Give Your Dreams the Wings to Fly

Believe it, it’s an updated post, FINALLY! Many of you were getting anxious and nagging at me to update my blog (AHEM Mom, Patti, Mr. Bursik, Mr. Reimnitz). I’ve put this off and it’s been long enough now. I complained to Stephanie that I don’t want to update it right now, but I’m laying on the opposite end of my bed looking at the wall so I won’t fall asleep, here it goes! Last update I left off right before my training for food and beverage (what I was hired for). This training was on Friday the 21st. We were once again required to dress in the “Disney Look” aka business casual. A group of about 15 of us met at Harbor Pointe, in Disneyland.

• Harbor Pointe is the main security check in for Disney Cast members. There is a cast shuttle bus that brings members to Harbor Pointe from our parking lot down the street. Once you we pass through security there is the cast scheduling building, locker rooms, shoe rentals, ID centers, Costuming (where we rent and return all our costumes for work), and the Team Center (where we buy things like discounted tickets for SeaWorld, baseball games, concerts, shows, Disney events, clothes, accessories for work like in soles or lanyards). At either end of Harbor Pointe leads us to Disneyland on the far right, and California Adventure on the far left.

You know how there were 5,000 applicants for Disney this semester, and only about 200 of us got chosen cause we’re supposedly the cream of the crop? Well as soon as we got to the security check point, the cream of the crop of us could not swipe our Disney ID’s correctly for the life of us. It took 2 security guards to show us how to swipe it correctly. Hahaha. I will say that it would make sense to swipe our cards on the scanning line, Disney likes to be different and scan the BAR CODE. It was confusing. Here is where I met several people. I met Mary from New Orleans, Louisiana, Adam from Washington, Quint from Tennessee, and Albert (who I’ll probably mention often, so remember him! :P ) from Tennessee as well. After our exciting event at security we met up with our two trainers for the day (one guy one girl), since it’s been so long their name escapes me. They both work in restaurants at Disney. We split up into two groups, had another mini tour on the way to our destination. After that we were gathered in a conference room, where we watched training videos on safety and sanitation when working with foods. It was highly uninteresting ha-ha. But we had a break halfway through. Next we went to shoe rentals to get our black non slip, stick, fall, etc. shoes for work! Our last stop was to scheduling, to get our schedules for the following two weeks. This is when I found out I’d be working at Cocina Cucamonga Mexican Grill in Pacific Wharf California Adventure! Next morning, Saturday, was the official day of training at our location. Stephanie and I were really nervous to go, especially when I realized my trainer was a guy, I figured he wouldn't be patient with me. I showed up on time at Harbor Pointe and we were all gathered in this section. One by one, slowly but surely we were taken away by our trainers. Fortunately I was paired up with a girl named Emily, she’s 21 and an aspiring baker from Chicago, when I heard that I was thinking “great, someone who will kick my butt in training and make me look like I cant comprehend a darn thing”. Then we met our trainer, James Wu. He seemed very nice and excited to train us. There was another girl named Lauren, who’s 23 graduated from college in Washington state, who was also training in at Cocina. Her trainer was Monica. So our two groups were combined for the most part. Our training session started by James and Monica taking the 3 of us to get our costumes! Let me just say, these costumes are not the best, but you get used to them right away. There are two different costumes for Cocina. A back of house costume, like a chef’s uniform, and Front of house costume (which includes a salmon colored shirt for the girls, and baby green colored shirt for the guys). Throughout the course of training we learned how to make the food at Cocina (beef, chicken, and vegetarian burritos/tacos, fajita and Caesar salads (which are way good) which is fun to do. But let me tell you it gets extremely hot in the back of house and burning yourself several times a day, guacamole all over your apron, and messing up an order are expected on a daily basis. The front of the house is pretty fun as well, more cool (temp. wise), and more laid back. If I’m in the front I am either expediting, running, or greeting. Greeting is when I stand in front of a designated window, the guest gives you their receipt and you get the drinks, talk to the guest about their magical day, and hand them their food when it’s ready. Running is the middleman from the expediter to the greeter, simply handing the correct tray to the correct window. Expediting is taking each printed receipt and assembling the correct orders once the back of house has made them and calling out which order is ready. This can be fun, but very stressful at times. For the past couple weeks it has been very slow at Cocina, to the point where we sing 80’s songs and play I spy, so we keep ourselves entertained :). However, 2 Wednesday’s ago between 6:30 and 8:30, we got slammed. I was the lucky person in charge of expediting : X at one point I had hung up as many tickets as possible (maybe about 12) and there were about 30 more spilling out of the receipt printer. Does this seem kind of mild? Maybe so, but try having up to 10 orders, some special orders on each receipt, 6 windows open, guests being highly impatient, back of house making incorrect orders, and running out of food. I was in charge for the most part. Inside I was thinking “oh my god, I need to walk away, this is absolutely ridiculous” I was to the point where even tears were not possible. When another cast member came up to me in the middle of it and said “It’s time for your lunch” I just about passed out. Ha-ha. But I did feel better when a greeter called me a “fighter” as I left to go on break and one manager of the whole Pacific Wharf  (the restaurants in California adventure) said that I did a really great job with everything. Overall it’s been a really great time working at Cocina. I completely lucked out having James as my trainer, and ended up gaining a great friend through it. I will say without doubt I couldn’t have had a better trainer and I simply learned so much so fast because of him. I still work with Emily and Lauren a lot. As well as Albert, Cristina, Jesus, Tony, Lulu, Di, George, Phi, Jerry, Marcella, Monica, and James.

