Orlando

As an overview, there was a visit where Vicki and Lav came and we went to the Magic Kingdom at Disney World. There was a visit when Bard was in Orlando for a conference and came up several days earlier to see us. Coincidentally, that coincided with Ellie’s birthday. There were also times when the three of them came to see us. These visits are all mostly blurred in my mind, with some exceptions.

Vicki

· One visit – I think this may have been Vicki alone – Vicki had gotten stung by several bees on the foot before visiting us. The foot had been okay but then kept swelling as time went by. We ended up going to urgent care. I can’t remember what urgent care did, only that Vicki couldn’t wear a shoe on that foot and ended up layering socks. This was all right until we went out that evening, Vicki and her socks walking across various parking lots.

· That same visit Vicki really wanted a Cuban sandwich. Tampa would be a much better place for that, but I was determined to find Vicki some Cuban food in Orlando. Currently we have a Cuban diner not far from the house with great sandwiches, but at that time we had to drive a long way to find a Cuban restaurant at the edge of the Orlando area.

o There were no sandwiches, just plates of food.

o We were with my friend MK and went to karaoke afterwards.

· Karaoke – this definitely deserves its own entry.

o We went to two karaoke places at various visits and played Karaoke Revolution at home.

o I can’t hear “Love Shack” or “Material Girl” without thinking of Vicki and The Peacock Lounge. (I’m not sure if the Peacock Lounge is still in existence.)

§ I think Vicki sang the guy part on “Love Shack” while I sang the other part.

§ Everyone was dancing and clapping and singing along when Vicki sang “Material Girl”

o We went to Big Daddy’s, which was a bit of a dive but well-known for its karaoke.

§ Vicki was wearing her layered socks in the not-so-sanitary parking lot

§ My friend MK was our hype woman who was encouraging everyone to clap and yell for us.

§ We sang “Love Will Keep Us Together.” It didn’t hurt that there was a large lesbian contingent there.

o Oh, Bard. This is a Bard memory sneaking in here. We were playing Karaoke Revolution at home.

§ Bard demurred, saying they weren’t very good at karaoke. I pushed back a little, or maybe a lot. It was fun, I said. They should try, I said.

§ However bad you are thinking Bard was at karaoke, they were worse. Much, much worse.

§ Oh my dear friend, thank you for trying to appease me. You were terrible and yet you tried because I wanted you to.

· Vicki and I went to a Wine Bar in Winter Park. I had never been to a Wine Bar before.

o You put money on a card and then use the card to sample lots of different wines. (Possibly everyone on the planet knows this already.)

o We ordered a cheese flight too. Yum.

o I’m pretty sure that Dave was on kid duty during this trip. I think he and the kids may have dropped us off and then we took a taxi home.

· Vicki and I took the kids to the Magic Kingdom at Disney World.

o I was born and raised in Central Florida. I’ve been going to the Magic Kingdom since I was a small child.

o Vicki was still 100% better than me at organizing. This was before the days of Fast Passes. Vicki got us everywhere we needed or wanted to go and figured out how all the times would fit together. I was in awe of her organizational and managerial talents. (I still am.)

o I think I have memories of going to It’s a Small World and waiting in a long line at Peter Pan.

o There was stroller parking we used for both kids. When you came out of the ride, you had to look around for your strollers, just like being in a tiny parking lot.

Bard

· Another Disney story: we went to a water park while Bard, Vicki, and Lav were visiting, I think to Blizzard Beach

o Bard carefully kept and rinsed out the plastic water bottles so as not to accrue more plastic waste.

o I am pretty sure Bard had both a backpack and a fanny pack.

o My oldest, Daniel, threw a huge tantrum because he was juuuust under the size limit and couldn’t ride on the big slide. Bard and Vicki were watching Ellie while I was trying to talk Daniel down from his pint-sized fit of rage.

· As mentioned before, Bard was in Orlando for a conference and that happened to coincide with Ellie’s birthday party.

o Bard made up an invented alphabet on the spot and wrote something that said Happy Birthday, Ellie, in various glyphs and accented letters.

§ The whole thing looked very alien, and we laughed about it.

§ I might still have it someplace.

o Dave had been playing a lot of chess and wanted to play Bard. Bard demurred, saying they hadn’t played chess in a very long time.

§ Unlike with the karaoke, Bard kicked Dave’s ass at chess. They made it to endgame, but it really wasn’t close.

§ Dave was fascinated by how well Bard played. He didn’t care about losing, just enjoyed the game.

o Dave and I were in an RPG called Swashbucklers of the Seven Skies. Having a foible for your character is built into the system.

§ Dave is very deliberate in everything: speaking, writing, thinking. But he’d written an extra character that was very quick-witted and fast speaking. Dave knew that he couldn’t play his character, but he thought that Bard could.

· Bard said something to the effect of, “I think I can play this, but I’m going to need some caffeine first.” So we consensually gave Bard, a tea drinker, coffee.

· My character’s foible was that they had a crush on everyone they met.

· Bard’s character and my character started flirting rapid fire, going back and forth with crazy innuendos. Dave was trying to move the game forward into some semblance of a plot. In between, we were all dying laughing OOCly.

o Bard and I went to a place called Mead Gardens. Unfortunately, a hurricane had affected the place before I took them there, and I wasn’t aware of that.

§ We wandered around a very rickety boardwalk and luckily no one got hurt.

§ We saw lots of flora but not much fauna, although we did get very close to a great blue heron.

o I took Bard to my friend’s coffee shop and another friend’s chocolate shop. Bard complained a bit about how my second friend didn’t have standard flavors, instead having more exotic types of chocolate. This seems very off-brand for Bard, but I think they were worried about my friend’s business model.

· I went to Tampa with Bard, Vicki, and Lav to see some of their Tampa friends.

o I can’t tell you where we were as I have very little knowledge of Tampa, but there was a big lake and some connected rivers.

§ We saw a cottonmouth snake swim right toward us while on a bridge!

§ This seemed very unusual as cottonmouths are venomous but not super aggressive. Maybe it felt Bard’s dragon energy.

o We went to a Thai restaurant and to a park. (This may have been another Tampa visit, not sure.) I got Thai iced tea for the first time.

o Bard used the word grackle to indicate annoyance. “Grackle grackle grackle.” They were quite surprised to learn that we have some ubiquitous birds down here called grackles. I’m including it here because I think one of the Tampa friends actually called it out to Bard first.

· One of the things I think of as a feature of Florida are its beautiful beaches. Here in Orlando we have easy access to the coarse sand and bigger waves of the Atlantic Ocean beaches. If you want to drive slightly further, you can see the powdery sand and calmer waters of the Gulf. On either side, it’s possible to see dolphins at play and lots of various wildlife, such as crabs and jellyfish.

o Bard hated the beach, so we never went.

All Good Things…

· The visits stopped eventually. I’m not sure why. I think probably because our kids started school and suddenly had drastically different schedules. Here we start school in mid-August, while in NY school doesn’t start until after Labor Day.

· Bard and I still chatted every day online. These weren’t always long, involved conversations. More of a ‘how are things?’ check-in.