Sunrise-Wrist Set

A couple morning ago I got up insanly early and drove to the beach to welcome the sun to the lower east coast of the USA. It was SO pretty. I'm gonna go do it again before I leave. I loved it.

I set my video camera up and caught the whole thing. Nothing is quite like being there, but it was some pretty cool footage. :-) I'll video it again when I go back.

In other news...I think i fractured/broke my wrist. It hurts a lot. So i went to the doctor today. After an examination she thinks it's probably fractured and possibly broken. X-rays will be looked over and I'll be re-examined on friday for an official diagnosis. Bleh!!!

So what did I do??? I have no idea. After convincing the doctor that I don't drink so it couldn't have happened while I wasn't aware. She said that I could have stressed it sometime, maybe at the beach with the roomies, then continued to aggrivate it pushing lapbars down at Toy Story. I'm gonna go with the crazy boat ride out to the parasailing place. we were jumping off waves and I was holding on for dear life. But i don't know that for sure. some of my Toy friends decided that I must have fought off a crew of pirate ninjas. So I'm gonna go with that one. :-)

Beach Day

Not long after we had all moved in my roommates and I came to the realization that we probably wouldn't really see each other much. Just for fun we decided to all request a day off about a month before we left, if we still liked each other we would go to the beach, if we didn't...we all had a day off, no harm done, spend it how you want to. We picked April 21st. Why? Well, because it's the "perfect date". (Miss Congeniality was on while we were talking about this.) What a great day we choose!!!

We all still like each other (or at least pretend to ;-) so we got up this morning around 9ish to head to a beach. We decided on Daytona instead of Cocoa because it wasn't that much farther and most of us like trying new things. It was great, I wish we had been going to Daytona since we got here. We took 2 cars, one of course was my topless jeep, (I love my jeep!!!!) and headed to the coast. When we got there I was so excited to know that they let you drive on the beach. What?!? YES, I drove my topless jeep up and down the beach, probably 40 feet from the water in the morning...then not more than 20 when we left in the evening. I loved it!

While there we did all sorts of things. We laid out and worked on our Florida tans. I was proud of myself I brought sunscreen and even applied it twice. But I still got a little burned. Not too bad though. It's kind of funny, the main places I got burned are my right upper arm and shoulder. I'm blaming it on my left hand's poor aim, since I use the spray can of sun screen.

We played in the water of course. It wasn't warm but it really wasn't too cold either. We were running into the waves and jumping on each other in the water though so we stayed warm enough. We (April, Tiffany and I) played catch with a Nerf football. Tracy was with us too...but she was playing "drop"...she didn't catch much, nor did we catch much after her tosses.

But the most fun thing we did was Parasail. I've done it before when I was younger and really did like it. It ended up only being 4 of us, but it was a blast, we went 2 at a time and April and I were together. It was lots of fun. They had a "professional" (I think the only thing really professional about him was his camera) on the boat to take pictures we could purchase afterwards if we wanted. Most of his pics weren't that great...but you got everything on the SD card if you wanted them and there were some that were pretty cool. So for your enjoyment...a few pics of April and I high above the waters of the Atlantic. :-)

Getting ready to take off. :-)

That plane felt...really, really close. I know it wasn't all that close, but it felt really close while we were up there.

We are on that tiny circle just above where the rope disappears.

We were spitting and counting how long it took to fall. At the highest point we couldn't watch it go all the way down. The most that we could see it was 16 seconds.

At the end they dip you in the water. It's a little scary, but pretty fun.

They actually did it to us twice. We think the boat boys were flirting with the 4 college girls on a slow day at the beach. ;-)

Home

I was able to go home a couple of days last week and it was so nice! I totally surprised my family. Leslie was the only one who knew I was coming. It was such a hard secret to keep, but i did it and it paid off wonderfully. For two weeks prior I had been taking pictures of my stuft dog Spatchual "traveling" in my parks. He went to China Town in Sanfransisco, rode the Subway in New York City and all sorts of things like that. Then I let them know he was home by sending them a picture of him in Perkins. It was so much fun.

It was so nice to be home, in my own bed (which was my very nice 20th birthday present), sitting on my seat on the couch, and just doing the normal everyday stuff with my family. It was great. I woke up each morning and before I opened my eyes i smiled a little and thought to myself, "It's so nice to be home."

