Disclaimer: I enjoyed my vacation, I am thankful for my vacation and spending that much time with my longest friend was exactly what I needed. Therefore if I say anything negative please refer to the disclaimer.
Hayley and I had plans. Big Plans, small plans, all kinds of plans. We planned to buy or rent a little motor home or trailer and start seeing the National Parks. Our goal was to see them all before she was 40. Our time. We planned to start this summer. We planned for me to retire when she had a baby and provide child care. We planned to go to Disneyland for my 47th birthday, Hawaii for my 50th. In October I mentioned to my friend, Sara, about the Disneyland trip. We have been friends since 1987. She was present at Hayley’s birth and at Hayley’s death. We went to the same college, pledged the same sorority. You can’t ask for more in a friend. Sara was the maid of honor at our wedding. There was a space in the middle where we had some time apart, but we are stronger for it. She loved Hayley.
My birthday is January 24th, hers January 28th and Scott, February 1st. For many years as we became legal adults the three of us celebrated our birthdays together, usually on Sara’s, as it fell in the middle. I asked her, “hey want to spend our Birthdays in Disneyland?” The trip developed thanks to a generous hotel discount provided by another old friend to include time at the beach. We left Tuesday night late and came back Monday evening. We had a little bit of an adventure on my birthday eve Tuesday. We chose to go for location with our hotel and not fancy. Plus it was smack between Denny’s and IHOP. What more could you ask for? It was right at the gate and since we were concerned about how much walking my body would allow, it seemed perfect. We went to Denny’s for a late night dinner that turned into my midnight birthday meal. We crashed at the hotel excited and worried about Disneyland in the morning. As soon as I got in the bed I was already bitching in my head about the rough sheets. Then when I noticed that Sara can still fall asleep almost as soon as her head hit her gross pillow. As a lifelong insomniac, that kind of pissed me off too.
About 15 minutes into my attempt to sleep I started to itch on the side I was laying on. WTF. I went into the bathroom and my arms looked like they had been sunburned. My feet, ankles and arms, anything exposed and touching the sheets were bright red, itchy and uncomfortable. I fought for a couple of hours of sleep. During the night I found a Springhill Marriott that had availability and prepared myself to let Sara know. When she woke up I told her we had a problem. During the night I had messaged my mother. Her advice? Pull the sheets back and look for bed bug poop! Yeah, that did NOT help. Hell no, I didn’t check. Sara being the easy going one said no problem. We went to the front office, got out of our reservation and moved to the Springhill where there was a room already available for us at 10 am. The front desk gal, Myra and I were chatting. It’s kind of what I do. Somehow due to the #belikehayley bracelet we shared losess and it came out that she had lost her baby son recently, he had been born at 5 months and only lived 2 days. She said she knows how she feels after knowing him for 2 days she could not imagine losing 19 years of memories and surviving. I gave her a Hayley bracelet.
The room looked exactly like the one in Bellingham. Identical. I thought that would be hard. So many nights spent in Bellingham with Hayley at that hotel over the past few years. But it actually surprised me. It felt comforting, the familiar. Plus the sheets were super nice and very clean! No rash! It was meant to be. My friend, Stacy, was coming to Anaheim for her son’s Hockey tournament. She had said she was staying at the Marriott but I didn’t know if our schedules were going to mesh. Well get this. She walks into her hotel and the gal at the counter notices her blue be like Hayley bracelet while she is checking in and demands to know where she got it. Stacy told her about her friend and Hayley. That is when Myra pulled her sleeve up and showed her the blue bracelet that adorned her wrist! What? Myra told her we were there. Stacy messaged me and said we were in the same hotel. For the entire day Sara and I tried to figure out how she would know this? I had not told anyone where we were. It was perplexing but I was happy I would see her on my birthday. Well that wasn’t all the information Stacy got out of Myra. Stacy is from New Jersey, enough said. When we walked to our room the door was decorated with hanging streamers in the Troll movie theme with a birthday card on the door!
Sara and I felt like we were back on Dance Team and at State where we decorated our doors. We left it up the rest of the time we were there.
Even though the ride was closed for refurbishment, it truly was a Small World!
Love!