• Albert like I said is from Tennessee. He’s really fun to work with, comes up with some good jokes that keeps me laughing. We give each other a hard time constantly, very brotherly sisterly like.
• Cristina is from Spain and is 22. Although her accent can be pretty thick and hard to understand, she is a very outspoken, funny, live life type of person. It seems like we always have the same breaks.  (Her and Albert work as cashiers 90% of the time so it’s usually breaks or when they randomly get but in house that I see them)
• Jesus is not from the college program but has worked as a regular cast member at Cocina for a while now. James forgot to train me on expediting and greeting so Jesus trained me in on that. He is very patient and very caring about how I was learning things. He’s the person everyone loves at cocina.
• Tony tony tony, He is definitely the teddy bear of the restaurant. Bigger guy, cute smile, super kind. I remember specifically when we were slow one day I was pouring an orange soda for a guest. As I was attempting to put the lid on the cup it flew into the ice. Orange soda was everywhere. So…I had to melt all the ice, and refill it. Tony was the only one who had seen it, and he kept shaking his head at me laughing and wanted to help me with it but I wouldn’t let him because I was so bored and it gave me something to do. –Not college program
• Lulu, aww so cute! She’s like a really refined pretty motherly Mexican woman. She’s so sweet. Every time she sees me she calls me “Mija” (I guess it means my daughter, I loved it but had no idea what it meant until I asked Stephanie who speaks Spanish). One day I was greeting and Lulu was expediting, every time I had an order ready she would say “here you go Mija, your orders ready Mija”. Makes me smile every time :)-Not college Program
• Di!! ahh probably one of my favorite people at cocina. Definitely the person I’ll go to if I have a bad day, besides James, or just want to talk. She’s probably about 57 or something. She’s nice and likes to talk. You wont see her just standing around. She’s the person constantly walking around stocking cups, cleaning, doing anything to keep busy. Very easy to talk to and relate to. –Not College Program
• George is a lead for the back of the House, he’s probably like 55 or something like that. He used to be a teacher. Going into work I didn't hear good things about him, saying he’s grouchy, and sexist. But I honestly really like him. If any of you have met my grandpa, he’s like that, but more quiet. I know how to deal with him, just being sarcastic or give him a hard time. At least towards me he’s been very considerate and kind. A sweet quiet old man for the most part.-Not college Program
• Phi. Basically he reminds me of an iron chef. He adds things to his costume that make him look really hard core and badass. He talks to me all the time, he’s actually more new than me! I remember last week I was late to work because of something that was out of my control, I was very upset when I got to work. Phi just talked to me for a while knowing my day wasn’t the best. He’s talked to me about Minnesota, Hockey (he’s a hockey fan), snow, school, work, college plans,etc. Just an all around chill guy
• Jerry is also another lead. Mid 50’s again married with a couple kids. He works in theatre as well as cocina. In fact he invited the cocina staff to go to his upcoming show “the odd couple” starting beginning of October and we can bring friends! He’s very good at balancing work and play. He likes to make work enjoyable, while making the managers happy with their rules and regulations. But a couple days ago I was closing with him and a few other people, we just stood around while he read us some jokes he gets in e-mails and just talked about different things going on. He’s very fatherly and loving, you know it’s going to be a great day when you work with him.
• Marcella is the little trouble maker at cocina. Haha she’s very funny and sarcastic like me as well. Easy to get a long with fun to joke with.
• Monica like I said was one of the trainers and works all the time. She’s probably the nicest person at cocina. Will never have an attitude, talk bad about anyone, or complain is is CONSTANTLY smiling.
• James like I said was my trainer. I work with him quite a bit. Fortunately I gained him as a friend as well. If we get off around the same time he’ll usually drive me home since he drives to work, and the bus only comes every half hour after 8. We have quite a bit in common and have the same personalities. He immediately reminded me of home because of 2 simple things he says all the time 1) Don’t worry about it 2)Fail. hahaha so we are constantly “failing” each other and telling each other “not to worry” about something. But he is very courteous. Makes sure I have a good day and makes me talk when I’m having a bad day. During training he was so surprised that I had never been to Disneyland before (I don’t count the time when I was 5 because I don’t remember it). So he kept telling me how we would go to the park together one day and he’d show me around. So after working a 7 hour shift till 8:30 the week after training we were walking out and he’s like “let’s go to the park”. I debated with/ him about this for a long time because 1) I was tired and 2) I didn't have any other clothes besides my work clothes. But he offered me his change of clothes. So i thought to myself, I’m at freaking Disneyland, I get in free, why am I debating this?? So picture this for me….me looking like hell because of a 7 hour shift, a pink tank top, James baggy khaki shots, white ankle socks, and bulky black non slip shoes. Pretty attractive huh? But we walked through DCA (Disney's California adventure) went on Tower of Terror, Screamin California, and a ride like power tower at Valleyfair. It was definitely worth it :)

