The Flu Bug Bites :(

My last few days at work have been pretty awful. I came down with the flu a few days ago and it has really thrown me for a loop. My whole body aches from head to toe, my throat is scratchy and sore, my nose is runny, my ears keep clogging up, and my head is pounding. Its pretty terrible, especially having to work through it for 11 hours one day, 8 hours the next, 8 hours today, and 7 hours tomorrow. I don't know how I did it, especially the 11 hour day and the first 8 hour day when the flu was at its worst. Yesterday I took some day-quil and some aleve and that helped a little bit for a while, but it wore off and I felt awful again. One of my managers saw me and could tell that I was not feeling well, so he told me that he would talk to the scheduling manager to see if they could let me go home early. The scheduling manager said that they were boarderline as far as having enough people to work that day, but if I really needed to go home, then I could go. I told them that I would stick it out as long as I could. By that time I only had about 3 more hours to go, so I decided to just stay. By the time my shift was over, I was absolutely exhusted. I was so happy that I would be able to sleep in as late as I wanted today because today I don't go in until 6:45. But I work until 3:30. That should be fun. Not! lol. When I got home I found out that my roommate Michelle also has the flu, and that most of her friends have it as well. So I guess its just going around. I am feeling just slighty better today, but I'll probably take some more day-quil and aleve before I leave for work again. It seemed to take the edge off a little bit. I'm truly looking forward to my two days off this week!!! I need the rest badly. I had to work 7 days in a row. I was originally only scheduled to work 6 days in a row which is still more than usual, but I picked up a shift on Monday for my co-worker Michelle. She really needed to trade shifts with someone and she was the one that traded shifts with me so that I could go to my dad's ordination, so I had no problem helping her out. So now instead of being off Monday and Tuesday, I'll be off on Tuesday and Wednesday. So yeah. Well, I will let you all know how work goes today! Thanks for reading!

Love, Michelle

Fun Stuff!

Hi! Yesterday Nikki and I went to Disney Quest. It was so much fun! First we rode the Buzz Lightyear bumper car/dodgeball thingy lol. Then we played this virtual reality shooting game thingy that was pretty boring lol. Next we went on Virtual Jungle Cruise. That was really fun. You have to sit in these inflatable rafts and row yourself down a river its awesome. After that we did the Pirates of the Caribbean game. That was way too awesome lol. Its a 3D game/simulator where you stand on this boat and shoot cannons at other boats to collect their booty. Its so much fun. After Pirates, we went to Cyber Space Mountain. That's the place where you get tp design and ride your own virtual coaster. We made our coaster as scary as possible lol, and then we aptly named it - The Jolly Express. LOL what a great name. The Jolly Express was awesome. We also of course played a numerous amount of video games both old skool and new skool, including, but not limited to: Skee-Ball, Pacman, Frogger, Skee-Ball, Mario Bros., Virtual Tennis, Flaming Finger, Skee-Ball, some random motorbike racing game lol, and oh yeah, did I mention Skee-Ball? lol. I mean, come on. FREE, UNLIMITED Skee-Ball??? Just just sheer awsome. lol! OMIGOSH...then we found the most glorious floor in the entire building. Guitar. Hero. I didn't even know they had Guitar Hero there!!! I was flippin out lol! We played for like an hour lol it was awesome. But yeah. They also had Dance Dance Revolution, but I suck at that so I just played more Guitar Hero lol. So yeah it was a really fun night at Disney Quest. I'll be going back soon.

