Not a great week.

I should set a disclaimer...this is not a sob fest, and will not be purely complaining. But it really hasn't been my best week ever.

I had an awesome time in Boston and Salem with Bernadette, Caren, and Katherine last week-end.

We saw the oldest bar in America, stood on the oldest unmarked colonial grave in America, went to a haunted house,

ate some amazing food, saw some awesome historical sites like Nathaniel Hawthorne's house,

birthplace, the house that gave life to CLUE, the sites in Salem that gave life to Monopoly,

went to the bar the show Cheers was based on,

even celebrated Halloween on Boston Harbor.

We also went to Harvard,

enjoyed some crazy parties,

visited Fenway park for its 100th year, but most of all, got to spend qualtiy time with friends.

So that was all wonderful. It was still one of my top 10 vacations. But there were a few things to put a damper on the trip and are the reason why I left the trip more stressed than on my way to MA, which completely defeats the point of a vacation:

1. HURRICANE SANDY.

This witch of a storm made me miss school, work, and a funeral. I had planned to come back Monday so I would be able to work on Tuesday, and take my Statistics test on Wednesday. Our flights got cancelled over and over again and then rescheduled. I finally got home Wednesday night. Which would have been fantastic to have a prolonged departure if it hadn't been for the fact that I needed to be home. We really made the best of our situation though and didn't let the weather keep us away from seeing some things

2. My Uncle Roger and very close family friend Eleanor both passed away while I was 750 miles away. Not the best texts to get while on vacation.

3. I missed work. Which isn't the end of the world, but because I had to stay a few more days in Massachusetts, it increased the cost of the trip and working Tuesday would have helped out a lot.

4. My camera broke on the trip.It just stopped working out of the blue. It turns on, but the screen is black and it won't take pictures. Luckily Bernadette and Katherine had cameras, and I brought my old one because I haven't opened up my new one yet, but still! C'mon!

5. I missed my Statistics test. It was on Wednesday and I studied while on the trip and missed out on some sight-seeing just so I would be prepared. Worst of all, I've been e-mailing the professor and he hasn't sent me anything back yet. SO STRESSED OUTTTT.

Everything will be ok, I know that. But it's just a bit overwhelming at this point in time and I feel like I can't catch up. I started a second job on the 15th of October at Spartan Signature Catering, and that's in the Spartan Stadium. I have a great view of the hockey arena, basketball arena, and even as far out as Lansing. I can see the capital which is really pretty in the morning, and all the leaves changing colors is beautiful.

Another fun thing in October was Life in Color, aka Dayglow. I went with 3 of my cousins. Andy, Dan, Josh and I had a great time jamming out to house music and Steve Aoki crowd surfing on a raft!

Oh, did I mention it's also the biggest paint party in the world?

Well it's officially mid-term season and it's in full force. Countdown to last day of finals and taking off for Miami is in only 39 days!

My head is spinning.

So I didn't blog at all last month. Realizing that writing down more than just the highlights would take forever, I decided to condense it into a few pictures and bulletpoints:

1. I joined a group called UAB (University Activities Board) and I help plan and volunteer for various events on campus. I am on the films committee, which means I help plan which movies to show in the halls every week. NBC has a deal with us that as long as we fill an auditorium, we can continue to show movies before they come out for free. We just saw Pitch Perfect a few weeks ago, and next is Paranormal Activity 4. These are the shirts we got this year:

2. On the 15th, me and my mom went down to Columbus to meet up with my good friend Caren, who I met in Florida during the Disney College Program. She was coming to Columbus up from Western Kentucky University with her awesome roommate Jessie for a concert so it was half way for both of us to see each-other. There was also a Country Living fair going on that week-end, so me and my mom checked it out and got some great stuff :) This was a giant pumpkin pile!

It was an awesome week-end with some of my favorite people.

On Monday the 17th I had a doctor's appointment with my orthopedist for the first time since I've been back from Florida. I was expecting him to tell me everything was looking good and keep doing therapy. Instead he tells me the reason my foot is still swelling up and itchy is because the titanium is reacting with my skin. I should have known since I couldn't even wear normal earrings for the first 5 years I had pierced ears because my skin is so sensitive. So he told me that the metal isn't doing anything anymore but sitting there since my heel is obviously completely healed at this point. He advised me to get it taken out which is great news, but I thought this was all over with and something I would just have to deal with for the rest of my life. Not so apparently. The only down side to this is that I will have to have the incision that I've spent almost a year trying to minimize the scar on re-opened...and I will be in a walking boot for a period of time which will make working and school a bit harder to navigate. But that for a lifetime of better range and not so swollen foot? Worth it. I believe I will get it taken out in May after the semester is over and I have a few weeks off.

