After some painful weeks of having to deal with rambunctious children/families, being sick, and just having overall low spirits, things really got better this week!
As a pirate at Disney World, I get to see hundreds of kids a day, some of which have visited the parks many times, and others who are there for the first time. I love first-time visitors, they are so excited to see everything, and I feel like I want to make a great impression on them so that they fall in love with Disney and keep wanting to come back. I also just get so excited when I see first time families, because I know how expensive these vacations are, and it is really just so nice to see these parents want to make these things happen for their children. Everyone really should go to Disney World at least once in their life! And even though I have only been here for a little over a month, I think I know who my favorite kinds of kids are.
It seems that I usually get little boys who are really nervous to get their face painted. They are typically around 3-5 years old, and you can just tell from the moment they sit in the chair that they are going to take some convincing. It's the parents who make the appointments, and they often don't realize that these little kids are terrified to get paint on their face. They think it's going to hurt, they think it will never come off, or they think that it will get in their eyes (it seems that little boys are super sensitive about their eyes, but I haven't really run into problems when painting girls). Still, I have found that I absolutely adore these little boy pirates.
I recently had a little 4 year old pirate who wanted to get his face painted like Captain Hook. He was the last appointment of the day, and the rest of the League was clear of all guests. There were other Pirate Masters wandering around, stocking stations and getting ready for the next day, and it was just me with this little boy. I called him back to my station and gave him a big smile, and I could tell he was nervous. I tried to talk to him, and it turns out, he didn't speak a word of English! I'm not positive, but I'm pretty sure he was French. His dad was with him, and interpreted what I said to him. He was so adorable, he had curly brown hair, lot's of freckles on his nose, and wore glasses. I adore little kids in glasses, I think it is just so precious!
The first thing I was setting up to do was give him his official pirate tattoo, which is just one of those fake tattoos that you apply with water. I was telling him how it was really important because this was the official mark of Captain Jack, and that once he had it, it meant that he was a real pirate! And I don't know if he thought it was a real tattoo and would hurt, or if he just couldn't understand me and was a bit overwhelmed with the situation, but his face sort of scrunched up and his eyes welled up with tears. In my head, if I ever came across this situation I think I would want to run away, or hand him over to someone else who can handle a crying kid. All my friends know that I've said I never want kids, and that I just don't really like them that much, so I was really surprised when my first instinct was not to run away, but instead, to do whatever I could to make the situation better. I stayed cheerful and kept smiling, and gave his dad the tattoo on his hand to show him how easy it was. His dad said something to him in French, and he seemed to stay calm after that, but he still kept flinching when I was painting his face. But I think what get's me after these nervous pirates get their faces painted is the look on their face when it's all over, and they see themselves for the first time, transformed into a pirate. They come in so nervous, and it's like something in them changes and suddenly they are so happy, excited, and confident. When I showed little Captain Hook his face in the mirror, he was so excited and was jumping up and down, and his dad was so happy. That's something I love a lot too, the looks on the parent's faces when they see how happy their kids are. I gave the little boy his treasure bag and sent him on his way. We both had huge smiles on our faces.
We also had a cast appreciation party for Adventureland, which meant that for one of our regular 30 minute breaks, we got 45 minutes instead, and they also provided us with lunch and cake! The food was amazing, but maybe that's just because I don't make a lot of money and can't afford nice food. Plus, it was super nice because I forgot to pack a lunch that day, and didn't want to spend money in the cafeteria. Win!
I've had the past two days off, which I spent grocery shopping (so much easier to buy healthy food when you live alone!), going out to Applebees and getting a slight hangover from their margaritas, and doing laundry. The only downside to this week has been that I've already completely worn through my work shoes that I got right before I moved down here. The sole completely fell off! I had to go out and spend money to buy new ones today.
I think I will spend my final hours in the hot tub!
Thursday, July 25, 2013
Saturday, July 20, 2013
Curses!
