...is roughly how much time I have left here. Oddly enough, I'm okay with that. It's been fun, but I'm ready to move on to something new. Plus I want out of housing.
Anyway, so on Thursday I went to lunch at the Liberty Tree Tavern with Selina, Erica, Ashley, and DeAnna, and we had fun sticking the Mickey glitter they'd sprinkled on the table for my celebration on our faces. It was a pretty good lunch. I had an awesome pot roast, and a gooey toffee cake with ice cream for dessert (which we shared, along with a chocolate birthday cupcake they brought out while bringing unnecessary attention to me). We watched the parade, and did a few rides.
Friday was the beginning of Star Wars Weekends, so I went around being really geeky and getting pictures with lots of Star Wars characters. I was super-happy that my timing was perfect for getting a picture with Wicket, since he's the namesake of my dog.
Saturday I went for dinner with Stefanie to Shutter's at Caribbean Beach. The appetizers and bread were amazing, and the entree was pretty good. I had ribs with some kind of vanilla sauce, which was a little weird, but still good. My key lime tart at dessert was really delicious, too.
Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday I worked. Wednesday I had to go shopping for a new dress to wear to Citricos with Taryn, but before dinner I met up with Jen and Stef at Hollywood Studios to do some rides and some drawing at the Animation building. I'm addicted now. It'd been a while since I'd picked up a pencil to draw, so it was super amazing to just sit there and relax for 25 minutes at a time and draw a character. It was still early for my reservation, so when the girls headed over to Downtown Disney I went with them. Plus I'd found out at dinner the other night that Stef had never been in the Christmas store, and that kinda broke my brain a little. After looking into a few shops and stuff, I boarded the Grand Floridian bus, which was super freezing cold. When Taryn got there, we headed upstairs to Citricos. We each had this drink that was fruit juice mixed with sparkling wine (yum) and a cheese trio platter to start. Neither of us really touched the blue cheese because blue cheese is nasty and who wants to eat mold anyway? But the lemon ricotta was good, as was ...whatever the other cheese was. I kept my menu, but that's all the way in my bedroom. For our entrees, we both had the chicken breast, but I had mine with the risotto, and Taryn had hers with potatoes. It was a REALLY good chicken. I had a tiramisu for dessert, and I'm rather upset that the caffeine and sugar never set in, because I kinda really needed them.
Thursday I was going to be lazy, but then I managed to get a reservation at Mama Melrose's at the Studios. I've never been able to get in there, so I jumped on the reservation. For a party of one. Which wasn't actually as awkward as I thought it would be. It was pretty good food, but nothing overly special. Just your regular, run-of-the-mill Americanized Italian place. Then I went to draw for a while (Mickey and Scrooge), and then walked over to EPCOT, where I was meeting Selina for dinner. We went to Germany, which was really cool. When you walk into the restaurant, it looks like you're at an outdoor festival, and there's a band that plays German instruments (they totally play the things in the cough drop commercials), and it's a buffet. I did find that a lot of the food was on the plain side, since they don't use a lot of spices, but it was still good. And the Bavarian cheesecake at dessert was really awesome.
Friday I worked, and then did nothing. I think. If I did anything with anyone and I'm forgetting, I'm sorry! Saturday Amy invited me to a mystery dinner theatre place on I-Drive, and since I haven't really been off property since I got here, I figured it was a good opportunity. Plus Amy's cool. So Matt, Amy, Jackie, and I all headed over there, through long weekend Saturday traffic. Which means we were late, but we still got in. I've never done mystery theatre before, so it was really, really awesome. And the food was good too, but that kinda wasn't the focus. I guessed the murderer wrong, but it was still so much fun!
Last night after work I went out with Taryn and Adam to China, which was a lot better than I thought it was going to be. I hadn't heard good things from many people, so I was a little wary of it, but it was on the list, so it had to be done at some point. But the food was really good! And our server's English was really good, too. I had Kung Pao Chicken for dinner, and a ginger cake for dessert. The cake was really light and really sweet. We went to movie night after that (since I was out late enough with people who reminded me that it was movie night, since normally I don't realize until it's too late), and we watched Fantastic Mr. Fox, which makes about as much sense at Pink Floyd's The Wall, but it was hilarious so that made up for the lack of sense and random one-liners running rampant throughout the film.
And now I'm sitting here eating Kraft Dinner before work. Man, I can't wait for Canadian KD. American stuff still tastes weird. It might be the margarine.
Monday, May 31, 2010
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
Part 3
Thursday was my last day with Mel. We started out very early at Animal Kingdom, eager to pack the day as full as we possibly could. We did Kilimanjaro Safaris and saw more animals than I've ever seen on there before, and way closer, too! We even got to see the baby white rhino! Still no lions, though. I'm pretty sure we did Everest at some point, and we definitely went to see Flights of Wonder again. We went over to Camp Minnie-Mickey just as the previous Lion King show was finishing its load in so that we could sit at the very front in the next show. We played games on Mel's iPod and attempted to stay in the shade. We did manage to get those front row seats, though, and it was uber-awesome. Timon paid special attention to us during the show (we were wearing our tiaras again, which felt a little out of place in Animal Kingdom, but whatever), and we were so close to the monkeys and dancers! We spent some more time walking around before it was time to take our places for the parade (it's kinda on the lame side, but Mel wanted to see it, so we went). We managed to snag a bench in one of the narrower parade areas, so we were not sitting on the ground, we were shaded, and we also ended up surrounded by a family of ducks! They were so cute! Now I understand why my sister took so many pictures of baby ducks when she was here. We left Animal Kingdom fairly early so that we could go home and freshen up before Mel's final Disney restaurant, Narcoossee's. I'd already been there, but it was a fantastic place and I definitely did not mind going back. Especially since we were on the dining plan, so I didn't have to order one of the cheaper menu items. We both had the surf and turf dish, which had two small filets and a giant lobster tail, as well as some awesome veggies. It was sooooo amazing! For dessert I had a chocolate mousse, and I think Mel had a creme brulee thing. We headed back to the resort after that, and packed up our stuff to prepare for an early departure. I woke up Friday morning and headed back home to drop my stuff off before heading to work. Of course, getting into my apartment was a fun ordeal because they'd changed my locks while I was gone, so I didn't have a key and had to wake Francesca up to let me in.
