The Next Chapter

For the hoards of you no doubt checking this blog everyday in the hopes that I have written something new: Congratulations! I have!

You can take a break for a snack now.

Follow my adventures adjusting to life outside the Magic Kingdom at www.fairygettingmarried.blogspot.com

See ya real soon!

To Keep Them With You

The best compliment I can receive from a guest is something along the lines of, "You made it so special for her!" This makes me prouder than any specific praise of my hair or my stories or my general perky demeanor.  To have made something so special for someone else is simply the most satisfying and gratifying thing one can do and to have a guest tell me I have accomplished this for their princess means more than all my GSF cards combined (13, by the way.) This compliment sums up absolutely everything a Fairy Godmother in Training is supposed to do and, as this is my final post, I thought I should too.

We are supposed to make our princesses feel welcome.  We greet them warmly and excitedly, welcome them in to our chair, and immediately make them feel like there is nothing more interesting in the whole world to us than them.  When I moved in to my apartment I was hesitant for less than an hour about my living arrangements.  As a person who has had nothing but terrible roommates since moving out of my parent's house when I first left for college this is a tremendous amount of confidence.  I have never felt welcome or felt that I was safe and with people like me outside of my own family home. But my roommates, my Floridian family, made me feel welcome.  These five women and I created a home together that made us all feel safe, welcome, cared for, and infinitely important to one another.  I made friends.  I made friends with complete strangers from all over the country and I can safely say that leaving them will be one of the hardest partings in my life.  These girls are the friends I was meant to have all along and in the short time we have spent together we have formed a bond that will no doubt continue throughout our lives. Our princesses are in our chairs for 30 minutes and we make them feel like it has always been and always will be their chair.  I have known Sam, Andi, Courtney, and Melissa for 4 months and I feel that they have always been and will always be my real friends.

We are supposed to give our princesses magic.  From my first day at the Boutique I loved what I did.  From our beautiful dresses to the constant swirl of Pixie Dust there was nothing more wonderfully magical than being a Fairy Godmother in Training.  Pixie Dust aside, what truly made the Boutique magical were my fellow FGITs.  These amazing women brought the stories to life, made each day fun, and created the magical memories that aren't just for the princesses.  I have had the distinct privilege of working with some of the most charming, smart, funny, and genuinely kind people in the world.  I suppose everyone eventually encounters a group of people so very like you where you fit just perfectly and for me this group was my FGITs.  There is a type of person who is a truly good Fairy Godmother.  They are kind, gentle, open minded, funny, loud, creative, quick witted, fast talking, dramatic, selfless, and beautiful and I can think of no greater honor than to be counted among their ranks.

We are supposed to create something that lasts.  It is not enough for our princesses to feel pretty for a few minutes as they stare at themselves in the mirror.  As a Fairy Godmother our job is to transform our princess so completely that she feels beautiful from the inside out for years to come.  When a princess leaves my chair, and I am certain I am not the only FGIT who feels this way, I want her to feel so beautiful she can't stop smiling.  I want her to feel so perfect that her joy just bursts from her in squeals of delight and peels of laughter.  I want her to keep that feeling with her when she goes.

I had a princess recently who's mother asked me about the college program while I was doing her hair.  I explained how it worked and that I only had a brief amount of time left before I had to turn in my gown and my wand and move on.  I returned to my usual princess performance and had a truly wonderful time with one of my more delightful princesses.  I turned the chair, she gasped in delight, hugged me, and toddled off with her mom to check out and purchase more accessories.  It was when I was cleaning my station a few moments later that she returned.

"Princess, you've got a beautiful purse now!"

"I have something for you!" She opened her little, blue, satin bag and fished around until she pulled out a large, clear plastic gem.  "This is my magic jewel. It's for you."

I bent down and held the shiny plastic in my hand.  "Thank you, princess. That's so very nice of you!"

"It's for you for when you leave.  You have to give back your dress and your wand but this is for your powers.  To keep them with you when you go."  She looked at me with the utmost sincerity.

"Thank you, princess.  I was so very worried I would have to leave them behind."



