Long Time No Post

Alright, so it may seem like I have fallen off the face of the Earth, but let me assure you I have not. I have just been so busy with work that I have not had time for my blog. Now things have finally settled down and I can finally share some (some is confidential) of the great memories I have been experiencing.

Life at the Boutique is wonderful. I had five days of training. Five long hard days of training and now I can officially call myself a Fairy Godmother in Training (FGIT).  It was not an easy process. After traditions, you will have park orientation. Depending on where you work, every park orientation is different. Mine took place at the Magic Kingdom. You get your costume after park orientation and the next thing is day 1 training. Everyone's training schedule is different. Some people start training right away while others have training a couple days later. My training was right away. All training consists of you and a few other people doing the same role as you following someone around all day long. Fun right? Actually it was a lot of fun. My trainer was excellent and she had quite a reputation in the boutique as being one of the best FGIT's around. Everyone in the boutique have been super helpful and supportive and I can honestly say that we are all one big family.

Right now, I am working about 6 hours a day, 5 days a week and come home exhausted. It's not easy being a FGIT. No amount of pixie dust in our magic wands can make me use to to working so much.

My roommate and I are getting along great. She's super nice and we both love Theatre and talk about it a lot together. We also can't seem to keep our refrigerator stocked. We are constantly going to the store for more groceries. I have met some of the next door neighbors too, and they are all friendly too. One of my neighbors even educated me on the right way to hunt for those elusive rare Disney pins that I want to start collecting.

Surprisingly, I have not gotten sick of Disney yet. I want to come home and visit family and friends in August (need to save money for the plane ticket), but I am still up on my Disney high right now. I really love my job. I mean, who wouldn't want to play with Princesses and their royal families all day? Not saying that it isn't stressful. Parents and little girls aren't always the best mix sometimes.

Tomorrow is my first apartment inspection. I have plants in my apartment and I don't even know if I am allowed to have them and our apartment is no where near tidy. We are going to be up late tonight cleaning. I'll let you know how it goes tommorrow.

Also, I am waking up early to get a pirate stitch doll that is stuck in the corner of a claw machine. Being the crazy person I was, I called over a cast member and complained that where the stitch was located, no one could get to it and it was the only pirate stitch in the machine. This cast member talked to his supervisiors and hopefully tommorrow they will readjust the location of pirate stitch. They didn't have the right key tonight. It's sad when that is one of the highlights of my day.

Check-in, Casting, Location, Apartment!!!

Words cannot explain how tired I am this morning. Yesterday was a bit overwhelming. Lots of people, lots of information, and sad goodbyes. On Sunday night, I had dinner with the some people checking in on June 13th. I met another girl, Betsy, who was doing the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique, asked a billion in one questions to the alumni who was sitting at our table, and exchanged many phone numbers. I also figured to get the one bedroom at Chatham, my roommate who is a doll (Found her over Facebook before I came. I recommend knowing your roommate before you come), we needed to be there at 6 a.m.

On the day of check in, I arrived at 5:45 a.m.at Vista Way and there was about 6 other people there. We all talked and by 7:00 the line had grown drastically. I also met other awesome people in line (shout out to Natalie and Tamara!)

They let us in at around 8:00 a.m. and after that there was no turning back. They gave you a temporary name tag and you went through a maze of different stations. You received your housing guide (which you practically had to take out the whole day), took your housing i.d., chose your roommates/or apartments, get the bus schedule, and got your parking decal.

After I got through the maze, I had about a hour to go check out our new apartment with my roommate. We received a one bedroom at Chatham Square. All the apartments were beautiful, but Chatham appealed to us more although we almost went with Vista Way.

The apartment was huge! We lived on the third floor and had a balcony and our apartment building wasn't too far from the bus stop.

After viewing and moving in a few things, we went to the Casting building. Disney had a bus pick us up and what did we find...another maze. But this maze was fun. While standing in line, you find out your location right away...

Drumroll please......I am a Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique Cast Member at Cinderella Castle!! ^ ^

I am going to be crazy busy, but it's worth it. I have never been to Magic Kingdom and now I get to work inside the castle. I really did not have a preference for work location. I liked either location. But the cool part is...my roommate got the same location as me. She's also doing BBB at Cinderella Castle. We will be seeing a lot of each other.

After you find out your location, you turn in all your forms over the course of a hour and a half. You can sign up for classes if you still wanted to, you get a background check, and they serve you snacks (the best part in my opinion ^^ Snacks make everything better).  I also got my work schedule for the next couple of days. I have early morning Traditions tommorrow and training starts on Thursday.

At 3:00 p.m., we had to go to a two hour housing meeting to talk about rules of living in the apartments. I got done with Casting at around 11:45 a.m., so I had unpacked more things and went to Wal-Mart to pick up some organizing things I couldn't bring with me on the plane. After the housing meeting, I went to IKEA for some plants and some other decorating items and went to Wal-Mart for some food and cake making stuff for an epic "Lets invite our neighbors over by bribing them with food" event.

