"Hot Town, Summer in the City"

Well, it's officially summer, and almost Fourth of July. Summer has to be my least favorite times. It's so hot, so busy, so hot. Did I mention it's really hot? So far I seem to be keeping up with my once a month posts, which I've decided is both good and bad. Good, because those of you that actually read this don't have to suffer through such long posts anymore, bad because I struggle a bit more with figuring out what to write. Give me a minute. Give me a minute. Okay! I think I have an idea.

June has been quite a busy month, and July is looking to be the same. I don't remember how the month started, just know that it was both long and fast at the same time. Someone please explain that one to me? Nevermind, I forgot nothing ever makes sense to me :P Anyway..... where was I?

Oh yeah! I WAS in Anaheim, but that's the middle of the month. A few days just before, I decided to do something insane: I signed my death wish, aka signed up for a half marathon. For those of you that don't know, I'm NOT a runner. I've never been a runner. I've always hated running. I tried out running once. It made me sick. Literally. I finished the race dead last by at least a lap and nearly threw up. Since then, I haven't done much. However, when they announced this half marathon at the beginning of June, I couldn't resist. It's a Star Wars Half Marathon! The first Star Wars Half Marathon here in Disneyland. I'm sorry, but Star Wars, I had to. Guess that means I only have 5 1/2 months left to live, better make it worth while ;)

In all seriousness though, I'm working on training as hard as I can. I'm honestly nervous because of my history with running. I overheat really easily, not just when running, but even when just standing around. When I overheat, I become extremely nauseous. I also get terrible side stitches really easily. I'm trying to take things slow and see if that makes any difference. I just finished week 2 of training. The "program" I'm using calls for 2 days of half hour runs and one longer run.

The first week went really well. At the beginning of the week, I started with running for about 30 seconds, then walking about a minute. I say about because I had no way of timing these, so it was what I thought was close to accurate. The long run was for 3 miles, and I decided I'd run a song, walk a song. Week 1 finished successfully. Week 2 not so much. The first day, I had no problem with running half a mile, walking a quarter of a mile, but the second day was a total failure. I had a side stitch after running just 5 steps. I spent the entire half hour walking. I think I managed to do 2 miles at least, so at least I'm still within the minimum finishing time of 16 minutes per mile. Monday's run was more successful. 4 miles, managed to do the run half a mile, walk a quarter mile the entire distance. Not sure how long it took me to do though, I should time it next time.

Also in June, I moved! Good news: No longer in Anaheim. No longer in a sweltering hot apartment. No longer have extremely loud neighbors who play movies at max volume at 2 in the morning. No longer have to smell someone below me smoking pot. Bad news: No longer live 2 miles away from the park. No longer able to wake up just an hour before work and still make it on time. Despite being further away, I really like this new place, with the exception of the one cockroach I found in my bathroom over the weekend. Haven't seen any since thankfully (knock on wood). Sadly, because of the move, it's been over a month since I've done any real cooking. Fortunately, I finally settled in enough to start that back up a couple days ago. As of this posting, I've been able to make scones, a tuna casserole, and a Bearnaise Essence that I still need to figure out how to use..

Speaking of cooking, I register for classes in 2 weeks. Nervous and excited about that. Has it really been 2 years since I've taken a class? 3 years since I've taken classes in a classroom setting? Here's to hoping for a lot more hands on than lectures.

I also spent a lot of time playing in the park in June. I've come to the realization that whenever I just need to get away and destress or escape reality for a while, I end up in the park for a few hours. I also keep every single ticket. You should see the stack that I have right now..... it's scary.

I think that's about it for my monthly update. Time for another busy month. Busy work schedule, traveling, running, cooking, playing in the park. Lets see how well I can survive the heat this year.

What's this? It's only been a month?!

I realized I never showed a picture of my "new" costume, so here's one of me working. Photo courtesy of my dad

It is now June. That means it is beyond officially summer at Disneyland. I have to say this is the first summer I'm less than excited for. At least right now. I'm going to try to post something once a month or every other month. That way they won't get so insanely long again.

I've finally been able to get back into playing in the parks. Just in time for the parks to become to crowded for me to tolerate. I still struggle with finding people to go with me, so I've been going a lot by myself and just wandering around because the lines are too long. It's also gotten too hot too quickly. If anyone knows of a way to keep from getting nauseous while out in the sun, please let me know. I have also been placed on transitional at work. For those unfamiliar with it. Transitional is an "in between" position between being away from work and coming back to work from an illness or injury. For the last couple weeks, my wrist had been bothering me, finally went to the cast health center and they said it was tendinitis. Now I'm greeting for at least the next week at various locations, mostly stores. I think it would be more fun if they moved me around every couple of hours. Okay, that's all the negative stuff. Now on to the fixing part.

Last post, I made a serious mistake. I kinda confused birthdays and anniversaries. I mistakenly said it was the beginning of the church calendar (not looking up facts and thinking Pentecost, of course that's when the church had to have started and therefore the calendar. Nope). Pentecost may be the birthday of the church (I looked up my facts this time, dad "http://catholicinformation.aquinasandmore.com/2011/06/12/pentecost-the-birthday-of-the-catholic-church/" and other websites say close to the same without specifically saying "birth of the church"), but it's not the beginning of the calendar. I'll admit that's always been a detail that's confused me, which is probably part of why I made the mistake in my last post. The beginning of advent is the beginning of the church calendar. Okay, I think that's all the mistakes that have been pointed out to me. Onwards!!

I feel like this post is going to be a lot shorter, probably because there's been a lot less time between this and my last post (finally!). Other than being on transitional at work, most everything is the same. I've made it through the spring break season only to now be in summer season. For one of the first times ever, I decided to do something for my birthday this year. I was hoping that the dates I had chosen would work really well, but apparently any time in the end of May is bad. Guess in that regards, I don't have a very good birthday date. Disney once again decided to do a 24 hour event (from now on, I'm just going to say that this is their way of celebrating my birthday) on Friday and Saturday of memorial weekend.

My bright idea was that Thursday night would be great to get everyone from work together for medieval times. Nope. I had two people show up: my roommate and a friend from Fantasyland. We had a blast though, so I guess it worked out. Then I decided to get a small group of friends from work together to play in the park on Tuesday. That worked a lot better, but it was frustrating figuring out all the details. Ended up having a girls brunch, followed by sporadically meeting up with the guys. We were all together (minus one that worked) by the time the evening ended at least, so that worked out as well. Because of the weekend, my birthday present was also late, but I got that as well: a food processor! Now I don't have to ruin as many blenders attempting to use them as food processors. I also got a target gift card (thank you Connie), starbucks gift card (Thank you Tyler) and couple bouquets of paper flowers and an owl, handmade by Tricia. All and all it was a good weekend, and I'm really happy with the friends and coworkers I have. I think that's about all on the Disney front, but wait! I have more!!

I've made a bit more progress towards culinary school in the fall. last month I was feeling like I had hit a brick wall, and it was putting me down, but I've finally been able to make more progress. As of this year, California has decided to have a priority registration deadline. This means that you have to have grades, transcripts, credits, and education plan all in by June 1 in order to register before classes start. Everyone else gets whatever is left (and with how overcrowded the California schools are, that's nothing). My biggest hangup was the meeting with the counselor to create the education plans. Meetings had to be set up in advance, but by the time I would figure out my schedule, all the appointments would be taken. Thankfully, as the deadline got closer, they did away with the appointments, and made it walk-ins all day every day the counseling center was open. It meant I had to wait 2 hours, but I was able to go on any one of my days off to finish the last requirement. Now, I'll get an email any day now telling me when my registration appointment is. All I know right now is that it will be for some time in July. Classes start late August. I was also approved for some financial aid, but I don't know how much since the amounts they gave me were assuming full time, and I won't be going full time. At least I won't have to use my entire savings to pay for everything. I'll keep this post up to date with the school stuff. I'm really excited to finally start. 2 1/2 more months!!

And now for the video of the post. For some reason, any time I watch a marvel movie, my villain obsession increases. This video is one of the not so common-anymore villains. The beginning of the video is just the intro to the song, so bear with it :P

Happy (Belated) Easter!!

