2 weeks away from "home"

hello all!
so these past two weeks i have been away from my "home" of fantasyland! last week i was in UTAH! and this week i have been deployed to work in downtown disney!
so last wednesday i texted my dad to say that i missed him and i hoped that he had a good day at work. pretty soon after i sent the text he called me and said "when can you come home?" so i am guessing he was missing me just a little :) i said that i wasn't really sure... it is pretty hard for me to get work off. he said that this weekend (now last weekend) would be great because it was amanda's birthday, he had work off, and he was going boating. always the boating. hahaha. but anyways, i knew that a lot of part-time people were really fighting to get hours, so i said i would call him back in a little and see what i could do. ten minutes later i had five days off and a potential plane ticket! and by 10 am the next morning i was in salt lake! THANK YOU DAD!
I had an amazing week back home and i seriously miss utah so much. i had gotten over the homesickness but now it is definitely back. poop. haha. Me and dad weren't able to pull off a plan so that we could surprise mom, but i did get to surprise amanda! her last region tennis match was at roy the day i got to utah so she saw me for the first time in the stands for her last high school game! i was worried i would throw off her groove but she played so good and ended up winning! go amanda! i also got to see her play in her region tournament which she did so well in... i am so proud of you amanda! i am so glad i got to see her play tennis because i missed all of her varsity time last year even though i was just in provo. for her birthday we spent the night at the grand america and shopped at city creek! we had so much fun! i freaking love the grand! we have stopped going at christmas but i think we will start again after this trip :)
the night we were in salt lake was also miss mackynzie's birthday party in provo so i drove down there and partied with my BYU ladies for a night! oh my goodness... I MISS BYU! I cannot wait to go back there in January! i just love the people there and the atmosphere and yeah. judge me! i love it! back in logan i got to see all my friends, eat betos, wear cozy clothes and not sweat to death.. it was the best! one of my very favorite things was the last day i was in town me and amanda drove up logan canyon to get raspberry shakes. it was so beautiful. oh my gosh i want to cry when i think of it. we made a stop at beaver and it had just rained a little bit... it smelled so good, the weather was perfect, and the leaves were sooo pretty. i have decided logan canyon is seriously my heaven on earth. i miss it like crazy. oh! almost forgot. i also got to go to the logan high homecoming game. super senior? never! go grizz! it was great :) (we won, duh.)

so after a lovely flight in first class (thank you delta american express!) and some held back tears on the cache valley express i was back in orlando. as soon as i got to wdw property i headed over to downtown disney costuming! had to get 2 new costumes for the shops where i am working which are D Street and the Disney Quest Emporium on the west side. oh my goodness. they are ugly. hahaha.
so D Street is like the hip adult apparel store. we have lots of art and star wars and marvel and stuff like that. it's also the headquarters for the vinylmation collectables. i had no idea what i was doing with those because i am only familiar with pin trading in fantasyland, but it is pretty similar. they come in sets... but there's a lot more mystery to it. there is also a lot of one-of-a-kind vinylmations. but yeah so basically it's really expensive and i would not suggest getting into it. there are some people that FREAK out about it. right when i came in for my shift one girl came in with this fancy shoe holder thing she converted to a vinylmation holder.. she had 48 in there! and these things aren't that small! so yeah we have a little mystery cupboard we trade with and there are all these rules cause people try and cheat the system and yeah. good stuff!
at d street there is also a cart i have to work, not too bad. my favorite position was probably the "create your own" table. we give little kids blank pieces of paper in the shape of a vinylmation and they color it. simple, but they really like it. when they are done we have them sign their name and hang it up on the wall for everyone to see! good stuff.
oh i almost forgot. this weekend in downtown disney was the frankenweenie weekend. it's the new tim burton movie coming out. d street was also the headquarters for all of that shiz so we had some super weird people coming in. sorry to be stereotyping but a lot of people who like that stuff are straight up scary. hahaha. but they had a meet and greet with jack and sally, so people were FREAKING out. it was the hugest line i have ever seen for a character, and i've seen lots. also there was a picture spot in some fake pet cemetery and special screenings at the AMC of other tim burton movies. so yeah. woo hoo.

so today I was in Disney Quest! Disney Quest is the interactive theme park located in downtown disney. the "emporium" is the exit shop for it. today. was. so. slow. and i worked for 10 hours! that is the longest shift i have ever had! oh my goodness! but i lived. there is nothing too interesting about it, except i did get rotated up to the 'gallery' once. i wasn't supposed to but i guess they were short or something? the gallery is actually in disney quest and you have to help with the rides a little bit. so as i said they are interactive so you get to create almost everything you do. so at the gallery you can boy a toy you designed, buy a dvd of you riding a ride you created, burn a cd of a song you made, or buy the drawing of a character you learned to draw in our little lessons. it was cool, but i literally sold one thing the whole time. so slow. but i guess it does do pretty well? i just had a slow day. while i was working there i met this really sweet lady named Patty. unlike so many people that work at disney on the 'front lines' she actually had a career and went to college. she was actually the CFO of a big company! she is a certified personal accountant and really successful. she now just works at home a little and has become a stay-at-home mom. well sort of. she picked up a part time job at disney to get all of her kids in the park! she was so cool to talk to. you could tell she was really bright and ambitious and now that she had achieved all of her goals she was ready to be a mom. we were good pals.
so overall working at downtown disney hasn't been that bad. by the way, being deployed means i am only there for a week! basically they are overstaffed and needed to move us out. downtown disney is SO different though. obviously they dont have tunnels and they dont really have backstage areas.. so i can walk through all of downtown disney in my costume and not get in trouble. that blew my mind. also, they call breaks 'breaks' here! and you can talk about them onstage! as well as going to the bathroom, when you get off.. etc. we would get in big trouble for that! yesterday one girl whipped out her phone during a slow time, i'm pretty sure my jaw hit the floor. hmmm, we also have to clock out on the dot here, in fantasyland we clock out 12 minutes early... thats about it! basically its tons more laid back and super, super slow. very different.
one more funny story before i sign off! so when i was working d street last night there was this guy walking around like all day. he was in funny bedazzled shorts, a rockstar button up shirt with some chest hair showing, and a nice little european looking hat. he looked like he was looking for something... i asked another cast member what was going on. i guess this guy literally comes like every weekend and just dances everywhere in downtown disney. wherever there is music, that's where you'll find him. later that night i was coming off my break at this underground scary place called nick's and he was dancing away with some drunk european ladies! it was so funny! so yeah, lots of crazy locals come to downtown i guess. good stuff!
hope everyone is doing well! happy 41st birthday to walt disney world today!