Okay, I've been feeling the need to read good Wicked fic. Wicked fans on my f-list, point me at your reccommendations! I mainly like either gen or Elphaba/Fiyero, but I'm totally down with good Gelphie, too. Bookverse or musicalverse, doesn't matter to me. :)

I feel artsy. I wanna draw, but I don't know what I wanna draw. It's most annoying.

I really need to stop playing in the arcade at SM... it's addicting. The newest games? HOOKED. I can't stop playing IceHockey, Blast Billiards, and Seal Bounce. :P I skip between those as well as Queen's Jewels and Bejeweled. :P

Fantasy Football is going relatively well! I'm dominating the MiceChat league - and two of my best players have been totally benched so far! Once Steve Smith and Clinton Portis get back into the game, it will be a slaughter. :P In the VF league... I made an 'eh' showing last week... this week I did really weel point-wise... but lost by half a point. We're only two weeks into the season, though! No worries.

Another W for the Seahawks! It was a pretty pathetic show, indeed - the Hawks should have been able to squash Arizona into the turf. That game was far closer than it should have been. But what matters in the end is the win, and we're 2-0! The big test will be NY next week...

Oh, and that Miller Lite ad where they overflow each others' beer? It doesn't work too well unless you hit them pretty hard.

...not that we, like, tried that today or anything.

...it was in the name of science, I tell you!

ETA: HA! Just found this 2005 vid of the opening number of Cirque de la Mer (side poles only)... and you can totally see me sitting on the steps at the beginning.

I was productive today! Got that visit to SeaWorld in, finally. It was seriously rough getting up at 9. :P

( The SeaWorld wrap-up )

So my refrigerator decided to antagonize me all night with LOUD buzzing sounds all night, happening every 5 minutes like clockwork. By about 4 am, I was trying to creatively wrap my comforter around my head without suffocating myself. And I was up again at 7:30. GRR.

( Another day at SeaWorld! )

Came home for an hour or so, then we all headed out to see X-Men 3. First of all, we walked into the theater only to hear "The Wizard and I" playing. WOO! And the last song they played before the movie started? "For Good." Waiting for the movie was Wicked love. I would also like to point out that no one batted an eyelash at any of the previews (including PotC 2)... until Snakes on a Plane, which got much clapping and cheering. :P

As for the movie itself? Loved it! ( X-Men 3 Spoilers! )

Been working on costumes a bit. Almost finished with the Elphie dress - it was surprisingly easy! I just have to add the collar and buttons, hem the skirt, and clean up some of the seams. Oh, and a question for anyone else who does sewing - does anyone know if any of those sealants that prevent fraying really work? The fabric I'm using for the skirt frays really easily.

And since it's effectively dead anyways, I took great joy in pulling the plug on my fridge and silencing the obnoxious buzzing.

Finally made it back to SeaWorld! I know, I'm so slow at that. But Cirque and Believe called, so I obliged. I got there right before the first showing of "Believe" (the new Shamu show) for the day - it doesn't officially open until Saturday, but soft openings are going on now...

( Believe review - spoilers! )

( The rest of the day! )

I came home after that, and my parents arrived and we went out to Outback for dinner. Yaaaaay, steak! Sounds like we'll be going to SeaWorld tomorrow, 'cause they wanna see that. No complaint here - Cirque is supposed to start soft openings tomorrow for real this time. :P And some of you previously mentioned better be working, dammit! :P

Just got all my pics for the day uploaded - I went a bit photo crazy. Lots of Believe, Sea Lions Tonite, and Cirque de la Mer!

Also, my freezer died today, and that makes me sad. *waves byebye to the ice cream*

'Nother new LJ header! Same theme, different flavor. I hadn't noticed til yesterday that I got Tink really clearly in this pic, so now it's in my absolute favorites category.

I got all sappy and sentimental tonight, and busted out my Cirque cast and crew DVD... oh, so many good times, so many stories I'd totally forgotten about... I managed to get a few memorable frame grabs. I skipped most of the ones that just didn't lend themselves to stills (a lot of the falls and faceplants you really just gotta see in video), so this is a bit limited. (And no, for those of us chatting Monday night, I did not include that opening scene I mentioned... :P)

( Cirque picspam! )

Cirque is over.