Happy Easter (season) Everyone! Easter's a time of renewal, a time of rebirth. Spring in general feels that way sometimes. Spring cleaning? Time to restart the slate with a clean house (apartment). It's also almost the new church year, which can also count as a new start in my book. With that in mind, I spent my Easter weekend doing a lot of thinking (and church, and work, and all around being busy, busy, busy). Where am I going? What am I doing? What's the point of this blog? Why do I have this blog? What am I going to do with it. For those that know a bit about me, I'm sure you've heard all about the events from the beginning of this year (or the results of them at least). It's because of all those events that I haven't written a new blog post. For the past several months I have very strongly debated even deleting everything. I finally came to a conclusion: If the Easter season is a time of regrowth and new beginnings, why can't I do the same with my blog? Why give up just because life changes? I started this blog to document my Disney adventures. Specifically during the college program, but I'm still at Disneyland, so I'm still having Disney adventures. Just because I'm no longer getting married doesn't mean I'm not still able to have adventures, therefore I'm going to keep working on my blog.

As I mentioned in my last post in November, I'm no longer in Fantasyland. I am now at Market House on Main street. This is the Starbucks located inside Disneyland. I'd applied for Starbucks once or twice when I was living in Washington, but that was because I was in need of some sort of job. I've never DESIRED to work at a Starbucks, even though I thought maybe it would be fun when I was filling out the applications. I was never one of those people that always wanted to work at a Starbucks. Working at the Market House Starbucks is definitely a lot different than anything I ever expected to do. Apparently I had to leave Washington to work at a coffee place. Guess I missed Washington that much (not surprising). Over 6 months later, I still love working there. The only thing that I don't like about Market House is the lack of directly working with food. In that regards, it hasn't really been helping with my goal of becoming a chef, but I've been able to get more advice from my mangers and chefs here, which is probably more beneficial. I've also made quite a few more connections with other chefs and managers.

As much as working at Market House has been able to help currently, it's still not the final stop. Eventually I'm going to have to move over to table service (the sit down restaurants in the resort). My goal is to do this within the next year. Table service is considered a different department (I'm currently working in the quick service restaurant department. There's also many other departments such as custodial, attractions, merchandise, etc.), so I will have to do something called an internal transfer. Basically, I'll fill out an application as if I'm applying to work at Disneyland. If I do get accepted into the Table Service restaurants, I'd have 30 days to decide if I liked it enough or not. Within those 30 days, if the transfer doesn't work for me, my original position will still be available to me. However, I don't know how this would affect my chances of returning later in the future. Right now, my hold-up for transferring is my need for money to pay rent and insurance.

I am also currently enrolled in one of the local community colleges. Assuming I can get all the requirements finished in time, I will be able to start taking classes in the fall and finally start working on my culinary degree! I can definitely say I'm excited about that. In the process of making sure I have everything together, I have been to the college campus twice. As far as California goes, I really like the campus. It's really open, has quite a few grassy areas, and some trees. Every building also has a bike rack in front of it, which makes me really excited since I'll be riding my bike to and from school.

Let's see..... is there any other significant changes to talk about? I guess if I think of anything else, I'll include them in a future post (which, with my average will probably be August :P). On to the fun stuff!

Since January, I haven't had much chance to play in the park. Partly because life has recently been getting in the way, and partly because it's been too hard emotionally, as well as no longer having anyone to go with. I am pleased to announce that the last half is getting easier and easier. I have occasionally found people to go to the parks with me, and I have even gone once or twice by myself for a short time. As a self-diagnosis, I think I'll recover from the "Disneylandphobia"

Other than hanging out in the park with friends or by myself, I have also been able to do some new and unique things this year. 2014 marks the 50th anniversary of the small world attraction. To celebrate this milestone, Good Morning America (talk/news show that's on ABC from 7 AM - AM weekdays, not sure about weekends) had a segment to celebrate. During this segment, they had choirs from all the currently open Disney parks sing part of the Small world song. Rehearsals were intense because of the times. During the week of this event, we had a rehearsal Monday night from 6-10. We then met "Tuesday night" at 3:30 AM - 8 AM (This is actually Wednesday morning, but they kept referring to it as Tuesday night). then the following day (Thursday morning) at 2:30 AM for final dress rehearsal, call time and performance. 12 hours for 22 seconds of tv. They filmed our segment and the segment for Disneyworld live. Everyone else was lucky and had their segment recorded. No crazy hours for them! Even Disneyworld was late enough that they didn't have crazy hours (since the show was at 8:30 for them).

Backtrack a couple years ago. Peter introduced me to a group of people he met back in 2008. These people are a part of what's known as the Disney Podcast Network. This is a site filled with various Disney podcasts. Back in 2006, they decided to create an event where the podcasters and fans could meet and spend time together. From my understanding, it is now more some of the fans that get together every year. This event is called Westfest (since it takes place in Disneyland on the west coast). Two years ago when I met them, I immediately decided it was a fun group. Fast forward to February. After everything that happened January and February, I was worried that I would no longer be able to join these people, and if I did join, I wouldn't be able to fit in very well. My (unrealistic) impression was that these were people that were huge fans of Disney and knew virtually everything from every date to every important piece of history, and I struggle with remembering all that stuff. Luckily for me, that wasn't entirely true, and also luckily for me, I was still asked to join them this year.

This past weekend was the 2014 Westfest. From the informal meetup Thursday night through the official end Sunday night as well as those still around meeting up Monday afternoon, the weekend was filled with so much fun. I met many new people from all over the country. The only thing everyone had in common? A passion for Disney. This doesn't translate to knowing EVERYTHING about Disney like I thought it did. This translates to people who love spending time in Disneyland. They may or may not know more than the average person, but most people don't know everything. This was evident when, on a couple different occasions, we were asked trivia questions and it took a while to come up with the right answers. One question, which 5 names are mentioned in the Pirates of the Caribbean attraction, took 3 people to get an answer. Another question asking about the date of an old Mickey Mouse cartoon took an entire group and several hints to come up with the answer. I can definitely fit in with this group!

While this last month has definitely had some fun things, it also meant it was really busy, partly why I'm only just now writing this. Even as I right this, it's only a "calm before the storm." Yesterday, I ran away from the heat, winds and forest fires of Southern California only to be met with....... heat, no wind, no forest fires. (It's the heat that I hate the most) It is the first day of May, and it is 87. At least it's slightly better than 102. I keep hoping it'll rain before I have to go back to work. Maybe if I get a bit of rain and cold weather, I'll be able to tolerate the warm weather a bit longer. I also blame the busy schedule for the lack of "humor" in this post compared to others. Maybe next post will be a bit more normal. Maybe one day I won't be going 50 gazillion directions. Maybe.... Or maybe not. But hey, I'm happy, I'm having fun. I don't care! (too much) And I'll also try and make these posts more frequent so that they're easier to read when you're short(er) on time. I've noticed that these posts become very long when I wait 6+ months between posts. More proof that I have too much to talk about regarding Disneyland.

P.S. Instead of my normal song video at the end of the post, I have posted the Small World segment from Good Morning America. I'm sure everyone that wants to has seen it already, but it means I can still post a song and be lazy at the same time! Actually, I just figured it fit with the earlier part of the post.

(near) end of the year check-in

Not sure if anyone still follows my posts, but for those that do I'M STILL HERE!!!! Just missing (If you find me, please let me know).

I suppose since it's so close to Thanksgiving, I HAVE to post the stuff I'm thankful about: I'm thankful for the friends and family I have and how supportive they've been of me living here in California. It's really hard not being able to see you guys very often, and I wish I could change that around. I'm also thankful that I have a job that I can rely on with benefits that are just about perfect and plenty of opportunities for advancing.

So I believe my last post had the title "the more things change, the more things stay the same". I considered making this title the exact opposite "the more things stay the same, the more things change." Things are definitely a lot different than they were last time I wrote.

I think I'll start with running through the things that are still the same:

• I'm still working at Disneyland
• I still hate the weather down here
• I still spend virtually all my days off either in the parks or cooking
• Electronics still hate me
• I still miss Washington

That might about sum up the list of things that are still the same.

Okay. Time for the things that are different. Not sure that this will work to put in bullet form like the similar stuff, so I'll have to do paragraphs.

