Go Girl!! - Wine & Dine Weekend Volunteering Report

Last night before I went to bed, I tried to activate my new TracFone (I was replacing an older LG phone with a newer Samsung Galaxy), but it wasn't working. I gave up and went to bed. When I got up on Friday at 7, I hopped in the shower and then Twittered on the couch with some OJ. I checked on the phone and it still wasn't activated (so, I couldn't actually use it). I got the family up, packed up the car and hit the road. Pit stop #1 was for Daylight Donuts. Pit stop #2 was for Polar Pop sodas at Circle K and Subway next door. I had a great coupon to use and didn't realize that I had to purchase a soda to use it, so I ended up with two very large sodas (even with the extra purchase of the soda, we saved $4!).

Our ETA to ESPN Wide World of Sports was about noon, but as we got near the Okahumpka Turnpike Plaza, I needed another pit stop. The entire way down, my poor ovaries were tying themselves in knots. I wasn't expecting my period for a few more days, but I wanted to be sure. I was correct, but I protected myself anyway, since I'd be busy for the next 12 hours.

Welcome to ESPNWWoS

We got to ESPN around 12:15, picked up our credentials and then sat in the lounge to eat our Subway (we couldn't check in for our Expo shift until 1pm). When we checked in for Expo, we were able to choose Shirt Exchange again, yay! We finished our sandwiches, picked up some Ziploc bags (you can only have one gallon-size Ziploc bag for your items, on the Expo floor - no longer allowed to have even clear backpacks), and headed over to Shirt Exchange with Paul, Darren, Ed, Joyce, and James.

Always fun to plow through crowds

Here we go!

There were lots of shirts this time around, we weren't turning away too many exchangers, which is always good. Although, it's getting out of hand, I think. You know, as a runner, when you sign up what size you are. You aren't going to magically lose 60 pounds before race day. So fat folks (of which I am one) really shouldn't be ordering a Small if they are currently an Extra-Large. If you are Chesticularly Gifted, assume the shirt will be tight on your girls and order up. If you're an extremely large gal, know that a Women's 2x will not fit you, and choose a Men's 2x - that equals a Women's 3x, but is boxier and not cut for a woman's body. It might not be "cute" but it will fit. If you know you want to give the shirt to your mom/dad/sister/brother/cousin/gas station guy/dog/whatever, order their size, rather than try to exchange your size, and get pissed when we don't have their size. You paid $200 for THAT shirt, not any shirt that you might get instead. Register wisely.

Okay, rant over...

Anyway, all three of us headed to lunch at 3:30; I picked up 2 Wetzel's Pretzels and sodas for me and The Kiddo, then we headed over to the Volunteer Lounge.

I wish they were saltier

When we came back, it was like someone opened the gates; it was busy!!! All I was doing was spinning back and forth, folding shirts, throwing shirts, spinning some more... A bright spot in my afternoon was a lovely guy named BJ. BJ was hoping to exchange his XL shirt to a Large or a Medium. We didn't have any right at that moment, so we stood around chatting for a while. He was a newbie, so he'd never been to an Expo like this one. He asked Hubby what was up with the lines for KT Tape - what does tape do? Hubby, of course, deferred the question to me, and I quickly filled in BJ about the benefits of kineseology tape.

He got tired of waiting for a different size shirt, so he took off (and to be honest, it was a little more boring after he left...) and we wound down our shift, counting shirts, so the next shift would know how many where left.

And then... out of nowhere... BJ! After talking about taping - he has a bad back - he went and stood in line at Rock Tape and got himself taped up. He came back to check on shirts (he finally swapped out for what he wanted, thanks to some Disney magic🎇), but also to show me his awesome tape job. So, here you go, Internet - BJ's back!

BJ!

We checked out, grabbed a sandwich and popped over to WaWa, then headed to the hotel - Red Lion Inn again. We scored a ground floor room with 2 queens (the kiddo isn't a fan of sofa beds). Once we unpacked, I pulled out my phone and saw it still wasn't done with activating. I've tried to activate like five times today. I was getting really frustrated, but I was too tired to care. We went to bed around 9:30. After setting the alarm for 1:30am, I was asleep within the hour.


Saturday, the alarm went off way too early, so I slammed the snooze at least twice before getting up and changed. The kiddo was running slow, but we made it out the door by 2:20. Yes, in the morning.

With a pit stop at WaWa for breakfast, we made it to Epcot by 3:40 and had time to eat breakfast in the car.  We checked in around 3:55 and got our shirts, snacks, and water. I chose to go up a size and get a 3x shirt to wear over my long sleeve shirt (rather than deal with a jacket).