It's really hard to believe the summer's done, but today we did the last show of the season.

The anticipation has definitely been building over the last few days. On Saturday morning, two of the sprites found out that I hadn't been thrown in yet. Before the end of the show, I was swimming. :P

Last night we had our official end-of-the-season party, with food and drinks. We also all got copies of what has got to be the most hilarious DVD ever made. I love it, because it's got some of the most memorable show moments of the entire summer. I just kept wondering how they managed to get video of ALL of those awesome/scary/memorable moments. The only thing I can think of that wasn't included was the Attack of the Giant Beetle a couple of weeks ago during preshow.

Today was a bit bittersweet. We only had three shows, so we had plenty of downtime for last photos and such. Everyone was pumped for the shows, too. The Zorbs miraculously held out, barely. Everyone was so energetic, and the sprites were absolutely hilarious! I have to hand it to them - today's two sprites in particular never failed to make me laugh, all summmer long. I bow to their comic genius. I had both cameras with me today. My old one in my pocket, and my nice one in my locker. Our crew chief took my nice one for the last show, and got photos whenever she wasn't doing something in the show. I only wish I'd gotten a full video of the show at some point this summer. :( I did, though, finally get pictures of me pulling bungee!

The last show was an absolute blast. We all just went out and had a ton of fun, laughed at a couple of awesome practical jokes (seriously, that island is going to smell like chumwater for a loooong time!) and jumped around and hooted and hollered.

I'll upload last day pics soon!

"Ladies and gentlemen... Cirque de la Mer!"

I have one day left of the summer, and I get to sped it working...

Work was relaxing today. I got a huge nap after the first show. We had a visit from Chompers during the end of the second show, but the sprites raced around on their jet skis to scare him away from the stadium. Then we jumped in and went swimming. It was nice! One of our leads did it first, then I came charging in after her. It was a nice, long swim around the back side of the island, and it actually felt really good on my shoulder.

Someone over on WhaleWeb mentioned the new(ish) Flipper series (The New Adventures of Flipper) a few weeks ago, and last night I was all, "Hmmm... I should pull out my tapes and watch them." Damn, I'd forgotten how addicting this show was. Most of the writing was sheer crap, but the actors did pretty well with what they were given. Brian Wimmer and Colleen Flynn had some seriously awesome chemistry. They did a great job with some techical details (I was just noticing that the SCUBA scene I'm watching was not even Hollywood-ized - they actually did it all right) but sometimes something dumb slips out. Like when one of the dolphins has a calf. Moments after birth, the baby dolphin leaps and they're all "it's a boy!" LMAO But I can't complain about anything that features dolphins. And Pam and Keith were so cute together. OTP!

Too bad they got rid of almost the entire cast after season one. From there on out, the show both sucked and blew.

I'd kill for the first season of this show on DVD. Hell, I'd kill for a bootleg copy of the episodes I don't have. I'm watching the season one finale now. I've got two tapes full of season one episodes, but I'm not sure which episodes are on them, because I didn't label that on the tapes. I'd totally put these on the internet for folks, too, if I had a freakin' capture card that worked!

"Bud! Feed me mackarel!"

...and then there were four...

That's right, we're down to just four crew members left at Cirque. We're having severe trouble even forming a crew each day, now that school's starting up for people. Crew chiefs are coming in to fill as regular crew. It's a mess. And it doesn't help when certain people call in "sick."

( Going on another Andy rant... ) Anyways, because of their stupidity, I'm working nearly 60 hours this week. I'd probably be working 70 hours if I weren't in class all day Friday. That's pretty much every waking minute at either school or Cirque this week. Dear God, I'm going to die. I've stopped caring if the leads catch me napping between shows at work anymore. I think only one of them would actually get me in trouble, but at this point, I really don't care if she catches me napping, either. I'm fucking tired, and if you don't like it, then stop scheduling me so much.

