Okay, I have no idea what happened to 'updating more often.' I was totally gonna do it! Then again, I kind of have the memory of a goldfish and the attention span of a two-year old, so that might have something to do with it. Every time I resolve to update this thing, someone swings something shiny in front of my face. Whatever.
So Dungeons & Dragons was a total blast, in a really, REALLY nerdy way. I won't really bother you with details, because 94% of you don't care about how well we actually seemed to do in out first encounter. But for those few of you who do care, I will say that I was playing a Level 5 Female Half Elf Paladin. Patrick created all our characters for us, and included pictures! Yay! I love mine; it's on my wall. She has green hair and a giant sword. Midway through our second encounter, we stopped to make tea and refresh drinks and whatever, and Ali passed out on the living room floor in the middle of a conversation. We decided that the game was probably over for the night at this point, and proceeded to geek out a bit more in Patrick's study before waking Ali up enough to get her into the car.
Wednesday was my last day of training, and Heather was my trainer! Yay! I still can't carry three dinner plates, OR two dinner plates plus a ketchup saucer, but I think by the end of that night I might have been doing three dessert plates. And at one point, I totally lost a plate of scallops in the dining room, which was when I decided for certain that no, taking three entree plates is NOT a good idea. But no one gave me a hugely hard time about it (though apparently there was some major griping outside my hearing), so whatever. If people are so worried about me dropping stuff, they can run their own food. That night, we had to say goodbye to Craig, Kelly, and Pierre-Luc. That really sucked big-time, especially because I spend at least two days a week hanging out with Craig at movie night and games night (when I remember what day of the week it is and go). But at least I have them on Facebook, so we haven't completely lost touch.
Thursday was my first non-training shift, and I think I did rather well. I only took what I knew I could take, I didn't drop anything, and I don't think anyone wanted to kill me by the end of my shift. I figure that's a pretty good day.
Friday Heather and I were both off, and we'd made a couple reservations when we were hanging out before the Throw Out on Wednesday. She had one restaurant left at the Grand Floridian, so we were having lunch there, but by some fluke we also managed to get into Chef Mickey's for breakfast! So Ali and Heather and I headed out that morning to the Contemporary to have an awesome buffet with Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, Goofy, and Donald. So much fun! The people sitting beside us were a pain, but mostly we ignored them in favour of the characters. And Mickey waffles. Then Ali went home to bed, because she was sick and barely had a voice, and Heather and I trekked over to Magic Kingdom to finish the last two attractions on her list there: The Enchanted Tiki Room, and Cinderella's Carousel. Of course, we did Haunted Mansion, too, but we've both done that too many times to count. We boarded the monorail and rode all the way around the track to the Grand Floridian for our lunch at the Grand Floridian Cafe. It was a really nice place, and the desserts were awesome! Turns out, one of the chefs who was at Le Cellier is now over there, so he came out and talked to us for a bit. Then it was home in the pouring rain to get some stuff done. Friday night Mel was packing so that she could go check in at the resort she was staying in with her family, but she kept procrastinating. I don't think I was much help, either, really. At one point we hopped over to Downtown Disney for the sole purpose of getting the awesome cookies you can get at Goofy's Candy Co., because one of us had mentioned them, and then we were both craving them until we gave in.
Saturday Ali played taxi once again (I feel so bad for abusing people with cars like this!) for Mel and I as Mel checked in at Animal Kingdom Lodge. Then we had lunch at one of the restaurants at the resort, Sanaa. So good! It's like Indian-African fusion food. I had curry and it was so good! And they have the bread service with the different breads and sauces, and then I had an orange something-seed cake for dessert that was absolutely amazing. I would definitely go back there again, which is good, because I have reservations there for when Mom and Aunt Bonnie are down. Later that day I was supposed to meet up with Drea, since she was coming down with her parents and sister, but they got caught in snow in Georgia, so that didn't really work out, which kinda really sucked, because she'd be the first person I'd seen from home since just before Christmas, and the person before that was my massage therapist...
