Four Posts! Thursday night, Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday+Wednesday

My mother told me that I could post more than one post at a time, and my fans (wow, I have fans!) would still read it. So I'm trying out this theory... and posting four posts at once. It's insanely long. So, if you're not my mother, and you want to skim to whatever parts you find most interesting, go ahead. And if anyone's lurking (for those who don't speak netspeak, read: "reading and not commenting/posting"), go ahead and leave a line. I don't care if you don't have anything clever to say, I'd just love to hear from you.

Post #1: A Night on the Town - Joanna, Abby, and Marijka Style

Thursday was a day off. Looking at my receipts, I see that I went to Walmart and bought a few things I needed. I also called my sister Rebecca in the afternoon because she had had surgery that day and I wanted to see how she was.
I had discovered that there is an adult ballet class at the Orlando Ballet school. I had really enjoyed the adult ballet class at home – it was improving my flexibility and posture, and giving me exercise, and making me feel like a dancer. Abby and Marijka wanted to come and try it to, so we all went together.
The sky as we drove was amazing! The sun was setting, and the sky was filled with towering clouds. One half of the sky was golden, and the other half was bright blue. We couldn’t stop admiring it, and Abby took pictures with great delight. I’ll have to get them from her and post them.
Unfortunately, we left a little late, and then got lost. The result was that we didn’t get to the building until twenty minutes after the class had started. So, sitting in the car in the parking lot, we had a discussion, and decided to call this our finding-out-where-it-was expedition, and go next week. We had seen a library as we drove, and wanted to get library cards, and we could also explore downtown Orlando a little, so it wouldn’t be a complete waste of gas, and at least now we knew where the building was.
We went ahead and went inside to find out more information about the class, and even got to peek in so that we could see what people wore. It was like the one I went to in GR (I love how my city can just be two letters, it’s almost like an affectionate nickname the way those who live there use it) – a mix. Some in tights and leotards, some in tank tops and loose-fitting capris or shorts, but everyone in ballet slippers. And guess what! Orlando Ballet does the Nutcracker! I can have one of my Christmas traditions! (Granted, it’s an intermittent tradition because of the cost, but I think it’s worth splurging on this year.)
After we had looked around the building and found out what we needed to know, we went back to the library. It took us some circles to figure out where to park. We finally ended up parking in this lot that was inside a gate. We thought sure it would be not allowed, but there no signs anywhere that said “reserved,” or “permit parking only,” or any of those depressing phrases that mean you can’t park in a good spot. So we parked there, and went into the library. Books! Books! But when we went to the desk to get a library card, the lady said we couldn’t get a card unless we had proof of Florida residence, which meant some sort of official paper that had our Florida address on it, like a paycheck stub or whatever. Today had been the first payday, and none of us had gotten our paycheck yet. So we were out of luck. This was depressing, but we had excitement – we had seen a lit fountain out in a lake while we were looking for parking, and we wanted to go over there and explore.
When we walked back to the place we parked, we discovered that the gate was closed! Oh no! My car was trapped inside! Now what? Being small enough to fit through the bars, I decided to slip in and investigate. Maybe there was another exit. The other two (they are both thin as well; Abby is tallish and Marijka is a little shorter than me) followed, and we looked around but there was no other exit. A lady came in a different way and went to her car – there must be a way out then! I went up to her and was going to ask how to get out of here, but she was on her cell phone and I didn’t want to interrupt, so we decided to just follow her. We were walking over to my car when she pulled out of her space. She drove up to the gate and it opened!
“Hurry! Hurry!” we cried, flinging ourselves into the car. What if you had to have a special card or something! We’d have to follow close behind her!
The gate closed before we reached it – but when we pulled up to it, it opened automatically. All our worry and fret for nothing! Laughing, we left the parking lot and drove out, heading for the fountain.
It took a little bit for us to find it again, because I had forgotten when exactly we saw it, but then I remembered and we drove around looking for a place to park again. We found a spot – parallel parking, ugh! It was a park, with paths through trees, along the edge of the lake. It was lovely, and we walked along it, looking at the fountain and at the ducks and swans that swam in the water. I was amused by a sign that forbid being in a horizontal position anywhere in the park…
After a bit of walking, we came to a playground.
“Look, a playground!” I said. There was a moment of hesitation, and then all three of us were running full speed toward it. The first section of it was disappointing – only a small play structure, and baby swings! But then we saw this amazing space-age looking climbing thing across the way, and ran over to it. There was a swing there, too, and promptly started swinging while Abby and Marijka climbed on the structure. It was the best superhero training thing ever – all different climbing-on things, and then there was this circular tilted spinning thing you walk on and it moves under you, until it gets going to fast and you panic and jump off – at least that’s how I used it… And other spinning things, where you can jump on crouched down so it starts spinning and then pull your way up the pole to a standing position, which makes it spin faster and faster until you think you’ll surely be flung off. One of my favorite things about having done dance is that I don’t get dizzy and sick from spinning nearly as easily as I used to. I wouldn’t have been able to do those at all before, but I did them three or four times and I didn’t get sick at all.
Finally, it was getting late, and we decided we should probably head home since Abby had to work early the next day. When we came crashing in, still talking, our roommates looked up in some surprise. So we gave them our account of our downtown adventures. I like being crazy. Who would have thought I’d find two people I could play on a playground with?

