Tribute to Walt Disney’s Carousel of Progress

Posted on July 15, 2026 by admin

Walt Disney’s Carousel of Progress was one of my favorite attractions at Disney World. The past tense is necessary here as it just closed down at the end of Independence Day weekend. I feel extremely sad about this as that version has been in place since 1994, it’s the only version I’ve ever experienced in person, and I looked forward to it every time I went to the Magic Kingdom. Here’s my take on this wonderful attraction.

For those unfamiliar with the Carousel of Progress, here’s an overview of the version I knew. It is a stage show populated with an animatronic family in four different time periods that show the progression of technology and how it has changed their lives over the course of about a century. The theatre rotates around the central stage to move guests from one time period to the next as the characters sing “There’s a Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow.” The first scene is set during Valentine’s Day 1903. John, the father, talks about various technological advances such as their new ice box, horseless trolley, and the Wright Brothers working on their airplane. The second scene starts off with the “…hottest 4th of July we’ve had in years!” While showing how many electrical appliances the family now has, John inadvertently blows fuses in both his house and the rest of the neighborhood. Halloween is the holiday in question during the third scene in the 1940’s. John talks about being part of the rat race, DIY, television, and how much better things are now than they’ve ever been before. In each of these scenes, other family members pop in and out of view thanks to lighting changes and rotating portions of the sets as they demonstrate additional technologies and elements of whichever year they’re in.

The final scene takes place at Christmas around the turn of the 21st century. Virtual reality video games and voice activated appliances have opened up whole new worlds of possibilities for the family. This is my favorite scene for a few reasons. In addition to the warmth of Christmas on display from beginning to end, the main family members are all together on stage at the same time with nothing separating them from each other as in the earlier scenes. That scene also reminds me of Christmases long, long ago at my grandparents’ house. The grandfather animatronic reminds me a lot of my own maternal grandfather, both with how he looks and how he speaks. I loved seeing the family go through so much together over so many years and still be so close, especially as they look forward to a new century together. I wish my own family could be more like that.

One of my favorite parts of Carousel of Progress is Rover the family dog. What was especially nice about my final day with this attraction was seeing how Rover looked at me with the sweetest, most soulful eyes when I sat in certain positions in the theatre. That gave me so much comforted and reminded me so much of how my late dog Sawyer used to look at me. All the love in the world came out of his eyes, and it’s amazing how the Disney imagineers were able to perfectly replicate that look.

To me, Walt Disney’s Carousel of Progress was warm, cozy, nostalgic, and wholesome. Each version of the attraction from the time it debuted at the 1964 World’s Fair to the one planned to open up next year has featured technological progress as the central theme, with animatronic characters talking about all the changes and either “There’s a Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow” or “The Best Time of Your Life” (both of which were written by the incredible Sherman Brothers) acting as the transition song between scenes. I only know a little bit about those versions as they were all before my birth. For all the reasons mentioned above, I will greatly miss the only version I’ve experienced thus far. After the 1964 World’s Fair ended, the Carousel of Progress lived there for some time before being moved to Disney World and, after many changes, became the most recent incarnation. I wish that it could either be relocated to somewhere else in Disney World or sent back to Disneyland as is. That way, anybody who can make it to Disneyland could still experience it; I’d love to get that chance if I’m able to make it to Disneyland someday as I hope to do. If that doesn’t happen, then I’m glad to have so many pictures, videos, YouTube recordings, and memories of this classic attraction. They’ll keep me smiling and feeling hopeful through many great big beautiful tomorrows.

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A Wonderful Disney Trip

Posted on July 8, 2026 by admin

Last weekend, I had yet another trip to Disney World. Unlike previous trips in which I attended the same park for multiple days, this one featured a different park on both days. It was lovely and also heartbreaking. I’ll give an overview of each day and then focus more on what I enjoyed as well as what I disliked. Here we go.

The primary purpose of my trip was to say goodbye to Walt Disney’s Carousel of Progress. This is one of my favorite attractions in all of Disney World and, apart from a few minor changes, has remained the same since the current version opened up in 1994. Unfortunately, it closed at the end of my trip and will reopen next year after being changed into a totally new show. As such, I decided to go back to the Magic Kingdom and see it multiple times in one day, similarly to what I did with MuppetVision 3D last year at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. Speaking of which, I went to that park the day before to revisit some old favorites, check out some new stuff, and enjoy much more of what it has to offer than I did on my last visit. Here’s how it went.

