Men vs. Women

Our shower has gotten some rust stains in it recently.  I was really worried about the rust, even though it was just a tiny bit.  I was worried it would be permanent and that we'd be charged the price of an entirely new shower when we moved out because it's been totally and entirely ruined.  I worry like that.

Well, after talking with my roommate, we decided to go online and see if we could fix these rust stains ourselves.  We searched and searched and eventually started Youtube-ing things to figure out what would actually work.

In doing this, I learned a little more than just how to get rust out of a shower.  All of the videos we watched that were created by women had fixes using household products such as salt, vinegar, cream of tartar, etc. 

The videos made by men only included power tools. 

One dude has this funny looking buffer/sander type thing he used on it.

Considering "the girl way" is far cheaper and simpler, and less dangerous (power tools in a bathtub, really?) I went with that.  Even if it's not as fast.  It hasn't been quite as effective.  I've now done the salt + lemon juice thing twice and the cream of tartar + vinegar thing twice and still have a little bit left.  But, I refuse to spend money on power tools. 

Gotta love the internet and all you can learn from it.

The Hunger Games

After Harry Potter became my favorite book series ever, I was fairly certain no other book would capture me as well as it did.  Then Twilight came out and proved my theory even more accurate.  So when The Hunger Games series became "all that" I was very skeptical.

But my roommate Kim just loves to read and talked me into at least trying to read the book.  And I have to admit, she got me hooked.  If I didn't have work and sleep to deal with I would have read the whole book in a day!  Okay, no, I'll be honest, it took me a few chapters to really get into it because I was so determined to not like the book.  Especially since it is slightly horrific!  In fact, I'm a little nervous to see the movie because of the violence I know will be in it.

Oh yes, the movie.  It comes out Thursday.  I picked a great time to get into this series!  I finished the first book last night and have two more to go.

I would definitely highly recommend it.  I was skeptical at first, especially with how totally horrible and demonic it is, but I think it's leading to something great.  At least, I hope so.

I'll check back in when I'm done with the next two books!

First Phones Shift

Today was my first phones shift.  I'm running out of firsts, as I've been working here almost two months now.  But I still want to consider myself the "new person" as long as I can until I stop making mistakes.

Well, one of our systems has been down for the past day.  I can't tell you what a huge hassle this has been.  It's been messing up clocking, ERs, extends, call ins, basically everything with the resorts.  None of the cast member's schedules came out today like they were supposed to.  Well, they were made and were ready to come out.  But the system that allows you to see your schedule from home was the one that was down.  At one point, cast members couldn't even log into the Hub, and we were getting calls about that.

And me being on phones, I was dealing with it first hand.  Absolutely crazy, but so much fun.  It kept me on my toes today as I took care of everything.  I was far busier than I thought I'd be but it was still so much fun.

It's very satisfying to have a job where I solve problems all day long.  Slightly repetitive sometimes, but very satisfying.  I love it!

Learn Something New Every Day

Today I learned that Spinach tortillas at Publix are exactly one penny cheaper than at Wal Mart!  I didn't think that was possible!

 I learned that eating Mrs. Freshleys powdered sugar donuts, while very messy, are almost as satisfying as chocolate.  Oh, yeah, so did I mention I'm not eating chocolate?  It's for lent.

I also learned that instead of going until Easter Sunday without eating chocolate, I only have to go til Palm Sunday which is the week before!  Which means I can eat chocolate at my brother's wedding!

And I learned that the radio that I thought I hated, isn't too bad as long as the locations are staffed well.  Yesterday was a great day.  And I intend to have more of those days.

Florida Wildlife

I go running every once in a while.  I really appreciate the fact that we have sidewalks all around where I live.  When I first moved here, I'd hoped to run to Disney since it's so close, but since realized there are no sidewalks to get there, it seemed just a tad too dangerous.  Maybe if I had a bike...

Anyway.  I've run up and down our road numerous times and it's always nice.  Along the sidewalk, I pass by several lakes.  Really they're like ponds.  They seem to small for lakes but too big for ponds.  But you know what I mean... As I run past them I'm always imagining alligators coming out to attack me.  There's not a lot to think about when I'm running, okay?

