June 23, 2010

All the days run together here

So, when I started this entry the opening went like this: these past three/four days have been the longest three/four days of my entire life. It feels like weeks. Monday night we were already saying "yesterday at Ihop" and then were like, wait..that was today! I've now been here about a week and a half and it feels like a month.
So I guess I'll start from where I left off. Heads up: may be a super long blog.
So after I finished typing up that last blog, I went to get ice. At 3:55, (now I can't remember if that was right before I got ice or right after I go back) the phone rang. Jenn sat up and stared at it, so I grabbed it. It was very confusing because I heard music and then "thank you for holding" or something like that. Then I heard Goofy and put the phone to where Jenn and I could both hear it. But Jenn didn't seem to care (she was still basically asleep). So I put it back up to my ear and heard Mickey saying something about the Magic Kingdom. I was having trouble making everything out so I just hung up the phone but still sort of felt like the little girl in that old Disney commercial who picks up the phone and turns to her parents and is like "It's GOOFY!" or something. Yes.
So we got ready and met up with Megan and Mary. Riding with Megan and Susan (the GPS) was an... experience to say the least. When we got there, Sara wasn't there because she over slept but Ryan did join us. My favorite part of Ihop though had to be our waitress and I'll tell you why. I still wasn't feeling 100% (The nauseous feeling kept coming back all day, although nothing ever came of it thank God) and I couldn't eat so I got a water. After a few minutes I said "Gosh, I just don't feel well at all." Ryan, who was sitting beside me, turned to me and was like "It's morning sickness." Sarcastically I said "Oh yeah, I'm pregnant." About that time our waitress had come up and said "Congratulations!" She was joking (at least I think we all assumed she was joking) and Ryan was still laughing about it five minutes later. It was fun to hang out with everybody before hand though, even though I didn't get my cheesecake pancakes :( But hopefully we'll go again one day when I'm actually feeling okay and get them.
Anyway, after we left, we went to Vista to check in. We were the first ones there and after waiting and hiking over to the Pavillion we were the first ones in line as well. We ended up in a 3 bedroom in Vista. It was the only complex that had three bedrooms available. It wasn't what we wanted but we're making it work. We re-arranged the living room about 3 or four times. I was apart of it everytime ironically, but somebody different was there with me everytime. We finally got it adjusted to where we all like it and it feels super homey. After getting checked in and everything we went to casting where I found out I'd be be working at Magic Kingdom (from here on  referred to as MK) at Toontown. When I got to a certain point where they gave me my training schedule (well, part of it) it said that I was supposed to be working at the American Adventure at EPCOT. I would have been fine with either of them but I ended up having to wait in an office to get my new schedule (which even though has MK stuff on it, still says I'm working AA at the top. Oh well, the times are all that matters) Luckily, Megan has Toontown as well, so we're going to be working together... maybe. Mostly likely, at least once, if not more.
After all of this was done, I went to eat with my aunt and cousins and my parents and sister. While we were out, Sara text me and said that she was leaving. I was kind of bummed about it, but it's cool.
The next day we had a housing meeting. On the way back, we found out we were getting a new roommate. Her name is Paige and she works at DHS QSFB on Sunset BLVD and I'm only 5 days older than her. After we met her, we went to eat at Chik-Fil-A (there's one super close to Vista and we had coupons) afterward we had to drop Abby off because she left her social security card at home so she had to take a special bus to get it. I'm pretty sure that it was on the way to Chik-Fil-A when this happened. The five of us (Me, Abby, Jenn, Mary and Megan) were leaving and at the apartments you'll get used to seeing people walking around in their costumes like it's no big deal. Well we saw a guy and Abby said "I like his costume." He was wearing dark brown shorts, a short sleeve collared shirt with the same color brown, and a straw hat with a funky colored ribbon thing around it. As he got closer, we all saw the yellow patch on his shirt. I think it was Jenn who then said "UPS?" We all proceeded to laugh insanely hard at this and still occasionally break out into fits of laughter, and I'm sure it'll be a running joke everytime we see UPS.
