DINOSAUR!

Well hello again,

Now the last time we chit chatted, it was that end of old time and I suddenly gained an hour of new time. AWESOME! That means that time fell back and I was able to get 9 hours of sleep instead of 8! How rad. Well after I got all that lovely sleep, I got myself up worked on my resume and cover letters for internships in Belgium. Had a tiny freak out about them, as I've been having all week long! See I'm not very good at writing resumes and cover letters. Also, I am applying for real internships, not theatre internships. And since I am a theatre junkie, all I have to base my life off of is theatre stuff. I have tons of resume credible stuff for theatres or slanted to theatres. This stuff won't really help me when applying for a political internship or an art gallery internship. Hmmm....so working on these things has been the dark cloud that's been looming over my head all week long and most likely it will continue to loom since they aren't due until Monday. ZONKS!

Anywho, let me tell you about the adventures that I've been having instead of working on my cover letters and resumes. So it was Sunday and I went to work. At work, Al gave me the position of VIP viewing and I never really think anything of it, I just chat it up with everyone and try to get them excited about the Main Street Electrical Parade. But as fate would have it, there was someone famous in my section. Turns out that Steve Young, the quarterback for the 49s was in my section! It was really cute because his daughter (dressed as Snow White) stood next to me the entire parade waving at everyone. And when Captain Hook came past she got scared and looked away, so I comforted her and I assured her that Pan would take care of her. And that was that. I don't really recall Steve, but his daughter was precious!

After work was the cast preview for Mickey's Once Upon A Christmastime Parade and since everyone from work was going, I decided I might as well stick around for the fun. Things I will say about that night:

1. I had a wonderful time!
2. We PAC Attacked it, so we got to the front of the line and pushed our way as we ran to see our friends, who were working it.
3. I am slightly bitter that I didn't get to work that cast preview because it would have been overtime and its something that I know see every night.
4. Minnie Mouse looked like she was having a seizure, she was shaking so much.
5. I got to see the Castle Lighting Show, and the castle looks beautiful all light up!
6. The parade is sooooo long! It takes a solid 40 minutes to get to Townsquare.
7. Despite the fact that most of us weren't working, we still did PACivities of jumping rope and playing duck-duck-Donald to keep us busy. 
8. The parade comes with smells, so different floats smell like different things. Case in point, the Clara Cow float where she is making gingerbread cookies smells like gingerbread, and the Goofy candy float smells like peppermint.

And that was my night at the cast-preview and now every other night I get to watch the exact same parade for the Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party. That is actually how I spent my Monday: going to work and working the first Christmas Party. That's right Christmas starts at the Magic Kingdom on November 8th!

Amanda, Gina, and Janice at the Cast Preview

PAC ATTACKing it up at the Cast Preview

So Monday came and went, and before you know it, it was Tuesday (11/9/10). Tuesday morning I woke up, and went to class. My Entertainment Show Production seminar was meeting earlier in the day, so we could go to Hollywood Studios and visit backstage of Fantasmic. As you may recall, I LOVED seeing Fantasmic! As taken from the Disney website, "Fantasmic! takes you into the colorful imagination of Mickey Mouse as the Sorcerer's Apprentice in this nighttime musical special effects extravaganza! Join Mickey as he invokes the characters and spirit of such favorite Disney classics as Beauty and the Beast, The Little Mermaid, Cinderella, Aladdin, Pinocchio, The Lion King, Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan, Dumbo, Tarzan, and more. But when the Evil Queen from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs gathers such classic villains as Ursula, Cruella de Vil, Scar, Frollo, Jafar and a larger-than-life Maleficent to turn Mickey's dreams into a nightmare, leave it to Mickey and the power of imagination to save the day."

