More Extra Hours

I promised myself after picking up the DAK shift last week that I wouldn't pick up any more shifts. I've pretty much met every goal I've had while here and I'm so exhausted so I decided no more extra hours.

Except, since I'm me, I didn't. I picked up another shift. Starting Tuesday I work 5:30p-2a and then I have a shift the next morning at 9:30-3:30 and then my other shift for that day will be 5-11. Fun fun!! I'll probably end up getting an ER for Tuesday though. But, if I can somehow stick it out until 2 then that means the whole next day I'll be paid overtime (any shift that comes within 8 hours of the previous shift is overtime).

Today I'll be packing. Although so far I haven't done anything all day except make French Toast for breakfast. Yummy!

Merry Christmas

It's very wet outside. I woke up at 7am to drive my roommate to the airport. She's going home today. Something I'm extremely jealous of.

She got directions to the airport avoiding all toll roads. There were several turns and small roads and stuff and it was all foreign to me. Oh, and it was raining ridiculously hard. I don't know if I've ever skidded so much in my life (don't read that part, dad) But, we didn't have to deal with the tolls.

On the way home I gave it up and just took the toll road. I didn't want to be trying to figure out the paper directions while driving through ridiculous rain and fortunately I live right beside a popular tourist attraction so really all I had to do was follow the signs to Disney World. One of the toll ladies (apparently you have to pay every couple miles on a toll road... yuck!) even let me go by for free. "Merry Christmas" she told me. :) It took me about 45 minutes to get to the airport and around 15 to get back. Toll roads are pretty nice!

I got home expecting to go back to bed but instead I'm not as tired as I thought I'd be. I have the apartment to myself so I'm just relaxing, watching tv, and being sad that this is my first Christmas morning in my whole life that I'm not happily opening presents with my family. No family. No friends. No gingerbread houses with mom. No snow. (It's actually almost warm outside) No presents. No tree. No stockings (well, the tree and stockings are downstairs). No joy.

Okay so actually there is joy. I have great friends here. I've gotten to listen to all the Christmas music I want to. I know my family is only a phone call away. Oh, and I'm the luckiest kid in the world in that happiest place on earth. Teehee! :)

So just so this isn't a totally depressing post I'll add some happy stuff! I've had the last two days off and I don't work until 7:45 tonight. Last night I went to Hollywood and saw the Osbourne dancing lights show. Pretty cool. They were handing Christmas cookies out at the bus stop last night! We also watched the movie "The Santa Claus" last night. Good movie. Possibly my favorite Christmas movie.

Anyway, only a week left. Wow. I can't even believe it. We were looking at pictures of our program last night and I just couldn't believe how wonderful this semester has been. I love it here and I know I'm gonna miss it like crazy when I leave. But also for now I'm excited to go back to college.

Merry Christmas!!

Why am I awake right now?

After today I can officially say that I have picked up a shift in each of the four parks and Downtown Disney.

Magic Kingdom-Emporium on Main Street during Halloween party-***

EPCOT-I live there, 'nuff said-*****

Animal Kingdom-Maingate merchandise including strollers-****

Hollywood Studios-Deployed for a week in Mickey's of Hollywood and Keystone-****

Magic Kingdom was my least favorite place by a landslide, but I couldn't stand giving any store in Disney less than 3 stars. I have reasons for my s tars but am too tired to write about them.

See, in order to pick up my shift at DAK (shortened Disney's Animal Kingdom) today I had to wake up at 6. I left by 6:45 so I could hopefully find wardrobe by 7 and still have time to find my costume, change my clothes, and then drive over to my location and figure out where to clock in.

I would have gotten my costume earlier but apparently DAK costuming is closed Sunday and Monday. Lame. Anyway, my shift started at 8am and went til 2pm. The people there were so stinkin' nice. Plus, I got to watch the opening show for DAK! Mickey, Minnie and Pluto come out. It's cute.

Lip Piercing (No! Not Me!!)

A girl I work with got her lip pierced earlier today. So she came to work with a band-aid on. Using the excuse it was a pimple. Rosa is hilarious and she's only made funnier by her thick Mexican accent. Her English is fantastic, but she has the most hilarious accent ever.