I have a little over a month left here in Florida which is both exciting and sad for me. I've loved this experience and don't wanna turn in my IDs, but I'm ready to be back with the people who love me the most. I also miss doing some of the more creative things that i did on a regular basis at Home. Making videos and things like that. I picked up a guitar while I was home too, and I've been playing a lot since I've gotten back. (I brought my guitar with me to Florida.)

The Flight home was an interesting experience. I've never had to spend the night in an airport before, but that one thing I can add to the things I've done list. My flight from Dallas to Orlando was supposed to leave at 8:30, first it was delayed until 10:35.

"Okay, inconvenient but I'll still get back. I'll go buy a book."

Then 11:15. "Ugh. I'm tired of this game. 6 chapters into Marley and Me. I'll call home and let them know what's going on."

Then (about 11:00PM) "Ladies and Gentlemen we're sorry for the inconvenience, we are try to get you out of here tonight and we're hoping nothing bad happens, so just be patient and we'll get back with you shortly." What?!? "Nothing bad happens? Is that you're way of telling us we're not leaving tonight...or that you hope we don't crash once we've taken off?"

5 mins later:"Ladies and Gentlemen, we're sorry about this but your flight has been cancelled the FFA only allows our crews to fly a certain number of hours at a time and the entire crew has reached the limit. Usually we have stand-by crews on hand just in case, but all our stand by crews have been used this evening. Again, your flight has been cancelled."

:-(

:-( :'-(

I waited in the long line to get re booked and was able to get on a 7:10 flight out the next morning. It would get me home in time for work but would make staying in a hotel for the night a very slim possibility. Thus Spatchual and I found a cot and blanket and shivered it out for the night.

You know those messages you hear in the airports every 10-15 mins? "Don't leave you bags unattended." "If you see anything suspicious you should report it." etc? well, they don't turn them off at night. Nor do they dim the lights, or turn off or down the TVs. It was very cold, and I was traveling without luggage so i had nothing to layer with, and my backpack made for a very poor pillow.

Needless to say I didn't sleep much. I actually spent most of the night on the floor under a row of chairs with my cot propped up against them to create a little dimmer area. It also helped me not feel quite so weird about falling asleep in plain view of about 40-50 people I had never met before. I got up around 6 because I wasn't sleeping anyway and we very VERY cold. Spatchual decided he needed some hot chocolate and a doughnut to make himself feel better...so I obliged and by 7:10 we were headed back to Florida. I slept for about 3 hours then headed to work for a late shift. Came home and crashed. :-)

Even though it was rough getting back...I'm so glad I got to go home. I loved the time I got to spend with my family and the friends I got so see while I was there. :-)

Easter Sunday

They say confession is good for the soul...so I feel like I should confess something: I almost didn't go to church Sunday morning. "What!?! It's Easter Sunday? You thought about not going to church on Easter Sunday?" Yes, I did.

My Excuse: -We are very busy at work, last week I clocked in 54 hours. It was the first of 3 "Forced 6th weeks" It means all cast members with regular "full time" hours are working and extra 6th day in addition to their regulars 5. I, just by chance* didn't have to be in Sunday until 3:15 and while when I first got my schedule I thought, "Sweet, I'll be able to go to church." the past couple of days (when I've been going in around 10-12 and staying til 11-1) had been thinking "Maybe I'll just sleep in."

But I went anyway. And am so very glad I did. I would have missed out on a huge blessing if I had not.

Something that really concerns me these days is the way the Church as a whole relates to the world. I'm afraid that we've been cooped up inside our buildings so long discussing carpet, the music, and how Jesus came for those sinners outside our walls that we may have lost touch with the fact that we ARE those sinners and the ones who are actually outside our walls don't see anything different in us than in themselves. I am seeing an effort to change in lots of different places, and I'm really excited about that.

I really enjoy attending First Baptist Orlando, for that reason. I see so many things in that worship service and just the attitude of the whole church and the pastor that I agree with, and that reminds me of things my home church is looking to do. Last Sunday David Uth (the pastor at FBOrlando) said something to the "regular attendees" at the end of the service that I had to smile at because I'm pretty sure he stole it from my dad. He said, "Look forward to next Sunday. It's gonna be different than what you are used to. We are gonna be changing up the service because there are gonna be a lot of people here that we only get one shot to reach."

