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Yesterday was such an incredible day that at one point I had to pause and ponder if I had actually died on the drive down and this was my brain's idea of heaven. Seriously. Things were just too falling in line.

We left at 1:11am from our place, snacks loaded, pillows brought, excitement high. Of course within the first hour B had fallen fast asleep. I was doing okay for the most part. Granted my overall sleep for the prior 24 hours was low, I was still focused. Especially when we hit THE WALL OF FOG. For those of you who have never experienced tule fog, it's some scary shit. We were cruising along fine at 75 when all of a sudden a wall of fog came out of nowhere and I dropped down to 20. B immediately woke up thinking something was wrong, which in a sense it was. She had never experienced fog like this. It was a white out. It went from that to heavy soup for about the next 10 or 20 miles. She was so nervous she was shaking and almost became ill. I don't like driving in it either and I am sure if you were to read back through the last 1000 entries in here, you'd find at least one where I am bitching about driving in the exact same fog. It does freak me the hell out too. But we got through it, hit the gas station where normally stop, and she was able to fall back to sleep. When we were about 45 minutes out, I once more had to slow to a crawl. A combination of construction and an accident had forced the freeway to a dead stop. There were 3 out 4 lanes closed due to roadwork and the last lane was blocked due to a bad collision. B woke back up for that and this time stayed awake. It was about 5:45 at this point so we had made relatively good time. I was still doing okay. My GPS had warned me about the accident and roadwork so I was prepared for it.

We got through all of that and hit IHOP around 6:30. Had a great breakfast and drove to the parking lot around 7:30. Well, here's where Disney Magic (all rights reserved) kicked in. In all my years of going to the park, there's one parking lot bucket list item. Other bucket list items are inside the park (eating at 33 (done), sleeping in the Dream Suite (someday), etc). But there is one for the parking lot - being "Guest of the Day". There are two front row ultimate parking spaces in the Toy Story lot reserved for the GotD. The gate attendant and I started talking as I usually do and I told him about my travels, how I brought my Oswald tsum tsum from Japan to show him, and how we were there celebrating something (something I can't tell any of you about for another six months, sorry. I know that's mean, but you will understand in six months. No, she's not pregnant.),  and then he asked my last name. I thought he was going to give us a button or a pass or something, but nope. Instead he gives us the coveted GotD pass. I think I peed a little and started to tear up. For real. After all these years on the planet. We did it. We were the GotD. I was speechless. He also gave us to 'golden tickets'. The first one was a line skipper for Autotopia or Midway Mania. Okay, cool. The second however? A line skipper shuttle card for the end of the night. BAMF. We thanked him and pulled away from the gate and headed towards that coveted space. As we were getting out a cast member came over to greet us and escort us to our PRIVATE SHUTTLE TO THE PARK. OH YEAH. We got to take a private shuttle. No one. Just us. More tears.

We get in the park and we are having a great time just moseying around and looking in stores. We stopped at the customer service desk for buttons and told them we were GotD. He gave me a pass for Cars for later. Okay. Didn't think about it since we never go on it, but nice gesture. It's about 7:45 at this point btw. All that went down in less than 20 minutes. We buy some new pins in the store, then go wandering. Our friend who lives down here texts me at about 8 and says she is on her way. We meet up with her at 8:30.  The three of us then have a wonderful time. We walk, we talk, we laugh. we planned to be the first ones to meet Oswald when he came out for the day but we had two hours to kill. We headed over to the main park and decided to go into Pooh Corner. Now it was B's turn to cry because there was Eeyore and Tigger and Pooh - all in their Christmas hats. Every time we are there, B wants to meet Eeyore but he always goes back before we can get through the line.  Not this time. She got to hug and see him and was so happy.

At noon, we go over to where Oswald is supposed to be and wait. It's about 12:10 and he hasn't come out yet and the ladies are getting hungry. I grab our bags sadly and say come on, let's g.... THERE HE IS. COMING RIGHT AT ME. ME! OMG. All the pictures happened. Me and Oswald and his tiny little tsum tsum from Japan. I looked like a giggling idiot but I didn't care. I was having the greatest time. After Oswald we went to Paradise Cove for lunch. On the way guess who we ran into (almost literally)? Eeyore! B was so excited. She got more pictures and hugs and was just bursting. It was a bit of a line or lunch but we managed to get seated within 15 minutes which was amazing as everyone after us was in that line for at least 30-45. Once more our wonderful day continued.

