Prefacing the Peril

It's hard to believe that merely one month ago, less 3 days or so, that I was thrilled about my trip to Walt Disney World. Thrilled to the point of making plans for 2010, heck, to infinity and beyond. I'm really glad we didn't make any cash deposits.

The trip had amazing potential. Lauren and my cohorts were a couple who we had worked with in Anaheim, and had on many occasions gone out for dinner and other social events with. They were big Disney geeks, we are big Disney geeks. The timing worked out right, so that as I was experiencing the kind of withdrawal that happens when you want so much to return to a place, but have no plans to do so.
Therefore, when I got a call inviting Lauren and I to join J+C on a random, spur of the moment trip back to Disney World, we were sold. Well, I think I was sold first, but Lauren tends to worry more about "Can we afford rent/food/real lifey type things." I was able to run the numbers and with the Cast Discount on the room and using frequent flier miles from my parents as an early Christmas present (We love you, Mom and Dad!) and various other sordid money grubbing, we somehow managed to make it work financially.

So here we were. Despite it being a "free dining" promotion, equating to significantly higher numbers of people dining at restaurants within the resorts and the fact that the trip was quite literally put together in less than a month, I was able to arrange one sit-down meal for us per day, including a Saturday breakfast at Chef Mickey's. During the trip, Epcot was also holding the annual Food and Wine Festival, offering 25 different booths, dedicated to 25 different countries, offering small samplings of several of the local flavors from each nation. Lauren and I were thrilled about this concept and knew that our culinary needs would be very well taken care of.

If only we knew.

Ghetto Easter

From the people who brought you "Ghetto Christmas" comes the new sensation that is sweeping the nation, Ghetto Easter.

It began when Lauren and I decided that we needed Easter baskets for ourselves, as well as our two roommates and made a venture out to the one and only "99 Cent Only" store to procure our wares. It was already decided that Deane would be making beer can chicken for the main course of the meal and I would be doing the assorted sides, but something more was needed. Something to truly make it a "Ghetto Easter." Hence, the discount store.

I love the 99 cent store. There are always the most interesting things for sale there. In fact, in the past I have found Bugles from Iran, school folders featuring baseball cards from 1988 and some of the most gaudy religious statuettes that I have ever seen. It is wonderful. And it was here that we found many items that would truly make Easter the wonderful celebration that it needed to be. 

Amongst the standard candy, we managed to find:

• Spice Girls action figures (1 per guest...all different)
• A cap claiming "Welcome to Korea! 2002
• Dollar sign sunglasses
• A children's book by Dr. Ruth to teach children to respect their elders, but was really about a kangaroo
• Star Wars Bubble things
• Care Bears gummis
• A Make-Your-Own-Candy-Jewelry set, Christmas theme
• Jones Soda Candy Corn flavored soda
• A Winnie-the-Pooh superhero paddleball set
• M&M's promoting last summer's Indiana Jones movie

Again, that is all in addition to some standard type candy and all were placed in red and green Christmas...err... Easter baskets.

For dinner we had the aforementioned beer can chicken as well as chicken-flavored Rice-a-Roni, biscuits, and a cake with rainbow chip icing.

Not exactly a traditional meal, but we enjoyed it and it was delicious. Oh, and this was all served using cheap, plastic, pink, blue and yellow rabbit, chick and egg themed flatware. It was truly a Ghetto Easter to remember.