In My Stylish Yet Affordable Boots

See you real soon!

The morning following my birthday, we slept in. We'd definitely stayed out past our bedtime! After a leisurely waking and getting ready, we were off to Fantasia Gardens to play some mini golf. We've played both courses on previous trips, and this time chose the Gardens course. After a heated competition, I am pleased to report that for only the second time ever, I WON! I savored my fabulous victory all through lunch at Beaches & Cream at the Beach Club Resort. After lunch, the busy (and hot!) week-so-far caught up with us and we made our way back to the resort for some nap time before our dinner reservation that night.

After a refreshing nap and shower/change of clothes, we were off to our dinner at Chef Mickey's! I'm not a big fan of buffets, but the food was surprisingly good. We were seated in a great location and all of the characters came around fairly quickly. I was also surprised by our server bringing me a special birthday cupcake! After dinner, we grabbed the monorail from the Contemporary over to the Magic Kingdom for Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party. We enjoy these specially-ticketed events, and had a fun evening of riding our favorite rides at the Magic Kingdom, people-watching for the costumes people were wearing, and checking out the special fireworks and parade.

Even with a nap, we crashed immediately following the party, since The Husband had an early morning tee time at Lake Buena Vista, and I had a mid-morning pedicure scheduled at the Saratoga Springs Spa.  My pedicurist, Maria, was awesome - cheery and sweet and easy to chat with. I chose Essie's Scarlett O'Hara as my color and was very pleased with the results. After the pedi was completed, I headed back to our room to await The Husband's text so we could meet up at The Turf Club for lunch. We had a nice lunch there before heading off to Blizzard Beach for our first trip to one of WDW's water parks! We spent a few hours on the slides and lazy river before heading back to our room to pack what we could for our departures the following day. Once we completed that task, we decided on the Magic Kingdom for some casual touring and making a second attempt at the Wishes fireworks. Mission completion! We actually watched from a new-to-us vantage point behind the castle in Fantasyland this time.  I should note that the weather on this day was absolutely gorgeous; cool in the morning, in the 60s, warming to the low 80s during the day. Bliss.

The weather the next morning was equally gorgeous, which made it slightly easier to bear packing up the rest of our stuff, dropping our checked luggage off to be checked through to the airline, packing everything else in the car, then heading off to Disney Hollywood Studios. Sadly, we failed at getting either a reasonable stand-by line or a reasonably-timed Fast Pass for Toy Story Mania, so we did not get to ride again. We were successful, however, in getting photos with Sorcerer Mickey and the cast of Up! We enjoyed our traditional last-day lunch at the Sci-Fi Dine-In Theater, our people-watching with a frozen Coke, a final tour of the shops for any last-minute souvenirs, and then another round of mini golf over at Winter Summerland. Unfortunately, there was not another fabulous victory for me to savor, but it was fun to play the Winter course on this trip.

After a quick change in the bathroom (we knew it would be much cooler in MKE upon our return), we headed off to the airport. Or tried. Oops. But we were able to right ourselves without too much difficulty and get on the correct highway to return to the airport. The flight back was uneventful and we arrived in a chilly rain.

All in all, a fantastic trip. I'm so glad we got to do some new-to-us stuff on this trip, even though we missed some of our favorites as a result (Soarin', It's Tough to be a Bug).  I am already looking forward to our next trip, whenever that may be!

The one about the food.

And the music. And the food. And the music. And also more food and music. And the Jesus skywriter.

But I'll start where I left off - Toy Story Mania. What a fantastic ride! In spite of the pain of getting up and going early enough to be there for rope drop, I'm glad we did. I did not score particularly well, but in my defense, I was kind of taking in the whole experience and sort of slow with my shooter. The Husband did quite well, however!

After Toy Story Mania, we grabbed a quick breakfast at Starring Rolls Cafe, then left the park and headed off to Sea World. We had an enjoyable day seeing the sea critters, and even had an extended underwater viewing of the manatee habitat while a thunderstorm blew through during the afternoon. Overheard in the Wild Arctic exhibit, while observing the beluga whales, a guy said to his girlfriend, "Hey, these are those manatees!" Um, notsomuch, dude. The Arctic and the Everglades? Not exactly the same.

