Epcot International Festival of the Arts Fun

Epcot is hosting their 1^st International Festival of the Arts.  It started January 13^th and will run until February 20^th, on Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays, and Mondays.  Throughout the park are exhibits by various artists, with plenty to look at and buy.  Disney photographers are out in masse for an amazing addition of life size pictures that you can step into and become part of the famous painting.

shhhh don't tell her this is here LOL

The food offerings are artistic and yummy, both pleasing to look at and taste.  I like the giant cookie that looks like an artist’s palette of paints. In the evening, they have the Broadway Concert Series to listen and enjoy.  There are also seminars and workshops to learn various things from. 

Since it was my mom’s birthday this week, I treated her, Staci, and me to the Artfully Blending Tea workshop with Karon Cannon of the Tea Craze shop here in Kissimmee.

  She is a tea sommelier and spoke about the difference in teas, health benefits, and how to properly brew a cup.  Then she helped us all blend our own tea called Tranquil Moments.  It had chamomile, lemon grass, lavender, passion flower, and mint in it.  There is a definite recipe with specific amounts, but Staci and I had fun just mixing all of it together LOL.  It smelled a bit iffy until we added the mint, then all was well.

Over the weekend the three of us had created our own mickey ears to Disney bound with.  Staci decided to go bounding as the Cheshire Cat, so after the workshop we quickly made our way over to the England Pavilion to meet Alice in Wonderland.

  Staci was first in line and was so excited.  Alice was completely delightful and precocious, which Staci loved of course. Staci also loved having Alice fawn over her Cheshire Cat ears and doll.

The most fun we have had at the festival though was Figment’s Brush with the Masters Scavenger Hunt.  Figment the Dragon is hidden in paintings all over the World Showcase, and you must find him.  In each painting, he has either replaced the main image (think Mona Lisa with Figment’s face) or has been incorporated into the painting somewhere.

  Once you find him, you match up the corresponding painting’s sticker to the correct pavilion.  The paintings can be challenging at times to find, the frames are what help a bunch.  Each frame has Figment prominently front and center.  After you find all the paintings, you take the completed chart back, and you receive one of four different magnets, each featuring Figment in a famous painting.  Staci and I love scavenger hunts, so this was great fun.

Only two more weekends left for the festival then all that fun is gone.  Hopefully it will become an annual event.

I'm Celebrating Being Drug Free

Sorry for the long post, but I considered this a public service announcement.

Since moving to Kissimmee, Florida life has been great, but not without its stress. The weather is phenomenal. The balmy weather makes it so easy to hop in the car, short drive, and I am at a Disney par.  I love that!!!  I have spent many days just strolling through the various parks, trying to experience everything.  On average at the end of those days I have walked about four to five miles.  My feet hurt by bedtime LOL. 

The stressful part, however, has been trying to find a job to fund those adventures. With two kids and a mom depending on me to support them, I was stressed.  I did not want to dip too far into my savings, because that money is for me to buy a home this year hopefully.  I managed to stay out of that fund, but my regular account took a major beating LOL Finally, I got an offer for a job that I wanted. I was so incredibly relieved.

So, time came for the dreaded pre-hire paperwork and physical.  Twenty-three pages to fill out.  Some poor tree sacrificed its life so that I could get a parking decal and benefits. Went in first thing in the morning for the physical, fully expecting a drug screen.  This is almost the norm for any job nowadays, especially in healthcare. Everything going fine, then she says I have to do a breathalyzer test!!! Uh oh I had just binged watched White Collar, and with all the wine drinking they do, I had a glass of wine the night before LOL ok I know one glass of wine, drank over fourteen hours ago would not show up, but I still felt my blood pressure go up.  Guess what…it was zero LOL.  I laughed.  Now time for the urine screen. Only worry there was trying to remember not to flush.

Then came the results. The nurse doing the test said “it’s positive for THC” what’s that? THC is the psychoactive part of marijuana.  She was saying my urine test was positive for drugs!!!  I thought she was joking at first. When I realized she wasn’t, my blood pressure spiked, my pulse raced, and my mind went into shock. I said run it again. I have never done drugs in my life. She did, and second one said positive as well.  I was in shock and near tears at this point.  I felt humiliated, as I protested, saying it was wrong, I was innocent, in my head I knew she had probably heard all of that before.  I demanded better testing, my integrity was being attacked, and my career was in jeopardy.  She sent the test results and the urine out to a real lab for further testing.  I left barely holding it together, bawling once I was in car.

All the way home I kept trying to think of how this had happened. I never have done anything. I am completely boring.  The glass of wine was my first in over five years. I thought since I sleep with window open, did somebody outside smoke and I breathed it in while sleeping? Did one of the small local restaurants I have been to use it in a recipe as a prank? How did it come up positive??? So, I hit google as soon as I stopped crying.

I had no idea, but it turns out those urine drug screens they use in emergency rooms and doctor’s offices are notorious for giving false positives.  All because of simple, everyday items people consume.  So, I thought I would share what they are. 

Cold medicines: a lot of them have pseudoephedrine in them which will give a false positive for amphetamines.

Tonic water:  also known as quinine water, can lead to a positive result for opiates.

B2 (riboflavin): since some riboflavin comes from hempseed oil, it can show traces of THC.

NSAIDs: these are common, over the counter, pain meds. Examples are Ibuprofen (Motrin), and naproxen sodium (Aleve).  Treating pain at home can lead to a devastatingly false positive for marijuana, barbiturates, or benzodiazepines.

Poppy Seeds:  Eat too many of these and you might test positive for opiates like opium and codeine.

Snack bars: Some contain hemp seeds, which again could lead to them saying you are positive for THC.

            It was the Motrin and Aleve that got me.  All the Disney walking, and sore feet, had me talking some on a daily basis.  I was also taking a multivitamin, and a multi B vitamin since those are good for stress.  Those added up in my system, and were detected with the test.  For three days, I suffered and fretted, waiting for the results to clear me.  When they called me, and said I was cleared I was so elated and vindicated.  I made sure they knew it was the common, legal medications that had turned against me. My integrity was once more intact.  If you want the link to the web page that gave me hope for those days here it is.

            So now I can joke about my so-called drug problem.  I joke how it’s been eight days clean and sober with my family.  If you must do a urine test in your career, make sure to tell them all the medications you take, even if they seem inconsequential to you.  They can have a big impact.  I can tell you this though, no more Aleve or Motrin for me. I am totally Tylenol now. I even went out and got a bubbling foot bath and Epson salts to help after park days LOL.