The one about Positive Thoughts

So lately it seems everything I touch turns to crap. My car and computer are a testament to that. The car is fixed (praise the Lord!) and hopefully my computer will be fixed too. I just have NO idea what is even wrong with it! Yesterday I called my mom and just bawled my eyes out because nothing is going anywhere. I can't even say nothing is going according to plan because it implies things are at least going in some direction, but they're not lol. But sometimes all you need is a good cry to be like, okay, got that out of my system, now I can focus on what I need to do. 

When everything in your life seems to be in disarray, the small glimmers of something good are actually like huge beacons of awesomeness. One of my favorite actors is Matthew Gray Gubler from Criminal Minds. Matthew is so awesome that this week he gave away T-shirts he designed himself to fans who wrote in what good deed they would do to improve the world. I was just amazed that someone (who isn't a boy scout or girl scout leader) would spend their time and money for the sole purpose of encouraging people to do good deeds- and I told him as much on his myspace page. I don't normally go around writing on celebrities myspace pages but he's different and I wholeheartedly believe that if you think a positive thought about someone, even if you don't know them, that you should tell them, because it can make someone's day (and they may really need that). Anyways, to get the whole story, I guess I have to show you what I wrote, so here is the comment I left him:

      
You're so awesome it's intimidating. If I ever saw you like randomly in real life I'm fairly certain I'd be too awe struck to do anything. Like who gives away free stuff to encourage people to do good deeds? Only really really awesome people, that's who. I like to think there are a lot of good hearted people like you in the world but we just don't know it because most of them aren't famous, ha, no offense if you have famous friends who are as equally awesome as yourself... I'm guessing if you're friends with them they are pretty rad. Anyways, I would say you give celebrities a good name but I feel like calling you a celebrity is like a down-grade because you're much more than that, you're a great person and I wish you ALL the happiness in the world and if you ever leave Criminal Minds, please give me fair warning so I can mentally prepare, especially if you die on the show ever I'll be in mourning cuz Dr. Spencer Reid kicks butt!

You can think I'm a nerd if you want, I am a nerd! I wasn't expecting a reply whatsoever, I honestly wasn't even sure if he'd read it because people are constantly leaving comments. So when I woke up this morning and saw in my email that I had a new comment to approve from MATTHEW GRAY GUBLER, I just about died, of happiness of course. 

Here is what he wrote (it's pretty much already framed on my wall, hahaha I AM kidding!):

thank you for the nicest compliment i have ever received.
you are too kind.
Happy end of September!

And that, my friends, makes my day and proves that it IS a good idea to tell all people, even random people you don't know, your positive thoughts about them haha. With that said, if I haven't complimented you lately, I'll work on it because each and every one of you have qualities in you that are admirable and amazing and extremely worth praise and I'd never want any of you to think otherwise or even doubt it for a second. On that note, I have to do some brainstorming for story ideas for a music video that I'm not officially working on and won't even be paid for if I do, but hey, it's a start. Wish me luck!

The one with my trip back to Disney

With my lack of a job and my car at the shop, the timing couldn't have been more perfect for a quick trip back to Disney World to have some fun and pick up a few shifts at the Emporium so I can keep my status as a seasonal cast member! Jon and Shanelle had been planning this trip for a while and were very gracious to invite me along for the fun.

Saturday morning, I had my job interview (for real this time!) and it really couldn't have gone much better. I haven't heard anything back yet, but I'm hoping! After my interview, Shanelle and I ran some errands then we got on the road to Orlando! We stopped the first night in Atlanta to see Shanelle's college-friend Nancy and drop off Jon and Shanelle's cat, Moses, who nancy would be watching for the week. 

Sunday, we arrived in Orlando and the first thing we did was meet up with Michelle (Shanelle and I's roommate from the first half of my College Program) then we headed off to the Magic Kingdom! All I can say is that it was SO NICE to be back. Somehow the Magic Kingdom feels like home away from home, afterall, I did spend at least 40 hours a week there for several months. We didn't stay too long because we were tired from the 10 hour drive that day, but it was definitely fun. 

Monday I got my snazzy new red seasonal ID with my actual picture on it and not just a picture of Mickey's Face where mine should be (the CP id). Most of my emporium friends didn't know I was coming back so it was fun to see the surprised looks on everyone's faces when they saw me back at work! My co-workers at the Emporium are some of the nicest and most fun people EVER and it was so nice to see them! 

Tuesday night was Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party at the Magic Kingdom which is the BEST party of all the parties. A very nice manager may or may not have let me go outside to see the Halloween Fireworks too and it may or may not have made my night! ;)  

It was fun to see some of the new College Programmers at the Emporium. I didn't get to know many of them but they were all very nice and most thought I was a new CP and tried to be welcoming haha. That's why I love Disney- everyone is so nice! 

Wednesday was reserved just for fun- Jon, Shanelle and I all had the day off and we were determined to hit all four disney parks in one day. We started off by taking a chance on seeing if we could get into "Chef Mickey's" at the Contemporary. That restaurant is harder to get into than ANY  fancy-shmancy LA club I'm sure. While I was in Florida on my CP, I tried for months to get a reservation with no luck and Shanelle had been trying for 3 months to get a reservation for this trip with no luck so we just decided to show up there around 7:30am and see if we could get seated and to our surprise- it worked! 