The first day started off on the wrong foot with a huge amount of traffic a bit into my trip. That annoyed me a lot and took away time that I could have spent in the park. Once I got over that, I had a lovely day at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. I checked off everything on my list except Slinky Dog Dash and Toy Story Mania. Bad weather and technical difficulties prevented me from riding those rides. The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror was just as I remember it. Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster is still a blast. I love all the Muppet stuff in there, especially the MuppetVision 3D props and references. It was so fun blasting around the track past various Muppet sight gags with “Walking on Sunshine” as the soundtrack. Afterward, I enjoyed a root beer float from FØØD by Swedish Chef and headed over to the new Animation Courtyard. I loved playing rock, paper, scissors with Donald Duck and the other wonderful character interactions there. All the characters were lovely, as always. Fantasmic! blew me away. I appreciated how much of that show and the Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Show have stayed the same over the years. That was a lovely way to finish off a great day in the park.

The second day was also lovely with only a few downsides. At the Magic Kingdom, I missed the Dapper Dans as their last set got canceled due to lightning. The big nighttime fireworks show ended before I could ride Peter Pan’s Flight or the PeopleMover with only a 5-minute wait time for either; I ended up skipping both in favor of more rides on the Carousel of Progress. I had a lot of fun meeting Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Daisy, Goofy, Stitch, Winnie the Pooh, and Tigger throughout the day (as well as getting autographs from the latter three). Just like last year, I had a great time listening to Grayson play anything and everything on piano. We had some good conversations, took a picture together, and he even played “The Entertainer” at my request. I rode the Carousel of Progress at least eight times while singing along every time, watched Sonny Eclipse while eating dinner, ate a bunch of ice cream, rode the Astro Orbiter for the first time ever, and saw some of the parade on my way out early in the morning on July 5th. After a smooth drive, I got home super late and slept soundly.

The biggest bummer of my trip was the fact that it was the last time I could experience the longest-running version of the Carousel of Progress. I started missing it even before it closed. The attraction has changed only slightly since it reopened in 1994 (mostly some alterations to some clothes of the characters and other minor details like that), meaning that it’s been the same for almost my entire life. I will sorely miss the version I’ve known all my life, especially the final scene where the house and grandfather character remind me so much of my maternal grandfather and my maternal grandparents’ house.

Another big bummer was missing the Dapper Dans. I always enjoy their show and figured I’d have time to see their last one of the day. I didn’t count on lightning near the Magic Kingdom canceling that show. While I did hear them a bit toward the end of one of their songs earlier in the day, I still wish I’d gotten to see them for at least one full set. Next time, I will make sure to see them earlier in the day so that this doesn’t happen again.

I was glad that the ear, nose, and throat issues that had started the week before my trip cleared up before I went to Disney World. Unfortunately, that’s not my only health concern as of late. I partially rolled my ankle a few days before the trip. That was the same ankle that I rolled earlier this year. Fortunately, I immediately started doing the same exercises that fixed it the first time. I believe that that, the previous rehabilitation I did for it, and the fact that this incident was far less severe than the first incident are what allowed me to spend two days in Disney World with little to no pain. Even now, my ankle is still feeling about as good as it did before my trip.

I enjoyed getting all the pressed pennies on my list and a few others. The ones I went there intending to get were of Pluto, various Muppet characters, and Winnie the Pooh and friends. I also got an additional Pluto design and two designs with Chip ‘n’ Dale. I also got keychain versions of Rowlf and Fozzie and a Kermit plush. I’m glad to finally have some Muppet plushies after being such a big Muppets fan my whole life.

Until recently, I thought my EPCOT trips back in May would be my only times going to Disney World this year. I also thought that I’d either never again visit the Magic Kingdom and Disney’s Hollywood Studios or that it would at least be many years before my return to those parks. Once I learned that the Carousel of Progress would be completely changed, I decided to go say goodbye to that. Going to Disney’s Hollywood Studios the day before came about after my interest in the new Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Starring The Muppets coaster was piqued, in addition to wanting to do more things in that park that I skipped last year while saying goodbye to MuppetVision 3D. My original idea to visit each park on a separate trip in different months of this year fell by the wayside when I realized that it’d just be easier, more efficient, and less costly to go to both parks in the same weekend. I’m glad I did as it was such a lovely trip.

