It's beginning to look a LOT like Christmas!

For all of my five loyal fans (thanks mom), I apologize for the short hiatus from writing. I have been really busy with work and friends.

The last week and a half has been great. It was absolutely insane at work because of the holiday. I wasn't quite sure what to expect from having Thanksgiving away from everyone but it was pretty good. They had a meal for us on Wednesday night at The Commons (where all of the international students stay) and that was pretty nice. Thursday at work they had turkey, ham, stuffing and other goodies for us as well. It really wasn't the same though being away from Lane and the fam so it was just different.

A funny story during our craziness in the parks. Sometimes I do lots of pin trading and sometimes I do none during an entire shift. Well, Thursday was a huge pin trading day and this family RUNS up to me going "PIN LADY!! PIN LADY!!". I just kind of laugh at first and look at them seriously and say "Actually, I go by Allie." They start laughing hysterically but I just look at them with this blank stare and they're like, haha, that's so funny. Then they attack my pin lanyard (and my personal bubble) and clean me out. Oh well, what're you gonna do?! Some people just think we're walking pin lanyards. Hmm, I have feelings, hopes and dreams too.

It's also amusing because we call the person sitting in the costuming building who gives us new Hidden Mickey pins each day "The Pin Lady" so I couldn't help but laugh.

The park has been Christmatized. There are wreaths, lights and music all over. It is like Christmas puked all over the park. Then there is The Osbourne Family Spectacle of Dancing Lights in the Streets of America. It's not Ozzy Osbourne as so many park goers believe, it is actually from Little Rock, Arkansas from this guy named Jennings Osbourne who bought both of the houses on either side of his own to expand his growing Christmas light display so much that the spectacle it caused blocked an ambulance from making it through to a nearby home. The court ordered him to take down the display of over 4 MILLION lights and naturally, Disney heard about this and decided to bring them to Orlando!!!! It's honestly one of the coolest things I've ever seen though. The street is COVERED in lights (so it's amazing to think how it looked over three houses) and the over 4 million lights dance every 15 minutes to Christmas carols. It's really something you just have to see. There is also soap snow billowing around. I warn the kids to not catch the snowflakes on their tongue. It's just not the same.

This past weekend, my friends came in. We had an AWESOME time. It was two past roomies, two present roomies and one friend of a roomie. We went to Property Control, bought 25 cent Mickey ears with random names on the back (except mine, mine were little pink ones that said "My First Ear Hat", hehehehe) and went to Magic Kingdom. We enjoyed many rides and saw Wishes. Then we went to PI at night and had a blast at 8 Trax meeting some random older dudes from Australia. There were some really interesting drunk people dancing which is always amusing and we just had a grand ol' time. We hit MGM the next day which was PACKED but really fun and did Epcot their last full day here. We had lunch in the Biergarten in Germany at Epcot where we drank 1 liter mugs of beer and danced to the German band that was playing. It was so much fun. We went to PI again that night and had a really good time again. Overall, it was a really awesome break from work. I'm really glad they made it down.

So now I had a day off today which was a lazy day hanging out and watching more of The Office. I'm in Barnes and Noble right now because I just wanted to get out for a bit (and well, they have Starbucks here, I was jonesing for a White Chocolate Mocha :-) ). I think I'm going to go back soon, maybe watch Heroes, work out and just chill the rest of the night. This week is going to be fun too. I have six hour shifts tomorrow and Thursday and an 8 hour day shift on Wednesday. Wednesday, Kris and Caitlin are going to come to MGM and we're going to go see the lights after my shift and then on Friday we're going to go see Enchanted. I'm pretty stoked. Friday night, Scott and Joni are coming in to visit (yay!!) so we're going to go see the lights and then Saturday we're probably doing Magic Kingdom and Epcot. It should be a fantastic weekend.

I'll post pics soon!!!

That would be MISS Champion to you.

So last weekend was fantastic. I got sick, that part sucked. Thursday was great, I came in and surprised my mom and got to see her peeps at Schechter. Then I went home and did a little cleaning and caught up on Weeds (so good!). Thursday for dinner I was so lucky and got to go to my FAVE ever Tsukasa with Lane and mom. Then I went out for drinks with Emilie and Rachel S. There were some creepy people at the Ram so that was fun. I was so excited to see Emilie cuz I really miss her and then Jer came by to say hi and we ended up hanging out and talking for a while. It was so good to see both of them because they are really my bff's and three months away has been a LONG time! Friday morning Dad and I went to visit Helga and brought my broken iPod to Best Buy (sad face) and Friday night we had our faux Thanksgiving dinner at home. I had SO much fun. We had some AWESOME food and just an all around awesome time. Saturday was good because I got to hang out with Jer and Rach some more but I was feeling really icky so that sucked. Laney and I watched The Inside Man and then mom and dad brought us Lou's (mmmmmmm cheesy goodness). It was a good day besides the fever. Sunday I felt so much better which was really nice so Lane and I hung out with his parents for a bit in the morning and then we watched Ratatouille (yayy so cute) and then he and I went for Chipotle with Lori. Jeremy came by to say goodbye (tear) and then I hung out, packed and headed back to Orlando. Pros of the weekend, got to see everyone and squish my doggies. Cons: iPod broke, got sick and left my Disney Visa in O'Hare at the self check-in thing. Boooooooo. Besides those three boo's, the rest was great.

