Disney World.  "The happiest place on Earth."  My favorite place to be.  
At the end of our weeklong magical getaway I was hugging my family and saying my farewells when my father said something along the lines of, "Can't wait for the blog!"  Sounds like a nice enough sentiment, right?  Wrong!  My family had been teasing me the whole trip about how I never blog anymore.  All in good, light-hearted fun, of course, but it was an ongoing joke throughout our trip.  So, pops, now I get to say TOLD. YOU. SO!

Yeah, it's no secret that blogging has been a struggle for me the past couple months.  I'll get on here, post something meaningful, apologize for my absence, and then become absent again.  I can't even promise you that's not what's happening here.  All I know is that adulthood is time consuming, y'all.  I just bought myself a brand new car (APPLAUSE) and found out my restaurant is closing, and Lianne and I got a new kitty!!!  (Her full name is Hallie Bey Silano Matarante (Hallie B for short) and she is perfect in every way.)  

It's not like I haven't been producing content.  I've been shooting as much as time will allow between Home Free videos, a family vacation, acting class, taking care of a new kitty, and going to work, but I just haven't found the energy to upload my progress to the world.  Every second I get to myself is spent with my jaw on the floor watching Handmaid's Tale, or staring at Hallie until she's uncomfortable.  But, I do promise, a catch up blog is coming soon.  Let me know in the comments below if you guys would be cool with a post coming up of just a shit ton of photos that I've taken over the past, oh I don't know, 5 months.  Like, a shit ton. 

Anywho, let's get into it!!!

If you know my family and I, you know how big of a Disney family we are.  It's pretty much the only vacation we ever go on.  We know every inch of every park, we know trivia, we know where hidden Mickeys are, we have not only favorite restaurants, but favorite menu items at each restaurant; basically we have been there too. many. times.  But that doesn't stop us from continuing to go, or the excitement of arriving diminish.

So, I boarded an uncomfortable aircraft, failed to sleep, edited a Home Free BTS video, and a mere 10 hours later, this was my sight as I descended into Orlando!!! (This photo makes it look like it was gorgeous out.  It was not.  It was muggy and cloudy and rainy, but that's Florida for ya. 

The first day was v chill.  We grocery shopped, went to the hotel pool, waited for my best friend Olena to arrive, and once it started raining, we turned in to have some snacks and get ready for dinner.  

We ate at the Cape May Cafe that night, located in the Beach Club Resort, just a walk away from the Boardwalk & Epcot, and just a ferry ride away from Disney's Hollywood Studios.  I felt daring, so I tried some clams and mussels, mostly because Olena said I would like it.  Olena knows.  She was right.  

Pictured: my love for fireworks and my bad side that still looks pretty cute if I do say so myself.

Not pictured (miraculously): my food baby that my belt was fully unclasped and my pants were fully unbuttoned to make room for.

Below, I present to you, photobooth realness. 

The next day was the day I couldn't wait for.  Universal Studios, which might as well just be Harry Potter World, because that's all I really care about.  I hadn't been since they opened Diagon Alley and the Hogwarts Express, and just a little backstory: my first time in Harry Potter World in 2011, I unabashedly shed a tear.  Sooooo, you can imagine how excited I was to get to experience a new part of this magical world.

Below is a photo of me, Olena, my brother Ryan, and his girlfriend Meghan, all unintentionally in green on line for the "Escape from Gringotts" ride.  I strategically wore this outfit because of my Hogwarts house affiliation.  Everybody wants to say they're a Gryffindor but I know me and I know I'd fall in either Slytherin or Ravenclaw and that's okay!  I know how dorky that makes me sound and I. DON'T. CARE.  If I could live in any fictional world it'd be this one times a bajillion, so I don't care how much my Harry-Potter-nerd inside shows itself.

And then we got butterbeer, because, duh.

You guys! The excitement to be in Harry Potter World almost ECLIPSED the excitement about the total solar eclipse! (Teeheehee) We were sitting in the Three Broomsticks eating lunch when all of a sudden the light through the windows took on a greyish, darker effect.  I walked outside and it was so trippy-looking! ---->

The kindest woman let me put on her solar glasses and I got a chance to take a look at the eclipse, which, to be honest, didn't totally thrill me, but the gravity of what I had the privilege to see hit me later on in the day.  Our universe is awesome.  Dare I say, it's...OUT OF THIS WORLD!
(...& I wonder why I'm single)

That night we dined RIGHT at the Polynesian Resort.  Who knew Polynesian food was so g**damn good?!  Probably a lot of people, but it was news to this girl!  

