As I sit here at work on my lunch break, all I can think about in-between classes is Disneyland. Do you ever get like that? I am a high school film teacher so my office and studio are filled with Disney memorabilia. I think I have about every Disney CD made, and when I feel low down or stressed out I will play the music that features the sound tracks of the rides. It always put's me there at the park immediately and I feel better.

My students love these sound tracks, it puts them in a good mood as they enter my class. I am always trying to figure out what my overwhelming attraction to Disney is, and when I say Disney I mean "Anything Disney". I guess it's a shared emotion by a lot of us it seems. Other teachers here at my school feel the same way. It must give us some type of us escapism, a way to get away from the stress of the real world.

I don't drink (much) don't smoke (except an occasional cigar) don't do narcotics, so Disneyland has been my self-regulating drug for quite awhile. Sometimes when I am there and have rode the same ride eight thousand times, I ask myself, what am I doing here? Do I need to see a doctor? My next thought is always that I am not going to renew my pass next year. I'll wait for a bunch of new stuff to be created, and come back in about 5 years. Yeah right! I am always ready to renew, but then I stop and think, no, it's too expensive, I'm not renewing. I almost succumbed last year to non-renewal, they implemented the payment plan! Thank God! They saved me and my mental health!

As a returning guest pass holder I am always trying to find out what days to go to the park when no one else is there. The older I get I cannot seem to handle the crowds and the rudeness of a packed park. I am constantly trying to remember if it was that way when I was a kid in the late 1960's and 70's and I guess it was. I just didn't care back then. You are probably the same way I am, when I am there with my son early in the morning and the crowds are thin, I feel so happy! All we can talk about is how fast we got on the rides and how cool it is not to be run over by wheeled vehicles. Just when you think the day is going to be perfect, (BAM) here comes the masses down Main Street, and the dream has taken a new shape.

I can't blame Disneyland, they need to make money, but there are times when I think they should cut off the entry to the park even more when it is too crazy. There it is again, my drug, I guess my addiction is so strong to go there I still attend most of the time even when too busy. Walt and his team created real fantasy come alive right before our eyes. We can see it, ride it, eat it, and waller in it. The films we watched as children jump off the screen and live at Disneyland, no wonder I am attached. I mean where else can we experience Pirates, Peter Pan and Mickey walking down the street in real life.

Maybe life is too stressful these days, too much news media in our heads, too much homework, lack of leadership, job loss, hair loss, other loss. I think you get my point. Disneyland is my fun, safe, place to escape and cool out. I am addicted. There I said it! Oh well if I have to be addicted to something it might as well be Mouse Ears and all they entail.