Arrrghhhh . . . . . . Soooo tired!!!!

So after Christmas is supposedly the busiest time here. They don't lie!!! It's been pretty hectic at work and everyone's been really cranky because of that so it's been pretty stressful overall. I have had some good times with the roomies though and we're planning on having at least a few more so that's pretty good. Basically, I have six more days of work and then I leave the day after that but luckily I have two six hour shifts and then an opening shift which is nice because I'll be done early and then dad will be here. Joni and Scott are here now and I'm about to leave to go meet them for lunch.

I had a mini meltdown last night to one of my managers because I'm so tired and stressed out from working so much and I really would like a day off this coming week. She let me come in two hours late today so I don't have to work until 7. Then I have two more days of 8 hours, two days of 6 hours and my last day of 8. I think I could handle it if I needed to but I'm just tired. :-/ Hopefully it'll be a little better at work today. Happy Friday to all!

I SURVIVED CHRISTMAS EVE . . . And all I get is a tiny paycheck.

So I survived Christmas Eve. It was a bit crazy at times and almost impossible to get through certain places at certain times but overall not to terrible.

I did cause quite a commotion at work. When I got to my locker, my pan and broom is missing. I get pissed off and think that I left it in Fantasmic the other night. But I'm pretty diligent about my pan and broom. I clean it every day and I put it in my locker at the end of my shift (cuz otherwise people steal them). So then I go back to my locker and see that NO, I didn't forget to put my stuff away. Someone RIPPED open the metal locker. It was a little broken before, but seriously someone tore apart the locker. I was so pissed off and felt totally violated. I went to the manager because it didn't matter that my pan and broom were missing but someone ripped my locker open. My manager Kendall brought security over and the detective came (who knew we had a detective!?) and they took down my info and stuff. Luckily, the pan and broom thief did leave my jacket and rain gear and such in the locker so that was nice of them. But now, I don't have a locker to fit my pan and broom in for the next ten days. :-( I did however, find my pan later in the day stuffed into one of the storage rooms and someone had PULLED THE STICKER OFF OF THE BOTTOM!!! I had another sticker on the inside though (and some rude gum that I can't get off) and I KNOW it's mine. It made me very sad at the rudeness of people. I left a note on my locker notifying whoever did it that it was extremely rude and disrespectful. It was a bleak day for humanity. The rest of the day went okay, I extended for 2 hours so my friend Erin could go to midnight mass at church and it was pretty uneventful for the rest of the time.

Then Christmas Day came and everyone was in pretty high spirits at work. People were all happy because it was Christmas but the guests all thought they could be RUDE for some reason. My goodness!! They were just rudey mcrudesters. But then by around 6:30 (my shift started at 3 pm) my friend Erin wanted to stay because she didn't want to go home and be alone on Christmas so I graciously gave her the rest of my shift (yeah right I was giving it to her on a silver platter!). I went home, worked out, made dinner and watched Elf in honor of Christmas and then Kristina got off work early too and came home! We watched Love Actually and drank champagne and just had a dandy good time. We enjoyed ourselves.

Yesterday at work was just scary. Well, I thought it was going to be way worse than it actually was. We had extra magic hours which are normally horrendous anyway but they have been telling us horror stories to scare us into working super hard yesterday about how busy it would be and such. Honestly, it was no busier than it had been on EMH when I first got here so I wasn't really overwhelmed. The only real difference is that they had people on continuous trash runs for 2 hours at a time (ewww that sucks). They did put me in 2 bathrooms for almost 5 hours but then Xavier my manager got someone else to come to help me so that was pretty awesome. And my friend Lisa was in the other bathroom so we helped each other out. It was good. I met some people from Buffalo Grove who literally live six streets away from me (so weird!) an their son goes to Stevenson and such. It was pretty funny. I also met lots of people from the North Shore and it made me really excited to go home!!!! I can't wait. I've had so much fun here and really enjoyed myself but I'm definitely ready to go.

So now I have work at 3 o'clock today. I am going to go get lunch and do some homework before work. Today is supposed to be the second "terrible" day so it should be interesting. If it's like yesterday, we'll be good. :-) Happy Thursday!!!

