Last Week

Okay, this is now my third time typing this update. My computer likes to randomly delete everything I typed, and the internet doesn't come with an undo button. Yay. I blame Vista. So the water park was a ton of fun. Originally we were going to do both parks, but then Rob was a pansy and wanted more than 6 hours of sleep, so we left in the afternoon and only did one park. We did the one that made the most sense for us here at The Commons: Typhoon Lagoon (because the Blizzard Beach bus doesn't come here). The day was gorgeous, and we had a blast. We started out on the group raft ride, which is slightly evil because they make you portage your own raft and those things are heavier than they look. Thank heaven you can roll them! After that we did the single-rider tube slides, and then did the body slides that are NOT Humunga Kowabunga. None of us wanted to do that one. So we did that stuff, and then headed over to the wave pool where we were jostled about and knocked over and had a blast doing so. When we got tired of that, we decided to try out Crush'n Gusher, which is a water slide roller coaster. ....No, I'm serious. Really. There are almost ninety degree drops, and it jets you uphill. There are 3-rider tubes for that, so we all got to ride together, which was really awesome. Then we did the lazy river, went back to Crush'n Gusher, and lounged on chairs for a while. We hit the wave pool one last time, and then it was time to head home.

I kinda wanted to head out for dinner, since my kitchen was gross as usual, so Carolane and I headed over to the Studios for some Sci-Fi Dine-In. We had some extra time before Fantasmic, so we did Star Tours because she'd never done it before. What was really funny was the older British guy in the queue next to us who was actually rather worried about the ride. Apparently his son didn't even want to come on. So I was reassuring him (since I've lost count of the number of times I've been on that ride ....Anybody got an estimate?), and he laughed a bit, saying it was a bit funny that the woman had to reassure the man about the ride. Clearly he wasn't around when I dragged Rob on Tower of Terror. So then we lined up for Fantasmic, which was as awesome as it always is. And then it was time to head home to go to work the next day.

That next day happened to be my stocker shift at the restaurant, which was awful because we were running out of EVERYTHING. I spent the whole night running in circles: cutlery, plates, bread, cutlery, napkins, repeat cycle. And then when dinner came around, add glasses in somewhere around the second cutlery run. I was exhausted after that. But then on Sunday I was greeter, which was awesome (most of what I do is tell people that we're fully booked for the next two weeks) except when the tablet shut down and I had to use the computer in the often crowded lobby. But that was okay, and we eventually got the tablet working again so I could go back outside. Sunday night was movie night, so a bunch of us met up over at Dan's apartment to see what Craig had in store for us (it was his pick, and he was keeping it a secret). We sat in the living room at rocked out to A Very Brady Sequel. ...Yeah, he chose The Brady Bunch. Not even kidding. But it was a lot of fun, because we were all at least familiar with the Brady Bunch, so it's not like anybody didn't know what was going on (well, as much as anyone knew what was going on in the 70s).

Monday Rob and I started on popcorn cart, which was a blast. Craig trained us, and we were good and only sang The Brady Bunch once. Mostly we stood in front of the cart, talking to guests, and then just going behind the cart when someone was actually ordering something. Anyway, that was a lot of fun, and I was wearing pins, so a lot of people stopped to trade with me (totally don't get pin trading, because I'd only ever buy the pins I wanted, but whatever). Monday night is the party night around here, so I finally headed over to my first Games Night at Craig's place (I'd fallen asleep before the previous two), and we played Apples to Apples. It's a game where someone gives out two adjectives and you have cards with random stuff on them, and you give them a card based on those adjectives, and then they pick their favourite. It's hard to explain without actually having the game infront of you.

Tuesday and Wednesday were more training days on popcorn, PM cash with Peever and stocker with Craig again. Not much fascinating happened, except Tuesday night right after the fireworks when I had an interaction that went pretty much like this:
Kid: Is this Australia?
Peever: No, this is Canada.
Kid (who has a cast, by the way): Do you have a permanent marker here?
Peever: I think so... *starts looking*
Kid (turning to me): Can you write my name on my cast in French?
Me: ...Well, I can if you want, but it's going to be the same as in English.
Kid's Mom: Oh, really? His name is Alex.
Me: We could do 'Alexandre,' but the only difference is the 're' instead of 'er'.
Kid: No thanks, that sounds like a girl name.

Wednesday night I attended my first Throw Out. This is when the people who are leaving make speeches and give away ("throw out") the stuff they've amassed over the year that they don't want to bring home with them. It was kind of boring for me, since I barely knew the people who left, but it was still interesting to see. Then we headed over to DeAnna's to watch a movie. ...We watched Stardust until almost 3 in the morning. It was a really awesome movie, though, and I think I may have to acquire it at some point.