Now I’m just going to spit out some random events because I haven’t updated this in so long I don’t remember the order. I’ve been to the park 4 times now. The first was with Stephanie, we saw Minnie and Mickey (unfortunately she got a kiss from him, and not me :( lol ) We went on Space Mountain, Tower of Terror, Soarin Over California, Star Tours, Astro Blasters, Pirates of the Caribbean (with the new Johnny Depp figures!!) The second time was with Stephanie as well. We spent the day doing errands, eating at this amazing Mexican restaurant with burritos surpassing chipotle’s…that’s right I said it, getting manicures, then going to the park. She convinced me to go on the haunted mansion ride, then Indiana Jones, walked through some shops, and we went on the astro blasters again. The third was with James. The fourth was actually yesterday with Lauren from Cocina and her friend Ashley. We went on Tower of terror, screamin California, a ride like mad mouse at valleyfair (which broke down while we were on it so we got fast passes!!), raging rapids where me as well as my purse got soaked, monsters inc (which also broke down), Muppet 3D show, toy story mania. It was a really great day. Other things I’ve done while I’ve been here is going to see a movie with Stephanie one night we were both having a bad day and needed comfort. So this was maybe the second week here, at 9pm we’re like lets go see a movie. The movie started at 10:10 so I quick showered and we threw on our sweats and went to see the Time Travelers Wife with Ice cream in her hand and a slushy in mine. It was a successful girl’s night with comfort food, chick flick, and girl talk.  I also went to visit John!!! Finally :D that was last week Thursday night around 5, I was having an emotional roller coaster of a day and knew seeing him would make it all better, so I texted him asking if he was up for doing something. I ended up driving down there at 7, getting there at 9, and we went to In n Out La Jolla Beach, and his friends house, fell asleep watching finding nemo. It was such a great day. The drive to San Diego at night was just breath taking the lights in the cities as I drove, and driving back seeing the ocean to my left for about 45 min made me totally realize why I chose California instead of Florida. For those of you that don’t know already, I was walking to work just after the park opened on Tuesday, I have to walk through A Bug’s Land (a park dedicated to A Bugs Life) as I was, I saw this man with a bigger hat and sunglasses walking with a boy. I KNEW he looked familiar. I had been told prior to this that celebrities walk with cast members dressed in plaid. Sure enough there was a man walking in front of him wearing plaid. Finally this mystery guest said something to the little boy….."OMG THAT’S NICOLAS CAGE!!!! OMG OMG” I Immediately called my dad, I knew he’d appreciate it the most, I had to quick run back stage so I could. I just about had a heart attack and was shaking. It was surreal. Definitely the biggest celebrity I think I’ve ever been seen and been so close to. Made my day!! :) TODAY….was the D23 Expo. What is that you ask? You’ve heard of comic book conventions or stuff like that? Well Disney is having their FIRST ever Disney convention (D23 Expo) this weekend. Today was the first day. Keep in mind as you read this, I as a cast member only had to pay 5 dollars for today’s ticket. The day started with Bob Iger, The president of the Disney company, discussing the future of Disney and why they decided to do the D23 Expo. Now let me tell you, the arena in the convention center where Bob talked is the size of the Excel Center just take the top two layers off. This place was PACKED full. During his presentation, we saw a presentation about what makes up the Disney company, like a long commercial. They always get me with these too! It’s hard not to tear up when you see them, the mixture of video clips, song, guest experience just makes me so proud to be apart of such a company. Then we saw exclusive clips of movies coming out soon that have not yet been previewed, which is why Nicolas cage is here, he will be at the Expo tomorrow to present a preview for his new movie. Then Bob also let us was the first 1/3 of the new Princess and the Frog movie, not due out for 3 more months!! Can I just say that all of you better go see this movie, it’s amazing. The songs, the humor, the voices, the plot, the look,everything is just right :) Right after we watched it, they had the woman who did the voice of Princess Tiana come out and sing one of the musical numbers from the movie, wow can she sing! After this was the Legends Ceremony where about 10 people were inducted into the Disney legends. Bob Iger and Tom Bergeron (host of AFV and Dancing with the Stars) hosted this event together. Of the people honored were a couple people who helped advance the Disney company, a lady who was