So This Was Christmas

And what have I done? (Yes, that was corny. Shush and keep reading.) Well, we should really go back to Tuesday first. I was woken up at 9 by a call from my manager, asking me to come in for our assignor. Okay, 11 hour shift on about 5 hours of sleep. It actually went very smoothly. I was rather proud of myself. And - OHMYGODPUPPIES! Sorry. Christmas Day Parade. There are puppies on TV.

Wednesday I pretty much did nothing all day. I did go to EPCOT that night, though, to meet up with a family friend in possession of my shiny Christmas gift from my family. Yay!

Christmas Eve I worked 12-7 as a seater. Honestly, it was WEIRD. We were expecting to be bombarded with people all day like we were for Thanksgiving, but we took a ton of walk-ins at lunch, and dinner didn't get bad until time for me to leave, so I didn't really have to deal with it. I covered greeter for a while, and it kinda shocked me that I could've done a stupid dance in the middle of the promenade and not disturbed any traffic at all. But, as Sam (I think) had pointed out, EPCOT is a last resort park for a lot of people, when they realize how incredibly nuts Magic Kingdom is. So we had a pretty good day. Then I came home and had nothing to do. Jen was having a potluck, but that was all the way over at Patterson, and I had nothing to bring. Plus I'd taken chicken thighs out to thaw, so I had to cook those. As I started making those, Keiko was making sushi to bring to a friend's place, but she did cut up a roll for my Norwegian roommate (Marian? I'm not sure how to spell it because I've never seen her nametag, but that's how it's pronounced) and I to share. While my curry was in the oven, after Keiko had left, Marian decided she wanted pizza. So she put in an order to Domino's, and we had a bit of chicken curry as an appetizer. I turned the TV on, but there were surprisingly fewer Christmas specials on than I thought there would be. However, it WAS Thursday, which is Supernatural night, and they were airing the Christmas episode from season 3, so we watched that. We're both big fans. Then there wasn't much else on, so it was Phineas & Ferb and Hannah Montana for us. Eventually I went to bed, after clicking around online, upgrading to Windows 7 (YAY! Though I mourn the loss of my stock market desktop gadget), and opening one of my Christmas presents.

This morning I dragged my butt out of bed, put on my present from Ros (Yes, I wore it; no, I don't have pictures), and got out the stuff I'd been shipped so that I could skype with my family and open my presents. Thanks, everyone! After video calling my family, I turned on the TV to watch the DisneyParks Christmas Day Parade (SO wasn't missing that). And that's where I am now. Yay Celine Dion!

(The rest of this was written on the Feast of Fools. For those of you who don't speak Hunchback of Notre Dame, that's January 6th.)

Okay, so after the parade I finally got into the shower and grabbed my cookies to take to the contest at work. Yeah, we were having a cookie contest. I made white cake mix-based cookies with crushed candy cane and red and green m&ms. I won for taste! Yay me! Mel and Ali won for presentation, because Mel was crazy enough to make sugar cookies in the shape of ornaments, decorate them, and then stick them on a small tree. Like, actually. I rode to work in the back of Ali's car, holding the tree steady so that it didn't fall over on me. After that, Mel and I went to her place to cook Christmas dinner. She already had the turkey stuffed and in the oven, so we made a game plan for cook times and then stuck on Love Actually for a while. Then it was time to start the potatoes, which was a mildly grueling ordeal because those things just did not want to peel! Eventually we got them, though (okay, Mel got them and I was put on jell-o duty because I fail just that epically, but whatever), and we put them on the stove to boil. We got the Pilsbury biscuits ready to bake, took out the non-turkey-stuffed turkey (made without chicken stock so that our vegetarians could eat it!), and started the veggies (microwavable bags - surprisingly very good). We also put on the cranberry sauce that Craig had donated to Mel's cause (which he'd had around since Thanksgiving when nobody ate it). By this time, people had started to show up, but since dinner wasn't going to be ready for a little bit, Mel had set up a cookie decorating station on the coffee table for them. She still had a few undecorated cookies from her massive sugar cookie bake, and some icing, so they had fun with that. Eventually the bird was done and we transferred it creatively to the cutting boards on the counter so that we could start on the gravy (my specialty!). I taught her to make gravy, and then she got down to carving the turkey, Commons style. Which means we totally didn't have a long serrated knife at all so it was mostly done with a fork and table knife. She did an amazing job, though. All in all, it was a great turnout, great food, and good drinks (unless you were Craig, in which case you were drinking eggnog instead of sparkling grape juice). Cookies were for dessert, as well as little pumpkin tarts that Desiree had brought, and ice cream! Unfortunately (or just humourously, depending on how you look at it) the ice cream also had to be consumed Commons style. See, we'd used almost all the bowls and spoons earlier for serving dinner. So ice cream was served in cups, and you had your choice of measuring spoon sizes to eat with. Allison claimed the smallest one, so she got to eat hers with a 1/8 tsp. We sang a few Christmas songs - like, the pop ones. Not the traditional ones. Mariah Carey, which was followed by NSync, and then somehow morphed into Sister Act (not quite sure how the transition happened there). I helped clean up as people began to disperse, pulling the rest of the meat off the turkey and removing the wish bone for Mel, which was much easier said than done (speaking of, I should ask her what happened with that...). We sent a couple people out the door with garbage bags, began a load of dish towels, and then kinda collapsed. Eventually Ali and I, the last ones there, decided we should probably go home. About ten or fifteen minutes later we actually made it up off the couch.