When we finished up lunch, we all wanted a nap, and we needed to check into the hotel. Now, this is the first time we have ever stayed at the Doubletree here. We decided to stay somewhere new because Blizzcon was at the big Hilton, and we didn't want to stay at the HGI. From the minute we saw the lobby, we knew we found a new hotel. It's only a block (if that) from the big Hilton which makes it still a walking distance from the parking lot. I went up to the desk (it's about 2 or so) and gave my name. All of my tweeting and communication for the last year finally paid off - "Oh Mr. X, we went ahead and upgraded your room. You're in a corner king suite, we hope you'll like it'. Like it? I could fucking live here permanently. The room is incredible. It's big, it's quiet, and it's gorgeous. Best Hilton room I have stayed in all year. Seriously.

Our friend is working on an Anastasia cosplay for B which she brought with her to do a fitting. While I unpacked, they did the fitting. It looks great so far. It's an incredible match to Anastasia's dress. She is also making a Kuzco outfit for me next. This friend is amazing. She is currently doing a baccalaureate fellowship at UCLA primarily focusing on ancient Latin and will be doing ancient Norse next semester. Yeah. I know. On the side to help fund things, she runs a small commission cosplay business. She is doing ours for the cost of the material and a small surcharge for her labor.

Fitting done, everything unpacked, nap time. We all drove to the hotel in my car and we offered to drive her back to the park, but she wanted to relax too. Not a problem. Plenty of room. B and I napped until about 5:30 and then we all headed back to the park. Best part? Oh you are GotD? Park anywhere you want. ANYWHERE. Over there next to your vehicles? Yep. Go for it. Tears.

As we headed into the park we stopped at one of the stores and we all fell in love with this one letterman style jacket they had. Yes, we all bought it and we looked like some deranged Disney street gang. It was wonderful. We went to Flo's for dinner and that was the only downer of the day. They changed the menu and it wasn't the same quality as before. Sad Panda. But after dinner, we went to Cars and I pulled out one of the magic passes we had received earlier in the day. We skipped the 90 minutes line and BAM next thing you know the 3 of us are in car heading out. Now B doesn't normally like fast rides, but when we got off she had the biggest smile ever. We found a ride she loves. Score.

From there we hit Little Mermaid and as we were getting in line a cast member hands me this red card and asks if I will give it to a cast member when we board. Okay? It's a wait time marker! I WAS THE OFFICIAL WAIT TIME GUY. WOO!

We headed into the main park after that as we wanted to do Jacked Up Haunted Mansion. Well me and our friend did. B was 'meh' on it from her last Haunted Mansion experience. We both told her, no trust us. It's different. We got in and while the line was long, it was only about a 15 minute wait. We all squished into a Doom Buggy (which I will never do again) and we rode. B's face from the minute we got in the elevator until the time we got off was a glow. She had the best time ever. See? Jacked Up HM is different.  (FYI - if you don't know what I mean by Jacked Up - from Sept to 12/31, they do the Haunted Mansion up as Nightmare Before Xmas. Jack Skellington and crew take over the ride. It's pretty fucking cool).

That was it. Time to go. It was about 9:30 and we headed out. We said goodbye to our friend who was in a different lot and we headed to the shuttles. Last moment as GotD. I pulled out my magic shuttle card. Long line of people with strollers and wheelchairs and annoyance? NOT FOR US. Come this way GotD. Here's YOUR SHUTTLE. Tears. Got to the car, headed to the hotel, dumped pictures, decompressed, crashed into bed around 11.

I am sure I left little things out, but you get the gist. This was the BEST DAY EVER in the park. I honestly could have died in my sleep last night and been the happiest I have been in forever. I experienced magic, love, and joy. I am so blessed to have B, to have friends like I do, and to enjoy the fruits of my hard work with things like the hotel. It was a glorious day.

Today? Today we let B sleep. I have been up for about an hour, she will be woken up in about another hour so we can have breakfast. We are headed to DTD to shop and see a movie today (Big Hero 6). Taking our time. We have a 6:30 Carthay Circle dinner rez, but that's about it for plans. Let it begin.