I'm Going to Disneyworld!:
It's been an unusual year. I've quit reviewing comics, something I've been doing for about 10 years, I've sold my house and bought a new one, my last grandparent died and I attended his funeral, the business I've worked at for about six years is about to have its 20th anniversary, my sister is about to have her first baby, my little girl is about to enter preschool... and that's just all I can think of right now.

So it's been a busy year, and mostly, in a good way. Lots of things going on, one of those years where you look around and go "Holy shit! I'm a grown-up!" So what do you do when you're a grown-up?

You go to the San Diego Comicon and Disney World. Arrested development ain't just the name of my favorite sitcom, folks. Hell, if we could throw in a guys' trip to Vegas (and we might, before the year is out) in there, we'd have the trifecta.

But the truth is, Disney World isn't a calculated attempt to hold onto my youth or anything like that. Oh, I'm sure I'll enjoy it like a sugar-fueled 8-year-old - we're staying at one of the Disney motels and I can't wait to check out the newly updated Pirates ride, now that the buzz is "doesn't suck" - but I'm not the number one reason we're going.

Katy is. See, she loves Disney. Loves it. Watches all the movies (Pixar too), has several "princess dresses" and knows all the characters from Lion King all the way back to Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. And since we were going to Miami to see my sister's baby (which should be born about 48 hours after this is posted, and I'll finally know if I have a niece or nephew), and the connecting flights from Austin stopped in Orlando, well... I had to look. Had to check prices and times and convenience.

Turns out, it's not a lot more expensive to stop in Orlando, flight-wise. And once I knew that, it was a done deal. We were going to stay at a Howard Johnson or something, drive in to Disney and I decided that was kinda stupid. I mean, the hotel would be cheaper, but the cost of travel and the hassle therein would make up for it. So we looked at the Disney hotels, and chose one of the cheaper ones (the movie focused one), which still has all the swanky extras. Things like taking your luggage from the plane and into your hotel room without you having to go to the baggage carousel. Taking *you* from the plane to your hotel room, and shuttling you to whatever part of Disney you want. Some meals included for a fee that is probably cheaper than just paying for the meals in the park (although we'll be doing that too.) So we're doing the whole Disney thing. Staying at a Disney hotel, going to Magic Kingdom one day and one of the other parks (probably Animal Kingdom) on another before heading to Miami to see the baby.

It's also Katy's first flight, and she's excited about that too. She's going to sit at the window and watch the clouds, or at least so she says. My biggest fear is that she'll be terrified, and we'll have to deal with that, but that doesn't seem terribly in character for my little girl. I haven't really seen her scared of much. She claims to be scared of monsters at night sometimes, but I think that's mostly a ploy to get out of sleeping.

I can't wait. Can't wait for Katy to get on the plane, to stay at the pool, to play on the beach, to meet her new cousin, to see all her favorite characters at the park and ride the rides...

OK, I guess in some ways Disney is for me too. But it's for me because I'm going to have so much fun watching Katy enjoy it.

By the way, I learned in San Diego that a lot of comics people are reading this blog for its comics content. I hereby apologize for posts like this one, and hope you don't find them too boring. :)