So Little Time and So Much To Do

Living in Florida temorarily will give me the rare opportunity to be a long-term tourist. Unlike someone who might move there permanently, I will have no desire to try to blend in with the locals. And, unlike a short-term tourist, I will have the opportunity to try to see as much of Orlando as my little heart desires. It's the best of both worlds! Besides the obvious (spending time in WDW and at the beach), there are a million other things I want to do during my 4-month stay. But I am going down there to work, after all, so I know I won't have time to do it all. However, because I am such a good, organized person, I also know that the key to getting stuff done is to prioritize. So here it is, my list of the top 100 things I want to do while I'm in Orlando (Kidding, kidding! I narrowed it down to 5.)

Busch Gardens

I've been to most of the other major Florida theme parks, but never Busch Gardens. It's basically like Sea World with mammals and better roller coasters. Like this one, a floorless coaster with the closest thing to a 90-degree drop I've ever seen. See the tiny people hurtling face-down towards the ground? "Space Mountain" this ain't.

Cirque du Soleil - La Nouba

I've always wanted to see a Cirque show, and I don't think I'll ever get a better opportunity. This show takes place at Downtown Disney, and I can even get a Cast Member Discount on the pricey tickets! Other things on my list may or may not happen, but Cirque is the one thing on this list that I will do...even if it means eating nothing but Ramen Noodles for a month so that I can afford a ticket.

Skyventure

Have you ever leaned really close into a box fan and said, "Luke, I am your father"? Then you understand how much fun a fan can be. That's the concept behind Skyventure, except that instead of simply causing your voice to sound like Darth Vader, this giant fan is under you and keeps you suspended in air, recreating the sensation of Sky Diving. Click here to see an awesome video of the experience. Okay, so actually this is nothing like talking into a box fan. But that's fun, too, right?

Sleuth Dinner Show

As a mystery enthusiast, I've always wanted to see one of these Mystery Dinner Theatre things. Guests at Sleuth find themselves in the middle of a comical, quizzical who-dunnit. It's sort of expensive, and doesn't involve flying (see Skyventure) so as fun as this one sounds, it's not exactly a priority. But if the opportunity arises, I will definitely take it. (Note to self: remember to pack magnifying glass and deerstalker cap.)

ICE at the Gaylord Palms Resort

An annual Christmas exhibit of Ice Sculptures at a fancy resort may not sound very exciting, but just look at these pictures! A giant ice slide, a giant ice Santa, and giant blue parkas for everyone! Cheesy Christmas fun at its finest.

The key to fitting everything I want to do into a short 4-month period will be pushing past the inevitable bone-weariness after working full days at the park. I'll just have to remember that sleeping is for wimps. I'll sleep when I'm dead! (Or maybe when I get back to Missouri. That would probably be a good idea.)

Some Less-Than-Two-Months-To-Go Musings

This past Wednesday marked the beginning of the two month countdown before I leave for Florida. Crazy. So I now have less than two months before I'm going to be living on my own, in a new city, working a new job, hanging out with new friends, living under a new, made-up name, going around with a new post-plastic surgery face...wait a minute. Those last two aren't going to happen. But the first few are! And not only that, but I will also be going to Disney World basically every day! For free! Amazing.

I've begun to sever ties with Missouri. Last week, I notified the nursery coordinator at church that I would need to be off the schedule starting in August, and my boss is beginning to look for temporary help for the office while I'm gone. Today, I even kept the cardboard boxes when we got in supplies at work. I'll need them to pack in!

I feel like I keep saying this here, but I just can't believe that this is really real. Every day I get a little more excited, apprehensive, reflective, and prepared for the whole experience. A while ago I caught a special on the Travel Channel about Disney World. And I watched it, thinking how crazy it was going to be to pass Graumann's Chinese Theatre every day on my way to work. Or to walk through Cinderella Castle on my lunch break. Unbelievable. In 58 days, I will be somewhere completey different, living an almost completely different life. And as scary as that thought is, I really, really just can't wait. :)

My Life Lately, in 696 Words or Less

Updates on a few of my summer goals:

• Work Full Time--Check! At least one thing on my list is being done. But, boy, is it being done slowly! Since I work on campus, a large part of my job depends on the demands of students, faculty, and administrators thrown into the full-fledged tizzies that are the fall and spring semesters. But during the summer, things are oh-so-quiet.
  They make working in an office seem so glamorous on TV...
  
