epcot – Terri LaBonte- Reinventing Myself in Retirement

Rats!! 2: The Sequel

A few weeks after my unwelcome encounter with the rat in our garage, I received an email inviting me to attend the passholder “squeak peek” of Ratatouille, the new ride in the France pavilion in EPCOT. For some reason, this seemed too good an opportunity for me to miss. Never mind that I live in terror of rat-like tails. Never mind that I had just paid vast quantities of money to rat-proof my home. Never mind that I cannot even watch a movie with rats in it without covering my eyes and cringing. I was not going to miss this very special opportunity to experience Ratatouille before the general public. I love being special. Surely, after facing my fear of an actual rat (well, kind of… the closest I got to the said ex-rat was texting a picture of its lifeless body to the critter control guy), I could sit through a ride depicting a cute cartoon rodent.

Or not. Here’s the thing. I knew the ride was based on a rat. However, I did not expect quite so many rats. I also did not anticipate that, as part of the ride “story,” the rider is supposed to be a rat. We rode in a little plastic rat vehicle through the various vignettes of the ride. Because we were supposed to be rats, the veritable armada of rats on the screens were HUGE. It was terrifying. Everywhere I looked, I was surrounded by buck-toothed, mangy-looking giant rats. Maybe to the average rational person, they were somehow cute. Truthfully, I could not opine on what reaction normal people might have had. I was too busy keeping my eyes closed and cowering against Max to take in the nuances of what I will now always refer to as the “rat ride.” At one point, I even screamed involuntarily,

In retrospect, I could give the imagineers points for the premise and execution of the ride. There were too many rats, but, apart from that, the ride was clever and well-produced. The ride vehicle was innovative. I get all kinds of feels from creativity and the rat ride was certainly creative. Unfortunately, what it created within me was horror.

So, let’s review what I learned from my Ratatouille experience:

Rats are not cute.

One rat is too many rats.

Rats do not belong in a kitchen.

I can manage Mickey Mouse and Cheese, the mouse from the Tinker Bell movies, but Ratatouille is pushing my luck beyond wisdom.

“Special” does not necessarily mean “good.”

Sometimes, it is important to overcome your fears; sometimes it is important to just avoid the rats!

What amusement park ride do you avoid and why? Please share your perspective by leaving a comment. In the alternative, you can email me at terriretirement@gmail.com.

Have a magical day!

Terri/Dorry 🙂

Turns Out I Speak Caveman

To all you fine folks who reached out to assure me I am not abnormal after my recent post, “Different” Doesn’t Always Mean “Worse” ( http://www.terrilabonte.com/2019/09/different-doesnt-always-mean-worse/), I appreciate your support. You are, however, wrong.

Let me tell you a story which I hope will put to bed all protestations that I am perfectly normal. Something happened recently that demonstrates the cherry on top of the sundae that is my abnormality.

I read that Disney World is going to completely renovate and refurbish the Spaceship Earth attraction at Epcot. Spaceship Earth is an iconic Epcot experience. It is one of the few original Epcot rides that still exists, 47 years later. Many people don’t even know that the ride is called Spaceship Earth. People normally refer to it as the “golf ball” ride or that “ride at the entrance of the park inside that big geodesic dome thingy.” For the uninitiated, the ride is a slow-moving exploration of the history of human communication. Currently, Dame Judi Dench voices the narration. Like many attractions in the “Future World” section of Epcot, the ride is starting to fray around its cutting edges. Let’s face it, the future becomes the past rather regularly in a 47-year time period. You may ask, if the ride is about the history of human communication, how does it become dated? The problem is that this history stopped in 1976 when Steve Wozniak developed the first home computer.

Anyhoodle, when I read that this bastion of Disney attractions was going to be closed for two years to reimagine it, I knew I wanted to experience it for about the hundredth time on my next trip to Epcot. Max and I went to Epcot the other day, Fast Passes for Spaceship Earth locked and loaded on our annual passholder cards.

As we began our trip back into communication, there was a scene showing cavemen developing a spoken language. I listened to the cavemen speaking and kept hearing the word “umboday” over and over again. In a split second, my mind took a rollicking tour through weirdness and reached an incredible destination. “Umboday” is Pig Latin for “Dumbo.” Hidden Mickey Hunters, eat your hearts out!

It is abnormal… no, bizarre… that I had this revelation. The real question, though, is how my disturbed mind got from “I wonder how we know what spoken language the cavemen had?” to “oh my gosh, that’s Pig Latin for Dumbo!” It’s creepy, but I can even tell you, roughly, how my mind processed all this. Here are some of the thoughts that shot through my brain, rather like the data points zipping through the “modern” super computer the size of a building that is featured on the ride:

I know Disney did a lot of technical research when they opened Animal Kingdom to make sure the park was accurate and sensitive to the cultures it represented. Did they do the same for this ride?
Wait; how could they research the spoken language of primitive man? How would we know before there were any written records?
There were no tape recorders, nor surviving eye witnesses, right?
Does archeology know anything about languages before the writings on cave walls?
On the Tomorrowland Transit Authority ride (for those of us with a memory… the PeopleMover), the soundtrack includes an announcer paging “Tom Morrow, Mr. Tom Morrow” (Tomorrow… get it?). I heard something about a project or company or character called Yisned (Disney spelled backwards). Is the “umboday” thing a trick?
They are talking about the fact that the world’s body of knowledge was preserved after the fire of Rome because middle Eastern scholars kept copies of most of the books in their libraries. I wonder if any of the titles on those books shown in that scene mean “It’s A Small World” in Hebrew or Arabic or something. That would be cute. They should totally do that in the redesign.
Hmmm… “umboday… umboday”… oh wait, that’s Dumbo in pig Latin!

