Leaving Orlando

I leave in the morning to head back west. I am super excited to head towards home and experiences all the joys of summer that I love but I can't help but be sadden by closing this chapter of my life...It is just like college...great friends, many laughs, a few tears, and countless memories...but I suppose you couldn't expect anything less when Mickey Mouse is your boss.

Edward (my stuffed elephant) and I are all tucked into bed and watching the end of the Celtics/Magic Game. I wish the Magic would have given a better showing in this series but as long as the Lakers don't win it all I will be happy.

Goodnight.

My Last Day

So I am officially done with my internship. Today was really bittersweet. I am headed off to Earl of Sandwich (my favorite place) for one final goodbye tonight. I worked in Nacho today which is the hand scooped ice cream that used to be nachos...but they never bothered to change the name. I was super excited to end in a place that I really like working.
I got there opened everything up and in walks Mirjam...yes it looks like Mer-Jam...but she says it Meer-eee-um. She was a piece of work...and I really don't know why she is not locked up in the loony bin. I asked her a simple questions about ice cream sandwiches and she replied "if the little girls don't like sugar cookies, just tell them that Tinkerbell made them...then they will eat anything." Well Mirjam...thanks for the advice...throughout the day she continued on with quite possibly the most idiotic statements that I have heard including singing happy birthday in Spanish to guests midway forgetting the words so improvising with an odd hopping dance. She was a gem...She always told me that she was a stalker. Coincidentally her "ex-boyfriend" called three times in about ten minutes and she was complaining about it...wow.
The day concluding with her leaving, not saying a word, then being told my a manager to come back and help us close because she wasn't scheduled to leave for an hour...which she knew because she told me at the beginning of the day. So friends, if any of you are feeling like you are going crazy...Disney is hiring loonies.

I said my goodbyes and took a few pictures...threw away my gross work boots and was out of there!

Katie and I are gonna do a few last of the things on our list and some of our favorites in the park tomorrow and then off to Scott and Lisa's tomorrow night. Katie leaves Friday and I am staying the weekend :)

The Countdown

Two weeks from right now at this very moment I will be on a plane leaving Orlando and heading back west. Today is my only day off before I move out so I need to be productive and get things done...so far so good. I got up and did a four mile run. Now I am headed to the outlet mall to try and find a cheap duffle bag to carry on the plane...because I don't think everything is going to fit into two suitcases...at least not without my mommy's help.

I went to Magic Kingdom last night and watched the Spectromagic Parade and Wishes fireworks...both for the first time and they were great! But the Illuminations fireworks at Epcot is still my favorite.

I am supposed to go to the mall with some of my friends because one of them needs to get a touch up on her tattoo and then we want to take our ears to Magic Kingdom to get our names stitched on the back.

Spring Formal

Wednesday night was Spring Formal for all of the college program and international program cast members. It was at the Coronado Springs Resort in one of their huge convention rooms. There was food, a casino room, and of course dancing. Mickey and Minnie were on hand in their formal attire taking pictures with everyone, although the line was far too long for me to wait in all night. It was pretty fun to see everyone that I work with in dress clothes and not in their peanut butter colored safari outfits. We stayed until the very end and as soon as I got home I went straight to bed.

I tried to give Melissa a lesson in how to take a photo because every picture she takes has so much space above everybody's head so after the lesson this is what I got! Ha!

Katie and I looking sharp :)

Me, Natalie and Katie

Justin, Melissa, Me and Crystal

Ola, Me, Melissa, and Crystal

Gator Tail

Last night we went to Gators for one last time with our friend Crazy Lady. As usual she had a billion and one stories to tell us. She is very animated and always uses big hand gestures. I will definitely miss her.

I was determined to at least try gator before I left Florida because there is gator everything everywhere. At Gators one of their specialty appetizers is gator tail. My friend Brad said it was good so he ordered it. It is cut in pieces and put in a breading and fried. I tried it and it was pretty chewy...I didn't really notice a distinct taste more just texture because I haven't had anything chewy like that in so long. But they serve it with a dipping sauce and that was pretty good.

So there you have it...I tried gator :)

Shit Happens

SO the other day I was working in funnel as usual. ODF broke sales records this spring so they gave us a taco bar for lunch as a reward. I was working with a girl name Milly and we had been all excited about the taco bar all morning. She went on her break first and when she came back she told me that it was delicious and that she had eaten too much. I went and as soon as I arrived at the taco bar my guy friends were joking and warned me not to eat it because one of the had the sudden urge to go about 30 minutes after eaten.

