mroach33

Yes. I have not been updating you folks well enough into the program, and I have like only two weeks left before I leave.

How do I plan on resolving this issue?

"100 Things to Do As a Disney CP".
That's how I plan on resolving that. Today I continue my recording sessions on my phone (yes I'm making as many as I can video segments too), and hopefully I'll get them all done before I leave.

I also plan on putting all the hidden videos and pictures you guys never got to see because of my laziness on the interwebs. So there ya go. Fun for me, AND you!

So stay tuned dang it. The ride's not over yet.

So it's 5:50am and I have yet another wonderful 7:30am shift. It's a ten hour day until 6:00pm, but I'm not sold yet. The last two days have been THE SLOWEST two days I've like, almost ever worked. We have some Songahm ATA guys in there practicing martial arts, and it's not like super traditional--it's like Power Ranger martial arts, complete with silly poses.  Yep. So I've just been sitting around work watching guys do somersaults and yell and do stuff the color guard could do at my high school. Oh well.

I talked with my new favorite duty manager Mike yesterday, and he helped me consider a lot of options with staying in the company. For instance, I might not go seasonal, but instead be a Campus Rep. I still have to dig further to see what that's about, but so far it sounds promising. Also, he's geeky and cool like me, and loves sports. We sat in his office the majority of the night listening to music (Earth, Wind and Fire, and Main Street, and Illuminations), and capped the night with funny pictures of his CP and CAPTAIN EO. Yes, Captain EO, the attraction Disney used to have that featured Michael Jackson dominating bad guys with the power of song and dance. Did it "rock my world" so to speak? Totally. He laughed and said a good chunk of my life was gone because I had never seen it before. I agreed.

Otherwise, wish me luck this morning. I have homework to do at work too....so, yeah. Bringing my laptop to work. 
 

Yep. So birthday week is officially over. My mother has left for Plymouth, Indiana. BUT, it was a lot of fun, the week we had. Too much fun in fact, so here's a recap of each day, followed by ridiculous stuff that followed.

Monday
-Mom arrived
-Met up with her and Diane (her friend who hadn't been to The World in over 30 years)
-Went to EPCOT
-Diane=amazed at Spaceship Earth
-Mom chickens out on Mission: Space. Diane=more thrilled 
-Everyone happy after Test Track
-Amazing food at Teppan Edo!

Tuesday
-Met at 10 and headed to DAK
-"Climbed" Everest. Wayyy too much fun on our part. "WHY'S THE TRACK BROKEN!?"
-Got soaked (except Diane, lucky) at Kali River Rapids! Met cool family and enjoyed a big friendly soaking.
-Safari was awesome. Mom began reminiscing about my child hood right about here.
-Met up with Steven, had lunch at Flame Tree Barbeque!
-Went to EPCOT, rode Universe of Energy (my favorite since I was 3 yrs old)
-Ate at Coral Reef in The Seas, to which mom remembered going there with dad a long time ago.

Wednesday
-MAGIC KINGDOM!! (our favorite)
-Rode BTMR.
-Had the most amazing time in Splash. Ride got stuck in the part where the frog is singing and fishing on the alligator. A huge pile-up of logs ensues. So this little kid in the last row of the log in front of us turns back and goes "traffic jam!" and we laugh. Then his party started clapping to the music, and so did we, to which seven freaking logs were all clapping to the music! Then the boats started moving, and the kid in front insisted it was because we all clapped together. :) magic!
-Haunted Mansion. Retold story of how I was scarred for life on that ride and was so afraid of it as a child lol.
-Mom insisted we ride Peter Pan. So we did. To the chagrin of every adult there with kids. Diane and mom get upset that they never saw Tink on the ride.
-Root beer floats!
-Spectro
-An AMAZING dinner at Crystal Palace, to which I had never been there before in my life. We took pictures with Pooh, Tigger, Eeyore and Piglet!
Also note, I met two amazing families on the ferry boat when I was going to meet up with my party. One was from Indiana, and they were big Purdue fans, and when I said I worked for Disney they just lit up and started talking a lot with me. It was their first time in Disney World, so I told them neat stuff and generally had fun with the kids. The youngest boy asked what happens when he wears his "1st Visit" button, to which I said: "a lot of neat stuff!" and he asked what, so I told him it was a surprise until he got in there. Also met a family from West Virginia (because a little boy tugged my shirt and said "We're from West Virginia!", in response to the Indiana family telling me where they're from). Also met a lady who hadn't been in there for over 20 years and was taking her granddaughter. :) All in all they said they loved meeting me and were so happy to meet such a nice worker in the World. :)

