"See Ya Real Soon!"

This morning I began my last shift of my internship. I had the stage show today and since it was New Years Eve I had to leave my apartment really early just to get into work on time. You wouldn’t have believed it! They shut the park at 10 a.m. because it was already filled to capacity; it took me 30 minutes just to get in the front gate!
I finally made it to the time clock. Score! All three shows went really well, though it was a tad bit warm today. Since I wasn’t as hot on the left side and my partner not as polished on the right, we decided to switch places. And considering it was our final show, we decided to go out with a little bit of a bang. Rather than explain everything, I’ll just leave you with—we may have adapted some choreography briefly. It was pretty funny!
After saying my goodbyes, I headed over to Jessica’s to meet up with her, and her roommate Megan, and their friend Erica. We decided to hit up Arby’s in our attempts to ring in the New Year (I ended up watching a cell phone date change from “2009” to “2010.” Epic). So we enjoyed our Arby’s, took some ridiculous pictures, and watched “Glee.”
And with that, friends, I wrap up the saga that is my Disney blog. My time here (as you well know) has been quite the rollercoaster ride. God has blessed me with some tremendous ups and some low, low downs; however through it all His unfailing strength has brought me through. Thank you to everyone who offered up endless prayers for me. To know that I had an army of prayers going up to our Almighty Father on my behalf is more comforting than you know! Thanks to all my faithful readers. I hope that this blog has brought you some joy over the past five months. I can now say that I’ve have fulfilled a dream. It is with that satisfaction, that I bid my Disney internship goodbye! I say with complete transparency that I have lived in quite the wonderland the past five months, but now I am ready to return to reality. Now that it is all behind me, allow me to quote my favorite mouse, “See ya real soon!”

"Last Parade-Game. Set. Match. Point."

Well, I have the apartment to myself right now, so blogging should be no problem. I spent the early part of the morning cleaning. We’ve got to leave the place spotless on Saturday (well Friday for me). I vacuumed, swept, mopped and cleaned the kitchen and bathroom.
After finishing up around here, I headed into work. Because of the holidays, the traffic down here has been atrocious. The highways are crazy congested. I finally got into work for my last parade ever! Ah, the feeling was great! Despite the freezing cold weather, everything went great on both fronts. I was dancing and waving my butt off.
They’ve been having various high school bands come and play us out. It’s awesome because they all just stand there and stare at us in utter amazement. I felt like a Jonas Brother or something!
I’m so close to being done, I just can’t wait. Three more days. ☺

"His New Girlfriend"

I am really getting bad at this whole blogging thing; I keep missing days. So this blog will be short and sweet because my roommate and his new “girlfriend” are being a little too friendly in their drunken stupor on the couch and it’s starting to make me sick.
I’ve been at parade the past couple of nights. I’ve really been trying to soak every bit of it up knowing that it’ll be my last few nights there. Both nights have gone really well. Knowing that I only have a few nights left here has given me endless amounts of energy when I’m exhausted halfway through parade route.
Now they’re making horse noises. Kill me.
I’ll update you more tomorrow friends. I’m gonna go put in my ear plugs. ☺

"All the Single Reindeer"

Well in my attempts to flee the homeland and get to my grandparents, I didn’t have anytime to blog. I had a double parade the other night that went positively swimmingly. Because it was on Christmas Eve the park was completely packed! The first parade I got to see my friends from Kirby. That was great! On the second parade, I found Kate Shaffer and her family! Oddly enough that’s one of the biggest rushed in parade—seeing someone you know!
I drove back into Orlando early this morning so that I could head into work by 3 this afternoon. Things went great! I’m finally on the homestretch! We had quite the eventful night at work tonight! Apparently, the reindeer have taken it upon themselves to add a little choreography whenever there is down time. I believe tonight’s selection was “Thriller.” This comes as a sequel to “Single Ladies” that can be found on Youtube. I also had some good times. Halfway through the show, I felt a little tap on my butt; it was Donald! That crazy duck! You know how some people point to the sky or give reference to God before they perform, apparently, Donald smacks butts! I spent the rest of the show laughing. Gotta love nights like this! I wish they happened more often.

"Double Parade"

I can tell I’m so ready to be done with the internship when I continually forget to blog. What do experts say; it takes a month to develop a habit and only a few days to break it? Well, I have sure as heck broken it.
The past couple of days, the “Myers” family has been down here, and they’ve been kind enough to let me rain on their parade a little bit. Even though I’ll be heading home in a week (ahhh!), it’s so good to see them. Today we ran to Company D, and got them all hooked up! After that, they headed back their house to chill and I ran to Wal-Mart. I got the bare essentials and then flew home.
I spent the late afternoon just chilling before my double parade shift tonight. Since I did the same thing last night, I’ll just recount tonight’s experience. There weren’t any differences. I’m sure you all know this routine as well as I do now. I got into work around 7 and got my face all sprayed and painted up. Then I headed up to step down. Rather than being fork lifted into my float, I was able to just climb up. Both parades were real solid. You know it’s gonna be a good crowd when you hear them chanting “Mickey! Mickey! Mickey!” before hand. Multiple times out on route, I was reminded why I accepted this internship. Something as simply as blowing a kiss can completely change a kid’s day! That’s the best part about my job!
After the parades, I forced Jessica to hang out with me ☺ (since our schedules aren’t really all that cohesive right now, we haven’t had a lot of hang out time). We went to Taco Bell and she introduced me to the new Volcano tacos. My goodness…kudos to TB; they made some spicy tacos! You should give ‘em a whirl! Then we went back to her apartment and just kind of chilled. I’m gonna miss this down time with Jess once I leave.

"Monotonous"

Monotonous. My life has gradually become that over the past couple of days. I get up around noon and head into work around 2. Once there I perform, get a three hour break, perform again, take a quick breather, perform once more (just to change it up), revel in a two hour break, and then finish up the night with a solid final performance. Tonight was no exception. Rather than just recount all of that for you in full detail (I know you’re disappointed), I’ll just give you the unique things about tonight.
1) Some people that I thought hated me actually were really friendly. That was a nice change up.
2) I found out a fellow CTSer is Mormon. We talked.
3) I wasn’t the one to destroy the choreography tonight! Yay!
4) Derek, Savannah, and Emily were there so the night went by quickly. We vented about the ridiculous “Titanic” ending.

"I Need a Break from the Breaks!"

Long. That’s the key word for today. I got up an hour early because I had to get a few things done. First off, I found out that I’ll be able to head home on the 1st (woot!) rather than waiting until my program officially ends on the 2nd. I then ran over to Vista Way to pick up my grades. Since I had a good 40 minutes to kill, I sat in the “hang out” room and watched “Grease 2” with a lovely little Asian girl. Not a real genius movie, if I do say so myself.
From there, I headed into work. Tonight went really well, but my goodness did it drag on. We’ve got a solid two and a half hour break between our first and second show and I didn’t know what to do with myself. I eventually just ran down to the learning center and browsed random websites to kill time. The rest of the evening went really well, but goodness I’ll be so glad to get a little break from all these breaks.

"Daytime Hours"

Today officially began our daytime hours for the stage show. Whereas normally I would have to be in at 6:45, I now had to be in by 3:15. Not too bad, right? Well, I forgot just how many employees Disney has. Their massive parking lot was completely full so I had to go park at Disney University across the street.
Today was so different. I could actually see the crowd for our first show. It was unlike anything I’ve ever experienced before. I normally don’t get too nervous in front of crowds but this was insane! People were shoulder to shoulder all the way up to Main Street. I thought I could hear my knees knocking together (even though I was only at the lip of the stage for about 30 seconds).
The show times are a little bizarre too. We have a show at 4:35, 7:15, 8:15, and 10:30. There’s a whole lot of break time in there! I found myself just getting so bored. Eventually I made my way down to costuming and browsed outfits (I may have even tried a couple on).
During our second show, I started thinking about something and became completely unaware of my surrounding. All the sudden I hear this loud stomping behind me. Crap! I had completely forgotten to march backwards so my partner is just standing behind me doing his thing trying to desperately get my attention before I personally become responsible for the downfall of an equity member.
The evening went surprisingly well. I got my last schedule of the internship and about starting screaming! I can’t believe that I’m almost done! I actually called my parents and started arranging our “travel home” plans. I never thought I be able to post that statement!
I’m so ready to see all my friends at home and at SAU! Until then, Happy Holidays (BAM!).

"A Blustery Day"

Well, graduation was cut a little short today due to the unforeseen rainstorm. We tried waiting it out under the shelter, but our cold cuts and cold chicken fingers (talk about gourmet, right) couldn’t keep our attention. We quickly peaced out and headed over to see “The Princess and the Frog” again. It gave us something to do whilst it was pouring outside.
After the movie, I got ready and headed to work for the Christmas party tonight. We only ended up doing one show though because of the weather. Hey, I’m not complaining. I “worked” five and a half hours tonight and only did about 10 minutes of actual work. Life is wonderful!

"Possum Sucking Face"

I headed back from the grandparent’s trailer today in just enough time to chill before I headed into work. We only had a one-parade night tonight so it wasn’t too bad. For some odd reason though, I went in with a ton of energy. I was dancing all around that PC. The actual parade itself was a little long. A few of the floats were having some minor difficulties so we had to slow parade up so we could move them out of the way without leaving a huge gap in the parade progression. For some odd reason, I am running out of energy way earlier into parade than I have been. Maybe it’s the monotony of the choreography or something, but by the time I reach step down I’m about to die.
After work, I got to drive Megan home and then spend some time with Jessica. Pizza Hut is running a crazy awesome special right now so we each got a pizza and watched, “That Thing You Do.” It’s a great movie! I spent a good majority of the night hanging out over there.
On my way back into the apartment, this little animal underneath the stairs distracted me; it was the ugliest possum I’ve ever seen in my life. Not only was it ugly, it was huge! This thing could have gnawed my leg clean off. I tried stomping on the ground and everything, but Big Bertha wouldn’t move. It just sat there and growled at me. You would think that I, the human being, would be able to scare it off, oh no, I ran like a girl past the thing, praying to God it wouldn’t turn and attach me.
Once I got in the apartment, I felt I could breath easier. I was safe. Wrong again. I walked in to my Puerto Rican suitemate and his Asian boo making out on the couch. Awkward. I just went straight to my room turn the lights on and started making loud noises. I figured if I couldn’t scare away a possum, I’d at least be able to handle a few human beings. They quickly found their own faces, and composed themselves. Ah, home sweet home.

