Disney World May 2013

Disney! Soooo happy! I cannot think of a better way to celebrate a new chapter in my life than a trip to Disney. 

Several months earlier my Dad bought timeshare points for resort ownership and he was willing to book the resort stay for us. There was a water park at the resort and Sandy, her older daughter, and I spent the day there while Chip was driving down. Lazy river and frozen piña coladas? Yes, please!

Chip had planned this vacation a while ago. She wanted to see fireworks. Disney fireworks. She got there mid-afternoon and we hung out with Sandy and her daughter for a while before Sandy had to leave to take her kid to soccer.

I had a surprise planned for Chip and it turned out, she also had one planned for me. My surprise for her first: The Monsters, Inc. Laugh Floor (see previous post titled: Disney Weekend (part five)) selects various audience members to participate and Chip has always wanted to be picked as "That Guy!". A girl has never been picked as "That Guy!" and I think a large part of that is they don't consider guy a gender neutral term (I think it is as long as it is 3rd person plural, but it's a little hinky for 3rd person singular). So, I made her a sign.

You can see her surprise for me in the same picture. She made us "Mean Girls" shirts.

We had to buy tickets when we got to the park. Chip knew that she was going to be back at least a few times in the coming 12 months, so she got an annual pass. Since I had moved several hours away and did not need the temptation (you know, with all of these super hard and important classes I was going to take [no sarcasm]), I bought the 4 day non park hopping ticket. The Cast Member who sold Chip her pass liked ours shirts and the sign so much that he gave her a fast pass!

We got into Magic Kingdom and went straight to Tony's for our dinner reservation. The food was excellent as usual. It is definitely one of my favorite places to eat in the park.

After dinner we headed to Monster Inc. to see if we could (finally!) get Chip picked to be That Guy. We hoped that we would be at a late enough show that they would be willing to pick a girl to be That Guy and that we would get out in time to watch the fireworks. 

While standing in line for Monsters Inc, one of the Cast Members asked about the sign we were holding. After explaining it, she wished us luck. Several of the other guests overhead the plan and thought it was awesome. We headed into the auditorium and tried to sit in the middle and towards the back. The moment we walked in, I had the sign open and pointed at Chip. That got me on the pre-show (with the sign). The caption they gave me was something like "Loves attention". The show started and one of the cast members who walk around with the microphone gave Chip a "That Guy!" sticker. He put it on top of the rolled up poster.

We thought that was our consolation prize for not getting picked to be That Guy. Oh well, at least we tried.

Wrong! They actually came back to us later and asked why she would want to be that guy if she was a girl. And we both responded with "So?" We talked with the monster for a few more minutes and it was awesome. Definitely an above and beyond Disney moment.

After the show got out we talked to a cast member about the fireworks. We had missed them. 

While we were talking to the cast member, another cast member came out to talk to us. He worked at Monsters Inc and just saw the show. He wanted to know our thoughts on the show and the improvements we helped them make that night. Below is the picture of the cast member and Chip's summation from Facebook.

(I got chosen to be THAT GUY! This is us with Wayne, who works with the monsters at the Laugh Floor, and the sign Jen made so they would pick me.)

Since we missed the fireworks, and it was close to closing time, we decided to head back to New Fantasyland. This was Chip's first time being at Magic Kingdom since it opened.

I gave her the tour and we each sat in Gaston's chair in his tavern.

Very, very good day. But it was time to go back to the resort and do it all over again the next day.

April and early May 2013

About two weeks after the reunion, I looked into the PharmD program. I would only need four or five semesters of undergrad science classes and then I could start pharmacy school. There were several schools in Florida, and one was a UF branch in Orlando. Yes!

Ok, so I would need to start classes for the coming semester (Summer, starting in mid-May). Now I need to pick a school and apply. If I stayed where I was and applied to USF, I would not be able to take classes during the day (see: "Warm body requirement" from March 2013 post). If I applied to UCF, I would need to rent an apartment in addition to going to school and the debt would rack up fast. If I applied to FAU, I could move back in with my parents and only worry about grades and getting into pharmacy school. 

For S's and G's, I looked at the FAU application deadline. 

It was days away. 

I could still apply for the Summer semester and start classes almost immediately. What's the harm in applying? It's the logical first step. If I don't get in, oh well. If I do get in, then I can work on finalizing my exit strategy.

I applied. Then, I waited.

I was accepted a few days later (mid-April) and called my parents to tell them the plan: I was quitting my job and moving back in with them for a few years. They took the news surprisingly well.

I had about four weeks from acceptance to school starting. Hardly enough time to pack up all my belonging, close on my house, quit my job, go on vacation with Chip (it had been planned for months), paint my old bedroom, and unpack all my belongings. 

