"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.