Some of you know that until June 2011, I had a very real fear of Magic Kingdom's Haunted Mansion. In fact, it was so bad that even as an adult, I would sit through the ride with my eyes partly covered! The one time I dared to ride it alone, I ended up so freaked out that the only way I made it through was by staring at my lit phone screen! Something about things jumping out at me (in the graveyard scene) or the chance of getting stuck in the Mansion just really got to me. Never mind that my dad thought my 4-year-old terror of it was hilarious back in 1987!
June 2011 I rode with Kyle, and I my fears diminished as he pointed out neat details on the ride. By December 2011, I was begging him to hurry up, so we could go get in our Doombuggy! Funny how fears can go away when you're with the right person. (Truthfully it also helped that I read a TON of facts on a Haunted Mansion fansite.)
Rewind to my first adult trip to Walt Disney World. It was January 2009, and my fear of the Haunted Mansion was in hyper-drive. I really wanted to go on the ride despite those fears though.
The grandparents-in-law agreed to watch the kiddos while the other adults went to the Haunted Mansion. This included me, my sister, my brother-in-law, his brother, and his brother's wife. I had already told everyone involved that I was NOT riding alone, and my sister would have to ride with me. Oh, another key point is that earlier in the day, the queue had been extended to start around the entrance to the Liberty Square Riverboat.
Finally plucking up the courage to face my fears, I, in typical Joanna style, decided to laugh it up with everyone while hurrying to the attraction. Laughter always makes me feel better, so I was making everyone laugh, while practically running to the ride and looking behind me to talk to everyone. I just heard my sister yell, "JOANNA!" and barely registered an odd look on her face when something hit me so hard in the stomach that I doubled over! Did someone seriously just punch me?!
Nope. Apparently even though the queue was no longer extended, and the ropes were down, the removable, waist height poles they used to extend the queue were still in the sidewalk. I had slammed right into one and folded over it cartoon style!
Imagine running into the pole above while jogging! It knocked the wind out of me, and people around us were looking at me like I was crazy! It didn't help that I was scared to death of the ride we were about to go on, but now I was out of air and laughing hysterically! Fear was coming out as fits of laughter! You know that kind of laughter where you start crying, and you're almost sobbing because you're laughing so hard? Yeah, that was me! Until we got in the Doombuggies I was wiping tears of laughter and giggling randomly. People gave me a bit of a wide berth.
Later that night I lifted up my shirt and noticed I had a silver dollar sized bruise right beside my belly button! Of course I told my sister and that set off another round of laughter! While I was mortified that I'd done something so silly, so publicly, it's actually a fun memory for me. Every time I pass those poles, I giggle a bit remembering my most embarrassing Disney moment.
