Good Day Q&A

(after two failed attempts at creating a narritive of yesterday's events, I am going to try a simple Q&A)

Cedric: What did you do yesterday?
Cedric: I went to Disney's Animal Kingdom and Magic Kingdom then drove to Titusville to run the Chain of Lakes XC course with some of the SCR Officers.

Cedric: How was it?
Cedric: Pardon the possible exaggeration, but the day was near perfect. I'm not saying that everything went "as expected", but I felt no regrets in how I acted, and that doesn't happen often.

Cedric: What do you mean?
Cedric: For instance, I went to the 11:40am Festival of the Lion King show, and my favorite Tumble Monkey
wasn't performing today -- also the crowd wasn't getting into it -- but I still managed to have a good time. Also, I had planned on just casually going around DAK, but happened to make a quick friend while waiting for the gates to open.

Cedric: Go on.
Cedric: She was a Disney Castmember who just finished a semester with the DCP (Disney College Program). She had a lot of energy and enthusiasm.

Cedric: So, what did y'all do?
Cedric: We ended up going for all the rides.

Cedric: I thought you were going casual.
Cedric: I was, but somehow it's okay/different if you're with someone else... it's probably why it wasn't much of an issue at Universal Studios when I used to go with Whitney. Anyways, we rode Expedition Everest, Kilimanjaro Safaris, DINOSAUR, and Primeval Swirl/Twirl/Spin (she crushed me on that one). Then afterwards, she had to head out, and I had to head out to my Festival show.

Cedric: Any other thoughts about her?
Cedric: Just that our "mini-breakup" (i.e. when we separated), it was good/fine in that there were none of that "let's keep in touch" awkwardness. We never exchanged names, which I thought was all for the best. Again, no regrets.

Cedric: So after the Festival of the Lion King, you did what?
Cedric: I just wanted to say that in waiting for the FLK, I started reading the book I brought with me, The Te of Piglet. It was quite... appropriate. The book was about the principles of Taoism.

Cedric: And...
Cedric: Yeah... that's about it. There's actually more, but I totally can't speak of it at the moment.

Cedric: You're wasting our time here.
Cedric: Yeah, I know. I'm sorry.

Cedric: Back to the question... so what did you do next?
Cedric: By then, I still had a few hours before when I told myself I had to leave to make an appointment back on the east coast (we'll get to that later), and I've been wanting to check out Tom Sawyer's Island for a few weeks now, so I took the bus to the TTC and took the monorail to the Magic Kingdom.

Cedric: Go on...
Cedric: What else? Ask me some questions, because I totally need the prompting...

Cedric: ...
Cedric: Seriously...

Cedric: Okay... um... What was the first thing that you did?
Cedric: I went to Tomorrowland and did Stitch's Great Escape. I was going to Fast Pass it then go do something else, but there was only a 10 minute wait. It seemed to me that DAK was busier than MK... because there was quite a line for the Safari ride, and though FLK wasn't capacity, it was still pretty filled for a 11:40 performance.

Cedric: After SGE, what was the next ride/attraction you went did?
Cedric: I was going to do Space Mountain, but it wasn't operating at that time, so I walked over to fantasyland and got in line for Philharmagic (it was going to be a 20 min wait). I was reading my book but started to get an uneasy sense about the people around me so I didn't give it a second thought and just left the line.

Cedric: Oh, the drama!
Cedric: Not so much. Just like with the drive to Disney, I was quite level-headed (surprisingly). I then just walked over to Frontierland and headed over to Tom Sawyer's Island, which really wasn't very much at all. It's a bit outdated, but it'd be difficult to see Disney make much of a change to it because it would be expensive and for not-much gain. The island wasn't all that much fun, but I went to Aunt Polly's, sat in a rocking chair, and relaxed for a couple of minutes.

Cedric: Sounds like a lame-ass attraction to me.
Cedric: It was, but it's commendable, the cast members who work it. They still have the enthusiasm for it. And that's one of the things that I was happy about yesterday, the fact that I was able to get "out of my head" and be able to appreciate those things.

