You know what?

Fuck haters.  It's just not even worth my time or effort.  I just have a sense of clarity right now about all this nonsense and it's not bothering me anymore.

Disney is gonna be /awesome/ this year.

PEEEACE MOTHERFUCKERRRRS

Good Things, Bad Things, Disney Things

It's the 28th of September, and I leave for Walt Disney World with my girlfriend October 1st, so I'm starting to feel kind of excited.  Unfortunately, there's a lot of really dumb shit going on in my life right now, but I won't bore you with the details...but it's bad enough that for a while, up until yesterday, I was kinda like "eh, Disney."  Me.  I'm the goddamn Disney Bitch, and I had a legitimate moment of non-excitement for my seven night, eight day, Holy-Shit-This-Is-Gonna-Be-Awesome DISNEY TRIP.  But, it's come and gone, and the excitement has begun to re-mount.

Let's do the 'bad shit' about this trip first, shall we?  I've got a $1 pending charge on my card and I can't figure out what the hell it is.  At this point, after doing some web research, talking to WDW billing and my bank, we're all pretty sure that it's just them making sure my credit card guarantee for one of the restaurants I'm eating at will actually work.  Like, making sure the actual card number is valid.  They told me to watch it, and if it actually /clears/ to call and dispute the bejeezus out of it.  I just hate that even if it turns into a larger amount, the bank can't dispute it until it clears, so I could literally be out that money for a while if that does happen.  I'm not entirely worried about it, but I will be monitoring everything very closely.

I've an order from Amazon that I needed to bring with me on the trip, but FedEx pissed around enough that it won't be here on time, so now I have to spend another $20 to have it shipped to my resort.  That's $20 I could have used to buy more liquor at the World Showcase at the food and wine festival.  That's two and a half beers.  Fuck you, FedEx.  Here's the part that really grinds my gears too--according to the tracking, it was literally in Hebron, KY (right in the next town over) and then shipped to Indianapolis, IN, and then back to Hebron.  At this point, I wanna be like, assholes, just let me pick it up.  I know where the sorting facility is.  And it's not something that can wait till after the trip, but it's not something I can talk about just yet.  I'll fill you all in a little bit later.  SUPER SECRET SURPRISE.

Finally, I had to cancel my reservation at 'Ohana.  I'll explain why in the next paragraph, and it actually has something to do with the $1 pending charge mentioned above (I think).  The really super-shitty thing though is that I can't get back in on any of my free days.  I'm willing to even do a super late seating but NOOOOO, nothing is available.  I'll keep checking, right up to the end of our trip, but at this point, I may just have to suck it up and go to Kona Cafe--thanks to my CoHost Sam for pointing out that they have a lot of the same food!  I think my ladyfriend was just wanting to see the show.

Now, onto the good news!

WE GOT INTO CALIFORNIA GRILL!  We've been waiting two years to do this (and I know people have waited a LOT longer) but I saw an opening and took it.  Unfortunately, that meant cancelling 'Ohana, but...WE GOT INTO CALIFORNIA GRILL!  I think we're doing the sushi and sashimi platters, since we're suckers for sushi and sashimi.  That night's gonna be super cool, too!  I'm so psyched!

Also, I got approved for the Premier Disney Rewards Visa!  There's an annual fee, but everything else about the card totally offsets it--including a $50 onboard credit on cruise ships.  I can't wait to totally abuse the perks when I get down there.  I've been building my credit for a while now, hoping to get my hands on this card.  When I started making phone payments and the Discover offers started coming in, I knew I was golden so...I gave it a shot.  Approved!

Finally, I'm going to Disney World!  I mean come on, no matter what bad things happen, knowing that I'm going AND it's all completely paid off (resort, tickets, dining plan, and gift cards to pay for everything else) and I don't have to worry about a damn thing while I'm down there really makes it for me.  Plus, I get to meet a lot of friends in person that I've only known through all the blogging and podcasting the group does.  And I'm having dinner with Leonard Kinsey and Pentakis Dodecahedron, both of whom I am totally in love with.

Plus, Grimm comes back on tonight.  FUCK YEEEEEAH MONROOOOOOEEEEE!

It's red.  Like my burning love for you.

REVIEW: From Dreamer to Dreamfinder

Okay, so it's been a long-ass time since I've posted anything, but with my trip to Colorado, Disney trip on the horizon, and move to Florida after that (along with some personal bullshit) life just caught up to me and I didn't have a chance to plug anything into the ol' blogaroo.  I needed to get back to this thing and get back in the groove of it, as the trip to Disney looks like it might be (as Leonard Kinsey said in a stunning interview for the WDW Lost Girls podcast last night--thanks!) a Hunter S. Thompson book in the making, and I plan on chronicling it.

When I bought Ron's book, it actually had nothing to do with him being the Dreamfinder.  I was attracted to the story of a man who decided that he wanted to do something and pursued it.  I am, quite literally, doing just that with my life right now so the book was basically a big ball of nip for me.  I couldn't stay away.

On the content of the book, every story is told with such detail that you feel as though you're there, in the scene with Ron as he tells you his story.  The book covers way more than his 'tour' at Disney, too.  There's the lead up, his initial desire--seeing Wally Boag and deciding that that's what he wanted to do--and this his path to get there.  My favorite part of the book is Chapter Five, where he tells about being part of a loud, wild dinner show that revolves around Henry VIII and his court.  Finally, we get to the payoff.  Spoiler, alert, by the way.

He becomes the Dreamfinder, a still-relevant symbol of what EPCOT was, a beloved character that still has people enchanted today.

That's really all I want to say about the content of the book--read it yourself.  What I do wanna talk about is the technical aspects of the book.  The tone is spectacular, reads as though it was someone actually telling you a story, rather than someone talking at you.  The book is paced appropriately, with a few flashbacks and flash forwards where appropriate, to tie off loose ends.

The length of the book is appropriate too.  It doesn't drag on with a lot of fluff to bulk the book unnecessarily, but it doesn't leave you wanting more.  Well, it DOES, but in a positive way, rather than the "that was it?" way that seems to plague so many books these days.  I'm actually looking forward to rereading it over the next week to pick up the little bits that I missed because I read the book in a few chunks.

I love the book.  Love the stories.  And I love how much it has inspired me on such a personal level.

It almost inspired me as much as this .gif image.