Weeks...15, 16, AND 17

Soooooooo yeah...I'm just a little behind on blogging...Rather than a blow-by-blow, this blog will be mostly a pictorial highlight reel. You guys really don't care what I had for lunch three Thursdays ago anyway, right? Of course right.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOkay then!

CP Castle Picture in costume!!! Woo!!! I'm in the back and you can't really see me...woo...

The two. The proud. The Cast Costuming CPs.

And this happened. I got to wear the lovely green choir robe and sing a ton of high A's and B's as well as the Hallelujah chorus with a full orchestra and celebrity narrator (Beau Bridges...yeah, I don't know either :P) on Main St. USA with an awful cough. And I did it. And it was amazing. I've gotten to perform in some really, really awesome places, and this one gave me the chills and the tears just like the others. It's moments like these where I just go, "Wow. This is actually my life. I am doing this right now. Wow. I have a really crazy amazing life." And somehow, it makes all the difficulties and stresses that I've been going through just disappear for a little while and make me incredibly thankful that I'm alive.

In other news, before I get all sappy, this is what I see when I come into work every day. The mannequin's name is Seth, btw. Right now he's being "Safety Santa" though.

We had a special little holiday cast thingy where we got to go into Lincoln Theatre, eat cookies (well, other people did :P), watch old Disney cartoons, and hang out with Goofy! This is me and my lead, Nikki :)

Other other stuff! We had our End-of-Program Celebration!

Me with the Disneyland Ambassadors and Vice President!!!!

Me and my buddy Goofy celebrating graduating from the program with jazz hands!

Me and my ladies ^_^

Our table!

The bosses!

Gettin' our groove on.

Giant group hug/sing-along to Don't Stop Believin'. Of course.

Other notable things that were not immortalized via photograph included another character look-alike audition which ended the same as the others - being booted in the first round. But, whatever. There are always more. Plus, I got to hang out with some very, very lovely people at that audition :)

I've also been able to see a few New Mexico friends, either ones who were in town visiting or who used to live in New Mexico and now live here. It has been wonderful to see them and make references to New Mexican things and not receive a blank stare! :P

Work is going well, and I think I've decided to transfer over to Entertainment Costuming if I don't land any upcoming auditions. I just want to get as close to Entertainment as I can get! People say the costuming over there is crazy and hectic, but honestly, I feel like I would probably prefer that to what I'm doing now. Not that I don't like where I am now, it's just...there's a lot of standing around, and I like to be doing things and feeling productive and useful. There are plenty of times in my current position where I feel useful, but still, something a little more fast-paced would be nice.

Also, today, we signed the last of the leasing paperwork and start moving into our new apartment on Tuesday!!! :O

It's so crazy to think that this program is almost over. We have 2 weeks left. 2 weeks. Part of me feels like I just got here. But then, I look back at everything we've done, everything I've accomplished personally, how confident I am now at the Guest Service counter at work, and all the ways I've changed and grown over the past 4 months, and I realize this truly has been an adventure. I'm not ready for all of it to end just yet. It feels like I just started getting to know people, and now I have to say goodbye to a lot of them, including two of my roommates. We've been through so much together that it just feels weird that they're not staying on with the rest of us. But, just as I'm not ready to let go yet, it's not quite time to let go. We still have two weeks. We still have Christmas and New Year's. And I absolutely want to make the most out of this time we have left.

Now, go forth and be excellent to each other!

Week 14

Sick again! Time to blog :P

What happened last week anyway?....

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Sorry, I'm having fun with dots. That's about my mental state right now.

So, Monday we had our Regional Rehearsal for Candlelight Choir, which means, IT'S ALMOST TIME!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And you will get updates about the performance on my next post :D So, anyway, this was the rehearsal where we finally got to practice with our actual conductor, and a few of the outside non-Disney choirs we'll be singing with. It's a mix of high school and college choirs, one of which happens to be one of my roommates' school! Fun! Also, our director is kind of awesome. She's this stout little soft-spoken mezzo (she had a mic on), but she's hilarious while totally getting down to business and making our choir sound fabulous. She really has a talent for translating abstract vocal technique and tone into visual cues that instantly make a huge difference in the sound quality of the choir as a whole. She also had us really start thinking about the lyrics we're singing and have that come across in our voices - WHAT A CONCEPT!!! :O But, yeah, it really did make a difference, and we're going to sound amazing if all that work we did last rehearsal sticks!

Tuesday...nothing exciting happened that I can recall...I went grocery shopping...

Wednesday was apartment hunt day! I think we prettymuch knew the one we were going to settle on when we first got to the first place we visited. The other places were visted just to confirm that first place basically. And we've decided on the place we're going to live next year! And it's gorgeous and I'm soooooo excited to move in ^_^ We put down our security deposit tomorrow!!! Ahhh!!! I feel so adult!!! It's a really nice neighborhood, it feels safe, there's lots of storage space, there's a pool, a gym, and grills, and GUYS I'M GETTING AN APARTMENT WHAT IS HAPPENING I'M NOT OLD ENOUGH FOR THIS HOW DO YOU ADULT AM I SERIOUSLY 23 YEARS OLD ARE YOU SURE AAAHHHHH!!!!!!!!!

Anywho, moving on!

After that, to process things, I went to Emily's and we had pizza WITH GREEN CHILE THAT I FOUND AT SPROUTS on it. We were both very excited. So excited that we kind of forgot that the door on Emily's oven is broken. So, we cooked the top of the pizza via the broiler, and the bottom of the crust of the stove. Hooray for ingenuity! Then, we defied adulthood by watching Barbie: Life in the Dreamhouse. So there.

Thursday was Thanksgiving and I worked from 1:30-10. Wheeeeee. As you can imagine, it was weird. Not only was it my first Thanksgiving away from home/my family, I didn't even get to go have Thanksgiving dinner with my extended family or my roommate's family because I was working. I still got to have the quintessential foods - turkey, mashed potatoes, and gluten-free stuffing that I made at the potluck we had at work. It was really nice of them to have that for those of us who had to work that day. It still felt rather lonely though, of course. But, you know, it made me realize that I am extremely thankful that I'm out here doing this thing. I have a job at Disneyland. I can go to DISNEYLAND whenever I want. Plus, I have a super awesome family back home that completely supports my crazy ambitions to remain at Disneyland. Plus, they sent me pictures so I'd feel included, and they totally brightened my Thanksgiving :)

It wouldn't be complete without a shot of the kids' table!

And I sent them this...

Friday was LOOOOOOONG, but awesome, because SAMANTHAAAAA WAS HEEEERE!!!!!!!!!!!!