Post #2: Shoe Shopping, and my First Working Day

The next Sunday, the 16th, I had thought about going to church in the morning, since I was working in the evening and wouldn’t be able to go to the evening service. But I had to do training until 10:45pm on Saturday night, and then it’s a half hour bus ride home… and I couldn’t find the motivation to get up early and go to a strange church. If it was Blythefield it wouldn’t have mattered – I’ve gone to Blythefield after working all night – but I didn’t feel up to going somewhere new. I needed white socks for work – the only ones I have have blue cuffs, which they said wouldn’t do :-) , and black shoes. The specifications for the shoes were: plain black polishable leather with no decoration, closed toe and heel, cover all of the top of your foot, and no Velcro allowed. Just the sort of shoe I avoid like the plague. So I spent all afternoon shopping for shoes. Ugh. I’m not a huge fan of shopping at the best of times, but shopping when you don’t even get to buy what you like is awful. I couldn’t find a single pair of shoes that met the specifications and I didn’t think was ugly or horribly uncomfortable – except for two pairs: one that was slip on style with elastic diagonal criss-cross straps, which I thought I could wear if I wore pants so that no one could see the unconventional top, and one pair of soft black leather Converse All Stars at the Converse outlet. (Thad, you would love that place. I’d like to take you there.) Needless to say, neither of these pairs of shoes came in even close to my size.
So after driving to two different Walmarts and going to a whole bunch of outlet stores (in the pouring rain… nothing like walking into a high-class prices-way-over-my-budget leather shoe store looking like a drowned rat!), it was getting close to when I needed to work and I was starting to think that I was going to have to go to work another day in my “Cinderella shoes,” which are black ballet flats. I love those shoes, but one cannot walk for six hours straight (my usual shift time) in them without being in a good deal of pain. So there I was, at the last Walmart, trying on shoes, when I caught sight of a pair of black leather lace-up boot-looking shoes - hey! I actually liked the look of them! They had silver rivets in the lace holes, and metal hooks for lacing toward the top, and they had a sort of British look, I thought. So I got a pair of eights and tried them on. Hmm, they felt okay, but they were a little big and the arch support was too far forward. I got a pair of seven-and-a-halfs and slid them on. Perfection. They were so comfortable, the leather was soft instead of stiff, even at the cuff (I can’t stand shoes cutting into the back of my heel), and they fit my feet perfectly! Hurray! I looked at the brand – Earth Shoes. Of course. Just the brand that all my favorite sandals and my snowboots are, coming to my rescue again with a pair of comfortable shoes.
I had just time to buy them, get home, get ready like a maniac, and catch the bus to work. I would be working in Tomorrowland, and it would be my first time working by myself.
When I got out there, I had to ask another custodial person where the supply room is – that’s where the sheet that says what we’re supposed to do when and when our breaks are is. I was in zone two, which is around Space Mountain, and I didn’t have to do a trash run.
It was so nice to finally be on my own, just hanging out in Tomorrowland and keeping it clean. It rained for a little while, and when it let up I dried off the tables and chairs – and was gratified to see that people started sitting in them right away. I am useful! Besides, it’s fun drying tables. We have this tool called a squeegee that’s like a mini windshield wiper that gets the water right off. I liked pretending that I was really working at a spaceport – after all, one of our “basics” is “I stay in character and play the part”!
My zone included the long walkway from Tomorrowland to Toontown, and while I was down there I decided to dry the benches so people could sit there. It was starting to get a little dark by this point. I dried off a bench and was wringing out my cloth when I felt something sharp prick my finger painfully. I dropped the cloth instantly – had there been a thorn caught in it? But no, it hurt worse and worse! Ouch! It had to be a wasp sting. I kicked the cloth and there was the wasp. I quickly stomped on it. My hand still hurt a lot, and I was thinking I needed to go to First Aid. So I’m walking down the path, and half my hand is swollen, but as the pain lessened a little I realized that I’m not allergic and I don’t need first aid for just a wasp sting, this is silly. But it hurt so much it made me think instinctively that I needed to do something about it – it was my first time getting stung with no “grownup” around to go tell that I got stung. It stopped hurting after a while, of course, and the swelling disappeared.
One other thing of interest happened. Everyone gets a set of Pixie Dust pins when they first start work. These are to give to a guest who you see being magical – someone who’s especially enjoying the park, like skipping down Main Street or twirling around, or who does something nice to make magic for someone else. They come in a set of two, so that the guest can give the other away to someone else they see being magical. I had mine with me in the blue bag that we attach to our belts to carry things in. As the fireworks were going (they haven’t gotten old at all yet… I still gasp whenever Tinkerbelle flies), I caught sight of a mom and daughter sitting on a bench watching, singing along to all the songs and swaying back and forth in rhythm. A Pixie Dust pin moment if I ever saw one. So I went up to them, and said to the daughter,
“For some of the most enthusiastic fireworks watching I have ever seen, I would like to award you this Pixie Dust Pin.” Before I could continue explaining about it, the mom said with a gasp of delight,
“Do you know what these are? You keep one, and then give the other away to someone else who you see being magical!” So much for my speech, but they were happy so I didn’t care. They thanked me, and I thanked them for helping make the magic, and I went away smiling.
I also used my other magic that night – my No Strings Attached form, which is a way to give something to a guest who has had some sort of a problem – things like replacing a dropped ice cream cone or giving someone priority entrance to a ride. There was a man who was there for the Extra Magic Hours (when resort guests get to stay three hours past normal park closing time), but he had gotten a flyer saying that the EMHs went until midnight, when they actually ended at eleven. The result being that he was coming up to Space Mountain at 11:05, having never gotten to ride it yet, and was very disappointed. So since he was going to be back the next day or the day after, I gave him my form so that he could get right on Space Mountain without waiting in line when he came back.
I finished work at 12:15 – in Tomorrowland, we meet at the Lunching Pad restaurant a half hour after the park closes (11:30, that night), and then all go over to Main Street to help pan and broom, since it doesn’t empty out for at least an hour after the park closes, because everyone shops in the stores. It’s a good strategy, leaving the stores open so that people can buy things at the end of the day. I was pretty tired by the time it was time to go, but I do love Main Street at night. It’s all lit up and looking like the idealized small town that it is… and the bakery smells amazing.

