When I think about it, I have a lot of “happy places”.  I’m happy sitting on the beach. I’m happy at home. I’m happy when I’m teaching. I guess you could say that I’m a happy person. Because, for the most part, I can be “happy” almost anywhere. But, one of the places I am most “happy” is the “Happiest Place on Earth”, otherwise known as Disney World.

Living in the Orlando area makes this easy and having a husband who is also “happy” in the “Happiest Place on Earth,” makes it even easier. Of course, being with my husband in the “Happiest Place on Earth” is what makes it “happiest” for me. And there I will stop with the “happy” rant. I don’t want to run the risk of being “slap-happy”. And so it begins, our latest Disney World adventure…

Cliff and I have Weekday Only Seasonal Disney passes; partly because it’s supposedly less crowded on weekdays and mostly because it’s the cheapest pass you can get. Friday is our Disney day. A day for just us. Between the two of us, Cliff is the planner. This  makes things even more enjoyable for me, since my only job is to get in the car. I can do that. Last Friday the plan was for Animal Kingdom.

Though Cliff plans our day, I have a few little things that I like to do. For instance, I like to drink a lot of water on our 40 minute ride there, because then I don’t need to drink a lot of water while I’m in the park. (I don’t like to carry things including water bottles. I don’t like the warm water in the fountains in the park. And I don’t like to pay $3.00 for a bottle of water.) As you can imagine, this also means that by the time we get to the park my molars are beginning to ‘float’. I like to walk from the parking lot into the park. This is my version of a good workout and is very doable for most of the parks. And finally, when we’re almost there, I like to tell Cliff that before we do anything else I need a “potty stop,” he already knows, but I like to tell him anyway. Usually, this all works for me, last week it almost did not.

I told Cliff part way through the parking lot trek that walking in may not have been a good idea. Pretty much too late, but I thought he should know. Then I got the giggles. I had to stop walking a few times to engage my sphincter muscles. It was a close call, but I finally made it to the ladies room at the entrance of the park intact.

It was a very busy day at Animal Kingdom and we didn’t have a lot of Fast Passes. Our Safari Fast Pass wasn’t until much later, so we walked towards the Safari to see if we could get on in the Stand By line. The Safari is my favorite. The line was over an hour long, so we headed toward the Lion King show. As I was about to sit down, I had the horrific realization that I’d left my phone in the ladies room stall on top of the toilet paper dispenser at the entrance to the park. We did not watch the Lion King show at this time. We walked, quickly, back to the ladies room. I didn’t have the giggles this time. This time I had a sense of panic as I thought about all of the family pictures, all of the information, all of the everything that is in my phone and the thought that someone might have taken it. So, I did what I do when I panic, I prayed. “Lord, please help me find my phone.”

When we got to the bathroom, it was not in the stall. I went to the Guest Relations line, which was almost as long as the line for the Safari. Cliff went to the facilitator standing outside the Guest Relations area. I am married to a very smart man. He told him what happened, described my phone, and the guy went into the Guest Relations building and found it. Turns out while I was praying to Jesus, Cliff was talking to Jesus, because that was the facilitator’s name. Cliff called me out of the line and brought me to Jesus. And there, safe in Jesus’ hands was my phone. I said, “Thank you, Jesus!” and really meant it. All was well, and in the end it really was not that big a deal.