Sunday, May 31, 2009
Tons more to come
I will report on my cruise later, I needed to get caught up first. Tiffany went home last Monday, so it has been different not having her here but I am a big girl and I have cousins coming on wednesday! Before tiff left we went to star wars weekends. They run every weekend the end of may through June, and it's a time for all of the star wars nerds to join forces. It is quite fun to go and see everything, especially all the fun characters they bring out. A friend of ours from the ward is a tusken raider and it was fun to see them and pick out which one he was because of the way he acts. We got some awesome pictures and most of them are on our photopass. I won't tell all who we got, you should be able to figure them out. I will report on the cruise shortly, and it will be in installments because there are lots of pictures of four days of bliss. I leave for home in 14 days! It has flown by so fast, I am so ready to come home but not ready to say goodbye. Real world and grown up job here I come!
Sunday, May 17, 2009
Let the Rain Begin
So rainy season has officially started and I am excited, bring on the rain everyday at 3! Apparently it has come 9 days early, but no one is complaining since it has been really dry lately. It is so wonderful after it rains because it is not so freaking humid afterwards, and the humidty is the worst part of rainy season. Good thing I will be home in a month! Yipee! Someone asked me the other day if we get big storms back home, and I was able to inform them about Monsoon season, which is one of my favorite times of the year. I love watching the storms build over the Superstition and then the dirt cloud comes and sweeps over the valley. How I miss my mountains, come back to me!
So anyways this week was fun and not as jam packed as last week which is good, I really needed a breather. I actually cooked dinner this week which did not happen last week since I ate out every day. I did a lot of shopping this week to get some fun summer outfits for the cruise. I probably spent more than I should have, but everything was on sale and I needed some summer clothes. Monday there was a shuttle launch and we all went outside during work to go see it. Sadly it wasn't too exciting because the direction it was headed and it was super cloudy. Luckily there is one more before i leave so i might be able to go to the coast and see it for reals!
Tuesday was the season finale of Biggest Loser. It was so awesome. My favorite part was the tongan cousins from Mesa doing the Haka. I love Tongans, and I loved when they showed clips of mesa. I can't believe that the oldest people won. It was awesome. It is amazing how some of them run with it and lose tons of weight and others not so much. I guess it just depends on how much you want something.
Wednesday Night some friends went to the Hoop Dee Doo revue. It was great fun and good food! It was kind of funny because we our server was at church today. The show is kind of cheesy and I wonder how those people could do it every night. They probably don't stay too long, but they might because I believe it is an equity role, so they get their equity card and then might move on to something better because they are cool and have their equity card. If you don't know about equity cards go look it up, I'm not going to explain it.
Thursday was kind of an interesting day. We went and sort of volunteered for this big strings concert and it was interesting. It wasn't run by Disney, so it wasn't the most organized thing but it was still fun. There were people volunteering from Universal as well and at first it was awkward but they got over it. At the end they were cool and they told us some cool things about where they work, and some of them told us how much they like Disney over Universal. One of the people I work with said, someone has to lose and be in second place. Also working this event reminded me how greatful I am to be from Mesa, because this organization teaches students in lower privileged schools the violin. I'm so glad it is offered at the schools by teachers from the district. It also reminded me of Cavalcade (a big piano event we did each year for like forever) because it as in this huge church and they were getting everyone to try and play together, 40 3rd graders trying to play violin together = very interesting sound! This church was huge and pretty cool. The proscenium made it kind of look like the top of the statue of liberty. We also got to hang out in the bridal suite because it was being used as the volunteer break room. It was filled with all sorts of yummy treats, which according to Rene is a huge upgrade from years past. Thurssday was also the finale of the office and I loved it as well.
Friday was a boring day of work because we were making cold calls all day long. They informed us all the other day we could all extend until august or september helping with sales for Grad Nite and Nite of Joy. It would be kind of fun to stay because they will probably go on some trips to get churches and stuff, but I need to get home and find a job, and I don't know how long I would last making sales calls. You know me, I don't sell things.
That is about it for the week. I don't know when I'll post again because a week from now I will be on my cruise!
So anyways this week was fun and not as jam packed as last week which is good, I really needed a breather. I actually cooked dinner this week which did not happen last week since I ate out every day. I did a lot of shopping this week to get some fun summer outfits for the cruise. I probably spent more than I should have, but everything was on sale and I needed some summer clothes. Monday there was a shuttle launch and we all went outside during work to go see it. Sadly it wasn't too exciting because the direction it was headed and it was super cloudy. Luckily there is one more before i leave so i might be able to go to the coast and see it for reals!
Tuesday was the season finale of Biggest Loser. It was so awesome. My favorite part was the tongan cousins from Mesa doing the Haka. I love Tongans, and I loved when they showed clips of mesa. I can't believe that the oldest people won. It was awesome. It is amazing how some of them run with it and lose tons of weight and others not so much. I guess it just depends on how much you want something.
Wednesday Night some friends went to the Hoop Dee Doo revue. It was great fun and good food! It was kind of funny because we our server was at church today. The show is kind of cheesy and I wonder how those people could do it every night. They probably don't stay too long, but they might because I believe it is an equity role, so they get their equity card and then might move on to something better because they are cool and have their equity card. If you don't know about equity cards go look it up, I'm not going to explain it.