Today I worked from 11:15 to 9:00. It was a pretty uneventful day until about an hour before it was time to leave. I was at Fastpass Distrobution and I noticed there were some dark clouds coming in. One of my managers came out and told me that we were down for weather. So yeah, no big deal. But the clouds kept getting darker and darker and I kept getting scareder and scareder lol. I already didn't want to be outside, and then my manager comes back outside to tell me something that almost made me pee my Frontierland shorts lol. He goes, I just wanted to let you know that there's a tornado warning in the area so if you hear us power down then I need you to let all the guests in the area know to take shelter inside the Briar Patch gift shop and then come on back to Big Thunder, but if its storming too bad just stay where you are ok? Then he left! I was like.....WHAT?!! Oh, uh uh. Lol I was SO scared. I saw my coordinator Marylin walk by and I was like, uuummmm...Marilyn? I get off in like 30 minutes, can I go home now? lol. She told me she would go check to see if we had enough people working and she would get right back to me. Man she was only gone for like 10 mins, but it seemed like an hour! I just wanted to get away from all that lightning! lol! She finally came back and was like, ok Michelle you're clear to go home now! I was like THANK YA JESUS! lol! Man I clocked out so fast and was gone! Woooo.....But yeah. Thankfully there was no tornado and the weather really didn't get too bad. I made it home safely, of course. Lol what a night. I'm so crazy!

Love, Michelle

Back In Full Swing!

Wow. That's all I can say lol! Its been WAY too long since my last post, I know. I apologize, I will do better I promise! Hmmm...let's seeeee lol where to begin? I will try to start as far back as I can remember lol. The last thing I can remember doing besides working is I went to Atlanta to see my dad's Ordination! It was fabulous! I got to see my family and my church family. The Ordination was great! I'm so proud of my dad! Oh! And I got to see my family's little kitten Tiki for the first time! She is so tiny! She's much smaller than I expected her to be! But she's just SO adorable! AWWW!! And Fergie!!! I missed her so much! And she remembered me! I was so happy and I miss her so much already! AWWW Fergie! lol. Anyway, I made it back home to Orlando safely - obviously lol. And yeah. Now I'm back in full swing! I've been working crazy hours at the Tragic - excuse me - MAGIC Kingdom. lol. Man oh man. I've been tired, but the paychecks are pretty nice lol. Um, I can't really remember too many details about what I've been doing for fun in the past few weeks, but I've been going to the parks of course, and just trying to relax and rest when I get the chance. Oh, I did go to the France pavillion with Nikki last week and we got some desserts. She had the Creme Broule' (if I'm spelling that right lol) and I had the Napoleon. They were both absolutely delicious. I love France! lol.

Well I know that really wasn't much of an update, but the posts from now on will be much better. Today is my day off. I'm off tomorrow too and I'm getting my hair done! Finally! lol. Today I had some me time. I went to Downtown Disney and ate at this restaraunt Renise has been telling me to try. OMG, that place is amazing. It's called Earl of Sandwhich and they have all kinds of hot subs. They're delectable lol. That place is my new best friend. I will definitely be visiting them often. After my yummy lunch, I went to the movies and saw My Sister's Keeper. Whoa buddy that movie is a tear-jerker if I've ever seen one! I was sitting there crying like a little baby! Lol, I was balling. It was awful. Such a great movie though. So after the movie, I went window shopping at the stores. All was fine and dandy...until....I wandered into the World of Disney Store. Omg, talk about a Disney lover's paradise! lol. That place is super dangerous when you have money you're not supposed to be spending lol! They have a whole entire section of the store filled entirely with Disney character plush dolls! Oh the Mickeys! lol. I'm so going to buy one...one day lol. Considering the cost $30+, that day will be one far from now lol. I did, however, break down and buy my first trading pin - a Mickey Mouse pin of course - as well as the Wishes CD. Wishes is the nightly fireworks show at the Magic Kingdom which I get to see every night I'm working and which I look forward to every day lol. That's definitely one of the best parts of my job is getting see Wishes every night, or at least getting to hear the music if I'm not working an outside position at 10:00. Lol, its funny because I have the whole show memorized including the songs, and even the choreography of the fireworks! lol. I love it. So tomorrow I'm probably gonna go to Disney Quest with Nikki. I'm super excited! lol. Yay for unlimited Skee-Ball!! lol. I will keep you posted! Take care!

Work, then Fun!

