Ponderings and Musings

At the moment I am trying to ramp up the energy to head upstairs and take a shower so that I can get myself off to work on time. I’m looking forward to the drive and the workday so it’s not a matter of dread that has me not moving at moment. I actually think it’s just a matter of it being Monday morning.

I am discovering that I’m kind of getting sick of sarcasm. I can be one sarcastic bastard when I want to bed, but when it’s flung about everywhere I choose to be; in conversation, in blog entries, etc., I’m discovering it makes me a little cranky. It probably shouldn’t, but it does. I’m not thin skinned or anything like that, I’m just finding that drippy, gay bitchy, Bea Arthur wannabe sarcasm to be a little much these days.

Earthquakes are literally rocking the world, volcanic ash is spewing out from Iceland and people are getting downright crazy with their religious fervor. If I were just a tad bit crazier, I’d tell you that we are right on schedule with the “2012 entering a New Age because the Mayan calendar, the psychics and the aliens said so” stuff, but I won’t do that.

I’ll just shiny up the tin foil hat a bit.

It is scenery like this that makes me smile. It is scenery like this, as taken along my commute on “New Turnpike Road” that was a contributing factor to my change in jobs at the beginning of March. Today I drove home with all the windows down, the iPod playing my favorite tunes on the radio and the beautiful countryside gently rolling by.

Spring has sprung in these parts. And my heart is soaring.

The Subway (sandwich shop) closest to the office gets a lot of my business. They are the healthiest choice around for the days that I don’t pack a lunch and they are always busy. This store is situated in the only mall nearby (which has six stores) and is owned by a beautiful straight couple who appear to be hardworking. I like their attitude and their dedication to the store. Plus they’re not bad to look at and they also honor the Subway card points system where I basically get frequent flyer miles.

I always eat the same thing; I ask for a meal deal that includes a six inch veggie on wheat with no cheese and the red vinegarette dressing. I opt for baked chips and unsweetened iced tea. One day when my work badge was hanging out the wife noticed my name and now she calls me by name each time I pay for my order. I like that. She even does it when my badge is in my pocket as I tested my theory.

I was telling someone that part of why I’m enjoying my new job so much is because I’m working in a smaller town where people just seem nicer to me. Whenever I go to the Subway near the house I’m always grateful to get what I ordered without a side of spit. God they are surly at that store. Half the time you can put your tray on top of the trash bin when it’s time to go because the tray is stuck to the dirty table. That’s why we don’t go to the Subway near the house very much.

The new job has me working in a town that hearkens back to my days of growing up. Ironically, I now work for the same telephone company that serves my hometown. When I was in second or third grade I remember wondering what it would be like working for the phone company in our small town.

Now I know.

My cubicle at work is on the end of the row closest to the windows. As I was up to my elbows in PHP and MySQL programming today, totally focused on the two monitors in front of me, I noticed a little bit of commotion outside of my cubicle. My co-workers were lining up and looking out the windows at our visitors.

With this little visit from our friends in the woods and the ensuing conversation, I learned a little more about my co-workers. None of it was unpleasant.

The iPhone: a symbol of the modern age, the very depiction of leaps and bounds beyond the tricorder from the future, the epitome of all that is hip, cool and edgy. Right?

It has made me feel very foolish tonight. It butt dialed our friend Mark during dinner. He got to listen in to various rants about religion, sleeping habits and other family business during our dinner.

I didn’t think that a touchscreen phone would be able to butt dial but mine apparently does.

The iPhone. It’s just another phone that’s made me feel like an ass.

Earl treated Jamie and me to hour-long massage sessions today at the spa here at Saratoga Springs Resort and Spa. We are just getting back from the experience.

Per the instructions we were given when the reservations were made, we arrived 10 minutes before our appointment and checked in with a wispy, handsome man named Phil. He kept my Disney key card and escorted us to the changing facilities. Once robed and slippered in the exclusive locker room (there are two, one for the fitness folks, one for the spa folks, well actually there are four locker rooms since they’re not co-ed but as a guy there are two available to me), we were invited to wait in the spa lounge and await the arrival of our massage therapist. My massage therapist was a very talented woman by the name of Tenley. She called me John and escorted me to “treatment room #2”. She left the room as I disrobed and got under the top sheet. I never know whether to keep my underwear on or not because I have been in several, em, let’s call them situations, where when it comes massage where one wouldn’t keep their underwear on but I don’t ever know if that’s what EVERYONE does so I played it safe so I kept my underwear on as I got under the sheet. I have no inhibitions about nudity so I think I’m overly cautious about that sort of thing.

