larkin_marie

I went to my first Color Coding Audition yesterday.

I'm about ready for bed, so despite the fact it's been several decades since I last updated, and I have tons of great pics to post of me and my favorite rodents, I probably won't get to that.

On the plus side, however, the results were already up from the Auditions. While I'm still an Blue/Yellow, I must have bumped something up a little higher, because I can now preference all roles in Fantasmic, Move It Shake It Celebrate It, Mickey's Jungle Jamin' Parade, Block Party Bash, The Adventure Begins, and many more things! You can bet I preferenced most of them, because if I do get trained, that's more hours my way, and I might not have to become a Slide Op again just to make ends meet.

Anyways... I hope I can someday make myself sit down and write a full update, but for the time being I've got to get some sleep. Six days ever week is exhausting.

But I did want to brag a little about my skills. I thought I botched everything again, but I must have gotten a little better. Somehow. On accident. Haha.
 

Work has been pretty awesome, I won't lie. A couple of days ago, I had the most hilarious viking fight with my attendant, and it was all right in front of a guest with a video camera, and I'm HOPING they put it up on YouTube. Because it was seriously amazing. It's hard to describe in just text, because I always just end up acting it out, but basically... There was this kid who had a foam viking sword from Norway, and the shield! I was like, there's no way I'm not going to play with this... So I put the shield on, and I grabbed the sword, but then I was like, well, now I can't fight the kid, he doesn't have a sword. So I looked, and I saw my attendant, this new CP who's fun to pick on in the next section over. So I told the kid to hang on, and I ran full speed at my attendant (which with my stubby little legs isn't that fast, but looks hilarious), lept in the air and landed with my shield up and my sword in the air in a fight stance.

The look on my attendant's face... OMIGOD, I was cracking up. Like, "this was not in the job description!" He puts his hands up and shouts, "I'm unarmed!" So I put my sword down, like, Oh yeah... But, I have a sword! So I'm looking and thinking, and the attendant goes, "Wait!" And he does the Rhino ninja pose, and I'm like YES!!! So I get my sword back up, and we're facing off, and I'm backing up a little, and then he jumps at me, so I'm like, it'll be funnier if I let him win. So I jump and turn to run away all scared... But, well, the Garden Grill is a circular restaurant... and I was backing up in a straight line... and I have no peripheral vision (seriously, put your hands up to the side of your head, that's more vision than I have), so when I turned to run... I ran straight into a wall... Which only made it more awesome.

I bounced off the wall and kept running.

We couldn't have planned something that amazing.

I don't know where to start, but here's what I've got:

• I've been playing in the parks a lot recently. More than I ever have before. I still don't like going to them, but I have my own fun. My friend Jason teases me because I'm a little bit sarcastic, and I get more so at the parks. 
• My German Lover and I actually talk on Facebook IM very often right now. It's pretty exciting/hilarious, I won't lie.
• In real life, boys confuse/irritate/spoil me.
• I think I'm finally about to get a new roommate. I'm actually not very excited for that. I liked having my own room. She had better like the Bedtime Tunes Podcast (bedtimetunes.trash-can.net/ --Check it out, it's my newest addiction.). That's all I have to say.
• I am force-bid at the Garden Grill right now. I've never spent more than 5 days at any one place since I started in Entertainment. But of all places to be stuck, I love Garden Grill. You can go as slow as you like and still see everyone, there are no managers in sight, and the servers and seaters there are awesome. I'm actually okay with only having 30 hours. I'm still gonna try to pick up some shifts elsewhere, but I'm just gonna try to enjoy being at Garden Grill for now. I did have a pretty drama-filled week there last week, but none of it was my fault. Well... one was kind of my fault, but really...  I'll explain that sometime, once the Witness statements are all out of the way.
• Which leads me to my next bullet point: Entertainment is insane. I know it's all theater people... But the drama and the witness statements and the carrying on! Seriously... I think I benefitted well by doing other things before coming to Entertainment. They should warn you about the drama and the hassels before you audition, rather than the heat and physical part.
• My extension is going great. I go out a lot more since the new program started, actually. I love my life down here right now.
• That's about it for now... but next time I write... pictures!

( LOTS of pictures ahead! )

But my roommates disgust me. They really do.

If it takes you half our kitchen to cook a Bertolli meal... for god's sake clean up after yourself.

I guess somehow I became the dishwasher emptier. It was an unspoken thing for sure. And it was no biggie, but the last few days I'm had to work/audition early and I just assumed someone else would empty it.

What a mistake in this house. Of course no one would empty it, except to take out dishes they needed to dirty and then putting them in the sink when they're done.

It's pretty trashed. On top of that, I know there's actually only one roommate, Elizabeth, who cleans the kitchen for everyone else. I keep telling her to stop this and make them clean up after themselves, but she still does it.

