It all started so innocently. Joe and I each wanted a clear plastic holder to wear around our necks where we could store our new Premium Annual Passports and any Fast Passes we might gather. Well, the plastic clips were sold separately from the straps. And you know, if we were going to buy straps for these things, well. We might as well get some pins to decorate!

Needless to say, the whole thing became amazingly expensive in a matter of moments. One store employee made us laugh by warning us of the addictive nature of pin-collecting. Hell, Joe and I don't even plan on trading and we're already in deep, stopping to peruse every pin stand we come across. We may eventually need a 12-step program. For now, though, we're having a total blast! Joe and I both got black Nightmare Before Christmas straps. The attached Jack and Zero metal piece at the bottom glows in the dark! My total pins (at the moment) are: Zero, Stitch dressed up as Elvis, and Nemo. They're astoundingly cute. It's all just too much really. I love it!

Y'all know about the whole Disneyland pin thing right? If not, allow me to fill you in briefly. There are hundreds and hundreds of different kinds of pins. There are pin starter sets that come with straps. There are pins of every kind of Disney theme and/or movie imagineable. People walk around with straps, vests, hats, and bags filled with these pins, and most pin collectors trade them in the park. There are even kids' classes for the children pin-trading sect of the park. It's wild! So, it's a pretty popular phenomenon, something only the biggest of Disneyland nerds take part in, and today, Joe and I joined them. It's official. We're Disneyland nerds!

Which is why we spent our honeymoon there two years ago and is why we spent our two-year anniversary there today. (Nice segue, Meg! I know, thank you, thank you...) Our anniversary started out very silly and only got progressively worse (and by worse, of course, I mean sillier and, in fact, better) from there. Before we ever left the hotel room, Joe and I had ourselves a good old-fashioned towel-snapping fight. Judging from the giant welt on my thigh, I'd say he came out the victor. But, does anyone really win in a towel-snapping fight? Okay, fine, Joe did. It was fun anyway!

When we got to the park, we were very hungry, so we stopped in at a restaurant for a Disneyland Character Breakfast. A Character Breakfast is just like any other buffet style breakfast, except that the Disneyland characters come by and say hello to you while you're eating. Joe and I took the opportunity to snap many photos during breakfast. It was great!

The food was pretty good. The first tray of food I got was not actually all that wonderful. So I went back to the buffet to see what else I could find. I got lots of fruit, a few muffins, and even some Mickey Mouse-shaped waffles! Those were all delicious!

As we ate, many characters came by to say hello. Most only posed for the shot, but a few were quite entertaining. Pluto came over and sat on the ground, begging for food. He was making us laugh so much! I handed him a tater tot which he pretended to eat like a good pretend dog. It was all very funny! Then he started trying to tell us something. He motioned to Joe, then me. He pointed at our shirts. Joe kept guessing as Pluto pointed to things. "You want to take a picture of us? We should take a picture with you? We're both wearing green? I should give her those flowers? No? What? Wait. Okay, three syllables..."

It was crazy! We had no idea what Pluto was trying to tell us. Eventually, Pluto gave up and wandered away and for the rest of the day, Joe and I wondered what the hell he was talking about. Crazy dog!

Max, Goofy's son, was there too. He was really funny. He saw my waffles, pulled up a chair, and sat down, ready with knife and fork. That made me giggle quite a bit! Then he took a picture with me before heading off to scare tiny toddlers. (No, seriously! One kid was crying so hard! I think it was Max who scared him. It might have been Pluto. Of course, nothing will ever beat the video on America's Funniest Home Videos of the toddler screaming in terror at the sight of Eeyore. Fantastic!)

After breakfast, Joe and I generally just wandered around. We didn't ride a single ride. We sat on benches a lot, just enjoying the beautiful weather. Warm sun, cool breeze. It could not have been better! And we took in plenty of our favorite activity: people watching!

Disneyland just wouldn't be the same without all the crazy people! Here are some of the outrageous things I saw today:

1) A woman screams to a small girl, "Get over here NOW!!!" A man (her husband?) turns to the woman and says quietly, "Lower your voice!" The girl has walked over to the sidewalk, sat down on the curb, and crossed her arms, with a look on her face that says, "Not only am I not going there now, I may not go there EVER, and oh yeah, I HATE YOU!" The man walked over to console the little girl. Joe and I were walking past them, so that was the last I saw of them.