This trip taught me a few things. Aside from managing my time better and not counting on being able to do something later on, it showed me that I can still enjoy something even if it’s different than it used to be. I dearly miss Muppet Courtyard, MuppetVision 3D, PizzeRizzo, the Rivers of America, Tom Sawyer Island, the Liberty Belle Riverboat, DinoLand U.S.A., and the Affection Section. All of those closed at Disney World between last year and this year. Although I like each park, and thus Disney World as a whole, less since those closures, I still had a wonderful time. Whether revisiting old favorites or checking out new attractions, I found much to enjoy in both the Magic Kingdom and Disney’s Hollywood Studios this past weekend. Similarly, I still find much to enjoy in life despite missing my dog Sawyer, my grandparents, and other loved ones who have died or left my life in other ways. Since I know how to let go of pain and negative emotions, I can sit with those feelings long enough to see the value in something, even if it’s not as nice as it once was or has brought me pain. I’m glad of that, and I’m glad I did so much letting go this year. While it wasn’t my intention to prepare for this trip that way, it still helped me enjoy it as much as I did and make the most of it, whether things were going well or poorly. I hope to continue enjoying Disney World and life itself in this way for as long as I can.

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My Best Health Hacks

Posted on July 1, 2026 by admin

I’ve tried lots of life hacks over the years. Most of them have fallen by the wayside as I’ve found ones that work better and stopped trying everything under the sun. Today, I’d like to focus on the ones that have helped me the most with my physical health. Here are my three best health hacks.

  1. Letting go. By far the best life hack I’ve ever found. Releasing negative emotions has made things much easier at my job, in relationships, and everywhere else I encounter difficulties. It’s also vastly improved my emotional, mental, physical, and even spiritual health. I’ve talked a lot before about how much this helped me heal emotionally after my dog Sawyer’s death. For physical healing, the best example of this occurred around Valentine’s Day 2021. After an incredibly awkward interaction, I felt so upset about it that my back started hurting increasingly more over a period of several days. It got so bad that I could barely sleep or take more than shallow breaths without severe pain. I ended up doing two sensory deprivation floats in one day and worked through a ton of emotional pain in both. My back felt almost completely better afterward, and I slept soundly all through that night. Doing even more letting go later in that year when my back similarly started hurting (for no discernible reason this time) and floating was unavailable to me got rid of the pain while it was still mild. While I’m primarily interested in letting go for how much it’s improved my emotional health, I’m still so thankful that it’s also done so much for my physical health.

  2. Taping my lips shut at night. Since I’ve habitually breathed through my mouth for most of my life, I still find it hard to breathe through my nose during the day. Taping my lips shut before I go to sleep has forced me to breathe through my nose at night. I started doing this over a year ago after remembering what James Nestor wrote in his book Breath about the benefits of nose breathing and the dangers of mouth breathing. Breathing through my nose while I sleep has made me sleep better and feel more refreshed when I wake up in the morning. Before, I’d often feel mentally fried when waking up. At this point, that only happens if I toss and turn throughout the night or go to bed too late. It also seems to have improved my immunity as I’ve only gotten sick once since I started doing this where I normally get sick multiple times a year. This was a pretty easy change to make, and I plan to continue doing it for the rest of my life, along with working on breathing through my nose more consistently during the day.

  3. Improving my ear cleaning routine. I’ve long used earwax removal drops for a few days to remove excess earwax as needed. Since last year, I’ve been following that up with an electric ear irrigator. That combination works better than either of them alone and is great for cleaning out my ears as well as reducing pain and pressure when I’ve been wearing ear plugs often enough for lots of wax to build up. I don’t have to go through this routine often, thank goodness, and I’m glad to have it down whenever I need it.
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Getting Better at Forgiveness

Posted on June 24, 2026 by admin

I’ve always found it hard to forgive others. That has only gotten harder with decades of emotional suppression, one bad happening after another, and so many folks who’ve hurt me in a myriad of ways throughout my life. Recently, I’ve revisited an idea that seems more promising than most other attempts at forgiveness I’ve tried. Here’s what that entails.

