Rosa Linda Román (00:28): Hello, and welcome to New Mexi-Castaways. I'm Rosa Linda Román. And I am talking to you from my storage unit that we just got in, it's actually right across from Gatorland in Florida. I don't think I've ever been to Gatorland, but it seems like something that would be worth going to at least once in your life. They literally have a bunch of gators. And for those of you that know me know that I'm a Gator fan, but not necessarily the actual gator kind. I'm a fan of the Florida Gators because that's where I went to college. Okay, so I'm going to work and talk with you because Nathan just dropped me off. Well, he and Samuel go to get haircuts. And we moved off the boat about a week ago. I think it was maybe exactly a week, today is Saturday. So, yeah, it was like a week ago that we moved off of the Dawn Treader, which of course breaks my heart or it broke my heart. But I'm surprisingly good. Rosa Linda Román (01:24): To be honest, I was really heartbroken over the sale of the boat which has been our home for the past two years. And it made me sad, but now I really feel like, okay, you know what? It is time for a new chapter. It's going to be okay. And I'm taking a new attitude and we just had a week at Walt Disney World with my family. My brother, Nathaniel, is the us Marine and he just got his orders to move his station, which he had been at North Carolina, I believe it's Camp Lejeune. And he is moving to Germany. So, they were going to be quite aways away from us, not that we had seen them that much. Rosa Linda Román (02:26): But once we were like, okay, you're going to Germany, let's squeeze in a Disney [indiscernible]. So, we figured out how to do that. And we had a great, great, great time. I think our two families… I don't know, was traveling together, we visited each other to travel together and that is a very different thing. And we did really, really well together, our two families. So, that was nice. So, now I'm back at the storage unit. It was a whirlwind getting here, and then, we had a time deadline because the guy that bought the boat, obviously, wanted the boat. But also, the time constraint was because we wanted to get to Disney. We had to get to Disney in time to meet them because they have a very limited window. My brother has four little kids and they and his wife, Carla, they are packing up, and they literally are moving to Germany in two weeks. Rosa Linda Román (03:35): We, obviously, worked with their schedule as well as ours, and the person that bought the boat, and so we had to get out of the boat pretty quickly. And that meant that we had to get creative on how we get everything done. We were in Austin at the beginning of this whole, like, a week and a half ago, I guess we were at Disney, and the boat sold. I mean not Disney, sorry. We were in Austin when the boat sold. And so, then we had to kind of regroup and figure out, you know, how are we going to get to Florida? How are we going to get our stuff? How are we going to get the stuff off the boat? And it was just wild. And I do think I recorded a little bit of that. So, hopefully, you've got a sense of the chaos that was our move off of the Dawn Treader. Rosa Linda Román (04:28): And then, once we moved off and we hurried to meet them here in the Disney area, that was super fun. But obviously, that took up all of our focus. So, I didn't really think too much about our stuff. So, we came here to the storage unit from the boat. Let me back up a little bit, trying to work and talk isn't always easy. We moved off the boat in order to, and in order to get everything off the boat quickly, we put it all in a U-Haul. That U-Haul was not super full, but we did bring a few things off the boat that we aren't going to keep, but that we are selling because we didn't have the time to do it in the way we need to, which is to, obviously, sell it and give it to the people. Rosa Linda Román (05:24): So, we actually had the kayak, like, crystal kayak. And so, right now I'm organizing a fishing pole, so the kayak, fishing poles, there's a bike, which is a, what do you call it? A folding bike. So, you know, there's some things that we're not going to keep because they really belong on a boat. But well, we had to get them off the boat. So, that's why we put everything in the U-Haul. And we got a U-Haul that was too big for what our needs are, but we were in a hurry, so we kind of had to put as much as we could where we needed to into the boat, I mean, into the U-Haul, and bring it here to the storage unit. Well, this storage unit is, I don't know, I couldn't tell you exactly the dimensions, but it's tall inside, but very kind of thin. Let's see, it's probably about five feet wide, and I don't know, 12 feet high, maybe eight foot back. Rosa Linda Román (06:38): And so, our stuff fits, but it's kind of stacked up quite a bit in the back. And by the time we were moving our stuff within the hotel room, I started… or not the hotel, we actually rented a VRBO. I started going, well, we're missing this, we're missing that. I started seeing all the things that we really needed to have with us that we didn't have with us. So, I said to Nathan, I said, "I really want to spend some time at this storage unit sorting through because we were so rushed at the end that I just kind of threw things in different places." It was pouring rain when we got to this area. And so, we ended up just, you