involved in the haunted mansion, and the golden girls, Betty White was the only golden girl who could be there. With each person Mickey and Minnie helped them upstage to greet and direct them. The next legend was the guy who does the voice of Donald duck and (this one’s for you Uncle Keith) the person who does the voice of Goofy. When they came up on stage they had their OWN characters meet them which was way cool, and of course they each did their voices! The final legend was Robin Williams. Wow, I was just speechless, I couldn’t believe I was seeing Robin Williams in person, he is very funny and looks like he hasn't aged at all. After this Ashley (the girl I came with in the beginning) just walked around and ate, then she left and I got in line for “the ABC’s of Disney” which was a presentation of the ABC channel. We saw an exclusive preview of their new show called Flash Forward which looks really good. Then a montage of all the shows and new seasons to come. Then they went into Comedy Wednesdays. If you guys remember TGIF way back when, ABC is trying to bring back that humor they had before. So they have 4 new shows coming out in September all to air on Wednesday nights. We saw previews of all of them, the whole audience was laughing for these, I will definitely be watching. Tom Bergeron and the President of ABC hosted this and surprised us with 4 special guests. Patricia Heaton (played Deborah on Everybody Loves Raymond, who will star in the abc comedy “the middle”) Courtney Cox (played Monica on friends DUH! and stars in “Cougar Town”) Kelsey Grammar (played Fraiser  on his TV show and stars in his own ABC comedy show, but I can’t remember the name) and Ed O’Neil (played Al Bundy on Married with Children and stars in “Modern Family” which I think will be my favorite show of the 4) I was floored when this happened. I mean they are bigger stars and I loved all their shows, It was simply amazing to see them all up on stage and hearing them talk. Thennnnnn the whole reason why I came to the expo…dancing with the stars :D :D. They had Derek Hough and Cheryl Burke do a dance together which was really amazing to see in person, and then Donnie Osmond and Kym Johnson did a dance special for this occasion, and he does know how to dance I will say that. I left this presentation early, I knew they were doing autographs and pictures, so I ran to the Hilton across the street and bought a disposable camera, ran back (in heels by the way) got in line, at first we could only pick one person to meet, so I got in Derek’s line, but we ended up being able to meet them all. Met Cheryl, Derek, Tom, and Kym (Donnie left early). Derek was my favorite, so sweet and I had him sign my phone too, even put a heart on there for me ;) Tom is just as funny as he is on TV I told him “you are the funniest and my favorite host on TV” he replied with “I feel like i should give you cash for saying that, but I don’t have any on me”. Let’s just say…today…was a very very successful day. I want to end this very overdo, and extremely long blog with this. A couple weeks ago I was talking with a friend. They were telling me how they didn’t feel college was for them and don't enjoy it. For those of you that know me well, you know that I hated being at stout last year and came home every weekend, for those same reasons my friend told me. I responded to their concerns with how it will get better and how I lucked out with Disney, I am happier than ever being out here, it has definitely become my home. I never referred to stout as my home, it was always “ugh I don’t want to go back to school” as I was tearing up Sunday nights driving back. Here, at Disney, I get off work, walk to the bus, hear the fireworks going off, seeing how clean the whole park is, saying bye to my co workers, seeing the pile of guests leaving the park, and crash down at the bus stop bench thinking “I’m on my way home, to my apartment, in a city that feels like home”. I am so blessed to be here and to be taking part of everything Disney has to offer me. It’s an exceptional company. While I may not talk to you all that much if at all, it is NOT because I don’t miss you, it’s mostly because I feel if I talk with you all too much I will start to miss everything back home and it will stop me from living my life out here in California. Because I HAVE missed you all, especially my parents and sister and brother, I so wish I could be experiencing this with all of them, I know they would all enjoy it.  I do also apologize for not updating my blog in a timely manner and giving you this novel to read. Work takes a lot out of me and I crash when I get home, and am out on my days off. So the last thing I want to do is write about what has been going on. But it’s a good way to     remember the times I had and I want to share it all with you. Hopefully I will get better at posting these. I love and miss you all!! :)

