Mondays and Magical Extras

So sad, the weekend is over. Did I do anything? Well, I worked. Overnight. Starting at 10 o'clock until 6 in the morning! Or, more like 5:30 this time around which was a welcome surprise. I was worried this weekend would be a lot more difficult than it was but everything went down without a hitch and we were rolling right along! Talk about something to put me in a good mood for a few days! Mom and I also spent some time out and about on Sunday which I have decided really helps with getting back on track with my days and night, provided I actually got a little sleep. We hit up Michael's and Smart & Final for a couple of errands and had lunch at Daphne's, this yummy Greek cafe chain here in the Bay Area. It's a bit of a favorite of mine. Too bad the experience this time was less than stellar. First mom's salad came with chicken instead of the gyros she ordered and then her baklava seemed like it would never make it to our table. I've had worse experiences, but it was frustrating.

And yes, that concludes the excitement of my weekend. That's the problem with working overnight once a week. It doesn't give you much opportunity to do much else, or at least not that I've found! Before I knew what was happening it was already Monday!

Is there such a thing as a "good morning" on a Monday? I usually want to laugh when someone says it in passing at the beginning of every week because my Monday's are usually anything but. I blame it on an exhausting weekend of work, what with my overnight shift and all, and of course it always turns into a busy day. I always feel like I'm running on fumes by the time Monday rolls along. Today has been pretty good though, and I'm not complaining. I woke up in a good mood, work wasn't stressful, and I had a nice little present waiting for me in the mail when I got home ...
Yes, this has to do with Disneyland!

I never really get to book my vacations through Disney Travel, Costco, AAA, or any source that offers you some "Magical Extras" for your stay. It's just cheaper for me to book everything separately and cheaper is the way for me! There's two of these Magical Extras that enjoy doing, one being Mickey's Toontown Morning Madness which is a special hour in Toontown before it's normal opening hours with a little show put on by Mickey and friends and smaller crowds. It's the best time to check out Toontown and it can be a lot of fun for the little kid in you, another being Preferred Seating for the Aladdin Musical at Disney California Adventure. Thanks to a wonderful community of Disneyland fans I've got vouchers for both! It's looking as though I may not be able to sue the ones for Aladdin due to the fact it probably wont be showing while I'm there, but a girl can always hope and dream.. Besides, if I can't, I'll just pay it forward!

So, nothing bad to bring me down today!

Meet 'Miss Piggy'

No, not that Miss Piggy. This Miss Piggy ...
And in case you were wondering, yes, she is a piggy bank. You know, for money? I've been pretty good about not going overboard with buying things and I've managed to save money a lot more than I have in the past. This is a very good thing because it means I have money for my vacation and I wont be broke as can be when I get home. This is a very, very good thing. But aside from moving money from savings to checking or vice versa I have a strange fascination with physically putting money away, hence the piggy bank.

I've been collecting stray change and whatnot for as long as I can remember. I usually dip in and out of it as the need for change pops up, which usually meant rummaging around for quarters which left me with a whole lot of pennies! What a useless bit of change they can be, until they add up. Earlier this year I took my cup of change (in case you were wondering it was a plastic souvenir cup from the San Francisco Zoo) to our Credit Union to "cash in" and along with some cash that I kept hidden at the bottom of the cup and it easily came out to something over $200. The money went towards my Park Hopper for the upcoming Disneyland trip (27 days from now, in case you were curious) with some spare parts left over for savings and the whole process started over again to see what kind of extra spending money I could save up before I leave. The only difference this time was that I wanted something a little more ... permanent. Harder to break into to fish for change.

It didn't help that these ceramic and brightly colored piggy banks at Target went on clearance just days later. Miss Piggy cost me about $2.

It's not so strange to have a piggy bank, but you'll probably find it strange that I keep track of what I put into said piggy bank. I am not joking when I say I have a spreadsheet tacked to my door so I can mark off every penny, dime, nickel, quarter, or bill that goes in to Miss Piggy. Already I have about $68 saved up in there and I still have a few weeks to go along with a trip to the recycling center. I've got lots of plastic bottles and aluminum cans to take in. I wish there were fewer since I did vow to drink less soda this year, but that's still a work in progress.