To my friends, my family, my FGITs, to the Royal Photographers, to every Pittsburgh guest, to my Make a Wish princesses, to my Sleeping Beauty, to the entire nation of Brazil, to Princess Rose, every reluctant princess, brave knights, to the story tellers, singers, and goofy face makers,  to every princess who ever just sat down for a chat with me and every family who laughed at my jokes, to my readers who I know and love and those who only know me through my words, and to every princess, every Hannah, Sara, Elizabeth and Isabella, every Sophia, Ashley, Ashleigh, and Ashlee, to every Bailey, Hailey, and my ever perfect Emmas, to everyone:



You made it so very special.

Fairy Throws a Fiesta (and Other Accomplishments)

I am a really excellent planner. I can create a plan for about anything but the trouble comes in the execution.  My myriad attempts at gourmet cooking provide an excellent example of this.  I can read a recipe, prepare every last ingredient, but, inevitably, something goes terribly, oven-wreckingly, wrong.  I don't mean to imply that I am a bad cook because that would be misleading. I am a pretty good cook, actually, as long as I stick to what I refer to as "real food." These being foods found in my mom's recipe box and old Betty Crocker cookbooks and other commonplace sources.  I have trouble when I, unwisely, venture in to the world of "picture food," that is foods I find in magazines and fancy food blogs.  I once attempted what appeared to be a simple salmon cake recipe.  The result was a glob of salmon meat and various mix-ins that was burnt black on the outside but still disgustingly squishy inside and all the doors and windows thrown open to allow the smoke to escape.  The point is I am really good at making plans but they rarely go exactly as expected.  So I was thrilled when a plan I made recently came together so smoothly.

My roommate Andi turned 23 on the 27th of April and we decided to put together a little day to celebrate.  Because this was Sam and me planning this quickly escalated in to an all day, pull out all the stops, bash.  Our day began on a formal note with breakfast with the princesses.  We dressed up and enjoyed a rather expensive but delicious meal with our girls Belle, Ariel, Aurora, Snow White, and Cinderella.

And I was like, "Oh, hey there, Cin." And she was all like, " Fairy Godmother Morgan, that dress is faaaantastic." And I was like, "Oh, you..."

We said our adieus to the royal family and headed out to the next portion of our ever more ridiculous day but not before stopping for a brief photo session in front of Spaceship Earth. The results were delightful.

Look how chill we are while Mickey commands a broom army behind us. That's Cast Member Confidence.

It was at this point that things got decidedly mas Mexicano. Andi (short for Andreina) is of Mexican decent and we think this is delightful.  I personally, have no interesting or scholarship worthy ethnicity to speak of and so I enjoy commandeering other people's cultures for the sake of a good tiempo.  So that is why we spent the rest of the day wearing tshirts with Andi's face printed across the front which boldly shouted "HOY ES EL CUMPLEANOS DE ANDREINA" and featuring a beautiful representation of cross cultural understanding on the back.

I think I honestly represented our level of understanding.

We spent our day at the Magic Kingdom which, in the opinion of people who matter, is the best place possible to celebrate a birthday this side of... no wait, it's just the best. We laughed overly hard at the jokes on the Jungle Cruise, shrieked with delight on the Magic Carpets, threw our hands in the air as we picked up speed to a whopping 6 miles per hour on the TTA and generally behaved like the children we secretly are.  Pause for obligatory castle picture (with a touch of fiesta flare.)

We chose the sombrero with the diameter closest to her height as is the Mexican tradition, I assume.

We returned to Epcot for our traditional Mexican feast but first we had to pay a quick visit to our amigo and my character favorito.  Fortunately, he got the memo about our fiesta-wear dress code.  

He gusta'd our sombreros.

We had our dinner at the Mexican pavilion in Epcot which is shaped like the pyramid at Chitzen Itza and, inexplicably, has another pyramid at Chitzen Itza inside it along with a volcano and a river with a charming barco ride.  Of course it was muy delicioso and we capped it off with a fantastico chocolate cake and a boat ride around tiny little Mexico.  Andi also got to purchase some Mexican candy she loves which, I kid you not, consisted of lemon flavor powder and salt because, apparently, Mexican candy companies hate children.  Have you ever played that game where you open a bunch of sugar packets and fill one with salt and then make everyone down theirs and wait to see who's face scrunches up and tries to crawl in to their nose? That is essentially what happened when she had us taste this candy except everyone lost.  There are no winners in Mexican candy eating. Montezuma has spread his wrath beyond the water supply.  

I arranged for a massive fireworks display to occur at the exact same time the normal fireworks go off. Many people did not realize that they were special birthday addition fireworks but I assure you, despite them being in no way different from the normal Illuminations show, these were special fireworks that I totally arranged to cap off the night because I am such. a. good. friend. 

