My Birthday

Friday, October 2, 2009

The day started on a bright note. Calls from my sister and brother (and their kids) to sign me happy birthday. GM declared since it was my day, I could decide everything without one word of dissent from him. All I wanted to do was to go to EPCOT and eat & drink my way around the World.

I should have known the day would never go unblemished. The first blemish occurred just as we were driving out of the resort, booth front seat windows rolled down. A car whizzed by and something popped on the driver's door. A pepple, a shot? No, the motor in the power window just blew. Now the window was permanently stuck down where all the rain (and a lazy car thief) could get inside.

Double damn!

Now we had to hunt down a dealer or mechanic to fix it. We ended up at Good Year on John Young Parkway where the manager assured us he could fix it in 2 hours. We were in the shopping center with Walmart so I cooled my heels (and kept myself from melting down) by doing a little shoopping for that list of things we said we'd pick up if we were near a store. But just as I was checking out, my cell phone rang. One of my web clients, who usually is low maintenance, was beside herself. The website e-mail was down and she couldn't send out her newsletter.

Triple damn!

All I had on me was my cell phone. No laptop with WiFi internet. No PDA with all my passwords and cheat codes. My best guess was that it was a problem on my client's end. (Sometimes internet provider's have issues with the domain name servers they use to connect you to websites. This is why you'll be able to log into a website one minute and get a DNS error the next.) But the client did not want to hear that. It was not working so I better fix it, now.

Ok, what can I do? First I try calling my brother hoping he was near his computer. He wasn't. Ok, I can text my programming guru friend. At least he can check his end, confirm it's down and give me one of those cheat codes I left back at the villa. Text sent, but no reply. Oh please Lord, don't make me turn around and go back home? Can't I at least get to EPCOT before closing so I can get my Birthday Fun Card?

Then a stranger named Stephanie walks up to me and offers her help. I guess I looked like I was at my wits' end. I thanked her but assured her it was just a work thing. I'd be ok. But she offered to say a little prayer for me. It was one of those Evangelical prayers you sometime encounter. being a lifelong Cattholic I usually keep my praying to myself or in a church, but at this moment I thought I could use a little Divine intervention.

I guess it must have worked, because as soon as Stephanie left I remembered I had gotten web access on my cell for the football game. I googled the client website, followed the link and it came right up. My client called me before I could call her. She thanked me for whatever I did because now it was working again, after 2 hours of it not. I promised I'd check in later that night when I got home just to make sure it was all working as well. She was happy. And by the time I walked back to the van, GM was getting inside. The work was all done. I guess God wanted me to celebrate after all.

A short trip to EPCOT, stop at Guest Relations for my Fun Card, pin and wristband and we were ready to eat & drink.

We started at Brazil where they were celebrating winning the Olympic games for 2016. Then Argentina and Mexico. I'd give you a list of foods we ate but I fear I was too busy trying the drinks. When asked if I was having a good birthday, I just said "happier by the drink". I do remember the beef empanada from Argentina and the pot stickers from China. There was also Poland's peirogies and a pork stew. And of course, I had to get my spanakopita from Greece.

We watched fireworks by Germany then stayed to see the Scream-A-Long from Magic Kingdom's Halloween party.

By the time I got home, I was feeling about 7 drinks into my happiness but still good enough to check that website. All still working and client newsletter sent.

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