September Trip Day 3.2

Have you ever been to a shooting gallery? Well, I have. That is only if you could the Shootin' Exposition in Frontierland. I don't have any photos to share from that, but it was one of the things on our mental to-do list as added by Andrea that we actually remembered to do. Will I ever do it again? Probably not! But it turned out to be the last thing we did together in Disneyland for the rest of the afternoon. After a couple of hours in the Park since opening we were going to take full advantage of our Park Hoppers and actually park hop so next up was Disney's (although it is now officially Disney) California Adventure. One big draw over there is the Aladdin Musical Spectacular that takes stage at the Hyperion Theatre. It truly is spectacular as anyone who has ever seen it could tell you.

So we made that long trek across the esplanade and we're back in DCA for the second time this trip with a couple of hours to kill until Aladdin was set to start. It probably wasn't even noon yet and I could see that Andrea didn't look so well to put it mildly and it seemed pretty obvious to me that she needed to head back to the hotel. I tried to talk her into it or into taking a resting break but she kept on insisting that she'd be fine and she kept pushing on. So we did a photo op in the Sunshine Plaza with everyone's favorite Mouse.
It didn't take long, but right after we finished getting our photos with a vacationing Mickey Mouse Andrea finally decided she needed to step into one of the air conditioned shops to cool off and rest and I just took my time taking photos around the Hollywood Pictures Backlot.


After my little photo spree I checked back in with Andrea to see how she was doing and she finally made the call to head back to the hotel for a little while. I knew it was bound to happen eventually. After having some alcohol out by the hot tub the night before, barely getting any sleep, the heat, and not having enough water what else was bound to happen? It was nice to finally have an answer however, and I was able to go off on my own for a while. I do just fine at Disneyland all by myself, birthday or no birthday. I don't know why anyone would ever think a solo trip couldn't be fun. You get to call all of the shots without having to conference over what to do next. And to top it all off, I get around a lot faster on my own and I guarantee you I was hauling you-know-what. I'm not usually a leisurely walker. I know what I want and I'll barrel towards it, full-steam ahead. So the first thing my speed-walking-demon self did was take a full but brief self-tour through DCA stopping to visit a few friends along the way.

I even stopped by for a walk through the Mission Tortilla Factory and got some free tortillas for my birthday. Nothing satisfies a grazer like me like food to munch on!

I didn't end up staying in DCA for too long. The one ride that I was interested in, Toy Story Midway mania, was shut down and I wasn't going to sit around waiting for it for to be back up and running for forever. I also had a date with the Lilly Belle at 3 so I needed to make sure I was back at Disneyland before then. I thought about riding Indiana Jones until it was time to head back to Main Street but by the time I got there that was closed down too! It was funny listening to people waiting around. They actually had turned the lights on inside the ride and the people who got stuck on it were able to walk through all the different scenes. I think that would have been a pretty neat experience!
Rides go down, it's to be expected. So I just made the decision to got to Main Street regardless of how early it was. I figured I could get some photos and shopping done, and of course watch some candy being made!

$25 later

To be honest there is not a lot that $25 can get you nowadays without knowing where to find some good deals. Now, I know I'm not the worlds greatest bargain shopper, but a lot of great deals cross my path on a weekly basis simply from working in retail. It's hard not to take advantage of getting to touch all of the clearance items before anyone else sometimes, especially when you want something so badly that you just have to have it. I confess, I tend to be an impulse shopper, so I suppose it's a good thing I don't shop too often. I can't set things aside for myself or hide them after marking them down until I can purchase them, but that doesn't mean the second I'm off I can't hightail it back to a particular department to scoop up whatever amazing deal I saw earlier in the day. And there are times when amazing deals just happen to pop up. Don't kid yourself like I used to. Clearance items aren't cast-offs or rejects. Some things simply have to go to make room for new merchandise. I never used to touch clearance because I had that mentality of "if it's marked down, it must not be good" but now I know better. You would be surprised how much clearance comes straight off a delivery truck and has never even been touched in a store!

