Friday, Sept 16th: Today was a fabulous day off! A few weeks ago, I bought a few Disney souvenirs for my fellow members of the "Sassy Couch" and the other Juniatian editors. Today, I finally put the package in the mail!! Sometimes, I miss editorial board meetings, layout party nights, and bossing around photographers. And then I wake up and realize that I really don't miss all that responsibility.
Later on, I bought most of my Halloween costume (Blue and Gold Macaw). Wait until you see the pictures, because it ended up being epic!!!
Saturday, Sept 17th: I was interpreting at the military macaw exhibit in the morning, and a guy came up to me and said, "Oh, I have one of those, a Red-Fronted Macaw, and a Blue and Gold Macaw at home!" Well, that pretty much killed my "choose your pets wisely" conservation message. I asked him how old one of his birds was, and he said two years. WOW. I hope you write him into your will, you moron!! You'll have that friend around for at least 40 years.
Sunday, Sept 18th: Julie and I closed Conservation Station today, and we had a lot of fun joking around and talking about hockey. After work, Sonia, Steph, Mike, Emily, and I went to Wal-Mart to buy our Lightning/Blues preseason tickets (they're playing in Orlando on Wednesday). However, it all ended up being a huge mess and we left frustrated and empty-handed. (Don't worry, though, it all worked out in the end!)
Monday, Sept 19th: Today was a horrible day. I woke up on the wrong side of the bed (although my bed is against the wall, so I don't really know if that's possible) and I think my bad mood was infectious during work. However, it got a little better later on when Sonia and I went shopping. We finished up buying our costume materials and then pigged out at Burger King.
Tuesday, Sept 20th: I had CS again today, only this time I worked with Melissa Hartley. The day went by pretty fast because we sang (or attempted to) country songs the entire time! I'm glad I have a friend here who appreciates good music like I do! That night, I went shopping with Melissa, her roommate Paola, and Sonia. I tried to find some cowgirl boots for our future outing to Cowboys, but I failed. When we got home, I continued gluing feathers onto my costume. I swear there will be blue and yellow feathers stuck in our carpet forever!
Wednesday, Sept 21st: I went to work early because it was the day of my invertebrate tour!! (It was also the start to a fantastic week!) We got to go behind-the-scenes in the bug trailer and at Conservation Station. The keeper that did our tour let us touch a Hissing Cockroach, Florida Millipede, and a few snakes. We learned a lot about the bugs and arachnids we use every day in the park, in addition to some other critters that Guests can see at CS. It was a great tour, but I wish we had been able to touch more creepy-crawlies!
After the tour, we went back to our normal work schedules. At one of the KDC's, I met a woman from Hampton who was convinced she had seen me when I was interning at the National Aviary. That's crazy if it's actually true!
Thursday, Sept 22nd: It was a great day at the refuge!! Although we were short-handed on staff members, we had the help of Julia. She's a little 82-year-old Hispanic woman who works like a CHAMP. Because of her, we actually finished our work early, and Stacey let us watch her feed the big cats! The best part was that we got to pet Oliver the Florida Bobcat and Zema the Western Cougar!!! SO AWESOME. Although I know that will never happen again, it was a nice surprise!
That night, a bunch of my friends and I went out to Cowboys, all clad in plaid (hah)! It was basically heaven for me because all I heard was country music. We all tried to learn how to line dance, but that was an epic fail (as you probably could have guessed). It was such a fun night, and I definitely want to go back there at some point.
Friday, Sept 23rd: In the morning, Sonia, Karen, and I went to DAK to ride Primeval Whirl, Everest, and the Safari. We even got a glimpse of little Jabali, the baby elephant that was born in August.
That evening was Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party at Magic Kingdom!!! It was soooo amazing! While Sonia and I were on the monorail in full costume, a girl said to her dad, "Look, she's from Rio!" That pretty much made my night. I felt like a real Disney character! When we arrived at MK, we met up with some presenters to collect candy, meet characters (many of which only come out for this celebration), and watch the special villains show, "Hall-o-wishes" fireworks, and "Boo To You" parade. I came SO close to meeting Tarzan, but he left right before we got to the front of the line. However, Jane Porter and Terk loved my costume. I also got my picture taken with Cruella DeVille, which was great! Also, the parade was probably the best parade that Disney has. It started off with the Headless Horseman riding by on his horse, and then a ton of characters came through in their special Halloween costumes. The highlights for me were the laughing hyenas, Captain Barbosa, the Haunted Mansion ghosts, the Snow White Queen, and Malificent. I can't wait to go back in October with my family!!
After we got home from DAK, we had a barbeque/pool party at Cumberland. It was nice for almost all of the presenters to hang out together and just relax for a while. Good times.
Sunday, Sept 25th: Once again, it was a great day--mostly because the Steelers were playing at 8:20, so I could actually watch the game! I met up with Aaron, an intern who's also a Steelers fan, and we watched it at ESPN Club on the Boardwalk. The place was pretty cool--there were signed jerseys on the walls (including some from Lemieux, Jagr, and Mullen) and a huge gift shop with all the sports memorabilia you could ever dream of. For those of you who need to watch several games at once to keep up with your fantasy football, they had at least 10 different tv's, and one huge projector screen. The game itself wasn't bad, although our O-line was pretty awful, as usual. Luckily, we still pulled off the win.
Monday, Sept 26th: I was in a really good mood today, despite the fact that we only had 11 (instead of 14) presenters due to some sicknesses that were going around. The schedule for some of the presenters was crazy--a few people had to go to KDC's twice. Luckily, mine was pretty normal. After work, Sonia and I went to Sweet Tomatoes (a sweet buffet restaurant) for Mexican food night, and then Target for some grocery shopping.
Tuesday, Sept 27th: After our pre-shift meeting, one of our leaders showed us THE CUTEST letter ever. A girl sent this note in to Disney--check it out.How precious is that?? Anyway, my great story of the day occurred when I did a pledge to induct a kid into our Kids' Discovery Club. He was wearing a Flyers shirt. I asked him to raise his right hand and repeat after me: "I promise to take care of all the animals that fly, that swim, and that dance. And I promise to clean my room, eat all my vegetables, root for the Penguins, and listen to my parents." MWAHAHA. He totally fell for the Penguins part, and his family got a kick out of it.
After work, we all went to Medieval Times, an event where you watch a jousting tournament and eat dinner like a peasant (without utensils) while you enjoy the festivities. Each section of the arena was assigned to a different knight--ours was the black and white knight. They went through a whole role play and did different types of jousting competitions. Following the show, we stuck around to get our pictures taken with the prince, princess, king, and knights. It was quite a fun night!
Left to right: The hot prince; My dinner and banner for my knight; the winner--red knight!
Well, I hope you've enjoyed reading about my latest adventures. Next time, I'll be talking about the 40th anniversary of Magic Kingdom. I'll even throw in a few fun facts about the attractions and costs of MK way back when in 1971!
"Live off the land. Never take more than you need."--Betty Settee, Inuit woman