Yesterday was the most fun I've had since I got here. Rachel, Rob, and I headed to the Magic Kingdom with Alicia, who'd never done Magic Kingdom before. So we jumped on the boat, headed through the gate, and into the massive throngs of people. It was actually Walt Disney World's birthday, so we all grabbed the 'Happy Birthday' buttons at Town Hall and had them write 'Walt Disney World' in the space. The reactions from cast members all day were varied, but amusing. We walked the whole park, and did rides in each of the lands. We didn't do too much in Fantasyland, though, because the lines are waaaay too long for that (and we caught the 1:10 bus over, so we had less than 6 hours before the park closed for the Halloween party). We managed to do small world, though. Yippee. I think that ride almost scares me as much as Dinosaur or Mission: Space.

I had tickets for Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween party with Ali (we were supposed to go with Heather and her parents, too, but Ali mixed up the days so it was just the two of us), which brings us to an interesting story in itself: my costume. I was going to go to Wal-Mart the other day and buy a costume, but when I got to the store I just couldn't bring myself to do it. The costumes weren't great, and I had no ideas as to how I could modify any of them to make anything good, so I went without. Then yesterday morning I decided that it actually really bothered me that I didn't have a costume, and I only had 2 hours before I was meeting everyone to head out, so I didn't have time to go to the store, so I just dug through my closet. I had my purple dress from my last cast party at York, and my pink bathrobe tie, so I started to put together a Megara costume (Hercules). But I needed another sash. Then Sayaka came home, so I asked her if she had anything (turned out she was going to Not So Scary that night, too) and she said she didn't, but she rooted around our closet for a while and found a pink curtain that she and the person who lived here before me used to have up between the bedroom and the sink area, so that was perfect. I packed all that up in my bag along with all the safety pins I owned and headed out the door. THEN (oh yeah, there's more to the NSS drama), throughout the day I was getting text messages from Ali, who was working an AM shift. First was that she was getting force-extended because they were short-staffed, so she wouldn't be able to come. So then we were scrambling to find someone to take her ticket so that a) I wasn't going alone, and b) I wouldn't have to leave Magic Kingdom to get the tickets from her at EPCOT. Then in the middle of her scrambling, she gets word that she'll be able to get off at 9:30, so she can come, she'll just be late. After that, when I'm prepared to leave Magic Kingdom at 6:30 to get my ticket from her, so I can get some pictures of characters and stuff while waiting for her, I get a text saying she's getting off earlier than she thought... well, what does that mean? Turns out, the managers did everything they could, and she was able to leave by 6:30, so she just had to drive home and change before coming over. So I ducked into a washroom and got Rachel to help me with pinning my costume, and then said good-bye to the group as I waited for Ali to arrive.

Can I just say that I love being here for holidays? Coolest celebrations ever! Turns out that Ali's just as camera-happy as I am, so neither of us minded stopping every few feet for a picture of something else. So first we went around the Partners statue, taking pictures of all the special Halloween statues they stuck in the gardens, and then took spots in front of the castle for the Villains Mix and Mingle show. It was pretty cool, especially because it featured Maleficent. Anything that has Maleficent gets automatic cool points. However, seeing Judge Frollo do hiphop kind of broke my brain. Members of the fourteenth century judicial system should not do hiphop. Ever. It just isn't right. So the villains came out after the show for pictures, which was really cool because some of them you don't normally see in the park at all. We got pictures with Maleficent, Frollo, Cruella DeVil, and the Wicked Queen. We skipped Jafar because neither of us really cared, and we also skipped Captain Hook and the Queen of Hearts because you can find them in the park from time to time. After that we took some time to trick-or-treat around the park and did the Haunted Mansion before heading back to Main Street to get a place for the special HalloWishes fireworks. I ended up buying the soundtrack at the end of the night. Then we did some more trick-or-treating on our way to a parade spot, which we then defended with our lives. ...Kidding. Actually our area wasn't too busy. And the Headless Horseman rode through the streets to Flight of the Valkyries!!!!! I was uber-uber-excited for this. Anyone who knew me when I was tiny knows how much I loved that cartoon. I knew pictures of him would turn out as a blur, so I got video of it, and I'll just screen capture later. Then the parade began (10 minutes later. They do the ride fairly early). It was pretty cool. The villains float (y'know, the one that's been around for a long time with Chernabog looking like the top of a particularly gothic snowglobe) was in it, along with a few special floats. And the groundskeeper from the Haunted Mansion walks in the parade with his puppy! I love the puppy! My pictures didn't turn out too fabulous, but they're better than they could've been. After the parade we finished up our trick-or-treating, did some shopping, and then hit the exit after the mass of people had gone and drove home.

That brings me to now, as I sit here at my computer, listening to Puccini's Turandot because I've already finished listening to my Not So Scary soundtrack.

PS. You don't want to know how many times this deleted everything on me while I was typing it. But I've learned from my extreme frustration and wanting to throw my computer at the hardest possible surface. Now I copy the whole thing after every few sentences, so that I can just paste it and keep going when that happens.