And so it is time to say goodbye to the newest rat in our family: Tumkins. Though he is very adorable and incredibly sweet to us, he bit the heck out of Squidgie's foot last night. This will not be tolerated. Poor Squidgie - Ratsy bit the crap out of her neck when she was just a baby, now Tumkins has bitten her foot.
Thankfully Ryan stepped in last night when they were fighting (I was asleep). They've fought before but Ryan heard more of a strain and anguish in Squidgie's cries. Tumkins was banished to the naughty cage where he will remain until we find another home for him.
It saddens me a bit, because he is cute - he just isn't that nice to other rats apparently. Hopefully we can find a better place for him.
Sunday, October 26, 2008
Floriday, part IV (the final chapter)
Sunday came and we walked down to Big River restaurant to have lunch on the boardwalk prior to going to Epcot. We had amazing service from our waitress who actually apologized profusely for making me wait two seconds while she got me more hot water for my tea. I think I got another cheeseburger - I don't recall. I just remember having hot tea and needing to blow my nose often.
We walked toward Epcot after lunch and exchanged our code for some tickets. It felt good to walk around a bit. We went left today and went into Britain. We could hear the sound of a really awesome bagpipe rock band (no, that wasn't a typo). There was a lot of Beatles memorabilia and tea shop (no Bewley's tea, just Twinning's, whatever that crap is), among other stores. Then we retraced our steps from the day before. Ryan wanted to find Germany to see if he could get any nifty Germany memorabilia, so we went in that direction. Primarily we just walked around and looked at the sights. I was still ridiculously hot, either from a fever or the humidity. At about 4pm we started walking back toward the hotel since we had to be at the awards ceremony at 6pm.
Back at the hotel we started getting ready for the ceremony. I had gotten an awesome dress for the occasion and Ryan had a nice outfit complete with a tie! A little before 6pm we headed down to the ceremony which was starting off with appetizers and cocktails in the Saint James rooms. They had a photographer stationed inside the entry-way - it reminded me of prom. We got our picture taken and then turned around to see Mickey standing down the hallway!
Inside the Saint James rooms were many appetizers. The patio had a bar set up as well. I couldn't taste so I didn't feel like eating anything and, since I was sick, didn't want to have a drink. I just asked for two bottles of water. The bartender looked at me like I was a weirdo. We mingled with my boss, her husband, Melanie, and Kevin. In the meantime, we had a few pictures taken with Minnie Mouse and Goofy. I also went back into the hallway and had my picture taken with Mickey and two of the head VPs of Career Services with a mock award.
A little while later, two trumpet (cornet?) players arrived and played a song announcing the arrival of our Master of Ceremonies, a lovely Englishman whose name escapes me. He had the curly white wig of someone in Parliament or something. Very fancy! He welcomed us to join him in another room and we followed him outside and then back in through another entrance. Standing before us was Snow White's storybook in very large format. The "book" had a cutout in the middle where the doors to the hall were. In we went.
The room was gorgeous! It was decorated with beautiful faux stained glass windows with different Disney iconic items - an apple, a rose, a glass slipper, etc. Then the trumpetists were back and the Englishman made another announcement - dinner was served!
First course was a lobster chowder (or mushroom for Ryan since he hates seafood a bit more than mushrooms). The lobster chowder was a bit spicy and worked wonders for my sinuses. Second course was a salad. It had a lot of big pieces of vegetables so I had to cut everything up. I'm sure it was fine. The main course for me, since I was a vegetarian when I won this trip, was some type of quiche and a vegetable. Ryan managed to get upgraded to steak. He asked if I wanted to switch but I didn't want to waste the steak on my lack of taste. For dessert, they brought us "Cinderella's Slipper" which consisted of a white chocolate slipper with some type of cream and a dark chocolate mousse. Each plate also had a hand stamped (I'm assuming) chocolate Cinderella's Castle. The detail was amazing!
During the meal, they announced quotes about each of the winner's and then announced that winner's name. The winner would then stand up in acknowledgement once their name was called. This was the part that saddened me a bit. Don't get me wrong, the quotes about me were great. It's just that they were all taken from my LinkedIn site. Instead of trying to get new quotes, my supervisor handed in previously written quotes so she wouldn't have to trouble herself. Frustrated me at the time but I guess I'm having the last laugh.
We had more characters join us for the dinner. All of the TAG winners were even given our own wands and pixie dust. And the first person I used my wand on after I was sworn in as a Fairy Godmother - me!
Monday we flew back to California. The flight was much less crowded and Ryan and I were able to spread out. After we got home, I pretty much went to sleep and didn't go outside until Friday night. It wasn't the way I had envisioned this trip but it turned out amazing anyway.