Moral of the story: I planned a giant, multi-step, multi-reservation, craft making, themed birthday extravaganza and absolutely nothing caught on fire.  

In other accomplishment news (for those of you playing along at home pull out your score cards) I reached what I thought was a completely unrealistic goal of earning 10 GSF cards.  My final cards were for story telling which just goes to show you that there are now rewards for being Irish. 

All I'm saying is my boss is named Mickey...

The Thing About Heaven

I would consider myself a fairly religious person but I know that in the world of today it is an unsafe assumption if I were to consider all my readers as such.  That being said, I think everyone has some concept of Heaven.  Whether that be a literal paradise in the afterlife or simply a place, a person, or a moment one would be content to experience for an eternity.  I think this takes many shapes and, for most, the idea of Heaven is a swirl of little things that make us feel... home. Home, I suppose, is the best way to describe Heaven for everyone.  It is, most likely, a swirl of color and sensation that we sort out in our minds to bring us our peace. While this experience must be different for everyone, I think there are a few constants in everyone's Heaven.

1.) The Ones We Love
     There is nothing better than being with the people you love the most.  I am positive that my Heaven will look like my parent's kitchen on a holiday, filled to the bursting with everyone we know and love (and probably a few people one of our relatives has adopted for the occasion since they didn't have a family event planned and that confuses us.)  It can be simpler than that, though.  Recently, my fiance came to visit me here in Disney.  The four days he was with me flew by in such a happy blurr that I am positive that I drove him to and from the airport on the same day.  We spent our days laughing, holding hands and walking through the parks, riding what we could, not worrying if the line was ridiculously long because we were together and happy and I think that might be Heaven.  Sure, he totally kicked my butt at both Toy Story Midway Mania and Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin but, hey, one of us plays video games for fun and the other reads old British murder mysteries. (When someone gets poisoned at the grand duke's dinner party we'll see who's hobby is the most useful...) Sure, we probably ate too many snacks, spent too much time in the sun, stayed up too late, not wanting to be apart a moment longer than we had too, but when I finally collapsed in to my bed after returning him to the airport I felt the heavy exhaustion that comes from having a part of you pulled away abruptly, without ceremony, and only a little against your will.  For me, Heaven  will be with my Prince Charming in a little house with a bright window, a small vase of flowers, and a kettle whistling happily... and possibly a very fat cat.

2.) A Connection to Home, However Fleeting
     No matter what you think about where you grew up, or the place you identify as where you are "from,"  you will always feel a connection to that place and the people from it.  For Pittsburghers like myself, the connection is less "a fond sense of belonging" and more "a borderline patriotic sense of fraternity and loyalty unto death, yinz guys. SIXBURGH!!!!"  What I'm saying is Pittsburghers are a more connected lot than most and when we find each other in foreign territory we get more than a little excited.  When guests read my name tag and see University of Pittsburgh they always have some story related to the city and whenever that story includes "we live there" there is always the rapid fire questions about where exactly and do you know so-and-so or have you been here that always reminds me of the tittering of my girlfriends and I at a middle school sleepover.  We get excited when we find each other because it makes us feel at home.  We are with people who are like us, we're sure of it, simply because we come from the same world.  At home, walking the streets of our own city, we might never speak, might think of each other as totally different with nothing at all to bond over but here, both of us completely out of our territory, we might as well be long lost cousins.  Heaven will always be Pittsburgh for me.
     I have had many princesses from Pittsburgh, and many more that have some connection to the city or the University (thanks to Pitt, most sincerely, for helping with some of my Make a Wish princesses. The fact that they have been in my chair after seeing you means you have done something amazing.)  I had three within the last week that are worth sharing simply because they made me feel so close to home that I still get the warm nose and eye tingles thinking about them.  I met the first princess when I walked up to the podium and saw her mom wearing a button that said "I'm Celebrating!" underneath which she had written in Sharpie "Life!!!"  I said "Now there's the right idea!" nodding to the button.  And then I noticed the head scarf with the pink ribbons under her mouse ears.  She saw my name tag and immediately asked if I would be her girl's Fairy Godmother because my University was the one that made their celebration possible. I was thrilled.  My princess, mom, and big sister burst in to the boutique with laughter and giggles and the appropriate oohs and ahhs and I had more fun in that half hour than I had all day.  They loved my stories, they laughed at every joke (even my most subtle pauses, tone shifts, and facial gestures got the uproarious laughter they doubtless deserve,)  and they talked about home with me.  They are from Mt. Lebanon, a place I have probably only been to once or twice, and I am from the North Hills, a place they assumed was populated entirely by malls, but for that fleeting instant we were family, yinzers, a proud branch of the Steeler Nation abroad and so happy to find someone else who spoke our language.  My next local princess was also from a part of the city I have rarely been too but her aunt had a Slippery Rock University shirt and those just aren't that common.  Upon further inquiry I discovered that her son, my princess's cousin, is in my sister's music class and they live within walking distance of one another.  This princess was perfect, asking all the right questions, prompting all my best stories (see the theme here? Pittsburgh princesses know how to get the best FGIT experience) and generally setting me up to earn my 8th (count 'em) GSF card.  Finally, I had a princess that brought me so close to home that I felt, for just an instant, that if I could only go home for an hour I would.  The family noticed my name tag and started with the traditional "what part of the city are you from?" questions.  They said "North Hills." I said "Me too." They told me the town. It was my home town.  My little, everyone knows almost everyone town.  They told me the neighborhood.  It was mine.  I finally laughed, "Please tell me you don't live on my street or I'm going to feel really bad not recognizing you!" They lived a street over in the newest part of the neighborhood.  They had been on my street, walked across my driveway the day before for the annual garage sale.  We had a great time and my princess was ecstatic with her transformation but I remember, amid the giggles and the princess stories, a pang of jealousy that they had  seen my home, with it's flag waving, it's gigantic, lopsided pear tree, and it's warm, welcoming red front door more recently than I had by a long shot.  Heaven, for me, has a red front door.