  Last summer, working part-time, I felt like things were slow. But they were sort of pleasantly slow. In the "take your time with what little work you have to do and pace yourself so you don't get too bored" sort of way. But working full-time, there's just not nearly enough to do here. I've gone home early several days the last few weeks. My supervisor encouraged me to stay, because she knew I wanted the hours, but I just feel bad sitting around being paid to do nothing. In the three weeks since school got out, I have dusted every surface of the office, organized my work space, and even ventured into the dreaded "back room" to organize the mess we call our storage space. It's all stream-lined, cleaned, and de-clutterfied now. Which makes me wonder...what am I going to do for the next 2 months?!
  
  
• Volunteer--It's not my fault! I applied at the Make-A-Wish foundation, but they said they didn't need any help right now. So, basically I'm blaming this wonderful charity for my lack of volunteerism. It's all their fault! Just kidding. I know I really should try to find somewhere else. Someone out there needs help! But I just haven't yet. I'll get to it.
  
  
• Learn Spanish--This is going...okay, I guess. To be honest, I haven't been practicing much, lately. I need to get back on that! But before I got lazy, I was really doing pretty well. I can now give basic directions. However, they translate to something like this: "Left. Go straight and right at next to bank." As you might have figured out, I haven't really gotten to grammer yet. Hopefully I'll get motivated to do that very soon so I can stop sounding like I learned Spanish from a broken See 'n Say.
  
  
• Get Crafty!--Check! I dove back into crafts with a passion after my DIY binge at the ever-wonderful DesignSponge.com. And the one that really ended up catching my fancy was an old friend--knitting! In the last couple of weeks, I've bought knitting needles of all types and sizes, deliciously candy-colored yarns for hats, gloves, and scarves to come, and almost completed a bag. Seriously! The first project of my Craft Revival is almost finished! I started sewing the lining in yesterday, but here's a picture from a couple of days ago when I was blocking the sides:
  Instead of being completed and sewn at the top, this bag is actually designed to be finished on the needles--making this a very cute bag to carry my future knitting projects in! I'm very, very proud of my baby, so expect to see more pictures in a few days! I've already started my next project, even. No pictures of this work-in-progress, but don't worry...you'll get to see them (I know you were worried! Oh, come on. Can't you at least pretend that you're really excited to see these pictures?)

Other than these things, I've spent the rest of my time lately being robbed by homeless people, (He was drunk, my car was unlocked, and they arrested him. The only thing he got was some worthless text books. Seriously. I couldn't even sell them back. Worked out real well for him, didn't it?), unintentionally providing shelter for baby mice in the air filter of my car (This didn't work out so well for the mice...or for me! Smelled horrible!), and seeing Shakespeare in the Park (Unlike the other things mentioned here, this was a very pleasant experience.)

It's been a little crazy lately, but in a fun, interesting kind of way. And, yes, I just described being robbed by a drunk guy as sort of fun and interesting. Makes for a good story, anyway!

Remind Me: Why Am I Doing This, Again?

For the most part, it’s been a good week—I finished up the semester, working book buyback is going well. But today has been a little discouraging.

I was giving my degree audit a second look today to see if I was admitted to the program. Good news: I was. The paperwork went through. So then I started figuring how many hours I have left of required classes for my major. Since the semester is over, I have 60 hours under my belt, and have another 51, including my degree-required internship and Gen Eds, to go. So far, so good, right?

Both my current and former academic advisor told me that they thought I would be able to graduate early. So I was hoping that I would still be able to graduate on time even after my CP. To do that, I would have to finish up in 3 semesters after I got back from Florida. 6 of the 51 hours are a summer internship, so that means I have to take 15 hours per semester for the next 3 semesters. I should easily be able to accomplish that!

But then there’s that one stupid little requirement: I have to have a total of 125 credit hours to graduate. Even after I’ve completed all of my required Gen Eds, the requirements for my major, and a couple of electives that I’ve already taken, I will only have 111 hours down. That means that I will still need to take an entire 14 credit semester of just electives.

On top of that, I discovered today that I may have problems with my Honors College Membership. To remain a member of the Honors College at my school, you have to meet the General Honors Curriculum requirement, which basically boils down to this: during your first five semesters, you have to take five honors classes. Which I have done. But, even though I’ve read the requirements many, many times, I never caught this little jewel until today: “…in addition to the Freshman Honors Seminar.” This entire time, I thought that the Seminar counted as one of my five classes. So this means that next semester—my fifth semester—I am technically required to take another Honors course. But I won’t even be here!

