Hello blog, my old friend.

Hello again!

I'm on my laptop this time, so maybe my update will roll out more efficiently, though it might lack some pictures.

I REALLY DO MEAN TO KEEP UP WITH THIS!

For the last two weeks I've only been given Monday off..we're supposed to get two, but a couple of us have only gotten one because we're so shorthanded. I also just finished a 46 hour work week, and the week after this one will also be 46 hours. I also came down with a cold in the middle of last week.

Let it be known that Target brand Airborne works WONDERS. Immune-boosting supplements in tea HECK YES.

I just looked at my last post and realized that it was on the 12th. Oops.

In the last couple weeks, I've attended church down here! Woo! For my CWR readers, or anyone else interested, really, I attended a local Presbyterian church. Last week I attended their 8am 'traditional' service, and then this week I attended their 10am service. I wouldn't necessarily call their 8am, 'traditional', but it was nice, quiet, and small. Their 10am had a lot more music, which I very much enjoyed, but it also felt more like a show than a service, and I very much wanted to leave early because in my opinion, I felt like it got in the way of worship.  So I'm going to try out some place new, next week. Praying it goes a little better!

Nearly everything else in my life has been work though! It definitely keeps me busy, but frankly I prefer it like that. I find that I don't really know what to do with myself at first on my day(s) off.  For the first hour after I wake up, I sit on the couch overwhelmed by all of my possibilities, and all the things I can or should be doing with my spare time.

I did get to see a few familiar faces since I last updated too! It was really cool to just happen to see some church friends pass through my work location. It was a total surprise to both of us! At work I have a habit of only looking at clothing articles, and accesories to make guest connections with, i.e. birthday/anniversary buttons, and/or Cleveland/Ohio sportswear.  I've seen a couple Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame shirts, and lots of OSU gear. The OSU shirts ALWAYS merit a very loud "O-H" which is always met with a loud and proud "I-O" to the confusion of several of my coworkers. :D I only saw Cleveland Indians shirts, and was halfway through throwing out a "Go Tribe!/Where are you from?" when I realized I knew the faces!! It was very exciting and I might have gotten a little emotional.

I KNOW ANOTHER VENUE. I trained for Habit Heroes last week and it has been FANTASTIC doing Habit Heroes shows in addition to Vision House tours and Safety Smart shows. In Habit Heroes, the presenters are superhero recruiters...and it's awesome to have a venue to channel ALL of the bouncy energy I frequently have at work. Tigger-like energy doesn't transfer well to tours about how my friends the Monteverdes aren't home but let me show you through their house ;)

Don't get me wrong. The house is pretty cool. Touch the toilet if you go through it. If you go through my tour, I'll make you touch it. The toilet is warm. Then cue joke from me about how being from Ohio makes me love the idea of the toilet heating your feet in the winter.

Spoiler alert I also found a way to work singing into my house tour. So there's that. :) Each presenter finds their own way to make it fun for the guests and themselves in their tour while keeping within the limits of the show. Comparing shows is actually kind of cool.

BONUS INFO before I dash off to sleep.

I auditioned for the 2013 Candlelight Cast Choir today. For you (choral) Purple Raiders reading this (or other music folk) I *TOTES* wrote solfege into the music they handed to us. If you ask me how my audition went, it was as 'clean as a nut'. Okay. There's your UMU choir reference for the day.


p.s. for you hardcore winnie the pooh fans I may have taped a sign to our apartment door that says 'RNIG ALSO' so there's that.

To infinity and beyond!
Stephanie :) <3

Glory, Glory, Hallelujah!

I'm going to backtrack in today's post---backtrack to Fourth of July because no one does fireworks like Disney!

I happened to be working on the Fourth of July, which wasn't much of a surprise, and because I typically get off work around 7:30, I decided that I'd watch Epcot's fireworks. Magic Kingdom's would be playing all week, so I went the day after, and I'll get to that in a minute. 

Last year on the Fourth of July, I was studying abroad in London and we celebrated in Chinatown in an Irish pub. (Hakuna matata, I didn't drink anything. Yes I was 21. Hello allergies.) and this year I found it rather amusing to be in the different countries of World Showcase at the same time. After wandering around, I decided I'd better watch the fireworks from the American pavilion for what seemed like an obvious reason ;) and I am SO glad I did. 

Epcot did Illuminations as usual, and then went on into their special Fourth of July tribute. They had a medley of notable American composer tributes playing in the background and frankly I wasn't terribly impressed by the tribute until Battle Hymn of the Republic started playing and it was this gorgeous choral version and of course it starts playing right as fireworks start shooting off from the American pavilion and of course I'm standing in front of it and it was spectacular. My entire body was covered in chills and then they shot fireworks off from the lagoon at the same time as the ones coming from America and at one point it was so bright it looked like it was *almost* daylight. 