Disney, Cocina Restaurant, La Jolla Beach

I was thinking last night on my way home about how I was going to do this. I know a lot of friends and family are going to be really curious about how the internship is going and what all I get to take part of and will be doing during my time at Disneyland. Patti and my Aunt Barb are big bloggers, me...not so much. But I figure that when people ask me what I've been up to, after about the 3rd person I'll start telling less and less details. Now this is Disney!! So I don't want to leave any details out. So why not explain it all once, and you all can read if and when you wish :)

The title for this blog is a quote from Walt Disney, as it says. Today during our "Traditions" class, this quote was said repeatedly. Everything that Disney is today, started from steamboat Willie! I wouldn't be here at Disney if it weren't for that mouse. How awesome is that, I thought it was pretty cool! By the way, here's a little fun fact I learned in class today: Walt was planning to name "Mickey Mouse" "Mortimer the Mouse" instead. Thankfully his wife Lillian convinced him to use the name "Mickey". Leave it to a woman to find the right answer ; )

But I'm going to back up a little bit now. Last Wednesday my mom and I left for California. I started crying really hard as soon as I got in the car, partly because I was missing all of my friends but also because as soon as I shut the door Abby started crying/whining., my pupppppy :\. It was very very difficult for me the first several days. But we drove through Iowa, Nebraska, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, and of course California. I think Colorado was definitely my favorite, the Colorado Springs area and around the U.S. Air Force. Sunday we stopped at my Aunt Mary's and Uncle Rob's house for the night. VERY VERY nice to have a delicious home cooked meal (steak, garlic mashed potatoes, and corn on the cob) and to have a normal bed to sleep in.

Monday was when we arrived in Anaheim. We drove around a bit and I absolutely LOVE the area, very gorgeous, especially at night, perfect temp. to go on a stroll around here. The palm trees are wrapped in Christmas lights, there's like a city centre walk right outside my apartment with a bunch of little shops and restaurants. I live like 5 min (if that) away from Disneyland itself. My apartment is SUPER nice and new. Disney definitely hooked us up. But after my mom and I ran an errand on Monday we got back to our apartment and heard this loud noise so we went to the window and had a perfect view of Disney's firework show! The hearts, smiley faces, Mickey face, and shooting stars got me really excited to start my experience.

