Chasing Mary Poppins

Let's set the Wayback machine for the summer of 2009, Sherman, to my road trip down the West Coast with Girl Scout Fiancée and two of our friends. It was during that trip that we visited Disneyland, and, as documented in the post about our decision to have a wedding in Disney World, where I witnessed her heartbreaking capacity for childlike wonder. This story is not about that, however. This story is about one of the funniest things I have ever seen Girl Scout Fiancée do, and something that we still laugh about to this day. It's one of my favorite Disney memories, and definitely one of the two most memorable moments from our time in Disneyland.

We were near Sleeping Beauty's castle, crossing over into a new part of the park, when all of a sudden Girl Scout Fiancée's eyes go wide, and she belts out an exclamation that startles the other three of us. "Mary Poppins!" she shouts, her hand pointing off in the distance. It may not be well known to you, dear reader, but Mary Poppins is one of Girl Scout Fiancée's favorite movies; we've even been to see the musical when it came to the Paramount theater here in Seattle. All of a sudden, she takes off like a shot away from us. Yet, she isn't really running; with capri pants and sandals on, plus a purse around her shoulder, she couldn't really get up to a full-tilt sprint. Instead, Girl Scout Fiancée dashes away in this sort of strange stiff-kneed, bent-armed trot down the hill; she looks like nothing more than C-3P0 running after the Millennium Falcon.

Notice the teeny, tiny little steps he takes, even while running.

I don't mean she looks like a sexy, girlish C-3PO, either. I mean, full-on, Anthony Daniels in a sweltering metal suit, C-3PO run. Down the hill she goes, and it's only as she gets about 100 feet away from us before we can finally see what she has seen: a Cast Member in costume as Mary Poppins is crossing, unescorted, through the park and is headed toward a "Cast Members Only" door. Girl Scout Fiancée trots the whole way down the hill, and it suddenly becomes very apparent that she and Mary Poppins will reach that door simultaneously. We see Mary Poppins speed up, then slip through the Cast Members Only door and close it behind her just before Girl Scout Fiancée reaches her.

Sexy droids really cause me a lot of confusion.

A few moments later, Girl Scout Fiancée returns to us dejected and tells us the rest of the story. All she wanted was to have her photo taken with Mary Poppins, and that's why she took off at a run. The whole way, Mary Poppins was not looking at her (despite her frantic shouts!), except at the very last moment. As Mary Poppins opened the Cast Members Only door, she stepped partially inside, then turned and looked right in Girl Scout Fiancée's face before shutting the door in it. According to GSF, it was a look that was clearly intended to say, "I can see and hear you, a 25 year old woman chasing an employee dressed as Mary Poppins, and despite that fact I will not stop to see what you want."

I understood exactly why things went down the way they did. The Cast Member couldn't stop to chat with or have her photo taken with Girl Scout Fiancée; she had obviously just ended a shift signing autographs or making some other kind of appearance, and was headed backstage to rest or even leave work. If she stopped for GSF, she would have had to have stopped for anyone else, and ran the risk of never making it backstage as she is continually swamped by people approaching her. Though it left Girl Scout Fiancée a little grumpy that she didn't get her photo taken with Mary Poppins, we all knew that we couldn't fault the Cast Member for just doing something she was likely instructed to do.

According to Girl Scout Fiancée, this was the look she got from Mary Poppins.

Still, I know Girl Scout Fiancée was disappointed, and that's why I'm going to try for us to have breakfast at 1900 Park Fare at the Grand Floridian; I've heard that Mary Poppins is one of the characters that comes by during breakfast, and that's likely our best chance to see her and finally get that photo taken, nearly five years after Girl Scout Fiancée did what eventually came to be known as her "C-3PO run" among our group of friends, through Disneyland.