I love you!

I noticed today that I have 51 followers! Wowza! There really are no words to express how thankful I am that people listen to my rambles. I love each and every one of you for putting up with me.

For my fellow Fall 2010 followers - It has been so fun going on this journey with all of you! I feel so lucky to have met all of you, and I can't wait to actually MEET everyone down in FL! We are going to have the time of our lives, I can feel it.

For those of you following who haven't applied yet - Oh dear, I have been in your shoes! Reading blog after blog of people who are about to do the program and being super jealous! Trust me, your time to apply will be here before you know it! All I can hope is that you've learned something from my posts, even if it's just something small. I know I blog mostly on a personal level, but I hope I'm including as many details as possible. I know when I was waiting I really wanted to hear about every single little thing.

Really, it's just so wonderful that you want to hear about what's going on in my life. You're strangers, but it seems you actually care about what I have to say! Shocking! I know I'm really spastic sometimes and I talk all over the place...so wow. I hope to continue this blog and share the rest of my journey with you!

Lots of lovee! :)

Forming Friendships.

First of all, I wanted to apologize for not blogging as often as I did before applications came out. You'd think I'd have so much more to talk about now, right? Not really. My 'CP life' really just consists of thinking about all the things I'm so super excited about. And shopping. But I'll leave that to the vlog I'll be making soon. Anyway, I imagine this will be about how much I post when I get down to FL. I think it's a pretty regular basis, don't you?

Also, my original departure date was January 7, 2011. Recently, the people who have been accepted are only being offered a departure date on January 3, 2011, which is really what I would've preferred. I actually got an email this morning telling me that they're switching my departure date to the 3rd! I'm really glad. That will give me about a week or so at home before classes start up again.

What I really wanted to talk about today was all the amazing people I've met so far! You know who you are. They make me even more excited to get down there. I can't believe I've had the oppurtunity to form such a close group of friends before even checking in! We're making plans and we get to all be excited together. I feel so thankful to have met these kids. :) Unfortunately, not all of us are accepted yet, so you guys need to send lots of pixie dust to Molly B. and Emily!

Most of you know I already have my roomies planned out. I was going to live in a 3 bedroom at Chatham with Abby, Lyanne, Sara, Jennifer K., and Tracie. Unfortunately, Lyanne and Jennifer were not able to pick 6/14 as their check in date! Sadsiesss. I'd really hate to replace them, but I also don't really want a 2 bedroom. BUT lucky them they get to be at Disney a whole week sooner than me!

That's far from the only drama happening with the fall 2010 group. I think if you get a bunch of college kids together there's just bound to be dramarama, unfortunately. Everyone just needs to stay considerate of other's feelings, and not say anything obnoxious or rude, even in a joking manner. We're all doing this together. We've all did the horrible waiting game. There's no need to try to exclude or intimidate other Disney-lovers.

Really though, most people are so great and friendly. I couldn't have asked for a better group of people to go through this process with! If I were to give you one peice of advice (I feel like I've said that before?) it would be to hang out in the chats and check out the group even before apps come out. You'll truly make some wonderful friends, and it will make your experience way way better!

And last but certainly not least (omg, I don't post for days and then I write a whole essay!), I have a few more things I need to add to me 'things I'm looking forward to in merch' list.

- At most Disney stores, you have the ability to have your purchases shipped back to your resort gift shop, so you don't have to bother with carrying it around all day. I'm not sure what this includes on the merch side of things, but it just seems like a neat job duty. You get to help the guests fill out the paperwork, and then do something with their purchases. Like I said, I don't know exactly what that means, but I'm looking forward to it!

- Working the carts. One of my favorite blogs right now is Katie's.  She is working in Dinoland merch right now! She posts some of the most amazing stories, and one of my favorite things to read about is when she works at the carts. Apparently you might be the only one working that particular cart (and you may not make many sales) but it includes tonsss of guest interaction. You get to play around with it a little! I usually don't like working on my own, but I think this case would be different, although I'm sure it gets hot hot hot.

Sorry for writing so much, I guess I had more on my mind than I thought! Also, I'm going to shamelessly plug my philosophy blog right now - Philosophy: Does Your Brain Hurt Yet? - . I'm doing it as a creative project in my intro to philosophy class, and it would really help if you could follow it, even if you never read it! (Although it would be awesome if you did and commented!).

Thanks guys for putting up with me. I'll try to have a vlog up early next week. :)

This shopping for FL thing will quickly become an addiction.

Most of you guys know I wasn't looking forward to this weekend because I am SO bogged down with homework...well it got better!

Last night me and some family went out to dinner (is your family loud and obnxious when there's 7 of you together, too?) which was fun. But then as we were leaving, my mom was like 'hey, let's go CP shopping!'. YES PLEASE. I hadn't really planning on actually shopping so soon, but I was definitely game! I really wasn't planning to buy anything, just kind of browse and think everything is adorable and perfect for the apartment.

But anyway, we were kind of looking around the home section and my mom spotted a fold up hamper thing she wanted me to get. It's small, will be good to pack, and I think will work pretty well for hauling of my crap to the laundry. And right next to them was space bags! I'll definitely need those for packing, so we picked up a multi-pack of them.

Then we kind of stumbled on the bedding section, where I couldn't find anything I really wanted. There were these adorable tan, green, and blue sheets that I liked, but I couldn't find a comforter to match. The sheets are kind of polka dotted...well, it's hard to explain. I'll just have to take pictures.

So I kept looking, and I found some multi-colored bright polka dotted sheets that I liked, and a purple-y comforter to match. I wasn't really what I was looking for though. So I was having an internal debate of whether to buy them or not when I turned the corner and there was a blue comforter! ON SALE!