So, inside my head, these alligators come out of the water and attack me.  This makes me run slightly faster as I eye the water suspiciously.  Then I usually spot some sort of bird or duck in the water and it makes me feel better.  If I were an alligator, I'd want to eat the convenient ducky before trying to attack something almost the same size as I am that's twenty feet away from the water.  My run continues.

Well, I'll be honest about running.  A lot of my run is spent jogging, or even *gasp* walking.  Speed walking, though.  I'm not terribly lazy.  So I was power walking and listening to my music today, when I came across something far scarier than an alligator.  Mainly because this animal was actually real and up close to me instead of a made up situation in my head.  I heard something rustle a little in the bushes.  And then saw something black slithering around.  Snaaaake!  A black, three foot long, scary, nasty, slithery, horrible, snake.

I didn't actually know that I was afraid of snakes.  I've held snakes before and everything!  But not this snake.  The snake slithered away before I even had time to register how totally freaked out I was.  In fact, I think the snake was as scared of me as I was of him!  Immediately I ran.  I mean I ran away from there as fast as my legs would take me after having already run jogged power walked my way two miles down the road and one mile back.  I was exhausted, but suddenly the adrenaline gave me all the energy I needed to finish my run.  The good news in all of this is that I got a super good workout.  Also, I'm not dead from snake venom.

The bad news is I never want to run again.  What if that snake was poisonous?  What if it had bitten me?

Okay, so I'll keep running.  But next time I'm bringing my cell phone with me.  Just in case.

Working Overnights

I worked 7:30pm-4am last night/this morning.  I thought this shift would be easier than the 4am-12:30am shifts for some reason. 

It wasn't.  Not at all.  Especially when I've been waking up between 4:30am-7am for the past month.  And then suddenly I have to stay awake until after 4am.  Bleeeeeeeh.  So freaking difficult!

I kept getting into trouble for "looking tired."  The girl I was training with, however, was somehow plenty awake the whole time.  I didn't even see her yawn once.

She yelled at me, "What the heck?  You're not a morning person, and you're not a night person?  What kind of person are you!?"

"The kind that needs sleep!"

Staying up til 4am is the worst thing ever.  I'm soooooo glad I didn't choose those shifts when I did my schedule bid.  Thank goodness it's almost over!

I Can't Wait!

New changes to safaris.  I can't even express how excited I am for this!  I hope they still let me drive the trucks!  Chances are lookin' a little slim, though, since I'm going to China and all.

ZEBRAS!!!!!!

I can't WAIT!!!

On Toilets...

We fixed our toilet this week!  From the day I moved in here I noticed that it ran constantly.  Fortunately, toilets are extremely easy contraptions to deal with.  At least, any problem I've ever had with a toilet has been easy to deal with (knock on wood).  But after a tiny investigation I discovered that our toilet flapper thing was very misshapen.  So I ran to the store on the way home today (yes, it took me a month to get around to it) and bought a new one for $1.97 plus tax.  We were apparently supposed to turn off the water to the toilet before switching them, but neither my roommate, nor I, could figure out how to do that, so we just switched them out as quickly as we could.  And it worked!  It actually stopped running!  Thank, stinking, goodness!

Annnnd, I got a tour of the Feature Animation building over by Hollywood Studios today.  It's where movies like Mulan, Lilo and Stitch, and Brother Bear were created.  Really, really awesome.

And that is all. :) 

On Costumes

I picked up another Safaris shift yesterday.  I really miss that place.  The people, the trucks, the animals, the trucks, the long breaks and the trucks.  I love it all!

Well, as I made my five minute walk down to my car, these guys in a golf cart came speeding around the corner.  I kind of jumped out of the way and they noticed me at the last second and slammed the brakes.  Then, the guy driving looked at me and his first words were not, "Oh, sorry!  I didn't see you."  No.  His eyes were all big, then he saw me, smiled and said, "Heh, I like your costume."  And they drove off.

Seriously?  I  couldn't help but laugh.

I'm normally extremely averse to wearing Disney costumes in public.  Any time I go to Walmart and see cast members with their IDs out and their Disney shirts untucked it just makes me mad.  I'm fairly certain they told us in Traditions not to ever do that.  And I'm a stickler when it comes to rules.  But yesterday, I was coming home from work and I was incredibly thirsty.  I don't have my water bottle anymore so I was in the hot sun all day with nothing to drink because the break room was out of cups.  I even went to the cafeteria on the way to my car but they were closed and had gated off the drinks part.  Including the water fountain.  The only water was another "fill up your cup" station with no cups.  Stupid.