Lastly, the 22nd was my 24th birthday. I had a lot of friends over and we painted the town red. It was nice having my birthday on a Saturday. Amber, Mallory, Kaitlin, Jess, Mandy, Jenny, their two guy friends, Martez, Eric, Bernadette, Vicki, Erin, and her guy Tony, Megan, her friend Hailey, Robby and Brandon were all there for the festivities.
Here are just some of us before we went into Crunchy's:

So now it's October and I've planned two great trips to places I've never been before. The first is Salem, Massachusetts with my great friends Bernadette, Caren, and Katherine. We're going for Halloween, and I know we're going to have a blast based on what we already have planned. 3 more weeks!

Another trip I booked is for Miami. I have never been and I am going to go for my Christmas Break the day I have my last final of the year. I can't wait to see Linnette and Sofia, two of my roommates from the Disney College Program who both live in Miami. It's going to be nice being in warm weather in December :) I'm so glad that I left the program with friends from so many different places, and keep in touch with them even though we're not in the program anymore.

Wish me luck on my Statistics test on Monday. I'm not looking too forward to it but Salem will be my reward for a job well done!

1 year to go

Yesterday began the last year of my college career. I'm officially a Senior and it feels so gooood. The week before, I was able to get away from it all in Twin Lake with my whole family. It was my Grandma, Grandpa, Aunt Sally and her husband Wayne and son Henry, my Aunt Stephanie and her husband Brian & the boys Ben and Will. Then there of course was me, my mom, John, Tyler and Joey. The house was definitely big enough with 6 bedrooms and bathrooms. We were right on the water and had a great playground for the boys, a fire pit on the beach for us to roast smores, and a volleyball net to play volleyball and badminton. It was seven days of pure relaxation, great conversations while playing games, and getting to spend QT with everyone. We had perfect weather every day and me Sally, and Steph even went to Michigan's Adventure one of the days and went on all the rides and water park rides. Me and Stephanie even did the Rip Cord! 183 feet of soaring fun.

It was scary when we were being brought up slowly to the top, and I volunteered to pull the cord that made us drop. I looked at Steph and said "Are you ready?" and pulled the cord. The second that I pulled it and we started dropping was the scariest part, and then half way down it started being more thrilling than terrifying. Sally got some great pictures of us :)

The day I got back, I packed everything up and moved into my new apartment. On my way to the apartment, I grabbed Dave's pizza and brought it to Danielle for her birthday. Unfortunately, our friend from the Palace had her home burgled so we went over there to inspect the damage and console her. I got there at 10pm and my door was locked! So I ended up having to sleep on the couch, which wasn't that bad. Then I worked Sunday, Monday and Tuesday at the Inn. Yesterday was my first day of school, and it was seriously like the first day of high school with everyone trying to show off with their fashion. The only thing I got new for Fall are tennis shoes, and that's because I destroyed mine at Lollapalooza. Today at the bus station, I saw my friend Sarah, who I met in Florida at Chef Mickeys while we were doing our internships and we got to catch up on the bus on our way home. I love walking on campus and just running into my friends. It's so funny that I can do that with 44,000 people milling about.

My apartment is awesome. Welcome week was crazy with lots of parties going on til 4am, which was a total 180 from Burnt Tree. The people across from us in the courtyard were having a 21st birthday party. I got to show my mom and brother the apartment complex when they dropped some stuff of for me. I have a 24 hour computer lab with free copies, a free 24 hour gym and tanning bed, and a a rec room complete with pool table, flat screen tv and refrigerator to put drinks in while we are at the pool. Speaking of the pool, I got to try it out today with Megan and Lynsey. It felt so good since it was like 90 degrees out today. After showing them everything, my mom dropped me, Megan, Jordan and Brandon (Lynsey's boyfriend) off at the soccer field on campus for Sparticipation which is a welcome event with food, music, free stuff, and exposure to more than 350 organizations. There's even an MSU quidditch team!

I got the e-mail for the campus recruiter at the Disney booth so hopefully I'll be a campus rep soon!

