Adventure is Out There!

As most of you know by now, Zach and I have moved.
How We Got Here:

Back in December, approximately 2 days before Christmas, Zach was informed that his boss put him up for a promotion. Fast forward 2 weeks and Zach was offered, and accepted the position. All in the same day, we also had to scout the area and look for places to live. In the first two weeks of January, we were in hyper-drive to setting up our new adventure. 

Slow it down a little bit, and on February 14th, yes Valentines Day, we officially moved into our first place together. Since we've been here for a few weeks, and have finally, just today, got the apartment all settled I figured I'd start this blog back up so friends and family back home can still keep track of us. No, it's not as far as Disney, but it's far enough to miss you all like crazy!

I'm sure everybody has already seen the apartment photos on facebook, so I won't overwhelm you all with those, but as we get more things settled and home-y I will post some updates we have done =]

But for now, a little about the area we moved to since I haven't talked about that too much. I'll have to take some more pictures so you can get a better idea but, you'll get the gist.

New Home: Clifton Park, New York. (for those that want our actual address contact me directly =])

Clifton Park is A LOT bigger than what we are used to. There is literally every store you could want within a 3 mile radius. For example, when I scan my Walmart Receipts in Cortland, it compares 11 different stores, when I scan my receipt here in Clifton Park, it compares 39 different stores! So far we've ventured to Walmart, Target and Lowes frequently. There's a butcher place in town where I got free steak just for being new to the area! We've also visited a few different Starbucks and Dunkin' Donuts searching for a replacement for our Snickers Iced Coffee's from Coffeemania, but sadly are disappointed everytime. ((Seriously, if any of you visit us and don't bring us Snickers...)) There are about 5 different movie theaters all within reasonable driving distance, as well as 3 or 4 different malls.  Saratoga Springs is about 25 minutes North of us, and I'll be excited to visit there during the spring, and amaybe once during race season, we keep getting warned that it gets crazy busy up there when the track is open. To our South Albany is about 15-20 minutes away depending on traffic. But realisitcally, we don't ever need to leave Halfmoon/Clifton Park. 

And for me? Well I'm back at Price Chopper. 

Yes the place I vowed I would never work at for more than 3 years. I worked and the Price Chopper in Cortland for more than 7 years, and now I'm back at it again. Although this Price Chopper is a whole nother world. It will be one of the first new Market 32's which is a pretty big deal. There is a Price Chopper Market Bistro, about 10 minutes south in a town called Latham, and I hear its pretty extrordinary. It has a waterfall with fish swimming around that you can pick out for dinner. Seriously, they take their Price Choppers seriously here. But I am excited to be apart of this new venture with Price Chopper, as Price Chopper has always provided for me so well. Currently I am working in the food court, managing the Salad bar. The hours are great and allow me to be home with Zach every night which is something I feared wouldn't be possible. My boss is also super understanding and generally gives me off at least one weekend-day a week to be able to have a day off with Zach also. It has been working out great. 

Anyways, enough for now! I will post as frequently as I can without seeming annoying =] I miss y'all like crazy and can't wait to come home and visit real soon ;)

Work and Valentine's Day in MK!

Hi y'all! <-- new favorite expression btw...(by the way)

It's been a while but honestly it just feels like yesterday I last posted! So I thought, on this rainy afternoon, why not a little up date! As you've probably figured I have passed all of my tests and now am OFFICIAL OFFICIAL lifeguard! WEEEE!!! Heres Picture for proof =] and I know y'all miss me so much so there is more pictures to come ;]

                                                           LIFEGUARD YAYYYY

Okay, so here's a typical work 'rotation' for me.. a lot of it will mean nothing but it's kinda cool anyways! So for the first hour from 330-430 we do the Cupid Shuffle.. looks like this -->>>
and we also play games with the kids...giant jenga, giant dominoes, volleyball in the pool, build sand castles.. that fun stuff. After that we go on stand for 3-4 stands and rotate around. The longest you are on stand without a break is 2.5 hours and breaks are 30 minutes. It's a pretty good deal. We do that until 10pm, then we close down the pool.. nothing special and then clean and go home! I generally wont work more that 32 hours a week unless I work a double or get extended hours or something. The people and co-workers there are grreatt. I couldn't ask to work with a better group of people. It's very cool.