The Calm Before the Storm

So this week at work wasn't too incredibly terrible. There were a few hellish times but I got to create a few magical moments like getting a gun to this little guy's hotel because the strap broke and they could only find this certain kind in MGM. That was fun. :-)

Thursday morning Kristina and I saw National Secrets: Book of Secrets and LOVED it!! It was awesome. Then Thursday night we went to Pleasure Island with the roomies and that was a really good time as well. Today was my last day off before 11 days of work (and my last days!!) and I took advantage of it!! Kristina decided to stay home from work so we went to Raglan Road for lunch and yummmm. It was great. It was one of the places I have wanted to go to before I left and the food was awesome. Then we saw Alvin and the Chipmunks and it was hillarious!!!! We loved it. I got laundry done, did some cleaning and packing and then we went out for dinner to Giordano's for pizza. Yesss delicious. Now we're watching The Incredibles and going to sleep soon so I can get up in the morning and do some more packing and maybe some homework. It's going to be a crazy 11 days. I can't wait to go home!!!!!!!

Livin large.

Awww Sully and Mike!!!

Remy, my fave rat.

Me and Kris with Frozone.

Me being really excited to sit in the front of the monorail.

After dinner, I know . . . I'm so mature it hurts.

So yesterday was just so action packed that I had to write another post about it by itself. Jess, Kris and I had planned on going to MGM in the morning to play and try to do everything there that we have wanted to do that we haven't done yet (it has actually started to kick in that we're leaving really soon and we're scrambling to have as much fun as possible before we leave). So the day started off great, we got there on time and went straight to the Tower of Terror so Jess could put her stuff away and we could ride it. After that we saw Beauty and the Beast which was great since I haven't seen it since 1998 when I came with Mom and Dad. After that we wanted to get some food but instead of going to a quick service we just figured we would see if they had any openings anywhere sit down so we could use one of our 50% off coupons (the block out dates start the 22nd). So we got a reservation for the Hollywood Brown Derby and ate there. Since we had our 50% off, I got a beer, an awesome appetizer of coconut fried shrimp in some really tasty sauce, a New York strip steak with three sauces and mashed potatoes and we all split this dessert that I don't remember the name but was basically banana heaven. It was absolutely delicious, the rolls were hot and fresh and Kris and Jess got this margarita that's a Christmas special that they used freshly squeezed cranberries in. It was a fantastic lunch, the service was great and the food was excellent. We really enjoyed it. Then we went to the Backlot Tour and did some shopping afterwards. We hit the Magic of Disney Animation where Kris and I watched the show, met Frozone (from the Incredibles), met Remy and drew a picture of Scrooge McDuck (special for the holidays!!). After we did a little more shopping and headed to the apartment where we left one of our cars, picked up our graduation ears and headed back out to the Magic Kingdom. We saw Wishes (probably for the last time :-( ) and got our ears stitched for free because they are our graduation ones. That is absolutely amazing how they do it!! They have an embroidery machine that they actually write with to stitch the names on. It's awesome and ours came out really well. Then we headed back to the Polynesian where I had parked (how naughty) and we decided to just see if we could eat at 'Ohana instead of waiting around for our reservation at Boma. We got a pager and a 45-1 hour wait which was fine since we were still good from lunch and sat at the bar. We had a ball, the food was as always awesome and we enjoyed the atmosphere. After dinner we went and sat on the beach in the resort and waited for the Holiday Wishes. While we sat there the water parade came and entertained us and then we saw the Holiday Wishes fireworks show which is really just awesome. You can hear the music there too because they play it outside at the resorts that you can see the Magic Kingdom from. So up until then it would have been the most fun day ever but then we did more!! We went back to the apartment, hung out with Jess and Autumn for a few minutes, heard about the guy that died on Expedition Everest yesterday (ehhhh still don't know the whole story, evidently it was really sucky, Autumn works in the gift shop there) and got ready to go out. We went to the Orlando Ale House for Ladies Nights (Sean drove) and we got free drinks until 1 am. Not crappy free drinks but decent free drinks. We sat there until 1:30 or so and just drank and the rest of them got food. It was really fantastic. It was just a spectacular day. :-) Enjoy the pictures!!!

It's actually COLD here!

AHHHH BEST PICTURE!!!

Our Christmas card picture.

At the Polynesian.

Me and Kris doing a magical moment.

