If you don't like pictures, Disneyland, or realllly long blog posts, don't read this.

So, now that you've all completely forgotten about it...

SURPRISE!!!

It's time to go back to Disneyland!

Yeah, that's right.  That was in August.  But come on!  Give a girl a break!  You've gotta have the right inspiration in order to really do Disneyland justice in a blog post.

So, here's my shot at it.  Disneyland in a short, pictoral narrative.  And by short, I mean actually kind of long.  Again, give me a break.  I have a lot of pictures.

So, as you'll recall, we had just arrived at Disneyland after 5 fun days in the minivan.  Oh wait.  It was actually only 2 days.  Not 5.

After the first night at our hotel, Lindsay and I quickly realized that despite the door separating us from the icebox sleepers in the other room, a sheet and one pillow just weren't going to cut it.

 

Sometimes, having polar bears for parents is a real letdown.  Especially when they get their hands on air conditioning and all you have is a roll-out bed and one sheet.

Anyways, we stepped outside of our room to defrost for a second and grabbed some delicious continental breakfast!

And then, it was off to Disneyland, the most magical place on Earth!
  

And the happiest of course.

And for our first Disney ride, what could be more fitting than...

  

 ...Michael Jackson?

Ok, really, Disney?  Michael Jackson is not Disney.  He's scary and so was that 3D show.  End of story.

 Nevertheless, it was a good opportunity to practice our dance moves.

Needing to recuperate from the madness that was Michael Jackson and his inappropriate and all too frequent hip thrusts, we went on a REAL Disney ride:

THUNDER MOUNTAIN RAILROAD!  It was also scary, but not in the same scarring way as the hip thrusts.

Hip thrusts aside, those 2 rides really took it out of us, and we needed some nourishment.  Whatever it was, this blue stuff really did the trick.

Feeling rejuvenated, we got in line for another ride.  Lindsay's not so sure this ride is worth the wait.  Steven thinks he's James Bond.

There's never a dull moment in line at Disneyland:

You can venture through the blades of grass in fairyland,...

Photoshop yourselves into other environments,...

And make new friends! 

The only bad thing about waiting in line is that it takes time.  All too soon, it was time to say goodbye to the rides, blue drinks, and submarines and head on to another Disney adventure.

Namely,...

Character dining!

Now, if you've never been character dining before, you should know,...it's GREAT!  

No, no, you don't eat the characters, but there is food.  Lots of it!  And get this, while you're eating all this delicious food, Disney princesses and such come to your table to say hello to you!  As you can guess, I was very excited.

Our character dining experience started out...

In the bathroom.  Yes, that's right, but not just any bathroom.  This was a magical, princess bathroom!

Which, of course, resulted in the necessity for princess bathroom photos.

Well, after the magical time we had in the enchanted ladies room, it seemed improbable that this night could get any better.  However,...it did! 

I mean, we met Pluto!

I was a little nervous, considering my last run-in with Pluto a couple of years ago at Disneyworld, which was awkward to say the least.  But that's another story.

Back to the dining.  

With our welcome from Pluto, we headed straight into Goofy's Kitchen, and settled into our table.

Lindsay, still defrosting from last night's stay in the icebox, I mean, hotel room, found a good use for her dinner napkin.

Napkins in place and pomegranate lemonades in hand, we started in on the food.  Did I mention that this place is a buffet?  Yes, a buffet.  In other words, a recipe for disaster.  But in this case, a delicious disaster.

And now, if you didn't know they were coming, a string of pictures of all of the food that I ate.  Come on, if you know me at all, you had to have been expecting this.

The dinner plate, showcasing the renowned peanut butter and jelly pizza.

And more importantly, the dessert plate.  Of which I had like 2 or 3.  Or 5.  Hence the crazed look about the eyes.

 Steven was determined to take down the entire restaurant.  This was him before going back for his 10th plate.  This is the problem with buffets.

However, Lindsay and Dad are the perfect picture of contentment.  They stopped at around plate 3 or 4.

Me, on the other hand, still going.  And pretty happy about it too.  I wasn't kidding when I said I love buffets.

Later on, the chef himself came out to greet us! 

We're pretty much celebrities.  That must've been why all these people came to say hi and begged to have their pictures taken with us.

Minnie...

And even my FAVORITE character!...Umm...Gorilla Man?  Anyone know this impostor?

And Pinocchio was pretty much best friends with us all from the start!

We laughed, danced, and sang the "I Got No Strings" song.

