Just keep swimming, just keep swimming, swimming.....

The weeks just keep chugging along faster and faster it seems like! It seems like every day there's something new, and less time to blog about, sleep, or sometimes even eat! Just a bit of what I've been up to:

Touring Walt's Main Street Apartment // This month, the college program offered us a chance to see the inside of Walt Disney's apartment inside Disneyland. For those that don't know, it's above the firehouse on Main Street. When Walt would be using the apartment, he always turned the lamp in the center window on to let everyone know he was around. That light is always left on now as a reminder that Walt's spirit and dreams are still a part of the park. Plenty of celebrities who have done filming in the park or served as the speaker at the annual Candle Light Processional during Christmas time have been allowed to use the apartment as a green room. Beyond that, not many are allowed to see the inside, so this was a huge honor to be allowed a tour of a place where Walt lived and worked.

Our tour started outside the firehouse, where our tour guide from Guest Relations gave us some interesting info on Main Street. The street is made to look like it could be the main street of any town in America, in the "good ol' days". However, the buildings are all purposefully smaller than what they would be in the real world, to make it its own place and not too similar to any town in particular. The fire station was the second building built on main street.

Next we went backstage to a staircase leading up to the front door of the apartment. The apartment has all the original furnishings and items Walt and Lillian used, as well as their kids and grandkids. The apartment is decorated in Victorian-era style with florals, which was Lillian's idea. (picture at left from the Orange Country Register, from an authorized tour they took back in 2008) Original china and furniture are in the apartment, including two red couches that are hide-a-beds - one for Walt and one for Lillian. There's also a small patio outside right next to the roof of City Hall that you can see Main Street from.

Our tour guide told us all sorts of interesting stories about Walt, but three in particular really stuck with me. He didn't live by hours of the clock but by inspiration, and could be sometimes found out in the park at 2 or 3 in the morning, including one time in his bathrobe when he ran into two 3rd shift carpenters and invited them to have a glass of orange juice with him at the original Sunkist Citrus House. Walt's daughter says she remembers being in the apartment and watching him take out a piece of paper and pen, hand it to his grandson, and instructing him to scribble to his heart's content on it. When he was done, Walt added lines and figures here and there to create a character out of the scribbles.

My favorite story however, was about opening day. The Mousketeers were stationed around various windows on Main Street to wave and call out to people as they came into the park. A few of them had the honor of being in Walt's apartment with him. They have said they remember Walt standing back, right in front of the lamp he always turned on and watching the people streaming into the park as the gates first opened and simply smiling. It was an image I'll probably always remember as I stood in the same spot and looked out the same window.

Getting paid to be a Space Ranger //  Work continues to be great! Sure there are some days when it's "work", and I really dislike working until 1 am sometimes. But every time I go in it's another chance to make a guest's day, make someone smile, and generally have fun myself. In fact, today at work an older gentleman told me, "Good afternoon, princess," and another guy took a picture with me as his cruiser passed by. The kids are adorable, the adults are fun, and I get paid to work at Disneyland.


Celebrities // One of the more interesting aspects of work has been seeing a handful of famous people. Sometimes you never know who you'll look up to see waiting to board a Space Cruiser. I've seen Kevin Jonas, Jason Lee, LeAnn Rimes, Naveen Andrews and just  missed Britney Spears. However, my by far favorite happened today - Slash of Guns 'N Roses and Velvet Revolver. I'm quite sure I looked a bit weird staring and yet attempting not to stare at him (while saying, "Welcome back, Space Ranger, exit out to your right please!") , but there was no mistaking him. Out of all the rest, he's the only one that caught me off guard and left me feeling like I could just skip down the street at full speed shouting, "I JUST SAW SLASH!!!" It's actually really strange to be that close to a famous person, especially in that capacity and when you're a fan of them. My reaction process went something like: "That guy looks like Slash. He really looks like Slash, and I think he knows it. Does he wear that nose ring and those glasses to play it up? Wait....is that a guest relations tour guide with him? OH MY GOD IT IS SLASH. Don't stare. Why is he not getting off the cruiser? Should I ask him if they want to go again? OH MY GOD HE'S LOOKING AT ME. Probably wondering why I'm staring at him. Stop staring. BUT IT'S SLASH. I have a billion questions to ask him...oh he's gone. Where am I again?"

And then I was left feeling slightly stupid, a little embarrassed, and entirely elated because I'd just been part of his Disneyland Memories.

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Unfortunately, there's always some bumps in the road - I recently had the window of my car smashed out and my XM radio stolen. For their effort, they got away with a $30 piece of equipment that does them no good without the antenna. Ah, the perks of living in a city. Thankfully the window has been replaced now, and nothing more important was in my car.

