Here and There: Now Officially A Protected Class

September 05, 2023

Now Officially A Protected Class

I am 40 years old! For the first time in my life I am in a protected class under the U.S. EEO laws! (Something that maybe only an HR person thinks about!)

It has been a crazy year! And I was able to celebrate my 40th birthday with my two Muggles! We missed Lady Hiva not being with us. But it was fun to be with them and see how they tried so hard to make it special.

Lucky Dragon hid a box from me for several weeks of a gift the three of them had purchased. I was proud of him for doing that. I even went looking for it and never found it! I talked the two of them into missing school for a few days to go celebrate with me in Hong Kong. (Yes, they were both not sure they wanted to miss school--love my little nerds) We flew out the night before my birthday and they were stressed out that they "had something planned for me and now we are going to be gone!" So they decorated the box and gave it to me before we went off to the airport.

We went to an art exhibit for Yayoi Kusama. She is a Japanese Artist that defied all the world that told her only men are artists. How do I know that you ask? My little Koala Bear taught me! I was so proud of her. She had learned about it in school and told us all about Yayoi. It made me glad that even at her age she can appreciate someone not letting others tell them what they can and cannot do!

We then sat down and watched a painter paint with natural materials. He uses rocks etc to make his colors and does these little detailed paintings. Both Muggles wanted to watch him work.

We then made our way to the airport and these two thought we were so cool that we could use the airport lounge (thanks to all the deaths etc flying back and forth to the USA this year).

We made it to Vietnam just in time for the sunrise. Koala Bear was so happy and stopped walking and ran to the window "to see how beautiful it was."

We had pho for breakfast and it was AMAZING! Pho and fresh fruit! Perfect meal for travel--no, perfect meal for any time.

We made it to Hong Kong! We were so happy to be there and all of the adventures that were waiting for us!

Tried to get a photo of the Disneyland Hong Kong gates for Lady Hiva but the driver was driving so fast this was the best I could manage! HAHA

We stayed at the Explorer lodge which reminded us of a mix between WDW Polynesian and Animal Kingdom Lodge. Everything was explorer themed. We were so into all the small details. From the lamps to the door numbers. Everything was perfect.

The elevators looked like hot air balloons.

We walked along the ocean to the Disneyland Hotel that looks like a smaller WDW Grand Floridian. We did the hedge maze and had so much fun finding the characters hidden throughout. We then went to play mini golf on the Queen of Hearts course.

All of the Halloween items were out and it made us all miss Lady Hiva being with us. We knew she would LOVE it!

This grand staircase was amazing. Little did we know we were going to get to know this staircase really well.

We signed up for a craft activity. They made their own version of jewelry boxes. Lucky Dragon wanted to do the ocean and boats. Koala Bear wanted to do the plants and picnic.

They brought out Mickey just for us to see! That was so good of them.

The Muggles went off and Mickey waved for me to come take a photo with him too. So here we are. HAHA

We ate a Chinese restaurant. It had lots of seafood options and I did not want to die on my 40th birthday so I opted for the vegetarian meal. I think I ate more types of mushrooms in one meal than I have in all 40 years of my life to that point!

The food was good. I did not like the rose water dessert though. I feel like rose is one of those flavors that just tastes like soap to me.

I was proud of my two Muggles. They tried everything that was served. Some they liked and others they did not want more of, but I was proud of their maturity to just try it all.