know, quickly unloading the moving truck and many things got put away in a way that I don't love. Rosa Linda Román (07:29): So, I wanted to, well, and I found out one of the things I discovered when I was at the house in Kissimmee was that one of my briefcases, which is a roller bag that had my computer in it, not my main computer, but the one that I thought was totally dead, but actually, wasn't totally dead, my MacBook Pro, we had that in the storage unit. And so, I said, "I need to go back and get that and just do some sorting." I just wanted to spend a little time with the stuff without the chaos of the move, and trying to get to Disney, and you know, all of the stuff that we were doing last week. I needed a little bit of time. So, Nathan said he would take the kids. We were not going to the parks. Today was going to be an off day. Rosa Linda Román (08:19): So, this was the perfect day to do some of this sorting. So, I am here by myself and very happy about that. The downside is, I don't know if I can get in there because we have the kayak completely, like, in there. And it's heavy. I don't know if you've heard me talk about that before, but the kayak is quite heavy, and it really is a two-person… it takes two people to move it reasonably, but I'm going to try because it is in the way of everything, but my goal is to try to get through here. I think my briefcase is way in the back. I think I can see the tires back there, which means I've got to climb back in there somehow, but I wanted to record. I don't want this episode to just be me mumbling and whatever, while I work. Rosa Linda Román (09:12): I just wanted to kind of talk a little bit about some of the things, the self-discovery, the thoughts that I've been having since we moved off the boat and now I've had a week to kind of process a little bit. And one of the most important things I think that happened is we went to Disney, which is hilarious, but that would be one of the most important things. But I have a history at Disney. I used to work at Walt Disney World and I'm going to take a break right now so I can try to move the kayak. And then, when I come back, I'll tell you about some of my thoughts and why Disney is starting to kind of play in my head again. So, I will pause and I will be right back. Rosa Linda Román (10:06): Ah, okay, I'm back. And, oh my gosh, since I stopped the recording, paused the recording, I climbed back into the back of the storage unit and the kayak was at an angle because it doesn't fit. Like, if you just put it straight in the door it's too long to fit. So, we had it basically draped across all of our belongings on an angle up into the back. And I wanted to move it out of that position because I couldn't get in there. So, I climbed through like I was, what is that? Mission Impossible. I was just… and I'm climbing through, and under, and over. And then, I finally got back to the back of the storage unit, was moving the kayak, felt like, okay, I'm making progress. And then, all of a sudden, the lights inside of this storage facility turned off. They are motion sensors. Rosa Linda Román (11:07): And so, since they couldn't see me, I was in the back bowels of the storage unit. It just turned off. So, I crawled back out in the dark, over into the main hallway, had to walk back out to the exit to walk back in so that it would trigger the motion sensor lights, right? So, I got that and I was like, "Okay, I got it." Came back, got back in there. The kayak was still really in a bad position, but it was slightly moved and actually probably more dangerous than when I had first started. So, I was like, "Okay, I got to get in there." I got to get it. And I wanted to get it more toward the center back where I have, like, the dive equipment, and I've got the stand-up paddleboards that we are keeping, but they're in bags, they're inflatable ones. Rosa Linda Román (11:57): So, they're in bags in the back of the storage unit, and you know, just stuff. And then, I got there. I was like, "Okay, I got it." I rearranged things. I'm making room for the kayak. Still hadn't physically been able to move the kayak all the way, but I was making progress and the lights went out again. So, I just came back in to the front of the storage unit. I've got half the stuff pulled out into the hallway, but I was able to pull the kayak in an upright position. And when I'm talking about the kayak, by the way, I'm not talking about a normal kayak. It's a crystal kayak, which is see-through, and very cool, and very awesome, and has definitely added to many, many of our adventures on the Dawn Treader. But the problem is because it's a different kind. It's more like a canoe, really. It's huge, it's a two-person and it's just massive. Rosa Linda Román (12:51): And so, I climbed back in and picked it up upright. And now I don't know if we'll ever get it to move again, which is probably good because it's going to be now… Now, the next step, by the way, everybody, when we were in Disney when you're working at Disney one of the things that I love about people that work at Disney, and why I loved working there is you're encouraged to really strike up conversations and talk to the people that are visiting from all over the world. And it's just such a cool experience to be able to talk to all these people from all walks of life. And so, people inevitably, oh, and my kids are big pin traders. Disney has this system