My room is looking really good, and our bathroom is cute too :) I still have to hang up the curtains and my pictures but other than that, my bedroom is complete!

The piece de resistance of the bathroom:

Lollapalooza!!!

Phew! I am EXHAUSTED. I have had a very busy few weeks. I just got back from Chicago yesterday, and had to go right to class from it and take a quiz :( Definitely let me know my vacation was OVER! I had a great time though. The weather was beautiful when I got there. Jessica picked me up and we went to her apartment to drop my stuff off and Nick, her boyfriend was there working. His brother Mike was coming into town for the week-end and got there about a half hour after we arrived. We headed over to Trader Joe's and grabbed some supplies for breakfast and snacks. We made some delicious smoked gouda grilled cheese sandwiches with veggies and bing cherries. Me and Jess wanted to shop a little so the 4 of us went to some of the shops on Belmont. I got a cute ice cream necklace at Ragstock for $3! We went to Binny's and grabbed some drinks and headed back to the apartment. Then we played a few drinking games and headed out to a pre-lolla party. The cabbie was listening to Jamaican music and the warm night air was playing with my hair. It was a perfect night. We then headed over to a karaoke bar and I got to do a shotski.

Now, this bar had skis all over the walls and what they did was put holes into the ski and filled them with shot glasses. The employee lined us up in a row and held the ski, then tipped it so we could take the pineapple upside-down cake shot. It was delicious. So was the hurricane and "swamp water" I tried. We headed back to the apartment so we could be bright eyed and fresh for the next morning-Day 1 of the sold out music festival that is Lollapalooza!

Day 1 was full of good food, great weather, and awesome music. The first band we saw, Yellow Ostrich, had a wedding proposal on stage. She said yes, and that was probably the best week-end ever for them :)

Then we saw Dr. Dog, Sharon Van Etten, and Metric.

I saw the mess that is Die Antwoord while Jess got some grub, then we headed over to Passion Pit and on the way to the Shins we heard a bit of Dev. Because of the timing conflicts, I missed The Head and the Heart and also Band of Skulls :( While Jess stayed at M83 I went to go get some food, and when I was done with my burger and fries, we ventured over to get a good spot for the Black Keys. And boy was it a great spot. We were right up against the barricade. They put on an amazing show, and towards the end, the Bears pre-season game fireworks lit up the sky behind the stage.

Day 2 started out sweltering and sunny. Me, Jess and Nick went to the stage where Delta Spirit was performing and they put on an amazing show. I had never even heard of them, and the lead singer was funny as heck....but that's when it got bad. After Delta Spirit we started over to the other main stage and we realized A LOT of people were going the opposite way of us. We were wondering if we were missing out on some band that we'd never heard of or something.

Then we saw the horrible big screen that said "Weather Evacuation". So sad. Last year, at the Deadmau5 concert it was a torrential downpour and he still played, so I don't know why they decided to evacuate us this time, but whatever. So we grabbed some ponchos from the playstation tent and we took off. Jessica's friend Catherine lives a few blocks away so we decided to head over there and stay dry. We got there, but decided it would be a good idea to stop at the grocery store and buy some popsicles and other snacks. WRONG. BAD IDEA.

Sooo....we get to Jewel-Osco on Wabash and grab some vodka, popsicles, cheese, crackers, tortilla chips, and guacamole and as we're going downstairs to check out, we look outside and see debris flying 20 ft up in the air and trees bending. We just looked at each-other and continued to the checkout while people sat on the stairs, or anywhere they could go in the packed store. We checked out, put our ponchos on, and as we ran out, we were applauded with the occasional "They're crazy" comments. I could not see anything, I just looked down and ran for it all the way to 8th st. It was honestly so crazy we had to laugh. We must have looked ridiculous in our big ponchos, holding the hoods down and running full speed while looking down and running through what became a heavy stream of water in the roads and on the sidewalks. We finally made it and there had to be 2 inches of water in my grocery bags. We didn't care and headed on in. When Nick got in, he moved and a bunch of water sloshed onto the lobby tile floor and it was so loud and echoed, I had to laugh at the absurdity of what we just went through. But it wasn't over yet. We got upstairs and I asked Jessica's friend if I could borrow a dress so I could dry my clothes in her dryer. I changed into a black and white polka dot dress and Nick came out in a hot pink towel wrapped around his waist.