We had to wait until 4pm to go to our spot, and while we waited our Team Leader handed out chEAR Squad clappers!

Someone pulled down one of the huge balloons

Our tiny Team Leader

Our spot ended up being behind the scenes at Epcot, where the Gospel Choir is. With nothing to do, to set up, or prepare, we were basically told to be at our spot by 5:45. I walked around a little bit, up to the finish line and back, into the park up to the Fountain of Nations, then a quick potty break in a Cast Member bathroom (ooh, the perks of being a volunteer, lol)

Sure hope they move that ladder

Empty Park!

I could photograph the sidewalks all day long

Toilet Selfie!

Back at the picnic table, I finished my Little Debbie brownie while Hubby and the Kiddo were babbling on about video games. I got so bored at one point, I pulled out my little notebook and began the outline for this blog post!

Hubby and the Kiddo, bonding over Pokemon or something

🠜 Finish Line                           Gospel Choir 🠞

Once done with that, my butt was hurting from the metal seat, so I wandered over to the Gospel Choir... they're lip syncing!!! I knew it! I feel as if millions of runners have been betrayed over the years!

Pretty

The first runner came through about 6am and it very quickly became a blur of people. Once the fast folks came though, I ditched the clappers for high fives - everyone loves those!

Goodbye, Clapper - time to high five

Basically every photo I took looked like this!

My camera battery died, so I switched over to my old phone and took photos with that. I saw lots of fun costumes, and we even saw BJ go by! He was in the zone, so he didn't see or hear us, but that's okay.

She's a runDisney Snack Box!

Mr and Mrs Potato Head

A Box of Popcorn

Tweedles, Jose and Panchito (Two Caballeros)

The last runner passed us by 9am, and then we walked back to the Volunteer Tent to check out. I grabbed a few leftover Powerades and then we headed back to the hotel.

After changing clothes, I got on the phone with TracFone to deal with a human. I was trying to move my service from one phone to another. My previous phone had over 1200 minutes on it, but for some reason the phone was not activating (spoiler alert - it was user error), and after 10-15 tries, it was time to get a human involved. I spoke to a lovely gentleman named JC and after about 30 minutes we were able to activate the phone, but he stated that they would only be able to move over 682 of my 1200+ minutes, was that okay? Uh, no, that's not okay! I paid for those minutes, I'd like to keep those minutes. After more back and forth, being put on hold to talk to "a supervisor" he came back to tell me that, oh, okay, just for you, I'll do it.  I think I actually still got screwed out of 100 minutes or so, but I was just happy to get the majority of them and to have my phone freaking work!

To celebrate, there was no better place than Long John Silver's for lunch, yum!

Spectacular photo...

Chicken and Shrimp Platter

We also made a stop at a close-by Walgreen's for some girl supplies and some cough drops. The Kiddo was feeling crappy, so we skipped a park, and headed back to the room for a nap. 

We woke up around 6, and nothing really sounded good for dinner, but we knew we needed to eat something. We decided on junk food from the 7-eleven across the street. The place was janky! Dirty, full of creepy people, and it even had a damn tourist kiosk by the door. Sure, creepy guy, let me stand here and buy Disney tickets from a sweaty dude at 7-eleven.  We got our Slurpees and Nachos to go, and after eating, we were asleep by 11pm. 

Sunday is always our last day, and it's always the hardest day, partly because we're already tired from the previous two days and partly because the final race is the biggest race, so there's more to do. 

We were up at 3am, and off to ESPN after picking up breakfast at WaWa. At check-in, they didn't have any 2x or even XL shirts available; I had to get a Large. A LARGE!  But guess what??

IT FIT!!!

We bused to Animal Kingdom, and our Team Leader was very quiet. We generally sit in the back of the bus (less chance of crowding), but I don't think we'd have been able to hear her if we sat in the 7th row! We had no idea what she was saying. 

Once we got to Animal Kingdom, we were going to be assigned spots. Only two people per spot, so the three of us would be split up. Very few people were volunteering for spots, because everyone wanted to be in Pandora. The Team Leader got very frustrated and just began grabbing people. The Kiddo and I were assigned to a spot right outside of Festival of the Lion King.  Hubby ended up two spots away by the Tree of Life. 

I took a potty break, then returned to our spot while the Kiddo pottied as well. While she was gone, Ola, a Character Handler, came out with six members of the Festival of the Lion King show! Oh, lord, Kiddo is gonna freak out. She absolutely loves The Lion King!