The summer is catching up to me, in a very bad way. My upper left arm has been sore for the last couple of weeks, but it got BAD this weekend. Early Saturday morning (like, 4am), I woke up and had pain shooting down my arm. I tried everything, no position made it stop hurting. I dragged myself to the bathroom and dumped Ibuprofen down my throat. It hurt so much that I still couldn't fall asleep for another hour after that. At other times, it's fine. It's so random when it starts hurting. Anyways, I went to Med Services today, but it's hard to pinpoint exactly what's wrong because the flare-ups are so random. They drugged me up on more Ibuprofen, and I've been told to stay away from stuff that aggravates it - mainly, the Zorbs. Makes my day a bit easier, but it's still annoying as hell when I'm standing around and the rest of the crew is working their asses off doing the heavy stuff. I feel bad.

To make matters worse, I got really sick last night. I was fine and peppy, then all of a sudden I lost all drive to do anything. And I mean anything. I literally sat on the floor and just stared at the wall. Within minutes, I lost even the strength to sit up, so I laid down on the floor. Shortly thereafter, I felt really, really dizzy. Clawed my way to the bathroom (a whole five feet away, if you've seen my apartment) and bowed before the porcelain god. I didn't even have the strength to get back to my own bed (again, a whoppin' five feet away) after that. I slept on the bathroom floor. I felt a bit better this morning - no dizziness, but I still feel really weak, even now. No rest for the weary, though...

Anyways, amidst all this, I've at least had a bit of fun. Friday night there was a party that was mainly Cirque cast/crew. That was fun. Had a lot of alcohol, stayed out late... good times. Then Saturday afternoon, there was a BBQ for SG-Command.net folks. Lots of fun there - good food, fun Stargate discussions. And a mad cool Stargate museum, LOL!

To christmassong, riverscohen, chris00seven, irrawaddyerik, and anyone else in Louisiana, please, PLEASE stay safe!

I got up for work this morning, and knew I was completely exhausted. Well, I should have figured I would have a crappy day after that. I cut myself once per show for the first three shows today. I dragged my knuckles on the concrete pulling bungee during the first show, scraped the skin off my other knuckles on the grip tape doing island for the second show... and during the third show, well, I hit a patch of caked salt by the bungee tower, slipped, and went down on my left arm onto the concrete as I tried to swing. *headdesk* Just a little scrape on that one, but still frustrating as hell. Actually, the rope burn on my hand (from trying to let the swing have the rope, without entirely letting go) hurt more than my elbow/shoulder. Then, during fourth show (on island) I didn't cut myself, but a lid from a plastic cabinet thingy started floating into the stadium during the middle of the show. So I jump in the Caribe to go get it, push off, and gun the engine... and it dies. Freakin' engine wouldn't start. Luckily the sprites were able to go get it and help me back to the dock. Apparently, somewhere along the way, a clip on the end of the gas line had popped loose. It was a head-banger, though, because I knew it was a gas problem from the way it was acting. I checked the gas line repeatedly... but only on the side where it attached to the gas can, not the side where it attaches to the motor. *headdeskagain* Fifth show... well, I ate a grilled cheese sandwich during the break. Only, I didn't really have time to eat it, so I just shoved it all in my face at once and ran out to do the show. Said grilled cheese sandwich didn't sit well, and I felt soooo sick to my stomach while I was pulling. I still don't feel great. Damn you, West Lounge!

At least tomorrow we go down to three shows a day on weekdays. That'll feel weiiird, after being so used to five shows a day. But we've only got two weeks left of the summer. I think I might have to go to SeaWorld on Tuesday (after going to campus to buy books/parking/etc *headdeskyetagain*) to see some of the summer stuff that I haven't seen yet (aka Riptide) and get some photos and stuff. I have yet to try out my camera on killer whales... :D

Anyways, been looking for Broadway bootlegs. I've got a few saved that I wanna see, but finding the time to watch them will be a challenge (I still have See Grace Fly sitting on my harddrive, waiting). However, I'm searching for a copy of The Lion King and Beauty and the Beast bootlegs, so if anyone finds any, point me in the right direction!

