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.