Hi! How are you? I'm well. On Sunday I worked 7 hours. I got off at 2:45am. It was my first closing shift. It was good though because I got the easy position for closing lol. All I had to do was stand at the dispatch console and wait for the tower person to tell me when to pull the trains to storage. To pull trains to storage, all I have to do is press a button lol. I love pressing buttons lol! On Monday, I had to work 10 hours. It was a pretty long shift, but it went by pretty smoothly. Working is getting to be pretty much routine now. I know all the positions well now, and even grouper is slowly getting better. Its a lot of fun to work with all different kinds of cultures. You really learn a lot! There is one girl that I work with named Licia who is from Italy. I was talking to her about italian food, because I love me some Italian food lol, and she was telling me that here in America, most of the food that is claimed to be Italian food is not really Italian food. She said that pepperoni pizza in Italy doesn't have meat on it. Pepperoni pizza is more like a bell pepper pizza. When they put meat on their pizza, they call it salami pizza. And also, she said that the lasanga here and true lasanga is very different. I wanna find some true Italian lasanga!

Yesterday my was day off. I went to Animal Kingdom with Nikki. I don't know how she did it, because I promised myself I wouldn't go in that show ever again, but somehow she dragged me into It's A Bug's Life! That show is scary! lol. There's this one part where these wasps attack and they sting you! And then there's the part with the roaches and beetles...EwWwWwW! I hate bugs. Anyway...lol. Then we went to ride Expedition Everest YAY! The standby line was 50 minutes, and the Fastpasses were all gone, so we went in the single rider line. Thank God for single rider lines!!! We rode it twice. I freakin love Everest! Its pretty much the most amazing thing ever lol. That Yeti man! He's pretty scary! After that, we went to get something to eat. We went into this beautifully air conditioned restaraunt lol, and got a little snack. Nikki had chicken strips and I had fries. After we ate, we had all these condiments lying around lol, and it made me think about something that my sister Diamond always used to do. Sooooo I decided to try it! Haha. I mixed together ketchup, salt, sweet tea, barbecue sauce, sweet and sour sauce, and dijon mustard. Then I dipped a french fry in it and ate it. Well, actually, attempted to eat it lol because I couldn't really get it down lol. Yup. I'll never do THAT again! So after we were done eating...or, whatever we were doing lol, we went to ride Dinosaur. Omigosh. While we were standing in line, we noticed that the guy in front of us was probably so excited to be in Disney and wanted to maximize the time he had in the parks, so he decided to skip a few showers....WOW our noses were CRYING lol!!! And we stuck behind him for the whole 40 minutes we stood in line! Yeah. But besides that, Dinosaur was awesome. Next, we rode Primeval Whirl. I had never been on it before. It was ok. Really short though. Oh! Then we played these little carnival games! Nikki played the little roller ball game and won a purple Iguana and named him Iggy Star-Pop! lol. I played the basketball game and won a super cute bear in a baby blue basketball uniform! I was so excited lol. I named him Dwight! Hahaaha. After that we went on Kilimanjaro Safari. That was really cool! We got a decent sighting of some animals, but we really didn't get to see a whole lot. We saw different kinds of antelope, elephants, rhinos, hippos, flamingos, and a bunch of birds. The tour guide said that there were some cheetahs and lions, but I didn't see any. But it was still really nice. After the safari, the park was closing, so we decided to go over to Magic Kingdom. As we were heading over there on the bus, one of thise famous Florida storms came in. It was lightning like crazy and really really heavy rain. We we got to MK, we got drenched trying to run into the nearest gift shop lol. We found this really neat little theatre room that plays old Mickey Mouse cartoons. It was so cute and perfect for waiting out bad weather. After the storm had died down enough, we headed over to Fantasyland and got on the Winnie the Pood ride. Well that broke down, so we we to ride Snow White instead. Then It's A Small World.....yeah. No comment lol. Then we went back to Winnie the Pooh lol. It was so cute! Next we headed over to Tomorrowland and rode Buzz Lighyear. The rain had scared everyone off, so the lines were pretty much non existent. We got to ride twice, they just let us stay on lol. I was so mad though because I was winning both times until the very last second when she pulled ahead and won! Can you say, Cheater? lol. Anyway, after that we went on Carousel of Progress. Another ride that I had never been on before. It was pretty interesting though. It was funny in a cheezy kind of way. lol. After that, we went to our homeland, Frontierland! I finally rode Big Thunder at night. It was awesome. It was so funny seeing all my co-workers as I walked in. Everyone had to do a double take lol. They're like, "Howdy Fol....Michelle?" lol!! It was great. Then we rode...SPALSH MOUNTAIN!!!! YAY! It never gets old lol. We got SOAKED though lol. Ah. Perfect way to end a beautiful day at Disney! I'm off again today. Going to some more parks! Wooooo!!!

