Today's the first day of Imagineering week. Marty Sklar hosted a panel about the 25th anniversaries of EPCOT and Tokyo Disneyland with two Imagineering heads for each park. The guys from WDW were hilarious. My favorite exchange:

ERIC JACOBSON: Our favorite change last year was when Tom (FITZGERALD, fellow panelist) and I took this:



ERIC: And did this:



And the room breaks into applause, probably much more enthusiastically than he expected. Marty Sklar started laughing. Then Tom said "And the graveyard in front of it next year!" and that got a few whistles of appreciation. I know. We're geeks. But at least we're all in one place, not out causing mayhem in the world at large.

Also, I need some new TV icons. Various shows. Stat.

Because of where I live and the friends I've been lucky enough to make I get to go to TV show panels from time to time. Every single time I feel unbelievably lucky. I'm positive that at some point, someone will realize what a little imposter I am. There is no way I get to do something so cool. Some are Paley, some are TV Academy, all of them are a blast. Usually it's just not done to be a fan at these things cause that's not smooth enough for the industry, so I try to lie low, not go all fangirly, and generally play much cooler than I am (all goals that are not always met.) This means keeping the fandom to a minimum, not staring at the actors, and definitely, under no circumstances, taking pictures. I have breached this before for awful, unfocused, as they're getting up from the chairs on the fly shots, but really, no pictures. It just feels unprofessional.

But last night.

It's not even my favorite show. On right now or ever.

But um, I still broke all my rules.

I took pictures.

I woo!ed when he walked onstage.

It was a blast. And it won't happen again at the Academy or any other Paley event, probably ever, but last night, it was fun.

(And if Robert Guillaume had been up there, I'd have taken twice as many pictures.)

( My shame, it is hidden. )

"...no, I checked the contract specifically, and it doesn't exclude 'Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo.'"

"Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo" is not being used as me for a placeholder, it's what she said. A term searched for in a contract.

Alright, whatever, but it made me laugh. Sometimes my place of employment is just a tad surreal.

New Year's Resolutions never get kept, do they? Oh well. Still making them.

1. An "I will" every month in 2008. I took a couple months off in 2007, but I think I can set a goal every month this year. And hopefully acheive a couple of them.

2. I will go to Ireland to visit Marie in October. This means lots of money saving and sacrificing throughout the year, so I don't think further money goals are necessary. It does mean I will not be getting a new Disneyland pass after this one expires May 13th. I either better get a job that includes a silver pass or deal with it after that. Since the trip includes a day at Disneyland Paris, I think I'll survive.

3. An organized life. And room. Thinking I'll get it done in a month is a bit like trying to build Rome in a day, so I'll take it slow with small goals each month IN ADDITION TO that month's "I will."

4. Gratitude posts every week. I feel like I'm doing really well right now and I'm so looking forward to 2008! I want to keep that feeling and energy in my life and focusing on the good instead of the not-so-good seems like a great way to do that.

5. I want to recognize the goodness of the people in my life more. I have such wonderful friends and family and I don't think I tell them how much they mean and what happiness they bring to my life enough. So I'll try to be better about that, in whatever small ways I can throughout the year.

Doesn't 2008 look good from here? I wonder what the year will bring to all of us.

Man, was I bored last week. Stayed in every night to get over being sick as quickly as possible. And it worked (for the most part.) This week:

Monday-- Impromptu shopping and dinner with jenn_ness. Thanks Borders, for sending me an awesome coupon I had to use to put it all in motion. Unfortunately the Ninth Doctor was not in residence at the Glendale Borders, so I got "My So-Called Life" instead. Watching it again is like a big ball of curly-wurly time stuff curling in on itself and being able to talk to my fifteen year old self: painfully moving, not quite as good as I remembered (imagined?) it would be, and almost impossible.

Tuesday-- Company Christmas party at Disneyland. Great, fun, too short! Got down there a bit late as a school bus clipped our bus while getting on the freeway, resulting in half an hour by the side of the road and accident reports for all. Still, ran all over the park, went on lots of rides, had fun. We were both amazed when midnight came. Could have sworn it was only 10.30 or 11. Of course, once my body knew what time it was, I was exhausted and slept most of the way home.

Wednesday-- As B just pointed out, I need to get some sleep. I'm a wee bit cranky today and my pet peeve (repeating myself) is coming into play A LOT. Christmas tree shopping with the roomie and an early night. Thank goodness.