3.) Laughter
     What I will miss the most when my time to leave Disney comes is the way my friends and I could get each other laughing so hard we couldn't breathe.  This is a fairly regular thing and, despite the lack of air, I cannot recommend it highly enough.  Everyone should laugh to the point of wheezing at least once a week.  I am positive the giggly, tired feeling the results from this is exactly how everyone feels in Heaven.
     Sam is by far the best person for getting me this way and I think I get her in equal measure.  I once gave a spirited reading of the horrific Harry Potter fanfiction "My Immortal" that took us hours to get through because neither of us could keep from laughing until we cried.  (Do, please, look up that story for a hilarious couple hours you'll never get back.)  Sam nearly caused me to wreck the car once because we, and all our roommates, were driving home from dinner and passing Sea World.  Someone said something about dolphins and I chimed in with my usual dolphin comment, "They kill for fun, you know."  I will never know what Sam was trying to explain because she followed my fun fact with "Like the Danes..."  I laughed so hard I could not stop long enough to ask what she meant by that and by the time I got it together I simply said "That's racist... Rude." and we never bothered to finish the thought.  To this day we simply add "like the Danes" to any description of something horrifying or otherwise inappropriate.

Thai Thursdays:
Scene of more uncontrollable laughter and questions about Asian Culture than anywhere in Orlando

     Often, other guests provide the beautiful laughter I so enjoy.  On my first visit to the Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor (which everyone should do, by the way) Sam, Andi and I were waiting to walk in and were standing next to a couple and their little son who was probably about 4 and very excited.  When the tv screens in the waiting area began showing a video of Mike Wazowski explaining the show this little guy jumped in to a sumo stance, threw his arms out in front of him like he was carrying a huge bundle of something and bellowed "MIKE WAZOWSKI!!!! YEEEEEAAAAAAAHHHH!!!!" We lost it. We laughed and laughed and the more excited this kid got the harder it was to keep it together.  Apparently, Mike is his favorite character and he had yet to see him anywhere.  He totally didn't care what anyone thought because he was beyond a reasonable threshold of excitement.  Everyone should be that excited about Disney.  It is still one of the funniest things I have ever seen.  Heaven is being a four year old and Heaven is laughing like that.

A demonstration. 