So not only was I thirsty, but I was craving mac & cheese.  My ridiculous cravings made me decide to run through Publix on the way home.  I got out of the car and was halfway in before I remembered I was in my costume, still.  I took off my belt and nametag and unbuttoned my shirt (I had a white tank top on underneath, no worries, but I wasn't about to go into public with just that on).  And I went inside hoping to look as discreet at possible.

I didn't expect everyone to stare at me.  Even more, I didn't expect people to whisper about me as though I didn't have ears.  "Does she work at Disney?"  "Look, that's a cast member."  "Do you think she works in Animal Kingdom?"  I pretended not to notice as I drank from their water fountain for like five minutes straight.  I got up and turned and it was just like in Beauty and the Beast where they were all staring at me and as soon as I turned around they turned back to what they were doing.  So funny.

I grabbed my Mac and Cheese and headed to check out.  As the guy bagged my mac and cheese (and I asked him to un-bag it because I don't like wasting them) he struck up conversation.  "So, do you have to wash that costume yourself?" 

I think I grossly underestimated how much I'd stick out.  Either that or people that shop at Publix just love Cast Members.

PI Group

Our training leaders invited us to an event through our Disney emails.  We have those, ya know.  They told us it wasn't required but was "highly recommended" that we all go.  Just the twelve PIs that is. 

What was this event?  They told us we'd be playing in Hollywood Studios and then having dinner at Applebee's.  Well, they didn't lie.  But we figured out pretty quick that they didn't give us the whole truth.  We spent days trying to guess.


We went to Rock'n Roller Coaster! And not only that, we got to ride with the lights on and music off.  Coolest.  Thing.  EVER!  It's actually scarier with the lights on, though.  And I still had trouble figuring out which way is up.  At the end we were held for a while while they put some limos away.  It's actually kind of scary to be trapped in those restraints at the end for an undetermined amount of time with no one else around.

They considered this a learning experience since in my job we have to know the operations.  But we just found it awesome.

We're such a great group!

I love my job!

The Circle of (My) Life

I still remember the first day I worked at Disney in 2009.  I was scared to death, because the Dianna in me was freaking out, as usual.  The first guest I ever dealt with as a cast member came to my register.  It was register 2 at the Imagination Pavilion.  My trainer was standing next to me and I froze for a second, scared to death thinking about what was going to happen next, entirely unsure of myself, with my mind speeding through every possible scenario of how I would mess this up.  Then, the guest spoke.  "Hi!  Is there any way I could get this shipped to my room, please?"  Her little girl beside her kept messing with the little bouncy balls that we keep by the counter.  It was so normal.  She had no idea I was training.  Her confidence in my abilities to do my job, and the complete calmness she held completely overwhelmed me.  And then, just like that, all that worrying went away and I just did it!  I did my job.  And I did it right.  And it was awesome!

The same thing happened at safaris just months ago.  I was nearly paralyzed with fear as I drove up to the dock to pick up what would be my first set of real guests ever!  I stopped the truck and put it in park and just sat there for a second.  I think I may have even told my trainer, "I can't do it.  I can't."  I was nearly crying.  He told me to say the word.  The code word we have to say showing that we're ready for guests to board.  "Karibuni everybody!"  I said in the most confident voice I could muster, still shaking with fear.  The gates opened and the people flooded on.  As they were chatting amongst themselves, finding their seats, I realized their confidence in me.  Their confidence in Disney, really.  Confidence that this ride would be worth the money.  Worth the wait.  And their confidence that I could present them with that.  And then, just like that, all that worrying went away and I did it.  I continued my spiel not even thinking about worrying.  There was so much stuff to think about there was no more room in my brain for the worrying.  And I did it!

