Long time, no update.

Not since I got hired, in fact.

Since then, it has been a very busy week. I had two orientations, the first was all about the company and general policies, etc. The second was specific to Animal Kingdom, we learned about the park, the mission statements, etc. and took a tour which included a safari ride...the first of many I have been on in the past 5 days.

Thursday was my first day of actual on-the-job training. Among other things, I got to drive one of those HUGE trucks around the parking lot a couple time. It's gigantic. (To refresh your memory, this is the truck.) We (the other trainee and I) also rode along while our trainer did a lap around the trail and showed us the spots where you have to go slower or faster, or turn sharper, or be careful not to hit a curb. It all sounded very complicated, and I came home feeling overwhelmed and a little terrified.

Friday, my second day of training, started with us taking a truck out to the actual trail (specifically, me driving the truck down the backstage roads and getting it onto the ride path). Then, I got to drive the actual ride path. It was scary, but not terrible. I didn't hit any curbs. Then the other trainee and I switched and she took her turn. She did hit a curb and it threw her off a bit, she was saying that she didn't think she wanted to work the safari anymore. We each got to go around again and I did better at the wide turns, though there are still a few parts that I'm not great at navigating. The second time the other girl went around, we had an animal stop (the white rhinos were on the move) and I think that scared her a little, too. Those animals get within inches of the truck and they are very much wild. I think it's cool, she got nervous.

Later in the day, we went over some of the "land positions" (the stroller parking people, the Fastpass distributors/takers, the people who tell you what row to stand in when waiting for the truck). We even got to work a bit on the departures assist--the people who signal to the truck to stop at the departure point (there are 2 different options), open/close the gates to load passengers onto the truck, close the doors on the truck, get the drivers water (if they need it), and clear the trucks for departure when everyone is seated and the path ahead is clear. It's a LOT to do in a span of about 90 seconds, but I really got the hang of it after a few minutes.

We were warned that tomorrow, the third of five days of training, will be the most intense yet. It doesn't seem possible, because I still have trouble remembering all the things there are to do at any given time. This job is multi-tasking to the max, at every position. But I think tomorrow, we're really going to be concentrating on driving WHILE we spiel (there is a script to learn, with "radio interruptions" that come on automatically when you drive over a sensor, so you have to learn where those are all hidden, and be able to speak the lines before the radio transmission gives its second line). Additionally, we have to learn facts about 34 different animals and be able to find them, identify them, and spiel them, while driving the ridiculously complicated trail, AND making sure that the "show spacing" between trucks is good.


Whoa.


So it's kinda a tough job in the beginning. I can see how it will all become second nature after a while. For now, it's crazy complicated and seems impossible. But it's pretty damn fun. So hopefully tomorrow won't be as terrible as we've been warned it will be. And hopefully I'll spend enough time today memorizing facts about animals and the script.

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In other fun news, I "slept in" this morning until 7:30. I'd complain, but it's an hour and a half later than usual.

So naturally, I decided to be uber productive and get some grocery shopping done. I went to Publix and spent $62.81, which is all the more impressive when you discover that I saved $36.87. That's right...the total would have been $99.68, except that they had some CRAZY good Buy One-Get One sales, including Tombstone pizzas (which cost $5.49 each) and Ritz Bits Peanut Butter sandwiches snack packs (12 little bags that I use as "breakfast" and cost $5.99 each). So I saved 37%...good deals.

And all this (with the exception of perhaps a $12 trip in a couple weeks for bread, milk, etc.) will last me a month. I rock.

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That is all. I'm going to make some lunch, watch some TV, and then devote my afternoon to memorizing spiel. Oy.

A truly fantastic night of buffalo chicken pizza, 101 Dalmatians (which was SO much better than I remembered...I mean, I remembered it being good, but it's REALLY good), Lady and the Tramp, and a round+ of Disney Scene It with Colleen.

Oh yeah. We're hard-core.


BTW - I'm ridiculously good at Disney trivia. Like...too good to be human. The first game of Scene It we played, I had gotten to the end and won the game, while Colleen was still only 6 spaces away from start. Granted, she kept rolling low numbers and getting All Plays, and I consistently rolled 4s and 6s and got an even number of All Plays and other challenges (My Plays, trivia card questions).

But still. It's almost embarrassing to be this good. She's good, too. I'm just freakish.

After that, we just did the Party Play so we could both participate.


Also, we have tentative plans to have a "Disney Day" and watch all sorts of obscure Disney flicks (like A Goofy Movie) as well as some more popular mainstream ones (I'm thinking an early-90s mini-marathon of The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, and The Lion King...and for those perfectionists out there, technically The Little Mermaid is "late 80s").

Oh, lofty goals. ;-)


PS - I think if I get a boy cat, I might name him "Sergeant Tibbs." It's a pretty kick-ass name for a cat.

I take back what I said about Ted Levine not being entirely recognizable as Buffalo Bill from Silence of the Lambs while portraying Capt. Leland Stottlemeyer in "Monk."

It turns out that in the earlier years of the show, when his hair was darker and shorter, and his mustache significantly smaller...he is very much Buffalo Bill.

Eww.

I will still watch the episode, of course, but I never really liked the early seasons anyway. And Natalie is ten times better than Sharona (she was so annoying and kind of mean).

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In other news: I just took my Geography exam, so I'm done with that class FOREVER. Sweet.

And grades will be posted later TONIGHT. Double sweet.

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It's my Mom's birthday today. She turned 60. Whoa.

Additionally, I was the first of her children to call and wish her a "happy birthday" so I think I get a gold star for that.

