I Guess It's Christmas Time

As hard as I've been working, I've been playing even harder.

Friday through Wednesday, anytime that I wasn't working, I was playing in the parks.

Friday after work, I went out with Taryn and Graihagh. We took pictures in front of Cinderella's castle and went to T-Rex for dinner. I can honestly say that I haven't laughed that hard in a long time. Taryn even found a prince charming of sorts ;)

Saturday and Sunday weren't really that exciting, so I'll skip to Monday.

Monday night was Mandy's birthday. I made her a cake (chocolate cake with oreos and M&M's mixed in with chocolate frosting and oreos and M&M's on top) and we went to Epcot to celebrate. We met some characters and I got muscled out of a lot of the pictures and got mad about it, so I didn't even bother uploading those pictures. Dinner was good though - we ate in China and I got orange chicken and it was grrrrreat!

Tuesday was an eventful day. At 6:50 (yeah. that means I was up at 4:30), my boss Sidney took us on a backstage tour of the Haunted Mansion. We got to go on the ride, but we also got to walk through the ride and see all of the special effects and hidden secrets. It was awesome...yet early. Very early.

My boss, Andy, came in on his days off to give some of us from Fantasyland a tour of the parks and their holiday decorations. That started at 1 though, so before that, I got together with Theresa and Jillian and we met the fairies and princesses and rode some rides before we got together with Andy.

Andy took us to the Grand Floridian (they have a life size gingerbread house there - it's pretty sweet). We also went to the Boardwalk and Hollywood Studios and saw the Pixar Block Party Bash (whoa.) and saw the Osbourne Spectacle of Lights. This Osborne guy went nutso on his own house for the holidays...so nutso, that he bought the 2 houses next to his so he could decorate those too. So, they use millions of bulbs to create this:

(for some reason, this might not be working...i'll get it up eventually...)

Wednesday, Theresa and I signed up for Andy's other tour which started at 4, so we got together early and went to Hollywood Studios to meet my main man, Prince Caspian. I totally love him. As you can see :)

After we met up with Andy, We went to the Grand Floridian again, Magic Kingdom (to see the castle lighting), and Epcot. The places we went weren't the most fascinating, but Theresa and Andy were hilarious and talking with them was probably the best part of the tour :)










For more pictures from my facebook albums, click here.

Crazy

Ok. I know I [Erika] talked about this in my last post, but it's so monumental that I have to mention it again.

It's crazy that I'm done with my first semester of my senior year. Man. Time flies.

So yeah. I'm home now. Which... won't last for long.
My "break" is not really a break at all. It kinda stinks. My breaks are always crazy. Here's what's happening:

Dec. 12-16 in Michigan
Dec. 16-26 in South Carolina
Dec. 26-28 or 29 in Indiana
Dec. 28 or 29-Jan. 2 in Michigan
Jan. 2-Jan. 24 in Costa Rica

It's crazy. I am doing so much it's not even funny. It'll be good - I'm excited to go down to South Carolina to see my family, but I also kinda just wish my breaks were just that - breaks. But! I won't be bored, right? :)

In other news, I'm a freak.
I get songs stuck in my head like it's my job. Last week as I was trying to fall asleep, I had 2 different songs go through my head, neither of which I had just listened to. So I decided to go through the day [midnight to midnight] and write down which songs I get in my head. Here's the list:

1. That song from Hannah Montana when she is learning the bones of the body
2. “Don’t stop Believing” – Journey
3. “The Sound of Settling” – Death Cab for Cutie
4. “Beverly Hills” – Weezer
5. “You Can Have Whatever You Like” – T.I.
6. “Unwritten” – Natasha Bedingfield
7. “Hot and Cold” – Katy Perry
8. “Keeps Getting Better” – Christina Aguilera
9. “I Don’t Care” – Fall Out Boy
10. “Blessed” – Robert Randolph and the Family Band
11. “Bend and Break” – Keane
12. Some Christmas song… I can’t remember which one
13. “So What?” – P!nk
14. “Mano Mano, Beso Beso” – a Tagalog Christmas song.

The ones in italics are the ones that I actually heard. All the others just popped into my head for one reason or another. So, just to reiterate how much of a freak I am, the total came to 14 songs, only 5 of which I actually heard that day. Another sad thing about this list is that I only like half of the songs.... oiy.

That's about that. I'll do my best to keep this updated throughout my adventures... but we'll see how that works out...

Ok. Peace out.

Just a Dream

I know that I really haven't written anything in a while...my life hasn't been super overly exciting lately...and I'm kind of tired a lot, so I forget a lot of what's happening to me if I don't write it down right away.

My bad.

So what's been happening to me lately?

I've been working a lot. A lot, a lot. When I'm not working, I'm running errands and such. But here's a recap on my life in the past week...ish...