Thursday was kind of an interesting day. We went and sort of volunteered for this big strings concert and it was interesting. It wasn't run by Disney, so it wasn't the most organized thing but it was still fun. There were people volunteering from Universal as well and at first it was awkward but they got over it. At the end they were cool and they told us some cool things about where they work, and some of them told us how much they like Disney over Universal. One of the people I work with said, someone has to lose and be in second place. Also working this event reminded me how greatful I am to be from Mesa, because this organization teaches students in lower privileged schools the violin. I'm so glad it is offered at the schools by teachers from the district. It also reminded me of Cavalcade (a big piano event we did each year for like forever) because it as in this huge church and they were getting everyone to try and play together, 40 3rd graders trying to play violin together = very interesting sound! This church was huge and pretty cool. The proscenium made it kind of look like the top of the statue of liberty. We also got to hang out in the bridal suite because it was being used as the volunteer break room. It was filled with all sorts of yummy treats, which according to Rene is a huge upgrade from years past. Thurssday was also the finale of the office and I loved it as well.
Friday was a boring day of work because we were making cold calls all day long. They informed us all the other day we could all extend until august or september helping with sales for Grad Nite and Nite of Joy. It would be kind of fun to stay because they will probably go on some trips to get churches and stuff, but I need to get home and find a job, and I don't know how long I would last making sales calls. You know me, I don't sell things.
That is about it for the week. I don't know when I'll post again because a week from now I will be on my cruise!
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
We're all in this together!
Another jam packed week of fun and excitement has come and gone. Tiauna left Saturday morning so the week was her farewell week where we did something every night. It was really bad in the fact that I didn’t cook a single meal I ate out every night.
Monday night Tiauna and I went to Sweet Tomatoes because it recently opened and Tiauna had never been. It was so good! After we ate too much we went and visited some hot tubs around property. Some friends came and joined us after FHE and it was fun. It was nice and relaxing and we also did a little swimming. I was out too late but it was so worth it. It is going to be hard going back into the “real world” but it will be nice, I might get more sleep not doing something every night.
Tuesday was a very interesting adventure. My manger not only schedules what we do at work he likes suggest social things for us to do, so this weeks social activity was going to Arabian Nights. It is a dinner show here in Orlando and we were able to get a good deal on the meal, it was only $10, which almost isn’t worth it. If I had to pay full price I wouldn’t go because it was very interesting. I sat next to my manager Rene and was quite confused the whole time. I would occasionally ask him what the story line was and he wasn’t sure. It would be in Ancient times with an Arabian Princess and then there were modern day cowboys. Yeah not sure what was going on. The food was ok and I was glad I got the steak because those that got the chicken said it was gross. The dessert was the oddest thing of the night. It was a slice of vanilla ice cream with chocolate syrup that tried to be drizzled on top, but it was kind of more on the plate, but not an artistic on the plate if you know what I mean. The place was tacky and cheap, and I won’t be going back anytime soon. Good thing I only spent $10 on it. Afterwards we went to Epcot for a little bit since it was Cinco de Mayo and people wanted to get margaritas to celebrate in style. Then I watched Illuminations, oh how I love Disney fireworks shows!
Wednesday was the college program graduation party. It was fun and we got our graduation ears. The best thing was we each got our name drawn to get a caricature drawn of us. Mine turned out ok, but Tiauna’s was the best. She had them draw her as Mrs. Incredible, it turned out so good. We then headed over to the Magic Kingdom to take some more pictures and hang out. As we were taking a jumping picture in front of the castle Tiauna’s shorts ripped in a random spot. It was quite hilarious. After that we joined some friends at PF Chang’s. It was so good. I had never been before; it was my first time and for sure not my last!
Now this brings us to Thursday. For lunch I went to Sweet Tomatoes again. Rene had coupons and really wanted to go so we went. We found out when not to go because it was really busy! We wanted to watch a movie on the beach, but we weren’t able to because some convention was having dinner on the beach where the movie is shown. Instead we walked around the Boardwalk and then went to Beaches ‘n’ Cream to divulge ourselves again with a Kitchen sink. There were 6 of us this time and we ate it really fast and I didn’t feel sick afterwards!
For Friday’s festivities I met up with the gang at the Magic Kingdom for a little bit and then we went to Cici’s for dinner. Tiauna wanted to go one more time because they don’t have them where she lives. I was so hungry and tired that I didn’t eat that much. I think I had more cinnamon rolls than anything because they are delicious! Then I dropped the girls off for their all nighter and I went home to sleep because I am an old woman when it come to sleep, I need it! Plus I was getting up at 4:30 to take Tiauna to the airport. That was an interesting excursion. We had a great moment as we were pulling up to the terminal and then we all had a cry fest. After we dropped her off I went home and slept some more and then really got up for the day. Saturday was like a sad day all day because it was the last day of festival too. We did have a rather fun time at work. We started off with lunch, which ended up being alter than planned because the last group to go started late because their accompanist got stuck in traffic.
The final awards ceremony was a blast because we got together and learned the dance from High School Musical and performed it before it started. Some people didn’t think that we would do it or be able to pull it off, but we did. The kids loved it and we had fun being on stage. It was great because the techs got into also and had fun with the lights and were using the spotlights. It fulfilled my need of being on stage. Because every once in a while you need that, well at least I do! Awards only lasted 30 minutes because it was a really small weekend, thanks freaking swine flu for making people cancel trips! I think my favorite part of the evening is when we were all outside waving goodbye we were on San Francisco street in Hollywood Studios standing on the steps of the houses with our Mickey hands. It looked so cool. We got some awesome pictures. It was neat to watch the guests faces as they came around the corner and saw us standing there saying farewell! We then went inside to watch a video of our amazing dance debut. It was pretty good, I am ready for my equity role now Disney, I’m waiting for the phone to ring! Jk. Now we are stuck in the office making sales calls. I can’t wait for my cruise. It is going to be awesome. Stay tuned for next weeks adventures!