4.) People to Make Feel Special
     My job is to make people feel special.  I do it everyday, all day, and I love it.  But in a way, it's expected of me.  Even though each guest is thrilled and often surprised by how special they can feel it is a generally accepted thing that at Disney the Cast Members will make you feel special.  That's why I love doing it out of costume.  I think we all do.  Recently my roomies and I went to Magic Kingdom for a Dole Whip run and decided to get our picture with Mickey and Minnie.  While waiting in line we met a little girl who was celebrating her second birthday and was so excited to meet our boss and the Mrs.  We played with her, made her laugh and smile, and got her to do cute poses while we waited.  By the time it was their turn to go in they asked to bring us with them because we had been most successful at making her smile.  This little princess lost her mind at the sight of Mickey.  Moments before she had been terrified but because she had made friends with us and we had talked about how great Mickey was she felt no fear.  The smile on her parents' faces was almost as wonderful as meeting Mickey.

Meeting the boss.

Aaaaand... promptly having a dance party with him.

5.) Bright Swirls of Color
     I had a Make a Wish princess not too long ago who inspired me to even think about Heaven.  I always ask the princesses about what they like to do and if they don't just tell me stuff I ask them questions like "Do you like to dance like Cinderella? Do you like to sing like Aurora? Do you like to draw like Rapunzel?"  This princess jumped at drawing.  She told me she loved to draw and so I asked her what was her favorite thing to draw.

"Heaven."

My breath caught in my throat but she said it so matter-of-factly that I had to press further.  "How do you know what it looks like, princess?"

"I saw it!" This accompanied by a knowing, almost eye rolling gesture, as if nothing could be more obvious.

Her mom sniffed and I turned to look at her.  She informed me that this princess had indeed technically died for about a minute a year ago during a treatment.  "Is it beautiful, princess?"

"It has all the colors in the whole world! And it's really light! The sun is there all the time!"

She was excited about her drawings for a moment and then moved on to ask me questions about Rapunzel. Afterward, her mom showed me a few of her pictures on her phone.  Bright swirls of colors and always a central point of white that looked like blinding light compared to the whirls around it.  She had bought her a giant box of crayons when the princess explained there were way more colors she needed.


No matter what you believe, whether it be in an afterlife or merely that Heaven is a state of mind, I think Heaven is always a bright swirl of colors. It's moments and people and emotions rushing past and swirling together.  It's waves of happiness and laughter crashing in to shadows of moments lost and people missing and instances you thought were so important that you can barely remember now.  It's the bright, blinding light of home and the enveloping sensation of everyone you love around you.  It swirls around and you feel that exhausted laughter bubbling uncontrollably out of you and the colors are everywhere.  All the colors in the whole world.

"Emma"s and Other Things I Love

It doesn't take much work to take for granted all the little things in life that make one very happy when life, in it's most general form, is delightful.  When essentially everything about one's day to day existence is, quite literally, magical it's fairly easy to lose sight of the individual things that bring an extra large smile.  I know that I typically provide you, my ever loving readers, with specific stories to illustrate this point but I thought it would be a good idea to take a moment and simply list all the things that make me so very happy here in The Happiest Place on Earth.

1. "Princess Emma"s

    When I see the name Emma on my Princess assignment I now audibly cheer.  Emmas are my absolute favorite.  I have literally never had a Princess Emma who was not completely wonderful, fun, and perfectly charming. Some of my earliest princesses were Emmas and they were the ones who helped me to hone my Fairy Godmother persona to the level it is today (which is essentially Giselle from Enchanted but with magic styling powers.)  They are the princesses who forced me to think on my feet and create some of my better stories and the ones who, on more than one occasion, have given me material for stories I had to come up with later with less Emmalike princesses.  Emmas are the best. 

A candid shot of me greeting my princesses.

     I have a theory as to why Emmas are so great with me.  I say they are great with me because I cannot say for certain that the Emma theory holds for all FGITs.  No one else gets so excited when they happen upon an Emma (which happens rarer and rarer all the time as they now like to save them for me) so I have to assume that perhaps the magic of an Emma is meant for me exclusively.  Perhaps other FGITs have Sarahs, or Carolines, or, despite it not being a people name, Brooklyns.  Emmas are mine and I believe there is a grand cosmic reason for it.  My great grandmother was named Emma (for the few of you reading this who are not related to me) and she was exactly the same sort of delightful, funny, charming, and quick thinking as my Emmas.  It took me a bit to realize but the reason I adore my Emmas is the same reason I adored her, they are so truly positive.  They are genuinely happy to be where they are at that moment and to be there with you, whoever you are, because you are happy to be there too.  Emmas and I get along the same way my great grandmother Emma got along with everyone.  They exude happiness and the more you give them the more you get right back.  They always arrive when I'm at a low point in the day and I know, for certain, that it is Grammy Emma sending them my way to brighten my spirits and challenge my princess story abilities.

