The Middle of December

Christmas is in a week, a week from today, and I work that day. And I'm excited to work that day. I only wish I worked in the Magic Kingdom, but Downtown Disney is good enough. And on that day we'll have Santa Goofy coming to Downtown instead of regular Santa! We'll get a character!

Oh, look, there are now three ornaments on the tree that don't have anything to do with Disney.

Back home, Siri cut her hair again and has it boyishly short, my sister is assistant stage manager in her school musical, Caiti is talking all the time... I miss those guys. I miss them all. I miss my room, my cats, my books. I miss having my own vehicle and being able to go to the store without having to take up two hours of my day. But I'm going to miss this place when I leave.

I can't stand to think about the fact that whatever new show comes after the castle show will not be seen by me (at least not in person) for at least a year, and probably a year and a half. I try to forget that I will soon be leaving my roommate to film cute mouse moments by herself. I'm heartbroken that my days off will no longer be spent meeting characters, watching shows and parades, and riding rides. And I hate the thought that I will have to get a job where telling stories, dancing for no reason, playing with remote control cars, and making magic will no longer be in my job description.

When I first got here, I was excited, but I couldn't help wondering how on earth I was going to survive away from my family. Now my time here is almost up, and I know how I survived: I grew to love this place almost as much as I love home. My family will always be of utmost importance to me, but I'm starting to learn that other things can be important too.

And there's also the fact that I'd much rather sweat than put on two layers. : D

Did I Write This?

A quick manipulation to make the visiting team player think that the home team player had dodged when he actually had not, and the home team player was home free and had gained another six points.

“See, those humans are right when they say you should save for a rainy day. In our case meaining when you tick off your parents so much they disown you and cut off their funding."

“What, you mean like acting as if the world revolves around you and hoping you will fall madly in love with her, sweep her off her feet, and make out with her or perhaps more in the backseat of your sexy, sexy car?” Kristy said. “Yeah, I might have noticed something like that.”

It seemed that Gaia knew this, for Tania had barely sat down when she was informed she had new duties. “The girl who’s been carrying water down there complains of the walk, and she often ‘can’t find’ Caspian, who may be a bit odd but doesn’t deserve to go thirsty,” Gaia said. “I thought you would enjoy the walk, being as restless and unused to this type of work as you are, and you seem to not mind Caspian.”

Doc smiled and sat down again, leaning back in a stretch. "Well, nothing can go wrong with the sainted Tabitha Talem watching the table. Have fun."

After dinner it was again time for boredom and general despair. Amber always insisted on getting homework done in a timely manner, and though settling down to do my homework every evening in her room had become habit, I still wasn’t very happy about it.

It's That Time

Today is October second. This time next month, I need to be up to about 5,000 words.

Yes, my friends, NaNoWriMo is approaching, and in honor of that approaching-ness, my blog is getting revamped. It's been coming for a while, but I wasn't sure I was going to do it for a while because I wasn't even sure I wanted a blog anymore. But what with me doing NaNo (NaNo bloggers like to read other NaNo blogs), and the fact that I have a shop I could and should be advertising, yeah I'll keep up the blog.

So... changes will happen around here! Slowly! In between keeping the apartment clean, remembering to eat, making merchandise, shipping merchandise, writing novels, oh yes and working at Walt Disney World there is also that.

It May Not be Much, but it's Cool!

So, someone bought one of my bracelets on Etsy, which means I have earned $5! Exciting! Once I get my paypal account verified so I can actually accept the $5, I will probably use it to pay my Etsy fees. So I haven't really earned anything.

But! I'm still incredibly excited. I love making bracelets (it's pretty much all I do in my free time, aside from an occasional trip to a Disney park), and it's awesome to think that I could be paid for doing so! I'm also excited to start using other talents of mine to make merchandise for my shop. And I have talked to several of my family, suggesting things they could make that I could put up for sale! What fun this is!

Right now I'm working on Halloween bracelets. Here's my favorite:



If you don't know what this is referring to, you need to find and watch It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown! Then you will know. And I seem to be becoming quite fond of bracelets with words. I also have 'HAUNTED' and 'HALLOWEEN' up for sale, 'MWA HA HA' is finished and needs to be added, and 'SPOOKY' and 'BEWARE' are in the works.

Also: I now know most of the songs in The Nightmare Before Christmas! I signed up for Netflix so I could watch movies on my laptop while working (I didn't bring any DVDs and my disk drive is broken), and aside from watching HSM3 and Who Framed Roger Rabbit? once each, I have been watching TNBC all the time. Although it keeps distracting me from my work, because I want to actually watch and not just listen while occasionally glancing up at the screen...

Well, I'm out. I have work today, so I need to get some work done before I go.

Maybe I should start an Etsy store?

One of the frequent topics on this blog is me being sick. Stomach problems usually, with the occasional bad cold or allergy attack thrown in.

Now I'm in Florida, I seem to have left that all behind. I was able to stop taking all my prescription medications without any ill effects. In fact, the only hint of my old life I seem to have brought with me is the tendency to be rather weak when I haven't been eating regularly, and even that usually only popped up as momentary dizziness after getting off of a ride. I've been feeling absolutely great, sound in body and happy in mind.

Until, of course, I spent two days coughing my lungs out, finally went to the doctor, was diagnosed with what I like to call the Super Flu (H1N1 virus, swine flu, Influenza A... take your pick, I have more!).

