2016

So, it has been awhile since I posted last and for that I apologize. Writer's block and all that. But today, as it is the last day of the year I thought I'd share some measured musing.

2016 ... you've been a bitch. In this past year I've learned a lot, discovered a lot and cried a lot.

I learned what it felt like to experience an earth-shattering loss. The loss of my dad this year was not something I expected to experience in my 29th year of life. I thought I would experience that in my 50 or 60th year of life. I wasn't prepared. Though I don't know that anyone can actually be ready for this type of situation. His illness was a shit storm of bad news that we could never actually process or accept in those short 5 1/2 weeks. After his death, I learned what it was like to create a new normal when you still felt the Gary Green sized hole in your heart. His absence is massive and we will never stop feeling that.

Throughout the grieving process, I learned what people should not say to someone who is grieving. I learned this through what people said to me and even through the head tilt, and now I can hope to know what to say to others as they experience loss within their own lives.

I learned what an impact my dad had on others. It is incredible to continue to discover how he touched so many others.

I learned that your family is your most important circle. Keep them close. Love them. Support them. And thank your lucky stars that you have them. Even though you may not always get along, they are the ones that will go to war for you.

I cried. A lot. I cried at times when I couldn't even identify what made me cry. I cried in loss. I cried in frustration. I even cried in happiness. When my best friend proposed to me I cried out of happiness (after the shock wore off at least). I couldn't believe that this was happening to me, in fact I looked at him and asked, "Are you kidding me right now?" before saying yes! I cried out of immense happiness.

I discovered that I fear for our future after our presidential election. I worry about a future with a president who does not have a filter and clearly does not support women, public schools or minorities. I worry about those that voted for him because I don't understand.

I discovered that people are wrong. They like to say that in times of distress you learn who your true friends are. I call their bluff. Yes, it is INCREDIBLE the number of people who come out of the walls to help you when you are struggling. And that is truly amazing and I am so grateful for those who did. But I think that you discover who your true friends are after the loss has occurred and everyone returns to their daily routines. Your true friends are those who continue to ask how you are doing and want to spend time with you even though your time of distress was months ago.

I learned that I need to not care so much about what others say or think about me. I am me, and if you don't like it then suck it up buttercup. Obviously, I can't make that a resolution or anything because I will never stop taking it personally. But I should. I shouldn't let other's opinions of me affect my mood and self-esteem. I shouldn't, but I do.

2016 was a rough year for many. Many people experienced loss of a loved one far too soon. Many people experienced heart ache. Many people experienced frustrations, trials, tribulations and hard times. But if I have learned anything in 2016 it is to spread kindness and hold onto the good things.

So, as we move into 2017 let's all focus on a bright new year. Hold your loved ones close, be kind to one another even if they aren't like you and you don't understand their lifestyle, help those who need help, and focus on the positive.

xoxo

Time

31,536,000 seconds.

525,600 minutes.

8,760 hours.

365 days.

52 weeks.

8,409,600 breathes. 

10,512,000 blinks.

2,920 hours of sleep.

2,080 hours of work.

1,996 pounds of food eaten.

5,840,000 words spoken.

Phew, I am sure that most of you are thinking that this is a lot of numbers and they seem quite randomly strung together. There is a purpose to it, I promise.

All of the numbers listed above from 52 at the smallest to over 31 million at the largest are ways to measure a year. You can measure a year in many different ways - some that you may not have thought to use as a measurement tool.

There is a well known saying that says, "Life is Not Measured by the Number of Breathes We Take, But By the Moments that take Our Breathes Away."  Well ... that may be true, but apparently we can measure our life by the number of breathes we take. Over 8 million to be exact.

So, why am I sharing this with you? Well ... I have found that time is a really hard concept to understand (and no, I am not referring to teaching students how to find elapsed time - that is a blog post in and of itself). I keep trying to figure out how the measure of time can remain constant, yet feel so erratic.

When you are bored, an hour of time drags so slowly that it may as well go backwards.
When you are having fun, an hour of time flies at the speed of light.
When you are watching a loved one suffer, every second is a painfully long tick on the clock.
When you are missing someone desperately, the days travel at two speeds - simultaneously at a snail's crawl and at a cheetah's run.
When you find that you have massive amounts of stuff to do, the year moves faster than is possible while you watch your to-do list seemingly grow.
When you want to get married, then time appears to melt off the clock.
When you want to have a baby, the time you spend trying to get pregnant feels like eons longer than it actually is.