I also found out my friends back home had a bonfire and apparently set up a picture of me in a chair and one of my friends spent the entire night trying to make me (my picture) laugh. Don't ask.

Today, I am spending the last few hours with my mom and grandma. Thye leave tonight and fly back home to Michigan. It will be a sad goodbye, but I am excited for Traditions tommorrow. ^ ^

Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique x 2

 

Today we went to Downtown Disney and visited the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique for the first time. First thing I noticed is that there was 50,000 (slight exaggeration) people inside World of Disney. There were 50,000 more people inside the Princess part of World of Disney where the Boutique was. We were able to walk inside the Boutique and watch a couple of girls getting made over. One girl was about 14 years old and we were able to watch her big "Bibbidi Bobbidi Boo!" moment as her Fairy Godmother in Training sprinkled pixie dust all over her. We talked to one of the managers and she told us that there was an average of 187 appointments daily and 30-40 walk ins everyday and this wasn't even the busiest location. Seeing all the Princess make-overs really made me want to start my training as Disney's newest Fairy Godmother in Training.

We also walked around Downtown Disney and saw this really great street juggler. He managed to juggle 8 plates as well as match boxes and juggling balls. All those months of juggling club payed offed, I managed to recognize one as a cascading waterfall. Don't ask me to go into detail about it. I will point you in the direction of YouTube because even I don't know.

We went to a street fair in Celebration today too. We really explored every corner of Disney's property today. Celebration would have to be my favorite stop just because it really is the cutest town in the whole entire world. Everyone is so nice and the scenery is gorgeous.

I forgot to mention that yesterday we went to search for the Disney Apartments. When we finally found them and after a 30 minute talk with security at Vista Way to prove to my mom that the apartments were indeed safe, we drove around and scouted the other apartments. They were stunning. I had heard some negative things about Vista Way, yet the complex was beautiful. We drove around and saw Chatham Square, The Commons, and Patterson Court (hopefully my future apartment).  The area kind of surprised me. Chatham, the Commons, and Patterson are kind of secluded. I also saw the Disney College Program shuttles and the Wal-Mart that I will spend half my life at.

Sunday night, a bunch of the June 13th arrivals are having dinner at the Applebee's near the Holiday Inn Sun Spree. This is the hotel right by Vista Way Apartments (the check-in spot). I will hopefully meet my future roommate here and a bunch of other people who are arriving June 13th. One day away. Mucho nervoso (5 years of Spanish right there).

My First Encounter

When my family and I went to Cracker Barrel yesterday, I officially saw my first Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique girls. They were so cute. One was 6 and the other was 4. They had their hair in the little bun and they had pixie dust all over them. It was actually day two of their hair and it still looked perfect. Their mom said the only complaint she had was that her eldest daughter complained that the bun was a little tight so she told me to be weary of that. I called them Princess and my mom and I bowed to them and their faces lit up. Their mom was so excited for me and it just made me want to start training already.

Florida Updates

I am finally in Florida. That is all.

Actually, that is not all. I haven't updated in a while, only because for the last week, I have been crazy busy. I have not done anything I have promised to do for this trip and the series of events that have happened on this trip have been crazy. Long post warning!!!

First things first. Over the weekend, I helped my mom with my final jewelry show. It was the Lapeer Art and History Fair. It would have been a perfect going away show if the cannon shots from the Civil War demonstration hadn't been going off every 30 minutes. It ended up being a great show and of course no ear walked past our booth without knowing that I was going to work for the Disney Program. I think my mouth, for the first time, omg write this down, got tired from talking so much. That doesn't happen often.

Monday was the last day I hung out with my friends. We ended up going to a local swim athletic club and hanging out at the pool. We had pizza and I got attacked by about 100 mosquitoes. No joke. I think this was the day I actually realized I was leaving for so long and it finally hit me. I had thought about it a little bit over the weekend at Lapeer because I felt guilty about not being able to help my mom for the Summer with her shows. I kind of felt like I was abandoning her. Spending time with my friends made me realize that I was leaving everyone I cared about up here. The feeling of dread came back. I will miss my all my friends and family.

Monday night, I installed my web cam. I re-installed my Skype account and befriended a couple people I knew on skype. Even that was a sad moment and I promised myself tomorrow that I would stop feeling sorry for myself and think about all the reasons why I applied for the program. 

Tuesday was the day that things started to get crazy. My mom and I ran around the whole city trying to find someone who would ship my television and a box of things I had that needed to be shipped down. I also spent the whole day worrying about whether or not my suitcase was too heavy. I received a bigger suitcase and was able to pack a lot of things in it. After going to the post office and UPS, we decided not to ship anything and on the way back to my grandma's house, received a very disturbing call from my grandma. She couldn't find the dog. We raced to her house and found the dog sitting on the side of the house under a tree. Somehow, he had escaped. One heart attack averted. Then, on the way to the mall to find a few more t-shirts for my mom, we run out of gas! Right in the middle of the street! We ended up calling my friend to have him bring us some since we were 5 minutes from his house.