They're pretty much disgusting.

Also, my roommate has let her bath towel and hand towel mildew to the point it gags me when I walk into the bathroom. Air freshener doesn't seem to help.

Sorry I'm cranky. It's just now 6am, and I've had to empty the dishwasher. And I refuse to refill it, so I just wrote a note saying, "Clean this up you filthy slobs" and put it in the sink. Niceness doesn't really work on these people. Well, nothing works with these people.

Anyways, in good news...

• I extended my program, so I'm here until May 15th. I'm very happy about this. I'm staying in Entertainment. For all its flaws (and it has many), I love my Chipmunks so much, and I'm very happy to be staying with them. I'm hoping maybe I can learn a show or parade or try for face in the next six months.
• I auditioned for Disney Live. I didn't get it, of course. But I didn't go in there expecting to get it. I did audition decently well, and I noticed one of the main casting directors was looking at me nearly the whole time, and he would lean over and talk to the other casting director and they would pull out my head shot/resume and look at it. They keep you on file for a year, so I'm hoping that was a good sign. So even though I didn't get it, I feel awesome about that audition.
• I'm at Town Square today, and I get to be in the Welcome Show the day they're filming the Christmas Parade. I think that's pretty awesome. I expect it to be packed. But I don't know where I'll be. I guess yesterday they were in TomorrowLand with their flashy space vests... But that schedule said December 5th only... So I don't know where I am today, but I hope it's awesome.

Anyways, it's time for me to go get dressed. Oh, and use my parafin wax. My RA has gotten worse in the last month, but the athletic trainer recommended that I buy a parafin bath, the kind you do manicures with, and use it daily to help with it. It feels amazing, and my hands are so soft! I love it!

It's been nearly a decade since I wrote. Or at least it feels like it.

And I only have 7 minutes to update you on that decade. That or I'll just continue to write when I get off work at Future World at 5pm.

I think I haven't really written because not a lot of College Program-y things have happened recently. Work was pretty plain. I spent a long time at Liberty Tree, which is awesome. It's probably one of my favorite places to be. That and Town Square, which seems to be all I get scheduled, really.  Liberty Tree is awesome because you just have so much time to play. I often find myself in trouble for going to slow, but Liberty Tree is a restaurant where you can do that. It's very small. Almost no one cares if you go slow, except one manager who's decided that she doesn't like me very much and told me that I "don't have time to hug every guest," and this one crazy captain one night, where we had the following conversation:

ME: I go slow, I know it. I've tried to go faster, but somehow I'm not able to. I don't mind. I get good performance reviews in dining because I greet every single guest.
CAPTAIN: Well, which would you prefer, a reprimand or a good performance review?
ME: (shocked) Well, if those are my two choices, I'd rather have the good performance review.
CAP: Well, keep in mind performance reviews don't go on your record card, but reprimands do.
ME: (getting pissed) Well, if they want to give me a reprimand for making the guests too happy they can. I am not bid here, and if they don't like how I am here, they can stop scheduling me here.
CAP:Or they can transfer you to character attendant.
ME: Or they can do that. I've worked attractions before, I've worked food service. You can't threaten me by sending me somewhere else. If they think I'm not good at my job, I hope they put me somewhere where I'm more suited. But as long as they think I'm doing a good job, I'm not concerned.

By the end of that night, three other Liberty Tree people were looking for a manager to talk to about her.

Anyways, I didn't want to end on such a bad note, but that was ten minutes, and I have to go get ready for work. I promise I'll write more when I get home!!

I know, I don't post as often as I should. But I don't always have great stories, like being asked to spoon. Also, I'm pretty much force bid at Liberty Tree Tavern, so sometimes it starts to feel like you're doing the same thing every day, even if the tables are different. Plus I've been meeting some great people, and I'm actually sort of seeing someone, and I've just become more social in general, and I love it!

Yesterday was a long and somewhat stressful day. I guess it started the day before. Actually, I guess it started Wednesday.

Wednesday, we got a surprise inspection. We passed, but... Well, have I mentioned I have pets? Right. Well I have Bernard the Hermit Crab, who's been with me since my 2006 program, and then Echo bought Ding Ding a couple weeks ago. Ding Ding is a gerbil.

Anyways, they waited day to give us a letter for a house meeting. We got that Sunday night. I was nervous, but I kept my mind off of it by going to Clermont to see one of my best friends down here. We had a great time, and I had a couple beers, and then I came home early to get some sleep so I looked nice for the meeting.

So Monday morning was the meeting. If you've never been called in for a housing meeting (which I'm guessing most of you haven't), this is how it goes: They'll give everyone a piece of paper and ask you to write down your statement. Then they'll pull each of you individually and talk to you alone.