2) A little girl (who clearly wasn't buckled into her stroller) hopped out of a moving stroller, fell flat on her face, and started screaming bloody murder. The woman steering the stroller stopped, walked over to the girl, essentially threw her back into the stroller and then continued pushing the stroller again, this time, angrily. (She didn't strap her in that time, either.)

3) Some little boy was standing next to his family, opening a soda. Joe and I were sitting on the bench next to them. The boy finally got the can of soda open and it splurted all over me. I almost started laughing. The mom was incredibly apologetic and handed me a towel. I wiped off my leg, arm, and shopping bag. Not much had gotten on my clothes, which was nice. She apologized for not having baby wipes, and I said that it was perfectly okay. The boy apologized too, which was cool. Then I handed the woman back her towel, which she tossed on top of the blanket that was covering her sleeping infant. I found that sort of funny, because I am personally so fussy about stuff like that I can't imagine putting a soda covered blanket on a baby, but you know, that's okay. That's just me. Joe and I were ready to leave from that bench pretty soon afterwards, but we both later told each other we felt the need to linger a bit longer so that the family wouldn't think we were leaving because of the soda incident! I found it pretty funny that Joe and I came to that same conclusion!

4) Outside of the Star Tours ride, there's a bronze (?) statue of Yoda. It's very detailed and beautiful. It's also $20,000. Joe asked me if we could buy it. Later, I heard a kid coming off the ride say, in all seriousness, "Mom, can we buy Yoda for twenty thousand dollars?"

5) I saw a woman who had a bumper sticker on the back of her wheelchair. That's possibly not very remarkable, but I'd never seen that before. Apparently, none are free if anyone is oppressed. Or something. Who knew?

6) I overheard some woman say to her child, "I feel that way about Daddy too, sometimes." What? What does that mean?!

7) There was a band playing live music in New Orleans Square. As we passed them, some Disneyland patron walked up to the band and asked a musician while he was playing where the bathrooms were. The man pulled his trumpet away from his mouth, told the guy and pointed, and then went back to playing. What kind of person asks a musician for directions to the bathroom WHILE the musician is playing?! I told Joe, "That's just... beyond rude."

"You know, it really is," Joe said. And then we laughed, because sometimes you have to laugh at the craziness in the world.

I don't know, it's weird. There's something about being guaranteed a glance at the utter insanity of life that makes ventures to Disneyland all that much more fun. I must be a weirdo for thinking it, but whatever. That's me!

Anyway, it was super duper sunny at the Magical Kingdom, so we bought some hats. Joe got a kickass Disneyland hat that looks like an old fastioned baseball cap, with pinstripes and an embroidered "D" on the front. I got a red Disneyland visor that I fell in love with. Also, at the end of the day, my weird visor hat-hair turned into really cool bangs! I think I love my visor even more now!

Also, a really Cool Day in the Book of Meg wouldn't be complete without some animals, and so yay for the universe for the nice animal surprise at Disneyland! Outside the Indiana Jones ride, an employee was showing off some cool animals. There were Emperor Scorpions, a bird cage (the bird had the day off), an African Millipede, a cage of rats, and a Chilean Rose-haired Tarantula. The girl had the tarantula out first. I was so sad that we weren't allowed to pet it! I loved handling the museum's Chilean Rose-haired Tarantula (she passed away at the end of last year... so sad). Our tarantula had been very pink. Disney's was actually red! I asked the girl about that, and she said they can come in a variety of colors. And because her color is so vibrant, they named her Red. So cool! I also got to pet the millipede. So smooth and pretty! I love those animals!

At the end of the day, Joe and I got comfy in our hotel room and watched American Idol. I'm telling you, our anniversary today contained a bunch of our very favorite things, including AI. It was quite a beautiful day! Lots of fun! Tasty food! Animals, gorgeous weather, sitting around on benches, and lots and lots of laughter, hugs, and kisses. I am so in love with my awesome husband, and this was a perfect anniversary! Happy Anniversary to us, and Happy St. Patrick's Day to all! Good-night!