A Love Letter

I was raised to be suspicious of artifice. So when Dave surprised me with a weekend trip to Disneyland a year or two into our marriage, I was only moderately enthused and mostly just curious. I remembered friends in childhood lovingly poring over maps of their recent adventures, and I was a big enough fan of 'Beauty and the Beast' to have several Belle-themed doodads in my recently vacated childhood bedroom. But I had always rolled my eyes at the 'sheeple' with rows and rows of pristine oversized white plastic video cartons in their rumpus rooms. I was sure that their copies of 'Fantasia' were just for show, whereas my dad had laid the foundation for a lifelong love of classical music by dwelling on the Stravinsky and patiently enduring the Sorcerer's Apprentice. I might be making that part up, but I do still find the Mickey part to be the least pleasurable of the options presented.

I felt a bad cold coming on as we drove down to Anaheim for Presidents Day Weekend. I was pushing Zicam and Cold-Eeze with the abandon of the uninformed - did you know it can make you nose-blind? One of my freshman roommates was nose-blind, and we would always try to get her to smell candles or shampoo until we remembered and felt renewed sorrow at her plight all over again. 

We stayed at the Holiday Inn right around the corner from the park - in walking distance. I remember wandering around Downtown Disney, enjoying the upscale-ish outdoor mall but not quite sure what to expect the next day. We saw 'Constantine' at the AMC there, which was fun. The bathrooms in that theater were memorably lavish, which was bizarre. 

I was fully prepared to go in to observe, people watch, see all the masses enjoying true old-fashioned American commercialism, capitalism in the form of a mouse-eared golden calf - I'm sorry that just got dark but I'm gonna let it lie because I'm trying to write this pretty quickly and it gives you insight into my young opinionated mind. I didn't like Six Flags so I obviously wasn't going to like this any better.

It was an overcast day, but my nose was miraculously clear and I felt excited and ready for the adventure. Main Street was cute and charming but we were here to ride rides, not window shop. Dave was super pumped to show me childhood favorites, and we started with one of his most precious - The Indiana Jones Adventure. We only got so far as the line when I started to notice something, and more importantly, feel something. The rocks felt like a cave. The lights were torches. I was entering a different kind of space and time. I spent the entire ride with my jaw on my chest - it looked real! It felt thrilling! It was, dare I say, magical! 

We came out of the ride into a torrential rainstorm - that weekend ended up being one of the wettest that year in Southern California. But that day was one of the happiest days I can remember. Because all the cynicism and suspicion and ideological dissonance was no match for the careful artistry and idealistic wonder of Disneyland. The bright-eyed enthusiasm for childlike stories and themes, and un-ironic pleasure in the tiny manufactured details, produced a feeling of pure other-worldliness that was intoxicating. Crowds were light, we were laughing and running everywhere, my feet were numb by the end of the day. I was spellbound and have been in love with the Mouse ever since. 

So young, happy, and comfortably dressed.

Luckily, my sister married a guy from Miami who loves it as much as I do, so I get to go to Walt Disney World with my family more often than some of them would prefer. My mom is still not buying any of it, but she does love the Rice Krispie balls so she comes along willingly. I could wax poetic about the joys and pleasures of all things Disney for much longer - but it's getting a bit embarrassing. I'm not extolling the virtues of escapism - we can't live in a Disney World every day. (Well, I know a few Cast Members who might like to disagree but they're special cases.) But there's something about Disney that bubbles up joy in my heart, and I love lingering in that feeling.

So I bought a wallet with Mickey Mouse ears on it. Please don't judge. ;)