where you can trade pins that are different characters, different shapes, different sizes, all kinds of really cool pins. Rosa Linda Román (13:42): And my kids are avid pin traders and they introduced their cousins to Disney pin trading. So, that was really fun and that caused us to talk to a lot of people because the way that it works is you go up to any cast member that has a pin on the lanyard, any official pin, you can't just trade any random pin, but any official pin that you find on their lanyard is fair game to be traded. And so, you just go up to them and say, "Hey, can I see your pins?" And they say, "Yes." Which, by the way, like, just from a business perspective, thinking about Disney, and how they pull that off, they have to give employees aka cast members permission to stop. And a lot of times there'll be on their way to clearly their next station or whatever they're doing and they have to stop and, you know, answer questions or show the pins so that anyone who wants them can have them. Rosa Linda Román (14:46): So, I admire the fact that the company does allow for that because to us, that is what makes the experience, the ability to actually engage with the cast members, and it's what sets me apart, in my opinion, from all the other similar businesses. Like, I don't know, I haven't been to Universal Studios in years, but a lot of the ones that try to be like Disney, I think they don't succeed because of that reason. Because as Disney said, you know, you can build, and do, and all that, this is not quoting him by the way, but you basically can do whatever you want, but without people, it takes people to make it happen. So, I appreciate that they recognize the importance of allowing that human interaction. But anyways, so we would stop and people inevitably would say, "Oh, where are you from." That's the first question everybody asks or, "Where do you live?" Rosa Linda Román (15:41): And my kids just would look at me with this, like, look on their face. And the people that asked the question are probably like, "Why is that such a hard question?" And I'm like, "Well, it's complicated." It's basically what we were saying to everybody. And it was fun because a lot of times I would not say anything. I'd say, "Go ahead, tell them, you know, what you want." And so, the kids tested out different responses. Sometimes they would say that they lived on a boat. Sometimes they would say we're from New Mexico, but we haven't lived there in a long time. A lot of times the thing that I noticed Ahava was saying regularly was we're a full-time traveling family, which that seemed to fit the most out of all the things we said. It seemed like that was the one that felt the most accurate. Rosa Linda Román (16:31): So, yeah, it was kind of fun to just get that blank stare, like, we don't really know where they're from or where we're going. You know, once they found out we'd say, "Oh, we just sold the boat, so we're not sure where we're going next." You know, they'd say we're kind of homeless. That's what they would say. And then, they go, "Well, where are you going next?" And we're like, "Oh, we don't know." Because the answer to that question is we're going to, we know we're going to Austin for three weeks. We really enjoyed it. Nathan had a job there that he really liked to work on. He enjoyed working on. And because of that, he'd like to get back there. Ahava has a gym there that, she's a competitive gymnast. Rosa Linda Román (17:19): And so, she was making great strides gymnastically there in Austin and Ziva found a really great volleyball situation. And so, we decided we were going to go to New Mexico where our home is, but our home's rented out. So, it's not like we would be going back to our actual home. Anyway, and there was a volleyball camp that we were thinking about having Ziva go at UNM, which is the University of New Mexico, and that had promised, but it turned out her best friend, which would be the main reason we would be going, because Ziva wanted to be with her best friend or her best friend wasn't able to make that camp. So, you know, it worked out. But we said, well, let's not go back to New Mexico for those three weeks because we're going to have to go in the other direction because my other brother, Jose, is getting married in Florida in like Clearwater in July. Rosa Linda Román (18:24): So, it didn't make a lot of sense for us to go all the way to Albuquerque if we were just going to come back and we don't have a place here in Florida right now. So, we were kind of like, well, where do we go? And that's when the idea of let's just go back to Austin. We know we have a good setup there, which is, by the way, yesterday was their very last day of, actually, I think today is officially their last day of school. But you know, now that they've had some time, they're finished with school, so that means Ziva is a, oh my gosh, a sixth grader, and Samuel is a second grader now. So, you know, they don't have to do school, you know, they're homeschooled. They still do have to check in because they've been doing Florida Virtual School. And so, since we kind of don't have the pressure of having to be somewhere to do the live lessons and all that, we figured let's focus on the sport because that is the thing that they most could not do while living on the boat that, you know, their sports. They [indiscernible] a bit here and there. Rosa Linda Román (19:15): But it definitely, the training, especially, Ahava, actually, Ahava and Ziva both kind of suffered during the time we were on the boat. So, we figured let's take these three weeks until while we have the time to focus on their actual sports and we got to figure out what Samuel's sport is. He reminds us of that all the time. "I don't know what my sport is." Well, you don't really have to know you're seven, but that's okay. We're going to work on that too. And so focusing on their sports for the next three weeks and Nathan kind of getting back in the scheme of things with his job and, well, continuing really in the project he's been working on, which he does enjoy very much with medicine, and his company [indiscernible]. Sorry, I'm moving the kayak because I don't want it to scratch because the whole point of this kayak [indiscernible] and if it gets scratched, it will not be so good, so I'm trying to move that. Rosa Linda Román (20:29): So, anyway, let's get back to it. So, we are going back. Our answer is we know we're going to go to Austin for the next two weeks and we fly to Austin tomorrow morning, which is my mom's birthday. So, happy birthday mom. By the time you hear this it will be probably two years later, my publishing schedule, but happy birthday. And then, from Austin, actually, I'm going to have a women's weekend where I'm going to go [indiscernible] bike because you know, you can't do anything small. Okay, but yay, I just cleared the floor. Rosa Linda Román (21:10): Yeah. It was very hard work. I cleared the floor, I put the kayak to the dive tank, the BCDs, which is the brilliancy compensation device, I think is the right term. Those are back there, the dive tanks, the fins, the snorkels, the kayak, the paddles, the folding bike. Let's see, there's a cooler under there. Some ropes, some new ropes that were part of the boat purchased. And then, some, like, kick boards, they call those buggy boards. Sorry, I took it out on me? A bunch of balls, like, sports, you know, and [indiscernible] balls, basketballs, volleyballs, footballs in a bag. Oh, there's a massage chair back down under there. That I bought for Nathan for his Father's Day or birthday. And that was, like, this ridiculous thing that had no business being on the boat, but was. There's Ziva's piano keyboard, which was her Hanukkah gift, her first year on the boat. And we had with us the whole way. Plus, that do you call them? The seats and here's the keyboard stand, so that's in there. Rosa Linda Román (22:27): What else do we have in here? Oh, and there's these beautiful display cases which I had gotten from The Container Store. And those are the display cases for it's got all of our shelves and found dollars, and sea biscuits, I think you call them? That's all in there. We just found somebody's earing. No, that's not an earring. What is that? Silver piece that I probably broke off of something and I don't know what. Okay, so, where was I? I was talking about Disney. I know that I was telling you how we were discussing… well, people would ask where we're going next, and we would say, we didn't know, but we know we're going to Austin. Rosa Linda Román (23:16): But okay. So, yeah, that's basically the funny thing is that we don't know where we're going, but going to Disney, and being there, and just spending that time was really good for me. Oh, and I'm going to the women's weekend, which is also like a retreat and it's where I'm going to be doing some more, like, a lot of internal work, if you will, really working on myself and figuring out what I do want next. So, anyway, the idea of Disney and why it's so meaningful to me is because not only did I work there, but it really was a great time of transformation for me in my life. I first went to Disney world when I was in college at the University of Florida, I was on a college program there for a semester. Rosa Linda Román (24:15): And if you don't know about the Disney College Program, you should learn about it. It's fantastic. And basically, you go, and you live, work, and learn on Disney property. You actually live at a place called Vista Way, and you work within the parks, and you go to Disney University. And I think I've talked about it a bit here on the podcast before, but I went there and went I worked there I worked at a place that doesn't exist called Kitchen Cabaret. And I had a really great experience there. Turned 21 while I was at Disney. So, I had lots of fun, whatever. I won't get into details, but I had a lot of fun at Disney. And when I was in between jobs, so that was kind of a big transition of toward the end of my college experience. And I got college credit and it was when I went to Disney and I had that semester away from my normal life, my normal routine. I ended up coming away from that experience with kind of a new clarity. And that's when I discovered broadcasting. Rosa Linda Román (25:16): Actually, I came back, having worked with, the Disney degree I got was in management and communications. And I got my doctorate degree in management and communications. And before that, when I was younger, long before Disney, I actually was part of a magnet program at my high school, called The Academy for Tourism. And I learned a lot about the tourism industry, first of all. But it helped me to realize I really enjoyed communications. And so, then when I went back from the college program, that's when I declared my