Coming home

We’re on our way home from Orlando… sitting at the airport terminal, which is in the process of being renovated. Apparently, this means the wall outlets don’t work, so T has plugged into a temporary construction outlet hanging from the ceiling.

The conference was pretty much your standard one: mostly boring with occasional bouts of interesting discussion. We did score some neat free stuff, and you can tell we’re engineering nerds as my only regret is that we didn’t get to bring home more free post-it organizer boxes.

We did manage to see Epcot and Animal Kingdom, as well as a quick night in Downtown Disney and Pleasure Island. Epcot was having their Food and Wine Festival, so we ate our way around the lake and enjoyed quite a few tidbits. We packed in just about the entire park, minus kid things like character pictures and such. The Food and Wine Festival part was interesting enough that if we were to return to Epcot, I’d definitely consider going during the Festival if it was convenient for our schedule.

The weather was humid, but not terribly hot. The food was expensive, but also pretty tasty. Personally, I am just plain tired out. And I have funny blisters on my pinky toes from all the walking.

Also? I know Disney is pretty much targeted for kids and it’s expected that there will be thousands of families with kids running around. I’ve heard “Oh, don’t worry about, anyone with kids totally understands” way too often. The thing is, there are some of us without kids who don’t really appreciate your kids running around shrieking at sonic sound levels, darting in front of us so we practically have to jump in order not to step on them (because then it would be our fault, of course). I’m also not fond of following a double stroller parade at 0.5 miles an hour through the crowded walkway because we have a lot to pack into this one day and I’d really like to get a move on. And, if a digital turtle can get the two dozen other small children to sit still and be quiet for 30 minutes straight but yours is running back and forth and back and forth then perhaps you should do something, like pick her up and leave the room.  And, you with the kid on the plane?  The one who cried and screamed the whole 4-hour redeye flight to Orlando when I was just trying to catch a little sleep before heading straight to my 8 am conference sessions?  So not cool.

I like kids, I really do.  I like the well behaved ones, the ones with parents who realize that it’s okay to discipline their kids and not let them run wild like banshees.  I know kids have lots of energy and need to let it out, but I also know that poor behavior was just not accepted when I was a kid.  Times can’t have changed that much… I’m really not that old!  It’s not funny when your kid runs into people because he’s running circles with his eyes closed.  It’s not cute that your baby is wailing because she’s tired.  And just because you’re tired of trying and have learned to block out the noise doesn’t mean that the rest of us (you know, the ones without kids who don’t understand) can do the same.

Now, I also understand that the same can be said about dogs.  My dogs are not terribly well behaved, and you know what?  I don’t take them a lot of places in public.  We go to parks where all the dogs are running around like crazy.  We let them be spoiled rotten dogs in the privacy of our home.  And I always restrain them when kids are going to be around because, for some reason, the white ones don’t like little kids.  I try not to inflict my lack of discipline on unsuspecting strangers.  On the other hand… they’re just so cute!  Besides, I know those of you with dogs totally understand, ha ha!