Anyway, after we dropped Abby off at the Pavillion, we went grocery shopping. You should have seen the way we piled four sets of groceries into Megan's car. We are very talented people. We have to be to have gotten all of these bags in.
After we went grocery shopping we picked Abby up and went to Target and bought more roomie items or things that we forgot to pick up at Wal-mart. While we were there, I got an Icee. When we were leaving, Megan pulled out the drinks we had in the cup holders and I offered to throw the cups away when we pulled around to the front. So Megan hands me the drinks and dump them out and put them on top of the car along with my Icee and opend the door. I'm not sure if I'd actually opened it before the Icee fell over or not, but the Icee did indeed fall over. Jenn started saying "Oh my god" over and over again and then Abby, who was putting the basket up started saying it too-even without hearing Jenn. I found the whole thing utterly hilarious and could not stop laughing for about five minutes. Then the spot on my shirt was red and at first they said it looked like I had gotten shot, then as we were driving away we saw a duck attack another duck and somebody suggested "Can we just say Tracie got attacked by a duck?" And that is the official story.
 Wednesday was Traditions. the first 30 minutes I wanted to fall asleep but the rest was super fun and I even got a miniature Mickey that says "it all started with a mouse." I somehow also ended up with two nametags. I saw my name and picked it up then realized my name was there again right behind it, so I looked at them and they both had my college on it and everything so Ben (one of the instructor people-the other was Sara) told me that I got to keep them both and I have an extra one if I needed it. I've decided to leave that one in my purse so in case I walk off without my name tag I've got one, so that's cool.
After we got back from Traditions we went to MK. I ate at Cosmic Rays and got a Disney cheeseburger- something I had been craving for the past 2 months. Then I scoped out Toontown and met up with Abby, Megan and Mary. Jenn wasn't feeling  well and Paige had work. We rode Pirates of the Caribbean, then Haunted Mansion,  then Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and finally Buzz Lightyear. Then we hopped over to EPCOT and rode Spaceship Earth and got our future videos. Mine and Megan's is hilarious, just because of the face Megan made.  After that, I walked around while they rode Mission: Space... at least I think they rode it... Anyway... afterward we went to France and got food (I got chocolate mousse) and then we watched Illuminations- something I hadn't seen in a long time.  After that, we left.
Thursday I had park orientation with Joseph and Jo Ellen. "Once Upon a Time...Is Now" was so much fun. I loved it! I wish I could do park orientation everday...well as long as I don't have to wear dress shoes. The roomies went to DHS and I stayed home because my feet were killing me and I had work the next day. My first day of training was with Lenore on Friday. I was with Megan and a lady named Mary. Lenore was great. The whole group of trainers were. They were all super friendly. Megan and I saw them the next day when we ate at the Mouseketeeria during Merchantainment.  We sat down with them and talked for a little bit.
Saturday was Merchantainment...like I said before. It wasn't very interesting... borderline boring. BUT important information was being given. So pay attention! I went to see Toy Story 3 later that night with roomie Mary, Paige, Kelsey (a girl I met at Traditions and she was in Merchantainment with me too) her friend, Michelle and a guy they met named Eric. It was soooo good. I highly suggest it.
Sunday, Megan was off so I had training with Dianne by myself... well there was another girl too. Her first name just completely left me, but it started with an M. Monday I had my last day of training and took my assessement and officially "earned my ears" although, I'm waiting until the end of this week to take off my "earning my ears" ribbon so I have an excuse if I mess up something. HA!
Yesterday was my first day alone and I worked until closing and then today I opened. The good news is I'm off tomorrow. Yay! And I also get paid tomorrow. Yay! Work Friday and then I actually get an actual weekend! I'm off Saturday and Sunday! At some point tomorrow I need to stop by costuming and turn in my clothes and get new ones.  I'll try to update more often, just to reduce the size of these entries, but we'll see how that works.

