January 10: Ford Prefect, Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, One of My Favorite Nights

Here we are again.  Arthur still lying in front of the bulldozer.  Mr. Prosser still having Genghis Khan visions of death and destruction.  But now we've been introduced to Arthur's friend, Ford Prefect, who is an alien from a planet near Betelgeuse . . .

Sometimes [Ford Prefect] would get seized with oddly distracted moods and stare into the sky as if hypnotized until someone asked him what he was doing.  Then he would start guiltily for a moment, relax and grin.  "Oh, just looking for flying saucers," he would joke and everyone would laugh and ask him what sort of flying saucers he was looking for.

"Green ones!" he would reply with a wicked grin, laugh wildly for a moment and then suddenly lunge for the nearest bar and buy an enormous round of drinks.

Evenings like this usually ended badly.  Ford would get out of his skull on whisky, huddle into a corner with some girl and explain to her in slurred phrases that honestly the color of flying saucers didn't matter that much really.

Thereafter, staggering semi-paralytic down the night streets he would often ask passing policemen if they knew the way to Betelgeuse.  The policemen would usually say something like, "Don't you think it's about time you went home, sir?"

"I'm trying to baby, I'm trying to," is what Ford invariably replied on these occasions.

One of the challenges in life is dealing with difficult people, like Ford Prefect.  Or semi-difficult people.  Or people who seem to seek out ways of making others feel terrible.  I've been doing that for most of my life.  I have a brother whose moods can change in a blink.  Currently, he hates me, or at least he did when I left for Orlando.  He probably still does.  This brother also has a PhD in grudges.  I'm alright with that.

I've learned that the only way to deal with Ford Prefects is to simply let them be Ford Prefects.  Let them work things out for themselves.  I can't make anyone into a  better version of themselves, no matter how hard I wish I could.  Ford Prefects need to live, screw up, and then figure out how to unscrew up their screw ups.

(In case you are completely confused by the beginning of this post, let me say that teenagers are Ford Prefects.  They are dealing with raging hormonal moods which they can't really control.  They aren't quite children any more, and they aren't quite adults.  They are aliens from a planet in the vicinity of Betelgeuse.)

So, a quick rundown of the last couple days:

Tuesday, we visited the Animal Kingdom here at Disney.  It was a lovely day, one of the warmest since we've been down here.  Yet, that particular theme park is full of lush greenness and shade.  We saw a Lion King extravaganza; watched a 3-D movie about bugs in the Tree of Life; traveled to Avatar land to ride on the back of a banshee; twice climbed Mount Everest on a roller coaster to find the Yeti; and time traveled on a roller coaster to hunt a dinosaur.  Interspersed among all that were encounters with parrots and crocodiles and silverback gorillas.  Then, in the evening, we went back to EPCOT for the magic hours (9 p.m. to 11 p.m.) for resort guests.  We rode on Test Track again, because my son wanted to, and we traveled under the ocean with Nemo.  A pretty cool, eventful day.

Yesterday, we returned to Universal Studios for some more butter beer and to partake in some of the non-Harry Potter attractions, which were mainly roller coasters.  However, the morning started out for me with a really low blood sugar, so I was feeling kinda wonky for the first part of the day.  Skipped a couple of the coasters.  We did the Jimmy Fallon Tonight Show ride.  My daughter, son, and sister rode The Mummy and Fast & Furious roller coasters.  We killed some aliens with Men in Black.  Helped E. T. save his planet.  Ate the Big Pink (a pink frosted doughnut the size of your head).  Then it was the Hogwarts Express to Hogsmeade for some butter beer and wand action.  From there, we wandered into Seuss Landing where we rode the (for lack of a better description) sky trolley.  My daughter and son went on the Incredible Hulk roller coaster.  Twice.  Yes, they are insane.  And then I went on a river rapids Popeye ride with my daughter and son, where I got drenched.  Literally, barrels of water were dumped on us.  Still dripping, we encountered King Kong to end the day at Universal.  (It was somewhere in that time that Ford Prefect decided to make an appearance, and things got a little intense between the teenagers in our party.  There were tears and stony silences.)

Yesterday evening, we made our way to the Magic Kingdom for some Splash Mountain and Space Mountain Action, minus Ford Prefect.  It was magic hours time there.  So, we hit the Haunted Mansion, Little Mermaid, and It's a Small World, as well.  We had dinner.  A chicken Parmesan sandwich for me.  Then, to cap off the night, we rode the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train roller coaster.  My wife joined us for that one.  She screamed the entire ride, throwing in some language that would have made Popeye blush.  Just as we were pulling into the station to disembark, she started saying, "I'm gonna throw up, I'm gonna throw up!!!"  She didn't.  However, it took her quite a while to recover.  She said her limbs went numb at the end of the ride. 

On the bus ride home, we were laughing and joking, although my wife may have turned into Ford Prefect a little.  She wasn't amused.  And, despite the challenges of the afternoon and evening, my daughter looked at me and said, "This is one of my favorite nights we've had."

And that is what it's all about.  Finding joy in the midst of struggle.  Not letting Ford Prefects steal that away from you. 

Saint Mary is hoping that, today, Ford Prefect has returned to Betelgeuse for the duration of this voyage.