This is actually my second house meeting. I had to go to one years ago, on my first program, shortly after moving in, because my first roommates were caught smoking weed. They were a lot meaner at that meeting. It felt like you were on Law & Order or something. They would tell you that if you knew about it and didn't say anything, that's as bad as doing it yourself, and stuff like that. This time, they were much more friendly, and asked me what I named the Hermit Crab.

We got a written warning, and were told to get rid of them. I've already got a home for them, although I'm sure if someone else out there would like a gerbil or a hermit crab, and doesn't live in Disney housing, I'm sure my friend would let you have them.

I pointed out that it's way easier to take care of the hermit crab than it is to keep my Garden up... he looked at me and thought for a second and said, "well, I don't think there's anything against gardens..." I said there wasn't.

Speaking of... My garden just keeps growing. My Broccoli is huge and should be ready to eat by the end of the month! My tomato is giant, and has little yellow flowers all over it. I've also got onions, spinach, sage, basil, two kinds of oregano, cilantro, thyme, tarragon, parsley, chives, echinacea, horse tail (which cures broken bones)... oh and my watermelon. I think my watermelon's not going to make it though. It's looking kind of sickly. I've never grown a watermelon before, so I don' t know what's up with it. My friend suggested that it doesn't have enough space, so I'm thinking I'll get it another pot, and see if that helps. It might just traumatize it though. My roommates joke that I have a jungle on our patio.

Which I think is okay, because we have sience experiements in our kitchen. Ugh... seriously, why can't they do their own dishes?!?! It's not very hard. I don't know if I mentioned this before, but last week, I discovered that someone left a banana in a bag on the counter and let it go bad... Here's something I didn' t know: If you let a banana go really bad... it turns to fucking liquid!!! Omigod! And guess who had to clean that one up?! Yep. I got to throw the drippy bag away... and the smell.... Ugh. I am so embarrassed to have friends over. Every one of them comes in, takes one look at the sink filled to the brim with dishes and says, "Wow. I'm so sorry you have to put up with this." I was so hungry yesterday, but there were no pots to cook with, and even if I cooked, there'd be no way to clean the pots after. I found one pot, and was going to make Ramen, by filling the pot with water from my bathroom, but then I realized I couldn't use the collander because the sink was full and I refused to be like my roommate and perch the collander on top of the dirty dishes to drain her pasta! 

Anyways... Eventually, I made a cheese sandwich. So all I ate yesterday was a cheese sandwich, two organic oreo-type cookies, and some pita chips. I did have two sodas though, which made me very excited. I've been craving soda, but I wanted to get some with pure cane sugar rather than high fructos corn syrup. Yes, I'm weird about the things I put in my body. I'm not a health freak, and I still eat plenty of trash like McDonalds, but I try to also watch what I eat when I can. Yesterday, I found out I had 100$ more than I thought I did, so I went to Whole Foods and bought two plants, soda, friut, and cookies. Haha.

And finally, in my long day... I got to see Matt Nathanson!!

Yay! I've been waiting for this day for weeks! It started off bad, because Google Maps gave me bad directions, and told me to take an exit that didn't exist, but when I finally went into a Publix in an area called College Park, and asked, the woman checking out there was so nice, and gave me perfect directions from here, and just very sweet. She was like, "You're not far off, just take a deep breath and don't worry, you're only about ten minutes away." So there are good Floridians out there. So thank you to the lovely lady at Publix, who also used cloth bags... so she's that much more amazing!

Matt was playing in this tiny little bar called the social... If there were more than 300 people there, I'd be surprised. It was sold out, so I was glad I'd bought my tickets a month ago.

He's amazing in concert. He's hilarious, and he sings great songs, and he loves to cover 80's songs. He sang Take On Me by a-ha, and pulled this guy up on stage. I ended up giving him and his wife a ride back to Caribbean Beach Resort.  They were really cool. They had flown in from Baton Rouge, LA to see Matt Nathanson, and spent 5 days at Disney, but somehow didn't meet the Chipmunks.

After the concert, I got to meet Matt Nathanson, and somewhere along the way, I'd realized that the day I'm flying home to Spokane is the day he's going to be playing in Spokane. So I met him and I was like, "This is kind of strange, but I think I'm going to see you in Spokane." And he looked at me and he was like, "Why!? I mean, that's great, but why?!" So I told him I just happened to be going home for a few days and I'd be there the 4th of November. He was like, "That's great! I'll see you soon!" He's really sweet.

So yes, I'll be in Spokane, WA from November 4th through the 8th. I'm actually very excited. I can't wait to see my kitty. I've heard he's still doing amazing, and is actually doing better than before! I also can't wait to see some of my friends, and now I can't wait to see Matt Nathanson again! I've already bought that ticket.