Well, because her lip was just pierced it apparently hurt her to laugh. Something about how it moves the lip and then cut her gums or something. So I was trying not to be goofy or anything but that's just bound to happen when it's an EMH night with a bunch of CPs from random countries and different languages and no one to take pictures of.

So since there was nothing to do I grabbed some o f the Figment bouncy balls and started juggling. I've actually become pretty okay at it. Definitely not great, but satisfactory at least. I was counting how many catches I could do (my record so far is 41.5... the half is because I couldn't determine whether or not the last catch should be considered a catch or not...). As I threw the balls up and caught them I started counting out loud.

Rosa called to me, "Stop doing thaaat!"

"Stop doing what?"

"That... that thing that I cannot doooo."

"What? You mean laugh?"

Okay so it was a lot funnier in person. Mainly her face after I said that. I had a lot of fun teasing her but then I felt bad because she really was in pain but then I didn't feel bad because hello? She asked for it! Haha, ohhh tonight was fun!

So yeah, you know you work at Disney when you come home from work at 1:45am and not a single roommate is home. Yeah, like tonight.

Well, I should probably go to bed. But not before I show you some pictures of me at graduation. Keep in mind these pictures were taken Thursday. Like, middle of December Thursday and yes, I'm wearing capris and a short sleeved shirt and no, I'm not cold at all.






Alyssa, Veronica, Laura and me








And PS, no, I have no clue what side of my head the tassel goes on.

I Couldn't Resist

Oh Disney....

In Need of a Good Comeback

Oftentimes when I'm taking a photo, I'll go through and edit parts of it in front of the family. I move the people around and can shrink and enlarge them.

Nine women out of ten will ask me, "Alright, now can you shave off some of that fat right in there?"

What do I say to that!?

EPCOT, My Typical Days

Today was pretty crazy at work. Several things happened but I only have the patience to write about one, really.

Tom brought this little girl over to me after I'd been there a little while. Tom's English is not so good and this poor little girl was in tears (probably about nine years old I'd imagine). He told me, "Uhh, she lose parent I ssink? Mebbee? I don know?"

So I got down to the girl's level and started trying to figure out what happened. She was lost, but she wasn't really responding to anything I said. She kind of mumbled some stuff I didn't understand. Then it dawned on me.

Why do lost children always have to be foreign!? "Habla Espanol?" I asked. Most lost kids speak only Spanish although I had one once who spoke Portuguese.

"No." She replied. Then she went off in French. The only thing I know how to say in French is "I don't speak French" and I can't type that on here cuz I can only say it, not spell it. Anyway, that didn't help much so I tried to tell her it was okay and I went straight to the phone.

We have a hotline we can call and tell them what language we need and they get us a translator within seconds. Or at least that's how it would work ideally. I've never actually had to use it before. Unfortunately it took me time to find the number and then I had to be transferred between a few people. Overall it took just a couple minutes. But it took long enough so that by the time I actually had the girl on the phone with another woman who spoke French, this guy from attractions came over to me.

"Hey, did you find a little French girl anywh- wait.... is that crying girl French?"

Sure enough he was having the exact same problem on his end with the dad because apparently dad didn't speak English either and was babbling off in French showing with his hands he was looking for a little girl.

Needless to say we eventually got them reunited but I felt terrible because most of the time when we reunite the kids to the parents it's like this big thing where the parents imagined their child was dead and the kid thought they had been orphaned so they're all hugging and kissing. This situation the dad grabbed the poor little girl's arm and started yelling at her. I felt so bad for her. So sad.

Anyway, some other things happened like the lady who dropped her camera on the ride and it went down into this crack that's impossible to get into without shutting down the whole building.

Then this girl I work with called in (a common occurrence, no one was really surprised) so I had to be extended (more money! I'm so not complaining!) and then we had some other minor problems with the attractions people. Really, there shouldn't be rivalry between Attractions and Merchandise... and there isn't. But I think there should be more unity between attractions and merch. The merch people never really know what attractions are up to and vise versa. Meh.

