The First Glimmers and the Awakening

April or so of 2010.

Kevbot had indicated that he'd be flying out to Disneyland from Boston. Now, Kev was a friend of mine at the time, but he didn't know it. No, it's true. I'd been reading his LiveJournal and following his various adventures for a year or so. Two of my friends had him listed on their friends lists. I can only guess he made a comment on one of their posts and I link hopped to his journal - I can't remember how I actually came across his writings...

Kev managed to make a comment that he had a packed schedule (him being an incredibly social creature), but that Sunday would be a great time to meet up with anyone who just wanted to hang out. One of my friends had said he'd be flying down to hang out with Kev at Disneyland, so I jumped in (essentially a complete stranger) and said I'd be there too. There was no response. Umm, yeah.

Well, Steve and I went anyway. I hadn't been since a trip in October 2004. The theory being that if things weren't working out, Steve and I could just make it our own day at the park.

I'm going to condense a lot here - but it was essentially the best day I'd had in years. I've had several major moves over the last few years: Atlanta - Spokane, WA - Seattle, WA - Los Angeles - San Diego. For whatever reasons, I hit a major clinical depression slump while in LA and that lasted well into the move to San Diego. One thing that never seemed to recover was my interest in social activities; I've essentially been a social hermit for the past seven years. But the time at the Anaheim parks was really awesome: Kev was great, as was Josh, John, JOhn (not a typo), Michael, Vince, and anyone else I'm forgetting. I don't know how they felt, but I was so very happy.

Then Monday came. It felt like I had just a great dream and was back to normal. The ebb of happiness had a physical effect on me and I retreated once again. All of those people were visitors; none were local. I had been gifted with one day and that was over. I didn't fall into depression - just back to my comfortable hermitage. [Yes, though it may not look like it, I am condensing.]

I had flashes of Disney interaction with people since then, but nothing that made me *want* to go. Corey and Shawna always have passports and go to Disneyland every couple of weeks. I found out that several co-workers do the same thing. Disney had started bubbling through into the periphery of my life.

Flash forward to October 2. Kev and my friend Joe are once again in WDW and posting pics to Facebook. One in particular was a great shot of the Tower of Terror. I expressed my envy that they were at the parks. Surprisingly, they both said they were going back in December and that I should come along!

o.O Well, there's a thought.

I went through some calculations (hotel, tickets, airfare) and it turned out that there really was no way that Steve and I could go. Just getting someone to look after my dog would be rather involved. I had to tell the guys that it just couldn't happen. It was Steve who pointed out that we were overlooking the obvious answer: I could just go by myself.

Things happened, stuff was said, and it was decided that this could work. From the moment on October 7th that I actually made plane reservations, I noticed a change. I started to get excited. Really excited.

Blogs and podcasts on the various parks became the prime use of Google. A D23 membership is now a reality. After doing the math it become obvious that a Premiere Passport for both parks was the best bet. Plus, hitting Disneyland with no blackout dates was definitely worth it. I bugged the crap out of Kevin and Joe through Facebook and Gmail and I started following tons of people on Twitter so I could keep up to date with any Park chatter. One evening I called Joe to ask a few passport questions and instead started rambling about the December trip and Disney in general. I've been downright bubbly. One might say Giddy (I did. Several times).

Even though I was going to go to Disneyland a week later for my birthday, I threw together an impulse trip this past Sunday. And it turned out ElecTRONica had just started that weekend. Everything just seems to breaking out of a decade long stasis and I'm still excited.