Hopefully by now you know what I'm getting at: I went shopping. Now, I do mean it when I say it's a good thing I don't shop often, because I don't. Like any female worth anything I know how to spend money, but I don't purposefully go out to buy things and I especially don't go drop lots of money on clothes frequently. In fact if you took a look at my wardrobe right now, most of it would be the same ratty jeans and tees that I have been wearing since I graduated high school. It's kind of pathetic. I'm 23, going on 24, and I still dress like a teenager. Not that there's anything wrong with my go to casual of jeans, a tee, and my chucks but I don't dress up much either, even if it's just a sundress and sandals. I want to start working on that, but it involves that shopping I mentioned earlier. And I hate buying clothes. The real reason is probably because everything costs so darn much nowadays. Why on earth would I want to pay $20 for a single shirt? Heck, sometimes $20 wouldn't even cut it and don't get me started on the price of pants or shoes for that matter.

But I'm going off an a tangent again! Instead of spending $20 on one single item I managed to get a little more bang for my buck this week. And sure, two days of $25 purchases comes out to $50 I think I did pretty darn good. Now if only I didn't feel like I was babbling for no good reason, but hey, I'm here to share my day to day, right? And my love of commas, so it seems.

So yesterdays $25 went towards clothes, specifically. A cute kimono-style dress I have had my eyes on for a while finally went clearance and we actually had one in my size (or as close to my size as I was gonna get) in the color that I wanted! It's a blue floral type print and I love it. I did get a pair of black leggings to go with it, and while they weren't clearance they were on sale for $1 cheaper than normal. Every little bit counts especially when my other discounts are factored in. Maybe I'll take a photo of myself in it later, it really is cute! I don't normally dress for cute, but there you have it. Add in a pair of pink shorts that went 50% off and that's not bad. You can't even get one pair of jeans at our store anymore without spending close to $30 so I walked away feeling like a winner.

Today's $25 went towards some shoes and sunglasses. I don't own a lot of shoes, despite what my dad may have said the other day. I have my chucks, a couple of flip flops that have really seen better days (as have my chucks, but those will be worn until they are falling apart on my feet a la my sister), some black sneakers for work, my running shoes and a pair of black boots that I honestly don't know how to walk in. Can some female please give me the secret to heals? I just don't get them! Sure that's more than a couple pairs, but it's also a lot less than some people I know. I wanted some summer sandals to wear and Payless is having another of their infamous BOGO days so I stopped by to see if anything caught my eye. Well, a couple did and so I bought them. It took forever to find some that fit, or so it felt like. As it turns out I wear 3 different sizes depending on the shoe itself, all the way from a regular old 6 to a 7 (the other being a 6 1/2). Yes, according to my sister I have pixie feet. Too bad I hate feet altogether. Somebody remind me to get a pedicure before I wear said sandals! And no, I didn't spend $25 on just two pairs of shoes. I also bought 2 sunglasses that I actually liked. I never think I look good in any (they just don't seem to fit my face shape) but I liked these enough to buy them. So 2 pairs of shoes and 2 sunglasses for $25. Not bad, I say.

And because I can, I figured I would share photos of my loot from today!

Two Nine

Two? 2. Nine? 9. Can you guess what I'm talking about? I'll give you a hint ... it involves Disneyland!

OK, you've probably already heard me doing my daily countdown for a few days now so being 29 days away from my vacation shouldn't really come as a surprise. All I know is this: I have less than a month to go until I'm at the Happiest Place on Earth!!

Excited? Me? Never!!! Haha.

I did not intend to disappear for a week or so and fully intended on getting quite a few updates of not only my day to day life and thoughts (that is what this is for, right?) but also a few more updates from last September's Disneyland trip but that hasn't quite panned out the way I thought it would. First my boss goes on vacation which means (a) more hours and (b) more stress for me at work and then my sister officially left for Humboldt which left me (a) a little depressed and (b) a little lonely. None of those 4 things are very conducive conditions for internet and/or blogging. But I did promise to stop slacking and get something up today so here I am!

