Confercation day 4

The day you've all been waiting for. ;)

Draaaaaaagged my ass outta bed, texted J that I would most definitely be late to breakfast and perhaps he should just plan on seeing me after the first session. He called me back because he hadn't figured out how to text yet. I told him he needs to learn how to text. (If I don't mention this again, he later that same day came to the dark side and learned how to text. He texted me for the rest of the trip. Yay, J. :)

I got ready for the day then headed down to the first session. Something about something to do with technology. Very dry. At break time I met up with J to make plans for lunch. We decided to go to Earl of Sandwich with G and J's boss D, as well as my coworker P who was also at the conference. Back to the next session which was disaster recovery planning and how Katrina affected a particular company. The most interesting piece of information I took from this: The phones didn't work for weeks, but texting did. So anyone who had a cell phone was still able to communicate with others through text. My choice to be a texter is now vindicated. :D

Plans are always made with the expectation that they will change. Otherwise you're sad. Plans changed. G was an asshat as usual and when he found out we weren't just dragging sandwiches back to the hotel he ditched us to go (do whatever G does with his free time). Also, P said that he and his wife had reservations somewhere else that he didn't know about before so he wouldn't be joining us. So, off we went, just me and J and D. We headed across the street to Downtown Disney. When we showed up at Earl of Sandwich the line was waaaaaaaaaaay too long for us to handle so we decided not to stay. We walked over to Legoland during the light of day. I asked J to recreate his hilarious pose from the night before to which he confessed he didn't remember doing it so he most likely wouldn't be recreating it; he didn't. Party pooper.


We wandered around and went to the Raglan Road gift shop where I bought three shirts for myself (two Raglan shirts, one Guiness shirt) and a magnet for B that was a family crest of the name "McGee". Totally hilarious since that's not her REAL family name, but that's part of the charm of it all. :D Then we went to eat at Cookes instead, which is the daytime version of Raglan Road. Nothing the same. No dancers, no alcohol, no band, just delicious fish and chips (or, in my case, halfway decent chicken and chips... did I mention I don't actually like chicken?). :)

After lunch we wandered back to the conference and attended afternoon sessions. Or, rather, we were supposed to attend afternoon sessions. The next session was a poster session where we were supposed to meet vendors. I buy one product for my company and that's antivirus/antimalware. Anything else, I don't wanna hear about it. So, skipped the session and goofed off alone in my room. That sounds nefarious, but it wasn't. I think I probably just jumped on the bed and drank some coffee and checked some blogs. I dunno, time evades me in FL. I then headed to the last afternoon session and learned a tiny bit about imaging ("cloning" the software onto) computers that I didn't already know. I then met up with J to make plans for Cirque later since we were not having dinner together and then I headed off to my room to get ready for...

Dinner with Avi and Britt! So, yah, despite the fact that all I had to do was get my ass across the street and go to the hotel behind the hotel across the street, I got terribly lost. The directions my hotel gave me: Cross the street. Turn LEFT. Go right at the first hotel, behind the Regal Sun. Problem? The Regal Sun is DIRECTLY across the street, but only if you're crossing where there isn't a crosswalk. The correct instructions: Cross the street. Turn RIGHT. Turn left. You're there. I was (20?) minutes late to dinner and very sweaty when I finally did arrive to the restaurant. Avi gave me a one armed hug (fucker) but I got up on my tippy toes and gave him a hug with both my arms because that's polite. Britt didn't get up so I leaned over and hugged her. I know you're all dying to know: Britt is really soft and she smells really good. Yup. It's true. Avi is a sweet teddy bear, unless you don't bring him his salad and then he hates you. It was not my job to bring him salad so I was in the clear. Addendum: Please see the comments section for why Britt didn't stand up. It's not because she hates me or is rude or her legs don't work, which is never what I thought or meant to imply. :)

Interjection: There is no photographic evidence of this meeting. I wanted to bring my camera, but I couldn't because I was going DIRECTLY to Cirque after and they would have confiscated my brand new camera. So, I didn't bring it. (I'm sorry.) I also didn't use my camera phone because that thing takes the shittiest photos. Seriously. Not good. When I return to FL and Avi has me over to his house to see Jigsaw I will definitely take tons of photos. I promise.

