College Program Graduate!

Hey all!

Well it's official! I graduated the college program! (should probably celebrate the fact that I didn't get terminated seen as you breathe too hard and get terminated here... haha) Anyway, I went to our college program graduation to get my certificate and Mickey Mouse graduation ears as well as take pictures with the VIP characters! (mickey, minnie, pluto, goofy, chip, dale, donald and daisy). We ended our day taking the stereotypical graduation pictures in front of the castle in magic kingdom and was an all around fabulous day. It was one of those trips to magic kingdom where I realized how happy and grateful I've been to be here for the past 7 months. It's crazy to think that I've dreamt of doing this for 12 years, and now it's coming to an end. Now that I'm in parades and shows I'm so incredibly happy performing here for this company. I get up everyday to go to work, PERFORMING. Anyone who knows me can imagine how much I'm loving it.

Got to see Pisseri again for a night because he happened to have a week long conference for the enemy in Universal hah. It feels awesome to have someone to perform for in the parades! :-)

I have my last day of dinomite today!! Gotta live it up!

I posted a video of me doing hoedown to my facebook page for anyone who is interested in seeing it! Yeehawwww

Only 17 more days here, I've gotta take advantage of every minute!

long awaited update!

Hello All! So sorry I've been MIA, Harry Potter took precedents of my time for the past 2 weeks! Any spare time I had, (which is few and far between these days) was spent re-reading the 7th Harry Potter book, followed by the midnight premiere which was outstanding.

I've been LOVING doing DEP (Disney's Electrical Parade). It's a ton of fun and a hugeee workout. After making the mistake of giving 110% on my first parade two weeks ago, I've found the proper pace to dance at. I've now officially been all four colored fairies (blue, orange, pink, purple) and love every second of it. I love the fact that I see the same people at the parade each night we perform, so it's like our own little family. I've made a ton of new friends (all similar to my theatrical personality) and it's been so so great to have a break from hanging out with my "friends" doing sets in the sun.

After finding my groove from experiencing the first few parades, there was one parade last week that plastered a smile to my face. There were numerous brazilian tour groups in the audience of a 9:00 parade and when we got to the castle hub (the circle around the castle) there were a million camera flashes going off at once. I honestly felt like a famous person throwing out the first pitch at a world series game. It was literally one of the coolest feelings that all of these people were nonstop taking pictures of everything we were doing. Crazy to know that I'll forever be in random families photo albums now forever!

I had my first week of hoedown this past week! Hoedown is the flashmob in frontierland that spontaneously begins with guests unknowing and all around. It's been awesome to be dressed as a frontierland cast member and pretend not to know anything about the random other cast members (entertainment dressed as food and beverage, attractions and merchandise) all around us. Yeehaw!

My friend Meghan and I treated ourselves to Ohana's at the Polynesian resort this past week as well. We ate with the Boss Man, (mickey mouse himself) and some of his friends. It was really nice to be treated like a guest :-)

Old news, but the 4th of July fireworks were actually the best I've seen in my 20 years of living. They were "perimeter fireworks" all around the Magic Kingdom property. They were red, white and blue and STILL choreographed to the american music, although they were special event fireworks! Literally blew my mind, I didn't know where to look in the sky! Sure beat Westport's fireworks.. haha

We're coming down to the wire with my last few weeks here :-( I can't believe how fast the 7 months flew, but lots to look forward to before I leave! And I have a feeling I might just be back here...

Parade Debut :-)

Well after 5 months of waiting for performing in parades and shows, I performed in my first parade last Saturday July 2nd! I was so excited the entire week, but I'd have to say I was a little bit more nervous than I was excited. I had never stepped foot on the parade route before, because we practiced the parade in training dancing around the parade building outside. I was also nervous because the 4 of us fairies begin the entire parade! So we are the "pacers" (whatever that means... hah) and there is nothing in front of us to follow or lead the way.

When I had to clock in to begin work, I went to cosmotology for the first time (eeee :-D ) and was given a bag of makeup for the fairies to use for each parade, FOR ME TO KEEP! The cosmotologists showed us how to apply our obnoxiously bright colored makeup and handed me my blue wig. After my makeup and wig were on I had to be checked by a cosmotologist before I could leave to head over to the parade building. 

I got into costume with the other fairies and it felt so real. The other 100+ people in the parade had done the show for weeks or months before and I definitely felt like "the new girl". I was rather lost at where to go and what to do, but people were definitely friendly and willing to help me out. 

It's 8:55pm and the parade is about to start in 5 minutes. We go to the "chute" at 5 minutes til, and wait there until the gates open and the parade begins. Because I was so nervous, and so excited and it was my first parade ever, I gave it all I got! 5 minutes into the 30 minute parade, we reached mainstreet and I was huffing and puffing. We're all tired and sweaty, but I honestly felt like I was going to throw up at least 4 times during the parade route. We're told to tell a captain and they'll take us off route, but I definitely didn't want to be that new girl that didn't make it through her first parade so I stuck it out and finished it off. In between the first and second parade I spoke to a staging specialist about how I was so surprised to be that tired and how I was giving 110% of my energy to this parade in which she responds, "oh hunny, no no no, you give 60% or you wont make it through 1 parade." ... oops. 

I changed my energy a little bit for the second parade and it was 1,000% better!! This one was actually such an incredible feeling to be performing for thousands of people taking pictures and filming me. It's strange to know that I'll be in people's home videos for years to come! It was also an incredible feeling dancing down mainstreet with nothing in our way. I've never walked on mainstreet before with no crowds and it was thrilling to be able to begin the parade and have an empty street waiting for us to dance down it. It ended up being an incredible night and I'm so happy to officially be a part of shows and parades!