Anyway, for the most part it was a great day. I got two hugs from little kids which is rare but totally welcome. One of the little girls was disabled and stuck in a wheelchair but she asked her dad to ask me to come around so she could give me a hug which was so totally cute of her.

The other girl I brought behind the counter because it was her birthday and she had a special call. I'm not sure how much I'm allowed to say about that but she was adorable and she kept asking me questions about it. I answered her questions to the best of my ability and eventually satisfied her "whys." And then I stood up and she hugged me around my legs and it was the cutest thing ever.

Actually, I see a lot of "cutest things ever" here. It's so great!

I "graduate" in two days. That means I get my "graduation ears" and stuff. So fun!

Now for pictures that I haven't posted in forever.

My American Adventure costume. This was the night I got to watch the candlelight processional. So fun! Except for the weird petticoat part. Still not sure what that is... I had trouble getting that apron thing on and this gay guy was going to try and help me but really I'd rather a natural girl help me with that sort of thing. Weird...



We went to Chef Mickey's for my birthday on the 7th. But Heather's little sister Allison happened to be in town so we celebrated for her too. Unfortunately for me the munchkin gets more attention than the twenty year old. But really? Look at her. She deserved every minute of it and I was glad to share it with her.

Natalie and Janessa with Donald



Allison's adorable face all covered in birthday frosting.



Heather and adorable Allison



I realized I didn't have any pictures with my boss so I had to snap at least one. Even if he's in his chef's outfit!



Kelly by our amazing Christmas tree!!!



Heather and I made a freakin' AMAZING Thanksgiving turkey. Not bad for a first try. We woke up at something like 6am and went to Walmart for last minute supplies because Thanksgiving was really held on Monday because that was the only time we could all go and since Heather and I had never done anything like this before a few calls to mommy were necessary but other than that.... yeah. It was totally amazing. Like, it totally fell off the bone amazing.



Our family. Me, Janessa, Kelly, Heather, Lis and Natalie. And Steve.



Thanksgiving feast before.



Thanksgiving feast after. Yeah, we hardly made a dent.




Ahhhh the beach. I love you soooooooo much!



After spelling my name like this kept getting killed.



I went up a little further and just made my name like this.






We buried each other in the sand. Now I can say I've done it. And I never ahve to do it again!



Does this guy not look exactly like Captain Jack Sparrow? It's downright creepy cuz his mannerisms are identical too. Pretty cool.



EPCOT!



Picture of the morning we ate breakfast with the princesses. I really wish I had better photos of this morning. Alyssa and Laura, my friends from work, invited me to go with them. I'm sooooo glad I went! But soooo sad I have no group photos of all of us. The food was amazing though!

The Kitchen Sink

Incidentally, we had clean checks today and our kitchen sink did not pass. Something about how we were supposed to wipe it out better. Our over and fridge were supposed to be wiped out too. Ah well, we passed as a whole anyway and that's all the matters. :)

Then we went to Beaches and Cream and ate the kitchen sink! I've been wanting to do this since I came down here and I'm so glad that my friends and I could all spend the evening together tonight! Unfortunately, Natalie missed out on the actual sink eating, but we all watched Illuminations in EPCOT afterwards which was great!!

Here we are waiting to be seated. The 15-25 minute wait turned out to be about 10. Yay!





And then we made it inside. But we were still waiting. Me, Heather, Janessa, Lis and Kelly.



And then the lights got dim and these orange lights started flashing (so sad I didn't get a picture of it but I wasn't expecting it!) and then they brought it out to us announcing it to the whole restaurant!



The kitchen sink!



The progression of our kitchen sink. It looks smaller than it is, I promise!!



They start on the bottom with caramel, hot fudge, and peanut butter. Then comes eight scoops of ice cream.



They use an entire can of whipped cream and a whole can of cherries.



They also add every single ice cream topping in the shop. Sprinkles, Oreos, strawberries, banana, brownies, pineapple, butterscotch chips, fruit gummies (I think that's what they were...) Angel food cake, etc. etc. etc. I don't even remember everything!



This was the best we could do.



