Updatedness

Well Valentine's Day has come and gone (or as I like to call it: Singles Awareness Day). Fortunately, my best friend, Tracy, and her 1 year old daughter, Brooke, came down to visit me. So I couldn't get too depressed. We spent two days in the parks. The first day, Friday (the 13th), we spent most of the day at Animal Kingdom. It was such a blast. We got to do the safari, the Pangani forest trail, Rafiki's Planet Watch (the donkeys are soooo cute), Nemo, It's Tough to be a Bug, the Jammin Jungle Parade, and Festival of the Lion King. We went to the Studios after that to try to get into the early showing of Fantasmic but left when we found out that it was standing room only an hour till showtime (that's what happens when you only have Fantasmic 2 days a week I'm afraid). We did go to Voyage of the Little Mermaid before we left, though. On the 14th, we went back to the Studios for a character breakfast at Hollywood and Vine. We got to see Leo and June from Little Einsteins, and Goliath and Jo Jo. It was so cute. Then we did Playhouse Disney Live on Stage (I can finally say I have done that now!) and Muppet 3D Vision. Then we spent the rest of the day at Magic Kingdom.

We didn't get to do much. Brooke wasn't feeling well so we had to cut the day short. We did, however, get to do Small World and Pirates of the Carribean. Tracy and I did Space Mountain and Philharmagic on our own (while Tracy's mother fussed over Brooke - mostly unnecessarily).

I got a ton of pictures of the Jammin Jungle parade. And a ton of Brooke looking cute. We didn't actually get to watch the Celebrate a Dream Come True Parade or the street parties. It was really crowded too. We had to wait 30 minutes in line for Small World. And 40 for Pirates. And it was pretty hot. It was like summer all over again. Who knew that so many people celebrated Valentine's Day at Disney? Anyway, I'll have to go back on my own to get pictures. But then, I have my own digital camera now and 3 months left so that won't be a problem.

I had to work during the American Idol press event. I didn't even get a glimpse of David Cook or Jordin Sparks. They had me in Mickey's all day and forbade us to look out the doors and windows. It was so stupid. It wasn't like I wanted to watch the whole parade and not do any work. But I have seen a few pictures. That's almost like seeing it for real. And I heard some of it. Oh and I don't know if I mentioned that they finished working on the Sorcerer Hat. We got the Hub carts back. I actually got to work on them a few days before the press event. I got to see HSM3... finally. I even got to see a custodial guy draw Mickey and Donald on the courtyard with water. The stars and moon are still yellow, though. Well, they are almost gold. But they don't sparkle like they used to. I thought they were going to replace the lights... At least it's all one color blue now. I'm a little underwhelmed, though. All that time they spent working on it and it doesn't look that much better than it did before.

Anyway... I think I'm going to go to Cast Services tomorrow and ask them about the process of becoming a Disney show artist. I doubt it will actually happen for me (the economy being what it is). But I figured I'd give it a shot. I just read that 3000 Disney execs worldwide took the buyout. And they plan on laying off another 1000 people. Most of them in Florida. What a great time to be trying to get a job! Figures. I have THE worst timing... That reminds me... I saw a political cartoon (on the bulletin board by the breakroom) with Snow White and the 4 dwarves. Apparently, she had to lay off Sneezy, Sleepy and Happy. So it's a good thing you got to see her with all 7 at the Halloween party, Kelsey.

In other news... diet is still going well. It might be hard to believe but I'm going to have to check out another belt soon. I'm on the last notch of the one I have now. I think I can reach my goal weight by May. I just need to step up the exercise before I start to plateau. But I'm already down to what I was in high school. Or close to it. I'm even seeing a difference in how my watch fits. The only thing I'm worried about is losing my butt. It might just be because my pants are too big now... but you can't really tell I even have one. I'm going to have to find some good glute exercises. LOL.

I'm getting along a little better with the new CPs. Mostly, though, I just talk to Emily, Jazzy and Nate.

I saw Milk since my last post. Awesome movie. I cried a bunch of times. The only thing I was upset about was that Lucas Grabreel didnt have more lines. He was constantly in the background... but I think he had a total of 2 or 3 lines in the entire movie. Certainly not enough to offend Disney so much that they wouldn't let AMC show it at Pleasure Island until it was nominated for 8 academy awards.

I also saw He's Just Not that Into You. It's my new favorite romantic comedy. I just wish I had seen it ages ago. Of course, that probably wouldn't have stopped me from wasting 2 - 3 years of my life on a hopeless case. I would have done it anyway.

In addition to a digital camera, I also bought three animation books. Illusion of Life, Animator's Survival Kit and Preston Blair's Cartoon Animation (3 of the must haves for any animator). At least now I don't have to keep checking them out of the Disney Learning Center.... LOL. Seriously, though, I'm going to start getting serious about my show/demo reel. I'm even thinking about entering a few contests for animated shorts. I have to pay my student loans off somehow...

I've just about settled on a design for my business cards. I'm going with three different ones actually. But I'm only going to get the first design printed up next week. It will be one sided with just my name and contact info (and logo). The second design I'm going to print up shortly thereafter. It's going to be two sided with my company name. It's intended for potential clients (for my web business) whereas the first is for networking and job hunting. The third is going to be a rip card... I'm going to hold off on that until my business gets going (if it does). In any case, I've also decided on a tag line. I've been wrestling with this one for a while... and I went thru so many versions it's ridiculous. This one came to me about a week ago when I was reading an animation book. It's so perfect... I can't believe I didn't think of it before. I really like it. I hope it's not taken.

Well, I guess that's about it. I'm really just rambling at this point... killing time while I'm waiting for the UPS guy to deliver my book for class. I haven't even taken a shower today for fear that he'll come when I'm in the shower and I won't hear him at the door. He came Friday but didn't leave the package. Why in the hell do I have to sign for a 40 dollar book when Fed Ex left a 1000 dollar software package on my doorstep last year with no signature? I really don't understand.... But I have to have this book. I'm already 2 chapters behind.