When it started looking likely that we were going to get rained on again, we made our way out of the park. Just as we arrived at the car, the rain started again, so we'd made a good decision. We drove back to our resort for a bit of a break, then we were off to Epcot to see Big Bad Voodoo Daddy at the Eat to the Beat concert! We arrived early enough to grab some beverages at the San Juan, PR booth (frozen mojito for The Husband, frozen dragon berry colada for me), and chicken souvlaki and spanakopita at the Athens, Greece booth. Yum. We got great seats for the BBVD show, which was really good; they played a mix of their older stuff and some Cab Calloway covers from their newest release.  This is the fourth time we've seen them play in some venue or another and they always put on a good show.

Since we were pretty much wiped out by that point, we headed back to the resort, grabbed a quick dinner at Artist's Palette, then crashed.

Next morning, we slept in - my birthday, my choice. :) After getting some breakfast, we intended to hang out at the resort pool for awhile, then heading over to Epcot to enjoy more Food & Wine action before our dinner ADR at Rose & Crown. However, the day took a slight detour for The Husband when he attempted to go back to our room briefly after breakfast, before joining me at the pool, and his key card wouldn't work in the door. A new card, a visit by the maintenance guy, and about 45 minutes later, he finally made it. In spite of that, we floated in the pool for awhile, then got ourselves sorted and headed off to Epcot.

Oh. My. The food. And drink. Out of twenty-seven stands, we ate and/or drank at twelve total stands, ten of them on my birthday. Here's the rundown:

• Desserts & Champagne: Austrian Bundt Cake, Grand Marnier Parfait with Orange Coulis
• Rio de Janiero, Brazil: Leblon Frozen Caipirinha
• Buenos Aires, Argentina: Grilled Beef Skewer with Chimichurri and Boniato Puree
• The Mouse Catch: Trio of Cheeses - Dorothea (Dutch), Piave (Italian), Mahon (Spanish)
• Mexico City, Mexico: Corn Tortilla filled with Shredded Pork and Purple Onions, Mousse de Piña Colada y Coco
• Krakow, Poland: Kielbasa and Potato Pierogi with Carmelized Onions and Sour Cream, Chopin Raspberry Chiller
• Cape Town, South Africa: Seared Beef Tenderloin with Sweet Potato Puree and Mango Barbeque Sauce
• Munich, Germany: Apple Strudel with Vanilla Sauce, Beck's Oktoberfest
• Bologna, Italy: Cannelloni, Polpettini (veal meatballs in red sauce), Primavera (strawberry, banana, & peach slush)
• Paris, France: Chocolate Milk Crème Brûlée, Parisien Cosmo Slush

We kind of had to stop at that point, because of our dinner plans.  We made a few stops along the way at some of the permanent country pavilions in the World Showcase, as well as stopping to see Richard Marx at the Eat to the Beat concert. Weirdest moment of the day: a skywriter who first wrote "PRAISE JESUS", then "JESUS 4 GIVES", seemingly aimed at the masses at Epcot.

We checked in a bit early for dinner, but we were ready to get off our feet for awhile, and still kind of full from grazing.  We did get lucky and were seated outside for fireworks viewing. We had a delicious meal (if a bit large and un-finish-able after our grazing) and enjoyed the fireworks. Our server brought me a birthday card signed by the waitstaff, which was a nice touch.  After dinner and fireworks, there were Extra Magic Hours, so we took advantage and rode some of the rides in Future World before heading out of the park and over to Boardwalk to Jellyroll's for dueling pianos! I love dueling piano bars, and we had an enjoyable time singing along (and even dancing along, at one point, to The Time Warp!) before heading back to the resort to collapse.

The Happiest Place on Earth

When we last saw our intrepid travelers, they were on their way to a Polynesian luau...

We had a great time at the luau, which doubled as our anniversary dinner. I drank some fabulously fruity concoction out of a coconut carved into a monkey's face, the food was good and plentiful, and the entertainment was fantastic.  After dinner, however, we were pretty much done after a second day of early wake-up, and thus we crashed.

We slept in this morning for a bit, then headed off to Downtown Disney to do a bit of souvenir shopping and to ride the Characters In Flight tethered balloon. That was So. COOL. We went 400 feet into the air and could see all over the Disney property. We're going to try to go again, this time at night.