Lis and Heather checkin' out the FREE jukebox. I never figured out how to work it though. I guess you're supposed to wait for the song that's playing to end.




They had problems with their computer systems or something so it took a while to get our check. So we started dancing. And by "we" I mean Janessa and Heather.




I think the waitress accidentally spilled a cherry stem in my cup. Heather said she thought I put it there "for flavor." Psh.



Me, Heather, and Janessa. Being weird.



The cute little ice cream shop! LOVE it!

Ahhh, Bus Rides

As CPs (college programmers) we take buses to and from work. Yes, I do too, even though I have a car. Mainly to save gas. Well, the Magic Kingdom bus was in an accident yesterday... while my roommate was on it. I saw it. My bus passed hers and the kids on my bus all waved.

No worries. There were no injuries. A car pulled out in front of the bus. But really, our buses are monsters and no one was even standing. The bus had hardly a scratch and the front end off the car was pretty dead. Other than that though, it was simply a fun little taste of excitement. And all the bus drivers for the past day have been driving extra slow.

In other news... tonight on the way home (I stayed after and watched Illuminations, even though that means I have to deal with the horribly crowded bus, or the idea that I might not make that bus and have to wait twenty minutes for the next one because the first one gets too full) we had all gotten on the bus and it was hot. I mean like foggy windows hot. The kids in the back all called up to the front, "Hey, can we get some AC back here?" and then, because this particular bus driver spoke French, one of the French CPs called the same thing in French. As the driver turned up the AC, the CPs started calling out thank yous.

I'll be honest, I don't know how many languages I heard. Or what language they all were. But it's just fun the fact that everyone practically speaks a different language. Seriously, especially working in EPCOT, I can get on the bus and hear five different languages and not understand a single one. It's amazing!

It's actually quite funny when it comes to night and getting on the bus. Sometimes you can tell there are just too many of us and we're not going to fit. But it's kind of survival of the fittest in that case because whoever gets on the bus first, wins and gets to go home! Something we're all looking forward to after a long hard day! It's the most depressing thing to be that one who gets turned away (trust me, I know!).

Ever since I was one of the two kids turned away I've learned where to stand. I've learned to push my way into just the right spot and then just be shoved and squeezed between the crowds in order to hopefully be swept onto the bus in the horrible herd of people moving. It's great. I feel a little bad though because at that point I forget all polite manners of, "Oh no, sorry, you go first" and go right on to the "Umm, I'm standing here and clearly should be allowed in front AND I worked ten hours today! What did you do? Play? Yeah, back of the line!"

Haha, well, on that happy note I'm bored. And tired. Then end.

American Adventure!

Normally I would have had yesterday and today off. And by "normally" I mean "this week" because let's face it, my life schedule is absolutely not normal.

Either way I picked up shifts for both days. Yesterday was American Adventure and today I worked in Strollers for the second time.

American Adventure was fantastic! It was amazing because I got to be outside almost the whole time. And in case you don't know, American Adventure is where the EPCOT Candlelight Processional takes place. The Candlelight Processional basically is just a bunch of singing and a Christmas narration by some famous person. The night I worked it was John O'Hurley. In case you don't know who he is (cuz I certainly didn't) think Seinfeld, Family Feud and Dancing with the Stars. He was apparently on all of those. I have to admit, I didn't know the name, but when I saw him in person I totally recognized the face. I just can't wait for Abigail Breslin and Whoopi Goldberg to come later this month!

Anyway, all night was spent listening to a fantastic, enormous choir sing Christmas songs along with a narration that was beautiful. It ended with Holiday Illuminations (exactly like regular Illuminations, except at the end they add MORE fireworks and MORE music!) and then we went inside, hung out for a while, and ERs were handed out!

I completely forgot today was Thursday. Thursday is my class. I completely forgot I had class. I completely blanked. And I woke up at 10:30am (my class goes 8-10) and was so mad at myself. I went into the living room freaking out about it. Not that the class really matters that much. I'm mostly just taking it for personal satisfaction. If I fail it does nothing to me in any way really. But still... personal satisfaction!