Next day, Hollywood Studios! 

These are photos of a 25 year old woman blissfully twirling in bubbles produced by a bubble machine which was unenthusiastically being operated by a Disney employee not much older than herself.  

I've said it before and I'll say it again, Olena is the only person in the world who I fully trust behind the camera when I'm in front of it.  Any other person holding the camera that took this shot I would have asked to stop because I would have thought I'd hate the outcome.  But Olena knows me best and knows what I will hate to look at and never produces a photo I hate.  
Sweaty and exhausted, but so content.

She's just my person and the bounds to how much I love her don't exist.  We are just two fully formed children and our weirds match and overlap in the most carefree and effortless way.

Sorry, I'm not sorry for these photos of us.  I am living for the genuine thrill/terror on each of our faces from Rock 'n' Roller Coaster and Tower of Terror.  No matter how many times you get on these rides, the fun never fades.  The proof is right here in the expressions, ladies and gents!

That night we ate at my favorite restaurant in the WORLD.  You may think it silly that my favorite restaurant in the world is located in Disney World, especially because I spent a year of my life traveling through Europe, but if that's the thought you're having right now, then you haven't eaten at Le Cellier Steakhouse in the Canadian section of Epcot.  Go there.  And wear loose pants.  It is my most highly recommended spot of life. 

Why it is that immediately following our three course feast Olena and I decided to have a late night neon-light photoshoot, I can't explain, but I love what we were able to come up with!

Day 3 started in my favorite breakfast spot at Walt Disney World: Chef Mickey's.  Buffets are one of my favorite things in life.  Never having to decide between savory and sweet, healthy or unhealthy.  Little bit of everything and everyone's satisfied!  Plus, the characters all come out and take photos with you.  This used to be so thrilling as a kid, but now it's thrilling enough to watch the faces of children light up as they come face to face with their favorite characters.  Will I ever grow out of Disney World?  Judging by the photo below of a woman in a Minnie Mouse costume and I, I'm not sure but probably not?

Note to self: if anyone ever questions the validity of Ryan and I as siblings, just show them these side by side photos of us in the Buzz Lightyear ride in our highest level of concentration.  Spoiler alert: it's the SAME face.

Below is a selfie Olena and I quickly took so as to not waste any precious time with our rapidly melting ice cream.  It wasn't until later that we looked at the photo we had taken and realized how perfect it was.  The matching head tilts that perfectly fit the castle behind us, the way our respective ice creams match our outfits, the way our nails match each others' shirts, the way our cones perfectly match the tilt in our heads and point directly to the castle, I mean, the list goes on.  It's so classically "Disney" and by far my favorite picture of the trip!

That night, Olena and I got crafty and bejeweled some tees to wear the next day.  She's the only person I would voluntarily and willingly match with, and we wore the shirts together to Animal Kingdom the next day in pride.  Here is us in our completed shirts on the two hour line for the new Avatar ride (WHICH WE WILL TALK ABOUT SOON) with my goofball, photo-bombing father, also known as Cool Shades Dude.

You can't imagine the beauty that is Pandora.  Animal Kingdom just opened an entirely new area of the park, mimicking the world of Pandora, from the movie Avatar.  If you've seen the movie, you probably remember the beauty, vibrance, and color before the plot.  Whoever creates these worlds in Disney deserves a national holiday because I could barely wrap my head around the beauty.  And don't even get me started on the ride.  There's been SO much hype around it, that about an hour into the line, Olena and I admittedly started to feel nervous and a bit doubtful.  Our hopes were so high that we were scared to be let down. 

I don't want to spoil it because I firmly believe every human should experience it firsthand, but just know that I shed tears of joy.  Never in my life have my eyes been exposed to so much beauty.  I'm not kidding.  I was overcome with emotion throughout, and when it ended, I was truly sad.  Best ride I have ever been on, hands down, worth every single second on the sweaty, cramped, human cesspool of a line, 10/10 doctors would recommend.

We then spent the rest of our day melting (literally) over all the animals. Olena loves animals more than literally any other human I know.  She would hang out with a squirrel on the sidewalk all day if she could.  So, I knew she'd love this park, and I'm pretty sure I was right.  We saw monkeys and giraffes and a tiger and elephants and naked mole rats, oh my!  One of my favorite days of the trip, for sure.  