"Bring on the Heat"

Sorry for the delayed post, I’ve been at my grandparent’s trailer for a few days and they don’t have any Internet. Tuesday was quite a busy day! I had to be into work at 7:00, nice and early. Since I was going to be doing a breakfast shift and lunch coverage, I had to pack two costumes—my bag was a heifer!
The breakfast shift went pretty well. It’s been hotter than a mug down here the past few days and since the restaurant is semi-open, it was muggy. Plus too, they have us do something called a “celebration” during every set. Basically, we dance around the restaurant with maraca things for about two minutes. Well, by the end of our little conga line, I’m heaving like a 500lb. man that just jogged three miles. I thought I was gonna barf.
After the breakfast shift ended, I headed over to another section of the park to take care of lunch coverage. I had a lot of fun over there, but my goodness, it was warm outside. It’s been a while since I’ve had to do regular sets, especially outside, so I’m not used the heat.
After finishing up my morning shift, I headed back the apartment to pack. Before I knew it, it was time to head back into work for the parade shift.
It was only a one-parade night, so I thought it wouldn’t be too bad. I was wrong. For some reason, everything messed up tonight. By the time we got to Frontierland, we were crawling, if moving at all. For about ten minutes, we stayed in the same place doing the same routine over and over again. Every time we would turn inward, we would give each other the “what the heck is going on” eyes. Finally, they gave us the go ahead and our driver stepped on the gas. He got us out of there real quickly. It has been a long, long day.

"One Long, LONG Day"

Last night was crazy intense with Mike, my roommate, so I didn’t end up getting a lot of sleep. That combined with the 3 hours I got the night before made for a very rough morning. I did managed to drag the immobile fat lard sack (a.k.a. my body) out of bed and made for the bathroom. After breakfast, I headed over to Epcot for my spare shift. I had to be in by 6:30 A.M., which means I was up at 4:30 A.M. I thought about just self-terminated myself in that moment; however, I stayed strong and got into work with a little time to spare (cause I was a spare. Get it? hahaha! Oh I kill myself ☺).
I was busy browsing various characters’ signatures when I got the call saying that I’d be heading over to the Beach and Yacht Club. I was all right with that; I really do enjoy it over there. After finishing up warm ups with a male Jane Fonda, the bus pulled out. I only had to do three sets; you can’t beat that! And I only had one little “bundle of joy” that tried to consistently pull off my gloves, unbutton my vest, and smack me in the head—the little cherub.
I headed home after that shift ended and slept for a good solid 3 hours. It was bliss. I then got up and started prepping for my final exam tomorrow (that is going to completely and utterly kick my butt). After doing that for a good two hours, I headed back into a double parade tonight.
I got placed on the one location in the parade where you are constantly moving your arms and legs—so needless to say; my thighs and biceps were on fire halfway through the FIRST parade. I then realized I had one more entire parade to go. The second one went well considering. When I thought I was going to pass out from pain, I simply cut choreography and waved to the crowd (a big no, no, but never-the-less, I was about to barf out my liver). Halfway through the parade, I got a little pick me up. Two dads were about to go at it on the side of the parade route. The wife of one of the men was acting as the mediator pushing the two. When I last saw them, dad #1 (we’ll call him Hulk Holgan) was taking off his shirt and lunging at dad #2 (we’ll call him Dick Van Dyke). Instead of facing forward like I should have, I completely turned around and strained to watch the grunge match; however, the driver wouldn’t stop and we continued toward step down.
The night was a success. Plus, I got a great schedule next week. Oh, and I get to see my grandma and grandpa Tuesday. Life. is. good.

"March for Your Life"

I’ve got to get up for a class tomorrow so I’m gonna make this blog a quick one. I got all the way to work and realized, I forgot my id, which I must have to scan in, so after speeding all the way home, and numerous obstacles, I clocked in seven minutes late—epic fail!
In addition to being late, I completely destroyed my part in the first show. I’m at the lip of the stage for probably 30 seconds, and it was in those 30 seconds that I chose to mess up royally. I smacked Mickey in the ear and completely forgot my choreography! So, what do you do in that situation? March. March for your life. After nearly peeing myself, I got back on track and the show went pretty smoothly. Other than my usual wardrobe malfunction, the night went really well. I’m so pumped for the “Princess and the Frog” tomorrow!

"Time Constraints"

I had to get some final project stuff wrapped up today. It seems like everything you have to do kind of comes to a head right at the same time: I’m finishing up all of my classes and undergoing an apartment inspection tomorrow. I’m doing my best to not let the stress of it all get to me.
For my group project, the team had to come up with a new invention and market it. We came up with “Wonder Wands;” they’re markers kids can draw in the tub with. This morning, Jessica was kind enough to help me film the commercial over at Mickey’s Retreat. It really is beautiful over there! Mickey’s Retreat is a private park and lake reserved for Disney employees. It’s smooth.
After that, she headed to work and I started to clean the apartment for inspection. I had the bathroom. Sick! I think I spent them majority of the time dry heaving.
I got that done soon enough and was able to take a little kinda sorta nap before heading into work. Everything went really well tonight, but it was hot as a mug! Plus the parade was moving slowly for some reason, so it felt like it dragged on forever!
Our costumes are made up of a football type of pad that is laden with little metallic cubes that snap on and snap off. When they are in contact with the snap, they light up. So, as I’m sure you can image, when the outfits are on and a cube is removed, that snap (attached the football pad thing) is like an outlet because the electricity is fed through the snap and then into the attached cube. Got that all (it’ll be important). Well one of the other performers removed a cube from his outfit, and then convinced a spare to stick his tongue on that “live” snap whilst his costume was one a.k.a. lick a light socket. The spare was completely oblivious…for a moment or two…no sooner had his tongue touched the snap then he was screaming like a three year old girl and running around the base! It was incredible. Naturally, the other performers were falling out of their chairs roaring with laughter! It was hilarious!
After work, I headed over to Jessica’s house to watch the season finale of “Glee,” which was absolutely incredible, and to finish filming our commercial. All in all, I’m pretty happy with the whole thing. It looks good, considering the amount of time we actually put into it.

"The Smell of Death"

Okay so I accidentally forgot to blog the other day…basically nothing happened. I had a parade that night. Everything went well, it was kind of warm outside, but why should I expect any different in Florida.
So on to today…Jessica was kind enough to get up with me this morning to take my car to the shop. Allow me to explain. My car smells like death! I am not exaggerating! I have a bottle of Febreze and a bottle of cologne in my car just to try and snuff out the stink! It literally takes your breath away when you get in. Just to clarify: I did nothing to cause this!
So we took it into the shop. Poor Jessica, she just went along for the ride, but she left with a crazy big bill. It was actually a total God thing though because the guy said that her tires were so jacked up that had she drove one more day she would have had a blow out! Thank goodness God knows all of this beforehand!
We spent the morning in the lobby watching “Home Improvement” and other such shows. By the time we left, Jessica had to immediately run to work, and I headed home to just chill because I didn’t have to head in until 6:45.
I got there a little early tonight. Things went really well. I got to do the show with two of my friends so that definitely made the night go by quickly. Plus too, I got to help someone out with relationship troubles. Yeah! On our last show of the night, the stage monitors cut out all the sudden so all of us are like, “What the mess?” Apparently it had started to rain but since the majority of us have our bodies fully covered, we couldn’t tell. When that kind of stuff happens, there’s a little red light that comes on in the front of the stage floor. It didn’t work tonight, so some cast members were completely oblivious. As the majority of us left, a couple of the reindeer stayed out front breaking it down. It was wonderful! It took them a little while to realize, we were all leaving! ☺
After work I headed to Wal-Mart to pick up a few things, one of them being Baking Soda to try and get the stink outta my car! We’ll see how that works come tomorrow morning. I’m gonna have to find something that’ll work, my eyebrows are starting to singe off.

"Just the Two of Us"

Okay so I’m gonna just jump right into it. We had our parade filming today! Now, the Jonas Brothers kicked the morning off, however, I was stuck back at the parade center so I didn’t get to see them perform, but according to my friends, they did a good job…every. single. time. they. did. it. Back at the PC, all 100 balloon carriers (that was our official title) were divided up into groups and assigned their various balloons. I got the gingerbread men. That mixed with my lovely 80 year old pants and sweater was quite a site to behold. Now, when I talk about balloons, I’m talking about the big Macy’s Christmas Day parade ones—so there are like 12 people to a balloon. Now our balloon was pretty difficult to maneuver since it stood vertical. In order to get it out of the shed, we had to tilt it and lay it down in it’s stomach, and with my wonderful hand-eye coordination skills that became a little bit of a challenge.
No sooner had we got out onto parade route, than did we have to start dodging trees…but we also had to smile. Ah multitasking! Our code word, “Buttermilk” (which signified immanent danger) didn’t work all that well either. After a lot of hard work, we finally made it to the bridge where we sat and waited for a good 30 to 40 minutes while various other parts of the parade were being filmed.
Then it was show time! We made our way to Main Street and start our descent. And who do you think was down at the end waiting for us? Kelly Rippa. She is beautiful and skinny as a rail. They don’t lie when they say that the camera adds ten pounds, cause she is seriously itty bitty. As we got right up behind her, she turned around and smiled at us. Now most thought she was looking at the giant hovering gingerbread balloon, but only I know the truth; she was staring at me. We had an instant connection. I could have sworn she winked too. I’m just saying.
Once we finished parade route, we took Gingy back to the parade center and just kind of hung around for a while. I ended up clocking out around 2:30. The rest of the afternoon wasn’t as great as work though; I spent it doing homework. Gotta love those days.
After finishing up at Panera, I headed back to the apartment to do more homework. After a solid five hours of work, I decided to take a break and spend some time with my friend Jessica. We watched half of “The Grinch,” took a 7-Eleven run, and then finished up the movie. It was a good time. I got back just in time to, you guessed it, do more homework.

