As we're getting down to the wire.... well, nothing's really all that different. Except I have to focus more on getting a job back home. Currently the job search is not going particularly well, but we'll see what happens when I get back home and start pretty much plastering my CV around town. Like, seriously. Keep me away from glue mixtures and lampposts.
Anyway, so I went to the sing-out, and then... I have no idea what I did after. Or the next day. Apologies if I did something with someone's who's reading this and they remember it. Oh, somewhere in those days I went with Taryn, Ben, and Selina to Whispering Canyon Cafe at Wilderness Lodge. It was pretty good, but we had a lot of food really late, so I don't think I enjoyed it as much as I would have if it were a regular meal time and I wasn't going home to bed right after. Friday and Saturday I went to work (that might also have been when I went to Whispering Canyon - I'm really not sure offhand, and I'm too lazy to actually go get the notebook from my room to check the date). Sunday was the beginning of five days off! Woohoo! I did pretty much nothing, and it was GLORIOUS! Just because I could and I had the time to make it worth it, I PAINTED MY NAILS. Oh yeah, that's right. Rebel, right here. They were dark red, too. I played a lot of video games the first couple days, and Taryn and I did a couple more restaurants. -- Oh, and I just remembered that Thursday/Friday was the opening of Toy Story 3, so I went to the midnight showing of that, and it was awesome! Best of the three, in my opinion. -- On Sunday we went to Mexico, and it really wasn't that great. Definitely not somewhere I would go again. The food wasn't overly fantastic, and the service was kind of nonexistent. Monday morning, though, was breakfast at 1900 Park Fare, and it was reeeeeeally good. We met characters, and had ice cream! Yeah, that's right: they had a sundae bar at breakfast. I was moderately wired for a while. They also had 'Lobster Benedict,' which was like Eggs Benedict, except that the poached egg was served on half a biscuit and it was covered in a creamy lobster sauce instead of hollandaise sauce. Then we went home and Taryn went to bed and I played video games all day. She was supposed to come over later that day to play, too, but she slept through the whole day, apparently. Tuesday I don't remember for the most part, except that I texted Stef in the evening to see if she wanted to do something and we ended up going to Cirque du Soleil, which was SO AMAZING. I loved it! And we got a discount on tickets and were sitting so close to the stage that when the silks number was on and one of the performers swung out, the silk actually fluttered inches above my head!
Wednesday was Stef's birthday, so I met up with her and Jennifer at Magic Kingdom for some random fun in dresses and tiaras. We met Princess Tiana, who was rather sassy with Prince Naveen and it was highly amusing, and went for lunch at the Crystal Palace with Pooh and friends. We had a lot of fun with the characters there, too, especially Tigger. I've discovered that I'm just as addicted to the kids' macaroni and cheese as I was when I lived off of it on the cruise twelve years ago. Thursday was another relaxing day before heading back to work.
And work pretty much brings us to now. I have to work a PM tomorrow, and then I have my last two days off of my program. Which is really really weird to think about and I have a list of stuff I have to do. And sometime soon I should probably start packing. I put a couple sweaters away today, but I don't think that really counts. I'll probably be up earlier than I want to be in the morning, though, because we have an inspection tomorrow so something tells me I will be awake involuntarily. Stupid noisy housing and their stupid invasive inspections.
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
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!
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!
Monday, May 31, 2010
5 Weeks
...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.
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.
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.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