Headache. Fever. Aches. Dizziness whenever I tried to get up. Inability to ingest anything other than juice (and that in copious quantities). Coughing that threatened to kill me. Being drenched in sweat every single time I woke up.

Now that I am on day 6 of being ill and day 4 of official respiratory isolation, things are finally starting to look up. I mean illness-wise. So I am able to fully realize that I am BORED. Bored bored bored. No human interaction! Well, okay, I can call people, but talking to my sister makes me fall asleep, my mother isn't feeling well and keeps have to run off to take care of children, and everyone else keeps going to work or something. And I have another two and a half days of this. And my internet has been really really sketchy.

I'm sure that I started this post with an idea in mind other than to complain, but I have completely forgotten it. I suppose you'll have to be happy with what I have here. : D

Day One

Apparently, Orlando is close enough to hurricane... Bill? I think? to be experiencing some life difficulties due to that. Example: it took me about five minutes to get off the bus, find my building, and drag (yes, drag, I am so getting luggage with wheels) my luggage over. In that time, I was soaked. Soaked. As in, water-pouring-from-my-hair my-clothes-are-dripping soaked. Whee!

Doing all the paperwork was great fun. I was in lines for over an hour and a half. However, it wasn't that bad, because the casting building is a wonderful place. The chairs were colorful, and some of them were funny shapes. Everyone was smiling. The fine art on the walls was of Disney characters, with realistic cracks painted in the walls that made up the painting world. The undersides of overhead walkways were painted to look like bridges. I loved it! I was stupid to not take more pictures, but here is the one I did take: the front door.



Many many Disney people arrived today. Apparently, they like to schedule large groups on the same day. Something about efficiency. Anyway, this means that many many people needed to go to Wal-Mart to buy necessities. Buses run all day past our apartments, buses just for Cast Members, that take us to our many work locations and to nearby stores. Mainly Wal-Mart. First, my roommates and I missed three buses (one was too full, one passed us by, one was just finishing up a shift and couldn't take people). Then we got to Wal-Mart and discovered absolute chaos. All open checkout lines were several carts long. All the hangers had been purchased. After gathering and purchasing, we had to load everything on to the second bus that came up (the first one was, as you may guess, full), only to unload it and carry it all back to our apartment. And there was a lot of stuff.



We have to show ID whenever we come into the complex, so Heather and I held ours in our mouths so we wouldn't have to put our bags down. Finally home, we put the groceries away (the mostly-melted ice cream was put away first) and then I set about preparing my dinner. Which I needed tuna for. Only after putting in several other ingredients did I realize that the can opener that should come with our apartment was missing.

However terrible all that may seem, I am very excited. I've been laughing all day, even as it seemed that everything was going wrong. I'm in Florida! To work at Walt Disney World! And my assignment was to the main park, in a huge toy store!!

Also, lizards are awesome.

A Rose

Another market day, another barely breaking even. However, I still don't want to stop doing this.

1. Saturdays = days everyone WORKS HARD at home. I am instead sitting in a booth talking to people and making bracelets.

2. I like hanging out with my sister, and hanging out with yellow m&m today was also fun.

3. The kittens, the way people react to the kittens, and all the change we get in our "Coins for Kittens" fund make me smile a lot.

4. I like kids. Kids like kittens. Lissi and are are calling our booth the unofficial market babysitting booth.

5. Sometimes interesting things happen. Today we could see right out the back of our booth to where an audience was gathered, listening to a live country band playing mostly religious songs, ones with many declarations of love toward the Lord and such. I'm sure the audience was more fun to watch than the band.

6. Today, while watching the audience of the band, I had noticed one woman in particular. She was almost constantly dancing. She spun slowly, moved her arms around, and later waved flags, all while her eyes were closed and her head was tipped back. I've been a Utah Mormon all my life, in Provo and Orem even, and I'm sure most of you know what that means. In this particular case, it means that I have very rarely had any contact with other religions. So this display of... faith? was something I had seen very little of. I must admit I at first thought it was rather silly. However, as I kept watching her, it seemed rather beautiful. It made me think of myself. I never want to bear my testimony by standing behind the pulpit and talking, you see. I'd much rather do it by singing. And by dancing, that woman was showing her love for God as surely as I do it by singing. I am pleased to say that what I at first thought of as odd turned out to be spiritual.

7. Lissi and I have roses for sale, fresh and dried. They are not very popular. To avoid taking all of the fresh ones home, we have developed a habit of giving them away as we pack up, usually to all the small children that are still hanging around playing with our kittens. Today, I looked at the roses, looked up, and saw that aforementioned woman, still dancing. I chose the prettiest rose we had and gave it to Lissi, insisting that she give it to the woman. She did so, embarrassedly, and returned to say that she'd been given a hug, and a kiss. Also, it seemed the woman took it as a spiritual experience - here she is, a woman who absolutely loves roses, worshipping at a concert, and all of a sudden a young woman comes up to her and gives her a rose. As she told Lissi, "God knows I love roses."

Next week will be my last week before I leave for Florida. If my friend wants to, she and Lissi will continue the booth in my absence, and I will send friendship bracelets from Florida for them to put up for sale. Despite the fact that I am heading for an exciting experience, I cannot help but wish I could continue market myself. The sitting around, the not making any money, the being too hot or too cold - so what? I like it. I don't know why.