You're Going Again?

I both love and loathe that question. I was trying to catch up on my Disney podcasts at work today. There is nothing better to listen to when you're just checking, copying and pasting metadata for digital library records. So, during Lou Mongello's interview of Jeff Kurtti (I told you I was way behind), Mongello brought up the question that starts this blog. As someone who is counting the hours (literally) to her first Disney trip in two years, an impossibility long time for me to go between trips, I've recently been getting this question again.

My sister and I at Chef Mickey's, Sept. 2009

I often preempt the question to be honest. Before they can even ask why I'm going again, I launch into all the new attractions and things I need to see, do and eat while I'm there - actual new things and then other things that I am going to do for the first time. Yes, I've been 12 times and still haven't done everything yet. This trip coming up has lots of firsts since I'm going on my first Disney cruise ever this time around, finally getting to the Afternoon Tea at the Grand Floridian, and seeing Hallowishes from the Polynesian beach. But it's not just the new things one goes back for. I truly feel like I am going home when I go to Walt Disney World. This is the place I grew up; the place I am completely myself - the happy-go-lucky, adventurous 8 year old I guard jealously most of the time gets free reign when I am in the kingdom of Disney in Florida.    

Will people stop asking me this question? No, not any time soon. For some people, they don't get it and that's OK. Every one has their favorite vacation spot for one reason or another, Walt Disney World is mine and I get to see it again in 81 days, 3 hours and 4 minutes!

Clearly I forgot something...

Happy Dance Three occurred with little fanfare two weeks ago now, as after I finished the last paper I had to pack up all my stuff yet again to be moved into storage for the summer. My gypsy ways are starting to get old. I cannot wait to put down roots somewhere for a few years. I must be getting old...

I'm officially home now for the month of May. A month that is already filling up with activities so I'm not sure how much of a break it is going to be in the long run. But, I figure it will be the last time I get a whole month of nothingness. I plan on enjoying it! This coming week I have to get my paperwork straightened around for my internship this summer and I want to work in our basement too. It needs some serious organizing. Plus, Iron Man is out. Need to go see that. The beginning of my summer movie fun :-)

I did finish Becoming Jane Austen today. The first of my summer reads. I liked this exploration of Jane's Life (yes, we are on a first name basis....deal with it). Being the English major I was (and still wish I was most of the time), I liked how this biography approached her work as an extension of what was happening in her life. True, only one, if any arguably are, of her novels is slightly autobiographical, but her emotional state while writing is often easily linked to events in her life. I know this book took a lot of criticism for the emphasis it put on Jane's relationship with Tom Lefroy (and inspired the movie which I could have done without in the end). Yet, I think Jon Spence raised some very interesting points and did a very thoughtful examination of Jane's work and correspondence. I'll have to sit on it a few days to really form an opinion of it. A part of me wants to think she had her one great love affair that didn't work out but the other part of me claims she was far too practical and prosaic to spend her life alone for the sake of a few meetings and flirtations at assemblies one season. But then again, I love Jane best because I'm fairly certain she was like me: a realistic hopeless romantic with a bit of cynicism thrown in for good measure. We always want to believe in the happy ending but we're too aware of human nature in the end to have faith in it lasting.

On that happy note, let my vacation begin!