Tuesday was move in day!! I filled out paper work for an hourish then spent a couple hours moving my things into my apartment. It was very hot that day and a very slow elevator did not help at all. But about 5 trips, 3 separate trips to Vons and target, and a meeting later...I was officially moved in :) My roommates names are Stephanie (the girl who I share a room with) Chavalah (said like Hava) and Roe. Stephanie is sooo nice and such a sweetheart, looks a lot like Vanessa Hudgens and went to culinary school! So we all decided that we'd have her make us some good dinners every now and then. She is also my food buddy here, haha we're always hungry and always want to eat :) Chavalah Stephanie and I went to Vons that night to get our groceries, we spent a reasonable amount and it's nice to have the kitchen stocked with food.

Wednesday we had a meeting in the morning to get our pictures taken for or Disney ID and just listened to people talk a little bit about the rest of our week, what to expect, and mostly to talk about Disney University! We are required to sign up for at least one of their classes. I signed up for "Marketing You". In this class I WILL have assignments, papers, projects, just like any other class, but it's one of the classes that stout will actually giving me some credit for taking it. So instead of just 13 credits, i could possibly earn 15 or 16 now. That was about a 3 hour meeting. Then we had Disney orientation at night from 7-10, it was optional, but everyone went regardless. Here they talked about all the great opportunities we'll have at Disney (Behind the scenes tours of rides, the different parks, parties, angels games, ducks games, Jimmy Kimmel show, private movie premiers, etc) and then we asked questions to Cast Members (people who work at Disney) who are currently at Disney and had previously done the Disney program. They gave away prizes too, sadly I didn't win any. Thennnn, this was my favorite part :D at 9:05 they said, if you guys want to do this, we have to leave right now...but we can take you to the front of the park to see the fireworks! So we all got up and basically ran through backstage Disney into the front of It's a Small World and got the perfect spot for fireworks. It gave me chills, especially because in their shooting star fireworks, you could actually see a star. Amazing.

This is the Team Disney Anaheim Building

Todayyy was a very very busy day. We had to be at the Team Disney Anaheim auditorium for our "Traditions Class" from 7:30 to 4:00. Yeah, it was just as long as it sounds hahah. But from the beginning till like 11 they went over the History of Disneyland, sexual harassment, the Disney commandments, and all that jazz. Now let me tell you, that auditorium is FREEZING! oh my, not okay. Then we had lunch at the food court, very good food and reasonably priced. The Facilitators took pictures of us and then we broke up into groups for a tour. I was in the Cinderella group!! We got a detailed tour of the behind the scenes magic, which i cant tell any of you because I cant ruin the magic!!so shhhh! then we went through a tunnel that lead us to Frontier Land. Walked around there, to the HUB, toon town, and out of toon town to the back lot again. We stopped next to the dance/arts studio where people were gathered around a piano singing songs from high school musical, they were FANTASTIC and i was so interested I stopped listening to the tour and just watched them sing :P go me! OH! Starting today and from here on out we have to dress in business/professional clothes. No jeans, sandals, tanks, t shirts, polos, shorts, colored sunglasses, etc. So we had to walk around the park in our professional clothes dying in the heat, YAY! (even for our classes we have to dress up, every class is one day a week from 8:30-12:30) We finished the presentation. Then we were officially cast members!!!!!!!!! So they shut the curtains and started wrapping things up and said "Now you get your Disney ID's and in a second someone will pass them out to you" then the curtains opened and MICKEY MOUSE WAS THERE!!! awwwww it was very unexpected but very very cool :) As we left we picked up our very legit ID's which we need to have with us 24/7, its what gets me backstage, onstage (front of the park), free admission to the park, and free admission to those who come visit me! But after a very long exhausting, cold, hot, day we finally got to go home.

Tomorrow is not as bad as today. I have an orientation if you will to my line of work from 10:30-2:30pm. I'm very excited for what is to come, I Know I will be extremely busy, but I am definitely up to the challenge :)