In accordance with the carefully planned, predetermined schedule of events in my complicated holiday-tracking spreadsheet, today was designated a rest day for all of us. We literally have nothing planned. I’ve built in plenty of rest days to prevent theme-park fatigue. However, I had a bet with Sandy last night as to how long it would take before the kids complained of boredom. I bet sooner. Let’s see how it plays out.
For me, I got up reasonably early. I don’t know why. I have no schedule to keep; no obligations to observe. It might be that I was a little uncomfortable in bed. There’s nothing wrong with the bed. It’s perhaps a little firmer than what we’re used to from our own bed, but it’s perfectly fine otherwise. Over the years, I’ve become increasingly sensitive to any change in my mattress. It always takes me a few days to acclimate to a new sleeping surface, so I’m sure it will get better in the coming days and weeks. Anyway, I think it was around 6:30 am that I got up, grabbed some of the chopped fruit I had picked up from Publix a few days ago, and parked myself at the laptop out by the pool. I sat there for the next couple of hours, writing my blog and capturing the events of the previous day.
I write these daily holiday blogs for my own benefit, to capture what life was like as the kids were growing up. With this being the twentieth holiday blog, I’m half-tempted to put them into a collection and produce a book. I doubt many people would buy such a book, but it would look great sitting on my own bookshelf. I’d add it to the 180 or so other books I’ve so far published.
I have a process I follow to create these blogs. At the end of each day, when we’re back at home base and settled, I jot down brief bullet points, each identifying in chronological order what we did from start to finish:
- Got up
- Played some games
- Debated what to do
- Went shopping
- Etc.
When I’m satisfied I’ve captured all the relevant specifics, I then go through each bullet in turn and write out the blog. When that’s done, I read through it entirely, making corrections and adding anything I might have missed or forgotten as I go. Sometimes, I’ll invite Sandy or Jae to read it to make sure it’s complete and correctly reflects the day. Of course, it’s written from my perspective, so there are always going to be things that happened to others that I wasn’t aware of. Throughout the blog, I often stop and reflect on something or other, diving down rabbit holes and meandering off to the side to explore thoughts and ideas—exactly like I’m doing with this paragraph. The step-by-step descriptions of what we actually did aren’t nearly as fascinating, in my opinion, as the meandering thoughts that come to me. Looking at it that way, these blogs aren’t as much a reflection of what we as a family did on a given day; it’s more a reflection of me, the person, and what makes me tick. Anyone who wants to get to know me can therefore do so simply by reading through these travel blogs. In many ways, that’s a better way to get to know me, as I can apparently be pretty annoying at times…allegedly.
While writing my blog this morning, I was getting pings from Angelique back home. It wasn’t anything specific; I think she just wanted to chat. To avoid having to divert my hands from the keyboard to the phone constantly, I video-called her and we talked for a while as I filled her in on what we’d been up to. She’s one of a growing army of people who are following along with us through these blogs, so she was largely already up to speed anyway. It was nice getting some feedback on the writing. I always love getting feedback. It keeps me going knowing that people are actually reading what I have to say.
Oh, I was discussing my writing process before diving down a couple of rabbit holes, so let me return to that. Once I’ve finished refining the blog’s content, I switch to editing mode. I do make minor edits along the way, of course, but only roughly. I learned some years ago that when you write, you’re using your creative brain, but when you edit, you’re using your analytical one. Trying to do both at once is rarely efficient, so it’s best to focus on one or the other. It’s also never ideal to edit your own work, because your brain tends to skim over familiar text, allowing errors to slip through. Having someone else edit gives you that vital fresh perspective.
Once it’s all written, I then have the computer read it out to me. I find this helps reveal any last little inconsistencies, which I can then correct. At that point, it’s ready for prime time, so I upload it to my website and start letting people know it’s there.