major. I actually took an elective in broadcasting, fell in love and declared my major, and went on to get my Bachelor of Science in Telecommunication. Rosa Linda Román (26:20): So, Disney was very important for me in my life back then. And it just continued to be an important part of my life. It had a huge positive influence on me. By the way, the first time I ever went to Walt Disney World, I was about 13. Yeah, I think I was about 13 and my mom surprised us with a trip to Disney because we had moved to Florida from Illinois and we had lots of big changes in our lives. My dad worked for Eastern Airlines and he was transferred down to Miami. So, we moved down to Miami and, you know, we were kind of feeling a bit of, like, fish out of water, which is funny because looking back I went on to definitely loving Miami and I still to this day love Florida and love Miami whereas I know a lot of people are overwhelmed by it. I always thrived there. Rosa Linda Román (27:15): So, Disney was a great moment for me when I went into the college program, but then, later I went into broadcasting. So, I went back to the University of Florida, went into broadcasting, worked at various stations around the country. And then, I met my husband, and that was a very strange, and crazy, and amazing time in my life because, obviously, I was in the process of getting married, and I had previously been engaged to someone else, I was engaged when I met Nathan. And so, my life was in upheaval. I had put my job at a TV station, sorry, I know that's a lot of noise, but I'm trying to move stuff. I had put my job in El Paso, Texas. I was at KVIA, and that's when I moved to Florida again. Rosa Linda Román (28:16): So, I was newly in love living in Florida, but he would go to work all day and I didn't know what I was going to do with myself. And I was feeling very lost because I went there without a job and I wasn't sure what I wanted to do. So, what do I do when I'm not sure what I want to do? I go and work at Walt Disney, apparently, my thing because I went back to work at Walt Disney and time I went and worked at the Jungle Cruise. I was a Jungle Cruise skipper. And if you don't know what the Jungle Cruise is, it's basically, an attraction where you go and you go through a pretend jungle with audio-animatronic animals. And you, basically, go through and tell corny jokes, the host, the attraction host, the person who's the Jungle Cruise skipper tells corny jokes as you go through the jungle. And it's a very memorable ride. Rosa Linda Román (29:18): It was one of the original rides that Walt Disney had a very active hand in. And it started in Disneyland and eventually, once Disney world opened they have the Jungle Cruise there as well. So, if you go back to the archives of New Mexico, I did a story about the Jungle Cruise skipper reunion. So, I have a lot of connections to Disney and I went back at that point and kind of reset my life, figured out what I wanted to do next. And so, then that's when I went back into broadcasting, I went after kind of renewing my energy and getting reset. I went and got my next job at WTBT in Tampa. So, all of this to say, I've always had a very happy, special feeling about Walt Disney World and Disney in general. Rosa Linda Román (30:19): And so, there we were this week. I was with my brother and his family and, you know, family travel can be stressful, but we are two families sharing a house. We did really, really well together, which isn't always the case. You know, it can be stressful to try to mesh different ways of, you know, being, and I just was really proud of both families for how we've got along, because his kids are little, and my kids are bigger. And so, I didn't know how that would go, but it went super well. And we ended up being at the parks for four days. So, this is something that has come up before. We are annual pass holders and my kids and I love going there. We just, Nathan likes it and enjoys it, but sometimes he gets overwhelmed by the crowds, but the kids and I usually could go, like, all the time and we know how to do the parks in a way that are not stressful because we're pass holders. Rosa Linda Román (31:18): I go for a bit, we see what we want to see, but we also know when to say when because, like, this week was a perfect example. When we were at Animal Kingdom yesterday, we were really looking forward to being there with my brother's family, but it turned out it's Memorial Day weekend, so it's crazy, crazy busy, number one. And it turns out, I didn't know this until I was talking to a silver pass holder, which is someone who, I don't know if this is true, that everybody with a silver pass is this that we're talking about, but basically, he had retired from Disney. So, he worked at the company his whole career, and he was sitting down on the bench nearby while I was waiting for my family at Animal Kingdom. And I struck up a conversation with him as I always do. Rosa Linda Román (32:14): And I said, "Wow, I just don't remember seeing this many people at the parks." I mean, I know it's the start of the holiday weekend, but it's a Friday. It wasn't Saturday. And he said, "Oh, that's because today's the last day that the cast members can come." And I said, "Well, what do you mean?" And he said, "Well, some of the cast members can still come. Basically, they get a pass as part of their benefits package to allow them to bring some family