Now I'm encountering those same feelings again as I train this job.  I feel like each time it gets progressively harder.  Today, as my trainer had me answer phone calls and even call a manager for an update, I felt those same feelings rush back.  I called the Future World East manager.  My hand was shaking the radio as I said, "Hi, this is Dianna at Deployment, are you ready for an update?"  My mind was racing with worries of the manager hating me, of stumbling over my words, of not knowing what to say, of saying too many things, of getting things wrong, all the way down to the computer suddenly crashing.  She responded, "Oh yes!  I'm so glad to hear form you because I was just going to call you.  I needed your help with something else, but go ahead and give me the updates and then I'll tell you what I need too.  Actually it's two things, but go ahead with your update."  No questions asked, she had confidence in me and my abilities to do my job right down to the point where she had questions for me.  A manager.  In EPCOT.  With problems... for me to solve.  Me! But I did it.  Just like that, the worrying went away, and I did it.  And I fixed the problems she had, with help from my trainer, of course!  :)

And so continues a circle in my life.  The lackage and then gainage (I know they're not words.  Deal with it.) of confidence.  I'm grateful for the lessons I learn here at Disney.  I'm glad I can trust my trainers never to give me more than I can handle.  I am learning so much not only about the company, but about myself.  I'm (hopefully) becoming a better person with every semester.  I don't think I'll ever fully be confident with myself.  But that's okay.  I like me anyways.

Also, I like Disney.  And my job.  And my friends.  A whole, stinking lot.

First Day of School!

There's a stuffed Nemo toy we sell who, when you squeeze his fin, says "First day of school!  First day of school!  I really LOVE the first day of school!"

That's how I felt this morning getting ready.  Except I'm not in school.  And I'm not four years old.  And I'm not a clownfish.

That said, my job rocks!  It's all I thought it was and more, which is super awesome.  We met this morning and walked to the tunnels because they wanted to make sure we all knew how to get around.  Then they stuck us in a room and showed us Powerpoints for three hours.

Well it wasn't quite that boring.  I introduced myself like five times in three different ways including when they forced me to draw pictures of my life.  I stuck at drawing, but at least it made people laugh as I tried to explain them. Then we filled out a survey online and had to email it out to people.

They also made me fill out that thing that determines what learning style you are.  I'm not even kidding, the last three times I filled out one of those I got one each of the tactile, auditory and visual.  Today was visual.  Silly tests.  I wrote on the other survey I filled out that I tend to learn when I'm sincerely interested in what I'm learning about.  If I'm interested, I guarantee I'll learn no matter which style you use.

Then we got to shadow for a while.  Each "computer" has two monitors.  TWO!  I got stressed out at home with my mom's computer that has two monitors.  It just throws me off.  And every time I'd drag the mouse up to the top right corner to close a window it would slide to the next screen and click on something.  That'll take some getting used to. Did I mention this will take six weeks of training?  Six weeks.  Cuh-razy!  Safaris was seven days.

But I'm totally excited and love my job.  And that's the point of this post.  To let everyone know that.  I love my life!

Back In Florida

Driving back to Florida the other day I was thinking about my life.  Cuz, ya know.  Ten hours in a car... you get a lot of time to think.

And I started thinking.

"I'm going to Disney World."

Wait... "I'm going to Disney World!?"

"I'm going to DISNEY WORLD!"

And that's when I realized I haven't played in Disney for like a month.  Which seems like forever.  Which is awesome.

New Years

I never got around to a New Year's post.  Or really a post about my final days on my final College Program.  I began posts on each, but due to many random reasons I elected against it.

So to sum up, my last day of Safaris was absolutely awesome, amazing, incredible, great, spectacular all jumbled into one.  I was sad to leave, but excited to begin the next chapter of my life. I was delighted to have a little boy jump off the truck and run to my manager, who just happened to be standing there on the dock, and say in the cutest voice, "That was the best ride ever!  There was this bridge that fell over, but it's okay, we made it across because I crossed my fingers, just like this!"  He proceeded to show us all how he could cross his fingers.  "And then there was a baby elephant that we saved because we chased away those bad guys!  And we saw cheetahs too!  It was so cool!"

Oh yeah kid.  Yes, tell my manager what an awesome driver I am.  You'd think I'd paid him to do that.

New Year's was mostly uneventful.  Not in a sad or depressing way.  But still, uneventful.  I won't go into it.

Then I drove up to Virginia.  After dropping my roommate off at the airport at 5am, I drove straight from there home, stopping twice for gas and grub.  I got here around 6:30pm.  A loooooong time to spend in a car, that's for sure.  I crashed my parent's dinner date at Applebee's.  It was great getting free food again!