Love, Michelle

Getting the Hang Of Things!

Its been a few days since my last post. A few LONG days lol. I can barely remember what all has happened since Thursday. I'll do my best lol. Thursday was another 12 hour shift. It wasn't too too bad though. When I was in Tower, which is the position where you have to watch all these screens and keep an eye on the guests on the ride and there's all these buttons and if the ride goes down you're pretty much in control lol, but anyway...when I was in Tower, of course the ride HAD to go down, and it was my first time being in Tower when the ride went down so I was like "Uh Oh..." but before I had time to panic, all these people started rushing the tower and doing everything for me lol. I helped out a bit though lol I got to spiel to the guests to let them know that the ride was experiencing technical difficulties and that they would have to exit the queue at this time. I was so professional! lol. Anyway, the next day, I was in Tower again...and the ride broke down again. I was like, are you serious? What's wrong with me? lol. But anyway, just like the day before, as soon as the ride went down, people started rushing the tower, taking over for me. This time, one the coordinators who was also one of my trainers, told everyone to back up and that I was in Tower and to let me handle things. So I got to do a little bit more. At first, I was ok with all the people trying to take over for me because I wasn't 100% sure what I was supposed to do lol, but NOW I know exactly what to do!!! First you call maintenance (8855), then you call the Greeter and tell them to pull the rope because we're 101 (ride is down), then you spiel to the guests in the queue, then you turn the ride animation off and the work lights on, then you start filling out the 101 paperwork. Yay! lol. So after we got the ride back up and running, I started thinking, well wait a minute...I know what to do when the ride goes down while I'm IN Tower, but what am I going to do when the ride goes down when I'm NOT in Tower? Lol, very soon after that thought passed through my head, the ride goes down. And I was NOT in Tower! lol. I had never done an Evac (evacuation) on my own before, but I guess there's a first time for everything! Thankfully, I got to evacuate the one part of the track that I knew how to get to, so it went very smooth. I got everyone off the train and led them back through the mountain and out to the exit. After all the trains were evacuated, we had to reset the track. I had never done that on my own either, but again, thankfully I got to reset the one part of the track that I knew how to get to. Sooooo, it went very well! I even got a "Good job Michelle!" from the coordinator! I was so proud of myself lol. So today I was in Tower again, and I just knew it was going to break down again lol. I was ready for it though, even looking forward to it because I knew exactly what to do. Of course, it didn't break down. It can't break down when I actually know what I'm doing! lol. But yeah. That's ok. Its sure to break down on me again when I'm in Tower, and when it does, I'll be ready! lol. Today I was supposed to get off at 9:00pm, but like 2 hours before 9:00, one of the coordinators came up to me and asked me if I wanted to extend until 10:00. I was like, um sure! And he was like, "Really??" lol. I mean, its only one more hour, so I didn't have a problem, but he seemed really impressed and he was really grateful. So yeah. One more hour of overtime oh yeah! lol. When I clocked out, he came up to me and thanked me again. So yeah...I'm in good with the coordinators so far lol! Tomorrow I get to sleep in YAY! I don't go in until 6:45pm. I'm super excited! And SUPER sleepy! Goodnighty!