Thursday-- SWEENEY TODD SNEAK PREVIEW! Which is great, cause I really really want to see it, and I'm really really sure I'm probably going to hate it so I very much didn't want to pay for it. Win-win!

Friday-- Christmas tree lighting and holiday carnival here on the lot. Should be fun, and then an early night to rest up for the weekend o' Disney.

Saturday-- Disneyland with playmayt in the morning, holiday party afterwards.

Sunday-- Disney games and movies with playmayt, including Song of the South! Should be fun.

Yes, I feel like crap.

I had a migraine this morning so came into work late and they were marching across the employee entrance. I honked as I drove in, but had I seen this beforehand, I might not have come in at all.

Pertinent paragrah:

While our members are contractually bound to continue to work active productions if the WGA does go out on strike, each and every Local 399 Teamster has the right to honor any picket line if it is raised at their place of employment without fear of reprisal from the studios. If there is one thing that can be said about the 1.4 million Teamsters across this country, it is that our union is one that believes in strength through solidarity.

Craaaaaaaaap.

I've been running at half steam since Friday night. Went home early with a headache, woke up sick on Saturday, spent all day in bed (instead of meeting an awesome new baby,) and ended that super-fun day with a migraine, then spent all of Sunday in bed as well. Stayed in Monday night, last night, tonight, tomorrow night. Between general feeling like poo, the dreary weather, and the time change-up that now makes most of my outside hours dark ones it's a bleh week here. And my head hurts and I feel awful and I just want to go home, but if I leave now I'll run into the picketers on Riverside. And I cannot deal with crossing a picket line to leave work right now. I am not able to hang at this time, yo. So I'll stay at my desk like a good little coward and wait for 5pm when they all go home. Bleh.

This week blows.

Season premiere of Veronica Mars.

VM viewing party at Hollywood Billiards.

Anniversary of Lilly Kane's death.

I GOT THIS JOB ONE YEAR AGO TODAY.

It's only been a year? I feel like my life has been this awesome for much longer. The mortgage company feels like nothing more than a bad dream I once had.

Reunion was interesting. From a graduating class of hundreds, about 60 to 80 Clements Rangers of 1997 (shut up) showed up. 10 - 15 of them I actually wanted to talk to. Surreal moment of the night:

Big Man on Campus emceed the "Shout Out" or "Most/Least" portion of the night, whatever you want to call it. Y'know, "most changed," "least changed," that crap. Suddenly he yells:

BMOC: Where Erin ------ at?

ME: I'm right here.

BMOC: Where Erin ------? Where are you, girl?

ME: I'M RIGHT HERE. (Maybe he didn't recognize me cause he never said a damn word to me in four years of high school during which my best friend's little sister was one of his best friends? Heh.)

He walks over, shoves a microphone in my face.

BMOC: Where you workin'?

ME: ABC.

BMOC: ABC what?

ME: ABC Television.

BMOC: What do you do there?

ME: Blah blah blah (my department.)

By this point I'm thinking DROP IT cause my job is really only impressive if you don't know what I do. And he does. He turns to walk back to the stage area in the middle of the floor yelling:

BMOC: SHE'S THE NEWEST INTERN ON GREY'S ANATOMY, Y'ALL!

And the place blows up. It was kinda funny. So I guess I won Most Interesting Job? Which is ridiculous, as there were two doctors present, one of them a pediatric neurosurgeon, a guy who works at the Pentagon (who played Elvis in the play I directed senior year,) not to mention the Adonis jock who graduated from Westpoint and is now flying Black Hawks in Iraq, our valedictorian who lives in Paris, and our posterchild "Alternative Girl" who apparently lives in London.

So by the end of the night I was joking with a guy I used to hang out with in English class and I told him in all confidence that yes, I was now on the show and I'm actually Meredith's sister. It'll come out in a shocking twist towards the end of the season. Hope I didn't spoil it for y'all.

My head is killing me. Apparently some muck-up with timesheets or vacation days (I operate on a different system as the rest of the office, so for once it's not the Teamsters, but the regular people who are fubared) has brought the wrath of HR down upon us. Spent some of the afternoon sorting a 3" stack of loose papers into a timeline... tomorrow I'll begin going through them and marking every vacation day taken by the other six people in the department since 2003.

Yippee Skippee.

My head hurts. I'm frustrated. A loud voice on the phone just now almost brought me to tears. The battle of TiVo will have to wait until tomorrow (I want to be on the phone with them while I'm online at their site and my computer still can't see the the internet since the last whatever happened.) So tomorrow. For now, there is grocery shopping. And chicken tacos. And Sims.