We walked toward Epcot after lunch and exchanged our code for some tickets. It felt good to walk around a bit. We went left today and went into Britain. We could hear the sound of a really awesome bagpipe rock band (no, that wasn't a typo). There was a lot of Beatles memorabilia and tea shop (no Bewley's tea, just Twinning's, whatever that crap is), among other stores. Then we retraced our steps from the day before. Ryan wanted to find Germany to see if he could get any nifty Germany memorabilia, so we went in that direction. Primarily we just walked around and looked at the sights. I was still ridiculously hot, either from a fever or the humidity. At about 4pm we started walking back toward the hotel since we had to be at the awards ceremony at 6pm.
Back at the hotel we started getting ready for the ceremony. I had gotten an awesome dress for the occasion and Ryan had a nice outfit complete with a tie! A little before 6pm we headed down to the ceremony which was starting off with appetizers and cocktails in the Saint James rooms. They had a photographer stationed inside the entry-way - it reminded me of prom. We got our picture taken and then turned around to see Mickey standing down the hallway!
Inside the Saint James rooms were many appetizers. The patio had a bar set up as well. I couldn't taste so I didn't feel like eating anything and, since I was sick, didn't want to have a drink. I just asked for two bottles of water. The bartender looked at me like I was a weirdo. We mingled with my boss, her husband, Melanie, and Kevin. In the meantime, we had a few pictures taken with Minnie Mouse and Goofy. I also went back into the hallway and had my picture taken with Mickey and two of the head VPs of Career Services with a mock award.
A little while later, two trumpet (cornet?) players arrived and played a song announcing the arrival of our Master of Ceremonies, a lovely Englishman whose name escapes me. He had the curly white wig of someone in Parliament or something. Very fancy! He welcomed us to join him in another room and we followed him outside and then back in through another entrance. Standing before us was Snow White's storybook in very large format. The "book" had a cutout in the middle where the doors to the hall were. In we went.
The room was gorgeous! It was decorated with beautiful faux stained glass windows with different Disney iconic items - an apple, a rose, a glass slipper, etc. Then the trumpetists were back and the Englishman made another announcement - dinner was served!
First course was a lobster chowder (or mushroom for Ryan since he hates seafood a bit more than mushrooms). The lobster chowder was a bit spicy and worked wonders for my sinuses. Second course was a salad. It had a lot of big pieces of vegetables so I had to cut everything up. I'm sure it was fine. The main course for me, since I was a vegetarian when I won this trip, was some type of quiche and a vegetable. Ryan managed to get upgraded to steak. He asked if I wanted to switch but I didn't want to waste the steak on my lack of taste. For dessert, they brought us "Cinderella's Slipper" which consisted of a white chocolate slipper with some type of cream and a dark chocolate mousse. Each plate also had a hand stamped (I'm assuming) chocolate Cinderella's Castle. The detail was amazing!
During the meal, they announced quotes about each of the winner's and then announced that winner's name. The winner would then stand up in acknowledgement once their name was called. This was the part that saddened me a bit. Don't get me wrong, the quotes about me were great. It's just that they were all taken from my LinkedIn site. Instead of trying to get new quotes, my supervisor handed in previously written quotes so she wouldn't have to trouble herself. Frustrated me at the time but I guess I'm having the last laugh.
We had more characters join us for the dinner. All of the TAG winners were even given our own wands and pixie dust. And the first person I used my wand on after I was sworn in as a Fairy Godmother - me!
Monday we flew back to California. The flight was much less crowded and Ryan and I were able to spread out. After we got home, I pretty much went to sleep and didn't go outside until Friday night. It wasn't the way I had envisioned this trip but it turned out amazing anyway.
Florida, part III
Saturday morning arrived way too soon for me. I went down for breakfast at 8am while Ryan was able to sleep in - lucky! Breakfast looked good but I still couldn't taste - though I was feeling a bit better. They had a breakfast buffet set up with mini-waffles shaped like Mickey Mouse, breakfast burritos, fruit, and many types of pastries in addition to coffee, tea, orange juice, and water. I had some waffles, fruit, and hot tea.
At about 9am, we boarded a bus to begin our training. The training was through Disney University. We got to see some neat backstage areas of the park (which I won't talk about for fear of being sued by Disney). Very cool, though. They took us back to the hotel around 1pm where I earned a cool Mickey graduate pin for completing the course and also picked up a copy of our group photo from the night before. I was starting to feel a bit worse.