So here is my mini-update.  I'm sad it's not really your typical "first post of the year."  But hey, I did me best.  And you probably didn't really want to hear about all my New Year's resolutions I'm making to myself either (and I didn't want random strangers judging me when I didn't fulfill said resolutions.. yeah, that's right, I said "when").

I won't be updating for at least another week.  So I guess I'll see ya in Florida!

Merry Christmas!

This has been the best Christmas, probably in years.

It all started last night when my roommate and I baked gingerbread cookies.  And they came out perfectly.  All soft and chewy and all gingerbread-y.  So delicious!  Then we each opened a present.  My roommate bought me a little radio control Safari truck.  It's a little smaller than I'm used to driving, but will do nicely.

Excuse this picture, I literally just took it, since I decided I needed to put more pictures with my posts.

I was really excited for her to open hers.  I recruited my other roommate to go in with me and get her a nice tiara from Adventureland.  One of the really nice, legit looking ones.  I'm pretty sure she almost fell asleep with it on!  Hers was the present I was most excited to give! 

Then I had to be at work bright and early this morning.  As I opened the front door, one of my friends had left a wrapped present for me just outside on our doorstep.  A small stuffed Piglet, my favorite character!  So incredibly "thotful!"

When I got to work I got Departure 2, which is my favorite land to have.  I loaded people on the trucks all morning.  I was hilarious because it was so slow nobody was going anywhere I asked them to.  "Party of three?  Row eight please."  Pause... watch them walk... "Orrrr, you could have two of you go to row five and one in row six.  That works too..." So funny.

Then, my first truck of the day I had the best family in the front row.  There are some safaris where you just seem to click with the guests.  They all love me, and I just love them.  I love safaris like that!  They are always so much fun, and what a great way to start off Christmas day!  And the family in the front row just made the whole safari that much more fun.

We had a pot luck at my location so on my break I got to pig out on the best green bean casserole I've ever had.  Also, someone made some incredible mac and cheese, and we had lots of turkey.  My friend also made a Jewish dish called "noodle pudding."  It was good, for a change (*wink wink* Dad).  I'm glad that I tried it!

I got off at the same time as my friend, Allie.  On our way home we made plans to go to Downtown Disney (DTD).  She actually wanted to brave MK, but I talked her out of it.  We went to Earl of Sandwich and got their Thanksgiving Sandwich which is stuffing, turkey, cranberry sauce, gravy, and such on a sandwich.  Best sandwich ever!  And only five bucks!

Even though DTD is less than ten minutes away, it took over thirty to get home for the traffic.  Ten minutes was spent at the same stoplight waiting for it to change three times before we could get through.  Cuh-razy!

I opened the rest of my presents and they were so awesome, plus all the Christmas cards and such from friends.

What made this Christmas better than any other I've had in recent years, is that today I'm reminded of the amazing friends that I have, and how much I am loved.  And with knowledge like that, not much else is needed in life.  I'm grateful for loving family, lots of friends who think about me, incredible co-workers, a fun job, strong beliefs, plans for my future, a safe place to live, a good education, and a working body and mind.  I love my life.  I love December.  I love Christmas.  I LOVE it!  Not much could make me happier.

Oh wait.  Christmas music.  Yep, that just made me happier!  I didn't think that was possible...

This has truly been one of the most Merry of all Merry Christmases I've had in recent years!  Thanks to all who made it great, and to all, a good night!

Gonna Miss These Guys

I see animals doing really silly things on the safari.  Believe it or not, an animal pooping is not the most interesting thing out there.  It's sad that, when I think the animals are being adorable, the guests hardly even notice.

For example, where the okapi is, there's a giant log on the ground.  The other day I drove through and the log was covered in maybe fifteen vultures lined up on it.  And then the okapi was pacing back and forth in front of the birds.  I almost died laughing.  Seriously, it looked like the okapi had recruited the vultures to help with some secret mission.  Or some creepy animal ceremony...

Okay, so maybe I have done too many safaris.

Then there's the pelicans.  They seriously look like they're doing yoga sometimes!  Like, this one stands on one foot and stretches the other out in the air.  When it does that, it opens it's wings out, I assume, to keep balance.  It looks literally like it's doing yoga.  I actually mentioned that on a safari the other day and the lady behind me laughed and agreed with me.  Yes, I appreciate that one guest who laughs at me.