Festival of the Lion King Cast, with a Character Handler

We were able to get an amazing group shot with all of them, and another shot with Rafiki before the lead male came through. 

This is AMAZING!!

Rafiki!!

I can't help it... I love his blue butt

And hot on his heels, moments behind, was the lead female!!! Holy shit! That never happens! Women just aren't built to run the same that men do, but she won!!! 

Giovanni Martins (Brazil) finished the race with a time of 1:19:16. The lead male finished at 1:19:22. Seriously wish I could have been at the finish line for that!! She even took the time to give Mickey and Minnie a freakin' HUG before crossing the finish line. Come ON! How spectacular is she??

Okay, where was I?

Oh yeah... everyone else running...

We were in a spot right where runners had just come around a corner, so they couldn't see what was coming up (us) until they rounded the corner. I gotta say it was fun to see so many faces with surprise and delight when they saw the FotLK folks! The kiddo and I had a great time, dancing, singing along, all while wrangling runners or just chatting with them. The line was always long so time went by really fast!

Runners dressed up as FotLK characters

Bacchus (from Fantasia)

Darkwing Duck and Gosalyn Mallard

Bubble wrap for tentacles?? GENIUS!

They're dressed as WDW Transportation Signs

Indiana Jones (he ran in Paris, was doing Coast to Chateau, and had his Paris medal in his bag!)

Construction sign

Balloon Ladies - the end is near

We missed BJ coming through, but Hubby said that he saw him come though. Hopefully he finished! 

Every runner came by, by 7:30 a.m. so it was time to go.

Not before more photos, though! I'm so happy about this one!!

I love this one!!

Cast Group Photo, with Ola (Character Handler)

Okay, we gotta go or we're gonna miss the bus!

But... but... empty park photos!!

The Bridge to Pandora

The Floating Mountains of Avatar

The Tree of Life

Welcome to Dinoland U.S.A.

Looking through foliage towards Expedition Everest

Unpopular Opinion? I like Dino-Rama!

Come on!! Okay... <grumble, grumble... drag feet like a 3-year old...>

We bused through Animal Kingdom's backstage and back to ESPN to check out. Since our shift ended so early, we were able to return back to the hotel, though, the traffic was terrible!

Backstage, looking towards Expedition Everest

The Christmas Tree is almost ready to install

The Backside of Water (ride... Kali River Rapids)

I was looking forward to soaking in a hot bubble bath, but there was no tub stopper (I should have just shoved a washcloth in the drain...)! So we just chilled out, then packed up and checked out.

We braved race traffic again and headed over to Disney Springs for lunch. 

The front of Disney Springs is very pretty

We went to D-Luxe to try their new Donut-Breaded chicken nuggets. We got the nugget kid's meal as well as 2 cheeseburgers, fries and sodas. Hubby and I split the nuggets and one of the burgers. The nuggets were good, but actually weren't "donut-y" enough. I think I'll stick to their amazing burgers. 

While sitting there, enjoying Florida autumn, we discussed going to the park. We pulled up MDE, but after seeing random wait times, we conceded it was too damn busy and we were too damn tired. 

With a full tank of gas and a bag of snacks from WaWa, we headed home. My cramps returned with a vengeance, so by the time I got home, all I wanted to do was die. I stayed on the couch until 5:30 or so, then popped some popcorn and watched movies in bed.

Here Comes Santa... uh... what are you? Creepy Crawl 5k Race Recap

I signed up for this on a whim, because no other October race looked good. This one encouraged costumes and came with bling. What the heck!

It was in an area north of Jacksonville called Nocatee. Not being familiar with this area, I googled it. Wow, fancy.

I guess the race are was Davis Park

Aerial View of the water park

It took a little longer than usual to get there, since it's further away from most races I do, but I got there with time enough to get a really close spot. I was even able to pop into the Publix around the corner and use a real potty.

Davis Park past those trees

I found a nice spot in the back corner of the shopping center, across from the field where the race stuff was. There was another group of racers there in full-on pirate garb, putting me to shame! After I took a photo for them, they took one of me. I decided to reuse my ladybug costume from the Evergreen Cemetery race. I also reused my red pom-poms, and threw on some black knee socks (since it wasn't deathly hot). A month or so ago, I found a cute headband that had boppers, which I deconstructed and sewed onto a red visor. It didn't work very well.

My boppers look really stupid

I walked around the pre-race area for a bit, until we were instructed to go to the start line, which was like 1/2 mile away!