Ryan and I walked toward Epcot when it got closer to 2pm. We picked up our tickets at Will Call and entered the park through a back entrance from the resort (not the traditional "golf ball" Spaceship Earth entrance). We took a right and were in France. It was beautiful! And also verrrrrrry crowded. The Epcot Food and Wine festival was happening and seemed to bring in a ton of people, most of whom had plastic glasses of wine or beer in their hands. None for me as I was sick. From France we went to...I don't know, Morocco? It was somewhere that had a restaurant with the freaky spotted meat on a stick like at Daphne's Greek restaurant. We avoided that.place.
We ambled past some additional countries and then hit Japan. Let me just say that Japan had the best store and the best "stuff" of any of the countries. We went through the store in our search for food and then saw that there was a restaurant next door. I don't remember what is what called but Ryan waited in line for FOREVER to get us both teriyaki chicken. It seemed good enough. Over lunch, I told Ryan that I was feeling awful and asked if we could go to the doctor later, after we were done walking around Epcot. Ryan, of course, wanted to leave the park and take me to the doctor which made me feel bad. We made our way to a Disney cast member and asked if there was a first aid station. She told us how to get there and it was literally halfway around the world from where we were. We walked through Germany, Africa, China, Mexico and many other countries. The first aid station was near Mexico.
Inside first aid, we explained my situation and the first aid lady offered to call an urgent medical center for us. We figured that would be a good plan, and they were sending a van from the center to pick us up. They'd also bring us back to the park or our hotel. Sweet! The driver arrived in about 15 minutes. In the meantime we were treated to a play of "This is what's wrong with your generation" by a mother and daughter. It was pretty exciting to watch.
Anyway, the dude in the van picked us up and took us to Centra Care. On the way, he gave us paperwork to fill out. Since Ryan was the one who more than likely got me sick, we decided that he should see the doctor as well. When we got to the facility we turned in our paperwork, only to receive more. Before bothering to fill it out, I decided to use the bathroom and cough and sneeze some more in semi-privacy. While washing my hands, I noticed a bulletin for those seeking help from spousal abuse. It had phone numbers on pull tabs and gave the instructions to "put the numbers in your shoe" so that they wouldn't be found. I was reminded once again how lucky I am.
I went back and filled out my paperwork. Ryan used the men's restroom and came back to ask if the women's had a note about spousal abuse. At least they didn't discriminate.
After...I don't know, I fell asleep...I was called into what looked like an ER or something. It was a huge room with cloth dividers so that about six patients could be seen separately. They took my blood pressure and my temperature and told me to wait for the doctor. I laid down on my little cot and closed my eyes. Ten minutes later I could hear Ryan in another part of the room. He was talking to a nurse who soon found out that I was in there and hadn't asked to be seen with Ryan. She started joking around like I didn't want to claim him and stuff. *Sigh* She moved him to the empty "room" next to mine.
A few moments later the doctor came in to see us. We told her what was going on and she listened to my breathing. Then she had a nurse bring in a "bronchial dilator" (I think - I may be making that up). I was to use this device to breathe for 10 minutes. It would help expand my lungs so that I could breathe properly and it would help the medicine work.Seemed to do the trick - I soon started coughing out more junk. Yippee!
After my time on the machine was done, we went to the pharmacy in back of the building to fill our prescriptions and get some other things (hand sanitizer, cough drops, etc.). We were promptly told that the pharmacy didn't accept insurance. Not ours specifically - ANY insurance. "Who in the world doesn't accept insurance?" I wondered. Well, apparently not Turner Drugs in Orlando. Oh well - they told us how much it would be and it wasn't that bad so we just went for it. After we filled our prescriptions and purchased everything, we got another shuttle back to our hotel.
...well, almost our hotel. The driver actually dropped us off at the Yacht Club Resort instead of the Boardwalk Resort. We had to walk through the hotel, outside, and around to the other side of the boardwalk. Which, normally, would be no big deal but it was hard to breathe when I was just sitting, let along walking. Anyway, we got back to the hotel and I just wanted to rest. I took my meds and did just that. Ryan decided he wanted to go back to Epcot, so he did.
Fast forward to 8:30pm-ish. Ryan got back to the hotel room and told me he had a surprise for me. He made me close my eyes and put a miniature, stuffed Darth Vader in my hand. He's so cute! His head's wayyy too big which adds to the cuteness. Then Ryan told me he had another surprise. He gave me a piece of paper with a number on it. Obviously, I had no idea what that meant. He told me that he went to guest services and told them what had happened to us today. And since we had checked in with first aid, they were going to give us tickets for the following day! Very cool.
