My first apartment on the Lewis Street side of the property after fleeing the nest (like both my sisters, when Dad threatened to start charging rent 😏), from June 1996 shortly after graduating from Vanguard until June of 1998 when I transferred to a one-bedroom on The City side of the same property in anticipation of getting married. It was $554 a month for 450 sq ft. It now *STARTS* at $2,098/mo. A 15-minute bike ride to the bike rack in front of Disneyland Guest Relations next to the ticket booths or a half-hour walk when the tire was flat. It was directly across the street from The Crystal Cathedral (now Christ Cathedral) and near the corner of the parking lot where they housed the live animals (and their smell when the wind was just right, or wrong) during the Easter and Christmas pageant seasons. The Cathedral's artist-in-residence/chief organist lived two apartments over from mine where the hallway turned.
The Hector Mine quake happened in 1999, my now-ex's first experience with the earth moving under her feet, and it wasn't long after that I agreed to move to Florida so she could be closer to her family (that and she wasn't handling the fast-paced California culture very well). We left California the last week of June 2000 just as DCA was breaking ground.
Needless to say things did not go well for me after the move. It was my turn to be the 'fish out of water' with neither friends nor family and it went downhill from there. Now that I've been on my own two feet again a while I have no interest in going back, though, even after the losses.
Ten years since our "Happily Ever After" was taken away.
We had just sent in the last payment on your car and we were supposed to go to Outback later that night to celebrate.
Instead, the sheriff's deputy and I were in the apartment, going through the medication lockbox that I insisted on having installed due to then-recent events, counting all the patches, pills, and bottles, as paramedics took you to the nearby emergency room from which you never returned, and I had to call your kids from the hospital to tell them I found their mother unconscious and unresponsive on the floor and that she might not make it. Ten years ago this happened. It was June 10, 1996, when you were finally allowed to pass on.
The medical examiner's report a week or so later concluded accidental overdose. I concluded a body that just couldn't take any more and gave up. Either way, the result is the same: gone far too soon when there were so many happier days together yet to be lived. You were Belle with that tiara on every time we went to the parks; and I always had to answer with a slightly growled but gentle 'yes' when Belle would point at me during the meet 'n' greet and ask, "Oh, and is that your Beast?"
The two plushes in the center of the photo above are from the two leading ladies of my life.
The Belle toy I bought for V. during one of my many times in the Disney parks.
The Mickey Mouse just to the right of her, the story is that my dad bought it for Mom while he was deployed in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War. I ended up with it when Mom passed away on December 14, 1996—thirty years ago this year—at the age of 49 from cancer.
Dad and I both lost loves too soon. Fortunately for him, he was granted a new one, and they've celebrated 28 years together.
For a number of reasons, I won't have another one.
This was attributed to Chick-fil-A on 𝕏 even though I am unable to find it through any diligent search, but it does make a point to those demanding every corporation somehow virtue signal during a certain month of the year only for it to move on afterward.
We are proud to protect our values and stay grounded in what we believe. Respect for others does not require us to celebrate or endorse...
At the risk of getting my own head chopped off, I'm chiming in.
I am a widower, and I'm in the parks multiple nights per week. You might have seen me on a Sunday or Monday night in Fantasyland channeling Sorcerer Mickey "conducting" Happily Ever After (turns out I'm not the only one; I met a couple this past Sunday night doing the same thing; found out in the process there was a custodial Cast...
For the record, I've removed all Mastodon syndication from my site and deleted my account on mastodon.social. It was clear that they intended to ban me from the service, as they have before, for simply quoting from the Bible and expressing its clear teaching, which they don't like. Plus, I am already on the Fediverse through Threads, so having Mastodon is redundant.
