I've been saying a gradual goodbye to Florida and all that I love here over the past week or so. It's been sad, but at the same time, this week was one of the best weeks of my time here! About half of my bucket list got crossed off in this last week. So I'm feeling way more ready to leave now.
(BTW, the title of this post is a line from the
Florida state song. And it's pretty much how I feel about my time here. My days were so happy and I squandered so many of them in a kind of blissful daze.)
Wanna know what I did for my last two weeks here?? Ok.....
Tuesday, 4/5. Met the Fairy Godmother at our 5-yr anniversary celebration at work. I had to wake up early, but it was worth it, because I got to take pictures with all my coworkers and I ate cake for breakfast.
This is the cake I ate for breakfast. (I didn't eat the whole thing, don't worry.)
This lady is my boss. Well, not anymore I guess. But she was.
After this lovely work party, I had to leave to go back home in the pouring rain. There was seriously a monsoon as we left. Here's what happened to me:
After the work party, I went back home for a few hours and hung out with my roommates. I ate Chick-fil-A for breakfast, which is delicious anytime but especially on a gloomy monsoon-y day, and then we made a "Remember When" list. I love making these at the end of every semester and Olivia left on the 7th, so we didn't have much time left together.
After this lovely bonding time, I worked for a few hours and then headed over to Hollywood Studios to watch Fantasmic. I can't believe I spent 3 months in Florida and only just barely made my way over to watch it. It was really cool and I think I looked like a little kid with how excited I got.
Once Fantasmic was over I traded in my flipflops for some heels and headed over to the House of Blues for Latin Night with my roommate Jackie and some other friends. Another item crossed off my bucket list :) It was fun and I realized that I forgot how much I love dancing. I think Jackie and I were the some of whitest girls in the place, and I'm pretty sure we were theonly blondes.
Wednesday, 4/6. Jackie, Dianne, and I went with Olivia and her friend Emily to Daytona Beach!! I love the beach and I love these girls, and Daytona is gorgeous.
Some things to remember if you are going to the beach:
1. Sand sticks to everything. You will be scraping it out of your phone and sunglasses for weeks after leaving the beach.
2. Swimsuits get bigger when they get wet. So you should always hold onto them when waves crash into you.
3. You can touch the tops of jellyfish, but don't touch their squiggly little legs. Don't even do it.
Sunday, 4/10. Have you ever celebrated your birthday by being rudely awaken at 6 in the morning to the sound of popping balloons and screams of "Happy Birthday!!!" ? If your answer is no, you need more friends like me, Dianne, Christine, Jackie, and Sean. Two of our friends, Cheyenne and Brad, turned a year older on this day. We pulled them out of bed at 6 in the morning and made crepes and sausages and cupcakes for their special day. Surprisingly, it was lots of fun!
Tuesday, 4/12. I worked a twelve-hour shift this day and was dead tired by the end of it, but I was able to muster up the strength to get dressed and drag myself to the Magic Kingdom for one last viewing of Wishes (the fireworks show) with my FGIT friends. We watched the fireworks and took pictures in front of the castle and got pineapple dole whip and watched the Electric Lights Parade and rode Space Mountain.
I'm going to miss this magical place :(
Wednesday, 4/13. The Saunders came to town! Amber Saunders was one of my leaders in Young Women's and Seth served with my dad in the bishopric. They are in Orlando right now with their youngest son Kellen for an acting and modeling competition so I got to meet up with them and take them to Disney World. On Wednesday morning I picked them up from their hotel and we went to Animal Kingdom. Right after saying hello, Kellen handed me an autographed photo collage. He is darling :) At DAK, we went on a safari and did some catching up, and then I had to go to work.
It was my last day of work, and I didn't have time to go from DAK to my apartment, so I had to go straight to Downtown Disney, which meant that I didn't have my name tag and I had to be Melanie from Reedings, England for my last day.
Everything was bittersweet. All day, my FGIT friends were coming up to me one at a time to wish me luck and express their sadness that I was leaving so soon after arriving. I am going to miss them all so much! Everyone I work with has been so kind to me. I'm a little surprised by how attached I've gotten after only a few months, but when I think about how included everyone has made me feel here, I'm not so surprised after all.
I went on my last parade and thought back to my first parade. It seems like it was only last week that I went on the carousel for the first time and thought, as we went round and round, how fun my job was. My time in Florida stretched out before me with no end in sight. When the carousel stopped this time, my FGIT friends called me over and we took a few pictures together with our flags and banners. Looking into the camera lens, I actually got tears in my eyes, because I'm going to miss this so much.
Rhonda, my favorite coordinator, left at 4. Rhonda was born and raised in Florida but has kind of a Southern accent. She is so funny and sassy and always lets me go on the parade when she's coordinating. She gave me her home, cell, and work number and told me that if I wanted to use her as a reference she would have nothing but good things to say.
