February 11, 2010

I had a magical moment today. And no, it wasn't one of those assigned by cds and planned out in advance. It was something unexpected, surprising, and something I don't think I'll ever forget.

To begin, for the first hour or so of my shift today, I was given the gracious honor of stocking the outer kids wall. I was excited over this and happily took to my task. As I was heading into the first floor stockroom to try and find some "It's A Girl!" photo albums, an "Excuse me" caught my attention, and I turned to find a young man about my age holding a grey jacket covered with black Mickey images. He explained that he'd found the jacket, but couldn't find any others, and wanted to know if there was one in his size. Now, I was paying attention to what he was saying, but while he spoke, a part of me kept thinking "This guy looks a LOT like David" . That's when I realized that he was more than just a familiar doppleganger face.

"Lesandro?" I asked, pretty much out of the blue. It took him a second, since my question really had been rather random, and then he recognized who I was. We had met only a few days earlier when my friend Anthony and his roommate Clay (who are both Skippers on Jungle Cruise) accompanied me to Magic Kingdom, where Anthony taped Lesandro's boat since he would be leaving within the next couple of days. Recognition out of the way, I set about trying to find the brethren of the jacket he was holding. He asked why I still had the "Earning My Ears" tag on my nametag, and I explained it was because I was being deployed and figured it would help people realize I didn't know things about an area. It was also, as I told him shortly later, because I was still learning things at Mouse Gear.

This was plainly obvious, for even though I led him around for a good minute or two, I couldn't find the jackets. I managed to find a girl to ask, and she told me they'd be back in Bubble, the men's section. That was where he and I had met x.x So back we went, and after a moment, and right after I told him to hang out in an area while I took a super fast look around, he found another one of the jackets.

That was it: sadly, there were no others. And both of them were XL, which was too big for him. Not to worry, however, as I pulled out my radio, and called the stockroom, hoping we'd have more in the basement. No such luck. I reported the news back to him, and gave him my old stand-by about trying World of Disney, or if he was going that way, Gateway Gifts.

Now, to make matters a little more complicated, today was cold, and poor Lesandro was only wearing the "Por Favor" monorail t-shirt and a vest. Florida-wear, but this (hopefully) isn't typical Florida weather. He mentioned that he'd also been considering a 2010 jacket, but that he'd been looking all over the World since his program began to find a jacket like the grey one he had. All the others, in his opinion, seemed a little childish when taken out of the context of Disney. And he'd had a really nice Levi jacket, but somehow it'd gotten lost.

I tried to be helpful, telling him that maybe he could get the 2010 one and then swap it if he found another one of jackets, since we are allowed to do that in the return policy. He even tried on the XL jacket, just to see if maybe it would be ok. Nope. Too big. I apologized quite a few times, feeling bad especially because of the above factors, not to mention that he was one of Anthony's friends, and again suggested World of Disney, despite the fact that he hadn't seen the jacket anywhere else.

Finally, in a random act, I went back to the area where the jackets were, saying sometimes they fall off the hangers. I didn't see any empty hangers sitting between the XL jackets, but I looked anyway, digging between the heavy folds of fabric. And then, I found one. A random jacket, sitting at the bottom of the others.

I couldn't believe it, just for the simple fact that there was an honest-to-goodness jacket that had fallen off the hanger in this very small selection of stock. I lifted it up to show him, and he said that it looked smaller, but that it was probably still an XL.

I peeked inside the top of the jacket, to see what size it was.

The lettering had faded off, leaving everything else but the crucial size.

I looked down and located the tag hanging off the arm.

It read "L".

I couldn't believe it. Quickly I handed it over to him and he put it on in an instant.

It was the right fit.

I can't quite describe the thrill that this gave me. But I got one. I was excited, and more importantly, so was he. I pointed out a mirror to him, just so he could see how it looked, and he returned a moment later and gave me a big hug.

It was just the right jacket.

I told him that he'd have to take pictures of the jacket all over South America and send them to me. In response, he said he wanted a picture, and took one of us, with me holding up the jacket. After that, he thanked me, and then he went to go pay, and I went back to stocking.

But boy did I think that was the neatest thing.


Although, in my awesomeness, after I had tried calling the stockroom to no avail, Lesandro had said he could write me a GSF, since I had gone "Above and Beyond". Above and beyond for radioing a stockroom that didn't have what he needed? Psh. I told him he didn't need to. And now, well, had I said yes, I would've finally, finally had a GSF to my name.

But thinking about what happened today, in that one moment, that one instant, from the simple action of checking which I've had had to do late at night when straightening, I'm just amused. Amused and amazed.

There were plenty of other things that happened today too, such as my learning where Animal Kingdom's costuming building is located. That was a little hoot and a holler. Or how about Joe Jonas and Demi Lovato having a concert right outside of Mouse Gear? And trying to find parking in the Cast parking lot thanks to the event they were singing at; that was something else too. But I think the event between Lesandro and I was one of the big things of today, and as it's late, and I'm tired, and have much, much more to do over the next couple of days, I update with this. A something that could be described and classified as many things, but that I am happy to title for now a "Magical Moment".

I had a Magical Moment today. I shared a Magical Moment today.

It was awesome.