Thursday
-Hollywood Studios!
-Too much shopping on my mom's part.
-Tower of Terror. SIX TIMES. Can't get enough of that attraction!
-Rock'n'Roller Coaster once. lol!
-A friend of mine (who goes to IU), Danny, got me and my party to ride immediately after we got done riding once. To which my mom was ecstatic. To make a magic moment of my own OFF WORK, and to show my mom how much fun it is for me to be here, I took a random family of three (a mom, her daughter and her son) on with us for our immediate re-ride. The kids were so excited that they met me and I got them to just go back up without a queue and ride again! The boy in the middle of the ride at the ghost part turns back and says: "You're so cool! Thank you thank you thank you SO MUCH for doing that!" And all I said was with a smile: "It's what we do!" :)
-Rain. RAIN. MORE RAIN. Got SOAKED. Danced in the rain with a little kid lol! 
-Ate at Sci-Fi Dine-in, and my mom got really happy reminiscing on old movies that she watched at Drive-ins as a kid.

Friday
Slow day. Went to DAK again for mom to get a set of ears, and to see warthogs chase each other around. Then we went to MK and just relaxed. Watched the Enchanted Tiki Room, and my mom did some more memory happiness (she went to Disneyland in high school and that was a big deal to her, the Tiki Room). Then we ate at Shutters in Caribbean Beach for dinner. The waitress we had surprised my mom with a birthday cake and song (the whole room sang, surprisingly) just like the Crystal Palace did on Wednesday!


Then we parted ways. WHEW. I know, it was a LONG entry for today. But I had WAY too much fun! And you know, these trips, these little "vacations" in a vacation and breaks from work are nice. I like being able to enjoy WDW and realize why exactly I love it here so much, create magic, and still see a butt load of happiness with people that come to the parks. 

I.
Love.
Disney.

Well, I know what week THIS is.

It's my mom's birthday week.

What you ask? 

She's coming down today and staying until Friday to celebrate her birthday (it's actually on Wednesday)! She's bringing our family friend along who hasn't been here in about thirty years.  Can you say magic making? HECK yes. I'm really excited. I already bought her her first present, and then mom gets to pick whatever her second one is, because I couldn't determine one. I bought dad two presents for his father's day, so I thought it'd only be fair if mom got two too.  

To ANY Cast Members whom might read this--if you see me and my mom and her friend perusing the parks with her birthday pin on, feel free to embarrass us and make magic as much as possible.  

Yep! It's gonna be a good week this week! :)

Also happy Columbus Day!

So work was fun today. It was long, but it went by really really fast.  Like super fast. Like imagine running, only faster (terrible analogy). ANYWAY, they sent me to front and T again, which you know, I don't mind, because it turns out I like working in the front and T, if not to just talk to guests and make people smile.  At least I catch them before they get into hardcore serious competition mode.  Speaking of competition, today we had a bevvy (bevvy?) of events:  softball, cross-country, archery (yes, archery, arrows and legit bows), and some Team Canada baseball team that played the Houston Astros.  It literally got to the point where I couldn't go out to the front of the property to check my trash cans because too many cross-country runners were just blocking my lane.  It was really awkward.  Look at the person, they make eye contact. I make a slight move to indicate me going in that direction wanting to get through, and then they just stand there. Awesome. Thanks.

