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!

Week 4

Well, I've been here about a month now, and overall, it's going pretty darn well. As far as my job goes, I'm starting to feel a little bit more like I know what I'm doing...until somebody asks me what pair of pants they're supposed to wear and where those pants might happen to be and I just look at the nearest costuming cast member with a look of sheer panic on my face, but hey! One step at a time, right?

So, on Monday, I got called in for a "special project." I was like, "Oh! Special project, huh? Sounds pretty cool, and I need the hours, so what the hey! Let's do this!" Ah, sweet naivete. Essentially, we had to clear out a storage room by hauling boxes and boxes of overstocked accessories, transfer them from 2nd floor to 1st in the computer system, go through the ones already on the floor and send the ratty-looking ones to destroy, and stuffing the rest of the overstock into the tiny bins with the rest of them. Now, this doesn't sound too bad, but imagine doing it for 8 hours straight, and then feeling like you barely made a dent in the storage room. *sigh* Oh well. It's over now, and I'm sure we did help.

Working back stage at Disneyland is interesting. I hear my roommates and other CPs talking about making these wonderful, magical moments for little kids and families. It's wonderful, and I love hearing their stories, but at the same time, it makes me feel a little left out. Am I missing out on the magic because I'm not interacting with little kids and park guests all day? Maybe. But at the same time, my job has its own kind of magic to it in a way. Yeah, it can certainly get monotonous, but it does allow me to have time alone in my head or time to get to know my co-workers. Yes, people sometimes get angry and frustrated with me because their account is frozen or I don't know how to do something on the computer system, but people have also been extremely grateful to me for helping them find something, or even just giving them a smile and telling them "Stay strong, brother! Once more unto the breach!" as they're heading out into the heat.

This past Saturday, I was having a particularly difficult day. I didn't really know what to do with myself, and the entire morning I was on the verge of crying. I was really nervous to go into work, because I really didn't want to mess something up because I couldn't focus. I got there a little early, so I sat in a sunny little corner for a bit. I just tried to calm myself down and breathe really slowly, remembering that although the night had been difficult, things were looking much better this morning. I resolved that I was going to try my hardest to make somebody's day better and just be as helpful as I could instead of focusing on my own worries. There was absolutely nothing I could do about them anyway, so I wanted to focus on what I could do for somebody else. It ended up being a wonderful day.

So, when I'm feeling bummed out that I don't get to directly bring that smile to some kid's face, I just have to remember that I can bring a smile to the cast member's face who might, in turn, transfer that smile to that kid. I do have a part in all of this, and even the monotony itself can help pull me out of the stress of my life outside of work.

Weeks 2 & 3

Hello, people of the interwebs! I'm falling a little bit behind on the blogging front, but I hope you'll forgive me.

So! Today, I've officially been here in this apartment for 3 weeks! Yay! It really feels like we've all been here a lot longer, but at the same time, I know the next ~4 months are going to go by crazy fast. These past couple weeks have prettymuch consisted of a massive and intimidating learning curve, and sitting around my apartment trying to come up with things to do (which...really should have been blogging and writing more in general...oh well...) because I haven't really started getting a whole lot of hours yet :/

Anyway, as to the learning curve, we started training the start of the second week we were here, which also happened to be my 23rd birthday! It was long and tiring, but we got to do a tour of Disneyland to look at all the costumes in action, and at the end of it we got to watch the fireworks show. I think the training days felt the longest because we were always walking around and attempting to absorb a flood of information. There were 3 days of training in all, ending with the written assessment and practical assessment - both of which I was way more nervous than I should have been, because they ended up not lasting very long and the person "grading" me was really encouraging.

I'm working in Cast Costuming. Now, Disney has a lot of lingo associated with its employees, starting with the word, "employees." They are not "employees," but are instead referred to as "cast members," and they wear "costumes" rather than "uniforms." So when I say, "I'm working in Cast Costuming," what I really mean is "I'm working in a gigantic warehouse called H-5 where everybody from both theme parks - the waiters, food prep, parking attendants, gift shops, ride operators, security and beyond - find their uniforms and then drops them off to be laundered and repaired and stuff." So, yeah. Just take a second to wrap your mind around how big that warehouse might be...and how many freaking pairs of nearly identical pants there are to keep track of. Essentially, think the giant door room in Monsters Inc., but with pants instead. Aaaaaaaaaand that's where I work, and now have to learn basically where everything lives in there o________o

Now, it's not quite as scary as it sounds. We do have a super nifty computer system nicknamed Wall-e that keeps track of what pieces comprise each costume and what aisle each piece can be found in. Plus, everyone who's been working in there for a while generally knows where everything goes, and they're all SUPER nice and patient with my little newbie self, and are always willing to answer the millions of questions I have :) But still, holy cow that's a lot of pants...

The job doesn't just entail memorizing pants locations, which is good. A lot of it is quality control, making sure things with rips, stains, missing buttons, etc. don't get put back on the rack until they're repaired, and sorting the clothes into the correct laundry bin. There's also a lot of standing and guiding people through the checkout process, which is totally magical. You walk through this portal with big sensor thingies, and all the costume pieces you're checking out blip up onto a little screen. You walk through, and the computer knows what you're wearing! It's the future!!! :O

Overall, it's pretty cool! One thing I enjoy is that there's a lot of basically alone time which makes my introverted side happy, but you also get to see and interact with a ton of people every day and get to help them out and make them feel a little less overwhelmed by the massive warehouse. Plus, my co-workers (at least the ones I've met so far) seem like a pretty goofy and generally fun and down-to-earth bunch.

So yeah! I'm looking forward to just getting out there more and actually being able to answer people's questions when they come up to me :P

Other than working, I haven't really done much. I've read a few Series of Unfortunate Events books, watched some (by "some" I mean "a lot of") Netflix, cleaned my apartment for apartment inspections which started today (the tub was way nasty, but it's better now), rode Space Mountain with the lights ON, taken a couple classes at Anaheim Ballet (WOOOOO!!!!!), gone to the beach a couple times, discovered I can actually eat In 'n Out fries (WOOOOO!!!!!), went antiquing and had boba, and had my friend transform me into a goth for a photoshoot for her new jewelry line. Mega rad!

You know, just chillin' with our bosses.

THE BEAST'S LIBRARY *dies*

I...don't know...

Hey! Hey guys! Look! It's King Triton! :P

I rode a whale on the carousel. So majestic.

DA BEACH!

Sandy feeties.

Cheese.

Our sandcastle: a.k.a. Charlie, Lord of Thunder and Wave, guardian of the kingdom of Disnerdia under the rule of princess Shelley (the tiny shell on Charlie's head), and defender against such evils as Lord Flappy the Seagull and his evil minion, Sir Slithers the Snake. We really thought this one out...

Sir Slithers the Snake

Boba Tea!

Still not sure how I feel about bobas...

Aaaaaand that's all the pictures I have right now because I'm terrible about taking pictures. I'll have a picture of my uniform if I ever think about it, and will be uploading an apartment tour video once it decides to upload...

Toodles!