So Many Updates

Happiness!  Yay!

Tomorrow is a post about Abraham Lincoln.

Thursday is a new Photographer Feature!

Friday is a new Inspiration Friday.

Everything is exciting.

Oh.  And I am actually tweeting. 

@travelntoile if you want to join in the party.

That's all for now.  Please, enjoy this photograph of fireworks over the Disney castle.

Also... no worries.  I'm done with the short little posts like this.  Substance, my friends.  It's coming your way full force!

Walt Disney World, Florida, USA

Back on Track

Back to Positivity. (I've been a bit negative lately it seems...)

Back to Good Health. (I've been sick...)

Back to Loveliness. (Hard to dress yourself up when you're sick...)

Back to Auditioning. (Hard to audition when you growl instead of talk...)

Back to Waking Up at a Normal Time. (Yeah... this just hasn't been happening...)

Back to Not Traveling. (Nothing is planned now!  I can stay home!)

Back to Lack of Sarcasm. (Apparently I've been a bit sarcastic lately too...)

Back to School.  (Well, not taking classes, but I am volunteering at my old school!)

Back to Life. (After being sick for a week it's easy to feel a bit dead...)

Back to Disney!  (Not really... I wish...)

Back to Travel and Toile. (It is what it is.  I like it.  You like it.  That's all that matters...)

All photographs were taken in The Magic Kingdom, mostly during the Block Party Bash Parade.

Walt Disney World, Florida, USA

Mighty Viking Heritage

Danny is part Norwegian.  He's always found this cool, and sometimes brags about being a Viking.

The Norway Pavilion in Epcot certainly solidified our thoughts that all Norwegians are probably proud of their Viking heritage.  I mean, not every race could be called "The Conquerors of the Seas!"  That i a fairly epic title, and probably, definitely deserved.

 

The above Viking is Erik the Red.  Well, really it's a wax dummy of Erik the Red.  In any case, he's the guy that discovered Greenland.  He named it Greenland despite its terrible, freezing tundra terrain so that people would settle it. Kind of like Iceland was thus named so that people wouldn't settle it, but vice versa.  His son Leif Eriksson was later the first European known to have set foot in the Americas, in 1000AD.  No, it wasn't Columbus.  It was the Vikings.

I don't know who this above Viking is supposed to be... but I do know that he looks really badass and strongly resembles Gimli from The Lord of the Rings movies.  Which makes him even cooler.

The other motif we found to be very popular in the Norway section was trolls. I had remembered this from going to Disney World as a kid, and the Scandinavian troll connection was strengthened in my mind when I went to Stockholm, Sweden last February.  There were trolls everywhere, there were even stores full of nothing but trolls.  It was nifty.  Rest assured, I did not leave Sweden without purchasing a small Viking troll statue.  It is on my bookshelf to this day, next to a William Shakespeare action figure Danny bought for me.  Anyway, there was a giant troll statue in the gift shop, who tried to get a little frisky with me.

Danny was impressed with his choice in women.

A bro handshake was necessary.

Disney World, Florida, USA

Can Wishes Really Come True?

 

Can they?  It seemed that they were for many of the children in Disney World.  This little girl looked especially happy while meeting Belle in Epcot.  Even more... she was actually well behaved!  I saw so little of that while I was there.  I saw lots of kids screaming at their parents to buy them stuff or make lines go faster.  I saw even more kids running amok as their parents daydreamed. I didn't see that many behaving themselves.  Also, I saw very few skinny American children.  Most of them seemed a bit chubby, and many of them were far more than that...

But, Mary Poppins was lovely!!

Which brings me to my next point, my one gripe about Disney World.  It wasn't the ill-behaved children, I knew about that. 

My one and only gripe was their main message.  Basically the park was screaming at you:

IF YOU WISH HARD ENOUGH, ALL YOUR DREAMS WILL COME TRUE!

Alas, that's untrue.

If you work hard enough, some of your dreams might come true.  Maybe.  If you're really lucky.  I kind of felt like Disney World was trying to give a trophy to every kid who came in the door and tell them that they were special and entitled to automatic success just for existing, which is a beautiful idea, but absolutely, hilariously wrong.  I just wanted to hug the kids and tell them that they were being lied to, and that life was going to be hard, and that these illusions would just make them feel bad later when they realized that they would actually have to do something with themselves to achieve success.  I don't know, I just felt like Disney World was giving people false hopes and dreams, and setting children up for disappointment.

It sure felt nice while you were there though! Being told that your life is going to be perfect because you're unique and you deserve it definitely feels great, even if it's a total lie. So, I guess it's not all bad.  It's pretty hard to be negative about anything when you're talking about Disney World.  It's my only gripe and it's not even a bad one. 

Just a warning- I'm probably going to be posting Florida photos for about forever, as it's freezing here, the photographs are sunny, and they help me take my mind off of the cold darkness.  Not to mention that I took like two thousand photographs.  It has nothing to do with that...

Walt Disney World, Florida, USA

O Canada- Oh, Hi!

No, we didn't really go to Canada.

(I was there once)

But we DID go to the Canada Pavilion in Epcot!

 While at this pavilion, we took silly photographs wearing totem pole style masks.  Because, well, that's just the kind of thing we do, like the mature adults we are.

You know, when I started this post, I thought that I had taken a lot more photographs in Epcot Canada, but it seems that I only took three.  However, I am way too invested in this now to turn back, so please, enjoy the third and last (and not paticularly good) photograph of faux Canada.  Hopefully I'll go back to the real one soon!

  Last time I was there, I spent a day in Whistler, and less than a day in Vancouver.  It's amazing just how much there still is to see of that country... and it's right next door.  The next place I want to go is Montreal- but not until I get better at French!  And, seeing as I have made no strides towards that goal whatsoever in the past nine monthes or so, that's probably a bit off.  Well, maybe I'll get off of my arse on that and a lot of other things and accomplish some of these goals I keep setting for myself. 

Actually, I've been doing rather well at accomplishing these goals the past few days.  Before that I was slacking and getting  a bit depressed about my lack of doing, but it's getting better.  I've been sticking to my healthy diet, and though I haven't been tracking it as carefully as I should, have been very careful.  My results have been amazing- I lost four pounds in the first week, which is far more than I could have possibly expected.  I can actually tell that I'm thinner.  I've been doing yoga- I did some this morning, as a matter of fact.  I've been going to auditions, I've been reading books, and I've been allowing myself to have some relaxation time.  All's well in the world. 

Walt Disney World, Florida, USA

Just a note:  all photographs of me are generally taken by Daniel Garrison.

Something to Get Excited About

The Epcot ball!!

THERE IT IS.

We were both able to see it.  And, point at it.

 

There it is again. With a cloudy gray sky, since it rained the day we went to Epcot.

 

That one shows it in a surprise burst of sunlight!

 

That is how it was lit at nighttime.  Pretty pretty.

 

Here it is from across the lake.  Also, at night time.  If you couldn't tell...

 

Last but not least, here it is with the sun just breaking through the clouds.  After this point, it didn't rain again!

Walt Disney World, Florida, USA

Just a little mention- http://littleluxuriesofmackinac.blogspot.com, a very nice blog, featured my photograph "Window Shopping".  

Thank you Nicole!

Inspiration Fridays: Disney Movies

I was one of those kids who grew up on Disney movies.  I still find them inspirational in my everyday life. 

Maybe it's because I have achieved many of my goals and found my prince!

Oliver and Company 

The Little Mermaid

 Enchanted

 Bambi

 The Black Cauldron

Aladdin

Mulan

Sleeping Beauty

Treasure Planet

 Pirates of the Caribbean