I was ridiculously efficient and speedy at cleaning today.  I went through stadium bathrooms like it was my JOB (oh wait....) and cleaned the stands really well too. And the dugouts.  I was on fire when it came to work, which probably explains why the day went by so fast! Highlight of the day..well, there were two of those.  First, a little kid and his dad were walking by and the kid was totally wearing a Peyton Manning jersey. For those of you who don't know, Peyton Manning is the starting QB for my favorite NFL team, the Indianapolis Colts. So I said: "Hey that is an amazing jersey." And the kid just lit up and was like: "YEAH! He's AWESOME!" And his dad just laughed and let us converse. Turns out he collects jerseys (the kid), and Peyton is his favorite. Any kid who's favorite QB is my favorite is a friend of mine!

Second thing that happened to make my night--well, there's this kid I work with that just doesn't work.  He doesn't work, and talks too long without breathing (on and on and ON...) and nobody likes him.  So he hitches a ride with me and my two co-workers (to our utter dismay) and we decide to go through a Wendy's drive thru so I can eat tonight. The kid gets all pumped like "YEAH! LET'S GO!" And we're just: "ok..".

So he orders, and the following ensues:

Me: Do you have money?
Him: Yeah. I got my card.
Me: And you have MONEY on that card?
Him: Uh, duh.
Me: OK.

Now at this point I totally believed him.  So when we get to the first window to pay, my card goes through, and he hands over his card.  The guy at the window just gets the most hilariously disgusted look on his face and promptly says: "Your card's been declined."  AH HA! We died laughing. He then goes on and on about how we just got paid, and he should have money, but he's not sure the amount, and blah blah. At this point all I'm thinking is "to get money, you have to show up to work...which you don't. And then you have to WORK WORK, which...well...you don't."  

That was it. Made my night, possibly even my life here. And if everything is in bold in this post, blame it on LJ. I dunno. Usually I use bold to emphasize something interesting or funny, or even perhaps BOTH, but right now everything is in bold and, to keep myself honest, some of this ain't so interesting or funny. Or at least not to my blog's standards.

So fun night tonight!

In short, went to an Orlando Magic preseason game (one of a couple probably) with my roommate John-Mark!

Amazing. A-MAZE-ING. Too much fun.

JJ  Redick, well, he's my new favorite player on their team. I am very biased towards him lol! If only they'd pass him the ball more, maybe they'd get more threes!

Well that's it. Just know it was awesome. Can't wait to do it again.

In other news--work tomorrow at 3:30, only a six hour shift, so that shouldn't be too bad.

Stay tuned! :P

So here's what's going on.

I have a shift at 5 o' clock in the morning.

I went to bed at 8:30 pm.

Did I sleep?
...
.
.
.

No.

So am I going to sleep if I have to catch the bus at 3:50am and it's 1:53?
.
.
.
Nope.

It'll be interesting to be at work tomorrow morning....

I bet you can't guess what this post is about.  Wait, I'll give you a sec...okay, guess.

Nothing? Here's a hint..

F___ball

and...AND...AAAAND?

Work. You win!

Anyway, yep, my college, Purdue University, played the University of Notre Dame, both prestigious Indiana schools and both in a heated rivalry. Basically, we haven't beaten Notre Dame in the rivalry in...well, a while, so today was the day!  AND, my coordinator Krista is totally a die-hard Notre Dame fanatic, so you can only imagine the competitive trash talking sparks that resulted from our two schools playing.  Unfortunately, Purdue lost by three in a dramatic two-minute drive.  To which my coordinator gloated, right when the game ended, on my radio no less (for reference, we'd been trash talking over that radio network all day lol! XD).  Great game, and it made work a butt load more interesting!  

On the work front, I found that very few people that are deployed to DWWS from DTD actually know how to work.  I say few, because not all of the deployed are inept at the concept of work.  So what does that mean for me?  That means I get to bust my butt off all day and, lucky me, at the later half of the night, I was literally sprinting between the front and T, Stadium, and the dumpsters.  It was a good work out I guess--got me sweating good (stupid Florida heat).  I got a lot of compliments today from the good full-time workers (the ones that work). I'm really proud of myself, to be honest. I took charge of a couple CPs, did some leader actions (aka commanding forcefully), and got the ball rolling. It's unfortunate that a lot of CPs are too lazy to do anything important, but yet, it makes me aspire to a higher level in Disney. I dunno, I'm just happy that the experienced and reliable FTs appreciate me A LOT and love me. 

