Merry Christmas Eve!!!

I LOVE LOVE LOVE Christmas! Seriously. It's is by far the most wonderful time of the year. And despite the fact that I have to work a lot and don't get to see any of my family, I still am happy as ever that it's Christmas. I love Christmas in Florida too! Where else can I eat an ice cream sundae in short sleeves in December!



However, today I'm spending my time psyching myself up for this next week. And now I present to you my schedule for the rest of my program. So in case you need me:


12/24---7pm-1am (PAC West)6 hours

12/25 CHRISTMAS!!!---10:45am-4:15pm (PAC West) and then 7pm-1am (PAC South) 11.5 hours

12/26---10:45-4:15 (PAC South) and then 7pm-1am (PAC South) 11.5 hours

12/27---10:45-4:15 (PAC West) and then 7pm-1am (PAC South) 11.5 hours

12/28---7pm-1am (PAC South) 6 hours

12/29---10:45-4:15 (PAC South) and then 4:15pm-10:45pm (Greeter) 11.5 hours

12/30---10:45-4:30 (PAC South) and then 5pm-1:15am (PAC South) 14 hours

12/31---10:45am-1:15am (PAC South) 13.5 hours

1/1--- (I'm also driving my roommate to the airport at 4am this morning) 4:30pm-10:30pm (PAC West) 6 hours

The hours aren't how many hours I work, but how many I'm getting paid to work (because they take out break times). That's why some of them add up a little weird.

January 2nd will be spent doing laundry, getting my stuff together, and meeting my dad who's coming down here. The 3rd will be spent driving my roommate to the airport early in the morning and moving out and getting last minute stuff done before the 4th, which will be the day that I fly out at 7 in the morning for Idaho, arriving at 7:15pm.

School starts on the 5th. Chemistry at 11:30am.

Maybe next year's holidays will be more relaxing!

Update

It's been a week. Not much to say. It's been nice to be home. I'm definitely glad for the visit to the east coast. I freakin' LOVE eastern weather and it kinda makes me dislike Idaho even more. I can't wait to move back to Florida in August.

I was supposed to go back to ID Saturday, but they conveniently canceled the flight so I could spend an extra day or two with my brother. We shot guns Saturday which was so totally awesome. Though I'm still sore. I have a nice red rash on my left shoulder from the kick of the guns. It was awesome!

I hope a plane back to ID tomorrow. School starts Tuesday. At the moment I have 21 credits which I understand is pretty much suicide, but I can't decide which class/classes to drop. I'm going to just go the first few days and then make up my mind.

Yep, so that's that. I'll probably have another uber-long update after school starts up again about my classes.

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!

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.

Deployment

Sunday was my first day in the new location, Hollywood Studios.

I bounced between two different stores during my shift. Mickey's of Hollywood (the toy store) and Keystone merchandise (the clothing/jewelry store). I way preferred Mickey's of Hollywood, however most of my time was spent in Keystone (go figure). A LOT of people from EPCOT Future World have been deployed there this week.

So they extended me also on Sunday night. Instead of working 3-9 like I thought they changed it from 3-1:30. Kind of a big difference, but hey, I like money!

Yesterday was our Thanksgiving. All of my closest friends since I've been here found one day and one time when we'd all get to celebrate together. Monday morning. We each took a couple of dishes to make and Heather and I went in on the Turkey together. I was also in charge of mashed potatoes and peas and stuffing. Some of the other things we had were 14layer jello, rolls, sweet potatoes, broccoli/cauliflower, green bean casserole, apple pie, pumpkin pie, etc. etc. There was so much food! I have pictures or it all. It was amazing! We ate it all and then Kelly had to go to work. So great, I think we'll be eating leftovers for a week.

As for today I'm going to Hollywood to work in about half an hour. I need to grab some food and stuff before I leave. I'm excited for the change of location and I like the people of Hollywood a lot, but I'll be ready for my return to EPCOT next week.

Rest and Relaxation

Yesterday my friend and I went to the beach. It could possibly be the most relaxed I've felt since I've been here! I can't even describe the feeling on the way home of just not having anything to worry about it. I wish I could just sit on the beach with nothing to worry about more often!

On the way home we went to Cici's pizza. Janessa had never been there before. After we got inside I went to go to the bathroom. Not to get all gross about talking about myself in the bathroom but when I went to take off my swimsuit sand just poured out of it. See, we covered each other in sand and apparently swimsuit bra cups love to collect lots of sand. I made a nice little mountain of sand on the floor. So I kicked it around a little to make it less obvious. Turns out it doesn't work that way. I felt really bad for whoever was cleaning that night. Heehee, oopsy!

After that we went to see the new movie A Christmas Carol in 3D. (No, sorry, not New Moon) It was awesome, but surprisingly scary for a kids movie. Or at least, I thought it was a kids movie until I saw how scary it was. Yeesh, I think I jumped out of my seat three different times!