One of my past blog posts contained this line: “Dismantling a big emotional wall by removing one brick at a time has always worked better for me than trying to tear the whole thing down in one fell swoop.” I can’t take credit for that idea as I first got exposed to it through Letting Go by David Hawkins. In addition to describing how a big event with lots of different emotions around it can be divided up into individual emotions that can then be surrendered individually, he goes so far as to say that, eventually, one can even surrender the idea of forgiveness itself as a certain level of consciousness makes it clear that nothing needs forgiving. That’s the entire idea behind my current approach to forgiveness

It’s almost impossible for me to forgive someone while there is still a lot of pain and strong emotions around what they did to me. Thus, rather than try to forgive someone directly, I’ve been working on getting to forgiveness indirectly by releasing all the emotions around that situation. The idea is that forgiveness would then happen naturally once there is no more pain, grudge, negativity, or expectations of someone who hurt me. That’s the idea, so how does it work in reality?

Due to a lot of unexpected days off of work over the last few months, I’ve had way more free time than I usually would. I’ve used a lot of that time to let go. Here’s how that typically goes. The first few sessions tend to be fairly light and help me ease into the practice, especially if it’s been a while since I’ve done it. After that, there’s less fear and more courage, making it easier to get back into my recent focus on releasing guilt, shame, and the like. The more negativity that gets released, the better I’m able to get in touch with and release anger, which is normally my most difficult emotion to surrender. Each release of any kind of negativity brings me more peace, courage, and lightheartedness, all of which makes me more willing to forgive.

Letting go of negativity makes the positivity take care of itself. Courage is easier when there’s less fear. Peace is easier when there’s less stress. Love is easier when there’s less hate. Forgiveness is easier when there’s less pain. All the recent letting go I’ve done of early life pain has gotten me closer to easy forgiveness than I’ve been in years. Getting here required working through lots of pain around my dog Sawyer’s death for several years before I could even think about working through much of any other kind of pain, let alone actually do it. Now that I’ve mostly healed from his death, I can focus on deeper, harder issues.

I haven’t yet reached the level where nothing needs to be forgiven, though I have come close a few times and can envision myself getting there someday. At this point, I still have made lots of progress with releasing past pain and inching closer toward easily forgiving others. Now that I have a solid plan in place, I’ll keep working toward forgiveness with each bit of anger, resentment, pain, hurt, and negativity I surrender.

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Letting Go of Guilt and Shame

Posted on June 17, 2026 by admin

I’ve made letting go much more of a priority as of late than I did earlier this year. My focus the past few weeks has been letting go of guilt and shame. Here’s what I’ve noticed about that.

I did a decent amount of letting go on Friday and Saturday. Despite doing no letting go sessions on Sunday, the previous days’ work still had me feeling good, even when having some negative human interactions on Sunday at the zoo. All that work appears to have made me feel much more at ease around other humans. I noticed that on Monday at work when I felt pretty comfortable all day whether I was by myself, around my usual coworkers, or other folks I hadn’t seen in a long time.

After having an unexpected day off work yesterday, I decided I’d keep this up. I got three hours of letting go in throughout the day while still doing fun and productive tasks. As expected, I gradually felt better as the day progressed. I even managed to go into some deeper moments of guilt and shame from earlier in my life and released at least some of them. That had me feeling so good that the next day at work went swimmingly, even though I did hardly any letting go sessions. I felt hardly any fear, anxiety, frustration, or any other negativity all day, which was such a welcome surprise.

I always love finding areas like this to work on. It’s like finding the missing piece of the puzzle or toppling a particular domino that knocks over many others. This has brought a huge amount of relief and peace. I believe it will be another huge milestone in my healing journey, similarly to when I let go of lots of fear in late 2021 or released a huge amount of grief over my dog Sawyer’s death the last four years. It’s freed up so much space and effort that no longer has to be spent suppressing negativity. I doubt I’ve released it all, so I can only imagine what even more releases will do. I’d like to soon revisit releasing embarrassment and awkwardness as I did earlier this year. I’ve a feeling it’ll pair well with the focus on releasing guilt and shame. I look forward to finding out.

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One Man’s Trash

Posted on June 10, 2026 by admin

“One man’s trash is another man’s treasure.” That’s a pretty well-known saying that shows how differently people can value the same item. Recently, I realized that this is the heart of almost all debates, fights, arguments, and the like about nearly everything.

Humans seem willing to fight over just about anything. Food, drinks, sports teams, superheroes, books, movies, TV shows, hobbies, and so on. There is increasingly less willingness to agree to disagree on the enjoyment of anything subjective. Even where there aren’t fights, there is still often some hostility. For example, I haven’t talked to most folks I know about my love of stuffed animals out of fear that they’d mock me, a grown man with a big beard, for still finding value and comfort in them. While I have received support where I have talked about them or carried them around, many haven’t been so fortunate. That both angers and saddens me, as well as reinforcing my decision to only talk about this with a select few who’ve shown themselves to be worthy of knowing about it. Why can’t there be more acceptance, or at least indifference, in matters of personal taste where one person’s interests affect only that person?

