In Which Cinderannie Escapes the Ghosts

I tried to post this last night, but my internet connection died. So I'm posting it now.

Wednesday I spent all day home, and took apart a crochet blanket I made. This is because I had run out of yarn and in between, the company had changed the colors of that type of yarn, so I couldn’t get more. So I ended up with this strange 5’ by 1 ½’ piece of crocheted cloth that was too skinny for a blanket and two wide for a scarf. Rats. So there it was, hanging around all the time, and me not knowing what to do or how to finish it. So I realized, if I took it apart, I could make a blanket that was around 3’ by 4’ with the yarn. So now there are a whole bunch of balls of yarn in my crocheting bag. It was a bit of a wrench, taking it apart, because I worked on it in the waiting room of all my appointments when I had my brace, and there was a lot of history attached to it. But it was so pointless the way it was, and there was no way to salvage it because it would look silly with other colors of yarn. And I could have left some of the end and used it as a scarf, I suppose, but it was supposed to be a blanket, it just was, and I feel like it would always have bothered me that it never got to be a blanket. So anyway, I’ve taken it all apart and I’m going to make it into a blanket.

I also painted a couple pictures – I am not talented in that area at all, but I have fun with it anyway. And, to my surprise, Dani ended up really liking one of them and claiming it to keep in her room. She says it reminds her of her home in Arizona.

It was our one month anniversary of moving in, so we all wanted to go out somewhere together to celebrate. Nicole had mentioned craving Buffalo Wild Wings (oh yeah, forgot to say, I’d picked her up from the airport because she’d just gotten back from visiting home), and Dani and I were discussing it and I mentioned that, and she said,

“Didn’t you say you didn’t really like Buffalo Wild Wings?” I was surprised and pleased, both that she would remember that I had mentioned that, and even more, that she would decide on not going there just because I didn’t like it. But I told her that I didn’t mind going once in a while, it just wasn’t my favorite place, and since Nicole wanted to go it was okay with me. So we figured out what bus we needed to take, and when everyone was home, we got ready to go. We all kinda dressed up because we were in that sort of mood, and Dani tried to teach me to walk in high heels – ha. It didn’t work very well. I only got it right once, when Dani told me “walk like you know you’re the hottest thing in the room.” Yeah, that’s my personality all right… I didn’t wear them out, they were too uncomfortable.

We had heard that on Wednesdays there was a cover charge to get into Buffalo Wild Wings, but a couple of my roommates had been there on a Wednesday and they hadn’t been charged. So Dani called to see, and they said there was no charge. So we all went out to the bus stop.

At the bus stop I met Herberto. I now know the true meaning of the saying, “He thinks he’s God’s gift to women.” I have never in my life seen a guy who was so full of himself. He was dressed in a nice suit, and came and sat next to me on the bench. I said hello and he introduced himself, and I asked where he was going all dressed up and he said he went somewhere – “Margarita Blue”? – anyway I’d never heard of it. Must be some fancy night club. At first I was just like, “he’s friendly,” and then when he said his name was, “Herberto” – it was the complete opposite of Alejandro, who just said his name like it was his name – this guy said “Herberto” like he was saying “The King of England.” He was well aware of his own attractiveness, which of course made him completely unattractive. In a few moments I got up and wandered across to the other benches where the other girls were. He crossed one leg, spread his arms out over the back of the bench, and then lit up a cigarette, holding it in his hand like he was on the cover of a magazine – he was the most perfect picture of arrogance and conceit I’ve ever seen. I started laughing. I couldn’t help it. I had to walk away, trying unsuccessfully to hold it in. The good thing was, I figured he was so self-confident he’d never suspect I was laughing at him.

