A New Ride and a New Gig

The new baby isn't the only thing that is happening around here! Although it may seem that way, but hey this blog is from my point of view. For YEARS and I mean years the hubby has been bugging me to get a truck. My answer was always.....the gas mileage! We live in California where they use every excuse to tax all the things including the gas, so ours is usually way above average!

Well we moved into the mountains and we hit two snow storms where neither vehicle could go anywhere and he pressed me harder. We need a 4x4 and I need something that I can transport all the "garbage" from our backyard to the dump with. Still not convincing enough for me, but I entertained the idea of getting a used truck. Who needs to spend $50k on a vehicle? No me, Miss Frugal Franny!

He searched and searched all the websites and came across a Black Ram 1500 that he was interested in. I hate black vehicles, but it's not mine right? When we bought our SUV he was adamant that it was going to be black, but I convinced him that grey is better. The same thing occurred when he bought his Mustang back in 2004. I like grey cars. They show less dirt...in my opinion. So we walk onto the lot to look at this black truck and sitting right nest to it is a dark grey 1500 Big Horn with dual exhaust and all the bells and whistles. Of course I like that truck, but I am not going to say anything because it of course costs more. We look at both trucks and I see that he keeps going to the grey one and sitting in it and opening all the things....and that's the only one we test drive. Done Deal. Signed, Sealed, Delivered. He is ecstatic! It needs running boards and we need a tow ball, but it's got all the things he needs.....and its pretty. LOL

We get it home, and after a couple of days he turns to me and says, "You know the last three times I went to get a car I wanted black and I left with Dark Grey!" I looked at him and said, "You know where your mistake there is?" "Yea! Bringing you! HAHA" True story! But he is happy and glad he picked the better truck, even though it wasn't the color he wanted.

In other hubby news. He got a new job! Once he starts training I will fill you all in on the details! We are so excited for him! He will be doing something that he LOVES!

House of Mouse (Part Two)

I must apologize to everyone for my lack of blogging lately. Some things have come up recently that have needed my full attention but now I am back! :-) As you recall in my previous post, House of Mouse (Part One) Trevor and I had both received parts in the Christmas Fantasy Parade. We were ecstatic! We soon discovered though that we received full time parts. We both had to re-arrange our school schedules to fit in the rehearsals and our working hours.

Our first day was surreal to say the least. Who would have thought that we would not only have working jobs as dancers, but at the Magical Kingdom? We walked in and were promptly given our name badges and a tour of the backstage areas. Very hush hush. You see, Disney likes to preserve the "Magic" so at all times you are called Cast Members and are never to be out of character when guests are in your presence. We learned all the rules and a couple of the secrets! Like there are actually 5 people who play Mickey in Fantasmic.We then received our rehearsal schedules and were on our way. Rehearsals are done differently. You arrive at the park around 8PM and learn your routines in the backstage areas. Every so often a person will be pulled out to be fitted for their costume. After a couple of days of indoor rehearsal we had to go out and actually learn to travel the routine. At the time I suffered from really bad asthma and to perform the same, insanely crazy and hyper, routine over and over was very difficult. I would die by the end of our rehearsal. Then it came for us to rehearse in our costumes! 3" thick foam costume with a 24" diameter head with a mesh covered opening for air! AHHHH! Needless to say, my lungs got strong quickly and I lost a few pounds over the course of the season. Soon it was time to rehearse in the park. We waited until the park closed and the cleaning crew did their thing then we went out costumes and all and performed to a dark, empty park. It was very creepy!

Cast of "A Christmas Fantasy"

Once Thanksgiving rolled around it was time to open the show. We performed 2 parades daily for all the kiddos and their parents. It was the most wonderful experience. The cool thing is that there was a cast member family night where we soft opened the parade and they filmed the whole thing. My mom and Aunt came down to see and enjoy the parade and the completely empty park. The next year when California Adventure opened the introduced a new ride called Soarin' Over California. At the end of the ride our parade from that night is featured! I am forever emblazoned in a ride! Well at least until they change it! It was the most awesome experience and I will have these memories forever!


Please enjoy the video of our parade, you can't tell who is who; but it is me and Trev!

House of Mouse (Part One)

Source

It's no surprise to hear when somebody says that they have been to the Happiest Place on Earth. (I am referring to Disneyland in case you didn't catch the reference) But it does surprise people to hear that I actually worked for the Disney family. No not them specifically, but I did work at the park. It was a wonderful experience, and I thought that I would share it with you.

My good friend Trevor had told me about this audition that he found out about an audition for the upcoming parade at the Disneyland Resort called "A Christmas Fantasy." Now if you didn't know, every year they use the same music and just re-choreograph the dancers and re-organize the floats for the Christmas season. I had never been to an audition before so I decided what the hell, lets go for it.

We arrived in Anaheim the next morning at 6 am ready to go, when I realized that they were only auditioning men and point dancers that day. I had only been on point for a year, but decided that I still needed to try because I came all the way down there. Of course, like I knew I would be I was cut first round, but since I carpooled with Trevor I had to wait for his audition to finish. Little did I know that I would be waiting around for a very long time. He finally came out around 5 PM and told me he got a part, Ball Dancer. I was so bummed that I didn't make it that I made the decision to come back the next day for the women audition. The next day I woke up bright and early for the next audition. Hundred's of women showed up to audition. I thought to myself I am way out of my league here, but since I was there I would at least have fun. Round one was the character audition. Easy peasy. I took to the choreography and when it was time to "perform" I lathered on the cheese and smiled, giggled, and flirted with the judge. Who the entire time had his eyes fixated on me! YES! I got someones attention! I finished my set, and went back in with the other dancers. Every so often the judges would come in and call certain numbers....I was called up for a face character (the people like Cinderella and Snow White) but after height and skin tone checks they didn't want me as that. The next time they came in was to call a series of numbers, me included! These were the people that they wanted to dance in the lyrical section. We learned the choreography and did our auditions. I was so focused on the choreography that I forgot my performance! OOPS! I thought that it was over with from there. I went back into the large room and waited. Finally after what seemed like forever they called us into the audition room for part assignments.

I sat through part after part that were given away and my heart was starting to sink. Suddenly I heard my number called. I stood up and went to stand in the line of girls. They stared at us and stared, called us into smaller groups to stand together, and then back in the long line. All of a sudden they announced...."We need to break for lunch, come back in an hour." UGH you have got to be kidding me! I have been here since 7AM, its now 5PM and I have to wait! Dammit! So I went back in my car to rest for a while and went back into the audition room at a quarter to 6. We all got back in our line. In hindsight I look back and realized that I was a good 2 inches taller than all the other girls in the row. Disney has a height restriction for most parts. Mickey and Minnie have a max height of 5'2", all princesses have a height restriction of 5'4", etc. I stand at 5'5". As we stand there, they called the girl immediately to my left and immediately to my right and dismiss them. Then they started handing out the part cards to everyone in the line, including me! I look down and see Gingerbread 5'2-5'4." Apparently they liked me so much that they put aside the height limitation and hired me anyways!

So Trevor and I both got parts in a Disneyland show! We were ecstatic, but nothing compared to the experience we were about to share. Check back later for the rest of the story!