Daddy Mac will make you...

August 27, 1992

Hello, again! Well, has any time passed since I last wrote on this thing?! I guess so! Man, so much has happened in the mere three months I was gone this summer! Where should I begin?!

I turned in all my stuff last semester and I just got my grades this past Friday. I got a 3.00 finally. The first time in my collegiate history! So, that’s an A in Advanced PR; a B in Graphics and Ad Copy/Layout and a fat C in OB. Grrrr! I’m not bitchin’ too hard though! This year I have Editing, Feature Writing, Death and Dying, Bowling, Interpersonal Communication and Promotional Strategy! Whee!

Anyway, this summer, I went back to Little Rock for awhile before I left for sunny Orlando. I was supposed to get this package from Disney before I left to tell me how to get there and what I was supposed to do once I got there, but it never arrived and I stressed a little. Then I got this phone call from this guy who told me he never received my acceptance material and wondered if I was still coming down there to co-op! I freaked! Anyway, the people from Arkansas that I met: Kelly, Julie, Leslie, Caroline, Angela and Brouke, all got their packets. So I said, “What-the-hell” and drove down there anyway! I mean, they’d have to give me a job if I drove all the way down there, right?! Anyway, I got all packed up, said my good-byes to Lady(who, might I add I am still seeing!) and shuffled off to Buffalo!

Kelly came down from Joplin the night before and spent the night at my house. We got up early the next morning (5/14) and drove to NLR to meet Brouke, who we were gonna follow. We met up with her and left about 9:30am. I really didn’t know either on of them very well, but we got along pretty good. Brouke is a ZTA here and she drove very slow on the way down, but she had the map and I really didn’t want to get lost! We stayed in Tallahassee that night with one of Brouke’s mom’s friends. Besides, my butt really hurt from all that sitting.

We got to Orlando by about 1:00pm after getting a little disoriented on I-4. But, eventually we found our way. My apartment was huge and on the 3rd floor. No. 1512, to be exact at the Vista Way Apartments -- 13501 Meadowcreek Drive -- Orlando, FL 32821. There we go! When I got checked in and all, I went to my room. My American roommate had already checked in and put some of his stuff away and left. I did see an English guy named John. He was on his way back after spendin a year at the Disney dream. Fernando, my French roommate for awhile, was there. He was short, 29, and had some wild skin pigmentation deficiency. He spoke French, Spanish, Portuguese and English. He worked in EPCOT’s French Pavilion. Fenn, my Norwegian roomie, was tall, blonde and about 25 years-old. Then there was Alex from Mexico who was 22 and Robert from Southern Mississippi and he was 19. Anyway, more on them later.

We had a brief orientation on the living aspect of Vista Way, ya know, rules and regulations, etc. Then the first week, Disney’s training class began, TRADITIONS I. This included a brief overview of Disney’s background and stuff. Then there was SHOWMANSHIP which taught us all how to be good little cast members and enjoy our work and put on a good show. I remember that was the first day we all got to meet Mickey Mouse. We all felt so important! We did a little skit after cruising around EPCOT to find examples of bad show. We were really disorganized and I got stressed out and threw a little temper tantrum in front of my small group. A girl, Christianne, who was tryin’ to hit on me I think, freaked out and no one in the group talked for awhile. We did our skit and I acted like the lady from SNL that does “like butter.” It was hilarious and it made me feel better. Plus a lot of people remembered me later down the road from that. Then, it was on to work.

My first official day as a Custodial Host at EPCOT Center. I knew all the trivia Disney liked to provide and I was ready for training. I got trained by a guy named Jeff for restaurant and a guy named Dan for streets. It was cool. The title sounds really stupid, I know, but it was an excellent experience. I worked in all the pavilions, my favorites being Norway (the women, you know) and then probably France. I hate Morocco. There was this weird chick that kept hitting on me, calling and coming over. She smelled so bad and she was so weird and ugly. Her name was Fatna, I think. She wanted to suck me! Grrr!

So, I like a lot of the Canadians too. They were really nice and pretty. I didn’t like working Futureworld too much though. Too many people and too much trash. I met some great people, though. Laura from Bowling Green, Kentucky, was my absolute favorite. The others were Heather, Chris, Trent, Terrence, Kevin and some whiny chick named Terri. I really miss Laura. We talk about moving to Atlanta together.

Anyway, more on her later. I saw John Ritter and Kriss Kross when they filmed a 4th of July special at the park. It was good. I saw Doogie Howser at Disney/MGM one day. I saw John Davidson another day, Rita Moreno another day and the guy that sings the Love Boat theme song another time. The All American College Orchestra was out there everyday too and IllumiNations was wicked every night. That was the laser/light show. Well, I gotta wrap this up now.

Maybe I’ll type some more later!