Well I paid them no attention. About 15 minutes into my break I got called into the manager's office. "Kassi, Milly is not feeling well, can you go back to funnel in case she gets sick? We will pay you for your break" Since I am such a nice person I headed back out to funnel..about two steps out of the door I got a text from Milly "Kassi I just threw up and I have the runs"

So my guy friends weren't kidding about the food...so not only did I have to go save Milly from funnel but I was worried that I was gonna get sick too. I got back to funnel and Linda who had been given us breaks had to leave so I was running funnel on my own. Every ten minutes or so Milly would go back and forth between the funnel stand and the bathroom and each time she would call the managers and tell them that they needed to send someone out to help me because she needed to be close to the bathroom... I survived working in funnel all by myself for almost two hours...it was crazy but I survived. Milly felt so bad that she had left me stranded there but I keep telling her "hey, shit happens" hehe in that literally.

MJT

I worked at MJT yesterday. MJT stands for Maharajah Jungle Trek which actually an animal walking trail where you can see tigers, bats, and birds. MJT sells beer, pretzels, and cinnamon glazed nuts. It was my first day working there and I got to work with my pals Tony and Lydia. It was a fantastic day from the get go. It was also our first 90+ degree day of the year :) :) :) I was a very happy camper.

I poured a billion and a half beers throughout the day and I guess I am a good beer pourer because several men complemented me on the no foam at the top...I told them my dad would be proud! We ran out of bud light once and waters twice and it got a little chaotic but none the less it was a fantastic day at work. :)

Disney Graduation

Friday was graduation.
Katie and Natalie and I went first thing in the morning so we could get our pictures taken with all of the characters and get those ears that we have finally earned! There was music games and food and we completed the day with paddle boat racing in Little Lake Bryan (Olivia and I got our butts kicked by Jaimee and Natalie...dangit)

Animal Kingdom, Kitchen Sink, and Ale House

I went to Animal Kingdom on Tuesday with Katie, we met up with my friends Ola and Omega and did several of the rides including the Safari and Expedition Everest :) Omega's backpack yeti JP came along with us and really enjoyed being back at his home (Mt. Everest) They sell everything yeti around there so there were about 200 other yeti backpacks too.

After Animal Kingdom I met up with Olivia, Melissa, Jessica, Beka, and Caitlin at Beaches and Cream at the Beach and Yacht club and we share a Kitchen Sink. A Kitchen Sink is 8 scoops of ice cream and every topping they have, complete with a whole can of whip cream in a bowl shaped like a sink. Can you say disgusting? It was delicious but gross at the same time and we finished the whole thing! Ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww. But it was on the bucket list of things to do while here at Disney so now I have accomplished that!

Tuesday night Katie and I join Natalie, Sam, and Melissa at the Orlando Ale House for ladies night. Pretty much everywhere in Orlando has a ladies night and they know how to treat their ladies right. Beer and well cocktails were free until midnight :) Katie and I ordered vodka cranberries and rather than bring us each one, our waiter brought 8...holy crap. They are small drinks but still it was a lot.

Mr. Ruckel Turns 23

Chris got in Friday the 23rd (his golden birthday) and picked me up from work. We stopped at the Florida mall for a little shopping and dinner and then headed out to Cocoa Beach for the night. Cocoa is a little more than an hour's drive away and Chris was comparable to a little kid (are we there yet?) with "how much longer does the GPS say it will be til we get there" We stayed right on the ocean and had a pretty good view from our room. In the morning we walked along the beach and even managed to spot a few sea creatures the had been washed up on the beach including a few jellyfish. After our walk it was time for the Kennedy Space Center!

The Space center is about 30 minutes from the beach and it is also a national wildlife reserve. Everyone that I had talked to suggested taking the bus tour so we did. It takes you out into the "cool" parts of the space center. We got to see the launching pad that actually has a spaceship on it right now that is set to launch next week. We also saw the vehicle assembly building (i think that is what it is called) which is the 3rd largest building in the world by volume...it takes 45 minutes for one of the garage doors to open. We also got to see movies about the Apollo missions and then see the actually Apollo 8 ship...It was huge!!! And we even got to touch a moon rock which was not as cool as it sounds and didn't really look any different from a earth rock. The last stop on the tour was where they are assembling stuff to go up to the international space center. We were there on a Saturday so there was no one actually working so if you ever go I suggest going on a week day. We were both pretty tired after our tour so we decided to head back to Orlando and get ready to meet up with my friends at my favorite restaurant "Earls of Sandwich" yummy!!!

Chris got to meet a bunch of my friends from work as we dined on delicious sandwiches. I think he was a little bit overwhelmed because it is hard to get a word in while all of us are together especially if it was a bad day at work which it had been because 14 people called in. Yikes!