After work on Friday was Goofy's Mystery Tour, a special annual cast event that involves teams of four participating in a themed scavenger hunt around Hollywood Studios after the park closes. It also involves fifty multiple choice trivia questions of varying difficulty levels. Oh, and your team is bungee corded together. No biggie. I put together a team of some of my favourite people here: Selina, Taryn, and Adam. By the time we'd exited the theatre (with Taryn in the lead, taking the longest and most awkward way possible) we'd pretty much figured out coordinating our walking movements. Problems only arose when we had to turn or sit down. We came in 179th out of 250 teams, so I'm quite proud of us (and even though other Canadian teams ranked higher than we did, we totally had more points than some of them, so :P ).
After that, it was back to boring work. A couple weeks ago I bought those shape-up shoes, so I've been enjoying wearing those around the parks. They're really comfortable! Last week, Selina, Ben, Adam and I went to the Studios to meet Lotso, the bear that smells like strawberries from Toy Story 3 (which is gonna be super-awesome). The other day Selina, Taryn and I went out for dinner at Boatwright's at Port Orleans Riverside for some awesome Cajun food. Monday was Dan's birthday, so some of us headed over to one of his favourite restaurants, Sanaa, for an awesome lunch.
And that brings me up to date, so quit your whining for a while!
After work on Friday was Goofy's Mystery Tour, a special annual cast event that involves teams of four participating in a themed scavenger hunt around Hollywood Studios after the park closes. It also involves fifty multiple choice trivia questions of varying difficulty levels. Oh, and your team is bungee corded together. No biggie. I put together a team of some of my favourite people here: Selina, Taryn, and Adam. By the time we'd exited the theatre (with Taryn in the lead, taking the longest and most awkward way possible) we'd pretty much figured out coordinating our walking movements. Problems only arose when we had to turn or sit down. We came in 179th out of 250 teams, so I'm quite proud of us (and even though other Canadian teams ranked higher than we did, we totally had more points than some of them, so :P ).
After that, it was back to boring work. A couple weeks ago I bought those shape-up shoes, so I've been enjoying wearing those around the parks. They're really comfortable! Last week, Selina, Ben, Adam and I went to the Studios to meet Lotso, the bear that smells like strawberries from Toy Story 3 (which is gonna be super-awesome). The other day Selina, Taryn and I went out for dinner at Boatwright's at Port Orleans Riverside for some awesome Cajun food. Monday was Dan's birthday, so some of us headed over to one of his favourite restaurants, Sanaa, for an awesome lunch.
And that brings me up to date, so quit your whining for a while!
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Part 2
So where was I? Sunday. Right. Well Sunday was shopping day, so we had to do some running around so that Tiff and Christian could get all their souvenirs for people. We also rode Tower of Terror again, because it's just that awesome. After we finished up at the Studios, we went to the resort to do some stuff exchanging between rooms, and then met up with Mel at Magic Kingdom to finish up the things that they wanted to do there. We did the Tiki Room, and Haunted Mansion (because I wanted to; they'd already done it), and I don't quite remember what else. Tiff and Christian headed back to the resort for a swim because it was really hot, and Mel and I headed to one of her last restaurants on her list: The Plaza Restaurant on Main Street. It's a lot of sandwiches and casual stuff like that, and it's super tiny, but it was really good! Weirdly enough I had a vegetarian sandwich because it sounded so good. Dessert was super-huge sundaes, which I'm still not sure how we managed to eat. Then we staked out a place for Spectro and Wishes, and Tiff met up with us at the spot. We then went to do a couple rides during Extra Magic Hours, since we were all resorts guests and could do so, and said our goodbyes and headed home.
Monday was supposed to have been our breakfast at The Wave, but I was very tired so we slammed the snooze button and then later headed to the pool before I had to work. I got burnt. That kinda happened a lot that week. Tuesday we had lunch at Olivia's Cafe at Old Key West, and that was pretty awesome. Then, again, I headed to work. Wednesday was our Magic Kingdom day, as well as dinner at California Grill at the Contemporary, so we just made another reservation for The Wave that morning. Despite hearing people complain about it all the time, we had a pretty good breakfast. It's extremely ugly in there and needs to be brought out of the 70s, but the food was good. Then we went to Magic Kingdom for probably the most fun I've ever had in that park. We donned tiaras, and hopped the horse-drawn streetcar to Cinderella's Castle. We were seated at the back, with the barber shop quartet behind us, and they talked with us and serenaded us with princess songs the whole way. It was SO COOL. We ran around everywhere, making sure Mel got in everything she needed and wanted to do before she left. Everyone was calling us 'Princess' and talking to us all day, which was really, really awesome. We watched the parade from the edge of Main Street before Liberty Bridge, and characters came up to us during the parade to bow to us and wave! I got elbowed by a small child and slightly rammed by a stroller (same family, same ten minutes). After that, I did the Hall of Presidents for the first time, because we were extremely hot and it was air conditioned. There wasn't much else to do at that point, so we decided to meander over to California Grill in the hopes that we'd spend enough time in the air conditioning when we got there that we wouldn't be gross by the time of our reservation. On Main Street, though, we were stopped by a guy from guest relations who asked us if we wanted to do a Main Street scavenger hunt. We've got the time, so why not? Out of a sheet of 20 questions we had to blindly choose 5 and find the answers to them somewhere on Main Street. Thanks to that hunt, I now know when the Emporium was "established," how much the football game costs at the train station, and when the next horse auction is. We weren't sure if we were coming back to the park or not, so instead of writing us a fastpass for any ride we wanted, we each got a coupon for a free plushie! So we explored the plush section of the Emporium before making our choices (Donald for Mel and Stitch for me). So NOW we're heading to California Grill, a signature restaurant, sweaty, wearing tiaras, and carrying stuffed toys. ... Yeah. That's really classy. But it's Disney, so we weren't too bothered by it. And we were seated at a 4-top, so Donald and Stitch got seats so they wouldn't have to go on the floor. We had a really amazing view of the parks from our table, and the food was really good. I can't say I understand why everyone raves about it, but it was good. We decided during dinner that this day was too awesome to end so early, so we went back to Magic Kingdom for a little while longer. Mel told me to get lost for half an hour, so I took my book and sat in front of the 'Partners' statue and read. She showed up with a package tied to a(n extremely obnoxious) Mickey balloon and handed it to me. Inside was a birthday button (which she made me wear) and a beautiful glass Maleficent figurine as an early birthday present. I was so thrilled! She wanted to do Laugh Floor one more time, so we did, and I was picked by one of the monsters. They said I had a chandelier on my head, which, admittedly, was kinda true. So I got to make a fool of myself in front of tons of random people. And then we ran to get a good spot for Wishes, which we left partway through so that we wouldn't have to wait five buses to get home.
