Making a Party of One Actually a Party: A Little Peter Pan Therapy

I need to attend annual patent conferences to keep my bar license.  Did you fall asleep already too?  Yes, these are not the most exciting events you can attend.  But in looking at the options for the year, the one conference that fit my parenting schedule and my focus area was being held at Disney World.  Now we are on to something.  And even better, in order to encourage attendance (Let’s face it, you need lots of encouragement attend a patent conference) they scheduled two half days and one full day of meetings, rather than the customary two full days.  And with this free time there were proposed activities; primarily golf and spouse activities.  As I will be filing taxed returns as a SINGLE head of household and as golf courses don’t have enough muddy barbed wire crawls or sandbag carries for my recreation interests, I was at a quandary as what I should do on this trip.  Of course I was going to warm Orlando to enjoy the charm of a Disney property, but what do you do when you are a party of ONE.   Should I spend these half days in my hotel room sitting on a quint balcony catching up on email and preparing charts for my upcoming meetings?  Or should I throw on some Mickey ears hit the parks like a Japanese tourist on holiday.

Now if you are currently in suspense wondering which choice I made, you clearly don’t read my blog and we have definitely never met.  “Hi, I’m Brett.” Yes, it took me about 3.5 milliseconds to decide that this 42-year-old lawyer would be hitting the Disney parks (and that is only because the human brain can’t think at the nanosecond level).  And for good measure, I caught a redeye to arrive early in the morning the days before the conference to get in a little extra park.  This did lead to me taking a hotel tour on the Disney bus as a I slept through my hotel stop… and the next one… and the next one, but I was also the first person on the Tower of Terror.  Yes, I got the not-so-occasional odd look at a grown-A man rocking it solo a kid’s paradise.  Yet it wasn’t until I was greeting by spontaneous cheers from folk in line at the Peter Pan ride as I boarded my own personal flying pirate ships – both times even (yes, I rode Peter Pan twice, the same number of times I rode Small World and Frozen too… deal with it) that I got it.  At first I thought I was being laughed at like a big kid ridding a tricycle, but as my magic ship pulled into the air by pixy dust and I began to sail over London, I understood.  My fellow riders were not laughing, but were cheering the epitomization of the ride; celebrating never quite growing up.

Yes, we should all grow up, support ourselves, and quit making mom fold our socks.  There is a real life out there to face and real problems to solve.  But if I may quote a favorite movie, “Why so serious?”  Despite being a grown up (and having just quoted the Joker), life can still be fun and bright and exciting.  It doesn’t need to be all drudgery.  It is so easy to find excuses to not take those rare moments of freedom to jump on an opportunity that presents itself, even when that opportunity is not perfect or at least not as you envisioned.  I do get it.  I took my wife to Disney World in the past.  We had a great time and made many memories that would be floating around that park, and in truth they were there.  So why would I want to venture out on an adventure and make memories alone?  Ok, true I would much rather have had a tall, beautiful, blue-eyed hottie with me at the park to go all Lady and the Tramp on a churro, yet no such woman jumped out of my carry-on shouting “surprise” while sporting a bikini and sunglasses.  No the opportunity for this fun was not perfect, but when is it?

Do we ever bail on a night out because our one close friend can’t make it?  Do we stay out of public because we are not as thin or handsome or fit as we want to be?  Do we skip a perfect chance to see Disney World because the Mrs. High-tailed it out and left you solo?  Not this crazy.  Yes, I did have to tell many, many, many ride attendants that my party was a party of one, but by golly it was still a party.  And so as I hit water slides and firework shows and ice cream carts and Fast Pass lines (single rider lines are usually shorter I found), I reveled in the moment, because… well… it was the moment that was given me at that moment and I was going to make the most of it.  And so as the Magic Kingdom was near closing for the night and my fellow park goer dashed off to their last thrill ride, I jumped on a ride I had not even given a second glance in twenty years; choosing a particularly handsome steed, I jumped onto the Mary Poppins Merry-Go-Round.  I have to admit there was something magical that I felt as I rotated aimlessly on an oscillating wooden horse.  I remembered the  magic of being a kid; of being amazed by simple joys that I often take for granted.  And so as this party of one took off on horseback for a jolly holiday with Mary, some part of that jaded post-divorce Brett that holds onto hurt and bitterness gratefully died and floated away… last seen flying into oblivion above miniature a London city-scape.