Im a blogger, Dottie...a rebel

All of my College Program posts up to this point have been in no sort of order, until now.  Today's post is written 10 years to the day, the day I was fired. When you're a CP, working less than 40 hours a week is pretty much unheard of, but when you're a part time Cast Member, 40 hours a month is a miracle.  My program ended in January 2004, instead of going home I found an apartment a few miles away from Downtown Disney with my coworker Dan and his roommate, Rickli.  During the next program Dan and I worked a couple days a week.  It was almost no different than when we were CP's.  When that program ended in the summer our hours dropped drastically.  We were only working one or two days a month.  Instead of getting second jobs, we started doing medical experiments for money.  We'd spend a weekend at a facility in Gainesville and make a quick $1,000.  This is how we were able to afford our apartment. My birthday (September 18th) came and I...

Last night I saw Macaulay Culkin's band "The Pizza Underground" at the Hi Ho Lounge in New Orleans.  If you aren't familiar with them, they sing Velvet Underground songs, but change the lyrics to be about pizza.  You can listen to their demo here. Like everyone else on the planet, I love Home Alone.  I saw it in the theater when I was 8 and have been a fan of Macaulay Culkin ever since. I live in Houston, so New Orleans is a 6 hour drive, but this was not something I was going to miss. The Show: The Pizza Underground demo is 9 minutes long.  If they would have come out, handed out pizza and played for 15 minutes I really think the crowd would have been satisfied.  Instead they would leave the stage between songs and have someone else come out.  First it was one of the members from Carte Blanche (one of their opening acts) who came out and rapped.  Macaulay's girlfriend came out and sang a poem that he had written for her.  One of the female ...

I remember being up early on a Saturday morning watching cartoons and seeing a trailer for a movie with Seymour from Little Shop of Horrors.  I ran upstairs and woke my mom up.  I told her there was this great movie coming out called Honey, I Shrunk the Kids and asked if we could see it.  Without any hesitation she said no. I was really confused by her answer, until a few days later when I saw the trailer again and pointed it out to her.  Turns out she thought I had said Honey, I Shot the Kids. After the movie was released my Saturday morning cartoons were interrupted by short segments about Disney's newest theme park, MGM Studios.  One of these segments showed the backlot tour and how the "bee scene" from Honey, I Shrunk the Kids was done. In 1991 my family visited MGM Studios and while on the backlot tour my sister and I were picked to ride the bee from the film to show the rest of the tour how the effect was done.  A Cast Member came up and asked...

Wow, This week 10 years ago my friend Ralf and I were loading up his tiny car and heading off to Orlando for our jobs in the Walt Disney World College Program. It really does not seem that long ago but since I was 20 at the time and 30 now...I guess it was. I've decided that todays post will mostly just be pictures from the year and a half I lived in Florida working for Disney.  Let's see what has changed. First of all, I don't think I could get away with this hair at 30.  This is also the shirt I wore when trying to meet Hilary Duff. I was also a big fan of wearing my Thriller jacket everywhere. but as you can see, it no longer fits Back then I would collect Fast Passes off the benches in the locker room.  Waiting in line was for the tourists.  Unfortunately, you cant even use an hour old Fast Pass now, forget about one that's been expired for a year. My workplace, The Missing Link Sausage Company has been torn down. Here...

Before I start this story, let me remind you that I was in the Walt Disney World College Program in 2003.  At the time Hilary Duff was one of the biggest stars on the planet.  Having said that, let's begin. I remember one night when Dan and I were working The Link alone, I went home sick.  I had a real sinus attack and the last thing people want to see around their food is a dude who can't stop sneezing.  I went home and Dan closed down the restaurant by himself.  The next morning I was awoken by a phone call from Dan.  His roommate who worked at Blizzard Beach had called to tell him that Hilary Duff was at the park.  Dan loved Hilary Duff, so we decided "Why not, take a crazy chance" and see if we can meet her. I'll pause here to give you some advice if you ever plan on trying to meet a celebrity.  The first rule should be "Dress in a way that is appropriate to your surroundings.  So, you want to meet Hilary Duff at a water park, wear a ...

After the clock tower, the most important set in Hill Valley is probably the cafe.  In the Twilight Zone, the area we know as being the cafe is a police station. In 1985 Hill Valley, it's Lou's Aerobic Fitness Center. The building has not changed that much since the Twilight Zone, all they really did was relocate the door and build that facade.  Funny how Lou went from owning a restaurant to a fitness center 30 years later. Mike Ferris also takes in a movie at The Savoy. The Marquee (and movie selection) was changed when this area became Hill Valley A close up shows, that those busts have been there for quite a while. One scene that really threw me off, was when Mike walked past a drug store. It looks like the clock tower is behind him, and the reflection in the window looks like the post office building, but something about the geometry just didn't make sense to me.  I looked for more pictures of the set ...