"A Hard Night"

I got up this morning and headed into work because we were supposed to be filming the parade. However, due to the weather, I found out quickly enough that they were rescheduling it until tomorrow. Mike and I went out to get breakfast with a mutual friend of ours, Jonathan. It was a great time.
Now my goal was to come back to the apartment and get started on my paper I have due for my online class, but as I do with most things in life, I procrastinated and didn’t get anything done. I spent the afternoon napping and watching “The Grinch” (my all time favorite Christmas movie).
Around 7 I headed back into work for a double parade. It was freezing…and I loved it! I could actually see my breath! Tonight was a hard night though; it was just one of those things where everything seemed to be going wrong. I got a crappy schedule the next couple of weeks, I got yelled at for knocking too many lights off the float because I actually move around when I do the routine, and the light-hooker-upper-old man gave me a hard time about sitting in costume (I got a little snappy with him). I was ready to run out of the tunnel screaming, “I’m free!” But, I’m home now, and I only have to work a few hours tomorrow and then I get to spend the afternoon doing homework. Joy. Hopefully though, I can get it all wrapped up.

"Blogging to Mariah"

Let me start with a warning. I’m writing this post to “All I Want for Christmas is You,” so if those lyrics mysteriously turn up, you’ll understand. Jessica was kind enough to start the day off with me at Earl of Sandwich. It didn’t disappoint. After we left there, we headed down to the Lego store to do a little Christmas shopping. It was very short lived. After leaving Downtown Disney, we headed to Wal-Mart to pick up a few things. Then we headed back to her apartment to just kind of hang out. We threw in “Home Alone 2: Lost in New York”—a Christmas must. In fact, I’ll share a quote, “Suck brick, kid!” It’s the classic line from the film. ☺
I headed into work tonight a little early because I had to run by main issue and grab my pants for the holiday filming. They are humongous. I swear I could cram two of me in there, but that was the closest thing to my size they had. Not only that, but I could seriously lift off in these pants; the sides of them have wings, like legit wings. On the way out, I grabbed a belt. The only one that “fit” was the one I could have effectively roped cattle with. Needless to say, I’ll be bringing one from home.
I finally got into work, and got everything all set and ready to go. The stage is all set for the celebrity guest we’re going to be having the next couple of days. I feel pretty hard-core to be performing on the same stage as them (granted I’m behind the stage lights the majority of the time, but whatever).
They downed the second show because of rain, but the third went off without a glitch. It was a great ending to a wonderful day. Ahhh, it’s days like this that you just want to sit down and take a deep breath and say, “Thank you Lord for blessing me.”

"Something Greater"

Wonderful. That’s what today was. I got up around noon and got all my classes scheduled. God really did come through in a mighty way there! I am proud to say that I will once again be a full time student at Spring Arbor University! Other than that, I just kind of did odd and end thing. I took care of some homework online.
I headed into work this afternoon around 5 for the parade. Everything went swimmingly. There have been some hard-core weather advisories down here the past couple of hours, but God held that weather off until after I was done with parade. It started to down pour as I was walking back to the tunnel. Luckily, a kind costumer was driving by on a golf cart and volunteered to give me a ride. What a champ!
After work, I headed back to the Jessica’s to make dinner and watch “Glee.” What started out as hamburger helper quickly became tacos because we were running out of time and the show was starting. After “Glee” we indulged in “Paul Blart: Mall Cop.”
During the movie, we started to talk a little about this last month of the internship. If I weren’t a Christian, this last month would be excruciating. I feel like I have something that I’m working for. I get up each day and try to make it a better day than the one before. I feel like I have a goal that I’m working toward: godliness. But man, if I didn’t have that, I would just be so consumed with negativity at all the things that were difficult. I’ve never felt so blessed to have something greater to live for than right now.

"Productive"

I had a great day! I got up at 1 and made a quick run to Wal-Mart for some meat products since they were all sold out last night. On the way back home, I was feeling ambitious because I stopped by Partners Credit Union and got my jacked up account all fixed up. Thank God! After that, I headed back to the room and attempted to get my classes all organized for the spring semester. Again, thank God because things seem like they’ve really fallen into place, in only a way he could have designed.
I got into work around 6:30. I was doing the show tonight. When I got there, I was so pumped because I was getting to work with Craig, whom I haven’t seen in over a month, and Savannah. The night was great! I mean granted I destroyed various aspects of the choreography because I haven’t done it in a week but hey, it didn’t seem to be that big of a deal. Overall, I think the word to describe today is “productive.”

"I'm Back...to Blogging!"

Sorry about the lack of blogging; I’ve either been off or had family in town. Since these are both such rare commodities, I’ve chosen to treasure those moments and the blog seems to fall to the wayside, but I’m back and ready to crank it into 4th. A little recap: the rest of the family headed home Thanksgiving Day. I had to work that night so I headed back to the apartment to get ready. After a long night of double parades, I got up “early” the next morning to head to Seffner, a small little town about an hour away. This is where my grandma and grandpa spend their winter. Since, they just got down here last week, I thought I’d crash the party and spend a few days with them.
We had a great time! Since it is now officially Christmas time, Mamaw and I headed to Blockbuster to pick out a few Christmas movies. On Saturday, Papaw and I headed to Barnes and Noble to let me catch up on some homework. He spent the entire time reading a World War 2 book. He loved it! Sunday I went to church, which was wonderful! I got to see a few of my friends from the good ol’ First Free Will Baptist Church there. Oh rekindling old relationships can be so incredibly awkward.
This morning, I got up and headed home around 1 because I had to be into work by 5. Everything went great tonight at work, despite a few minor wardrobe malfunctions. Since I’m really trying to focus on being positive, I choose to look at them as a good thing, they help me to grow while under pressure, kind of like improving during a musical. Other than that though things went really well. I stowed away in the costuming van and we all sang Whitney Houston on the way up to the Parade Center. ‘Tis the season.
After work, Jessica and I headed to Wal-Mart to do a little grocery shopping, which turned into, “let’s grab dinner,” which became a movie fest, and some how or another we ended up the night with Megan in point ballet shoes (which is far more difficult than it looks!).
I started this wonderful book today (granted I’m only through the introduction and half the first chapter but whatever); it’s called “Forgotten God” by Francis Chan (thank you Tommy for the recommendation). It’s all about the Holy Spirit. I don’t want to spoil anything so I suggest checking it out. We can read it together, friend.
One more thing, if you could all remember my friend Cody. He just found out that he’s going to be shipped out to Iraq at the beginning of January. I really haven’t had a chance to talk with him so I’m not sure how he’s feeling about the whole thing, but ya know, safety is always something good to be praying for.

"A Different Kind of Thanksgiving"

Happy Thanksgiving!!! Since I had to work today, my family and I celebrated our unique version of Thanksgiving dinner yesterday. Mom and Mamaw made us a compressed Thanksgiving dinner at Saratoga Springs, which was absolutely delicious!
Today I said goodbye to the fam for one more month. I can’t believe that’s all I have left! Hallelujah! Even though my parents left, my grandparents are staying down in Tampa for the winter so I’m gonna be spending the weekend at their trailer. I’ll finally get to go to church one a Sunday. I’m so excited!
After my parents left, I headed back to the apartment to get some homework done before I leave for Tampa tomorrow. Since I haven’t been home in a week, I had nothing to eat so I had to run by 7-11 to grab some cheesy taco tequitos for lunch.
I headed into work tonight at 7. It’s started to get cooler down here, so a nighttime parade is wonderful! You stay cool while you’re sweating your butt off (if you can imagine that!). Since it was Thanksgiving, the park seemed to be pretty packed too, which helped parade to go by a little quicker. I still discover new things about my character each time I do the parade, whether that’s a good or a bad thing is up the choreographer. I’ve yet to see what she thinks, until then, we’ll just stick with good, eh? ☺

"Fulfilling a Need"

I’m sorry about my lack of blogging over the past couple of days friends. I was just soaking up all the time with my family that I could. Well half of that is over. Tommy, Jessica, Anna Claire, Emily, and Jordie left me today to head back to normalcy. Uhh. After chasing the bus, I decided it was probably just better that I headed back to the room. Though I loved having them here, it was such a tease—tempting me with what’s waiting for me at home!
Around 10 o’clock the replacements we ordered came in; Mamaw and Papaw Art got here. ☺ We sat and talked with them for a while, before deciding to head out to Hollywood Studios to try and catch the “Festival of Lights” (and absolute must if you’re going to be visiting Disney during the holidays!). Since we had some time to kill, we decided to wait in an hour and a half line. Sounded like that much fun at the time too. Alex wanted to ride Toy Story Mania since he hadn’t ever gotten to. Well after enduring 45 minutes of pure “fun,” Mamaw and I decided to peace out and find ourselves the nearest bench—that’s where we spent the good majority of our time catching up.
Around 5, we all ran for shelter because it looked like God was going to start the prologue for “The Flood 2: Tsunami from Heaven.” We decided that it was best to probably just grab dinner while we were waiting. As soon as I finished eating, I headed back out to my car so that I could get over to the Magic Kingdom for work.
I ended up getting there over an hour early. Man, what am I going to do with my time? I found a costuming friend of mine and we just tried on costumes while management wasn’t looking. Our code word, “crabs,” was very effective.
After finishing up the fashion show, I get all dressed and ready to head off to the parade center. I got there and found my friend Bill. One of the hardest things about being down here was not having a good Christian friend (despite Jessica) to talk with. Deep conversation is so important to me. Have I mentioned before that God is awesome? Who does He send? Bill Shafer. He’s the husband of the leading actress in “Fireproof” (who also works at Disney I might add)! We spent all of our off time just talking about lots of different things. It was wonderful! I haven’t had a double parade go by the quickly before! He gave me some great books to look into reading and I’m so excited! Plus too, the fam came to see me again (they’re dedicated—this is like the 5th time they’ve seen me). It was a phenomenal night!

