Well, it's been a while, blog...

So I guess I should update.  Since it's been over a month since my last post, and since that month has included so very many awesome things, this post is gonna be long.  So here we go!

On the day of my birthday, I went to work like normal.  It was nice.  My coworkers gave me a card and my boss bought donuts for everyone and Diet Dr. Pepper for me!  Then after work I went to Trudy's with some coworkers and had two margaritas!  Yay!  I got one for free because Trudy's is awesome.  My coworker drove me home and I sat around for about an hour or two, then I went to meet Mary and saw Iron Man 2.  It was great!  I really like Robert Downey Jr.

That Friday, we went downtown for my birthday.  We went to Baby A's first and then went downtown to Pete's.  We had a great time at Pete's!  The piano men played Journey for me and then told me I had nice legs!  A little odd...  Afterwards, we walked back to our car in the pouring rain.   A homeless man stopped us on the way and gave me a rose and started singing to me.  Mary paid him a few dollars to go away, but I got a nice rose!  Weird crap like this always seems to happen on my birthday.
Kate's boyfriend was at a friend's house party and she really wanted to stop by, so we went over there.  It was ridiculously crowded and disgusting and I was only able to tolerate it for about 15-20 minutes.  We then came back to my apartment and I was up til 3:30AM packing for Disney World!

Went to work on Saturday and then stopped by the work kickball game afterwards.  It was Nicole's last day before she went to Italy, so I wanted to say bye.  I then drove straight home to Georgetown.  The rest of the family arrived and we went over the plan for the week.  The next morning Kristin came over and we carpooled to the airport.  The flight to Disney was GREAT!  It was the smoothest take-off and landing I've ever experienced!  Charlie-man did great too.  He slept through a lot of the flight and never cried.

Disney was amazing.  So much to do and see, and so much time to spend with my awesome family!
*WARNING: tons of exclamation points ahead*
Particular highlights were:
Hollywood Studios
- Fantasmic on the first night.  Using water as a projection screen was awesome! It made me cry!  All my cynicism about Disney World left right then and I had a blast the rest of the time!
- Riding Tower of Terror 6 times!  I LOVE THAT RIDE!  It's awesome! And Rock and Roller Coaster!
- All the shows, particularly the car stunt show and the Indiana Jones show!  It was amazing!
- Our staged family photo on Tower of Terror ride.
- And the lady who was so upset on our behalf about the people who cut in front of us in the Toy Story ride.
Magic Kingdom
- All the mountains, particularly Space Mountain and how utterly, unexplainably terrified I was!
- Lunch at the Plaza and how generous they were to us!  They gave us probably $200 worth of hats and balloons for FREE for all the things we were celebrating!
- Peter Pan Flights, and Pirates of the Caribbean, spinning insanely fast on the teacups, Small World, seeing Alice and the White Rabbit and many other characters, how terrified I was of the Stitch Ride (can't imagine it as the Alien ride!), THAT CANDY STORE OMG, pineapple soft-serve, PhilharMagic, Haunted Mansion, Hall of Presidents, Carousel of Progress (There's a GREAT BIG BEAUTIFUL TOMORROW, shining at the end of every day!)
- The SpectroMagic parade, and Wishes.  I cried again!
- Losing my camera after the Jungle Cruise and finding it at lost and found!  Amazing!
Epcot
- The first glimpse of the ball!  My first ride ever in Disney World was inside the ball!  And it was a nerd ride! And I was almost quoting along with the history lesson without ever having heard it, which means DISNEY DID THEIR RESEARCH!
- Did I mention Disney did their research?  The World Lagoon was awesome!  I loved the decorations, the restaurants, the buildings, everything!  And the Illuminations show with the fireworks and lasers in the Lagoon was amazing!
- Mission Space was awesome!  Too bad most of my family was too chicken to do it a second time.  I could always count on Shane and Jason, though!  And Dad steppin' on that kids shoe-lace, haha!  And Soarin' was great too!
- Getting stuck on the Test Track ride right before you're supposed to "crash".  It really freaked me out.  Of all the times for the ride to stop, I really didn't want it to happen right before you go barreling out of a tunnel at 60 mph toward a wall that's supposed to slide aside just in time.
Animal Kingdom
- Everest was GREAT!  Riding in the front car was awesome, especially because it flips directions and you get the "back car" feeling when you go inside the mountain.
- The Bugs Life show was terrifying!  But the Tree of Life was amazing!
- The Kilimanjaro Safari was great, as well as the Nemo Musical (In this BIG BLUE WORLD...)
- Charlie REALLY hated this park. :)
- The Dinosaur ride and THAT PICTURE! I've never seen such pure terror on everyone's faces before!
Other
- The hotels were amazing!  So spacious and richly decorated!  The bar at the first one was great as well! And I loved the animals at the Animal Kingdom Lodge!
- Putt Putt was great, even if the fountain didn't work!
- Downtown Disney and Earl of Sandwich and those candied apples, and MY BALLOON!