I spent over an hour last night taking Sims 2 and every expansion off my computer and reinstalling just the basic game. All families lost. Starting over. Was this a wise thing to do four days before Kevin arrives when I really should be spending every evening minute cleaning and preparing my room to be seen by another human? For this Sim-addict (seriously, when I'm on a kick I go really anti-social,) probably not.

I spent last weekend effectively out of town at a game convention. Yes, I totally was that geek playing Eurogames for three days with hundreds of other geeks at a hotel near LAX. It was great, except for the whole no sleeping thing. I ran my first game of Werewolf (of course I've played before, first time modding) with a truly excessive 26 participants. If there's a great big HUH on your face right now, I'm just saying, you need to play. This game is much fun.


Daniel vanquishes a foe in the swordfighting pit at Gateway2007

I've spent the last week recovering from the long weekend, which for me means passing out long before midnight every night, no matter how loud the rap/video games/stand-up comedy is blaring next door.

Last night a few friends and I saw The Jungle at the El Capitan! They're just showing it for a month to publicize celebrate the 40th anniversary special edition DVD coming out soon. Richard Sherman wandered out of the theatre before the show and stood around outside for a moment but I was way too shy to go up and introduce myself. Oh well. If the DVD transfer is what we saw last night, it's gorgeous and I can't recommend it highly enough. ( Far more information than anyone wants back here. )

Flying up to SF tonight for my cousin's wedding tomorrow. Giants game with my parents Sunday (YAY!) then back Monday morning just in time for work. Next weekend is the only weekend this month I'm really in town-- and all I've got going is Avenue Q Saturday afternoon, games Saturday night, film festial screenings Sunday afternoon and Pink Martini at the Bowl Sunday night. The weekend after that Kevin's in town! The weekend after that I'm in Houston for my 10 year high school reunion. The weekend after that is October. Good grief. Where has the year gone?

PS-- One more video from The Jungle Book screening (mostly for my parents:) a pencil test of Baloo & Mowgli animated entirely by Frank Thomas according to Don Hahn. Apparently he and Ollie animated over half of the finished film themselves. Wow.

Stolen from honore:

Two Names You Go By:
1. Erin
2. Oona (it's a long story.)

Two Things You Are Wearing Right Now:
1. new dress!
2. white flip-flops (take that Labor Day!)

Two Things You Would Want (or have) in a Relationship:
1. An unshakable bond
2. Humor

Two of Your Favorite Things to do:
1. Read
2. Be with people I love

Two Things You Want Very Badly at the Moment:
1. A job in the archives
2. An organized life

Two pets you had/have:
1. Sandy the WonderDog
2. Many many fish who I don't think had names

Two people who will fill this out:
1. Huh?
2. Screw tagging, it sucks.

Things you did last night:
1. Rewatched the first two episodes of Mad Men (I cannot recommend that show enough, WATCH IT ALREADY.)
2. Went to bed at 10.30pm.

Two things you ate today:
1. Hot tea
2. Salad for lunch

Two people you Last Talked To:
1. Mom
2. Dad (Happy Birthday, Dad!)

Two Things You're doing tomorrow:
1. Either shopping or games
2. Working-- the new season is a'comin' and the pace will pick up here again very soon.

Two longest car/plane rides:
1. Sugar Land, TX to Lincoln, Nebraska - car (TWICE)
2. Concord, CA to Whistler, BC, Canada - car

Two Favorite Holidays:
1. Christmas (far and away my favorite)
2. Thanksgiving (family, family, family)

Two favorite beverages:
1. Tea!
2. Milkshakes... mmm...

Meme first. From mondaysabitch, as usual:

Random Joy

1.When I dance I look like ________? I'm having fun. Peanut gallery, shush it!

2.Who's your favourite famous alien? playmayt, yeah, I almost said that, but I gotta go with Spock. Oldie but a goodie.

3.If you're a fan of __________ don't talk to me? Matchbox 20. Present company excluded, but only just. *shudder*

4.When is the last time someone yelled at you and why? Hmm. Last Saturday night. It sucked. I screwed up and everyone was tired.

5.What is your favourite Justin Timberlake song? I don't know that I have one... wait. Homelesstown? That SNL skit where he schooled the Salvation Army Santa. That was pretty good.