Instead of trying to go out, we decided to order room service. We got two cheeseburgers, one with fruit and one with fries, a piece of chocolate cake, and an order of hot herbal tea. Mmmmmm! All I tasted of the burger were the sensations "grilled" and "mustard". That was about all I tasted. I let Ryan have nearly all the cake because what's the sense of having chocolate if you can't taste it anyway? After dinner I took more medications and thanked my lucky stars that I didn't have to get up early the next day!
At about 9am, we boarded a bus to begin our training. The training was through Disney University. We got to see some neat backstage areas of the park (which I won't talk about for fear of being sued by Disney). Very cool, though. They took us back to the hotel around 1pm where I earned a cool Mickey graduate pin for completing the course and also picked up a copy of our group photo from the night before. I was starting to feel a bit worse.
Ryan and I walked toward Epcot when it got closer to 2pm. We picked up our tickets at Will Call and entered the park through a back entrance from the resort (not the traditional "golf ball" Spaceship Earth entrance). We took a right and were in France. It was beautiful! And also verrrrrrry crowded. The Epcot Food and Wine festival was happening and seemed to bring in a ton of people, most of whom had plastic glasses of wine or beer in their hands. None for me as I was sick. From France we went to...I don't know, Morocco? It was somewhere that had a restaurant with the freaky spotted meat on a stick like at Daphne's Greek restaurant. We avoided that.place.
We ambled past some additional countries and then hit Japan. Let me just say that Japan had the best store and the best "stuff" of any of the countries. We went through the store in our search for food and then saw that there was a restaurant next door. I don't remember what is what called but Ryan waited in line for FOREVER to get us both teriyaki chicken. It seemed good enough. Over lunch, I told Ryan that I was feeling awful and asked if we could go to the doctor later, after we were done walking around Epcot. Ryan, of course, wanted to leave the park and take me to the doctor which made me feel bad. We made our way to a Disney cast member and asked if there was a first aid station. She told us how to get there and it was literally halfway around the world from where we were. We walked through Germany, Africa, China, Mexico and many other countries. The first aid station was near Mexico.
Inside first aid, we explained my situation and the first aid lady offered to call an urgent medical center for us. We figured that would be a good plan, and they were sending a van from the center to pick us up. They'd also bring us back to the park or our hotel. Sweet! The driver arrived in about 15 minutes. In the meantime we were treated to a play of "This is what's wrong with your generation" by a mother and daughter. It was pretty exciting to watch.
Anyway, the dude in the van picked us up and took us to Centra Care. On the way, he gave us paperwork to fill out. Since Ryan was the one who more than likely got me sick, we decided that he should see the doctor as well. When we got to the facility we turned in our paperwork, only to receive more. Before bothering to fill it out, I decided to use the bathroom and cough and sneeze some more in semi-privacy. While washing my hands, I noticed a bulletin for those seeking help from spousal abuse. It had phone numbers on pull tabs and gave the instructions to "put the numbers in your shoe" so that they wouldn't be found. I was reminded once again how lucky I am.
I went back and filled out my paperwork. Ryan used the men's restroom and came back to ask if the women's had a note about spousal abuse. At least they didn't discriminate.
After...I don't know, I fell asleep...I was called into what looked like an ER or something. It was a huge room with cloth dividers so that about six patients could be seen separately. They took my blood pressure and my temperature and told me to wait for the doctor. I laid down on my little cot and closed my eyes. Ten minutes later I could hear Ryan in another part of the room. He was talking to a nurse who soon found out that I was in there and hadn't asked to be seen with Ryan. She started joking around like I didn't want to claim him and stuff. *Sigh* She moved him to the empty "room" next to mine.
A few moments later the doctor came in to see us. We told her what was going on and she listened to my breathing. Then she had a nurse bring in a "bronchial dilator" (I think - I may be making that up). I was to use this device to breathe for 10 minutes. It would help expand my lungs so that I could breathe properly and it would help the medicine work.Seemed to do the trick - I soon started coughing out more junk. Yippee!
After my time on the machine was done, we went to the pharmacy in back of the building to fill our prescriptions and get some other things (hand sanitizer, cough drops, etc.). We were promptly told that the pharmacy didn't accept insurance. Not ours specifically - ANY insurance. "Who in the world doesn't accept insurance?" I wondered. Well, apparently not Turner Drugs in Orlando. Oh well - they told us how much it would be and it wasn't that bad so we just went for it. After we filled our prescriptions and purchased everything, we got another shuttle back to our hotel.
...well, almost our hotel. The driver actually dropped us off at the Yacht Club Resort instead of the Boardwalk Resort. We had to walk through the hotel, outside, and around to the other side of the boardwalk. Which, normally, would be no big deal but it was hard to breathe when I was just sitting, let along walking. Anyway, we got back to the hotel and I just wanted to rest. I took my meds and did just that. Ryan decided he wanted to go back to Epcot, so he did.