Of course, looking back, I can’t help but wonder if deep down he’s actually severely insecure. I think people who seem really arrogant often are. Poor guy. But honestly, him there, in his designer suit, with his cigarette… he was just too much. Oh, and apparently he called me “sweetie.” I didn’t hear him, but Nicole was saying on the bus that as I walked away he called me sweetie, and she was thinking, “Oh, don’t you call my girl ‘sweetie’!” I like being part of somebody’s “my girls.” I never had that before. I am part of a group, all of us who do “intellectual discussion,” but we aren’t the sisterhood sort. So it’s kind of fun.

Well, we got to B-Dubs, as those in GR call Buffalo Wild Wings (people don’t call it that here, it’s strange. Every time I forget and call it that people give me weird looks), and there was a sign on the door saying “$10 cover charge for those under 21.” Needless to say we were very miffed. We tried to explain that we had called and been told there wasn’t one, and Dani went and talked to the manager, but in the end it was useless, and we ended up going to TGI Fridays instead. At first Kara and Nicole were saddened by this, but then we ended up having a good time at Fridays and Nic even got to get buffalo wings there. They have amazing desserts.

Thursday I slept in because we got back really late. I was working in Liberty Square, which was lots of fun, although I felt really tired during the shift – from staying up late, I suppose. It was a Halloween party, and the most exciting part for me was emptying the trash in the Haunted Mansion at 1am when no one was in there – but the ghost host voice still talks. It is not a good job for someone with an overactive imagination… I almost didn’t go in to part of it; I had to make myself. We were supposed to go in the exit, and then there’s one can there, then we go through a hallway to the part where you get on the ride and there’s two cans there. But when I got there the exit was all locked up and I couldn’t get in. There was another door to the side of it, though, that said, “Servants Quarters,” the same thing the other cast-members-only door had said, so I went in. It was just a little hallway, with bells on the wall like for ringing for servants – which I half expected to start ringing – and also a vanity with a mirror. It wasn’t too terribly creepy, except that I could hear the voice of the ghost host coming through the door at the end of the hall. There was a trash can there, not one of the usual kind that’s metal but just a square plastic can with no lid with a black trash bag in it. I figured I might as well get it while I was there – probably cast member trash. There were double doors in the hall. I peeked in, in case it was a way through to the queue line. Nope, creepy storage room. I shut the door. I’d better check the door at the end of the hall in case it went to a place with more trash. Reluctantly, I pulled it open. Yes, there was a trash can, the same kind as in the hall, that had been left in the room. Not technically part of my route. But it was only a fraction of a second that it took me to take this in before realizing that this was the stretching room, basically the creepiest part of the whole thing, and the ghost voice was talking, and I looked up and there was that picture that changes from a person to a creepy skeleton and it finished changing just as I was looking at it and I shut the door again hastily. My trash dolly was full anyway. I went back to the dumpster and dumped it. I had to come back to the Haunted Mansion to get a couple bags I’d had to leave behind. I was fully intending on not getting that trash bag that was in the room. It wasn’t one that I was supposed to get anyway. Until I heard a quote from the Silver Chair in my head. It’s referring to Jill, thinking about Eustace, after she climbs out of the hole she fell into and says that she doesn’t think the passage goes “anywhere much.”

“She felt sure that he knew that she had funked it.” “Funked it” is English slang – or was in the days of C.S. Lewis – for chickening out, not doing something because you are too scared to do it. And I realized that that was exactly what I was doing. And I remembered that courage is doing something when you’re scared to. So I decided I was going to get that can. I went into the hallway where I was before – and to my surprise, the door at the end of the hall, into the stretching room, was open! A maintenance person must have been in there. It was still creepy, but much less so. I don’t know what it is, exactly, but it’s much less scary if the door is propped open than if you have to open it. It takes some of the mystery away, I guess. So I went in and got the trash – while not looking at the transforming picture. And then I saw that there was another door propped open on the other side. I peeked through to investigate. Hey! The queue line at the ride entrance! With the two trash cans I was supposed to get! It wasn’t that scary getting them, especially because I kept hearing my keys clink in a very janitorial fashion, which is one of the most ordinary, non-ghostly things you can imagine. Also, hearing the ghost voice proclaiming that the room had no windows and no doors while three doors were propped wide open took some of the spookiness out of that particular proclamation… so anyway, I got the trash and got out of there. Whew. Afterward, when it was too late, I realized that I should have looked for that other hallway so I could get the trash out of the exit area that I was locked out of. Oh well.