"Priorities"

After spending a rousing time with my family last night, I headed to the apartment to attempt to get a full night’s sleep, which failed epically! I didn’t get to bed till after 2 and had to wake up around 6. It’s all right though; I’ll suffer sleep deprivation for my friends and family anytime. I headed into work this morning at 7:30. I had a breakfast shift to do in the morning, and despite a few costume malfunctions things went really well; I got though the restaurant pretty quickly.
Once I finished up there, I headed over to Camp Minnie Mickey to meet the fam. I got to spend a little time with them before my shift was up and I had to clock out. I decided that those brief few moment wouldn’t suffice, so I headed back into the park to spend the rest of the afternoon with the loved ones.
Around 4, Jessica, Mom, Anna Claire, Emily, and I headed back to the hotel room to make dinner (I didn’t “make” so much as “watch,” but why focus on the nitpicky details). The rest of the posse came trucking in a little later. We barely had time to scarf down a few tacos before I had to head back into work for my night shift.
Both parades went really well, but I was straight up exhausted. I was practically falling asleep on the float backstage. It’s real funny, everybody has no energy and then the doors swing open and everyone acts like they’ve been shocked in the butt and springs to life.
I feel the need to clear something up regarding a statement I made in my last blog. If you’ll remember I said, “Besides the corny lines littered throughout the film, the movie [“Twilight”] wasn’t too bad!” I standby what I said and refuse to recant! Some of those ALREADY corny lines were further solidified truly pathetic when the characters said them on screen. Not that everything’s out on the table, I can sleep soundly. ☺ (*cough* Tyann)

"FAMILY!"

Today was a great day! It was too short! I got up this morning and went to see “New Moon” with a few friends. Besides the corny lines littered throughout the film, the movie wasn’t too bad! After that I swung back around the apartment to grab my laptop and head up to Panera to get some homework done. We had an online session with some SAU peeps; it made me miss it more! Ahhh!
After finishing up there, I headed over to Saratoga Springs to see my family. They’re here for like a week! I’m so excited to see ‘em! Pretty soon after they got here, Tommy, Jess, Jordie, and the girls did too! Anna Claire got to open up her birthday present—I got her a “business covering” Ariel outfit. She looks SO SO cute!
Since we were all about to resort to cannibalism, we decided it was probably a good time to run and get dinner…Earl of Sandwich it was. If you’ve never eaten there before, it’s a must the next time you come down to Disney…delicious! We did a little bit of shopping. Emily got herself an Alice and Tinkerbell dress to match Anna Claire’s. They got to see Santa too! Heck, you can’t beat that!
While my parents and Jess ran to Wal-Mart, the rest of us headed back to the resort. We got bored which resulted in us throwing a pool football at each other. Despite our hardcore dedication, nothing got broke—definitely a plus.

"I Can't See!"

All right today was pretty great! I didn’t get up until 2 because I didn’t go to bed until about 7 a.m. this morning. It was just one of those things where I couldn’t sleep no matter how hard I tried. Anyhow, I got up and got ready. I spent the morning finishing up some odds and ends with homework, watching TV, and reading my Bible. I tried a few different things today with my Bible reading that I really seemed to like, so that was nice!
After finishing up at the apartment, I headed into work. Tonight I was in the CTS show so we had to clock in around 6:45. We got all of our stuff and actually headed up to the castle breezeway around 7:45ish. The first show went off pretty well, but during the second show one of my biggest fears was realized. I have to wear this thing called a Jimmie cap that is attached to my shirt. It keeps my hair out of my face and helps hold the costume in place. Well halfway through the show, it started to come down over my eyes. So I’m starting to go blind, on a stage that is PACKED with people—all of whom are much more important and me and cannot be fouled up. Thank God I ended up making it offstage with a limited range of vision, but vision none-the-less. Other than that the night went really well.
After work I had to run to Wal-Mart and grab some wrapping paper for Anna Claire’s birthday present and a few bags of salt and vinegar chips. Delicious. I headed back to the hizzy and just kind of chilled with “Reba” and wrapped Anna Claire’s present.
So last night I watched my friend Jessica’s video of her trip to see Robert Pattinson in Chicago. That combined with Glee’s version of “Lean on Me” did not help me to feel less homesick. It made me so very thankful to all the great people I have in my life! To my friends…I love you all and miss you so much!

"Short Stack"

I got up today at noon and spent the morning feeling like a foreigner. All the people inside my apartment were speaking in Spanish! I couldn’t understand anything! I just plugged in my earphones and tuned out. I spent the afternoon doing some housekeeping type of things before heading into work at 5:15. The parade went really well tonight. I got told to tone it down because my large actions were presenting a safety hazard to myself. Okay?
After finishing up there, I headed back to Jessica’s apartment to watch “Glee” with Megan and Erika. During commercials, I helped them both prepare for their character audition tomorrow. We spent a good fifteen minutes jumping around the room like Rafiki and breaking coconuts on our knees. I wish we’d have gotten it on video.
Jessica and I started to get a little hungry around midnight so we headed to Ihop for a little midnight snack. My stack of chocolate chip pancakes was delicious! After stuffing myself, I headed back home to finish up a little more homework.

"Working Hard"

I had today off so I decided to attend class today so that I can have all of Friday off for when the fam gets here! I got up at 9:30 and ran to the mall with Jessica. I quickly realized that I have the hardest body to dress in the world! And to make matters worse, they carry the sizes right below me, just. to. taunt. me.
After heading home, I ran to the apartment to get changed real quickly so that I could make it to class on time. Three hours of drop dead fun ☺!
After finishing up at class, I headed back to the apartment and got some homework done so that I could be ahead of the game. I finished all of that up right before Dancing with the Stars came on. No worries, I made it in time! Whew! I know you were nervous!
Other than that, there wasn’t a whole lot that went on. Just kind of a calm, work filled day.

“Stabilized”

I decided after not being able to sleep well for the past few weeks, it was time that I get this sleep schedule thing under control. So I headed to bed a little early last night and planned on forcing myself up at noon, which turned into 12:30, which gradually became 1:30, but I did eventually get up! I kind of just hung around the apartment for a while not doing a whole lot. I eventually persuaded myself to get up and make lunch—a ham and cheese sandwich it was.
After lunch, I finished getting ready because it was time to head into work. I was a little nervous after my most recent parade experience, so I ran through the Burger King drive thru in attempts to best Mr. Fatigue. Well, it worked. I got a little tired after tonight’s route, but I was good. The room stayed stable and my eyes unglassy.
I got back to the apartment just in time to watch the Latin round of Dancing with the Stars and make my Cheeseburger Mac. Both didn’t disappoint! Now, I’m sitting on the couch like a fat cat mob leader just chilling out in front of the television, content and happy ☺. All is well in Orlando friends!

"Bon Jovi's My Biggest Fan"

So after almost passing out on my face last night, I was determined to head back to the house and get a good night’s sleep. Around 3 in the morning, I realized that wasn’t going to happen. I laid in bed for hours last night unable to sleep; therefore, the cast of “Reba” kept me company. I got up around 5 this morning and ate a good hearty breakfast (as per mom’s instructions) and headed off to work. I decided to stop by Starbucks and get something to keep myself up. Since they were running a little late, they gave me a free hot chocolate—the little cherubs.
I finally got to work and headed to Tusker House, this freaking huge restaurant, to do a breakfast shift. It really wasn’t all that bad, it’s just kind of hard to maneuver around the tables when they are clustered together. After doing a couple of sets there, I headed over to Camp Minnie Mickey for lunch coverage. I finished up at Animal Kingdom around 1 and headed back to the apartment.
I made myself a big lunch and took a quick nap because I had to get back up for “Celebrate the Season” tonight. I got back into work around 6:30. The show went really well! Oh and we had a special guest in the park tonight, Bon Jovi! How awesome is that?!?
Man, the perks of working at Disney World! I just performed for Bon Jovi!

"Dizzy"

Well friends this blog is gonna be short because I need to get some sleep. Hold on to your britches, here we go! I got up this afternoon around 3 and ate breakfast (yogurt and a banana-these details will be important later) and headed into work. I got all changed, checked in, and got my makeup done. On top of that, God was so good and gave me a phenomenal schedule for when the fam (“fam” being the rents, Alex, Tommy and Jessica and the girls, and Jordie—they’re all family. Awwww) comes down. I headed up to the PC to wait for the parade to start. We got all suited up and headed to step off around 6:30. We boarded our float around 6:50 and headed out right at 7.
Okay, here’s where the story gets interesting. Now for those of you who know me, I’m not usually a competitive person (unless I’m pranking someone) but the guy on top of the float was doing rocking it out! He was adding so much to the choreography and it looked wonderful! So I was like “alright, you wanna play hard ball!?” so I’m kicking my legs and throwing them up behind me. It probably look like a stuffed doll being thrown about. Well after parade, I was exhausted, but no more than usual…or so I thought…I got to PC and let them start to take off the electrical pieces.
I had a new girl unhooking me tonight so I’m standing there and the room is literally spinning. So I start taking pieces off myself cause I’m thinking I’m about to barf. She’s working real hard but can’t get my shoulder pads off, which are the heaviest part of the outfit. Well at this point, my legs are starting to give out. Finally, she gets if off and I headed into the cage (the area where we change) and make a B-line for the water cooler. I’m squatting there drinking some water and I get the ringing in my ears, so I ask the costume lady if I can sit in one of their rollie chairs—she obliges. As soon as I hit that chair is was like, “This is it! I’m gonna pass out!” The room was spinning and my eyes were crossin’. Well she ran and got the parade manager and he came over, like a champ, and worked to get my fever down. So long (long) story short (kind of), I’m good. I just didn’t eat anything but a yogurt and banana today and when you’ve got parade at night that just doesn’t suffice so…I almost passed out! That’s a new experience; not one I care repeating though! ☺

"I'm a Go-Getter"

I didn’t log any hours of work today but with all the homework I’ve done I feel like I should be paid! I got up this morning around 7 to get ready for class. After jumping out of the shower, I got dressed, and headed over to class. We had our midterm today! Yuck! Those sentiments being expressed, let me say this: I like how my teacher does test. The first five minutes are closed book, the next 15 are open book and open note, and the last 30 minutes are open book and open note and you get to work with the other people at your table! Mmmm—good stuff!
After finishing up class there around noon, I headed back for lunch. But what’s lunch without a few episodes of “Reba”? I ended up wasting a ton of time with that, so I thought I’d do something really productive and take a nap. So that’s what I did for about three hours. Once naptime was over, I got up and decided to start working on my homework for my online class. That was intermingled between scenes from “The Last Holiday.”
After running to Outback to pick up cheese fries for dinner (I know, real healthy right?), I headed back to get my homework wrapped up somewhere around 1. That’s okay though, I don’t have to be into work until 5:15 tomorrow so I’ve got time to sleep in. Gotta love what these overnights will do to your sleeping schedule! YEAH! ☺

"Wonderful!"