I’ve thought about this a lot lately because of all the attractions at Disney World that have been removed or heavily changed within the last few years (or will be soon). Those who see an attraction as trash can’t understand those who see it as treasure and feel upset that it’s gone. Similarly, those who see it as treasure can’t understand those who see it as trash and feel indifferent or even glad that it’s gone. Hence endless fighting over whether or not a particular attraction was outdated, lame, unpopular, etc.

Much as some speak ill toward certain attractions and those who enjoy them, I doubt that they would appreciate others belittling them and their feelings when they lose an attraction they love. I am curious to see what would happen if the tables were turned, and if those who normally belittle would rethink their behavior after being on the receiving end of what they dish out. I suspect that most don’t have the self-awareness and humility to recognize their own hypocrisy, even when it’s served back to them.

I wish there were more understanding and compassion for those mourning something they’ve loved and lost. I’m sure that that would have made it much easier for me to handle my dog Sawyer’s death. While there was lots of compassion, there were also folks who didn’t seem to understand or care much about how I could feel so hurt for so long. Some wanted me to “get a new pet,” seemed to want me to stop posting/talking about Sawyer, changed the subject when I brought him up, or avoided me more than they did during Sawyer’s life even when I wanted some company. Unfortunately, some poor souls face even worse. When some humans lose their animal friends, others often try to diminish their pain by telling them not to cry, saying that they’re “just animals” or whatever kind of animal they think isn’t worth loving (reptiles, fish, rats, etc.), mock them for showing vulnerability, and all kinds of other horribly cruel acts. It’s one thing to not care about someone’s feelings around a defunct theme park attraction; it’s a whole lot worse to show so little compassion toward someone grieving the loss of a loved one. That said, I firmly believe that if there were more compassion for the former, there would also be more compassion for the latter.

Showing compassion for someone who’s hurting doesn’t require everyone to think and feel similarly about the source of the pain. I can show compassionate toward somebody who is missing a past attraction, show, book series, or anything else they love even if I am not personally interested in that thing. Kindness doesn’t require agreement, only love. I fear that there is so much disagreement because there is so little love, and I don’t know how to change that. I don’t want to drive myself crazy again by trying to change everyone around me and hope that what failed for years somehow succeeds this time. Instead, I’ll continue releasing as much pain as I can, do my best to treat others better, enjoy what I love while it’s still available, and stick with those who treat me well while avoiding those who treat me badly. That’s all I can do, and it’s better than nothing.

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My Time Management Approach

Posted on June 3, 2026 by admin

I’d like to talk about my approach to time management. While plenty of people are better at this than I am, I’ve still gotten pretty good at it and used it to pursue my various interests while taking good care of my emotional health and holding down a day job. Here’s an overview of what I do.

Most of what I’ll talk about here comes from Stephen Covey’s wonderful book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, especially his chapter on Habit 3, Put First Things First. The notion of categorizing tasks based on their importance and urgency blew my mind and has shaped how I approach each day ever since. It’s allowed me to do much more than I could before, such as doing attractions at Disney World when hardly anybody else is also doing them to save time waiting in line (it also works for driving, shopping, and other activities). It also reminds me to prioritize activities that end early or might close down due to bad weather; seeing and petting some animals at my local zoo before nearby lightning causes those areas to close down is a good example.

One of the best time management hacks I’ve found is doing multiple things simultaneously. An example could be taking a shower while washing one load of laundry, drying another load, charging one of my devices, and letting dinner thaw. Doing all of those together requires no additional effort and saves a huge amount of time compared to doing them one at a time. That’s how I’m able to get lots of things done even on busy days when I get home late from work and don’t have much time before bed.

My favorite kind of day is the one I had last Saturday. I stayed home, did something productive each hour, got lots of rest, moved at my own pace, and let go each waking hour for a total of four hours of letting go throughout the day. This lets me get a lot done without wearing myself out, having plenty of time for self-care, and, I believe, would be perfectly sustainable if I did this every day. It’s a similar approach to this video from Beau Miles in which he runs a marathon a little bit at a time over the course of 24 hours. Although he posted about his experiment back in 2018, I stumbled upon my experiment in late August of 2021. It’s how I managed to do anything while still in the deepest phase of grief over my dog Sawyer’s death from April 2022 through late 2023. Since then, it’s allowed me to rebuild and even flourish.