Woah! Loving work more than I used to at home. WARNING.

It's hard to describe.  At first, I hated work.  I haaaaated it. Then I got my butt handed to me by Todd, and it made me mature and wake up. Now I work extremely hard, and it's all paying off. My coordinators definitely noticed me today, with big grins on their faces. There are still some things troubling me socially, things I desperately want to fix, but other than that, I'm really escaping at work. Woah. 

Whatever drug Disney gave me when I got here..

I'm loving every second of it. :)

Out of subject title ideas, so we're just gonna go with nothing!  Anyway work today wasn't too bad.  I worked front and T, which means doing trash and sweeping a lot of stuff.  Trash was really good, a guy from over at DTD was deployed so we tackled it together.  Suffice to say, we DOMINATED!  Even our manager said we were doing amazing, which in turn made the coordinators very, very happy.  I wish more people worked like the DTD guy, he was so awesome.  

Me: Yeah hey, did you--
DTD Guy: Already did this whole half and now I'm going to Stadium.
Me: Well THEN. I guess we're done with the T.
DTD Guy: Yep!

Glad I could make a new friend.  Speaking of new friends, met some really cool people that were working for the SALSA sale.  One of which is a friend of a friend, and he seems like a nice future friend to hang out with!  He spoke in a french dialect (fake, of course, he's from Wisconsin), and surprisingly, it wasn't too bad!  I think he caught a lot of people off guard because of it.  

The end of the day though, ended up being mildly stressful.  I got done closing the T, and I went to help stadium close, and wouldn't you know, it was like a hurricane just crapped all over it with a side of gross.  I just grabbed a trash bag and went at it, picking up all the large stuff, and then we moved to sweeping all of the various shells, which are ANNOYING btw.  Luckily my iPod was in, so time flew.  Then I rushed to close the bathrooms, which was stressful because some full-timers are too lazy to do their freaking work.  So we get stuck with it.  Then they tell the coordinators they did it, which they didn't.  Then everyone gets mad, and, well, the general pissy-ness just goes from one person to the other.  I'm an optimist though, so I got the important ones to laugh, including Todd, which I had been having an awesome day with.  

Tired. Exhausted. Synonyms for.  I expect tomorrow to be just as...interesting.

Today was fun.  Got assigned to random Hess Fields 4-8, the easiest shift in the world.  You basically walk around softball fields and do nothing but barely pick at stuff. And talk to people, that too. Speaking of which, today began the first of something like three days of constant drunks that wander into our fine sporting facility! Woo! I know all my other co-workers are as pumped as I am for the masses of alkey-hol and craziness! Some guy mocked me being Asian today and then quickly apologized, to which I asked how much he'd been drinking and he said "something like only two".  I'm not so sure about the phrase "something like", and how definitive as a numerical value that is, but you know, intoxicated dudes will be intoxicated dudes.

Nothing really exciting today, to be honest.  Um, I rocked out at the end of my shift to my iPod again.  Oh sweet iPod, how I am so glad that man had made you to grace my ears with happiness.  I personally think that the end of my day is the culmination and embodiment of Disney magic. An otherwise boring, meaningless ho-hum day becomes a day full of singing and dancing and air guitar on a broom, and that just makes my day explode into awesomeness.  I think my coordinator Krista saw, but you know, we're tight so it's all good! :D

I really am super anxious to get into SALSA sometime soon before I die.  Really. I hear good things about it, and its' unfortunate that I can't really get into it while I work, because, well, I'm working, and my bosses kind of don't want me to just wander in with my work clothes on.  So...here's to like, Sunday or Monday becoming SALSA day.  I can only dream of the magic that I'll find by buying relatively expensive Disney items for low prices! 

I have a bad feeling about tomorrow for work.  I dunno what it is--but I have a gut feeling that something stupid is going to go down and ruin what would otherwise be something fun.