It matches those sheets I wanted, and then I got a green blanket to pull the whole thing together. WOW! So my bedding is done. I don't think it will match Abby's exactly, because the blue is not turquoise or navy...it's more inbetween. Buy I like it!

Then we started looking at bath stuff like towels and rugs. They had some cute ones on sale, but I wanted to keep looking. We found an ADORABLE shower curtain, but I didn't want to just buy it without talking to Abby first. Then there was this set of bath rugs (like one for the toilet seat, one for underneath the toilet, one for in front of the shower) on sale, but again, I wasn't sure. So I'll just wait and talk to her about it. I'll try and go back and take some pictures.

I was kind of in heaven in the kitchen section. So many things I would've liked to buy! But I've decided I'll go ahead and buy the kitchen towels and some other little things (cutting board, cheesegrater, etc) for our kitchen. I can't contribute something huge like a TV since I'm flying, but I CAN provide some kitchen stuff! And I think Tracie might bring some extra pots and pans, because I've heard you get like one frying pan and one sauce pan. Period. I like to cook, so that will not do! I can always pick up some cheap ones from Walmart when I get there, I guess.

I think I'm going shopping later again, too. I'll definitely take pictures of everything and post them soon. Oh, and congratulations to Cori who just got accepted to FSFB! YAY!

Now I have to get back to researching the Volstead Act and reading about David Hume. :)

Packing and other nonsense.

I've been working on a couple other lists, mainly a packing one. It's huge right now and I just keep adding more. I'm planning on editing it the entire time though. Once I start actually looking around the stores (I've been snowed in, so I haven't gone much of anywhere.) and stuff I'll probably cut some things off. I need to get out the luggage I'm going to take with me to see about how much I'll be able to fit in them.

Like I'm not sure right now if anyone else is bringing a wireless router, so I'll take it off my list if there is somebody. Or I don't know if Abby wants to buy the bathroom stuff is she drives, because she'll have more room. (Yay for 3 bathrooms!).

And until I start shopping for clothes (which I won't do until late spring, because I'm still trying to drop a size or two.) I won't know how many shorts I'll take. Or shirts. So on and so on.

I'm also going to start looking around for nice business professional outfits, since I'll need them for at least 3 days of training. And some nice dressy but comfortable flats, since there's no way I'm walking around a park in heels.

I know Lyanne mentioned that she wanted to split a room at Pop Century with me, so I hope she get's accepted soon so we can work it all out!

I'm so excited! *deep breathe* I've been re-reading all the merchandise blogs, and I've been trying to find out as much information as possible on the roles. Basically right now I just want to get this semester over with already. It's only week 5. Thankfully my classes haven't been too time consuming so I've been having a lot of time to do fun stuff...and chat a ridiculous amount with the D-Fam. :)

Also, I'll be test-running some new blogger backgrounds. Tell me what you think!

Accepted!

Done and done. I got the email at about 3 pm earlier today. I've been accepted for Merchandising in the Fall Advantage program. For the first hour and a half all I could think was "WOWOHMYGOD". I said it about 400 times during that span of time. There's no real words to explain how absolutely excited I am!

It was funny, because the day was so ordinary. Nothing spectacular happened, and I didn't get any Disney 'signs'. Actually in my psychology class I was chatting with Abby and Sara about how we are going to decorate our apartment, and we were all sad it was only hypothetical. NOW IT'S REAL!

I have so much I want to do now! Make packing lists, shopping lists, things I want to do at WDW lists, things I have to do before leaving lists, lists of things I want to find more information out about, decorating lists, etc. But I wanted to start off with a special list.

You might think I'm not excited about Merchandising because it wasn't my first, second, or even third choice. It was more like my 5th! But I sincerely am. The only reason it wasn't higher is because I've worked in retail before...but then this is where I realize that Disney merchandise is like no other. There are so many perks to it that I didn't even think about before! Plus, I am GREAT with retail. My boss at the shoe store loved me to death and said I was a great employee. So, this is a list of awesome things about Merchandising.

1. Guest interaction. If I'm out on the floor, I think I'd get so much of it! I can just stop and talk to guests about how their day has went, what their favorite ride is, what they're looking forward to, etc. Really have a conversation with them!

2. Two of my roommates so far are doing merch! And Kris, who is not my roommate, but is still awesome. It's going to be so fun to have someone at home who KNOWS what I'm talking about with merch-related things. Plus, there's probably a good chance we could have Merchantainment together.

3. Pin trading! I think this would be a lot of fun! I've never participated in this before, but I know there are a lot of dedicated lovers of this. I think it would be a great conversation starter and just...be fun! I know they wouldn't technically be my pins, but that doesn't matter to me.

4. I have experience in this. I am great with upselling and cash handling. I feel very comfortable behind a register.

5. You work with a team, mostly, it seems. Unless I was doing a cart or glow. I love working with a team like that! And I'm fine working alone in one location, I just don't like wandering around on my own looking for something to do.

6. Bubbles, waving, and other fun stuff. Have you ever seen those people standing outside of stores waving with a Mickey glove? That could be me! Also, I've seen people stand outside near the carts and blow bubbles at people. SO MUCH FUN.

7. This is the perfect role if you want to pick up extra shifts. I hear that as long as your trained in the system/register thing, then you can pick up shifts at any store. This would be so awesome if you want to make extra cash, or be able to say you worked in all four parks. I also want to pick up a MNSSHP candy shift, but that's for another list!

After I had a celebratory dinner, I came home and actually read over the invitation packet and accepted. I paid the fee ($104) and picked June 14th as my check in date. It opened up a whole new part of the website, and now I can read about discounts, cast stores, and a bunch of awesome stuff!
So this is all I can think of right now. I really am having a hard time forming complete thoughts, lol. I AM SO EXCITED!

Good luck to all of you who are still waiting, I know you'll get the email soon!