Today was wonderful! I got up around 10:30 and got all dressed and ready to head out into this wonderfully cold weather. It was down in the sixties today. I felt like I was at home!
I ran over to Jessica’s and picked her up for her early birthday present celebration. We went to see “The Christmas Carol” in 3-D at the Imax for her birthday present. Wow! That movie was INTENSE! It is probably one of the freakiest Disney movies I’ve ever seen. I mean the story itself is kinda eerie and Disney did a phenomenal job of translating that to the screen! Because it was in 3-D and at the Imax (which mean the audio is enhanced a ton) there were parts that made you literally jump in your seat! It was hilarious—Jessica scream out loud at least 5 times! It was awesome!
After heading home, I ate some lunch and read a little bit. I read about Paul’s conversion in Acts. It was wonderful! It is completely appropriate to some of the stuff I’ve been thinking through the past couple of weeks. One of the things that so discouraging about trying to witness to homosexuals is that it’s such a different type of a sin; I’m not going to go into all the different aspects of it, but reading about Paul today was so inspiring. If God can reach the heart of Saul of Tarsus, he can sure as heck change the heart of anyone he chooses to! I know that nothing it too hard for the God that I serve!
I headed into work tonight to begin my first castle stage show! It was awesome! It was breathtaking to hear that applause at the end! You feel like such a rock star! Thank God everything went smoothly and there weren’t any real mess-ups!
After work, I headed home to make dinner and I got to chat with Liz. We talked about a musical a few of us are coming up with! It was great! I can’t wait to jump back into campus life!

"Click"

First off let me start by telling Anna Claire “Happy 5th Birthday!” She’s getting so old! Today was an absolutely wonderful day! I woke up around noon and headed out to Wal-Mart to do a little shopping. I got my week’s worth of supplies (this is a good time to say, thank you Mamaw for the Wal-Mart gift card) and headed back to the fort.
After getting things all packed away, I ate lunch and took myself a little nap. Since I’m still in recovery mode, I can do that (so no rolling of the eyes ☺). I got up around quarter after 4 and headed into work.
I got to talk with Ninny (that’s my Aunt Cindy’s name from when I was two. The name stuck. Don’t lie, you’re jealous) right before I got to work so that was wonderful—hearing her laugh and joke really helped to put me in a good mood. I was doing the parade again tonight but I was in a part of the parade that I’m not especially good at. When I say “not especially good at” I mean, “I stink.” I get comments every week about how offbeat I am. So as soon as I got there I actively began prowling out someone who could trade places with me. Nathaniel! Found him! After luring him in hook line and sinker (I have such a way with words ☺), we headed up to the check in window. In my kindest, sweetest tone, I asked if we could change positions. “No.” was the immediate reply of the woman sitting behind the counter (so much for the happiest place on earth!).
A tad bit disappointed, I headed into cosmetology to get my makeup done and to grab my mask. Well unbeknown to me, my mask smelled like rotting corpses of a thousand seagulls; however, I didn’t realize that until I was at the parade center a.k.a. too far away from cosmetology to get another mask. So I took a deep breath and got ready to go. I’ll admit I might have complained a few times but after having a gay coworker tell me to “stop being such a wuss,” I shut up. Ow! After scraping up what remained of my dignity, I made my way down to the step off. Once there, I got fork lifted into my seat since it’s way up on top of the float. The music swelled, the doors opened, the float jerked, and the parade was underway.
Then all of the sudden, it clicked. Everything made since. The choreography fit with the music! I finally was able to put it all together! I was so excited! I rocked out that choreography if I do say so myself (now, I don’t know if the parade choreographer will agree with me, but for my own peace of mind, I was rocking it out). It was one of the best parades ever! It’s such a great feeling to know you’re doing a good job after all the hard work you’ve put into it.
After finishing up at the parade, I headed back home to cook up some Cheeseburger Macaroni and watch “Glee” with Jessica and Megan. It was such good times! I’m so pumped about tonight; I just don’t want to go to sleep. Heck, look at my blog—it’s practically doubled in length.

"Breaktime"

I am proud to say, I did not go to work today! I was off!!! Holla! I didn’t go to bed till 4 a.m. and I didn’t wake up till 4 p.m. It was wonderful! I got up and headed out to the Florida Mall. I hung out there for a while—though I had no luck whatsoever shopping for jeans because my legs are long enough to scrape Heaven. I did get a pretty sweet scarf at H&M though. Despite it all, it was just wonderful to get out of the area and just chill out for a while. I got a chance to just breathe.
I headed home around 7:30 just in time to watch Dancing with the Stars with Jessica, Megan, and her friend. Goodbye Aaron and Karina. We then go to talking about how crazy it is that everything has to be so politically correct down here. For instance, Mickey is having these Christmas parties yet they don’t really want us to say “Merry Christmas” because it might offend someone. Instead, they prefer, “Happy Holidays.” I just think it’s ridiculous that we can’t say “Merry Christmas” at a Christmas party. If I were to attend a Happy Hanukkah party, I wouldn’t get upset when I was told, “Happy Hanukkah.”
After the show went off, I headed back to the apartment to just chill out and tie up a few loose ends with my homework. It was a wonderful, rejuvenating day!

"Doing Time"

So today was pretty much the longest, hardest day of my life! I got into work around 9. It was my first day working at Hollywood Studios. Now that place is spread out really really weird; it’s just a lot of trailers and stuff! So I finally get all checked in and ready to go. Well, I get to my set location and find out that we’re doing 9 SETS!!! Not only that, but the costume I was wearing is designed for a person 73” and above. Disney has a .5” leeway they will give you, which means because I’m 72.5” I am technically approved in this outfit. It. was. horrible. The outfit really isn’t designed for a person my height (never thought I’d be turned town because I was too short, but there it is). Not only did the costume not fit, but our set was right under some fatty stage lights which made it about 150˚ in the room! I tried calling in for an early release but they said they couldn’t give it to me. All of this happens as I’m starting this book about choosing joy; yeah, I epically failed at that today! I think one day off will do me some good!
After finishing up my time in Alcatraz, I headed back to the apartment to make dinner with Jessica. We had Chicken Alfredo, Hamburger Helper style ☺, and watched “Dancing with the Stars.” It was a wonderful night. On top of all of that, I gave in and did the dishes I refused not to do. The sink is now clean…I’m such a softy ☺.

"I'm Happy-See!"

So today…well I since overnights let out, my entire sleep schedule is out of whack! So I went to bed last night around 10:30 and slept till about 1:30. I got up to go to the bathroom, and couldn’t fall back asleep. I laid in bed for like an hour and just couldn’t fall asleep so I decided to watch “Facing the Giants.” Well that bled into my alarm so really I got a grand total of about 3 hours of sleep last night! Needless to say, I was exhausted today!
I got to Epcot way way early, so I took the opportunity to dive into this book my mom sent me on joy! It’s really good! Then I got pulled to go over to the Beach and Yacht Club and help out with the breakfast shift over there! It’s been so long since I’ve been able to just do sets; I really miss it. Well, I got into a grove and was just kickin butt, if I do say so myself ☺.
After I finished off there, I returned a movie to Blockbuster and started on my mountain of laundry. While that was going, I made lunch. After the switch from washer to dryer was made, I decided to take a quick catnap, which extended a little longer than I thought! I thought they were going to have to pry me from the bed with the Jaws of Life! Once I had forced myself to get up and fold my laundry, it was once again time to head back into work. I had to do the parade again tonight! It actually went really well (though every time I say that I get hard core criticism from the parade choreographer for something I did wrong—so—it went really bad! ☺).
I met Jessica at the time clock and the two of us headed off into the sunset for a hearty dinner at Arby’s. It was a good day! Tomorrow gonna’s be a good one too! Man this book on joy is really working!

"Wardrobe Malfunction"

Today was nice because all I had to do was the parade tonight so that meant I had the morning completely to myself. Well, my plan was to wake up and run back up to the Florida Mall to do a little more shopping. Since I’m still trying to readjust to my old sleeping schedule, I was still so exhausted, I decided I would just turn off my alarm and go back to sleep. I ended up forcing myself out of bed around 3 so that I could get ready and be sure to be at work on time. Once I had gotten there, things seemed to kind of take a turn for the worst.
The costuming department was having a really hard night for some reason. A ton of the costumes weren’t ready, which put everyone in a state of panic. The costumes take so long to get all wired up, we ended up running so far behind schedule. Because they were in such a rush, they didn’t plug our outfits in correctly, so the two of us were blinking on and off the entire parade.
Once the parade had finished I headed home pretty quick so I could get some dinner and get ready for bed. I’ve got to be up for a 6:30am shift tomorrow so I’d like to be in bed before midnight. Finger’s crossed.

"I've Got the Joy, Joy, Joy, Joy Down in My Heart!"

Well today completed my over night rehearsals. Last night we finished the week of runs by performing for various high official Disney cast members. Once that was done, runs kind of went pretty easily. HGTV was in the park filming a documentary so they did a couple of shots with various members of the cast dancing out “phony” dance numbers on the stage.
I don’t know what was wrong with me last night, perhaps it was sleep deprivation, but I was so fed up with this show. It was one of those nights were everything was irritating and I was just in such an unusually unpleasant mood. Finally, I had to just force myself to close my eye while waiting to go out and just pray and ask for forgiveness for my lousy attitude. The Lord really seemed to help me from there because I was just able to chill out. I got to talk with another friend last night about eternity; it wasn’t really in depth but it at least gave him a chance to know where I stand. What I find interesting is that both he and my roommate said, “Well what if I believe one thing all my life and it turns out to be wrong.” They say they’re just going to do their best at life and hope that it’s good enough.
After work, I came home and slept for about 6 hours before I had to get up and run to the mall for a group project. Well, one of the girls in our group is seriously the most negative person I have ever met in my life. I am not exaggerating when I say that every word that came out of her mouth was negative. AND she wouldn’t shut up! This girl must snort pessimism. When the project was over I just sat in my car saying, “Wow. Wow!” over and over again. It, again, reminded me just how much a positive person can impact the world. We have a prime opportunity not only to have joy ourselves but to spread it to others that would never seek it for themselves. That is one of the biggest things that will draw a Christian out and make them look distinct and worth emulating.