But when he tried to pull some funny business and kiss me, that was the last straw in our "friendship."  Yep, wooden or not, Pinocchio was just another sleazeball like most other "real boys."

 And finally, hearing of my presence in Goofy's Kitchen, Sleeping Beauty could barely wait to meet me.  And you know what?
INSTANT BEST FRIENDS!!!
We hit it off right away.

And look!  She even copied my pose.  Imagine that.

Right about the time I was suggesting us moving into the castle together, she suddenly had to go. 
But I completely understand. 
When princess duties call, you pick up the phone, or in my case, the plate.  It was time for round 7 at the buffet.

I waved to Jasmine across the buffet who was talking to my BFF, Aurora.  Naturally, I identified what this was immediately; princess meeting! 
They obviously forgot my invite.  So, I took matters into my own hands. 

By the time I got over to the meeting, Aurora had mysteriously disappeared, but I figured Jasmine and I could continue without her.  Strangely, Jasmine gave me a blank look, seeming not to recognize me, and then dashed out the door into the rain.  I realize now how unfair it was of me to leave Jasmine out of our castle-rooming situation.  This all just goes to show that even princesses get jealous.  Shocking, I know, but I can't help it if other princesses are intimidated by me.

Well-fed and well-documented, we were about to bid farewell to our character dining experience, when I noticed dear, sweet Cinderella cleaning up our dishes.  I hardly recognized her without her fancy gown and glass slippers, but a princess can always spot another princess, even in disguise.

And so, the last photo of the night was with my favorite Disney princess, Cinderella (or "Amber" as her name tag displayed).

Conclusion?

DAY 1 at Disneyland: SUCCESS!  All my friends recognized me (Well, except for Jasmine, that is, but she doesn't count.  She doesn't even wear a dress).

Note: Just to set things straight, I cannot take full credit for the literary contents of this blog entry or half of anything entertaining that I post on Facebook.  The truth is Mindy Beal is funny.  And a genius.  I hope this clears up any confusion.

You can like the life you're living, you can live the life you like...

You can even marry Harry, but mess around with Spike.

Wait. What am I saying?!

There's no Spike. Only Ike as I recall. But I wouldn't suggest messing around with him either.

Where has all this nonsense about Harry and Spike and messing around come from, you say? CHICAGO! No, no, no, not the windy city, but CHICAGO the musical.

Have you heard of it?
If so,....um....good.
If not, well, you should come and see it at Seattle Musical Theatre!
Actually, either way, you should come see it, and you know why?

I'm in it!

That's right! For anyone who I haven't told yet, you'd better clear your schedules for at least one night between November 12th and December 4th, because your favorite Disney princess-in-training will be hitting the stage at SMT as Hello Kitty!

Ahem, I mean, Go-To-Hell Kitty.

And in case you're not convinced yet that you should head on down to SMT, here's a little sneak peek of my role in the show:

Ok, I have a confession to make. This is false advertising.

I never actually appear behind bars in this show. But I am a murderess!

...In the show, I mean. Not in real life. Just to clear up any confusion.

But although the bars will not be present, the good news is...instead of singing about how I murdered my husband, I get to do it LIVE onstage,...with a Tommy gun! Then, I tell everyone to "Go to hell!"

Oops, sorry. Spoiler alert.
I pretty much just gave away the whole plot of the show.
Sorry guys.

But basically, if you want a chance to see me play a crazy, sexy loon, not to mention, see a cast of lovely, multi-talented people, this is it. Buy your tickets and all that jazz. End of story.

Ok, one more thing before we head back to Disneyland...

Because this is big news!

Guys. Get this. I am one step closer to achieving one of my four life goals! No, I'm not pregnant, getting married, on Broadway or on Sesame Street, but maybe, just maybe, I might be...

...Duh, duh duh, DAHHHH....

A DISNEY PRINCESS!

But emphasis on the maybe. Ok, here's the story.

So, I was checking the Disney Auditions website like I always d--I mean, by complete surprise one day, I came across an announcement that there were going to be auditions for Disneyworld performers taking place in Seattle! Excited to say the least, I marked it on my calendar and proceeded to wait until that fateful day, October 17th, to be exact, came about.

October 17th about did come, and feeling slightly less-than-well-rested (due to the freak Princess Dollhouse break-in scare from the night before), Mindy and I put on our best princess faces and hopped into the car!

We arrived at the audition and learned a fun, little High-School-Musical-style dance. With a bit of time to practice before we actually had to audition, Mindy and I headed out into the foyer to run the dance a couple times.