Fast forward to 8:30pm-ish. Ryan got back to the hotel room and told me he had a surprise for me. He made me close my eyes and put a miniature, stuffed Darth Vader in my hand. He's so cute! His head's wayyy too big which adds to the cuteness. Then Ryan told me he had another surprise. He gave me a piece of paper with a number on it. Obviously, I had no idea what that meant. He told me that he went to guest services and told them what had happened to us today. And since we had checked in with first aid, they were going to give us tickets for the following day! Very cool.
Instead of trying to go out, we decided to order room service. We got two cheeseburgers, one with fruit and one with fries, a piece of chocolate cake, and an order of hot herbal tea. Mmmmmm! All I tasted of the burger were the sensations "grilled" and "mustard". That was about all I tasted. I let Ryan have nearly all the cake because what's the sense of having chocolate if you can't taste it anyway? After dinner I took more medications and thanked my lucky stars that I didn't have to get up early the next day!
Saturday, October 25, 2008
Florida, part II
At about 2pm on Friday, Ryan and I made our way down to the lobby and checked in at the Top Achiever's Group welcome desk. We were greeted by my regional Career Services Specialist, Connie, and given all of the information we would need for the weekend. We took the booklets back up to our room and then left the hotel.
We walked down the boardwalk, toward Big River restaurant. It was amazing how they made it literally look like you were back in time! We shortly came upon an amazing hotel called Swan and Dolphin Resort. It was composed of two buildings across from each other, separated by a large walkway. The building on our left had swans on each topmost corner of the building. It also had clamshells with huge water fountains inside them. The building on the right had huge fish (apparently dolphins) standing on their heads, also in the topmost four corners. Amazing architecture!
We passed a few more resorts, one of which had a white sand beach, and stopped at our destination: Fantasia Miniature Golf. It had two courses - one, a real miniaturized version of golf complete with sandtraps; the other, a traditional miniature golf course. We chose the latter. The course was beautiful and the 18 holes were divided into five sections from the Fantasia movie. They had amazing statues of many of the characters - which we later discovered were just plastic. They looked so real! Ryan and I wound up tying our game, which was a miracle since I felt like total crap. I was sweating profusely, probably a result of my body trying to rid itself of the cold I'd gotten.
After miniature golf we hiked back to the Dolphin side of the Swan and Dolphin Resort and ate lunch in a little cafe inside. Ryan got a tuna melt that was fancier than anticipated. I got a bowl of chili because I thought it would help clear out my sinuses. It did. Our waitress was awesome and brought us a whole pitcher of water - she said we looked really thirsty.
Between the flight, lack of sleep, gaining a cold, and walking around in the sun, I was pretty beat by this point. We decided to walk back to our hotel and sleep a bit before the opening reception. I slept pretty much until the reception at 8 - Ryan walked around the Boardwalk a bit more.
At 7:45 we went to the lobby and boarded a bus outside. I was feeling super crappy at this point. No one (except the VPs) knew where we were going for dinner. After the bus took us on a bit of a wild goose chase, we finally wound up on a backlot. We got off the bus and were given Mouseketeer ears to wear with our names embroidered on the back. We were then ushered inside Disney's Hollywood Studios and had a picture of our entire group taken in front of "The Great Movie Ride". It looked like Mann's Chinese Theatre in LA! After the pictures of our group were taken, they ushered us inside "The Great Movie Ride". Winding through the turnstiles and aisles set up outside the ride, I wondered what in the world they had in store for us. After a few speeches, I found out.
Stepping into the ride area, we walked down a small set of stairs and were promptly handed a TAG-tini (which was supposedly a pomegranite martini but I couldn't taste so it didn't matter). All of the cars for the ride were off the tracks for the night. In the place where they would have gone, tables were set up in two different areas of the track. The first area was set up kind of like a mobster area, New York, perhaps. The second area was straight out of a western movie. We sat in the western area. Our table was already outfitted with glasses of water and a mason jar of iced tea. We also had western actors visiting our tables to talk to us regularly. The found looked amazing! On our side was a buffet with three potato salad, a traditional salad, chicken, prime rib, and probably some other things I've forgotten. The other area had macaroni and cheese, cornbread, and other "southern" style foods.There was also an open bar, which I didn't partake in except to get some whiskey (blah!) for medicinal purposes.