Saturday and Sunday were nothing particularly fascinating. I was seater, the parks were nuts, we move on. Monday and Tuesday (I'd been asked to come in again) I was assignor, and still nothing particularly fascinating happened. I missed Celine Dion using our break trailer washroom twice, and Toby Keith decided not to grace us with his party of 16 because the only time we could fit them in was too close to his dinner reservations at Italy. Thank god. I've managed to avoid assigning for major celebrities so far, and I'd like to keep it that way. Too much craziness to deal with.

Wednesday was fun because earlier in the week (Sunday?) I'd found out that Mel's French roommate had left, and there was a bed free in her apartment. I'd applied, and on Wednesday the lady called me to ask how soon I could move. Thanks to being called in on Tuesday, I now had Saturday off, so I told her so and everything was approved. Yay!!!! Only afterwards did I realize that phone calls would become a lot more confusing now, especially when one of us picked up the phone ("Is this Mel?" "...Well, it's one of them.") or if people were talking to us while we were both in the living room (this was bad enough on Christmas). That night, Selina and I went to see Avatar, which was SO awesome! Such a great movie! I mean, okay, the plot was like some strange hybrid child of Pocahontas and Dinotopia, but in away that made it even more entertaining. In other news, Sigourney Weaver is totally looking her age. She also kinda looks like Carrie Fisher. Whatever.

Thursday was kinda sorta Hell on Earth. My family may recall me mentioning over and over how much I'd love to be here at Walt Disney World for Christmas and New Years. I would like to amend that now, particularly with regards to the 31st. On New Years, I would like to be at the geographical furthest possible point from Walt Disney World. It is SO many levels of insane! The people! It's just madness! Originally I was scheduled to open popcorn that day, but Kari wanted to trade shifts to have the evening off, so I jumped at the chance to be PM greeter. I mean, New Years kinda stopped being a big deal to me after I started staying up til midnight regularly. Plus it meant that my shift didn't start at 9:30 in the morning. I got up to remote podium to start my shift and just kinda stared at the freaky sea of people. Surprisingly, though, I don't think I turned away any more people than usual (which is still a lot, really). I think people must've figured we were crazy-booked. Which we were. Just before midnight we all got to run up to the promenade to watch the special New Years fireworks, which was BEYOND awesome. After the normal IllumiNations run, the voiceover comes up and talks about how different countries are in different time zones, so they rang in the new year at different times. They start with when Japan and China celebrated it, and then fireworks started going off right above the Japan pavilion, when those were done, China started. And so on and so forth, until just before midnight, when Canada, the US, and Mexico "all celebrate the New Year" (despite the fact that we have how many time zones over here?), when the ten second countdown began. So there's 88,000 people plus cast members gathered around World Showcase all shouting numbers together, and then everything goes nuts. Fireworks are EVERYWHERE. It was crazy. Gorgeous, but still something I'd like to avoid in the future.