Anyway, Sunday and Monday I worked, and I don't really remember much about them, except that I was there. Monday night I got a message from Drea asking if I was off Tuesday or Wednesday, which were my days off exactly. So I got to see Drea on Tuesday! I was so happy! We walked around the outlet mall for a couple hours and just talked about everything and nothing. Then she had to head back to her resort, and I headed home. It was quiet at my place, and there was nothing to do. I was extremely bored.
Much of Wednesday passed in the same way that Tuesday night did. I was bored out of my skull. Finally I got a hold of Taryn when she was done work, and we decided to head to a resort to eat. But it was after 8 before we were able to leave housing, so our choices were limited. We'd decided to go to the TTC so that we had our choice of the resorts along the monorail and boats from Magic Kingdom. Our first stop was Kona Cafe at the Polynesian, but the restaurant itself was booked and the seats at the sushi bar (which also serve the full Kona menu) weren't being bussed at all so that we could sit down. So we said forget it and headed over to the next stop on the line, the Grand Floridian. Obviously we weren't going to do Victoria & Albert's, because neither of us was dressed for it. At all. I'm pretty sure I was wearing my black and white Mickey skimmers. Anyway. We thought of Citrico's, but that still looked kind of expensive when we glanced at the menu, and 1900 Park Fare had stopped seating already, so we only had one place left at this resort: Narcoossee's. We debated it for a ridiculously long time before deciding that we might as well, and put ourselves on the list. We were seated in Tom's section, and he was an absolutely fantastic server. We both had a chicken dish, and I honestly can't remember the last time I had chicken that flavourful. It was so good! Taryn didn't like her dessert much, but mine was really good! ....Now if only I could remember what I had, that would be even better. I think it might've been some kind of cheesecake.
Thursday I picked up an assigning shift for Josh, since his brother was in town. Normally Thursday would be my third day off, but I figured, why not? It's extra money, and I'm not going to say no now and then want people to do the same for me when my family's here! Lunch got kinda crazy for a while because I got slammed with parties of four, but I got over it. Dinner was a lot slower than lunch, which was weird, but we made it through. It made me realize how much I miss assigning, though. Food running is all well and good, but it doesn't require the same amount of mental labour that assigning did, and anyone who knows me well enough knows that I'm a very mental person (in every sense of the word).
I've just finished up four straight days of food running now, and my hands and arms hurt what good. I only have one burn from the bread pans, and one tiny one from the food windows in the kitchen. I don't remember a whole lot of those days. Somewhere along the way I started carrying four dessert plates, which is kinda crazy when I still can't manage three entrees. But I think what stands out the most for me the past few days was dinner on Sunday. See, I was serving a table, and the kid from the table behind me on an angle for some reason decided that it would be a good idea to kneel on the floor behind me, where I couldn't see him in the already poorly lit dining room. I stepped back so that I could move around to serve the last steak I was holding, and stepped on the kid. Just wait, it gets better. I went down, backwards, partially on top of the kid, and into the empty table that was next to the table the kid was supposed to be sitting at. And remember, I had a steak in my hands still. SOMEHOW, and I'm not sure I could do it again if I tried, not that I would ever try, I managed to keep the steak perfectly balanced so that it didn't even shift on the plate! Aliyyah, whose table I'd fallen into, calls it a Matrix move, and I'm now known to her as Matrix Girl. I suppose there are worse ways to be known. My arm is kinda bruised and hurts what good, but falling backwards full force into a table can do that.
And now today is my Do Nothing day, because I'm exhausted. We'll see how long that lasts before my attention span and proximity to the parks demands that I go out and do something.
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Another Week, Another Job
So. Animal Kingdom. Really early. Never Again. ...Well okay, maybe not never again, but never again in the rain, that's for sure! It rained pretty much the whole time we were on the tour. Eventually I bought an umbrella during our first break on the tour, but even after that capillary action meant that my pants were wet from the knee down. Plus my left coat sleeve was stuck to my arm, and I had to peel it off. Mel had a jacket with a hood, so she didn't opt to share my umbrella until she got to the point where her coat was so wet the water was coming through it. And we're both sick with colds. The tour was fun, though. We had a guy named Glen from Guest Relations take us around the East half of the park and tell us not the story behind the building of the attractions themselves, but the stories that the Imagineers made up for each of the attractions and areas to follow. So we started out on Discovery Island, and talked about the Tree a bit (the Tree is kinda still a sore spot with me right now), before heading to our first major stop: Dinoland, USA. Yay.
