Whoa there...

I looked at my little countdown timer on my phone today, thinking I would see something like, eh fifty days until my departure to Florida. And then I saw that it read 38 days. And then I realized it was July 11. Then I screamed. WE'RE IN THE THIRTIES. 


But seriously though, where has the summer gone? Not that I'm not excited to start my CP and everything, but I have six weeks left at home and I have thus far, not only accomplished approximately nothing productive with my summer, but have done essentially nothing in preparing for this program. NOTHING. And in less than forty days, not only am I moving to Florida for five months, but I'm moving away from home for essentially an entire year because I'm going abroad in the spring. And that is terrifying. TERRIFYING. Caps and italics kinda scary. 


I go away to school, and I have spent the last two years living four hours away from home for nine months out of the year, and that's fine. But I cheat all the time and come home for the long weekends and obviously Thanksgiving and intersession and spring break are all thrown in there. And when all is said and done, it doesn't really feel like I don't live at home. But after August 20 (August 18, actually), I will not set foot in my house until January. And then, I'll be home for about a week and then I'll be whisked away to London for another five months. And who knows where I'm going to end up next summer? 


So after promptly freaking out and texting all of my friends, "I'm leaving in 38 days. WTF? Hang out with me." I realized that I had six weeks to accomplish a year's worth of friend time/family time/cleaning/organizing. So I better do something about it. 


Below, is my to-do list pre-Florida: 

• Sign up for Disney classes. STATUS: Done... ish. I've registered for Creativity and Innovation, and I'm on the waiting list for Entertainment Show Production because I'm a theatre minor and not a major. Not sure when I'll find out about the status of that, and if I do get in, I'm not sure whether or not I'll drop C&I. That might have to wait until Florida. 
• Triple check that my Disney classes are recognized by my university. STATUS: Not done. Whoops. I should send out some e-mails. Currently taking an 8-credit internship and a 4-credit course to put me at 12 credits and stay full time. But the career development center at my school told me that a Disney class could replace my 4-credit class if I registered for it. Now Disney is telling me their classes only count for three credits, which would put me under the full time requirement for my school. I have a feeling there is going to be some heavy paperwork involved in this. 
• Go up to my school to finalize my London application and my credits. STATUS: Next week. Roadtripping upstate. 
• Spend time with my family. STATUS: In progress
• Finish whatever weird things I put on my summer to-do list. It's about three pages long. STATUS: We're about a quarter of the way there. Gotta pick it up.
• Finish out my current internship strong. STATUS: Okay. 
• Organize my basement. STATUS: HAHAHAHAHAHA. 
• Make a Disney packing list. STATUS: ACTUALLY DONE! It's like four pages long in a word document, but whatevs. I'll post it here when I'm not lazy. 
• Shop for Disney. STATUS: Shouldn't be hard, but that brings me to the next item on my list... 
• Not be financially incapable of life. STATUS: Jokes. Broke forever. 
• Pack for Disney. STATUS: Starting August 1. That should be enough time, right? Two and a half weeks to get my life organized?
• Get room things sorted out with prospective roomie. STATUS: In progress. 
• Get pre-check in Florida adventures planned. STATUS: Done.

I think that's it. I hope that's it. I don't know. Wah.

The other love of my life

If you ask any of my friends to name two things that I am obsessed with, most will probably tell you that I have sick infatuations with both Disney and the New York Yankees (other popular answers would be television, men, men on television... etc...). 


But I'm going to talk about the Yankees now. So haters beware. 


I've been a Yankees fan for as long as I can remember, and not some flaky little fair-weathered fan; a die-hard, blood and guts, paint my face with pinstripes, screaming Yankees fan. Nothing will ever deter my devotion, and I would love my boys even if the Steinbrenner family never existed and the payroll was $5 and they played ball in a parking lot. So don't hand me any of that Evil Empire crap.