All in all, it was an amazing trip and I can't wait for the next family trip!  Washington, DC, 2012!

Coming back to work after that was a bummer.  Life is never fun after a vacation.  I miss my family.  I've had dinner with Shane, and went to see Robin Hood (meh) with Mom and Dad.  We're trying to organize a family get together for July, so we'll see how that goes!

But I did have something to look forward to!  CASSIE IS BACK IN TEXAS!  At least for a few months.  I went down to Montgomery to hang out with her family and Mary one weekend.  We drove down Saturday night and they were waiting up for us with glasses of wine, and it was great just to sit with my best friends and their family and just talk!  The next day we got up and went shopping and I spent too much money but got some awesome make-up and an amazing dress that I had to return (because I simply would never wear it).  We came back and I got to read some of Cassie's writing, which is AMAZING.  I'm so impressed by her talent!  She's writing some romance/suspense with main characters based off us.  I was reading part of my story out to the group and it was creepy how accurately she portrayed me!  I would say some piece of dialog how I would normally say it, and then the next line would explain how the character was supposed to have said it, and it was EXACTLY THE SAME!  She's got the humor and dialog of the story down pat, and the characters and plot are intriguing, and the pacing of the story was great!   I can't wait to see what else she does with it!  We then went to the drive-in and saw a double-feature with Shrek Forever After (not a Shrek fan) and Prince of Persia (meh, again).  The next day, we got up and planned our trip to VEGAS!  I'm so excited!  I've been to every state in that area except Nevada, and now I get to go to Vegas!  We booked our flight and hotel and everything is set!  We're going August 12-16th and we're staying at The Signature at MGM Grand.  There's a Pete's Dueling Piano Bar there now, which we ARE going to visit.  I got us CHEAP tickets to see "Ka" by Cirque Du Soleil.  And then Cassie's parents and their family friends are renewing their vows in a Wedding Chapel there, so I'll get to experience that part of Vegas, too!  I'M SO EXCITED, I CAN'T STAND IT!

Anyways, this week at work was pretty easy.  I opened and closed by myself for the first time on Saturday, and everything went so smoothly, thank God!  With my luck, I really needed God's help!  And then today I worked overtime (spending money for VEGAS) and then went to see The A Team with Mary!  It was a great movie!  I love me some Liam Neeson, and Bradley Cooper isn't too bad himself.  But it was a fantastic action movie with awesome effects and HOLY CRAP moments, and SO much comedy, I was laughing out loud so much!  It was great!

Hopefully the rest of this week will be just as easy as last week.  I'm working more overtime on Thursday, it's my brother-in-laws birthday (HAPPY EARLY BIRTHDAY, JASON!) and Father's Day is this weekend.  I think I'll probably go home to Gtown for Sunday at least.

I'm usually not a fan of summer.  I hate the heat and the sun and generally get really bored.  But this summer might be the most epic of my life.  Okay, maybe 2nd-most epic.  I did spend part of one summer in Greece after all....

amy

Here are some Disney pics for you!

I want to go back.  But I can't wait for the rest of this summer!