2013 and all that jazz

I spent the days following Christmas in Orlando with my family. We stayed at the Best Western and visited Universal Studios. Everyone in my family was excited to see Harry Potter World. I did not share all their enthusiasm. The lines promised to be enormous and therefore so did the crowds. On the up-side, they do sell beer. By far we spent more time in lines than anything else at the park. I enjoyed looking at the plants growing in the tropical climate and studying my fellow-man in line with me. I thought a lot about time and how we spend each day. I watched the sun arch and fall and could almost feel the earth move beneath my feet as we inched along in line. I thought about line-theory and dreamt of ways technology could solve lines. The solutions seemed silly to me, though. What else would I have done with all those hours if I was not in line? On the few less popular rides we did go on early in the morning I almost felt cheated of spending my time when we walked right to the front of the line. The last day we went to the Disney Blizzard Beach. It was pouring down rain as we approached the entrance. My aunt and cousin who work for Disney gave us the passes, so I figured why not give it a go. We ran through the park enjoying all the slides. It was us and British tourists who were used to beach holidays in the cold and rain. The day warmed up and we exited just as the crowds were arriving. I felt great as we were leaving. I did not regret my time in line or any other inconvenience including the insane amount of money I had just spent. My cousin told me the first night we got to Orlando that we did not need to pay the Florida Turnpike tolls because there was a 3 toll per year grace for all vehicles. I was heading toward the fast pass and then my wife asked me to ‘just pay the dang thing’ so I veered over to the tollbooth. I lowered the window and handed the woman my money. The window would not go back up. It was stuck down. We like to listen to music or books on tape in the car, but for the next 450 miles we just listened to the wind and in the end tried to stay warm as we approached Atlanta after nightfall. The man at the car repair place just whacked the window motor with his fist and it went back up. I felt a bit foolish about that, but not about any of the rest of it…the time in line, the rainy water park or the 7 hours in virtual silence with the wind blasting into the car. The sun was warm at first. The slow arch of the winter sun that I observed for 3 days in a row. Happy New Year.