(aaaaand this is where the picture would go if it were ready to upload. Sadly, it is not, so you'll have to use your imagination :P )

I didn't get to spend the entire day with them, sadly, but I was able to get them into the park, which I am very very happy about :) We got there shortly after opening, so we were able to sneak onto a few awesome rides (Big Thunder Mountain, Pirates of the Caribbean, Haunted Mansion, Winnie the Pooh, Storybook Land, and Pixie Hollow) before the lines got absolutely horrendous! Then, I went backstage and worked for 8 hours while they all played in the park, and I joined up with them in time to watch the fireworks. Not gonna lie, it still gave me chills. You know, there's nothing quite like going to Disneyland with a little kid who's never been there before. EVERYTHING is super magical. They totally play along with you when you tell them you're shrinking down to pixie size, or you're about to go back in time and fight pirates. Also, having a 6-year-old hold your hand as you lead them through Disneyland and getting to watch their eyes light up when they meet their favorite characters, "But only if you go with me and talk to them first!!" has a very distinct kind of magic to it.

Afterward, we were tired and hungry, so we ate a quintessentially Californian meal of In-N-Out, and Samantha bestowed me with the most awesome thank-you gift of roasted green chile, Picasso's Soiree tea from the Tearoom, and a mug in the shape of the TARDIS!

Saturday, work happened. Although, part of this day involved getting paid to crumple green paper and stick bits of it to cardboard to make a Christmas tree for our door display! Sometimes, I really, really love you, Disney.

Sunday, work happened. And rain also happened. When rain happens, everyone who works outside (i.e. the majority of people who work at Disneyland) make a mad dash for the second floor of costuming where the coats and rain gear are kept. And I got to be on the guest service counter up there. All I can say is, O______O  and thank goodness rotations only last about 2 hours each. And during one of my least favorite rotations (bins...be thankful blogs don't come with smell-o-vision...) I got to go to a cast expo on the new changes coming to Fantasmic! Basically, we found out how the new fast passes and dining/viewing packages are going to work, were familiarized with new guest control routes, and sampled corn chowder and chocolate...or, just chocolate in my case :P

 

We also got to take this awesome photo. And we got paid to do this. Once again, I love you, Disney.

That's all for now! Keep being splendid! 

Week 13

Greetings, friendships! I hope this post finds you all well! It's crazy to think that this program is already starting to wind down and that we're having to figure out pre-departure stuff already :c But, that won't stop us from having buckets of fun while we're still here! So, here's a week-in-the-life from last week. And this one actually has pictures! :P Enjoy!

Monday:
Not a whole ton happened. It was a pretty chill day. In the evening, I had candlelight choir rehearsal, and this one had both the resort and studios choir members, and we all got to sing in a big, echo-y church which was super fun! We also ran through the entire program without stopping, and we all dispersed ourselves throughout the auditorium and stood by people from different sections. It was cool to be able to hear the other parts more distinctly. Plus, we also got...

MERCHANDISE!!!!!! This sweatshirt is ridiculously comfy.

Da sleeve.

We even get our own special Candlelight name tags! With a happy little Olaf! :D

Tuesday:
This day started off way neato because we got to do a special backstage tour of the TOWER OF TERROR!!!!!!!!!

TERROR!!!!! (Except for Marissa because this is her favorite attraction :P )

Take'n a photo where guests aren't allowed to go. Thug lyfe.

You're supposed to get the feeling that the hotel was just suddenly abandoned after the five passengers on the freight elevator mysteriously disappeared during a thunderstorm in 1930~mahumuna...(I forget the specific year it's supposed to be...oops...) There are also a ton of objects in there that either reference certain Twilight Zone episodes, or are THE ACTUAL PROPS FROM CERTAIN EPISODES!!!!

Walk'n through the boiler room on the way to...the elevator...

In the queue! SO CLOSE.

The first time, we rode it in full show with the lights and narration and everything. Clearly, some people were not ready for the pre-ride photo...

The SECOND time we rode it, we rode with no show, which means we did the drop entirely in the dark with no narration, so we had no idea when the drop was going to happen. And it was terrifying and fantastic. This picture was taken at the top of the ride. I was being blinded by the sunlight outside.

After all that awesomeness, I got coffee and derped around Downtown Disney by myself for a couple hours before my shift. Pretty great day overall!

Wednesday:

This was another relatively uneventful day, but in the middle of it, we had our housing pre-departure meeting. I seriously can't believe there's only 6 more weeks left of this thing! Now, me, three of my roommates, and a lot of the friends I've made here are planning on staying on after the program, so at least for us, our Disney adventure doesn't end so soon. But for my roommate, Brittany, and so many others in the program, it's all almost over, so our time with them is almost over too. It's really bittersweet because I'm so excited to get my own apartment and really get established out here and in Disney and make more memories with the ones who are staying, and I know that the ones who aren't are still going on to do amazing things! (Like get married! Yay Brittany!) But I also know that the college program is definitely its own unique dynamic and experience. We're all about to set out on different paths soon, but I'm going to try and make the most out of the time we have together on this particular path as long as we can :) 

Thursday:

Also a very neato day! Very different kind of neato, but nonetheless neato. For our class this week, we got to go help out at the Orange County Food Bank and pack food boxes for the elderly. It was actually tons of fun, as everybody had great energy and were all working really hard to help each other out. I essentially stacked boxes of milk, two by two, into food boxes at a very rapid pace for two hours...aaaaand I kinda really screwed up the right side of my back and my left hamstring from bending and twisting improperly...oops...but after a bunch of deep-tissue stretching and some stinky-but-effective salonpas patches, it's all better now :P

We were sort of having a contest with the Tuesday class to see which class could package the most boxes. They were able to fill around 1,100 boxes. We managed to fill over 1,600 - which also happens to be the college program record. Booyah. *smug face*

After a quick lunch at home, my roomies and I headed to the park to get some special roomie pictures in front of the iconic landmarks in Disneyland.

We still had some time to kill before I went into work, so we hung around Tomorrowland for a bit. We went on Star Tours, which is amazing and I was totally geeking out on it and really really want to ride it more. Apparently, you can visit all kinds of places in the Star Wars universe on that ride - ours went pod-racing on Tatooine. Next, we went over to the place that sells Baymax cups so Marissa and Brittany could get them. Right next to that was a Jedi training show where a bunch of little kids got to go up and learn how to use a lightsaber, but, the middle of the show was interrupted by THE DARK SIDE!!!!! However, Darth Vader and Darth Maul were eventually defeated by the newly-acquired lightsaber skills of the young padawans and their surprisingly adept grasp of the Force. It was entirely adorable. 

We also met Baymax and Hiro!

After that, I was super-closer at work, so I stayed there until 1:10 am. FUN TIMES. It was pretty dang boring for most of the shift. The most exciting part was going on a hanger run (retrieving all the hangers from the hanger-stands around the building) with only one spare hanger rack o__o By far, my most boring rotation was greeter - standing at the entrance of the costuming building and saying "hi" to everybody who comes in, being generally helpful if they need it, and telling people, "Excuse me, that's an emergency exit only. Please exit through checkout at the end of the building :D *twitch twitch*" I saw 7 people in two hours. I counted. Although one guy did try and give me an impromptu juggling lesson, which was pretty cool.   

Friday:

I worked and was super sore from the day before. 

Saturday:

Still super sore, this is where I attempted the deep-tissue work. I didn't have a tennis ball though, so I rolled my muscles over one of my sunflower seed butter jars :P 

I was a little bit desperate to have my muscles work properly this day, because I had my first dance audition. Ever. Not just Disney dance audition - dance audition, period.