I'm back! It's been a while since my last post, I have just been getting used to finding a balance between work and play! I have officially been here in Florida for a little over a month, but it feels like much longer. Hopefully *fingers crossed* I will keep on track with my blogging from now on. I will try and update once a week!
The past few weeks have been really fun, but pretty tiring. I got sick a about two weeks ago, and had a horribly painful sore throat. I guess that is what happens when you work with hundreds of kids a day! Those little tykes can be covered in germs, and sometimes the real little ones will cough or sneeze in your face. Gross, I know. At the suggestion of my co-workers, I started taking Vitamin C pills to help boost my immune system, so hopefully that continues to work. In reality, I was only sick for about three days, but I am just a giant crybaby! One night, none of my roommates were home, so it was just me in the apartment, sitting very sadly on the couch watching Food Network (that's pretty much the only channel we get, plus the E! network.) and hating my life because my throat hurt so badly, and my body was in all sorts of pain. At 9pm, I couldn't take it anymore, and I got up and walked to Walgreens, which is just right outside the gates of my apartment complex. I dropped $40 on anything I could find that I thought would help me not feel like the walking dead, and bought the Vitamin C pills, a giant box o' green tea, some honey, disgusting mint throat spray, about six cans of soup, and some other stuff that I can't remember, but at the time I probably thought would make me feel better. It was probably chocolate. Or Hot Pockets.
Anyway, I feel so much better now, but the days at work have been a bit strange! When I first began painting faces, the kids I was getting were so enthusiastic about everything and were so pumped on becoming pirates. But lately I have been getting a lot of really quiet kids, or kids that will just sit there and not laugh at my hilarious pirate jokes. Some have even looked at me and just said, "I know you're not a real pirate!" Rude! I sometimes want to tell them to get out of Disney World, but I would probably lose my job, so I just smile and try to paint faster. It's also been strange because I have been painting a lot of "cursed" faces, which is our skeleton looking pirate. It's weird because from what I've heard, not a lot of people usually get the cursed look in the summer, because the makeup is so heavy and the summer months get a lot of rain. People's sweaty bodies mixed with the Florida rain, and some heavy black and white paint is not a good time for anyone. Here is what the cursed look looks like:
They tell us here around PL (my abbreviation for Pirates League that I will use from now on!) that Halloween is like our Christmas, because EVERYONE and their mom wants to be a pirate, especially a skeleton pirate, so we tend to see more cursed pirates in September and October. Why we are seeing them now, I'm not sure, but it is good practice for when I will have to paint a ton of them for Halloween! And speaking of curses, another bout of bad luck I had recently...
I was finally late for work for the first time. :(
It was through no fault of my own, but I still hate when I am late for work (even though in my personal life, all of my friends will say I am exceptionally good at making people wait). I don't have a car down here, but luckily Disney is amazing and has a transportation system set up for us college programmers and it will take us to every single Disney location, as well as to grocery stores, shopping outlets, and the post office. However, the transportation system here is not exactly well known for being timely (hey! guess we have that in common.) and the other day as I was riding the B bus on the way to the Magic Kingdom, we got stuck behind a giant construction truck. The B bus stops at Disney's Polynesian Resort as well as the Grand Floridian Resort before it goes to the Magic Kingdom. It had arrived on time everywhere else, and things were looking good! But as soon as we get to the Polynesian, we stop. The driver honks and honks and honks her horn, but there is no one there to move the truck, and we are stuck. It looks too narrow to drive by the truck, and we cannot back up, so we just sit there. For forty minutes. All of us sitting on the bus know that we won't get in trouble for the bus being late, but it is still pretty annoying. We all call in to work to let them know what is going on, and they are very helpful in making sure we don't get a point added to our record card (too many points can earn you a reprimand...too many reprimands will get you terminated!). And finally, our driver gets the idea to get off the bus and assess our situation. She looks around the bus and the truck, and decides we can make it. She backs up the bus a bit, and we slowly creep by the truck. And not to say that this would have been helpful to do forty minutes ago...but SHE COULD HAVE DONE THIS FORTY MINUTES AGO.