After the balloon ride, we grabbed some lunch at Cookes of Dublin (mmm, fish & chips...), did our shopping, took a quick break for something to drink and some air conditioning, then headed off to the Disney Hollywood Studios. Unfortunately, we were too late in the day to easily check out the new Toy Story Mania attraction without an extremely long wait, and they were out of Fast Passes for it. So The Husband went off to ride Tower of Terror (not a favorite of mine), while I killed some time wandering the shops and catching glimpses of the parade. Once I'd wandered through all of the shops I could easily get to during the parade, I found a bench in the shade to wait for him. While waiting, I was first asked to take a guest survey. Can I just say how much I love surveys? I'm always happy to give my opinion. :) Then, just before The Husband arrived, another Cast Member just stopped for a chat and asked if we were celebrating anything. I told him about our anniversary and my birthday. He said, "How many years?" I said, "Eleven." I could tell, however, he wanted to go for the joke, so I quickly added, "Can't you tell how young I look?!" We all laughed, then I told him my actual age, and whether he was putting me on or not, I can't say, but he looked fairly surprised that wasn't younger! That's always a nice feeling. :)

After checking out the new American Idol Experience, riding Star Tours, seeing the Muppets 3D, and riding Rockin' Roller Coaster, we were getting hungry, so we headed off to the Magic Kingdom to get a bite to eat and see Spectromagic. We found ourselves a good spot for the parade, and just as it ended, it started to rain a bit. By the time we got down to Main Street USA, the sky had opened up and we were soaked. We chose not to stay for the Wishes fireworks, but sloshed our way back to Saratoga Springs. We did, however, see some pretty spectacular natural fireworks on the way back, accompanied by some loud rumbles of thunder!

We have an early day planned for tomorrow - a quick stop at DHS at rope drop for Toy Story Mania, then off to Sea World for much of the day, then to Epcot to see Big Bad Voodoo Daddy perform at the Eat to the Beat concert series for Food & Wine. Phew.

Vacation, all I ever wanted

Oh, wait, that was The Go-Gos, not The Bangles. Ah, well.

The Husband and I are in Orlando, celebrating our 11th anniversary and my 37th(!) birthday. People, it is HOT. I'm from Wisconsin. Sometimes we get a couple of 90-degree days. Sometimes we have kickass summers like this one, where most every day is somewhere between the mid 60s and mid 80s and I don't want to die from the heat. Anyway, we come here a lot at this time of year because of the aforementioned anniversary/birthday convergence, and much like I hear about childbirth, I love the end result of our awesomely fun vacation and forget about the horrendous heat until we arrive again.

We left MKE yesterday morning, after getting up at 4:15 AM. I am not exactly a morning person, so much of the getting up, getting ready, cab ride to the airport, and check in at the AirTran counter is kind of a blur. However, what's not a blur is us being upgraded to business class. Awesome. Granted, it's only about a two and a half hour flight, but the extra legroom was tremendously appreciated.  Upon arrival in MCO, our luggage came off faster than I've ever seen it here, and shockingly *together*! We picked up our rental car and were on our way!

Our destination for the first night here was the Hard Rock Hotel at Universal Studios. We found our way easily and checked in, though our room was not yet ready. They promised to call my mobile phone with our room number when it became available, so off we went to get some lunch and hit the Universal Studios parks. We grabbed lunch in the on-site restaurant, The Kitchen, which was quite good, and spotted The Bangles having lunch as well (see, now the first line of this post makes more sense!). They were playing a show to benefit breast cancer research at the hotel last night.  During lunch, it started raining pretty hard, so we waited that out a bit, and when it let up some, we grabbed the water taxi over to the theme park and Citywalk area.

Honestly, we are not fans of the Universal parks, but there are a few new things since we were last there, so off we went. The Simpsons ride is *phenomenal* - so well done! Over in Islands of Adventure, I was sorry more of the in-progress Harry Potter area was not visible. After some touring, we were running out of gas (see: 4:15 AM wakeup), it was after the time our room should've been ready, and yet there was still no message. FAIL. We headed back to the hotel, finally got our room number, and then had to haul our luggage up a flight of stairs, as there was no elevator available from the self-park area. We spent the rest of the night chilling in our room and had room service for dinner.

