Our Love Story: Part 21

Preface: If you’ve missed any of the “chapters” of our love story so far, go back & get caught up before continuing below!
Part 1 — Part 2 — Part 3 — Part 4 — Part 5 — Part 6 — Part 7 — Part 8 — Part 9 — Part 10 — Part 11 — Part 12 — Part 13 — Part 14 — Part 15 — Part 16 — Part 17 — Part 18 — Part 19 — Part 20

Our plans settled into place for Derrick to come visit me in Florida. He would fly in Saturday, March 21, arriving at 9:41pm & wouldn’t leave until Tuesday morning at 9:45am. That left us with all day Sunday & Monday to live the Florida life (and I had a billion things that I wanted to do).

But first things first, I had to find Derrick a place to stay.

As an intern in the Disney College Program, one of the stipulations to living in the apartments was that guests had to be signed in with security at the front gate & they had to leave by 11pm. And even though Derrick got a really good deal on his flights to & from Orlando, he really didn’t have any extra money to stay in a hotel for two nights.

I had been attending a church in Orlando on the rare occasions that I wasn’t working until the wee hours of Sunday morning (or needing to be back into work before 1pm). The church had a “Young Adults” group that met before church on Sunday mornings & I had found my way there a handful of times. That group was going to be the answer to my “where will Derrick stay” problem. I just needed to get up the courage to introduce myself to some of the guys in the group & ask if my boyfriend could stay with them for two nights (not awkward at all, right?)

Thankfully, I had met a super sweet girl in the group (whom I’ve continued to follow via social media to this day – she’s a wedding photographer & is incredible) who was able to point me in the direction of two guys who were roommates not far from the Disney apartments. I briefly chatted with them, explained my predicament, and they agreed that it would be okay if Derrick slept on their couch Sunday & Monday nights. I was so relieved & thrilled! It was the last piece of the puzzle to Derrick coming to visit & with all the pieces in place – we were officially back in “countdown” mode.

From Christmas to the day Derrick arrived to visit me was almost exactly three months. And it was also just over half-way thru my time at Disney.

My roommates all thought that we were crazy. They all told me that Derrick could just stay with us – no problem! They didn’t see anything wrong with Derrick staying in our apartment & rationalized that even though we had to sign guests in – there was no process to sign guests back out. In other words, even though guests had to be signed in by someone with an ID who lived in the apartments, there was no “leaving” process – the gate simply opened & you drove out. So, theoretically, I could sign Derrick in & he could stay with us in our apartment, and literally no one except me & my roommates would know. However, we really wanted to stay above board with this whole visit & wanted to follow the rules of the apartment complex. So, staying with the guys from church was the best option.

As much as I didn’t want to “schedule” out our time together, there was a lot of things I wanted to do with Derrick during his quick visit. He had never been to Disney World, so obviously, riding all of the coasters on the property were at the top of his “must-do” list. I also had my favorite Disney attractions (rides & shows) that I simply couldn’t let him miss. I put together this itinerary to help guide our days:

Saturday:
love arrives : 9:45pm
pure happiness : 9:50pm
pick up luggage
head back to Vista Way.. Apartment 2804
eat dinner
watch a movie

Sunday:
breakfast ! yumm
head out to the beach
spend the day relaxing at the beach
late lunch/dinner at Bob Evans ??
spend the evening at Magic Kingdom ::
“Wishes” at 9pm .. open until 11pm

Monday:
hit Animal Kingdom – open at 9am
spend the rest of the day at Hollywood – open until 8pm
maybe leave Hollywood and head over to Downtown Disney ? its open until 11:30pm usually..
or after being in the parks all day we may just want to head back to my apartment and chill.. we can just see how it goes..

Tuesday:
up early & back to the airport

As the week of March 21st approached, I reached back out to the guys Derrick would be staying with to officially get their address & finalize the plans with them. There was just one problem: the only way I had to contact them was via Facebook & they weren’t responding to my messages.

And as the days slid into Thursday & Friday, I realized that my grand plan of Derrick crashing on these random guys’ couch was simply not going to happen.

My roommates were all thrilled: “He can just stay here! It’s going to be so much fun!” They were all so excited to meet my boyfriend from Pennsylvania. My roommate, Amber, even volunteered to sleep on the couch so Derrick & I could have the room to ourselves. I turned a deep shade of red at that suggestion & said, “No, that’s okay – really! He’ll just sleep on the couch.”

