Trouble in the Magic Kingdom, The Point of Infants, and Half of a Goat

11-20-10

   I am on my way back to Denver on United Flight 259.  I am tired.  I am sick.  It was a fine conference, but I got sick the second day after a big expensive meal at a restaurant called The Flying Fish.  What was it?  Was it the drink?  The crab cakes? The desserts that we all passed around?  Writing about it makes the saliva flow in my mouth, and not in the good way, more the “spits” kind of way, and I haven’t eaten much (a cup of chicken noodle soup, some crackers, and half a strawberry banana smoothie last night along with half a blueberry yogurt parfait this morning) since this all started that evening.  I have not been this sick with... (I'll just be blunt) diarrhea for more than ten years, maybe since my childhood.

   So, yesterday, after I attended the session I really came here for, the one for newbie Tech Liaisons, and the keynote speech, I rode two buses to get back to my room.  As I rode along, I saw people playing golf, of course.  I wanted to play.  I winced.  The groups were backed up. I thought, It doesn’t look like fun to me, but if I was feeling healthy, I would have gone for sure.  But it looked so slow out there.  Just like the Aesop’s fable about the fox and the grapes, it’s easy to criticize something you can’t have. 

   I can barely type.  The guy sitting in front of me has his seat as far back as it can go.  Arrghh.  I am looking at my screen from almost directly above.  I’m having difficulty seeing the words I am typing, and I’m also having difficulty typing.

   I slept from 12:30 to about 4:00 in the afternoon after yesterday’s AM sessions.  At least I could watch the Golf Channel.  That is not something I can do at home since we don't pay for TV.  We have free DTV. 

   Okay, enough is enough.  I’ll write more later.  This is a pain to try and write this way.  The snack cart is about here, anyway.

   I am at D.I.A. now.  I have not had to go to the bathroom yet since this morning, and I was shocked this morning when I did go to the bathroom.  How could I possibly still have this "problem" after yesterday’s complete vacancy?  I apologize if this is vulgar, but I could describe it in worse ways.  I hope I can make it home without going again.  We have one more leg (fellow blogger Denise and I) from Denver to Durango, and then it’s approximately an hour drive back home.  I wish I was home now. 

   Some funny things happened while at Disney World.  It started at the Flying Fish with my drink in my refillable $14.00 Disney mug, and it continued with a comment about infants and another comment on half of a goat. It continued later when I missed a bus. 

   First, the refillable mug.  We ate at the food court at Disney’s Caribbean Resort the first night.  As I headed to the food court, I saw many people walking over the bridge with plastic Disney cups with assorted designs, so I decided to get one too.  I took some fettuccine and I grabbed a cup.  The pasta meal cost a little over $8.00, so I was a tad shocked when the cashier told me the total was $23.50!  I paid anyway, like I knew what I was doing.  Denise also bought one, but I was the one who got my money’s worth.  I took it with me to lunch the next day at the Contemporary Convention Center where the convention was held, and I got three free refills there.  Then as a joke, I asked the waiter if he would fill it with a margarita.  My friends wanted to know if he would refill it for free.  I don't even like to drink alcohol anymore, but he took it away smiling and saying, “Whatever you want, I do for you.”

   He couldn’t do it, though, and I knew it would be too good to be true if he did do it.  For health reasons, dipping a customer’s cup in the salt is a bad idea.  He brought me a margarita ($7.50!) in a flimsy plastic cup instead.  Okay, that was not so funny, but later when we were talking Denise overheard Sarah (last name) say, “What is the point of infants?”

   That really cracked up Denise, but it’s because she did not hear the context of the conversation.  Sarah was talking about people who bring their babies to Disney World.  Why would they do that?  The babies won’t remember a thing.  It did sound funny, though, all by itself, “What is the point of infants?”

   This meal seemed to last forever (the conversation was great, but our server would disappear for long stints between courses), and the food did taste good (at the time), but I struggled through all the sitting and waiting between courses with a gurgling stomach.  We were talking about Christmas and charitable giving.  Anyone who has the money can buy a cow, or chickens, or a goat for a family in need in someone else’s name.  If it’s too expensive, though, we thought, perhaps incorrectly, a family can also buy half of a goat.  Denise wondered how that was going to work (which half of the goat would the needy family get?), so we explained to her that someone else would probably pay for the other half.  It might have also been the very smooth wine she was drinking, but now Sarah and Denise were even.  My turn came when we were heading back to the hotel.