I also put in a request to start work on a second disney100 challenge, this one on The Rescuers Down Under. :) God, I love that movie. Marahute is love.

Is it my day off yet? I wish. I took someone's Cirque shift for Sunday, 'cause he's a cool guy and I know it's really tough to find someone who's even available to take a Cirque shift these days. So I was willing to take that shift for him (and did), but I am soooo wiped out. I'm starting to make dumb mistakes again. I didn't even have the strength to move the second Zorb last night while closing tower. I tried and tried, climbed up on railings, dangled over the ledge, and finally gave up in frustration. And now my right shoulder and elbow hurt. Dammit. However, today I conquered Tower 2! Ha! Victory is mine! I just had to pull in a completely different direction.

I also got the chance to use "Fumbles McStupid" in an ordinary conversation. And you other L&S people probably know exactly to whom I am referring. He tried a dumbass move again, this time trying to bring the Zorb out to the trampoline, between the trampoline and the stadium. Of course, being Fumbles McStupid, he bashed the Zorb into the stadium railing and put a HUGE hole in it. Seriously. I mean, you could stick two fingers in that hole. Most Zorb leaks are the size of a pin prick. And of course, our Marine Goop was missing, so we literally had to duct tape it for the last show. Sucks to be whoever's in tomorrow morning that has to patch that one!

I finally got around to updating the Disney Music Loops page tonight. Been awhile! It's grown in popularity a lot, though, since I created it. I laugh, because I originally made it for my own sanity, so I would have all that information in one easy-to-find place. And now I see links to it popping up all over the place. I try not to pimp it too much, even, unless someone specifically asks about the contents of a particular loop. Even then, I've found that nowadays someone else points them to my site before I can do it! In any case, I'm getting 50-100 hits/day on some days, and I feel bad about subjecting that many people to Tripod's horrible popups and junk. I want a nicer home for it. And that got me thinking that I need to make a nicer home for all my web stuff. It's really scattered all over the place. I should get a good host and a domain name and put it all together. Hmmm.

My 10 hours at Pets yesterday turned into 11 hours of Cirque. Yikes! It was SO much fun, though. We had an aweseom crew that knew how to have fun on a hot day. Among other things, that included slipping and falling into the bay - which was actually much warmer than I feared it would be! However, the inside of my nose felt like baywater for the rest of the afternoon. But yes, good (if a bit wet) times were had by all.

I'm doing spot for SnO tonight, which I haven't done in a loooong time. Then House of Douse. Then two days off. WOOP!

DCA is having a Halloween event this year where you can go in costume (a la Mickey's Not so Scary Halloween Party)!! I'm soooo going to that!

I'm soooo over this heat wave. It's been topping 90 here, which wouldn't be bad except that my apartment as no AC. So, just like last summer, I will whine about it in my LJ. Deal. :P

Work's been going well! I've got my bungee pulling groove back, now that the rope's been moved higher and is easier to grab. Although I fell on my ass once today while I was pulling, and it must have been pretty comical to watch me try and let the rope out so I didn't stop her dead, then try to grab it and pull the bar away, all while sitting on my ass. :P Oh, and the upstairs entertainment offices have a giant box of Otter Pops in the freezer. I had like 5 today. We just kept going up there to get more and more. And it was hot enough to seriously make me consider "falling" into the water. 'Cept a red tide washed through for a couple of hours, and that idea became rather unappealing.

But at the end of the day, there was a hurt pigeon floating in the water out by the trampoline. I got a net and grabbed it from the barge. We were gonna take it to Aviculture, but they were already gone for the night. It seemed a bit stunned more than anything. We set it down in the performers' room by costuming and let it run around a bit, and it seemed to be able to move pretty well (at least no injuries that we could see) and was fairly alert. We bird-proofed the room and left it in there, and one of the other leads was going to come out and check on it later and then let it go outside if it still looked okay.

