I got a voxbox!

So to cover briefly, there is a website called Influenster.com and I am one of its many members. Basically, I complete activities and write posts regarding different products and services that send out samples and such through the website. One of the greatest things they have are "Voxboxes" which are collections of samples from various companies who are seeking reviews and advertising via word of mouth (and social media). I am going to share with you all the things I received in my #jollyvoxbox to fulfill that last portion of the brief (and because some of the stuff is awesome!)

First off, a box of Skinny Cow chocolate peanut butter candies. They are really delicious! Good balance of flavors. They are packaged in threes which makes for a nice snack at work (one for each break). Also, NO ARTIFICIAL SWEETENERS! I can taste Splenda and I was pleased that this "low cal" dessert did not have any :)

Next, a travel pack of Puffs plus lotion tissues. I have lots of tissues at home... LOTS! But one more pack can't hurt. They aren't as slimy as other lotion tissues which bodes well for their future use.

A mini roll of Duct Tape was next. Blue and purple leopard print. And it really is mini, only as wide as a roll of regular tape, but with all the strength of traditional Duct Tape. I can't wait to use it to wrap something (yes, I did already wrap all my Christmas gifts this year :( )

NYC provided a smokey eye palette in browns which I think will look really nice with my eye color. It has directions on where to put each color which is helpful indeed. Good size for a purse.

Also from cosmetics, Rimmel London lip gloss! It's a darker pink and looks really rich. Haven't tried it yet, but I see the potential.

All in all, a GREAT holiday gift from Influenster! A reminder, I received these products complimentary from Influenster for testing purposes. If you want to try some of these products, you could always try your luck at becoming an Influenster like me. Happy Holidays and Jolly Vox Box to all!

Long time, no see!

Rather than try to catch you up on all of the things you've missed in my life, I'll just pretend that it hasn't been over a year since I last posted...

Good luck with that.

I wanted to share with everyone that I couponed today at Publix and it went really well! This was not extreme couponing by any means, just some clicking around and looking at ads before I left to go to the store. I ended up cutting 1/3 of my grocery bill out, so I'd say it was pretty successful. Some of my greatest achievements:

Hamburger Helper (actually Chicken Helper, but whatever) 2 at $0.50 each!
Indian River Select; Ruby Red Grapefruit Juice, FREE!
Mueller Greek Corners yogurt, 3 at 0.60 each!

Yeah. Coupons.

Tomorrow is Halloween! I am definitely getting a BOOrito at Chipotle with my friend Kirsten then we are going to rehearsal for Candlelight Processional (woo hoo, Christmas music in October!) and ending the evening at Jellyrolls/Atlantic Dance. I am excited to have a "grown up" Halloween this year. I am keeping it simple and wearing my Fairy Godmother cape since it can go easily over a t-shirt and some leggings. Don't worry, it was my second costume this season. I can't go a Halloween without at least 2 costumes.

This weekend is Party for the Senses! I love going and plan to make it an annual tradition. Good food, good wine, and as I understand it Robert Irvine from Restaurant Impossible will be there "cooking." It's his food, but he doesn't cook it. He just stands in front of his table and takes pictures with people. Fine by me! I will not drink whiskey on an empty stomach, I will not drink whiskey on an empty stomach, I will not drink whiskey on an empty stomach. We're not playing that game again.

Then there's my MAGIC BAND BETA TEST! WAHHHHHHOOOOOO! I don't really care about the bands, I see them every day. I care about staying at Caribbean Beach! I have never stayed there before! Kirsten and I are thinking swim time is in order. We are also "forced" to go to the parks and ride rides with Fastpass+. Oh woe is me ;)

I am really bad at blogging...

Let me start off by posting this just to get it out of the way:
nameplates
Feel free to ignore that.

Instead of trying to make a coherent blog post, I will just update you on my social calendar for the coming weeks:

I am on the softball team. If Isaac holds off, we have a game tomorrow. Likely not going to happen.

For my friend Ashley's birthday we are going to Boma.

Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween party on Sept. 11th, we are all going to be Haunted Mansion characters. I am working on my costume now. I'll be sure to post pics.

I start rehearsals soon for the candlelight processional WHOO! CANDLELIGHT PROCESSIONAL!

Oct. 1 is Epcot's 30th anniversary. My friends and I are going to Epcot dressed in 80s wear just like it's opening day. That should be a blast!

I don't know what we are doing for Stephanie's half birthday...

We booked Party for the Senses on November 3rd. So much food, so much wine, so much WIN!

For Leanna's birthday we are going to Biergarten.

We are planning on having family thanksgiving at my apartment. I have agreed to tackle the turkey, so that means we're having thanksgiving on MY DAY OFF.

My family is coming on Dec. 11th to see Candlelight. I got the day off, too!

For now, that's all I've got.

Car is packed (for now)!

