January 29th-February 1st
Ok the Bucket List √ is not quite accurate because I want to meet Brené Brown and I didn’t meet her, but I saw her live so that was close. I still have meeting her on my wildly improbably (but not impossible) goal list. B and I started off our LA adventure at Titos (of course) and then headed to stay at our favorite Disney hotel.
For Christmas B gave me a trip to Disneyland for just the two of us. In 30 years, we’ve never gone without kids. We decided to combine it with my trip to see Brené Brown speak. We thought that a Wednesday in January would be the perfect time to go because it wouldn’t be crowded or hot. We could not have been more wrong! It was unbelievably crowded! We waited 90 minutes to get on the Cars ride first thing in the morning. While we were in line, I downloaded the app to get fast passes and secured fast passes to come back around, while attempting to avoid a guy with a giant backpacking pack tweaking about, bumping into me constantly and not even noticing he was so tweaked. Needless to say, I was not enjoying the day as much as I hoped I would.
Then we came back to the Cars ride for our fast pass time and as I was trying to open up my app right outside of the ride line, Dave tapped me on the shoulder! What?!? He was waiting outside the ride with Gigi. We had no idea they were going and they had no idea we were going that day. It was Ryan’s birthday and they surprised all of their boys and took them out of school and drove to Disneyland. This is when we found out why so many people were there. Disneyland had a lot of deals going on. I think because the new Star Wars land is opening this summer and to draw in the crowds during less crowded times. My kids did not believe us that we didn’t know. But I swear and I know Dave and Michele would swear – we had no clue. It as just a very fun and happy coincidence. Aub was especially upset since she was flying in the next day to go to Brené with me and she absolutely adores Gigi.
We went on a few rides with them. Ryan was exactly the right height to go on everything including Indiana Jones and The Incredibles (which used to be California Screamin). I watched his face through Indiana, worried that he would be scared, but the only emotion I saw was pure joy! It was the cutest thing ever! We need some grandkids!
The next day it was raining so it was probably a lot less crowded at Disneyland but we left and drove up to LAX to pick up and Aub and check into a hotel next the UCLA, where she was speaking. Five years ago when Master D was recently back from a mission, he accompanied me to go see Coldplay in the very same theatre. We stayed in the same hotel so we could walk to the show and not mess with traffic. I will always do that if it’s possible. That was when Coldplay only did six shows for the Ghost Stories album and only 2500 people were at the show. I loved that show so it was a very happy memory to come back to. Also, B and I met in Westwood next to the campus at the Falafel King. It’s still there, but they’ve remodeled it not for the best and the food is pretty subpar. But it was fun to walk down there with Aub and remember those moments with the 3 of us. I mean Aub doesn’t remember but we do, for her.
Brené was brilliant, hilarious, down to earth and the kind of person I’d be drawn to be friends with. The show was a taping of a Netflix special called “The Call to Courage” and I watched the first taping with B – who I don’t believe appreciated her as much as I did but that’s not shocking. Then Aub met up with me for the second taping. It was general admission which was somewhat of a bummer since they kicked me out after the first one and I had to get back in line and ended up pretty much in the same place. I’m not a big fan of waiting in long lines but it would have been worth it to me to get there much earlier. Watch the special. It’s great information for everyone. One of my most favorite things that she talks about is living in your values. She didn’t say anything new that I haven’t read in her books, but hearing it again and again can never hurt. I’m having B’s senior leadership team read her book Dare To Lead. I believe it to be so valuable to running a company with integrity and a maintaining a pleasant culture in the office.
