Time in: 8:45 a.m.
Time out: 7:45 p.m.

We had two call outs this morning, so as track 5 I had to skip going to Shade Control and head to the PC instead to build stilts. I took over track 2's duties for the morning and cleared the dry room of the stilt shoes and helmets as well as build two stilts and put away the NSA. Everything else ran smoothly after that and soon it was time to help Lumiere get dressed. It wasn't Jared today, it was a boy named Doug and I had to help him much differently than I do Jared. Doug had almost no idea how to get himself dressed, I had to help a lot. But thankfully Jared had clearly explained the process to me when I trained so I was able to help Doug a lot. The first parade was pretty awkward trying to get into a groove, but after that I knew exactly how to help him and what he did and did not know about the costume. It was really interesting to see the vast difference in the performers selected to play the same role but Doug did do a wonderful job during the parade, that was obvious from the small snippits I get to see myself.

The rest of the day was really smooth. It was another odd assortment of people working together today, but we pulled it off smoothly and nothing went awry at all!

That's all the magic for today!

Time in: 8:45 a.m.
Time out: 7:45 p.m.

Yesterday was just the same old same old. I worked with the exact same people I worked with on Thursday and it was just as unexciting on both days. Nothing really out of the ordinary happened at all. I was track 2 so I was outside with the stilts which I'm really starting to not like. I find it very awkward and uncomfortable because I'm an inherently shy human being so I don't just walk up and join in their conversations. You have to do that to keep it casual and be friends with them, and other people are absolutely great at that. I know some that are my good friends that could to track 2 every day and be best friends with everyone. I'm not like that so I always feel out of place just waiting for them to need my help. I'm sure it's mostly in my mind, but it still affects me. I just try to be polite and helpful whenever they're ready and be sure to offer extra water and powerade. 

I'm also responsible for setting up King Louie's head which is not my favorite job. I hate it, actually. And yesterday he said it was wobbling on his head the whole first show which made me feel really bad. I tried to fix it, and thought I had, but eventually Ana had to re-sew a certain part to make it more secure. I love Ana, she's worked on this parade so long that she knows absolutely everything. When anything goes wrong, I run to ask Ana about it. Hopefully it doesn't bug her. 

I ended up having a long conversation with one of the stilts, Liz. She's always there when I'm there and I always think she thinks I'm an idiot. Every time she asks me for something or even if somebody else does, I'll do the wrong thing out of a misunderstanding, and Liz will be there to witness. Almost every single time. She's also really great as a performer and has been there for a really long time. Quite honestly, she just intimidates me. And we ended up talking for a while because she approached me first. She asked me when I was leaving and when I told her how soon it was, she told me how unfortunate it was, not for me but for them, because, and I'm quoting here, "I actually know how to do my job". I thought I would fall over from shock. I'm so new here and so low on the totem pole that being recognized by anybody was fantastic enough, but to hear that from someone who intimidates you and who you thought thought you were a little slow on the uptake, felt absolutely wonderful. I was on cloud 9 the rest of the day. I know that sounds dramatic, but I've been working my butt off for three months trying to learn everything that I can about things here and be as helpful and knowledgeable as possible. As a CP I came in with everyone against me, thinking that I was just another CP and wouldn't know what I was doing, and I really wanted to prove them all wrong and do a really great job. And to hear that, at least to someone, I had accomplished that goal meant everything in the world to me. That's what I wanted from this experience. 

That's all the magic for today!

Time in: 8:45 a.m.

Time out: 7:45 p.m.

Today felt really off. I think it was just because of the weird assortment of people working, I guess. None of them I was friends with and none of us have ever all worked together. We didn't mesh well I guess. Anyways, the day started with us being late to leave the Character Room. We have a manager that's new to the Magic Kingdom and she was giving us our Track Talk this morning and took a little bit too long. But we managed to catch back up. 

I was on track 3 today which I have never done before. It's essentially the same as all the others, with little details changed here and there. My characters were Bob, Frozone and Genie which I've never directly worked with before in a serious way. I've helped here and there but not a lot. I had to help Bob with his gloves today and he asked me to do this thing that I had never even heard of having to do before and so I felt extremely dumb. Someone came over and nicely showed me how to do it so I would know in the future, but it felt weird finding something new that I didn't know how to do there. I've gotten so comfortable in my knowledge there that I completely forgot there was an entire track that I didn't know. But I guess I do now. 