"A Sweaty Mess"

Well friends this one’s gonna be short and sweet, I’m running a little late ☺. Last night ran pretty similarly to the other two nights. We got there and got all set up and had our pyro demonstration. Let me explain—at the end of each show, fireworks shoot off the top of the castle; they wanted to give us a preview of it. It looked great! So then we started our runs. The majority of them were in full costume so last night was the first time it all really seemed to come together.
I only had to do the last two runs so I thought I would run up and get ahead by getting into my costume basics. I got all suited up and came marching back down to the front of the stage. So I’m sitting there next to my friend and all the sudden I said, “Man these basics are wet. Gosh, it feels like they just pulled them out of the wash.” Well, my friend leans over and checks the name tag on the back of the costume; they were his. The sick nasty sweaty ones that he just finished wearing. EWWW! Needless to say, I jumped out of those pretty quickly! Really that was the highlight of the night. Oh such good times at my expense—just like home ☺!

"Catching Up"

Hello there friends! Long time no blog! Sorry, I’ve been on overnights and my sleeping pattern is a little outta whack! For instance, I’m heading into work in about and hour and will be there until 6:30 tomorrow morning! Yes!
So where to begin, well I’ll just kind of recap last night because the past two nights have kind of just mashed together into a tired blur. Okay, I get to work with around 10 with my fuzzy blanket and fold up chair in-toe. After checking in and getting layers and layers of basics on, I headed over to the warm up room to wait for a park clear call. Once we’d finally gotten that, we all headed upstairs to the stage. Now last night we only did 6 runs so that was nice. They had the Christmas lights on the castle all done up so that looked amazing! There were all of these beautiful ice cycles hanging from every spire. Ahhh, Prince Charming should be commended for his incredible Christmas light hanging ability. So we get up on stage. I’m going to give you a little special insight here, when we’re up on stage people are talking and screaming and whatever but because the music is so loud the audience can’t hear that. So there’s a part in the show where all the VIPs (Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Goofy, and Chip & Dale) have to get out of the way because the equity dancers are all spinning their way down to the front of the stage to do these high kicks! Well last night, all the VIPs are screaming at the top of their lungs! Minnie sounded like she was being stabbed and I look over and Pluto and Chip are hugging the platform for dear life, screaming as the dancers twirl by them—it was wonderful!
After that, they filled the snowflake machine so they could fire that puppy up for the end of the show. Well, the food table was sitting right under it. So at the end of the number all these massive soap flakes comes drifting down toward our open food containers, so three of us go running over there in hopes to cover the dip with our fuzzy blankets.
It was a lot of fun last night! Tonight is our first full costume run so that’ll be loads of fun! I can’t wait to blog about it tomorrow! In the words of my favorite mouse, “See ya real soon!”

"Homework, Homework, Homework"

Today I had yet another day off, so I took advantage of it by doing all the homework that I had put off yesterday. So around noon, I headed to Panera and took up my usual spot by the window. I was there till about 7ish working on COM102.
After finishing up there, I headed back to the apartment to find Mike lying on the couch watching football. I had the option to either sit and do that, or to just put my hand in the blender…I chose the latter ☺.
I took up residence in the bedroom. After spending a little time in there, I can back out into the living room and Mike had decided it was time for a change of pace, so he switched it to some crazy weird show, so I just plugged in my headphones and zoned. That could only last so long, so I ended up giving Jessica a call begging her to relieve me from my boredom. Luckily enough, her and Meghan were home so I ran over there and watched some TV with them. Around 11, I ended up heading back to the apartment; however, Meghan was kind enough to let me borrow "Sister Act"so my night wasn’t a complete drag. I got to watch that! Love that movie!
Well, now that that’s over I think I’ll probably head to bed. I’ve got a long day tomorrow. I clock in at 5:15 and don’t clock back out til 7:30 a.m.! Oh dear!!!

"Overnights!"

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!! Today was a little different than most. I began my first day of overnights, which means I work from 10:30 p.m. to 7:30 a.m. Let me just say that again, I work from 10:30 P.M. to 7:30 A.M.! Or for those of you who aren’t as quick on your toes, all night ☺. To be honest with ya, I was really looking forward to this! We get the park practically to ourselves, how many people can say they’ve had that! I mean despite the few maintenance groups, we were like the only ones there! It was so so cool!
The reason for the overnights is probably pretty obvious, because we’re performing on the stage that sits right in front of Cinderella’s castle, we can’t very well rehearse during park hours, so that leaves us no choice but to rehearse during the nighttime!
We got there around 10:30ish and waited for the call that the last guest had finally cleared the park. We then made our way up! After getting our lawn chairs and snacks all set up on the hub (that’s the semi-circle section right in front of the castle and directly behind the “Partners” statue. Don’t you feel so special to be included in this top secret Disney lingo?! ☺), we got a tour of the stage and backstage area. They started off by telling us how prestigious it was to be performing on this stage; the likes of which have seen Mariah Carey, Miley Cyrus, and other famous celebrities. It so awesome! I feel a little spoiled now because this is what I’m going to be expecting every time I’m in a show—a platform that rises 20 feet up into the air (How incredibly pimped out is that!)!
The night actually went really well. The cast adapted to the stage really quickly so we were able to add in an extra run. What with everybody downing 5-hour energy shots, moral was high! I didn’t really start to feel it til about 5:30 and even then it wasn’t too too bad. I really do enjoy these overnight!
I came home and crawled into bed around 7:30. I ended up getting up around 5:30. Now my goal was to get a jumpstart on my homework for my online class, but what with it being a holiday and all, I procrastinated and decided that I’ll just do it all tomorrow at Panera! Why do today what you can put off till tomorrow! ☺ So Jessica and I watched part of a scary movie on TV—people are straight up idiots in those movies. Oh there’s a murderer outside, let’s split up, GO OUTSIDE, and look for him! Yeah, that’s wise. Or you could just break each other’s legs and crawl outside and tie yourselves together!
So we decided to run up to Wal-Mart and get some stuff to perfect our non-alcoholic butterbeer recipe. I think we did it! It actually tasted pretty good!
After such a hectic day, I’m bushed and definitely ready to turn in to bed! Goodnight everyone! Happy White Rabbit Day! Who would of thunk, we’re already into November!?!

"I'll Take a Bagel and a Murder"

Well today they decided to cut us a little bit of a break and not make us clock in until 8 a.m. Their generosity knows no bounds. We got to work and found out that we were only doing four runs! Talk about exciting. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not that I don’t like running the show; it’s just that once you’ve done it five times in one day it gets a little bit monotonous. We spent the better half of the morning doing some team building exercises! The cast was divided up into five different groups and we had to come up with some sort of Christmas skit. It was pretty great! We had a couple of groups do “Grandma Got Run-Over by a Reindeer” and a few groups do “The 12 Days of Christmas;” we even had the one unique group do an interesting take on “How the Grinch Stole Christmas.” They even used tape on their noses for that full Whoville citizen effect.
Once we finished up with the festivities, we started to talk about contingencies. That’s basically, if something goes wrong, they have a procedure for us so that the guests don’t feel like they’ve been completely shafted. I didn’t really have to do anything. I’ve got such an itty-bitty-teeny-weeny role that I don’t even have to worry about it. Holla!
So then began the run throughs. I only had one today but that had to be done in costume. My only goal was not to bite it during the show. I succeeded. I had to sacrifice choreography a little bit, but it wasn’t anything too too noticeable.
Once we finished there (around 5), I headed back to the apartment and ran up to Panera. See, SAU is putting on a “Mystery Radio Show.” Basically, they are doing an old fashion murder mystery. Each character steps up to the microphone (in costume) and reads their lines, so it’s just like sitting in on an old fashion radio show. Now, for those of us who weren’t able to get there to see they show, they web streamed it so we could listen to it live. It was just like an old radio show! It was great! I spent a good hour at Panera cheering for my friends at home, (who did a great job by the way). If you want the link to that just let me know; they’ve got a couple performances left.
I headed back to the apartment and did some ironing for class tomorrow. So now I’m just sitting here refusing to go to bed. I really can be quite stubborn.

"Just A Snot-Filled Mask"

Today I got up at noon in order to head to Panera to get some homework done. Come to find out, our next week homework assignment doesn’t get uploading for a few days, so I spent the majority of the morning on Facebook and doing various odd and end things. I ended up having a couple hours to kill so I ran to Blockbuster to pick up a movie for a film critique that I have to do. Unfortunately they didn’t have the movie I wanted, but they were having a little a store-closing sale…so…I picked up a few movies. I couldn’t help myself; it was such a good deal!
I ran home and started on one of the movies I bought. I only got through about half of it before I had to head into work. I was doing the parade again tonight so I had to be in by 6:15. Despite it being kinda warm outside, the routine went pretty well; all clothing pieces stayed on. Seriously, they had my belt on so tight I could have burped up a lung! Since I’m still getting over my cold, when I got off route and pulled my mask off I had snot all over my face. I felt wildly attractive.
All in all, it was a pretty great day.

"A Seed"

8 hours 15 minutes-Character [Van Driver] (@ Disney’s Magic Kingdom)
Well, not a whole lot happened this morning. Basically, it was the same as always so I’ll just pick up when I headed into work. I got there around 3 because I was sparing (my first love ☺). Because I was really so bored, I decided to go and watch “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” to help pass the time. It worked pretty well. I forgot how intense that movie is!
After finishing up my time with Snow (we’re on a first name basis), I found out that I was going to be pulled as a van driver. Normally I would be thrilled, but I was actually kind of bummed today because I really wanted to get pulled to a character. Oddly enough, I miss it. What with being at rehearsals all day, I really was looking forward to getting back into the pad and furs; however, God does indeed have a sense of humor, because it was only a couple weeks ago, I was trying on my friend’s attendant outfit making fun of how ridiculous it looks. Well, as luck would have it, I had to go get one of my own in order to do ONE van run…it was a must, apparently. I looked ridiculous! First off the pants are the kind that sit up above your bellybutton so my Popsicle legs were very very apparent. I looked like a daddy-long legs walking down the hallway. I had people jump out of the way and scream, “SPIDER!” as I walked by. Not only that, but my pearly white thighs could blind someone! I felt like I was constantly reflecting the sunlight into people’s eyes as I made my way around. Despite, it all, work ended up not being too bad.
The good news came after I got off work. Not only did I get to have a great talk with Liz (which has been long overdue), but I got to witness to Mike, like hardcore. First off, we started talking about why I am so selective with the girls I consider dating. I told him because my beliefs play such a big part in my decision, which he kind of laughed at. That led into him telling me that he used to be really into religion but overtime just came to “understand” that it was just created by people who just needed something to live for. That led us to talk about life after death. He had some great comments and questions. It really was great on one hand while really challenging on the other. It proved to me just how little I really know and just how much I really need to study up on certain things. Please pray that God planted a seed in his heart tonight and that he will continue to nourish it.

