Leaving Disney World
Sunday, January 4th, 2003
I got up the next morning and got Jeremy. We met my dad at the Poop Century Hotel. Jeremy had never been there, and I hadn't explored it to the extent I had the other hotels.


We met my dad in the lobby and walked around looking at the displays outside. Only half of it is open right now. Every building/area is themed to a decade from the 50's to the 90's (00's to 40's still under construction). They have 4 story figures of characters from movies from the decades, as well as objects. Then on the railings they have phrases, other things, and the staircases are also described as objects. For example, in the 80's the staircases are disguised as Rubik’s Cubes, out by the 70's there is a 3-story tall Mickey Mouse Phone and Big Wheeler. Catch phrases like “Groovy” and “Outta” Sight adorn the 60's building. The 3 of us all walked around there for a long time. My dad took a lot of pictures.

I gave my dad one of my free passes into the park. We went over to Magic Kingdom. I dropped my dad off at the walkway to the Contemporary, and Jeremy and I parked at Westclock. (Magic Kingdom Cast Member parking). Jeremy didn't have much time before work to do anything. We went and ate hot dogs over at Casey's across from Jeremy's work. He showed my dad the 2 places he worked. My dad said that was a cool costume to wear. After that, I walked Jeremy back down to his locker, and he went to work.


When I came back, my dad and I went into Tomorrowland. We rode the Tomorrowland Transit Authority, simply because it was there and had no line. Then he absolutely insisted that we ride the Carousel of Progress, which I was less than excited to do but I humored him anyway.

From there we went on Pirates, Small World, and Haunted Mansion.

We went on the way out to see Jeremy working. He was in the Cone shop. He was mad because the day before he'd traded his shift in for a later, shorter one. The person he'd traded with got ERed, and he was the last CP left. He was also frustrated with the people he was working with. I made my dad ask him what flavor the fudge was. "Blueberry" he said. My dad and I left, ate our sundaes, and made a mad dash over to MGM Studios.


We got into the MGM Studios at about 15 minutes before they closed. I got him running (he never runs) to be sure that we made it onto the Rock 'n' Roller Coaster before they closed. As we passed Sunset Ranch, on the brink of closing, it looked so empty and desolate. We got in line for the Rock 'n' Roller Coaster at about 5 minutes before they closed. I was glad I got to go on it one last time. We got Love in an Elevator and Walk This Way. By the time we got off the Coaster, Tower of Terror was closed. I took Dad to buy some more of the things mom had asked me to get.

Then we went back out to the parking lot, figured there was about an hour and a half left, what better to do than close Epcot? So we drove out there. We went there, went on Space Ship Earth, tried to ride Test Track, unfortunately the line wasn't moving. There is a mirror on the front of the building so that you can see the cars zooming around the banked turn in front of it. We stood in line awhile and saw one car going by very slowly, and a cast member walking behind it, waving. Several minutes later, another car (not Cast Member) went by at about the same rate. So it didn't happen that night. We walked through World Showcase, got a beaver tail. And went into the fast food place at Japan and ate there, and got caught up exiting as Illuminations was occurring.

It was late by the time we left Epcot; I was hoping to get to Magic Kingdom to get Jeremy at 9:30, and it was late by the time we got there. He was already waiting up at the bus stop though. He had gotten that ER he was hoping for, but that meant spending about 2 hours waiting at the stop.

Then we went back to our apartments. Jeremy had a lot less stuff to take care of, so he went back by himself and loaded his car. My dad and I started packing my room. It was in fair shape, packingwise. Jenny was the last 1803 resident. She was cleaning and packing and throwing everything neither she nor I would claim. Jeremy later called and asked my dad to come over and help him move my refrigerator. My efforts were really necessary in my own room. Somehow, it ended up that Jenny took my dad to Jeremy's while I stayed in 1803 and packed.

My dad had some things to say about Jenny. She was saying that she learned to drive an automatic car during her program because no one else would lend her their car to go to the doctor’s. My dad thought that was not a good strategy; ask someone to drive their car. Plus he also deducted I was part of no one else, since my car is automatic, and therefore smart enough to lend her their car. She thought she was kinda whiny the way she was complaining about how one of the girls left all their stuff there.

She also talked poorly about me behind my back. She told Jeremy I made fun of his car (which is pink, no that does not make him gay; he didn't even pick the color) by calling it a "Skittle." The fact of the matter is, I've told him I like the color, (and conversely hate my common color) he, his mom, and Nicole from Sunset have called it a Skittle, like the candy, because of it's color, and the airbrushed license plate that says Jeremy's Skittle on it. According to my dad, Jeremy defended my honor, and eventually blew her off. My dad thought that was very bitchy of her to talk about me behind my back, especially in front of my dad, not smart. He pretty much told me he thought she was very needy, clingy, and immature, and he spent a limited amount of time with her.