I auditioned for the Pixar Play Parade, and, though I got cut in the first round, it was definitely a good experience. We waited in line for FOREVER, but I did get to go in with the first group, which was nice. I met some pretty cool people in line too. That's one thing that I'm actually really liking about going to all these auditions. It's really interesting to hear people's stories and be silly and get your mind off how nervous you are before the audition. It's also encouraging when you can talk to each other about your other audition experiences, and see that it's totally okay if you go to a million of them before actually landing a job. 

Closer to the audition time, it was starting to get darker outside, and it got pretty cold (like, in the 60's cold, but still :P). So, my muscles were now stiff in addition to still being strained! Perfect for a dance audition! When we finally got in there, we launched right into learning an across-the-floor combination. I was a little lost at first, because I couldn't see the instructor that well and they were using terminology that I am not familiar with, having mostly studied ballet with just smatterings of jazz and contemporary here and there. I mostly got it down, but then I freaked out because the casting directors were literally right in front of me while we were learning it. Also, part of the combination involved a double pirouette on the left side - my less-good and injured side, of course. As soon as I felt like I barely almost had a grasp of the combination, it was time to go across the floor two by two for the casting directors. I panicked, and all my technique went out the window, and I probably had my concentrating face on rather than a smile. I got cut. But it was okay. Now I know what to expect and what I can do better to prepare for the next one! And, I really did have fun doing it. 

After that, I came home, ate dinner, changed clothes, then met Brittany, Marissa, and her friend Jess at the park to go to the Mad T Party. It's basically a cover band and a DJ dressed like Alice in Wonderland characters, but more in the Tim Burton style. Also, there's alcohol, and I got my first mai-tai...in a light-up martini glass!

Wooo! Shiny!

Squoosh roomie selfie! (With Ben's nose photobombing)

They're getting rid of this show soon, and it was actually that particular Alice's last night (as I was informed by our friend Ben who's a regular there). We jammed it up and danced around rather goofily for a bit. The band looked like they were having tons of fun, and they were really entertaining to watch. It was a good time, and pretty chill for my first club-esque experience. After that, we all meandered around the parks, got some free chocolate samples at the Ghiradelli store, watched the tail end of the fireworks from the esplanade, fought our way to Adventuerland like salmon swimming upstream through the massive Saturday night crowd, then rode the Jingle Cruise as a hilariously punny way to end the evening. 

And there you have it! Stay tuned for...*drumroll*...WEEK 14!!!!!   

Weeks 11 and 12 (Such a creative title...)

Hello again! No, I have not dropped off the face of the planet, I'm just very behind on updating this thing. Allow me to extend my apologies to those of you who have been waiting there at your screens with baited breath, no sleep, and a box of saltine crackers for the past two weeks in hopes that you may learn of my most recent exploits.

To the rest of you, allow me to extend a blog.

One thing of note that I neglected to mention last blog happened on that Saturday night when my roommates and I went to hang out in the park. We were there to see one of the very last showings of the fireworks show released for the 50th anniversary of the park's opening. Since next year is the 60th anniversary, and right now is the holiday season with a special holiday fireworks show, the 50th anniversary show was officially retired after it graced the skies over the Sleeping Beauty castle on November 2nd. It was really beautiful, and I'm so glad I was able to experience it before it went away for good. It began with a speech by Julie Andrews, commemorating Walt's accomplishment. The show consisted of a mini fireworks display themed by each land and featuring the music from the most iconic rides. My favorite part was Pirates of the Caribbean, with fireworks imitating cannon-fire. Also, after careful consideration and hours and hours of deliberation (not really) I'm mostly pretty-ish sure that Pirates is my favorite attraction. Anyway, Julie Andrews capped the show, but then turned it over to a recording of Walt's speech at the park opening and a fabulous flurry of fireworks (also, alliteration). Super magical time. Those fireworks will always give me feels.

The next day, Sunday, I would have completely forgotten about daylight savings time unless one of my roommates had reminded me. Still, despite the extra hour of sleep, I felt really out of it the entire day at work, and I don't really know why. That week in general was just kind of weird...

Monday, I did actually make it out to Burbank to go to a makeup rehearsal! And it was far. Terribly far. I allowed myself over 45 minutes more drive time than google maps told me the drive would be, and I was still about 45 minutes late to the rehearsal, because L.A. TRAFFIC. *twitch twitch* Not to mention I had to pee really badly about half the way there. However, in spite of the unpleasant drive, it was actually a pretty nice rehearsal. The gym we sang in sounded so much better than the closet of a rehearsal hall we rehearse in at the resort. There were also fewer people, so we could focus more on artistry and blending. Also, the drive back was really nice as there was very little traffic, and I made it back in less than half the time it took me to get there.

On Tuesday, Emily and I had a whim to go to the beach, but first, we were hungry. We had fantastic plans for making scrambled eggs, nitrite-free bacon, and gf pumpkin pancakes with pumpkin butter, and then driving out to watch the sunset on the beach. The food was amazing. But, about 5-10 minutes after we finished eating, we began to feel not-so-amazing. Now, stomach aches are pretty normal for us, so we decided to brush it off and start driving anyway and hopefully catch the sunset. But, as Emily drove and I curled up into a little ball in the seat next to her, we voiced to each other that we weren't feeling that great, and maybe the beach wasn't such a great idea. After driving around for a while to find a gas station (because Emily needed gas anyway), we went back to her house and curled up on the front lawn with some ginger tea and vented to one another about the various stresses in our lives and how that may possibly be why our stomachs were acting so evil for seemingly no good reason. It was actually pretty therapeutic, even if it didn't make our stomachs feel much better.

Wednesday, my stomach refused to let me eat anything without getting extremely angry, and I had to go to work with it behaving that way, which wasn't great.

Thursday, we had a scavenger hunt in the parks, which was very frantic, very confusing, and very fun. My stomach was doing okay-ish in the morning, but got worse in the afternoon/evening as I ate more stuff. But choir was really, really great that night, as we had a different conductor lead and fix everybody's vowels :D

Friday was my first fittings shift! It was pretty short - only about 4 1/2 hours. Basically, it consisted of receiving packages of people's orders of clothing and making sure everything was correct - the right number of shirts and pants, the right sizes, the right fabric, and the right inseam length. If there was anything wrong with the order, it would be bound in various corresponding colors of tape and put on the return pile. It wasn't terribly exciting, but it did make the time go by. We also got to fit some custodial trainees so that their costumes could be ordered, which was a little bit more interesting, as we were interacting with garments on actual people.

My stomach wasn't doing too badly that day, since all I had eaten was a rice cracker with some sunflower seed butter on it, a couple cheese sticks, and a bit of trail mix. Even then it was a bit cranky. But, after my shift was over, I got to go over to Emily's once again, and we drove to Fullerton to watch the faculty dance concert at her school! It was pretty awesome. I was extremely impressed with the choreography and the level of artistry that these students were able to portray. I've watched quite a few dance concerts, particularly from my days as a dance minor at UNM, but I'd never enjoyed one as much as this one. Maybe it's because UNM tried to be overly artsy and abstract or something and this one's subjects were easier to interpret, but in any case, I always feel like it's much more enjoyable to watch a performance, or anything really, with a good friend who's on the same page as you.