"Die 6 a.m.! DIE!"

Today wrapped up my 6 a.m. shifts! HALLELUJAH!!! We got the rehearsal studio to in our retro 80’s garb all ready to run. I loved the fact that Minnie was sporting blue leggings and a pair of shorts that said, “Dance” across the butt. It definitely made my day. We got there and got ourselves all set and ready to go. Oddly enough, people were pretty talkative this morning so when the instructor got up to give us director, she was having a hard time being heard over the noise. What happened next is, well, you’ll see…I’m sitting there and all the sudden, I see her get that kindergarten teacher look on her face. Ya know the one they get when the students won’t stop talking? Then she proceeds to put her hand up in the hair and count to three. Oh, and she was completely serious! There were 40 year olds in the room! Just a word of advice, don’t ever do the count to three thing with students over the age of ten—they just get angry and insulted. For the rest of the day, people would shoot their hands up in into the air whenever it would get a little noisy, and what do you think they were doing? Counting to three. I must admit, I found it rather humorous.
Today I actually mentally transferred some of my clumsiness to the other cast members. Instead of me biting it on my face, they were the ones messing up choreography and tripping over their Klenex box shoes. It was wonderful! ☺
After work, I headed to Wal-Mart to get my weekly supply of groceries. Who would of thunk I could eat so much in one week! My goodness, I’m gonna have to start starving myself cause my paycheck doesn’t allot for this grand living. One my way out, I saw a girl from my class waiting for the bus to pick her up, so I asked her if she’s like a ride home. She hopped in and proceeded to tell me just how miserable she is down here. Her paycheck isn’t good, she isn’t learning anything, and basically this is just a waist of her time. She is one of the most negative people I’ve ever met. It was so utterly ridiculous; when she got out of the car, I just started laughing. I just can’t imagine living life that way! Stay positive; negativity is just a complete turn off!
After heading home, I fell asleep on the couch for a while, and then headed over the Jessica’s for dinner and the tail end of dancing with the stars. Good times.
Now, I’ve just been chilling in the apartment watching Reba and blowing my nose. Gotta love cold recovery.

"Badazzled Bellies"

I forgot to blog yesterday! Well, I’ll catch you up: I was sick. I’ll spare you all the wonderful details, but let’s just say I wasn’t feeling quite ship shape.
Today I woke up around 12:30 and got to work cleaning the apartment. We have our monthly inspection on Tuesday and it was my turn to vacuum and clean the kitchen. It took a couple of hours, but it really wasn’t all that bad. I almost sucked my suitemates belly piercing up in the vacuum, not bellyBUTTON, BELLY piercing up in the vacuum. See he has like the side of his stomach pierced, don’t ask me how he got it done, but it’s definitely there, anyhow, he left the stud on the floor and had it not been for the glittering it would have been long gone. Thankfully, his stomach will live to glitter another day.
After that, I just kind of straightened up while my roommate slept. We decided last night that he is incapable of getting up on time, despite setting the most annoying alarm clock known to man, so I volunteered to yell at him until he got up. Today was round 1. It went off around 5ish. I started yelling, “Mike! Mike! Get up!” He rolled over and mumbled something that sounded like Eggos, turned off his alarm, and then immediately began to snore again. So I started in on him again. “Mike, get up! Don’t fall back to sleep!” Again, “mumble, mumble” snore. I decided to keep badgering him until I finally had him sitting up on the side of his bed with his head in his hands. I can be very persuasive. ☺
Finally mission accomplished: Mike was up and off to work. Needless to say, he was a little tired this afternoon, so he came home and crashed.
Now, I’m at Panera, doing a little homework and reading. I’m gonna try to get into bed early tonight because tomorrow starts the 6 a.m. shifts again, and it’s 80s day. I’ve got to be on my A game for that. ☺

"Reving Up To Go Retro"

Again, today was pretty similar to yesterday. I had to get up before any living creature and head into work. One new thing: I discovered today that for some odd reason I have become one of the klutziest people on the face of the earth. Look up “klutz” in the dictionary and I’ll be there under “examples.” In the show, I’ve got to wear these massive shoes; if that wasn’t bad enough, I’ve got to march with them on so as I’m sure you can image, those two don’t make for a great combination. I’ve got these equity dancers whirling and twirling and looking well, perfect, for lack of a better word, around me, and I go ahead and almost bite it during my solo right in front of the show director. If that wasn’t bad enough, I managed to trip over myself during every run, and every time I could hear my friends laughing uncontrollably in the background. That’s when you know you’re loved. ☺
After work, Jessica, and her roommate, Megan, and I headed to a local Salvation Army to get me an outfit for 80s day at work. I’ve got to say, I’m pretty stoked about it. It. looks. awesome. Not only that, but I found an awe-some t-shirt! After heading out of there, we ran through Taco Bell for dinner. Overall, it was a pretty good day, even though rehearsals kinda dragged on a little this morning.

"I. Am. Tired"

Well friends let me just forewarn you; I’m about to fall asleep so this blog is going to be short, sweet, and to the point. I again had rehearsals today for the Christmas show. Not too much changed. I still am getting to be better friends with Derek and Craig. On top of that, people really seem to be warming up to each other. Today, I get kicked in the calf by an equity dancer and he yelled, “ sorry!” as he danced on. It. was. awesome. I felt like we were friends. But in actuality, it seems like people are starting to warm up to one another and finally begin to expand their horizons and accept new people.
After work, I headed back to the apartments and picked up Jessica, and then we headed out to the most ghetto Borders I’ve ever seen. See, I’ve got to keep a creativity journal for my Friday class and my professor suggested putting comics in it, so I had to run out and buy a comic book. After that, Jessica and I ordered a Pizza Hut pizza and kind of settle down to watch a movie. About 30 minutes into the movie, I realized that I was not going to be able to hold out much longer so, I had to bid Jessica goodbye and head home to get ready for bed. I finally understand how it feels to be a 40 year old—it’s only 6:40 and I’m getting ready for bed. Oh, well.

"Life in Baca"

So today…oh today. I had rehearsal again today. Just read my blog from the past two or three days and you’ll get the general gist of rehearsals. It goes like this: block…music…run…STOP!…reblock…music…run…STOP!!! …etc.
We finished up around two and immediately after, I ran back to the apartment and grabbed my books for my online class and headed to Panera. With my schedule be a little hectic the next few weeks, I decided it would be a good idea to get ahead, so I’ve spent the last four hours at Panera doing homework. Oh you got to love it! I forgot that wonderful feeing you get when you finish a paper ☺.
More importantly, I decided to read my Bible while I was here. I opened up to Psalms 84. I may come as no shock to you that the past couple of days have been really difficult. You would think that rehearsals would give me a certain level of pride, however, they’ve done just the opposite; they’ve made me aware of just how insufficient I am. All these ridiculously talented people surround me and being in their wake makes me just feel amateurish. I get so nervous I’m going to make a mistake and make a fool of myself (which has never been an issue before—the embarrassment that comes with making a fool of myself since I tend to do that often ☺). All of that has been weighing pretty heavily on my shoulders, well how good God is. I just love those moments when he seems the most distant and then all the sudden completely assures you that he is there and in control. Let me explain…
“5Blessed are those whose strength is in you, who have set their hearts on
pilgrimage [a journey to a sacred place]. 6As they pass through the Valley
of Baca [a.k.a. Valley of Tears/Weeping] they make it a place of springs;
the autumn rains also cover it with pools. 7They go from strength to strength,
till each appears before God in Zion.”
How appropriate to my situation?! I’ve realized just how much I’ve relied on me and my abilities the past couple of weeks. I’ve chosen to leave God out, and now I’ve brought myself to a point where I see just how much I need him. His strength is beyond anything I could ever muster. I asked you to pray that my heart would not grow hard, this is exactly the answer: I must rely on the strength that God gives to his anointed ones. It allows Christians to stand out and lead a different, positive life because it is something that is completely unavailable to the unsaved. It is there I need to rest. It is once there I can have confidence that my heart will stay protected. With his strength at my side, I can walk confidently, even through a place as dismal as the “Valley of Tears.”

"Be Quiet!!!"

For those of you who have wrote me encouraging things over the past couple of days, thank you from the bottom of my heart. That wasn’t why I wrote those things in my blog, but I’m not gonna act like I didn’t appreciate it. Each thought and prayer means so much to me. I truly don’t deserve wonderful people like you in my life (that is yet another blessing I can dwell on throughout the day).
I didn’t have to work today so that was nice to get another day off. It’s really helped pace things out with the last couple of days being a little bit more difficult. In order to make up for my rehearsal this Friday, I had to attend class this afternoon. It was one of those class periods that just dragged on forever and a day. Plus, it didn’t help that we had people that seriously could not just shut up. You know when you want to go just grab them by the front of their shirt and scream, “sssshhhhhh.” So I figured I would solve the issue by glaring at them (while they weren’t looking of course, because if we were to actually make eye contact that would be awkward). Come to find out, it was my sweet mates! They just wouldn’t shut up!
After class, I headed back to the apartment and caught up on Dancing with the Stars. Last night the cast danced the Argentine Tango. That is seriously one of my favorite dances! It’s so legit! So that’s pretty much made up my day. I’m going out to have dinner with a friend in a little while, but other than that, I really haven’t been up to too much.