We stayed with the Krause family Saturday night so we could get up early on Sunday and go boating. It was kind of an overcast day but it was still a ton of fun. We tubed on a four person tube which was an absolute riot. Mikey and Ashley wake boarded for a while. Ashley just started and she was pretty darn good for a beginner. Mike has been wake boarding for a few years but he is amazing for a 12 year old. He was getting a lot a air and landed several of his tricks. We boated around a bunch of lakes that all connect together. There were no gator spottings but we did see Shaq's house and Tiger's house from the lake view.

Monday Chris and I hit up the outlet mall and had lunch at a cute little sandwich shop. Then I gave him as much stuff as he could fit in his suitcase so hopefully I can fit all of my crap in my two suitcases to fly home.

Bad Blogger

okay so I have been very bad but as soon as I have time to catch up on everything I have lots to share and a billion and one pictures.

the basic run down before I can update later with more details.
Chris was here last weekend for his golden birthday :) we went to the beach, space center and boating with the Krause family.

It has been a busy week at work...we are really shorthanded because a lot of people are getting terminated including a few of my friends :( which really stinks because we only have a few more weeks left.

I had graduation this morning and had a blast...lots of pictures from this.

I am off to work at the coffee kiosk now. I will post later.
All my love!

What have I been doing?

So as usual everything is still busy. The crowds at the park have significantly decreased which makes for a lot of boring days. However it will be nice the next time I want to go play in the parks.

Monday was a fabulous day with my friend Natalie. We got pedicures, went shopping, and topped off the day with back to back movies that night with our friend Abel. We saw Date Night and Hot Tub Time Machine...Date Night was hilarious, I would recommend it to all of you. Hot Tub Time Machine was funny too but I think I was a little too tired to appreciate all of the humor. I thing that I appreciated from he movie was all the 80's references. They showed a cigarette vending machine several times and I remember always seeing those when I was little, one in particular at Tower Pizza in Missoula. We topped off the night at Haagen Daz and I got a delicious Dulce Dazzler...Dulce de Leche is this ice cream that they make that tastes like caramel...it is delicious and I am obsessed.
Here are Natalie and Abel at Haagen Daz.

Tuesday I took Natalie to the airport :( she went home for the rest of the week and weekend to surprise her family! She said everyone was shocked to see her and it worked out perfectly. She comes back tonight so I get to pick her up after work :)
Tuesday in my heritage class we watched a bunch of film clips from when the first opened Disneyland in California...it was pretty cool to see how excited everyone was even back then.

Tuesday night a bunch of the college program kids from work and I had a bbq at our apartment complex. We played sand volleyball and let me tell you, I can't jump to begin with and the sand made it so much harder...however I did learn that the majority of the people I work with are not that athletic because watching the play was pretty funny(a swing and a miss....a lot).

The part of Animal Kingdom that I work in most is called Camp Minnie Mickey so this picture is of all of us who work in Camp all the time...yet somehow I still always get funnel.

This is Omega's Yeti backpack JP...he hung out with me all night :)

One of my besties Jaimee and me.



My love muffin Omega

Me, Kimberly, Lydia, and Brad.

from left to right: James, Brad, Tony, Omega, and Alex

From left to right Kiara, Megan, Jaimee, Crystal, Omega in the front, Ola, James, me, Lydia, Melissa, Fernanda, and Alex in the back.

I still have been working in funnel a lot, although I got out of there last night and closed the coffee kiosk which is always painless. I had a woman yell at me about how we possibly couldn't have lids and then come back and apologize which was a first and nice.

Yesterday morning Lisa picked me up and we went and watched Mikey's lacrosse scrimmage. Box lacrosse (as they call it) was super similar to ice hockey without the ice. Mikey did great and it was fun to watch him because he always tries to explain things about lacrosse to me.

Chris comes on Friday for his golden birthday and we are all set up to have a great weekend.

Stealth/Titans Game

Yesterday I was able to switch my shift so I didn't have to be in funnel and I got to work earlier and shorter...and the icing on the cake I got to work in Nacho! My favorite stand that sells ice cream. :) It was a fantastic day at work. I got off at 3:30 and took a guest bus to the Old Key West Resort where Lisa picked me up. We went home and got the rest of the family and went to mass.

After mass we went to Gators for dinner. I enjoyed a nice Parmesan sandwich and sweet potato fries. And of course I couldn't resist a long island as a little treat to finishing my 58 hour work week.

Now to the game! The Orlando Titans play in the Amway Arena which is the same place that the Orlando Magic currently play in. The Magic are getting a new arena which will be ready for next year. It is maybe three blocks away from where Amway Arena is and seems like kind of a waste of money. The Titans were playing the Washington Stealth from Everett Washington. It was a "best of the west" versus "beast of the east". It was fun to watch, it is pretty fast paced like hockey or indoor soccer. But has parts of other sports in it too. There is a shot clock and you can't go over and back of the half line. I think the final score was 17-7 Washington...they kind of ran away with it in the second period. Overall it was fun to watch and a great night out.


