First Communion and Disneyland.

I hate this picture of me. The shadow makes it look like I am in the beginning stages of a B-52s hairdo. And while I am at it....look at that awful floor! That was our kitchen table? How hideous!

So why am I dressed in this ridiculous outfit that I only wore once? Well, in Second Grade, I along with the rest of my class who were baptized Catholics got to experience First Communion. I remember it being an exciting time for us.

We got excited....over a cracker that has the consistency of spider webs.

There was a lot of excited fury surrounding this occasion, I remember. Miss Felciano got us all prepped by doing activities in our Catechism books, attending our first act of contrition (an activity that I never did again so I never understood why we did it) followed by our first confession....I remember confessing a lot and having to have to say a shitload of prayers.

After we did all of this, it was time for our First Communion. We were lined up and escorted into the church with all the pomp and circumstance of a virgin being led to a sacrificial alter. We went through the normal mass, then it came time for us to receive the thing. We went up one at a time while the organ played whatever it was playing at the time (a little note: the organ that is currently at St David's was not there when this happened...so it did not sound awesome in a Captain Nemo sort of way), and then it was time for me to get it. I held my hands out to receive... and Father Moran dropped it at my feet.

Afterwords we came home and had a potluck lunch to celebrate my first passage into Heaven. All I knew was I wanted to desperately get out of that damned suit and into a T Shirt and shorts.

That was one pivotal moment that happened to me in second grade. The other was my first trip to Disneyland.


As you can see with these following photos, my parents are to blame for my obsession with all things Disney. They got me started at a VERY early age. My mom has a photo of me in a highchair watching old reruns of "The Mickey Mouse Club" and has even told me that if I missed the show I would have a fit
Anywho, the obsession officially became an obsession when my parents took me on my first trip to the park. I instantly fell in love with Disneyland, and wanted to go on every ride and see every show. My favorites were "Peter Pan's Flight", "Pirates of the Caribbean" (still my all time favorite), "Mr Toad's Wild Ride", "Country bear Jamboree" (R.I.P.), and "Space Mountain" (the first roller coaster I rode). I did not want to leave the park, and thus a love affair began.

Now living in Texas, I deeply miss having easier access to a place I have come to regard as my second home.

I shall return someday.......