Blogging at 1 AM? Sounds like a plan. I'm leaving in 4 hours for Disney and I can't sleep. This is for several reasons, the first being that I took too long of a nap -_-'. Never nap for longer than 15 minutes and expect your sleep schedule to be normal that night.

So I think I have everything I need from home with the exception of everything I left in Naples. Why move all of my stuff to Ohio then turn around to move it back? I still had the lease on my apartment and it just made sense to keep everything closer to Orlando. What is in my car now, you ask? EMPTY BOXES!! Aw yeah, moving like a pro. I also took extra clothes (I will be down in Florida longer) as well as a few key items I was missing from my apartment (notably a potato peeler).

My dad and I have a long drive tomorrow, and while we have the option to stop along the way, we probably won't. Just drive straight through and then get a nice long sleep knowing we're at our final destination. But here's the best news about that journey... I'M GOING TO COOK OUT! I love that restaurant. They are prevalent in the carolinas, but not north or south of there. Good thing we're eating there. I could certainly use a peanut butter banana milkshake...

Other than that, it's just packing up the apartment and driving to Orlando. We'll get in on Tuesday sometime and the only thing we have planned is meeting my roommates for dinner. Wednesday is check in for the college program, and then... who knows?

One thing is certain: When I get to my apartment, I am making a definitive list of the kitchen items included in a DCP apartment and posting them here. No such list exists that I have found and it is quite frustrating. After Wednesday I will also be adding a post (or more???) about my first few days of the program (quite exciting!).

Also, a nostalgic moment to share: my brother and I finished playing through Banjo-Tooie about an hour ago! It is an old N64 game that we never beat when we were younger. We picked it up last week and played through it before I left again. Fun times. Those are the things I'll miss while I'm away, but such is life. Growing up, people. It's serious stuff :)

DCP - Time flies!

I am quickly coming to the realization that the Disney College Program is just around the corner! I leave on Mother's Day with my dad to head back down to Naples, FL to get the stuff I left in my apartment. Some people may say that is mean, leaving my mom on Mother's Day, but that is actually my present for her :) She is a florist, so Mother's Day is not a holiday for her, it's one of the busiest work days of the year!!!

I have been trying to set aside things I am taking with me, but I just feel like it's too soon, even though it isn't! My time at home has been short, and my time away will be even longer this go around. 8 months! And if I get a job or choose to extend, it will be even longer! But it's fine, because my family just loves to visit Disney, and now they have a reason to come down more often.

I can't wait to meet my roommates in person, I can't wait to get my costume, go to traditions... it's going to be such a blast. I just know it. I am hoping to take advantage of all of the opportunities that Disney has to offer. PSYCHED!

Snorkeling in the Keys!

Whoo! More Spring Break action! I decided to take a day trip to Key Largo florida to snorkel at the famous John Pennekamp park. What a blast! The original plan was to go to Key West, but then I realized that the snorkeling place was in Key Largo. CHANGE OF PLANS!

I hoped to go on the Noon snorkeling trip (with an almost 3 hour drive to make before the swim) but they had no availability. With the options of 9 AM, 3 PM, and 5:30 PM, I of course made the logical choice; 9 AM. -_-' That meant leaving my apartment at 5:00 AM because you have to be at the park by 8 AM for the 9 AM snorkel. AHHHH! I dragged my butt out of bed and drove the 2 hours and 45 minutes to the park. It was cool to drive as the sun was coming up, and there wasn't really traffic until 6:30 AM. Also, there was a coupon for the 9 AM snorkel...

So I got to the park and was surprised to see that it was in the most tourist trap-y area EVER! Tons of discount Keys merchandise locations, etc., etc. The park itself was quite nice, though. It is mostly a water park, so while there are lots of places to swim, canoe, kayak, snorkel, etc. there aren't really places to just walk around (Like there were at the Slough and Big Cypress). I got to the shop where you paid for the snorkel boat and rented your equipment and I was 5th in line. Within 5 minutes the line was out the door of the building! Good thing I got there when I did.

I met some nice people in line and asked if they had used the coupon. They all said no. Not a problem! The one couple just pulled the coupon up on their smart phone and the other family said they couldn't print the coupon because their printer wasn't working. No one who worked there cared. The coupon is from their website, so they might as well just offer the morning tour for a discount instead of having a coupon.

So I got a rental slip for my mask and fins, bought my snorkel (That says John Pennekamp on it, fancy!), and went back to my car to put on sunscreen and pack away my stuff for the few hours I would be gone. I brought a ziploc bag for my car keys and took nothing else on the boat. I figured there would be a place on the boat to put things and quickly realized that the place was the floor. With many openings along the side of the boat, I was worried about the keys flying away, and there was no way I was putting the keys in my swimsuit pocket for an hour and a half of swim time. Turns out I was sitting by the couple whom I told about they coupon and they gladly let me store my keys in one of the pockets on their beach bag. Thanks, guys!