I think if I ever did it again it would be a little less scary, having done it once. I’d kind of like to. I should make friends with the ghosts. And I know you’re probably all thinking, “She such a fraidy cat. It’s just the Haunted Mansion. It’s more silly than scary.” But I must mention three things in my defense. 1) My emotions are very susceptible to music, and there was creepy music playing outside for Halloween, plus all the creepy sound effects that are always around the Haunted Mansion. 2) The dividing line between reality and my imagination and stories has never been very clear for me. All my life I have let whatever story was around me become very real to me. This is a lot of fun when pretending in elementary school, makes Disney all the more magic, makes the Easter Drama an incredible experience, is conducive to good acting – and is not so great in the Haunted Mansion at 1am. 3) Everything is very different when you’re alone. It’s all very well with a crowd of people around you who are laughing and joking and being ordinary, but when you’re by yourself… I’d like to see you go in there all alone and see how you like it.

On Friday I had to hang around the house all day because a Dell person was going to come fix my computer. And then he got stuck in traffic and couldn’t get there before time for me to leave for work. Grr. I worked on Main Street – not parade this time, just normal sweeping. I was on the “hub” area, which means the circle in front of Cinderella’s castle that is the center of the park. The nice thing about this space is that because it’s so busy, we put bags in the trash cans so we can just grab them out, so doing trash runs was really easy. The other nice thing is that it’s so crowded during the parades and fireworks that you couldn’t possibly sweep, so the coordinator lets you stand out of the way and watch. It was my first time watching the Halloween fireworks from Main Street, and I enjoyed it very much. At the end I was closing the hub trash, and it was being really easy because I had just done it, so all I had to do was take out the last bag and rinse the plastic liners, and since there was only one or two pieces of trash in each one, I could do it all in one trip. Until I realized there was a can I had been missing every time, and so of course it was three-quarters full, and wouldn’t fit, which meant a whole ‘nother trip. (“A whole ‘nother” is absolutely atrocious grammar, incidentally. But it’s such a useful phrase.) Rats. But just then another guy showed up who had been sent to help me, so I very thankfully had him get it. It’s so nice when someone comes at just the right time. (Ha, unintentional Romans reference…)

Saturday I didn’t have time to do anything, because they scheduled me for an earlier-than-usual shirt, which meant that I had less that 12 hours at home. I worked Friday from 6:30pm-2:00am, and on Saturday from 1:15-7:15pm. With bus rides, that means about 8 hours actually home. Lovely. I was working in Toontown, though, which is easy. I felt really tired, though – actually I was feeling tired on Thursday too. I’m not sure why that is – I should pay attention to how much sleep I’m getting. Also it could be because it’s been warmer lately (highs in the 90s, lows in the 70s) and the heat saps my energy. Oh, I thought of something else – during the time I had energy, I was making an effort to eat healthy, and then in these days I had kind of let that slide. So that could be related to it as well. At any rate, the only interesting thing that happened was a conversation with a couple from Florida who had season passes. If it’s in the middle of the day, the people I end up talking to are either grandmas who are waiting with little ones while the moms and dads take the middle-size and big ones on Space Mountain, or Floridians with season passes. Because those are the people who aren’t in a hurry. So we discussed oranges. Apparently you can’t just go pick oranges, like you can just go pick apples in Michigan. (Every time I think about apple picking or mention it, I can smell the smell of the orchard and feel the “feeling” of apple picking and getting pumpkins. I miss Michigan and I miss my family.) This is because the oranges in Florida are used for juice and are not as nice for eating. Oh, and I had to wear a dorky bright yellow baseball cap with a bright blue brim all day, because I forgot my hat, and with a shift in the middle of the afternoon I would definitely pass out if I didn’t wear one, and they were out of the white straw ones like I wear when I went to Costuming.