Edna offered to go downstairs for me in between shows which was nice of her. Usually she's a pain in my buns so for her to do something nice was refreshing. We had a lady training with us today named Tina that occasionally would ask me a question about this or that. Even though I felt down about the whole Bob glove thing, I felt really good knowing how to answer her questions with the correct answer. I once again realized just how much I've learned here in such a short period of time. It's been great. 

At the end of the night I didn't know all the procedures that went along with sending NSA out specifically with MiSiCi stuff, but Ana was nice enough to show me how to do it. And I managed to not mess anything up! 

That's all the magic for today!

Time in: 8:45 a.m.
Time out: 7:45 p.m.

I was track one today, however Sal was there and when Sal's there he always loads and drives the truck no matter what. So half of my track responsibilities were taken care of for me today. We left downstairs earlier than we usually do in the morning by about 10 minutes, so the whole morning we were 10 minutes ahead of schedule. It felt weird, but eventually it started to even out to a regular day. The morning went by really easily and nothing really strange at all happened. 

We ended up not being able to help Day Parade today. They did a reverse step off, meaning they started at the PC and ended at Shade Control. So we left the PC at 3:20 like usual to help them, but then had to walk all the way up the hill and ended up getting stuck by the floats and couldn't walk the whole way up there. You're not allowed to walk beside the floats, you have to wait at a certain point until they're all done moving. It's a safety regulation. So by the time we got to Shade Control everything was already broken down. We did help them load up the truck though so they wouldn't feel completely stiffed. 

The last show of the day is where everything turned into a hot mess express. It was looking very likely that it was going to downpour on our last parade, so everyone was just waiting for the call to cancel the parade. It started to sprinkle so they called for the stilts to be on the ground. We immediately went ahead and broke down the stilts. Then they announced that the parade would just be a Drive By, meaning they wouldn't stop and dance by the castle like they usually do. That only gave us about 10 minutes worth of parade to unload all the costumes and set up for step down. We had them undress inside because of the rain which always throws a huge kink into everything because people are so used to the system. Julie, my coordinator, started the laundry for me when we got to the PC so I could help finish unloading the truck and everything. Plus I think she just likes to start the laundry, I have no idea why. We got done with everything incredibly early since the last parade was so short, so we took our time hanging up laundry and walking back downstairs. It was a solid day. 

That's all the magic for today!

Time in: 9:22 a.m.
Time out: 7:45 p.m.

So I did a really horrible thing this morning and was late to work. I felt horrible about it! I forgot to set my alarm last night, so I woke up right at 8:45, when I was supposed to clock in! I'm never late so I felt really horrible about it, but it wasn't a big deal at all. My coordinator had everything handled and people were covering for me. It's nice to have a coordinator that I thoroughly enjoy as my friend as well (her name's Julie). When I arrived I was kind of in limbo between tracks since everyone was doing different ones to cover for me, so I just went in the dry room and helped my friend Jessica-Rae put away dry clothes. I ended up being assigned to track 1 again today, which was perfectly fine with me I enjoy that track. It's the least stressful. I had to make a run right when we got to Shade Control and the second I got back I had to go again. It really helped kill the morning time. During the first parade I had to drive the Day Parade person in the truck down to the PC since she can't drive. I don't know why they assigned her the driving track though, maybe it was just a misunderstanding.

Right before Day Parade was going to step off, my big time boss came up to the MiSiCi people and asked for two people to help him. Jessica-Rae and I volunteered so we helped take rain gear and standard costumes up to Shade Control for them. It was threatening to rain on the parade, but not bad enough to cancel it. So when it gets close like that they change the costumes to Standard ones instead of the Day Parade ones. It helps because they get less damaged if they get wet from the rain. So we had to run around frantically to get everybody's costumes switched because we arrived with only 9 minutes until the parade was supposed to start. It was craziness.

The rest of the day went by really easily. I'm starting to really enjoy joking around with the performers because I finally have seen some of them enough to be friends. So we joked about stuff all morning with each other like friends. It was a really nice feeling to know that I've kind of been accepted. Same goes for one of my costuming managers, Michael. Everybody else I know is friends with him and joke around a lot but he and I haven't really gotten to that level until today. Today we were joking and knocking on each other all afternoon, it was really funny. I've finally established myself up with the parades people and I'm really enjoying it.

That's all the magic for today!

Time in: 8:45 a.m.
Time out: 7:45 p.m.

