For the past 2 years, mom has wanted Disneyland tickets for her birthday. Last year, my siblings and I bought both her and dad tickets to go. She went and had a good time, but was tired by late afternoon/early evening. But from what I remember, she went on quite a few rides and reminisced about her earlier days at the popular amusement park.
This year, as her birthday approached, mom kept no mystery as to what she wanted for her gift.
“And last year how you got me those tickets to go to Disneyland, I want to have those again so will you buy them for me too please?” (When she asks questions such as these, they generally sound more like demands than questions, ha ha).
Of course I wanted to make all of her dreams come true. But the reality is, my dad is the one who would have to take her. I wanted to make sure he was up to it. The nice guy that he is, he said that he had already been considering taking her.
Mom’s birthday was in May, and I told her I was sending her to Disneyland for her birthday gift. Every time I’ve seen her since, she asks me where her ticket is and laments,
“I just don’t know why your dad won’t take me yet.” [Side note: dad has been really busy running his business].
This week, dad was in between jobs and decided he’d take mom to Disneyland. When I asked him how it went, he told me he would write down his story and email to me (and my siblings). I asked him if I could share this on my blog. He was hesitant at first, but I was able to talk him into it ;) I think it’s good for my readers to sometimes see things in the perspective of other members of my family, especially my dad. Some parts are a little sad and some parts will make you laugh out loud. So here it is; thank you, dad, for opening up and letting me share this.
“Mom got a ticket for California Adventure from Cassandra last month for her birthday. For the last month she's been like a child "when can we go", "It'll be good exercise for me too" "being active I won't even need to take a nap".
Finally the day came when I could take her. I got up at my usual time, took care of some things, then woke her at 730. We had issues about taking the purse vs. taking the buttpack, as she would normally do. She wanted to take everything, finally consolidating to the buttpack; I gave in on taking the three full pill bottles. We left at 8:45, I got a little turned around in Anahiem, mom kept trying to be the navigator, "you're not going the correct way".......Blah, blah blah. We arrived at the Woody parking lot, very unfamiliar territory for her. She was very insistent that I wasn't at the right place. We took the shuttle, got to the gate by 10.
She wasn't too keen on opening the pack and letting security have a look, but we finally got into California Adventure and started walking around.
"This isn't looking correctly to me, No, No this isn't the right state, this isn't right." We walked around finally got on the white water raft ride. She got wet, protesting loudly how unhappy it made her. We walked around for about an hour. She couldn't find the "severe rides" she remembered. She wanted to be at Disneyland, So I go to customer services, explain the situation, 15 minutes later we're in Disneyland.
We went on Pirates of the Caribbean, Haunted House and walked around looking for the "severe ride" which I think she was thinking Big Thunder Mountain, which was closed and fenced off so it was mostly out of view. Lunch time, medicine, walking around more, nothing seemed to interest her, not shopping, not any of the rides. We went to see about space mountain,(not that she would've gone on it) but even fast pass was three hours out. She seemed to enjoy Michael Jackson at Captain EO. Nothing else interested her so by 3:00 we were heading out.
While at California Adventure, nature called, so I hunted down the nearest restroom, told mom "wait right here" so I go in standing at the urinal checking out the tile work when I hear "So this is the men’s bathroom too?" Horrified I turned to find none other than mom standing there wringing her hands together as she does. It's amazing how many thoughts shot through my head at once.....well at least they have partitions....I quickly looked to see how many of the dozen or so people noticed a woman in there....I wanted to be mad, but simply told her "you can't be in here go wait outside please.....I remembered Rod Steward’s line from Every Picture Tells a Story "make the best time out of bad , just laugh it off" So I did. Looking back, it was quite humorous. She has such an innocence about her.
I feel bad for her that she wasn't fully able to enjoy her long anticipated trip, but I don't know how much she realizes the difference, between what is and what used to be. She seemed content to have spent such a short time there.”
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