June 17, 2010

Monday, June 14th

 According to my computer it is 1:28 a.m. but apparently my computer is still on Alabama time because it's 2:28 according to the alarm clock in the hotel room.

I woke up about an hour ago (maybe less) not feeling well. This seems to happen a lot when I'm staying in a hotel and I have to get up early. I'm not sure if it's nerves or what but it never fails that I end up feeling sick and having to stay up another hour or two because every time I lay down a wave of nausea comes over me.

Since I'm feeling this way I decided there was no time better to
write another entry to my blog to talk about today, although Disney doesn't have internet at their hotels so I'm not sure when you will actually be reading this.

So to start off, I woke my parents up at 3. We were running around the house trying to make sure everything was packed. The longer they took though, the more stuff I  would find and remember "Oh yeah! I should bring that!" If I end up with a lot of stuff I don't need, I blame this hour and a half that it took to get out of the house-even though it probably isn't the hour and a half's fault it still gets the blame. We finally pulled out of the driveway at 4:30 a.m. and got about 20 minutes down the road when the luggage carrier on the top of the van kept thumping the roof. This was annoying my mother so she pulled over onto the side of the road and fixed it...It took awhile, but it happened.

So we finally got back on the road. I had no space for my feet so I slept with my feet in the seat or up in the air or some other crazily uncomfortable position until we got to Tallahassee where we stopped for breakfast. When breakfast was over, my dad took my seat, my mom took my dad's spot as the front passenger and I took the driver's seat. Since my name is not on my car insurrance, I couldn't bring it and therefore wanted to drive one last time before I forget how to in 6.5 months. Ha!

I finally got to Pop Century around 2 pm. When I texted Jenn to let her know (she texted me earlier to say what room we were in and that she had my key) she called me and said that she, Megan, and Joe had gone to see Joe's apartment and to go get a new key from the front desk. My parents went over there with me and then helped me bring a few things up to the room. They left to go my aunt's condo and I laid down and probably would have fallen asleep had people not been texting me.

As Disney Must Do's with Stacey was coming on for the third time I texted Jenn to find out how long she'd be. Her response was "Well Mary's there." I figured that meant she was going to be awhile. As I was getting out of that message and going to open a new message I got a text from Mary who had apparently been told the same thing about me by Megan. Ironically, Megan ALSO had Mary's key and she had to get a new one as well. So I grabbed my camera and purse and key and met Mary in the lobby.

We walked back to her room so she could put her things up. We found out that Megan and Jenn were at MK and Mary and I decided we could head that way. We all wanted to ride the monorails anyway. So Mary and I went to catch a bus and there was one that pulled up right as we got up to it (this is important because for the rest of the day EVERYtime we wanted to get on a monorail or a bus, we had amazing luck at being able to get right on it).

As we were on the way to MK Mary told Megan that we were headed over to MK to ride the monorail. Megan told Mary that her and Jenn were on the monorail. So we got there and walked toward the monorail and we stopped to find out where they were. They were headed back to the hotel. So Mary and I decided to go on the monorails. We took the one from MK to the TTC (where I was really thirsty and saw a place that had mango smoothie thing and I got it)  and then the one from the TTC to EPCOT and then we took the bus back to the hotel from EPCOT. When we got back, Jenn and Megan were in the food court and that's where we FINALLY met up with them.

After they ate (Mary and I weren't really hungry) we went to Downtown Disney. We walked around the World of Disney and went in and out of a few stores. We stopped by T-Rex and changed the reservations I made for 8 people to 10. When we got to the magnet store (Magnatron?) we met up with Elliott. For the next little bit we went from store to store and sort of just walked in and stood around and talked for a little bit then walked out. We walked out of the Cirque du  Soleil gift shop  where we met up with Abby. We stood across from House of Blues and the six of us talked for a little bit. Soon we started walking again and then Elliott had to leave.

We ended up next to AMC by a water fountain (and a spinning Aligator) where we waited for Sara who apparently passed by us several times before finding us. During the time we were waiting for Sara, Megan's friend Brent met up with us and said 'hey' then mysteriously left. When Sara got there, we decided to move to tables at Wetzels Pretzels so we could sit around and actually hear each other talking.

Lyanne met us over there while a few people were inside getting pretzels and drinks to keep from fainting before dinner. I got a pretzel after Lyanne got there and ended up only eating half, so I gave the rest to her because she said she was hungry and I wasn't going to eat it then. Lyanne said she'd give me half a pretzel one day. I told her I'd hold her to it. Ha!

A few minutes later Laura showed up and then a few minutes after her, so did Ryan O. There was a guy who was playing the guitar right next to us. Ryan shouted out "Freebird" and the guy played it (at one point he played directly to us which was cool). Then this little kid started breaking it down with these dance moves so Ryan went over and danced too. It turned out the little kid had Down's Syndrome. I don't know. Maybe it was just me, but I found the whole thing sort of inspirational and it made me even more excited to be here.

Right before we decided to leave Wetzel's Suzy(Sp?) an ICP from England came over. After sitting around for a little bit longer all ten of us headed over to T-Rex where we were 13 minutes too early to check in, so we stood around and talked until it was 9:45. A few of us went in to make sure they had a place for us and when they said we needed everybody before he could seat us. So Mary went to get the other people and only came back with two more...bringing the total to 7, so we lost three people: Laura, Suzy, and Ryan.

I guess it's not completely sure if they just didn't want to join or if they didn't think they were invited. All I know is that the 7 of us that did eat had an amazing time. We split two Supersaurus Sampler Platters (brushetta, onion rings, nachos, and quesadillas) and a Footprints Flatbread. It was delicious. We left there around 11 and said goodbye to Lyanne. For dessert, we went to Ghiradelli...and got a free sample of a caramel filled square. Then we said goodbye to Sara and Abby and then the 4 of us at Pop went back to the bus.