My good friend Ryan was coordinating yesterday so the entire day was a blast! I started out on Track 4 but then Ryan switched me to Track 1 since I could drive the truck (and since I spoke English and he wanted me upstairs with him at the end of the night. Everyone else working only speaks Spanish.) As soon as we got up to Shade Control Ryan sent me back to the PC on a run. I love making runs though, it makes me feel really important and is a great way to kill the down time. He ended up needing a whole lot of stuff so I had to go back twice. The rest of the morning was pretty standard.

Right after Day Parade stepped off it was forecasting for serious rain so Ryan and I took the van up to Shade Control to put away the stilt gear so it didn't get rained on. The problem was that the stiltwalkers hadn't put their stuff back in the bins so we had to go to each individual stilt and try to figure out whose costume it was. It was a tedious project. Then we got back to the PC and finished up making presets. Ryan wanted us to clean all the shoes on the line and sweep under them, to kill time and tidy up. As always, only about half of us actually did what he asked because some people I work with think they're better than everyone else. I guess there's just going to be people like that at every job.

The afternoon went smoothly, I had to make one run to the PC but that was it! It was a pretty fun day with Ryan there, but don't tell him that. He'll get a big head.

That's all the magic for today!

Time in: 8:45 a.m.
Time out: 7:45 p.m.

Today was absolutely crazy. There were things changing and going wrong left and right. I think more things went wrong today than have ever in one single day before. There was never a gigantic crazy the-world-is-ending moment or anything, but we had a whole bunch of changes and replacements and characters going down (meaning they don't go out in the parade).

So, to begin, I was on track 5 today so I started by going to Shade Control and checking heads and shoes. There was something wrong with 3 different heads and 1 pair of shoes. Usually I don't find anything wrong at all, so I don't know if there were just some rowdy performers yesterday or if yesterdays costumer on track 5 didn't check well enough or what happened, but it was really crazy. I had to carry Sheriff Woody's shoes back with me to the PC so Ana could see if she wanted to replace them for the day. It was a huge pain because the PC is far away. And Sheriff Woody's shoes are heavy. Really heavy. Anyways once I got there I put away NSA and we headed back to Shade Control.

When we got back Goofy was complaining that her head was wet which was really suspicious because we had no idea why it was wet. So somebody had to go back to the PC to get that and an entire chipmunk body because there was no preset from the day before. Also suspicious because that's really really not supposed to happen. I did learn though that when you go over the radio and ask for a head that you have to say "thinking cap" just in case a guest hears the radio on someone out in the park. Apparently this is the only word there's a rule for, which doesn't make sense to me. Why isn't there a rule against saying "Goofy's body"? I personally think I'd be more freaked out to hear "Hey, bring me Goofy's body" than "Bring me Goofy's head." But maybe that's just me.

After the first parade was done I had to go back to the PC with Ana to pick some stuff up. We ended up needing a new Goofy preset, a new Frozone preset, a new Bob preset, and a large stilt liner. That's more than I have EVER had to get from the PC after the first parade, which just goes to show how much stuff was going wrong today. It was like we were being sabotaged or something.

After lunch I was doing my presets when Ana came over to inspect some of the Woody sashes. We basically created a thorough investigation on all the Woody sashes to see which ones matched the snaps on the pants. We got through all of them and every single one was messed up in one snap or another. It was absolutely ridiculous, Ana and I were so frustrated. It got to the point where we just stopped, looked at each other, and burst out laughing. It was crazy.

Right before we loaded up to go Ana told us we needed a new Mickey and a new stilt 10. So I built the stilt and Jessica-Rae built Mickey. However, once we got there we learned that the Mickey was actually staying. And we had a new Genie instead. So we had an extra Mickey preset, but were down a Genie preset. It just goes to show you that the communication here is not always up to speed.

The rest of the day went fine, we loaded up pretty okay (this one girl loaded the truck that usually doesn't and we all realized why. Everything was in the wrong place.) but ended up having to book it once we got back to the PC. Hanging up laundry flew by and then we were off! It was a really really hectic day, but it flew by.

That's all the magic for today!

Time in: 8:45 a.m.
Time out: 7:45 p.m.