And THIS JUST IN:

Disneyland's raising the prices on character meals again, and now Ariel's Grotto is more than Goofy's Kitchen! It used to be something of a deal, cause it was about half the price (just over $15 to Goofy's $30 per adult) and they brought you a dish of warm fresh cotton candy between courses. Now that's my idea of a palate cleanser. But with the new prices as of September 12th:

Minnie & Friends - Breakfast in the Park at Plaza Inn (Disneyland) - Adults $25.99, Kids (3-9) $13.99
Ariel's Disney Princess Celebration at Ariel's Grotto (Disney's California Adventure) Adults $27.99, Kids (3-9) $15.99
Lilo & Stitch Aloha Breakfast at Disney's PCH Grill (Paradise Pier Hotel) - Adults $25.99, Kids (3-9) $13.99
Chip 'n Dale Critter Breakfast at Storyteller's Cafe (Grand Californian Hotel) - Adults $25.99, Kids (3-9) $13.99
Goofy's Kitchen (Disneyland Hotel) Brunch - Adults $25.99, Kids (3-9) $13.99
Goofy's Kitchen (Disneyland Hotel) Dinner - Adults $31.99, Kids (3-9) $13.99

It's now about comparable with Goofy's for dinner and more than brunch, while the food is still nowhere near as good, and the cotton candy is no more. Pfft. I see no reason to ever go back to Ariel's.

Excellent ham at the commissary today. Yes, Kids in the Hall fans, it was that good. And as I thought that, I suddenly remembered that there is in fact a chance that I might see Bruce McCulloch on the lot someday. And that effin' good ham and McCulloch combined to make me smile, right there, by myself, eating lunch. But, oof. Am full.

Hong Kong Disneyland just announced a new student's AP (possibly to shore up disappointing ticket sales, but the park's not quite up to admitting that just now.) Available to full-time students ages 12 to 25, the three passes break down really affordably. A weekdays only version is to HK$460, or just under $59! Weekdays and limited weekends is HK$930, or about $119 American, and the Premium equivalent, all days, is HK$1,250, which sounds like a lot until you realize it's about $160 over here. Wow. Wish that was the deal here, but the parks are just too well attended. Y'hear that people? Stop going to Disneyland and the prices will fall.

Yeah. Not gonna happen. But it was worth a shot.

Full article from China Daily - Hong Kong Edition back ( here )

Just got off the phone with very nice El Capitan group sales lady. She called to let me know that there'll be a panel discussion on opening night of The Jungle Book at the El Cap, Thursday, September 6th. Ah, yes. The night of the infamous Boris Gudonov concert no one wants to come to with me. That's why I don't have tix to this. Panelists still being determined, but so far Don Hahn and Richard Sherman are definitely on board. We talked a little bit about how very very awesome Sherman was at the Mary Poppins sing-along, and I managed to refrain from telling her that I had some great video of him from that night because I enjoy my job and would like to keep it. Hello, copyright infringement! So if anyone would like to go to the Jungle Book night, let me know cause I can get tickets through work for $8 each. I'm seriously considering dumping the Boris seats and going to this instead. Thoughts? Anyone? Y'all wanna?

The end of summer used to suck. It was the kid version of realizing your own mortality when that day would come in the summer when back to school clothes commercials would show up on TV and aisles in the grocery store would suddenly be full of pencils, folders, and loose-leaf paper. The only thing that made it bearable was getting to pick out my favorites from those grocery store aisles.

Yes. I loved to go school supply shopping.

All those brand new pens and pencils that weren't lost yet. The packs of markers that still had all their caps and every color. The erasers that weren't all marked and ugly from erasing all the time. The cool new folders with cool new designs that didn't have those white fold marks ruining them. The trapper keepers. Oh, the trapper keepers! Lisa Frank! Fred Savage! Chad Allen!

I'm sorry. This child of the 80s needs a minute.

One thing I really miss about going back to school is the going back to school shopping. But Disney, who really does think of everything, has even found a way to fix that for me. There's this awesome thing at work where you request however many backpacks you want, they deliver them to your mailbox, and you fill them with school supplies. Pencils, pens, crayons, scissors, glue sticks, folders, paper reinforcing stickers, colored pencils, little zip top plastic bags, all of it, I can look through those aisles for all of it again! And this time, I can get whatever I want.

I'm hitting Target tonight after work. This kid's gonna have the coolest school supplies in class. Forget generic. Crayola all the way, baby.

From mondaysabitch:

Walt Disney

1. What is your favorite Disney movie? Mary Poppins. I think. Wait. Sleeping Beauty. Mmm, Peter Pan. But Robin Hood is really good, too. Also Bedknobs & Broomsticks. But no, I think Mary Poppins wins. AT EVERYTHING.

