You Passed the Audition!

So this week was eventful. I laid by the pool. I laid in the pool. I read a good portion of The Devil Wears Prada, thanks to Grandma's book collection. I worked out with Gilad on FitTV and swam every day. I ventured out some, too.

I decided to take a drive to get a good feel for my surroundings. I'm near Clermont; it's about 10-15 miles north. There's not a whole lot in downtown Clermont except a big lake and an interesting looking restaurant called Pasta Vino. The little Italian I know leads me to believe they may have a decent wine selection, and those of you who know me well know that wine always catches my attention. I continued my journey east, heading toward Orlando, when I ran into Winter Garden. Downtown Winter Garden is covered with brick roads to match the brick buildings to match the cute gazebos in the middle of everything. They had a French bakery, a cute-looking salon, and more than a just a street's worth of places to explore. Needless to say, I loved it and can't wait to go back to investigate the little town of Winter Garden.

Then, audition time came. Audition One: Disney Fairy Look-A-Likes. I walk into the rehearsal center at Animal Kingdom to find that I am not the only girl who thinks she has what it takes to be a Disney Fairy. By the way, they are opening a new exhibit-type area in Magic Kingdom to house Tinkerbell and all her friends, hence the audition to find this group of fairies. I'm number 153 measuring at 63 inches. The cut off is 65 inches, so that's one step in the right direction for me. The place is crawling with girls. You have to be at least 16 for this audition, so yes, I saw my share of stagemoms. It was loud in this warehouse-type room with the typical girl attitude of 'look at her and how she compares to me.' It sounds bad, but I haven't been in a situation like that since high school. So I loved it. This audition made for a great people-watching experience. There are at least 200 girls there (I hear there were 400 at the other audition time). They break us up into groups of about 50 or so. My group happened to be towards the end, so we were about 30. We get lined up in a room and are told Disney is looking for girls with 'pixie eyes, a squared jawline, and a general pixie-like look.' I smile brightly at the judge as she walks past me and chooses 4 girls from the 30 in our room to go on to the next part of the audition. And that's it for Audition One. I can't very well change my facial structure, so no harm done. It's just time to prepare for the next one.

Audition Two: Disney Princess Look-A-Likes and Character Performers. Same place. Men and women. Mostly young, like myself. I'm number 54, measuring at 63.5. I either grew a whole half inch over night (boy, that yoga sure does wonders!) or it was due to my hair being up. 55-65 of us get called to cram into this rehearsal room to learn a quick dance routine. We are to move across the room while doing it, repeating the routine 3 times, to a tricked-out version of "It's a Small World". The energy in the room is great, we are excited to show our stuff. During the 3rd repeat of the routine, my face is beaming as I misstep. My energy was too much for my brain to handle, thus my feet doing whatever they wanted. But, I pressed on. And for audition portion two, my number was called. This was the silent improvisational portion. The energy, again, is nothing but excitement. We have to pretend, to music, that we are waking up 2 hours for something, and act it out. Silently. Big gestures and facial expressions a must. When they line us up in numerical order, they take out a group of about 10. These women looked like Disney used them as models when drawing the Disney Princesses, so we learn very quickly who the judges are choosing for that. Again, my lack of cartoon tendencies leaves me with the regular human beings, which, if you saw these girls, you would know you didn't have a chance at becoming Cinderella. I suppose there's always hope. Anyway, I give it my all during the improv section. Then we wait. I have no idea how long, since I left my phone next to my computer at home. I overhear a girl talking about how she just picked up and moved here from Iowa, simply needing a change. It was nice to know someone else was as brave and crazy as I was. Then, they pull a group of us into the hallway. This hallway, as we observed, was used to tell people, sorry about ya, but you're not working for Disney in the entertainment department. Of course, we're all nervous and a little pre-maturely bummed. The guy jokes with us that it's conveniently set next to the exit, but we won't be needing that today because we PASSED THE AUDITION!!!!

Here's the BUT: all of us were about the same height, which seems to be a popular height in the Walt Disney World Company. Right now, they have no space for us. We are in a 'hiring pool' for 6 months. In that 6 months, we can audition for other things if we'd like, but once they have space, they will call us for Character Performer jobs. It's been 4 years since I've auditioned for anything, so I feel pretty proud of myself.

In the meantime, I'm in hiring pools for a couple other jobs at Disney, retail and attractions. Retail is, of course, working in the stores; attractions could be running rides, emceeing, that sort of thing. I'm also wait-listed for the Food and Wine Festival in September, which would be equally awesome. Now I wait.

I'm lucky to have family here who are so supportive and willing to have me tag-a-long for things! Last night, I went to see the batman movie, The Dark Knight. I was giddy when I went in and just as giddy when I came out. I highly recommend it. Heath is really as amazing as everyone says he is. Next week I might be going to Pleasure Island, which is also cool since I've never really been. I've never been of age to go, so I'm looking forward to a fun night out.

And be proud: I got up today and cleaned the whole house. Living alone with not a whole lot going on right now makes me motivated to keep the place looking fresh, so I spent a good hour vacuuming, dusting, and cleaning my bathroom. I might count that as my workout today.

Side note: if anyone is concerned about me being alone here, don't worry. Not only are the Geigers and Annie keeping tabs on me, but the Jehovah's Witnesses come calling every so often.