For those of you who don't speak fluent Mel N., that 'yay' was extremely sarcastic, so go ahead and read over it again in the proper tone of voice. ...Okay. We're good now. Anyway, that's because in Dinoland, USA is an intense thrill ride called Dinosaur! I have a rather intense fear of Dinosaurs that aren't on a tiny, flat, non-3-D screen (because I do enjoy Jurassic Park), never mind animatronic ones that kinda look realistic and try to eat you. And yes, I realize that they're extinct and they can't actually come and eat me, but I don't care. So, for part of our tour, we're told the story of Dinoland, USA as a whole, and how the institute had developed this new technology called Time Compression (which had me giggling a bit, because that's one of the major concepts during the last battle sequences of Final Fantasy VIII), and how you could actually go back to the age of the dinosaurs. So what's the next thing we do? We go back to the age of the dinosaurs! Now, obviously we have a choice as to whether or not we want to go on this ride, but this is as good an excuse as any to actually get me on the ride, since you have to try everything once (which is the only reason why I've seen the Playhouse Disney show at the Studios). Mel assured me that I would live through the ride. Well, I'm not sure whether or not me being in the ride vehicle actually counts, because I didn't see anything beyond the first ten seconds of the ride. I had my eyes closed the whole time, and at one point I also had my ears plugged and my coat lapels flung over my face. But I survived, so I figure that if I go on it once every time I'm in Animal Kingdom and get familiar enough with the sounds of the ride, I might eventually be able to open my eyes for some of it. We'll see.
Moving on, we did more Discovery Island (kangaroos!), and saw the 3D movie inside the Tree, 'It's Tough to be a Bug.' I'm not overly fond of this thing, either, but I'm not afraid of anything there eating me, so we're good. The last large area on our tour was my favourite section, Asia. We were told the story of the particular part of Asia we were meant to be in, and did the Maharaj Jungle Trek. By this point, everyone is soaked, and it decides to pour even harder. And we have to finish the walk still, because we're only halfway down the trail. There is a tomb halfway there though, so when we're stopped Glen asks us if we want to continue to our final stop afterwards, or just end the tour here, since we're all really, really wet. The last stop is the Forbidden Mountain, so like hell we're gonna skip that! He's surprised at our resilience, but honestly, who doesn't love a good yeti?
So we walk through the queue line of Expedition: Everest and we're told about the things on the walls and all the decorations around us (Mel points out at least three hidden Mickeys). Eventually we get to the front of the line (which had a whopping 5 minute wait due to the rain) and those who want to ride can. Honestly, I was all for it, because I love Everest (to the astonishment of one of the guys on the tour who'd ridden Dinosaur with me). But then Mel brought up a good point: Everest goes outside a lot, like at least half the track is outdoors. Doing high-speed rides in the rain HURTS. So we didn't do it. And we definitely weren't the only ones. Once the weirdos got off the ride and met us in the gift shop, Glen said good-bye to us, and we all went our separate ways. Mel and I went to Yak & Yeti for some hot food, hot tea, and a chance to use the freakishly high-powered hand driers they have there. Then we came back home, I made myself comfy on the couch, and I didn't leave it until time for bed.
Wednesday was much the same (the couch part, not the tour). I got out of bed, eventually I showered, put new pjs on, and sat on the couch all day. I also started on my Japanese books I'd bought in EPCOT the other day, so now I know a whole seven hiragana! Out of forty-six. And then there are forty-six katakana. And after THAT come the 1,945 basic kanji. Just the basic ones, mind you. ...I've got a long way to go.
Thursday and Saturday were assigning shifts. Things went fairly well, and nothing overly exciting happened. Friday was my last scheduled popcorn shift, and I got rained on at about 3:30, and it didn't stop until way after I'd clocked out. Fun times.