The hippos talk quite a bit and it's like a bunch of grunting.  But today I got to do an empty safari (miraculously, seriously I thought I'd never get to do an empty round again cuz we've been so busy, but surprisingly today we were dead).  I came around to the hippo and she started grunting and for the first time it sounded like she was laughing!  Seriously.  She started laughing at me and then splashed in the water a bit and laughed again.  They've done this many times before, sometimes splashing with each other, but it's never sounded so much like laughter before.  Now I'm going to be looking for it...

The flamingos just crack me up too.  The thing about the flamingos is that they (and the crocs) are pretty much the only animals we can pretty much guarantee will be on every single safari.  So I always have that part of the ride exactly memorized and it's just boring.  But then lately I've noticed how silly the flamingos are.  I mean, they've always been super noisy.  But they "fight" too.  And they chase each other which is stinking adorable.  This one always is showing off it's wings, and sometimes it'll open it's wings and just run around in circles.  I've seen it do that like three times now and it always cracks me up.

Jabali is always funny, too.  The baby elephant.  Seriously, just exactly like a little kid.  He just has to be the center of attention.  Although the older he gets, the less he runs around which is kind of sad.  He plays with Luna all the time, though.  The two of them are always rolling around on the ground and pushing each other.  It's so funny to see Jabali try to push Luna with his trunk because he's like half her size.  Adorable!  The other day Luna tried to climb over a big log and got stuck, so Jabali came up behind her and was trying to push her the rest of the way over.  So stinking adorable.

One time I came around to cheetahs and saw one standing on the rock so I pointed her out.  "Hey look!  There's a cheetah!  And it looks like it's about to jump somewhere!  Let's watch her jump!"  Nope.  She wasn't about to jump.  She just needed to relieve herself... definitely the funniest time I've ever seen an animal take a poo because my entire truck laughed at me.

I did a safari a while ago and a few trucks up ahead got stopped for an ostrich.  So as we waited I told my guests we were stopped for an ostrich and talked a bit about ostriches to fill in the silence during our wait.  Then, we went back on the move and shortly thereafter found the ostrich.  The guy sitting in the first row had his little two year old sitting on his lap and as we came around the ostrich he proceeded to say to his child, "Wow.  That is one ugly animal!  Can you say ugly?  Yes, see, this thing is what we call ugly. Yuck!  That thing made us stop.  Look how ugly it's face is."  I had to turn off my mic and wipe the tears from my eyes trying not to laugh.

I'm gonna miss these animals.  A lot.  The people make me laugh too.  Like the other day a woman asked me how to tell if the giraffe was male or female.  My response?  "Umm, the same way as a human?"  The whole truck cracked up.  I since have been told that male giraffes are darker in color... meh.  Whatever!

I'm gonna miss this job!  I'm going to miss trying not to laugh so many times a day, and failing at not laughing just as many times throughout the day.  Seriously, sometimes just what I hear on the radio makes me laugh.  I love it!

Ohhhh, my life is so awesome!

Holiday Madness

Gotta love the Holidays at Disney World.  Cuh-razy!

It blows my mind sometimes when I re-realize just how many people are in this world.  Literally, I just stand there and watch as they drop the rope and this sea of people just comes straight towards us.  It's kind of overwhelming to see that many people walking towards you at once.  Okay, so that's why we don't actually "drop the rope."  Two people walk with the rope to the front of the line.  Because my friend was telling me that a few years ago he watched as the sea of people (I'm seriously not exaggerating, literally just imagine thousands of people all power walking together) came towards him and one person tripped and it was just a domino effect.  He said by the end about twenty people were on the ground all piled up.  Of course, no one was seriously hurt, but kind of crazy to imagine.  And a little funny. Heehee.

Anyway, today I worked Pram which normally sucks, but they pulled me out of parking and put me in the line.  I was basically just separating strollers from the actual line.  It's all about efficiency!  As I was standing there this random lady came up to me and threw her arms around me in a hug, "Ohhh!  You're from BYU-Idaho!!!  I love that school.  We're from Provo!"  Obviously, she read my nametag. Full body hug. Not awkward at all.