Monday night Tiauna and I went to Sweet Tomatoes because it recently opened and Tiauna had never been. It was so good! After we ate too much we went and visited some hot tubs around property. Some friends came and joined us after FHE and it was fun. It was nice and relaxing and we also did a little swimming. I was out too late but it was so worth it. It is going to be hard going back into the “real world” but it will be nice, I might get more sleep not doing something every night.
Tuesday was a very interesting adventure. My manger not only schedules what we do at work he likes suggest social things for us to do, so this weeks social activity was going to Arabian Nights. It is a dinner show here in Orlando and we were able to get a good deal on the meal, it was only $10, which almost isn’t worth it. If I had to pay full price I wouldn’t go because it was very interesting. I sat next to my manager Rene and was quite confused the whole time. I would occasionally ask him what the story line was and he wasn’t sure. It would be in Ancient times with an Arabian Princess and then there were modern day cowboys. Yeah not sure what was going on. The food was ok and I was glad I got the steak because those that got the chicken said it was gross. The dessert was the oddest thing of the night. It was a slice of vanilla ice cream with chocolate syrup that tried to be drizzled on top, but it was kind of more on the plate, but not an artistic on the plate if you know what I mean. The place was tacky and cheap, and I won’t be going back anytime soon. Good thing I only spent $10 on it. Afterwards we went to Epcot for a little bit since it was Cinco de Mayo and people wanted to get margaritas to celebrate in style. Then I watched Illuminations, oh how I love Disney fireworks shows!
Wednesday was the college program graduation party. It was fun and we got our graduation ears. The best thing was we each got our name drawn to get a caricature drawn of us. Mine turned out ok, but Tiauna’s was the best. She had them draw her as Mrs. Incredible, it turned out so good. We then headed over to the Magic Kingdom to take some more pictures and hang out. As we were taking a jumping picture in front of the castle Tiauna’s shorts ripped in a random spot. It was quite hilarious. After that we joined some friends at PF Chang’s. It was so good. I had never been before; it was my first time and for sure not my last!
Now this brings us to Thursday. For lunch I went to Sweet Tomatoes again. Rene had coupons and really wanted to go so we went. We found out when not to go because it was really busy! We wanted to watch a movie on the beach, but we weren’t able to because some convention was having dinner on the beach where the movie is shown. Instead we walked around the Boardwalk and then went to Beaches ‘n’ Cream to divulge ourselves again with a Kitchen sink. There were 6 of us this time and we ate it really fast and I didn’t feel sick afterwards!
For Friday’s festivities I met up with the gang at the Magic Kingdom for a little bit and then we went to Cici’s for dinner. Tiauna wanted to go one more time because they don’t have them where she lives. I was so hungry and tired that I didn’t eat that much. I think I had more cinnamon rolls than anything because they are delicious! Then I dropped the girls off for their all nighter and I went home to sleep because I am an old woman when it come to sleep, I need it! Plus I was getting up at 4:30 to take Tiauna to the airport. That was an interesting excursion. We had a great moment as we were pulling up to the terminal and then we all had a cry fest. After we dropped her off I went home and slept some more and then really got up for the day. Saturday was like a sad day all day because it was the last day of festival too. We did have a rather fun time at work. We started off with lunch, which ended up being alter than planned because the last group to go started late because their accompanist got stuck in traffic.
The final awards ceremony was a blast because we got together and learned the dance from High School Musical and performed it before it started. Some people didn’t think that we would do it or be able to pull it off, but we did. The kids loved it and we had fun being on stage. It was great because the techs got into also and had fun with the lights and were using the spotlights. It fulfilled my need of being on stage. Because every once in a while you need that, well at least I do! Awards only lasted 30 minutes because it was a really small weekend, thanks freaking swine flu for making people cancel trips! I think my favorite part of the evening is when we were all outside waving goodbye we were on San Francisco street in Hollywood Studios standing on the steps of the houses with our Mickey hands. It looked so cool. We got some awesome pictures. It was neat to watch the guests faces as they came around the corner and saw us standing there saying farewell! We then went inside to watch a video of our amazing dance debut. It was pretty good, I am ready for my equity role now Disney, I’m waiting for the phone to ring! Jk. Now we are stuck in the office making sales calls. I can’t wait for my cruise. It is going to be awesome. Stay tuned for next weeks adventures!
Sunday, May 3, 2009
That's Incredible!
Another busy week has come and gone here in Orlando! My time is winding down so it is kind of a crunch time to get everything done that we want to before Tiffany and Tiauna leave, since we have pretty much been inseparable these past couple months. Tiauna is now an honorary member of the jones family as far as Tiff and I are concerned!