Paul Rabil has the legs of a Greek God.


Similar to hockey...a potential fight breaking out.



Casey Powell (left) and Paul Rabil (right) were the best players on their respective teams.

Burns

The lack of updates are due to the pure exhaustion of working this week...from here on out every hour that I work is overtime. I have been in funnel every single day this week and have got a nice burn to match every single day...I have burned the palm of my hand 3 days...I have two nice red marks that will probably turn into scars on my forearm and I burned the hair off my fingers today...

I pretty much have been hating life and nothing new has happened...I tried to switch with a friend so I don't work in funnel on Saturday and instead will go to a professional lacrosse game with the Krause family...my fingers are crossed that it gets approved.

Easter Sunday

Happy Easter everyone!
We got up early this morning for a 7:00 AM Easter Mass. It was early but well worth it because we got to get to the beach for a full day.
I spent the day at Cocoa Beach with the Krause family and their friends. It was my first trip to the Atlantic Ocean and it was a beautiful day. It was 85 degrees and pure sunshine for most of the day. The kids did all kids of water activities and we older folk (since I am so old) mostly sat around and chatted. I worked on my tan a bit and managed to avoid burning my face to that nice lobster red color that both my father and Chris seem to run into so much.

People watching is always an enjoyable activity for me and the beach provides the perfect specimen for that activity. I was astounded by some of the hideous tattoos. One girl had some huge black thing all over the left side of her body...the minute she gains weight or gets pregnant will be ugly. One man had a huge eagle on his back...as the day went on all around the tattoo was turning bright red...he obviously forgot his sunscreen.

I really enjoyed watching all of the cruise ships take off at the end of the day. The all leave around four and set sail for the Bahamas. It is kind of like a really slow caravan. One takes off and then 20 minutes later another one takes off. They look like they are barely moving at all. Lisa says that since we are so close to the Bahamas the ships go really slow so they get there to dock at a perfect time the next morning.

It was a fantastic day but I certainly miss the get togethers for Easter at Gonzaga. We would go to mass together and make a huge brunch.

I hope all is well with you and your families!

Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous

I spent all of Monday hanging out with Lisa. We ran errands, looked at a sweet house remodel, and went bowling. We drove all over Orlando doing errands and in the process Lisa pointed out Tiger Woods' neighborhood...yes the neighborhood where he had the infamous car crash. I also got to see Shaq's house...he has a blue roof, it is right on a lake and huge! Just like he is. Johnny Damon's new house is like two doors down from Shaq. Lisa and Scott are thinking about doing a little remodeling in their house to spruce it up so we went and looked at one of their friends' houses who just had a bunch of remodeling done. I have never seen anything like that house before in my life. The inside wasn't really anything special. But the backyard was spectacular. They had to pull up the pool because the piping was screwed up and one thing led to another and now their background is a man's dream. They are building a new pool, hot tub, outdoor bar, sauna, a gas fire pit, a wood pit (so they have the option to burn wood), and a gazebo thing. The gazebo thing has a fireplace in it, it will have a tv and some couches...it is the ultimate backyard...it was really cool and it will I am sure be beautifully landscaped. I want to see it when its done. Bowling was fun and I bowled pretty well. 156 my first game and 127 my second game. My normal average is about 125 so I was quote pleased.

I am house sitting for Scott and Lisa this week while they are on their spring break vacation. I get to drive their car to and from work which has been great! I even got to park backstage today because our cast parking lot was overflowing. Yesterday Magic Kingdom hit their capacity around noon so Animal Kingdom got the overflow and ODF had a record sales day.

Near the end of my day I found a lost child. He was adorable, he had on a set of Mickey Ears that looked far too big for his head, he didn't cry and he wouldn't talk to me but he would nod his head in agreement to anything I said. Did you see Mickey Mouse? head nod. Did you like Disney world? head nod. Do you have brothers and sisters? head nod. I took him to the lost children center and Pinocchio was playing on the tv...he did a lot of head nodding for Pinocchio and then pretty much ignored me because he was so captivated. His dad came in not much later and started crying in relief of finding his son. The boy, Marco, (I asked his dad what his name was) wasn't even phased by the reunion with his father.

This week has been absolutely crazy in the park...I will try to keep you updated if anything else excited happens.

Raindrops are falling in my ice cream cart

So yesterday I had the pleasure of sleeping in...however I didn't make it past 8:15...oh well. I didn't have to be to work until 3:30. I accomplished a lot of my chores: laundry, cleaned some of the bathroom, and went for a nice run. I skyped with my mom who felt that it was necessary to ask me a question and while I answered make funny faces and move her face around the screen. So if you want some cheap entertainment just make a skype date with her. I also got to see TUGGERS!!! I don't think dogs can see computer screens because he was sniffing everywhere for me when he heard my voice. When I told him to sit, he did and his ears perked up really big when I asked him if he wanted a doggy bone :) He is still a cute little fur ball.