Biggest change: I no longer work in Fantasyland (or rarely do anymore). I am now a certified Starbucks barista! (NEVER thought I'd say those words). at the end of June, beginning of July, I went through a 40 hour Starbucks training to become a barista. In August, I worked one day a week at the Starbucks location in Disney's California Adventure. Disneyland opened their own Starbucks on September 25th, 2013, and I was part of the opening team. I now work at Market House (the Starbucks in Disneyland) full time, unless they desperately need me in Fantasyland. It's a big change, but I love it. Sadly, it has nothing to do with food, but it still feels like a lot of experimenting, and it's a lot more hands on. It's also a much busier location (makes sense since it's right in the middle of Main Street). I also feel like there's much more opportunity for advancement. We'll see if that feeling proves correct though after they start posting applications for leads and trainers. So summary on this change: I have gone from knowing hardly anything about coffee drinks (what's the difference between a cappuccino and a latte? What's a Frappucino? What's a mocha?) to knowing what everything is, and variations of each of those items.

Another change was to where I live. In August, I moved from Fullerton to the beautiful city of Orange. While the distance was roughly the same, it feels so much further away. I can no longer take just one bus in to work now, I have to take 2. And one of those buses has more limited hours. More on that in a bit. I really like the location I live now. It's quieter (unless the neighbor's dog is barking like crazy), and a lot more stores around. There's even an area in the older downtown part that reminds me of streets back home with the older buildings that are multiple stories with apartments on the higher floors. I miss home sometimes. Everything feels to new and high tech down here sometimes. It's nice to have that older, more mom and pop store feeling.

Because of the buses being more limiting, I decided it was time to find a new form of transportation. Because 4 miles is a bit far to walk, especially in the mornings (especially with a 6:30 am shift. Did I mention I now get earlier shifts too?), I asked my cousin Steve for a recommendation on an inexpensive, but good road bike. (for those that never heard, my old bike was stolen in January from my apartment porch) He recommended a specific bike if I could find it used, but I noticed that it was currently on sale as well, so I decided to break my budget and just buy it new. Couldn't be happier. At first, I was only riding it on days where the bus either started after I had to leave or ended before I got off work. At the beginning of October, I decided to start riding to work every day. It takes me 20 minutes on average to ride to Disneyland on my bike. With waiting for the bus, and transferring buses, it would take a minimum of 40 minutes to get to work. I have to say, I missed riding my bike.

The last big change that I can think of, and one that I'm the most excited about (now that I've been working at Market House for a while, that is) is that Peter and I HAVE FINALLY SET A DATE FOR OUR WEDDING!!! And thank you Disney World for counting down the days for that (294 according to their countdown). With every post that I've done since the college program ended, I've been trying to figure out what to do with this blog, if anything. I think I've finally found an idea: This blog was meant for my adventures with Disney. It was at the end of the college program that Peter proposed, and since we both work for Disney, and have various levels of obsessions with Disney, I'd say that when one adventure ended, another began. For the next year, I'll dedicate at least a portion of each post to updating where we're at with the plans (our current Disney Adventure). For those that have absolutely no interest in this, I'll put it at the end of the posts so you can just stop reading before.

Up until now, all we've been able to do is determine roughly what we want to do: Where we want the wedding, what time of year, what we want to do for the honeymoon, who to have in the wedding, colors, details like that. During that time, we've decided on a wedding up in Washington with purple and blue as the colors. The goal is to try and do the wedding at little cost as possible without cutting out anything important or dropping below what we want. We will not be hiring a caterer, and at this point have decided against a photographer, since most of my family lives with cameras anyway. I also found a great deal on my wedding dress and have that on hand already (sorry, no pictures of it until after the wedding) We have also completed Engaged Encounter (a highly beneficial retreat required by the Catholic Church). We loved the retreat and felt like we learned a lot. Now it's just a matter of remembering to apply everything we've learned.... learning process, right? We've just about finished all the required prerequisites, and have been able to pencil in the date. We have also booked the hotel room for Disney World for the first week of our honeymoon (I didn't want to miss out on the 50% discount. This is also how Disney World is able to keep track of the days remaining. TECHNICALLY, the website says 295 days until our vacation starts). Now it's just a matter of finalizing everything.

Similar to last year, I will be going back to Washington for a couple of days. Unlike last year though, this is not a surprise visit, is not a 2 week long visit, is not just for pleasure, and is not by myself. I'll be bringing a couple of people with me (Peter being one) and my primary focus of the 4 day trip is to work on wedding stuff. By the end of the trip, I hope to have rough ideas for the cake finished, as well as an idea of the invitations (which my mom and I will be creating). It'll also be time to look into the hotels around the area for those out of town people. Hopefully I can also find a flower shop that doesn't break the bank. If anyone knows of any vendors in the area for anything PLEASE let me know.

Planning this wedding has definitely pointed out how much I hate last minute planning. I have a countdown calendar of things to do month by month until the wedding, and I've now looked at it 3 times since setting the date on Tuesday. It is now November, meaning 10 months before the wedding. I feel like I'm super behind on everything right now. I think, just for kicks and giggles, I'll post the countdown calendar up to the current month. I'll do it in bullets so you can easily skip if you'd like:

12 months before (September 2013):

• Announce your engagement: done
• Choose a wedding theme and style: Theme: Disney, style: casual? I'm a little confused on what this means, but at least I don't think people need to be super dressed up. Just Sunday best
• Work out a basic budget; research reception venues: done and done. Budget: the cheaper the better, reception venues down to 3 possible with one ideal
• Determine number of guests: aiming for 200 at most, but have to get numbers from each family still. Hope to have that by end of the month
• Look through magazines for attire ideas: check
• Meet potential wedding consultants; obtain bids: uhh... is this an auction now? Decided against consultant
• Research wedding pros. Set up appointments, and review portfolios, reels and recordings: Wow, I did not realize how hard this is to do from a distance. Fortunately, we've decided to go without a lot of the pros. Decided we didn't have the budget to pay $1000+ for each pro.

11 Months (October, 2013)

• Select a wedding consultant and meet to discuss details: Nope
• Determine theme/decorations for your reception: do I have to? not done. Any volunteers?
• meet with several caters; arrange for tastings: Nope, no caterer
• Select and book a caterer: couldn't this be combined with the last step?
• Reserve musicians/DJ for reception: next!
• Determine ceremony musicians and make musical selections: Mom, can you reserve my ceremony musician for me? As for music, I'm supposed to choose this now? I don't even know what music to choose!
• Book wedding videographer and photograph: Done (as in skip)
• research and interview florist: uhhhh.... mom? anybody? help!!
• Select and reserve your ceremony venue and schedule a rehearsal time: Done the first part, but haven't done the second part.....
• Choose reception venue; leave a deposit: Okay, mom can you look into details for the church please?
• Secure parking and/or transportation at the reception location: is this guaranteed since it's at the church?
• Visit local bridal stores to browse their selection of gowns: way past
• Choose your wedding-party members and ask them to participate in your celebration: done. Peter?
• Meet with your officiant to discuss the ceremony: not exactly done
• Determine your honeymoon budget: done
• Mail save-the-date notices for a destination wedding: Washington wouldn't be considered destination for out of state people, would it? (if I'm wrong, please let me know, I'm behind on this step)

10 months (November, 2013)

• Select and order your wedding gown: again, done
• Discuss attendants' duties with your maid of honor and bridesmaids: I thought that was an obvious one? Be there and have fun

So the overachieving part of me is panicking about the stuff that's currently out of control while I'm way ahead on other parts. I guess we'll see how the next 294 days go. All I know is that it will be filled with fun days at work and playing in the park, as well as a couple not so fun days of work (NOT playing though). And now, time for RANDOM DISNEY SONG!!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone, and we'll see how long it is until I write again :)

The More Things Change, The More They Stay The Same

So things have definitely fallen into more of a pattern now. I THOUGHT my schedule would become consistent, but it hasn't. I'm still never scheduled in the same place, or the same hours. The only expected thing that's changed is that my days off are more consistent. If I asked for Mondays and Tuesdays off, I get Mondays and Tuesdays off, unless they schedule me for 6 days.