In fact I spend my Valentines Day morning with two of my friends and fellow lifeguards, Abbey and Brittani. The best Valentines Day morning ever. Magic Kingdom during Valentines Day, has all of the Princes and Princesses coupled up together all around the parks AND ITS THE MOST AWESOMEST EXPERIENCE EVER. I was actually so excited to meet Aladdin I was over excited in line and started tearing up. I know, a big surprise for all of you that know me =] But instead of telling you all about it, HERES MORE PICTURES WITH ME IN THEM!! WEEEEEE!

Abbey's in the pink pants and Brittani is in the Blue sweatshirt. It was a greeeatt morning. After that Abbey had to go to work, and me and Brittani went to the outlets! Whoever decided that it was a good idea to put CP housing right behind the outlet mall, was a very brilliant person. So bad.

And now, I'm about to get ready to go out to dinner with Zach to Le Cellier Steakhouse in Canada at EPCOT. I'm super excited as some people have been waiting 5 years to have reservations to go eat there on Valentines day!

I hope everyone home is good and I miss you all! Can't wait to see you all again!
PS only 90 days!!
~ Love, Olive

I HOPE IM DOING THIS RIGHT!

Hi everyone, judging by the title of this post I have no idea what I'm doing and Olive is at work. Im sure I'll be instructed later if I did it correctly ;). I havent been posting on here because I've been waiting for this whole program to kind of stabalize as when it seems that things are starting to slow down something else changes and those of you who really know me, change is not my friend.  Anyways,  I would like to just start by saying this whole experience is CRAZY! I think up until recently my head has been spinning! The whole check in process was the worst as im sure Olive has indicated in her posts how crazy it was but I never knew a couple bag chairs could make a person's day so terrible. Carrying those things from station to station was not supposed to be part of the experience! My housemates are really cool we all seem to have a pretty good time together. Work, eh its work, its about as good as scrubbing toilets and taking out the trash is going to get and plus its a paycheck coming from a Fortune 500 company (this is what I tell me self as my feet and legs start hurting from the poor quality of the shoes they provide us with, Dr. Scholls doesnt require a co-pay so I think i'll be making a visit.) Dont worry everyone I have put more film in my camera phone so I will try to provide more pictures of Olive whether she likes it or not. Taking to classes while doing this program I would never reccommend anyone I'm so thankful Olive is a nut and enjoys learning or else some things may not be done. Its not that I dont balance my time wisely but I just havent accepted the fact that in my free time after work should be used for more school work. Ill learn. I am really missing my truck, so much as to the fact that I am now having dreams about it and me trying to  convince my Uncle Tim that the truck would make the 19 hour drive, Im not sure as to why in my dreams im convinced that it wouldnt but whatever! More on work, I have worked 49 hours the past 5 days today is my first day off yesterday and sunday were my first shifts by my self without a trainer or anything like that that is. I have learned that the hardest thing to learn is common sense. I dont understand why Disney really needs to stress the things that they do but what is appauling is that they are stressing the certain things because what I think is common sense is not to others. GET IT TOGETHER PEOPLE! I havent had any managers complain about the condition of the bathrooms I was responsible for but of course I havent had any praises either, thats the nerve wracking part I asked a manager yesterday how I was doing and he only responded with make sure your using the correct color bags for the trash cans! woops.
   All in all Im doing alright, knock on wood im not homesick like I would be if I were in school at Alfred, (Dont take offense to that mom!) I miss everyone I keep scheming as to how I can swing getting my brother and his girl friend down here so he can experience atleast a weekend of what we are doing, that would probably make this whole program! but, I suppose if it comes to it I can wait until March when everyone comes down. REX! (my dog)I havent forgotten about you buddy so if your reading this I love you and hope your still giving mom a hard time for jake and I. Well I think i've touched on everything. Im not sure how this thing works exactly but I see people are leaving comments so if you would like to know more just comment and Ill be sure to answer the next time I post.


Thanks for reading miss you all.

Zach

Training Training and more Training..

Hi all!