Part 3 coming soon.
Monday was supposed to have been our breakfast at The Wave, but I was very tired so we slammed the snooze button and then later headed to the pool before I had to work. I got burnt. That kinda happened a lot that week. Tuesday we had lunch at Olivia's Cafe at Old Key West, and that was pretty awesome. Then, again, I headed to work. Wednesday was our Magic Kingdom day, as well as dinner at California Grill at the Contemporary, so we just made another reservation for The Wave that morning. Despite hearing people complain about it all the time, we had a pretty good breakfast. It's extremely ugly in there and needs to be brought out of the 70s, but the food was good. Then we went to Magic Kingdom for probably the most fun I've ever had in that park. We donned tiaras, and hopped the horse-drawn streetcar to Cinderella's Castle. We were seated at the back, with the barber shop quartet behind us, and they talked with us and serenaded us with princess songs the whole way. It was SO COOL. We ran around everywhere, making sure Mel got in everything she needed and wanted to do before she left. Everyone was calling us 'Princess' and talking to us all day, which was really, really awesome. We watched the parade from the edge of Main Street before Liberty Bridge, and characters came up to us during the parade to bow to us and wave! I got elbowed by a small child and slightly rammed by a stroller (same family, same ten minutes). After that, I did the Hall of Presidents for the first time, because we were extremely hot and it was air conditioned. There wasn't much else to do at that point, so we decided to meander over to California Grill in the hopes that we'd spend enough time in the air conditioning when we got there that we wouldn't be gross by the time of our reservation. On Main Street, though, we were stopped by a guy from guest relations who asked us if we wanted to do a Main Street scavenger hunt. We've got the time, so why not? Out of a sheet of 20 questions we had to blindly choose 5 and find the answers to them somewhere on Main Street. Thanks to that hunt, I now know when the Emporium was "established," how much the football game costs at the train station, and when the next horse auction is. We weren't sure if we were coming back to the park or not, so instead of writing us a fastpass for any ride we wanted, we each got a coupon for a free plushie! So we explored the plush section of the Emporium before making our choices (Donald for Mel and Stitch for me). So NOW we're heading to California Grill, a signature restaurant, sweaty, wearing tiaras, and carrying stuffed toys. ... Yeah. That's really classy. But it's Disney, so we weren't too bothered by it. And we were seated at a 4-top, so Donald and Stitch got seats so they wouldn't have to go on the floor. We had a really amazing view of the parks from our table, and the food was really good. I can't say I understand why everyone raves about it, but it was good. We decided during dinner that this day was too awesome to end so early, so we went back to Magic Kingdom for a little while longer. Mel told me to get lost for half an hour, so I took my book and sat in front of the 'Partners' statue and read. She showed up with a package tied to a(n extremely obnoxious) Mickey balloon and handed it to me. Inside was a birthday button (which she made me wear) and a beautiful glass Maleficent figurine as an early birthday present. I was so thrilled! She wanted to do Laugh Floor one more time, so we did, and I was picked by one of the monsters. They said I had a chandelier on my head, which, admittedly, was kinda true. So I got to make a fool of myself in front of tons of random people. And then we ran to get a good spot for Wishes, which we left partway through so that we wouldn't have to wait five buses to get home.
Part 3 coming soon.
Sunday, May 16, 2010
......
*cough*
Uh.... Hi, guys!
...
Yeah, okay, so it's been a while. For most of April, that's because there was absolutely nothing going on. The majority of April was a very boring month. Well, not BORING boring (except work, which is almost always a little mind-numbing), but nothing-out-of-the-ordinary kind of boring. It was Mel's last month at Disney, so we did a LOT of running around the parks like small children, looking for characters and eating probably the equivalent of a sports bike, if not a dirt bike. For those of you who have seen my pictures on Facebook, you know this to be the truth. Lots of photos.
Towards the end of the month, we celebrated Mel's birthday by going to the Garden Grill in The Land at EPCOT. It's a family-style restaurant with characters that REVOLVES. Yeah, it totally does a 1-hour circle through the Livin' With the Land attraction. For me, this was slightly disconcerting because I was seated with my back to the scenery, so every once in a while I would turn around and not see anything remotely like what I'd seen the last time I had a casual glance. The characters all had fun with Mel's Mickey balloon when they came to the table, one chipmunk even going so far as to try to steal it! She got it back, though. The food was pretty good, and the cool thing is that most of the ingredients actually come from the pavilion itself. Or, at least, that's what they say. Not sure whether or not I completely believe this.