Wednesday was a day jam packed with fun. We started off at 8am eating delicious butterscotch pancakes which are kind of our new obsession after sampling them at IHOP but we make our own for much cheaper! We then headed off to the Magic Kingdom for a day of character hunting. We started off in the Fairy room right when it opened so that we could skip the hour wait. Tink is so fun to see, the 2 that I have met are quite sassy and very believable. We then went and met Lady Tremaine, Anastasia and Drizella. They were tons of fun and we sang with them. Their mother thought that they are better, but she would, we know the truth though! We then continued our hunt and met a lot of characters, and some were really friendly since Tiauna is friends with a lot of them, and Tiff takes pictures of a lot of them. If I had time I would share the stories of meeting everyone but we met 36 characters, so that would be like writing a novel and I don’t have time for that! We then headed over to Epcot. Epcot was tons of fun because a friend of ours from church was friends with the beast that day so we went and took some awesome pictures with him. They turned out so cool and we actually got one printed off our photopass card because I have a Disney Visa and they have a visa room where you meet some characters and then you get a voucher for a free picture from the ones taken in that room. Well when we went to look at the pictures the lighting was bad so we were able to pick anything that we had taken. We had been using our photopass card a lot that day because we got a cool photopass card that you can get 20% off your online order, so we decided we are going to buy the CD with all our pictures on it because we can edit them and then do what ever we want with them when we get the cd so split it between the 3 it won’t be too bad to pay. So we picked our awesome beast picture. Belle stepped out of some of the pictures because Beast told her that he knew us (don’t worry the characters have made up a sign to let people know that they know people).
We then ran over to the studios because they sometimes have random sets the days they do fantasmic to give the cast members more hours. We got to see some random characters like Foulfellow, Jafar, Friar Tuck and Prince John. Tiuana’s friend was friends with Foulfellow that is who we went to see. Then as we left some girls gave us fast passes to Toy Story Mania, and you can’t pass those up! We went and I got another personal high score! I love that ride! We then finished our day of hunting. We were exhausted because we ran all day. We took a breather and got ready for the spring formal that housing puts on. It was an ok event, it was just fun to dress up. It was at Coronado Springs and it is a cool resort. On our way out we noticed some awesome fountains so we stopped to take pictures, great fun!
Thursday Tiauna and I went and watched her friend in Fantasmic since we didn’t have time to see it Wednesday. It was fun, the wind was blowing really hard so we were getting wet. As we were walking out we saw some friends from the ward at started chatting and ended up going and riding tower of terror with them. I love doing random things like that!
Friday was Festival Disney weekend #7, only one more to go. It is crazy how fast it has gone. I hosted my last group. They were a pretty a good jazz band. We heard some good ones Friday and it was interesting that the middle school groups were kind of better than the high schoolers! When I was done I went home and did nothing. I love when I have the opportunity to do that after being so busy. Saturday morning was tons of fun. Tiauna was scheduled for Mrs. Incredible and has wanted to our friend Brian to do Mr. Incredible with her before she left, so she was able to have someone switch sets with Brian so that they could. The plan worked until Frozone called in, so they were going back to back, not together. We are all sad because I was going to get my picture with them before I went to work since I was working at the same park. Luckily since we had it planned Brian came out a few minutes early so that we could take pictures. It was fun, but the character attendant needs to work on her picture taking skills!
Work was fun and we got things plated quickly, so I went and had lunch with Tiauna and Brian during their lunch and it was fun, but then the others I was working with left to go eat somewhere so I was alone for another hour after I got back from my hour break with friends. Then we had a fun awards ceremony, I love them. It is fun to be there because the kids are so excited to be there and we get them all pumped up.
Then today was a great Sabbath day. Going to church at hotel is great fun. The air was broken and we were dying. It is becoming summer in florida and you definitely need air all the time now! We had a splendid CES broadcast and now it is time for bed! We have like something planned each night this week so I will continue to get no sleep! But it is so worth it. So so long till my recap or novel next week!
Wednesday was a day jam packed with fun. We started off at 8am eating delicious butterscotch pancakes which are kind of our new obsession after sampling them at IHOP but we make our own for much cheaper! We then headed off to the Magic Kingdom for a day of character hunting. We started off in the Fairy room right when it opened so that we could skip the hour wait. Tink is so fun to see, the 2 that I have met are quite sassy and very believable. We then went and met Lady Tremaine, Anastasia and Drizella. They were tons of fun and we sang with them. Their mother thought that they are better, but she would, we know the truth though! We then continued our hunt and met a lot of characters, and some were really friendly since Tiauna is friends with a lot of them, and Tiff takes pictures of a lot of them. If I had time I would share the stories of meeting everyone but we met 36 characters, so that would be like writing a novel and I don’t have time for that! We then headed over to Epcot. Epcot was tons of fun because a friend of ours from church was friends with the beast that day so we went and took some awesome pictures with him. They turned out so cool and we actually got one printed off our photopass card because I have a Disney Visa and they have a visa room where you meet some characters and then you get a voucher for a free picture from the ones taken in that room. Well when we went to look at the pictures the lighting was bad so we were able to pick anything that we had taken. We had been using our photopass card a lot that day because we got a cool photopass card that you can get 20% off your online order, so we decided we are going to buy the CD with all our pictures on it because we can edit them and then do what ever we want with them when we get the cd so split it between the 3 it won’t be too bad to pay. So we picked our awesome beast picture. Belle stepped out of some of the pictures because Beast told her that he knew us (don’t worry the characters have made up a sign to let people know that they know people).
We then ran over to the studios because they sometimes have random sets the days they do fantasmic to give the cast members more hours. We got to see some random characters like Foulfellow, Jafar, Friar Tuck and Prince John. Tiuana’s friend was friends with Foulfellow that is who we went to see. Then as we left some girls gave us fast passes to Toy Story Mania, and you can’t pass those up! We went and I got another personal high score! I love that ride! We then finished our day of hunting. We were exhausted because we ran all day. We took a breather and got ready for the spring formal that housing puts on. It was an ok event, it was just fun to dress up. It was at Coronado Springs and it is a cool resort. On our way out we noticed some awesome fountains so we stopped to take pictures, great fun!