Saturday, my stomach felt particularly awful, and I had to work again. didn't eat lunch, and just packed rice with seaweed and ginger in hopes that it would not make my stomach angry. No such luck, unfortunately. But, even though I felt awful, I got to see Big Hero 6 with a couple of my coworkers after we got off our shift, and established some new friends. Oh! And I also, uh, set foot in a bar for the first time! We didn't get anything to drink though because by the time we actually got in there, we wouldn't have had enough time to get back to the theater in time for the movie. Oh well.

Sunday, I worked, and felt pretty darn awful once again, although this time I was extremely tired on top of everything else because I had been out really late the night before to go watch Big Hero 6. It was worth it, though. Very cute story and well-done movie, even if the emotional transformation of the main character was a bit contrived. It's a kid's movie, so I'll cut it some slack. Also, Baymax is adorable.

Monday, I had the delightful opportunity of going to Disneyland with an old friend from New Mexico! He was in town for an engineering conference, but he and a friend of his ditched the day's activities to come hang out with me instead :D It was a crazy fun time of catching up and showing them some favorite attractions, and going on others none of us had been on, including Radiator Springs Racers (Daaahhh!!! Incredible!!!), and Splash Mountain...in November...after dark...not one of our better ideas. But, right after Splash, I dashed home, snarfed down some frozen veggies (after not eating anything except my customary rice cake, because stomach, again) and went to ballet after a two-week absence. It went fairly well, but I definitely wasn't at my best, for obvious reasons.

Tuesday, stomach continued its evil rampage, though not quite as evil, but still not terribly accepting of foreign matter. But, I actually had a great time during the second half of my shift, because I got to be upstairs helping with fittings for the new Main Street costumes! They are adorable, look more period, and have happier colors (the skirt is my favorite! So beautiful and twirly!!!). I can't tell any more than that because they won't be released until mid-December. It's pretty exciting to have inside knowledge like this, though! Perks of working backstage!

Holy cow this is a long entry...bear with me :P

Wednesday was the day I had been looking forward to with apprehension and excitement - my vocal audition for Belle in Hong Kong Disneyland. The morning was spend trying to frantically curl my hair, then frantically print a really crappy head shot at CVS and wrestling with their computer system. Then, I drove out to North Hollywood to a slightly sketchy part of town where the little studio was located. I arrived with quite a bit of time to spare...about an hour and a half before sign-in was even supposed to start, and I was the fifth person in line. The other maybe fifty people didn't even really start showing up until about half an hour before time. But, at least I got it over with quickly and got to talk to some pretty cool people in line. It was all over within about 15 minutes after signing in. We all waited in one big room until they called the first group (myself included) to stand outside another room where we would go in one by one and sing our best 16-bar preparation. I wasn't really nervous until we were standing outside, but I got increasingly more nervous from that point on. By the time it was my turn to introduce my piece and sing, I was shaking. I got so nervous that I forgot to breathe or support, which are kind of important when you're singing, and I cracked on a note I never crack on, and after that, it was over. I saw the casting director look down and make a note, and I ceased being in character in the moment, and just freaked out more. I didn't drive the tempo as much as I needed to, so I needed to take an extra breath in the middle of a phrase. She looked down again. I hit my last note and I was running out of breath again, so I did my cool crescendo, but then it died to an unintended decrescendo, and it probably showed on my face that I was not happy with it. She said, "Thank you, that's all we need today," and I thanked her and left. I wouldn't have been quite so frustrated had I still not gotten the part, but had known I did the best I could do. But I didn't. I know I can do better than that, and that was the frustrating part. But hey, every failure is a learning experience, right? So, at least now I know what I can do better next time.

Wednesday evening was pretty nice, though. My engineer friend was still in town, and it was his birthday. The parks were closing early that night, but I got over there just in time to snag a spot with him right behind the Partners statue and watch the holiday fireworks. We definitely got the feels. I think it was really what I needed after that very long day.

Thursday was uneventful - we just talked about environmentality in class, I worked, and then went straight to choir.

Friday was also uneventful as my stomach was better, but still pretty cranky, and I ran some errands and read more books.

Saturday was another audition, this time a character look-alike for Fantasmic! - a nighttime show in Disneyland. I was feeling really pumped about this one, confident that I could at least maybe get a callback . I had been trying to get my shift covered for that day for the past couple weeks, but kept having issues with scheduling, so I ended up not being able to get it covered. But everybody was still encouraging me to go to this audition. So, I called out of work, something I have never done unless I literally could not move. Not super happy about that, but I hoped it'd be worth it. I arrived super early once again, but this time there were a LOT more people. I was number 105 in line this time. I had a great time in line with the people I met, and I was actually feeling way more pumped than nervous. But, again, I didn't make it past the first cattle-call where they line you up, evaluate your smile, and then pick maybe 2 people out of your line. By then, I was feeling pretty darn frustrated. I didn't even get a chance to show them what I can do, and I was rejected based on my looks. Of course, I have no idea which roles they were even casting for, and it may have been something as simple as being too tall or looking too mature. But I have no idea. And I got points on my record and didn't get paid because I called out of work - for that. But, there's nothing I can do about it, except keep going, and do the best that I can at the next audition. Life isn't fair, and that's especially true in the performing world. Auditions are weird and extremely subjective. That's why I have to learn to shrug it off and move on to the next one - a skill which I should probably learn to apply to more life in general - a skill which is much easier in theory than in practice.

That's all for now. You can finally go back to whatever you were doing before.

The Big One-O

We're officially into the double digits now! Wheeeee! So, without further ado, let's take an overview of this past week:

Monday, I was extremely lazy and prettymuch did nothing all day except work out in the morning and read books all day. Which, you know, I'm pretty okay with.

That evening, I was supposed to go to a make-up rehearsal for the Candlelight Choir because I had apparently missed one and they're extreme sticklers for attendance. This rehearsal was supposed to be at a place called "Salem Lutheran Church," the regular rehearsal location for the choir members from the Burbank studios. As there was no address given in the emails I had received so far, I did a search in google maps, and sure enough, a Salem Lutheran Church not too far from my area popped up. I had no idea where Burbank was in relation to Anaheim, so I just assumed that this was the correct Salem Lutheran to go to. However, my suspicions should have been raised when I once again looked up "Salem Lutheran Church" in my gps in my car on the way there, and the only one it could find was one in the opposite direction to the one I was driving to. I ignored it and drove to the one I had originally found. I arrived at the church and found only about 2 cars in the parking lot. I proceeded to the gym where the rehearsal was supposed to take place, and only two very confused basketball players were there to greet me.