This morning, up early again with a 6 AM wakeup call. We packed up to head over to our next destination - Saratoga Spring Resort & Spa at Walt Disney World! We checked in easily, were given both Happy Anniversary buttons for both of us and a Happy Birthday button for me, and they also took my mobile number to send a text when the room was ready. We grabbed a quick breakfast in The Artist's Palette, then headed off to Animal Kingdom for our first day of park touring. We had a fabulous day in the park, saw quite a few active animals on the safari, tried out the new Picnic in the Park option for lunch, and SSR texted me promptly at 12:01 with my room number. WIN.  After a bit more touring, we headed back, have unpacked, picked up our tickets for our dinner luau at the Polynesian tonight, and had a bit of a nap. The Husband went up to get some drinks and snacks, and surprised me with a pair of Crocs with the holes shaped like Mickey ears, which I'd pointed out to him this morning (for, like, the 87th time).  I know, they're the ugliest shoes on Earth (not exactly "stylish boots";-) ), but I've been wanting a pair of these particular ones for years. I love having a pair of easy-clean shoes around. But the point is, isn't he thoughtful? :-)

And with that, I'm off to get ready for my anniversary dinner with my awesome husband!

Spam? No thanks, I already ate.

My intent for this blog was never to talk a lot about business. But given my adoration of social media, I wanted to write a little about what's a huge turn-off for me when checking in on businesses I either follow or am considering following.

Social media is supposed to be about connecting with others, whether that's individuals or businesses.  When I see nothing but advertising content with nothing else given back, I wonder what value that business thinks they're providing, and why they believe I should even consider following them.  There should be a conversation, a give-and-take, something to make it worth my while.  I can find advertising anywhere, and frankly, I'm not interested in wasting my time on it.  I have a DVR for a reason!

So you can imagine why, when looking at social media sites for a particular type of product, I was incredibly put off by the one that featured nothing but advertising, and instead preferred the one where I found real conversations happening between the company and the consumers.  The difference in tone was incredible.  The product in question is something I could buy either through a reseller, or directly from the company's website, at the same price in either case.  Since people shop differently, this is a perfectly appropriate business model.  However, on one of the sites, it was clear that the resellers had been provided with NO guidance regarding how to interact with the company's consumers, that the resellers had done NO research as to how to use social media to interact with consumers, and were instead spamming the site with non-stop advertising.  It was not even clever or amusing advertising, but just post after post of obnoxious, spammy, "OMG PICK ME!!!!111!!!eleventy-one!!11!" posturing.  I could find no value in the content and no reason to follow this particular company.

On the other site, it was evident that the resellers had been provided with some form of guidance as to how to use the site and the administrator posted frequent conversational topics designed to get people talking.  Within the conversations, there were detailed and helpful responses from the resellers, as well as consumers helping each other.  Now this? This is value.  I can read this and walk away feeling like the company provided me with a little extra something.  And the next time I need to purchase the product, who do you suppose comes to mind first?

So tell me, readers, what makes you follow or unfollow a business in the social media arena? If you use social media for your business, what value do you believe you bring to your followers?

The stuff that rolls around in my head

What I write about in this blog is generally inspired by things I see, conversations I have, or sometimes a weird convergence of the same topic coming up in different parts of my life in a short period of time.  This is one of those weird convergence things.

Online relationships. Nearly everyone has an opinion on the nature of online relationships - whether meaningful relationships can be formed, if spending that much time online is healthy, if a person is just opening themselves up to fraud or other dangers.

M y life is full of positive online relationships. I met The Husband online, and most of our early relationship was conducted via email.  While planning our wedding, and later in the throes of newlywedness, I met a group of people at a similar life stage.  It's more than 11 years, and several internet venues (from Usenet to a variety of popular social media sites), later and I have a handful of very good friends to show for it.  I also have a large network of very nice acquaintances.

Additionally, Facebook has allowed me to reconnect with people I haven't seen or communicated with since high school or college. I've renewed and enlarged my network of acquaintances, but I've also gotten some harsh reminders of relationships that turned out to be something quite different from what I thought they were at the time.

And here's the rub.  People tend to share so much of themselves online that it's really easy to view these relationships as more than they are.  To forget that, just as in real life, there are people with whom you form closer relationships because you just click and then there are people who are perfectly nice but will never be that close to you.  Not everyone is going to be your friend. This is as true online as it was in elementary school.

