No Longer a Newbie

A Few Corrections

Sometimes I wonder how my girlfriend became such an incredible, thoughtful young woman. Turns out the apple doesn't fall far from the tree.

After reading my last post, Hannah informed me that the care package she sent me was actually her mom's idea. And its contents were purchased by her mom. And her mom paid for the shipping. To her credit, Hannah did pick out the contents (which were delicious, by the way), but I'm afraid last week's gratitude should have been paid largely toward the tree that dropped that beautiful apple. Thank you, Mrs. Warren! Though I guess you need a pseudonym... We'll go with Pottscotts. Thank you, Mrs. Pottscotts.

Also, I was very surprised to learn that Hannah's brother, Búbbles, does not appreciate the connotations of his pseudonym. After debating whether he deserved mercy for having complained about the nickname I so graciously granted him, I decided he does indeed deserve a new one. Henceforth, for typical esoteric reasons, Búbbles shall be known as Leggstirdy.

Now then. On to the rest of the blog.

The Rest of the Blog

Summer is finally here, and the disgustingly humid days and afternoon showers have brought with them dozens of new Disney interns. Finally, I am one of the high and mighty returning interns, bequeathing my insight and knowledge to those less experienced than I.

Fun With the New Interns

It really has been fun getting to know the new interns though. The first time around, I felt self-imposed pressure to connect and "network" with every person I met, to make a good impression and not screw up in the incredible but overwhelming Disney Company. But now, having been here for five months, I'm much more comfortable with the internship environment and confident in my abilities, and it's taken that burden off my shoulders. Now I can just enjoy myself and get to know the new cast members!

It started with a delicious welcome luncheon at the Grand Floridian a couple Thursdays ago. The new interns had to be there all day for orientation, but the returning interns just stopped by for lunch and a big group photo. Rug and I both work in the Magic Kingdom, so we met up and took the monorail over to the resort, where we met the rest of the interns and ate a fantastic lunch that ended with fresh fruit and apple turnovers. After a squinty-eyed photo out by the lake, Matt and I headed back to the Magic Kingdom to finish our day at work. It was a nice break in our day.

Then, last Wednesday, Rug and Jongui and I went to Epcot to celebrate one of the new intern's 21st birthday with a tour of World Showcase. The birthday girl, Gamma (again, just a nickname) is one of the new Engineering Services interns that works with Rug, and with her were the other new ES interns and some of their friends/roommates:  eleven of us in all.

Those of the legal drinking age - so everyone but me - grabbed some drinks in Italy, then we walked over to Norway to ride Maelstrom. When we went through the ride and got to the unloading station, Gamma asked one of the cast members working there to take our picture. He replied, "Sure! But not before we take a selfie!" and proceeded to do just that, along with two of his coworkers. A fourth cast member ran over to get in the photo, but didn't make it in time... So he jumped in the boat with us for our group photo. It was very funny, and just pretty cool that cast members can create magical moments like that even for fellow cast members. You'd think, having so much backstage experience with Disney's "magic," that we would be kind of calloused to magical moments like that. But we weren't. Nor, I think, will we ever be.

After drinks in a couple other countries, we found a comfortable spot in England to watch the IllumiNations show. It was a fun evening.

Remember Francisco's Texas friend, Lingo? Well she's also back for an internship with Disney, after a six-month spring hiatus spent at school in Miami. So we've seen a lot more of her lately too. Just last weekend she, Francisco, and a couple other friends and I spent the afternoon at the neighborhood pool, then came back to our apartment for some classic Mario Kart (Lingo brought her N64!), pizza, and Disney movies. We watched Tangled - which I'd never seen before - and The Emperor's New Groove.

The next evening we met at Downtown Disney to see the newest X-men movie. They got there early, bought their tickets, and saved me a seat because I couldn't get there till just before the movie started. As luck would have it, they sold out of X-men tickets just three people ahead of me in line... So I bought a ticket for Moneyball and walked purposefully past the attendant checking tickets outside the theater showing X-men, no questions asked. Despite a bit of guilt felt at the thought of someone walking into the theater later to find no seats available, the movie was fantastic. Easily the best X-men yet. Maybe the 23rd sequel will be even better.

So yeah, it's been great having all the new interns around. Should be a fun next couple months.

[Free] Water Park Fun

Just this morning, Rug and I went to Typhoon Lagoon to meet some of the interns we met at Epcot and spend the day with them. For the past month or two, cast members have been able to get into the water parks for free, but we hadn't taken advantage of that until today. We did pretty much everything in Typhoon Lagoon except for the lazy river, from Crushin' Gusher to Humunga Kowabunga. There was even this place called Shark Reef where you could snorkel across the top of a pool that contained dory fish, manta rays, and a few small sharks! And the wave pool there is pretty epic. It's not like other places where the waves start small and gradually get bigger; this place just sends one massive, eight-foot wave every few minutes, and it just sweeps over everyone, pushing them ten or twenty feet backward. It's awesome.

By about three o' clock we'd finished our round of the park, so we decided to head over to Blizzard Beach for some more free fun. Rug and I rode the ski lifts up to Summit Plummet, a single 120-foot-drop body slide that accelerates riders up to speeds of 45-50 mph. It was intense!! There's several other large-scale water rides like that one, and an extremely long lazy river. We only stayed for a couple of rides, but still a great afternoon.

In the Name of Golf

In other news, next week will be my last week of physical therapy! My left knee feels totally better now, and my right knee is getting pretty close, so I decided I could take it from here using the exercises I learned from therapy. And guess what - I ran this week! For the first time in five months, I ran. It was only half a mile at a leisurely six miles per hour, but it was running nevertheless, and it came with no knee pain. I can't wait till I can finally run several miles at a time again; but that's probably still a few months down the road. Baby steps.

I also took a trip to the sports doctor last week for a follow-up on the x-rays they took of me last time. I arrived a bit early, expecting to just wait in a chair and dink around on my phone for a bit. Instead, the receptionist suggested I play some golf in the adjacent room.

Golf? In a doctor's office? You betcha. They had a putting strip with a putter and a few golf balls, just sitting in the room right next door! Nobody else was using it, so I spent the next twenty minutes trying fruitlessly to sink three balls in a row. I got two in a row at least five times, but never quite got all three. I'm considering injuring myself just to have an excuse to head back there and give it another go.

As luck would have it, we happen to live on the third floor of our apartment building, leaving approximately two flights of stairs between me and the ground floor. I'm half-decent at math, and statistically speaking, I'm pretty sure at least one of those thirty-seven steps is bound to injure me substantially enough to warrant another visit to the doctor.

Seeya on the other side, folks.