But for now, I guess I should start getting ready for Liberty Tree Tavern. I came home last night and the sink was empty, so I'm thinking I'll make a nice big breakfast.

Thanks to anyone who actually read this monster of a post. I'll try to post more often, so hopefully they're not so long again!

Yesterday was one of those days that I felt invincible.

First, it was my first day off since last Wednesday, but I chose to set my alarm for 7am, and I went to the Kissimmee Farmer's Market. There were only five booths, and someone was telling me how usually there are more than a dozen, but it's in between harvests, so it should be better again in a couple weeks. Still, it was so wonderful!

I spent 20$ (Well, 23$) and I got so much! Everything was sold by the BOX. Six tomatoes for 1.50$! Everything was like that. So I looked at everything that was available and it immediately became apparent that I should make salsa because nearly everything I needed was right there in front of me. The only thing I had to buy at Target was a can of green chiles and chips.

Well, that was the only thing I had to buy... I bought 70$ worth of stuff at Target that I didn't have to. But some of it makes me overly excited. Like my water bottle, that has a filter in the top, so you can put just plain tap water in the bottom, and it filters it like Brita filters as you drink it. Pretty neat. The water tastes good too.

I also bought a Papaya, but I don't really know what to do with it. And a giant avacado so I can make Guacamole tomorrow. I also bought five more plants, which I'll put up pictures of once I get them in pots. And yes, I'm pretty sure my patio is minutes from becoming a jungle. But it's becoming a healthy jungle, so I'm okay with it. :-)

Then I came home and I got dressed for class, and made myself some coffee. I was so excited to be having White Coffee that I didn't even care that it tasted horrible. So I'm going to have to work on making esspresso. It's been two years since I made it for myself, maybe I skipped a step?

Class was amazing. I'm taking Expiriencial Learning. Not only does the class sound interesting, but the teacher is beyond interesting. When I met her on day 2 check in when I was signing up, she seemed awful. She yelled at me for something that was absolutely not my fault, and I remember hoping I didn't have her for a teacher.

But in class I think she's hilarious, and I noticed she had a heiroglyphics necklace on, so I asked her where she got it and showed her my ring. She got it in Egypt, and we spent the entire break talking about when she was in Egypt and got to meet Zahi Hiwass (I totally just butchered that spelling), and I loved it. She's going to Egypt again in December. So it turns out that she's not only a great teacher but we both share a passion which we both love talking about. If you ever see me at work, and I'm in an unfamiliar place, I'm that geeky girl in the corner translating heiroglyphics. And yes, I'm taking it for a class. And yes, I'm more than willing to talk about what I'm doing if you have questions.

My first assignment is to ride three rides from a specific list and write a short paper (two paragraphs on each ride) about whether they were more educational than entertaining or more entertaining than educational. Yes, that's actually my homework.

Then I came home and started my salsa, while my friend Stuart came over, and then the two of us went to Food & Wine. We came to late to get any food, although I did get to try some Sam Adams, although everything we ordered was sold out for the night, which was terrible. But I did get to stop by the Soarin' managers and I talked to a different manager that I'd never met before, and asked about getting re-certified for Soarin', and she gave me the number to try and get that going. I'm very excited! For one thing, I totally need the hours, and another, I just don't want to lose that training, you know?

Then we drove to Denny's and stayed up talking until 1am. So it's now ten till 7 and I have to be dressed and out the door by 7, so I should go, but I do want to say that I'm having the most amazing couple of days, and Stuart's an amazing guy who lets me chatter on about completely random stuff. If you ever get him as an attendant, you'll be well taken care of.

But like I said, gotta go!

I'm sorry, but our apartment is filthy. It really pisses me off. No one will take out the trash. I'm pretty sure I'm the only person that has since we moved in, and maybe one other person once. And I know I don't contribute the most to the trash. Our sink is always, always full of dishes. And what pisses me off the most about that is that the dish washer will be completely empty! I mean, how much harder is it to lean over and put your damn plate in the dishwasher rather than the sink?! And if the dish washer is full, but clean, they won't empty it. They also load the dishwasher wrong, with the bowls on the bottom, so the water can't reach the plates on the top and they don't get clean. And one girl will take her garbage out of her bedroom and just set it next to the kitchen garbage. I mean, if you have a whole shopping bag of garbage, just take it the 50 feet to the dumpster instead of putting it in our kitchen and hoping someone else will take it out for you. The same girl got two packages yesterday and just piled the boxes in front of the recycling. I mean, take your own shit out! I don't mind taking the garbage out sometimes, I don't mind emptying the dishwasher sometimes, I just hate having to clean up after everyone else. And I understand that sometimes your late for work, and you don't have time to scrub a pan after you use it. I usually wash the pan I cook my eggs in after I get home because it's still too hot by the time I leave. I understand that sometimes you're just tired, and you do it the next day, but sometimes I swear they sit for days, and the dishwasher will sit with just my dishes in it until I've eaten enough for a full load. It's rediculous.