All of this helps me be more present with what I’m doing and enjoy the process rather than rush through things and miss most of my life as a result. My days feel slower, longer, and more relaxed when I’m on point with time management. In turn, I feel lighter and more at peace. I know there are other things I could do for even more efficient time management, though I’m not interested in pursuing them at this point. What I’ve got now works well enough for me, and I could easily drive myself crazy trying to push this as far as possible. Since my time is limited and I can’t create more of it, I’d rather continue benefiting from what I do to manage the time I’ve got and get to actually enjoy it while I can.

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A New Flourishing Phase

Posted on May 27, 2026 by admin

I realized last Saturday night that I’ve entered a new flourishing phase of my life. This was significant in part because I never thought it would happen again. Here’s what I’ve experienced lately and made this pleasantly surprising revelation possible.

The 2020’s has been an incredibly hard decade for me thus far. While almost every year of it has been terrible for me, the worst by far was 2022 as it brought with it my dog Sawyer’s death. The first few years after that were my survival phase. For the first few months, I mostly laid on the couch and cried for the majority of each day. I struggled through major depression, grief, and hopelessness, all of which seemed to be endless. Working through most of that pain over about a year and a half drastically improved my mood and let me progress to the next phase: rebuilding.

Although the rebuilding phase began around early 2024, it took a quantum leap last year when I got my current day job. This phase mostly consisted of improving my financial situation and increasing my chances at a good future. As you might expect, both of those improved my mood, reduced fear of what would happen to me, and allowed me to enjoy life much more than I could before this phase. The extra money funded my meaningful trips to Disney’s Hollywood Studios, the Magic Kingdom, and Animal Kingdom last year. I’m glad I could have those experiences even though they all happened during the rebuilding phase. The additional financial and emotional progress I’ve made since then brings us to the current phase: flourishing.

Now that my emotional and financial situations are so much better than they’ve been since 2021, I enjoy life so much more. My work/life balance has improved tremendously since I started my current job over a year ago. With even more money now than I had for most of last year, I’ve already been able to enjoy a lovely two-part trip to EPCOT at the beginning and middle of this month. I’m also in the planning stage of a trip to visit a friend who lives a few states away later this year. I couldn’t imagine any of that until recently, and it’s amazing to see it unfolding before me.

This all sneaked up on me. Ever since 2018 (the best year of my life so far) ended, I never thought I’d have another year like it. My doubts increased exponentially when I was still drowning in sorrow after Sawyer died. While 2026 has been nowhere near as good as 2018 at this point, it has still been better than most years of this decade. Fitting that I realized all of this the weekend after the second of my two EPCOT trips. That weekend was also four days instead of my usual three-day weekend, each day of it was lovely and restful, and I did three hours of letting go on the final day. While the weekends around my EPCOT trip were more fun, this past weekend was much more restful and refreshing.

My best year so far was 2018, and the best I’ve ever felt was in September of 2021. It’s interesting to me that my highest emotional state was in a year that was quite painful while my best year still featured lots of emotional struggles. Though I doubt any other year will eclipse 2018, I do believe at this point that I’ll have many wonderful years over the remainder of my life. I also believe that letting go of guilt, shame, anger, and pride will allow me to access emotional states far beyond what I experienced in 2021. I’d love to see what happens when an incredible emotional state occurs within a wonderful year. I’ll let you know what that’s like when it happens, and I reckon it’ll happen sooner rather than later.

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My Excellent Trip to EPCOT: Part 2

Posted on May 20, 2026 by admin

A few weeks ago, I wrote about the first half of my trip to EPCOT in Disney World. Since I just completed the second half of that trip this past weekend, it’s time to recount that experience as well as reflect on the entire trip as a whole. Let’s explore it together.

The first day started off well enough, largely thanks to all the packing and preparation I did the night before to make the departure smoother. I arrived at EPCOT around the same time as I did on the first half of the trip at the start of May. After meeting Daisy Duck, I then met up with an online friend whom I’d known for many years. We had a leisurely visit while walking around some of the park and took a photo together before I left to have lunch in Japan.

