Work or Vacation?

OMIGOSH - where to start?! I got down to Orlando on the 14th of August, and haven't really stopped having fun since. Not only is it great to be able to actually unpack my bags, knowing that I'll be somewhere more than a week, but it's also just a GREAT place to be. (Once you get past the heat and humidity...and the hurricanes.) We are doing a very large installation this month (about 40 days long) of three hotels that sit on the Universal Studios campus. AWESOME. It's great - we will never run out of things to do. There are six of us here for the full install, and we're having a great time.

Here are four of us hanging out with Shaggy and Scooby-Do before dinner!

There is so much to cover, and I'm going to do it in several different posts...and in no specific order. We rotate who takes the camera on our little adventures, so I'll need to pilfer some good shots from the others probably.

First of all, here are some pictures from the different hotels.... None of them are very good. I'll work on getting some better ones. You'll find the link to each of the hotels below the title. These places ARE FANTASTIC, and if you go to Orlando...I would HIGHLY recommend them.

HARD ROCK HOTEL

http://www.hardrockhotelorlando.com/

Fountain out front...

The group Molly Hatchett performed in the lobby of the Hard Rock Hotel for their Velvet Sessions on Thursday night. VIP Access.....it was still really loud!!

PORTOFINO BAY HOTEL

http://www.loewshotels.com/en/Hotels/Portofino-Bay-Hotel/Overview.aspx

View from the courtyard area...where the water taxis take off.

This happens every night....I believe.

And these guys know us by now... Sometimes they have a woman singing with them - and SHE IS FABULOUS!! They always sing my song, "Volare". The first night we ate here, we had the entire restaurant swaying and singing with us. We go here at least once a week for dinner!! The guy playing the accordion (sp?) is going to learn "In the Misty Moonlight" eventually, so he can play it for me. I request it every time.

ROYAL PACIFIC RESORT

http://www.loewshotels.com/en/Hotels/Royal-Pacific-Resort/Overview.aspx

The front entrance of the hotel is a bridge over this little canal. This is the view to the left as you're walking in.

To the right....

I SO want to frolick in this little pond thingy with the elephants. This is beautiful. This is a part of their lobby. On the other side, through the glass, is a sushi restaurant that I eat at a lot.

One night the self-parking was full and I had to park in the back of the hotel (before I had even walked around the property and knew where everything was...but I had already heard stories about alligators attacking people). I had to walk for what seemed like 2 miles through the dark fearing a deadly attack from a gator. I turned a corner and these three guys scared the CRAP out of me! I think I even YELPED! I went out the next morning and had to take a picture!!

What a great amenity!! I also got cookies and a big glass of really cold milk. I LOVE REALLY COLD MILK!! This was the best gift ever.... Someone in my training class sent it to me, thanking me for a great week of training. Made me get misty-eyed.

Okay - moving on. I did actually have a pretty intense situation in my first week of training. I think it was the first Thursday of the training classes. For snacks in the training room, they have a number of things...but the best is the HUGE bags of skittles. I love skittles. I was standing in the back of my classroom while some of the folks in my class were discussing a few things. I decided I had time to pop a skittle in my mouth. FAIL.

I chewed a little, then tried to swallow......tried to swallow....kept trying to swallow.....start walking toward the front door of my classroom that led out into a cafeteria.....keep trying to swallow.........try to breath....find out that I CAN'T BREATHE (I was actually making really crazy *gasping for air* noises at this point)....keep walking toward the door....open the door....keep trying to breathe and can't....decide that it's just a DAMN skittle and that I should be able to handle this....with every effort I had left, I pretty much hacked the thing up....I see the green skittle piece go flying out of my mouth.....I gasp for air and have never appreciated oxygen more in my life.

Of course, once I made the crazy hacking noise while hanging outside the door of my own classroom, they got a little quiet! I came back in the room, put my hands on my knees and caught my breath! My throat was so soar, from all of that sour acidic-type stuff in my throat! It was NOT pleasant, and it freaked me out. One of the ladies in my class lectured me for the last 15 minutes of class for going off by myself. She's right - I could've died....on a friggin' skittle. How embarrassing!

It was pretty funny though (since I didn't actually die), and every person in my next class knew about it by the time they got through my door! On the last day of class this week (It's already been over a week since the choking incident took place, and a whole new group of people...), one of my students left this on the table for me!! HA!!

The next post was going to be in this one.... but it's too important to mesh together with this one. READ THE NEXT POST....and watch the video. It's breath-taking! More later, gators!