Cedric: So really, what did you do to "make up" for the island?
Cedric: I just went directly to Thunder Mountain. The line wasn't very long. It wasn't short either, but it gave me time to read.

Cedric: You and your book..
Cedric: Hey, it's Disney-related...-ish. The person conducting the Injun Joe raft also made a comment about it ("My mom used to say,'We didn't come all the way to Disneyworld for you to read.'"). It was like the day was just giving me all these instances to interact with people.

Cedric: That's the very thing that you just totally couldn't handle the night before.
Cedric: Hey, that's rough. True but rough. Yeah. That wasn't all though. At Thunder Mountain, I rode with another single, a guy from England visiting the parks. Cute in a sort of way. And I'm not sure if it was him or someone nearby, but someone smelled very good too (I smelled good too, but it was a different scent). He was heading towards the Haunted Mansion, and I was headed the opposite way, so I just wished him a good time and we went our ways.

Cedric: You like that anonymity, eh?
Cedric: I think that it sometimes adds unnecessary expectations at times.

Cedric: Fair enough, so the other way...
Cedric: Splash Mountain was 50 minutes, so I went to Pirates. I rode it a few times since it was refurbished, but thought it would be nice to go on it since I finally saw the movie this past Wednesday.

Cedric: How was it?
Cedric: Better than I've heard. Fun. My only beef with it is that SO many people die. So many. Anyways, while in line for it, I was talking with a couple from the West Coast. They were nice, and we ended up sitting together on the ride, which was different-nice because the times before when I was riding PotC, I had gotten an entire row to myself. And when the CM was asking if I would sit with another group, the couple I was talking to said that I could sit with them. Amazing.

Cedric: So it sounded like people were liking your company today.
Cedric: I guess so. Maybe because I wasn't so dead-set on the thing in front of me. I felt a bit open to anything, like a duck floating on non-croc-infested pond.

Cedric: Water off a...
Cedric: Exactly. Anyways, they actually introduced themselves to me -- John and Angelica -- and of course I reciprocated. I guess I felt okay with it because they were older, and they know better when that sort of thing is appropriate. I actually kind of felt honored... it wasn't a forced "what's your name", it was a "my name is"... a very subtle difference indeed.

Cedric: Okay, so personal interactions, name exchanges, pretty top level stuff. What next?
Cedric: Well, J&A mentioned the Jungle Cruise. I hadn't ridden it the past few times because it was so busy (60+ minutes), but this time it was a walk-right-on... and it was just that... no hesitation, perfect timing. I got on the Wamba Wanda right away. And our jungle tour guide was cute.

Cedric: Another one?!
Cedric: I didn't expect it. He was just So good at delivering all of the bad puns. I managed three good pictures of him (here's one of them:
), and an okay video of him (I couldn't allow myself to be too too obviously shameless).

Cedric: Doesn't sound like anything could top that.
Cedric: Yeah, so I started making my way out. I watched the tail end of the parade from Main Street then bought a WDW patch to sew on my satchel, then headed back to the Animal Kingdom where I parked. The monorail ride was fine. On the bus from the TTC to DAK, I gave up my seat but since there ended up no need for it, I ended up sitting down in another seat and ended up talking with a guy who had a 3 year old boy who spoke Spanish and was well-spoken. The guy was attractive and very masculine and was also well-spoken but he had a soft-spokenness to him. It wasn't a deep conversation or anything, but I thought it was a very pleasant and appropriate contact -- a little more personal, more naturally and thoughtfully-handled -- before heading back east.

Cedric: Sounds like a wonderful day.
Cedric: Yeah, I took 417 back to the 428, and it was then that threre were a few raindrops. It didn't last though, and when I got to TItusville, it was exactly 6pm, and another SCR officer arrived right after me. I borrowed a pair of running shorts from another officer and we ran the Chain of Lakes XC course. It was just four of us, and it was quite peaceful. We just jogged, but it was still challenging for me... still trying to get into shape. Afterwards, one of the guys told me that I was doing a great job as secretary, and I really can't express how much I appreciated it.

Cedric: Wow.
Cedric: Yeah, and I drove 75 mph all the way home. It's a day I wouldn't mind having again.