So I got up my courage and emailed the teacher. We're only allowed to miss a single class and I missed one for my grandpa's funeral a few weeks ago. Then we're allowed to, one time only, switch to Friday's class and attend then. I gave that up the week before last to eat breakfast with the princesses in Norway. And then last week was Thanksgiving so class was canceled. So this week I blanked. I explained it to the teacher humbly apologizing and saying that I realized I messed up and should be dropped but if there was any hope for me I'd love to snag it.

And she told me I was fine and she'd see me in class tomorrow morning. Whew! I never thought I had a problem with sleeping through important stuff but apparently I'm getting worse. As long as I don't sleep through work though... ugh. That would suck.

A kid in my program was terminated today. A guests said he "thought" he saw this kid stealing so the kid was terminated. At least, that's how everyone explained it to me. When the actual manager was telling us about it he simply said, "Don't freak out about him getting termed. You kids need to realize that there are cameras They are everywhere. Just remember that. As long as you're being honest, you're fine."

Well, good. So strollers was pretty fun. I drove an ECV for the first time and I've finally mastered returning them. Also, I went into the EPCOT tunnels. Didn't even know we had 'em but yep. EPCOT's got tunnels and they're actually surprisingly big! They're just like Magic Kingdom's tunnels except there are less. So neat.

And then I came home and now I'm here and I need to sleep if I'm going to wake up at 7:30 for an 8am class. Then I can come home and sleep some more because tomorrow I work 5:30p-1:30am. Today I worked 3:30p-12a. Ugh.

Happy Family Pictures

When I first got to work today I was put on theater. I love being in theater. It's nice and easy there and most of the time the guests are super happy with the way their photos turn out. Well, the sales person wasn't really doing anything, so (since I had no pictures to take) I went over and started chatting with guests and selling photos. One particular family came in and wanted a Christmas photo.

The Christmas photos haven't been fully set up yet so there is no written rule as to how many people can fit in a particular picture. This family had six people and I'm pretty sure that was too many, but I told them I'd try anyway. They were happy to go along and I brought them into my theater.

These were definitely some of the most fun people I've dealt with in the theaters. It was six adults and they all had a lot of personality. I showed them the picture as I always do and pointed out the different positions they could be in and what they could be doing (stealing from Donald's stocking, peeking through the window, opening presents, etc.). I asked who wanted to be where and they all had a lot of fun figuring out who should be in every place and then we went at it as I told them individually where and how to stand. It went great and there was tons of laughing.

Immediately after I finished their picture I had a family of five wanting to do the same picture. As I brought them in, I started pointing out the different places they could be so they could choose. The dad stopped me in the middle and told me that I needed to just tell them where and how to stand and they would do it. "Don't you do this all day? You should know where to place us." I calmly started to explain that yes, I do this all day, but I thought they might like to choose who goes where. Well, as I began explaining I could tell in his face he didn't want to "waste" time figuring out who to put where. So I just made it up myself. I got the two kids to be down by the presents and then I put the third kid stealing from the stocking, Dad putting up an ornament and Mom outside peering in. They seemed satisfied and when I asked them if it was okay before I sent it to be printed they just shrugged and said, "Well, if you think it's alright then I guess it's good then, right?"

Waaay less fun than the previous family. I mean, I guess I'm a little flattered that they trusted me so much, and I get families like this at least once a day. But it's just so much more fun when I get people who are so truly, genuinely excited and amazed by the technology and how everything's done. The first family was living in the moment. They had so much fun and had no problem asking me to change little things that were bugging them ("I don't like my face in that one, can I take another picture?" "Can you move me over to the left just a smidge? I just prefer being closer to Chip and Dale." etc.). The other family, well, I just hope they really liked their picture. They pay a lot for them and I wish I could have made the actual taking of the picture more memorable for them. Ah well. It's all fun anyway!

Then i went out on glow. Super fun. But I was off. It always pretty much ruins my night when my glow drawer is off. Makes me feel stupid. Except I got off work right when Illuminations started and Illuminations always makes me super happy. So it all worked out in the end!

I am so stinkin' blessed!