After dinner was done, we were escorted to a new part of the "ride" - Munchkinland. Glinda and the Wicked Witch of the West were there, along with some rather creepy looking animatronic Munchkins. They had dessert set up in this area, along with tea and coffee. I skipped dessert (couldn't taste anyway) and had about three cups of herbal tea. It made my throat feel a bit better.
After about 10 minutes in this area, they moved us to the final area of the ride - a dance floor. I didn't much feel like dancing so I enjoyed watching Mel go to town. That lady can dance! I sipped my tea and enjoyed watching everyone dance around. Finally, it was time to go. We boarded our buses and went back to the hotel. I think we arrived around 11pm or so, which was nice since I had a work session at 8am the next morning! I got more hot tea at the hotel and stood in the hot shower for about half an hour trying to get rid of all my illness. It helped a bit. Finally, about midnight, I went to sleep.
We walked down the boardwalk, toward Big River restaurant. It was amazing how they made it literally look like you were back in time! We shortly came upon an amazing hotel called Swan and Dolphin Resort. It was composed of two buildings across from each other, separated by a large walkway. The building on our left had swans on each topmost corner of the building. It also had clamshells with huge water fountains inside them. The building on the right had huge fish (apparently dolphins) standing on their heads, also in the topmost four corners. Amazing architecture!
We passed a few more resorts, one of which had a white sand beach, and stopped at our destination: Fantasia Miniature Golf. It had two courses - one, a real miniaturized version of golf complete with sandtraps; the other, a traditional miniature golf course. We chose the latter. The course was beautiful and the 18 holes were divided into five sections from the Fantasia movie. They had amazing statues of many of the characters - which we later discovered were just plastic. They looked so real! Ryan and I wound up tying our game, which was a miracle since I felt like total crap. I was sweating profusely, probably a result of my body trying to rid itself of the cold I'd gotten.
After miniature golf we hiked back to the Dolphin side of the Swan and Dolphin Resort and ate lunch in a little cafe inside. Ryan got a tuna melt that was fancier than anticipated. I got a bowl of chili because I thought it would help clear out my sinuses. It did. Our waitress was awesome and brought us a whole pitcher of water - she said we looked really thirsty.
Between the flight, lack of sleep, gaining a cold, and walking around in the sun, I was pretty beat by this point. We decided to walk back to our hotel and sleep a bit before the opening reception. I slept pretty much until the reception at 8 - Ryan walked around the Boardwalk a bit more.
At 7:45 we went to the lobby and boarded a bus outside. I was feeling super crappy at this point. No one (except the VPs) knew where we were going for dinner. After the bus took us on a bit of a wild goose chase, we finally wound up on a backlot. We got off the bus and were given Mouseketeer ears to wear with our names embroidered on the back. We were then ushered inside Disney's Hollywood Studios and had a picture of our entire group taken in front of "The Great Movie Ride". It looked like Mann's Chinese Theatre in LA! After the pictures of our group were taken, they ushered us inside "The Great Movie Ride". Winding through the turnstiles and aisles set up outside the ride, I wondered what in the world they had in store for us. After a few speeches, I found out.
Stepping into the ride area, we walked down a small set of stairs and were promptly handed a TAG-tini (which was supposedly a pomegranite martini but I couldn't taste so it didn't matter). All of the cars for the ride were off the tracks for the night. In the place where they would have gone, tables were set up in two different areas of the track. The first area was set up kind of like a mobster area, New York, perhaps. The second area was straight out of a western movie. We sat in the western area. Our table was already outfitted with glasses of water and a mason jar of iced tea. We also had western actors visiting our tables to talk to us regularly. The found looked amazing! On our side was a buffet with three potato salad, a traditional salad, chicken, prime rib, and probably some other things I've forgotten. The other area had macaroni and cheese, cornbread, and other "southern" style foods.There was also an open bar, which I didn't partake in except to get some whiskey (blah!) for medicinal purposes.
After dinner was done, we were escorted to a new part of the "ride" - Munchkinland. Glinda and the Wicked Witch of the West were there, along with some rather creepy looking animatronic Munchkins. They had dessert set up in this area, along with tea and coffee. I skipped dessert (couldn't taste anyway) and had about three cups of herbal tea. It made my throat feel a bit better.
After about 10 minutes in this area, they moved us to the final area of the ride - a dance floor. I didn't much feel like dancing so I enjoyed watching Mel go to town. That lady can dance! I sipped my tea and enjoyed watching everyone dance around. Finally, it was time to go. We boarded our buses and went back to the hotel. I think we arrived around 11pm or so, which was nice since I had a work session at 8am the next morning! I got more hot tea at the hotel and stood in the hot shower for about half an hour trying to get rid of all my illness. It helped a bit. Finally, about midnight, I went to sleep.