When Jeremy, my dad and Jenny came back, Jeremy came back alone into my room and said, "Why did you send her?!" He then proceeded to tell me that Jenny said I had been making fun of his car. "What?! That's not true!" I said. "Yeah, I know." So, Dad, Jeremy, and I packed everything up, moved it out of my room and shoved it all half-assed into my car; it all fit, but not without blocking the back mirror. "We'll repack it when we get to New Orleans," I was told. Jeremy wanted to accompany me back to the Poop Century to drop off my dad, so we left the backseat available for him. We took him back. He said he wanted to leave at 7:00. I told him 7:45 out of sarcasm. He thought I was serious.

We came back to Vista. I helped Jeremy out a little bit in his apartment. We were going to go out to eat. At some point between being in Jeremy's apartment getting in the car and driving away to retrieve food, I was left alone in my car while I waited for Jeremy to come back from somewhere. I started thinking about the upcoming situation too much. It was all suddenly seeming real; in 12 hours I would be pointed west California bound, without my best friend and the person I love beside me. I started crying, really crying. I managed to subside before Jeremy came back out to the car. He couldn't tell I'd been crying.

We went to Walgreen’s to get my pictures, (I don't even think I looked like myself in one of them) and then to the Taco Bell drive thru. We took the food back to 1803.

Jenny was kind of around us. She had discovered a costume bag from Animal Kingdom. It was full of dirty costumes from Jacque. Apparently, Jacque had requested that Stacey take them back to Animal Kingdom for her so that she wouldn't be charged with them, but Stacey didn't do that which was annoying Jenny, and conversely causing her to be annoying. I told her that it wasn't our problem. It was Jacque's, and if she wanted it to be, Stacey's.

At some point, Jenny roped Jeremy into doing another dumpster run with her. I forget why I wasn't involved. But while they went out, I locked myself in the bathroom, sat on the ground in front of the door, and started crying. I tried to keep it quiet. Jeremy finally knocked on the door just to see if I was in there. I said yes, and came out a few minutes later.

I didn’t have a very good night’s sleep. I kept waking up during the night.

Monday, January 5th, 2004
I think I woke up at about 7:30. Jeremy was awake early too. He came over to my apartment. We kinda moved around. I started to take stuff out to my car. My dad called at 8:45 wondering where we were.

The check out process was much more painless than I thought it might be. They had supplied everyone with mini-envelopes, just the size of a credit/ID card. We put our Housing IDs, house key, and parking stickers into the envelopes. Then we just dropped the whole package into a bin at the office and were told to have a good life. Jeremy and I caravaned over to Vista Credit Union so that Jeremy could inquire about closing his account.

Then we went to the Poop Century. In the front seat of Jeremy's car was his dorm-sized fridge. At the hotel, Jeremy convinced my dad to take the fridge in the front seat of my car, and I would drive with him shotgun until the I-10 turn off.

The ride there was melancholy. Either I kept trying to keep some kind of a conversation flow going, or it was just silent and somber, each of us lost in our thoughts of the next two months and beyond. He put his arm around me the way he often did in the car. It got to the point where we both wanted to just leave each other and have the horrible good-bye over with so that we could get on with our lives that much sooner, rather than prolong the agony and put off the inevitable.

We stopped at a Chevron station just before the I-10 turn off. I called my dad and told him to turn off. I went in the store. My dad and Jeremy got gas, and then pulled next to each other in convenience store parking lot to switch the refrigerator. I wandered the store trying to turn off my brain. I kept smiling the whole time in there, as if I could create enough endorphins to undo my feelings. But while smiling my teeth could be gritted and my face tensed up enough that I couldn't start crying, not that I didn't want to. Jeremy came in the store and held me, and reminded me to be strong. The whole point of me not crying was, he first said, "Because I don't want to see a lady cry over me." But he later confessed, if I cried he inevitably would too and he couldn't have that. My dad asked me if I wanted something from the store. I was so not hungry. Debating which sugar-packed bit of junk food that I neither needed nor necessarily wanted was the last thing on my mind. I kissed Jeremy right in the store. “But we’re in public,” he said. “I don’t care right now,” I responded.

We walked back out to the parking lot and held each other for several seconds. We said our "I love you"s and "Miss you"s and that sort of thing. Jeremy wanted us to part. He could tell by my voice I was "weakening" and that he was too. I got into my car.

My dad and I got on the road. I was proud of myself for not shedding a tear. We missed the I-10 turn off and had to go 3 miles to the next exit and get back. I read the messages to me in the autograph book out loud.

We stopped at a McDonald's-Gas Station combo near the Florida border. Then we went to another one later when it got dark out.

What always happens when I make myself not cry, when I really should or want to, is that at the time I feel proud of myself. Then I feel guilty or at some kind of loss of necessary emotional outburst. Then it comes out later. So, later on I was wishing I had cried about it a little even after we parted ways, but when I wanted to bring out that outburst, I couldn't. It came out naturally about 2 hours from New Orleans. My dad held my hand.

We got into New Orleans that night at around 8:00. I was exhausted. I just wanted to pass out and sleep. But I had also never been to New Orleans. I talked to my mom on the phone. She gave me crap about Jeremy and I leaving late. That was annoying. It was cold in New Orleans. My dad took us into downtown, and we went down Bourbon St. It looked like a bunch of nightclubs. We just drove back to the hotel, as the brakes were being loud. We had dinner from a Wendy's. It was disgusting.