Despite the variations in my schedule, everything is still less stressful. I don't have to worry anymore if I'll have the hours each week in order to pay for everything. I don't have to worry about missing a phone call from scheduling that will give me more hours. If I miss that phone call, oh well, I already know that I have the hours I absolutely need. I know my days off will remain my days off, unless I get bored and decide to pick up a shift. It's like a 50 pound weight was taken away! Or maybe that's just the trying to work out more.....

As I said at the start of this post, things have fallen into more of a pattern. Sunday: go to whichever mass time and location fits my schedule best. Monday: shopping and other errands. Tuesday: kick back and relax. Wednesday-Saturday, work. Any day that I get off before sunset, I walk home (4 miles). Saturday, either before work or after work (depending on the hours I work), I set up the menu for the following week. After creating the menu, I write the shopping list for the week. Each day I plan on cooking, I go to the store and pick up the non-perishable ingredients I can find as well as all the ingredients for the specific recipe I plan on making. While I plan a different recipe for each day, I don't cook each day, since I have to finish all or most of my leftovers before I'll make another dish, just so I can keep overall costs down (it's expensive to throw food away). After the meal is finished cooking, if I remember, I take a picture of the dish (I promise, I'm not one of those people that put's pictures of whatever they eat on instagram! In fact, I've never posted any of these pictures online. My intent is to use some of the pictures in a portfolio if I ever end up needing one.

I think I've addressed the big "changes" regarding work. Let's see...... anything different on the home front? I haven't had much time outside of work to do much else. The time that I do end up having seems to be taken away trying to finish up "mini-projects." Some of these include actually updating this blog, reading, creating new organization systems, going through the various e-newsletters I seem to have and never remember about, and cooking (speaking of which, maybe I should make dinner....)

I still hate the weather down here, but it's possible I'm getting slightly used to it. Even in April, I've been bringing a sweatshirt to work for sitting at the bus stop. By this time last year, I was wearing shorts and t-shirt waiting for the bus at the same time of day. Still too early to say if that's me getting used to the weather or not.

Peter came down a couple weeks ago to work during his spring break. During the times that we were both off, we spent time playing in the parks. Since they were so crowded, most of this "playing" was looking for hidden mickeys. After the week was up, we decided to start a "Disney challenge of the year" This means, we have some aspect relating to Disney to accomplish by the end of the year. For example, we might decide to find all the hidden mickey's by the end of this year. Next year, we may decide to watch all the Disney movies.

I can't think of anything else to add in this update. If there's any questions you have, clarifications, or just simply want to bug me (I think those people know who they are), feel free to send an email or leave a comment Especially send any "challenge of the year" ideas you may have for us to add to the list. I feel like this blog is going to become very repetitive if I don't find something else to add. Maybe I'll just add a "Q&A Section".... Or maybe I've just spent too much time staring at my computer screen and should look into making that dinner I talked about.....

Long Time..... But Not Forgotten.... Entirely

Peter and I at College Program graduation

So I guess I've finally gotten tired of people telling me "you need to write on your blog." "You need to finish your blog!" Or maybe I've finally had the time to get around to it. Things have definitely been BUSY since I last wrote in, when was it? MAY?!?!?!

Okay, now that I've recovered from that shock, I guess I should start with "summarizing" everything. Let's see..... what's happened since then.... anything important? I guess I can just go month by month and see what I come up with.

May: As was written in my last blog, I finally finished with probation. This meant that I could "cross-train" into other positions, which I immediately put in an application to do. Also in May was my birthday! Okay, nothing TOO special about it, other than going out to a buffet restaurant that I would recommend to anyone visiting Disneyland: Storyteller's Cafe. First time eating there. YUM! I don't remember if I've ever mentioned anything about the cookbooks that I seem to be collecting (and definitely using, A LOT). If I haven't, well, I seem to be picking up more and more cookbooks. Last count was 27 I think. Nope, I definitely can't have too many cookbooks. After all, as I said, I use them all! A couple of those cookbooks are Disney cookbooks. At some point, I had made the recipe for corn chowder from one of these cookbooks. It's the same corn chowder they serve at Storyteller's. I don't mean to brag, but when I had the chowder at the restaurant, I couldn't tell much difference between the two, and they were both amazing!

June and July can be combined into one, and I blame this "unit" as the reason I haven't gotten another blog out. I've been told that summers in Disneyland are busy, but little did I know how busy that was. I was putting in 40 hours a week throughout the summer, partly because of the 3 year seniority that the college program gave me, but also because of the higher need of workers. On top of those 40+ hour weeks, I was still cooking most meals at home, and occasionally participating in college program activities, as well as playing in the park just about every day I was off. For those of you who know what hidden mickey's are, I think we found just about every single one in the course of one summer. I guess I'm just making up excuses (somewhat) I could've updated this instead of playing in the parks, but let's be honest: which is more fun: playing with a mouse, or writing? At least I didn't decide that ALL the time, or else this won't be posted.

The cross-training requests that I had put in during May finally paid off during this time. In July, I learned how to be a cashier at Village Haus. You'd think it would be really easy just entering that cheeseburger that the guest wants and telling them how much the total cost is and then giving them their receipt and change. Nope. You'd  be VERY wrong. Guest: "can I get a cheeseburger?" Me: "would you like fries or fruit cup on the side with that?" Guest: "how much extra does that cost?" M: "it's included with the price" G: "can I get the fruit cup? And since that's a combo, I'll have a Dr. Pepper" M: "The drink would be separate, would you still like to add a drink?" G: "but it says combo on the board, that's what I wanted" M: "our COMBO is only side and the burger." G: "you did add cheese, right?" M: in my head thinking, well, you ordered a CHEESEburger "of course, cheese, lettuce, tomato and burger sauce" guest seems satisfied so I tell them the total. At this point, there's no turning back on the order, and it's already been sent to the kitchen, meaning they may have already started working on it. And it seems to be examples like this where the guest seems to struggle with figuring out if they want to use cash, and, if so, how far from exact to get, or credit card. After giving them their receipt, telling them which window to go to, I move on to the next guest. THEN they come back, "can I add pickles?" or "I didn't want tomato" or "can I change that to fries?" I understand that some people haven't completely decided what they want even while they're ordering, I've been guilty of that on numerous occasions, but really? At least those are the easy to change orders, I just inform the person at window, who informs the kitchen. Sometimes they want to change a cheeseburger to a different item, such as that BLT pizza they just saw a guest walk off with. Then I have to cancel the entire order and start over.

August: This was definitely a BIG month, with LOTS of changes. I almost need to go week by week for this month, although all the changes have all been within one week.

The first week was completely normal, still 40+ hours a week at work since it's still the summer busy season. Still way too hot for me. Since the College Program ended on August 18th, we had a "graduation" celebration near the end, on August 7th. In order to attend this celebration, we were all given the day off of work. What did I do with my day off? Spent it in the park of course! I decided to get ready for the celebration before leaving for the park, that way I didn't have to a) spend all day doing nothing in the apartment before and b) didn't have to come back to the apartment to get ready after playing in the park. Fortunately, that plan didn't end too disastrously, otherwise I'd be looking for a different picture to post above. The day started out normal, Peter and I looking for hidden mickey's, riding rides, and eating sugary foods, but it definitely did NOT end like a normal day.

Even though the celebration was at 7, Peter decided that we had to leave the parks at 4. Apparently, unlike me, he brought his clothes with him, but decided to get ready for the celebration AFTER playing in the park. After getting ready, and since there was still plenty of time to kill, we walked around a bit. He then decided to take a long tour around the Disneyland Hotel grounds (why the long tour, I still don't know) to the Rose Court Gardens where...... HE PROPOSED!!! Well, that explains the going out of the way part a bit. Apparently he got a bit nervous though, because our photographer hadn't arrived when he finished. Pictures ended up being staged, which is still okay, right? It was only a 5 or 10 minute delay.... After that, we walked around a bit more. Apparently the photographer, who happened to be one of my college program roommates, knew that  Disneyland still had "just engaged" buttons somewhere, so we went looking around for them. Turns out the only place that has them on a regular basis is Disney's Grand Californian Hotel and Spa. I'd definitely say that the graduation celebration paled in comparison to how excited I was at that point.