Even though I spent most of the day yesterday relaxing I was totally exhausted after getting home. I took a shower and went right to bed. Mostly. :) This morning I slept in until... well, really really late. I know it sounds lame that I get two days off and I spend them practically doing nothing, but really I've been waiting for relaxation for such a long time that it feels really good to spend two day not going to Disney World. I haven't even changed out of my PJs today and don't intend to.

And I have accomplished some stuff. Sort of. I did my laundry, cleaned up the apartment, made my resume, sent out some emails, cooked some real food (yeah this is a big deal, I hardly ever have time for that) and read a book. I haven't read a book in so long I really missed it. But I just found out recently that at the Cast Services building we have our own little free library where we can check out not only books, but language learning software AND Disney movies! Awesome!!!

Tomorrow I begin work at the Studios (aka Hollywood). I'm really really excited for it because Hollywood could possibly be my favorite park (if my favorite park weren't EPCOT it would totally be #1). I love the show Fantasmic, and the ride Rockn' Roller Coaster is my favorite coaster in all the parks. They also have the show Lights Motors Action which is just about the coolest cars show on the planet complete with fire and explosions and stuff! Plus they've put up the Osbourne (sp?) family lights and I haven't seen the lights show yet.

While working there doesn't necessarily mean I get to do all that stuff (because realistically I'll be stuck in a Mickey Mouse store trading pins with six year olds) but before and after work I'll totally be taking advantage of it!

But for now I'm gonna go collect my laundry and then sleep a little more. Teehee! I LOVE having a day off where I don't have to do anything!

Half Over

I picked up a shift in the Magic Kingdom for Thursday. In the Emporium. On Main Street. More on that later. :)

Our Holiday packages came in the mail yesterday. Yay! We get all kinds of awesome discounts and it all begins Oct. 25 and goes through the end of the program. AWESOME!

I can't believe the program is already half over! I can't believe how fast the time has been going. Things here are so stinkin' amazing. I would love to go on to be in the Professional Internship but chances are I won't because it's extremely competitive and I'm not quite cool enough. Most of the high up people (most, definitely not all) are super awesome people. I don't know if I'd ever be fun enough to get that high in a company.

Anyway, I have to go to work. I work every single day this week but I'm getting fifty hours! Yay!

Silly People

I lost my voice. It's just gone. Actually, it's not totally gone, but it's sure hurting my throat a lot.

I saw the Tinker Bell movie the other night. It was cute. I can't WAIT for the newest Disney princess movie to come out this December. The Princess and the Frog it's called. Apparently it's animated and just like the old classic films. I'm so excited for it!

In another side of things...

I get really annoyed when I get the whiny guests that I can tell like to just manipulate people all they can as a hobby. I don't mind giving real, genuine, decent guests free things. For example a little girl was crying the other day because one of her pins fell off her lanyard. I got down and let her pick her favorite pin from my lanyard and gave it to her. So cute and the parents were thrilled.

I had 46 hours last week, 48 this week, and 44 next week. Before I came here I figured if I could work between 40 and 45 hours a week every week while here I'd be fine. Guess what? I'm doin' fine.

The sad part though is that most of my shifts are 10-7 or 11-6 type shifts. And I only have one day off a week. So there's pretty much no time to play. Ever. My life basically consists of getting up, showering, making a quick breakfast, throwing a sandwich together for lunch, going to work, getting home, cleaning the kitchen, messing on the computer for about half an hour, cleaning some more, making dinner, going to bed. Every day. On my one day off I get really excited to sleep in.

And I just noticed it's almost 1am. When did THAT happen!? What the? Well, I have to wake up at 7am tomorrow so I'm going to go now. Anyway, hope this was a good enough update. :)

Loooooong Day at Work

I just finished my sixth consecutive day of work. Okay, not so bad.

But it was a 14 hour shift.

14 is a lot of hours. To be alone. In the same tiny store. With the same three questions being asked a gazillion times.

"Where is the bathroom?" (variations include washroom, ladies room, restroom, wash area, toilet, and anything else you can think of)

"Can I see your pins?" (usually followed by, "Can I trade this pin for...")

"What time do you close? What time is Illuminations? If the park closes at 9 and Illuminations is at 9... how does that work out?"

Probably the top three. My favorite though is "Excuse me, do you work here?"

Nooo. This is just my favorite outfit and I wear the Disney name tag to make myself feel special. And why I'm standing behind this register working it and giving children free stickers? I just like playing.

Anyway, I'm tired as heck. It was actually a wonderful day and I'm super glad it happened. Tomorrow I have off but it looks like I'll be playing chauffer all day. Long story. We'll see what happens though. I'm still working on getting out of it.

At 3:13 am. After a 14 hour work day.

Oh yeah, this lady came in and basically tried something illegal and it's a long story but as soon as she found out I called a manager she fled and my manager is super happy with how I handled things PLUS the story got around to pretty much everyone I work with. I kept hearing as I was closing, "Dianna, what was up with this crazy lady I hear you had?" It was great.

We went to IHOP after work. I got chocolate chip pancakes. They were amazing but too many to be eaten at 2am.