So it's been awhile since a new post and I know you guys are wondering a couple of things...1 how things are going?! 2 when is Zach going to post?? and 3 Why are there no pictures of you (Olive).

Well first things first, we will get to 1 later! Secondly.. Zach isn't posting because we have been super busy. Training takes a lot longer than at least I thought, and I'm sure Zach shares the same view. I can't imagine having to do all of this and taking classes like Zach is. I give him a lot of credit and he deserves every ounce of it! None of this stuff is easy folks! So I'm sure Zach wants to tell you all of this in his own words, and he will when he gets the chance. Okay, lastly! Pictures! I didn't even realize that I wasn't in any of these pictures until you all said something! I'm so used to being the photographer that I'm used to not being in pictures! SO for all of you eager viewers.. Here's some pictures of the TWO of us. (This part sounds really pretentious but I'm sure someone will ask.. if you want copies of these for any reason let me know and I can get you the files to order pictures). Without further adieu.. here they are =] ( and Disney if you are reading this, these pictures WERE purchased! Please don't delete my blog!)

Yes the first one is obnoxious but hey =] So there, I hope y'all got your fix of seeing my face because that's probably going to be the last of it ;]

Okay, so now onto the important stuff..or boring stuff, depending on who you are. If you're reading this and I sound super cheery and using a lot of exclamations and smilies, its because I got out of work 2 hours ago and I'm still in show mode. It takes a lot for me to wind down after working! Okay, I can't believe it's been since Jan 21 since you guys got an update since that was our first day here! This is going to be a big one, I apologize now!

The first thing that we did after check in day was Traditions. Well thats not true...We had a housing meeting on Tuesday, where they taught us how to use a fire extinguisher which ended up coming in handy later... then we had the day to ourselves and then all day Wednesday we had to ourselves too. Unfortunately we didn't have our park passes yet so we couldn't go to the parks. We did go to DTD, downtown disney, which is always free. After that we went to Traditions. Traditions is a 4.5 hour class where you learn about the past, present, and future of Disney. You get a behind the scenes tour of Magic Kingdom and the Utilidoors, which is the underground passages underneath Magic Kingdom. The most important things we got from Traditions was our name tags! YAY and our ID badge which acts like our park passes and grants us access to literally everything and anything you could imagine.