And to finish up on a nicer note, I'll leave you this lovely photo that I entirely stole from my friend and Jobie sister Stephanie:

yay!

Stephanie and some of her friends came down for a Disneyland trip, and I was lucky enough to get to see her and ride a few rides with them! I've also seen Nichole, who's been the only one so far with the highly esteemed honor of seeing me at work in all my Space Ranger glory :) My dad and sister were also recently down for a visit, which I will post about in the near future.

Until then....

OH MY GOD IT'S SLASH! I hope he never comes across this blog and remembers me as the weirdo in the space suit staring at him. Also, I would like to know why a picture of Justin Bieber is included in the images that come up when you Google "Slash".

A Very L.A. Day

One of my goals while out here in California is to take full advantage of all the fun places around Anaheim. Last week, my room mate Ellen and our friend Kelly headed over to Hollywood to go to Universal Studios for what ended up being a very "L.A." day!

Our first stop of the day was 

Universal Studios! 

Disney offers a 3 use pass for cast members for $60, so it was a really good deal! We have 2 more chances to go together before the program is up! Universal is about 45 minutes from our apartments, and it was a really nice day for our day off! It was an interesting trip to the Studios since they leave a lot of the staging for Halloween Horror Nights up during the day. This led to some fun pictures with the props...

Ellen during this picture: "You're always touching disgusting things!"

Hey, he looks friendly!

Some of the props were actually pretty scary! I'm excited to go back for Halloween Horror Nights with my dad and sister this Saturday to see what it looks like when everything is all pulled together. Even though we only had about 5 hours at the park, we got to see and do everything we wanted to, including the new King Kong 360 3D experience that is on the tram tour. I am glad that I got to see the original King Kong experience several times before it burned down, and the new one is really cool! We also did my favorite, the Mummy several times, Jurassic Park, Shrek, and a few others. After a day of scary and somewhat gross props throughout the park, we ended with the "Animal Actors on Stage" show for a nice dose of cuteness!

 Before we headed out, we stopped to get some dinner at Universal City Walk. We decided to eat at Pinks Hot Dogs since none of us had been there before and it's a well known Hollywood restaurant! The hot dogs were huge and really good! I had a Guadalajara Dog, which included sour cream! It was definitely different. We also looked through some of the shops, which included a candy store with a giant Marilyn Monroe made entirely of jelly beans and 3 pound gummy bears. City Walk is a really fun place - they even have a Buca di Beppo's, a Yogurt Land, a store entirely of socks, a Bubba Gumps, a ton of other places!

Next up on our list was a really random place I wanted to go to. I have Stumble Upon added to my internet tool bar (which, if you don't have Stumble, I really recommend it! You just install the tool bar, click the "Stumble" button, and it takes you to a random and interesting web page.), and recently found a place called the Echo Park Time Travel Mart through it. Its a little time travel themed store that benefits 826LA. 826LA is a non profit organization for childrens' literacy and does writing workshops and classes. Well, as it turns out the Time Travel Mart is on Sunset Boulevard about ten minutes from Universal Studios!

Wherever you are, we're already then.

The place is set up like a 7-11, but has the most ridiculously random items for sale. Some of these included authentic chain mail, dinosaur eggs, robot emotions, jewels made from the future's smog, classic literature, an "extra 15 minutes at the meter kit" that includes 1 quarter, caveman spears, and Egyptian artifacts. The front window display has a caveman and a robot shaking hands, and the inside the shop is a board with flyers featuring requests such as, "LOST DECADE: the 1960's. Last seen in the back of my friend Steve's van." There was a also a case of donuts from the 1980's as well as this machine:

I will apparently not be getting a Slurpee today.

 The store also had books and collections of stories that kids had written through the 826LA program. I ended up buying a keychain and two "haiku" buttons ("I like to play with a screw/screws are cool like a peanut/you are very nice"), and was pretty happy knowing it was going to a good cause.


Our last stop was the famous Millions of Milkshakes. It's on the corner of Santa Monica and Robertson, and is open until 2 am. Celebrities come by pretty often for a photo op and to create a milkshake to be named after them. I had a "Miley Cyrus", who is apparently a girl after my own heart - cookie dough and peanut butter cups in a shake! They even have vegan ice cream available, and their own theme song (which was playing constantly and a really, really bad pop song). The shakes were amazing and I will for sure be making the drive back over there more than once!

It was truly a great day off, and there is more to come - this week we are headed to the San Diego Zoo! 

Kelly, me, and Ellen

 

 

* All pictures stolen from Ellen :)