A few days later, Tiff and Christian came for a visit, which I was stoked about. They flew in on a Monday, but I didn't get to see them until the Tuesday. We did EPCOT for the morning, and I took them on Soarin' (Tiff freaked out a little bit, which was highly amusing, but I think she had fun anyway), and we did Test Track, and a whole bunch of other fun things. In the early afternoon I abandoned them to head to work, and they finished the boring park without me. Wednesday we were up bright and early to head to Animal Kingdom, where I got severely burnt and we didn't see any lions. Seriously, the lions haven't been out lately, even early in the morning. It makes me sad. I love the lions. Anyway. So we saw animals, did Everest, I finally got to go on Kali again (it'd been a while, since it was so cold; I got soaked what good), and we saw Flights of Wonder for the first time. I think Tiff only stopped in the first place because the woman doing the preshow had an owl on her arm, but it was worth it. It was such a great show, and so funny! At park closing, it was time to head over to the Lodge for our reservation at Boma. The food was pretty good. Tiff and Christian liked the Orange Mush, which we think involved sweet potatoes, but we're not entirely sure. I liked the nut sauce for the pork loin. We walked around the Lodge for a bit after, and then we headed back to Animal Kingdom to take our respective buses. Friday- -
Oooh, wait! Somewhere in those weeks before Tiff came was my program graduation party thingy. They have massive graduation breakfasts for about three months of end-dates at a time, and we all get together in a resort ballroom dressed all fancy, and we are fed breakfast, and we can get pictures with characters in graduation robes, and we get Mickey hats with tassels on them. It was awesome. After that, a large group of us headed to Magic Kingdom to take photos in front of the castle and stuff. It took some time to coordinate a picture of us throwing our hats in the air, but eventually we got it. And then scrambled to find all our hats before someone trampled them (thankfully we'd gotten them embroidered, so we knew whose was whose). We'd barely eaten the breakfast because we were so busy photographing one another that we were all kinda starving by this point. So thirteen of us (Sean being the only guy in that number) boarded the monorail (some still in uncomfortable heels and others, like myself, having resorted to flip-flops) and headed to EPCOT so that we could carry on the Canadian tradition of eating at Le Cellier after grad. Then we all kind of disbanded, some to drink around the world, and me to meet up with Mel and some of her friends from home who were visiting.
'Kay. Now we're back to Tiff's trip. So Friday was... Hang on, I missed Thursday, didn't I? Oh, plus either Tuesday or Wednesday night was Mel's throw-out, so I went to that. I was handed down the Tower of Terror challenge (60 rides in one day), so I have to start planning that soon before it gets too busy here. Thursday we went back to finish up Animal Kingdom, and Mel joined us since she didn't have much left to pack. I remember us going on Everest, but not much other than that. That night we did the Spirit of Aloha at the Polynesian, which I've discovered is a lot more pleasant when you're not soaking wet and freezing. Who knew? Fire dancer still rocked. And NOW we're at Friday. ...Which I don't really remember. At all. I know I was working, and I think we went to see Fantasmic that night. Maybe. Yes. Because Friday was Magic Kingdom day, but it closed early with no Wishes or Spectromagic, so we went to Fantasmic because the weather was supposed to be bad the next day anyway. Which it totally wasn't. Oh! I know why I don't remember Friday. Because I had to get up hella early to help Mel move all her stuff out and get to the resort we were staying at to check in before heading off for my AM shift. So I was kinda half-dead. And yes, we did go see Fantasmic that night. Mel met up with us at the Studios for that. Saturday morning I headed off to work, and Mel took my place at breakfast at 1900 Park Fare with Tiff and Christian. This kinda irked me that I couldn't have time off to be with my sister when other people had time off constantly for this, that, and the other thing, so I begged and pleaded for them to let me have Sunday off to spend my sister's last day with her. But anyway. So I worked my shift, and then met up with the three of them at the Studios. Again, not remembering much. We ate at Pizza Planet.... Ah! And I got to do Toy Story, Rock'n Roller Coaster, AND Tower of Terror with them! Which was awesome, because those are all the best things to do at the Studios. And we met some characters at the Animation building, which is always a fun time. I finally got to meet Genie, who is not an easy character to find.
And I have to go to movie night now, so I'll end this here. I could just save this and continue it later, but I figure posting this will get people off my back for a least a couple days. Maybe. Possibly. Just a little bit?
Uh.... Hi, guys!
...
Yeah, okay, so it's been a while. For most of April, that's because there was absolutely nothing going on. The majority of April was a very boring month. Well, not BORING boring (except work, which is almost always a little mind-numbing), but nothing-out-of-the-ordinary kind of boring. It was Mel's last month at Disney, so we did a LOT of running around the parks like small children, looking for characters and eating probably the equivalent of a sports bike, if not a dirt bike. For those of you who have seen my pictures on Facebook, you know this to be the truth. Lots of photos.
Towards the end of the month, we celebrated Mel's birthday by going to the Garden Grill in The Land at EPCOT. It's a family-style restaurant with characters that REVOLVES. Yeah, it totally does a 1-hour circle through the Livin' With the Land attraction. For me, this was slightly disconcerting because I was seated with my back to the scenery, so every once in a while I would turn around and not see anything remotely like what I'd seen the last time I had a casual glance. The characters all had fun with Mel's Mickey balloon when they came to the table, one chipmunk even going so far as to try to steal it! She got it back, though. The food was pretty good, and the cool thing is that most of the ingredients actually come from the pavilion itself. Or, at least, that's what they say. Not sure whether or not I completely believe this.
A few days later, Tiff and Christian came for a visit, which I was stoked about. They flew in on a Monday, but I didn't get to see them until the Tuesday. We did EPCOT for the morning, and I took them on Soarin' (Tiff freaked out a little bit, which was highly amusing, but I think she had fun anyway), and we did Test Track, and a whole bunch of other fun things. In the early afternoon I abandoned them to head to work, and they finished the boring park without me. Wednesday we were up bright and early to head to Animal Kingdom, where I got severely burnt and we didn't see any lions. Seriously, the lions haven't been out lately, even early in the morning. It makes me sad. I love the lions. Anyway. So we saw animals, did Everest, I finally got to go on Kali again (it'd been a while, since it was so cold; I got soaked what good), and we saw Flights of Wonder for the first time. I think Tiff only stopped in the first place because the woman doing the preshow had an owl on her arm, but it was worth it. It was such a great show, and so funny! At park closing, it was time to head over to the Lodge for our reservation at Boma. The food was pretty good. Tiff and Christian liked the Orange Mush, which we think involved sweet potatoes, but we're not entirely sure. I liked the nut sauce for the pork loin. We walked around the Lodge for a bit after, and then we headed back to Animal Kingdom to take our respective buses. Friday- -
Oooh, wait! Somewhere in those weeks before Tiff came was my program graduation party thingy. They have massive graduation breakfasts for about three months of end-dates at a time, and we all get together in a resort ballroom dressed all fancy, and we are fed breakfast, and we can get pictures with characters in graduation robes, and we get Mickey hats with tassels on them. It was awesome. After that, a large group of us headed to Magic Kingdom to take photos in front of the castle and stuff. It took some time to coordinate a picture of us throwing our hats in the air, but eventually we got it. And then scrambled to find all our hats before someone trampled them (thankfully we'd gotten them embroidered, so we knew whose was whose). We'd barely eaten the breakfast because we were so busy photographing one another that we were all kinda starving by this point. So thirteen of us (Sean being the only guy in that number) boarded the monorail (some still in uncomfortable heels and others, like myself, having resorted to flip-flops) and headed to EPCOT so that we could carry on the Canadian tradition of eating at Le Cellier after grad. Then we all kind of disbanded, some to drink around the world, and me to meet up with Mel and some of her friends from home who were visiting.