After Traditions, Zach started training for his role within 1 or 2 days. I however, had to wait a week. It was the longest. week. of. my. life. I didn't really start my training process until the 29th where I had Welcome Aboard! Which was the orientation class for my location, Yacht and Beach Club. After that it has been an intense speed way! I had Welcome to Recreation, which was all about being a lifeguard and where I passed my first two tests, Bloodborne Pathogens, and putting on/taking off gloves. Then we (my class) went right to Mickey's Retreat for Ellis and Associates Lifeguard Training for 3 days. When people say that Ellis Training is like Red Cross on crack, they are not joking! This was the most intense 3 days I think I've ever experienced! It never stopped. The first day we learned about Ellis and why they train the way they do, we also learned adult CPR and 8 basic water rescue saves. The second day we did CPR for adult, child and infant. Now, typing it and reading that we did CPR for 4 hours straight seems like no big deal. Now hear this... you are responding to a life or death situation. You are standing up, squatting down, kneeling down, to hop up and do it all over again literally every 5 minutes at least. Then you are not just in one place for the whole CPR/AED procedure. You are shifting from the top of the head, to jump over the arm, to doing 30 compressions, back to the head, every 30 seconds, for 5 minutes. Peoples knees were literally bleeding by the middle of day two. The second part of day 2 consisted of back-boarding for conscious, unconscious, spinal injury, and rapid extractions. Then came the third day, test out day. Now last time I took a lifeguarding course it was for an entire semester. This was 2 days of intense learning. And it all came down to 6 hours. The first part was CPR and the written test. If you didn't pass either of these, you did not return after lunch. I passed both with flying colors, I only got one question wrong on the written and I'm still bitter about it. The answer was so obvious. Anyways. So after lunch, one person didn't return, so there was 1 empty seat. The next part was all water rescues. The day before we were divided into groups, and these would be your testing groups. I had a very strong group and felt totally confident in it. We are totally unaware of the situation when we begin guarding and happened to get a spinal injury which is EXACTLY what we wanted. We were so confident in spinals. We were talking to our guest the entire time and I even kept calling her the wrong name by accident so she kept giving me this glare. I thought she was really upset that I was calling her the wrong name and she grew quiet but she was still responsive which is the biggest thing to maintain with a spinal injury patient. We had her say her ABC's and during the middle she stopped saying them, so two of us asked her if she was still with us, how she was doing, and she responded to the questions. When we got her out of the water she was unresponsive. The instructor told us she was okay and to let her up and continue, as another person on our team was dealing with another trauma. But this girl, our guest, kept being unresponsive even after I told her she was okay and I was taking the straps off of her.. I didn't want to leave her because I didn't know if we were still being tested and tried to be tricked! I finally left after my instructor made it very clear that she was fine. Come to find out, she was only supposed to go unconscious if we stopped talking to her after 30 seconds. 30 seconds in a spinal extraction is forever! We never lost communication with our guest once and she was even in the middle of saying her ABC's when she stopped responding! So all in all, the guest, girl, tried to sabotage our test. We passed still so I'm trying to let it roll off my shoulders, but boy was I hot when I learned that she tried to sabotage us. So after all of the groups went, and I was GOD, which stands for Guard On Duty, for a good hour, so long, we all went back inside the banquet room. We were instructed to sit in our seats we were in for our test, and when everybody in the room was sitting they said congratulations everybody in this room passed. We all clapped and were so excited, until you started looking around the room... there was 28 people who took the class with us, 27 people went in groups for water testing, sitting in the room, there were 11 empty chairs. 10 people who passed the written test, passed CPR, failed the skills test. 7 of them were supposed to be deep guards. Reality sat in real quick. I wanted to cry I was so happy to have passed after a stressful 2 days, but I felt so terrible for the people who had failed. There were some really strong guards in that group that didn't pass and I was shocked that they failed. They do get another opportunity to take the class and test again. If they still don't pass, they will be re cast and have a new job role and new locations.

A few people from my day off had a break today and had the day off, not me though! Today started day 1 of my training at Yacht and Beach Club. We learned the location of all the guard stands, and what each one was called. Overall there are 14 guard stands which is the most for any of the resorts. Most resorts have 2 guards, 3 is normal in the luxury ones. Y&B has 14. It is essentially a mini water-park complete with slides, a lazy river, a whirlpool, and the best/worst part.. it is sand bottom! We also went over the super complicated EAP, Emergency Action Plan, and one whistle and three whistle drills. Tomorrow we will cover EAP again, and work on yet more testing. Another set of skills tests.. Ellis all over again, as well as finding VATS, which are shadows of silhouettes on the bottom of the pool, and two more written tests. It all concludes on Wednesday where finally, if I pass another set of tests, I will officially FINALLY be a real Yacht and Beach Lifeguard! After 4 intense days of training, I am 100% drained. I'm running on auto-piolet a lot of the time, and i'm not even positive I just spelled pilot right. I didn't. I'm leaving it because I'll look back one day and laugh at how tired I was after all of this.

So there you have it folks. I'm sure you can probably tell by now that I am out of show, and am so tired. All of my roommates are at MK, Magic Kingdom, and I'm here at 7:30 about to go to bed. I can't wait for the day I am official and can relax! I haven't seen Zach in about 48 hours and he gets out at 10:45 tonight, so I'll see him for about 5 minutes tonight.. and then it will be probably another 2 days till I see him for another 5 minutes. Just living the dream! We both know that this is a really big step for both of us and we can only greatly benefit from doing this program. Dawn said the other day she has noticed a change in both of us already, more grown up. Today I really do feel more grown up. Every change I get I am networking and telling people my future plans and dreams of working for Disney/Pixar.

One day I will have to blog about all of the nuances of living in Florida because boy are there a lot and I think you all would get a kick out of them! Maybe in another week haha.

Goodnight All!
We miss you lots and can't wait to see everyone again!
~Olive

Our First Week Here!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V79G_qRuhP0&feature=youtu.be

The video of our first week here! Enjoy!!

