Last Week in Orlando

It is so weird to plan for a crazy week such as this one for so long and it finally jump up on you. Honestly going out of the country tomorrow is the last thing on my mind with everything going on. I still haven't packed and probably won't until midnight tonight.

This last week I finished my last few days of work. I don't really get upset anymore about leaving. Sure, it is weird to walk out of Frontierland to my car for the last time in a long time and wonder who will notice I am gone again for the next 6 months. I wonder what the Fantasyland expansion will look like when I return. Will there be people in Frontierland who will know who I am in 6 months?

But I guess you get used to leaving after a while.

Tuesday my mom came into town and I spent the day with her and my brother. We hit up EPCOT and finished the night watching Wishes on the beach of the Polynesian (can you tell this is one of my favorites yet? Ha!) and enjoying some attractions at Magic Kingdom. This was the first time she had been down since our family vacation and I think she was much more excited than my brother, ha!

The next afternoon I had the opportunity to participate in my favorite art medium, glass blowing. I think it is so beautiful, especially for how fragile glass is.

There is a studio in cocoa beach on A1A with several knowledgable guys and two dogs keeping shop. One travels around showcasing his glass art, but is on hiatus for the summer from his life (sounds like yours truly). The other actually built all the equipment for glass blowing for a while and is getting back into. The dogs are a great balance of hyper and "wait is he sleeping or dead?"

We started by sticking a metal pole into the molten goo and turning it quickly at room temperature (by hand, gosh my wrists hurt!) to give it a nice orb shape. After another dip for more goo, we applied what looked like broken colored glass to create the color. I chose teal (always a given), lime green, and yellow. I put the pole in essentially a huge oven, still turning the pole to maintain the orb shape, to allow the color to melt it.

To create a crazy swirl design, I then rest the pole and took tweezer to the gunk turning little bits in different directions until it was twisted all over. Once more time in the furnace before resting the orb again to finalize its shape. From here the instructor took what looked like a half ladel, dipped it in water and rounded out the orb.

To create the thin orb, showcasing the most color, you then attach a pipe to the other end of the pole and, well, blow! After about 5 seconds, a bubble appeared and began expand the orb almost perfectly in shape.

After several rounds of "blowing" and borderline passing out we knocked the pole with a wooden block to allow the orb to fall with a small hole in the top. The instructor took a bit of molten glass and placed it on top and then curved it to allow for a string to go through after it dried.

And voila! A rockin' glass orb. They have to dry over night, so we had it shipped since thats over an hour plus tolls away. We are supposed to get it today, I will post pictures if I remember!

Best $65 I have spent in a long time.

The following few days were just being tourists with my mom. Sea World (I finally rode Manta (a laying down coaster), a MUST do if you ever get the chance to go. And then Universal, love me some Hogsmeade. A cold butter beer is a great way to start the day. The day ended with Rip, Ride, Rock It, which apparently has a secret database of songs you can play instead of the select few shown for your ride. The easter egg didn't work for me though!

Saturday was a semi prep for France day. Haircut (at Blades salon in a really neat boutique like part of town in north Orlando) and shopping for roller blades (apparently they do rollerblade tours on Friday nights in Paris). Then we hit up downtown Orlando at the SAK improve theater followed by a great night on Church Street, sobering up at 5 Guys (my first trip ever). It was a great night to let go before leaving.

Sunday was spent sleeping in, my first in forever, doing homework and going to Hollywood Studios for the last time!

Today we are going to Busch Gardens and then getting together to go to the Wishes Dessert Party for a bit of a farewell before I fly to Paris tomorrow!

On Wednesday my roommate and I drove to Melbourne (east coast, south of Cocoa Beach) to the Brevard Zoo to do a zip line called Treetop Trek. We had a groupon to do the canopy and challenge courses. And boy was the challenge one a challenge. It started off with a 65 foot zipline. We had to climb a single ladder up and stand on essentially a palate high above the wetlands of the zoo.

I was shaking in my boots to say the least.

I love the zip line, but the heights are unbearable. But everytime I came to a zip, it seemed like I had to take a moment to just let go.

Just fall.

One more gasp.

And go.

And hope for the best.

And, like it usually is, it was worth it.

The view and the thrill are so very rewarding.

I feel like I have done a lot of "falling" in my life the past couple years.

I fell from Hilton to move out of state to Disney.

I fell into scuba diving for kicks. Scared of losing air at 50, I kept "falling" deeper. Now I have fallen into the fear of dark water diving.

I have fallen in love.

And very heavily fallen out.

And when your line breaks suddenly, it is a fast descent to the pain of feeling how high you really were.

And you lay a minute, understanding more than ever, the risk you took.

You sit up, look around, and evaluate your life.

Rise and carry on.

Climb the next post with caution.

And realize how scary it actually is to be that far up again.

And how apprehensive you are to falling again.

But it isn't about the falling.

It's about flying.

Some would call it falling with style (toy story anyone?).

And again you realize why you keep taking the risk.

And right now I think I am sitting up in my life, evaluating constantly.

Wondering if I should get up.

I think for now I will stay down and take a water break.

Much love.