But why don't I just show you all of these pictures! :)

Yes. I'm sorry I was behind a tree. Moving on. 

^^it is really fun to be standing right behind a fireworks cannon, let me tell you. I tried to anticipate it and this was the best I could do. 

I like how you can barely see the American pavilion because its so bright. 

And then 

The globe of Illuminations, looking at the American pavilion. 

~

So the Magic Kingdom fireworks the next day were definitely cooler? More cool? But Epcot's compromised me emotionally so I'm a little torn on which show was my favorite. 

SO. MANY. PEOPLE. :)

So because I didn't know what to expect, I didn't get any pictures of some of the neat shapes and things they did, but you can kind of tell that there were more than just fireworks behind the castle which was awesome. It was hard to get it all in one take, but you get the picture. (ba doom chick)

;)

More later! I have fun Fantasmic pictures to share because I finally sat up in the very front. Plus I went to Animal Kingdom finally! But it's work now, which is still going well too :)

Faith, trust, and pixie dust,

Stephanie

AHHHH

It's been awhile

I am well aware of that and I've wanted to blog! Let me put it this way, no news is good news, right? I love working in Epcot. My hours are fabtastic as I'm always off by 7:30, because Innoventions always closes at 7:00. So sometimes I'll meet up with someone at a park, but usually I go home and make some food and park in front of the TV before falling asleep. (With my feet up.)

Just being honest XD

I finally got a library card for the Orange County library system so that's been wonderful. I've started watching Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman and I love it. So between that and Netflix, my evenings are busy until the rest of my roommates get home. And I mean, I get books too! There is a great section in the OCLS of English fiction translated into Spanish. So sometimes post-work I'm going to sit there with a book and a Spanish-English dictionary to try and expand my vocabulary. 

Which is definitely VERY useful down here! It's really great to be able to answer simple questions from guests in Spanish and hopefully I'll get better and can be of more help. I remember being in Disneyland Paris and I remember how relieving it was to have a question answered clearly in English if I didn't know the French word for something!

The downside was that I realized now that I've gotten a little better at Spanish, it's harder to transition back to French because my knowledge of each language isn't equal-----so I know some words that I don't in French and vice-versa for Spanish. MORE STUDYING!

Chinese on the other hand...yeah, that's going to be another project to tackle and learn, but I want to be able to help guests and be able to back up the two years of studying I did at Mount, so I'm glad I brought my old textbooks!

This week is the Fourth of July (and technically that's what today is, whoa!) so it's been busier and supposedly the fireworks down here are fantastic! I'm going to try and see Epcot's tonight and Magic Kingdom's fireworks are happening all week so I'm going to try and see them tomorrow!

Now let's play ketchup with pictures!

Pretty skyline at Hollywood Studios and Sorcerer  Mickey's hat!

The following are inside of Toy Story Mania, which is a FANTASTIC ride and is TOTALLY worth the wait, in my opinion. The line is always at least 80 minutes if not closer to 120, but the trick is to plan on seeing the later show of Fantasmic (10/10:30 I forget) and go right like a half hour or 40 minutes before the first show starts. Then, when everyone realizes they can't stay awake for the late show and they were going to see the 9:00 show, they leave the Toy Story Mania line and your wait time gets shorter by at least 15 minutes :))) it also helps if you go in groups of twos; after you get your 3D glasses, ask about the two-rider line, and that usually cuts about another 10-20 minutes off the wait, depending. :)

OH AND HERE'S A GOOD STORY!!

My roommate Lacy and I went to Magic Kingdom on a day we both had off and went to Magic Carpets of Aladdin first in Adventureland. Now, the last time I did this as the first thing I did in the park on the band trip ~5 years ago, we randomly got Super Fastpasses, which were Fastpasses for about 12 other rides in the park as a part of an Extra Magic celebration. 

This time, as Lacy and I waited in line, she noticed Aladdin and Jasmine standing on the other edge of the ride, across from us, watching everyone go by. We loaded onto the ride and we had a carpet all to ourselves. (magic carpets is kind of like the Dumbo rude, if you haven't seen it/been on it, except you ride carpets that technically fit four people instead of on Dumbo's back)

Well Lacy and I sat next to each other am there was a row free in front of us in our carpet and Aladdin walks over and goes, "Oh, I see what you did there." And of course I'm stuttering because I only web and sat next to Lacy because I thought it was awkward if I sat alone and was SUPER INTIMIDATED by the idea of sitting next to either of them on the ride. And of course this is THEIR CUE to decide to ride with us and it was HILARIOUS. We switched and I rode with Jasmine and Lacy sat in the back with Aladdin.