( Cut for Stargate spoilers! )

I also noticed that my Comic-Con gallery is linked to in the latest GateWorld Briefing. Ha! I feel special!

I have over 10 hours of Pets Rule tomorrow. That's a looooong day.

You know what sucks about cutting myself at work? I work on the bay, so it constantly gets saltwater in the cut. *grumbles*

So yeah, it's been a couple of rather weird days at work. I was doing island yesterday, and a performer injury occured. It was a scary one, too, because he fell off the Russian Swing apparently they thought he was unconscious at first. I didn't know it had happened, because I was up at the tower waiting to push the Zorb for finale, and you can't really see the swing from there. Lots of rushing around and frantic radioing as they tried to decide whether to stop the show or finish the last minute or two - which led to much confusion for me as to whether or not I was still supposed to send the Zorb. I also got a firm reminder that I can't race back down the ladder, even if it is an emergency - the self-retracting lifeline gave me a sharp jerk of a reminder. *kicks it* In any case, the injury wasn't quite as serious as first thought, although it did require stitches. Still scary, though. I was surprised at how I reacted. I would have thought I'd panic more (and I'll admit I was panicking inside) but I managed to stay pretty calm while I relayed information to Med Services/the crew chief/the company manager.

Today was just... meh. I get frustrated when I work Tower 2 (on the house right side) because I can't pull there worth crap. The swinging feels completely different, and I just can't get it down. I find myself feeling guilty about it each show before I even get over there! It bugs me not just because I'm annoyed that I can't get it right, but because the poor swinging can easily be reflected in the bungee girl's performance through no fault of theirs. Gah.

And my left leg is really starting to give me more trouble, in my calf and a bit behind my knee. It's been kinda sore over the last few weeks, but only at times and that was generally ignorable. Yesterday and today, though, it's gotten worse - especially after I twisted it up the other night coming down the steps form the audio booth roof at House of Douse. Jumping and climbing around the sets, I find myself throwing all my weight onto my right leg only now, because it hurts to jump on my left. It really bugs me when I can't race through a job as fast as usual because my stupid leg hurts. Unfortunately, I think that's part of the problem. I'm notorious for not speaking up about injuries, and I keep pretending like it's not a problem until it's unbearable. :/ I feel like a hypochondriac if I say something hurts in more than a passing "oh, that sucks, whatever," way. Alas, I don't learn... and will probably jump around on it more tomorrow.

Day 10 of 12 straight is down... and I'm really starting to feel it! I just about fell asleep standing up today at the tower during Russian swing. We were on a mission to catch a pet crab out at the island. Alas, our efforts were in vain - those little buggers are too quick. I did, however, get a good childish giggle every time I said we trying to catch crabs.

There's also a big red tide moving through the area. It's been passing through the Cirque area since last night. I hear it's the harmless kind, though, just weird-looking. It seemed like it was moving into the show area this evening, but it was hard to tell in the fading light. Ah, well.

Fourth of July pics are up! None of me, but I took a few from the top of hte Zorb tower, and of course fireworks photos. Forgive the blur in some of the fireworks photos - they were all hand-held, some at speeds as low as 1/8 sec. http://xfkirsten.fotopic.net/c607713.html

So it looks like the new Digital Rebel XT thing is going to happen! Eeeee! I'm just deciding on lenses right now. I think I'm going to buy the kit with the 18-55mm (plus 1.6x crop factor) lens, an additional zoom telephoto lens (exactly which one is up in the air, as I'm still asking around for reccommedations), and possibly the 50mm f/1.8 lens, because that one's a steal at $70.

So, yeah, internet problems suck. I came home from work Sunday night to find that my internet was dead. "Oh, well, it'll be back in the morning like always," I figure. Nope. So I call tech support, and spend an hour jumping through their stupid hoops (the old unplug and replug, restart, shut down, etc... stuff I KNOW won't work this time). Went to work, came home, still not working. I figure I'll wait til morning. Still not working this morning. I call tech support again, and they start trying to make me jump through their hoops again. I go on my, "No, damnit, I did this YESTERDAY!" kick, and they forward me onto someone else. Funny enough, within 5 minutes, she'd already determined that it was a problem on their end, not mine. Took them long enough! I had pretty much told them as much right from the start. Anyways, I mooched off someone's wireless in the neighborhood (god, I love people who don't have security-enabled networks) in the meantime, and it was back by the time I got home tonight.