Wow! It got really cold here!! Well really cold being between 60-70 during the day and chillier at night but hey. So today is my day off and boy did I need it. I am exhausted from working. Last night was EMH and I got to create a magical moment for a mom and daughter. The daughter, a little girl about 5 named Haley had an accident and she needed new pants and I happened to be in the restroom when this all happened. I offered to get them some new clothes, the mom was ECSTATIC and we got her a really cute pair of pants and it just made their day. The rest of the night wasn't too bad either, not anything like last week. (The calm before the storm, right?!)

Today has been pretty awesome too. I went to Magic Kingdom this morning to get Jennie and her beau Justin into the park. It was really great seeing someone from home and good to just see Jennie since I haven't see her in a while now! Then I had a meeting with a very nice manager named Sean who works with entertainment who basically told me that if I audition for entertainment, get a part and can come down for about 3 weeks to train and work that I can stay seasonal as a character and come down whenever I have a chance. :-) I'm stoked.

Then I hung around Magic Kingdom for a bit with some free popcorn and did some more shopping. There was a marching band sort of group playing Christmas carols and they were AWESOME so that was really fun. Then I did some more shopping at lots of places including an awesome Borders outlet store where I got three cahiers by Moleskine my obsession and 4 books all using my gift card from Joni for Chanukah. QUITE a deal. I got some new blank dvd's to, uh, play with and finished my Disney shopping for friends and the fam. Tomorrow I'm going to MGM with the roomies to play and do the rest of the things we wanted to do there and then Wednesday we're going to the Hoop Dee Doo Musical Review!!! Yayyyy. $30 for dinner, entertainment and Bud drafts and sangria. I'm really excited. It's going to ROCK.

I'm scheduled for 47 hours next week so that is going to be crazy. I think I'm also going to try to pick up extra hours during the week so I leave with a massive paycheck. I'm excited. It's going to be intense because I'm trying to pack, be sane, do more of my online class, work 60 hours and do the things in Disney that we still want to do.

Soooo much fun to come. :-) Enjoy the pictures!!!!!

Oh goodness, only 3 weeks left!?!??!

Awwww, our group.

I know Minnie looks pregnant, I can only hope it's Mickey's baby.

Stitch LOVED my ears, his ears, whatever.

Best Christmas card pic I've ever taken.

Making latkes!! They were darn good too. :-)

Me singing the blessings.

Yay Chanukah!!!!

So last week was a pretty good week. I'm pretty exhausted from work but everything went alright. Well, until Sunday night with EMH. I had a good week, it was fun and mostly uneventful but Sunday was just hell. I had two bathrooms for most of the night (and EMH, or Extra Magic Hours) are the busiest every week. My bathroom had two overflows, one of which was really pretty bad and we had to close it for 15 minutes and then another one later that night. Luckily I had awesome people working who helped me out a lot.

After EMH I went home and was SO super happy because I had Monday and Tuesday off. Monday was really fun because Kristina, Shan and I went to breakfast at the Whispering Canyon Cafe in the Wilderness Lodge resort. That place is AWESOME! The resort looks like a giant log cabin and the inside is really fun. Breakfast was really tasty and after that we went shopping at cast connection. I got some really cute stuff and then I came home and read the entire day/night. It was great. I also did some errands and burned some movies so that was all fun. Tuesday was just ACTION packed. I got up to work out then we went to our College Program Graduation which was really fun. They had ears for us with tassels on them, free food and Mickey and Minnie in graduation gowns/hats so that was really super cute. I got my completion certificate and we just chilled and had a great time. Then the roomies and I went to see The Golden Compass which was stupendous and after that we decided to head to the Polynesian to check out their holiday decorations. We went to the Grand Floridian to see the lifesize gingerbread house (omg so huge and amazing) and then we went back to the Polynesian to eat. After that we went to the Magic Kingdom for Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party and had a BLAST!!! We saw some awesome shows, had hot cocoa and sugar cookies and saw some really spectacular fireworks. It was a great and exhausting day and I got home super tired.

This last week was really cool though because I got an Applauseogram from a family which is when they go to guest relations to say nice things about you, a Great Service Fanatic Card from my friend Fernando because I helped him out a lot when he first started on Sunset AND a certificate for a free meal in our cafeteria because a few of my managers noticed all of my hard work. I felt so good about being recognized and having such nice things happen that I gotta tell you, I was much more enthusiastic and happy at work. It was a great feeling.