With yesterday’s blog done and dusted, the rest of the family were stirring. Joey was hovering upstairs with his toys, coming down periodically to waft one of his lightsabers at me, as though attempting to remove my head with it. This is one of the signals that indicate he’s starting to get bored. I shut the laptop lid and offered to spend some time on the Nintendo Switch with him, which we did.
Once again, we played Mario Kart; once again, he thrashed me comprehensively. We tend to have a lot of smack-talk when we play games together. I typically present myself as an accomplished gamer, boasting just how much I’m going to beat him in the game, and showing off my illusory prowess. This gives him plenty of ammunition to throw at me as he ridicules my poor playing performance. Joey likes nothing more than one-upping his dad by making me look the fool, so I find ways to let that happen as often as possible. It brings a smile to his face each time, which I love to see. Because of Joey’s autism and various other backpacks, he’s often sullen, downbeat or depressed. He fluctuates repeatedly between being happy and being down, so I do whatever I can when I can to lift his mood. The more happiness I can cajole out of him, the better that makes me feel as a parent. It can be hard at times. I hate to say it, but Joey can be a difficult child to love on occasion. He can be moody, insensitive and even outright mean at times. Some of that is his age—typical teenage—but not all of it. Some of the more challenging aspects of Joey typically stem from his frequent inability to articulate himself or his lack of awareness of how his behaviour affects those around him—his lack of empathy. It’s complex. I could write an entire book on the subject, and people would still not get the whole story. Joey is unique. He often defies definition. But, as the saying goes, ‘If you’ve seen one person on the spectrum, you’ve seen one person on the spectrum.’
After we had finished squeezing all the fun there was to be had out of the Nintendo, we all peeled away and pottered around the house a little. We are now at around 10 am, and this is when it happened. Both Joey and Jae announced they were bored. Well, that didn’t take long. Sandy and I resisted the urge to capitulate to this now-growing problem for as long as we could. Sandy and Jae considered taking the car and going out for some retail therapy (that’s code for: spending dad’s money), so the problem was potentially solved for them, but this left Joey (I would have been delighted to sit at home doing nothing). Eventually, Joey came out with it and asked, “Can we go back to Hollywood Studios?” Well, what’s a chap to do? Our tickets grant us unlimited access while we’re here, and we can be dropped off at the main entrance while Sandy and Jae continue their shopping trip. We are all set up with Uber and Lyft accounts, so getting home would be easy, too. I was already mentally preparing myself for the discussion to come with Joey about what he can or cannot afford to buy when we get there. We’re still relatively early in the holiday, so there’s still time to make up for more expenditure now to be balanced with less later on, so I mentally decided to continue to let loose of the budgetary reigns for Joey today. Again, I didn’t tell him this, of course.
With Joey now full of more energy again, we all prepared ourselves for the day, packing frozen water into the backpacks, getting our sunscreen on, packing our hats, etc., and we all piled into the car—after I armed the alarm. The doors need to be closed before arming the alarm, so I sent the family out to the car while I took care of business. I needed to potter around a bit first—use the bathroom, rearrange my backpack, etc.—before arming the system and leaving the house. All of this took about 5 minutes. I found the family all standing by the car, slowly baking in the blistering heat. I had forgotten to unlock the vehicle for them. Doh!
I drove us over to Hollywood Studios, where we made our way to the designated drop-off and ride-share point. Sandy got behind the steering wheel, while Joey and I meandered towards the security checkpoint and entrance stiles.
As on the previous two days, the metal detector light went red when Joey passed through, while mine remained green. Once again, Joey was directed to one side for further inspection, and I went with him. Having been conditioned by the events of the previous two visits, I volunteered my things for inspection. However, this time the lovely gentleman told me that it wasn’t necessary since my light was green, so I didn’t need to be inspected. What? I told him about the experience I had over the previous two days. He was dismayed and profusely apologetic about how I was treated. He insisted that it should never have happened. I guess I was right all along.