I fell asleep shortly after we got back to the room and well you guys know what happened then. At 3:00, Jenn woke up and I explained why I was up. Although I don't think she cared because she fell asleep again shortly after that. It's now 3:49. Jenn's waking up at 4 and I set my alarm for 4:45. We're meeting the gang at Ihop at 5:30 (apparently Ryan O is also crashing this.. I guess we'll find out haha) We'll see how today goes... maybe I can go back to sleep for a little bit. Actually, I'm really thirsty. I think I'm going to find some kind of drink...or ice...hmm...now I wonder how long it'll take me to update this.

EDIT: the Answer is 3 days, although it feels like WEEKS. I'm about to type up a blog from the past 3 days. We'll see if it gets posted tonight or if you have to wait another 3 days.

June 13, 2010

1 Hour...

That's how long I have before I leave my house and head off to the next 6.5 months (at least) of my life in Sunny Florida.

I just got finished making a vlog and now I'm waiting for it to upload, but by the time you read this it will have already uploaded so click here to watch.

I've decided that I'll come back to talking about everything that happened the past few months later. I started this blog to waste time for Florida (and to also keep up with while in Florida as well) and since nothing super exciting was happening at that point, I just decided to go back and talk about my experience leading up to this day. Unfortunately for you my dear readers, I'm a very very very bad procrastinator (well I guess you could say I'm a great procrastinator) and now Florida is here! And I can't keep talking about things that happened before when SO MUCH is about to happen right now! I may come back to my phone interview and everything later if I'm in demand or it's been a slow week ha!

In about 49 minutes I'll be running into my parents room and waking them up to start our 8 hour journey to Florida. I'm staying at Pop Century with Jenn (and technically Megan and Mary as well but not all together). I'll be documenting the experience with pictures that I will upload to facebook and depending on how busy I am, here as well.

37 more minutes. I can't believe it's here! Florida, here I come!

May 18, 2010

Applications

I'm pretty sure after that class I went home and took a nap. Well, I'm not sure about the nap part, but I know that I went home. I kept refreshing the CP homepage and I never saw anything different. I was sure that they had decided they weren't going to put the applications up on that day. All of a sudden the facebook group exploded...they were up! But I had literally just checked and they weren't there, so I refreshed the page again...they still weren't there! After having a minor freak out I type the address in again and voila! I immediately ran into the living room telling my parents that they were up. Then I went back to begin the process. First I watched the e-presentation all the way through in Google Chrome and then when I got to the application part I pulled up IE. I kept running back and forth between my room and my dad's office asking him questions, making sure that I didn't misunderstand a question and type something retarded or that what I said was good enough. The first time (yes I said first time) one of the pages timed out on me so I had to restart the application. The next time I got to the part where you were supposed to tell them that you watched the e-presentation instead of going to a school, but the e-pres wasn't an option. I thought that it had something to do with the fact that I watched it in a different browser, so I saved the application and then went back and skipped through the E-pres on IE.. I got to the application again and clicked the "continue saved application". It opened up to a BLANK application... so AGAIN I fill out the application and there is still no E-Presentation... so I went the group and freaked out on the wall for a little bit, and somebody replied saying just to put my school down. So I did.


Then came the dreaded web interview. I clicked through all of the instructions getting more and more nervous as it got closer to the actual questions. I kept taking deep breaths and reminding myself of the pointers I'd read: pick extremes, don't contradict yourself, be honest. I forgot the questions as soon as I answered them and it seemed to last forever... it just kept going and going... finally, I could tell it reached the end and it was "thinking" (aka, tallying up the score) then the wonderful "strong candidate" page.  I hadn't realized I was holding my breath until it got to that page. My heart was beating out of my chest. I'd passed! The worst was over it seemed... I was more nervous about the web interview than the phone interview. Of course, I ran into my parents' room and told them, received a high five from my dad and a "that's wonderful!" from my mom. I ran back to my room and noticed that people were chatting, so I went to AIM and introduced myself and met what I now refer to as my D-Fam.

April 5, 2010

Joining the Group and Losing a Job

So, as I said before, the first thing I needed to do was get a new laptop. Mine had been on the brink of death for at least a year if not two and no matter how many times I asked my parents for a new one, they wouldn't get it. So... I did what I had to do: Black. Friday.
You may call me crazy but I was desperate. I found a super nice laptop and it had a really good deal with it (It's about $700 now, and it was priced at $300) From about 11:00 on Thanksgiving night until 5:00 a.m. when Best Buy opened, my dad and I sat outside in line freezing our butts off. We met some really nice people and made a few memories and best of all by the end of it, I had a new laptop.