I had a great Fourth! Was at Cirque all day of course. We had a great last-minute potluck, and all of our shows went well. SeaWorld's fireworks were... interesting. About five minutes into the show, the fireworks stopped, but the music kept playing. From the spot where we watched in Cirque stadium, we could see people running around with flashlights at the Fiesta Island launch site. The no-fireworks went on for about five minutes, when suddenly they started up again. I kid you not, they shot off like the entire show in like a minute, LOL. That was a loooot of fireworks. Very cool! I heard this morning that it was a wiring problem they had, and they ended up having to launch the rest of them manually. On the upside, the beach cleanup people haven't brought us the piles of spent shells yet, so we haven't had to deal with that mess yet. But I brought my camera to work yesterday and took some pics, so I'll try to get those uploaded soon.

Oh! And I saw the cutest thing the other night at House of Douse. They were sending the whales on "depth charges" - where they swim around the perimeter of the pool and slap the surface of the water with their flukes. Well, Kalia decided she wanted to do it, too - it was adorable! :D *huggles her*

Just a few more days until I can get a day off...

Gotta run to work in a few minutes, but I thought I'd post a quick update!

Finally got back to DL! Hooraaaaaay! I was there on Monday with iago_90 and it was a blast! Pretty crowded (they ended up extending park hours til midnight) but we still managed to hit all the major stuff. We watched Aladdin again at DCA. They had a Jasmine I hadn't seen before that was pretty good - she actually had that forceful voice that Jasmine should have. Hooray! And Jasmine actually has a new wedding dress for the finale that was really pretty. We also decided that the SGA people should go to Disneyland/DCA. Comedy gold, I tell ya! After we watched Fantasmic, the crowds all vanished. We got onto Splash Mountain and Buzz Lightyear pretty quick, because most people didn't take advantage of the extra hour the park was open. Anyways, I've got the pics from my digital camera up here: http://xfkirsten.fotopic.net

Work yesterday was... interesting. I was completely wiped out (got home at 2am, and was up at 7 to run errands), and the first thing I hear as I go into the locker room to change is one of the bungee girls telling me that the day before had been a total mess. They had no hand-to-hand performers. And before the last show, the Russian swing broke during a rehearsal session. With four people on it, no less! Luckily, they managed to escape serious injury, but they were all pretty shaken up. Scary stuff. In any case, the Russian swing is out for the rest of the week, at least. So they had to mess around with the show order now. Well, apparently the person running audio for the second show yesterday didn't get the message, and started playing it as a normal show. She played the bungee music way too early, and the bungee girls weren't ready. There was much confusion as they (and we) scrambled around, and in the end we called bungee off altogther. Oh, and that's all AFTER the jetski got flipped during preshow, and the sprites were dripping entire lakes onto the stage that we had to frantically wipe up. *headdesk* The best part: that was our big 100th show of the season. :P

Can I just say again how much I love my job? It's odd that today, despite numerous setbacks, I had SO much fun. I did bungee again, and I finally got my swinging groove back! First two shows went fairly well. Then, during the third show, as I went to bring the bungee girl up with the motor after the routine, crap happened. I hit the "Up" switch... and nothing. She's hanging there, bouncing and waiting... and nothing. I flipped the switch to "down" and it went fine... then switched back to "up" and it worked fine. But she was hanging there for a long time, and that realy had to hurt. By the time I brought her back down at the end of the show, it was working fine. Weeeeird. And kind of annoying, because I would have had a perfect day at bungee if not for that. Ah, well. I had fun, too, during the Russian swing routine - one of the performers and I had a whole animated routine going each show. :D