That said, I do enjoy the luxury that the team enjoys. I'm a classy girl (hah!), I like classy things. If Derek Jeter asked me to accompany him on his yacht (if, like, Derek Jeter had a yacht) and enjoy champagne and caviar, I would not decline. You probably wouldn't either.


My family used to buy into a season ticket package at the OLD Yankee Stadium. The REAL Yankee Stadium. We had the seats for about ten years. They were field-level, eight rows behind the dugout. I spent the majority of my Yankees-loving childhood in those seats. Needless to say, I was spoiled rotten. I would get to the Stadium for batting practice and hang out by the dugout and talk to whichever player would be standing two feet from my face. I acquired quite a few souvenirs in section 37; autographs, balls, bats, batting gloves, a cup of dirt from the pitchers mound handed to me by Joba Chamberlain himself, and some priceless conversation with some of the greatest baseball players of all time.  My sixteenth birthday was spent at the last game ever played at the old house. And after the game, I stood at the dugout and hung out with some fellow die-hard fans and some of our favorite players and said goodbye to the place that we all called home. 


The next season, the brand new shiny park opened, and we were kicked out. Our homey little section 37 was no more. Instead, it was replaced by a smaller section of championship seating or whatever it is. With big, fluffy reclining chairs and unobstructed views and a price tag of $2500 per seat, per game. As much as I love my Yankees, NO one should pay that much to go to a three-hour baseball game. I think the price has dropped a little now, but it's still too monumentally high for anyone in their right minds to shell out. 


And I, who had been going to games my entire life in what I will forever consider to be the best section in the entire park, could never find anywhere else that would compare and not cost me my entire college tuition. I stopped going to games at the level I did before. We went to maybe one or two a season, and I left disappointed, all the time, selfishly longing -- like the spoiled brat I am -- for  my old box. 


Well, I'm still not over it. But I'm still a spoiled brat. My aunt is on the board of directors at a company that was holding is annual retreat in a luxury box at the Stadium on Tuesday night. I was invited to come along. We were put up in the penthouse suite of a midtown hotel for the night, and bused to the game, where we all hung out in this amazing room with a full bar and a buffet and private viewing of the game. I still missed my old seats, but this was one of the most incredible, once-in-a-lifetime experiences I could've ever asked for. I was so lucky to be invited to this game, and I'm extremely grateful. 


To top it off, Andy Pettite is back in pinstripes and pitched a two-hit shutout. The Yankees won an pulled within half a game of first place. All is right with the universe. 


But I spent about 18 hours feeling like a bazillionaire. Pictures because I couldn't resist. 

Daryl Strawberry and Lou Piniella were hanging out next door.

I was excited.

REALLY EXCITED. 

Is this not awesome?

Open bar? Thank you.   

Yankees Win! 

Summer in the City!

I'm kind of insane. It's something I've come to terms with in the past 19 years and realized cannot be changed. I'm comfortable with it. You should be too. 


In all of my cray glory, I went into Manhattan the other day (May 25) for the sole purpose of seeing the Disney Magic docked on the West Side for the first time ever. She'll make her home port here for the summer. I watched her sail into NY harbor that morning on a webcam because I couldn't get my lazy self out of bed that early. 


But I walked (and dragged my friend with me... sorry) all the way from 7th avenue to the West Side Highway (which, if you don't know NYC, is a reasonably substantial distance) only to see my ship (and it is mine. MINE  and no one else's) and stare at it for a grand total of 10 minutes before being dragged away to accomplish more productive things, such as Starbucks. 

From the webcam

My boat came to see me!

It's also Fleet Week, so... yeah. Productive trip. 

And we finish off the afternoon with some lounging by the river. 

I currently do not have a trip booked on the magic for this summer, which is unspeakable cruelty and it is casting intense shame and first world problems upon my family. I don't wanna talk about it. 

But I'm putting out some serious subliminal messages to the fam to book something for July... those 5-nights to Canada look sweet. I'm totally willing to sleep in the brig at night if I have to. Whatever it takes. 

