Worst Disney Movie Ever

I have a friend who LOVES DisneyWorld.  She interned at the park every summer during college (she played the character "Stitch" her third year!) and has wanted to get married there since we were like, ten.

Now, you should know that I too love DisneyWorld.  My grandmother (my mom's mom) loved all things Disney and integrated it into all our visits with her.  For example, she had a bag where she'd store gifts before giving them away called "The Mary Poppins Bag."  The hidden panic room in their New York home (which they used for storage) was called "The Alice in Wonderland Room."

My grandmother and grandfather were (and still are) very wealthy.  My family isn't, but we benefitted a great deal from their generosity and took a number of trips to DisneyWorld, sometimes with my aunt and uncle and their boys, too.

DisneyWorld is my "Happy Place."  I'm not optimistic as a rule, and DisneyWorld is the ONLY place I remember all the good things and none of the bad things.  Of course my parents had vacation fights...my dad's never spent money without some regret...there was plenty of rivalry with my sisters for attention and any number of incidents in which I was punished for wandering off.  But all that stuff falls by the wayside when I think about being with my whole family in a place that's warm and sunny and magical.

My Husband has never been to DisneyWorld.  Now that the friend I mentioned at the beginning of this post is getting married (May 11th, yay Kate!) there, we planned a weeklong vacation to celebrate her marriage and so I could share all the DisneyWorld goodness with the love of my life.

We've been planning an all out vacation, our first that will be just us since we've been married.  Nine days, themed Disney resort, the works.  I've been bugging My Husband to get the OK from his commanding officer (CO) so I can use our Southwest miles to book plane tickets.

Enter the multi-tentacled monster that is the United States Army.  My Husband will be spending the entire month of May with his squadron in the field doing training exercises.  Oh wait, not the ENTIRE month...they have Memorial Day weekend off, just in time to go to My Husband's college roommate's wedding in which he's a groomsman.  Of course.

And this is after he's scheduled to spend the whole month of April in Fort Benning, GA at Scout School.

So no DisneyWorld wedding/vacation for the Delaneys.

Now, I've heard all the "army life" bullshit about missed vacations and holidays and this "is the life I've chosen" and all that.  I KNOW.  I know this is a hard life.  I did the deployment, I'm doing the training and the 14-hour workdays.  I know complaining is pointless and unproductive.

But I wanted to get married in September and we had to marry in July because of his deployment.  I wanted a honeymoon...same deal.  I just...I only wanted to go to DisneyWorld with My Husband and see my friend get married.  We've been planning this for more than a year and now...nothing.  I'm so tired of having my plans wrecked and having to pretend it's no big deal to keep the peace.

And so here I am; learning to live a life that someone else is in charge of.  And trying desperately to be grateful for it despite everything.