I was doing a princess makeover and she came over and said, "Princess, can I say goodbye to your fairy godmother really quick?" My princess said yes and Rhonda came behind the chair and gave me a hug. That was the second time I started crying, but I held it in really well, since I was onstage. Rhonda wished me good luck in everything and then told my princess, "Thank you for letting me say goodbye. Your fairy godmother is going to the castle for a very long time, so I'm not sure when I'll get to see her again. So it's exciting, because she's going to get to live in the castle, but I'll miss her too." Ugh. The castle sounded soooo unappealing right then!
Nadira, my trainer, and Marjorie left at 5. I was helping Valerie with makeup and Nadira came over and asked to speak with me backstage. They both gave me big hugs and said they were sad to see me go. I loved these ladies so much so I started crying then too. Haha I was seriously like a fountain all day, it was ridiculous.
I didn't leave until 8:30, and at 8:00, a FGIT named Patty came over with all the other FGIT's that were still at work and said that they had something for me. She handed me a laminated sheet of paper that everyone had signed and a PhotoPass card with pictures on it that the photographers had taken of me throughout the day. Make that the fourth time that I cried....
Patty was so nice and said, "We don't usually do this for CP's, but you were such a pleasure to work with. You brought so much to this boutique and we all loved working with you. We just want to wish you luck with everything you do, and we hope you come back to visit us soon!"
Above: me with Nadira
Below: me with Marjorie
Thursday, 4/14. I finally started packing on this day. It really should have happened sooner, but what-er. After a few hours of packing, I went to Typhoon Lagoon with Sean. Sean is one of the first people I met here...in fact, we met on the bus ride from the airport! So it was nice to come full-circle.
We strapped on snorkels and swam with sharks for our first activity. I was retarded at first with the snorkel and it kept filling with water, so this Australian lifeguard swam over to me and was like, "Are you all right, love?" And I was like *cough cough hack deep breath* "sorry, my snorkel just keeps filling with salt water!" And he was like, "It's all right. Here, hold onto my arm." And I was like mmmm. Ok :) And he was like, "You just make a nice seal around that with your lips." And I was like, "what about my lips?" Just kidding, I didn't say that. I just thought it....and then I stopped hanging onto him and swam away and then Sean and I went through again.
This time I wasn't so preoccupied with trying to breathe, so I was actually able to see the sharks. There were some hammerheads and some tiger sharks, and then a bunch of other cool tropical fish. I felt so cool and didn't even get eaten.
After that adventure, we went on a few slides and played in the wave pool, and then it was time to go. I picked up the Saunders and we went to the Magic Kingdom! I've decided that Disney World is a lot more fun when you go with little kids. Kellen was so excited about everything and it was great hanging out with them.
Right after eating dinner, I met up with some of my friends who were also in Magic Kingdom. The Saunders were ready to go home, so I stayed with my friends to watch the fireworks and get one last pineapple dole whip and then we headed home, too. We got home at about midnight and then there were some more goodbyes as Jackie, Christine and I stayed up until 5 in the morning packing and talking and eating pizza (thanks, Anne!)
Friday, 4/15. Three hours after going to sleep, I woke up to take Jackie and Christine to the airport. I know I'll see them in about a month, but it was still sad saying goodbye! I love these girls!
I got back to Chatham at about 10 and learned that I had to be out by 11. Thus began an hour of panic as I ran around, gathering everything, trying to decide what to keep and what to leave behind. My only regret is that I didn't get to say goodbye to the pool :( I definitely squandered many happy days there!
Once I was all packed, I turned in my key and housing ID and left Chatham forever. I turned in my costume for the last time and then I went to hang out with the Saunders for a little bit while Kellen got ready for his competition. It was so exciting! I can't wait to hear how he did.
Later in the afternoon I brought all my stuff over to my friends' apartment. I'm staying with Sarah, Angelica, Amanda, and Abbie for the rest of my time here in Florida. They are being so nice to let me stay with them! It's kinda fun because every time I drive through, I have to hang out outside the gate until someone else wants to come in who has a gate key, and then I just follow them in real quick. Or I have to call the front office and say, "hi, I'm Sarah Stallings, I just left my gate key at home!" And then they open the gate for me. So it's always an adventure. Last night, Geli taught us how to make these cool bracelets so I made two. We are going to go to the beach in a few days and I'm going to surf again and I'm so excited.
Last night, I met up with some of my FGIT friends at the Rainforest Cafe for Kayla's birthday dinner. It was delicious and we had a really funny and nice waiter. Except he accidentally told my friend Shayna that she was sexy and then her boyfriend met up with us later and he was a meathead and got super mad about it and wanted to fight our waiter so that was awkward since our waiter was just being nice and in fact has a girlfriend who also works at the Rainforest Cafe and was standing right there when Shayna's boyfriend confronted him about it.....
Saturday, 4/16. Tonight I am going out for one final hurrah with my FGIT friends. Haruna is having her birthday party and we are going to give ourselves princess makeovers and then go out dancing. I'm going to be a Disney Diva with blonde hair. It's gonna be awesome.
WHEW. I'm sorry about how long this blog post is. I just had so much to talk about! I'll probably come back later and post some more pictures, but until then, I think this is more than enough material. If you don't read the whole thing, I won't even be offended.