Housing, Casting, and everything else crammed in one day!

WHEW! 
What a day. 
((Just a warning...this is a long one.))

After multiple disagreements, discussions...The alarm went off at 2 am to get up and go stand in line at 3 am for housing. And boy, was I glad we got there at 3! We had gone to Walmart, which is a story in itself, the day before and got the last two bag chairs. So there we sat, 3 am, with all our roommates and the line to check in was already a good 50 people deep in front of us. By 5 am, that number grew to around 100 people. With all our roommates finally together around 6:30 am, all that was left to do was wait... and wait.... and wait. Around 7 am the check in process started. We all were able to stay in line to give our name, and then wait in another line. And then, suddenly, everybody was gone and it was just me left in line! They divided us up by last name.. A-L and then M-Z.. of course all of my roommates and all of Zach's roommates including Zach all had last names M-Z. So I waited in the longer line alone, and then they wouldn't let people wait for other people they wanted to room with! I thought we were dunzo right there, Zach and his roommates would be fine, and my other two roommmates would be together, but I was afraid that I was going to get wicked separated and lost in the shuffle and get stuck alone, for good. I took a deep breath and knew that somehow it was all going to work out and that it would be okay. Rumors made it back to me that the line we were standing in was to get our placement for work, which we thought we didn't get. Zach made it through the line quickly and was able to tell me across the room that he was stationed in Hollywood Studios! As the line crept forward I waited in so much anticipation to try to get back together with my group, and to find out where I was working! Finally it was MY turn.. I get up to the line, and the greeter is super excited for everyone else;s, she hands me mine and says, ohhhh you're a lifeguard! Well yeah, I already knew that! But where it is supposed to say my placement.. it says to be determined. Of course it does. Once I got past my check in and signing documents part, we all were united again right before we decided where we wanted to live! At the last minute we all decided on 2 bedrooms in Patterson, which is the newest complex. I made it through housing quicker than Zach did and was able to give him the thumbs up that we got into Patterson. When I asked him what number room he got, I lit right up! He's in 8104 and I'm....drum roll.......8103!! Right next to each other! Once we got our keys and car tags, we went to go stand in another line.. to go to Casting to wait in more lines and finish filling out paperwork. My tag on the back of my planner is bright yellow, and everyone else's is just standard white. I figured it was just because I didn't have my placement yet. Boy was I wrong, just as I was getting in line I was pulled aside, whisked away, and told I had to go do my drug testing. I didn't have time to tell anybody where I was going it happened so fast. I was able to text Zach who said that everybody, his roommates and mine, were all going to casting together at 9 am. It's now 8:30 at this point. I look down at my planner, and my casting time... drum roll.......3:30 pm. Forever Alone. So now I have 6 hours to kill, by myself, and mind you it is monsooning outside. So I went along to my next adventure...moving into my apartment.

I know how to navigate the roads pretty well by now. Not that it didn't take a lot of patiences, and time, and frustrated tears..but I did it, so I had no problem finding the apartment on my own. Once I got there I showed the guard my ID and he told me where to go. Only problem with that is, I can't find the last building on the left because the last building on the left is caution taped off and the doors and windows are covered in plastic tarping. So I decide to walk, in the monsoon, because I'm already soaked from walking back to the hotel to get my car, and find out what I'm missing. After 5-10 minutes, I realize that the tarped building, is in fact my building. So I then go over to the guard, tell him my ordeal, who sends me to the front desk, who calls some guy, and tells me to meet him there. So I'm walking back to my apartment, and this golf cart zooms by heading towards my apartment.. this guy very well knows that I am the one going to meet him at the apartment.. do you think he slows down for even a second?? No. Looks at me, and then zooms right along. Whatever, I'm soaked anyways, whats 30 more seconds. He tells me that the apartment is open, and the paint is wet. Yeah, Got it. Cool. So nothings wrong with my apartment, I'm just too scared to get terminated to cross over the red caution tape and walk around all of the workers ladders and paint. So I open the door and the apartment is BEEAAUUTIFULL. Soooo big and spacious and nice and high ceilings! It's awesome. After I get all my stuff, and most of Zach's stuff in, I went back to Vista, which is where housing was, picked him up..came back and took a much needed power nap.

