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!!!