I gave my two week notice at the end of April and started packing all the non-essential stuff. Since I was also selling my house and moving back in with my parents, I was also trying to sell some of the stuff I wouldn't need anymore (washer, dryer, guest room furniture, lawn mower). 

The movers came the first Saturday in May to pack the truck for me, and Roger and I drove to Boca. Driving a moving van is not fun, especially when everything I own is in it and a dog who would rather be somewhere else than riding shot-gun.

I was at my parent's house long enough to unload and return the moving truck, and paint my old bedroom with one coat of paint. Then Mom dropped me off at J-Dawg's so I could hang out with her family for a few hours before flying back (rental truck was a one-way rental, flying back made the most sense). As Mom and I were walking out the door, Dad asked if Roger would like a doggie-door installed like he had at our old place. Good job, Dad! Roger is so happy! He loves his independence and his sun bathing.

(Happy, squinting sun dog)

I flew back to my old life and worked three more days at my old job. Then I locked up the house and left. (I could not get a closing date before I left, but the Realtor said I could sign the paperwork by mail.)

Then I drove straight to Disney for a vacation before starting my new life.

March 2013

Lots and lots of fun things happened in March: a sorority sister got married, a musician-friend who has a standing gig at an Irish Pub played St. Patrick's Day (awesome!), went to the Renaissance Festival with J-Dawg and Sir, etc. But the event that started the ball rolling (hello foreshadowing!) was the sorority alumnae reunion.

I graduated from UF almost 9 years ago, and my sorority sisters are still some of the most important people in my life. There are ladies I see on a regular basis and there are friendships that can be reignited instantly. When I received my invite, I immediately called Sandy to see if she was going. She has two little girls at home, so she had not made up her mind. I decided (bravely!) that I was going to go even if she wasn't (although Sandy WOULD increase the fun level. Spoiler alert, she didn't make it to the reunion).

Cutting to the good stuff.

There were lots of sorority sisters there that I knew and many more alumnae from earlier and later pledge classes were also there. We played ice-breakers and then went on scavenger hunt around campus (so much fun!). We had an hour off from planned activities so J-Dawg and I went to check into our hotel and stopped in the hotel bar for a little break. May I just say (of course I may, this is my blog) how much I enjoy beer and mozzarella sticks? Yum! 

(Me and "My Big Sister" J-Dawg)

(Btw, this photo made the sorority newsletter! We're so adorable!)

The evening activity was a movie on the lawn and dinner. J-Dawg and I decided we would rather go to a bar than do the evening activity and a few other sisters had the same idea. 
We ended up at a smokey dive bar that one of the sisters worked at in college and still frequented. 

I got to hear about the many wonderful things the women were doing with their lives. One was working on her charity and raising her 4 children, another was taking flying lessons with her husband (They have since bought a plane. How cool is that?!), another is working on her PhD. You know, basically truly amazing women who know what they want and are working towards attaining it.

(My "date" for the Christmas party at Disney, and she is getting her PhD while working full time.)

Speaking of amazing women... One of the sisters told me that night about one of our sisters who couldn't make it to the reunion who had moved home before finishing her degree but was now a Pharmacist after earning her PharmD. Apparently, a bachelor's degree is not necessary to apply to pharmacy school, just the required prerequisites and a good score on the admission's test. 

That planted the idea in my head. I had been planning my end game to leave my current situation for a while: I was bored at work (The people were awesome, both coworkers and clients, but there was just not enough to stay busy. I asked for permission to work from an alternate location and it was denied. If I had been able to be somewhere else and doing my job, it would have improved the situation. But they wanted to see a warm body in the office.), I hated the city I was living in, my house, my neighbors, my neighborhood, my mortgage company, you get the point. Most of my friends were in Orlando (and Disney, duh!) and that is where I wanted to be. I had been applying for jobs and looking for apartments for months. I had a roommate and an apartment all ready to go, but had not been hired anywhere, yet. 

(Two things: 1. At this point in my life, I think it is pretty obvious that I won't be getting married [if not EVER, then at least for a very long time] so I need to make enough money to support myself and live comfortably and 2. Just in case I do get around to having children, I want to be able to set a good example. I was always told a college education is important, which is not necessarily true. An education in a field that you could not get a job in otherwise, for example engineering or accounting or science, is important. I did not bother challenging myself the first time at University, because it was the piece of paper that mattered, not the subject.)

The story of our sorority sister's PharmD stuck in my head and I decided to research it when I got to work on Monday.

The rest of the weekend was great. We had a meeting on Sunday where they announced the possibility of getting a new house in 2014 or 2015. This is a big deal because we had the first sorority house on campus and it is soooo old, and we have too many sisters at this point for them to eat dinner together on a nightly basis. The plans looked great and the sisters and alumnae were really excited. 

When I got to work on Monday, I did not research the PharmD program. I did not research it on Tuesday, either. By Wednesday, it had slipped my mind completely. More of that in the "April 2013" post.