So I finally had to become that girl that writes the notes saying "please put your dishes in the dishwasher rather than waiting for someone else to do it for you. If the dishes are clean, please empty the dishwasher. Please take out the garbage when it gets full rather than hoping someone else will." I mean, the garbage was so high, I couldn't get the drawstring to close on one of them, and I'm pretty sure it was at least two weeks old. That's disgusting. It smelled so bad I almost threw up. And I've done trash at Port Orleans. It smelled nothing like this.

And I admit some of it's mine. I cleaned up the splatters from my dinner I cooked last night, but I also cleaned up some spaghetti which I know isn't mine.

I just get pissed about cleaning up other people's crap. I mean, I don't expect anyone to clean up after me, and I feel like I'm constantly washing the dishes they leave in the sink because I need to use them, and I'm always emptying the dishwasher... And I try to always put my dishes in the dishwasher, even when I'm hurrying to work.

I kind of feel bad for getting so pissed, but I mean, I had to clean up a lot of other people's shit.

I also added a note about how the fridge is shared space and we need to get better at sharing it. I think everyone should know that's directed at just one particular roommate.

/rant.

Ugh. Okay, so yesterday, at 7am, I was moving Dale to Town Square, In my cruddy old Basics, and I pass by this pargo of Engineering people. They're all staring at me with those disgusting grins... I think every girl has had to see this look at one point or another. And if it were just the look, I can ignore than and keep walking, but as soon as I passed, they started whistling. Over and over until I turned around, and when they all started saying, "Yeeeeaahhh," and grinning. I flipped them off and walked away, but seriously, I am soooooo pissed. I mean, I was working, and I don't need to be leered at by some creepy imigrants in a pargo while I'm doing it! I was really seconds from calling a manager and reporting them. I've never been so pissed.

Then, my second to last set, I was running later than Rob, and apparently these other workers, who were not with Disney, asked him where the other Chipmunk was. So then I come running out, and like four of these creep sweaty disgusting men are staring at me, and as I get behind them, the all turn around so they can watch me from that side too. I mean, it's so sick. It creeps me out and makes me mad, and I shouldn't have to deal with it when I'm trying to work.

So you can bet that if they do it one more time, I am completely filing sexual harassment on them. It sounds rash, but I do not take being whistled at lightly, and I am not going to put up with it. I work at fucking Disney, and I deserve to feel comfortable and safe and not be whistled at like a dog.

I'd just like to remind everyone to eat breakfast. Because I didn't yesterday, and I was soooooo tired. But when I do, I really do feel amazing. Also, I've read that people who have a 600 calorie breakfast actually lose more weight than people who skip breakfast.

I bought Mickey-shaped egg rings, and I have 2 eggs on whole grain bread, and then I went to Whole Foods yesterday (and spent way too much money; I have a grocery shopping problem) and bough some fresh cut organic-grown fruit with blueberries (Omega-3's) Pineapple (helps dissapate Lactic Acid, which is what causes sore muscles after a work out), Cantalope, blackberries and raspberries (I already forgot what they do, but I'll look it up when I get home. I'm a nerd for those sort of things.) I also have a big glass of blueberry-pomegranate juice, which I had to mix with some Naked watermelon juice, which sounded so delicious, but it's definitely not. I think I probably went beyond 600 calories, but I usually eat light the rest of the day, and the morning is when I need all my energy.

Anyway, today's sort of my Friday. I'm off tomorrow, but I work on monday, and then I'm off Tuesday and Wednesday.

Have a good day everyone!

So I got a new roommate today: Echo from Shanghai, China. She seems pretty cool, although since I had to wake up at 5am, I kinda had to be like, "Nice to meet you, I'm going to sleep."

Today marks the first day that I'm going to try to take the bus to work. We'll see how it goes. I did have to wake up at 5am, rather than six to be sure I caught the 6:25 bus. It also gets me there reeeeallly early, but that's good maybe I can get my costume together before I even clock in.

Yesterday, I got a "Late to Area" because I did everything in the wrong order. I checked in too late, although I didn't even miss my warm ups.

So the woman I checked in to was very gruff with me, and told me I'd already been replaced. Then she said I had to go see the Cast Services Manager. So I was really nervous, because everywhere else I've worked, they only send you to another manager like that if you get a reprimand, which made me nervous because I knew I had a Call In and a Failure To Clock, but that's only a point and a half, so I couldn't figure out where the rest was.