After all the walking around, we eventually made it to the graduation celebration, where we received a poster, graduation ears and button, and a keepsake box, as well as MANY congratulations from people. The celebration included a full meal, prominent speakers, including the Disneyland Ambassadors, pictures with Mickey and Goofy, and dancing, pictures, and lots of fun times.

After the celebration, and just days before the college program ended, many of my dad's family came to visit. My Uncle Mike, Uncle Herb, Uncle Dave and Aunt Rose came down to visit Southern California and me. This was the first visitor's I'd had since end of May, and I was excited :)

The end of the college program was definitely a bittersweet moment. For those that may not be aware, I decided to stay on after the program ended, which meant that I had to find another place to live, and that I'd be facing less hours. It was nice having a place that was a bit on the cheaper side, but I was worried about if I'd be able to afford even that. On top of that, it was sad saying goodbye to the friends that I had made. I even had to say goodbye to Peter, who went back to the Bay Area to finish school and only stayed with Disneyland seasonally (meaning he comes back for Christmas, spring break, and summer).

Also during August, I got trained in other cashing areas, including Toontown as well as Toontown food prep, and Troubadour Tavern food prep (before they closed for a lengthy remodeling).

September: Things were definitely slowing down. My weekly schedule only had anywhere between 16 and 24 hours. Fortunately, I could call in and ask for more hours. As a result, for the rest of the year, I only had at most 2 weeks that I worked less than 30 hours a week. It's definitely more stressful trying to pick up hours to reach a goal of 30 hours a week vs. being scheduled 30 hours a week. I thought I was busy during the college program! I guess I was busier during that time, but I just felt plain stressed this time because I couldn't PLAN anything. I may decide to hang out with a friend, or do errands, but if scheduling called me with a shift, I felt the need to take it, just because I needed the hours, and, even if I was already at 5 days, or 30+ hours, I couldn't guarantee the next week would be like that. During September, I also got trained at the Fantasyland Kitchens as food prep.

October - December: To say that the few hours I was being scheduled and everything else was so new would be a bit of a discredit. EVERYTHING this year has been new! I'd NEVER lived outside of Washington. I hadn't been to Disneyland more than twice before and now, not only have I been way more than that (almost 90 times by the end of the college program alone), and now I work here. With the exception of the busy times (Thanksgiving and Christmas holiday season), I was still getting scheduled little hours. Fortunately, just like in September, my schedule changed every single day. Almost each day, I would wake up to a call from scheduling, asking me if I could move work positions (from my scheduled food prep shift to cashier, or cashier at Toontown to cashier at Village Haus, etc.), or times and therefore have more hours. From mid-October on, I would get a call on all but one of my days off each week, asking me to come in for a shift. This was great, because I often was only given 3 or 4 days of work. Of course, this also meant that from October on, I was working 6 day work weeks just about every week. No wonder everyone though I was full-time (in simplest explanation, full time in Disneyland means being scheduled a minimum of 30 hours a week). I'd applied for full-time before, but had been denied twice.

During October, I had family friends visit from home, which was very exciting. I can definitely say that I love showing people around Disneyland. That being said, if you're the type of person that doesn't want random facts given to you along with recommendations of where to go DON'T ask me to give you a tour. I WILL give you more facts than you know what to do with. I'll also do my best to work around the crowds and make beelines for things that you've told me you prefer doing. You'll be worn out by the end of my tours, and you'll probably be complaining of your feet hurting.

From this visit on, I seemed to have no breaks. Between trying to reach at least 30 hours a week, working 6 days a week most days, and visits from various people, it seemed like I had no time for just relaxing. As far as visits go, I had my grandma (dad's mom), dad and Uncle Mike drive down for a visit the week before Thanksgiving. Of course, with Disneyland being open 7 days a week, and being only part time, with less than a year seniority, I had to work on Thanksgiving. As I told guests, since I couldn't go home even if I wasn't working due to costs, there was no place I'd rather be than working. December 19th - 22nd my other grandma, mom and sister came down for a visit. This was also their first stay in a Disneyland hotel, which they absolutely loved.

During November and December I also cross-trained to Village Haus food prep AND order cook. I had also applied for trainer back in August, and the managers decided to make me a trainer. I haven't trained anyone yet, but maybe one of these days I can. Christmas week was much like Thanksgiving. I worked 56 hours and worked on Christmas day. I didn't think Christmas would be anything special, but it was. Not only was Peter there, since he was working during his school break, but I was able to watch my entire family open presents due to the wonderful technology of Skype. Of course, at that point and many times before and after,  they kept asking when I was coming home again. If only I could've told them the surprise my mom and I had been planning since just before Thanksgiving....

January: I'd learned very quickly that January and February were the SLOWEST times for Disney. During these months, the part time workers hardly get any hours (my roommates were only getting 10-16 hours for the second week of January). I had been talking to my managers and found out that this was probably the easiest time to get time off, so I submitted a request for time off. Unfortunately, since I'm not full-time, I don't find out if I get the requested time off until the schedule comes out. This meant that, while I purchased plane tickets to go home January 10th - January 24th AND put in the request for those days off, I could have found out on December 28th that I didn't get any of the time off. Then I'd either have to trade shifts with people who were off those days, give away the shifts, or call in personal (which puts points on my record). Either that or ignore the plane tickets and stay in California, which was an option I wasn't going to consider since I hadn't been home for over a year. Fortunately, my over-worrying was for nothing. I got all the time off I needed for the entire trip. Not only was I able to surprise my family (seeing the look of surprise on their faces was so much fun), but I was able to come home for both my sister and my dad's birthdays! Yay! Just before leaving, I had submitted two applications: one application at the beginning of December was my third attempt at applying for a full-time position. The second application was to become lead. A lead is similar to a shift manager (for those that don't know what a lead is, but do know what a shift manager is). Leads are responsible for the workers in their area as well as addressing concerns that may arise.

My trip home has so far been very fun, and surprisingly busy. Little did I know that I'd be spending just about every day going through boxes of my stuff, packing more stuff away, and getting rid of even more. I think I've gotten rid of half of my stuff this trip alone. My mom's comment "you definitely don't have a problem getting rid of things." Last Wednesday (January 16th) I woke up to a call from Disneyland. I had finally been accepted for full time! I guess now I should go into more detail about what it means to be full time in Disneyland. Disneyland has something called lines, which simply means that this is the weekly hours you'll be working (anywhere between 32 and 40 hours a week), which days off you'll have, and where you'll be working. This means that I'll have consistent days off, and I'll know exactly where I'm working and not be changing location day to day like I have been as part time. Now I no longer have to worry about remembering where I'll be working, or what time I start. I also don't have to stress over getting that 30 hours I need to support my "extravagant lifestyle" (okay, so maybe $50 a week on groceries at MOST isn't extremely extravagant, especially since I don't always hit this mark). On top of that, I'll also be getting insurance (at what cost, I don't know). Since lines are for certain length of time, I don't actually start full time until March 10th. This means another month and a half of part-time schedules. I can live with that, right? I've done a year already.

If you've paid attention to the dates that I was gone for, you'll realize that I'm not in California currently, but that I'm home. Home in this case is Chehalis with my parents. While I haven't fully adjusted to California weather (80s are still too hot), the weather here is definitely cold. But I'll still take this cold weather any day. I prefer having to wrap up in more layers and blankets to having to take cold showers to cool down.

I guess, as horrible as I feel for putting this post off (all excuses aside, when I did have time to update, I either felt guilty about not updating more or didn't know how to update. Sometimes both), I feel like writing from here has made this blog come full circle. I started out writing from Washington, wrote about my year in Disneyland, and now am writing again from Washington. I will spend a few more days here in Washington before going back to California again.

Because this blog is "Disney Adventures", I now have many options of what I can do with this. I started this blog for the purpose of documenting my time with the Disney College Program. I could leave it at that and call this blog finished or I could continue talking about the adventures at Disneyland, although it wouldn't be as work oriented as it has been. These adventures can be things I discover in the park (sorta similar to disneyland park blogs from my understanding of them), how I've been doing overall (like a personal journal), or I can start heading into talking about food (like Julie and Julia, talking about this or that recipe that I made, experiments, and other stuff relating to my exploring the wonderful world of cooking [sung to the tune of "wonderful world of color"]). I could also do a combination, retire this blog and create another one for those other ideas. At this point, I'm really not sure which the best course would be. I guess if I have anyone that still reads this, your advice would be EXTREMELY helpful, I'm stumped.