Thursday Tiauna and I went and watched her friend in Fantasmic since we didn’t have time to see it Wednesday. It was fun, the wind was blowing really hard so we were getting wet. As we were walking out we saw some friends from the ward at started chatting and ended up going and riding tower of terror with them. I love doing random things like that!
Friday was Festival Disney weekend #7, only one more to go. It is crazy how fast it has gone. I hosted my last group. They were a pretty a good jazz band. We heard some good ones Friday and it was interesting that the middle school groups were kind of better than the high schoolers! When I was done I went home and did nothing. I love when I have the opportunity to do that after being so busy. Saturday morning was tons of fun. Tiauna was scheduled for Mrs. Incredible and has wanted to our friend Brian to do Mr. Incredible with her before she left, so she was able to have someone switch sets with Brian so that they could. The plan worked until Frozone called in, so they were going back to back, not together. We are all sad because I was going to get my picture with them before I went to work since I was working at the same park. Luckily since we had it planned Brian came out a few minutes early so that we could take pictures. It was fun, but the character attendant needs to work on her picture taking skills!
Work was fun and we got things plated quickly, so I went and had lunch with Tiauna and Brian during their lunch and it was fun, but then the others I was working with left to go eat somewhere so I was alone for another hour after I got back from my hour break with friends. Then we had a fun awards ceremony, I love them. It is fun to be there because the kids are so excited to be there and we get them all pumped up.
Then today was a great Sabbath day. Going to church at hotel is great fun. The air was broken and we were dying. It is becoming summer in florida and you definitely need air all the time now! We had a splendid CES broadcast and now it is time for bed! We have like something planned each night this week so I will continue to get no sleep! But it is so worth it. So so long till my recap or novel next week!
Monday, April 27, 2009
It’s a Small World. . .
There are many things that I could have made the title for this week, but the events that transpired Sunday afternoon inspired this title. Lots happened this week, so I hope it doesn’t get too long!
Tuesday morning Tiff and I went to Typhoon Lagoon since we get in free till the end of the month. It was fun and it got most of it down in less than 2 hours. The wave pool there is so awesome, the waves are so high. We rode about 5 of them. Then Tuesday night was so much fun! I made reservations for a room at the Grand Floridian, which is a place I have wanted to stay at for a very long time, but it is very expensive it is the nicest resort that Disney has. To help make it reasonable we got a big group of girls and split it so that it was something that we could afford! We had a grand time; sat in the hot tub, watched wishes from the beach, played games and other things that you do at Girls Night! We went to bed at about 2 and got up at 8 to get us all ready to go stuff our faces at the delicious breakfast buffet and then go play. It was so good, we all ate to much but is was so worth it!
After checking out we headed over to play at Universal Studios. We had 5 hours to do both parks so we had to pick and choose what exactly to do. Luckily they weren’t too busy and our longest wait was like 15 minutes. I love the roller coasters at universal they are so much fun! I also love how Universal makes fun of Disney. It doesn’t bother me at all, it makes me laugh hysterically! There is a huge difference between the two, and it is fun to do something not Disney everyone in a while.
Thursday night we went and saw 17 Again. It is a cute movie, and has a really good story to it. We were laughing nonstop for most of the movie. I then went home and went to bed because I got to be at work at 5:30 am for the marching band and auxiliary performances. It was a lot of fun. My groups were fun to work with, they are a Christian School from Alabama and were pretty good. Then when that was done I headed over to the specialty choir venue to host a choir. There were some really good choirs and a really tragic one. My group was pretty good and one of the kids ended up winning a solo award from the judges. When I finished with my groups I went home and slept I was so tired and didn’t want to do anything. I ended the night watching another movie on the beach. We watched Beverly Hills Chihuahua. I hadn’t seen it, it was pretty cute but Tiff didn’t really like it. Oh well that’s her problem not mine!
I got to sleep in a little Saturday morning which was a good thing because it was going to be a super long day! The awards ceremony was awesome. Since we couldn’t use Hollywood Studios because of the last weekend of Grad Nite we got to use the Finding Nemo stage. I was in heaven. I love the show and we got to see a lot of the puppets, dressing room, sets and such. I wanted to take pictures but I didn’t I was a good girl. There was a Nazi tech backstage and she probably would’ve flipped if I took any pictures. We did however get floaties and rings to wear when Rene introduced us to have a little fun since we were on the Nemo stage. It was great fun. After we finished with awards we went over to studios to tour Grad Nite and see what all was going on since we helped make calls for this blessed event. It was great fun. We got to hang out and see Hayden Panatierre and Katy Perry at a question/answer event with Junior class officers to make them excited to get their class to come next year. It was cool to be in the same room as the celebrities. Someone asked Hayden what her favorite movie is that she has made and she said remember the Titans. I loved her in that movie, but now she is a little too much for me at times. We then watched the awesome fireworks for the class of 2009 and then watched Katy Perry’s concert. She is one odd girl. She was all over the stage and doesn’t have the greatest live voice. I left before here odd song about kissing a girl and liking it, and at the end she kisses a girl. I went and watched White Tie Affair, they were much better than Katy. We then went and saw the dance parties. They were crazy but the kids were having fun. I am just an old women and don’t like that music.