So when you have this smaller group of close friends, and a larger group of nice acquaintances, what is your obligation to them across the vast expanse of social media?  Is it imperative to include everyone in every network? Or is it reasonable to make choices to limit your network in different ways, depending on the forum?

Offline, it is reasonable to throw an intimate dinner party for a few close friends versus throwing an open house and inviting every person you know.  Should different rules apply online?  Share your thoughts with me in the comments.

On Style, Size, and Self-Esteem

Due to a number of conversations I've had recently via different media, I've had quite a few thoughts about style, size, and self-esteem churning in my head.  This may turn out a bit more stream-of-consciousness than I intend it too, but I do hope to organize this jumble into something coherent.

For as long as I can recall being cognizant of size, I was, at minimum, ever-so-slightly thicker through the middle than many other kids, and at maximum, a quite obese adult.  And for almost as long, I've struggled with the idea that being larger made me an inferior person: unattractive, ugly, unworthy, a slob.  Our culture prizes thin and abhors fat.  Fat is a punchline, fat girls are consolation prizes for too-slow-to-get-the-skinny-girl drunk guys at the end of the night.  Fat people don't deserve nice things - they'll probably sit on it and break it, or drip some messy, inappropriate, fattening food on it.  All of these messages, and more, come to us from tv, movies, songs, magazines, and other advertising. 

Piling onto the negativity has also been the lack of attractive, age-appropriate, on-trend clothing for plus-size women.  Men have had Big & Tall stores and departments for years, but women largely have had to make do with a handful of catalogs, the occasional local boutique, and the Lane Bryant chain.  When your self-esteem is already suffering, after bombardment with negative messages from the outside, the last thing anyone needs is ill-fitting, cheaply-made, over-priced, synthetic clothing.  It's discouraging, and if you shop with your straight-sized girlfriends, depressing to see the cute clothes available in their sizes while you smile, fight back the tears, and focus your attention on purses, scarves, shoes, and jewelry.  And your ill-fitting clothes just perpetuate the fat-slob sterotype.

So that brings me to my quest for plus-size style.  You see, I REFUSE to be viewed as the fat slob.  I'm a person worthy of dressing my body to its best advantage.  Thankfully, over the last few years, many designers and discount chains have expanded their plus-size offerings to help me in my quest.  I've made a conscious choice to expend the effort to look good, because it DOES require effort*.  Shopping as a plus-size woman requires a time and energy investment to educate yourself if you want to appear put together.  I do believe that too many women, plus-size women especially, hide behind an I-don't-care or too-busy-to-care attitude when it comes to style because they're confused or discouraged or don't believe they can achieve a personal style that will make them feel good about themselves and earn them admiring looks from others.

I'm no style expert.  I've made plenty of missteps, and I have my share of horrifyingly bad fashion faux pas immortalized in the photo album.  I'm just someone who enjoys fashion and who is complimented often enough on how I dress to feel like I must be doing something right.  So I share with you my hard-won "wisdom":

1. Understand proportion and the shape and requirements of your body, and respect that.  Not every style of clothing is going to work on your body.  No, not even if that magazine tells you everyone's wearing it.  Figure out the shapes that make you feel good and sexy and beautiful, and enjoy those!
2. Dress the body you have right now.  If you lose weight, you can always take your favorite clothes to a tailor and have them downsized.  Upsizing? Not nearly so easy.  Letting too-small, brand-new items sit in your closet because you did NOT, in fact, lose those ten pounds? BIG mistake.  Not only is it a waste of money, it just hangs there as a representation of your perceived shortcomings.  That will never be good for your self-esteem. 
3. Be willing to try things on, regardless of the number on the tag.  I do a lot of size chart comparisons, and the widely-varied size ranges between clothing lines kind of make my head hurt.  If "your" size doesn't fit, try on a different size.  My current wardrobe contains items in six different numbered sizes.
4. Learn about color and use that knowledge to accessorize! Changing up jewelry, belts, scarves, and bags can give your outfit a whole new life.
5. Learn to use layers to your advantage.  Cardigans and jackets can change the look of your outfit from casual to professional to dressy.
6. Shop EVERYWHERE.  Seriously.  I'm always on the lookout for items to fill gaps in my wardrobe, which contains pieces from Target and Old Navy, all the way up to higher-end items from designers such as Ralph Lauren, Michael Kors, and Calvin Klein.
7. As a general rule, invest in the classic, wear-for-years pieces, and scrimp on the trends.  Once you've built a good wardrobe of classics and some trendy pieces, you will find that you can assemble outfits appropriate for nearly every occasion.

