Imagineer Wednesday

This was the most eventful(interesting) Wednesday this semester.

Usually I have a full day of classes on Wednesday, but not today. I went to my first class, but received a call from HearX telling me that my hearing aid was ready to be picked up. Now my next class wasn't for another two hours, and if I went to that class then I would have to pick up my hearing aid Thursday after work. I didn't want to wait any longer, so I ditched my favorite class to go pick up my hearing aid and did not regret it at all. Not having my hearing aid for the past week and a half taught me the value of my hearing, something I'm sure 99% of the people in the world take for granted. Much like sight, a lot of people see hearing as "automatic," something that they're born with (natural). I'm not deaf, but my hearing is FAR less than what the average person hears. It was such a pleasure to get my hearing aid back today (early, I might add) and hear "normal" again.

After class, I went home and tried to edit some of the Liwanag commercials only to find that I couldn't access the footage. I'm going to try to edit the movies later on Nikki's computer. In the meantime, Jimbo invited me to Disneyland today. I hit Cody up, and while I was waiting for him, I started teaching myself "Hey, Soul Sister" from yesterday on the guitar. I got pretty far, and I just need to work on my strumming now. I'm very proud of myself =)

Disneyland was great. I didn't bring my camera with me and felt "naked" without it, but this ended up being a good thing. After we got off Indiana Jones, we started applauding for the ride. Coincidentally, one of the Disney Imagineers was riding on that ride with us, and he really appreciated our gratitude. He was a really cool dude and told us about all these fun facts and hidden Mickeys on Indiana Jones that I knew nothing about. We said our goodbyes and parted ways thinking I would never see him again. After Splash Mountain (at night!) and Big Thunder Mountain, we decided to hit up the last "Mountain" in the park and literally RAN over to Space Mountain. On the way there, we passed by the Imagineer again (Ron was his name). We asked him if he would like to join us on Space Mountain, and he said sure. He began telling us stories about his job, and I was very interested in the things he had to say. He talked about how much he loved his job and that Indiana Jones was his dream ride to work on. Talking with Ron really motivated/impressed me to see someone care so much about their work. I hope I can say the same things about my career when I get to that point someday. Just as we were about to part ways for a second time, I told him how I loved coming to Disneyland to take pictures, and we began to talk about photography for quite awhile. He told me about a Cast-Members' photography club, and invited us to go on some of their trips and told us about some of the events that the cast members have in Disneyland. There's "Minnie's Moonlight Madness" where volunteers from "Volunt-Ears" help with a trivia game and scavenger hunt in the park after business hours. Ron and I exchanged numbers, and Cody and I plan to hit him up on Facebook. I hope Tony Tran gets to meet him soon because I know that he would really get a kick out of Ron considering how much Tony loves Disneyland.

I was glad to meet a Disney Imagineer, and I learned more about the park hanging out with him for a little bit today than I have any other time I've visited Disneyland. It was good networking, and good meeting people today including Jimmy's friends from Knott's Halloween Haunt. They were definitely chill peeps.