The next day we went to my absolute favorite park!  Epcot baby!  When I was a kid I could take or leave Epcot and not care at all, but now that I'm an adult I fully appreciate what its got to offer.  I'd happily spend the entire day floating from country to country just grabbing snacks and drinks from each one.  A park like this could easily be campy and kitschy, but the only people allowed to work in the countries are natives, evident by their accents and the city they're from placed on their employee name tags, and everything from the cuisine to the garb is so authentic that you feel like you've actually taken a trip around the world when the day is done.  

This is my hand with a bier in it from Germany, because come on, duh.

Please enjoy this photo from Test Track, where you'll see Olena sitting in a row with no one she knows, unaware that the camera is capturing her in this moment, clapping by herself.  I love this dork so much.

That night we ate amazing seafood at Flying Fish on the Boardwalk.  An overlooked restaurant, I'd say.  The menu is small and the cooks are next level.  I tried a piece of octopus.  Me.  And it was pretty good! Kind of reminded me of gnocchi, if you'd believe it.  Olena's boyfriend/my friend, Austin, joined us that night and I became the 7th wheel and fun was had by all!  We had an early night so we could rest up for our early day coming up.  We woke up at 6:00am, got ready, and headed to Animal Kingdom for extra magic hours.  We couldn't leave Florida without visiting Pandora again.  It was a longer wait.  It was worth it.  Seriously, can't stress enough how stunning it was.  There hasn't yet been a word invented to do it justice.  Olena and I wore our matching Avatar shirts that we had bought, and everyone who saw us was jealous, I'm sure of it.  

We had lunch reservations at my house, or what others refer to as the castle from Beauty and the Beast.  The castle is in Magic Kingdom so we headed back there for a few pre-lunch rides and then we ate in the West Wing which is FORBIDDEN but the Beast said it was cool.  You can tell from these photos that the clouds started rolling in, so we headed to Downtown Disney because what's better than shopping when it's gross out?  

I may have a hard time keeping this next part in here.  But I promised to always be real so here goes.  I love Austin so much, but I couldn't shake the feeling that his arrival reminded me that I was now spending a vacation with three couples.  Mom and Dad, Ryan and Meghan, Austin and Olena.  Don't get me wrong, none of them ever make me feel like I'm infringing, or that I'm not wanted.  It's just that I'm entering this chapter in my life where I'm really feeling the void of not having someone around.  It used to feel like a conscious choice, and now it's starting to feel very lonely.  

I love me time, and I think it's important that I'm trying to pursue my career with nothing stealing focus, but at the end of the day when you lay your head down, it'd be nice to have someone there.  It'd be nice to have someone to join you in your family vacations.  A teammate.  I've been missing that recently so viscerally, and on the last day of our trip it was really getting me down.  I'm sure, paired with the fact that it was the last day, and that I was PMSing, I was just feeling overly emotional.  But, to be honest, it's a feeling that's been following me around for a little while.  Maybe it's my 25th year on Earth coming to a close, being closer to 30 than 20 for the first time, and feeling like the lives around mine are settling with mine so up in the air.  Maybe it's the fact that I told someone I was in love with them this year and they didn't say it back.  Maybe it's the fact that I haven't found anyone in Los Angeles who excites me in the way I want to be excited.  Maybe it's just because I miss home.  Who knows.  All I can say for certain is I'm starting to wonder how much longer I can go on living this singular life style.  That takes A LOT for me to say.  But I said it.  Or, I typed it.  And I think I'll leave it.  

ALL of that being said, I tried to push down the weird thoughts and have fun.  I drank Yuengling as we bowled, which is one of my all time favorite beers that LA needs to learn about ASAP.  Olena, Austin, and I wore our matching avatar shirts, and though I didn't win, Austin only beat me by one point so basically what I'm saying is we're starting a bowling team.  

My favorite people.  I'm so grateful to them for so much.  The way they care, their generosity, their belief in me, their encouragement.  The way Olena knows how I'm feeling before I can muster up the courage to open up about it, how cool and funny Austin thinks I am, therefore making me feel cool and funny.  They are the most supportive, goofy, and most important friends of mine and I am so grateful to be their third wheel in life.  

This trip was clearly so joyous for me.  Another Disney vacation in the books that did not disappoint.  I'll go on singing Disney World's praises until they stop letting me in.  

I'll leave you today with a little Disney tip.  When in Epcot, if you're over 21 of course, my highest recommended activity is walking from country to country and grabbing a drink and a snack from each one.  However, this results in having to use the restroom way more frequently.  Bathroom lines in Disney can get ridiculously long ridiculously quickly.  The best places to pee in Epcot: Norway by the Frozen ride, and behind the Imageworks building.  This is important stuff people.  Thank me later.

Tootaloo!  Have a great weekend :)