2. Being Tan

    Let me preface this by saying that I have not been anything that could be confused for tan since I was about 14.  As a kid I turned brown like a nut.  My hair would bleach to the bright, glaring white that would someday define my skin tone and my skin would turn to a shade typically reserved for people with more scholarship worthy ethnic heritages.  Until I came to Florida my summer tone has been more of a tragic reminder of Victorian cosmetic trends than anything else and so I am more than a little excited that I am one of the tannest people I know.  The joy of having truly nothing to do beyond going to work and the basic survival activities associated with living on your own is that I have a lot of time to read by the pool and go to the beach with my roommates.  

We went to the beach because it was Thursday. (Side note: I also love my purple swim suit.)

3. "So you wanna go to Magic Kingdom?"

     This phrase has become so common place in my life that it will be nearly impossible to attempt to make free time plans without first suggesting Magic Kingdom even long after I live much too far away.  I love that I can go to the parks for free whenever I want and I love the casual, we'll-get-there-when-we-get-there attitude it has instilled in my park going self.  Because I can go for free I feel no guilt about going to the a park for a specific snack, maybe a little shopping, a a quick run on a favorite ride or two.  My roommate Sam (pictured above right) and I typically have the same two days off and so she and I are masters of the "well, we've spent all day at the pool/beach/mall so I guess we should hit a park now" attitude.  We also enjoy spending an entire day cruising from park to park with no particular goal in mind other than to take in as much as we can and maybe have a Dole Whip.  

4. Dole Whip, Casey's Hot Dogs, and Caramel Apples on Main Street

5. Commenting on Guest's Buttons

     Disney has perfected the art of making people feel special no matter what is going on in their lives.  One of the myriad ways we accomplish this is with buttons.  These are large pins that indicate something special is going on in the life of the wearer (birthdays, anniversaries, marriages, family reunions, etc.) and, to the trained eye, they are particularly great conversation starters or an easy way to make a passer by feel important.  All the buttons have a different main color so that even if you're too far away to actually read what it says you, as a cast member or particularly observant guest, can comment on it immediately upon encountering the person so that it seems as if you just knew about it.  People just knowing things about you makes you feel special.  I love, either in character or as a guest, wishing little kids happy birthday because it just straight up blows their minds.  The funny thing about the buttons is guests almost immediately forget they are wearing them and are often shocked how so many people know it's their birthday.

6. Being Mistaken for a Princess

     This happens in a couple different ways and I honestly love it every time.  Sometimes guests assume that I, in FGIT costume, am some sort of princess and treat me as such.  They point me out to their children or ask if they can have a picture with the princess.  I should probably correct them but, really, I totally answer to princess.  I do that in my real life.  Why stop now?  Possibly the best example of this confusion occurred recently after work when I made a stop at the Panera near my apartment.  I had removed my vest which has the boutique logo and my name tag so that I was wearing a lavender blouse and skirt and veil and looked like a particularly gaudy Amish woman rather than a FGIT and was just exiting the store with my Bacon Turkey Bravo when I spotted a little girl about 3 years old come tearing up the sidewalk in my direction.  My line of sight has been permanently altered to about the height of a 3 to 6 year old because that is who I am looking for and talking to all day.  I genuinely don't notice adults in crowds because I am spending all my time looking about 3 feet off the ground.  As this little one came barreling toward me I crouched and quickly dropped my bag as I heard her squealing "Daddy! A princess!" Instantly, I am in character.  "Hello, Princess! It's so good to see you!" She hugged me from a dead run, nearly toppling me over. She giggled away about how she was so happy to see me and I was the first princess she had gotten to meet.  I talked to her about coming to Disney and how it was her first visit and the ice cream cone she had left her dad holding.  We walked back to her parents hand in hand and she introduced me to them as "Princess" and they thanked me for being so patient.  I smiled and said I would be happy to be a princess any day.  