Catherine said she had a robe he could put on, and returned with a silky black and gold robe like the ones boxers wear. Needless to say, we called him silky for a while. We watched the news and looked outside at the rain, just waiting for it to let up while we ate mass amounts of popsicles and crackers & cheese.

When it finally stopped, we headed back out just in time for the headliners.

We headed over to Perry's to see Calvin Harris, then rushed over to Red Hot Chili Peppers. It was packed! So we saw some of that show and then went back over to Perry's for Santigold.

It was extremely entertaining and we had a very fun night. Mike, Nick's brother met up with us after the show and we went back to Catherine's again. Everyone then decided to get some Chinese Yum Yum..I kid you not. That was the name of the establishment. We all headed over to Catherine's friends loft which is actually one of Columbia's dorms and they are really nice! After we finished up, we went back to Jess' and crashed.

Sunday was definitely a fun day, if not my favorite.

We caught the shows of White Rabbits, Little Dragon, Sigur Ros, Of Monsters and Men, Florence + The Machine, Miike Snow, and to end out the festival, Justice. That was a packed house. We again went to Catherine's at the end of the night and just happened to get to her building at the same time she did which was perfect because her phone died and we couldn't get a hold of her. My phone had been up at her place since the night before too, so I'm glad me and Jess didn't get separated throughout day 3! After saying our goodbyes around 2am, we went back to Jess and Nick's apartment. I woke up the next morning and we left around 6:20 am so I could catch the Megabus, which is a great deal by the way. I did a round trip for $20 on a double decker bus with free wi-fi, chargers and fun people.

If anyone doesn't still know which job I ended up taking, it was the.....................Bed and Breakfast! I love it so far, and ever since I took the job, I have been getting calls from Aveda, The Hampton Inn, etc but I have to turn them down because they took too long to call me back and I already made a decision!

I painted the sign which was fun and years from now when I see it I will be able to tell people that I painted the sign...and the porch a little because some of the paint got on the bottom of my shoe :/ hahaha.

Finals are next week for my classes ending the 16th, then my whole family is heading to a town called Twin Lakes by Muskegon because my Grandparents rented a huge house for us all to hang out at from the 18th-25th. My official move-in date for my apartment at Abbott Place is the 23rd, but I will do it when I get back from Twin Lakes. It should be the same day that Megan, one of my roommates gets back from her internship on Mackinaw Island!!! Then on the 29th, Fall classes begin...YIKES!

Transitions

Talk about new beginnings. On Tuesday, my Grandma came to East Lansing to help me pack up the rest of my apartment because I have to be out by the 21st. We went to lunch at Brody hall and we always park across the street in the Kellogg hotel and conference center.

I decided to pick up an application in person because my application online didn't go through. I was going to fill it out while we ate lunch, but my Grandma suggested I just fill it out right there and get it over with. So as I was finishing up the application, one of the men that was at the desk when I asked for the application came over and asked me if I was finished yet. He looked it over a bit, asked me some questions, and scheduled an interview for Thursday at 1. That same day, after my Grandma left, I got a call from the manager at the Wild Goose Inn, a bed and breakfast right by campus.

I told him up front that I already had an interview scheduled with the Kellogg hotel, and he asked if he could still meet with me and show me around just in case, so I agreed.

Yesterday, I had my interview with the Kellogg and it went awesome. When it was done they let me know that they were interviewing a few more people and they would let me know by Wednesday either way. So I headed over to Wild Goose Inn and I stayed there for TWO hours. Me and Al talked about everything, and I got to see the two houses with 6 differently themed rooms. He has two German exchange students and one Spanish living in the house that occasionally help him out. Very cool.

So I leave that interview and immediately call my mom. Two minutes into the conversation, I see a call is coming in on the other line so I ask my mom if she wouldn't mind waiting so I can see who it is. It was the Kellogg Center, offering me the job. 4 hours after the interview, they had already made their decision.

I went into high stress mode immediately :( I went from not having any job prospects for a month to two offers in one day. I was hoping one would offer me the position and it would be easy, or at least one would stand out as the true winner, but they both are just perfect, great jobs. I know I will be happy with whatever job I choose, but I need to mull it over. So I had a crazy day of a chapter ending (moving out of my apartment) and a chapter beginning (new job).