...Little did I know that our little practice session would turn into a full-blown dance class! After running the combination a few times, I turned around to find about ten people standing behind us, following our lead on the dance. Answering multiple questions, demonstrating the dance, and counting out the rhythms of the choreography, I felt more like a dance teacher than a candidate for Disney performer.

But did Disney appreciate my dance expertise?

No! Can you believe that?

Despite teaching a good chunk of the auditioners how to do the dance, after I performed, I didn't get called back to dance again. What a rip. However, they did ask me to stay and get my picture taken! So, all in all, I guess Disney didn't like my dancing, but they did like my face. Score!

I went into a side room with two other absolutely gorgeous ladies (Alice and Sleeping Beauty) and a guy who basically should have ridden his white stallion to the audition. The Disney casting director wanted close-up pictures of our faces, and as my bangs were in the way, he found a quick fix to get rid of them...a wig cap. Perfect! As I put that thing my head, I thought, awesome. The other girls are going to look like magical Disney beauties, while I show up as the bald weirdo. Cool. Well, at least I'll be unique, right?
(Please refer to the bottom of this post for pictures of the infamous and super sexy wig cap).

Later, I found out that Disney has a program that takes our pictures and fits wigs to our faces to see if we actually could look like any of the face characters (AKA the Princesses!). Joy! So, I guess the wig cap might not be such a bad thing after all.

Photo shoot complete, Mindy and I were absolutely miffed at the fact that Disney didn't just offer us jobs as Disney princesses on the spot.

It's completely daft! I mean, have you met us?

But, with all that said, really it was just a fantastic experience and opportunity to audition for Disney! Not to mention get one step closer to achieving my dream!


And as if all that wasn't good enough, as we were leaving, this girl noticed my super cool wig cap and wanted to be friends with us! Fun auditions, princess opportunities, new friends...that's Disney for ya!

I promise I'll get back to Disneyland someday, but...

...My life is great!!!

Ok, I'm not trying to brag. I mean, if you've talked to me recently, you probably know that in reality, my life has been kind of a living disaster lately.

Between the fiasco that is my love life and settling into becoming a real-life grownup, I've become pretty bitter and jaded over the past couple of weeks,...which is CRAZY!

I am not bitter, nor am I jaded.
I am Krista!
I'm happy.
Life is sunshine and smiles!

But lately, I've been understanding more and more why so many adults seem so angry all the time. I mean, if someone broke your heart and then stomped on it, wouldn't you be angry? And if you got glared at at your job all day, wouldn't you be angry? And if you don't even have any time to do anything else after you get home from your job, so you just have to go to bed, wouldn't you-- well,...all I'm saying is, people become jaded for a reason.

Life. is. hard.

But another thing that I've discovered is that being bitter and jaded is a lot of work! Too much work! It's exhausting! And my life is busy. I don't have any more time to devote to sleep. So, forget trying to conquer the exhaustion with sweet dreams. There's only one solution here, and that's to not be bitter anymore!

So, I woke up this morning, and to start off my non-bitter life, I got some coffee and realized,...

MY LIFE IS GREAT!

Ok. Maybe that's just the coffee talking. After all, that was the largest cup of coffee I think I have ever drank in my entire life. No, but really, there are so many things to celebrate, that there's absolutely no reason to be bitter.

I mean, I get to do things like dress up like a green pixie from another planet on a regular basis,...

Dance in front of a sunset,...

Eat gigantic pieces of coffee cake and do crossword puzzles,...

Prove to people that I am actually 22 and not 16,...

Do coffee shots,...

Bust out a tune at karaoke,...

AND I'm friends with a mermaid!

What more could a girl ask for?

And there's less than 54 days until Christmas!

Ok, it's official. I'm happy with my life. Just thought you all would like to know.

My Family is the Greatest.

No, really. They are.

Mom, Dad, and Brian came all the way out to Seattle just to have lunch with me. So, of course, I repaid them by forcing them to be the subjects of countless photos.

I'm sure they all really appreciated me snapping pictures throughout our meal.

Especially Brian.

But nonetheless, I had a great time going out with them, even if it had to be a brief date, since I had to be responsible and go to my job like real grown-ups do.

Darn this being-an-adult thing.

Thanks, Mom, Dad, and Brian for taking me out! And thanks, Mom, Dad, Brian, and 3 others just for being great. I love and miss you all and can't wait til we are all together again, which will probably be around Christmastime.

And speaking of Christmas...

THERE ARE ONLY 81 DAYS 10 HOURS AND 52 MINUTES LEFT UNTIL CHRISTMAS!!!

That's right. The countdown has begun.