The Outsiders, Goonies, and Drew Barrymore

During our Disney World trip, we've been spending a lot of time at Epcot's World Showcase.  We love it.  I've loved it since I was a child.  For those unfamiliar with the place, it has these little pretend areas that are supposed to make you feel like you're in various countries (England, Mexico, China, Japan, Morocco, France, Italy, Germany, Canada, and Norway). I don't know if these places truly look like their real-life counterparts.  But I think it's how we WANT these countries to look.   Actually. Japan really did remind me of Narita Japan. The United Kingdom didn't remind me much of London, but it does sort of remind me of Canterbury.  The World Showcase countries probably are more representative of small cities in their respective countries rather than the big cities. 

In the Norway Pavillion, they have a ride. It's a log flume thing with trolls, talking trees, Vikings and polar bears.  After the ride, the Norwegian Disney staff people encourage you to watch a film. We've always skipped it, but Tim and I have decided lately to force a little more education down Jack's throat. So yesterday, we sat down and watched the film. It was much more promotional than educational.  They showed beautiful Norwegians doing things that people do. I think the whole point was to make sure we tourists understood that Norway has humans and not trolls.   

I told Tim and Jack it's kind of like Epcot having an Australia ride.  If it involved happy kangaroos cuddling koalas and throwing boomerangs (while Waltzing Matilda played in the background), the Australians would probably want a little film afterward that went beyond stereotypes. 

The Norway Pavilion debuted in 1988, and it looks like the film was made in that decade. There's a scene with computers, and the computers look about that old. So I started imagining what a 1980's promotional film about Australia would look like. I picture harbors and beaches with blond surfers.   Of course there'd be other stuff too. But that's the first thing that comes to my mind.

Anyway,  I think those thoughts influenced my dreams last night.  Australia + the 1980's.

We're in Australia. Tim is driving.  We can see a car that's supposed to be from The Outsiders. It's stopped on the street. It looks maybe like it's some kind of live performance.  I feel a little weary of it, though.  Maybe I feel it could be an interactive performance that's not perfectly safe.   

We come to some checkpoint, and someone warns us about something. They're apologetic about it.   I think they tell us to have our bags out of reach.  Maybe there's a chance someone could reach in and take them?  There's not a sense that this would be illegal.  It's more along the ideas that this would be allowed in Australia, but we can take precautions to prevent it.    

Then we drive past this concert starring a guy that looks like Sloth from The Goonies. I'm thinking maybe he has the same type of disorder/deformities. But then I realize it's the exact same guy from The Goonies

Things change (as they often do in dreams), and we're now AT the show. There's a whole thing about friendship and inner beauty vs. superficial outer beauty.  Drew Barrymore is there. In my dream version of the world, she was the star of The Goonies.  She talks about how being in the film changed her life. She gets emotional and starts crying. Then I start crying too.

Well, this is the last day of our Disney World trip.  I want to thank people for being patient with me regarding returning emails and stuff like that. I had wanted to spend less time on the Internet this trip. And I did....compared to previous Disney Trips.  But I did spend more than planned, mostly because I IMAGINED people were being impatient with me.   

Sometimes I would imagine people saying.  Well, if she has time to write a blog post, then she has time to write me back!    But it's kind of easier to write a blog post than to respond to individual emails.    

I put a lot of pressure on myself sometimes. If you're NOT adding pressure to me on top of the pressure I put on myself....well, I'm very grateful to you.

For the record....


It's not like I'm getting emails from many people.   And the people who sent me emails were not likely sitting there thinking that I should hurry and write them back. These problems are mostly in my head....probably.   




 Here's Jack playing a game in Epcot's fake China.  



What would our world be like if we
knew for sure there 
was life after death, and 
we could easily talk to our 
dearly-departed on the Internet?

The Dead are Online a novel by Dina Roberts