What is up with that? How can time drag by second by second, and then fly by day by day as you anxiously wish for more time. Is there ever enough time?

I obviously don't have the answers here, folks. But it is food for thought, I guess. How do we desperately hold onto the time that we have and truly make the most of it while honoring those that we miss?

We live. We breathe. We remember. We smile. We laugh. We hope. 

A Weighty Issue

I have always wondered why so much of our standard of beauty is measured by the numbers on a digital scale. And why so many of us drag that scale around with us, on its heavy chain shackled to our ankles. (Don't get me wrong ... I am 100% guilty of this.)

Why is that we feel the urge to step on the scale to torture ourselves every single day? You wake up in the morning and prior to showering you have to face your demonic scale. You feel the pull from the tip of your toes to the split ends on each individual hair. Will it be nice? Will it be mean? You find yourself muttering a quick prayer to whatever Patron Saint of Weight that you can think of that the numbers stay within the range that you call "The I Can Live With It" numbers. You take a deep breath and you cautiously step on. You release your breathe of air and dare to glance down at the numbers...

Now what? Now the numbers you see will dictate how you feel for the rest of the your day. If they are within the ICLWI range you continue your day as normal. If it is lower? You float through the day feeling pretty damn proud of yourself. If it is higher? You might as well climb back in bed because you are going to feel awkward and uncomfortable all day long.

But why?! Who decided there was a number on a scale that determined beauty? And not just on a scale - clothing sizes,  shoe sizes and don't even get me started on jeans.

The standard of beauty has changed so much with the passing of years, and with the shift from true to form sizes to vanity sizing.

If we rewind the metaphorical clock all the way to the 1400s and 1500s you'll notice that plump was the unparalleled sign of beauty. Have a few extra rolls and thunder thighs? Then watch out because you are at the top of the courting food chain.

The Victorian era was exactly the opposite. The thinner the better. Here is where the pain of being beautiful came into play. Corsets that could shrink your wait to a mere 12 inches. 12 inches?! You couldn't breathe and it was the norm to break a few ribs. But wait ... you want to be extra thin, but make sure you add a few bustles to your dress so that your rear looks big. Because a thin waist and a large rear was all the rage.

Then fast forward to the 1900s, where we find women who were tall and slender but with large T & A. Though to achieve this look women and girls had to wear incredibly uncomfortable corsets.

In the 1920s we shift to the flapper era where the ideal woman had shorter (boy-ish) haircuts, slender bodies with flat chests and no curves. In fact, large breasts were frowned upon during this time! The goal was to be thin and androgynous in this era.

The World War era of the 1930s - 1940s, women's curves were emphasized by their clothing and the beauty standards of the celebrities were easier to attain than ever before (or ever again). The average American woman had a BMI of 23.6, whereas celebrities had a BMI of 20.3.

The 1950s is probably my favorite era because it emphasized fuller figures! The hour glass shape was in. We were back to women having curves and being proud of their bodies. Of course it became a harder to attain the beauty style of the celebrity world.

The 1960s saw a throw-back to the 1920s when thinner than thin figures were admired and the androgynous look was in.  If you had curves, you were not welcome here until the latter part of the 60s when the hippie movement came out in full force.

Now in 2016, we are continuing the thin is in rage. People strive to be thinner than ever, sometimes to the point of making themselves sick. They buy into diet fads and miracle pills to try to achieve the impossible beauty standards that society has given to us. We watch moves and feel poorly about our bodies because our thighs are bigger than the actress. But you know what? That is a load of crap. If we worked out multiple times every day and had a personal chef, we would look like that too.

So what happened? It seems to me that we flip-flop depending on the decade that we are in. Thinner than thin to fully figured and curvy. If only our culture could find a combination of both and celebrate the beauty of all!

Eat! Enjoy life! Indulge in that extra piece of chocolate! Have fun with your friends! Embrace your beauty!


Sources:
http://www.rehabs.com/explore/womens-body-image-and-bmi/
http://lookdamngood.com/10-eras-of-beauty-how-our-perception-of-beauty-has-changed-over-time/6/

Tech - no or yes?