2. Have you ever dressed up or attempted to as a Disney character? I don't think so. I think not even at Halloween when I was little. But I do have grand plans for a Small World Holland kid sitting in a tulip costume that will involve papier mache and a small engine. You should see Halloween here on the lot. It is madness.

3. Which Disney song do you know all the words to? The nanny ad from Mary Poppins. "If you want this choice position, have a cheery disposition..."

4. If any Disney character could be your BFF, which one would it be? Dude. MARY. Have we not already discussed how she wins at everything? If she's taken, Mulan, I guess. Or Jiminy. Mulan gets it done, and Jiminy's handy in a pinch.

5. Name as many dwarves as you can in 20 seconds. Time yourself. Are you kidding me? Sleepy, Sneezy, Doc, Bashful, Dopey, Grumpy, and Happy. I think that was about 10 seconds. Including the "Are you kidding me?" Next.

See? I could not skip that. It was not physically possible. Also this just in, again from stepliana:

Name up to three aspects of my life you want me to photograph. They can be specific (my bedroom), or not so specific (something red).

How cool is that? So pretty... too bad it costs $100, serves no discernable purpose except to collect dust on your shelf and look pretty, and the "affordable" packages that would allow you to try to buy it start at about $45 and go up to $795 (though for the top three you do also get hotel rooms.) The Art of Disney Parks event looks really cool, but unless there's a significant cast member discount, odds are I won't be there. Even if there will be awesome stuff, like a few of the 50s in Mickey heads that hung all over the park during the big celebration, including the web from the Haunted Mansion, the Tiki's 50th and the Indy tin model on auction. And a "Dream Sale" where smaller 50th keepsakes will be offered. There are so many cool things in the merchandise and auction categories, including some truly gorgeous original art, that I'm not even posting pics of them, you'll just have to go look for yourself.

Sigh. I'm keeping the dates in September open all the same.

Oh! And wouldn't this be just perfect in a $35 print on my wall? I love it, but don't worry Dad, I'm not even thinking about the $4,700 original or the $580 giclee on canvas reproduction.

When I uploaded the other Richard Sherman bits I taped at the Mary Poppins sing-along at the El Capitan in January, youtube wouldn't accept my favorite one because it was 7 KB too long. Then awesome Davebo led me to this awesome site which would make awesome shorter conversions of videos and I was awesomely able to fix it so youtube would accept it! Take that youtube! You will take my Richard Sherman videos and you will like it!

Very quiet weekend. Hollywood Bowl was fun, post with pics and vid later if I can ever get the media convert site to work again.

Woke up much earlier than I wanted Saturday morning. Tried to roll over and go back to sleep, cause up at 8am on my day to sleep in just not cool, but then I realized hey... I could go to Target... and there wouldn't be a line or crowds... and I need milk, toiletries, and HARRY POTTER... and Target has all three!

So yes. I bought the Harry Potter book. But Liz bought it off me the very next day, so does it really count?

I read the whole thing in one day. I settled into bed with Harry at 10.30 Saturday morning, and despite cooking a big pot of saffron rice with linguica and peas for lunch, chatting with my mom, venturing online, and doing three loads of laundry, I finished the book at half past midnight. It was the only way to stay unspoiled. It was a wonderful send-off to the series. I think now that it's all over I'll start collecting the British editions off ebay or something. I'd like to read those.

Din Tai Fung with playmayt and benhsu Sunday morning, where I ran into my friends Chris and Shannon! LA really is home now, because I also ran into three people I knew at the Hollywood Bowl Friday night: an old regular of mine from the video store in Santa Monica (yes, a man who came into a store where I worked three years ago so often that I recognized him. I became friends with many of my regulars at the big bad evil video store. They kept me as sane as I could be at that time in my life and were probably a big part of how I was able to stay as long as I did,) a friend from MyPC, and a guy who works here in animation who's also an exroommate of a friend of mine. That's it. I'm officially an Angeleno if I'm running into people I know at the Bowl.

Root beer floats party in the park Sunday afternoon seemed to go well and there'll probably be another one soon.

Potter madness continues behind the cut with this week's specially themed mondaysabitch questions and a recipe for butterbeer that I can't wait to try. ( Check it out! )

NO SPOILERS HERE, DESPITE THE PRESENCE OF A CUT. THE CUT IS ONLY FOR LENGTH. NO SPOILERS. NO!