So, the Disney Blog (http://www.thedisneyblog.com/) is having a contest. As a long-time reader and fan of the blog, I figure I'll enter by discussing the only birthday I ever celebrated at Disney.

It was 1982, the EPCOT Center (still all in caps and with "Center" still attached) had just opened and the Tylenol murders were fresh on everyone's minds...especially my father's, who had lost a friend to the poisonings. Now, Halloween was around the corner and my parents had decided that "Trick or Treating" was just to risky. So I was made an offer, a weekend at Disney World with a friend, to celebrate my birthday. I eagerly accepted.

The four of us pretty much went our seperate ways. Jeff and I wanding through the communicores and tech exhibits while my parents went off to the World Showcase. I was completely in love with all of the fun and strange things in the Communicores and Jeff and I spent most of our time there, playing games and working with the interactive exhibits. We especially loved the interactive blue screen movie with Dream Finder. Of course, that was the only place you could see him, as the Figment and Dreamfinder 3-D movie hadn't started showing yet, instead there was just a generic Sony 3-D film (which was still pretty amazing).

After a long day at the park we met up and went back to the hotel. The next day we took splitting up to a whole new level as Jeff and I went to the magic kingdom. What a great time that was.

Growing up, I had been to the Magic Kingdom at least twice a year. My father had done consulting work for Disney and so the free trips were something I had grown accustomed to. Having a chance to go with someone who didn't go that often? That was great. I re-discovered the Jungle Cruise on that trip and Jeff and I went on the Snow White ride, which struck us as certainly more intentionally creepy than our beloved Haunted Mansion.

After two exhausting days, culminating with Halloween at the Magic Kingdom, we went home. It was an amazing birthday, a great Halloween, and a pretty special childhood memory.

Today is "Blog like it's the end of the world" day. http://myelvesaredifferent.blogspot.com/2007/05/blog-like-its-end-of-world-bliteotw.html



3:14 am - Jesus, I never really thought it would come to this. A few stories here and there about the dead rising, it couldn't be too serious right? Unless you live in Florida, aka 'God's Waiting Room'. Here, it is certainly a problem. Sure it wasn't too bad at first, the 'gators certainly kept the walking dead to a minimum but now?

I've put the storm shutters up to hold the worst of the dead at bay. Jen and I can hear them scrabbling at the clip on shutters on the smaller windows. I'm not certain how long they can hold. We've been moving our hurricane supplies up into the attic, along with the cats, and I figure that from there we might be safe so long as I can jam the attic ladder in the up position.

5:20 am - The zombies are in the house now, I can hear them moving around. So far, no interruptions in power and we have Jen's laptop plugged in up here. The downside is that plugging in the laptop meant unplugging the light. Now the only light we have is from the monitor. Being able to hear those things moving below us, knowing that they are only seperated from us by some drywall and insulation isn't too comforting. I'm thinking we should've made a run for it when we had the chance...my mistake. It doesn't sound like they've gotten into the garage below us though, we might be able to make a run for it. Hang on a sec, I hear something....

7:01 am - Sounds like the zombies are climbing up on my desk. Probably won't be too long until they figure out how fragile our haven really is. Thankfully the roof is made of sterner stuff, I can hear a few of them above us now, tearing at the shingles. I just hope they don't find the open vent area and start pulling on the plywood.

Is anyone still out there? I read some reports from Chicago, and things don't look good. We haven't heard anything from Las Vegas yet either. I have to wonder. Normally I'd think teh safest place to be would be out on the water but Lake Mead? Too many bodies in that lake for me to think it would make a good shelter. Hell, can zombies swim?

9:51 am - The zombies started breaking into the attic as I was finishing my last post. We grabbed what we could and dropped down into the garage and took off. The car is a little worse for wear from driving through the garage door, but I figured better that then waiting for the door to fully open while zombies poured in.

The news reports aren't good. Ft Myers has been overrun pretty quickly and Miami is under quarantine. I caught something about martial law but didn't catch the whole story. We hopped on the 41 and headed down to Everglades city. A lot of the houses are on stilts there and they'd already started cutting down their stairways when we arrived. I had hoped we could shelter here but it doesn't look good. All the boats are already gone too, the fishermen have taken to the gulf for the duration of the emergency. Who can blame them?

12:18 pm - Well, we're in the middle of 'Alligator Alley' the stretch of highway between Naples and Miami. With noplace left to go, I think sheltering out in teh middle of nowhere might be the best idea. We haven't seen any other cars in a while now, no movement and no noise except for the whining of the cats and the occasional snort of a gator. We've still got gas left so we can run again if we need to, but I don't know where to.

All we can do is hope at this point, hope that the dead stay near the living and that the alligators don't get us before the dead do. Its funny, there is an alligator sitting about 20 feet from the car, just basking. I can't say I've ever been so happy to see one. Since 'gators like their meat to have been "aged" a little, this might come in handy.

Big Flash! Hang on.....

12:31 pm - I thought somebody nuked Miami for a minute, but that isn't quite accurate. The military is dropping conventional ordinance into the big cities though, sacrificing places like Miami and Denver, in hopes that those of us in the outlying areas can handle our own populations of dead if we don't need to worry about the teeming masses from the cities.

Congratulations Mr. Bush, you finally got to bomb the US proper. With the dead rising, it seems like God has his own WMD, I wonder if we'll declare war on Heaven and Hell next.

Anyhow, we need to conserve battery time now. I don't know how long it'll be until we can go anywhere. On either end of this freeway are the zombies, on either side we've got gators and boa constrictors (I'd love to beat the assholes who releasd THOSE into the 'glades). The road seems to be the safest place, at least for now.

Wish us luck. May God have mercy on our souls.