Post #3: In Which Cinderannie is Late for the Parade

Since I had worked until past midnight, I slept in on Monday morning. That afternoon I worked in Toontown, which was fun. I wasn’t supposed to have trash runs until after I did my assessment, which would be Tuesday, but they had me scheduled for one anyway. The Toontown trash run is easy – Toontown is small, so it’s not broken into zones, which means that you just do all the pink and yellow Toontown trashcans and you’re done – no figuring out which is which.
I was supposed to go over to Main Street at eight o’clock. At five until eight I had just finished my trash run and was going to Main Street, when a lady with three kids and a Make-a-Wish button came up to me asking whether this was the Toontown Train station, which it was. She seemed a little distressed. I didn’t know if the button was just because she supports Make-a-Wish, or if she was really there with Make-a-Wish, but either way I wanted her to have the best time possible, so I asked what the trouble was. Her husband and daughter were separated from them, and she thought they were supposed to meet at the train station but she wasn’t sure, and he had the cell phone, and she only had a dollar and it cost two dollars to call on the pay phone. Well! I could do something about that. So I dug in my bag for a dollar I knew I had with me, and gave it to her, telling her it was the Guest Emergency Fund. I’m not sure if it’s against the rules to give the guests money or not, but I don’t remember anyone saying so, and it is in the rules that our goal is to make sure every guest has the most fabulous time of his or her life, so I’m glad I did.
The result of this was that I was quite late getting to Main Street. And I thought I was just supposed to pan and broom there during and after the Spectromagic parade, but then I ran into Courtneyd (it’s pronounced Courtney, her grandfather David died on her due date and the D is to honor him, you may think that’s weird but I think it’s kind of cool), one of the trainers and the most cheerful of all the custodial cast members, and she explained that I was “Parade” so I was supposed to be there at a bit before eight, with a pushbroom, and go along with one of the Powervacs pushing trash from the sidewalks into the street in front of it. Dear me. I apologized for not doing it right, and they all said that was okay, and then after our supper break we went to the Adventureland bridge to clear up after the second half of the parade and this time I did what I was supposed to. I’m not fond of the end of parade clean up where we’re down by the front entrance, because at that point the vacuums can reach everywhere so the pushbroomer is kind of useless. We can’t even go around spot sweeping with the broom, because we don’t have a pan, and trying to walk around with the vacuum and sweep things into it makes me dizzy because I have to keep spinning around to see where the vacuum is, not to mention the way that the vacuum goes in circles to get everywhere. So yeah… I definitely missed my pan and broom, which enables me to just sweep something up when I see it. By this time it was nearly time for us to leave, anyway, though, and when another useless pushbroom girl and I found a grandmother and granddaughter just sitting on a bench, we welcomed the chance to “take five” and talk to them. So we had a nice conversation until it was time for us to go, and it made a pleasant end to the night. I think I’ve said before that guest interaction makes me so happy…

Post #4: In Which Cinderannie Completes her Training, and a McDonald's is Ridiculous