Sunday was my first day of food running! Huzzah! I was taught how to read a ticket, the proper way to deliver the food to the table, position points on the table so you're not just auctioning the food at the table, and the tricks to holding three plates at once. Despite knowing the trick to it, though, I still can't really do it. My fingers are too short and stubby to stretch enough for stability! Yesterday was much the same, except that we incorporated the pantry window into our running, and we were taught the closing duties. I have one more day of training on Wednesday, and then I'm on my own. I should be fine, though. Dana and I have made very few mistakes over the past couple days. Today, though, I'm heading over to Patrick's to play my first-ever game of Dungeons and Dragons! ....Just you shush! I think it'll be fun.
For those of you who don't speak fluent Mel N., that 'yay' was extremely sarcastic, so go ahead and read over it again in the proper tone of voice. ...Okay. We're good now. Anyway, that's because in Dinoland, USA is an intense thrill ride called Dinosaur! I have a rather intense fear of Dinosaurs that aren't on a tiny, flat, non-3-D screen (because I do enjoy Jurassic Park), never mind animatronic ones that kinda look realistic and try to eat you. And yes, I realize that they're extinct and they can't actually come and eat me, but I don't care. So, for part of our tour, we're told the story of Dinoland, USA as a whole, and how the institute had developed this new technology called Time Compression (which had me giggling a bit, because that's one of the major concepts during the last battle sequences of Final Fantasy VIII), and how you could actually go back to the age of the dinosaurs. So what's the next thing we do? We go back to the age of the dinosaurs! Now, obviously we have a choice as to whether or not we want to go on this ride, but this is as good an excuse as any to actually get me on the ride, since you have to try everything once (which is the only reason why I've seen the Playhouse Disney show at the Studios). Mel assured me that I would live through the ride. Well, I'm not sure whether or not me being in the ride vehicle actually counts, because I didn't see anything beyond the first ten seconds of the ride. I had my eyes closed the whole time, and at one point I also had my ears plugged and my coat lapels flung over my face. But I survived, so I figure that if I go on it once every time I'm in Animal Kingdom and get familiar enough with the sounds of the ride, I might eventually be able to open my eyes for some of it. We'll see.
Moving on, we did more Discovery Island (kangaroos!), and saw the 3D movie inside the Tree, 'It's Tough to be a Bug.' I'm not overly fond of this thing, either, but I'm not afraid of anything there eating me, so we're good. The last large area on our tour was my favourite section, Asia. We were told the story of the particular part of Asia we were meant to be in, and did the Maharaj Jungle Trek. By this point, everyone is soaked, and it decides to pour even harder. And we have to finish the walk still, because we're only halfway down the trail. There is a tomb halfway there though, so when we're stopped Glen asks us if we want to continue to our final stop afterwards, or just end the tour here, since we're all really, really wet. The last stop is the Forbidden Mountain, so like hell we're gonna skip that! He's surprised at our resilience, but honestly, who doesn't love a good yeti?
So we walk through the queue line of Expedition: Everest and we're told about the things on the walls and all the decorations around us (Mel points out at least three hidden Mickeys). Eventually we get to the front of the line (which had a whopping 5 minute wait due to the rain) and those who want to ride can. Honestly, I was all for it, because I love Everest (to the astonishment of one of the guys on the tour who'd ridden Dinosaur with me). But then Mel brought up a good point: Everest goes outside a lot, like at least half the track is outdoors. Doing high-speed rides in the rain HURTS. So we didn't do it. And we definitely weren't the only ones. Once the weirdos got off the ride and met us in the gift shop, Glen said good-bye to us, and we all went our separate ways. Mel and I went to Yak & Yeti for some hot food, hot tea, and a chance to use the freakishly high-powered hand driers they have there. Then we came back home, I made myself comfy on the couch, and I didn't leave it until time for bed.
Wednesday was much the same (the couch part, not the tour). I got out of bed, eventually I showered, put new pjs on, and sat on the couch all day. I also started on my Japanese books I'd bought in EPCOT the other day, so now I know a whole seven hiragana! Out of forty-six. And then there are forty-six katakana. And after THAT come the 1,945 basic kanji. Just the basic ones, mind you. ...I've got a long way to go.
