June 27

Wow, long time since I last posted. My how time flies!

Um... developments include: I am newly single. I have made a tonne of skipper friends and am adding them on Facebook. We're planning on doing Skipper Bowling night.. this goes along with the skipper dinners, parties, and park trips. Roommates are all single now too - so rarely are all roomies home at night as they've found boy toys. I have made good friends with a gentleman with a car, so we've been going out a lot to restaurants and parks that are a trek and a half for me to walk or bus. I'm addicted to ice cream Crunch bars down here. Waste of 2 bucks a day haha! ..

Weather has been nice. It thunderstorms hard one day almost all day, then the next two days are beautiful, and then it rains sometime each day for the next 2 or so. Yesterday in the Jungle, the air was pretty cold, so it was wonderful... Everyone in the apartment is sick again (not me yet!), and we're not quite sure why... I hope the mould hasn't returned.

Went to Hollywood studios the other day off with the gentleman (Brett) and its fun being able to know the tricks. We definitely used the override buttons on all fastpass machines to jump lines (therefore holding more than one fastpass in an hour.. bad us!) .. and then went and watched all the shows and stuff without fastpass. I saw the American Idol Experience for the first time.. Its pretty cool. We also were able to jump the 2 hour wait time at Toy Story Mania because Brett had a friend working that day. We waited all of like 10 minutes. I beat Brett of course! :P.. Another skipper named Alex is scheming to get me to go to Animal Kingdom and try Expedition Everest - we'll probably do that park Monday. The Monday following is a skipper birthday party for a guy named Tommy - the plan is Epcot for various activities, food and a movie I believe. Should be fun!

Oh... Important stuff... I got all the courses I wanted (even the ones with maximum capacity of 20 people!). My design courses include Contemporary Problems in Design, Self, Society and Design, Image and Influence, Design Internship, Typeface Design, Design for Public Awareness, and Communication Design 2. My non-design courses also sound interesting - "Photography, Film and Popular Culture" and "Language, Power and Persuasion". I'm pretty happy (and lucky) that I got all my courses.. I've ben watching the Facebook status updates of friends, and a fair number have not been as successful.

I'm also avoiding Property Control. Every time I go in there, I find something to spend money on. If, however, there is something you would like me to look for let me know. I bought Devon a very nice digital camera for 30 bucks and there's always more like that.. All kinda of shirts, shoes, hats (Disney Merchandise) and beautiful watches and jewelery. Requests, let me know.

I don't know if I've talked about this, but I found out that I might be able to go Seasonal here at Disney. Requirements include working 40 hours a year, and at least one scheduled shift every 6 months. This means I'd be able to keep my Disney discounts, get into the parks for free all year long (I don't know about how many people I'm allowed to get in though). I have to talk to my managers, go through a screening process of sorts, and then hope to be granted the seasonal standing. After that though, I have no clue how it works. Haha.

I miss my dogs. So much. I'm debating going to the kennel clubs here and begging them to let me walk dogs. We have stray cats living at Vista Way.. but I don't think they'd really give me my "fix". Can't wait for you guys to come down too!

Um.. I can't really think of much else. Besides the fact that in the normal skipper way, the puns and the bad jokes follow us everywhere. They become part of our normal way of talking - and can be very very annoying. It'll be interesting to see how long this (annoyance) lasts. :)

Love you guys, give me a shout every now and then if you'd like - here or through email or whatever. Ttyl!

Just for fun

http://www.toptenz.net/10-disney-facts-oddities.php

interesting facts. Feel free to add your own links.

June 12

Morning everybody. Had an interesting couple of days so I thought I'd share.

Wow heat. It hasn't rained here for a few days so everything is dry and hot... No 101's at the jungle.. boo.... It's 82º at 9 30 am.. expecting no rain, a high of 94º and a low of 78º. Gotta love Florida.

I witnessed a pain in the butt child get what was coming to him. Mean to say, but we come to hate annoying little kids who do everything wrong on our boats. I was at back unload and the rope boat came up. For the rope boat, we attach a rope to the back of the boat, and then push the throttle all the way to the top, which holds the boat flush against the dock.. This is done for older people and people with disabilities who have difficulties walking. .. Anyways, I attached the rope, and then the boat has to pull forward until the rope is taut... A little child in the back, decided that at the last second it would be fun to slip his fingers between the rope and the boat... thereby making his fingers get crushed as the rope became taught... Screaming child, me yelling at the driver to pull backwards, and the parents of the kid looking very unimpressed. I found out later from the driver of the boat that the kid had been a pain the whole boat ride, and she couldn't understand why the parents weren't controlling him... We filed a report, got medical attention for the boy... and that was it.

