Exciting times!

It has been a very busy but exciting past couple of weeks. I have decided to involve myself in doing more activities outside of Disney and to get out of my apartment! As fun as room mates can be, I'm branching out and looking for a funner crowd.

My fun began two weeks ago on the 31st, after working a number of night shifts in a row, I began one morning with getting up at 5 am to wait in line at 6 to meet the beautiful and elegant Julie Andrews. She was holing a meet and greet signing celebrating the 40th Anniversary of Mary Poppins. She actually spent the time to talk and meet each participant. I was number 87 of 250 that got to meet her and get a painting autographed. She was wonderful. I was a bit star struck when I approached her. Was silent for a minute before finding some words to say. The experience was amazing.

That same night...still surviving on 4 hours of sleep, I decided to go to Angel's stadium with my room mate to watch the Angels take on my Oakland A's. Amazingly in the 7th inning, the A's were winning by 1 point and were able to hold the Angels to anymore runs. I sure did my share of screaming from way up above and made my mark in Angel's stadium. Since we won, I don't see any reason I need to go back. :) The fans were nice, there were plenty more A's fans like myself...it was an overall fun time.

The following week, I got the chance to be part of a live studio audience for the TV show Rules of Engagement. It is taping it's fourth season, and sad to say, I had never watched nor heard of the show prior to this. It was awesome. I knew most of the lead actors, including David Spade, Patrick Warburton, Megyn Price, and guest star Alan Ruck (Cameron from Ferris Beuller!!!!). They were so awesome and some signed autographs after the show. Really cool to see the amount of time and dedication it takes just to film one show; over 6 hours! The butt was gone asleep after the first couple hours.

The following day, some co workers of mine and myself decided to go on a hunt for celebrities by visiting Melrose Place in West Hollywood. That was a big fat NO. Saw no one. Just walked into stores that quickly made you feel depressed when you realized nothing there would fit and if it did, you couldn't even afford a fraction of it. It was an interesting start to the day, but we soon decided to venture to Beverly Place which is very similar to the Nemin Marcus mall in San Francisco. I soon found plenty of stores to spend my pay check in and ended the day with fun outfits to wear when I come home. Overall, a very joyful day.

The rest of the week leading til now has been plenty of work and school work with school starting. I am taking a couple online classes and a collegiate class through the Program to stay a full time student. The park has been extremely slow with everyone back in school, so I anticipate many visits from family and friends soon. I will be seeing the Puccini Family next weekend and at the beginning of October, the Kanaze's will be visiting too. Can't wait to visit with everyone. Miss you all. Thanks again to those who have been commenting. You don't know how much i appreciate it. See you in two weeks.

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