It was around the time the rehearsal was supposed to start, but I got back in my car and looked for the other Salem Lutheran my gps had come up with, decided it wasn't too far, I could be ~20 minutes late, and it would be okay. So, I drove across several freeways in the dark, blindly following the orders of my gps, until FINALLY, almost ~45 minutes after rehearsal was supposed to start, I reached yet another empty parking lot of another incorrect Salem Lutheran Church. By this time, I was tired and frustrated and decided to just go home and eat a bowl of cereal, and next time, actually look up where Burbank is and search that area for Salem Lutheran Church. So, hopefully, my foray out there tonight will not be for naught -_-

Tuesday went much better. Our assignment for class the week before was to go into Disneyland, read up on the history of Main Street, spend some time on Main Street experiencing attractions and general ambiance, and write about the experience to turn in on Thursday. So, one of my roommates and I went into the park and just hung out on Main Street for a few hours. We rode the little turn-of-the-century double-decker omnibus (on the top, of course), watched some original Mickey cartoons in the cinema, rode the Disneyland railroad round-trip, visited the Disneyland gallery with really awesome artwork including concept art of attractions re-imagined as Steam Punk, experienced "Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln," which was actually a lot cooler than it sounds because their Lincoln in there is the most advanced animatronic ever created, plus I just really like Civil War history and it was really interesting to see the ways that Lincoln had influenced Walt's life. We finally topped it all off by getting ice cream in the cute little old-fashioned ice cream parlor and people-watching from a park bench. It was quite a lovely way to spend the day.

There was a very neat little door on Main St...hopefully there shall be more casting in the near future...

That evening, we all dressed up in Halloween costumes to attend the Alice-in-Wonderland-themed mid-program dance. It was pretty fun at first - we got to play croquet with flamingos (I was a little disappointed there weren't hedgehogs though :P ), and a card-themed beanbag toss, and there was a photo booth to take silly pictures with your friends. The lemonade was pretty tasty, and there was a giant buffet table filled with stuff I can't eat (except a few slightly squishy strawberries and grapes), and silly classic dance songs (macarena, get funky, electric slide, etc.) on the checkered dance floor. However, as the night wore on, my shoes as well as the dance music became increasingly uncomfortable, so as soon as the raffle tickets were called, (none of which were ours,) My roomies and I decided we'd be curmudgeonly and go back to our apartment.

Minnie Mouse, Raphael (Ninja Turtle), Pocahontas, 20's Flapper, and Alice...IN WONDERLAND!!!

Such roommate. So party. Many dance. Wow.

I worked and then filled out my homework on Wednesday. That's about all that happened that day.

Thursday, however, was pretty neat! We got to have the 2 current Disneyland Ambassadors come and share their stories, while the next 2 Ambassadors looked on. They gave us an overview of how the ambassador program came about, what their roles are, what it takes to be a leader in the Disney company, and their personal journeys. They're basically the face of the Disneyland Resort as a whole, and the ambassadorship is one of the most competitive positions to get into. But they were both so down-to-earth and genuinely passionate about what they do, and it was so refreshing to see that when they have such important roles in the company. At the end, they got really emotional because they realized that this was the last college program talk they would be giving because the next ambassadors would be taking over the following semester. They loved sharing their stories with college students that much, even though a good deal of their job involved meeting with top executives.

The rest of the class was focused on deciding what's next for all of us after the program. We split up into groups, depending on whether we want to stay on afterward or if we're going back to regular life. It's crazy that we're already starting to plan for January! It felt really exciting to go to the group of people staying on, but it also made me a little sad to see some of the friends I've made here go into the other group. We still have two months to go, but January will be here before we know it.

Halloween itself was not terribly exciting. I worked, then came home and watched Silence of the Lambs because I'd never seen it before and I figured Halloween was a good opportunity. Dude...Anthony Hopkins...O___O Anyway, after that, my stomach felt inexplicably horrible and was cranky all the next day. I have no idea what its problem is. Stupid stomach.

On Saturday, I got some errands done, and then got to skype with my dizzy reject sloth buddy who's going to school out in the woods in New York! We had a really good long talk, and she listened to my rants and excuses of why I haven't been going to church or doing bible study, and she gently but firmly reminded me of the vital importance getting back into study and fellowship. She directed me to Ephesians 1 &2 that had really encouraged her this past summer, and it turned out to be what I needed to be reminded of too. It spoke of God's grace and purpose for the world that he wants to bring about through us. Then, I started re-watching the bible study that my mom and I had been doing this past summer on the Jewish feast days and how all the symbolism lines up perfectly with Jesus life and ministry. I still haven't found a church, but I can't let that discourage me and stop me from looking, and it definitely should not stop me from continuing to grow in my personal walk. Even though I'm on my own now in another state, it doesn't mean that I'm not still a part of a much bigger plan.

Weeks 8 & 9

Ahhh!!! Sorry I'm falling behind, dear lovely people of the interwebs! However, if it makes you feel better, the past two weeks haven't been terribly eventful.

Some of the more exciting happenings happened two Wednesdays ago when my roomie and I decided to go to our very first Disney character lookalike audition! This one was only for people who are already cast members, so the line wasn't unbearably long. The first wave of the audition consisted of forming a few lines across a room, standing at your assigned number, and smiling and saying your name to the casting directors. Then, you stand in nervous, awkwardly-smiling-looking-happy-what-should-I-be-doing-with-my-face-right-now-oh-dear-lord-they're-looking-at-me-what-are-they-thinking-do-I-have-something-stuck-in-my-teeth-are-my-eyes-twitching-or-something-weird-I-can't-take-this-ahh-panic-panic for about 30 seconds while they decide your fate. Then, they call out a couple numbers from the whole line, and the ones who don't get called just go home. That was me and my roomie. But oh well! We just wanted to see what it was like, anyway. Officially my first cattle-call audition! Yay! Besides, I want to try and get into shows or parades anyway. I will definitely keep you posted on those :)

Pre-audition nervousness selfie

Later that evening, college program people had a special opportunity to go on a backstage tour of the Haunted Mansion, all decked out for the holidays in Nightmare Before Christmas stuff! Now, I've never really been a fan of the movie, but it did make the Haunted Mansion really cool. We got to walk all along the track and learn all kinds of stuff about the history of the ride and the inspiration behind what it is today. We got to walk down the endless hallway and feel the wallpaper, which is actually really velvety and lovely because that style was really in during the era the Haunted Mansion was designed after. We got to see the actual bullet holes in the wall and glass of the banquet hall where some psycho guest decided it was a good idea to shoot at the ghosts in there. We also heard some pretty spooky stories about the ghosts of previous cast members that haunt the current ones while they're working...

In other news, I have been working more, which is great. It's just not particularly interesting to write about, because, though generally pretty chill, my job is really just not that interesting :P I did get another 4 keys card though, which is nice :)

Class has also been going well. We did some work one week on emotional health, which was probably good for me, because I can tend to let my emotions run away with me and I need to learn to control them better. So, of course, thinking about all that made my emotions go sort of wonky because I am learning to deal with them and I have been getting better at it, but this exercise pointed out how far I still have to go. But that's okay. Part of being emotionally healthy is figuring out where I need to improve as well as appreciating what I have accomplished. So yeah, I'm on the right track, and I'm doing okay, and I have to remember that any kind of change takes time. 