Friday I was really tired, but I dragged my butt to work anyway for a popcorn floater shift. In the cold and rain. Yippee. I probably should have started packing that night, but I didn't. I left it all for Saturday, after I'd gone to housing at 9 in the morning to pick up my new key. Having been driven here rather than flying, I didn't have rolling suitcases I could load up a few times and cart back and forth. No, I had to load all my hoarded stuff (I really should consider being less of a packrat) into a few travel bags I'd picked up at throwouts (Thanks Chantal and Greg) and my boxes, and walk back and forth for a really long time. Between noon and 1, Mel got back from horseback riding at Fort Wilderness, so we borrowed Ali's car to make life easier. It still took two trips. After all I'd already carried. We're SO gonna need the van to bring me home. I'll miss all of my housemates there, because they were fantastic, but I like having a smaller apartment with less people. Plus my bathroom in this apartment is gargantuan. After about three times of me saying, "Okay, that's it. ...No, wait! I forgot!" we finally got me all moved in and I could start UNpacking. Which took a lot of the rest of the day. What I was really uber-happy about, though, was that I could finally hook my system up to the TV and play video games. Yay Final Fantasy! ...No, seriously. It'd been almost four months. I was going through withdrawal.

Since then I've pretty much just been working and chilling out at my cozy new place (and I love that this bed doesn't creak so loud I wake up every time my foot twitches). Sunday's movie night had a population total of four (me, Dan, Jeremy, and Heather), so the boys had ordered pizzas and we sat and watched a couple episodes of the British 'The Office.' Monday night's game was The Simpsons Scene It. Craig is officially the equivalent of Heather and I with the Disney version. Tuesday was Heather's (attractions Heather, with the musicals, not aforementioned Heather) last day off before her last day of work today, so she wanted to go see the Welcome show at the Magic Kingdom one last time. I love Heather dearly, plus I'd never seen the Welcome show (ever, actually, that I can recall), so this was a great idea! Key word: was. I didn't think it was so great when I was trying to take pictures and couldn't because my finger was too cold to put enough pressure on the button! We had an absolute blast, though. Heather and I bought tiaras from the glass and crystal place, and all the cast members called us princesses all day. Mother, stop rolling your eyes at me. I can hear your "Oh Lord" from here. We also managed to get into VIP seating for the 3 o'clock parade, which was awesome because all the characters face us the whole time (since we're on one side of a bridge and there's no one on the other side), and I was bowed to and kissed by so many characters! Heather and I were like five-year-olds. Eventually it was time to go, especially since Heather was practically hacking up a lung by this point.

Today was another day in Magic Kingdom with Jess, one of the newest arrivals. I'd trained her on greeter. She's fantastic. Anyway, other than briefly with her arrival group, she'd never been here before, so once again I got to play tour guide. And I'd made reservations at Tony's again. Have I mentioned that I love that place? Sadly, mint cheesecake was gone, but the new flavour was chocolate raspberry, which was also pretty good. Jess and I had so much fun! Lines were surprisingly long, though, considering these are supposed to be our deadest weeks. So we fastpassed some stuff, waited in line for the stuff that wasn't that bad, walked onto yet other rides. And we finished the day off with Wishes. I love Wishes. And yes, I had my tiara back on. Don't judge. It's sparkly.

So now I'm sitting here, kinda freezing in my pjs. I think I'm gonna go get my flannel blanket.