Saturday night, Abby and Nic and I watched a couple episodes of Gargoyles that Abby had.. It’s a 90s cartoon TV show. It was pretty good – although I burst out laughing when the high-tech guy needed the gargoyles to rescue floppy disks, and popped in a VHS tape.

Sunday morning I went to an Episcopal church. There was a traditional service at 8am and a contemporary at 10:30. I ended up going to both. I really felt like singing hymns would do me a lot of good – and I did enjoy it. However, it was all older people, which I don’t mind, but I thought I would like to meet some people my own age also. So I decided to go to the 10:30 service as well. At the continental breakfast after the first service I met a few of the people who were there. I’ve noticed a lot of people here are quite racist against Spanish-speaking people, and my word it makes me so mad. I was talking to this old lady who was telling me about her friend who interviewed for a job at Disney, and that the lady who interviewed her was Hispanic and that she watched her look around the room at the other people waiting who were also Hispanic, and that she just knew that she wouldn’t get the job because the lady was “saving it for her kind.” Now, perhaps that was true. But from there she went on generalizing that “that’s how they all are,” and I said, “You can’t generalize from that, though. All Hispanic people aren’t the same any more than all Caucasian people are the same. Just because one person was like that doesn’t mean they all are.” And she said, “But birds of a feather flock together, you know that saying.” And then she kept talking and I kind of zoned out mentally, until I heard her say something about “their kind,” and “our kind have to stick together,” and I got up abruptly and threw away my trash, screaming under my breath (do you know what I mean by that? If you ever did it you do), “They are my kind, they’re my sisters!” I don’t know if she thought I was rude to get up so suddenly but it was less rude than getting into an all-out argument with her, which was what was going to happen if I didn’t leave the table.

So here’s my question – how do you combat racism and live in peace at the same time? What’s the right thing to do when someone is making comments like that? Any advice is appreciated.

Fortunately I had another far more pleasant conversation after that, with a lady from Michigan – Holly, in fact, the place where the Michigan Ren Faire is. She had just been up to visit, and could tell me that the leaves were just beginning to turn. She had been living in Florida for ten years, but she told me with great delight that as soon as her house sold, she was moving back home to Michigan. Once a Michigander, always a Michigander, I guess! J

I enjoyed the service very much. One thing that was kind of funny is that they use those video powerpoint things like we do, that have the words of the song with movies in the background, like the “you rule, you reign,” one, except that they have recordings with them so that you hear the recording of them instead of just us singing. I am not so much a big fan of that, but it was nice to sing the songs. And, oh happiness! The “fracture anthem” (the song we sing during the breaking of the bread for communion) was to the tune of “Sing Alleluia”! Oh, that was lovely… it was also lovely to take communion twice after not getting to have it for ages. They use real wine for it there – the only other time I’d had it was when we used it for communion in Greece. This wine was nicer; it didn’t taste nasty. I liked it for the same reason I like only drinking grape juice for communion and not at other times; it’s a stronger taste than what I have in any other drink. Wine was the same only more so. Also it gives me a warm feeling inside, which is pleasant. Kneeling at the rail to receive communion, and the way they say “The body of Christ, the Bread of Heaven,” each time they give it to you, is very special.

The sermon was quite good. Nobody’s going to measure up to Louie, of course, but it at least was based on Scripture and had thought in it.

Well, that’s enough for tonight. It’s 10:16, and I haven’t really been getting enough sleep lately. So… you’ll have to wait until later to hear more. But I figure five pages is probably quite sufficient… maybe eventually I’ll get the hang of the one-post-a-day-thing…