The best piece of advice I can offer to anyone who is traveling with a large group, or just my crew, is to find a few minutes of alone time. When you have so many personalities exploding in your face 24/7 you need to find your own "three feet of personal space".
We left WC (bye Debbie!) and the crew was still in high swing. I was getting somewhat wiped out. (I still had bronchitis) We were heading over to Disney Quest for the rest of the evening. (This is still day 3, 10/4, for those of you who have lost track.) I asked Brother if he was going over with us. "I might be able to for a little while."
What did he just say??
Rather than getting into it with him, I "let it go". (See Uncle Dave, I can do it!) We were all waiting for the bus to go to Downtown Disney, and I just wanted a break, plus I could feel myself getting upset about Brother, so I came up with this brilliant plan. As the bus was headed for us and I grabbed DH. I asked him if he could take the kids and go on without me. I wanted to wait for the next bus. Was he concerned? Did he worry? Nope. He just said "Okie-dokie, see you there." I do so love this man.
Off they went, and out came my cell.
"Mom! Brother won't play with me!" Thats right, I did it, I called MOM. We talked about this whole mess Brother was in, and how we hadn't had any time to spend together and so on. I talked to her from the time they left until my bus arrived at DTD. According to my cell, it was about 1/2 hour. I felt better.
When you go to DTD there are two places they stop. The first is in the marketplace, and the second is at Westside. I knew I needed to get off at the second stop. I still felt like I walk 47 miles from the bus stop to Disney Quest.
Everything about DQ is fun. Even the elevator ride up. When you get off, you are on the third floor. The most important thing you need to know is that the Cheesecake factory is on the fourth floor. Tell them delswife sent you. I knew just where to start looking for my crew. Build your own rollercoaster. I knew if nobody else was there, Commando Nikki would be.
Yup, there she was.
She was with Beatlebum who was looking a bit, oh how to describe this, horrified is a good word, and one that I can spell. I was on the other side of the bars with the camera bag on my shoulder, leaning over talking to them. They told me the general direction of the rest of the crew and I turned to head off, and bump knocked this poor little kid (about 5 yrs old) onto his bum with the camera bag.
Oh now, I have really done it.
Poor little kid is sitting on the floor staring up at me, with great big eyes, waiting for the next assault from me and my camera bag. I didn't know what to do, I am apologizing like a mad woman, but I am afraid to touch him to pick him up. I am franticly looking around for a parent of some kind, still apologizing to poor little kid.
In today’s society, is it acceptable to touch a child that doesn't share your DNA, simply to
return them to their original upright standing position?
A mother finally shows up, and hey, I have no right to judge her in anyway. I have been in DQ for about 15 minutes now, and can only locate 2/5ths of my crew. Its a busy place and it would be very easy to lose a poor little kid. At least all she did was lose him, I may have just scarred him for life! Apparently, this child has the gift of invisibility, because I never saw him.
"Is he bothering you?" She asks. Lady, are you kidding me? "No, not at all, actually, I conducted a gravity test with him and found him to be bottom heavy." She looked at me oddly. I continued " No what happened was I forgot I wasn't sixteen yrs old anymore and no longer a size 2. My backside requires more room than it once did..." She picked up her child and left.
I turned around and walked straight into BROTHER!!
"Gravity test?" He chuckles.
Well, yeah. Sounded better than, "Hey lady I knocked your poor little kid off his feet with my big butt."
Brother was there with just Waldo. It was great. We found the rest of the crew and wandered downstairs. There is a new game down there called Pirates of the Caribbean. It had a huge line, but we decided we had to find out what it was. I'm glad we did. It is a room that looks like the bow of a ship that you and 4 of your closest friends go in, wearing special goggles and shoot cannons at the pirates to steal their gold. The bow rocks like a boat. It was fun.
We all got into Brothers van, and somehow, I ended up in the back. I still don't know how this happened, and just before I could start freaking out, DH leaned forward to ask Waldo, to please open his door. Very calmly, no emergency sound in his voice at all. Waldo turns around and says "Sure, why?" Dh says "Because you closed the door on my hand and its stuck." I guess seeing your DH's dented fingers will distract you from freaking out. Could dented fingers replace Xanax? I don't think so.
On the way back to POR we started chanting "We want Pepsi products! I want a Mountain Dew!" Brother drove to the gas station, and guess what. No Pepsi products. I asked the guy if Florida sold Pepsi products anywhere and he said, "Yeah, off Disney property." We didn't know Disney had a gas station! Maybe that’s where the monorail gases up?
Back to POR to put my big bum to bed.