Sick

I'm sick.

I arrived back from home with what I thought was a scratchy throat from the change in weather and a stuffiness in my head due to homesick tears. As soon as I stepped out of the airport (after being shot down by the guy at the Magical Express when I asked if they could give me a ride), I thought my throat had gotten better. But, alas, it was still scratchy.

The next day, I had to get up early to get to Vista Way. I was making up my Marketing You class, which I hadn't been able to make on Monday since I was still out of town. I woke up feeling under the weather, and this plus my lack of time prompted me to down some orange juice for breakfast. Class was fine, although I was worried we were going to have to read our revised 30 second commericals aloud (we didn't). Then I rented two movies, headed back to the apartment, and had a lunch of chicken noodle soup and orange juice. The first Heritage class was pretty cool, and it seemd like we'll be doing a lot of interesting things, but I was worried because I started to feel a little nauseous while sitting these. But the class kept my interest, so yay.

The next day, yesterday, was my first day back at work. And what a first day back it was. I was supposed to be there at 10:15am, which is a lot to ask, even if I'm not sick. When I informed Coordinator Tammy about how I wasn't feeling well, I asked if I could be an "outdoor slave" for the day. Not the best choice of words x.x But I did get to stay outside...on condiment bar. Happily, I found a cart early on, but between feeling sick and sniffy and the beating I was taking from the sun, I was moving at a really slow pace. I did get briefly pulled into bussing. A guy approached me and asked me if I could wipe off a table for him. I said I could, and it was totally no problem, but I looked around and noticed all of the bussers had disappeared. Wtf? Four and a half hours of condiment bar later (yes, that's right), I got taken off of condiment bar...only to be put on Scoops register. This was not a happy thought to me. Speech was sort of difficult for me with my scratchy throat, and speaking actually made me feel a little sick too. And since I like to be the talkative type at Scoops, I wasn't sure what I was going to do. But I was delayed a bit from the register as we were just opening the second window, so I took my time getting the napkins and spoons ready, checking the cash, and getting water from Fairfax. Please don't think I was trying to abandon the people waiting in line; there was a window open before I got there. I just needed to take some time and prep myself for what would've been a difficult task for me at the time.

I opened the window, took a couple of orders, and as I was waiting for the last two of five sundaes to be made (cookies I think?), Emilee showed up and I got to go on break. I didn't have a lunch, since I had to toss my peanut butter out (it looked like there was some oil that had separated), I got a fruit cup and some combos and sat down for a much-needed break. Near the end, I gave my Mom a call and, not to gross you out, blew one seriously snotty tissue. This is when I began to suspect I wasn't suffering from just a weather change.

After break, there was no one at the coordinator's desk, so I took my printed job at condiment bar again. I also got yelled at, or at least had a talking-to by Ketty, this Hatian (spelling?) girl who'se been at Disney for 10 years. Apparently she'd noticed earlier that when I was doing condiment bar, the closer-to-the-Guests side at the one by Rosie's had gotten down to bare bones supplies. "You fill them. Not half way." she'd said, to which I responded "Oh never half way."

I don't fill condiment bar half way.

She gave me a look that, frankly, told me she thought I was talking back, and continued "You fill it up all the way." I do agree that, when I saw that side of the condiment bar, I knew I was falling behind and really needed to attend to that side. I mean, I guess logically, the Guests could've seen that that one side was nearly empty and could just walk around to the other side, but these are vacation-minded people. They can't be bothered with logic. Or rational thought (sometimes). Anyway, I got back to work, and yes, I filled the condiment bars. Ketty had wandered by a couple of times, whether to spy or just bored, who can say. I had a pretty good starting base anyway. Who ever had done condiment bar before me (and had disappeared before I had gotten out there after my break), had left things pretty darn full. It also wasn't busy...but all the same, I appreciated it.