I don’t really think this will be a problem. I haven’t talked to them yet, but I’m sure they will make an exception for a situation like this. And regarding my graduation date, I have been skeptical since the beginning when they were telling me they thought I could finish in 3 ½ years. So graduating a semester later now doesn’t really surprise me that much. But the stress is just starting to build, and with the problems I had with Student Employment last week (even though that’s all been resolved; I can work this summer), I’m starting to get a little discouraged.

So, today, for the first time, Disney isn’t looking so hot. I am having a few doubts, and today it even crossed my mind how much easier it would be to just stay here and finish up school as originally planned. I know that I still want to do Disney, but it just isn’t sounding as exciting as it did a few weeks ago. The reality of the situation is starting to set in and I’m not loving every aspect of it. I know I just need to work though it, though, and things will look brighter when all of this is settled. After all, none of these are major problems. But I guess I was hoping for no problems at all!

It’s a little cheesy, I know, but I’m just going to make this my mantra for the rest of the discouraging days (weeks? months?) to come: “All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them.” Know who said that? A pretty smart fella named Walt Disney. :)

"Rat Me Out to the Coppers, And I'll Do To Youse What I Did To Pluto, See?"

*Whew*. The last of my major hurdles has been jumped. I just finished paying my assessment fee, and yesterday I met with my Financial Aid advisor. So I'm all set there. Now the only thing I really need to worry about before Florida is whether or not I'm going to take classes (probably not), whether or not I'll get credit for those classes if I choose to take them, and how I'm going to fit everything I own into the trunk of my Nissan Sentra. Luckily, it's a pretty big trunk.

So, now that there's nothing more for me to write about (for now) how about some Disney fun?
I'm not usually a huge fan of those "Which ________ are you?" quizzes. Usually the answers are stupid, and the questions are easy to predict and manipulate. A great time-waster, sure, but not really all that fun or entertaining. However, I couldn't resist this quiz: "Which Disney Mobster Are You?" Turns out, I'm Goofy "the Gun".

My full quiz results:

You are Goofy "The Gun". No one was really surprised when you went postal following your unsuccessful attempt to rename Epcot Center after yourself. However, it was only after this incident that your ties to the mob were uncovered. Now, the whole world knows that you are the reason why Pluto can not talk. You just couldn't handle the competition, could you Goofy?

I played around with the answers, trying to get different results. They were all equally funny, and slightly disturbing. After all, who wants to imagine Jiminy Cricket as a high-profile member of the mob family? Oh, wait. That's right. I DO! :)

Take the quiz at http://www.quizyourprofile.com/disneyquiz.php, and put your answers in the comments section. Let's start our very own Disney mob!

To-Do List

Anyone who knows me knows that I'm a compulsive list maker. Going on vacation? Make a list of things to pack. Got a stressful weekend playing catch-up on homework? Make a list of what needs to be finished so that you can prioritize. Basically, I just love lists. They make me feel that, by naming what I need to do, I've already begun to conquer it. Great feeling.

I've got this huge adventure coming up, but I know that with great adventure, comes great stress (Thank you, Spider-Man.) So while the excitement still far outweighs the stress that may come later, I thought I'd start making some lists of everything that needs to be done before I can officially say that I am ready to go.

• Pay assessment fee
• Talk to advisor--make sure I'm not shooting myself in the foot by missing a semester
• Decide whether I'm going to take classes at Disney
• If I'm going to take classes, talk with Department head about getting credit
• Meet with Financial Aid advisor--make sure I'll still get my scholarships when I come back
• Talk with Career Center/Enrollment--make sure I'll still be considered a full-time student for insurance

While this may not seem exciting to you all out there in front of your computer monitors, that's not very much. Some of these things I've already begun to address: I've already talked with my advisor once, but he's new and he wasn't exactly sure what this would do to my schedule. At the time, I still hadn't even applied but now that it's an almost done-deal I'm going to press the matter and we'll look at possible outcomes. I've already talked with people in Financial Aid and the Career Center, but, again, we're no longer talking hypothetically, and I want to make a formal appointment just to cover all my bases.

That's exciting! I've still got months to go, and I'm almost done with all of the non-fun, base-covering technicalities. Soon, I'll be shopping for my apartment and planning how I'm going to pack everything I own into my little car. *sigh*. I love planning. :)