On Tuesday the 18th I had my custodial assessment. All this meant was that I went with a trainer and he asked me questions about how to do everything and I answered them, as well as taking a written test. I was a little nervous about this, not because I was worried about knowing the material, but because my assessor was a guy who had kind of given me the creeps when I’d met him earlier. He was just, I don’t know, too friendly. I think the girls reading this will know what I mean. But I think that when I glared at him when he put his arm around me once, and spun out of it, he got the message, because he was fine during assessment, and I’ve seen him around since, and now he’s friendly but not creepy. He gave me Skittles yesterday, actually, because he’d gotten them in a gift bag and he says he doesn’t need all that sugar. He wasn’t creepy about giving them to me, so I accepted them and thanked him.
There was a lot of waiting around for things to happen during assessment… the assessor kept disappearing for ten minutes at a time. Since I had my notebook with me, I didn’t mind this. I just wrote. And it was nice to spend time seated in the air conditioning, since I’d spent the past two working shifts walking nonstop. That was the one thing about the good training days – it was very hot.
After my assessment was completed and I had passed it, they said that I should spend the rest of my shift (until 8:45pm) panning and brooming around my area, getting to know where the restrooms and smoking sections and everything were. They said I should go to Tomorrowland and Toontown, because that’s where it said on my schedule I would be working, but I’d already been there for two days and I knew it was likely that I would eventually be elsewhere, and I hadn’t been in Adventureland or Frontierland during any of my training and I didn’t know those areas very well. So I took the long way around to the East (that’s what we call Tomorrowland and Toontown), and went through Adventureland and Frontierland (“the West”) on the way. In Adventureland I met another custodial, and he gave me a tour, showing me where the AVAC room was. (The AVAC is a marvelous tool – you dump the trash in it, and it all gets sucked down pipes at 70 miles an hour and turned into dust.) Eventually I made my way to Tomorrowland, and then to Main Street when the park closed. This time I had my pan and broom, so it was much more pleasant. I got to have a nice conversation with a girl who worked at a popcorn cart while I swept up the popcorn that was spilled around it. It was nice talking to her because she loves working at Disney and loves her job. I have to keep an eye out for those people and talk to them, because if I get talking to the cynical ones too much it depresses me. But I notice that the higher-ups are mostly all enthusiastic… it’s the ones who believe in the Disney vision, not the cynics, who stay in the company and move up.
On Wednesday, I was tired from working late nights, and Abby and I spent all afternoon e-mailing and watching Top Chef. The most amusing thing about this is that neither of us are TV watchers at all, so we would periodically groan at how ridiculous we were being, watching reality television all afternoon. But we were so tired, and it was an interesting show, and made a nice break.
In the evening I went to First Baptist Church, first to their ‘Focus’ Wednesday night service, and then to their college group. Focus, at seven, is just a sermon. The pastor who teaches it is going through the book of James. I listened, and took a few notes. It was okay, but he was no Louie. And I think he misinterpreted what “be slow to speak” means.
There was an hour between Focus and the college group, since it wasn’t until nine, and I was very hungry for supper. And then I realized I’m a complete moron, because I hadn’t brought money to eat out. Fortunately I had a good deal of change in my car, including two dollar coins. So I had enough to get quite a good meal at McDonalds. However, when I paid with my change, I noticed that I had a Canadian dime, with a sailboat on it. I was just about to grab it back and trade it, thinking that I’d like to keep it with me, when she shoved it back toward me.