'Kay. Now we're back to Tiff's trip. So Friday was... Hang on, I missed Thursday, didn't I? Oh, plus either Tuesday or Wednesday night was Mel's throw-out, so I went to that. I was handed down the Tower of Terror challenge (60 rides in one day), so I have to start planning that soon before it gets too busy here. Thursday we went back to finish up Animal Kingdom, and Mel joined us since she didn't have much left to pack. I remember us going on Everest, but not much other than that. That night we did the Spirit of Aloha at the Polynesian, which I've discovered is a lot more pleasant when you're not soaking wet and freezing. Who knew? Fire dancer still rocked. And NOW we're at Friday. ...Which I don't really remember. At all. I know I was working, and I think we went to see Fantasmic that night. Maybe. Yes. Because Friday was Magic Kingdom day, but it closed early with no Wishes or Spectromagic, so we went to Fantasmic because the weather was supposed to be bad the next day anyway. Which it totally wasn't. Oh! I know why I don't remember Friday. Because I had to get up hella early to help Mel move all her stuff out and get to the resort we were staying at to check in before heading off for my AM shift. So I was kinda half-dead. And yes, we did go see Fantasmic that night. Mel met up with us at the Studios for that. Saturday morning I headed off to work, and Mel took my place at breakfast at 1900 Park Fare with Tiff and Christian. This kinda irked me that I couldn't have time off to be with my sister when other people had time off constantly for this, that, and the other thing, so I begged and pleaded for them to let me have Sunday off to spend my sister's last day with her. But anyway. So I worked my shift, and then met up with the three of them at the Studios. Again, not remembering much. We ate at Pizza Planet.... Ah! And I got to do Toy Story, Rock'n Roller Coaster, AND Tower of Terror with them! Which was awesome, because those are all the best things to do at the Studios. And we met some characters at the Animation building, which is always a fun time. I finally got to meet Genie, who is not an easy character to find.
And I have to go to movie night now, so I'll end this here. I could just save this and continue it later, but I figure posting this will get people off my back for a least a couple days. Maybe. Possibly. Just a little bit?
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
Oops
'Kay, so it's been almost a month. Oops. I might've meant to update this before that. But I got distracted. So this is me updating now before more people start yelling at me.
So Mom and Aunt Bonnie came, and we had a super-fantastic time. We did some really cool stuff that I'd never done before, like have dinner in Cinderella Castle or eat at my workplace (yeah, surprisingly I'd never gotten around to doing that). We also did things that Mom and Aunt Bonnie had never done before, like Toy Story Midway Mania. I soundly beat them both times we rode. Also, somehow I managed to get Aunt Bonnie on Everest with me. I don't she appreciated it very much by the time we actually got on the ride, but I was highly amused. We met some characters and had an absolute blast. By the end, though, we were exhausted. Or at least I was.
So I went back to work for another week of food running. I honestly don't remember much of those days off. I spent most of them sleeping, I think. Eh. Someone will remind me later if we did something.
The week after, though, was insane. I started server training, and it was uber-intense. I was doing well for my first three days, but then on my fourth day, the day on which we have our assessments, I totally bombed. It was awful. I was forgetting things, I had no sense of timing whatsoever. I - Oh, I got my ice maker working again! Woo-hoo! Anyway. Back to the week of horror. It was so bad that I wanted to quit. At the end of day four, it was decided that I would do another day of training and then see where we went from there. Thing is, my day five would be with Lauren, the scariest woman at the restaurant and definitely our toughest trainer. She tough because she wants us to do well, though, so I suppose it was a good thing. I made it through the day without crying (barely), and we came to the decision that I would start out serving on my own in a two-table section, rather than our usual three- and four-table sections. Plus, after a seven-day workweek, I had two days off to refresh myself. Luckily these are the same two days that Mel has off, so I got to spend two full days on a mini-vacation-type-thing with my roommate! We had so much stuff planned. We decided to go to Animal Kingdom, which we did, and had an amazing time. We got there and headed straight to Tusker House, my last restaurant on my list for Animal Kingdom, and ended up with a fantastic server from Leamington. Then we stopped by the DVC booth because Mel was interested in signing up for a presentation/open house, and she stood there and got sunburned on one side while I was chatted up by the cute cast member at the booth. We got on Kali River Rapids, which was super cool because I haven't been on that in months! Plus, we got, like, 10 character photos that day. We had a dinner reservation at Maya Grill at Coronado Springs, so we went there (food was okay, service was kinda terrible) and then went to Hollywood Studios to catch the late Fantasmic. Plus, I started pin trading a bit with some cheaper pins I'd bought, which was a lot of fun. The next day we had high tea booked at the Grand Floridian. So we headed to Animal Kingdom to get a few characters we'd missed that we knew would be there in the morning, and then went over to Magic Kingdom to hop the resort monorail. We had an amazing time there! The tea selection was insane, the sandwiches were delicious, and we had the biggest bowl of strawberries and fresh cream that I've ever seen in my life. Ros, be jealous. Then it was back to Magic Kingdom for more rides. Along the way, Mel got jealous of all the fun I was having pin trading, so we hit up the pin trading store in Frontierland to get her all decked out for pin trading. We totally became "those people." We had an absolute blast! So now we're kind of addicted to pin trading.