Now that brings us to Sunday and the 5 hours of sleep I got last night! Today was stake conference and we needed to go early because Elder Holland was here and you know how people get when General Authorities are present. Conference was amazing and we were spiritually fed. Before conference started Tiffany was wandering around and found her good friend Elder Lussier from home who is serving in the Orlando mission. It was fun and a little weird to see him, and then he asked us to stay for a baptism afterwards and we said sure, it would be fun. Tiff has a friend visiting who was a CP last semester and she has a friend serving here also, she saw him before it started and then he invited her to stay for the same baptism. Turns out they are companions. Crazy huh, the world is so small, especially where Disney and the Church are involved! As we were walking into the baptism, which was originally supposed to be for 4 people, turned into 6 people an Elder asked me a question about Tiauna seeing where she was from and what her name was. Turns out they went to high school together. So we are now 3 for 3 of people knowing missionaries serving in Orlando. But just you wait, we end up going 4 for 4 because one of the sisters serving here is a girl that was at EAC the semester I got back from florida the first time. It was crazy. The word is so small!
So anyways we finally made it home and ate we were dying of hunger, because the baptism was quite long. Quick side note on the baptism, during conference the mission president announced the baptism and challenged anyone else that has been investigating that they could come join. One did and so she was kind of spontaneously baptized today. One thing that made me laugh really hard at the baptism is that since there was the spontaneous baptism some people didn’t have towels. One guy came and asked a lady in the stake relief society presidency who was sitting in front of us if they had any in the building, all they had were dish towels. Oh how I love the church. The church is true!
We didn’t have much time to rest and eat because we had to get back to the stake center to practice with our ward choir for the fireside. The fireside was amazing and the musical number turned out pretty good. It was pretty neat; they opened up the floor for questions. Some people asked some really good questions, others asked some odd ones. But I did learn some good stuff. That is the lowdown on my week and all the stuff I did. I am tired and will post pictures later from my many adventures!
Tuesday morning Tiff and I went to Typhoon Lagoon since we get in free till the end of the month. It was fun and it got most of it down in less than 2 hours. The wave pool there is so awesome, the waves are so high. We rode about 5 of them. Then Tuesday night was so much fun! I made reservations for a room at the Grand Floridian, which is a place I have wanted to stay at for a very long time, but it is very expensive it is the nicest resort that Disney has. To help make it reasonable we got a big group of girls and split it so that it was something that we could afford! We had a grand time; sat in the hot tub, watched wishes from the beach, played games and other things that you do at Girls Night! We went to bed at about 2 and got up at 8 to get us all ready to go stuff our faces at the delicious breakfast buffet and then go play. It was so good, we all ate to much but is was so worth it!
After checking out we headed over to play at Universal Studios. We had 5 hours to do both parks so we had to pick and choose what exactly to do. Luckily they weren’t too busy and our longest wait was like 15 minutes. I love the roller coasters at universal they are so much fun! I also love how Universal makes fun of Disney. It doesn’t bother me at all, it makes me laugh hysterically! There is a huge difference between the two, and it is fun to do something not Disney everyone in a while.
Thursday night we went and saw 17 Again. It is a cute movie, and has a really good story to it. We were laughing nonstop for most of the movie. I then went home and went to bed because I got to be at work at 5:30 am for the marching band and auxiliary performances. It was a lot of fun. My groups were fun to work with, they are a Christian School from Alabama and were pretty good. Then when that was done I headed over to the specialty choir venue to host a choir. There were some really good choirs and a really tragic one. My group was pretty good and one of the kids ended up winning a solo award from the judges. When I finished with my groups I went home and slept I was so tired and didn’t want to do anything. I ended the night watching another movie on the beach. We watched Beverly Hills Chihuahua. I hadn’t seen it, it was pretty cute but Tiff didn’t really like it. Oh well that’s her problem not mine!
I got to sleep in a little Saturday morning which was a good thing because it was going to be a super long day! The awards ceremony was awesome. Since we couldn’t use Hollywood Studios because of the last weekend of Grad Nite we got to use the Finding Nemo stage. I was in heaven. I love the show and we got to see a lot of the puppets, dressing room, sets and such. I wanted to take pictures but I didn’t I was a good girl. There was a Nazi tech backstage and she probably would’ve flipped if I took any pictures. We did however get floaties and rings to wear when Rene introduced us to have a little fun since we were on the Nemo stage. It was great fun. After we finished with awards we went over to studios to tour Grad Nite and see what all was going on since we helped make calls for this blessed event. It was great fun. We got to hang out and see Hayden Panatierre and Katy Perry at a question/answer event with Junior class officers to make them excited to get their class to come next year. It was cool to be in the same room as the celebrities. Someone asked Hayden what her favorite movie is that she has made and she said remember the Titans. I loved her in that movie, but now she is a little too much for me at times. We then watched the awesome fireworks for the class of 2009 and then watched Katy Perry’s concert. She is one odd girl. She was all over the stage and doesn’t have the greatest live voice. I left before here odd song about kissing a girl and liking it, and at the end she kisses a girl. I went and watched White Tie Affair, they were much better than Katy. We then went and saw the dance parties. They were crazy but the kids were having fun. I am just an old women and don’t like that music.