members a few times a year." Now, it's not every day. You can just bring your family and friends all the time. But I think at least when I was working there, I remember, it used to be that we could get three people in up to three times, every three months. So, basically, it's like three of your friends once a month. I think it worked out. Rosa Linda Román (33:01): Well, there's blackout dates for those times because if you had everybody come at the same time, like, during the busy season with their friends and family, cast members who were also on vacation, there would be no way to see anything or enjoy the ride. So, the blackout period, apparently, begins today. And so, this cast member was telling me, he said, former cast member, he said, "Today's the last day that they can use those passes. And so, everybody is using their pass, everybody." I was like, "Oh, so it was not only…" Oh, and then, by the way, we realized, we were watching, like, just kind of looking at all the people that were there, and we realized a lot of the people that were there were poor groups, but like, all the schools were having their end of year field trips. Rosa Linda Román (34:01): And so, those end-of-year field trips coincided with the pass holder issue, people all squeezing in their last-minute passes. So, it was just like, oh my gosh, this is a trifecta of chaos, right? Because there's all these people who are here with their schools, all these kids, and literally, I mean, we'd see all these crowds of people in green shirts. And they were all from one elementary school. And then there was crowds of people in green shirts. And they were all from another elementary school, and then there were crowds of people in, you know, purple shirts, and they were from another elementary school, or junior high, or high school. And I was like, oh, of course, it's a few weeks before the end of the school year. That's when all the schools put in their big trips. Like, some of the schools go to Washington, DC, other schools go to Disneyworld. So, it was so crowded and so crazy. Rosa Linda Román (34:59): But because we have passes, we were able to say, "Okay, we don't need to say let's do a few things [indiscernible] passes [indiscernible] and then, hit the road. And so, we did that and it's so much more enjoyable. But anyway, so that's just part of the sidebar of the Disney story. The past few times that I've been at Disney, I have said to my kids, "Maybe I'll just come and work here seasonally, maybe I'll do a little bit of seasonal work back at Disney." And they said, "What do you mean?" And I said, "Well, if you're in good standing with the company…" Which I am, "…you can come back and work at Disney. You'd have…" Like, I'd have to reapply and, you know, go through the whole traditional process, again, which is the time when they introduce you as a potential cast member, they introduce you to all the important things that you need to know about Disney. Rosa Linda Román (35:57): So, you know, the history of the company, and the standards with which they expect, you know, the things that they expect you to do as a cast member, how you should or should not behave, and, you know, stuff like that. Disney traditions is what it's called. So, I said, you know, I'd have to go through that, but I could definitely go back and work at Disney again. I'm pretty confident of that. I guess there's a chance that that wouldn't be a possibility, but I left in good standing. I also even went to an alumni reunion that I went to a few years back and had a happy experience there as well. So, anyway, I'm so sorry, I'm moving more boxes. So, now that I'm in here, now, of course, I have to organize the whole thing, which of course is hilarious because it's a massive project, and I'm really glad to be doing it. Rosa Linda Román (36:55): And the good news is nobody can reach me because there's no cell service in here. So, if, you know, they need me, they'll have to come find me. Anyway, so, yeah, so I told the kids this trip, and as I was going through the parks, everything I saw that wasn't in line with Disney's policy, you know, like, the traditions that I talked about. There were things that I saw that I was like, oh, that is so not Disney, you know? Just certain cast members behavior, certain things. A big one that really struck me was watching the dolphin at, sorry, I'm [indiscernible] the dolphin at EPCOT center. I've been struggling because I really feel strongly that dolphins and whales should not be in captivity ever, ever. Rosa Linda Román (38:01): Some places and some things that you do with animals as far as education, and you know, you educate the public about, I think there is definite benefit there, so I'm not saying that I think that there should never be a zoo or anything like that, but I think that whales and dolphins are very different. And I don't want to get into that. I'll get into that soap box some other day, but since this is already a long episode, I'm not going to go there right now. But anyways, so I had told the kids that I didn't want to go to SeaWorld. And that was a big thing because even had their FLVS field trip was going to be at SeaWorld this year. And I said, no, that we weren't going to go because I don't support SeaWorld. And so, that was a big issue and a sore spot. Rosa Linda Román (38:49): And they said, "But there's [indiscernible] at Disney." And I said, "No, there