Let me point out here that right in front of us, there was a mom and a daughter that also had two empty seats...but I am wildly happy that they chose us. They even taught us the tricks for flying the carpets on the ride. (There are joysticks in each vehicle that let you raise and lower the carpet, etc)

Jasmine says Genie isn't terrible at flying carpets, but he likes to race them, but Magic Carpet always wins. I think Aladdin said something about Abu, but I can't remember. The entire time, Lacy and I are kind of like, "is this really, actually happening??" 

Afterwards, Aladdin and Jasmine had us take pictures with them to 'celebrate the occasion' (their words, not mine :)) and we have some on a photo pass, but we haven't tried to get them yet. The photo pass photographer got some GREAT shots of us on the ride, so props to him. Props to all the photo pass photographers, really. They do great jobs at capturing magic. 

Maybe it was because we had our ears on? Who knows! So now I have two great character stories, already in my first month: this one, and Pooh and Tigger's Pinball Wizard experience. :)))

Here's something else fun: in New Fantasyland, there's a village area that's suppose to be Rapunzel's, with her tower an all, and in the daytime in the picnic area, are little hidden Pascal's (the chameleon from the movie) they're GORGEOUS, and a lot of fun to find. Here's just one so you know what to look for if you're there---

They're all different colors (obviously) to blend in with what Pascal is hiding in, and they're all just so pretty. 

OH AND SERIOUSLY THOUGH, I thought I mentioned it last time, but you HAVE to go in the bathroom in this area, it's GORGEOUS. 

So that's a small (albeit poor) taste of what's all over the walls. SO PRETTY. 

They also redid the Winnie the Pooh ride since I was last here ~5 years ago to include the art style in the 2011 Pooh movie. There's a bunch of fun stuff throughout the queue line, so that one is a bit of a wait, but say if you're picking a fastpass between Peter Pan and Pooh 

ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS

AAAALWAYS FASTPASS PETER PAN

The line is always absolutely ridiculous (and pooh's is always less so) You don't have to be a thrill-seeker to need Fastpasses. For example the queue lines for Space Mountain, Splash Mountain, and Thunder Mountain have cool stuff in them and frankly, even when the line is 'long', it moves along significantly faster than Peter's does. And there's not NEARLY even half as many cool things to look at during that wait, so you're not missing any extra magic by doing Fastpasses for Peter, like you might for Pooh. 

ALWAYS. FASTPASS. PETER PAN. 

And I mean, the ride is worth going on too, especially if you like Peter Pan. There's a fair number of hidden mickeys and they've definitely updated a little if you haven't been on it in the last 5 years like me. 

Plus, they play a mean pinball ;)

Here's a fun picture of The Hub + castle :)

The following is a photo spam from Fantasmic: 

Some are super blurry, but you get the idea. 

Aaaaand then! I had several groups of people who happened to be vacationing in Disney in the last month so getting to see them was absolutely magical! (Shout-out to Jacque, Andrew, Tim, and the Cook's!!) Getting to see all of them was a lot of fun and it was even more fun having been discussing with Andrew since February about the following super secret thing to keep from Jacque ;)

BEFORE:

DURING:

AFTER!

I was designated to picture take---or rather, do what I could since it's pretty crowded during fireworks. It was fun, although difficult at times to keep a secret like that between your best friends :) but definitely fun. :) I'm very happy to have been any help.  There was also a group of kids about our age behind the three of us that happened to be taping a video of the fireworks and got some of it on recording. They were very excited about having witnessed the proposal. 

HERE HAVE MORE CASTLE! This is from the monorail?

Jacque and I also met Duffy with our Duffys. 

More randoms from my camera:

Splash Mountain queue line,

"Some critters ain't never gonna learn"

It made me laugh, okay??

Still does hahaha

I ALSO MAXXED OUT MY SCORE ON BUZZ LIGHTYEARS SPACE RANGER SPIN. Don't ask me how, but I'm excited I finally did! That earns me the title of 'Galactic Hero' per the scoreboard at the end :D

And here's the Genie and Mr. Incredible during the afternoon parade in MK

I was on the move at the time and only caught a little snippet. More for another day! 

That's all for now! Off to work! Maybe a shower and coffee beforehand? I may have fallen asleep around 9:30 and the woken up to type this and breakfast around 9:00...oops :) can you tell I finally got a mattress topper for my bed here? :D

FAITH, TRUST, AND PIXIE DUST EVERYONE! Let go, and let God work his magic :)

-Steph