I loved the way they handled the Easter service. They began it, after a short video and choir special was just like a pretty tradition church service. The kind of thing that someone who hasn't been inside a church since last Sunday would expect. It wasn't boring (in fact there was such a feeling of excitement and celebration, largely due to the beginning video, that I immediately was glad I had decided to go) it was just traditional. Then the service progressed into a very contemporary service. David delivered a great message of hope (He's got the Keys) in short 5-15 min excerpts in between special music and congregational singing that got progressively more "now" if you will. Including, a team of ballet dancers (yes I said dancers in a Baptist Church) who did a dance routine on stage during one of the next to last songs. It was beautiful.

As I was sitting/standing there participating I remembered what David (and my father) had said about seeing lots of people on Easter, that you really only get one shot with. Surveying the progression of the worship service it was as if they began it traditionally to set people at ease, then slowly brought it along to show what it could be. I loved it. I'm so glad I went, it was so refreshing and I would have missed out on a huge blessing if I had chose not to go.



*I, in absolutely no way, actually believe that this was "just by chance".

Small World

Hey there! It's good to finally be getting back to the land of the living. I was down for almost 2 weeks with a cold/sinus infection/yuckiness. But I'm feeling much better now. I went to a doctor and got some power drugs after it hadn't "passed on" in 5 days. I did nothing but go to work...then go to bed and sleep until the very last possible second before I had to get up and go to work again. Meals were even optional! And that's a real sign that I'm feeling bad, because I like food a lot!

There have been several changes at work in the past two weeks. "The Economy" has finally caught up with The Disney Company. We went through 3 days of lay-offs last week. That was a whole new expeireince for me. It was strange for two main reasons... the first was that it was "top heavy" (a lot of management and upper level positions) and nobody really knew it was coming. Toy Story had 9 managers 3 were let go and 3 were moved to other areas in the parks. Plus several other regular positions. I think Toy Story lost about 15 (out of about 60-70) of our regular cast. It was strange on those day and we've been working like crazy ever since making up for the bodies we're missing. I kinda felt bad being a CP (College Programer) because our jobs were about the safest and we're only here for a semester of two. It is still strange thinking about who I had gotten to know who aren't employed by disney anymore. The lay-offs are a big part of the reason I was going to work even though I was sick. CPs were pretty safe, but we were told to keep our record cards clean because they'd be looking for reasons to terminate slackers. I didn't want to have a string of "call-ins" right then.

On a more positive note...it IS a small world after all.

Reason #1 -There are about 6-7 CPs at Toy Story. 3 of us are from Oklahoma. Carey and I were in OSU band together (we didn't know each other at the time...but we were) Becca is a Sooner and Carey and I give her as much grief as we can. ;-)

Reason #2 -Becca used to live in the same town I live in! No kidding, about 2 blocks away from my house. She and her family moved away about the same time my family moved there, but still in the same town.

Reason #3 -The Prince Caspian character greeting and Narnia attraction is right next to Toy Story and occasionally the friends of Prince Caspian come into our breakroom. Josh, a friend of Prince Caspian, was in our break room the other day. He said something that made me pretty sure he was from OK, TX, AK or someplace in the south. So I asked him. He said, "I'm from Oklahoma, can you tell?" So I asked him if he was a sooner or cowboy. He is a Cowboy, and when I asked him where he was from he replied, "Stillwater. well, not Stillwater but one of the little towns around it." I laughed because that's exactly what I say when people ask me where I'm from. He's not from the same town, but from one close to mine. Anyway, we saw each other in the parking lot after work yesterday and talked a little. He knows the Ripley's, used to eat at their restraunt and there were two or three other people we talked about that we both knew.

Reason #4 -Doug and Sandi are an olderish married couple who work on our ride as seasonal Cast Members. They are from Kansas. They were flying home to visit their family one weekend and we were talking about this and that. They asked me where I was from and when I told them ("Stillwater. Well, not Stillwater but one of the little towns around it.) Sandi goes, "Oh where, we might know it my sister used to live in..." MY TOWN!!!! I couldn't believe it. Sandi's sister worked at the same place my mom did for several years! It was crazy fun.