There is so something wrong with me! I am definitely abnormal.

I went home and posted my observation on Facebook. I belong to a couple of Disney passholder groups. I thought my fellow Disnerds in those groups would get a kick out of the information. Either that, or they would tell me I was late to the party and everyone who is anyone already knows this. It turns out that I have never before posted ANYTHING on Facebook quite as engaging as this. As I write this, over 125 people have already reacted to my newsflash and that number is growing.

I am sure that many of you are reading this and thinking, “she’s a total loon.” On the other hand, I seem to belong to quite the flock of loons, given the Facebook response. Maybe I’m abnormal, but maybe I am also rare and exotic.

Is it bad that I want to go back on the ride to see if I can translate the rest of the caveman conversation? Just what are they saying about Dumbo? Maybe… “your children will be scarred for life if they don’t get to ride Dumbo?”

What is the weirdest thought that has ever struck you? If that is too broad a question, how about the weirdest thing you’ve thought this week? Please share your perspective by leaving a comment. In the alternative, you can email me at terriretirement @gmail.com.

Have a weird day!

Terri/Dorry 😊

Blooming

Max and I went to the Flower and Garden Festival at Epcot the other day. I love Epcot and I particularly love this event. There are huge topiaries of Disney characters. There are spectacular floral designs carpeting the grounds. There are creative and unusual playground gardens where children burn energy. There is a butterfly garden, filled with light, lazy aerial ballerinas dancing nonstop through the air. There are different sights and smells all over the park to entrance the senses. It is no coincidence that we think of Paradise as the Garden of Eden and Epcot during the Flower and Garden Festival definitely evokes paradise.

Now that spring is here, the Flower and Garden Festival got me thinking about blooming. There was a lot of blooming going on in Epcot. I’m thinking of another kind of blooming, though.

I think we all go through spurts of spontaneous creative energy periodically in our lives. We all experience times when the momentum of our lives become sweet and fertile. We seem to experience one amazing epiphany after another, each feeding on the one before it. The pieces are clicking together almost automatically. It seems as though our lives are enrichening moment by moment. We may or may not experience success in all our endeavors and I don’t mean to suggest that it doesn’t take hard work to make something wonderful out of all this impetus. However, even in our failures during these times, we are usually happy and satisfied and confident. There is an excitement and lushness about living that is completely independent of traditional success. We are luxuriating in the moment, thankful for all the unique miracles in our lives.

What spurs these periods of renaissance in our lives? I’ve seen it happen when people fall into a healthy love relationship. It can also happen when people become parents. Sometimes it happens when people have careers that reflect their intellectual passions and work with colleagues who are likeminded. Maybe it boils down to love. When love is in the mix, whether it be love for a significant other or love for a child or love for an idea, people may feel safer pushing their boundaries and believing the dreams they normally wouldn’t even dare to dream.

However, it seems that loss can also be a catalyst for these periods of exploration and awakening. Since my mother’s death, I have been experiencing my own personal renaissance. I’ve changed so much. I am so much more engaged with people and with the world. I am much more confident and secure than I’ve been in my life. My spiritual life is more exquisite. I feel physically healthier than I can ever remember being. I feel like that health shines from the inside out and makes me a more attractive person. I’m still not traditionally pretty, but I just don’t care anymore. I no longer worry about being attractive enough or good enough or anything enough to be “worth” other people’s attention and approval. I am just me and I trust that is enough to attract the right people in my life. There is a sort of centeredness and peace in my spirit. I try things that I never would have in the past- publishing the book, singing in the choir, acting in a play, reigning as Alpha Hospitality Princess, creating art, and many other activities. I am blooming.

If I am honest, I think I have to say that some of this blossoming is the result of the crushingly sad journey I took with my mother during her illness and death. During that time, I found out that I am much more complex and multi-faceted than the “me” I always thought I knew. I also had to learn, through the grieving process, how to let go of parts of my life that were no longer blooming.

Now, you all know how much I loved my mother. I still miss her sharply and deeply every single day. I would give up every blossom I have gathered in the past year and a half if it could bring her back- healthy, happy, and living life with me. Since I can’t bring her back, I know she is happy that I am using the life and love she gave me to create something wonderful in my spirit.

As painful as it is, maybe sometimes you have to prune to bloom. Especially if the pruning is accompanied by love.

Have you experienced a period of personal renaissance? Tell us about it! Please share your perspective by leaving a comment. In the alternative, you can email me at terriretirement@gmail.com.

Have a blooming day!

Terri/Dorry 😊