All of the stress and loneliness aside, I've actually had a few fun things on my plate as of late. Probably the highlight of he past couple of weeks was spending a day out with my cousin, having lunch and shopping before going out to dinner and having a nice evening catching up with our Aunt. I can't remember the last time I had a full day out like that and it was just awesome. Plus I got to see all the photos my cousin took while studying abroad in France this summer - she even dot to go to Disneyland Paris!


Talk about a day of spending money! I haven't gone clothes shopping in a while and spent a pretty penny on some jeans and a couple of cute tops that are going into my Disneyland vacation clothes pile and not to be touched until then. Call me crazy, but I like having new clothes for vacations. I could have done even more damage at the Hallmark store all thanks to their buy 1 get 1 free deal on select Disney Precious Moments figurines. I absolutely adore those and they even had one Snow White one that I have had my eyes on for a rather long time. But I just couldn't justify the money right now. Clothes were a necessity, these were not. Although I can guarantee you that if they had two and not just one Snow White figurine included I would not have been able to resist.

I did make one other purchase that is directly related to this vacation. I'm not one to bring my entire wallet into the Parks so I usually stick the essentials in one of those metal ID cases. Well, I found one that made me think of Minnie Mouse and I just had to get it since the one I usually use belongs to my sister.


Unfortunately there isn't really much else to update on. It's been very much a work-sleep-work-sleep few days for me. Here's hoping the next few weeks will be fun before I leave. At the very least my birthday is in 2 1/2 weeks so I should have a lot of fun things going on by then!

September Trip Day 3.2

There was more fun to be had than just our breakfast at Goofy's Kitchen! I remember I ended up having to walk back to the hotel to drop off our photo package and change out of the capris I was wearing. It was already starting to heat up and it was barely even 9 in the morning yet! What a hot day that turned out to be, perfect for me! It just wasn't perfect for the whole party but that was neither here nor there at the moment. When we finally got in to the park a little before opening we hung back around the Main Street station to ask about something I was determined to do that day: take a ride on the Lilly Belle parlour car. That was what I wanted for my birthday, and we were told to check back sometime around noon and they would see what they could do to accommodate us.


At that point we were going to take the train to New Orleans Square for our first ride (Pirates) but we spotted two of Andrea's favorite characters and there was no way we could just walk away without getting photos. It turned out to be a headache as there was no formal line and many parents just pushed their kids in front of those of us patiently waiting our turn, but that's just something you have to deal with sometimes. But at least we did get our photos. We even got a photo together at the little photo op spot right at the beginning of Main Street. I thought I would be funny and gave a certain someone bunny ears, lol.

As it turns out I would rather walk a mile than hike up a set of stairs for a train and so we made the walk to New Orleans Square on foot and got sidetracked as always by two of our favorite rides ever. At least with one we simply grabbed Fast Passes for our proposed return later in the evening when we knew it would be busier. The Fast Passes of course belonging to Indiana Jones, while we rode the Jungle Cruise. To top it all off, Adventureland was look particularly exotic that morning.



Sidetracked much? I think that's an understatement. It's almost a miracle that we ever did make our way over to Pirates, but this is what happens when there are so many fun things to see and do. To bad one of those fun things was officially closed for the remainder of our trip!