Technology can be a wonderful thing. It can be used to assist humans in every facet of their life. People can buy groceries, clothes, shoes, gifts, TVs, games, books, and movies without leaving the comfort of their own home. We can search for the person of our dreams and even embark on an online date while sitting on the couch in grungy clothes and nobody will ever know that you skipped a shower that morning. We can get a degree, go on virtual field trips, talk to friends, book a vacation, find recipes and never open our mouths. We can stream movies and music without having to go to the store to buy the record or rent the movie. All of this is literally at the tips of our fingers.

This all sounds wonderful, doesn't it? I mean, who seriously doesn't want their groceries delivered to their doorstep? I am guilty of doing many of the activities I listed above and find myself at a loss when the wifi is down. I am a HUGE reader ... but if the wifi is down I can't stream music while I read my real book rather than the computer version of a book. It is so much a part of our lives that many of us do not even know how to function when the internet is down.

Technology is something that makes our lives easier ... but if we take it away can we still function as human beings?

In the world of technology ... you can reinvent yourself online and allow people to get to know the "new" you. You can photoshop your photos, only share your best attributes, and well, lie. Nobody will know unless you decide to meet in real life.

In the world of technology .... students struggle to write complete sentences and rather write using "text speak" -u, r, k, TBT, TTYL, *$, BBIAF, HOYEW. (If the rest of you are wondering what those mean ... don't worry, I had to look it up too...)

In the world of technology ... you can say whatever you want via text or e-mail. The shyest person suddenly becomes the bravest because you don't have to worry about seeing the other person's reactions or feel bad when they start to cry. Because their tears are hidden behind their phone. You don't see the pride, joy, sadness, shame or hurt that comes from your words.

In the world of technology ... you text rather than talk on the phone. In fact, you prefer to text and feel wholly uncomfortable when you are asked to focus solely on a phone conversation and not multi-task.

In the world of technology ... you see tables of people going out to dinner where every single person is holding some form of technology. Even the two year old at the table knows how to work an iPad and can even be seen teaching their parents what to do.

In the world of technology ... you can order drinks, appetizers and even call your server back to your table using a tablet ... which can be found at every single table in the place.

In the world of technology ... you don't dare go somewhere alone without your headphones. You walk through the mall with your head down and eyes blazing holes into your phone screen. You walk with ear buds in as you take the dog out, or when you hike alone on a trail. God forbid you listen to the birds singing.

In the world of technology ... you stay up late on Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Instagram, SnapChat checking up on the latest gossip and pics. So much so that the blue light our device emits causes you to sleep poorly ... which in turn causes you to grab the technology which in turn causes you .... you get it.

In the world of technology .... you have millions of books at your finger tips. Many kids prefer to read books on their Kindle, Nook, or iPad rather than experience the feeling of turning the pages by hand.

So where is the happy medium? Should there be tech free hours in homes? Schools? Libraries? At what point does technology do us more harm than good? 

Friend Zoned

Recently, I met someone for dinner that I had encountered in the online dating realm. We talked online, texted a lot and finally decided to meet. Our schedules didn't coincide very well and we live almost 2 hours from each other. We finally found a date to meet, made a plan and got together. Everything was great, we talked a lot and there weren't any awkward pauses but I couldn't get the thought out of my head that he would be a great friend. That's it. A friend.

Now, this doesn't seem like the end of the world. But I suppose, if you are online dating and looking for your forever partner ... deciding that you should just be friends might be a bit ... well ... harsh. When you are looking for the one to love and settle down with and start a family with, being "just" friends kind ruins future plans.


You have to decide how to let the other person down gently.
Do you pretend for awhile? No, because then you are leading them on.
Do you just blurt it out? No, because then you are insensitive.
So you come up with a speech to let them down easy. And then you feel like the biggest prick in the world because he laments to you that he lives in the Friend Zone.

To most women, it doesn't seem like such a bad deal to have guys who are our friends. Especially if those guys are willing to listen to you, hug you when you are sad, and just generally be there for you (bonus if they are funny and make you laugh) so that you can do the same for them without any expectations or strings attached.  But, it seems that to guys ... this is the worst place to be! It is like the Twilight Zone of relationships and nobody wants to be there. I mean, I get it. If I were placed in the Friend Zone by someone I wanted to be in a relationship with, I would be devastated. But ... you never hear about girls being put in the Friend Zone. It is this elusive place where girls aren't allowed.

