Countdown: 3 Weeks

So it's been an interesting couple of weeks, waffling between busy and boring. And sometimes I'm bored while I'm busy (ie work some days). But my contract is winding to a close, so I'm trying to pack as much as I can into my last few weeks. Also trying to pack as much as I can my last few weeks. I do NOT want to leave that til the last minute. I have way too much stuff. Awesome stuff, but too much of it nonetheless.

So back on the second, Heather came to visit me! ...And by 'me,' I really mean 'Jeremy,' but I claimed a day with her because, as I put it, "I saw her first!" So we had an absolute blast. We went to Le Cellier for an early lunch (Jeremy served us; Eli (Courtney E.) was displeased), and then walked around World Showcase two and a half times. Along the way we stopped in at the Japan pavilion to open pearl oysters and in Norway to ride the Maelstrom. We also saw quite a few characters. World Showplace was open, so there we met Max, Meeko, and Wendell (one of the Country Bears). I had yet to meet Marie in France, so we went to meet the fluffy kitty, who was just as fluffy as I thought she'd be. Then we had our best character encounter EVER. We were walking across the bridge between the UK and France, and Heather glanced over at International Gateway and wondered out loud who was there. I turned, and there was a crowd lined up, but whoever it was, they were kneeling so I couldn't see anything. Then Heather bolts down the path, and I run after her, wondering why the hell we're running. She informs me, mid-sprint, that it's Jack Sparrow. Jack Sparrow, who is only a meet-and-greet character on the cruise. Jack Sparrow, who my sister was determined to meet while she was here (again, Tiff, I'm sorry!). It was AMAZING. We were kind of hyperactive the rest of the day. Well, as hyperactive as you can be in boiling heat with a massive humidex. People were leaving that day, so we went back to the restaurant for the sing-out, and then Jeremy was done his shift, so he joined us. We went over to Magic Kingdom for our collective last Wishes and Spectromagic (they changed the fireworks and parade, and that was happening while Heather was on the cruise with Jeremy, and I didn't have time to see it again before it changed). We also rode Splash Mountain to cool down. I barely even got wet, which was a bit of a disappointment, considering. Heather's neck turned green from her necklace, though. I have a picture and I'm holding it hostage on my computer for possible blackmail material, should the need ever arise. We went to stake out spots for Spectromagic, and that's when we noticed the GIANT STORM rolling in. So we all left the park without seeing either night show (the parade would have been cancelled anyway, and who wants to watch fireworks in the rain?).

The next day, Kelly came to visit me! Kelly from home, not the Kelly I met down here. She was visiting the parks with her family, but they were all parked out, so it was just the two of us. We walked around World Showcase, not doing much because there's not much to do, and then headed to Magic Kingdom (we got fastpasses for Soarin', but they weren't good until later in the day, so we decided to leave her car parked at EPCOT and then come back and visit the Land before leaving). We rode the TRONorail! It was so awesome! The TRONorail being the monorail that runs the EPCOT circuit with the TRON promo overlay, for those of you who don't speak fluent Mel and haven't seen my Facebook pictures. Kelly realized how many things they missed at Magic Kingdom, and I pointed out all my favourite Hidden Mickeys. I took her on Jungle Cruise, and we got the terrible skipper again! Why is it every time I take someone on this ride for their first time I get the worst possible skipper, who has no enthusiasm and barely tells jokes?!?! Seriously, this guy sounded like he was reading from a prompter. I wanted to wrestle the mic out of his hands and take over the cruise for myself. Gah! Some people really need to rethink their placements and transfer (to Country Bears). Honestly. ...I think I'm done now. So we toured MK some more, and then it was about time to head back to EPCOT. We hopped back on the monorail (no TRONorail this time) and hoofed it over to The Land. Soarin' was a blast, as always, and then it was time to say goodbye. I did something else after she left, but I have no idea what it - Oh! I went over to the Turf Club at Saratoge Springs for dinner, to cross another restaurant off my list. It was good, except that I forgot to ask for my strip steak with out blue cheese, so my steak kind of had traces of dirty gym sock on it.

After that, it was work, work, work until my next weekend. On Wednesday I went to Le Cellier again, this time with Stef and Jen. Neither of them had eaten there before, so it was a lot of fun seeing them try new things. Steph Rose was our server, and she was fabulous as always. We got fastpasses for Soarin', which one of the two had never been on. I think it was Stef, but I'm not sure. We went to the Japan pavilion for chilled green tea, which was super-awesome, and went around World Showcase. Afterwards we went to Magic Kingdom (that happens a lot...) to see the Main Street Electrical Parade and the new Nightastic! fireworks. We staked our spot quite early, right against the Liberty Bridge on the Liberty Square side. We were provided with unexpected entertainment when crowd control tried to stop people from crossing the bridge into the parade path, and people would run under the rope while the guy was telling some other people that it was closed. One time security was there and saw, and went running after a couple. SO FUNNY. The crowd control guy was also wearing flood pants, which was a great source of amusement to Jen. The parade was cool, but it's a lot shorter than Spectromagic, I think, and there's that whole 'To Honor America' float at the end that just loses my interest completely. I wasn't expecting much of the fireworks, given what I'd heard. Which was just that they go off to Pirates of the Caribbean music. I thought it was going to be kind of dumb, because as Kim put it, "Pirates is cool, but people come here for the magic, and just watching fireworks with Pirates music isn't that whole Disney magic thing." I may have paraphrased some of that, because there was a lot more of her repeating herself, as well as a good many expletives that I probably shouldn't repeat because I'd like to keep this as PG-ish as possible. But anyway, the fireworks far exceeded my expectations. It starts out with the Fairy Godmother and Three Good Fairies, and then Captain Hook comes in and attacks the castle (fireworks actually go off from the castle; it's super-cool) and that's when the Pirates stuff starts, and then Tinker Bell saves the day and there's a big finale. It's really, really awesome, and it's nice to see something new. It was at the point where I could have my back to the castle and conduct the fireworks for Wishes. Or I could be at a resort, where you can't hear the music, and sing the whole track based on what I was seeing.

Thursday was an interesting day. You may recall the Tower of Terror challenge that Mel and David did back at the beginning of the year. Well, when Mel left she threw it down to me, so I had to attempt it some time before I left. Taryn was supposed to do it with me, but she was in Canada last week. I felt horrible for planning it without her there, but it kinda hit me when one of my managers took time off for his daughter's graduation that SCHOOLS WERE GETTING OUT. Which meant crowds. Which meant an even likelier failure. No one else could make it, so I ended up going by myself (which ended up a good thing because then whenever they called for a party of one to fill an elevator I could bypass about 20 people). I was there right for opening at 9 AM and just kept riding and riding. However, I didn't get any cast member help until late in the day (a friend of a friend of a friend), so I failed epically. I quit at around 6:30 PM, when it started to actually hurt, with 20 rides under my belt, and 44 unfinished (I'll do the math for you: I was aiming for 64).

Sunday night Stef and I went to the movies and to House of Blues for dinner. The meal was really good (especially the dark chocolate cheesecake), but the server was mega-creepy. We saw Prince of Persia, and it was actually really good. I love the stunts, and I respect Jake Gyllenhaal for doing them himself. But there are way too many snakes in that movie, and I spent the entire movie with my feet curled up underneath me.

So now I'm sitting here typing this up before going to take a shower and then head out to EPCOT for another sing-out. And maybe I'll go see the Electrical Parade again. I need pictures from the other side of the floats!