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Florida, part I
As one of the top 23 Career Advisors in my corporation across the country, I won an amazing award this year - I was named a "Top Achiever" and won and all-expenses paid trip to Walt Disney World Resort. The trip was from Friday, October 17 to Monday, October 20.
Our trip started early, on Thursday, October 16. Ryan and I were taking a red-eye flight to Orlando. We flew out of LAX, sadly, because I wanted a direct flight. (Ask me about the DFW Airport/American Airlines debacle sometime and I'll tell you why.) I would have much rather flown out of John Wayne, Long Beach, or even Ontario but there were no direct flights to be found.
We arrived at LAX around 7pm and promptly started the "where in the world are we supposed to park" dance. All the lots near the airport were $30 per day. Thirty dollars per day!!! Just so that I have the honor of parking in your lot? No thanks. Of course, there were other lots a bit further away that cost less money. It's great that LAX put up such great signage so that we could find those lots (haha). Thankfully we had our trusty GPS which guided us to Lot C, which was only $10 per day.
We found a spot before too long and then walked over to the shuttle stop. A bus came around a few minutes later to pick us up. We were on our way! On our way...to the front of the parking lot where we were told we had to run up to the front bus in line before it left. No sweat, we only had three carry-on bags and three to check in...no worries.*rolls eyes* We got on the new bus which managed the journey all the way from the lot to the airport and dropped us off outside of terminal 5 for Delta. Yay, Delta - you're not American Airlines (my one stipulation for the lady who booked our travel).
We walked up to the self check-in kiosk and proceeded to check in. I swiped my credit card. It then asked me where I was going. Shouldn't you know? I just swiped my card. Whatever. I typed in ORL. It then asked me when my flight was. Again, shouldn't you know?! Late, my flight is late in the evening. It finally brought up both of our names.
Here's the fun part. Though Ryan looked online, apparently Delta decided that you can only have one checked bag per person or you will incur a $50 fine per extra bag. Great. We paid it (we had no choice) and found out that we were in practically the last row of the plane. I hate being that far back because I just want to get off the damn plane once it lands. But it was booked and we had no choice.
Off we went through security to find our gate. Ryan and I both like to get there early - it just makes us feel more secure. I was starting to feel a bit under the weather but I'd taken lots of vitamin C, Airborne, Sudafed, Echinacea, orange juice, and water. I figured I'd be ok. I did walk back to the California Pizza Kitchen and grab a couple bowls of Sedona Tortilla Soup, though. I figured that might help things a bit. Soon I was sad that I did this as I was sweating profusely. Was the airport hot or was I getting sicker? Ryan said it was a bit warm but I was the only person around that looked uncomfortable. Stupid fat deposits!
I finally saw Melanie (my coworker who was also attending the trip) and Kevin (her boyfriend) at about 8:40pm. We all started talking and continued until the plane started boarding. They got to sit in the 19th row - lucky jerks!
We boarded the plane and I was very sad once I sat down. That plane was little more than a cattle car. I felt like a sardine squished into a teeny can. I had zero shoulder room and zero leg room. Plus the lady to my left didn't seem too friendly. I tried sleeping, and did for about an hour maybe. But the plane was far too uncomfortable to sleep. I tried reading but I spent most of my time watching an interactive map of where the plane was, willing the damned thing to move faster. We're only over Phoenix? How long will we be over Texas? We were never far enough for me until we reached the gate.
On the flight, I started feeling much worse. My nose was getting clogged up, I was losing my sense of smell (which, considering we were near the rear bathroom, may not have been all bad), my throat was scratchy, and my eyes had started getting watery. Great. Awesome way to start a vacation. All I wanted to do was get off the damn plane and sleep.
So we finally got off the plane and headed to baggage claim in the Orlando airport. There was a guy waiting for us with a sign, which was kind of cool. He was taking the four of us to the Boardwalk Resort, one of the Epcot resort destinations. Once we retrieved all of our luggage we scrambled into his van and were off to the hotel. He played a DVD of the "Top Seven Things to do in Disney World" or something like that. The host on the DVD was annoying and I hadn't gotten enough sleep so I tuned her out as best I could. Within about 25 minutes, we were at the front door of the Boardwalk Hotel. It was beautiful!
Ryan and I walked to the front desk of the hotel to see if we could check in. Considering that it was about 7am, and check-in didn't officially start until 10am or later, we were just hoping they'd have a room. To our delight, they did! Within about five minutes, of which I constantly had to blow my nose and use hand sanitizer, we had finalized everything and were off to find the room, 1391.