I freakin' LOVE my job. And my life. And everything.

The end.

What To Do In EPCOT For A Day

I never enjoy the part of a new job when I'm the stupid new kid who doesn't know anything, always asks questions, and makes gazillions of mistakes.

Fortunately, it makes me feel better to have my whine sessions at night with friends who make mistakes just like I do. But still....

I still don't know exactly how to close. They do registers completely differently than the bookstore did. And by "completely differently" I mean they don't even count money the same way. It's easier, as long as I can figure it out. It's easy work, but you have to remember every single step. And I'm pretty sure it's because my dad teaches accounting that I've learned to obsess over money and having something be off by a few dollars. Or cents.

I also make other mistakes though. If someone stays in a Disney Resort, we can send their merchandise that they buy to their resort free of charge. In order to do that, we have them fill out a green form and then plug it into the computer at the end of the transaction BEFORE THEY PAY and then keep their stuff in a back and put it in the back. (Okay so it's slightly more complicated than that, but you get the idea.) Well, I always seem to forget to plug it into the computer BEFORE they pay. It's no big deal, I just have to go back and do a resale and waste about three minutes of their time. I usually pretend like that's how it's supposed to go and most (or actually all so far) people don't really even notice or get upset or anything. But still, it's annoying to me and I feel stupid.

Then when we sort receipts at the end of the night I always forget which receipt goes in which pile and where each pile is supposed to go.

Just stupid stuff like that. People are very patient with me, but I still don't like being the stupid one. Hopefully it'll change soon. I'm slowly getting the hang of it. Very. Very. Slowly.

On the brighter side of things I spent all day yesterday in EPCOT. And by ALL DAY I mean open to close. I woke up a little after 7 so Heather and I could get there right when it opened. And we did. So here's how I would recommend spending the day in EPCOT. Cuz we did it. And it worked. :)

We got into the park right when it was opening. We headed straight for Soarin' which is the most popular ride of the park. We were just going to get fastpasses (the line is usually 60-90 minutes long and fastpasses go quickly) but seeing that the line was actually only 5 minutes, we decided to walk on. And we did. And it was AMAZING!

Then we got fastpasses anyway for later, and headed to Spaceship Earth. The golf ball. It's not an insanely cool ride, but you just have to do it if you're in EPCOT. On our way to Spaceship Earth we were stopped as we walked through Innoventions and decided to play this piggy game about saving money. It was for little kids, but was fun, cute, and hilarious too.

So we rode Spaceship Earth after piggys and then went back to Soarin' to use our fastpasses. After our second round of Soarin' the International showcase had opened (it opens at 11) so we went ahead and went their. We bought our own little passport books and stopped at the kidcot station in each country so we could get our stamps. It was amazing. We stopped in China to eat.

The World Showcase took a few hours to complete but afterward we decided to do the other two amazing rides in EPCOT. We went to Test Track for fastpasses (you can only get a fastpass every two hours) and while we were waiting for the designated time to come back we went on Mission: Space.

Mission: Space is a very cool looking building and is built purposefully so that when a shuttle (like the one last week) take off from the space station you can stand in front of Mission: Space and watch it take off as if it's leaving from the building. Okay, so hard to describe, but just trust me. It's cool!

We rode Mission: Space which gives me motion sickness and spins you around in circles at 36 mph so you can feel your face pulling back, and then went to Test Track. Test Track is the fastest ride on property and is pretty fun.

After that we went in Mouse Gear which is the biggest store in EPCOT and looked around. Then we watched Chip and Dale play and sign autograph for a while. And then it was finally time for me to go to work. I had to be at work at 4:30. At 4 I went on up and got changed. I was kind of gross and sweaty from hanging out outside all day, but it wasn't too bad.

I worked until 10:30. I have the same shift today. Not bad. Today I would be playing too but my friends are going to the water parks and I don't think I could get home, dry, dressed, and back quick enough to make it worthwhile. So I'm takin' it easy, sleeping in, cleaning, eating and otherwise getting caught up on my life.

First Day

First day on the Disney College Program. What a day!

I'm torn on how I should write this post. Do I include every detail? Just the "important" stuff? Nothing? I dunno.

I have three roommates. One is Merchandise like me and the other two are in Quick Service Food and Beverage. We are all at different locations.

I will take my "Traditions" class on Friday and then my first day of training is Saturday and my second day of training will be Tuesday. Meaning Sunday and Monday I will have off!

I got a wonderful location. I'm so totally the luckiest kid in the world by this. I met one girl who's merchandise like me but was put in the "Magical World of Sports" or something. I felt bad because she was really bummed by it. But hey! It's Disney World! And everyone's happy! For now.......

I'm mostly moved in. I've had meeting after meeting after meeting and received paper after paper after paper. But it's over... at least til Friday. Our apartment complex is awesome. More later.

Oh yeah, and my location. Wanna know where I'm working? Heehee, I saved the best til last! But in case you were wondering I'm in EPCOT, Future World West Side. Woot woot!!!!