3 Days Til Christmas

So Wednesday Selina and I headed over to Magic Kingdom to have lunch at Tony's Town Square Restaurant. Entrees were really good, service was passable (not exactly the most personable server ever), but the dessert was fantastic! We both ordered the chef's cheesecake, which was mint flavoured. That intrigued me, because I'd never had mint cheesecake before. It wasn't a heavy cheesecake at all, and the crust was a chocolate cookie crumb crust, so that just made it more fantastic. Mom, seriously, you have to try this stuff. We ran around like small children and did a bunch of rides after that, including Space Mountain. It probably would have been more fun if Selina hadn't been threatening my death. ...She doesn't like roller coasters. We did Buzz Lightyear and I got 999,999 (max. score!). So take that, Mom! You can't beat me with your eyes closed anymore! And we rode Astro Orbiter, both of us for the first time ever. Let me say right now: for two grown people sharing one rocket, this is THE MOST AWKWARD RIDE EVER. Make sure you know your partner really well. I think we're over the awkward factor now. It was hilarious when we were up there, though. I got my picture taken with Peter Pan, who complimented my purse. ... Not touching that one. We stayed for Wishes, since Selina'd never seen it before, and then headed out with the massive hordes. The massive hordes all headed for the ferry and the express monorail, so we were smart people and hopped the much less crowded resort monorail, which stops at the Ticket & Transportation Center anyway. Except by this point we were already thinking of going to Downtown Disney, because I wanted to pick up The Princess and the Frog soundtrack and she wanted to see New Moon (to clarify: she was going alone. I wasn't going with her to that. Nasty, terrible thing that it is). So we got off at the Polynesian, because it's fantastic and I love it, plus I knew how to get to the bus depot. Well, it took at least a half hour for the bus to show up. When it did, it was full. The bus driver assured us another bus was coming right behind him, so we could hop that one, and off he went. There were actually quite a few people heading to Downtown Disney. So we waited. And we waited. It is now between 9:30 and 10 PM. Finally, after a half hour, that second bus shows up. Guess what he tells us? ...Yeah. We decided to say screw it and cram on the already full bus. We were NOT taking our chances. Still, by the time we got there, the Marketplace was pretty much closed down and she'd missed the last showing of her movie. So we turned right around and hopped the bus home.

Fast forward a few days because nothing interesting happened on them. I assigned my first Candlelight, and I lived to tell the tale, but there wasn't much of a tale to tell. No guests killed me, no servers killed me, life goes on. Anyways, we're fast forwarding to Saturday night, after I get off work. I'd been extended for a bit, because people called in sick, so as soon as I could I went backstage to change, went out the front gate (that bus appeared before the one that goes around World Showcase, which I could've just hopped to the UK, went out at International Gateway, and walked to the Yacht & Beach Club bus depot), and hopped a bus to Port Orleans so that I could transfer and get on a Downtown Disney bus. I was going to get that CD I'd missed out on the other night. Funny thing was, though, that World of Disney was sold out of them. So was Once Upon A Toy. Those are pretty much the only places to get stuff like that at Downtown Disney. Okay, fine. I get off work early yesterday and decide to head over to Magic Kingdom, because they'll totally have some at the Emporium (gargantuan shop on Main Street). Plus, the Once Upon a Christmastime parade has become the afternoon parade for the next week, so I can get some better pictures of that (I shot, like, the whole parade frame by frame, I swear. I have enough pictures to almost make a flip book of the parade). I get a spot on Main Street right outside the Emporium so that I can duck in as soon as it's done and avoid the hordes of people that inevitably come at the end of a parade. No dice. They don't have it either. PhilharMagic has a lot of CDs, though; I've bought some there in the past. Let's check there! The castle entrance to Fantasyland is closed at this point for the castle forecourt stage show, so I have to fight the masses through Liberty Square. All in vain, though, because PhilharMagic doesn't have it either. FINE. I'll go to Hollywood Studios. I know I saw it there before, in the Animation Courtyard. So I hop the resort monorail (again, express line was ridiculous), and decide to get off at the Contemporary on the off chance that they have it there. They don't. They did have a shirt that I'd been looking for, so that was awesome, but beside the point. I head down to their bus depot, and board the bus to the Studios. Briefly stop in Villains Vogue, mostly because I love that store, and then move on. Over to Voyage of the Little Mermaid, because that's where all the Princess and the Frog stuff had been before (don't question these things). Well, they were carrying it at one point, but they're all out. I should try Mickey's of Hollywood. Zilch. The nice people there direct me to Guest Services, because apparently they can call this central merchandise place or something and find out all the places that still have some. Awesome. So after standing in the Guest Services lobby like a moron for a while, during which time the GS dude had to clarify with the woman on the phone which CD I wanted, because there's also one that was released that's Princess Tiana and other princesses and is totally not what I'm looking for, Dude comes back. Emporium in Magic Kingdom has a couple (that's a lie). Contemporary has some, too (also a lie). But where they have the most is the Mercantile at Fort Wilderness. I clarify with Dude that it is Fort Wilderness, NOT Wilderness Lodge. He says yeah, it'll be to the right of where you go for the Hoop De Doo Revue. Okay, SO. I board the bus that goes to Wilderness Lodge and Fort Wilderness. The bus stops at Wilderness Lodge, I stay on. The bus stops at Fort Wilderness, I get off. But see, the thing about Fort Wilderness is that it's a campground, so it's mega huge and really confusing and a gargantuan pain in the butt to navigate. They have three buses that run different routes to the main areas of this place, so I ask the guy driving one if he'll take me to the Mercantile. He's not sure what I'm talking about, but he's going up to the Settlement, where the dining and Hoop De Doo and stuff are. So I get on that bus, and away we go, through deepest darkest Africa. I get off, walk past the hall with the dinner show, and on my right is a Trading Post merchandise shop. This has got to be it. I go in, and ask the nice lady at the counter. The nice lady at the counter doesn't know what I'm talking about, because they've never carried that CD. Joy. She gets her manager involved, and then calls the lovely people over at Wilderness Lodge, who say that they have some, and are kind enough to put one aside for me. Wish I'd known that before, because then I wouldn't have had to walk through the cold to get to the furthest point in the campground (and yes, it was cold; for Florida, anyway). But there's a boat launch there, and there's a boat that goes to Wilderness Lodge. I'm gonna freeze to death on the water, but it's better than waiting for the bus, taking the bus back to the main Fort Wilderness depot, and then taking a bus to a park and transferring back to Wilderness Lodge. That would just be silly. So I go freeze. We pull up at Wilderness Lodge, I get a little lost, but eventually I make it to their merchandise shop which, funnily enough, is called the Mercantile. Huh. Imagine that. I go in, ask for Jenny as I've been instructed to do, and she presents to me the Tiana and her Princess Friends CD. Greeeeeeat. Thankfully, a guy happens to be walking by with a stack of the soundtrack just as I'm saying that's the wrong CD. So FINALLY I have my CD. YAY!!! ...And that is actually the end of the story. Like, it works and everything. And I didn't get stranded on the way home. (Though I did have to board the boat to the Magic Kingdom, and then take the ferry back to the TTC so that I could get on my bus.)