Thinking about it, that's probably why my stomach has been angry with me lately. I know my emotions and brain chemistry are strangely connected with my gastrointestinal issues, so naturally, dredging up some of the reasons behind some of my emotional issues so I can figure them out and move past them is bound to do weird things to my stomach. Go figure. Anyway, both are doing better now than they have been the past few days. 

Aaaaaaaaaaaanyway, choir! Let's talk about choir! Yay! We had the soprano/alto sectional on Thursday, and I didn't find out until I got there (already running a little late) that it was not in the usual rehearsal hall, but one on the other side of the park and the trams were no longer running there. Lovely. So, I power-walked it backstage as far as I could, but then before I knew it, I had ended up in Tomorrowland and then somewhere behind the Matterhorn until I finally asked a very nice cast member how to get to the rehearsal halls by TDA, and she led me further through the park and I eventually wound my way to where I needed to be, and I was only 5 minutes late! Except I hate being late - even 1 minute late - but there were still people who walked in later than me so I got over it. As far as the actual rehearsal, I think we got some good work done. I just wish that we could focus more on dynamics and phrasing rather than still just going over parts. Also, the vowels need some work o_o but, I do think it's all starting to come together, and I know we're going to sound really cool for the actual performance, which I am totally excited for! Daaahhh! 

Ballet is also going way better! I can really feel my strength and flexibility coming back, and I've actually really started getting the hang of pirouettes again! I even did a few doubles last week! I think the key for me (aside from just generally not panicking and spazzing out) is the feeling of going down to go up - feeling centered and connected with the floor rather than just trying to pull everything up away from it. It also helps to keep my weight forward and engage my core. Just in case you were wondering :P 

Also, my roommates carved pumpkins! I was working while they did this though. And they became 

very moldy very quickly...

I made a playdoh humpack whale though! :P

Welp, that's about all I've got for ya. I should have more interesting things to write about this week, so stay tuned! Byyyyyye!

Week 7

Seven. Seven seven seven seven. Seven? Seven! That's seven sevens! Except now it's nine. Yeah. Seven isn't significant or anything, my brain just does silly things when it's low on human interaction, which I kinda felt like it was this week.

The week did start off with some absolutely lovely human interaction, as I had a couple fantastic food adventures of soup, prosciutto-wrapped asparagus, and paleo buckeyes with the best food adventuring buddy ever. Actually, come to think of it, it seems like Emily and my ~20 year friendship is essentially based on a combination of food adventures, mutual ongoing gastrointestinal distress, and goofy videos. And I'm pretty okay with that. I'm also unbelievably grateful that I now live only about 25 minutes away from her rather than 16 hours. Ohhhhhhh my goodness am I happy about that fact. Especially now that the homesickness and loneliness are starting to creep up a little bit, but more on that later.

Back to the human interaction part. So, on Tuesday, I had an 8-hour shift in Fantoon, or, the much smaller costume warehouse where only the Fantasyland, Toontown, and Costuming costumes are kept. And, compared to the other very busy costuming warehouse, it's reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeally slow in there. I prettymuch sewed buttons on chef coats for 8 hours because there was absolutely nothing else to do. I was just really happy there were buttons to sew! It made the time go by considerably less painfully slowly. One nice thing about Fantoon though is that you get to listen to your own music. For someone who actively avoids pop music but is forced to listen to it consistently for 8-hour shifts in the other warehouse and now has an intense and burning loathing for every song on the top 40, this was an incredibly beautiful and sweet relief.

Most of Wednesday was spent in my apartment by myself, doing the things that I do in my apartment by myself - reading, violin-ing, plotting (for stories...just to make that clear...), writing, and internetting. Lately, the internetting has involved watching quite a bit of Breaking Bad, and staring at millions of pictures of hot air balloons on facebook, both of which have been making me really start to miss good ol' ABQ and its many splendid inhabitants. Especially because Fall is my favorite time of year, and apparently, Anaheim thinks Fall looks exactly like Summer, and there are no hot air balloons, roasting green chiles, or bright yellow quaking aspens in a place called the Santa Fe ski basin...

However! Anaheim does have Disneyland, which happens to have this neat thing called the "Dream Suite" - a super-exclusive, fancy, magical suite designed by Walt himself, which I had the privilege of touring with other CPs Wednesday afternoon. It was gorgeous, and there were all these little buttons called Walt's "goodnight kisses," which were essentially just little surprises that made the rooms come alive with music and sound. My favorite was the bathroom, oddly enough. There was this already gorgeous bathtub that lit up like the night sky and played peaceful music. I had to laugh at myself when I realized I was almost crying just by looking at a bathtub.




Stock photo from the interwebs, so not illegal! :D Anyway, this is the bathroom in all its magical, starry glory.


The view from the patio.

After the tour, a couple of my roomies and I wandered around the parks for a bit and had dinner there. We wanted to go have a bonfire on the beach, which I have never done and was super excited for, but then around 8:00 we realized the beach closes at 10:00, so we ended up not going. Instead, we came back to the apartment and played beer pong with water. It was the first time I had ever played beer pong, and, though I was completely sober, I was terrible at it. Not really surprising though, considering I'm terrible at anything that has to do with balls, projectiles, and sports in general :P

Thursday was class day, and the first class day where we were able to go into the parks. We didn't have very much time though, and we had a worksheet to fill out. Basically, we had to go talk to various cast members, ask them a question, and evaluate the cast-member-to-guest interaction through the lens of being a cast member yourself. Not terribly exciting, but informative. After that, I found myself in Disneyland all by myself, which was interesting. I went into Jolly Holiday and bought a raspberry-rose macaron (OH MY GOODNESS SO GOOD and totally worth the slight throat-swelling from the almond flour...hehe...) and sat out on the terrace and people-watched. It was quite lovely, but what made it even lovelier was this awesome jazz pianist that came and started playing right by where I was sitting. Already in a great mood, the pianist THEN starts playing Beauty and the Beast :) After he finished, I told him it was my favorite and that he totally made my morning, and he got the biggest grin on his face. I just love how there are so many little moments like that - how you never know how something so small can make someone's day, and how even just telling that person they made your day can turn around and make theirs.


The macaron. Look at its beauty! LOOK AT IT!!!

Thursday night I worked and nothing particularly exciting happened. Friday, nothing particularly exciting happened. Saturday morning, I worked and had to have a discussion with one of the managers because I had spaced and forgotten to clock one of my lunch ends a week earlier.  He was really nice about it and made sure to let me know that as long as it isn't a regular occurrence they're not going to hold it against me or anything and that clocking correctly is in place to make sure I get paid correctly and everything. It wasn't a huge deal. But I still felt really bad that I messed up and had to be called into the manager's office. I didn't cry though, which I feel is a big step for me! Geez that sounds pathetic...I really hate how easily I cry when I feel someone is even vaguely disappointed in me. But, as evidenced by Saturday, I'm getting better about it.

