One Year Mark

Yesterday, August 18th, marked exactly a year that I have been in Florida. I don't know how much it really counts considering I got in at 11pm that night, but I consider it day 1. It's also easy to remember because it's my nephews Jacob's birthday. I'm actually headed the Hartford this weekend to celebrate Baby J's birthday and spend some time with my parents.

Anyway, I decided to do a little recap of what has happened over the last year.

I began my year working at Disney's Wilderness Lodge and living at Chatham apartments, with two roommates. I loved that location so much that I decided to extend my College Program and continue working at the Wilderness Lodge. I worked there until May 2010. I was luckily able to move in January and lived with one the of most amazing roommates. I had a great time living with her!

The nine months of the College program certainly had its ups and down. Being the bottom of the totem pole was sometimes stressful because I didn't have a great schedule. However, I was extremely lucky to work at the Wilderness Lodge with such great managers. They gave me so many opportunities that other CP's never got, which I feel will give me a step up when I go on to bigger and better things.

As my program was coming to an end, I knew I wanted to stay in Florida and with Disney, I really love Disney and my ward and what I have going here. So I applied and was able to secure a part time job at the Bibbibi Bobbibi. Of course, I only worked at there one day before I found out I was being transferred to Pooh Corner/Mickeys Mart. I really did not enjoy my three weeks as a part timer because I felt I was learning useless things (like how to put away stock, even though I never worked stock in my three weeks except when I was being trained). I also did not enojy the people I worked with there and it was just a crazy three weeks.

Transferring to Pooh Corner was also a really hard transition. I was super lucky to have a older lady named Maria train my on my first day. Maria has remained an excellent person to go to whenever I need anything and she is always encouraging me to seek out advancement opportunities wherever possible. BUT, Pooh Corner itself began as a nightmare. The people there are really bitter and do not like each other or the managers. I was lucky enough to be liked by many and hear the different sides to every story, NOT. It's really stressful being liked and listening to everyone complain about everything to me. It's getting a lot better and I have made a few friends that I really like talking to at work. Who would have ever thought I would prefer to hang out and talk with the people my parents ages or even older as opposed to the ones my age...? Mostly because everyone my age is College Program and they come and go and are there to have fun.

Because I don't want to work at Pooh Corner forever I have been seeking out every opportunity possible. I am currently on the merchandise inventory team. We work 10pm-6:30am counting inventory all across property. I have had so much fun and it's been a pretty easy job. I'm really going to miss it when its over tomorrow.

I made a tally of the things I have done at Disney in the past year.

I have gone to 72 attractions (this includes everything from rides to shows and such) in six parks

I have eaten at 38 restuarants

I have worked at 21 locations (Disney lets you pick up extra hours in any merchandise location across property0

I have collected a lot of pins. I don't feel like counting them tonight, but last time I checked it over 250.

I have been working on getting character autographs, also something else I dont feel like counting today.

I think that's all I have for today, but heres to looking forward to another great year! My goal is to make a list of goals I have for places to visit in Florida, haha dont ya just love that I have a goal to make goals.

Some places I know I want to visit:

*Universal Studios
*Seaworld
*Kennedy Space Center
*The Fun Spot
*The Gulf Coast
*Mickeys Not so scary Halloween Party

and many many more!