And then I got switched the Fairfax kitchen. I had been afraid of this, since when I got back from break, I took a sneak peak at the closing list, and had found my name next to Fairfax kitchen. This, as you may not, was not something I wanted to see. In short, I suck at closing Fairfax kitchen. I never seem to be able to do things in the right order at the right time, and never seem to remember every little thing I need to do. Thus, I end up staying late, and have made a mess with the food more than once. Chili spilled on my shoes after Night of Joy, beans BURNING my fingers, spilling the chili into the big container where the food sits in its dishes (some of it got down the drainage pipe too). Look at my hands - if they're covered in food, I'm closing Fairfax. Plus, I wasn't sure how healthy it was to have me serving up food. But, have no fear. I THROUGHLY washed my hands, kept them safely in the gloves and kept my germy self away from the food as much as possible.

Manager Susan stopped by, but only to second-harvest some of the turkey legs. She didn't have any bags to dump the food in, as a sort of way of speeding things up. Riann, who was closing the front, did have some excellent advice however. She told me to start putting all the salad fixings into salad containers. Since the first and main goal of Fairfax is to get the dishes to, well, Dishes, this would help speed things up a little. I had been worried, since the then-coordinator John had stopped in, pleased with himself that he'd gotten people to their closing positions early, and chatting about how Dishes has already knocked out quite a bit and should totally be done by 7:30pm.

But we closed, and I tried, and somehow, somehow, I managed to get out only 25 minutes after I was supposed to be done. A new record! I also managed to talk to Coordinator John, who I think was the same coordinator I tried talking to back home to say I couldn't work Tuesday because of class. John managed to tell me who my Leaders are (Melissa and Catelyn (spelling?) ) and got me the number of Sunset, which is awesome because...now I have it?

Afterwards, I got to my car...and just kind of collapsed. I was definitely starting to not feel well, and got the feeling that soup would do me some good. However, I wanted restaurant soup, or at least premade soup, not soup from a can, so I drove down 192 for a little bit, trying to see if there was a place with a drive-through that served soup. I'm aware that I had a change of clothes and could've gone into a restaurant, but I was lazy (and sick) and just wanted the soup.

I managed to find, of all things, a Steak n' Shake, which I was plesantly overjoyed at. It took a little bit of manuvering to get to, since I passed it and was in the wrong lane to turn around, but it was neat to find one. As I pulled in, I was kind of creeped out by this guy and his two friends in the parking lot. He appeared to be hitting on two girls, but no matter! I had found a Steak n' Shake!

After pausing at the menu to look for soup (they didn't have any), I ended up getting 3 sliders. I think the guy at the window might've said something to me other than the usual total, "here you go", and "thanks", but I couldn't tell. I'm pretty sure he could see my costume though (I DID manage to take off the nametag beforehand though). As I drove away, creepy guy was taking cell phone pictures of the two girls. I sure hope they knew how to handle themselves.

Back at the apartment, I ate and watched most of The Best of The Mickey Mouse Club. I was really starting to feel tired, and was still drippy and blah. My throat was still hurting too, so before I settled in, I poured myself some water to have by the bed. I left the tv on, tuned into TCM, which was playing all sorts of old black and white "comedy" movies. They were funny, not drop your pants funny (wha?), but they were pleasant and humorous and something interesting to stare at when I woke up a couple of times during the night. This was actually kind of interesting, since, because all the movies were in black and white, when I woke up, i was never quite sure if I was watching something new, or the same movie. Not without paying attention first.

And then this morning...

I didn't have to go in until 1pm, so I managed to sleep in a little more, but I still wasn't feeling well. I was coughing a little more, and my throat was still bothering me. I thought about it...thought about how I wasn't feeling well...how I was dripping and sneezing and coughing and just wanted some rest...how as much as I loved the parade duty (and I was assigned to it today too), I wasn't exactly the epitomy of the Disney look at the time...thought about dealing with Guests and other Cast Members, speaking and lifting objects and being outside...and at 10:02am I called in for the first time ever.