When I got back home, there were people setting up for an event in the plaza outside our building, and they had an Appalachian group playing for it. I got ridiculously excited about it, especially when they started playing songs I knew, like my favorite, "Greasy Coat." But soon, it made me feel kinda lonely. It made me remember that I don't know anyone here who knows "Greasy Coat" and can play it with me. I've been playing all my fiddle tunes a lot by myself here, partly because I forgot to pack any actual sheet music, but also because I just love playing it because fiddle music makes me happy. But what makes me even happier is playing fiddle music and jamming with other musicians.

I was starting to get a little sad just sitting there and listening to the people jamming it up outside my window, when I realized it was Saturday. I then remembered this thing I had heard of called Downtown Disney Swing (swing dancing) that happens every Saturday night, and decided to go, even if I was just going all by myself. It's a social dance, therefore, I'll just meet new people doing this fun thing that I used to love doing back in Albuquerque! It'll be great! What could possibly go wrong? Well, it ended up being more of a concert. The live band was quite good, and I was enjoying listening to them. Hardly anybody was dancing though. Slowly, more people started getting out on the floor, and they were pretty amazing swing dancers - like, holy cow. These people probably did competitions and stuff. Another thing I noticed about them was that they were all couples. Not just dancing partners - actual couple couples who only danced with one another. Nobody mingling on the outside, nobody asking strangers to dance - just couples happily dancing with each other, or happily watching on the side and giggling at their little children wandering out onto the dance floor. And then there was me, suddenly feeling quite alone.

So I went back home and ate cereal. But I'm feeling better now! Haha, but really, I also got to skype my brother and one of my really good friends, and that seriously made a world of difference. So, even though I haven't made a ton of friends here yet, I still have an absolutely fantastic support system back home, and the friends I do have here are all in this with me and I know I can count on them to make me smile when I'm feeling low :)

Week 6

Another week gone by! For some reason, this one seemed to go by quicker than the others. I assume it'll only seem more so from here on. Today however seems to be going by remarkably slowly since all my roommates are out and I have no laundry or errands to do (waaaat!!!) Anyway, perfect time to blog, I guess!

So, let's get started! First off, this happened on Monday:
I'm the one in the red hat slightly to the right of the blue "Try it!" sign.

Last Monday, I had the opportunity to help build a playground in 6 hours along with about 200 other people through the Ka-Boom! program and Disney VoluntEARS. This event was open for College Program participants and Disneyland executives and ambassadors only. The whole thing was pretty incredible.

When we got there, it was just this big hole in the ground with a few random-looking pieces of metal and plastic laying around, a bunch of concrete bags, and this giant pile of mulch. We got split up into teams. Some people were on concrete-mixing, some were on painting garden boxes and the sidewalk, some were building the various playground structures, and my group was on what came to be known affectionately as "Mulch Mountain."

Building a playground takes a LOT of work. For nearly 6 hours straight, I alternately shoveled mulch onto tarps or dragged those tarps over and dumped them into the hole in the ground that was slowly beginning to make sense as more playground structures were fixed into it. The whole process was absolutely exhausting, and I was in the sun prettymuch the whole time, but I had a blast. They actually had a pretty decent playlist going, including but not limited to Disney music, which, of course, we all sang along to. Just seeing everyone's energy and enthusiasm the entire day was kind of amazing. There was one lady in particular in our little group over on the north end of Mulch Mountain who just had this go-getter attitude and really helped keep our energy up by making it fun and making it into a challenge. I didn't find out until about halfway through it all that she was one of the top 4 candidates for the Disney Ambassadorship. She was just so awesome and down-to-earth that it didn't even really register at first. It just blew my mind that she and all these other top Disney people were right there, doing all the tough, tedious work along with a bunch of college students to build a safe place to play for the kids of La Habra, CA.

All I did was shovel mulch. That's it. But when we finally got to see it all come together, and the kids from the neighboring schools came out to thank us and cut the ribbon, it was just so cool to see how it all came together - how my tiny contribution helped make something so much bigger happen.

Plus, I got to leave a little bit more of a mark there than just a bunch of mulch:

We all got to put a handprint on the tree on the sidewalk. Mine's the one with the blue palm and black/white fingers.

I was completely exhausted, my arms felt like jell-o, and I was slipping in and out of consciousness on the bus ride home, but it was totally worth it and I would do it again in a heartbeat :)

I was actually really surprised at how relatively not-sore I was the next day. I mostly felt it in my back from lifting hefty shovel-fulls of mulch, but my arms were actually feeling pretty okay! I figured, if I could come out of that day feeling like I did, I could do anything. So, I went back to ballet class that night.

A couple weeks earlier, I nearly had a pirouette-induced panic attack because I felt like I was the worst dancer in the room and the teacher felt like I was wasting his time (not at all his actual thoughts, btw). Since my back injury a year ago, I a) have not been able to take class very regularly, and b) had a lot of issues with and setbacks in my technique, particularly with back-bends, anything a derriere, flexibility of my right leg, and holding myself in turns. Pirouettes have always been difficult for me for some reason, but they've only gotten worse since the injury. Take that, along with all the stress of moving to a new place, insecurity about being totally new at a job, and trepidation of joining a completely new, nationally-recognized ballet school where they know absolutely nothing about you, plus all my general social anxiety and perfectionism...yeeeeeeeeah...

I got through it, though. And I managed not to cry or hyperventilate, which I'm considering to be a success for that week. The class the day after Ka-Boom! went much, much better. I think it was partly because of what I'd accomplished the day before. I proved to myself that I'm stronger than I think I am. If I could shovel mulch for 6 hours, I could certainly handle a ballet class. I just had to tell myself to stop comparing myself to everybody else in the class and focus on improving my technique. So what if I was barely doing singles when the rest of them were doing doubles and triples? If my single is starting to look good, rather than me looking terrible and panicking, I'd call that a success.

Wednesday turned out to be loads of fun, as my roomies and I went Disneybounding. What's Disneybounding, you ask? Well, since adults aren't allowed to wear costumes inside the park, some people have found a way around that. Basically, you figure out a way to wear street clothes in a way that reflects your favorite Disney character. Want to dress up as Mickey? Find a black shirt, red shorts, and yellow shoes, throw on some mouse-themed jewelry and voila! Non-costume costume!

  

Due to what we all had in our closets, we ended up with two Annas and me, Belle (NOT Elsa!!!!!). Because of the color combo I went with, and the conspicuous amount of Annas surrounding me, most people assumed I was Elsa, despite my perfectly coiffed Belle-hair, and the fact that I was literally walking around the park reading my book nearly the entire time -_- Oh well. I had fun. (And I ended up reading about 100 pages that day, which was a nice bonus :P )


I even got to serenade some livestock! (Before they kicked me out of the petting zoo because you're apparently not supposed to sit on the totally sittable-looking barrels...)