This week-end I will be going to visit my friend Angelica in Grand Rapids, and we're going to go tubing! It's going to be a nice relaxing week-end, exactly what I need! Last week-end was fun too. It was my friend Erin's birthday and we hung out in her pool and went to Mallory's later and had a bonfire and hula hooped.

2 more weeks until Chicago! I can't wait for the sweet music to invade my eardrums :)

Wait...what?!

So, June is almost over and done with. It's officially Summer, and my weeks have flown by way too fast. The family reunion was so fun. I got to talk to Andy and Alaina about their engagement and my upcoming trip to Chicago to see Andy's sister, Jessica. We ate lots of great food, played corn hole, caught up with everyone, and it was a beautiful day on top of it all!
That's just some of our family. It was a great turn out!

Me, mom, Tyler and Joey went to the drive-In afterwards in our pajamas and watched Madagascar 3 and Mirror Mirror. But I fell asleep during Mirror Mirror :(

On June 14th, I got to see my roommate-to-be Megan before she left for Mackinac Island for her summer internship. We met up at Somerset to shop for some cute summer clothes, and I stopped by the Apple store to see what was up with my iPod. I had it for 5 years, but something inside ended up malfunctioning, which turned out ok because my replacement is silver, and 120gb, compared to my old 80gb, black one. I love it :) And it was relatively cheap to replace which was great for my not-so-big budget. Coincidentally, someone who graduated a year ahead of me helped me with the whole process. What a small world! We headed over to Partridge Creek after and enjoyed the live music while we touched everything at Sephora :) Afterwards, we went back to her house and had a nice going away dinner. I'm going to miss her!

The next night, my friend Joe who lives in Las Vegas was in town and his friends were playing at Blackstone's, so Sean, Danielle and myself headed over and met up with him.

I got a delicious creamsicle martini while I was there. We saw some people we graduated with as well...Nick Brisbin, Ryan Cawood, Cole Skinner, and I even got a glimpse of Cade Surface. It was like a mini high school reunion haha.

The next night was the highlight of the month!! Bernadette and Eric's wedding reception. They got married in Hawaii on June 9th and then their reception was in St. Clair Shores. It was a great night with awesome friends. The family style food was amazing, and the photo booth was so fun. Bernadette even called me over to have a photo booth session with just the 2 of us :) Jesse and I ordered a whole bottle of champagne as a joke, but the bartender produced it!
Here's a picture of me and the beautiful bride, Bernadette.
Yes I am dumb and wore an ivory dress to a wedding. Ooops.

On Wednesday I went to the Drive-In with Nick and we saw That's My Boy & The Dictator. They were ridiculous as expected, and my car battery died! Never a dull moment.

This past week-end, I became a certified wedding planner through The Bridal Society. The classes were long and intense, but went by so fast because I am so passionate about the wedding industry, and Laurie Hartwell was so enthusiastic about everything she talked about. She was a wonderful instructor and I would recommend her to anyone in a heart beat!

Today was my final for Hospitality Informations Systems and Thursday is my final for my cultural differences class. Next is Macro economics and hospitality human resources starting on July 2nd. Today I paid for my last month at Burnt Tree, and in August I start living at Abbott Place apartments. I also got a call today for an interview on Thursday to become a leasing consultant at Woodbrook apartments in East Lansing. I think it will be a very fun job if I get it! Tomorrow I'm going to go see Brave with my Grandpa, Tyler, Joey, and my mom.

Continuing the Dream

So I asked and you answered, I'm keeping the blog and continuing to update on my life. But I should probably change the title? I don't know. I'm going to keep updating it at least until I graduate from Michigan State University, which will be about a year from now. A year from now will be a very exciting time for me :)

Speaking of big events, today 6 years ago I graduated from high school. I can't believe it's been that long already. Sometimes it feels a lifetime away, and other times it feels like just yesterday. I suppose it depends because when I'm around my friends who I've known since then and beyond, of course it feels like no time has passed. But when I'm alone at MSU or thinking back on all I've done since I've graduated, I can't believe all of the amazing things that have happened in that short amount of time. I guess it's all relative, huh?

My subdivision is having a garage sale this week-end, so after school today I spent hours at my Aunt Stephanie's house getting the garage ready. There is a lot of stuff! So hopefully I'll be able to sell some of it. Whatever doesn't get sold will be donated.

