything is bad: I got to hug a weenie-dog puppy named Hugo today! I have gotten a lot of compliments on my hair from strangers. I'm dressing as the Statue of Liberty for a themed party our company is co-hosting and my costume is cute (although I apologize in advance that my upper arms will be visible.) I had a donut today in honor of my late co-worker, and it was delicious. I've been watching "Lanterns" and it's really a good show, even if I don't know much of the lore about Green Lanterns. Oh, and unless I'm wrong, I should still have an ice cream bar in the freezer to eat after dinner tonight, which will be nice.

So, maybe not everything sucks after all. 

MIDLIFE CRISIS? I DON'T THINK SO.

Hello!

I've got to show you what I did last Friday! 

Anyone who has been here for any length of time knows I'm completely enamored with vivid hair color.  

I've wanted to get some done since the days of the bright red streaks trend of the early 2000s, but of course, I was too chicken to get it done. I loved it and thought it was cute, but except for Halloween, and the unfortunate purple dye job I gave myself on accident as a teenager (I swear to God I thought the box was for auburn dye) my hair has been about as normal as it could be. I mean, I did dabble in some blue-green and red temporary overdye, but my hair has been so dark that it wasn't that noticeable.

While I worked for the church, the pastor asked me if I would not get any kind of funky color, because he didn't think it was appropriate for me to do as the receptionist there, and even though that sucked, I agreed. Sometimes we do what we have to do, even when we don't want to do it.

However, since I've been going to a proper salon to get my hair cut, and since I've got a grown-up job at a non-religious company, I have a lot more freedom to do what I want to myself. Well, except maybe get a face tattoo, but A) I don't want one of those and B) I don't think I'd get fired for it or anything, but they wouldn't like it.

At any rate, the guy who cuts my hair (Tony) told me about some of the coloring things that I could do if I ever decided I wanted to actually take the plunge. I could start fairly subtle to see if I liked it, and if I did, I could do more later. Of course, I knew that, but I think it took someone who knows hair to tell me more about it, you know what I mean? 

I was literally at home, thinking I might book an appointment with Tony to try one of the really subtle color treatments he was telling me about, when I got on Instagram and saw that a stylist who had cut my hair a few years ago (one I still follow) was calling for a hair modeling volunteer to do some color work on. I'd only have to pay for the dye, and she would be able to use the pictures in her portfolio/social media. She'd added some photos, and those were NOT subtle colors she was wanting to use, but I thought, why not?

I volunteered.

Honestly, I thought someone else would have already jumped at the chance to get professional coloring done for a discount, but apparently this technique that she wanted to do is fairly new, and not a lot of people wanted to be a test subject for it, and she told me I could do it! Whee!!!

First off, I thought she was in Huntsville, but she wasn't. She was at the Wheelhouse Salon in Birmingham, which was not great, but it would be fine. I mean, driving in Birmingham is not something I'm good at, mainly because I don't know where anything is and there is a lot of traffic, and during a work day, it's nerve-wracking, but after almost having a thousand wrecks, I finally made it! My appointment was at 1:00 on Friday afternoon.

It took 7 hours. SEVEN HOURS, Y'all. I thought I was going to climb out of my skin. I knew it would take a while, but seven hours? Geez Louise. The stylist was busy the entire time, too. It took 3 hours to color the roots and ends, foil and bleach out my natural color, about an hour and a half to add on the color, and the rest of that time was washing it out, styling it, and taking pictures.

You know what, though? I effing love it. I love it so much I can't stand it!!!!

I let the stylist pick the colors she wanted to use, if you're wondering why it's mostly green, but I did get to choose whether or not we used warm or cool colors. Apparently, the style is supposed to look like a shaft of colored light lying across your hair, which I think it does. It also reminds me of an old LCD screen, or a mood ring. I think it's beautiful, and the stylist did a great job on it.

The photos were taken right after she was done coloring it, and she curled my hair, so the way I fix it everyday makes it look slightly more subtle, if neon green can be subtle. 

Of course, vivid color doesn't stay bright for always, but I'm doing my best to not wash it out too soon. So far, everyone who's seen it has really liked it, or at least they're lying to be about liking it if they don't! I don't really care if anyone else likes it or not, since it's my hair and I like it, and I've reached the "fuck it and fuck you" stage of life where I'm not as self-conscious as I used to be and realize that life is very short. Get the bright hair, wear the wild tie, or do the bad karaoke song, as long as you aren't hurting anyone. If anyone has a problem with my hair, then they are probably boring, think bottle blonde is daring, and need more whimsy in their life. 