I got to work 45 minutes early because the bus schedule is terrible and that was the closest I could get without being late. It started raining during my bus ride which it was supposed to and by the time I got to base at 3 it was pouring! Then it started lightning so we went 101 which means anyone who is at an ice cream cart must lock everything up and go to their lightning location...which in my opinion some of the lightning locations will not keep anyone safe from lightning. We were in lightning locations for the first two hours I was on the clock. So I got to just hang out. I ended up having to show some cast members who are working in Animal Kingdom for a few weeks but normally work at Epcot how to bank out. They are here because our leaders have requested extra help for spring break. They people from Epcot heard that a bunch of people from DAK ODF were terminated for this huge party we had...well remember the St. Patrick's Day party that I told you about...this immediately popped into my head. But no one was terminated because of it. Then another one of the Epcot people added on that his roommate saw a bunch of people running from the cops who busted the party. Rumors at Disney are worse than high school rumors...and this was very obviously false. None the less it gave me a good laugh.

When I finally got out to my ice cream cart it was slow. I was at Oasis Bridge which is where I was for my first day of training. It has popcorn, drinks, and ice cream. Many days it is crazy busy. Pretty much everyone had left during the storm so it was just me and a random duck that kept coming to eat popcorn crumbs. I had not worked at a popcorn cart since my very first day of training. I couldn't remember how to make popcorn and the cherry on top was that the oil that does in the popcorn machine was broken so I had to hand scoop out of a bucket a cup of oil...gross. My first batch was very burnt...the second one was very yellow...the third one was okay. One little girl even said "Mommy, this isn't as good as I thought it would be." (sarcastic voice) Awesome...

When it came time to pack up and go to base all of the ice cream boxes were frozen to the bottom of the freezer. I was doing the duck and diving into the cart with my butt up trying to get all of my ice cream boxes out without ripping the box and having ice cream bars fly everywhere. I got a few cuts on my hands which I didn't notice until I was cleaning out the popcorn machine and I got salt in my open wounds. The phrase "pour salt in open wounds" now makes a lot of sense. I see why people use that as a metaphor for someone hurting them...because it STUNG!

Today is my only day off this week and I will be spending it with Lisa and Mikey :)

Old Town Orlando

Last night I went with Katie and her friends Erin and Edmar to Old Town with Gus and Rita (an old couple who works seasonally for Disney). Gus and Rita love Old Town and they couldn't believe we had never been before...now when you think of this old town don't think of San Diego with the amazing Mexican food or Old Town Scottsdale which is neighbors with some great shopping. Think Jersey Shore carnival. It was basically a big carnival with 5 blocks of shops on the inside. We had dinner at Flippers pizza and Gus and Rita were quite astonished at my choice of pizza (artichoke hearts, roasted red peppers, basil, and sun dried tomatoes) but Rita tried it and she liked it :)

After dinner we walked around in amazement at some of the attractions. Such as one where you get sling-shotted straight up into the the air. Or the attraction that pulls you up to the top of a pole and lets go and you free fall. I said no thank you right away. I did say yes to Skee Ball though...as I child I remember being much better than I was last night...it must be the angle of getting taller or something. ;) We all stopped and got flavored popcorn at a special store...I got watermelon flavor which was delicious. They also had flavors such as cheesecake, apple pie, and orange cream...they were all good! There was a haunted house...when you walked past it the employees came out and scared you trying to convince you to go in...no thanks to that too.

Gus' favorite part was the car cruise. Anyway can enter their car for the Friday night cruise which involves driving your car through the complex so everyone can see it. There were some really crappy cars and some really nice ones. There was a whole posse of Nissan Titans that drove together. Gus' favorite car was a Honda Element that had a whole speaker system, 3 tvs, and turn tables put into the trunk, suicide doors, and crazy lights everywhere. It was pretty sweet.

I work in funnel today and I am the closer so I must go get ready :(

Phillies-Braves

So today I had the pleasure of going to a spring training game with my friend Natalie and her sort of boyfriend, John. John works at ESPN Wide World of Sports so he got us tickets...not just any tickets but 4th row tickets! or 1st row behind the Phillies dugout. IT WAS AWESOME. Ryan Howard totally checked me out. ;) The Braves routed the Phillies 8-0...it wasn't much of a showing for the 2009 National League Champs but it was really cool to be so close to the players. The weather was absolutely beautiful. If the Braves had a home run...which they had 3, fireworks shot off from behind the scoreboard and I love fireworks! They also had fireworks during the national anthem which was both startling and really cool. Here are some pictures!


Natalie and I at the entrance to the complex.