Lots of little kids and families - this is a tight community

When I got there, I took my typical Footsie and saw that I'd lost one of my pompoms! I was sad. I'd definitely gotten my $3 worth out of these things, but losing on is different than actively deciding to throw them away.

RIP, Pom Pom! You served me well

So, we all stood around, waiting for the stragglers to get there, and then listened to the race director give directions (they were bad directions, and seeing that there was never a course map put out, I had no idea where I was going!)

"So yer gonna go this way for a bit, then run past some trees, then go by the water..."

At one point, an older gentleman in front of me put something on top of the electrical transformer on the side of the road - it was my pompom!!!  I went and grabbed it, and he told me his granddaughter found it on the walk between the field and the start line. I thanked both of them and put it back on, then took a proper Footsie.

Welcome back, pom pom! I missed you!

We were set off with no fanfare other than an air horn, and because there were so few runners, I was pretty much alone in the back pretty quickly.

We ran towards Nocatee's water park. Yes, this community has it's own water park. They also have a beautiful trail system, which was what the majority of the race was on.

Entrance to the water park

Mile 1 on a lovely multi-use trail

When we exited the trail system close to Mile 2, we were on their wide expanse of sidewalks. At one point a huge group of bikers (as in 10-speed, not Harleys) came by, looking like a Del Webb commercial.

Mile 2 up there, behind 3 kids faster than me!

The final bit of the race was up this two-lane road, that had parking up each side. The road was open to traffic, but luckily, it wasn't busy.

Mile 3

Finally, the finish line!

Oh look, there's hardly anyone there!

When I crossed the finish line, there was an announcer, well, announcing who was coming through, and since I was in a costume, he announced that I was... Santa?  LOL. He said, "Here comes Lazy, dressed like Santa! Santa? Uh... <mutter mutter> I don't know what she is but here she comes!" I shouted over to him that I was a ladybug and he felt pretty stupid!

My official time was 53:47 (17:21 pace). I beat 11 total people, coming in 59th out of 70 total runners (it was a very small race). I was 7th out of 8 runners in F40-49 age group.

I looked around and couldn't see where to get my medal, so I continued down to the pre/post race area; maybe they're down there?

I saw a bunch of medals, over on a table. I didn't know if I was supposed to grab one or not, so I left them alone and grabbed goodies from the vendor tables.

There was a fun costume parade where anyone who was dressed up could walk around and show off their costumes, and then there was a costume contest. I only have a photo of Prospector Pete, but the entire family was dressed as Toy Story characters. They were also the "face" of the charity this race was for, so it was kind of a given that they would win. He was cute as hell though!

Shout out to the little brat in the Cat Head - he thought he was the coolest guy there

All the kids were given medals, and when no one else got medals, I asked if I could have one, since I felt like a kid. She gave me one, but kind of gave me this look like, "Yeah, okay, I'll do it... but you shouldn't really get one..." which was really frustrating - the website of the race promised a Custom Event Finisher Medal. No qualifications that they were only for kids, or for the first however many finishers, or whatever. Registration included a medal. I wanted my medal. She made me feel crappy for asking for a medal. Uncool.

5k Registration includes MEDALS - give me my medal!

I went back to the Publix and changed clothes, then headed to check out St. John's Town Center, since I was on that side of Jacksonville. SJTC was built by the construction company I used to work for (Scherer Construction), at least 10 years ago, but I'd never been there. It started out as an open-concept mall, where it was tighter than a shopping center, but not enclosed like a mall. Over the years, it's grown exponentially!My first stop was, as usual, Chick-fil-A. It was outrageously busy! Next, I kind of just drove around to check out what was there. A lot of high-end stores.

Unfortunately, my body said I needed to potty, so I parked in front of Nordstrom and headed in (looking like the sloppy post-5k-runner that I always do). I got looks from probably 10 different employees as I wandered around. I checked out a directory which told me two things: 1) Bathrooms were on the second floor and 2) There was no Fat Lady section. Who's surprised? The bathrooms (again, who's surprised) were really nice, with actual water closets with doors instead of stalls with janky doors.

Once I wandered around a bit, looking at clothes and giggling internally about the styles and the prices, I went out a side door to an outdoor section of the mall. I scored a large size Scar stuffed animal from the Disney Store for the kiddo. I don't think I went in to any other stores. I returned back to my car, and made my way to another section of SJTC. I checked out Dress Barn (which used to be affordable, but now carries some really shit clothes!) and Famous Footwear (no good shoes and no good sales, boo).

Bored, I decided to hit the road. I grabbed a drink from WaWa and headed home.