Men are put in the Friend Zone and women are just told that "he isn't worthy of you if he doesn't want to date you". Why the double standards?

The Friend Zone isn't a new concept, it is represented in many movies and books throughout time. In the Harry Potter series Severus Snape is the epitome of the example of "friend zoned" as he is placed there early on by Lily Potter and never got out. Gale is Friend Zoned by Katniss in the Hunger Games. George is Friend Zoned by Meredith in favor of McDreamy on Grey's Anatomy. Even Forrest Gump is Friend Zoned by Jenny.

So how do we change the Friend Zone to being a positive rather than negative location? Can it be done? Is it okay for males and females to be friends? 

Best Laid Plans

Our best laid plans are often ... mislaid.

Most people grow up planning their future. They plan out what GPA they will have in high school ... what college they will attend ... when they will get married ... when and how many children they will have ... where they will live and so much more.

But something tends to happen along the way that makes our straight laced plans go haywire. I saw this picture on Facebook (again) the other day and it really resonated with me.

Looking back at my life, I think of all of the plans that I had envisioned for my future. They, of course, changed as I got older but I always intended that I would meet the man I would marry in college. I would graduate and then we would be engaged and married and having our first child by 26 - 27 at the latest. We would be a happy little family and everything would be perfect.

Of course ... that did not happen and nowhere near close to it. So my straight arrow of a plan turned into a massive jumble of lines with no distinct ending. Here I am at almost 29 and none of those plans I had for my life have come to light.

Is that a problem? For awhile, I would've said yes. But I think that the true answer is no. Would I have loved for that life to be true? The perfect plans and the perfect family and perfect life? Well, yes, absolutely I would say that that would be quite amazing.

But, boring. I think when life follows the straight path we intend for it ... our life doesn't have much excitement. We all could do with less heartbreak, less sadness and do with more joy and happiness. We may find it hard to contain our despair that life is not going how we planned and we may find it hard to accept that the path is not straight and narrow.

Perhaps we should take a page from Robert Frost and take the road less traveled. Embrace the craziness of life, enjoy the twists and turns along the road and learn to like the chaos. 

Body Positve Or Not?

I have been thinking a lot about body image lately and how it has become such a buzz word and such a movement in the past year. Not a day goes by that I don't see #bodypositive hashtags populating the internet. And don't get me wrong, I am not saying that this is a bad thing. We should be promoting a body positive movement where we see beauty in every person ... however, when did it become the thing to do? What I mean by that is ... when did our body image problems become so detrimental that we need a body positive movement to make us think higher of ourselves?

Body image is something that I have struggled with my entire life. As the chubby child who didn't wear name brand clothes (I LOVED my home made jumpers thank you very much), and whose hair channeled Hermione Granger long before her inception I was often made fun of. Once I added on braces, loving school and glasses? Forget about it. I was every middle school bully's dream.

I grew up envying the "popular" kids around me who were thin, pretty and who could step out of the shower with hair straight out of a Pantene shampoo ad. But why? I was a happy child. I had friends and I got along with my family. So why did I envy the beauty of others rather than focusing on my own, albeit goofy, beautiful self?

The problem of course, or so I believe, stems from the media. When we look at movies, magazines, books, commercials and TV shows it has always been rare to see a "normal" bodied human being represented. Now, I put "normal" in quotation marks because what is normal? When I say normal, I mean that we are not representing a variety of people. Even when the goofy "duff" of a best friend is represented ... the purpose of the movie becomes to make her the belle of the ball. Take off her glasses and run a comb through her hair and voila! She is Cinderella in the flesh. But why can't the goofy, awkward, not put together best friend fall in love with the leading man just as she is? Why is it some major transformation that finally wins him over? Can't he love her for her brains and personality first and looks second?

When this is what we encounter as stimulus overload day after day after day how can we be expected to live a body positive life? 

Karma

Today marks the three month milestone since the break up of my ex and I. I don't think about him on a daily basis anymore though sometimes he does scratch his way into my consciousness. I have spent more time in the past three months thinking about Karma and why good things happen to bad people and on the flip side why bad things happen to good people?

I realize that nobody is all good nor are they all bad. I'm sure even the fairest of them all has a guilty obsession or a bad thought here or there. It's only natural. But if we really look at the concept of Karma ...

Do people really get what's coming to them? Does what goes around really come around?