After that delicious lunch, I had a great time listening to the drummers of Matsuriza before taking a lovely walk around the Japanese rivers. Following that, I had some delicious Moroccan pastries for dessert. I then had lots of fun watching Sergio with his incredible juggling in Italy and even got to throw him a miniature soccer ball that he caught in a ladle. What I thought was Impressions de France turned out to be the Beauty and the Beast sing-along. That wasn’t an issue as both were on my list. The awesome rock band Command Performance was up next. They played a number of great songs including “Here Comes the Sun,” which is my favorite Beatles song. After that, I finally got to ride the newest version of Test Track. It was an amazing ride, my second favorite of the three versions I’ve ridden since the attraction first debuted, and the single rider line saved me a lot of time. I had a pleasant, goofy conversation about beards and unicycling with some folks in the gift shop before getting in line for Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind.

Unfortunately, this is where my day took a hugely negative turn. The posted wait time for the ride was eighty-five minutes. From the time I got in line, it took me over two hours just to be within sight of the ride loading area, and even then, I feared that I wouldn’t get to ride that night. At one point, cast members turned off the sound and turned up some lights. After so many delays, it seemed like the ride would be shut down until morning just before I crossed the finish line and with hardly any time to do anything else before the park closed for the day. Fortunately, the ride did finally resume running after another fifteen or so minutes, and I got to ride it after all. I’m glad of that because it was amazing! I’d never ridden a coaster that could turn and move the way this one did, and hearing “September” as we blasted around the track reminded me of when “Sweet Emotion” played while I rode Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster many years earlier. With that ride out of my system and with no plans to wait that long in line for anything at Disney World ever again, I took off for something to cheer me up. Just as I did last year at the Magic Kingdom, I headed toward some character greetings. Meeting Mickey Mouse, Goofy, and Minnie Mouse and getting some wonderfully long bear hugs from all of them helped me feel so much better. Minnie was so sweet with my Huckle Cat plush. A warm shower and some good sleep at my friend’s house further improved my mood and made for a good start to my final day at EPCOT.

I’m glad to say that that final day was mostly wonderful. The only disappointment was not getting to meet Mary Poppins, the Mad Hatter, or Alice as it seems that none of them were meeting that day. I hope to meet them on a future trip. Despite that early disappointment, I still had a lovely day. The first part of it was dedicated to seeing live entertainment and a few character greetings around the World Showcase. My first stop was getting some lovely pressed pennies featuring characters from Alice in Wonderland and Winnie the Pooh. I then had some lovely visits with Snow White and Belle, and one of my friends loved the personalized video message from Belle. Kelly at the Rose & Crown played beautifully and finished his set with my favorite Muppet song, “Rainbow Connection,” which made me tear up. Little Ian, my Plushie Dreadful fawn, enjoyed that whole performance. I felt delighted to learn that Mariachi Cobre still plays Tuesdays through Saturdays! They had a beautiful set, especially when they said goodbye to a fellow cast member by playing him “Remember Me.”

At that point, I had enough time to ride the monorail to the Transportation and Ticket Center and back to see the flowers and topiaries from a bird’s eye view. That was one of the highlights of my day. Shortly thereafter, I enjoyed exploring the butterfly garden, seeing so many beautiful butterflies and flowers in there, and appreciating its message about mindfulness. Dinner came from the African Outpost and dessert followed a few hours later from Norway. Once I saw Impressions de France, I got to break in my new autograph book with signatures from Mickey, Minnie, and Goofy as my last big EPCOT adventure. They all loved Little Ian, as did two cast members at that location who talked about their own Plushie Dreadfuls as well! Little Ian loved seeing most of the World Showcase, Impressions de France, Bambi and friends topiaries, and the characters we met that night. A lovely call with one of my best friends on the drive home brought the best trip I’ve had in ages in for a smooth landing.

It was lovely seeing the International Flower and Garden Festival on both halves of my trip. This half was even better because of the butterfly garden and seeing so many of the flowers, topiaries, and much of EPCOT itself from the monorail up above the park. I’m so glad I decided to do that and also had enough time to enjoy it. I’m also glad that it only rained on one of the four days I spent in EPCOT. That was a wonderful change of pace after experiencing some rain on every single one of the five days I was in Disney World last year. I hope my future visits also have clear weather.

Each of my solo Disney trips has taught me a little more about how the parks work, navigating everything, planning, packing, prioritizing, and time management. This trip taught me that not all characters are available to meet every day. While Alice and the Mad Hatter were both there on at least my first day in EPCOT, they weren’t there on my final day. If I’d known that at the start of my trip, I’d have made sure to meet them early on. In addition to some disappointment after learning from a cast member that Alice wasn’t meeting on my last day, I also learned more from that experience about how to use the My Disney Experience App to find out details about characters, live entertainment, food, and more. I intend to schedule my future Disney trips at least in part around when the characters whom I want to meet will be available so that I don’t have to face this disappointment again.