Yesterday I had an interesting day too. Was busy all day - steady flow of boats. My shift was supposed to be done at 9 pm... and wouldn't you know it, but at 8 pm I get bit by some bug. Now apparently Florida doesn't have normal bugs, because within a half hour my hand had swelled, was shaking and became numb. I got to sit and talk with paramedics for an hour going through natural home remedies to try since I didn't want to go to the hospital (I don't think it was such a big deal that I needed to go to the hospital). Alka-Seltzer paste, Benydril and icepacks, etc. Good news, I wake up this morning and my hand looks and feels fine. My wrist is a little sore, but no lasting effects. Yay!

Today I work until 2 am. Fun stuff. You gotta love Extra Magic Hours for resort guests. There's never enough people to fill entire boats, which makes it harder for the skipper to do a speech when theres only 2 families on a boat. But we still get paid even if there is nobody around. :)

Can't wait for the parents to come down here. Hopefully they can tape my performance and I can put it up here so everyone can see how corny I can be Haha. Love you guys, miss you too. Ttyl

Ask me for passcodes

I appear in this quick video presentation during Grocery Bingo. Me and my one roomie are in the front row. Ask me if you'd like to see, cuz then I'll have to give you the username and password. I don't really want to post those for everyone in the world to see.

https://enterpriseportal.disney.com/site/wdw/index.jsp?epi-content=GENERIC&beanID=1354560294&viewID=maximized&wsrp-mode=wsrp:view&wsrp-navigationalState=contentId%3D521080%26xslFile%3Dwdpr_video.xsl%26expDepth%3D2%26xslLoc%3Dcommon%26printable%3D1&wsrp-windowState=wsrp:maximized&displayname=Weekly+Broadcast+-+June+3%2C+2009&printable=1

Sat June 6

I got my marks!! So excited and proud!! Thought I should put this in since there's not really much other interesting news to deliver...

Been working longer days the past few. Last night I worked from 10 30 am til 11 pm (not including the hour before and after for transportation). I know why all the blogs done by other kids in this program say to bring or buy a car if possible. I don't htink I could rely on the bus transportation for more than 3 months. Ouch.

It's thundered every day in the jungle, so we've gone "101" every day. 101 is the term used for being closed mainly due to weather, 102 means we are back up and running. 10-7 means we are closed for some other issue (can't remember reasons), and 10-6 means we're back up. Every day, we've been 101 for roughly 2 or 3 hours. Somewhere on YouTube are videos of us dancing in puddles under the Fastpass roof as the drains started backing up one day because of all the water. I'll have to try and find them for some more entertainment.

Besides that, not a whole lot else to report. People are warming up to me at the Jungle Cruise, I'm making friends, and I have (I think) come up with a decent spiel and "character" that seems to entertain (most) boats of people. Yesterday I was on boats almost all day which really sucked, but I guess it makes the time go by faster.

Oh, I got roasty toasty the other day - worst sunburn I think I've ever had. That was on.. last Monday... And my legs are STTIILLL lobster red. Everything else has turned into a tan (thank goodness only my nose peeled) - so I'm pretty dark. Baking again on Tuesday I think.. or.. I hope.

Oh, and I'm desperate for groceries. I actually took cereal to work yesterday for dinner because I had nothing else left. I'm gonna go make the trek to Walmart hopefully Monday.. the problem is the bus sucks. Every other day it comes at a different time. First bus is 11 am one day, the next is 3 pm.. Then 11, then 3. Well... I've either worked at 10 30 am or 3 pm. So, haha, I have nothing to eat. Fun stuff. I wish the Mouseketeeria (our cafeteria haha) wasn't so far away, because I am in love with their daily pasta dishes. Lots of pasta and a bread stick and a drink for under 5 bucks. The Caf is 15 minute walk to and 15 minute walk from the Jungle Cruise.. and lunch for us is 30 minutes. Damn.

Um... yeah... pretty uneventful. Let me know if there's anything you'd like me to talk about.. I'm kinda drawin a blank!

Love you, ttyl!