Only a little over two months until I get my CM discount. Lalalalalaaaaa. 

It's summer already? No, can't be!

It is though. And people started arriving in Walt Disney World for Fall Advantage last week and they're all training and working and happy and I'm sitting in my house stalking everyone relentlessly and completely shamelessly. 


My sophomore year (or the first semester of my junior year, if you want to get technical) of college ended last Friday. I'm home for the summer. I'm doing an internship in production/PR/marketing for a theater production company in Manhattan and working basically remotely from home. And then I'm doing tech work for a theater festival in lower Manhattan and Brooklyn on the side. And it's all unpaid. Which is really fun for the five cents that is currently in my checking account... especially when I have to commute to the city twice per week. But it's all an adventure and I'm living and it's fun.


I'm not working tomorrow. Instead, I'm wrangling up a few of my friends and going to see the Disney Magic as it docks for the very first time in New York. And I'm just gonna stare at it. No shame. Ever. 


This year is going to change things so much. This summer is opening me up to so many opportunities and connections, and then in three months, I'll be living and working and playing in Disney World. And then in January, I'll be off to spend a semester in London. And then who knows what will happen? It's all so exciting. 


But three months. Disney. Three months. I haven't even unpacked from moving out of my dorm yet, but I feel the need to start piling stuff up for my Disney apartment, or at the very least, start making lists. I like lists. 


Oh, and we have a full apartment! I'll be living with five awesome girls, hopefully, in an apartment in Chatham and I am so so so excited for it. Really excited that we got that all squared away. We're affectionately referring to our apartment as the Princess Palace and we have planned a dinner at Ohana for the night before check-in. I hope everything works out the way we're planning!


Other than that, nothing much is up. I'm trying to see my way clear of a bunch of dorm stuff and clothes everywhere. I'm spending my days writing press releases and stringing lights for plays, and I have a summer full of beach trips and city excursions and concerts ahead and three months from right now, I want to be in the Magic Kingdom watching Wishes. Or sleeping... whichever seems more appropriate at that point in time. 

Mid-April Musings...

I'm still going to talk about my cruise. A lot. I promise I will. Because it was a spectacular week and a spectacular vacation and I met some amazing people (Hint: Bob Iger, Tom Staggs, Karl Holz, Tom Wolber, John Lasseter, etc.) and it completely changed my perspective on life and my future and my career and I also got a really nice tan. 


BUT... I came home and immediately slipped back into school-is-trying-to-brutally-murder-me mode. And for the past week and a half, I have been trying really hard not to succumb to the dirty, dirty ploys of my professors and their grade books. 


As of today, I am happy to say that:
1) There are four weeks left of the semester.
2) I got an A on the midterm paper that I thought I bombed. My professor spent the entire class about how he was horrified that he was going to have to give his 300-level class full of English majors a lesson on grammatical structure, and then I got my paper back and it was an A, and I'm pretty sure my professor and I are soulmates and I finally have the courage I need to ask him for my recommendation to study abroad next spring, so that's getting done on Thursday. 
3) I've been having some major issues with my school's academic advising office about the CP. They basically look at me as if I have three and a half heads whenever I venture into the office to talk to them about it, and they've become convinced that there is no possible way that I could do the program and remain enrolled in school full-time. So in their view, I would have to withdraw for a semester and lose my financial aid and my health insurance and all that fun stuff. But because it would be an absolute novelty if any departments in my school communicated with each other at all, the office of advising did not know about the career development center's off-campus internship program, which will get me an entire semester's worth of credits. So I'm going to their office and getting all that squared away tomorrow and it will be fabulous. 
4) I applied for about 15 summer internships today. Let's backtrack a bit... I was all but promised a summer internship in development at a rather large network based in Manhattan... I, stupidly, stopped my search, convinced that I already had a position for the summer, when... HAHAH JUST KIDDING, THERE IS NO INTERNSHIP FOR ME. So, all of the major network internships are already filled. Great. But I applied to a few at some production companies in the city. Within a half hour of filling out an application, I was already e-mailed by the hiring manager of a pretty major international theatrical production company based in the Village. Not counting my chickens before they're hatched again, but this is looking good... 
5) Finally... I FOUND ROOMMATES! Well, a roommate and an apartment mate, and I don't want to say too much about it yet, because it was literally finalized about an hour ago, but I think we will get along very, amazingly, extremely nicely. We're going for Chatham, methinks. And that's fine and dandy by me. I have a group of D-fam friends who are over 21 and going non-wellness who will be aiming to live in building 27 in Chatham, and it's my goal to be their neighbors. If all goes as planned, I will be surrounded by spectacular people at all times. Even if all doesn't go as planned, how could I not be surrounded by spectacular people always? I'll be in Disney! 