Thursday and Saturday were assigning shifts. Things went fairly well, and nothing overly exciting happened. Friday was my last scheduled popcorn shift, and I got rained on at about 3:30, and it didn't stop until way after I'd clocked out. Fun times.
Sunday was my first day of food running! Huzzah! I was taught how to read a ticket, the proper way to deliver the food to the table, position points on the table so you're not just auctioning the food at the table, and the tricks to holding three plates at once. Despite knowing the trick to it, though, I still can't really do it. My fingers are too short and stubby to stretch enough for stability! Yesterday was much the same, except that we incorporated the pantry window into our running, and we were taught the closing duties. I have one more day of training on Wednesday, and then I'm on my own. I should be fine, though. Dana and I have made very few mistakes over the past couple days. Today, though, I'm heading over to Patrick's to play my first-ever game of Dungeons and Dragons! ....Just you shush! I think it'll be fun.
Monday, February 1, 2010
Life Goes On
After another few not-so-exciting days of work (firstly because I was a seater and second because I can't remember them), it was time for Tuesday. I like Tuesday. It's my Saturday. Though some time in the week Selina and I went to the Studios and ate at the Sci-Fi. She'd never been. It was my third time. We had fun. Anyway, back to Tuesday. I was up just before 10AM on Tuesday to sign up for a special tour at Animal Kingdom. There are sporadically tours in different parks we can sign up for, some of them for specific rides (there's one in a couple weeks for Haunted Mansion that I would kill to be on, pun fully intended) and some of them general park tours with special insider tidbits. Apparently this one is part of the latter. Registration for the tours is really, really limited, and they open up at 10AM one week before the tour. So basically you set your alarm, sign up, and then go back to bed. Except that instead of going back to bed, Mel and I headed off to Wal-Mart for groceries. Mel's decided to start eating healthier, but it was still amusing to see what was in her part of the cart as compared to mine. After that, Mel had to go to work, and I hung around and had a lazy day. I think. I don't completely remember. I really should update more often so that I don't have these gaping holes in my life.
Wednesday was David's last day. At Le Cellier, we have a tradition for when someone is leaving: during the break between lunch and dinner, when there are as few guests and as many cast members as possible, we make the person leaving stand up at the fireplace and we sing O Canada at them. After that, everyone goes back to their lives. I'd told David I would make him cookies for the road (even though he didn't give me my container back before the throw-out!), so I was just going to head back to the apartment to bake those and kick around and be generally lazy. Aliyyah was walking out at the same time, so I figured I'd head out with her. Turns out, she's heading to Magic Kingdom by herself since people bailed on her. Hm... Magic Kingdom.... cookies in apartment... I wonder which one will win?! So we hit the monorail and headed into Magic Kingdom. Aliyyah was dying to meet Princess Tiana, and so was I to be honest, so we headed over to her character spot (with Prince Naveen, but let's face it, no one cares) and waited in line. We ended up behind this incredibly awkward woman who kept talking to us. It was kinda mean, but after she'd turned away from us for about the fiftieth time, Aliyyah and I began speaking to each other about how awkward this was. In French. Which basically means that Aliyyah was speaking and I was responding minimally, since after five years of not speaking it, my French is a bit rusty. And by rusty I mean it's corroding and looks a bit like orange-y brown swiss cheese, with more holes than rust. At some point in line, Aliyyah realizes that she had charged her camera battery in anticipation for this day, but forgot to actually put it back in her camera. Luckily, I have mine. Eventually we make it up there, Aliyyah fabricates a story about only having been here a few days in Montreal, and I blow that to bits when I say we know each other from work. At EPCOT. Oops. My mouth is so much faster than my brain sometimes. After getting our photos with Tiana and Naveen, we headed to Fantasyland and were shocked to see that after 5pm there were still fastpasses for Peter Pan available. Clear proof that the parks are indeed dead at this time of year. We're a bit hungry by this point, and guess what? Aliyyah's never been to Tony's! Yes, I have a strange love of that restaurant. The food is awesome. Leave me alone. On the way, we stop to watch a bit of the Dream Along With Mickey show in front of the castle. Awkward Girl sneaks up behind us and surprises us at some point during this show. Aliyyah and I are now kinda afraid for our lives, and our brain cells. As soon as the big finish with the fireworks and stuff is over, we book it into the crowds on Main Street, hoping to all that is good in the world that this girl does not follow us. Luckily she didn't and we were able to get a walk-in at Tony's without a problem. We had an awesome meal, and I loved Aliyyah's reaction to the atmosphere of the restaurant and everything. Then we went back to ride Peter Pan, which she'd also never done before, and then headed to the Grand Floridian to check out a couple shops. It was home time after that, because I still had to get those cookies in the oven! Turns out I can make and bake two different kinds of cookies in 25 minutes total. Awesomeness. Soon after that it was time to head to the throw-out to see what kind of stuff David and Johnny were getting rid of. Turns out, nothing I needed or wanted. I was disappointed.