"Chef Mickey's" is so cool because not only is it at the Contemporary (the resort the monorail drives through) but because you get to meet the "Fab 5" all while eating the most amazing breakfast ever. (For you non-disney folk, the fab 5 is Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, Goofy and Donald.) It was quite possibly the best breakfast ever and definitely gave us the sugar rush we needed to get started with energy on our 4-park quest! 

It was fun to see things that had changed in the parks since I was last there. Most of them were little changes (like the new Pixar Light that comes out and does a little dance at Hollywood Studios) but some were big changes (like the Hall of Presidents that now features Obama). I took A TON of pictures of Toon Town and Fantasy Land because eventually Toon Town is going away and being transformed into something entirely different. (I'm most excited for Beast's Castle which will have a dining experience, think along the lines of the song "Be Our Guest") 

A trip to Disney is exactly what the doctor ordered. While not having a job can seem like a relaxing vacation to some, it's actually more stressful for me than any stress a job ever brought. One of my favorite things to do is read books and I can't enjoy reading right now because I'm always thinking I should be looking for jobs. So it was kind of nice, especially with the fiasco that is my car, to just escape for a few days. But now it's back to "work" finding work! On the up-side, my car is FIXED and she drives so smooth, let's just pray for no more car problems! 

Bonus Features:
1) On the drive down and back, the 3 of us played the license plate game and I think we ended up finding all but 7 states' plates! It was fun but stupid North and South Dakota just refused to show themselves! 
2) We learned that lack of sleep mixed with lots of sugar and rides makes Shanelle and I very loopy lol
3) Stitch (from Lilo and Stitch) cannot be trusted not to randomly feed grown men their eggs at breakfast hahahahaha 
4) If you feed your kids gummy bears for breakfast and they insist on using their fork and knife as toys, Mickey will in fact take your silverware away! lol

The one where my car died

The day was starting out GREAT. I was really excited for my first interview. I found the perfect 2nd job opportunity (actually in the music biz this time) on Craigslist and sent off my application right away. The box I sent myself with a bunch of pictures, books and DVDs arrived in the mail. My Disney name tag came in the mail as well so I don't have to use the generic "Chris from Orlando" name tag next week when I'm at the Emporium. All in all, it was starting out smooth.

I have 2 sets of directions to my interview location PLUS my GPS. It's raining and I notice that my wipers moving at a snail's pace. I start to worry because if the rain picks up and my wipers don't, I won't be able to see. Turns out, that was the least of my worries. My dashboard starts flashing. Every single light on my dash lights up. The clock and radio go out. I get my mom on the phone and the car starts jerking, somewhat similar to what happens when you run out of gas but a little more intense. I pull into the first driveway I see and am freaking out because it seems as though my car just had a seizure. I'm stalled in some random driveway then the car just turns itself off. So NOT what I needed on the way to my first job interview. I call the woman I am interviewing with and she could not have been more understanding and asks me to call her later to reschedule. Whew!

I'm not on my parents' AAA so I sign up for it and am told it'll be no longer a two hour wait. At this point I thought maybe the battery just died??? I am no car savant. Over 3 hours later, AAA shows up. The battery is not the problem. They called me a tow truck, said it would be another 2.5 hours and waved goodbye. I had already told the people whose driveway I am in the situation, so I go to tell them it'll be a bit longer. I honestly couldn't have broken down in a nicer woman's driveway. Her daughter was about 8 and thanked me for coming to say hi. haha. Shanelle (my hero) takes me to Sears. They think it's the alternator and said to bring it over. About 6pm (5 hours since breaking down), the tow truck shows up...we get it to Sears...turns out it's not the alternator and they can't fix it...of course it couldn't be that easy!

The guy at Sears was literally holding this big round piece that should have been in my car but had just "fallen out". Not good. At the end of the day, my car is safe and secure at Sears waiting to be towed to a new place tomorrow. It sounds like it's going to need some major work to get that round piece back to it's home.

On the upside, I have to be grateful that I was able to get the car off the road and out of danger. It could have been a lot worse since I was on a very windy road,in the rain no less. The wait would have been a lot worse too, but I actually really enjoyed the time being able to talk to Shanelle- she's a great friend. And I was able to reschedule my interview! Now let's just pray the repairs aren't too costly.

Nothing says "Welcome to Nashville" quite like this! I always try to find the upside in all situations but if the only good thing that comes of this is an interesting plot-twist when my blog gets made into a movie...well, then I think I would prefer if the blog never made it to the big screen! lol

(I seriously hope you got my sarcasm there, otherwise I just sound like a jerk who thinks their blog is movie worthy haha).

Thank you to everyone who sent me text messages, offered to help, did help or called to check on me throughout the day. It really made me worry a lot less. I was on the verge of tears but held it together only because I had Shanelle there to help and the kind messages of my friends across the country (seriously). Love you all =)

Unrelated Bonus Feature:
1) I am so glad they finally made the designers on Project Runway use a non-fabric material to make their outfits with! Cloth gets boring so far this season, they had NOTHING interesting like they had in previous seasons.
2) The One Tree Hill premier was WAY disappointing- except for the fact that the guy from "Lipstick Jungle" (Nathan's agent) is on there now!