I hope you find some whimsy of your own today! 

BLOGGED, BUT NOT ALONG THE WAY. AGAIN. DAY 4 & BEYOND

Sorry, guys. 

This is going to be very anticlimactic, but really, all I did on day 4 was fly home. It wasn't even that exciting of a flight home. From LAX to Atlanta (grrrrr) I listened to an audio novel that immediately put me to sleep, played trivia on the plane's entertainment system, ate snacks, and tried not to touch the stranger I was sitting next to. You know, the usual.

My flight kept getting delayed from Atlanta to Huntsville, so I had to change my flight altogether. That got me home much later than I had anticipated, but not even late enough to be angry about. There was a weird lady sitting next to me that gave me a weird vibe, but she didn't stand up and preach, nor did she try to bite me, so I can't complain that much!

I did stop at Taco Bell on the way home, because I was hungry, but half of my meal had lettuce on it, so I had to throw part of it away. That was the most frustrating part of the whole day!

Even though I was at a Disney park, I still had a fun, albeit quick, little vacation. I can appreciate that. I'm looking at places near the beach for my next short trip. Which beach? No idea. Any suggestions?

Now I've been back at work for a couple of weeks and have been very busy, surprisingly. We're getting deep into conference season, and I have been called on to help with graphics and event planning. The event planning isn't my cup of tea, but the graphics part is fun! Well, as fun as corporate graphic design can be! 

Hehe, an example of that fun: while I was working on a flyer, one of the marketing women said "Can you make the text blacker?" I bolded it, but that wasn't what she wanted. I made it bigger, but that wasn't what she wanted. I checked the hex code and the CMYK settings, but they were as black as they could go. She could never explain much more than it wasn't "Black" enough. She finally said that it was fine, but it still wasn't black enough. I never understood what she wanted, but I almost cried at my desk trying to figure it out.

BLOGGED, BUT NOT ALONG THE WAY. AGAIN. DAY 3

I'm going to save you some time and just say - See yesterday's morning description because the same thing happened again on this day. Even down to the McDonald's breakfast. Don't judge me.

Since I spent the day in Disneyland yesterday, I didn't need to go back there, so I turned my attention to the Disney Adventure Park. It's still Disneyland, in the way that Animal Kingdom and Epcot are still a part of Disney World, but it's across the walkway. You turn left instead of right after going through security.

You know, as much of a pain as it can be, I'm very grateful that Disney has a security stop before you go into the parks. Even though 9 out of 10 people walking in are just going in for funzies, it'll be that 10th a-hole that brings a gun in that decides that the lady who broke in line deserves to die for it. There was actually a fight in line at the Florida park the other day. Did you see the footage of that? Holy crap, when did we forget how to be decent humans in big groups? Did we ever know how? 

Anywhoodle.

I got to the park early again, and this time it was nearly deserted. Well, relatively speaking for a Disney Park. The first thing I got on was Soarin', which was slightly different from the one in Florida. If you've never been, Soarin' is a...well...I guess you'd say it is a kind of hang-gliding simulator. That doesn't sound right, but I guess it's close. Basically, you're sitting in a seat that lifts in the air and there is a big-ass screen in front of you showing arial views of different landscapes from around the world. Along with music, they pipe in wind, and sounds, and smells depending on what the landscape in front of you is. It's neat. I will say, however, that during the scene that shows you flying above a cattle drive, whoever designed which smells were piped in to that scene had clearly never been around cows before. 

From there I went over to the "Cars" section of the park, and it was so cool! It was just like being in what I would imagine Radiator Springs would look like in real life. They have classic rock and pop songs about driving and cars piped in over the loud speakers and all of the buildings look like they were pulled directly out of the movie. It was impressive. I had a lightning lane pass for the main ride, which was a lot of fun, and I got to get on fairly quickly despite the very crowded (by this time) queue line. 

I'm not sure how I feel about lightning lanes. It just feels like "look at me, I can afford to get in line ahead of you! Peasants!" but also, it's nice to not have to stand in line for hours if you can score the lane pass. I haven't made up my mind yet.

It was hot again on this day, and somehow maybe even worse because the Disney Adventure Park has less shade and more concrete than the Disneyland park. The heat just kind of bounces around and hits you from a lot of different angles. It feels meaner than the heat at home. Southern heat feels like a well meaning, but very hot and very wet grandma, is wrapping you in a steamed towel. In California, it feels like God has dowsed you with hot water and put you in a microwave because He's angry.