We had alligator bites. I don't like alligator so I spit it out after chewing it for 10 minutes. Avi and I ordered the same cut of steak, Britt ordered the special which was steak and seafood. No, Dawg, I did not ask nor order Avi to eat with his hands. He uses utensils. He has manners, despite him ever agreeing to publicize that. During dinner his phone rang and ...zomg, it was adorable. Amy had called him from the road (her month-long business trip, ew) to say she was tired and that she might go to sleep soon. He used his little baby voice (as much as he has a baby voice) to talk to her, telling her to shut off her phone if she does go to sleep so that he doesn't wake her when he calls to tuck her in. Cannot make that shit up, it's an entire Hallmark store of cuteness. I have no recollection of what we talked about specifically at dinner, I just remember smiling a lot and laughing a little to myself when Avi called himself a coder for knowing HTML. We also had dessert. I had coffee and some sort of Snickers cheesecake, which was fan-fucking-delicious-tastic. After dessert Avi and Britt dropped me off at Downtown Disney, even though I really could have just walked. I was disappointed that we didn't get to go faster than 30 mph, because I really would like to experience Avi's insanity driving on the interstate. Another time...

It was getting close to show time for Cirque so I wandered through Downtown Disney, calling J as I went. We kept having to leave voicemails for each other, and then suddenly I caught him on the phone and we stayed on the phone until we were in sight of each other then hung up. (That's a fun game. I'd not ever done that with anyone before. It's particularly satisfying to just hang up on someone when you're staring at them. :D ) J and I walked back toward the Cirque tent.

When we got there we went in and I waited in line to purchase waters while J called K to say sweet things to her (awwwwww!) and while I was in line I was totally felt up by some punk 12 year old kid from Miami. Felt up in the sense that he was standing waaaay too close and then when I turned to get out of the line he had his hand propped on the counter to block my exit. I am a woman of impatience and uncaring about 12-year-old-boy fantasies so I just said "scuse me" and shoved his arm out of the way with my boobs. I'm sure that was his wet dream for the night. It was a bit of time before the show started so J and I found our seats but then I left to go to the bathroom. What I was really doing was calling my mommy. :) I had been trying to call her while I was walking through DT Disney but J's calls kept alerting my phone as missed calls and I was having weird reception in the sea of waterbags (aka humans). From outside the bathroom I was able to get ahold of her to say, "guess where I am? In your old town!" Mom and my stepdad used to live in Punta Gorda. And then Charley hit, and then 5 billion more hurricanes threatened to hit. So they finally moved away. Mom was so excited to hear from me because I never call (hello, hi, I hate talking on the phone) so I told her all about my trip and then said I had to go watch Cirque, and she told me she was happy for me and that she loves me, and (yah, yay :).

I returned to my seat and the show started about three seconds later. La Nouba is the show everyone kept telling me I had to see while at Disney. I've seen a lot of Cirque shows, so I know what I'm talking about when doing a comparison. The show was really good. I have only one criticism: Family friendly show, so no dangerous acts. If you're looking for the big thrills they're in other towns at other shows that aren't purely family friendly. Might I suggest Montreal? :) What I did like: I very much enjoyed the industriousness of it. The tight movements of the industrial works coupled with the industrial music was superb, and I loved how they were weaved throughout the show. I particularly enjoyed them in the very end sequence when the performers were doing tricks bouncing off the trampolines onto and into and on top of the building. My other favorite act was the kid act. I shouldn't like the kid acts, because... it's kids in a circus... but, I always do. Diabolos was adorable. The description of the act:

Each of these four magical figures holds two sticks linked by a string on which a musical wooden spool, the diabolo, comes to life. In their tiny hands, the diabolo twirls, jumps and flies through the air while the acrobats themselves perform flips and build human pyramids.

They are just so freaking adorable, and truly amazing. There was only one drop, and the kiddo who dropped her spool had just done an amazing acrobatic trick so we just didn't care, we clapped loudly for her anyway. These girls got the most ovation at the very end.

After the show was over J and I were exhausted so we went back to the hotel, made plans to meet up for breakfast, and went to our respective rooms to sleep.