Our first order of business in the park was to grab a snack to eat, completely tossing out theme-parks-101 in the process. I mean, why spend 30¢ on making a packed sandwich at home when you can pay $14 for a theme park hot dog, right? In fact, Joey wanted two hot dogs. I took a deep breath and smiled. Joey loved the hot dog from yesterday. To be fair, so did I. I was less keen on the fried crisps (called chips here) they served with it. I’ve always found that food serving—far more typical here in the US than anywhere else—to be a strange combination. We didn’t eat the crisps.
First up, since we were passing it anyway, was another run through the Star Tours motion simulation ride. It was a walk-on, with just 5 minutes displayed on the wait time indicator. We both wondered whether we would get a different show than we did earlier this week. I’ve since learned there are dozens of variations of the simulation ride and story. We did indeed see some marked differences and some similarities in the ride this time through.
As expected, Joey wasted no time in heading to Galaxy’s Edge to do some more window shopping once we were clear of the Star Tours attraction. We had put in a DAS return time request for Ride of the Resistance, but still have almost an hour and a half to kill. This meant an hour and a half of Joey pining over more merch, looking beseechingly between whatever it was he was interested in and me, alternatively. To cut a long story short, and to spare me the indignity of exposing my own parenting shortcomings, Joey scored throughout the afternoon another droid build experience, some more droid accessories, two holocrons (technically, I bought those for me), and another new lightsaber. It wasn’t one of the really, really expensive ones—just one of the really expensive ones.
Our time eventually came for our Rise of the Resistance ride, which, once again, was a truly stunning experience we both thoroughly enjoyed. This time, I videoed the thing from start to finish.
After one more walk-on to the Star Tours ride, with yet another variation in the storyline, Joey wanted another hot dog. Of course. We made our way back to the white ship on Echo Lake. Unfortunately, for Joey, it closed at 5 pm today, and it was not 5:50 pm already.
Our plan after leaving Hollywood Studios this afternoon was to take the Skyliner chairlift to EPCOT to ride a couple of rides there before catching an Uber home. I’ve always wanted to try the Skyliner, and it’s perhaps the fastest way to get to EPCOT anyway. En route to EPCOT, the cable car passes over the Caribbean Resort. It touches back down at EPCOT near the France pavilion. We could clearly see the Eiffel Tower and the Ratatouille ride as we approached.
Just as we disembarked, Joey let slip that he was feeling unwell. Since the whole point of visiting EPCOT briefly was to ride the Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind attraction, Joey’s revelation caused an immediate change of plans. It’s an intense rollercoaster ride, and I didn’t think it would be a good idea to subject Joey to this if he wasn’t feeling well. Upon exiting the Skyliner, I asked a cast member where an Uber could pick us up, and I was directed to the nearby Beach Club Resort. We went in and parked ourselves while I figured out how to operate the Uber app. It took me three attempts to get a booking. The first two appeared to work but were cancelled shortly thereafter for unknown reasons. When the third Uber driver finally picked us up, he explained that the first two cancellations were likely because we had asked to be dropped off at a location where traffic would have been heavy. As it happened, he lived not far from where we needed to be, and we were to be his last fare of the night, so it just worked out well for him to accept the booking.
Our Uber destination, for those who can’t guess, was our favourite Waffle House that Joey and I like so much. Deedee was on shift tonight, and the place was empty, although people were coming and going. We enjoyed our meal, once again, and both felt much more human after tucking in.
The Uber home was more unsettling than I would have liked. It took me a moment to squeeze into the rear seat with my backpack. I had just about gotten the door closed, and the driver immediately sped off at speed. We were half a mile down the highway before I managed to fumble my seatbelt securely into place. We did arrive home a few minutes later, but I decided not to tip the driver and to leave honest feedback.
After showering the day’s grime away, I melted into my laptop pose and wrote up the notes for the day. I had little energy for anything more. The girls arrived home within twenty minutes of us boys. They spoke energetically about their purchases before we all settled into our going to bed routine.