So my class got to tour this sweet show from backstage! First we met Nina (a technician whose been working on the show since 2003) and the stage manager Erin, who is also sometimes the stage manager for Beauty and the Beast. They first showed us the call booth where all the technicians call the show, and there we talked about how technology has changed the show and how the dragon, Vivian, is the cause of most delays in the show. From the call booth, we went onto the mountain. On the mountain we got to see where Mickey's lift is (the trap door of sorts where Mickey is raised up from the basement to the stage) along with Maleficent's lift. From there, we got to see the places where the Jafar snake goes and the places where John Smith jumps and where Pocahontas stands her ground. It was pretty cool standing in those spots and look to the stands that can hold up to 9,200 people. So, we got to tour the mountain and all that went with it, including the basement. Side note about the mountain, its actually an island. Since its an island, there are no bathrooms or really anything on it, so once you are on the island you better be ready to perform and you better have a reason as to why you are on that mountain, otherwise you are simply out of luck.

The dragon from Fantasmic: Vivian

 After the mountain, we got to tour Steamboat Willie. Its a pretty slim boat when you actually get up on it. I got to pretend to drive it and hear about what characters go on the boat and why certain characters are seen on it sometimes and why others aren't. It has to do with if a character is ready, and if they're not a spare jumps on the boat. And sometimes different characters are only allowed to play certain roles, hence different people on the boat.

Steamboat Willie

Once our epic tour came to a close, I walked around some stores at Hollywood Studios and then Dakotah picked me up and we went to dinner at Panera. That was delicious. I got a tasty fall salad and then Shayla met up with us. Shayla met us because we all picked up a shift to be citizens of Main Street USA. So, Dakotah got to wear the Ice Cream costume, Shayla got to wear the Confectionery costume, and I, unfortunately, had to wear the Park Greeter costume. Pretty much, we spent an hour in the break room waiting for the park to be cleared out, a half hour on Main Street welcoming the guests that bought out the park a goodnight, and 15 minutes walking out. In essence, I got for 2 hours of work, when I really only did half an hour. AWESOME! After this little shift, Dakotah and I finally got to see the movie The Social Network. The story of how facebook was created. I went in not sure how I felt about the movie, thinking it would be too soon, but it was so well done. It was a movie full of wit, spunk, and betrayal. I adored it and kind of want to see it again...

Now then Tuesday came to a close, and Wednesday came into light. On Wednesday (11/10/10) Amanda, Gina, Dakotah, and I went Dinosaur World in Plant City, Florida. We started off the day like we do with most Dakotah trips by going to Starbucks. Then we bought gas using 5 different debit/credit cards. Pretty sure it looked like we were robbers stealing gas! Finally, we made it to our destination of Dinosaur World! Dinosaur World is a pretty janky place. It has 150 life-size statues of dinosaurs. What your supposed to do is walk around and learn about the dinosaurs, what we did was played on the dinosaurs. It was great fun! From a land before time, we went to Tsunami, a hibachi restaurant, for sushi. And from there, we booked it back to Orlando to go to the Orlando Magic vs. Utah Jazz NBA basketball game. That game was lots of fun. Before we even got into the Amway Center, the bus had us watch Hercules, one of my top 5 favorite Disney movies. Also, the Magics had a ton of free stuff happening outside the center, so we got our faces painted, we made signs, we got caricatures made, we got to try new flavors of Mountain Dew, we got to try some McDonalds smoothies, and got balloon people. At the game, we sat in the highest section available, aka the nosebleed section. Sadly, the Magics lost to the Utah Jazz, 104 to 94. But overall, it was a great night!

What's over there my dear dinosaur friend?

VICTORY!

Dakotah, Gina, Janice, Amanda, Hilary, and Becka at the Orlando Magic game

We've got the Magic in us!

After the excitement of the Magic's losing on Wednesday, it was Thursday (11/11/10) and I got up and cleaned to get ready for inspection on Friday. Then I went to work, had a gap so did some shopping on Main Street USA, and then worked some more. That's all I did, not that exciting of a night.

Now today is Friday, and our inspection just happened. Guess what: WE GOT THE WHITE GLOVE AWARD! That means that we have one of the cleanest apartments in the program and we got our picture taken and a box of Ferraro Rochelle chocolates.

WHITE GLOVE AWARD!