Tonight was our Gift Exchange at Games Night. In fact, the exchange WAS our game. It was Santa Steal or whatever it's called, where people go in a predetermined order and can either unwrap a present from the pile or steal what someone else has unwrapped. We had to wait for servers who got sat late, though, so we all crowded into Craig's apartment and sang Christmas carols and were generally rowdy in a holiday-ish way. So much fun! I went home with a really nice leather-cover photo album, which is good for me since I still believe in printing off pictures every now and again.

That should be it for now. Next update will probably come just after Christmas!

10 Days Til Christmas

So I never did find out what they played at that games night, because I took a nap after that post and didn't wake up until the next morning. Oops.

On December 1st, I did groceries in a tank top. Yeah. That was pretty awesome. Also a little on the strange side, but whatever. It was kinda rainy and cold on those days, but I headed out anyways because I was determined to buy my Christmas cards and start sending them off. Which I did. I may have also gone to the Studios at some point in there... Yeah, I think I did. That night, Selina came over and we watched anime together! I got her started on Death Note, which was awesome. And some other things that I'm pretty sure she didn't think were nearly as awesome, but whatever. I still think Hetalia is awesome. On the 2nd, I was in Magic Kingdom and saw that they had the extra stage pieces and stuff up for the Christmas Day parade taping, so I was uber-excited about that. I found out it was happening on that Saturday. So I went to work on Thursday and Friday, and then on Friday I asked to have an ADO on the Saturday. I probably shouldn't have, what with expenses and whatever, but this was the Christmas Day parade. Everyone who knows me well enough knows that I watch this every year without fail, and have a tendency to build our Christmas morning activities around it. WELL. So I get my ADO approved, and then head to my 'I Can Make a Difference' class, which was a lot of fun. Except that I was asking the woman teaching the class about the parade, and exactly what time they did it at and whatever, so she fired off an quick email to a friend of hers at Magic Kingdom for me. The message came back saying that because the sky wasn't supposed to be clear and blue that day, but rather grey and kinda rainy, the taping was postponed. WAS NOT HAPPY. So I spent the whole of Saturday in my pjs, doing absolutely nothing. I don't even think I showered. I was that depressed. (Kidding. I don't think I left the apartment, though.)