I was able to go to the mall last week with Mandy after I got out of class. We mostly just window shopped, but we also got to go to Borders and I got the TV show, Chuck, for only $25! That pretty much brightened up my life :)



Don't worry - for those of you not versed in the hilarity of Chuck, we can watch it together when I get back and it will be fantastic.

Yesterday was the last day of my class, and yes, the last time I would see my friend Tyler. Sad.


We also totally schooled our group project on Jones Soda. It's nice to be done with classes. Finally.


I also learned that it's impossible to take a normal picture with Jeff. It's just never meant to be, I guess.


The guy in the background? So weird. And he wears his shirts unbuttoned so that you can see his chest hair. Sick.

I also graduated from the Disney College Program yesterday. It's kind of insane that I'm coming home in less than a month now. Time has seriously flown.

Now. Something a bit more recent and memorable.

Today, I was able to go to Magic Kingdom with my friend and coworker, Taryn, but not before I made Belgian waffles for breakfast :)


Characters mistook us for sisters. That may be because we told them we were. Go figure. For a more comprehensive look at the pictures from today (and the rest of my trips to the parks from this year), click here. We got to meet the princesses and the fairies and we ate hot dogs and rode rides. Spectacular.

I really can't believe that I get to be here at Walt Disney World right now. It really is a dream. I've met incredible people and have gotten to do so many fantastic things.

But I can't wait to come home.

Love always,
Jessica

Precious Memories

Wow.

Is it really already December? Is this semester really almost over?? Am I really about to enter my last semester of college ever??? Unbelievable.

I'm not really sure where to go with this blog... I [Erika] just needed a breather [another one... :)] from homework. And I really really can't believe this semester is coming to a close. I also can't decide if I'm ready for it to end or not... I mean, part of me is. The part that is sick of homework, studying, and ugh. All that school stuff.

But then the other part of me says, "hold up!" When this is over I only have one more of these! Then I have to go out and be a real person?? What is that? Yikes. Scary Larry, man.

Anyways. There have been some significant happenings in my life lately. I'll start with the bad news first and get that out of the way. I worked really hard last week cause it was when all the stuff for the end of semester art show was due. I spent over $90 on frames, mat board, and glass.... annnd... none of my stuff got selected. Talk about discouraging. Oiy.

But, you live and learn - I'll just have to work even harder next semester. And hopefully I'll be able to reuse frames. Yes for saving money. :)

Some other significant happenings:

We had our village Christmas party on Friday and it was the best ever. I got Mr. Tickle!!! Yesssssssss! I love him. Kate got a nifty pen and a Harriet the Spy notebook, and Erin got a popcorn bucket, popcorn, and inside-out Junior Mints. They're very refreshing. :)

And as if that wasn't enough... we also got our Christmas presents from Jessica!!! Wahooey! She got me a spectacular Ugly Betty t-shirt, a notebook w/ The Office people on it, and refrigerator notebook w/ The Office on it. Marvelous. She got Erin a stuffed Piglet doll, and let me tell you. It's the cutest piglet I have ever seen. It's so fat! And cute. Kate got pretty much the best "necklace" ever made. I think the best way to describe it is to just tell you to look at the picture. So... look at the picture. K, thanks.

Also. Before anybody says anything, I already know that we all look like doofuses in this picture, but it's the only one we got of all of us w/ the gifts from Jessica.

In other news, Kate and I have made yet another friend. His name is Scott and he is a fascinating person. He has snakes (including a boa constrictor and a rattlesnake), he is a chemistry major so he likes to make balloons that explode [Timmy would love that :)], and he knows how to fly planes! Crazy-land.

We went to a Christmas party with him and that was pretty much the best ever too. Kate wore her new necklace and got lots of compliments on it. Oh, and I don't think I mentioned that the necklace chomps. Yes. Chomps.

Then... after the party, we came home. And watched What About Bob? and had a sleepover on the futon. Great fun, but not so much great for the back. Heh.

And! Happy Birthday Erin! We went to Applebee's to celebrate. And yeah, the waiter was definitely hitting on all of us. He wanted a good tip... heh. But we were on to his tricks, so we just left normal-sized tips. :) Well, normal for us... which is a pretty good tip...

Also. Our wildest dreams came true this weekend. Kate and I finally dressed up like the song "Low," - Apple Bottom Jeans, boots w/ the fur.... Baggy sweatpants and the reeboks [or in our case, Nikes] w/ the straps. Translation: we are so cool. ;)


It was a good weekend... despite the disappointment that was the end of semester art show. And despite the homework... which... yeah, I need to get back to.

So yeah, Peace out. :)

PS - Everyone should go vote for all the Red Wings for the NHL all-star game: http://fanballoting.nhl.com/