September Trip Day 3.1

happy birthday to me,
happy birthday to me,
happy birthday to me-e,
happy birthday to me!
Another morning, another breakfast at Disneyland! But who am I kidding, there's no such thing as "another morning" when your birthday is involved. September 10, 2009 meant happy 23rd birthday to me! And as it turns out, my 23rd birthday was easily on of the best birthdays ever and it all started with an amazing birthday-breakfast at Goofy's Kitchen! "What is Goofy's Kitchen?", you ask? Oh, nothing much, just another of the five character meal choices at the Disneyland Resort, hosted by none other than Chef Goofy. We had a 7 o'clock breakfast (the earliest we could get in) so we would have time to make it to the gates before the park officially opened with plenty of time to spare while we diddy-dawdled at the restaurant. The only downside to breakfast that early (other than a rather long walk from our hotel to the restaurant) is that it's pretty cold outside! I never actually thought about how long of a walk it would be from the HoJo to the Disneyland Hotel and it wasn't until we were on our way, marching along, that we realized we didn't know exactly where we were going. Sure we knew it was located at the Disneyland Hotel and we've both seen it before but we couldn't actually visualize where we needed to be headed. Luckily for us we ran into someone we had met the day before who was on her way to the Anaheim Convention Center for the Expo who was able to point us in the right direction as she was staying at the Disneyland Hotel and had eaten at Goofy's the morning before. We arrived at Goofy's Kitchen with plenty of time to spare so I took to exploring the wonder that is the Disneyland Hotel (to be more specific the DLH Convention Center). It's like walking into a world sprinkled with pixie dust. To top it all off we were the first party there to check in when they opened.




Unlike our breakfast at Ariel's Grotto the day before Goofy's Kitchen is a buffet with so many options for food it can make your head spin - they even have a PB&J pizza, whoddathunkit?! We were barely settled into ourseats when we got our first visitor ... Baloo, from the Jungle Book!! Later on during our meal Baloo succeeded in scaring me half to death when I didn't realize he was right behind me. I am not joking when I say I let out a little (or maybe loud) scream with a jump out of my chair to match. The character meals stand out a little more for me when you get to see characters that you wont have the chance to see in the parks. I think they should always have at least one exclusive character at each meal. Then I'd be sure never to miss one - ever (although that could prove to be a potential bad, bad, and expensive thing)!

Before settling down to eat for a few moments we were also visited by Chef Goofy himself! There was a lot more fun with Goofy shortly thereafter as he gave an impromptu cooking demonstration full of laughter and a little dance session with the kids in the restaurant. I may not be a little kid anymore, but I still got a kick out of it. Especially when he dropped the cake the first time trying to unveil his masterpiece. That is totally something I would do (and have done) in the kitchen!

Next up was a visit from Cinderella. She was the start of the name/face recognition that turned up everywhere on Thursday. She remembered us from Ariel's Grotto the morning before. That put an even bigger smile on my face - I'm beginning to wonder how I can even feel my face anymore! So we went ahead and did a different Princess pose this time.
But what was the highlight of the meal? Or my highlight of the meal, at least. I kind of made the mistake of leaving my sweater back at the hotel, stupid, right? Knowing how cold I get when I eat. Maybe I was thinking that I didn't want to be carrying it around if we were going into the park right afterward when it was just going to get hot again, who knows? But as I said, I get cold when I eat - very, very, very, very cold! So there I was, feeling like I was freezing with nothing to keep me warm. My solution was to keep getting up and getting more food since it was warmer there than at our table and upon returning Dale came by with a little present: a tablecloth! And of course where there is Dale, there is also Chip!

And last but not least was Jasmine! Both of the Princesses remembered at least one of us from the day before, only this time Andrea had seen Jasmine in Disneyland at the Aladdin meet & greet at Aladdin's Oasis in Adventureland.
Goofy's Kitchen was very filling and a very fun way to kick off my birthday!

After breakfast I made the decision to go ahead and head back to the hotel before up with Dre again at the gates for our regular entry. Heck, we could have gone ahead and done Magic Morning on Thursday, but we had already decided that we were saving it for Saturday when we would also do Mickey's Toontown Morning Madness. Really, I just wanted to go back to the hotel so I could drop off the photo that we had purchased from Goofy's Kitchen. I didn't want to ruin it, carrying it around the park all day. On the way I also stopped off to get what inspired the whole trip in the first place - my birthday Fun Card!
The Fun Card was a gift card worth one day's admission costs that I could use at pretty any shopping destination within the Disneyland Resort which worked out to be roughly $72 dollars for me to spend. It was all part of the year's promotion of free admission on your birthday, only since I already had 5 days (for the price of 3) worth of park hopping and the gift card was one of two other options available to me and the one I opted for rather than special fast passes. I loved getting the chance to pick up a few birthday extras.