Even now, several days after getting back from EPCOT and just over halfway through my workweek, I still feel amazing. That trip was overall wonderful, especially the final day that gave me so much time to explore the park at my own leisurely pace and enjoy more of the live entertainment than I have on any single previous day. I wish my dog Sawyer were there to greet me when I returned home. It’s still hard to come home from a big trip without his warm welcome. The fact that the pain is still getting smaller and lighter as I go through different seasons and adventures in life lets me know that I’m doing something right on my healing journey, particularly with regard to bigger trips like this one. Additionally, I’m not aware of any EPCOT rides or shows that I love being closed down forever, so I only felt a bit of sadness at the end of this trip. I look forward to going back to EPCOT someday and hope that everything I’ve learned so far will make for an even better trip than this one. For now, this trip was lovely enough to have me feeling good for quite some time.

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Why I Don’t Like Talking About How I Feel

Posted on May 13, 2026 by admin

I generally don’t like talking about how I feel. This might sound odd as much of my blog is dedicated to talking about how I feel. While I’m fine doing that here and a few other places, it almost always becomes painful when I do so with other humans. Let’s explore that together.

Almost everyone I talk to about my feelings uses it as an invitation to turn the focus onto themselves. They do this by complaining about their own problems while I’m in deep pain (“I can relate to you since I’m going through the same thing”), giving their unwanted opinions about the situation, providing unsolicited advice, or just flat-out ignoring what I’ve said. Hardly anyone ever asks if I’d like any of that or what I’d like at all before delving into one or more of those seemingly automated responses. All of those responses make me feel worse and also make me want to spend less time around those who use them. Since most folks I come across use them often, I mostly prefer being by myself at this point.

Aside from how others tend to respond to my pain, it often makes me feel worse to talk about it at length. Part of this is because I often feel multiple conflicting emotions simultaneously, which makes any question of how I’m doing difficult to answer. The fact that feelings can change so quickly, be hard to put into words, and often fail to be justly described in words adds to this difficulty. Additionally, some folks seem to relish hearing about negativity to the point that they seem to feel let down if I don’t want to dive deeply into the details. I wonder if they are the same folks who are addicted to consuming any and all dramatic TV, movies, books, podcasts, and even the real-life drama of endless fighting, gossiping, and having bad relationships. Whatever the reason for it, I want nothing to do with those who seem to be nourished by my misery and want me to talk for ages about it so that they can get some kind of perverse pleasure from it.

Everything I’ve said so far especially pertains to talking about my dog Sawyer. I love telling others about Sawyer, showing pictures and videos, sharing some of my favorite Sawyer moments, and otherwise keeping his memory alive by spreading stories of his wonderfulness to anyone who’ll listen. However, when I talk about his death and how much pain that that has caused me, things become sadly predictable. Most folks then immediately start talking about their animal friends who’ve died, give me unsolicited advice about handling the remaining pain, presume to tell me about my experience based on their experience (including saying that “the pain never goes away”), or, in the worst cases, just ignoring my pain to focus on whatever else they want to talk about. It was incredibly hard for me to ask for that sort of thing to stop when I was drowning in misery over Sawyer’s death in the first year and a half after he died. Even though the pain is almost gone, it’s still hard for me to request other, better responses. I just wish humans were better at this and so much else.

Reflecting on all of the above reminds me why I’d rather just let go on my own at this point. Working through my own feelings is far faster, easier, and more effective than looking to somebody else for comfort, and it’s free from the chance of getting hurt by others responding badly to my pain. Even on the rare occasion in which I pour my heart out to somebody else and found some relief, that relief has always been temporary. Later on, I’ve still had to work through all of my emotions around the unpleasant situation that prompted the venting; if that’s the case, I’d prefer to just skip the venting and go straight to the emotional work. That’s much nicer than being ignored, told what to do, or criticized/shamed for how I’m handling whatever’s hurting me. I’m glad that letting go of painful emotions works so well, given that looking for comfort from others nearly always goes so poorly. I don’t see the latter changing anytime soon, so I’ll keep doing the former and hoping it continues working as well for me as it has over the past six years.

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