Oh, I forgot. The other kicker in there was that after I'd had my days off, I found out that Trans-Siberian Orchestra was playing Orlando and Tampa that weekend. If I'd known beforehand, I would have switched shifts with someone in order to go. And getting my ADO the day before for Saturday didn't exactly give me time to plan a trip off property. Of course, I heard their music more than usual at work that weekend (Christmas radio station), just out of spite, I think. Blah.

After that, another few days of work. We were getting a new housemate on the Tuesday (she's from France, and I keep forgetting her name because she says it with such a thick accent), so because we had beds open in two rooms Keiko moved into my room with me. So now I have a Japanese roommate again. I kinda miss having the room to myself, but Keiko's fantastic, so it's all good. I'm pretty sure my random Japanese knowledge amuses her as much as it did Sayaka. Then ... Oh! I remember now. On Wednesday the 9th we had our Winter Formal for all the CPs, ICPs, and CRPs (I'm one of the last group). It was at one of the ballrooms in the Contemporary, and involved fantastic food, generic dance music, and characters. I got my picture taken with Sorcerer Mickey and Belle and Beast (and Belle was in her Christmas dress, which I absolutely love). We hung out, had fun, etc. Thursday night was a blast because a bunch of us went to the midnight opening of The Princess and the Frog. I'm just going to say right now that it was the best Disney movie I've seen in a long time. I loved the art, I loved the characters, I loved the music... I don't think there was one aspect of it that I didn't love. Except maybe the snakes. Could have done without those. But seriously, I would put this one right up there with all the classics. It was THAT good. Everyone should see it.

On Friday I worked my first Extra Magic Hours since I've been here. It was okay, though, because the park was kinda dead and we weren't doing much business, so we closed pretty much when we normally do anyway. I did get to see the holiday extension of IllumiNations, though, which was SO COOL. Even when the fireworks were so intense that I could feel the ground shake underneath me. That was cool too.

On Sunday I worked until 6, and Selina was working until 6:30, so when Taryn did a random search on the reservation system and found some stuff at Restaurant Marrakesh in Morrocco, we jumped on the opportunity and headed there after work. It was SO fantastic. Amazing food, the service wasn't extraordinary, but they have a belly dancer, so that makes up for it. At least in my mind. So that's one more place I've tried that I can now personally recommend to people rather than saying, "I've heard it's good." Because that's not as reliable. And since we turn people away so often I think it's important to really be able to tell guests about their other options. (Yes, Mother, I am trying to justify my spending. Is it working? ...Didn't think so.)

Yesterday was so bland that I don't even remember it. I was a seater again. I think. No, wait! I was closing popcorn! Right. Gotcha. It was REEEEEEALLY dead yesterday. Opening the container of butter to switch it out was kind of interesting though, because Kelly, who was my stocker, cut herself trying to do it. So while she was down getting a bandaid, I picked up where she left off. And by the time she got back, we needed to switch off so that I could get a bandaid. Popcorn cart has now managed to scar both of my index fingers.

Today I went to FedEx, Magic Kingdom, and Downtown Disney with David and Dan. We had fun. David wanted to go visit Belle, so we did, and then Dan wanted to do Space Mountain, so we did that twice (and I'm still alive, despite how I feel the whole time I'm on that ride; the track is so close!), and I wanted to do Haunted Mansion, so we did that. We also did Jungle Cruise because we could, and we tried to do Pirates but it was closed for technical difficulties. In my mind, this means that what Malcolm in Jurassic Park said is coming true, and the pirates are about to eat the tourists, but whatever. No one got eaten by an animatronic. And now I'm back home, typing this. I am tired. I should get sleep.