Jeremy called me that night to tell me he'd come home. It was nice to talk to him. I didn't really plan on it until I got home. I was happy to hear from him. I had to track him down at his aunt's. I talked to his mom for a long time before that though; it was a long time for someone I only know a little bit.

Tuesday, January 6th, 2004
So, got into Denton. The trip was uneventful. Except people drive like idiots in Dallas.


I saw Bonnie and her family, which is always nice. I got to see Terry, my uncle who I'm not sure if I’ve seen since my cousin's wedding. (I must have seen him before, I just can't think when though). We had KFC at her house, and I showed off my pictures from my trip so far. Jenny said it looked like I had my own personal photographer with me the whole time.

My dad and I went to our hotel later on that night. I sat in my car and talked to Jeremy again. I told him I would call him from Vegas. I talked to Kelly also. I annoyed my dad by talking on the phone. We debated taking my car to the nearby Nissan dealership.

Wednesday, January 7th, 2004
When we woke up in the morning, we opted not to go get the car taken care of.

We got out on the road to Albuquerque. It for some reason involved a trip to Oklahoma and Oklahoma City, a trip on which the turn off from 44 and 40 got somehow horribly screwed up and took us about 30 miles out of our way and had to take some highway back to 40.

We got into Albuquerque late. We ordered pizza and watched the Simpsons. Good stuff. Toccarra from left a message on my phone. It was great to hear from her. She is one of the few people I can foresee myself staying in contact with aside from Jeremy.

Thursday, January 8th, 2004
We left for Vegas.

One interesting thing happened, My dad and I stopped at one of those roadside Indian gift shops. We went there to go to the bathroom. My dad got me a pair of earrings there. He was also offering to buy candy or sodas, as usual. There was a counter where they sold fountain drinks, and apparently frozen yogurt. There were all kinds of hand-written signs on the menu board, "We do not have chocolate or swirl ice cream" "Vanilla ice cream only." I just had to ask, "So how many times a day do you get asked for chocolate ice cream?" She rolled her eyes, "Everyday!" And she started venting a little about people asking her that, or asking, "What do you have?" when it's clearly written. I started sharing the stupid questions people gave me in Disney World. It was a good bonding thing.


We had to make a stop over in Winslow, Arizona to get a shirt that my mom was having my dad play the cudjagetme game for him for a shirt in Winslow.

We got into Vegas about 6:30. I text messaged Toccarra, and talked to Jeremy. I changed my shirt and put on my Union Jack shirt from property control by way of the UK pavilion and put on my eyeliner. Our hotel room had a great view; we could see the Paris, New York, New York, Bellagio, and Caesar’s all from our room. And the 2 of us went out and hit the town.

We first went into the Bellagio. We wandered around through there a little bit. He showed me the check in area. The best part was the ceiling. There was lighting. Covering the light was a bunch of flowers made of glass. It was beautiful.


Right next to the check in area was a room with a bunch of Christmas trees and big ol’ ornaments in it.

This was an interesting time to be in Vegas. They were having the annual new computer gadgets convention, and porn film industry convention. I didn’t see too many people that looked like they could have been stars. I saw a lot of uppity looking geeks though.

As we left we saw the water show outside. It was to Singing in the Rain.


We then walked over to the Harley Davidson Cafe. I'd never been in there before. I was glad we went. It was pretty cool. There was a bunch of pictures of people on bikes on the wall and bikes went by on conveyor belts near the ceiling.


We then walked back over to the Paris We went inside. It was neat in there.

We walked across to Caesars. That was fun. Didn't do anything there. I went to the bathroom and Text Messaged Kelly and Andrea.

Then we walked over to the Flamingo, because my dad had never been there. It was very unimpressive; it was seemingly old and without a theme. We had dinner at a coffee shop there. I had nachos.

We went back to the hotel and fell asleep.

Friday, January 9th, 2004
The next day we headed out. Again debating the possibility of getting my breaks came up and was debated.

Anyway, the point is we made it back. It was an uneventful trip, except that work people kept calling him during critical turn offs so we missed a few turns, which was frustrating.

I tried to call Jeremy about 20 minutes from home. I called his aunt first. She said he was at his uncle's. I apparently didn't write down the correct number and got no response. He finally did call after I got back. I was glad to hear from him.

When we pulled up into the driveway, all the Christmas lights were on. I walked in the front door, and my mom hugged me. We had pizza for dinner. The house was completely decorated for Christmas. I opened my Christmas stocking. It was strange to be in my bed that night.

The adventure was finally over. It was a bittersweet ending. I was morose throughout most of that day. Reflecting on the joys of finally being home, buy wishing I didn't have to get back into the boring routine familiar routine. Glad about getting to be with driving distance of my parents, but not having to empty trash, and degrease floors, and remind people that the have arrived at Sunset Ranch. I'll get to see Kelly again, but won't have the luxury of going to Epcot for just a few hours, until I got bored of it all. Getting to come back to the familiar things but having to leave the compete independence. Then of course, having to leave Jeremy. That was the worst of all. I miss him already. I will see him over my Spring Break at the end of March. It’s going to be a difficult couple of months though. I love him so much and wish I could be with him.

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