I'm sorry about the length (I had a lot of catching up to do), and I'm even more sorry about the lack of posts.

FREEDOM!! AKA Off Probation

Sideways, I know. But here's the certificate proving I'm off probation

So much has happened since I last wrote. Or so it seems. Good news: I'M OFF PROBATION!! I was getting a bit worried since it seemed like everyone else was getting their certificates before me. Oh well, I finally have it, which means I can now cross-train :) I have already put in 2 cross-training requests, and plan on putting in a third soon. I want to explore different restaurants and try different positions.

My parents came down near the end of April. It was really fun hanging out with them in the park for 2 days. While it was still an exhausting 2 days, I think we were able to do more than we would have if I hadn't visited the parks so much. Because I've been here for 4 months, I have a much better idea of what rides will be busy when. At least, much better than I would have before. I doubt we would have been able to do so much otherwise. Not only did we get to go on all the rides we wanted to (with the exception of the Matterhorn, which is still closed for refurbishments), but we watched World of Color, Fantasmic AND the firework show. We would've been able to watch The Magic, The Memories, and You, but we decided that we just wanted to go home. It was such a great weekend. Next visit will be from my grandparents and sister next week. Now if only I can get more people to visit....

This last Wednesday, I got 2 new roommates. I had five roommates at the beginning of the program. A week before the new roommates, 2 of them went back to China. I definitely miss them. My two new roommates are pretty cool though. Both of them have done the program before. I'm sure the summer will be awesome.

Speaking of summer. The weather is still warming up here. I'm so glad I work inside where the temperature doesn't seem to change. It's hard taking my breaks outside some days, because I step outside and am both blinded, and covered in sweat from the heat. Nights are still on the cool side, although there's been a few more nights that are just right. I must be getting used to some of this heat though, since Thursday I decided it was just a degree or two too hot. It was just right to sit around doing nothing, but a bit too warm to do a lot of activity. It was high 70s. Used to be that I would only say that for high 60s, low 70s. Maybe there is hope. Especially if I can find easier access to a beach.. Only one is accessible by bus, and that's a 2 hour ride one way.

I'm still hoping to stay after the program. I've been struggling with finding housing, but I have a few leads. Now I just need to find a time to do something. Every time that I've scheduled the time to work on finding an apartment, something seems to come up. I had hoped to play D&D this Wednesday, but if I haven't been able to do anything about the apartment situation after, I may have to postpone that, since apartment is definitely more important than D&D (or so people keep telling me).

For those of you who read my facebook status', you've probably noticed the post about me boycotting my birthday. That is currently up in the air. The Disneyland Resort is currently in the middle of something called grad nights. These are 2-3 nights a week, from May to June, where high school seniors can come into the park and stay until 3 in the morning. Select restaurants are open during these nights. My restaurant was scheduled to be open for 1 or 2 a week. However, the first week of grad nights, there were only 8 guests the entire night. As a result, grad nights were cancelled for this week. Assuming that stays the same next week, I won't be boycotting my birthday. Rumor is that they'll cancel the remaining grad nights, but I JUST got scheduled for another one... If they're not cancelled, I work 6:30 PM on the 24th, until 1 AM on the 25th. Then I go back in at 10:45. This means that, unless I figure out the free taxi thing, I have to walk home (don't worry, I'll have someone to walk with) 2 miles. Then I have to be at the bus stop by 9:30 at the latest. So much for sleep.

I guess that's about it for this week. I'm going to post 2 videos today. Thanks to a certain someone sending me the video the other day (you know who you are *cough* Peter *cough*), I've had this song stuck in my head for a while. The first video is from the movie "The Nightmare Before Christmas" the second is a cover by Amy Lee from the album "Nightmare Revisited", which I like even better.

Back from break

Picture of me while spending the day at Newport Beach with Peter

Things have definitely been extremely busy around here.

In honor of leap year, Disney decided to create "One More Disney Day". During non-break week days, the park is open from 10 AM to 8 PM. On February 29th, the park was open from 6 AM until 6 AM the next day. Well, they definitely didn't expect the attendance that they received. By around 9 or 10, they had to close the main entrance because they had already reached capacity. I worked 5:30 PM until 2 AM. Because the buses were done running by that point  I decided to stay in the park until closing. While I was exhausted afterward, it was still enjoyable (and very, very busy). Since I was off on the 1st, I decided to take a nap after getting home. Long story short, it took me about a week to finally remember what day it was and recover mentally. A week after that was the start of spring break season.

While it's still the middle of the spring break season, I'd say that spring break is pretty crazy. I have yet to have a proper weekend. First week of spring breaks (the same week that WSU was on spring break), I had a 6 day week, all days having at least 6 hours. Second week, last week, was another 6 day week, with all shifts at least 8 1/2 hours, half probably close to 12 hours. This week so far is just 5 8 1/2 hour days, but I had today off, and then I'm not off again until Thursday. So far, next week will be a proper weekend. One nice thing about this week and next is that I don't have to deal with class on top of everything.

Work is still going well. I've decided that everywhere has drama: high school, college, work, friends, family. I've definitely been trying to stay out of it, and so far succeeding, for better or worse. I still say that my favorite spot is in the back of house. I haven't had much chance to practice making pizzas, but I have made many friends over there.

I have one month left before probation is over. As soon as probation is over, I'm putting in requests to cross-train. I just found out a few days ago that banquet is a cross-training option. While it wouldn't help me in the short-term with becoming a chef, it'll give me waitressing experience. If I can put in multiple cross-training applications, I'll do both that and food prep.

Lets see..... what else is new? Oh, weather! Can someone please send me some snow? It's too warm down here. Today was 77 degrees and very, very sunny. It's only the beginning of April! It's too early for this type of weather. I want my rain and snow back :( I think the weather's the only thing I haven't been able to get used to down here. I've gotten used to the constant sound of sirens (doesn't mean that I like it, just that I'm used to it). I've gotten used to the extremely tall buildings. I've also mostly gotten used to the business. I just can't get used to the weather. When the sun's out, it's too warm. When the sun isn't out, it's chilly. I can't find a happy medium. Maybe summer will cure that. Hopefully.

Since moving down here, I've been doing a lot of cooking. The more cooking I do, the more I love it. I just wish that I had more space in the kitchen, and a better stocked kitchen. I've also picked up so many cookbooks already, and I've made at least one thing from each of the recipes. No, I'm not obsessed :P

I can't really think of much else to add, other than another music video. This one is one of my favorite songs from Pocahontas. Hopefully my next post will be a lot sooner than my last. We'll see how busy this next month is.

New Adventures Happening all the Time

Peter and I at the Blue Bayou on Thursday

Today was a very exciting day at work. Actually, this entire week has been very different. Last Wednesday was the first time that it's rained on my day off. It wasn't too bad, except that I was soaked after only 5 minutes of being outside. I've missed the Washington rain, so it was a nice change.

Thursday was my last day off. Peter and I went to the Blue Bayou for dinner. After that, we went to laser tag put on by the college program. I didn't realize laser tag could be so much fun. Last time I played, the lasers could hit their target through all of the walls and when the lasers hit, it felt like I was getting shocked. This time, the lasers could bounce off mirrors, but they couldn't go through walls. When hit, the vest vibrated slightly, just to let you know you were hit. It was infinitely better this time. They even played star wars music while we were going through the maze finding people :)

The rest of the week has been very, very long. Because it was a three day weekend (four for some schools), the park was VERY crowded. Friday was my busiest shift in the back of house, Saturday was my busiest in the front. Both days, the crowds never stopped. Guess I now have a vague idea of what spring break will be like. Today was very slow in comparison. I know I haven't learned everything yet, but I feel like I've mastered most everything. I know how to put a burger together, I know how to wrap a burger, I know how to put the specialty items together, and I know how to add fries. I also know how to close and restock. Today I also learned how to heat up pastrami.