They apparently decided to give us the room furthest from the check-in desk. We took the elevator down a floor and then turned hallway after hallway. We even had to exit the building, walk outside for about ten steps, and then enter another building. We reached the room and I wasn't paying much attention. I just wanted to take some medicine and sleep! But Ryan noticed a "Do Not Disturb" sign on the door. Still, he used the key and opened the door, albeit hesitantly.
The room was disheveled. He quickly shut the door, no knowing if anyone was still in there or not. I was pissed at this point. I just wanted sleep. "This is supposed to be the most magical place on earth!" I kept thinking. We walked back to a courtyard where I sat down on a bench. It was off-white and it hid the multiple drops of dew that covered it. Yay, it looked like I peed my pants, just what I wanted. Ryan went back to the front desk while I watched the bags. I also called my parents to let them know we survived the flight. After what seemed like an eternity, Ryan came back to the courtyard. They had upgraded us to the fifth floor (yay). We took our stuff and got on the elevator.
The room was beautiful. There were a few subtle Mickey elements but overall it looked like something out of the '30s/'40s. I took some sudafed and slept until 1:30pm.
Friday, October 10, 2008
Brunettes have the most fun
So, for those of you who haven't seen me, I dyed my hair brown two weeks ago. It's pretty dark for me but it turned out well. See for yourself!
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
That's Mister Tumkins to you!
I went to the pet store (always a bad idea) last Monday and found the cutest male rat! Of course, as I've been looking to get some additional rats, I figured adding a male rat to our rat group would increase those odds. (Ratsy and Squidgie haven't been too successful at having babies...yet.)
Anyway, he's adorable. We named him Tumkins. Don't ask me why. We pick random names (though Ratsy tends to make sense). He's a cream colored "Dumbo" rat (no, he's not dumb - he has rounder ears set more on the side of his head) with brown markings on his nose. He's about six months old, or so the pet store thinks. We also believe that he's deaf which is neither here nor there. He's probably the most loving of our rats, though the girls haven't warmed up to him yet. They probably just don't want to have to fight over him.
Pictures are below!
Anyway, he's adorable. We named him Tumkins. Don't ask me why. We pick random names (though Ratsy tends to make sense). He's a cream colored "Dumbo" rat (no, he's not dumb - he has rounder ears set more on the side of his head) with brown markings on his nose. He's about six months old, or so the pet store thinks. We also believe that he's deaf which is neither here nor there. He's probably the most loving of our rats, though the girls haven't warmed up to him yet. They probably just don't want to have to fight over him.
Pictures are below!
Sunday, October 5, 2008
1/3-life crisis, part II
So it's been a few weeks and I'm still trying to figure out what to do with my life. Don't get me wrong, my personal life is fantastic. It's just this working business that I'm trying to get straight.
At work, I keep having goals raised and more things added to my plate (all for the same salary, of course). The harder it gets, the more I wonder why I'm doing all of this anyway. Yeah, the money's decent but I help so many graduates find jobs where they make more money than I do. But regardless of money, even if I was given a significant raise, I'm not happy where I'm at.
Since my degree is in something general (Communication), I have no specific skills in anything other than what I've been doing for the past six years. Sure, I have tons of office experience but if I want to head in another direction I will: a) take a large paycut (which may or may not be do-able), or b) need to go back to school for additional training.
Things I'm potentially interested in:
At work, I keep having goals raised and more things added to my plate (all for the same salary, of course). The harder it gets, the more I wonder why I'm doing all of this anyway. Yeah, the money's decent but I help so many graduates find jobs where they make more money than I do. But regardless of money, even if I was given a significant raise, I'm not happy where I'm at.
Since my degree is in something general (Communication), I have no specific skills in anything other than what I've been doing for the past six years. Sure, I have tons of office experience but if I want to head in another direction I will: a) take a large paycut (which may or may not be do-able), or b) need to go back to school for additional training.
Things I'm potentially interested in:
- politics - I'm pretty sure that nothing that I can do right now would pay very well.
- writing - there aren't many jobs out there in this category unless you have published work already or can do technical writing. I've thought about writing a novel but what would I write about??
- reading - I've thought about being a proofreader before but again, you need those published work samples.
- Human Resources - I generally don't have enough experience for most HR jobs. The one I have enough experience for would be way too much of a pay cut.
- recruiting - I'm not at all interested in recruiting for an employment agency. Most in-house recruiter positions I've found were either already guaranteed to someone in the company or not in an environment I'm interested in. Maybe I should be more open but I'd really like to work for an arts/design company - I don't know anything about financial, medical, or executive recruitment. Blah.
- animals - I like animals but I'd probably want to bring them all home and that's not allowed. Plus I might get bitten and get rabies.
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