But every story in the Magic Kingdom has a happy ending, and I ended up getting to work just fine, no points added to my record card. The day seemed to fly by, probably because my shift was an hour shorter than what it should have been, but I left for the day in high spirits. You can never leave the Magic Kingdom with a frown on your face!
Until next time!
The past few weeks have been really fun, but pretty tiring. I got sick a about two weeks ago, and had a horribly painful sore throat. I guess that is what happens when you work with hundreds of kids a day! Those little tykes can be covered in germs, and sometimes the real little ones will cough or sneeze in your face. Gross, I know. At the suggestion of my co-workers, I started taking Vitamin C pills to help boost my immune system, so hopefully that continues to work. In reality, I was only sick for about three days, but I am just a giant crybaby! One night, none of my roommates were home, so it was just me in the apartment, sitting very sadly on the couch watching Food Network (that's pretty much the only channel we get, plus the E! network.) and hating my life because my throat hurt so badly, and my body was in all sorts of pain. At 9pm, I couldn't take it anymore, and I got up and walked to Walgreens, which is just right outside the gates of my apartment complex. I dropped $40 on anything I could find that I thought would help me not feel like the walking dead, and bought the Vitamin C pills, a giant box o' green tea, some honey, disgusting mint throat spray, about six cans of soup, and some other stuff that I can't remember, but at the time I probably thought would make me feel better. It was probably chocolate. Or Hot Pockets.
Anyway, I feel so much better now, but the days at work have been a bit strange! When I first began painting faces, the kids I was getting were so enthusiastic about everything and were so pumped on becoming pirates. But lately I have been getting a lot of really quiet kids, or kids that will just sit there and not laugh at my hilarious pirate jokes. Some have even looked at me and just said, "I know you're not a real pirate!" Rude! I sometimes want to tell them to get out of Disney World, but I would probably lose my job, so I just smile and try to paint faster. It's also been strange because I have been painting a lot of "cursed" faces, which is our skeleton looking pirate. It's weird because from what I've heard, not a lot of people usually get the cursed look in the summer, because the makeup is so heavy and the summer months get a lot of rain. People's sweaty bodies mixed with the Florida rain, and some heavy black and white paint is not a good time for anyone. Here is what the cursed look looks like:
I was finally late for work for the first time. :(
It was through no fault of my own, but I still hate when I am late for work (even though in my personal life, all of my friends will say I am exceptionally good at making people wait). I don't have a car down here, but luckily Disney is amazing and has a transportation system set up for us college programmers and it will take us to every single Disney location, as well as to grocery stores, shopping outlets, and the post office. However, the transportation system here is not exactly well known for being timely (hey! guess we have that in common.) and the other day as I was riding the B bus on the way to the Magic Kingdom, we got stuck behind a giant construction truck. The B bus stops at Disney's Polynesian Resort as well as the Grand Floridian Resort before it goes to the Magic Kingdom. It had arrived on time everywhere else, and things were looking good! But as soon as we get to the Polynesian, we stop. The driver honks and honks and honks her horn, but there is no one there to move the truck, and we are stuck. It looks too narrow to drive by the truck, and we cannot back up, so we just sit there. For forty minutes. All of us sitting on the bus know that we won't get in trouble for the bus being late, but it is still pretty annoying. We all call in to work to let them know what is going on, and they are very helpful in making sure we don't get a point added to our record card (too many points can earn you a reprimand...too many reprimands will get you terminated!). And finally, our driver gets the idea to get off the bus and assess our situation. She looks around the bus and the truck, and decides we can make it. She backs up the bus a bit, and we slowly creep by the truck. And not to say that this would have been helpful to do forty minutes ago...but SHE COULD HAVE DONE THIS FORTY MINUTES AGO.
But every story in the Magic Kingdom has a happy ending, and I ended up getting to work just fine, no points added to my record card. The day seemed to fly by, probably because my shift was an hour shorter than what it should have been, but I left for the day in high spirits. You can never leave the Magic Kingdom with a frown on your face!
Until next time!
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