At 3 I went to Casting.. We made it to the front doors of cast around 4:15 and they had said that the process takes anywhere from 2 hours.. to 4 hours. We'll because of the drug testing, this casting slot is filled up with a lot of lifeguards, and we all have to take our lifeguarding swim test tonight at 6. So, as quick as we were in line for casting, we were pulled aside and went through the system SO FAST it literally made my head spin. What was supposed to take 2 hours at least, took me 30 minutes tops. I didn't even have time to take pictures of the grand entrance I was so rushed around. So as fast as casting started, it ended and I was on my way back to Vista..again..to get in my car quick, stop at the Holiday Inn, because of course we forgot things in the room at 2 am, and then get over to Mickey's Retreat, which is a special area of tennis courts and basketball courts and pools and ponds and boats just for Cast Members and their families, so that I can take my lifeguarding certification. Lifeguarding certification was a big success! Only when we were in the middle of our 200M swim, the lights went out on the pool and everybody had to get out. So 10 minutes later when the lights came back on.. did we get to start our laps from where we left off?? Nope. Start them again. Needless to say, after only having time for a half a turkey sandwich all day, my legs were shaking. After the swim we swam down to the deep end, 8 ft, retrieved a 10 lb brick from the bottom of the pool... and then had to tread water with our hands out of the water for 2 minutes. Piece of cake... when you've had a good nights sleep and plenty to eat and drink throughout the day. After that ended, 7:30 pm, I met Zach back at the apartments and went out for some deserved and needed, chinese food.

So there you have it.. the first day of Disney all summed up into the first chapter of my book. Hope you have a magical day! ;]

Pictures!!:

On the road again..

1,200 miles, 19 hours, 4 tanks of gas, 2 bathroom breaks...and at 3:30 AM WE FINALLY MADE IT!!

After setting my alarm to PM, not AM.. I was pretty sure we were in for a loooonnggg day. We pulled out of the driveway, after many goodbyes and hugs, at about 8:15 and headed on our way to Lake Buena Vista, Florida.

Obviously the first thing we did once we got in the car was plugged in the GPS, which calculated us getting to LBV, at about 2 in the morning. We both just looked at each other with hope in our eyes that we could possibly make it all the way in one trip. We had discussed stopping at Greenville NC, where I have family, but that put us 4 hours out of the way.. then we discussed possibly stopping in Savannah, GA where my brothers live, but ultimately decided that we would assess our situation once we got to Savannah.

Zach drove for the first 5.5 hours and then we switched and I took over for about 5 hours. The first hour or so was pretty quite as we had just said goodbye to our families. After that we got to reminiscing about all the memories we had made during the summer with everybody, and how quickly time seemed to go by. All morning we had been listening to the weather and keeping an eye on it, as there was a nasty rain/snow system moving across the entire belt of the east coast. We didn't hit rain until about 3 pm, and even though it was coming down pretty good, we didn't stop. If it was unsafe to keep going we would have but, as I described it, the roads here feel very grippy. I was never worried about driving in the rain. We stopped outside of Raleigh, NC and grabbed a bite to eat at about 6pm, the first time we ate all day besides a granola bar in the morning. After we ate, we rain into some pretty heavy rain. Zach was driving, which I was thankful for. I kept track of the rain and after about an hour or so, the rain subsided and eventually when we got into South Carolina, it was like a desert that hadn't seen rain in months. We switched again, and made it into Savannah at about 11pm. We had both just been laughing so much that I had a wicked case of the hiccups, and we were still in good spirits so we decided to keep going. Jacksonville is only 2 hours away and we would again decide what to do once we got there. Again we decided to keep going. It's now 1am and we are both doing good. At 3:21 am we pulled into our hotel, Sunspree Holiday Inn Express, Lake Buena Vista. After checking in, we both crashed into bed.

After a long drive, I thought we would sleep until easily 12, but at 10am we were both awake. We showered and then went to get some breakfast. Now we hooked up Zach's XBox to the TV in the room and are now watching Finding Nemo...of course! Time to rest up a bit more and then go explore Orlando/our new home. Pictures to come soon!
~Olivia