Reaching the End

Well, I've had several people tell me I need to update again, because apparently I'm not writing often enough. I feel like I don't really have too much to say about happenings around here recently though. I've had a dry spell when it comes to particularly good princesses, so I don't really have many stories to tell... Well, that's not true, I have several nightmarish stories involving the princesses, but I want to keep the stories on here on the positive end. :)

I worked my second week at DTD and then came back to the Castle this week. And checked my schedule to find... tada! I've been deployed yet again! So next Sunday I'm back at DTD for another week. It's odd to me that I keep getting deployed there--and also extremely fortunate. I love working there, and I feel like I have more fun with the princesses, because I have more chances to actually play with them. I spent the majority of last week sitting in the Princess Room of WoD playing Princess Bingo, Name That Castle, and Tic Tac Toe with carriage and crown pieces. It was a lot of fun being able to do that, not to mention amazing that I was actually allowed to SIT onstage. I would just bring the games with me, sit on the floor somewhere in the store, and then ask random kids passing by if they'd like to play with me. So I'd have this big group of kids all sitting around me, and we'd play the different games, and, of course, everyone is a winner, so they all got Mickey stickers. I don't know what it is about stickers, but everybody loves them, so they were always thrilled. Even though it was pretty obvious that they were going to get a sticker anyways, they always seemed to be really proud of themselves for winning it.

Something that surprised me: You would think that the 4th of July would be a really busy day, right? Well, for the parks it was. For the boutique? Not at all. I didn't actually work on the 4th, I ended up calling in sick and felt really bad for ditching out when they were probably swamped with guests. Not so. I was scheduled at DTD for that day, and they only had 40 reservations. 40! That's unheard of! They ended up taking 50 walk ins that day, and that's STILL not that many princesses. 90 for an entire day? Bad news. It means the boutique doesn't make budget. That entire week was really slow, so the DTD boutique didn't make budget once that week. The Castle, on the other hand, apparently had an hour wait time, which... means they were really struggling. The worst wait time we normally have is a half hour. Once I found out that DTD only had 40 reservations, I didn't feel nearly as bad for calling in.

In other news, I have a month of work left from yesterday. A month from today is when I'll be leaving Florida, and it's crazy to think about. Four weeks! There's still so much I haven't done in Florida yet. I still need to go to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, I need to see more of the parks, I need to eat more delicious food at Epcot (I've only managed to hit Japan and China... go figure. Every time I'm in there I go straight for those two when I'm hungry), I need to go to the beach, etc.

There was a pretty cool story from yesterday at the boutique. It seems the interesting things always happen when I'm at tea. I'm always sitting underground eating when a FGIT comes in and tells me about all the excitement happening upstairs. Yesterday's fun was a lightning storm. Pretty common, happens every day. But this particular lightning storm struck a little closer than usual... and by 'a little closer' I mean, 'It struck outside of Mrs. Pott's gift shop in Fantasyland near the Tea Cups.' I guess it was crazy--it was super loud, everyone panicked, and all of the princesses in the boutique got scared from the loud clap of thunder that came with it, and they all started crying. So the boutique was full of crying princesses, scared because of this insane thunder happening outside, and the people outside are afraid for their lives because the lightning hit right in Fantasyland, so they're all trying to hide in the Castle (which just causes chaos and little kids get trampled, because it's a small space). All in all, it was a bit frantic upstairs. Meanwhile, I'm sitting underground, no clue that its even raining outside (it was sunny when I went downstairs five minutes before), eating my sun-dried tomato pesto pasta (which was delicious, in case you were wondering), with no idea what's happening upstairs. A few minutes later Hayley, a FGIT from BYU-I, comes into the Mouseketeria and tells me all about it. I always miss the good stuff.

I also happened to be underground when Ebony had a princess with a tick in her hair, when we had three Pumba princesses in a row, when somebody passed out in the stock room, when a princess peed in her chair, when there was blood on a chair and they had to call custodial to come clean it up (it wasn't anything serious, I don't know exactly what happened, just that there was blood on the chair), when a princess threw up in her chair... the list goes on. And I was always downstairs, eating in the Mouseketeria. They probably plan my teas so that I'll miss all the excitement. :)

We got a letter from management at our housing complex this morning, talking about all of the checkout procedures for when we leave. It starts off with something to the effect of: You're leaving soon! Here's what you need to do: turn in your keys, clean your apartment, etc. I saw it and I thought: ....I still have a month till I leave. What are they telling me this for NOW? Can't wait to get rid of me, eh? This place kicks people out so quick--you have to be out of the apartment by 11 AM the day after your last day of work. So most likely I'll be scheduled to work till 8 PM on Thursday, and they want me out by 11 on Friday. Good thing for them that my flight is at 9 or something, so I'll be long gone by 11, but still. Nice to know they give us a little time to pack up and leave.

Other than that, not much is happening. Going back to DTD again next week, and that'll be exciting. I had been hoping I'd be deployed again another time before I leave, and I was. So thank you, random computer selection! Apparently they just put in the number of how many people they want to deploy, and the computer picks people at random to fill the spot. I guess the system must love my perner number, since I'm the only one to go this often. I'm not complaining though. I'm liking this favoritism. When I showed up last week, several of the DTD FGITs shouted, "Caitlin! You're back! I love you!" Good to know I made a good impression on them--I was a little surprised, actually, cause I had felt that I really didn't get to know any of them well the first week. But... they can like me if they want to. That's always a good thing, right? :) We'll see what their reaction is next week--especially since Melissa is going back with me, and they were asking about her last week.

TTFN--ta ta for now!