I decided as I was waiting to find strollers I'd entertain the line and it felt like my PAC days of yelling random junk to groups of total strangers again.  It's kind of fun to be the center of attention and seeing tons of faces looking at me with big smiles on their faces just wondering what I'll come up with next.  I really don't think I'm that interesting, but to super bored people I guess anything is interesting.  I was yelling about how there wasn't much line left and "just a few more miles down and you'll be there."  This foreign lady walked past as I mentioned this, and said with her accent, "Ohh, just some more miles?  Okay... uh, how many minute is that?"  Not too long, lady.  Not too long...

We were sitting at an 80 minute wait.  Actually, we were saying it was an 80 minute wait.  The FLIK cards showed us that people were waiting much shorter, from what I heard.  More like 50 or 60. But when the line is long like that we always say way more because people just swear that they've been waiting in line forever.  FLIK cards don't lie.  Those are the red cards we hand to random guests to bring with them to the front of the line so we can see how long they're waiting.  To that guy who insisted it had been two hours, I seriously pity him for the amount of people who had to cut in front of him for that to happen.

Anyway, one man told me, jokingly, that he'd been waiting "6 or 7 hours already in this line."  So I responded with, "Well then only 2 or 3 hours more to go!"  In reality everyone who got to the point where I was pulling strollers away was only about ten minutes away from the front anyway.

Due to the wait, I've been more motivated to give awesome safaris lately.  And to be honest, I feel like the people who ride my safaris have been more fun, making it easier for my safaris to be better.  Maybe something about waiting in a 60 minute line makes people want to enjoy it more.  But the people are more likely to applaud at the end and get involved.  And I love it when the parents really get into the story with their kids.  "Did you hear what she said?  There's poachers around!  We better watch out buddy!"  And there's no greater compliment to me when a four year old says excitedly in the middle of the savannah, "This is the best ride ever!"  Melt my heart!

Not that all of my safaris are awesome.  I get burnt out, too.  I get exhausted.  Today I was last truck again.  I love being last truck but it kind of sucks because they bring in a lot of the animals.  Last time I was last truck the only animals I saw for the entire second half of the ride were flamingos and the addax.  Super lame.  No lions, no cheetahs, not even the warthogs!  The reason I like last truck is because I get paid extra to sit in the VM lot at the end of the day waiting for fuel.  Literally just relaxing and doing nothing.  Except pulling the truck forward a few feet every couple of minutes.

Anyway, I could just write forever.  I'll stop here and update some other time.  Just rambling, remember?  My special talent. Heehee.

Hopefully I'll have more interesting stuff to write about next time.  I'm moving into my new apartment soon!  That'll be fun!

Animal Sightings

I've done so many safaris I don't even remember them anymore.  In fact, I love going back through this blog and reading what I wrote because, to be honest, I don't remember some of that stuff ever happening.  And it even happened just in the past few months!

Today, the lion was not only walking around in a perfect view of both the male and female, but he also started roaring.  He actually roared right on call for me!  I mentioned that it looked like he was going to roar to my guests and told them if they were quiet, we might be able to hear him.  And then, magically enough, he really started roaring!  I've heard him roar before, but it's always exciting to hear from the animals!

The hippos also spoke to us today (that's a lot more common though... probably the most common, in fact).  And I heard the cheetahs for the first time!  It's hard to hear the cheetahs because they're so far away.  But recently I was given an idea to pay more attention to listening to the animals, or, more importantly, allowing guests to listen to the animals.  The cheetahs sounded just like a cat, actually.  They were playing with each other.

I got a little worried today as I came around the elephants.  One was laying down on the ground on it's side and not moving.  It almost looked dead, but then it started rolling in the mud and another little elephant came over and started throwing dirt onto the first one's back.  They're so cute!  One time the elephants were playing like that and they even started talking very loudly!  So awesome!


We've also been having problems with squirrels lately.  I'm not really sure if I wrote about the squirrel that attacked me a while ago.  Basically, it lunged at my face and if I hadn't have dodged it it probably would have killed me.  Okay, so that's a slight exaggeration, but you get the point.

