Kylie – This One’s For You!

Kylie made me realize that I have been severely neglecting the blog. Didn’t mean to, just between work, the Little Pink Monster (a.k.a. Morgan Jr.), and reading I haven’t had a lot of time.

But I’m back and I’ve got a lot to cover so here we go!

Walt Disney World – Where Dreams Come True! (Round 2)

Last week I went to Orlando for PRDMC (Public Radio Development and Marketing Conference), aren’t you all jealous. I will spare you the details and just say that the highlight of the conference was the British guy that taught one of my classes and used words like “buggar” and “kip off”. This just goes to show that a British accent can make anything more interesting, even a 90-minute lecture on “Analyzing Trends in Donor Retention”.

But the real fun began when Cori flew down Friday night. I had asked Brad to come, several times, but he claimed he had to go to work or some lame excuse like that, so Cori, who obviously has her priorities in order :), eagerly jumped on a plane Friday night and joined me for “Cori-and-Ali’s-Disney-Extravaganza: Round 2!” (Round 1 came three years ago when we went down for Cori's 24th birthday.)

We drove straight from the airport to Giordano’s Pizza for dinner then headed to Downtown Disney. This cool band, Alkaline Trio, was playing at House of Blues but it was all sold out so we didn’t get to go (maybe during Round 3?). So we went to the 11:15 pm showing of Mama Mia (more on that below). We got back to the hotel around 2 a.m. and fully intended to go straight to bed, since I had to get up for work stuff the next morning, but it didn’t quite work out that way. We weren’t really doing anything, just talking, mostly about books, a lot, and the next thing we new it was 5 a.m.! Needless to say, the next morning was rough, and the term ‘Literary Hangover’ was born.

That afternoon we headed off to the parks with our free one-day park-hoppers (THANK YOU KRISTI!!!). We rode Expedition Everest and Tower of Terror first, both well worth the wait. By the time we got those two out of the way it was so hot that I really wasn’t sure if we were going to make it to the end of the day. But we got to Magic Kingdom around 3:30, just in time for the torrential downpour to begin! We spent 30 minutes hiding under the cover of a popcorn stand with a couple of Disney employees waiting for it to end. And once it did things were great, it cooled down and some people left - wimps! Just because lightening struck ground within the park does not mean it's okay to go home.

This picture really captures the moment of us soaking wet, huddled behind the popcorn machine watching the rain pour down. The nice Disney employee even got the perfect action shot with my hair going crazy in the wind.

We had a lot of fun the rest of the day, just wandering around and doing whatever. Not having paid for the passes we didn’t feel any real pressure to “Get Our Money’s Worth”, so it was really relaxing! We didn’t take many pictures, and the ones I did take are still on my camera, and since I don’t know where the cable is I will steal some from Cori to post here. It was a crazy 48-hour-trip (of which, and I’m not exaggerating, I think we slept a full 8 hours), but it was so much fun, we had a great time! I fully support taking trips with your best friend!

MAMA MIA! The Movie

Mama Mia is based on the Broadway play and is just a lot of fun. It is based on the music of ABBA, so you need to go into it thinking more along the lines of an ABBA fan rather than looking for a really great story. My theory is that it came about because one person had a kind of weak, rough idea for a Broadway story, and someone else wanted to do something with ABBA’s music. Nether idea really anything on its own, but – put the two together and - Voila! – a Broadway Hit! I saw it in NYC last year with my mom and Kacey and I thought it was a lot of fun.

The story’s kind of cute, the characters are entertaining, and it does include a soaking wet Colin Firth, although he’s wearing a bright orange life-vest this time and not the white Mr. Darcy shirt. There was more than one time that I was laughing out loud and several times that I was dancing in my seat. At one point Cori did turn to me and said “What is going on, I’m so confused!” and then we both just started laughing uncontrollably at the absurdity of it all. It was also a fun little surprise for us to find that it also stared one of our favorite actresses, Julie Walters a.k.a. Molly Weasley. We may have left slightly confused, but we had a great time and would recommend the movie!

So if you enjoy listening to your fellow audience members singing along to their favorite ABBA tunes, Colin Firth, and don’t mind a few crude jokes, then you definitely need to see Mama Mia!

Alright, I have more to post, especially some book reviews, but Morgan has just walked over without her glasses which means that I now have to go find them. Last time they were hiding under the couch covers inside of the cushions.