So I walked in already scared, and it turns out it was just to meet me or something, which they do to everyone. So my first impression is me being scared to near tears. She was really nice, and she kept trying to calm me down, but I seriously was about to cry. I felt so retarded.

But then everything kind of worked out, because I got my spot in Town Square back, and my partner was someone I'd worked with before, Rob, who is hilarious, and tells the best stories. He's worked for Disney for like 10 years, 14 years, something like that... His stories will have you rolling with laughter. He's my partner again today, which is exciting. One thing I hugely miss about everywhere else I've worked is seeing the same faces day after day and developing a rapor with everyone. I think this is as close as I've gotten to that.

My days off were very busy. And even before that was busy. Let's see... Friday I hung out with Christine... Saturday... I think I just worked. Sunday, my friend Stephanie had her Labor Day Weekend pool party. It was amazing, as always (although there was some skinny dipping involved!) Sunday, I also went to the Swan for breakfast, which you heard about earlier. And Monday, I was at the International Gateway, and then I finally got to meet Erica, which was pretty awesome.

Tuesday I went to Magic Kingdom with Andrew and Lara. I got to meet Chip and Dale, which was beyond exciting:

Oh! And those pants I'm wearing were the ones I was excited about last month for finally being able to get on! Notice how they're kinda loose now? Oh yes.


Dale and Dale.


Which made Chip jealous.


I tried to say that Chip could join us.


But Dale kissed me right in front of Chip!


So Chip tried to ruin our picture.

Then Dale whisked me away to go dancing, which Andrew did not get a picture of, because then Chip started playing with Lara, and that's what he took pictures of instead.


Tuesday I also got to meet Virginia and Molly, and the three of us went to Ballet. I was pretty terrible in Ballet, but I think when I'm off on Tuesdays I'll take it. Otherwise I'll stick to Lyrical and (maybe) Bellydance.

Wednesday, I went to Animal Kingdom with Cameron, and he finally talked me into riding Everest. I can't really tell you how is was, because I had my eyes squeezed shut the entire time, but hey, at least I rode it!

I feel like ever since I decided to turn over a new leaf, that I've been out and about and having fun. Of course this also coincided with finally getting off work and not feeling exhausted beyond belief. It took a while, but now I can work and not feel like I have to come home and go straight to bed.

Anyways, I have to go get dressed for work... I'm a little bit sleepy still, and I didn't eat breakfast (shame) but ya... Another day!

So here's my Best Friend Dale, with Kelli and Chip:

At least Dale's looking at the Camera this time!


Brian, Dale, Kelli, and Chip.


Cute random family.


Crazy gay Asian kid who wanted a kiss from Chip and Dale, and when they hesitated, he grabbed their noses and forced them!


And then he and his crazy Asian mob surrounded them.


Signing autographs.


About to go eat some acorns! Yum!

So today's my day off, but starting at 6am... my smoke detector battery started dying so it started chirping... So I'm a bit sleepy.

In good news, my good friends gave me a TV yesterday, so I'm about to get to watch Law & Order again! Woot!

So it sounds boring, but for my day off, I baked muffins, I'm about to put my plants in real pots, and I'm going to do laundry. I haven't had a boring, lie-in-bed all day day in sooooo long! This feels great!

This will be shorter than you guys all deserve, but I'm just so beat.

I checked in Wednesday. My program's really not going like I'd hoped. Which really frustrates me because I feel like it's probably my fault for having such high expectations.

I think the ,most important thing is that I'm sick. Like very sick. Like, lost my voice, can't breathe, so tired, want to cry sick. It's making everything very difficult because Seriously my brain won't work, and I want to cry, and I'm trying so hard to be nice and helpful and outgoing... but I just feel like I'm failing miserably. And from a check in stand point and things like that... I feel like... I don't know... Like I'm being so polite, but it feels like it almost doesn't matter.

I'm glad I have Kelli because if I didn't, I don't think I would know my roommates at all yet.

I feel like an asshole for not going to the Dark Knight thing last night, but I am so SO sick, and I seriously think it kind of disappoints people to meet me, because they have some mental picture of me, and they get this snuffly, emotional, grouchy,ditzy wreck, and that's really not who I am.

No on in my training likes me, which is really hard. They kind of avoid me like the plague. I can't tell if it's because they think I have the plague. I don't fit in in entertainment at all. I've worked in so many locations, and I've never felt so alienated. Even at lunch, I was sitting by myself, and two cute paramedics came over and sat by me and we had an awesome conversation, but then I had to go right back to class where no one says a word to me. It's just very awkward.