Now that brings us to Sunday and the 5 hours of sleep I got last night! Today was stake conference and we needed to go early because Elder Holland was here and you know how people get when General Authorities are present. Conference was amazing and we were spiritually fed. Before conference started Tiffany was wandering around and found her good friend Elder Lussier from home who is serving in the Orlando mission. It was fun and a little weird to see him, and then he asked us to stay for a baptism afterwards and we said sure, it would be fun. Tiff has a friend visiting who was a CP last semester and she has a friend serving here also, she saw him before it started and then he invited her to stay for the same baptism. Turns out they are companions. Crazy huh, the world is so small, especially where Disney and the Church are involved! As we were walking into the baptism, which was originally supposed to be for 4 people, turned into 6 people an Elder asked me a question about Tiauna seeing where she was from and what her name was. Turns out they went to high school together. So we are now 3 for 3 of people knowing missionaries serving in Orlando. But just you wait, we end up going 4 for 4 because one of the sisters serving here is a girl that was at EAC the semester I got back from florida the first time. It was crazy. The word is so small!
So anyways we finally made it home and ate we were dying of hunger, because the baptism was quite long. Quick side note on the baptism, during conference the mission president announced the baptism and challenged anyone else that has been investigating that they could come join. One did and so she was kind of spontaneously baptized today. One thing that made me laugh really hard at the baptism is that since there was the spontaneous baptism some people didn’t have towels. One guy came and asked a lady in the stake relief society presidency who was sitting in front of us if they had any in the building, all they had were dish towels. Oh how I love the church. The church is true!
We didn’t have much time to rest and eat because we had to get back to the stake center to practice with our ward choir for the fireside. The fireside was amazing and the musical number turned out pretty good. It was pretty neat; they opened up the floor for questions. Some people asked some really good questions, others asked some odd ones. But I did learn some good stuff. That is the lowdown on my week and all the stuff I did. I am tired and will post pictures later from my many adventures!
Sunday, April 19, 2009
Intense
Hi I am still alive. This past weekend was killer! If you read my previous post you can get a glimpse as to how crazy festival weekends can be. Friday was even crazier than Thursday and I will spare you all the details, but I will say one thing. If you are ever planning a trip, only have one person in charge! We had a group that had a travel planner from the travel company, a travel coordinator from the school and they brought their band, choir and orchestras. I believe they had like 6 groups traveling on 4 busses. I had to tell all the instructions to both ladies. It was so annoying. There were some really good groups, and I had so much fun listening to choirs all day!
Saturday was crazy getting all the scores in and awards ready for the awards ceremony. We couldn’t have the awards ceremony at Hollywood studios like we always do, we were at Epcot so we had to load the truck and head over to Epcot and hope that we have everything. Turns out we didn’t and one girl went back like 3 times. The place where we had the awards ceremony was decorated so cool, it was world showplace where we did stuff for the Jazz Celebration. I left my camera in the car that was left at the place where I picked up the mini van to drive around for the day. We had to have 2 awards ceremonies and it was crazy. I was so tired after the 1st one, I wasn’t sure how we were going to make it through the 2nd. Amazingly we did and then some went to a game night, I went home and crashed! I’m kind of not looking forward to next weekend, total sleep deprivation but it will be worth it. After we finish with awards next Saturday we are going to explore grad nite for a while, and then it is stake conference and we have to go early because it is about a 30 min drive to the stake center and Elder Holland will be there so you know it will be packed! I will also have tons of pictures because we are having a girls night at the Grand Floridian! Well it is my bed my bed time good night.
Saturday was crazy getting all the scores in and awards ready for the awards ceremony. We couldn’t have the awards ceremony at Hollywood studios like we always do, we were at Epcot so we had to load the truck and head over to Epcot and hope that we have everything. Turns out we didn’t and one girl went back like 3 times. The place where we had the awards ceremony was decorated so cool, it was world showplace where we did stuff for the Jazz Celebration. I left my camera in the car that was left at the place where I picked up the mini van to drive around for the day. We had to have 2 awards ceremonies and it was crazy. I was so tired after the 1st one, I wasn’t sure how we were going to make it through the 2nd. Amazingly we did and then some went to a game night, I went home and crashed! I’m kind of not looking forward to next weekend, total sleep deprivation but it will be worth it. After we finish with awards next Saturday we are going to explore grad nite for a while, and then it is stake conference and we have to go early because it is about a 30 min drive to the stake center and Elder Holland will be there so you know it will be packed! I will also have tons of pictures because we are having a girls night at the Grand Floridian! Well it is my bed my bed time good night.
Thursday, April 16, 2009
A typical festival day
So this week is a crazy festival weekend, we have 87 groups coming, which is our biggest ever. We can't have our awards ceremony at Hollywood Studios like we usually do because of a lovely event called Grad Nite, that got moved from the Magic Kingdom because people are lame and thats a whole other story.
I have worked with some really cool directors and then some crazy ones where I have no clue what planet they are on and I don't even want to know what they are thinking!
Here are some examples of things that happened today!
I had the first 2 choirs of the day, and they were cool. Guests started mocking me and my "5 more minutes" that I get to do. While I am hosting that group I am informed over the radio that my afternoon group had arrived about the same time that the next group of about 100 boys had arrived. The director of this group was crazy she told me she was planning on arriving at 1:30 not 10, and they were arriving on Disney transport not chartering a bus like they should.
Everyone goes in and sits I take my awesome group out to the bus using the back door since there are now about 200 people trying to get into the theater and the people at the hotel where the performance hall is gets kind of cranky. They get on the bus and say goodbye. They have a bus driver who is a little special and took a while maneuvering out of the parking lot and I had to move so that I didn't end up under the bus! When I walk back in they were cleaning up the stage after a protein spill (Disney lingo for throw up). The kid said he was fine and finished the performance, which he did just fine. I am then told that half of my group is still outside and that they are rehearsing. I get my manager and we kindly go tell her that they really can't be rehearsing right now and moved them to a place out of the way so that they don't get in the way of the "real" hotel guests.