I was assigning on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. Thursday actually went rather well, I thought. Friday, though. Oh God, Friday. Friday was a full moon. Thus, people were NUTS. And ALL of my large parties within a two and a half hour time span decided to show up, as did my smaller parties, so I had no tables to combine to accommodate the larger parties. I basically ripped the dining room apart trying to find places for all of these people. It was crazy, and I never want to do that again. Of course, after all that, I come home to even more craziness. My roommate's last day was the same as David's, so she was supposed to be gone from the Commons by 11AM sharp on Friday. You're pretty much treated as a fugitive afterwards, and if you're still staying in housing after you're supposed to be gone, everyone involved can get terminated from the program. Well, she didn't even start packing until Thursday night, and planned to pull an all-nighter to do so. Yet she went out for a while that night. Friday I leave for work, noticing she still has quite a bit to pack, but she's got an hour and a half, so she's probably got a plan for everything. When I return home after 10PM that night, not only is she still here, but her bed is heaped with stuff, as are areas of the living room, and not long after I enter the apartment SHE GOES OUT. AGAIN. AND we're supposed to be getting our new roommate that very night. Well currently that new roommate has nowhere to move into! Plus the cleaning people could barely move, according to Mel. Mel and I are kind of afraid for our jobs, since we know Mila's here when she shouldn't be and if the new roommate comes in and then complains, we're gonna be in trouble. So we go to security, explain everything to them, and then go out to Starbucks to calm Mel's nerves a bit. We know that this is going to be incredibly awkward when we get back, since when we were leaving our other Italian roommate made a comment about hoping that security wouldn't come. When we get back, Mila is out of the apartment (as are the other Italians who were there when we left, at least one of whom was also done her program and could get us in trouble), and Francesca is stuck packing the rest of Mila's stuff while crying her eyes out. Not two minutes after she leaves with the last of Mila's stuff (which took two or three trips, and tons of it is still against the wall in Francesca's room) our new roommate, Yukiko, comes in with her stuff. I can only imagine what would have happened if we hadn't done what we did. Of course, Francesca's mad at us for going to security because she thinks it was too much and we could have just asked them to leave. However, she's missing some vital points that I don't think the language barrier allows her to really grasp:
1) Mila wasn't even home, so we COULDN'T ask her to leave
2) We still know that they're somewhere in the Commons
3) If they're found in the Commons, they'll know that Mila used to live with us, and they'll interrogate us
4) I'm not going to lie to security for their sakes.
But she talked to each of us yesterday, and I think we're good now, even though she still thinks we went to far. But whatever. So long as she's not going to murder us in our sleep, we're good. I think international cast members need to be provided with a fully translated copy of our contract so that they have as good a grasp of the terms as we do as Canadians (and UKs).
Moving on.
Saturday was so-so. I was glad when it was over, though. I'm not used to assigning three days in a row, so I was exhausted afterwards and decided to take an ADO for Sunday. Mel called in sick that day, since she had the cold from Hell, so we had a relaxing day of rest and recuperation. This involved spaghetti and meatballs while watching Tinkerbell, napping, and popcorn while watching A Knight's Tale. And that's seriously all we did all day. ...Well, I talked to Ros and Mom earlier in the day, but other than THAT that's all we did. And I forgot that it was Sunday, so I missed movie night, which really upsets me because it was The Breakfast Club. I love The Breakfast Club!