We got some safety instructions, boarded the boat, and set off on our 30 minute trip across the ocean to our snorkeling destination. I am not someone who gets sick on boats, except when they are speedboats going into rough ocean waters. Ugh! I did not actually get sick, which was good. I did not want to be that person.

Other than rough waters, the boat ride was neat. It helped me to decide that airboat tours of the Everglades are NOT for me! I did a swamp walk and got plenty of boat action in that half hour out and half hour back at John Pennekamp. Thanks but no thanks.

We stopped at the Grecian Rocks and I opted to take the quick snorkeling lesson at the front of the boat. Just an overview of how to kick with fins, where to place the mask, etc. I found out that it is illegal to stand up at the coral reef! If you stand up, you can kill a lot of living things. So you were either swimming or you were on the boat. One lady got in the water and was having a hard time of it so she went back to the boat right away. Everyone else stayed out at least for a little while. I stayed out as long as I could! When I first got in the water, I was hyperventilating (I noticed that I did that at Typhoon Lagoon the last time I "Snorkeled"). I just took a moment to remind my brain that I wasn't actually drowning and then went on my way. It was so cool! Lots of coral, some lobsters, barracuda, conch, and I even swam with a school of fish for awhile, just because I could.

Got back to the park, rinsed off, changed into dry clothes, and took a look around the store. I also ate some of the nilla wafers I had brought for the car to settle my stomach. In addition to the sea sickness I managed to swallow a mouthful of saltwater right before we got back on the boat! There was a small building ("aquarium") that I looked in briefly, but after swimming right alongside the fish and the coral, and aquarium just doesn't do it.

I went to a place called Hobo's for lunch (It came highly rated on tripadvisor.com). It was okay at best. I enjoyed the seat and the AC and the key lime pie was great, but my food was really mediocre, verging on bad. I got an appetizer instead of an entree. It was coconut lobster and shrimp. Sounded great, and they use actual fresh caught shimp and lobster, but my big problem was the breading. They didn't season the meat before the breaded it and the breading was literally just coconut shavings. No other seasonings, no flour or breadcrumbs or anything to break up the coconut. I felt like I was just eating a big bag of semi-burnt coconut shavings. I ended up scraping a lot of the coconut off, and much to my dismay the shrimp was not entirely cleaned out in addition to its lack of flavor. Eeegh. I also got a side of creamed spinach, but it wasn't great either. It was very acidic (like someone dumped some extra lemon juice in the batch) and way too liquid-y. It was more of a spinach dip than creamed spinach. I ate it with the coconut shrimp/lobster to make both more palatable. And I'm being totally honest, here. Was it a terrible restaurant? I don't know because I only really ate one dish, one side, and one dessert. Just don't order coconut anything when you go there. (On a side note, the dish was served with a side of coconut sauce. Really? Like I didn't get enough coconut, I need a glaze to enhance the coconut flavor???)

And that was it! I went home after nearly 5 hours on Key Largo. Some notable places I passed on my drive:

Jewfish Creek (home to, I'm sure, a great number of Jewfish. Reference photo below.)

Surprise lake (probably named when someone was walking around at night and fell into the water. SURPRISE! It's a lake!)

Mutineers (A restaurant I probably would have liked better than Hobo's because they had karaoke)

I'm going to a yoga class tonight that the apartment yoga instructor teaches off site. It is free, so I can't say no! I LOVE YOGA!

DCP - Classes!

If you are arriving early enough for Fall Advantage 2012, you can officially sign up for your classes! I had already picked my Summer and Fall class (I think one a term is plenty) and just had to click on the right buttons to get myself registered for Summer II term. I am taking Experiential Learning. It isn't the most popular course (One of the classes I know of you spend half of your class sessions in the parks and at resorts, that fills up quickly) but it is the most relevant to me! Experiential Learning talks about educational theorists like Piaget, Kolb, and Dewey. Those names might not sound familiar to you, but to an education student, they are common knowledge. I think it will be nice to see education from the Disney perspective. There is even one class meeting titled "Education through Entertainment." My kind of class!

For the Fall term I am planning on taking a seminar class called "Entertainment Show Production" which sounds right up my alley, wouldn't you agree?

So this Experiential Learning course meets on  Mondays from 9AM-12PM, which isn't bad. 3 hours is a typical seminar course length and I know I can sit through a class for that amount of time. It meets at Vista Way, and since I plan on living at Patterson, I have a feeling I will drive to class as a treat to myself on Monday mornings :) We have to wear business casual clothing to class or we are allowed to wear our costume if we have to go into work after class. I have plenty of business casual clothing, so that shouldn't be a problem.

PS: Some of the classes have fees associated with them. I managed to pick one of the most expensive classes at $23 -_-' but like I said, it is a way to keep my education current while I work at Walt Disney World. Also, $23 for a college credit course is a great deal! AP exams are more expensive and there is no guarantee you'll even get credit for those.