The Phillies Dugout, oh so close.

Chipper Jones in his first at bat...he is a switch hitter and later in the game he switched to be a lefty.

Brian McCann in contact with a nice RBI single...he had two home runs earlier in the game.

Terrific Tuesday

Yesterday was a great day...nothing extra special happened but it was just one of those days where everything went nicely.
I slept in for the first time in a long time, leisurely watched TV while doing a little cooking of lunches to take to work this week. I went for a run and then laid by the pool for a little bit and talked on the phone with Anyaa :) I had my Heritage class at 4. Sadly my group did not win the scavenger hunt from the previous week but class was still good. We watched some old clips of Walt talking about some of his early projects and even got to see a deleted scene from Snow White and the 7 Dwarfs called "Music in My Soup" it was pretty funny. Dopey swallows a bar of soap and the he swallows his soup spoon and they all have an idea about how to get it out.

I went grocery shopping after class and then Olivia and I headed for the outlet mall. It isn't too far away from where we live but getting from the interstate to the mall caused us some problems and we had to due a U turn and go through two tolls before we found it...even though we could see it from the interstate. Tolls are a pain in the rear and I feel like we get lost and have to go through them all the time. They have this thing called a Sunpass that you can buy at the grocery store and it charges your credit card instead of paying change every time.

After we finally made it there, it was fabulous outlet stores of all my favorites. Victoria Secret, North Face, Nike, Michael Kors, and so many more! It was absolutely fabulous but we couldn't stay long because we had to get back to apartment for the college program Block Party! They had free Shirley Temples and great music for dancing. They played some old school music that was on my Jock Jams cds in middle school. It was awesome and kind of funny because some of the youngsters (18 year olds) had no idea what the songs were...I guess I must be getting old. The highlight of the whole block party was these three very gay boys who had choreographed their own dance and busted it out in the huge mob of people. Well then another very flamboyant boy busted out a rebuttal and it was kind of like a dance off...which until last had only been a fictional joke in my mind.

More Pictures from my parents' visit.

Here are some pictures from playing around in Epcot...the telephone booth is in the UK part of the world pavilion and the picture where my parents are sticking their head through the holes is in Canada. The Epcot ball is hopefully obvious to you.

Sleeping In

I got to sleep in this morning for the first time in SOOOOOOO long. I managed to make it until 10:30AM...it was great...I have the day off but I have class at 4. We are going to find out who won the scavenger hunt from last week at Hollywood Studios :) I am pretty excited.

Until then I think I will lay by the pool...I already made some food to take for lunch this week. I will need to do laundry as well. I need to go to wardrobe and get new costumes...I think it might finally be time to exchange my pants in for some shorts and we are finally having consistent 70 degree days except for when it rains...then it gets cold :(

Last night Natalie, Olivia, Jaimee, Meagan and I got together for a little pizza party and started to plan our May trip. We all took a few days off in May and are hopefully going to go to Miami or this place called Siesta Keys. We didn't get much done other than eating and gossiping but we all agreed we want to spend some time at the beach!

Katie and I went to Mojitos last night which is a reggaeton/salsa club. We took the party bus there which picks us at our apartment. It was 8 dollars for the bus and to get into the club, pretty nice considering a taxi along would have cost a whole lot more. We met some girls that I work with and had a pretty good time. I was a little nervous about taking the dance floor with all the "professional" salsa dancers (a huge number of the people there were from Spanish or Portuguese(Brazilians) speaking countries. I eventually got the courage and attempted to teach my friends some basic steps. It really made me miss taking my social dance class with Bryan, LP, and Jace last year.

I am off for one of my favorite hobbies...sunbathing :)

Spring Break Season

Life here has been crazy! It is officially spring break season and I am already overwhelmed with work. I worked 42 hours in four days and it isn't even our busiest season. So here is a quick recap on none work activities.

Wednesdays at Animal Kingdom are magic hours so the park is open an extra 3 hours for resort guests. So most of us had to work late Wednesday so we decided we would celebrate St. Patrick's Day on Thursday instead. One of the trainer's had a party at her house and everyone wore green and played beer pong and danced. Before you knew everyone was crazy! Friday at work there were 11 call ins...it was torture. Yours truly made it to work running on three hours of sleep. I am still trying to catch up on sleep because all I have been doing is working!

I got ERed from work yesterday a few hours early because of torrential down pouring rain. I can't even begin to explain how hard it rains here. It doesn't thunder or lightning crazy like some summer nights in Missoula but it rains so hard! It took the bus 90 minutes to get home and we even skipped one of the stops. It is like the first day of snow back home, even though everyone is used to snow, there are a billion wrecks the first day...well everyone is used to rain here but the traffic is terrible when it rains...I just don't get it.