Today I worked for a while and then took my last-ever (probably, unless something weird happens after I'm a server) ER. Selina and I headed over to France for a nice lunch, which included a visit from Remy (from Ratatouille). I had a three-course meal of French onion soup, quiche Lorraine, and some kind of puff pastry with chocolate sauce and vanilla ice cream. It was fantastic, and the restaurant is quite pretty. It's also, like, two and a half times the size of ours. Then we headed over to Japan so that Selina could get candy, and I bought Japanese language books so that I can actually start learning the language beyond the random useless words I currently know (I can't really imagine 'ultimate weapon' coming up in conversation too often). So I worked on a couple of the most basic characters before putting it aside for a bit to update this.
I think I'm catching a cold, so I probably won't go to games tonight. I'd rather get a good amount of sleep to prevent this from getting worse, before I have to catch a bus to be at Animal Kingdom at, like, 8AM.
Wednesday was David's last day. At Le Cellier, we have a tradition for when someone is leaving: during the break between lunch and dinner, when there are as few guests and as many cast members as possible, we make the person leaving stand up at the fireplace and we sing O Canada at them. After that, everyone goes back to their lives. I'd told David I would make him cookies for the road (even though he didn't give me my container back before the throw-out!), so I was just going to head back to the apartment to bake those and kick around and be generally lazy. Aliyyah was walking out at the same time, so I figured I'd head out with her. Turns out, she's heading to Magic Kingdom by herself since people bailed on her. Hm... Magic Kingdom.... cookies in apartment... I wonder which one will win?! So we hit the monorail and headed into Magic Kingdom. Aliyyah was dying to meet Princess Tiana, and so was I to be honest, so we headed over to her character spot (with Prince Naveen, but let's face it, no one cares) and waited in line. We ended up behind this incredibly awkward woman who kept talking to us. It was kinda mean, but after she'd turned away from us for about the fiftieth time, Aliyyah and I began speaking to each other about how awkward this was. In French. Which basically means that Aliyyah was speaking and I was responding minimally, since after five years of not speaking it, my French is a bit rusty. And by rusty I mean it's corroding and looks a bit like orange-y brown swiss cheese, with more holes than rust. At some point in line, Aliyyah realizes that she had charged her camera battery in anticipation for this day, but forgot to actually put it back in her camera. Luckily, I have mine. Eventually we make it up there, Aliyyah fabricates a story about only having been here a few days in Montreal, and I blow that to bits when I say we know each other from work. At EPCOT. Oops. My mouth is so much faster than my brain sometimes. After getting our photos with Tiana and Naveen, we headed to Fantasyland and were shocked to see that after 5pm there were still fastpasses for Peter Pan available. Clear proof that the parks are indeed dead at this time of year. We're a bit hungry by this point, and guess what? Aliyyah's never been to Tony's! Yes, I have a strange love of that restaurant. The food is awesome. Leave me alone. On the way, we stop to watch a bit of the Dream Along With Mickey show in front of the castle. Awkward Girl sneaks up behind us and surprises us at some point during this show. Aliyyah and I are now kinda afraid for our lives, and our brain cells. As soon as the big finish with the fireworks and stuff is over, we book it into the crowds on Main Street, hoping to all that is good in the world that this girl does not follow us. Luckily she didn't and we were able to get a walk-in at Tony's without a problem. We had an awesome meal, and I loved Aliyyah's reaction to the atmosphere of the restaurant and everything. Then we went back to ride Peter Pan, which she'd also never done before, and then headed to the Grand Floridian to check out a couple shops. It was home time after that, because I still had to get those cookies in the oven! Turns out I can make and bake two different kinds of cookies in 25 minutes total. Awesomeness. Soon after that it was time to head to the throw-out to see what kind of stuff David and Johnny were getting rid of. Turns out, nothing I needed or wanted. I was disappointed.