On Friday, June 1st, Trisha had her birthday party. It was on a hot pink school bus that was converted into a party bus so there were 2 long benches instead of rows of seats. There were so many of us and we went to 4 bars throughout the night. It was a really great night that went by way too fast! It was great seeing some people that I hadn't seen in so long.

This weekend is the Kaczperski family reunion. It will be especially great because family is flying in from Florida, New York, and even California! I will get to see many of the new babies, and enjoy seeing my family, playing games, and catching up.

On Saturday, June 16th, I will get to celebrate my good friend Bernadette's marriage. She and Eric are getting married in Hawaii on June 9th, but the reception will be back at home so we can celebrate with them :) I can't wait to see her, she is such a wonderful friend and I love them both very much.

The next week-end is my wedding planning certification I talked about in my last blog post. I wrote a scholarship essay for the class and actually got in the top 10! Being in the top ten put some money towards the class, so I'm glad it won't be so expensive :) All my week-ends this month are booked!

Home sweet home

I've been home for 6 days today, and what a difference it is from Florida! On Sunday, I went back to Michigan State because I had three assignments due on Monday. Nothing like throwing myself right back in full-force! There was an arts and crafts festival going on on campus and it took all I had not to stop and just stop by some booths. I walked past the alluring aroma of fresh popped kettle corn, home-made giant ice cream cookie sandwiches, unique pottery and art, and awesome Michigan state blankets. Then I dove right into my powerpoint slides and papers. I got done in 8 hours, and when I came back out, everything was gone, like it had never even been there. I was so sad. I was going to reward myself with something :( I was thinking that a week ago, the sunday before that, my Grandma had come into town, we went to the movies and saw the Hunger Games, and then I went to House of Blues with Irene, Caren, Sam, Lauren, Vincent, Mike, Linnette, Sarah and Sofia. I'm really going to miss that.

I'm also going to miss coming home to Chatham Square and being greeted with "Welcome home" every time. That was so nice and I definitely got used to it. Also, I would get more compliments in a week in Florida than I do in a year in Michigan. My self-esteem got boosted 100% while I was in Orlando. It's beautiful here in Michigan, with no humidity and green SOFT grass, but I got so spoiled with no class work for 5 months that it's a real buzz kill to be back at it, and back to no social life.

When I got back to East Lansing, that night I went out to Champps with Sara La Rue, and we got to catch up with each other and talk about everything. It was especially nice because she said her job is hiring so we might get to work together!

It's really nice getting to spend more time with my family. Since I've been back, I've gotten to see my grandparents and Aunt Steph and the boys almost every day. My Aunt Steph moved about 2 blocks away from where I live, so I can see her whenever I want! Me and the boys went on a bike ride yesterday (I hadn't been on a bike in about 4 years, and it's true that they say it's easy to pick up again) and we stopped by Stephanie's and Tyler and Joey showed Ben and Will their new bikes. It's really nice getting to spend so much time together, especially in this hard time for my Grandma since GG passed away. It was so unfair to her that she had to be stuck with me in Ohio when we got the call on the way back up to Michigan. I felt really really bad. She, of course, took it like a champ. She's such a strong woman and I really admire her. She is so generous, offering to drive back up with me, and we had the best time in Florida and on the drive up until then. I really missed her! And everyone else. I wasn't looking forward to coming back, but now that I'm back and in the swing of things, it's pretty nice.

My family reunion is coming up next month and it'll be great to see everyone and hang out. I've lost 20 lbs since I arrived in Florida, so I wonder if anyone will notice! I guess that's what happens when you go from not walking for 4 months to being on your feet for 12+ hours a day!

Next month, I'm taking a wedding certification class and I'm really excited to learn more about the industry and have more knowledge. The certification is internationally acknowledged, so that will be good for my resume :)

So....I got pooped on

I was deployed to Chef Mickey's for a week, and let me tell you, it was a total 180 from Kona cafe. Where Kona does about 300 for breakfast, Chef Mickey's did about 1,200-1,400 people. My first day, I had to get a locker and the first 2 I tried didn't work :( Finally on the third try, I got one that worked. So I got upstairs and introduced myself to the manager, April, who was awesome! She gave me a little pamphlet with all the table numbers that I had to memorize so I could seat guests. There are 3 rooms, one with an upper and lower deck. One room there was our whole restaurant at Kona. The days went by so fast, and I even met someone else from Michigan State who was deployed. Sarah, also a hospitality major, got deployed from Olivia's at Old Key West. I got along with everyone at Chef Mickey's, and everything was so efficient and organized.