I dialed the number, got a phone menu that asked if I was calling in, then if it was an emergency, and then reached a deployment Cast Member. They asked my name, which I had a bit of a hard time sharing because my voice was starting to fade a bit, where I worked, whether it was a sick call-in or personal, and what my personel number was. And that was it.

Free to spend the rest of the day getting well, I plopped down in front of the computer and discovered a site featuring badly photoshopped advertisements. Misako randomly came in, asking me, and then asking Alex and I, how to spell words like "um" and "blah". After a call to my Mom, and a little more computer surfing to work up the energy, I headed out to Walmart to stock up on health supplies, as well as a couple of groceries. I hadn't bought too much last week since I was going home.

Then it was back to the apartment. Misako had been so gracious as to offer me some of her leftover soup, so I had that with some green tea and honey. The soup was absolutely delicious, reminding me of home, and was exactly what I had needed. The tea seemed to help too, along with the two full spoonfuls of honey I swallowed afterwards. And then...more sitting. Amanda eventually came back to the apartment, and we chatted for a bit about how little kids are scared of Jojo the Clown, and how difficult the life of an entertainer can be. She had a glass of apple juice, and set it down, only to discover it had ants in it not too long afterwards. Bleh x.x Alex came back too, and I chatted with them both for a little while more. But I noticed, as I did so, that I kept resting my head on things (the chair, the table), and that my voice making me sound more and more like I was a smoker. After observing a sort of brief, but torrential rain shower (the lighting set off car alarms!) I opted for a nap, and slept until about 6.

When I awoke, I headed to the bathroom, only to see a note taped to the door with a Mickey sticker. It read "I promise I'm going to fix it... Dramatic pause". Opening the door, I saw the shower curtain rack lying on top of the side of the bathtub. I opened the door to the apartment where I found Alex, and applauded her for the note. But I didn't sleep through a crash, apparently; Alex had caught the rack on the way down. I decided to try my hand at making a Tombstone. Alex had been watching something on pizzas earlier (I got to see the deep dish part, woo!), so I kind of had a taste for pizza. But also, I figured it wouldn't be too hard to make. Ha.

I started by having to clean off the baking sheet, which had little bits of Texas Toast crusted to it. Then I faced a connundrum over how long to preheat the oven, since it's electric and it heats faster and our smoke alarm is kind of sensative. Then, after cooking the pizza once, cutting it, and deciding it wasn't done enough, I ended up microwaving pieces, then laying them on the baking sheet (why did I use parchment paper then and not before when I was starting??) and reheating the oven and the pieces twice!

At the same time, I was trying to finish my Y.E.S. audition video, which had to be delayed when I decided to swap one segment for another. Then I tried to send it via e-mail, my Mom on the phone giving me ideas what to say while reassuring me that the bendy slices of pizza were ok, but could maybe use a little more time in the oven. E-mail failed, the file was too big, so then I had to sign up for a YouTube account, put in "mai" instead of "mail" which caused me not to get the confirmation e-mail, had to fight my way to getting to the page where I could change it, had to change my e-mail address, log into another account, upload the video (took a while), had the video checked...or something (also took a while), rewrote the e-mail, checked the video and the links and how to search for it, and sent it, all while still having to be mindful of my pizza in the oven (again), the smoke alarm, the open patio door window (we now have a little dragonfly in the apartment), and the end of Ratitouille, which was playing on Disney Channel.

Then Alex came in with her friends, and the guy remarked on the way I was sitting (non-conventional indian style). While on the phone with my Mom, she'd remarked on how bad I sounded, but trying to communicate with these people even briefly made me sound like a smoker. I quickly reorganized the fridge, opted to do my dishes later, and slipped into the room.

I need rest, I think. My body's kind of sore, although it could be from my writing this entry. I did try this spray that's supposed to numb my throat, but unfortunately, my aim was off, so the top part of my mouth and some of my lips got numbed instead. It seemed to help, or at least I think it would have if I'd hit the right area. But yes, rest definitely seems like a good idea right now.