A bit of a "Mickey Mouse" day

I grew up with Mickey Mouse.  Yes, he is old enough to be my father and he is certainly older than my mother.  But Mickey and I have been friends for a long time.   I grew up just a few miles away from Disneyland which opened shortly after I was born.  Needless to say, as a child, I spent many holidays, birthdays, etc. at Disneyland until my family moved away from California.  And Mickey was always my favorite character.  

Several years ago, my husband and I were living temporarily in Southern California because he took a consulting position there.  While we were there,  I got reacquainted with some old friends and made some new ones.  Some of my new friends happened to be illustrators for Disney.  One very good friend is the original illustrator for several well known characters in the last of the "drawn" cartoon movies, Beauty and the Beast.  Most of the animated movies now are all computer generated characters.  

This photo is of an original "drawn" painting done by one of my friends who was a Disney animator.  He and my husband conspired together and presented this to me, along with a watch with the same illustration on the face of the watch, for my birthday that year.  I have treasured these every since.  

Both of my friends no longer work as movie animators.  One has "retired" and does commissioned artwork.  The other, the illustrator of this painting, works at Disneyland part time doing original paintings of Disney characters.  Unfortunately, there are very few true illustrators working for any of the studios anymore.  It has all gone to computer animation.  While it does take incredible skill to develop a character through computer animation, I hope that the true art of hand-drawn animation is not lost.  

So, why was my day a "Mickey Mouse" day?  Well, sometimes we use that expression to indicate that something or someone was doing something hap-hazardly or unprofessional.  (The origins of the expression escape me because Mickey was also in top form.)  Today, I had to see a doctor for an independent medical exam for my insurance company.  I won't bore you with the details.  But this "doctor" was a bit "mickey mouse" in his examination.  I wasn't terribly impressed.