Tenley spent 50 minutes kneading and prodding and coaxing every bump in my muscles out to relaxed enchantment. She even coaxed the knot in my right shoulder out; the knot that has been there since the late 1990s.

The ambience was candlelit with serene music pumped in over the speakers; the oil was slick but not smelly. The 50 minutes flew by and I was feeling quite nice. Tenley left me to regain myself and met me outside with a glass of water. We were encouraged to enjoy the amenities in the exclusive spa locker room; Jamie and I headed down and spent some time in the steam room where we sweated out our impurities. Jamie then opted for the sauna but I skipped it because I always feel like I’m baking like a cake in a sauna (and I didn’t flour myself before jumping in and I was afraid I would stick) and I took a nice relaxing shower before getting myself ready for the day. There’s a certain amount of bonding going on in a locker room when you’re grooming yourself alongside others that are doing the same. It was an enjoyable experience. For those that are curious, it wasn’t titillating for me at all (those that worry about these sort of things in the military and such are just silly). I took my underwear off for the shower and the steam room and all that. I figured it was safe there.

All in all it was an amazing experience and I feel like my body has been given the attention that it deserves for carrying this old soul well. Yesterday was a vegetarian day for me (well, I had two chicken nuggets that I probably didn’t need); I need to concentrate on giving my body that proper attention more. I surely feel much better for doing it.

Today we went to Epcot. As you enter Epcot, you’ll notice walls and walls made of granite with metal plates attached. On these plates you’ll find thumbnail shots of various Disney visitors who chose to contribute to “Leave A Legacy”. I believe the program ran from Fall 1999 to June 2007.

Here’s a blurb about it:

The Leave A Legacy program, first launched at Epcot in Fall 1999, has been discontinued as of June 16, 2007. The current display of more than 550,000 tiles at the main entrance of Epcot will remain for the time being. The Leave A Legacy Locator station will be relocated to the Camera Center underneath Spaceship Earth. If you need to get information about your Leave A Legacy tile from home, contact the following email address: WDW.EC.legacy@disney.com

Introduced for the Millennium Celebration! Granite and steel sculptures are being covered with engraved images of Guests from all over the world. Here’s how it works: Photo Capture Stations will take your photo digitally. It will then be etched onto a steel tile. Within approximately four days, the tile will become part of the stone sculptures.Leave A Legacy The cost is $35 for one image per tile, $38 for two images per tile, plus tax.

There are computers at the site to show you where your tile is located. Certificates will also be mailed to you so you can come back on a future trip to see your Millennium image. Also within about 2 weeks, your image will be posted on the Internet at Disney’s Leaving a Legacy page.

“The Leave a Legacy plaza was designed by veteran Imagineer John Hench, along with a team of Walt Disney Imagineering interns. Hench started as an artist with The Walt Disney Company in 1939, and went on to help design and build Disneyland. He was the original art director for Epcot, and chief designer of Spaceship Earth. The megaliths range from 3 to 19 feet high, and the heaviest weighs more than 50,000 pounds.” (Disney’s Press Release)

Earl, Jamie and I took the opportunity to find our two photos, from 2000 and 2007, amongst the thousands that are displayed. Should you go to Epcot, here’s where you can find us:

2000: East-2-F-14-11-33
2007: West-6-H-31-10-28

I think it’s important to Leave-A-Legacy. So we are going to do this for a while. If you send or e-mail us a picture of you pointing to either one of our photos on the Leave-A-Legacy walls, we will donate $25.00 to your favorite charity.

Since the program was discontinued, Disney is no longer able to print our pictures out but I did snap a photo off the screen when the cast member was looking up our information. Look who had the red beard back in 2000!

Earl, Jamie and I have situated ourselves for the evening in the lovely town called Pine Grove, Pa. I don’t really know much about this place except that there is a nice Hampton Inn, we are close to an older McDonalds and we are at milepost 100 on Interstate 81 in Pennsylvania.

We are on our way to Florida for a week with our first night at the House of the Mouse being Sunday night.

This is how everyone should start a new job: work two weeks and then get a week off for vacation. My new company has been quite understanding about my existing plans. Speaking of which, the job is going along fabulously and I am LOVING it.

Earl has kindly done the driving tonight. I hopped in the backseat after dinner and promptly fell asleep; I woke up in Scranton, Pa. That’s quite the place to wake up.

Tomorrow we continue our trek south. I’ve heard that there may be wild weather between here and there. This could be quite exciting.