it doesn't matter

she was honest, vulnerable, compelling and heartbreaking.

he was angry, defensive, shouting and disrespectful.

she's had death threats, had to move from her home, hire security, relived the worst moments that she probably wanted nothing more than to forget.

he's up for a lifetime appointment in the highest court in the country with a guaranteed salary and benefits, and is called a good man and even a "victim" by other good old boys.

she has nothing to gain from all of this.

he will get his way.  because this is the america we live in now.

it doesn't matter.

still crazy after all these years

eighteen years ago tonight, i went on my first official date with the hub, who presented me with a single rose when he came to pick me up.  and it just got better from there.  who knew the cheesecake factory's chicken marsala was so magical?

i know it's probably really silly that we still acknowledge our dateaversary so many years later, after almost thirteen years of marriage, countless moves, a new human, and lots and lots of love and laughter.  i know.  but if you didn't already know what a huge sap i am, you do now!

happy dateaversary to my love, the best man i've ever known and the only one i want to keep on getting older and older with.  and yeah, i'll just keep on getting older since he'll never catch up to me, but that's okay.  i know he'll always be there to (point and laugh, snicker and snort, hug and love) catch me if i fall.

(also, the bean made so much fun of me because i confessed to her yesterday that i always, always get the date mixed up between yesterday and today.  oops)

starting birthday princess week off right

the bean and i had actually kicked off birthday princess week with rope drop sunday, along with plans to meet up with our friends a little later that morning for a fun playdate.  we got there bright and early, walking through the turnstile and joining the growing crowd somewhere around 7:45 that morning.

and unlike our last rope drop sunday, the incredicoaster was up and running smoothly.  the queue was still pretty empty when we got back there, and we were on the ride and screaming our heads off by 8:07.

our next fastpass was for radiator springs, and with a little time to kill before our window opened we walked around cars land and took in all of the fun halloween decor.

 the pixar fest-themed posters had been replaced with halloween ones.

and then it was time for our ride.

bugs land is most definitely gone.  there are walls around the whole area, which also effectively cut off our shortcut from cars land to the guardians of the galaxy ride.  bummer.

with just a 5-minute wait for luigi's honkin' haul-o-ween, we hopped into a car to kill a little more time before our guardians fastpass window opened.

even with our fastpass, it took forever to get onto the ride because they were only running at 50% that morning for some reason.  oh well.

by then, our friends had arrived and so we headed over to the disneyland side to meet them for our next fastpass ride - space mountain, which has the annual halloween overlay to turn it into ghost galaxy.  on our way there we literally almost ran into the disneyland band, who was making their way out towards the castle for a performance.

the ride was fun, as always.

in the gift shop, the kids happily stood at the build-a-droid station and put together some robot creations.  the bean said this was her cheer team's official droid.

taking a turn on star tours is always a requirement with this group, which is nice since it's not the old lady's favorite attraction, so we don't get to do it often.

afterwards, the bean talked me into sharing a cream cheese-filled pretzel with her.  to be honest though, you know it didn't take a lot to get me to say yes.

we took some castle pictures together after that, with a stop at snow white's wishing well afterwards.

we decided to have lunch at plaza inn, where we indulged in some delicious fried chicken and lilcee picked up this fun sweet treat for me for an early birthday cake.

thunder mountain was next.

we went on pirates of the caribbean after that.

somehow, we also managed to squeeze in indiana jones and the jungle cruise too.

haunted mansion ended up being the bean's and my last hurrah for the day.  we'd been there all day, and with school and cheer the next day and a super busy week overall, i wanted to get her home to get ready and rested up.

that was one super productive day at the 'land!  with halloween still more than a month out, we have plenty of time to get our fill of the decor, rides and snacks before the *gulp* holiday stuff begins on november 9th.

holy cow.  the year's almost over!

belated birthday merriment

so you know how i almost always head into disneyland on my birthday...it's pretty much an annual tradition for me.  but this year it was a little tricky, what with september 18th falling on a tuesday during a week that the bean was prepping for a 3-day science camp out on catalina island.  the hub and i had been talking about going to the 'land for a day date for months but had never found the right time, and so we decided that it made the most sense for us to kill two birds with one stone a day late.  this way we weren't rushing to get back home at any particular time for school pick-up, and we could take our time and hopefully take advantage of what passes for off-season at the happiest place on earth.

after the bean was safely on the bus with her classmates to camp, we headed home to get changed and make our way down to anaheim for a day of fun.  it's also become tradition for me to make myself something fun to wear, and this year was no different.  i put on my fun new skirt, snipped the tag off of my sparkly new birthday ears, and sat back to enjoy the ride.

we were a little taken aback to see super long lines to get into the parking structure.  so much for my hopes for an easy breezy weekday jaunt to disneyland.  checking social media told me that not only was it the first night of the annual halloween parties, but that a special halloween-themed collectible popcorn bucket had also just been released that morning.  it sounds a little crazy, but popcorn buckets are serious business for the hard core disney collectors out there.  no worries, though - we were going to have a great day no matter what.

i snagged us fastpasses for the guardians of the galaxy ride, which also gave us some time to walk around.  it'd been quite a few months since the last time the hub had been at california adventure, and so he wanted to check out pixar pier and other stuff that's changed in the last year.  our fastpass window opened up about half an hour after we arrived, and we were on the ride in no time.  he'd done the tower of terror a handful of times before, but this was the first time he was getting to see it since it's been re-themed.  it was a blast, as always.

we had a lunch reservation at cathay circle, and the halloween party meant that disneyland was closing early that evening, and so we decided to head over there for awhile.  as we made our way down buena vista street towards the exit, we ran into an old friend who didn't have time to stop for a picture with me, but i got one anyway.

with fastpasses in hand for space mountain, we decided to enjoy a leisurely ride around the magic kingdom on the disneyland railroad.

and what's a trip to disneyland without a couple of castle pictures?

after we took our turn on space mountain, we found time to squeeze in a pre-lunch stop at big thunder mountain.

at carthay circle, we were seated at a small table where we sat down and perused the menu.

martini for the hub, pimm's punch for me (because i clearly hadn't had enough pimm's the night before).

with the hub still on his low-carb/keto diet, i got to enjoy an order of their special fried biscuits.  these are served warm and stuffed full of jalapeño white cheddar cheese and bacon, with a delicious honey butter on the side.

the unagi glazed soy salmon was really, really good.  i enjoyed it far more than i'd expected.

and my s'mores cake came out with a fun birthday greeting on it.

even better, a little while later the hub and i headed to the grand californian hotel, where i got to head into the spa while he enjoyed a cigar and adult beverages on the patio at napa rose restaurant.

i was treated to a fantastic 80-minute long massage, which included hot stone therapy and a coconut something-or-other scalp treatment.  it was lovely to take a long hot shower afterwards to freshen up before joining the hub on the patio that overlooked part of california adventure park.  not too long after that, the old lady and her special friend joined us and we all enjoyed cocktails and a couple of appetizers before dinner.  this was the hamachi and lobster served with heirloom tomato relish:

and the heirloom tomato salad with a housemade crouton and apple bacon cider vinaigrette.

as we walked through the grand californian on our way to downtown disney, we found a fun station with halloween treats near the lobby.  the hub bought us a round of chocolate chip cookie shot glasses filled with rumchata.  they were so good:

we ended up being seated at naples for some pizza and salad, and when the balloon artist stopped at the table the old lady and i each got something fun.

it was a great end to a really fun day.  another disneyland birthday celebration, check!