Last Tuesday my heritage class met at Hollywood Studios for a scavenger hunt. It was a blast, we raced around the park getting answers for trivia questions about Walt, the architecture of the park, and general fun facts. We find out tomorrow which team wins but I think we have a good shot. We filled out every single answer and still had about ten minutes in the challenge to spare.

Tonight I am hoping to go to a reggae-ton club called Mojitos with some girls from work...I will let you know how it is tomorrow :)

The Parents Visit

My parents were both delayed getting here on Thursday and I say both because they took separate flights. My mom was using her frequent flyer miles and my dad decided he would rather take an earlier flight. My dad came and picked me up at my apartment in a shiny bright red Dodge Avenger. It was quite the sporty rig, he picked it because he thought it would stand out in a lot...it sure did. We went and checked into our resort Disney's Boardwalk Inn. We got a quick bite to eat on the boardwalk, loaded up with beverages at the gas station and went back to the airport to pick up my mom. She was so overjoyed that she had made it she almost teared up or maybe the was some of the heavy rain leftover from earlier in the day. She said that she ran to her plane in Atlanta because she thought she would miss it otherwise and then had to sit on the plane at the gate for an hour...we were all happy that she made it.

We went on a scavenger hunt to find her food when we returned to the hotel but sadly almost everything was closed at midnight so we had to settle for animal crackers from the vending machine...bedtime at last came far later than I was used to and I fell asleep with my parents talking to me I was so tire.

We were planning on going to Animal Kingdom on Friday morning but we awoke to POURING rain. So we did what we do best and went shopping! My dad sat in the car and read because he just is not a shopping kind of guy...hard to believe I know. After a few hours at the mall we headed back for Disney property and went to our favorite park Epcot! We got through a lot of stuff despite the rain. One of our favorites was Spaceship Earth...it was like going to a comedy in the movie theater with my mom---she was laughing so much. I am sure my Grandma will giggle imagining this because she always goes to the movies with my mom when they are together and every time they come home and she tells us how loud my mom was laughing at the movie. At the end of the ride they take your picture and put it on a cartoon body. you answer a few questions and it chooses a little script that your character does. It was great.


We met up with Katie for dinner in Norway at the Akerhaus. Turns out it was a Disney princess dinner so we were immediately thrown in front of a camera with Belle from the Beauty and the Beast. Somehow my dad missed the 300 times that my mom and I watched that movie as a kid because he had to ask Belle who she was. He thought that all the princesses were hitting on him all night...whether or not he realized that they socialize with everyone...I am not so sure. The best was when Snow White came to the table because he actually knew who she was so he put her on the hot seat and started asking her questions about the 7 dwarfs...that poor girl.
We watched Illuminations:Reflections of Earth which is the fireworks show at Epcot and then headed back to the resort for some shuteye and rejuvenation for the next day.

Saturday morning we were up early and arrived at Animal Kingdom in time to see Mickey Minnie and Pluto welcome the masses. While at Animal Kingdom my parents were able to meet some of my work pals and we saw some great animals including the new baby gorilla.

This is a gorilla drinking water from the stream but the baby gorilla look quite similar to a human gorilla, just really furry.

The Monorail Competetion

Yesterday was our second meeting our of Disney Heritage class. We meet every Tuesday afternoon from 4-6pm and basically go over the history of Disney. Yesterday's class was on Walt and Roy and their struggle for balance in their road to fame and fortune. After an hour of history we got to put what we learned into action. The class was split into five teams and those five teams were split in half. One half was the creative=Walt and the other half was the financial and realistic=Roy. I was a Walt :)

The task was to build a monorail track with archways for passengers to go through. You got a point for each character/passenger that went through each archway. We were given 100 pretend dollars for purchase of pipe cleaners, tape, Velcro, or balloon. We were given 15 characters (plastic Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Pluto...etc.) One of the characters was the Beast and he was worth two points since he was so big. We had twenty minutes to complete our track and run our monorails. The team with the most points wins. Our team got everything together and our monorail started with about 5 minutes left in the competition. Surprising we were the first team to get the monorail going. Half of our characters fell off on the first time around the track so we had 8 characters (1 being the Beast) for our final 5 rotations. We ended up in second place and it turns out the key to getting the most points was having the most characters stay on. It was really fun and it reminded me of old physics projects from high school.

