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.