(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.....