I've been having plenty of fun outside of work too besides this past Tuesday. I saw Enchanted again with some custodial buddies, went to Margaritaville for cheeseburgers and margaritas (yummmmm) and just hung out with my friends. It's been really super fun.

Now I'm home early and hanging for the time being. I think I'm going to try to get some stuff done tonight but am going to chill for a bit. I'm getting very excited to be home in 22 days and can't believe how fast these last 4 1/2 months have just FLOWN by. I'm going to live up the next three weeks and have fun with my buds here. I'm definitely going to miss working and playing here but I miss home and all of my friends and fam. :-)

Chanukah cheer!!!!

I think I can, I think I can!!! I took the same picture when Joni and Scott took me to the Magic Kingdom for the first time ever. :-)

AWWWW!!!

Well the last few days have been quite interesting!!! I had Monday and Tuesday off which was much needed. I did some laundry, shopping, the usual day off errands. Then Tuesday I made a little Chanukah party in my apartment complete with latkes and dreidels. I had a few friends from work and we all played and ate. It was really fun. I lit the candles and they all watched and took pictures, it was really cute.

Yesterday was pretty hellish. I worked 4-12:30 for a convention and it was painful. The only good part is that I had awesome people working with me so it was easier on everyone. It was a Pop Warner convention for pee wee football players and cheerleaders and their families. There were 15,000 people in the park and it was INSANE. The only awesome parts were that we got to eat leftover convention food (mmm brats and tacos, not too bad), see the fireworks that were by the hat (that never happens, these people really dished the moolah) and we had a really good team working so there was lots of team work and good things said about us.

I have work at 3:30 today so I'm going to go work out and do some stuff in the apartment. :-) Enjoy the pics!!!

Ohhhhhwooahh down in Mexico!!!

My custodial friends!!!!

So the last week has been pretty awesome. At work last week I received my own magical moment. I helped a mom and her little 6 year old daughter in the restroom because the mom was having a hard time holding down the sensor for the sink and holding up her daughter while she washed her hands. So I helped out and after they gave me a very nice thank you note. It says "Thank you for making a magical moment for us. Your work is appreciated!" and such. It also has a button with the cute little girl on it and says "Thanks!". It was really sweet.

My custodial friends and I decided to go to Boma at the Animal Kingdom Lodge. We had lots and lots of fun. We went because it was Lisa's birthday and we just had a blast. The food there is AMAZING and we just had a great time together!! That was also the night Ivelese got terminated from the program. It was a pretty intense day.

Joni and Scott came in Friday and we went to MGM to see the Spectacle of Dancing Lights. We also saw The Voyage of the Little Mermaid, The Magic of Disney Animation and the Great Movie Ride. We had super lots of fun. After MGM we went to dinner at Uno's which was pretty delish. Saturday we got up early (well fairly early, we left at 9) and went to drop Scott's car off at Epcot and took the monorail to Magic Kingdom. Since they were taping for the Christmas Day Parade there were TONS of people in the front of the park but we got on all of the rides we wanted to go on within 10 minutes (which frankly is kind of a miracle!). We went on Jungle Cruise, Pirates, the Tiki Room and The Haunted Mansion. Joni and Scott did a little shopping and we walked through the rest of the park. On our way out we saw Regis and Kelly and that was pretty exciting!

At Epcot we went on Mission: Space and Test Track. We also took a nap on the Universe of Energy (hehehe) and after all that went to the countries. We had a fantastic dinner in Mexico and then rode the Maelstrom in Norway and staked out awesome seats for Illuminations and saw the fireworks from great seats in the United Kingdom. It was an awesome day and a half and I really enjoyed spending some more time with Scott and Joni before I leave. :-)

I got a Chanukah package from Lakeside this past week so that was pretty awesome. I also got some yummy yummy treats from Joni and found out that Dad got Best Buy to give me a brand spanking new iPod to replace the one that broke and they supposedly sent me a new one (liarrrssss). So this was a pretty sweeeet week indeed.

Today was my day off and I did some shopping, had my last day of class and enjoyed my day. I'm going to City Walk with my roomies to celebrate Kris' friend Caitlin's birthday so that'll be really fun. Tomorrow I'm going to chill and clean (majorly clean) in my room so that'll be good. Next week we have our graduation celebration and Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party so that's definitely something to look forward to!!!