After the huge group it was lunch time, and then my crazy director comes up and asks me if her accompanist can go practice on the piano because they are singing some tough songs and she starts naming all these composers. I tell her no that they have to wait until their warm up time. She didn't like that but oh well, thats the rules! She then has her group go to Downtown Disney for lunch because we can't have the festival guests eat at the resort because they get cranky. About half of them go and they other half just stay there and find benches to go sleep on outside. Then people from the resort come and get mad at us, oh well again not my problem! The rest of the group barely made it back for the performance.
After their performance I go to pick up the signs since the last group had arrived for the evening. We then hear on the radio that at the other choral venue that the boy who threw up earlier, threw up again. We were laughing hysterically! When I walk back inside I see that during the other groups warm up time my group had gone and changed which they were told not to do, there are no changing facilities at the venue.
They were ok, I've heard better, but they thought they were really good. The best thing is they stayed to watch the group after them, who were really good. During the last group's clinic one of the adjudicators stated that they were they best group she had heard all day. My group kind of gasped in shock that the group was told that and not them. So it is now time for everyone to leave and I walk with my group outside to hear what they are going to do because they don't have buses to come pick them up like everyone else. I was so shocked as to what this lady was telling her students. "Take a bus to any of the parks and let your chaperon know which park you are in. Meet at the TTC at 11:30 (the TTC is the parking and bus depot for the Magic Kingdom)." I was shocked how could they do that, let 40 high school students loose on 47 sq miles of freedom and unkowns. They all leave and she is left with some chaperons and everyones clothes in which she then goes looking for a taxi. At this point I don't care I am just sitting there laughing to myself! I am so done and don't care anymore I just wanted to be done with them. If you hear of students gone missing on their school trip to Disneyworld, they are probably one of mine from this crazy group!
Today was just the first day, we shall see what the next 2 have to bring! haha. Not to mention someone fainted and a girl had to sit down because her feet were hurting from her heels. Silly girls that think they have to wear really high heels for performances. This turned out really long, I didn't mean to write this much but I just had to share these funny stories!
I have worked with some really cool directors and then some crazy ones where I have no clue what planet they are on and I don't even want to know what they are thinking!
Here are some examples of things that happened today!
I had the first 2 choirs of the day, and they were cool. Guests started mocking me and my "5 more minutes" that I get to do. While I am hosting that group I am informed over the radio that my afternoon group had arrived about the same time that the next group of about 100 boys had arrived. The director of this group was crazy she told me she was planning on arriving at 1:30 not 10, and they were arriving on Disney transport not chartering a bus like they should.
Everyone goes in and sits I take my awesome group out to the bus using the back door since there are now about 200 people trying to get into the theater and the people at the hotel where the performance hall is gets kind of cranky. They get on the bus and say goodbye. They have a bus driver who is a little special and took a while maneuvering out of the parking lot and I had to move so that I didn't end up under the bus! When I walk back in they were cleaning up the stage after a protein spill (Disney lingo for throw up). The kid said he was fine and finished the performance, which he did just fine. I am then told that half of my group is still outside and that they are rehearsing. I get my manager and we kindly go tell her that they really can't be rehearsing right now and moved them to a place out of the way so that they don't get in the way of the "real" hotel guests.
After the huge group it was lunch time, and then my crazy director comes up and asks me if her accompanist can go practice on the piano because they are singing some tough songs and she starts naming all these composers. I tell her no that they have to wait until their warm up time. She didn't like that but oh well, thats the rules! She then has her group go to Downtown Disney for lunch because we can't have the festival guests eat at the resort because they get cranky. About half of them go and they other half just stay there and find benches to go sleep on outside. Then people from the resort come and get mad at us, oh well again not my problem! The rest of the group barely made it back for the performance.
After their performance I go to pick up the signs since the last group had arrived for the evening. We then hear on the radio that at the other choral venue that the boy who threw up earlier, threw up again. We were laughing hysterically! When I walk back inside I see that during the other groups warm up time my group had gone and changed which they were told not to do, there are no changing facilities at the venue.
They were ok, I've heard better, but they thought they were really good. The best thing is they stayed to watch the group after them, who were really good. During the last group's clinic one of the adjudicators stated that they were they best group she had heard all day. My group kind of gasped in shock that the group was told that and not them. So it is now time for everyone to leave and I walk with my group outside to hear what they are going to do because they don't have buses to come pick them up like everyone else. I was so shocked as to what this lady was telling her students. "Take a bus to any of the parks and let your chaperon know which park you are in. Meet at the TTC at 11:30 (the TTC is the parking and bus depot for the Magic Kingdom)." I was shocked how could they do that, let 40 high school students loose on 47 sq miles of freedom and unkowns. They all leave and she is left with some chaperons and everyones clothes in which she then goes looking for a taxi. At this point I don't care I am just sitting there laughing to myself! I am so done and don't care anymore I just wanted to be done with them. If you hear of students gone missing on their school trip to Disneyworld, they are probably one of mine from this crazy group!
Today was just the first day, we shall see what the next 2 have to bring! haha. Not to mention someone fainted and a girl had to sit down because her feet were hurting from her heels. Silly girls that think they have to wear really high heels for performances. This turned out really long, I didn't mean to write this much but I just had to share these funny stories!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