aren't." And I must have just blocked it out of my brain because I knew there were. They were there when I worked there and I've cut center, but I guess I mentally blocked it out because they did have a lonely, sad dolphin in EPCOT Living Seas and just swimming there with nothing. And it was just so sad. And again, I'm not going to get into my strong feelings on that issue. But the bottom line is, I said to them, when I saw it, I said, "That's going to be the first thing I do when I become CEO of Disney." And so, they were like, "Okay." So, everywhere we went, whenever we saw something or, you know, some cast member was, you know, not nice to whoever the guests were or whatever the issue was, I would say, "I'm definitely changing that when I come and when I'm the CEO of Disney." So, that became our mantra for the whole weekend. Rosa Linda Román (39:54): Breath, but, you know, even all kidding aside, that is a possibility that I could go back and work for the company. And on the drive here, I said to my husband, I said, "You know, if I could guarantee you that I would go… if I go and I could go and interview people in the parks…" You know, that's my background as a reporter. And I understand, I think the positive, and all the stories I've done on New Mexicast are, you know, all positive family-friendly, it's definitely in line with what I've done in my career post, I should say, done in my career post mainstream media. So, I said, "You know, it is it's conceivable that I would go back and work there." And even if I didn't get the dream job that I'm talking about, I definitely would consider working in one of the theme parks seasonally, because here's the thing. I've done all this independent work with New Mexicast and New Mexi-Castaways. Rosa Linda Román (41:02): And you know, just really been working independently for many years since 2007. And you know, one of the problems with that is it's quite lonely. It does not feed my social side, which if anyone who knows me, knows I'm a social person. And so, you know, it's conceivable that I could go work for the [indiscernible]. But who knows? I mean, that may be just me talking, and dreaming, and brainstorming. I have no idea. I have no idea if that's something I would actually want to do. But I do know I'm going to spend that weekend in the San Diego area. We just booked my hotels this morning and I'm going to do that women's weekend. I'm going to do some kind of brainstorming, soul searching, rethinking, and hopefully, come up with some ideas of what I would like to do for this next chapter. All right, I'm going to pause and go in search of some water, and then, I will wrap this up when I get back. And I hope you don't mind all the heavy breathing that this very long episode has in it. I'll be right back. Rosa Linda Román (42:32): Well, my sweetheart came back with Samuel. They had very cute haircuts, which is nice. And it's so funny how different he and I are. And he's just like, the minute he got back it was like, I feel the pressure and the stress, and it hit me again, and I was in my Zen sitting here feeling like I was getting so much done and he did say, "Oh wow, you did a lot." But it still felt like, "Well, what's taking you so long and we got to go." And then he said, "They're going to close soon." And, you know, whatever. It's just a different pace than my case, I think that way. So, because of that, it's a little less relaxing, which is why I am going on that women's weekend so I can have my time to hear my thoughts, not just sharing with you guys, but actually, sit down and write in my journal and ask myself, what next? What do I want next? You know? Rosa Linda Román (43:35): Because when you're moving on everybody else's schedules, when you're a part of a family of five, like, I am, delightfully so, I'm very grateful for that, it also means that you don't have a lot of time to do a lot of inner work soul searching. You know, I have some loved ones who I know that really get to spend a lot of time working on themselves. And I applaud them for that. It seems like when I want to do that, I get about as long as it takes to go into the bathroom. And then, you know, in five minutes somebody is knocking on the door, but I would not trade it for the world. It's s crazy, crazy life that we have. I am very grateful for it. So, I am going to get back to work. Rosa Linda Román (44:27): Nathan left to go take some of the stuff that we found in the hotel. We sorted through our stuff in a constant state of KonMari, where we sought through our stuff, and then, we sort through our stuff, and then, we sort through our stuff. So, you get rid of anything that doesn't spark joy and you, over time, whittle things down enough that you can actually be full-time travelers like we are, where we keep most of our most precious things with us or most of the things we need and just have a small storage space, maybe, with some precious treasures for looking at later. But anyway, yeah, I got to get back to it. No time to chit-chat. I hope you guys enjoyed this episode. If you did, please consider sharing it with a friend or leave a review for me, either on iTunes or one of the other podcast listening apps that you use, and check back in when you get a chance and I'll check back in when I get a chance. I hope you guys are all well and enjoying your adventures wherever you are. Take care. Thanks for listening. I'm Rosa Linda Román.