I was track one today for the first time in a long while. I enjoy this track, it's pretty laid back. I made my first run before the first show to get Blake Smith's stilt shoes and another pair of Sebastian shoes. Pretty standard run. I also had to attach a Minnie bow right when we got to Shade Control because the one from the day before had been broken. I had to get another costumer named Alex to help me because there's a perfect T-pinning system and I am not the best at it. She was nice enough to teach me how to do it today. After the first parade I was responsible for going back to the PC to wash the Bob torso from the first show. Luckily Julie the coordinator thought to bring another torso at the beginning of the day so I didn't have to grab another one. 

When we were getting ready for the second parade the Genie asked me to help him with his gloves. I accidentally tried to put the wrong glove on the wrong hand. I can never tell the difference, I just hope I pick the right one and today when it was wrong I was so embarrassed. I felt like the dumb costuming CP girl. Lucky for me though the Genie was totally nice about it saying that even he couldn't tell the difference until he put them one. I really like that performer as a person so I guess it was a good person for that to happen to. I helped Jessie for every parade today too and it was the same performer as yesterday. She just barely barely fits in the costume so when zipping her up I had to get another person to help both days. Jessie is probably the most difficult costume to get approved in and that performer is right on the line of being disapproved.

We had to make an extra Chip for the third parade because our Chip was going somewhere else, I'm not real sure. But then I didn't have enough chipmunk furs to make three, so somebody is going to have to make one in the morning. I feel kind of bad about that but there's nothing I could do about it. Then we get to Shade Control and find out that our Mickey is getting replaced to but nobody bothered to tell us. So tomorrow they've got to build Mickey too. I hope they don't get too busy and stressed out. Julie the coordinator today let us have an extra twenty minutes in our afternoon break because she knew that we were done with everything and had absolutely nothing to do. I love working with Julie, she's so fun to be around and always thanks us over and over for the hard work we do. She really appreciates us which is so nice to be around.

Right as the last parade was coming in and we were supposed to break down outside, something happened and all the characters had to head inside in their whole costumes, heads and all. At first I didn't have any clue what was happening. I found out later that a guest had to come backstage with her family and be seen my some EMT's because she had a medical emergency. She had her children with her and if anyone under the age of 16 is backstage they're not allowed to see "anything un-magical." So, we broke down the parade inside Shade Control. It was absolute and complete craziness because it was last minute and all of our bins were set up outside. So we just made random piles on the floor. It made us behind schedule so we were hustling to get the laundry in on time too once we got to the PC. In the end, we made it through the day with 10 minutes left until we had to clock out. Earlier than we've ever been before and everyone had been sprinting and freaking out about being on time to clock out. It was pretty ironic, but it's cool. All in a day's work, right?

That's all the magic for today!

Time in: 8:45 a.m.
Time out: 7:45 p.m.

I was track 5 again today. Luckily for me the Lumiere didn't need help getting to his float. That's always the most awkward part of this track. Edna called out this morning so instead of going to Shade Control I went straight to the PC and built two stilts. They ended up being on the ground for the first two shows though which was really annoying because we had built the stilts, but they used them in the last show so it was fine. It was really overcast all day today and threatened to rain multiple times but it never did. It was nice though because it kept the sun away so the temperature stayed down. This Florida heat is starting to not be pleasant. That's pretty much it from today it was all very routine and standard. I still really enjoy MiSiCi but it's starting to get monotonous just like every other job does. 

That's all the magic for today!

Time in: 8:45 a.m.
Time out: 7:45 p.m.

I was track four today and everything went incredibly smoothly. There were no big things that I personally had to do that were different than a normal day. It was pretty nice. We got free food today from the managers though which was a surprise and extremely nice. It was catered barbecue and it was fantastic! It was "to thank us for all the hard work we put in during double day parade weeks" and was for costuming, the performers, technicians, and parade control people. It was a really nice gesture from them to show us their appreciation. Sometimes its easy to think in a corporation this big that the little people get forgotten completely but today really showed that there are people that care, even if it's just our immediate managers.

That's all the magic for today!

So this will be my first non-work related post but today was just too perfect. It was the biggest reminder of why I do what I do so I can't help but share with you guys. 

Today I got to take some friends of my family to Magic Kingdom. To fully understand the story, let me lay out the family dynamics:

Mrs Maria (married to Kevin, Rhys's mom)

Kevin (Rhys's step-dad)

Rhys (friends with one of my brothers, age 20)

Paul (Maria's brother)

Sara (Paul's wife)

Emma (Paul and Sara's daughter, age 11)

Mrs. Maria, Rhys, Paul, Sara, and Emma are all from Wales, Mrs. Maria and Rhys live in America now but the others don't. Emma had never been to Disney World before and I got to be a part of her very first trip! It was pure magic. I was dying all day, getting to see her experience the park for the first time. Every single thing we did was so exciting and magical and special for her. It was really humbling for me because they were all things that I've been doing every day for the past three months. 