I had requested to have Sunday & Monday off of work & while the Monday request got approved, the Sunday request did not. Thankfully, I worked in the largest merchandise location in the Magic Kingdom & there were always people looking to pick up extra hours. I was able to give my Sunday hours away & was able to trade shifts with someone so that I would be off work early enough to pick Derrick up from the airport on Saturday night.

I could hardly contain my excitement.

It was about a 30 minute drive from my apartment to the Orlando International Airport. I wanted to meet Derrick inside the airport, instead of just driving by & picking him up, so I learned that I could park in their short-term parking for one hour for free. So, as much as I wanted to go just sit at the airport & wait for him to arrive, I had to be strategic about my time.

The last few hours before he arrived were equally the longest & shortest hours of my life. 9:41pm arrived & I saw that his plane had landed. How long could it possibly take to get off the plane? And finally, he was walking thru the terminal toward me.

I almost didn’t recognize him. His hair was all shaggy & longer than I’d ever seen it. He had a goatee. He carried a single worn backpack and had a crazy smile on his face. We hugged & I teased him about his hair – and he teased me about my tan.

“Couldn’t you have gotten your hair cleaned up before coming?” I asked teasingly on the ride back to my apartment.

“I meant to, but ran out of time. Why? Don’t you like it?”

I scrunched up my nose, “Not really.”

He laughed at me, “Well, it’s too late now.”

I didn’t want to offend him, but I also hated the way his hair looked. I knew that we’d be taking a bunch of pictures in the next 48 hours as we went to the beach & the Disney Parks, and all I could think of was that I wanted his hair cleaned up beforehand.

“Do you think we could get it cut somewhere tomorrow morning before we go anywhere?” I asked semi sheepishly.

“Seriously? I haven’t even been here 30 minutes yet & you’re already telling me I need to get a haircut?”

I explained my thinking to him: “I just really want your hair to not be so crazy when we go to the Parks – we have to get a photo in front of the castle & do we want to look back at that picture 10 years from now & just see your crazy hair??”

If I was seeking a sign that Derrick really loved me – I got it. We woke up Sunday morning and on our way to the beach, we stopped at WalMart. We needed to get sunscreen & snacks for the day, but it was also the most convenient place for him to get a quick trim.

Hair cut short (literally the shortest I have ever seen him with), we set off on our 48 hour whirlwind adventure in Florida.

Did I mention that it was a whirlwind? We drove to the beach Sunday morning and spent a few hours there – unfortunately it was an ugly grey, rainy day – very uncharacteristic of Florida weather.

After the beach, we stopped for lunch at a Bob Evans (my Aunt & Uncle had given us a gift card for Christmas & since we were trying to do as much as we could, as cheap as we could, this was our way of saving money on food!) And then it was on to Magic Kingdom. I couldn’t wait to show off my “home” park to Derrick. Of course, he was simply excited to ride the roller coasters: Space Mountain & Thunder Mountain. On my list of non-negotiables was a ride on the third “mountain”: Splash Mountain. Also, I wanted to ride Haunted Mansion, and of course, watching the fireworks show “Wishes”.

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The day flew by & before we knew it, we were into Monday. On Monday, we planned to hit the remaining three Disney Parks. We started at Animal Kingdom (so Derrick could ride Expedition Everest & we also snagged a ride on Dinosaur on our way out), then made our way over to Hollywood Studios for Rock’N’Roller Coaster & Tower of Terror (plus I made sure we saw the Beauty & the Beast Show & the Stunt Show), and then we raced over to Epcot to ride Test Track & watch “Illuminations” (the fireworks show at Epcot).

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If you’ve ever been to Disney, you know that the Parks are huge. They’re extensive & full to the brim with rides, attractions, shops, things to see, & places to eat. I gave Derrick the “running” tour – meaning, we literally ran everywhere we went (well, I ran, he simply walked – his legs are so long)! He simply got a small “taste” of each of the Parks. We truly didn’t have time to “savor” them at all if we were going to go to all 4 Parks in the day & a half we had “scheduled” for time at Disney.

It was a whirlwind, but it was amazing. I absolutely loved showing off “my Disney” to Derrick.

And then suddenly, it was time for him to leave.

I dropped him back off at the airport on Tuesday morning – his worn backpack slung over his shoulder, his hair several inches shorter, and a whole slew of new memories made. I only had 2 more months to my internship at Disney & then we would have the whole summer to figure out what we wanted to do next.

..Part 22 coming soon!