I didn't get face, which is really the least of my worries at this point. For one thing, I feel so sick, I want to call in tomorrow, but I've heard from another girl who was sick today that they're so busy that we might not get back on the schedule for two more weeks. But I almost don't care. I can pick up shifts at Soarin and Blizzard and Port Orleans once I start feeling betting.

I'll stop here to keep from getting too emotional... But yeah... If you haven't met me yet and you're wondering why, or you have met me and I was grouchy or sick... Please just with hold your judgements for a couple days. I promise you I am actually very happy and well adjusted.

Hi Guys!

I'm on my way!

First of all... some silly pictures of my before I went out with my friend Ellie last night:



These are the faces you get if you are my parents and you want pictures of me simply because I'm wearing a dress. The actual pictures of me and my friend at the bar are on my hard drive, so you'll have to miss out on those.

So there isn't really a lot of interesting things to take pictures of when you're driving through Idaho and Montana at 80mph, so here's really the cream of the very poor crop:

This is Hoolah Bob, the Hula Guy. He's joining us on my dashboard.

A Biking Viking. I love it.
It's Sturgis time, in case you start seeing more silly biker pictures from me.


Mentzer's: For all your used cow needs.


This is the gas station where I met Luke, my current love of my life. He was so cute. I swear, he looked like a young Sawyer from LOST, and he introduced himself to me... he's very charming. :)

That's all I have for today! Make sure you check out my Facebook profile, because that's the only way I can update in real time, with mobile uploads and whatnot.

For everyone already in Florida, I'm one day closer to seeing you!!

With clothes this time!

Oh, and the screen may not have worked... I tried to wash it out, and the image was really faint. I had a hell of a time. So I tried to fix it, but I'm not sure how it'll go. I may not have my t-shirt for check in. :-(

Otherwise, I think I am for sure going to bring my Crow poster, and probably my Daria poster too. Apparently my room will be from 1997.

Oh! And tomorrow I'm hitting the road to Florida! I should be in town either Friday or Saturday. If you're already down there, let me know, and we should meet up! I'm thinking of making a vlog of my trip. We'll see how that goes. It's going to be pretty fast, because my mom's serious about trying to make it in three days. I think more realistically, we'll be down in four. I'm not sure three's actually possible.

See you all soon!

So i dreamt I fit in Belle's yellow dress. Like, I was working as some Tiger, and I met Adam Lamberg, who was Lizzie's friend Gordo on Lizzie McGuire, and then there was a... Princess Emergency? And somehow I ended up in the dress... and it fit, with room to spare.

Oh wishful thinking...

So you may have noticed I like blogging. Probably a little too much in fact. Anyway, this is favorite newspaper comics, Pearls Before Swine... and this was yesterday's comic:

This is going to be a complain-y blog... because I'm not in the greatest of moods. Mostly because I'm in lots of pain.

My teeth are still killing me. Is this normal? What frustrates me even more is that usually it's the right side that hurts, but today, I was volunteering to help with my community's library book sale, and I brought along an Uncrustable to eat... And I've been eating those for a while now, because they're soft and little so I could eat them before I could get my mouth open very wide. Well today, I pulled out my Uncrustable, and eating it gave my right side immediate, intense pain. I had to go home and take some Advil before I could start working again.

I'm also getting terrible headaches, which I think are related to the toothaches. They're pretty bad. Like... not so bad that I'm completely incapacitated, like when I fly into Florida sometimes, but bad enough that I can't concentrate, and it's all I can really think about.

I'm still not well enough to eat lots of the foods on my lists. I did get my deep dish pizza, and I have had a hot dog. But I'm still eating very little, and I still have to be hyper-aware of the textures of everything I eat. Today I tried Wheat Thins with Laughing Cow Cheese... I'm not quite there yet. I mean, I can chew them... but I can feel it, you know? Like, it's definitely uncomfortable. I'm still very careful about how I eat, and prefer not to chew or let things touch my teeth at all.

I'm still taking two Advil in the morning and two in the evening to deal with the pain. I saw my dentist for my third follow up and mentioned that I still wasn't eating on one side of my mouth, and that I was still taking lots of painkillers and that I was still in lots of pain... he didn't seem bothered by it. I've had fillings before, but I've never had pain that lasted to the next day, let alone three weeks later.

It's my fillings that are hurting, not my wisdom sockets. That's what's frustrating.

Number Two on my "things haven't been going so great" list is my ring.
This is a pretty old picture of me... circa 2005 I think?

Anyways, it's all I could find in short notice of a close up of my ring. I got it in Athens, Greece when I was 17 and I've worn it just about every day since. I have a year round tan line from it. It's my name in Hieroglyphics.

One of my big passions is Ancient Egypt (specifically Rameses II), and it's the reason I orginally an Anthro major. Plus, with a name like Larkin, getting things with your name on it is special. It means it was always made just for me. It's pure silver and 18k gold. I've never lost it for more than a day, and we always find our way back together almost magically.