"Quicksand"

Well between last night and this morning I came to a lot of realizations that were only further solidified by talking to my friend Jessica, but more on that later. We didn’t have to be at rehearsal today until a little later so that was nice. Derek, a fellow cast member, and I decided to carpool together since Disney has been shoving “Going Green” down our throats. I’ve practically stopped exhaling because “it’s bad for the environment” ☺. Anyway, I got over to his apartment complex around 7:20 (rehearsals began at 8). And after waiting around for about ten minutes and freezing my butt off (you have no idea how wonderful it feels to say that—I’m not complaining ☺), I realized that Derek wasn’t coming. So I ran back to my car and prayed that I would make it to work on time.
Don’t worry, it’s okay, I made it, and so did Derek, but just by the hair of his chinny chin chin.
Anyway, we had rehearsals all morning, but because the dance studio we were in wasn’t built to accommodate the size of the castle stage, my fellow unimportant members and I were forced to sit and watch because there just wasn’t room for us. We decided to stand on the side of the “stage” and do our choreography, but no worries; we managed to entertain ourselves the whole time so we had fun.
After work, I headed back to the apartment to eat and catch a quick nap. I had another bridged shift today what with rehearsal in the morning and a parade at night. I got about an hour of sleep before having to throw on my jeans and head into work. I got there, clocked in, got my make up done (which continues to get better looking-just fyi), and headed to step off. Tonight, rather than being able to climb onto my float, I had to be hoisted up to another float in a cherry picker. It was actually pretty cool, and despite butchering all the choreography, the night seemed to go fairly well. I would just try overcompensating with lots of energy and big movements. Goodness, I tipped my hat and blew kisses like a fiend tonight; however, when it comes time to read my notes, I’m afraid the management staff won’t be quite so impressed with my big movements and flawless kiss blowing technique. Darn it.
So time for the revelations. I never realized just how hard being on my own would be; let me rephrase that, being on my own away from any source of Christian accountability. I miss good solid Christian friends so so much. I normally can embrace new experiences pretty well, but this one has been exceptionally hard, and I finally figured out why. All of the other experiences involved me being thrust into a group of Christians. There we (hopefully) shared some common ground—we were all striving for holiness; and even if everyone wasn’t the strongest of Christians, there was still that common ground which just made certain things okay and certain things completely unacceptable. We could keep each other accountable because if push came to shove, we could bring each other back to the idea of righteous motivations. Here, I don’t have that. Here, I am surrounded by unsaved people daily, the majority of which are highly negative. It because increasingly difficult to stay positive and upbeat when the vast majority of those around you choose to look for the bad in situations. First off, thank you so much to all of you who have been so faithful in praying for me. I am truly humbled by the amount of people who are willing to give up their time to do that! If you could just ask that God be my strength throughout the next couple of months. My biggest fear is that all of this negativity will seep into my heart and I will come back harder and more critical, and I don’t want that. I see just how much an optimistic person is needed in the world, and more importantly, just how much they stand out from the crowd. Please ask that God will continue to fill my mind with reasons to celebrate daily. He IS good and He continues to bless me in ways I don’t deserve! Now comes the hard part, dwelling on that throughout the day.

"A 'Bowel' of Soup"

I had a day off today! I got up around 2ish and decided to head out and enjoy this beautiful day because it’s supposed to get back up into the eighties by Tuesday. Well, I ran to Panera and finished up 1 John. It talked about how a Christian can have confidence when they come before the Lord. If we are asking with the right heart and with the right motivations, we can be assured that God hears our prayers and that he’ll be faithful to answer them. I don’t know about you but that makes me feel all warm inside. After reading and enjoying a wonderful bowl (I almost put bowel again) of broccoli cheese soup, I got some homework done for my creativity and innovations class. It wasn’t too bad, we had to make a creativity kaleidoscope so…about an hour with Word and it was all done.
After finishing up there, I headed back to the apartment and decided to get ready and run to Hollywood Studios to see some friends. Boy did I have a great time! There were some great stories (that unfortunately I can’t post, but ask me about them later. Keywords: photopass cards). I’m sure you can tell from my pictures that I had fun. My friend Jenni and I went to see the second performance of Fantasmic! It was wonderful! She was screaming at the Indians as they paddled by in their canoes trying to make them laugh. She got one of them! It was a good day!

"Hungry? How About Peanuts?"

Oddly enough, today did end up being a pretty long day. Huh? Who would of thunk it? I worked over 11 hours today. Woot! I had to be at training this morning by 7. I got selected to be in a Christmas show, which I’m uber pumped about. To know exactly what I was getting into, I had already watched the Youtube video and concluded that the choreography wouldn’t be too difficult. Ha! Was I ever wrong!
I got to the training facility early, which gave me a chance to get to know some of the other cast members that are going to be in the show, more specifically the five guys that work directly in our section of the show. I got to be good friends with a guy named Derek and a dude named Craig.
So they get us all in this massive dance studio with tape all over the floor, and have us get down on the ground for warm ups. In my head I’m thinking, “Oh warm ups; I have to do this every day—piece o’ cake.” Then the instruction goes into the splits. Well, I assure you my eyes got about the size of two bagels. I quickly glanced around the room and realized that I was like the only person that couldn’t do it! They all just sitting there checking their cuticles and carrying on conversation as I’m shoving my legs to extend past a 20° angle. So as they sit and talk about the weather, I’m about to scream bloody murder because every muscle and fiber in my legs are cussing at me. The instructor then says, “moving on.” I swear every person in that room could eat a peanut off the back of their thigh with me here completely unable to touch my toes.
So after being utterly humiliated in warm ups, let me say again—IN WARM UPS, the dance instructors decide to teach us the choreography. Well this “simple” choreography is actually much more difficult than I thought! I felt like I was the only person not getting it too, which of course makes it a hundred times worse. I didn’t help that Derek was making me laugh to the point of tears, so when I should be dancing, I’m doubled over wheezing. Let’s just say, my first impression could have used a little work. ☺
After being kicked in the calf by an equity dancer (that’s code for “ooow, ooow, ooow!”), the afternoon wound down and we were sent home around 1; however, I had a double parade tonight so I had to be back at the Magic Kingdom by 6:15. I ran home, ate lunch, and got a little sleep. Around 4:45, I rolled out of bed, put on my jeans (oh yeah, it was in the 70s today—I wanted to scream from shear joy!), and headed into work. Despite being hated by everyone in my group (for a reason I still have yet to discover), the first time out, my mask ended up on my forehead. I figured I would fix that problem by taping it. Well, good news is the tape worked, bad news—the hat Velcro came off, so I had to hold my hat on during the entire course of the parade! I like to go out with a bang!
Overall, the day started out wonderful and then progressed to a little depressing tonight at parade. It really is so hard to love people that make fun of you. You want to just do whatever you can to humiliate them and make them feel as foolish as you have; however, as I was walking through the tunnel, I just thought about how the Bible calls me to love those people despite the things they do or say behind my back. It is their souls I love, not necessarily their actions I care for. Needless to say, I felt a little convicted for some of the feelings I was having toward those guys. The more I thought about what the nature of a true believer should look like, the more my anger seemed to just melt away and subside. The trick will be, forgiving and forgetting the next time I see them.

"British Accents-Cough Drops for the Soul"

I had class this morning. We discussed the necessity of cutting. I really don’t know what all goes into that; I was busy being mesmerized with the British student sitting at my table. Her accent was awesome! I just kept asking her questions so I could hear her talk. I wasn’t really so focused on the answers as I was on just hearing her speak. There is something completely soothing and hypnotic about a British accent. I’m going to move there while my children are young so that they’ll develop such an awesome accent.
Once class was over, I ran back to the room and got my dirty laundry together. I quickly threw everything in at the laundry room and then headed back to the apartment because I was expecting a phone call from Sherf; today was his 40th birthday or something like that ☺. We were able to just catch up for about 40 minutes or so. It was nice to get to talk with him. I haven’t been able to since before I left in August.
After finishing up my phone call, I ran to pick up my laundry. Well, while I was busy folding clothes and whatnot, I got to chat it up with Liz via the cell phone. There were some great updates with her! Things seem to be going well. They’ve got another show this weekend so if you think about it make sure you pray for the actors and actresses in “Meeting in Kansas” and “Meeting in Munich.” I know they’ll appreciate it so so much.
Well, around 4, I was supposed to be having a Elluminate session with Jen Letherer, my professor for COM 102 this fall; however, thanks in part to my ghetto internet connection I was unable to get a hold of her, so I ran up to Panera and we chatted and discussed class info for a solid hour or so.
After that, I headed back to the apartment and made some dinner. Popcorn Chicken…mmmm. And for dessert, Oreos and milk. Can’t beat that! Well, I’m gonna head to bed soon—“soon” being 9ish because I’ve got rehearsal all day tomorrow and then a double parade tomorrow night! It’s gonna be a long day!

"Changing It Up"

Again let me reiterate how much I love this schedule cause I love this schedule! I got up today at 2:30 and just hung around the apartment. Since I’ve exhausted my list of movies, I was happy to find “The Jungle Book” in the DVD player. After watching Mowgli fall for the little village girl, who knows how to lure in a guy far too well for a six year old, I decided to get up and get ready for work.
I got to there a little early so as to give myself some time to pull my costume and get to my set in time. After I get my entire outfit prepped and ready to go, another character performer asks if I’ll trade shifts with him because he really doesn’t want to be the character he’s been assigned. Well after spending time reading 1 John 4 this afternoon, how could I say no?
I ended up switching with him and heading to my new location. After searching forever, I realized this place was nowhere to be found! I had followed the maps to the “T” and yet, I was standing in the middle of nowhere! I finally found someone who was kind enough to give my directions.
I got all ready to go with a little time to spare. The sets tonight went really well. I thought my partner wanted to step on my jugular in a pair of stilettos, but hey, what can you do?
I realized today as I sat there and read just how hard it is for me to focus when I read the Bible. I don’t know why that is though? I’m mean I think I have a little bit of ADD (amongst other things) but it seems really bad when I’m reading scripture. It’s really frustrating because the thing that I should be most excited about—the thing I should be thirsting for, is boring and easy to shrug off. I’m getting a little frustrated with myself. Anybody else ever had this problem? Any suggestions?