The whole idea surrounding karma is that if you live a good life, then your life will be filled with good things. But if you live a life full of bad deeds, then you will have bad things happen to you. In Hinduism and Buddhism, karma is the sum of deeds in this and all previous forms of existence which will decide your fate in future existence's.

So you start to think about karma and you start to look back at the choices you have made in your life. You decide that you ultimately have lived a good life and have ultimately made good choices. You put others first and helped where you could. You volunteered your time and donated money to charity. You compare that to what you really want in your life and you ask yourself, "What the **** did I do in a past life to deserve this?"

Is it really that simple?

Can we chalk all of our missed encounters or the experiences we have in life to fate or destiny?

If that is true then that means that the widowed mother of four whose home went up in flames did something truly awful in her past life. That the homeless man who won the lottery lived a life of quiet servitude in his past life. That the child who grew up in a home of abuse deserved it from a previous life of bad choices?

Is that karma or just luck? A lot of people have a lot of feelings about the validity of karma. I can't exactly say where I stand.

So, what is it?
Is Karma truth?
Does everything we do in this life have a say in our next life?
If we ruin our run as the Prince, do we return as a pauper?
Or is it garbage? Karma isn't real and it is just the luck of the draw?

I guess we'd better make good choices and BE KIND just in case ..

Let's Make a Deal .... Or Not

The whole idea of dating is terrifying. It becomes even more terrifying when you have a blind date with someone you met online. But online or not the whole process of dating someone can be exhilarating, terrifying, exciting, disappointing and all the other -ings you can imagine. But the ultimate goal of dating someone is to find someone to marry, yes?

I mean not if you are going out with Wants-Only-Casual-Dating-Guy or Check-Out-My-Abs-Guy then I guess you just want casual dating, whatever that means. But, for most of us that are playing the dating game ... we are ultimately looking for someone to spend the rest of our lives with. We are desperately looking for our future husband.

(Or wife! sorry if there are any male readers out there! By the way ... are you single?)

That's a huge commitment. Like one of the biggest decisions you'll ever make commitments. (I guess that's why guys are so terrified of commitment.)

When in the dating game, most people have a pre-determined set of "deal-breakers" that they consult before giving the nod of approval to some random dude. I mean he could end up as your future husband so you'd better be okay with all of his habits before you say yes to the dress.

The whole concept of deal breakers is really interesting. They are a set of things that we absolutely-positively-without-a-doubt cannot live with things that we are looking for in a partner. We try not to have a terrible long list of deal breakers because let's face it, nobody is perfect. But there are always things that we cannot live without.

For me, my deal breakers consist of:
(1) not wanting kids - this is not a question for me. I will be mother some day come hell or high water I will make that happen. If you don't want kids or there is even a chance of you not wanting kids, then you need not apply.
(2) political beliefs - this never used to be a deal-breaker for me...but time's have changed and I can't spend the rest of my life with someone who supports a candidate who is working against everything I believe to be right
(3) drugs - of any kind ... this includes illegal drugs as well as nicotine addictions

Of course I have some hopes for a future partner (taller than me please!) but those are my only 3 deal breakers. The whole concept becomes trickier as you get older and the dating pool gets exceptionally smaller.

You join the online dating pool and you look and look and look but don't see much to your liking. Then finally you find someone you think you would like to meet and a big flashing light pops up when you find out they don't want kids. Do you throw out your deal breaker?

You see people finding love all around you. Engagements, births, new relationships. Hell, even the volcano in a Pixar short finds love against all odds after sinking into the ocean and resurfacing with a lovely she-volcano by its side. Do you throw out your deal breaker?

You think that maybe it would be okay to have someone who supports an opposite political belief than you because there is an overwhelming amount of them ... maybe it isn't a big deal. You just don't talk about politics, right? Do you throw out your deal breaker?

But that's the thing ... they are a deal breaker for a reason. There might be a saying about throwing all caution to the wind ... but maybe in this case you keep the caution tape up and proceed slowly with your life jacket on as you wade through the pool or opportunity.

Disney in a Day

So you have one day set aside for Disney World ... what do you do? Why you do it all, of course! You make that day into a marathon of a day and you do everything you possible can because you can sleep when you are dead!