Striking at night, though, was the funniest part. So I go up in the tower to bring the Zorbs up. First one comes up, I deflate it, and send the "bone" back down. The bone is a metal barbell that we put inside the Zorbs to lift them. It's tied to a rope, which gets clipped to the chain on the motor. Well, as I pull the bone out of the Zorb at the top, I notice that the rope is frayed where it's tied on. I send it back down so they can put it in the second Zorb. I yell, "Hey! Check that rope where it attaches to the bone! It's really frayed!" They check. They go ahead and put it into the second Zorb. I bring the second Zorb up, and am getting ready to lower it to the platform and deflate it... SNAP! All of a sudden, the Zorb is falling off the tower. I shouted out to warn people, and that must have been instinctual. I still don't really remember even thinking about it. The Zorb then falls about 30 feet to the ground below. Luckily, it fell more on the jet floats than on the rocks. Also luckily, it was a bit flat, so there was enough give in the plastic to keep it from popping in the loudest bang you've ever heard. And actually, despite the long fall and its drift into the rocks after it hit the water, it's more or less okay! But they had to put a new rope on the bone, so I got to sit on the edge of the tall tower on a gorgeous San Diego evening, and watch from a birds-eye view as the the sun set over Mission Bay. How freakin' sweet is that?! We eventually got the Zorb back up and deflated... and my lead (who was our crew chief today) is stil laughing about my reaction to the Zorb falling. LOL They can't say I didn't warn them about the rope, though! LOL

And more Cirque photos are online! Hooray! "Darkbeer" (as he is known on Disney boards) is a regular at SeaWorld as well, and got some great Cirque pics yesterday... and I can see me in them! :D This is the first picture in his collection of Cirque photos, and you can see me sitting on the lower right-hand side of the staircase! :D (And for you killer whale people, there's some cute DWS pics starting around pg 17 or 18)

Work drama... I can never escape it. LOL I found out that the bonfire last night got broken up by the cops anyways. Glad I slept instead! :P

So I figure I've got a looong day to relax... then work calls and asks me to do spotlight for Sea Lion and Otter. "Ummm... I'm not trained in that." "Oh. *pause* If I have you come in anyways, can we just have you wing it?" "Okay..." So I did. I couldn't even see the spot anyways... it was still so light out, that I really couldn't even see where my spot was pointed.

So then I did House of Douse... and as I'm kicking back in the office and eating candy while I wait for my out time, we get word that the fireworks barge is stranded out in the bay with no gas. Of course, our other barge is drydocked... all we have the Caribe. And how many people in the room could drive the Caribe? Just me! So the lead gives the okay to take the Caribe out, so long as we bring a flashlight as a warning light and hope that Harbor Patrol doesn't nail us. So I head down to lower the Caribe. Someone else shows up that's qualified to drive the nice Yamaha. Cool! We'll take that instead! I raise the Caribe back up. Oh, crap! The Yamaha doesn't have a battery! I drop the Caribe back down. Oh, crap! Someone earlier today lost the drain plug in the Caribe, and it's taking on water! I raise the Caribe back up. *insert frantic running around as we search for a suitable plug replacement* So we finally find something to plug the hole long enough to get out there, and we lower it back down. (Please note that it takes a good five minutes at least to raise or lower the Caribe) I'm driving the Caribe around in the dark, and we finally get to the fireworks boat and pass them the gas tank... they hook it up, and then have trouble starting their engine. We hung around just in case they needed to send us back to get anything. It took about 10 minutes, but they finally got it. However, by this point the current has pushed them onto Fiesta Island, so two guys had to jump into the water and push it back to deeper water. As soon as I was deep enough to start my own motor, I towed them out a little ways and they finally got going. Whee! We win! And I got an extra hour and fifteen minutes of pay, on top of coming in two hours early. :D And I got to drive the Caribe at night. Shhhh!

*falls over, passes out, and remains that way for a looong time*

I am sooo wiped out! Three long days in a row! I am going to sleep all day tomorrow! My lower legs look like they have some awful disease, they're so splotched with bruises. My fingers are all sore. My skin, luckily, has decided to cooperate and I've managed to stave off sunburn for the last two days.