So, as you might remember, when I was still incapacitated and malnourished, I was living upstairs on our living room couch, because I couldn't stand up long enough to go up the stairs if I needed something. My ring camped out with me, on the coffee table. After I was able to go downstairs, I initially forgot it there. Even my dad remembers it being on the table.

The day after I moved downstairs, I was ready to leave the house for a bit. And I never, ever leave the house without my ring. It would be like forgetting my underwear or something. So I went to go grab it off of the coffee table...

...It's gone. It's been gone since last Tuesday.

We've searched all around the coffee table, the sofa, the floor. My mom vacuumed the monday before, but we emptied the vacuum and found nothing.

My biggest fear is that Tuesday is garbage day... and that it got bumped and fell onto some papers that got thrown out or something. Otherwise... it seriously is still gone. I've dug up my whole house.

I'm serious enough about this that I'm going to rent a metal detector and set it on "silver."

My parents are being very supportive, and have agreed to buy me a new one, if everything else fails. They're even understanding about the fact that it has to come from the same jewler in Athens, despite the fact that because the dollar has fallen since 2002, it's now going to cost twice as much as it did.

Lastly, I'm slowly begining to accept the fact that I think I'm too fat to be a princess. There's not really a lot to say about it... 125lbs is as small as I'm going to get, and it took not eating solid foods for a week and a half to get there. I'm comfortable with my weight, and if Disney's not... well fine. I'm a size ten, I think, and could probably wear smaller if I didn't have to buy everything bigger for my chest. In any case, sizes confuse the hell out of me. But I think it this is just the anxiety of not knowing talking. Seriously, I'd be better off knowing for sure that I did not get a face character than to have to spend another month telling people I get to be a character, and having them go "Oh, are you going to be a princess?" And having to answer, "Uhm, I won't know that till August, but I know I'll get to be Chip and Dale." Chip and Dale are significantly less exciting to other people, I've found.

So I guess I should try to balance my bad thoughts out. I think I have Hypomania... I'm staying up till 5 or 6am every night. I usually wake up around noon. I think part of it is just that I really have nothing going on to schedule around. But the reason I think I have Hypomania rather than just insomnia is because I also seem to be hyper-productive right now.

Yesterday, I went and re-translated the first two pages of the story we're learning in Egyptian Hieroglyphics, The Shipwrecked Sailor. Two pages doesn't sound like a lot, but we've been working on the story since April, and we're only to page seven, and we didn't do page two. Also, I've been dying to learn Heiratic, which is basically the Egyptian form of cursive, whereas Hieroglyphics are more like caligraphy. Anyway, The Shipwrecked Sailor was orginially written in Hieratic, but then was put into Hieroglyphics in modern times for people to translate easier. The original version used to be up on the internet, but that link no longer works. Thankfully, I thought to use the Wayback Machine to find it, so if you want to look at what I'm trying to learn, here is page one. And, here is the Hieroglyphic version of the same page, what we're using in class. So imagine trying to read a book, but instead of typed print, you have to try to read someone's cursive. Then imagine it's in another language. Then imagine that that language doesn't use the same alphabet as us. You've now imgined about half the difficulty of learning Egyptian.

Fortunately, I'm the best one in the class. To the point that I don't think the other students like me. I don't know why I'm so good, and the teacher has to give me extra tasks while the other students look up words. I just always seem to turn to the exact page and find the right word before even the teacher can. So, either I was Egyptian in a past like, the author of our Egyptian dictionary in a past life, or I'm an incredibly visual learner, and can skim read better than others. The jury's still out.

On the garden front... everything seems good. My chili pepper is turning bright red, which means it might be getting ripe. It's ornamental, but not dangerous to eat, just supposedly very bland. I'm going to try it anyway.

Bonkers is still doing well. Thank you again, everyone for your kind words for him. I tell him everytime someone asks about him. I mean, if optimism and feeling like people care about you helps people heal, why not pets?

Also... I'm thinking of taking some classes in Florida to become a licensed herbalist. Herbs have always made me happy. I like growing them, I like cooking with them... I want to learn to heal with them.

Also, for sure I'm getting back into belly dance. I started when I was 17, and took two full years, and then off and on there after, but it's been a long time since I did any dancing. But I found a teacher in Orlando that I think I'll get along with, so I'll be doing that, which I'm very very excited about.

The Bonk must have known I was talking about him, cause he just came down the stairs and hopped up on the couch and is now standing behind me, purring. He's a good cat.

Anyway... Sorry this is so long... Like I said, I think this is called Hypomania, and my mind is working overtime. Think of it as very mild bipolar disorder, and this is the mania.

So, G'night guys.