Oh Man I'm Totally Doing It

So for the past few months or so, I've been kinda obsessing about Disneyland. I've been doing so on and off since about 1995 when I discovered this website which catalogues every Disney attraction that's ever disappeared from the park. I had had very vague memories of seeing Monsanto's "Adventure Through Inner Space" (in the space now occupied by Star Tours) and watching as people disappeared into the microscope and came out small on the other end. I didn't actually know what attraction that was until I found Yesterland and figured out what it was that I remembered...in any case, that switched something in my brain and I've been a little Disneyland-crazy sporadically ever since.

Now, I'm not really a big Disney fan per se -- I don't go see all the movies, don't even like a lot of them, and I tend to find the general Disney sensibility a bit too schmaltzy and sentimental. This applies to the theme parks too, I think. I'm a little allergic to giant smiles and khaki shorts and talking about magic too much, which, if you visit any of their websites, is all they talk about.

However, Disney theme parks fall into a certain Venn diagram sweet spot for me -- the intersection between 1950s space age idealism, late-1800's style "adventuring" (i.e. submarines, mountain-climbing, Egyptology, mysterious monsters, waterfalls, lagoons, tropical islands, all that) and Americana simulacra (evoking an America that never truly existed, but is now generally agreed upon as being the past). Plus I love hotels, spectacle, scale and totally overdoing it.

I'll also say that growing up in Southern California and visiting Disneyland once a year certainly contributes heavily to my interest/nostalgia.

So given all that, dear readers, I hope you understand why I'm so excited to be going to Disney World this April. My girlfriend's company is running a conference down there, and I'm hitching a ride (solving that pesky zillion-dollars per trip problem). I've never actually been to Disney World, being a strict west-coaster, so I'm quite prepared to be entirely overwhelmed. Especially since there are four parks and two water parks, and I'm planning on hitting 5 out of those 6. Luckily for me, we're there for 7 days, which'll help. Biz is going to be at her conference during the day until Thursday, which leaves me free rein to do the really stupid stuff that I want to do, like take the railroad around Magic Kingdom, visit the Hall of Presidents and go on the Flight of Peter Pan. Not to mention ride the Jungle Cruise a few dozen times and visit the Enchanted Tiki Room (which unfortunately is the "Under New Management" version with Iago and Zazu, as opposed to the restored Disneyland version). ANYWAY.

I will be posting a few times leading up to April on various things I'm getting psyched about/need advice on...I know it's comedy-related or particularly funny but DAMN am I pumped and ready to go.

Over and out.