Love, Michelle

Days Off Pt. 2

Well, the second of my beloved days off sadly have come to an end. Now its back to work bright and early tomorrow morning and for the next 5 days straight. Today I went to see Up. It was a really good movie. Its pretty funny though, because I never cry on movies, but this one part in the movie...I just couldn't help it lol. But yeah, it was a really funny movie too. Disney has done it again! lol. After the movie I went back home to eat lunch, and then I was gonna go to Animal Kingdom by myself. But just as I was getting ready to leave, Michelle came home and asked me if I wanted to go to Hollywood Studios with her and her friends. Even though I've already been to Hollywood Studios like 10 time since I've been here, I couldn't resist lol. It was funny though, because all of her friends speak spanish, so there were a lot of conversations that I completely missed out on lol. But they were all very nice and they included me in their conversations as best they could by trying to explain to me in English what was being said. They were even helping me to learn some spanish phrases. We didn't get to do a whole lot at the park because we didn't get there until about 6:00 and the park closed at 9:00. First we rode Rock N' Roller Coaster which was awesome as always. Then we went over to the Journey into Narnia attraction. I had never been in there before, so I didn't know what to expect. I thought it would be pretty cool....yeah, no. lol. It was pretty boring. Next we went to watch The Little Mermaid show. That was really cute, but waaaaaaayyy too short lol. They tried to condense the movie so much that it turned out being kinda confusing. Lol, although it would probably help if I'd actually seen the movie before! Anyway, we saved the best for last - Tower of Terror! ALWAYS a blast! Oh, and I saw that one guy who's like the poster boy for Tower of Terror. His name is TJ and I see him working every trip I take to Disney. He plays his role so well! But yeah. Not much else to report. Fun day! But the fun is over now lol. Thanks for reading!

Love, Michelle

Days Off Pt. 1

I had my first day off class today. I was almost really really late though lol. I forgot to take my phone off of silent before I fell asleep, so my alarm didn't go off in the morning! Thank God Nicole came in and woke me up lol. I only had 10 minutes to get ready though. Its a really, really good thing that the class is in a building right next door to my apartment lol. Class was good. My teacher is really nice, but very crazy. In a good way though lol. She's been with the company for 29 years, so she has lots and lots of experience and valuable information to share. I'm excited about the class. It should be really good. One of the things we had to do today was to draw a picture of what our childhood dream was. I remembered that when I was little and my mom was working for US Air, I wanted to be a flight attendant lol. So I tried - key word, TRIED - to draw an airplane with the passengers inside and me as a flight attendant giving the pre-flight instrusctions lol. It was a special picture lol. After class, I went with Nikki to the post office so she could mail a package to her friend back h0me. After that, we were going to go to International Drive to explore the different shops and little attractions in the area, but we ended up not going. We went to Disney's Boardwalk instead. It was really cool. There was a magician who was really good. He put on a good show. Then we bought corn dogs....Oh my goodnesssss YUM lol. Pretty much the best corn dog I ever had ever lol! Next we went to check out what else was at the Boardwalk. We went down to the left end of the boardwalk and found these two really neat looking clubs and decided to take a peek inside. The first one was very creatively named "Dance Floor" lol. We went inside and it was practically deserted lol. There were only a few couples in there, all of them in their late 40s/early 50s lol. We quickly left. Across the way, there was a club that was misleandingly named "Jellyroll". I was thinking, Hmm...donuts! lol. No donuts. But it was still pretty cool because it was like a piano dueling show. It was pretty neat. There was, however, a $10 cover charge to get in....I was about to turn right around but then added that cast memebers get in free, so I was like well in that case....lol! The best thing about that place is that they give out free popcorn! Yum! But yeah. It was funny. After the piano place got boring (about 15 minutes lol) we headed home. It was pretty fun though. I want to go back again another day because there was a whole bunch of other stuff on the other side of the boardwalk that we didn't see yet. Well, I have my second day off tomorrow. I'm probably gonna go to Animal Kingdom. Wooo Hooo!!!

Love, Michelle