I worked in Funnel for ten hours today...I am so glad it is over. We got to close 45 minutes early because we ran out of mix and the bakery didn't have anymore...shoot. I am supposed to work at an ice cream cart tomorrow and will be off in time to have my dad pick me up! He gets in and a few hours later my mom's plane lands :) I am so excited to have them here. We will go to the parks and they don't know this yet but they are going to take me to the grocery store!!! Yay :) I will be sure to take lots of pictures, especially if we go on any wild roller coasters :)

Tamu Tamu and Typhoon Lagoon

So my wish was granted I didn't have to work in Camp Minnie Mickey on Sunday! I got to work in Africa :) Tamu Tamu is a little "hole in the wall" that sells burgers, tuna pitas, and turkey sandwiches. In Swahili if you the name twice it means very or a lot. Tamu means delicious so Tamu Tamu means very delicious. There is a little Disney detail for ya! It is easily the busiest food place that belongs to ODF and quite possibly the busiest in the whole park. My job was filler for soda...so all I had to do was look at the screen, fill up the appropriate soda, and group them together to be put on a tray. It was crazy...I think we went through at least 15 stacks of cups and probably 30 plus gallons of ice. I had a blast and it was so nice not to have to work in funnel :)

Yesterday was my day off and so a few of us decided to go to Typhoon Lagoon. Katie and I went earlier than everyone else and did pretty much all the water slides we wanted to before our friends even got there. When Ola, Jaimee, and Molita got there we were playing in the wave pool which simulates the ocean and has waves that will really toss you around. I am curious as to how many times the lifeguards have to rescue people because they have one huge wave every 60 seconds or so that is crazy! Well come to find out that Ola can't swim and is scared to death of this wave that keeps coming. If you are in waist deep or so and just standing there, it will knock you down. And it did knock her down about three times before I decided we should probably go have a swimming lesson.

Well there is a reason you don't see many black people in the Olympics swimming. They are like cats meant for running fast and jumping...not meant to be in the water. Ola was hilarious trying to swim. She couldn't quite get the concept of continuing to kick your legs as you move around the pool. She would kick and float and then stop and start to sink...we made a little progress and then decided that was enough for one day and did some more water slides.

One of my favorite parts about typhoon is the lazy river that goes around the whole park. I could sit in there all day! The current isn't too strong but if you try to swim against it you will not be able to...

I have the day off again today and it will be spent doing laundry and laying by the pool until my class at 4. :)

Poison

Hello to all of my adoring fans...sorry that I have no posted this week...somehow each night when I came home I was at a loss for words. So here is a brief update.
Although I have only had to work in funnel one day this week I was a breaker several times and had to do breaks in there...I begged for a little vacation time from funnel, we will see if it is granted in the coming weeks.

It has finally started to get nice here. I am even going to venture out and wear shorts to work today! It will be a first and I am a little nervous about it but it is supposed to be 70 degrees today so I am keeping my fingers crossed that the predicted 0% chance of rain holds true.

ESPN put it nicely when they titled there article Duke destroys UNC...unfortunately I fell asleep at halftime and missed the second half. But none the less I am quite pleased. The Zags play in the WCC tourney in Vegas this weekend so everyone better be rooting for them! I know my mom will...you can find some nice Matt Bouldin video posts on her facebook wall...good thing my dad doesn't have a facebook or he would be rolling his eyes. Secretly I think he just wishes he had those curly locks...because let's face it 'curls get the girls' i.e Chris Ruckel :)

I went to TGI Fridays with some friends from work on Friday night..it was 1:00 AM when we were leaving and some song came on...well all of my black friends were jumping and screaming and doing the same dance...I didn't know what had hit me...after they were finished with their hoopla, I asked what they were doing. Well Poison was the song and the dance goes with it. It came about "back when we weren't treated right" according to Jaimee...so there you have it. It was crazy.

I think tomorrow Katie and I are gonna try to go to Typhoon Lagoon and soak up some rays...we were supposed to only get in free until February 27th but they extended it until June!!! Yay!

The Ma and Pa come on Thursday and I am so excited!!!

Off to work out not I will try to be better about posting this week.

Splash Mountain

Splash Mountain has been closed since Katie and I got here. They have been doing some refurbishments and according to the rumor mill extended the drop. Now I don't know whether or not that is true but Splash Mountain opened up again on Sunday and Katie and I had yesterday off so we decided we HAD TO TRY IT!!! I remember being scared to go on it when I was little but liking it afterward.


Katie was eager before we got on!


We decided to wait in the standby line instead of fast-pass because we figured it we would get to go on it sooner! Here is Brer sign of some of the animals we saw on the ride.


Not quite as eager after the big drop because we all got soaked!


Katie's friend Edmar came with us and here we are going through the last part of the ride.


Katie and I happily riding through the inside of the mountain.


We also had time to ride Big Thunder Mountain...one of our favorites!


And I finally got to ride Winnie The Pooh's Adventure Ride in my very own Honey Pot! Here is Christopher Robin greeting us before the ride.



So Sunday on Splash Mountain they had to evacuate the whole ride because something went wrong. My friend Ola was on it that day and she said she waited almost an hour before she was able to get off the ride. We also got stopped on the ride but only briefly.