When I started work today, it was at the beginning of lunch rush. After that ended though, the people mysteriously disappeared. We went from busy to practically empty. Despite how slow it was, it was still fairly exciting at work. During one of the periods where there wasn't anything going on, I started talking to my trainer. Turns out there's a slight loop-hole to the having to wait to cross-train. In order to apply to cross-train, I have to finish my probation period, which is 4 months long. After that, I have to wait for a position to open up. However, it turns out that I can start practicing some food prep during slow periods, with the permission of the leads. I MADE PIZZAS TONIGHT!!! After talking to the lead, the person who was making pizzas went on break, and we ran out of pizza. The lead came up to me and told me "it was my moment to shine." I got to spend half an hour near the pizza machine :)

I had my second day of class this morning. We learned about the importance of Networking, along with proper etiquette to doing so. We also received our first assignment. Any guesses as to what it's about? I'll give you three guesses, the first two don't count. Give up? Networking! I need to interview someone that works for a department in Disney that I'd be interested in. I'm both excited and nervous.

Guess that's about it for this week. Hopefully, now that I know I can do a little bit of food prep, things will be even more exciting at work.

The song and video that I decided to add this week is "I'll Make a Man Out of You" from Mulan. For some reason, I've had this song stuck in my head all day. Enjoy!

~Amber

So Many Changes!

One of the many roses found in Disney's California Adventures

Happy Valentine's Day! I can't believe that I've been here for over a month. It feels like only a week or two. I also feel like I know almost everything about my job. Other than where things are located, I've restocked just about everything by now, and I can usually keep up with the rushes. I've even had many of the newer people asking me how to do this, or where to locate that (and some of the older people for the locating part). Tonight, I was talking to a few girls who are also in the program, but locals. Apparently they both thought that there was no way I was in the college program, because I was too knowledgeable at my job. Can I cross-train now, please? :) I know, I know. I have to wait until after probation. Maybe by then I'll know absolutely everything! Haha, yeah right.

So the parks definitely seem to be getting busier, although that could be a result of the three day weekend that just passed... THAT was fun. There was never a non-busy moment. Accomplishment of the week? I figured out why I'm always so much more tired after working in the back of house, compared to the front of house. When it's not busy in the front, there's only so many counters that can be wiped and restocking that can be done before there's nothing left to do. In the back, there's always something to do. Restock this, restock that, clean this, close that. While everyone else stands around talking, I'm always taking care of those other things. The other day, I spent two hours adding fries to orders, two hours sweeping, emptying trash cans, and restocking. Yep, back of house is busy.

Last post, I mentioned that I didn't get a chance to see the fireworks because they were cancelled. I was finally able to see the fireworks on Saturday. They were absolutely amazing!

Things have definitely changed a lot since I've come down here. Seems like all my habits are changing as well. I've always been a night person. I prefer staying up late and waking up late. I definitely don't stay up as late anymore, and I can usually wake up by 8:30 easily. The first two or three weeks here, I kept waking up by 7:30! Next to change? Food preferences. Who would've thought. I used to dislike salads. I've gotten to the point where I don't mind iceberg lettuce, either plain, or with soy sauce (weird, I know, but so am I). I randomly decided to pick up some chef salads at Vons (Safeway) the other day. Not only did I love them, they had salad dressing. Apparently, after years of hating it, I now like ranch. My activities have changed as well. Whatever time I wasn't spending on a specific activity with friends, homework, work, or chores, I was usually playing video games. Especially when Skyrim came out. Since coming down here, I haven't even put 24 hours into video games. I wouldn't say I've become more outgoing, but I'm hanging out with other people a lot more than I used to. When I'm not busy or hanging out with other people, I've been trying to find other activities.

Besides work and spending time with friends, I've also spent the last week looking into culinary school options. I've decided that at this point I'm going to stay here and continue working at Disneyland after the program ends. Because I lose all seniority I may have through the program when it ends, I'm going to try and move to table service restaurants immediately, or as close to immediately as possible. I had been looking into going to Le Cordon Bleu in LA. However, I started talking to the lead chef (can't remember his specific position, but he's basically the manager of everyone) today at work. I mentioned my interest in culinary school, and he gave me his recommendations. As long as I plan on staying with Disney, all I need is a certificate, which is the equivalent of an associates degree. With that, I'd have the education requirement taken care of to get into even the top restaurants, which is my goal. My next step is to look into those schools.

I started my Disney class this morning. I still can't really tell you what exactly the class is about, but so far, it's a lot of fun. Some weeks we'll have lecture classes, other weeks we have hands on activities. There's one week that we'll be spending the class time at the local food bank. It definitely sounds like an exciting class.

Since I've started working here, I seem to get a lot more Disney songs stuck in my head. I think that -along with one "random" picture - I'll also post a music video, at least occasionally. In light of today's holiday, I think I'll put up "A Whole New World" from "Aladdin." Seems very fitting

~Amber

No Fireworks For Me

Twice in a row.... Went to the park last night and tonight, both with the sole purpose of watching the fireworks. Both nights, the fireworks were cancelled. Ah well, still lots of fun in the parks to be had.

Yesterday was my first in a series of 7+ hour long shifts. I was scheduled to work 8 hours yesterday (excluding lunch break), but only worked 6 1/2. Tonight was the same, I got off 40 minutes early from my 8 hour shift. Both nights meant that I could get a good spot to watch the fireworks....unless they were cancelled.

Tonight was really busy in the parks, but even just mostly walking around can be just as much fun as constantly going on rides. Just remember: bring a jacket, it's a bit chilly when the sun goes down :) I also figured out that the food portions are large enough that even a Chinese cafe dinner can be shared fairly easily. And don't forget about those cookies..... Have I mentioned how much I love oatmeal raisin cookies? Even half of one of those cookies was too much... Definitely didn't want to go on anything more intense than Pirates of the Caribbean for at least half an hour.

Not much too different with the rest of the week: work, clean, make food, watch movies, play about an hour of video games (total, all week), hang out with friends, go to the park on occasion.

This next week, I have 5 7 - 8 hour long shifts. The following week is all 8 hour shifts. If I didn't know any better, I'd say it's already spring break. Plenty of time before that happens. First we have to get through February.

Still can't believe it's already February. I'm just 3 days shy of being here for a full month. It feels like a lot less time than that. I start classes in just over a week. That sounds exciting. Before that can happen though, I need to fix a slight problem with my schedule. Seems they decided to schedule me to start work at the exact time that I'm supposed to end classes.

Well, tomorrow starts another exciting week. Hopefully I'll have some exciting things to post, and some new pictures from my camera.

~Amber

I'm back!

Storm Troopers out recruiting

I know, I know. It's been too long since I've updated. I've been really busy. As stressful as everything's been, I've still been running on an emotional high since starting. I've been having so much fun, and in my opinion, have only had a few days of work :)

Since training, I've mostly been working in the front of the restaurant, which is fine with me. Today was the first time that I worked back of house. There's a lot more guest interaction, and I don't have to worry about burning my fingers on the onions! For the last two weeks, I've been working closing shifts. This week and next week, I'm finally working middle of the day shifts. It's definitely different. The shifts are busier overall and I don't have to worry about not getting my full time. On Tuesday, my shift was changed from a closing to an opening shift. When I came in, someone wanted to talk to me to see how everything was going since training. She knew that I plan on either going to culinary school or stay on with Disney after the program ends. She also told me that she would write my name down, and when a position in table service (the sit-down restaurants) opened up after the program, she would let me know. Yay!!! Now I just need to finish.

When I was watching the window last Friday at work, someone from Miami Ink came up to my window. I had no idea at the time who it was. Of course, I still have no idea, I hadn't heard of Miami Ink before then. The only hint I had that it was someone important was that people kept asking to get their picture taken with him. He was very nice.

Besides work, I've been really busy hanging out with friends and going to the park. California Adventures has this area that's open Friday - Sunday nights called ElecTRONica. This area is a cross between a show and a dance. I finally got to check it out on Sunday. It was definitely amazing. The opening show was really cool as well. I have to say that it's really nice being able to go into the park when I'm not working. I can ignore the park when it's busy, and find the times that lines are only 10 minutes long.