     Another good example of this is one that occurred when I was out of costume and at the park as a guest.  I was waiting in line for something and a princess and her parents were waiting behind me.  The princess had a birthday button and so, of course, I wished her a happy birthday and inquired about how old she was turning.  She was 4 that day.  I asked her about how she was celebrating, if this was her first trip to Disney, had it been a surprise she was coming, what had she done so far, etc. as is my usual habit when a princess sits in my chair.  I crouched down to talk to her because it was polite and eventually ended up with the both of us sitting right where we were, she Indian style and I with my legs to the side and the skirt of my sun dress spread out around me in a circle the way I always move my costume skirt (the princess story time sit is a hard habit to break) until it was time for us to both board the attraction.  As I moved to get in to my car I heard the mom whisper, smiling, to the dad "I think we ended up meeting Cinderella today after all..." There was no way I was going to correct them. 

7. Knights who Love Princesses

     We offer a package at the boutique for little guys where we transform them in to a handsome and brave knight.  Essentially, if they sit still for 10 minutes or so while we spike their hair, paint it colors, and throw some sparkle on it they get to have a foam sword and shield and hit stuff all day.  The foam weaponry is often all that is keeping the knights from completely bailing but every now and then it is love that puts the noble gentleman in the seat.  There is nothing more adorable than a knight who is there with his sister, cousin, or friend and is doing this because he wants to be able to protect her from dragons, pirates, and other dangerous fiends out to harm fair damsels.  These sweet princes remind me of what I assume my fiance must have been like as a little guy and I love them all the more for it.  Just recently I had a knight who was being transformed in the chair next to his princess.  I learned that she was his best friend, they had met in pre-school (they were in first grade now) and that she had informed him that they were getting married.  I asked him if this had been his idea. He said in a manner so familiar to me as someone engaged to quite a prince myself, "No, but I'm ok with it.  I'm not gonna marry anybody else." Then he grinned like the man in love that he was and allowed me to finish painting his mohawk.  Years from now, when they do get married, I hope they show the pictures they got post transformation.  If they don't get married to each other, I will have to step in. 

Let's just marry them off now to be safe. Betrothal is still a thing, right?

  

Death by Ponytail

Very rarely at the boutique do I feel my heart leap in to my throat and my mind race with panic.  In fact, other than my very first princess I have never felt particularly terrified.  That changed the other day when I was absolutely positive that I had killed a princess.

My princess was very sweet and talkative and dressed as an adorable Sleeping Beauty.  We were chatting away and I had gotten to the point where I was ready to roll her hair into the fairytale bun. I had asked her a question about her favorite princess, Sleeping Beauty, she had answered, and I had started to ask her another question when her chin dropped to her chest rather suddenly.  "Princess, did you turn in to Sleeping Beauty?" I laughed, thinking she was joking around. That was when her whole body went limp and she pitched forward in the chair. I threw my arm around her waist, fortunately in time to prevent her falling out of the chair and on to her head.  From this angle I could see her face and realized her entire body was paper white.  Her lips blended seamlessly in to pallid cheeks and perfectly, horrifyingly still eyelids. I looked around frantically for her aunt and grandmother.  I was holding her chest and couldn't feel any movement. Nothing was moving.

Did I pull the ponytail too tight? Have I cut off the circulation to her brain? Oh God, is that even possible?! Oh my God, this is how it's going to end. I've murdered a princess.

As her grandmother rushed over I called "Fairy Godmother Rose! Come here right now!" as calmly and sweetly as I could while holding a most likely dead child.  She came over and after asking her aunt and grandmother if they wanted us to call as paramedic (Please call. Please call someone, anyone, who can maybe, just maybe, not let this girl be dead in my chair.) Fortunately, they said yes and as another mother who happened to be a nurse applied cool cloths to the princess's neck her eyes fluttered open and some color returned to her face.

Oh thank God... The paramedics rushed in and I was allowed to let go of the princess, although they had to gently move my arm for me as I was apparently not going to let go of my own accord.  I hovered while the paramedics looked her over and got her talking in bits and pieces.  Occasionally someone would ask a question or try to move me and I would say in an entirely detached voice "That's my princess" without looking away from her still too pale face. I answered the paramedics questions about her name, age, and where she was from.  For some reason I felt compelled to add, "Her favorite princess is Sleeping Beauty. Isn't that funny..."

After what seemed like an eternity the paramedics had her pretty stable and explained that she was severely dehydrated.  She had apparently not been drinking much water to begin with and she had recently started taking a medication for an ear infection that was supposed to be taking with water which only made matters worse.  They determined that she didn't need to be taken to the hospital immediately but should go after they finished up.  The paramedics left and my princess looked up and, ignoring the mass of people swirling around and fussing at her, stared at me and whimpered "Can I still have my sparkles?"