Anyway, there's this little squirrel that apparently someone's been feeding.  Everyone keeps blaming us safari drivers.  I haven't done it, but apparently there's such a big issue that they've been threatening reprimands for feeding the squirrels.  This just made me laugh.  But seriously, they've been having a big problem with the squirrels being not afraid of humans.  One even jumped onto my manager's leg the other day.  They come right up to us humans saying (in squirrel speak of course), "Food?  Food?  You give me popcorn?  Yes?"  Super cute... but also just a tad creepy.

Ah well.  I love the animals I work with.  I love my job.  And I'm super lucky for this experience!  I'm definitely going to miss this job!

Too Much TV?

Often during my job there are times when I feel like I'm in a movie.  For example, this morning I opened the Cheers dock, which is the exit basically.  So I was literally waiting for like 45 minutes for guests to come.  So boring.  By the time the first truck came, I felt exactly like in Madagascar when the animals of the zoo are waiting for people in the morning and start yelling, "Yay!  The people!  The people are coming!  I love the people! Yay people!!!"

There are other times when I feel like Maria from The Sound of Music.  When I'm on the safari and I get to a point where I've said all the interesting stuff I can come up with and there aren't really any more animals to talk about for a few seconds so there's that little bit of dead space.  I look in my rearview mirror and see a bunch of expectant faces just waiting for whatever I'll say next.  It reminds me of the scene where Maria sings "Raindrops on roses" and she turns to see the kids all looking at her expectantly and puts her hand to her head, not sure what to go on with for a second.  Ahh, I understand perfectly.

As I come around the savannah and explain the termite mounds and how not only termites get use out of them, but the elephants and antelope also use them, I always want to finish with the quote, "And so, we are all a part of the great circle of life."  I've never actually said it just because it doesn't completely fit, but still.  Such a good quote from the best movie ever.

Speaking of The Lion King, people always point out the animals from that movie.  As we go around to warthogs they all call out, "Oh!  Hey! It's Pumbaa!" and the lions are all called "Simba" "Nala" or "Mufasa."  The best is the mandrills though.  People catch on and call them Rafiki.  But really.  Have you ever seen a mandrill?  Looks nothing like Rafiki.  I'm just saying.  They're smaller, fatter, and lazier.  And not as wise.


 

I'm just sayin'.

That is all. (I'm too tired to figure out how to make this pictures fit side by side... so there ya go)

Oh, and I love my job!

Things I Just Love

I've been kind of grumpy lately.  I had a bad encounter with a guest that made me angry at all guests for a while.  Then I went home early on Tuesday because I wasn't feeling well (and I was still mad).  But I'd had the past two days off, and it's been wonderful.  And I've been thinking more and more about things I love about life rather than... negatives. 

So, here's to happiness!

Today I headed out to Magic Kingdom to get some friends into the parks.  On the way I was on the monorail and noticed a little four year old boy who asked his dad, "So, after Magic Kingdom, can we go to EPCOT?  I want to see the big white ball!"  Many adults don't even understand there are four different parks.  I mentioned how impressed I was, how advanced he sounded (he said other things too that just showed he really totally understood what was going on) and spoke with his grandmother a bit.  As I did I learned he hadn't even been here in a year.  "Oh, so what's the occasion this time?"  I asked.  "No babies!!!" the little boy yelled.  Apparently he had a little baby sister, two months old back at home.  Cutest thing ever.  He turned his little head to look out the window of the monorail at the castle and said, in the cutest, most excited voice ever, "This is going to be the best day EVER!"  And then let out a sigh.  I love it!

This past week I've gotten to do two scavenger hunts.  One in Magic Kingdom and the other in Hollywood Studios.  I love watching the Osbourne Family Lights dance and seeing the families around dancing with their kids and all over just having a fantastic time.  Also, it snows during the light show.  There's something about softly falling snow that is just plain magical.  I love watching the Jedi Training academy and watching little kids take out Darth Vader.

I love when I come around elephants on the Safari and Jabali is out playing.  The baby elephant.  The other day I went around and the elephants were all in the water playing, splashing and even making noises.  Crazy!

Shopping for Christmas gifts for people.  I love finding presents for people.  Unfortunately I could never afford to get everyone everything I'd want to get them.  But I'm pretty excited to give out some of my presents this year!

ABC Family and the 25 Days of Christmas just began.  Meaning this is all you're getting for an update.  But yeah, Merry Christmas! 

And I have to say that what I'm loving most right now is that my favorite month of the entire year has just begun!!!