Lastly, a few words about size acceptance: I will say, straight-up, that I'm working to lose weight.  Weight loss itself is not the primary focus of my efforts; improving my health and fitness level is.  However, I know my body and its current size and weight are not appropriate for it.  I would never presume to say that's the case for everyone who shares my size.  I just hope that no matter your size, you take the time to give yourself a style boost and feel good about who you are both inside and out. 

* I can't speak to the experience of shopping as a straight-size woman, but I expect it also requires some effort to achieve similar results. 

Who needs the fountain of youth?

On the way to work this morning, my carpool buddy and I heard a radio commercial touting some product aimed at making women look younger.  I've seen the television version of this ad before, which includes some man exclaiming, "it made my wife look 10 years younger!"  Upon seeing it, I asked The Husband if he wants me to look younger than my age (which, for the record, is 36).  He told me I already do look younger than my age.  Isn't that sweet?  Oddly enough, he's not the only person to have told me this in recent years.  A couple of friends have said so, unprompted, as well. 

I related that conversation with The Husband to my carpool buddy, who said, "oh, yeah, you do look younger than your age."

I always knew there had to be some purpose for oily skin and good makeup.

Will Blog For Food

I had an appointment this afternoon out in the western 'burbs.  Thus, my drive home was a completely different route than I usually drive and was at a different time to boot.  Getting off the expressway, I found a person at the end of the off ramp holding a cardboard sign: "HOMELESS AND HUNGRY".

So many thoughts tumbled through my mind right then - everything from "this person looks mentally ill" to "I wonder how much more we'll see of this in the current economic climate?" to "if I gave this person money, would they spend it on food, or on booze or drugs?" to "would I be safe if I roll down the window?"  Uncomfortably, the light at the end of the ramp was red, so I had to sit there looking at a person clearly in need of something, trying to avoid eye contact, with my own prejudices roiling around in my head.

Ultimately, a driver two cars back rolled down their window and offered the person some money.  I'm grateful to that driver for their compassion and generosity, but I've had to think about some ugly truths.

It's easy to talk about providing more programs and more help for people in need, to write a check, or not even bother because your taxes come right out of your paycheck.  Seeing, up close, poverty, mental illness, homelessness...it's a different story.  We've been conditioned as a society to be skeptical, suspicious, contemptuous, and frightened of the people who don't fit in.  If I roll down my window, will he steal from, or try to harm, me?  Is she really homeless or is she scamming the suckers people who give her money?  Those people aren't trying hard enough to get a job and take care of themselves, so why should I help them?

I'm not proud of my thoughts or (lack of) actions on that off ramp today.  But conditioning is hard to fight.  Given the same situation, I can't say I'd do anything differently.  And I wonder: what kind of person am I, if I allow cynicism and fear to override generosity and compassion?

The Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Really OK, Day

It's Monday.  That, on its own, is quite enough to start out a day badly.  Then I was so out of sorts that I forgot to take my daily medication before I left the house this morning.  The news reported thick fog this morning with less than a quarter mile of visibility, which is not an ideal condition for rush hour traffic.  When I stopped for gasoline, the little metal flap that lets you keep filling the tank without holding the handle was missing from my gas pump, and holding the handle made my hand smell like gas.  The ATM ate my card when I tried to get money, telling me the card is expired.  Upon arrival at work, I had five meetings scheduled for today, plus ended up in another impromptu one.  Prices in the work cafeteria were just raised so my lunch cost an obscene amount of money.  My mom's health is worrisome.  I was rained on while leaving the restaurant where we ate dinner tonight.  One of these on its own, or all of these things added up, could have left me short-tempered.

And yet.

I had a good day today.  I didn't complain, I didn't dwell, I didn't snap at anyone.  I felt...happy?! It wasn't a conscious decision, and I didn't realize it until I mentioned the ATM card problem to The Husband to help me remember to look into it.  I just forgot to be crabby.

This is definitely something to think about.