I also got to flirt with Thor as Belle too! When we went up to get our autograph books signed, Thor looks deep into my soul with his beautiful blue eyes and says, "Oh my. You look lovely today." I replied a feeble thank-you, and then, as he was signing my book, my evil dorkbrain decided to say, "You know, your long, flowing locks and beastly muscular form remind me of someone I know, but I just can't place it!" It came out before I could do anything about it. Thor replied, "Really! I don't really know what to say...is he an honorable man, this 'friend' of yours?" I had to keep it going. "Ah! Yes! I remember now! He is very honorable - he saved me from wolves once!" "Ah," said Thor. "Well, it is indeed an honor to have reminded you of one so brave." And then it was time to pose for the picture. We wanted to do a warrior pose, so Thor held out his hammer and my roommates made muscle-y poses. I was still holding my autograph book, pen, and my other book. So, I held out my pen. Thor says, "Hah! A pen is no thing for a warrior!" to which I immediately reply, "THE PEN IS MIGHTIER THAN THE SWORD!!!!" Thor couldn't suppress a laugh at that, and someone from the rest of the line to meet him said, "Your English teacher would be proud!" Thor grinned and said, "Ah, but is it mightier than the hammer?" to which I replied, "I...haven't tested it out yet..."

Definitely my favorite character interaction thus far. Sadly, there was a malfunction getting the photopass picture at the time, so the Thor picture will have to wait :c

Thursday, we had class. The day was mostly devoted to figuring out our communication styles. I'm an Amiable, which basically means I ask a lot of questions and have a lot of feelings. No surprise there :P I also had choir, which is quite lovely and I'm really glad to be singing again. And I didn't lose my voice this week! Yay!

And work is going well! On Friday, about 10 minutes before I was supposed to clock out, the lady I was at the greeter counter with got called in to the manager's office. They presented her with a 4-Keys certificate with her name on it to put on the bulletin board, as well as a starbucks gift card. A 4-Keys card is basically a little slip of paper other cast members fill out when they see another cast member exemplifying one or more of the 4 Keys: safety, courtesy, show, and efficiency. Apparently, if you get a 4-Keys card for each of the 4 Keys, you get entered into a drawing to win prizes like starbucks. So yay! Go Deb! When she came out though, I was surprised to hear her say, "They want to see you next, Elise." Though I had done absolutely nothing wrong, I got really nervous. "Why would they want to see me? Am I not catching on fast enough? Did I make some kind of horrible mistake that I was unaware of? Why are there so many managers in there? Wait, why are they all smiling?" Somebody had written me a 4-Keys card for helping them bin dive about a week ago to help find somebody's name tag and a few dollars that they had dropped down the laundry chute by accident. It just felt awesome to get recognized for something little like that by my coworkers and managers, and it totally made my night :)

So, on the whole, I'd say this was a pretty great week! Love and miss all you guys back home! Enjoy the sweater weather and balloons!!!

Week 5

This past week has been relatively uneventful as I had 4 days off in a row, but happened to get sick on the first day of that. I guess my body just went, "Oh hey! Look! You've got some time off - let's just get this sickness thing out of the way now!" It was nice to just lay around the apartment and not have to do anything, but I just really hate feeling wildly unproductive, even if I am sick. I tried getting some things done - I read a couple books and wrote a couple scenes, but other than that I was prettymuch either sleeping or watching Netflix.

Despite the general laziness of being sick, my roommates succeeded in dragging me out of the house a couple times. We went to Sprouts, a health food store, and it was completely glorious, especially because I found out that they sell Sadie's hot green chile salsa :D I seriously gasped audibly in the aisle when I found it.

The day after our health food adventure, I was feeling slightly better and we had our first class. Part of the Disney College Program is the opportunity to take classes. They're generally focused on aspects of business and leadership. I'm taking Blended Learning, which sounds like it's basically designed to give you an overview of the history of the company and various aspects of the company, the information on which you will then apply to yourself to figure out where you may fit within the company, which is pretty cool. The first class, we basically just went over the syllabus and went around the room introducing ourselves, but I'm pretty excited to dive into the actual learning part. What's particularly nice about this class is that it has hardly any homework, and we get to walk around the parks for about half our classes (and we get to dress casual on those days too!).

After class, a friend of one of my roommates drove some of us to the beach! It was a little chilly since the wind was blowing, so not much swimming happened. But, we did build a glorious sand castle that we named Sandyland. There were also these ADORABLE tiny birds around. They looked like baby sandpipers, but there were so many of them that I'm thinking they might be a different species. Anyway, they were these little fluffs on top of teeny weeny legs that moved in a spastic blur as they scurried across the sand retreating from the sea foam, then poking their little beaks back into the freshly-wetted sand for tasty creatures hiding there. The way they moved reminded me a little bit of baby quail if that helps you picture it at all.

The last event of that day was my first rehearsal for the Christmas Candlelight Cast Choir. I auditioned a couple weeks ago, and the audition consisted of waiting in line for 3 hours, then finally going into the room and singing a couple scales. On the bright side, the auditioner told me I had "some nice pipes," and I get to sing 1st soprano. Yay, high notes! And there are quite a few of them, which is nice. There are a lot of Gs and As and the occasional B. We're mostly singing traditional Christmas carols, which is really lovely, except that I really have to focus on singing the melody. Ever since I was about 9, my family has gone caroling downtown every Christmas Eve in Victorian-era outfits in 4-part harmony, and I have always sung the alto part, which consequently means that I now know the alto part to every Christmas carol better than I know the melody ._. Oh well - it should be fun not scraping the very bottom of my register at least! Plus, we get to sing the Hallelujah chorus from Handel's 'Messiah'! That's one song that I do know the soprano part for! Yay! And it already sounds pretty awesome and is just buckets of fun to sing, especially in such a big group :)

I was having so much fun singing that I kind of forgot that I was sick, so I've kind of lost my voice a little bit. Oops.

Work is going pretty well so far. I keep picking things up little by little, and I think I'm gaining a measure of confidence. The people I work with are really great, and I'm really enjoying getting to know them. I've discovered which rotations I like best, and I think my favorites are sewing buttons, and Charity & Destory, which is basically just scanning garments into "retire," then taking a seam-ripper and tearing out their RFID chip. I just really like the seam-ripper part - I don't know why :P Friday got really insane because it was the night of the first Mickey's Halloween Party, so a TON of people came in trying to get that costume. What made it even more wonderfully hectic was the fact that nearly half of the purple man-pants were either missing buttons or had them literally hanging on my a thread, and it was my job to go through every single pair of pants on the floor and check all their buttons and pull the ones that were missing them. But, of course, since I was right there at the purple pants, everybody went to me with all their questions about the MHP costume, and the confusing sizing of the women's skirts, so it took way longer for me to finish going through the pants. I was just glad I wasn't on guest service counter for that one o___o    

Anywho, here's some pictures and stuff:

Pre-audition selfie for FIRST DISNEY AUDITION EVARRRR!!!!!

So, this is my super-stylish costuming costume :P

The lovely view from my bedroom window! 

Aladdin was fantastic, by the way.

Sandy beach feet! <3

Windy beachness!

That's all. TTFN!