In Hindsight....

I realized, after reading some of my previous blogs, that I hadn't actually posted any pictures of Cassi's Basement. So, here ya go!

So much for the "Keeping in Touch" bit...

Turns out, living, working, and all-around breathing Disneyworld leaves one with little to no energy with which to do anything after the day is done. And I sincerely apologize. This is going to be huge.

1. Work. Housekeeping has barely more ups than downs, if you're the more optimistic person. Making tips, definitely AWESOME. Not making tips when the guest leaves a disaster area fit for a special forces unit: NOT awesome. Putting your hand in something wet and sticky without gloves.... *shudder* Don't even ask about it. But being the second highest paid College Program Cast Member (second only to the lifeguards)? Yeah, that's pretty sweet too. Quite honestly, seeing little kids' faces when they walk in and see the little towel animals I make and leave in the rooms is completely worth cleaning up after their puke, pee, and all-around stinkiness. (Honestly, can they smell themselves? Because.... they can reek something awful.)

Yes, someone saved every single last one I made for them and displayed them on their entertainment center. Elephant... if you couldn't tell...

Little Lady Monkey

(The rest should be easily recognizable. Plus, I've got much much more to write about...)

There are always going to be those guests, namely the ones from different cultures and regions of this world, that always do the strangest things. Not flushing toilet paper? Gross. Other than that, most of my experiences in this job have been on the more positive side of the spectrum. Until yesterday. The biggest lightning storm of my life woke me up at 5:30 that morning, and the storm continued sporadically through the day. One of my checkouts had smoked in the room (seriously, can you not interpret the universal sign of the cigarette in a red circle with a giant red slash through it??) and the impending smell seeped into everything in the room.... and I couldn't get it out. I ended up calling my manager about it, but by that time, the guests had arrived and checked into the room, and were uber pissed about the nasty smell. (in my defense, check in is after 3:00 p.m.; this was like 1:00 p.m. For serious.) I had to completely clean the room again, which set me behind the rest of the day. I ended up finishing 45 minutes late, which my manager didnt' like at all, which landed me my first reprimand. Awesome. I also met an amazing girl who helped me get the hang of my rooms and came around when she was done (or vice versa) to help finish. I miss her so much; the end of February was the end of her International Program, and she went home to Melbourne, Australia. Miss you Elissa!

Elissa and I: her last night in Orlando, dancing the night away at the House of Blues.

2. Home. Surprisingly (miraculously, really), all eight of us living in this apartment got along great in the beginning. We went shopping together, the girl living in the room with me was great, life was good.

Well, the girl in the room with me decided after two weeks, it was just too hard and packed everything up and went home. (She worked in merchandising at Magic Kingdom; she slept in the apartment maybe two nights, all the rest of the time with her parents, who stayed down here that entire two weeks in various hotel rooms. This was "her" decision. Right.)

Two other girls here turned out to love alcohol and wild parties, and that's led to a couple potential mishaps here (where we live in a "wellness" apartment, alchohol isnt' allowed inside, since we're all underage. Like that's stopping anyone.) {Sidenote: Honestly, what is the draw of alchohol? What is so attractive about getting drunk, making life-altering and sometimes -threatening decisions, throwing up over everyone and everything in range, passing out, and not remembering any of this "fun" the next morning? I guess I just don't see the awesome, spectacular "fun" of it.} They're great girls, and a laugh to be around when they're sober, but if anything happens where security shows up and they're drunk off their butts, I'm gonna start pointing.

One is an amazing cook, and actually cooked us all dinner that first Friday we were together. DeAnna is so fun, and has such a cute personality! She loves Hello Kitty (which is great, because Japan has a whole section dedicated to her), novelty ice trays and going out dancing. She has truly blossomed from the shy girl into a proud woman.

Two have become my best friends down here. Both from the Chicago area, they actually flew the same plane down here (along with little miss chef!), actually sat next to each other on the plane, and ended up being roommates. Small world!

Kellie takes pictures of EVERYTHING--quite literally. I dont' really know how she affords to get them all printed out too! She's a housekeeper like me at the Caribbean Beach Resort (way cooler than All-Star Sports.... at least they have pirates of the caribbearn rooms there....) She laughs at pretty much everything, and we actually had a food fight during the dinner DeAnna cooked for us. That.... was.... well, it was fun, to say the least. We share ideas for towel animals, go to the parks together, the like. It's pretty much great.

Kellie and DeAnna

Stephanie.... well. Her and I, we were pretty much made for each other. We make fun of every situation possible, have the same dry, irritating sarcasm, and really couldn't give a damn about a lot of the drama going on in the rest of the apartment. She has really honestly been my one bit of sanity by being someone to talk to that understands the ridiculousness of some of the things that go on here, and is always able to help me cool down after a long crazy day. We do pretty much everything together, which can be a bit hard at times since my work shifts go from 8:00 am to 4:30 pm everyday I work, and most of the time she's lucky to be off work by midnight.... Today, one of my glorious days off this week, I went and bought her a french pastry and took it to her at work (which is pretty much the same place I bought it [EPCOT]). It's the little things, you know? Her and I share food, share fun, and now (thank goodness) we share a room too!

No, actually, we dont' have too much fun. What are you talking about?

So, the extra bed left by the two-week roommate? Well, it got filled about two weeks later. Her previous roommates ratted her out for underage beer pong, and since there was no difinitive proof, got her moved to another apartment instead of instantly terminated. So I had a new person yet again in the same room with me (hang on--not going in chronological order, so this one was before Stephanie lived in the same room with me.) She's.... well, she's her. When she moved in, one of my other roommates, Carrie, moved out pretty much simultaneously, because she was nervous about the underage drinking going on in our own apartment, considering if they get caught, we all get terminated (I think they make it sound scarier than "fired" so it rattles us a bit more.) So we still have one extra bed. About a week ago today, we got yet another roommate... but beer-ponger moved into hidden alchoholic's room, which makes two girls moving out on me without even bothering to tell me. I just have to walk in on it every time. Anyways, Stephanie lives with me now and Jill is in with Kellie. Everything is working out ok so far.

I'm thinking this is all I'm going to write tonight. It's....almost three in the morning.

But definitely more later. I forget how fun this is!

Clarissa