There is a section of the park that is designed like an actual boardwalk amusement park, but of course, much fancier. It has the giant Ferris wheel with the Micky face on it that you see on their advertisements. I got on that mainly for the shade, but it was fun! I'm not sure that I've ever ridden a real Ferris wheel before then! It was quiet and the breeze was nice, and it got me away from the crowds temporarily. 

Next, I rode the Tower of Terror (or whatever Avenger's name they are calling it now) and then a roller coaster. A wild mouse style, I think it's called. Well, maybe not, because it had a loopty-loop, but whatever. It was an Incredibles themed roller coaster and friends, after the droppy-drop and the loopty-loop, that was almost curtains for me. I get so incredibly (heh) motion sick sometimes. My sinuses are part of the problem, and some inner ear issues are the other, but when it hits me, dear Lord, it hits me hard. The thing is, I never know for certain if it's going to happen on things like amusement park rides, or in the car, or getting up from a chair, or what. Once I got almost comically ill from playing a first-person-POV video game. My brain and my stomach clearly don't get along, and sometimes they fight. I got off of that last ride convinced I'd be back in another Disney Property bathroom trying to stay alive, but fortuitously, I found a rogue Zofran in my purse! I got some when I had my gall bladder taken out, and I must have thrown one in my small cross body bag! Hallelujah. It saved my dignity and the concrete. I'm very sad you can't get those over the counter, because they are magical.

I walked around a bit more, but honestly, there wasn't as much for me to do in that park. You can argue that both parks are made specifically for kids, but there is plenty for adults as well, usually. In this one, it felt much more geared to children, plus it was SO DAMN HOT that I left and went to lunch in Downtown Disney. I can't remember the name of the restaurant, but the food was good. I was seated by YET another group of children whose parents didn't give a damn about their behavior, and they were AGAIN doing high kicks and destroying the place around them, but then one kid did a high kick, somehow lost her balance, and landed on her face on the linoleum. Hard. God help me, I snorked. I tried not to, but...I mean. That did make everyone calm down a little, at least. 

Afterwards, I did what I did the day before and went back to the hotel, took a shower/nap, and changed clothes. I actually had another whole outfit I could wear! It was my University of Georgia outdoor outfit (It makes me look like the oldest UGA sorority social chair and I will not be explaining why I have this outfit) but when you need something cool to wear, you wear what you have. I did get one "Go Dawgs" from a cast member, so I'll be passing that along to someone who is an actual Georgia fan at a later date. 

I had made another dinner reservation at one of the swanky places inside the park, and again, I managed to get in early. I picked this restaurant solely because they had a cocktail on their menu that I have on my list. I can't remember if I've talked about my list or not and I can't be arsed to look before publishing this, but it was called a Pisco Sour, and it was amazing. It didn't make me sick, so I know it didn't have rum in it. The food was amazing too! It had cooled off considerably by the time I was done with dinner, so I did some souvenir shopping, went back to Downtown Disney to get ice cream at a place called "Salt and Straw" (I got the kind with mushrooms in it, and it was so very good.) and then went back to the hotel so I could see the fireworks from the balcony, looking left. I felt kind of bad that I didn't do more in the park, but it was fine, really. I did all the things I wanted to do, I almost barfed, and I had some alcohol and ice cream. What else did I need?

The blister on my foot was so much worse by this point that I was glad to be off of my feet, plus I had to go home the next day, so I repacked my backpack with clothes and souvenirs, got all my stuff together, and fell asleep. Thankfully my flight wasn't early the next day, so I could sleep in a bit. My Disneyland adventure was over, and it had been a lot of fun. Maybe minus the nausea, but even that was novel since I'd never been nauseous at Disneyland! 

(BTW, in case you're wondering why I'm not posting photos, I've been trying very hard to "be in the moment" while I've been traveling lately. I do take pictures, usually of my foot at places, but one day a while back I realized I had been spending so much time looking at things from behind my phone that I wasn't really SEEING what I was there to see or experiencing it as much as I could. God, that sounds pretentious, but I don't mean it to be. As much as I'd love a million photos of every place I travel, I think I'd rather have one or two photos and the memory of the experience. Maybe if I had a really nice camera, or was really talented as a photographer I'd feel differently, but looking at the world through my phone feels cheap, you know? No judgement on anyone who feels differently, though. That's just my vibe.)