MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Okay so I know it's only the 24th but I have a busy 24 hours ahead of me and so I doubt I'll have time to blog! So... Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to everyone who reads my blog! I hope you all have a wonderful time, eat lots of food and be merry!


So it's all been a bit crazy recently which is why I haven't blogged... been working a lot (of course), seeing people outside of work and trying to get some decent sleep (somehow, even when I sleep for hours, I am STILL tired!). I last blogged on Sunday when we got our schedules - of course, as soon as we all went into work everyone was moaning about what they'd got or not got. Most people are working Christmas Day, only a few have it off (including the newbies as they're still Earning their Ears). I tried to swap it but came to the conclusion that if I have to be stocker then so be it... I'm supposed to be stocking today as well but we'll see if that happens. Somehow, every time I get given stocker on the Hub, I'm not given it in CDS which is good... so we shall see! Apparently there is 4 stockers on Christmas Day anyway, one for Chippy, one for Beer Cart, one for the Bar and a Floating Stocker. So it should all be okay.

On Monday I went to Lasses for the first time. I am still not too sure what to make of it. It was fun, I'm not going to deny that, although I'm not sure it's for me. The reason I didn't go up until now is because I felt intimidated by it... and having been for a week, I still feel like that! Walking into a room of literally 30 people is a little scary and then I'm not even going to go into detail about the amount of alcohol that was involved. So yeah, I'm not sure if I'll go again - we'll see. But I'm not going on Monday because I've got such a tiring weekend ahead of me. The other thing is that I kinda resent having to give up EVERY Monday night to do something... I prefer to decide what I wanna do each day and not feel forced into socialising if I don't want to if that makes sense. Hmmmm. Watch this space.

So Tuesday I was off (which was the only reason I did go to Lasses, there's no way I could have worked the next day!) and we went to Hollywood Studios. This was less than enjoyable for the fact I felt like crap for most of the morning/early afternoon but we went to see Lights, Motors, Action (the highlight was the new bit with Lightning McQueen... other than that, I do find it kinda boring and very loud/smelly), then we walked around Streets of America for a bit. The park was really busy so we avoided the big rides on the whole. About 2pm we went to get some Chicken Nuggets and Fries which saved my life and made me feel human again... the others went to watch the parade but I didn't feel like it (and I preferred Block Party Bash, I'm a studios snob...) so I just chilled out. Then two of them went on Rock n RollerCoaster before we headed to the Animation Class... but there was a massive queue so we decided to go back later. We did the Backlot Tour and then went to get seats for Fantasmic... we got the front row!! It was awesome even though we did get a bit wet! I got some half-decent pictures which is a challenge at Fantasmic. After that we went back to the Animation Class and drew Jack Skellington and then Piglet which was fun. By then, the park was closing so we headed home - there was talk of JellyRolls but I was just too tired. Went home, went to bed.

Wednesday was my second day off. It was awesome because... we went to UNIVERSAL!!! We left kinda late but we were getting the i-trolley which was an experience for me... we walked to the Premium Outlets and the bus came almost straight away. It cost 25 cents for cast members (woooo) and only took about 35 minutes to get there. However, there was a downside - after getting off the bus it was a 20 minute walk along massive highways (on pavements though) to get to the entrance of Universal. This kinda sucked and there's no way I'd do that walk in the summer because you'd just die of heat. I didn't realise the bus stop was so far away from the entrance and I'd planned to leave early in order to meet Sam to go to Walmart in the evening... but after seeing how far it was and realising I'd have to do that walk back in the dark and on my own, I decided I'd just stay with the others and get a taxi back. I went with some Canadians - Jen, Arin, Phil and Steffie... I was an honorary Canadian for the day :D

So obviously, once we'd got our annual passes sorted (I went for Preferred, it gives you merch/food discounts in the parks, free parking and no blackout dates, it was $145 down payment then $12/month for a year) we went straight to Harry Potter!!! It's so awesome. But so busy! Having said that, we went straight on Duelling Dragons (ahem, sorry, Dragon Challenge as it's now called) which was only a 15 minute wait. Then we got butterbeer (NOM) before leaving Harry Potter and going to Jurassic Park. After getting a little bit soaked on that, we went over to Marvel and rode Hulk which was about a 30 minute wait. Then the others got hotdogs for lunch and we leave IoA (Islands of Adventure) and went to Universal Studios to catch the Macy's Christmas Parade. This was possibly the weirdest 20 minutes of my life.... giant inflatable characters, floats, millions of cast members with a variety of different dress code violations going on (but this is Universal, so there really isn't a dress code)... it makes Disney look SO GOOD. Haha! Having said that, it was still entertaining. I got a slice of pizza for lunch and then we went to ride Jaws because it closing in a couple of weeks, forever! It was great. Then we were going to do Rip, Ride, RockIt but the queue was like 60 minutes so we gave it a miss. We did the Mummy ride (always a winner) and then headed back to IoA and back to HP land... we queued for the Forbidden Journey (the ride inside the castle) which went 101 whilst we were waiting so we ended up waiting for over an hour, but it's SO worth it. That ride is so epic. Then we did Dragon Challenge again (on the Fire side this time) and finally got food at the Three Broomsticks. After this, it was time to go home... so we walked back through City Walk and got a taxi home which was only $25 surprisingly. Between 5 of us, this was a bargain at $5 each. Once I'd got back at like 10.30pm, I met Nick and we went to his apartment and watched Home Alone - classic Christmas movie!!

The next day, he had to work at 8am so we went for a very early morning Ihop (awesome) and then he dropped me off at the Commons. I bummed around during the morning and then went to work which was pretty non eventful. I think I was seating most of the day. After work, Sam, Sophie, Clare and David (newbie!) came over to mine and we had the speciala Pizza Hut deal which was 2 big pizzas, chicken pieces and breadsticks for $20. Oooooh yeahhh. I didn't end up going to bed til 2am but it was fun times.

Yesterday I was Chippie Registers and it was a fun day. In the morning I went to Publix with Sam to get some drinks for Christmas Day (I hate that walk to Publix) and then I got ready for work. I had a laugh with the guests as I always do on Registers and I was only 1 dollar out at the end of the day which considering how much cash I took, was pretty impressive! After work, I ended up at McDonalds with Steffie and Tyler until 1.30am which was fun...

And that finally brings us to today! SO, have a Merry Christmas people and I'll update again soon!!