Days of Future Perfect - Day Seven

Closing in on the conclusion now of my future vacation - this dated Septemeber 14th, 2006. I think you can start to see the fatigue factor setting in here. I'll let you judge for yourself.

ULTERIOR MOTIVES

I woke up in a great mood and went for a job - beat my best personal time (modern era), and came back to the hotel ready to conquer the world, or at least part of it. Today was to be our down day and everyone pretty much wanted to sleep in and recover, but not me! I was half tempted to let them sleep so that I could head over to the golf course for another lesson, but I had things to accomplish today and pining over some girl wasn't going to get them done.

I decided to surprise them all. I went to the Roaring Forks Cafe and I ordered breakfast enough for everyone. Then I carried it back up to the rooms and knocked on the door. Carl opened the door to my sister's room and his eyes went wide with the first smell of coffee. I delivered breakfast to him and then went into my room and delivered breakfast to my Mom and brother.

Everyone woke up and decided to lounge around. My sister and I, however, took off for her TAC/Disney day. I interviewed her in the lobby, underneath that lobby music, and then we headed to the bus stop and boarded the bus for the Disney Studios. I had packed with me a drawing pad, a dark pen, and my camera.

We were some of the first people to arrive at the gate and as soon as the park opened, Heather and I dashed up the quiet streets towards the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror. Before boarding, however, we grabbed a Fast Pass for TOT for a later time. Then we walked right into the first room of the ride, where Rod Serling does his introduction. I filmed as much of this as possible. Then we walked through the short line and boarded the first elevator available.

I handed Heather a piece of drawing paper with the letter "A" on it, and told her to hold it up when they took our pictures at the top of the ride. We rode the ride and screamed to our hearts content. When we got to the bottom, I took the letter back and we walked into the lobby to pick up our photo. The manager gave us a strange look as we purchased our TOT photo with the letter "A" prominently displayed. I took the manager aside and "explained" my plan - that I was going to propose to my long standing fiancee by writing it out one letter at a time. I told him I needed all 26 letters, and that I'd pay for each and every photo. He congratulated me and let me go ahead. Heather gave me the evil eye.

Ulterior Motive #1: I explained to Heather my real plan, which was to use the letters to create the opening sequence of the Disney Day films. She weighed her love of TOT versus what I wanted to do, and then she let me do it after I agreed to let her make as many funny faces as possible during the filming. For the next two and a half hours, we rode TOT fifteen times, getting all the letters we needed to complete the project. Then we thanked the manager and said that we'd be back after a short break. And we left.

Ulterior Motive #2: I changed my lunch plans and took Heather with me to Beaches and Cream for lunch. She'd always wanted to go, so she didn't suspect a thing. Unfortunately, I didn't happen to bump into Celeste while we were there. But I did have a great open faced Chili Burger with lots of french fries. My diet was quickly going downhill. Afterwards, Heather and I headed to EPCOT to meet up with the rest of the gang.

We rode Test Track three more times and did Spaceship Earth one last time. I rode it fondly, figuring that by the time I came back in four years, it would most likely be gone. One needs to embrace these final rides as much as possible, because you never know what's going to happen next.

We ate dinner at Alfredo Di Roma in the Italy pavillion and enjoyed Fettucini and enough other kinds of pasta to satisfy the hungriest man. It was a great meal and the wine was superb. When dinner was done, we walked over to the American Adventure pavillion and watched the show one last time before we headed for the exit. At the last second, I convinced everyone to come with me via monorail and enjoy the fireworks from the beach of the Polynesian. They were reluctant but they went.

The night was warm though, and the kids got to splash and dig in the dirt on the beach shore, until we saw the first kick of fireworks light up the night sky and the PA system at the resort broadcast the music from the park. To be honest, I think it might have been the best time I ever watched the fireworks. Even the kids liked it.

We rode the monorail back to the TTC and took a bus from there to our hotel. We were all exhausted and headed upstairs for a quick game of Madlibs and then bed. I took my laptop downstairs to the lobby again... and I grabbed my cell phone as well.

What is the amount of time you are supposed to wait before you call? I'm constantly reminded of the movie Swingers whenever I think of this question. It wasn't too late, only 9pm, when I dialed the number on the back of the card Celeste had given me. Her answering machine clicked on and I hesitated before leaving a message.

"Uh, hello, Celeste," I said, nervously, "This is Will. I was just calling to thank you again for the other day and..."

She picked up the phone and said, "Sorry. I didn't get to my machine in time. Its good to hear from you."

"Uh, yeah," I replied. "Uh, me too."

I suddenly realized that I'm terrible on the phone. I write because I can't speak. And without my cute little facial gestures or my nicely controlled written prose, I am nothing - an annoying electronic voice on the other end of the phone line. I had no idea what to say, so I decided to come straight to the point.

"Do you think we could see each other again? Before I go," I asked.

"I'd love to. What did you have in mind?"

"Dinner, tomorrow night?"

"Okay... but no burgers this time."

"I didn't come prepared to dress really fancy," I noted. "Artist Point?"

"I was thinking something a little more... intimate. I'll pick you up at 8:00?"

My heart was pounding against my chest and I somehow managed to remain cool and say, "8:00 it is. See you tomorrow."

"Bye, Will."

"Bye."

And then I sat down in front of the Wilderness Lodge fireplace and started writing this blog. So now you all know. Tomorrow, dinner. The next day... who knows. But the day after that... home. As inevitable as a Shakesperian Romance, this little vacation fling must eventually come to an end.

I know what an exterior and interior is, but really, what is an ulterior? Any English majors out there? Anyway, I digress. Hard to imagine that I could be so bold... or will be so bold... or potentially could possibly be so bold. Douglas Adams was right. Speaking in the future tense when dealing with alternate universes is a real pain in the butt. See you all tomorrow.