Wednesday morning, I woke up at 4:58 in the morning for our 9:45 a.m. flight. I printed out the boarding passes and a coupon for the airline parking. My mom decided we needed to ship my comforter and sheet set because it took up too much room. I had added it into her suitcase because, again, I was worried about mine being overweight. We pack it into a box and throw it into the car and on our way we went until my grandma came to the car and discovered that she had out on two different color outfits. The shirt was a dark blue and the pants were a light blue. We decided to change at the postal office. Let the teasing begin! 

We stopped to drop it off at the once 24 hour postal office and discovered that it was no longer 24 hours. I decided to just pay the extra 45 bucks and check it. It was here when my grandma wanted to change her clothes. The clothing situation was worse when we discovered that she had only packed shirts that went with black pants. She had forgotten all her pants at home and nothing to put on with the bright blue pants. She managed to find a similar colored shirt and we drove on laughing at her the rest of the car ride there. When we arrived at the airport, of course we had to tell people on the shuttle to the airport that I was working at Disney. It wouldn't be a trip unless everyone knew why we were going to Orlando. 

At the airport, my bag turned out to be 4 pounds overweight and I just added some more stuff to the other suitcase my mom had. Everything worked out. We couldn't get seats together but my grandma got a window seat and I sat next to my mom. 

We are staying at the Clarion hotel in Kissimmee. We rented a Dodge Journey from Thrifty. We decided  eat at this restaurant across the street from the hotel.  My mom found a piece of a ceramic mug or plate in her food and then when we walked out the restaurant discovered that the landscaping outside was on fire. Flames were about 6 inches high and was burning in a pretty large area. The manager and staff took their time getting water thinking it was the cigarette trash on fire again. When they discovered that the mulch was on fire they ran and got several buckets of water and put it out. They said they had never seen anything like that. Not only did they try to kill my mom by choking on the ceramic, but they tried to burn her too. 

I was pleased to say that the rest of the trip so far has been good. We have done a lot of shopping today, especially for my Grandma. Today is resting day. I got my shoes for work, a pair of Mary Janes, and I got a couple shirts and shorts. 

Disney has been everywhere. Our hotel has Disney mats in the entrance. We stopped at Wal-Mart and they had a whole section dedicated to Disney. I nearly got killed by the 40 people pushing and shoving each other trying to get to the pins. Disney people are a whole different brand of people. I am a little scared of what's to come.

Time to Pack

Alright I finally put my procrastination aside and I have finally started packing. I had planned to start packing on Monday, but we had a family going away party and I did not want people stepping over clothes and suitcases when trying to find a spot to eat. So I rescheduled for Tuesday, but then I went to a laser tag game with some friends and became really lazy for the rest of the day.

Well yesterday, I started moving stuff into the living room. That was a big deal for me. I had a two second celebration in my accomplishment and got packing. I actually ran into a roadblock because I could not decide what to bring. I would bring some things out, then put it back, then bring hem out again, and then put it back again.

I actually freaked out yesterday because I thought I had a bigger suitcase in the basement, but turns out that it was thrown out a few years ago. Why didn't anyone tell me! No one tells me information like this anymore. Anyway, now I am deciding to just bite the bullet and buy a new piece of luggage. I am already shipping some things down like my television, ironing board, and iron, but the small suitcase isn't helping much and I can't bring a a huge carry on inside the plane. I am flying on Spirit and they have a lot of luggage restrictions and charges.

It saddens me that I can only take these two suitcases down with me. My mom told me she could always ship things to me once I get down there too. 

I have to ship all of this down to Florida. It's not too expensive though.

I have also found that space bags are my friends. I bought magic bags from the Dollar General store near my house and they work just as well.In that one space bag, I have two pillows, one comforter, two flat sheets, two fitted sheets, and four pillow cases. It is being shipped down too. It will arrive at our hotel via UPS. That's the plan. Hopefully it won't change.

Well, back to packing for me. Six days before I leave!! 

Jewelry Marathon

With only 6 days before I leave for Florida, I have been in jewelry making mode the whole morning trying to have enough last over the Summer.

My mom and I own a jewelry business called, Anita's Jewelry Designs. We make earrings, bracelets, and necklaces out of stones, pearls, glass, and chinese crystal. My mom has been making jewelry for about 15 years and I just started about 4 years ago helping her out at her art fairs and farmers market.

Visit her website. There is some really nice things on there and more to come when she figures out to work the website. (Love you mom) 

I think one of the things I will miss while I am in Florida is the bonding time I spend with my mom when we do a show together. I help her set up the tent, tables, displays, and jewelry. I also help her with sales and resizing.

To help with one of our shows, my mom has borrowed another kid and I have been kind of showing her the ropes with customers questions and set up. It's weird training someone for a job you have had for years. Especially since I am really particular on details. I won't even let my mom help me set up the booth because of it and she owns it!

While I in Disney, I hope to learn how to just relax and let others try on their own without going nuts if something isn't right. Breathe Whitney breathe. I might try the little rubber band trick. "Whitney relax. You're becoming crazy." Pop! "Thank you Mr. Rubber band for bringing me back to my senses.