Its Peak Season

The past couple weeks have been quite intense. I got a cold almost two weeks aged and am still fighting it. With working 6 day weeks and racking in 50 hours a week, its hard to rest and relax. With the park ending sometime events and preparing for big events and upcoming holidays, we've been super super busy. September 9 is the Haunted Mansion's 40th anniversary. Halloween will be celebrated starting September 25. The park is suppose to slow down after labor day and hours will be cut back.
The first round of college program students just graduated last week and headed home. With all the open rooms and parking spots now available, i got a new space right under my apartment building. No more walking a block to and from work everyday just to go park my car. Its quite amazing. We've also acquired a new room mate Moria. She is wonderful. My roommate and I met her early in our program and had put in a request for her to be the new add in. Since the program is growing so much, 5th roommates were a possibility is most rooms and so we're glad we got to choose who we wanted. My room now has a bunk bed and a single twin bed. So far, the past few nights have been good, so hopefully it stays that way.
My job has been getting more interesting and exciting as the weeks go by. I get new and better positions to photograph in each park. Yesterday I was a breaker for Mickey's House. It was awesome. My 8 hour shift consisted of me giving breaks to photographers who were shooting in each of the 4 film rooms that you can meet my boss, Mickey Mouse in. I'm getting more and more use to being here and living on my own. I do enjoy cooking for myself and not spending money everyday. Its nice. I have broken into my Rachel Rae cook book the other day to make some delicious garlic shrimp. YUM! I'm going to utilize that book at least once a week from now on.
I've been missing everyone from home a lot. I hear of all the family gatherings and events that I've been missing and I get jealous. I get home after an 8 hour day of work on a Sunday and I get a call from Joseph that he's been lounging around the house all day with baby Felix and he's waiting for mom and dad to get ho0me from Bingo so they can go out and eat burgers and watch a movie. Not fair! I miss and love everyone;. I plan on coming home in September to watch Joseph kick butt at one of his games and then head over to Manteca to wish Jenna a happy 6th birthday. Hope everyone is well. Love and miss you all.

~Cindy

BIRTHDAYS!

Sorry guys... I know its been way past my once a week posting but its been an exciting past two weeks. It all started with my birthday. I worked that morning having fun with guests who shared the same birthday. Then I rushed home to change and did the park the rest of the night with the girls. It was so much fun and we had such a blast. Then I was counting down until the family comes to visit. Plan was for mom and dad to drive on the 22 and Joseph to fly in that night. Well, that happened with a minor set back... poor mom and dad had the car break down on them that delayed their trip 3 hours. They ended up arriving the same time as Joseph. We did Disneyland for Mom's birthday on Thursday and then California Adventure Friday which Dad has never visited before. We had the best time. I have missed them so much within this past month and I just enjoyed every minute of being with them. We had plenty of laughs with Dad's reactions on the attractions and Mom's birthday party with all the little kids. I wouldn't have changed a thing...,maybe but mom and dad getting here without issues.. but hey, it wouldn't be a Mestre trip without something adventurous happening :) Anyways... enjoy the pictures. They are a mix of my birthday and the family trip. Love and miss you all!

~Cindy

Fourth of July

I know I know.. I am totally out of order with updating you all but so many things happened that I need to share. I fortunately had the fourth off and my cousin Kristen and soon to be cousin in law Brian who i already love so much invited me to spend the day with them. We spent the day at Laguna beach with Brian's aunt who is also such a wonderful person. We later went to her house and Brian barbecued carne asada. YUM! It was sooo good. Thank you again to them for inviting me. I had no other plans for that day and it made it special to be with family since I've been away from home. Love you guys

~Cindy

Santa Monica

Thursday and today are my days off this week, so the roomie, Moria and I decided to spend the day at Santa Monica Pier. None of us have ever been and we were craving the beach. We had a blast. The beach is beautiful and so clean. The pier is a bit small.. the boardwalk is better but it was fun to get out of our Disney corner and venture through Southern California. Enjoy the pictures!!!

Loving every minute

Hello all..

Sorry about the long time between blog updates, I've been pretty busy. I have a set 40 plus hours a week photographing guests or working the store that sells the photo packages. It's so fun. The guests are really grateful for the service we provide. It's really easy for us to take pictures for the guests, one less thing they have to worry about. They like having fun posing different ways and being able to have magic shots taken by adding tink, mickey, or minnie to their pictures as if they were really there.

Tuesday and Wednesday I sold packages to two couples who were proposed to in front of the castle. They were able to have our photographers shoot an entire session of them proposing and everything. Its really the cutest thing to see. You cant help but feel so happy for them... and jealous!! uhg! where's my prince charming to do that??!! :)

But all is well. I have had no relapses of dehydration or anything. I'm careful to be drinking lots of water and staying cool. I am adding pictures of me in lovely uniforms.. I have one of me in a skirt that is for working on main street in the photo shop. Walt Disney designed Main Street to look like the 1930's and so why we have to wear these hideous "costumes." My normal costume is blue slacks or shorts with a white button up and a safari looking vest while i am shooting in the park. It is a lot more normal looking and comfortable.

I hope all is doing well. I miss everyone so much and I thank all of you for my early birthday wishes and update phone calls. I will be working on my birthday then going to play in the park. Should be fun. Miss and love you all. Take care!

~Cindy

UPDATE!

ATTENTION! Christian sexy Bale was in California Adventure today while I was working there!! Ahh! As I head from a fellow cast member that he was in close vicinity of where I was training... I immediately got goose bumps. For those of you who don't understand my passion for him or if you live under a rock and don't know who he is, he plays the latest and sexiest bat man! God, my heart and blood pressure was going the rest of the day. But of course, i didn't get my look at him let alone a word or photo... :( But, on the good side, I had such a fun day shooting guests. I actually got to go live, meaning shoot for guests in the park, and they came out great. I'm definitely going to enjoy shooting character shots, especially Fantasy fair Princess meet and great and Pixie Hollow (where you can meet Tink and her fellow pixie fairies). I have not written a full post because I'm waiting to get my full uniform to show all of you. They are quite interesting. Miss and love everyone. Thanks for keeping in touch.

~Cindy

Oh man.. If you haven't already heard...

So Friday, Saturday and Sunday were suppose to be my first orientations. I made it through Friday and half way Saturday and then my bad luck hit me. After lunch, the group took a tour of the park, and at the end, I got extremely dizzy and faint and ended up being rushed to the ER on an ambulance.

I was extremely dehydrated, under a lot of stress and full of caffeine. Because of all of these issues, it made me very weak and why they ruched me. I ended up being transferred to Kaiser of Irvine where I stayed until Sunday afternoon. When my vitals were being checked, they notice I had abnormal heart rhythms (PVC's). Because of this is why i ended up staying over night. :( I was not a happy camper.

I missed the rest of my Traditions orientation and my Welcome to.. orientation. Because I missed these two mandatory training sessions, I am not allowed to do any further training until they are completed. So, for now, i have the week off. Mom flew Sunday morning to be with me and is leaving today, Tuesday. So we ended up walking Down Town Disney yesterday and just hang out in town. It was nice being with her, but not really the way I wanted her to come visit me.

But it ended up working out. We further planned the family coming to visit next month, got reservations at the hotel and reservations to eat at the Blue Bayou for Mom's birthday. So for now, until Saturday, I am lounging around the apartment, I'm going into the park today with my roomie Jillian. This Friday, I have Starbucks partners coming to visit, so I'm excited for that too! I'll keep you all updated. I am doing fine as of health and am enjoying my stay at the apartment.

Love you all!

~Cindy