Sunday went well, for the most part. I totally rocked it at bungee. Through our crew chief, we've been hearing what the performers say about us to their manager, and apparently I swing them very well. :D We had one serious issue with another crew member, though, yesterday. One of those moments where you remember that the performers are literally trusting you with their life and you gotta be careful. So the rest of us really stepped it up for the rest of the shows, cause we're trying to reassure them that they can trust us.

I was laying out on the dock on the island yesterday while I waited for my first cue, and as I sat up, I saw a big furry thing in the water about 10 feet away. Chompers came to visit! Chompers is our resident sea lion. He comes by every once in awhile and hangs around. I don't think he's ever really disturbed the show directly, although apparently he scared the bejeesus out of one performer last year. But I radioed everyone and let thm know he was here. He acted like he was gonna swim into the show area, but he veered off at the last second and went to hang out at the docks. Didn't see him again after that.

Today went really well! I worked with the same bungee girl, and we totally rocked again. But dear lord, by the end of the day we could not be serious about ANYTHING. Everything was hilarious to us! It took us soooooo long to close up, cause we couldn't stop giggling and goofing off. We were there like 45 minutes late. In any case, I've got an awesome crew to work with. There's just a few of us, and we get along really well. Everyone does their job and works together and communicates well. That makes everything easier! It's funny, becase apparently we Cirque crew get a reputation each year as being "lazy." I find that quite funny, because I think it's the most demanding show to do. There's a LOT more grunt work involved in Cirque than any other show that we crew. The closest competition (sea lion and otter crew) still has enough to time to wander over and hang around the Cirque stadium when they're bored. We barely (and rarely) have enough time to finish everything! I think the people who call us lazy are just jealous cause they don't get to work such a cool show. :P

Some of the stuff I've noticed about the show lately:
-The preshow rocks. We have to run crowd control, so we watch the whole pre-show. The sprites are great! They're awesome at turning what's around them into comedy gold. And they're really flexible with their routine. One of them decided to wear water floaties today, and it was hilarious! But you guys know that ad where the wife suggests getting tickets to a Cirque-style show, and the guy imagines being humiliated with the smiley drawn on his face? That totally reminds me of our preshow. Not that we draw smileys on the faces of the audience volunteers, but it's the same embarrassment factor. :P
-People LOVE this show. Almost every show, I see guests going up to the managers saying that it was the neatest and most well-put-together show they've seen all day. Woo!
-The show is sponsored by Suzuki... but the jetskis are Yamahas. ;)

Then on my way home, about 100 yards in front of me, a motorcyclist fell right in the middle of the freeway. We all stopped in time, luckily, and made kind of a barrier of cars around him. Luckily, too, there was a big semi that was able to pull across 2 lanes to help block the traffic. There were already about 5 cars pulled over to help him, though, so once traffic was under control I moved on. He seemed okay, or at least not too badly hurt. He was up and walking around.

Quick update before I leave for work this morning...

Opening day went really well! The house was PACKED for the afternoon/evening shows, and they had to stop letting people in. But no major drama, really. Our Zorb got stuck halfway down the ramp in one show, and in another one of our air flames (big nylon sheets on a fan) got caught up in the fan. And at one point I dropped the bar too soon for the bungee girl. Will not do that again! But our crew chief was very excited, she said it was the smoothest opening day she's ever seen! Woo! They've been opening the house earlier than usual because of the high crowds, so we've had to scramble to get everything reset in time. When you have to take the time to lift a Zorb 30 feet up to a platform, it can take awhile. My legs are all pretty shades of purple and red and green from jumping into the Caribe in a hurry and frantically climbing around on things. It should be quieter during the week, but this weekend we have less than 20 minutes after each show to completely reset before the house opens to the public for the next show. Eek! Anyways, this morning we get to go pick up debris after the fireworks. That's our job on mornings after they have fireworks... so really, every day now. LOL

Grr... I stuck my gloves in front of the heater to dry last night, but they're still really damp. :( I'm gonna need those this morning, too. :( Grip tape on ladder rungs = ouchie