On Sunday I food ran, because we all decided it was a really stupid idea to start my serving on my own on Easter. Then on Monday I missed my first turn because we didn't have an assignor, so I jumped on the board. I miss assigning. But I still got two turns out of each of my two tables, so that was great. And I didn't even start to tear up at all. Yesterday was pretty good too. Last night Mel and I went to Downtown Disney to check out the pin trading store there, and saw the sign for the Kingdom Keepers III release. And the author was there signing books! But the line was cut off for the night. But he was going to be in Epcot the next day! So we bought the books and went to Epcot today. But Mel had to work, so she handed her book over to me, and I took them both to stand in line. I'd been reading mine, so the dust jacket was off of it, and he remarked on it when he was signing. I told him that the snake on the cover creeped me out (which is entirely true; it's icky). He was highly amused. And now I'm doing laundry.
So Mom and Aunt Bonnie came, and we had a super-fantastic time. We did some really cool stuff that I'd never done before, like have dinner in Cinderella Castle or eat at my workplace (yeah, surprisingly I'd never gotten around to doing that). We also did things that Mom and Aunt Bonnie had never done before, like Toy Story Midway Mania. I soundly beat them both times we rode. Also, somehow I managed to get Aunt Bonnie on Everest with me. I don't she appreciated it very much by the time we actually got on the ride, but I was highly amused. We met some characters and had an absolute blast. By the end, though, we were exhausted. Or at least I was.
So I went back to work for another week of food running. I honestly don't remember much of those days off. I spent most of them sleeping, I think. Eh. Someone will remind me later if we did something.
The week after, though, was insane. I started server training, and it was uber-intense. I was doing well for my first three days, but then on my fourth day, the day on which we have our assessments, I totally bombed. It was awful. I was forgetting things, I had no sense of timing whatsoever. I - Oh, I got my ice maker working again! Woo-hoo! Anyway. Back to the week of horror. It was so bad that I wanted to quit. At the end of day four, it was decided that I would do another day of training and then see where we went from there. Thing is, my day five would be with Lauren, the scariest woman at the restaurant and definitely our toughest trainer. She tough because she wants us to do well, though, so I suppose it was a good thing. I made it through the day without crying (barely), and we came to the decision that I would start out serving on my own in a two-table section, rather than our usual three- and four-table sections. Plus, after a seven-day workweek, I had two days off to refresh myself. Luckily these are the same two days that Mel has off, so I got to spend two full days on a mini-vacation-type-thing with my roommate! We had so much stuff planned. We decided to go to Animal Kingdom, which we did, and had an amazing time. We got there and headed straight to Tusker House, my last restaurant on my list for Animal Kingdom, and ended up with a fantastic server from Leamington. Then we stopped by the DVC booth because Mel was interested in signing up for a presentation/open house, and she stood there and got sunburned on one side while I was chatted up by the cute cast member at the booth. We got on Kali River Rapids, which was super cool because I haven't been on that in months! Plus, we got, like, 10 character photos that day. We had a dinner reservation at Maya Grill at Coronado Springs, so we went there (food was okay, service was kinda terrible) and then went to Hollywood Studios to catch the late Fantasmic. Plus, I started pin trading a bit with some cheaper pins I'd bought, which was a lot of fun. The next day we had high tea booked at the Grand Floridian. So we headed to Animal Kingdom to get a few characters we'd missed that we knew would be there in the morning, and then went over to Magic Kingdom to hop the resort monorail. We had an amazing time there! The tea selection was insane, the sandwiches were delicious, and we had the biggest bowl of strawberries and fresh cream that I've ever seen in my life. Ros, be jealous. Then it was back to Magic Kingdom for more rides. Along the way, Mel got jealous of all the fun I was having pin trading, so we hit up the pin trading store in Frontierland to get her all decked out for pin trading. We totally became "those people." We had an absolute blast! So now we're kind of addicted to pin trading.
On Sunday I food ran, because we all decided it was a really stupid idea to start my serving on my own on Easter. Then on Monday I missed my first turn because we didn't have an assignor, so I jumped on the board. I miss assigning. But I still got two turns out of each of my two tables, so that was great. And I didn't even start to tear up at all. Yesterday was pretty good too. Last night Mel and I went to Downtown Disney to check out the pin trading store there, and saw the sign for the Kingdom Keepers III release. And the author was there signing books! But the line was cut off for the night. But he was going to be in Epcot the next day! So we bought the books and went to Epcot today. But Mel had to work, so she handed her book over to me, and I took them both to stand in line. I'd been reading mine, so the dust jacket was off of it, and he remarked on it when he was signing. I told him that the snake on the cover creeped me out (which is entirely true; it's icky). He was highly amused. And now I'm doing laundry.
Thursday, March 11, 2010
Because Craig Demanded
So apparently people other than my family read this, and now they're getting on my case to update, so I will.
Um, lessee.... I honestly don't remember the rest of my Do Nothing Day, but I'm pretty sure I succeeded in staying away from the parks. Oh! Yeah, I did. I played Final Fantasy VII for the rest of the day. ... Shush. I had fun.
On that Wednesday was Lyndsay's sing-out, so I headed to work for that. I had booked Taryn and I for the Spirit of Aloha dinner show at the Polynesian that night, but then things came up and she ended up having to work. So while I was at the restaurant, I scrambled to find someone who was working an AM to go with me. Selina said she would come, so after hugging Lyndz I headed out to make sure the show wouldn't be cancelled for the night (it was really cold and rainy) and she was meeting me there. She got there, and thankfully the show was still running, so we headed out with everyone to the open air theatre in Luau Cove. The food was absolutely amazing! The appetizers were fresh pineapple, pineapple bread (which I haven't had since moving out of Toronto, so that was fantastic), and a salad with some kind of mango dressing. The entrees were equally as awesome, with rotisserie chicken, barbecue short ribs, Polynesian rice, and veggies (which we didn't touch). Dessert was a mousse cake thing in the shape of a pyramid with raspberry sauce on top to make it look like a volcano with lava. So cool! And the show was really, really awesome too. The first couple parts were a bit after-school special, introducing a weak plotline to serve as a purpose for the random singing and dancing. Whatever. Also between acts, the band would play Polynesian music to keep the theme going. Well, maybe "Polynesian" isn't the best word. Some of it was traditional-sounding stuff. And then there was the Hawaii Five-0, which I'm pretty sure was only identifiable to me and all the old people in the audience. The last part of it, though, was when they did all the traditional dancing, and that was uber-awesome. I mean, what's not to love about great music, awesome dancing, and shirtless men? ...My point exactly. I'd been talking about the fire dancer all night, because I knew there was one, and Selina was worried that they wouldn't perform that because of the rain. But they did. Yay! I was SO excited about that one, and it wasn't a let down at all! Eventually it came to an end, and we journeyed back home (for me, to get out of my extremely wet and cold pants).
