i don't know if i've mentioned this or not ever, but i might be having a slightly stressful year. my class might be a little difficult to work with. i might be a little bit exhausted constantly.
maybe.
with this in mind, as well as the fact that my good friend amanda who lives in florida managed to find herself in possession of an excess ticket to universal islands of adventure through a series of events, i decided i needed to take a vacation to florida so that i could hang out at hogwarts. so i booked it. and i went there last weekend.
and it was the BEST WEEKEND EVER.
partly because not ONCE the whole weekend did i feel that life in prison wouldn't be too very terrible (i feel that way a LOT at preschool these days). and partly because it was full of harry potter and drinkings and random cruising around florida listening to the slightly nonsensical kate nash at high volumes.
i skipped school on friday. i called in a sub, and i woke up, and i went to the airport instead of my classroom. and it Totally Rocked Out Loud.
did you ever skip school? wasn't it the BEST (full disclosure: i only skipped school once ever before i hit college, and it was totally condoned by my mother. TRUTH.)? well, guess what. skipping school when you're the teacher is even better. no lie.
i say it rocked out loud, and that's even including the fact that i hate airports and airplanes and other people and i managed to forget what airline i was traveling on and almost had a panic attack at the ticketing counter when delta had no record of my reservation. airtran hooked me up, though, and it turned out fine.
THEN, when i was still on edge from almost not having a flight because the airports Should Have Known i was going to Mess Up My Flight Stuff, security chose to harp on the fact that i hadn't put my liquids in a clear plastic bag AND hadn't removed them. quite frankly, i never do either of those things, and it's never been an issue. i usually just get "ok, well, remember next time." THIS time, however, they had to remove All of the Liquid Things and rerun it all. did you know i don't like airports?
eventually i made it past all that, and got on my plane, and i had a nice window seat (i feel Very Secure in window seats....center seats give me touches of claustrophobia while the aisle gives me touches of agoraphobia. the window lets me see what's up below and i have a wall to escape other people against) in the exit row. wooo. i also had a three hour layover in atlanta which happened to be in the ONLY terminal without a starbucks and i ended up with a really gross cup of coffee thanks to seattle's best coffee (it is NOT. the best part is a LIE).
on the way from atlanta to tampa, i did my usual: i got on the plane, sat in my seat, pulled out a book and my ipod, and generally made it Very Clear that i was Not Going to Be Talking to You, Person Next to Me. this is a move that Never Fails, and i was all geared up to read my book and listen to my jams (all the alone time is the one thing i like about traveling). HOWEVER. for the first time in my life, all my super clear signals failed me, and i ended up talking to the lady next to me for the ENTIRE FLIGHT. granted, she was very nice, and had a lot of stories from when she worked with inner city kids in after school care programs, so she was interesting to talk to, but i very very much do not like talking to people, and it was NOT how i had wanted to spend my hour and a half in a steel tube hurtling through the air.
eventually i made it to tampa, and then orlando, and i got to play the dual role of bartender and nail technician, and i got to spend the night in a VERY strangely laid out hotel. we stayed in a room on the first floor with a lovely view of the hotel's driveway, because our room was situated between the lobby and the pool/workout center/business center and not next to any other rooms. the only ice machine in the building was located on the seventh floor in a room that housed only it and a stained chair. some of the carpet in the hallways was missing, and the elevator floors were covered with that weird padding stuff that is generally used during construction/renovation, but that was the only sign of any construction/renovation anywhere in the building.
the only reason i really felt okay staying there was that yoda was on my room key. also apparently amanda had stayed there before and said it was legit. but mostly yoda.
*stay tuned for witches and wizards and magical beasts*