On my third day there though, I got pooped on! Now, at the Contemporary, the monorail goes through the hotel, so both sides have huge holes in them for the monorail to go through. So....birds are constantly flying around. I didn't' even know I got pooped on until Caren came up to me and was like, you have something in your hair. She started to try to pick it out and I asked what it was and she said "Umm, I'm not sure..." so we were laughing/mortified when we found out. Carolyn, one of the assigners was like,"Welcome to the club!" So I didn't feel so bad. The second day me and Caren were there, Chef Mickey's got 30 days without an accident, so we got king size Crunch and Snicker's bars. The last day we were at Chef Mickey's, it was someone's 10 year anniversary with Disney and she got a huge cheesecake with strawberries and whipped cream, and we got to have some of that. We always got fed in the morning before work and after as well. We definitely didn't go hungry there! The outfit we wore was a button up white long sleeved shirt, a red mickey tie, and black pants. The only problem was that sometimes when I bent over, I got a little wedgie...well one day I was pushing a cart and got one and Caren said "Will you hold the door open?" and I said "My wedgie butt can." and I hit the door open with my hip. Well, one of the chefs heard me, and was laughing so hard. The next day, he asked me how my wedgie was. SO EMBARRASSING!!!

The Cinco de Mayo party on the 2nd was very fun, with yummy tacos, a DJ dance party, and pictures with the characters. Me, Linnette, and Sarah were hanging out and we took Sofia's mustache glasses so took pictures with that and the cactus centerpiece, and I borrowed a sombrero from one of the cast members. I found a tamale corn husk doll and we named her Margarita Consuelo Gonzalez.

On Sunday, May 6th, me, Caren, Irene, and one of the Kona Servers Alanna, went to Cocoa beach. It was such a beautiful day. We went to the shops, and I got a great Bob Marley sweatshirt and Volcom jean shorts from Ron Jon, and we stopped at a Shaved Ice shop and I got something I've never gotten before- cherry and grape, but it had vanilla ice cream at the bottom, so when the flavor went to the bottom, the ice cream got the flavor. It was soooo good.

On May 7th, we had our College Program final party. It was at Typhoon Lagoon, and we got to ride the rides and there was a dance party on the beach from 7-11pm. We got eye patches, t-shirts, sunglasses, bandannas, beach balls, and pictures with pirates. The food was awesome too. There was salad, mashed potatoes, buffalo chicken balls, rolls, and veggies. And we got all the Mickey Bars, Cookies n'Cream ice cream sandwiches, and pineapple and strawberry popsicles. It was raining, so it was a good thing we were wet anyway!

At the end of the night, they even set off fireworks for us! It was a magical night!



On May 8th and 9th, my Aunt Sarah Jane and Uncle Bill visited me one last time before I had to head back to Michigan. We got to go to Sea World

and we went to the Hoop-de-doo review for dinner. Uncle Bill got picked to go onstage and was an angel in a dress and halo.

He even mooned the audience!!! It was hilarious. He got a certificate and pictures when the show was over.



May 10th was our Graduation party. Sonny's bbq catered it, and it was delicious. I got a picture with Minnie and Mickey with my mickey ears I got for graduation.

Me and my roommates also got our picture with Donald and Daisy.

Afterwards, me, Courtni, and Courtni's roommate went to Beaches N' Cream and got ice cream :)

I got the No Way Jose, which is peanut butter sauce, hot fudge, and vanilla and chocolate ice cream. Needless to say, I did not finish it!
My Grandma got here on the 13th, and we've had a great time since. We saw the Avengers at AMC fork and knife, which means we got to eat while watching the movie. I got a bacon cheeseburger, potato skins, and fish and chips. For dessert, we had coffee and cupcakes. We also watched the Hunger Games. I had to work every day she was in Florida before we left, but at least we still got to do some fun stuff. Last night was my last night of work, and Isabel gave me and Courtney, another CP from California, sticky wings for our last day of work! We also got a certificate and evaluation :) Nourredine, one of my co-workers, had the day off but wanted to see me one last time so he had dinner at Kona. It was so nice seeing him before I left.

Me and Grandma left this morning for Michigan around 9:30 and stopped in Caryville, Tennessee to spend the night. We'll be on the road again and back in Michigan tomorrow.