This is a repost of an article I wrote a few years ago talking about two other things I love: Disneyland and Chocolate Chip Cookies.
We had a staff meeting this week, and enough new faces were in the room that we went around the table introducing ourselves and, in true team building fashion, sharing our favorite hobby with the group. Since I happened to be a row or two from the front, I had plenty of time to decide what I was going to say; I thought through the various after hours and weekend activities that I often turn to in order to relax away any given stressful week, trying to find one that seemed sexy, funny and not so terribly insider that everyone would understand in a moment what it was that I liked.
The first few folks shared what you might expect, but when the spotlight landed on a fellow colleague on my appdev steering team, she without hesitation said “Visiting Disneyland, as many times as I can.”
I found myself smiling, for that is also one of the activities my wife and I enjoy as well. We’d been longtime Annual Passport holders until they simply priced us right out of the market. But we try to get out annually if we can.
When it was my turn, I decided to share something similar: “Eating chocolate chip cookies on Main Street, U.S.A. at Disneyland.” The room erupted as I expected it would, since by that point almost everyone else had joined the Disneyland theme in some form or fashion, which in itself was a little surprising. It reminded me once more just what sort of a special significance all things Disney can have for people.
But why cookies, you might be asking?
It’s a purely romantic story, for on the day my wife and I were married (at Walt Disney World, in fact), we actually went back into Magic Kingdom that evening and toasted to our future happiness with a diet cola and a freshly baked chocolate chip cookie from the Main Street Bakery. And it’s a gesture we repeat each time we find ourselves lucky enough to be together in that very magical place.
So chocolate chip cookies it is, now and forever.