I was assigning on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. Thursday actually went rather well, I thought. Friday, though. Oh God, Friday. Friday was a full moon. Thus, people were NUTS. And ALL of my large parties within a two and a half hour time span decided to show up, as did my smaller parties, so I had no tables to combine to accommodate the larger parties. I basically ripped the dining room apart trying to find places for all of these people. It was crazy, and I never want to do that again. Of course, after all that, I come home to even more craziness. My roommate's last day was the same as David's, so she was supposed to be gone from the Commons by 11AM sharp on Friday. You're pretty much treated as a fugitive afterwards, and if you're still staying in housing after you're supposed to be gone, everyone involved can get terminated from the program. Well, she didn't even start packing until Thursday night, and planned to pull an all-nighter to do so. Yet she went out for a while that night. Friday I leave for work, noticing she still has quite a bit to pack, but she's got an hour and a half, so she's probably got a plan for everything. When I return home after 10PM that night, not only is she still here, but her bed is heaped with stuff, as are areas of the living room, and not long after I enter the apartment SHE GOES OUT. AGAIN. AND we're supposed to be getting our new roommate that very night. Well currently that new roommate has nowhere to move into! Plus the cleaning people could barely move, according to Mel. Mel and I are kind of afraid for our jobs, since we know Mila's here when she shouldn't be and if the new roommate comes in and then complains, we're gonna be in trouble. So we go to security, explain everything to them, and then go out to Starbucks to calm Mel's nerves a bit. We know that this is going to be incredibly awkward when we get back, since when we were leaving our other Italian roommate made a comment about hoping that security wouldn't come. When we get back, Mila is out of the apartment (as are the other Italians who were there when we left, at least one of whom was also done her program and could get us in trouble), and Francesca is stuck packing the rest of Mila's stuff while crying her eyes out. Not two minutes after she leaves with the last of Mila's stuff (which took two or three trips, and tons of it is still against the wall in Francesca's room) our new roommate, Yukiko, comes in with her stuff. I can only imagine what would have happened if we hadn't done what we did. Of course, Francesca's mad at us for going to security because she thinks it was too much and we could have just asked them to leave. However, she's missing some vital points that I don't think the language barrier allows her to really grasp:
1) Mila wasn't even home, so we COULDN'T ask her to leave
2) We still know that they're somewhere in the Commons
3) If they're found in the Commons, they'll know that Mila used to live with us, and they'll interrogate us
4) I'm not going to lie to security for their sakes.
But she talked to each of us yesterday, and I think we're good now, even though she still thinks we went to far. But whatever. So long as she's not going to murder us in our sleep, we're good. I think international cast members need to be provided with a fully translated copy of our contract so that they have as good a grasp of the terms as we do as Canadians (and UKs).
Moving on.
Saturday was so-so. I was glad when it was over, though. I'm not used to assigning three days in a row, so I was exhausted afterwards and decided to take an ADO for Sunday. Mel called in sick that day, since she had the cold from Hell, so we had a relaxing day of rest and recuperation. This involved spaghetti and meatballs while watching Tinkerbell, napping, and popcorn while watching A Knight's Tale. And that's seriously all we did all day. ...Well, I talked to Ros and Mom earlier in the day, but other than THAT that's all we did. And I forgot that it was Sunday, so I missed movie night, which really upsets me because it was The Breakfast Club. I love The Breakfast Club!
Today I worked for a while and then took my last-ever (probably, unless something weird happens after I'm a server) ER. Selina and I headed over to France for a nice lunch, which included a visit from Remy (from Ratatouille). I had a three-course meal of French onion soup, quiche Lorraine, and some kind of puff pastry with chocolate sauce and vanilla ice cream. It was fantastic, and the restaurant is quite pretty. It's also, like, two and a half times the size of ours. Then we headed over to Japan so that Selina could get candy, and I bought Japanese language books so that I can actually start learning the language beyond the random useless words I currently know (I can't really imagine 'ultimate weapon' coming up in conversation too often). So I worked on a couple of the most basic characters before putting it aside for a bit to update this.
I think I'm catching a cold, so I probably won't go to games tonight. I'd rather get a good amount of sleep to prevent this from getting worse, before I have to catch a bus to be at Animal Kingdom at, like, 8AM.
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