Busy Birthday Week

Whew! What a week! I worked Monday and am at work today (Friday), but took some time off in between. I'm sure I'll be ready for the weekend after today, though ;-)

We started off early Tuesday morning, getting up at Allan and Todd's usual 7am. I was up late the night before, packing, so I wasn't in much of a mood to be roused, but we had no choice. We left at 8am, dropped my car off at the Goleta train station, and drove off to Anaheim toward... Disneyland! It was the day of Allan's 40th birthday, and in celebration of this milestone, we opted to relive his rapidly-fading youth by visiting the "Happiest place on earth". We drove to our hotel, where we got our parking permit and walked half a mile down Harbor Blvd toward the main Disney entrance. After grabbing some eye-poppingly-expensive lunch, we met with Joe and Tabitha and, shortly thereafter, Amir and Priyanka. It wound up being the perfect number of people. I think if our little gaggle of 7 had gotten any larger, it would've been too difficult to maintain and stick together peacefully :-)

At some point we got in line for Todd's first real roller coaster ride-- Thunder Mountain-- only to be turned around once we were in line for a few minutes, because the ride got shut down for some reason. Bummer! We still enjoyed all sorts of other rides and activities. One of the most notable was the teacups, which Amir initially elected to sit out, not being a fan of self-induced dizziness. But when Todd expressed disappointment because he had looked forward to riding with him, Amir good-naturedly decidedly to join us at the last minute :-) Unfortunately, the teacups were too small for all 5 of us (me, Allan, Todd, Amir and Priyanka) to sit in-- mostly because of that freak named Allan :-P So Amir and Priyanka hopped out to another teacup, but since the whole point of them joining us was because Todd wanted it, he joined them, too. And of course, he wanted one of us to be with him, so I hopped out and joined them... leaving poor Allan all alone in his own teacup! :-D

Afterward we trooped back to our hotel, where we met Allan's family for dinner at a tapas-style restaurant. The food was delicious and the company was awesome-- we all had a really good time, mostly at the birthday boy's expense ;-) What an eclectic mix of people in our lives-- friends from church, friends from work, and family. After dinner we collapsed in our hotel room and bathed the boy just in time to step out to the back of the hotel and enjoy a splendid view (and sound!) of the Disney fireworks. What a great way to end the day.

Next day, we got up and made our way to Van Nuys for our semi-annual dentist appointments, and then to my parents' house for dinner and some more rest. The next morning, Allan headed out to San Bernardino while I slept in and caught the Amtrak train from Van Nuys to Goleta. I *barely* made it on the train on time-- we arrived at the station one minute before the train arrived, and I was still trying to find the kiosk that would print out the ticket I'd reserved online a week earlier! Fortunately I found it, printed out my ticket, made a mad dash across the platform, and boarded the train just in time to find a seat and have the train pull out of the station as I sat down. I saw my mom's car still waiting in the passenger drop-off zone as we passed by it, waiting to make sure I'd made it safely on. I enjoyed a nice, relaxing trip back to SB, reading and snoozing and enjoying the sights of the ocean and mountains. Not something I'd be able to do if I were to drive that same stretch!

I arrived at the Goleta station just in time to hop in my car (which was still parked safely there after 2 nights) and drive to Luigi's Pizza for a parent meeting with the headmaster of Todd's school, mostly discussing finances and fundraising strategies for the coming year. It was nice not to have to worry about what to do for dinner, at least :-)

And now I shall look forward to finishing up work and going home this evening to enjoy a couple days to myself in the apartment. No boys, since Allan will still be in LA at least through Saturday. Ahhhh.... peace, quiet, and a clean home! :-D