At rest

While nine of my family members enjoy California Adventure, I am out like a light.

The entire exhausting experience of the past week has finally caught up with me, and I sleep hard. My breathing has settled down a bit, but it’s very clear that my main problem was exhaustion.

My family comes in several hours later, and I wake. They’ve had a great time at California Adventure, starting with the Aladdin live show, which they were able to get to in plenty of time and which they said was incredible.

From there they went to the Monsters Inc. ride, Mike & Sully to the Rescue, which they describe as “cute” but not that exciting. They say that the interactive Roz character at the end of the ride was trying to talk to Brandon, commenting on that "teenage boy in the front row," but Brandon didn't notice. If I ride this, I'll try to talk to Roz, I'm sure of it.

They watched Muppetvision 3D, and enjoyed it. And of course they had to do the ultimate California Adventure attraction, Soarin’ Over California. I’d hoped to get there myself, but they assure me that they all loved it and are happy to do it again with me.

It’s weird to me. I would’ve loved to do all these things, but I’m really okay with missing out on a Disney park. I must really need the rest!

Now that I’m up, my physical therapist mom comes by to see if she can help my breathing. She starts with a very intense back rub, and then has me roll over on my back. Then, as I take in as deep of breaths as I can, she jabs me in a certain place on my lower ribs. Ow. It doesn’t feel like it’s affecting my lungs as much as bruising my ribs.

It quickly becomes clear that she knows what she’s doing though, because minutes after she’s done I start coughing. The gunk congesting my lungs must really have been loosened, because I’m coughing violently now – I mean, constantly, hard, unable to stop. The coughing becomes so intense that I have to race to the bathroom, and I end up throwing up from the strain (hey, you wanted realism in the trip report, right?).

Once past that, though, the coughing subsides and I am breathing noticeably better. It’s not at all perfect, but between this and carrying my inhaler with me, I should be able to tackle the parks again. I’m sure I’ll have to still take it slower than normal and maybe still rest from time to time, but then, I wasn’t sure going into this trip how much I’d be able to do after the contest anyway. I’ll just be happy to be there, and if I can make it onto some attractions, so much the better.

My parents are actually planning to get back out to California Adventure tonight to see the Electrical Parade. Brandon’s going with them, and asks if I want to come. It’s tempting on one level, because seeing the Main Street Electrical Parade is one of my fondest memories from 1982.

Once I caught the Disney magic, there were a lot of attractions that made me smile, but it was the Electrical Parade that made me go “wow” and marvel at the amazing things Disney was able to do technically. Oddly, though, it wasn’t the lights or the floats that impressed me the most, though both were incredible. It was the sound. I was amazed that Disney was able to have the parade soundtrack playing in hidden speakers all around us on Main Street, and yet each float had its own theme music playing from the float as it passed by. And it was all perfectly in sync. I’m older now and know much more about electronics and sound technology, and it still strikes me as a marvelous achievement.

As much as I’d like to go see it again, though, I’m going to pass. My multi-hour rest this afternoon was good, but my body is telling me it’s not nearly enough. So Brandon departs for the park with his grandparents (he later tells me that they rode a couple of things in the Paradise Pier area and then just barely caught the last few floats of the parade). I settle back in the bed and am quickly asleep again.

There are two more days for Disney park visits. And hey – Club 33 tomorrow!