At least that is what we took that to mean ... On our vacation to Florida this month we were given a one day park-to-park pass for Disney World and we didn't really know what to do. So, we tried to do it all. We started our day at Animal Kingdom, spent our afternoon at Hollywood Studios and then ended our day at the Magic Kingdom. Three parks in One day. It was a whirlwind but it was amazing.

The last time I did the whole Disney experience, I was 7 years old. It was an incredible trip but admittedly I remember most of it through the pictures that my parents took.  At that point in the history of Disney, the Animal Kingdom did not exist yet. Neither did my long term memories, I suppose! Then 5 years ago we did a day pass at the Magic Kingdom and did it up! This trip, I wanted to see everything I could possibly see.

So ... here is how you see three Disney parks in a day!

Morning
Start your morning by heading straight to the Animal Kingdom. The park opens at 9 and I suggest getting there at 8:45 so you can take the tram in from the parking lot, get through security and make the most of your time there. I'm told that Animal Kingdom only takes a few hours and although we didn't do all of the rides, I can see how that is true. Though if you enjoy strolling through animal parks and on trails, this park could take you all day.

Upon arrival in the park head straight back to the Kilimanjaro Safari. This is a safari jeep ride through the animal reserve. The number of animals you will see depends on the time of day and the heat. I suggest going right away because animals are more active in the morning. We were lucky enough to see giraffes (include a baby), elephants, rhino, hippo, and many other animals that you wouldn't see at a normal zoo! Bring your camera and have it ready!

After your Kilimanjaro Safari, you have some options as to where you go next. BUT there are some things that you definitely SHOULD. NOT. MISS.

• Festival of the Lion King - This is an incredible show featuring song, dance, gymnastics and huge animatronics. The music is phenomenal and the show is incredibly entertaining. If we had more time, we would have watched this show again! The show lasts about 30 minutes and it is in the Africa section of the park. 

• Finding Nemo, The Musical - This is my favorite show of the ones we saw at Disney! It was AWESOME. This 40 minute musical is shown in Dinoland USA and is a show that you cannot miss. The musical tells the story of Nemo and has actors holding giant puppets for their characters. They are so effective that you don't notice the actors under the fish. If you have a special part in your heart for the Finding Nemo movie, then definitely make time for this. 

• It's Tough to be a Bug - This 4D show is really entertaining but might be scary to small children. It is in a theater that uses 3D glasses to bring the bugs to life. It would probably help if you have seen the Bug's Life movie, but it is an entertaining and somewhat smelly show...

Afternoon
Time's Up at Animal Kingdom! From here, head to Hollywood Studios! We were lucky enough to be there are on the final Star Wars weekend. Hollywood Studios was a fun park to be at if you have an appreciation for the movies. A couple of rides to hit at this park...

• The Great Movie Ride - This is a really fun ride that takes you through the history of movies. You will see scenes from famous movies made from Audio-Animatronics .
• Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular - This is a great stunt show that demonstrates how stunt doubles work in a movie. It brings the movie to life as they work out some of the stunts Indy uses in the movie. This show also involves audience participation! 
• Voyage of the Little Mermaid - This is a great 15 minute show that quickly runs through the story of the Little Mermaid. Ursula is a little creepy but the show is great! 
• Star Tours the Adventure Continues - This is a great ride if you are a fan of Star Wars! You'll meet R2-D2 and 3CPO as they take you on this ride. This ride has several different scenarios that you could experience so ride this one more than once! You'll have a different adventure every time! 

Evening
You only have the afternoon at Hollywood Studios so make sure that you head to the Magic Kingdom for the evening. The Magic Kingdom is open until midnight or 1 am depending on when you go so get ready to stay up late! We didn't do a TON of rides here since we had been to this park in the semi-recent past but be sure to hit the classics. 

• Haunted Mansion
• It's a Small World - Okay, so I know the song is annoying and I certainly don't need to ride this one more than once ... but come on! You have to do it! 
• Under the Sea - Journey of the Little Mermaid - this is a newer ride in the new and improved Fantasy Land and we were really impressed! 
• Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin - Help Buzz Lightyear capture Zurg as you try to shoot aliens!
• Electric Lights Parade - be sure to take a break and watch the Electric Lights Parade! It is a really fun parade with great music and lots of Disney characters making appearances! 

All in all, enjoy your day(s) at Disney! We were exhausted after leaving the park at midnight but it was well worth it! Show your Disney side!