When we first got on the ferry and she saw the castle for the first time I could have died. She was squealing with delight and looked like she would burst from excitement. The best part though was that Mrs. Maria was probably just as excited as Emma was, even though she's been there before. When we got to Main Street for the first time the two of them had to take a moment to soak it all in: staring at the Castle. It was the most precious aunt-niece moment. 

From there we went straight to see my parade, the Move It! Shake It! Celebrate It! Street Party parade. I love love love watching this parade every time, but getting to watch it with Emma was really special. To fully experience the parade, dancing is fully required. Emma was a little shy at first but eventually came out with me. We danced near Sheriff Woody and she kept saying, "Wow! He's just so big!" Like she couldn't believe he was really life sized. It was precious. Then when it was time for the parade to leave again, we stood at the side and waved to all the people going by. When Lumiere went by I could tell he recognized me. He pointed straight at me and started blowing me kisses. I blew kisses back and waved and just laughed with him. Emma thought this was incredible. She kept yelling in her little British accent, "Oh my gosh! He recognized you! He really knew who you were! That is so cool!" I seriously felt like a celebrity. 

I explained to them all exactly what it is I do on the parades, so they understood my job and how un-glamorous it is. Yet I could tell they still thought it was glamorous. Any job at Disney is glamorous, right? It's magical at least. After the parade we went to get fast passes for Space Mountain and got in line for the Buzz Lightyear ride. I really enjoyed just standing in line and talking with Kevin and Rhys. I was glad that at no point in the day did I feel uncomfortable at all hanging out with them even though technically Rhys is "my brother's friend". We've all hung out before of course and we're family friends, but there's usually that "brother's friend" awkwardness when I hang out with Zee's friends. It was really awesome that there wasn't any at all with Rhys today. I was glad. Then Rhys and I battled each other on the Buzz Lightyear ride and I whooped him. It was a pretty embarrassing loss for him so I'll spare him by not telling y'all the score. (123,900 to 7,900. Oops!)

From there we rode Space Mountain and then I had to leave them for a little while. I had class in the afternoon so I left to take care of that which gave them all some family time which I think was nice. They split into their own respective families and covered ground on the things they thought were most important. They didn't meet back up with each other until I got back to the park too. It was just by coincidence but the timing worked out perfectly! Emma wanted to go see the princesses so we headed over to Town Square Theatre. The ride for the princesses ended up being an hour and the line for Mickey was only 20 minutes so she decided on Mickey instead. Mrs. Maria, Kevin, Rhys and I left them to visit the famous mouse and we went to find some food. We settled on jumbo turkey legs for dinner. I mean, it's Disney World, how can you skip out on the turkey legs? Rhys didn't get one, but I made sure he knew he was going to have to finish mine when I got full. No way was I eating that whole thing. 

When we found Mrs Maria afterwards she had gotten prime seats by a table near Tomorrowland. It was the perfect spot to post up and watch the Electrical Light Parade and Wishes from. Paul, Sara and Emma met us there and then Sara, Rhys, Emma and I went to the Emporium to get Emma some stuffed Mickeys. We left with more than we went in there for, but who doesn't? Then we trekked over to Space Mountain's gift shop to get this special keychain for Mrs. Maria that had her nickname on it. We got back just as ELP was starting which was perfect. It was really great to watch them see it for the first time. I just loved getting to share these new experiences with them, especially Emma. She just looked thrilled the whole time. Kevin, Rhys and I were making fun of the music because it's so incredibly repetitive. And we were watching the ducks. Rhys really likes ducks. It was fun. 

I had been mentioning things about the projection show to Kevin and Rhys all day so when it finally started I was really excited. I really love the projection show, it might be the coolest thing they do there I think. I just listened to Rhys's comments through the whole show and watched it with brand new eyes. It really is spectacular. They loved it, of course. But we all know the real thing they were excited for: the fireworks. I'd been keeping the 'Tinkerbell flying' secret from them ALL day and it had been so hard. Then, right before Wishes is about to start, this stranger lady goes and tells them about it. I was so heartbroken. Kevin could tell and it was a joke but I was genuinely sad that they weren't going to get to see it as a surprise. It's always better as a surprise. When Wishes got started I was fully in the magic mode and watched it in all its glory. I think it's the most magical I've ever felt when watching Wishes. I'm sure it's because their first-timer mindset had transferred to me too, but it was simply phenomenal. When it was done I just looked at Emma's face and every single crappy day I've had at work was worth it. 

