Imagine…

Celebration, FL

October 28, 2008

Dear friends,

Yesterday I dropped the car off at the garage to replace the fuel pump, walked the two miles home doing curls with my stainless steel water bottle, spent an hour on Spanish, another on my self-designed writing class and several more turning photos of a friend's birthday party into a poster using Photoshop. By the time Art got home from his day at Disney I had athlete's elbow and writer's neck and was ready to relax watching the Rays and Phillies. Art left the room in the first inning ("This is too painful.") but I stayed and watched them all get soaked in not quite freezing rain. When, in the top of the sixth, Carlos Pena got his first hit of the series to send B.J. Upton home and tie the game and the game was immediately suspended I thought "Metaphor."

Relentless rain vs. dedicated skill - uncontrollable forces vs. determined humanity - Am I going to far here?

Perhaps I'll just suspend your reality and fill you in on ours.

The return trip from Wyoming and the Escapees Birthday Party this summer included a day with brother-in-law Jim McCann who, because it was our 35 wedding anniversary drove us through the Rockies to visit Steamboat Springs where we spent our honeymoon instead of taking us fishing and swimming in hot-springs pool he'd hoped to do. The next day we drove straight thru Kansas to visit Marceline, MO where Walt Disney nurtured his childhood dreams and Art had a chance to plant a few of his own.

Our schedule at Epcot was light because not many companies plan conventions in August so we've had plenty of time to explore Florida: Gatorland and Lake Louisa State Park nearby, Sarasota in September, a weekend doing dinner theaters on the Gulf Coast with our Roadtrek friends, and the Richard Petty Driving Experience and the last week of shows on Pleasure Island with Jen and Chad and their friends were a few of the highlights. (Check out the links ->)

Art has taken on two, new "on-call" roles with Disney – one is program assistant to the Disney Institute where he'll help with the logistics of setting up the presentations and get to sit in on seminars taught by members of the company's leadership team and the other as a media specialist assisting the company and conventions with their filming. He received a unique pin for attending a class last week and when one of our colleagues asked why I didn't go with him I replied, "I used the time to write a children's story and a poem."

It's said that one take's on one's partner's qualities over time, and again we fit the norm. Art's the one who's joining things, while I'm hunkering down in the office turning my introspection into a productive hobby. This summer I earned 50 dollars for an RV article, entered two writing contests, put some picture/poems in a shop downtown and set up a tentative schedule to learn all the items on my bucket list. (Other people want to go places, I just want to know!)

The other day Art said, "Imagine what life would be like if we'd waited until I turned 65 to retire?" It would be easy for us to congratulate ourselves for taking the risk we did 5 years ago, for buying in Celebration at the right time, for being smart in trading in the 35' motorhome for the van when we did, for making a multitude of choices. Except we both know that smart as we are, we were also very lucky which makes us think we're supposed to be; right where we are, doing just what we do.

Peace and good____________,

Beth