6/1/12: A very unusual day

I was expecting today to be a standard day with Beast. In at noon, five 20-minute sets, out at 6:30. Instead, I got a call last night from Disney Character Events, who handles special events, asking if I could come in and work with Beast in a photo shoot at 9:30. I jumped at the opportunity, though I really didn't know what exactly it was for. When I got there I learned it was simply just some pictures of Beast because he's a diva and likes portraits of himself all over the place. Yeah, we're sticking with that story.
Anyways, when I left there it was raining, and I was worried that I was gonna spend all day at the rain location for the meet-and-greet, which would be bad. It's very dark in there. Instead, though, all of the characters got sent to the hallway of Character Spot (this is at Epcot), but Beast is just too darn big to fit in there, so he got the rest of the day off. I did not. Instead, I got to, for the first time, hang out with Baloo! I was pretty excited, since he's the last of the characters I can be with that is regularly out.  He's a fun guy, and I really enjoyed it.  Not to mention, after working with Beast I usually come home just a little bruised and cut up (he's a beast, after all), but Baloo is much friendlier to his assistants.

5/11/12: Workshops!

I realized today that I've never done a post about workshops.  Workshops are free classes you can go to for things like stilt walking, puppetry, inline skating, and dance.  I've been to three so far, two for stilt walking and one for waltzing.  They get pretty intense and I wind up sweating like there's a sprinkler attached to my scalp.
Tonight I had my second stilt walking workshop, and it went well!  By "well" I mean "better than last time", but I figure improvement is a good thing.  I still sweated profusely, but the two big things I couldn't master last time, grapevine-ing and pivoting, are now much better, at least when I don't need to combine them with other choreography.
I've got THREE more coming up before the end of the month, one for puppetry, and two for dance, so hopefully they'll help be get better at this whole "job" thing I'm doing.

4/15/12: A new shift and an old friend.

Today was my first time working at the Hilton (they have a deal with Disney so Minnie, Pluto, Br'er Fox and Br'er Bear can do character breakfasts).  This meant my first shift with Br'er Bear since my very first day of on-set training!  That meant remembering how to get his fat butt over to the location, and he is easily the most difficult friend to relocate.  Once there, it was interesting seeing him try to maneuver that same fat butt through a dining location.  Despite the people insisting he was Baloo, Brother Bear, Beast, or any other name they could come up with (to be fair, he's kind of an obscure character that most people only know through Splash Mountain, since Song of the South is something Disney has swept under the rug), and the fact that some kids though they were so smart for (falsely) saying that he was just a guy in a bear costume while their parents watched on and said nothing to rectify their slanderous accusations, I had fun.  And got fed.  That's always a plus.

4/11/12: New friend!

A couple days ago I had my first shift with Beast at Epcot.  Working with the big guy takes a lot of prep each time before he goes out: literally 15 minutes, which, accounting for the 5 minutes it takes to wrap up each set once offstage, only leaves 10 minutes to sit and take a load off.  Fortunately, he's pretty fun to hang out with onset since he and Belle are so popular, though his tail does occasionally get stuck in the fence by his and Belle's location...

4/5/12: Major un-bummer

I'm off Modified Duty! I was seriously gonna go insane. My final day was spent in the MK tunnels under Adventureland taking Spinning Light Show toys out of their packaging, and consolidating three boxes into one. That's all I did. For eight hours.
But today the doc said I was good to return to work, so tomorrow I'll be hanging out with Goofy at Tusker House at DAK! My favorite shift? No. Will I appreciate it beyond belief? Yes.

4/1/12: Day 2 of Modified Work

So today I worked at the gift shop at Pirates, but, due to my limitations, I was only able to hang up shirts and put on security tags.  Honestly, it was alright, except for the fact that I could hear Goofy's meet-and-greet from the other side of one of the walls in the room I was working, which really made me miss my regular job.
On the plus side, assuming I'm healthy enough to work next week, I'll have a shift with the Green Army Men (which is probably by favorite position), three with Beast, which will be new and fun, and one at Give Kids the World, which I always look forward to.

3/31/12: Major bummer

So for a while now my knee has been getting more and more sore.  At first I just kinda' shrugged it off and kept doing what I was doing, but eventually I went out and bought a knee brace and some pain killers.  However, every time I knelt I could feel grinding and popping in my right knee.  Finally, on Tuesday, I went to Health Services.  The nurse verified that there was something wrong with my knee and set up and appointment for me on Wednesday.
On Wednesday I left my spare shift at DAK (Disney's Animal Kingdom) early (unfortunately they could've used me, but Disney is good about making sure their cast members get better instead of worse) and saw the doctor, who told me "something something something meniscus" (that may not be a direct quote).  He gave me some pills, a knee brace, and some work restrictions (specifically no kneeling and I couldn't stand for more than 45 minutes out of the hour).  The first restriction I thought I could work around and the second was a non-issue, but when I got to work the next day, the manager at DAK put me on Modified Work till at least next Thursday.
Modified Work means that I can't do what I've been doing, so I don't get to hang out with characters at all.  To make things worse, the whole "don't stand for more than 45 minutes out of every hour" bit pretty much prevents me from working onstage at all, so all of my Modified Work shifts are backstage.  For instance, today I organized Entertainment shoes at Magic Kingdom.  All day.  Aladdin and Jasmin need to get rid of some of their shoes, they have entirely too many.  For my other shifts I'll be working in the stockroom at Pirates, the Glow carts, and the Emporium.
It's very easy for me to complain about this upcoming week, and I promise you, I do.  A lot.  But I suppose I should just be appreciative of the fact that the company I work for is willing to make sure I still get hours even when I'm pretty much useless.