Anyway, I have a term paper to write. I promise there will be cruise details soon. And also cute CP preparation things. As soon as I can inch my head from outside of this pile of books and breathe again. 

Coming at you LIVE from the Disney Fantasy!

This ship is amazing. The cast members are amazing. The entire experience of being on a maiden voyage is completely amazing. I'm in love. I'm obsessed. I never want to leave.

More than all of that, this cruise has completely solidified my NEED to work for Disney, in any capacity. It was wavering of late, but I've realized that the CP is something I need to do like I need oxygen. Also equivalent to the need for oxygen: a job onboard Disney Cruise Line... but that will come with time. (2014 casting office... get ready.)

Posting a full trip report when I get home because I'm cool. I'll be home on Saturday. Tears.

Oh. School.

I haven't posted in a LONG time. I've been drowning in school stuff and sorority stuff to the point that I don't have anything in my life in order, let alone Disney stuff. I know I have __ days to go before I move in on August 20! I'm flying down with my mother in my aunt on August 18 and staying at the Holiday Inn Sunspree until check-in.

I don't have a roommate or apartmentmates yet. Sadface. Haven't had much time to look. I'm considering going random, but I really want to find people to live with before I go down. I have met some incredible people on Facebook and I CANNOT wait to meet them.

If I go down. I'm in the midst of a huge brawl with my advisors and my school's financial aid office. They initially told me I would be able to remain a full time student while on the program. Now they're telling me I'll have to temporarily withdraw from school in order to do the program for a semester, which is absolute BS. My next effort is to find a professor who can sign on with me for an independent study. Which may or may not be totally plausible. I don't know. I only know that I won't be giving up so easily. I WILL be in Florida in August! (right? right?)

But in any case, I am currently 71 hours away from going home for spring break. And that makes me five days out from boarding the Disney Fantasy for its maiden voyage!!!!!!!!! WOOOO!!!! So my energy is focused on that. And the ridiculous amount of work I'll have to do within the next three days, but mostly on that. I think I'm going to post a full trip report on here when I get back, because it's my blog and I can.

Until then, I thought I'd organize my thoughts (because there are way too many of them) and get myself organized. Out loud. In blog form. Bear with me. Here's my to-do list... For before August 17, 2012.

1. Travel on the maiden voyage of the Disney Fantasy and have the best vacation ever. Get advice from crew members about CM life, going from DCP to DCL, etc.
2. Buy and send my DCP Secret Easter Bunny gift
3. Continue vlogging.
4. Book a trip on the Disney Magic for when it's based in Manhattan over the summer.
5. Make a paper countdown chain or something. Be cute like that.
6. Apply and be accepted to the Semester in London program for Spring 2013.
7. Be accepted to an internship for summer 2012.
8. Find a Disney roommate.
9. Make a packing list.
10. Shop for apartment stuff.
11. Start my vinylmation collection once and for all.
12. Reread all of the Harry Potter books in preparation for my season passes to Harry Potter world.

And other stuff. I'll figure it out later.