Thursday I stayed home again and played video games after getting my groceries. However, my PS2 was being finicky and decided that it didn't want to read the Final Fantasy VII disc, so I had to switch to Final Fantasy VIII. Which I'm now almost done. Just the final battle sequence to go.
Another three days of work, which started to wear me down again. It was really quiet at home, too, because I was the only one in the apartment; Mel was with her family, Yukiko was in the Dominican, and Francesca was going to New York (which ended up being Puerto Rico because of the snow). Sunday, as everyone knows, was The Big Hockey Game. Things were tense (in a good way) in the restaurant all afternoon. We had constant updates from three different sources (including the chef and his blackberry), and when we won, the whole place went nuts. We actually had quite a few Canadians in the restaurant at the time, which was cool, and all the staff in the dining room burst into a rather boisterous rendition of 'O Canada' (led by Patrick). It was so much fun! Movie night was cancelled because of the closing ceremonies, but Ali and I still wanted to watch a movie, so she brought over a bottle of wine and we watched Star Wars. Kind of. We were both falling asleep by the time Obi-Wan died.
I'd been talking about getting up early and going to Property Control (old Disney stuff they're not using at resorts and stuff anymore) with Ali, but I'd told her that night that I wasn't feeling great and should probably get as much sleep as possible before work. Well, it's a good thing I did because I woke up Monday morning feeling REALLY awful. I was nauseous, my throat was raw, I'm pretty sure I had a fever, I had a headache, and every joint and muscle in my body was in a lot of pain. My first thought when I woke up was, "Oh my god, I was hit by a truck in my sleep!" Then I realized that this was a silly thing to think, because I live on the second floor. So then my thought was, "Oh my god, I have mono!" This, also, was a silly thought because there was no reason for me to be the Patient Zero, and I didn't know anyone else who had it. So, okay, I'm just really sick. I pretty much had to literally roll out of bed to make it to the phone to call in sick, and then spent the entire day sleeping on the couch. I spent Tuesday the same way, and was starting to feel much better until bedtime, when my ear started to really hurt. So, fine. Wednesday morning I got up and went to the clinic. Turns out I had a sinus infection (which I'd suspected by sometime on Tuesday), and was given, like, four medications to take. After getting some drugs in me, I headed over to work for Ali's sing-out, and then headed to Magic Kingdom for a bit with Ali, Heather, Lindz, and the Pitman brothers. I took a nap when we got home, and then went to Ali, Heather, and Lindz's throw-out. They're still around, so it doesn't really feel like they're gone yet (Heather doesn't even finish work until next week); I don't know what I'm going to do when they actually head out on their road trip home.
Thursday Taryn and I went to Kona Cafe at the Polynesian for lunch before she had to go to work. Our server was none too awesome, but whatever. The appetizer and dessert were both amazing, but the entree was actually kind of a let-down. So we've decided that we'll go again sometime, but we'll sit at the sushi bar, order the wing appetizer as an entree, and then just get dessert.
Another four days of work pass. There were good moments and bad moments, and they all end up blending together after a while. Especially working such long hours. On Sunday (I think) Mel actually came back to work after her cruise, so it was nice to see her again. And she came back home the other night. As much as I love my other roommates (kind of; some more than others), it's nice to not have to slow down and think about what I say before I say it so I don't have to repeat myself. Monday night was my six month mark, so Amy and I went out to T.G.I. Friday's (the others from our arrival group couldn't make it) after work. On Tuesday I got groceries and then did a whole lot of nothing. Mel came home and she told me all about her cruise and stuff. It was nice to have her home again.
So, it's Flower and Garden Festival time at EPCOT, which means that everywhere in the park are ridiculous topiary sculptures and tons upon tons of flowers. On Tuesday, I went around with my camera and took pictures of all of them. I met up with Carolane afterward at Magic Kingdom and we rode Splash Mountain (for the first time in months! It was so gorgeous outside!) before heading to Downtown Disney. We ended up at Portobello for dinner, which was really nice. And our server was cute, but that really has nothing to do with the price of peas in Persia. I had a really nice ravioli dish, and I made sure that it had veggies in it, since I know that I don't eat enough of them without Ros around to shove them down my throat or Mom to give me a disapproving look.
Today Taryn and I did a pre-Taryn-goes-to-work lunch again, this time at the Captain's Grille at the Yacht Club resort. Our server was weird, but the food made up for it. There was so much and it was all so filling! We ended up taking half our entrees away in takeout boxes so that we would have room for dessert (which was awesome). Then I hopped over quickly to All-Star Movies to make sure everything's all set for when Mom and Aunt Bonnie come on the weekend. And now I'm sitting here warming up after getting really wet out in the rain. And listening to my roommate complain to her mother on the phone. I have no idea what she's complaining about, but I can tell she's complaining, and I'm pretty sure some of it is about me because I caught the words 'computer,' 'couch,' and 'playstation.' Whatever.
Um, lessee.... I honestly don't remember the rest of my Do Nothing Day, but I'm pretty sure I succeeded in staying away from the parks. Oh! Yeah, I did. I played Final Fantasy VII for the rest of the day. ... Shush. I had fun.