Then back to work! Monday I had class and work in the afternoon. Work was fine, SUPER busy. I had my first day in the parade and it was honestly not that bad. I wear a silly costume of silver pants (yes, silver), a white shirt with baggy arms, a cumberbund and a white beret type of hat with a big blue feather in the front. It's awkward and funny looking but not as bad as it could be. Lance, the big, beautiful horse that we were following was super nice and held everything in so no messy work necessary. Walking through the parade was pretty cool, seeing all those people watching you is insane. My favorite part about the whole experience though was being able to see what the parade entertainment people do and go before the parade.

Walking into the parade costuming area is the scariest thing ever. There are heads on the walls in bags and bodies hanging everywhere. It was very frightening and cool at the same time.

The rest of work this week so far hasn't been too bad. Lots of pin trading and the usual. One older gent in a scooter did stop myself and another cast member and the following convo ensued.

Old man: Hey girls, girls.
Us: Yes sir, can we help you?
Old man: I just gotta tell you . . .
(We're shaking out heads, looking all friendly)
Old man: A woman in uniform, it just gets me excited!!!

The cast member and I nod our heads politely and say, thanks and have a great day only to walk away and crack up. I guess being old lets people think they can do and say whatever they want.

In some other exciting news, last night was Casino Night in Vista and I forced my two roomies to go with me (I'm an admitted Blackjackaholic). We go and play a set of hands with the chips they give us and the really nice dealer explains that the person with the most chips at the end of 7 rounds can go to the tournament at the end. So after the second round of hands, the girls to our left who are playing give us their chips and say it was fun, blah blah good luck if you go into the final tournament. We had enough chips to go into it and since I was the only one out of the three of us who really knew the game, I go into the final tournament. Then we thought I'd get bumped out but I didn't so they call us all over to play 7 more hands to determine the winner. They're all very serious about it and rope off the table and make it all exciting like. I stand there and moderately play the first few hands, win a few, lose a few. Then the last hand, I go all in with the rest of my chips. I see everyone else's piles dwindle and realize that I've won 2nd place!! Haha, my roommates and I were just cracking up. I got a trophy, a travel coffee mug and a bunch of pictures taken for the next issue of the newsletter they give out to us. It was both a hilarious and fun adventure. Then Kristina bought pizza for my "celebration dinner" and we all had a grand ol' time hanging out.

I can't believe we have less than 2 months here. It's going by awfully fast. My home roomies come in on Saturday afternoon. I'm absolutely stoked. We're gonna have a blast!!!!

The North Pole, eh???

So the last two weeks have rocked. Since mom and dad left, I had lots of work and a little time to play. I had a good time on my next day off but basically just did the usual grocery shopping, laundry, cleanup thing. Then I worked another five days and on my next day off had a BLAST!! The roomies and I went to Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party and had such a great time. We started out at Epcot for our last time at the Food and Wine Festival (tear) and had an awesome time there. We all tried lots of food and wine and I got more of my new favorite Cherry Wheat Beer by Sam Adams. We did the free Sam Adams tasting and learned a little about the brewery and beer. It was a super good time. I went on Mission:Space for the first time in the "intense" part and it was pretty sweet. Then we headed to the party and had so much fun!!! There was trick-or-treating, special shows and fireworks and Mickey and Minnie in costume. I even got to see Stitch dressed up as Elvis and if you have seen the movie before you know why that's so cute.

Then work this week has been going pretty well. I applied to be a trainer so I will let you all know when I find out about that. I also worked in Icon the other day and had quite an interesting shift. I had to go and guard restrooms again and tell all the ladies they couldn't use the restroom. I would rather CLEAN the restroom than do this job because it sucks to be told you can't go pee. Just like last time too, this lady just WALKS into the men's restroom with her whole family. I had told her that her young daughter could go in there with her husband but I guess she took that to mean she could to. Whatever, crazy people everywhere. Then I met Santa Claus when I stopped to a nice looking older gentleman with white hair and white beard, I should have known. He kept telling me how he was Santa and I just didn't know what to say so I just smiled and nodded. He ended our conversation with "Don't forget to say your prayers, that's the most important thing!". He was very nice though and a pleasure to talk to.

I talked to lots of fun people this week. My class is going pretty well, it's fun to hear from managers and important people in different lines of business. I am still looking into possibly coming back and being "friends" with the characters. I'm not quite sure what the appeal is to standing around in a hot sweaty costume and taking pictures with people but I just feel the urge. We'll have to see.

In the meantime, I am going home Thursday morning (yayyy so soon!!!) and am very excited to go home and see Laney, the fam, the doggies and incredibly super excited to see Jeremy because I have yet to see him since I left. It's probably the longest we've gone without seeing each other since we became friends when we were 12!! Jeremy and Berkson are both coming to our family's Not So Timely Thanksgiving Dinner on Friday along with Shauna and Tori, the boys and Richard and Ilene. Dad has to leave early but we'll still have a dandy time. Then, next Saturday my roomies from home are coming yayyyy and we're going to have SO much fun I'm sure!!! Joni and Scott are coming just a few weeks after that and then a month later dad will be back to drive home with me.

It's going by SOOO fast I can't believe it. But I'm still having super lots of fun. :-) Pics to come of all the recent festivities!!