By now I was determined that I was going to apply for Fall Advantage 2010. I think this was when I finally joined the Fall Facebook Group. I was hesitant to post at first because I didn't want to get to know everybody and then not get in. Finally I just said "screw it." 


I posted in a few threads and started one about Prince Charming coming to my house [I'll post that link <<here>> because it's a good story :)] but I was still playing it safe. I even downloaded AIM so I could chat if I ever got the chance, but it seemed like I always missed everybody else.


While this was going on, in December I found out that the television station was cutting pay, which was leaving me with no source of income. There was one opening and it was between me and one of my best friends. The final decision was left up to one of our teachers and he took forever to decide. The closer it got to him making the decision, the more and more I just knew I wouldn't get the job, but somehow I knew that if I didn't get this job then I would DEFINITELY get into the CP. 


Finally, one Wednesday I was going to one of my classes that I have with this teacher (side note: I have two classes with this teacher and the best friend in question has all the same classes as me), and as I pulled into the parking lot I actually said out loud "I wish he would just tell me I didn't get the job so I can stop wondering." That day, in class Laura (my friend) got a text from her boss/my former boss telling her that she got the job, and somehow they decided that she should be the one to tell me.


After class she pulled me aside and told me and... yeah, I was a little disappointed because I was the one who got her the job she had in the first place. When it came down to it I guess, we both have the same qualifications and honestly, my teacher just probably picked a name out of a hat. 


To preface what I'm about to say, I am a Christian. No, I'm not going to try to convert you or preach fire and brimstone, but I believe what happened next was sort of a God thing. You may call it coincidence, and if that's what you think, then so be it- I won't argue with you. but remember how I said that I felt that if I didn't get the job, I would get the CP? Well, this Wednesday in question was January 20th-AKA the day applications for the CP went up. I believe that when God closes one door he opens another and for applications to go up the same day I lost this job was just even more of sign that I would get into the CP- something I've waited years (compared to weeks with the other job) to do- That's my sermon for the day. Ha!


Next time: Applications 

April 3, 2010

1st post: About Me

I wasn't going to write a blog. I already have a vlog and I figured that would be enough, but then I started thinking that there will probably be times where I'll have more time to write than to record myself. Also, I'm sort of at a point in my vlogs that I don't have anything to talk about, so I figured I'd start a blog to fill time.


So, to start this CP journey, let me tell you a little about myself. My name is Tracie. I'm a junior at The University of South Alabama in Mobile, Al. I'm a communications major with a concentration in radio/Tv/Film... mostly tv and film. Last year I worked at my school's student-run television station, but this year, they cut pay and I needed money more than I wanted to volunteer there, so I'm not really apart of that anymore. Now I'm working at a CPA firm as the "sign-in queen" as my co-workers have named me. Mostly I do computer work but I do assemble tax returns and field phone calls and on several occasions had to put on a very "Disney" attitude and just smile and pretend that the person on the other end wasn't being a complete idiot/jerk. I just consider it practice. :)

I love Disney and I've been to Disney World at least 11 times. We go as a family almost every year. I found out about the College Program at my Freshman Orientation. I immediately wanted to work there but I had a scholarship and I didn't think it was possible, so it sort of went on the back-burner. I wasn't as good at college as I was at high school and ended up making one low grade too many and lost my scholarship, but by that time I had completely forgotten about the college program. Then, last year at this time, one day I suddenly remembered that the college program existed. I had just gotten out of school, so the cut off day for applications had just expired and that meant I had MONTHS of waiting to apply for spring. When we went to Disney World over the summer I told myself the next time I went to Disney World, I would be working there. As we walked around I pointed out the "Disney Point" to my parents and talked about the different roles that I could do. One day when we were in Hollywood Studios we were at the Magic of Disney Animation and a drawing session had just started so we had like 20 minutes or however long to wait for them to get done. I noticed the CM's tag had his college on it so I said "You're on the college program?" and he was like "Yeah." and I told him I was thinking about applying in the fall for the Spring and he was like "Do it!!" He talked about it for a little bit and I was getting more and more excited for it.

I was in the Spring 2010 group on facebook but not very active. Finally the day came for applications to go up...and I couldn't watch the E-presentation! My computer was almost dead... and not battery dead.. I mean DEAD dead... and I couldn't get on the internet. On another two computers I tried, Adobe didn't work and since they weren't my computers, I didn't want to get into trouble for putting it on there. Another computer just had an awful internet connection and videos just didn't like to play on it. Plus with all of the talk about people failing this new web interview, I guess I just got scared and I left the facebook group and decided I'd try again next time.

The first item on the agenda was getting a new computer.

This is where I will leave you for now.:)
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