On that Wednesday was Lyndsay's sing-out, so I headed to work for that. I had booked Taryn and I for the Spirit of Aloha dinner show at the Polynesian that night, but then things came up and she ended up having to work. So while I was at the restaurant, I scrambled to find someone who was working an AM to go with me. Selina said she would come, so after hugging Lyndz I headed out to make sure the show wouldn't be cancelled for the night (it was really cold and rainy) and she was meeting me there. She got there, and thankfully the show was still running, so we headed out with everyone to the open air theatre in Luau Cove. The food was absolutely amazing! The appetizers were fresh pineapple, pineapple bread (which I haven't had since moving out of Toronto, so that was fantastic), and a salad with some kind of mango dressing. The entrees were equally as awesome, with rotisserie chicken, barbecue short ribs, Polynesian rice, and veggies (which we didn't touch). Dessert was a mousse cake thing in the shape of a pyramid with raspberry sauce on top to make it look like a volcano with lava. So cool! And the show was really, really awesome too. The first couple parts were a bit after-school special, introducing a weak plotline to serve as a purpose for the random singing and dancing. Whatever. Also between acts, the band would play Polynesian music to keep the theme going. Well, maybe "Polynesian" isn't the best word. Some of it was traditional-sounding stuff. And then there was the Hawaii Five-0, which I'm pretty sure was only identifiable to me and all the old people in the audience. The last part of it, though, was when they did all the traditional dancing, and that was uber-awesome. I mean, what's not to love about great music, awesome dancing, and shirtless men? ...My point exactly. I'd been talking about the fire dancer all night, because I knew there was one, and Selina was worried that they wouldn't perform that because of the rain. But they did. Yay! I was SO excited about that one, and it wasn't a let down at all! Eventually it came to an end, and we journeyed back home (for me, to get out of my extremely wet and cold pants).
Thursday I stayed home again and played video games after getting my groceries. However, my PS2 was being finicky and decided that it didn't want to read the Final Fantasy VII disc, so I had to switch to Final Fantasy VIII. Which I'm now almost done. Just the final battle sequence to go.
Another three days of work, which started to wear me down again. It was really quiet at home, too, because I was the only one in the apartment; Mel was with her family, Yukiko was in the Dominican, and Francesca was going to New York (which ended up being Puerto Rico because of the snow). Sunday, as everyone knows, was The Big Hockey Game. Things were tense (in a good way) in the restaurant all afternoon. We had constant updates from three different sources (including the chef and his blackberry), and when we won, the whole place went nuts. We actually had quite a few Canadians in the restaurant at the time, which was cool, and all the staff in the dining room burst into a rather boisterous rendition of 'O Canada' (led by Patrick). It was so much fun! Movie night was cancelled because of the closing ceremonies, but Ali and I still wanted to watch a movie, so she brought over a bottle of wine and we watched Star Wars. Kind of. We were both falling asleep by the time Obi-Wan died.
I'd been talking about getting up early and going to Property Control (old Disney stuff they're not using at resorts and stuff anymore) with Ali, but I'd told her that night that I wasn't feeling great and should probably get as much sleep as possible before work. Well, it's a good thing I did because I woke up Monday morning feeling REALLY awful. I was nauseous, my throat was raw, I'm pretty sure I had a fever, I had a headache, and every joint and muscle in my body was in a lot of pain. My first thought when I woke up was, "Oh my god, I was hit by a truck in my sleep!" Then I realized that this was a silly thing to think, because I live on the second floor. So then my thought was, "Oh my god, I have mono!" This, also, was a silly thought because there was no reason for me to be the Patient Zero, and I didn't know anyone else who had it. So, okay, I'm just really sick. I pretty much had to literally roll out of bed to make it to the phone to call in sick, and then spent the entire day sleeping on the couch. I spent Tuesday the same way, and was starting to feel much better until bedtime, when my ear started to really hurt. So, fine. Wednesday morning I got up and went to the clinic. Turns out I had a sinus infection (which I'd suspected by sometime on Tuesday), and was given, like, four medications to take. After getting some drugs in me, I headed over to work for Ali's sing-out, and then headed to Magic Kingdom for a bit with Ali, Heather, Lindz, and the Pitman brothers. I took a nap when we got home, and then went to Ali, Heather, and Lindz's throw-out. They're still around, so it doesn't really feel like they're gone yet (Heather doesn't even finish work until next week); I don't know what I'm going to do when they actually head out on their road trip home.
Thursday Taryn and I went to Kona Cafe at the Polynesian for lunch before she had to go to work. Our server was none too awesome, but whatever. The appetizer and dessert were both amazing, but the entree was actually kind of a let-down. So we've decided that we'll go again sometime, but we'll sit at the sushi bar, order the wing appetizer as an entree, and then just get dessert.
Another four days of work pass. There were good moments and bad moments, and they all end up blending together after a while. Especially working such long hours. On Sunday (I think) Mel actually came back to work after her cruise, so it was nice to see her again. And she came back home the other night. As much as I love my other roommates (kind of; some more than others), it's nice to not have to slow down and think about what I say before I say it so I don't have to repeat myself. Monday night was my six month mark, so Amy and I went out to T.G.I. Friday's (the others from our arrival group couldn't make it) after work. On Tuesday I got groceries and then did a whole lot of nothing. Mel came home and she told me all about her cruise and stuff. It was nice to have her home again.
So, it's Flower and Garden Festival time at EPCOT, which means that everywhere in the park are ridiculous topiary sculptures and tons upon tons of flowers. On Tuesday, I went around with my camera and took pictures of all of them. I met up with Carolane afterward at Magic Kingdom and we rode Splash Mountain (for the first time in months! It was so gorgeous outside!) before heading to Downtown Disney. We ended up at Portobello for dinner, which was really nice. And our server was cute, but that really has nothing to do with the price of peas in Persia. I had a really nice ravioli dish, and I made sure that it had veggies in it, since I know that I don't eat enough of them without Ros around to shove them down my throat or Mom to give me a disapproving look.
Today Taryn and I did a pre-Taryn-goes-to-work lunch again, this time at the Captain's Grille at the Yacht Club resort. Our server was weird, but the food made up for it. There was so much and it was all so filling! We ended up taking half our entrees away in takeout boxes so that we would have room for dessert (which was awesome). Then I hopped over quickly to All-Star Movies to make sure everything's all set for when Mom and Aunt Bonnie come on the weekend. And now I'm sitting here warming up after getting really wet out in the rain. And listening to my roommate complain to her mother on the phone. I have no idea what she's complaining about, but I can tell she's complaining, and I'm pretty sure some of it is about me because I caught the words 'computer,' 'couch,' and 'playstation.' Whatever.
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
A Few Weeks Later...
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.
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.
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