Also, this weekend, she's coming out to Orlando (most likely with my aunt Judy) so we can go to a Norman Rockwell exhibit at the Orlando Museum of Art. I'd say "I'm taking her to the museum for her birthday" but that would imply that I'll be paying, and I seriously doubt she'll let me pay for myself, let alone for her.

But it should be a good time. We might even be heading to Downtown Disney afterward for some shopping.

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I am TOTALLY craving some Pizza Hut. That greasy, yet crispy pan pizza crust is sounding soooo good.

Methinks I'll be ordering some delivery for dinner.

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Tomorrow, I'm going shopping after class. I am in desperate need of new bras. Good thing I got a $100 Victoria's Secret gift card for Christmas.

I might also look for something new to wear to my cousin's wedding. I'm thinking of sporting the sweater and pants look...it's going to be cold and I really don't like dresses unless they are princess-y and I can't wear a princess-y dress to a wedding that isn't mine. Can't show up the bride and all that. I'll probably wear heels and hose, though, so that's something.

Florida Mall, here I come!

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I think that's all I've got.

Yesterday was a spectacularly brilliant, yet fairly uneventful day.


When I left for class at 8:30am, it was 56 degrees outside. Brrr! And it was lovely (and about the same temperature as back home in Chicago). It made me cheerful.

I handed in my final paper for American Cinema and because we have no final exam...it was our last class meeting ever. So I'm done with that class entirely. Hopefully I'll clinch an A for the semester. Additionally, class let out 20 minutes early, so I had plenty of time to run to the post office and drop off a Netflix, go to Best Buy to pick up Juno (which Colleen and I watched later that night), and even go to Panera during the lunch rush to get a sandwich to go. I knew I was in a cheery mood because the ridiculous lines and even more ridiculous people at the Panera did not make me annoyed, but rather amused.

I ate my lunch with due leisure at home before heading back to campus for Theory and Criticism in Art History. It was a note-intensive day, trying to cram in the last of the material needed for the final exam, while clarifying some of the material that got lost along the way. It was interesting, though, and there were many ideas that struck a cord.

After, I met with my professor to discuss my thesis. I was supposed to turn in a revised copy this week, but she said the draft I gave her two weeks ago was close enough to being finished that I don't need to give her anything else (it was completed, just not fully polished). She's giving me an A for the semester. Sweet. I still plan to revise it, and incorporate her comments, just for my own obsessive perfectionism.

Later, I went to my last lecture of Geography. We have an exam tomorrow (on the last day), and if I'm satisfied with my final grade at that point, I don't have to take the final exam next week. (I don't plan on taking the final exam regardless of my grade...I will be leaving at 2am that morning to drive up to Iron Mountain, Michigan for my cousin's wedding. So a 3pm final doesn't really work for me.)


What's really cool about all that? After tomorrow's Geography exam, I will have completed 3 of my 5 courses this semester...before finals week even starts. Sweet.

So I'll have the weekend to study for my two art history exams, which are Tuesday and Wednesday. And then I'm done. Forever. Whoa. A week from today and my college career is finished. Crazy.


Today, my only plans are to finish polishing my thesis and then study for Geography. I need an 83% on the exam to get an A for the semester. To this point, my scores have been 88, 87, and 94, so if I study hard enough, I might be able to clinch that. But if I end up with a B, I'll deal.

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In other news, I adore Michelle Obama. Not gonna lie. Love her. I think she'd be a kick-ass First Lady. Hillary-Clinton-circa-1993 style.

BTW...

Starbucks +Sweettarts = Breakfast of champions.


Oy, when's lunch?



Additionally, my internets are so slow today, it's an internet. Stupid singular internet.

I mentioned before how I watch TV only during meal breaks from writing my thesis and term paper, and just now I had It Could Happen to You on one channel, while A League of Their Own covered for commercials on another.

It kills me to have to turn them off...who doesn't love mid-90s chick flicks?


But I have been SUPER productive last night, and already this morning. My term paper is nearly finished, and it's to a point now where I can put it aside until after I finish working on my thesis.

You see, the term paper is due on Thursday, whereas the thesis is due Tuesday so you may think that I should have been giving the thesis priority. However, the term paper actually lays some of the important groundwork for the central argument of my thesis, so it was beneficial to work out all the logistic in one before plugging it in to the other. If that makes sense.

And so I have been adding to my thesis a great deal, taking largely from what I've already written for my term paper. I've also been editing my thesis to incorporate the comments my professor suggested.

I still have a lot to do, and only two days in which to do it. I'm more than a little nervous. There's a possibility I won't get it all done, but I hope not. I will be staying up late tonight (I'm sure of it), and then tomorrow I'm done with class by 9:30, so I'll have the entire day in which to write more.


And so I have used as my subject line for the post the immortal words of Will Ferrell to cover my bases and call upon all metaphysical beings to help me in completing this most difficult task. I really don't want to have to go into my thesis advisor and say "I know I had a month, and all of Spring Break...but it's not done." Yeah, I was irresponsible...but I was so done with this thing I wanted to shove a spork in my eye.

Well, I should probably get to work, because I don't have a lot of faith in Tom Cruise to help me get this shit done.

The McDonald's near campus seems to have an aversion to giving me my Apple Dippers as ordered. A couple weeks ago, I was given an apple pie instead (eww). Today, it was a fruit and yogurt parfait...which is actually pretty tasty, but I wanted apples and caramel dip.

But in awesome news, the "Scrubs" episode that's on right now is the one with the air banding (or rather...no air banding) and Mandy Moore. SCORE.