I descended upon her as relieved as if she had been my own child.  We finished her hair, applied eye and lip makeup (leaving cheeks clean to watch her coloring) and sent the nail polish home with her (to monitor oxygen) and made sure she got as much sparkle as she could possibly stand.

I signed her autograph book "To my Sleeping Beauty..."
  

When I See an Elephant Fly

First, my blog loves, please accept my sincerest apologies for leaving you for the past week. I know you were waiting on baited breath to hear of my every exploit but fear not! I have returned with much to report. Some of it is even interesting!

Primarily, I have to share about the new section of Fantasyland that had its soft opening last night.  Some of my fellow FGITs and I scooted straight over to the Magic Kingdom after work and (after a quick hotdog break at Casey's Corner) bolted for the back of Fantasyland, past the teacups and through a formerly walled off area to emerge in to the most beautifully colorful circus I have ever seen.

Picture this with me and three other grown women screeching 

While only a small portion of the Storybook Circus section opened it was still so exciting to be there on the very first day it was open to the public.  Only two attractions are up and running at the moment (and Dumbo is only at half capacity, really.) Dumbo has undergone quite the face lift and is looking stunning.

*shing* *sparkle sparkle*

A perennial favorite among people too scared to ride Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, the Barnstormer has returned as the exact same ride but rethemed as The Great Goofini's stunt show.  The prop work is actually, not surprisingly, really hilarious. Lemme show you...

Ticket Booth Entrances

A previous production, no doubt successful

Another former show, obviously more successful than the last.

I knew I was with the right people because not only did my fellow FGITs start chanting "Goofy! Goofy!" as soon as we boarded, but the entire train got in on it. Then we all started laughing when the operator said, over the mike, "Have we got some cast members here?" and everyone on the train threw up their hands and cheered. We screamed louder that whole ride than any other car and everyone attempted the the Goofy yell.  When we returned to the station the FGITs and I yellled "Another round!" and waved our arms around as if buying shots for the whole car.  (This is apparently a thing people do in places other than rap videos, I am told.)  I cannot wait for the rest of the new Fantasyland to open but for now I am content with riding the Barnstormer over and over. Preferably without having to get off between runs.

And now a little housekeeping:

We recently had apartment inspections which occur twice during our program to make sure we aren't putting on amateur wrestling competitions and smashing the chairs or smuggling illegal immigrants or cats or watching Song of the South and telling people about it.  In order to prepare for this inspection we proceeded to erase all evidence of us living here, essentially. Bleach was involved and a great deal of my Disney purchases, which previously lived under my bed in several shopping bags (I have a souvenir problem... I'm dealing with it...) moved to the trunk of my car for the day.  This speedy stuffed animal exodus was well worth it, however, when we received the White Glove Award for an exceptionally clean apartment. As a token of appreciation for not having 40 cats and 8 migrant workers living in our apartment (like I wanted) we were gifted a massive box of Ferrero Rocher chocolate.  We felt quite fancy dividing them up and hording them away like gilded chipmunks, all while cackling maniacally as I brought back in the souvenir army and we returned our overly large collection of magnets to the fridge.

My fiance was in town this week (thus my radio silence) along with his family.  I was very happy to see them all and, of course, especially happy to see him.  It has been agreed by the FGITs that he looks like Prince Phillip and so he can stay.  He met me at work.  I was Pixie Dusting and looked up from my most recent small child to see him.  My eyes felt hot but in a good way and I flitted over and hugged him openly, no doubt coating him in glitter.  All the FGITs, who were standing around as the night was nearly over, oohed appropriately and I have never changed out of my costume faster than I did that night.  It was wonderful to have him here with me at my favorite place in the world.  We spent wonderful days at the park and had a great trip to the beach where I acquired the newest level of my wicked tan (not even kidding, guys.)  Most importantly, I convinced my dearest love to ride the Rockin' Roller Coaster.  This was essential because, although I did not share this with him before hand, our impending nuptials were severely threatened by the knowledge that I would have to single rider all the best rides for my entire married life until I had kids.  And what if my kids turned out lame? The threat was too much.  Fortunately, the thrill of the coaster was too much not to enjoy and I have converted him to a fan.  The wedding is still on. Mark your calenders for that date I swear I'll set soon. Honestly.

Darn. I knew I was supposed to be planning a wedding while I was down here...