I went on the Haunted Mansion the day after it reopened (reopened this last Tuesday). That was the first time that I've been on that ride when it wasn't decorated for Christmas. It's a really fun ride. I think I've been on it about four times now. Hmmm...... maybe I need to visit the park a little less... nah.

So for the first time in 4 years, I seem to finally be struggling with allergies again. The entire time I was in Pullman, I only had to deal with allergies when I had worked in the basement of the library for too long.

Classes start in 2 weeks for me, some people start next week. Fortunately, it looks like I won't have any books that I need to buy. Woot! Less money to spend! :) I have no idea what to expect in the way of homework and assignments, but I'm pretty sure that I'll have less time to spend in the parks. I just figured out today that I can take the bus to the beach. I'm definitely going to have to take advantage of that in a few weeks, or whenever I have a chance to go with someone on a day off.

Spring break starts soon. Or at least that's what it seems like. I had to fill out a form for my availability. I have to remain fully available for at least weeks.

Well, I can't think of anything else to write to sum up the last several weeks. Just go to work, tidy up, hang out with friends, go to the park... fairly routine, but lots of fun. I'll try not to let so much time go by again.

~Amber

It's off to work we go.

Day 9

Back of the house uniform. It's a chef's "coat" with pinstripe black pants

Well, apparently it's been a while since I've posted something on here (and apparently 2 days is a while (and apparently I like using the word apparently today)).

I finish training on Saturday, and met one of the managers of the restaurant. The manager I met will be the one that I check in with every 30 days for one-on-one meetings. I found out on Saturday that after I'm off probation, I can cross-train. The probation period is 4 months. 4 months of not really being able to change my schedule. If I mess up during this period, I could risk my job. Not saying that there's no risk of losing my job after the probation period, but the risk is a bit lower. Cross-training means that I can either do the same jobs I'm doing currently in another restaurant, or I can do something else, such as cashier or a quick-order chef. At this point, I'm thinking I'll cross-train as a quick-order chef. We'll see when the time gets closer.

I'm also thinking that I'm going to continue on working for Disney after I finish this internship. From the sounds of it, it's very common for college program students to stay on with Disney after the 7 months of the program are over. Of course, it's only been one week. There's still plenty of time to change my mind. If I stay though, I'm going to try to get into table service restaurants. Even if I'm just a waitress, it would be more beneficial in the long run if I eventually go to culinary school like I want to.

Yesterday was my first official day of work. Yesterday and all this week, I work 3-9:30, excluding Wednesday and Thursday - which I have off. Work was a lot of fun, although chaotic at times. For the last hour, I ended up being the only one working 3 different stations. Everyone else was working on cleaning and closing. Putting a newbie in charge of all the customers? Oh boy. Fortunately, I was able to get some help when I needed it, and I didn't have any annoyed customers :) I also figured out that all of the people working in the front with me at the end of the night were fluent in Spanish. Unless they were talking to me or a customer, they were speaking Spanish. Boy, do I wish I could remember my Spanish :( Not sure if that would help though, I've always struggled with hearing what they're saying, even in my classes in high school.

It rained yesterday. It was amusing to see the various reactions of people. One of my coworkers was panicking because she's never driven in the rain before. I'm glad I was working inside for the worst of the rain. One of my friends was busing tables in Pacific Warf though, and was soaked by the end of the night. It's cloudy right now, but not raining. We'll see if that keeps up. Except when waiting for an hour for the bus, I've enjoyed the cooler weather the rain has brought.

The only thing I've come to hate so far is the buses. Just like in Pullman, they're always late. When I start work, the buses run every 15 minutes. When I get off work, they're once an hour, maybe even less. All I know is that I got off work at 9:40, and was waiting for the bus until 11:20.  A nice cup of hot tea was very nice after that.

The rest of the week will be basically the same as last night. Wednesday and Thursday I have off. Wednesday, I'm planning on going to a networking workshop that the college program is putting on as well as grocery bingo (free groceries? definitely!). Thursday, I'll probably go to the park.

Lets see what I decide to take a picture of and post for my next post :)

~Amber

Which is better?

Day 6

Front of Restaurant costume. Costume I wear when I'm easily visible

Today was another early morning oddly enough. I seem to have forgotten how to sleep in. Woke up at 7:50, even though I had an alarm set for 10. Watch, the one day I want to wake up that early, I won't be able to. Definitely setting an alarm for a lot earlier tomorrow, I have to be at work by 10:30.

This morning was much like yesterday morning, except I didn't work on cleaning the apartment. I left for work around 11:50, even though I didn't start at 2. The gal that started training with me wanted to ride the bus, and we needed to pick up chef uniforms, so we wanted to make sure we had enough time. I also was riding the bus with one of my friends, who had to be at work by 1:30.

Work was a lot of fun. I can't decide which I like more: front or back. In the front, we serve the customers, in the back, we're putting the orders together. The restaurant I work at (Village Haus) is a quick service restaurant. There are several chefs working that prepare each individual menu item. When in the back, I work on the line that puts the cooked foods together into menu items. I don't know which I like best. They both have their pros and cons.

Other than new stuff during work, today wasn't extremely exciting, therefore nothing much to write about. I'm still having a lot of fun here in California. So far things are going really good with the roommates. They're all enjoying their jobs as well. The weather has been really warm today. It seems to be getting slightly warmer, although I heard that it's supposed to start raining next week.

Tomorrow I work from 10:30 until 7 PM. After I get off work, I think I'm going to spend some time in the parks, go on more rides by myself, bug some friends that are working.

~Amber

Unexpected Fun

Day 5

It's a Small World ride, decked out in Christmas decorations

Yesterday was exhausting. I came home and all but fell asleep instantly. Considering my shifts are at night, I may have to change when I write these blogs. We'll see how it goes tonight.

Yesterday, I had intended to sleep in. Apparently sleeping in now means waking up at 7:30. Oh well, I got a lot done. Cleaned more of my stuff, swept the entire apartment. When all but the bedrooms are wood floor, that's a lot of sweeping. I even managed to go to the store to help a friend buy shoes for work. After that, took the bus to work and spent an hour talking to people before starting.

Work was a lot of fun! I admit that I was really worried that, because of high expectations, it would be a work setting that was all work, no nonsense - if you delay a split second on accident, you're in trouble - type of work setting. It was nothing like that. The first thing we did when we walked into the restaurant itself was meet all the managers. Even at that point, they were joking with each other, with the two people training us, and anyone else that walked by. The entire evening, everyone was joking with each other and clearly having a lot of fun.

I also learned a lot last night. The first 2 hours of work was a bit of a tour. The rest of the time was hands on experience learning how to do all of the up front jobs. I definitely struggle the most right now with the window service portion. When the restaurant closed at 8, it was all cleaning. The hardest part of cleaning is remembering all the steps involved.

I will admit though, when work was over, I was very glad to get home. I was exhausted by that point. I think if I had to work another half hour, I would've fallen asleep on my feet. I almost fell asleep at the bus stop after. My feet also hurt really bad. I was told it would take about 2-3 weeks to break in the shoes. Hopefully I can get used to them before. After all, they're only slightly less comfortable than marching shoes. I think the exhaustion was mostly due to all the overwhelming things. Lets see how much I can remember today...

Today I learn how to do the back kitchen work. Not sure if that involves cooking or prep. Guess I'll find out. Either way, I learn tonight and have two weeks to forget what I've learned before I may put that training to work. Guess I'm taking notes tonight.

Last night I finally gained access to the last of the webpages I'm supposed to have access to for work. However, I can't figure out anything. None of the links seem to be working. I did find a link for blockout dates through the end of April. Blockout dates are the dates that I cannot access the park. Right now, those dates are March 30- April 15th for Disneyland. There are no block-out dates for California Adventures. I'm guessing that these dates are because of spring break times.

So tonight I work from 2 PM until 10:30 PM. The extra hour is because the park is open until 9 PM tonight instead of 8 PM. Whenever I finally decide to put my front of the restaurant uniform on, I'll take a picture of it. I'll post this picture in the next update. One last thing to add before I stop writing. HAPPY FRIDAY THE 13TH!!! I've always found Friday the 13th to be good luck days for me. I think they should make it a holiday.

~Amber