It's really easy for me to get caught up in making this experience a routine. To get up, go to work, do some remedial tasks, do some more remedial tasks, go home, go to bed, wake up, do it all over. And it's also really easy to not enjoy going to work, to lose the rose-colored glasses and find certain things that really suck about work. But at the end of the day, I came here to have an experience. To learn new things. To broaden my horizons. And, of course, to make magic. Getting to see Magic Kingdom today through Emma's eyes was the biggest reminder of that. Even with Mrs. Maria; she was just as excited about every little thing that Emma was and she'd been there before. It was all just as magical for her which was so precious to see. Things like Disney World will be magical for people and they remember it forever. If I got to help bring a little bit of magic to someone's life, then every single crappy, boring, terrible moment at work will have been worth it. I'm so glad that I got to experience what I did today. It will make it so much easier to savor my last month and a half here. 

That's all the magic for today!

Time in: 8:45 a.m.
Time out: 7:45 p.m.

Double day parades are over and I am so incredibly happy about it!! Those 13 hour days were absolutely killing me. We're back to good old 11 hour days now which is fine by me.

I was track 5 today (explained in the pages section) so I was supposed to go straight to Shade Control in the morning. However, Alex called out this morning so Ana had me go to the PC with them to pick up the slack there. I build 2 stiltwalker outfits and then gathered all the missing items from the board. Then I scanned NSA and started putting it and the hang dry away. Even though we were missing a person this morning, things got done real efficiently. We were all done with putting stuff away before we even left for Shade Control, which almost never happens especially with a person missing. I guess everybody had their Wheaties this morning.

By the middle of the first show I was supposed to help Cassie check the emergency bin but she had already done it so we just took a break instead which was a nice surprise. I kept forgetting little things from my track here and there. I forgot to be checking the towels all day and I also forgot to help Ana with the stilt vests at the end of the day. I really hate when I forget things I always feel so bad, but I know that it's not a huge deal here. There's so many people all covering each others' backs that when you slip up, there's plenty of people to pick up the slack. It's nice and comforting but I was still mad at myself for forgetting.

At 5:00 we had a big scare. We had to take a Goofy head back to Shade Control with us after break. We were just leaving the PC when these two Captains come sprinting up to our pargo and shouting for us to stop. My first thought was that we had hit somebody, but I knew we hadn't. It was really frightening! The two Captains and a few performers from Hoedown then swarmed the pargo trying to hide the Goofy head from view because apparently there were guests backstage. They had to evacuate the Pirates ride which is right in front of the PC so all the guests were walking backstage to get out of Pirates. We had no idea so we didn't know to cover up the Goofy head. Everyone made this huge gigantic deal out of it so it seemed really serious and legit. It wasn't until we had him covered and drove away that Ana said something about it. She thought they were being silly by freaking out so much because Disney has backstage tours and guest bands that see performers without their heads all the time. It just goes to show that there's always two sides to a story no matter what the situation and there's always going to be people that don't agree that the same things are important. With Disney, you'll always find two people that think the rules are different from what they really are. But nobody knows what all the rules really are. There are so many different pages here it's ridiculous. I guess with a company this big though that's expected.

That's all the magic for today!

Time in: 7:45 a.m.
Time out: 8:45 p.m.

Two people called out yesterday morning so there was only 3 of us. Usually if someone calls out the track 5 person just doesn't go to Shade Control first and goes straight to the PC so that's what I did. We all picked up the slack and built all the stiltwalkers pretty fast. We didn't have to load all the bins that we normally do so it felt weird loading up the truck. Sal wanted to keep the 3-bin thing because he was going to fix the top that had broke the other day. So it was weird because I've gotten in the routine of having all of them but change is good, right?

I got to help Frozone, Lumiere and Woody before the first show. I felt in very high demand like they all knew I knew what I was doing. Which felt awesome. I helped Woody every single show yesterday. The performer was a sweetheart and he kept coming back to get my help, I loved it. Once the first show went out I volunteered to go back to the PC to grab the track sheets for the 2 fly people that had showed up. Ana had forgotten them when we left. I got back right in time to help Sebastian sort through the yellow emergency bin. 