“That’s not a dime,” she said. I blinked in astonishment.
“Yes, it is. It’s a Canadian dime. We use them like normal change – I’m from Michigan so we get a lot of them.” But she shook her head, and called over another worker.
“Do we take these?” she asked her.
“No,” the other lady said. So she handed me back my dime, and I fished for another one. I couldn’t believe it! They just rejected my Canadian dime!
When I had my food – the service was not so good, they didn’t even give me a fork for my cinnamon melt and the melt was quite short on icing – I went and sat down to eat quickly so I could get back to the church. I also called my mother back, since she had left a message on my phone.
When I came into the college group (they call it “Breaking Bread,” like we call ours “Ecclesia”), there was a table that had a sheet for newcomers to sign. I was walking up to it, feeling a little uncertain, when a redheaded girl came up to me and said,
“Hi! Are you new?”
“Yeah,” I nodded. She introduced me to a couple people at the table and had me sign up. One of the people, Megan, was from Michigan.
“Michigan!” I exclaimed. “Then you will understand this! The lady at McDonald’s just rejected my Canadian dime!”
“They rejected it? No way! Floridians!” So we commiserated, and she said, “I’ll buy it off you! I don’t think I have any left!” As I was taking it out, I wasn’t sure I wanted to give it up, but when she took it she looked at it with a smile and said, “This makes my day!” and I was glad I gave it to her. I wished afterwards that I had just given it to her and not taken her two nickels but it happened rather fast.
The college group was rather like a combination of our college group and Nitelife, because it was college age, but it was at night and all lit up. I liked it; it felt familiar. And they were playing Skillet and Flyleaf music before it started, two of my favorite bands, so that was comforting. We sang a song I hadn’t heard before, but I really liked it. And the study they were doing was on Paul’s missionary journeys, so that was cool because I was just in Greece.
After the college group, several people were going out to a restaurant, so I went too, since it seemed like a good way to get to know people. One guy who I met, Michael, was also new, having been invited by some people who were doing “Free Hug Day” at University of Central Florida. He offered to give me a ride over to the restaurant, since he’d have to come back toward the church anyway to get on the freeway to go home. Trusting my instincts, I accepted. It was nice to not have to worry about getting there, although it turned out that the restaurant (called Alehouse - it’s kind of like Applebees except the music is louder) was just down the road. I didn’t have any money left on me, so I just got water. That was probably good though, since I wasn’t hungry at all. It was nice to sit and listen to everyone and become familiar with their faces – Nicole, who has a round friendly face and brown curly hair, and is outgoing and spunky; Tiffany, with black hair, who is calmer but still outgoing; and Megan from Michigan was there too. There were others at the other end of the table but I didn’t really meet them. The restaurant was “as cold as Taco Bell,” as my family says. I was in flipflops and shorts and a t-shirt so I was freezing. Because of this, and because I was not in a very talkative mood so I wasn’t getting to know people as much as I would like, I was ready to go before the others were really done. Fortunately, Michael was wanting to get home, too, so we said goodbye to the others and he drove me back to my car. It was around midnight when I got home, and I was glad that I had the next day off.