I was talking to my friend Ana Maria from Mexico and she was telling me all about her escapades from the night before. Apparently she had a little hanky panky with her neighbor from the Netherlands. It was precious to see her tell the story because she was embarrassed but laughing and she didn't know what hanky panky meant when I said it. I had to explain. And then our coordinator Ana heard us and started talking about hanky panky. It was absolutely hysterical. It was interesting too. I learned that teenagers around the world are all the same.

When we went down to the Character Room I killed time by organizing the stilt drawers on the accessory wall. I had major CR shift flashbacks. I did not like it. Then we took back a whole bunch of stuff from Alt's so we had to take the long way but it killed the perfect amount of time.

All during the day I kept zoning out because I was so incredibly tired. Ana would ask me to do something and I'd think I understood but I would go to the completely wrong person and do something completely wrong. Ana would just laugh and yell at me to go to the other person. This one stilt girl named Liz always was around when I did something dumb. I'm sure she thinks I'm an idiot. I was just so tired! I worked 78 hours in 6 days which is the most I've ever worked in that time ever. It was a crazy crazy week.

That's all the magic for today!

Time in: 7:45 a.m.
Time out: 8:45 p.m.

So this morning started out crazy. I don't know what it is lately that has been getting everybody all kinds of forgetful and stuff. It's still double day parades and people have been calling out left and right so the mornings have been crazy until the fly person came in. So this morning when I came in to work the coordinator from the day before hadn't printed off the track 5 track sheet so I had to wing it until I got to the PC. Great way to start my first burn in day. I went to Shade Control and checked shoes and heads and then went to the PC to help out. Since there was no track 4 I had to help build some stilts as well as gather missing items and scan the NSA racks when they got there. But once we got back on track the day went okay. Right before the first show we got told that they added Scott Thomas to the stilt lineup so Sal made a run to the PC and got the stuff and we built it when he got back. When they checked their presets Sal and Alex realized there were no Genie shoes there. I felt so horrible for missing that when I checked in the morning. Nobody was mad at me since it was my burn in day but I still felt really bad about missing it. However, I didn't have a check off sheet and it was my first day alone on track 5 so it really was okay. It just was below my standards to mess up like that. 

When Alex, Edna and I were returning from the Character Room later in the day, we had to walk by the train backstage. The pathway we take to get to the PC goes through the park a little bit and then goes backstage over the train tracks. We always expect to see the guests in the park, obviously, but once we cross to backstage it's weird to see guests. So when the train went by we had to smile and wave and look official and happy. It was kind of cool though because I realized what everybody else has to do all day every day if they work in front of guests. I was really thankful for my backstage job because I realized how much less pressure I'm under to be performing onstage 24/7 at work. I really enjoy that part of my job. 

When we were getting ready for the 2nd MiSiCi of the day I had to actually help Woody get ready. I've watched people do it all the time and he usually just goes up to whatever costumer is free but I've never done it before. Truthfully I've kind of been scared to do it because you have to clip his pad into his head and the way he has to hold it for you kind of cuts into his windpipe for a few seconds and I'm super scared to do it and take too long and him pass out or something. It's semi-terrifying. But I got to help him and did it correctly. I felt super accomplished. 

We switched out the Lumiere performer for the 2nd MiSiCi because Jared got sick after Day Parade. I felt really bad because I could tell something was wrong with him after the first MiSiCi but he insisted he was fine and wouldn't let me help him. He's very independent so I thought that was just it, but obviously not. Anyway, the performer that got switched in didn't know as much about Lumiere's costume as Jared does so somebody had to help him do the whole thing. Luckily for me Sal jumped in there first and helped out so I didn't have to. I could have told him how to do it correctly but I was nervous. They also had to do a Heat Show/B Show for the 2nd show. Disney has all different kinds of contingency plans put into everything they do including performances so if extenuating circumstances occur everyone will know what to do. Since it was really hot today for the first time the performers were getting sick left and right and management implemented a Heat Show/B Show which just changed certain little things about the parade and took a couple parts out so that it would be shorter and would get the performers back sooner. It was really interesting to see everybody go right into place for this different plan and every single person knew what to do. I keep finding myself amazed at how organized Disney is. Imagine the most organized place you've ever seen in your life, multiply it by ten, and then expand it as large as Disney World is. Yeah, I've been pretty amazed. 

That's all the magic for today!