crying in a store full of teddy bears

I cried at work yesterday.

Anyone who has spent a large amount of time with me will know that I hate crying. I don't do it very often. It makes me feel yucky. Some people need to have "a good cry" to make themselves feel better, but I am definitely not one of them. Crying makes me feel worse, most of the time...

I was at the F.I.B. position (first impressions bear, basically you greet guests as they come in to the workshop and explain the bear making process) when a Disneyland Security Officer approached me. She informed me that a 16 year old girl named Morgan wearing a red polo and green pants was lost in Downtown Disney. Morgan has down syndrome and had been separated from her parents at Ride Makerz. Checking both floors and the restroom, Morgan was not found in our store, so I told the Security Officer I would keep an eye out for her.  A little while later Morgan's mother approached me asking if I had seen her daughter and began sharing how helpless she felt just standing there. Security had asked her to stay put, in case Morgan came back to Ride Makerz and so Security could locate her. As I walked back and forth in front of the entrance, I couldn't help but feel a great swell of sadness for the entire situation. I can't imagine what it would be like to lose your child and for her to have down syndrome would only made it that much more frightening. She could be anywhere, extremely scared and confused. Watching Morgan's mother pace around was incredibly depressing, but things only became worse when her husband came back empty handed from his search. They switched positions, and the mother tore off in the other direction, literally running.

One of my managers Suzy approached me and I filled her in on what was going on outside. I shared with her how my stomach was in knots, sick from the whole situation. As we watched Anaheim Police walk by our store, apparently called to aid in the search, Suzy pointed out in the crowd toward Tortilla Joe's. There in the shadows was a girl that matched Morgan's description perfectly. Suzy asked if I wanted to go get her and before she had finished her sentence I tore off in her direction, forgetting I still had one of our roller skating F.I.B. dogs attached to my arm. Leaving the dog behind, I walked briskly toward the girl, praying it was indeed Morgan. When I finally reached her, it was apparent she had down syndrome and I began asking her questions. I told her "Hi, my name is Sarah, what is your name?" She didn't really respond, only muttering about her mom and dad. We had found her.

Trying to build trust with me, I told her about myself and how her parents were looking for her. I don't think she believed me at first because she was insistent in staying put. I told her her dad was right next to the big Mickey Mouse and he was looking for her. [we have a large Mariners Mickey Mouse statue outside our store as part of the All Star Baseball Mickey Collection all over OC] She was hesitant, but began walking with me as I asked her what her parents' names were and told her they were over by Mickey Mouse waiting for her. Suzy saw us approaching and ran over to get her dad.

The only sufficient adjective to describe the reunion between father and daughter is: perfect. He immediately began crying and hugging her, kissing her on the forehead. He told me that it makes total sense that's where we found her. They had asked if she wanted to go to Tortilla Joe's later because they had chips there, and she loves chips. She was just waiting for them. The scene was too much for me and I had to retreat into the store, tears welling up in my eyes. It was silly to be crying about this, and my other co-workers looked at me like I was crazy. Only Suzy understood how I felt.

Later on my way to my car, I thanked God for being there throughout the search and for the blessing of letting me witness such love. So I guess you can say, sometimes crying is a good thing.

Toy Story 3

Tomorrow! Tomorrow! Tomorrow I'm going to see it with Allison! O happy day!

Video #1

Just realized I have a whole lot of videos to put together from the end of the school year. Here goes my first one.

My friends and I had a lttle picnic fun during the last week of school before we all went our separate ways. Can't wait for them to get here at the end of summer!

A Do Re Tea Production.

this confirms it

today I got hit on by a 30 something year old Disney Cast Member. I was standing in line for the Cast Shuttle minding my own business and he turns to me and pokes my shoulder. "Do you want to go for a run with me?"

uhhhhhhh...................

"No."

what the crap?!?

He tried sitting next to me on the bus, but I shut him down. I think he finally got the hint. That or he saw me swinging my pepper spray on my key chain. Neither option displeases me.

Take that Disneyland Security. I do NEED my pepper spray.

This confirms it....creepers and drunks are my only male fans.

too bad...

http://mingle2.com/blog/view/dating-tyrannosaurus

Large Size Drink, Large Size Love

     The Chick-fil-a in La Habra was giving away free sandwiches from 12-2pm if you knew the secret password. Being the Chick-fil-a addicts that we are, Becca, Allie, and I awkwardly recited "Large Size Drink, Large Size Love" and received our little piece of heaven for free. There must have been some confusion with my order, because after I got my food, the cashier called out my name again with more food. They must have made my order twice because after watching the poor server walk around the restaurant calling "Sarah" for 10 minutes, he had still not found another Sarah. Yes, the thought came to mind to say something to him, but I'm sure he felt awkward enough carrying around an unwanted order of goodness. Plus I had just told him "large size drink, large size love" so my awkward meter was pretty high.
      After reading magazines on the kids couches in Borders, we met up with Melanie at Downtown Disney and proceeded to be my sister's official cheerleaders as she was applying for Build a Bear Workshop. [where both Becca and I work] She made it past the group interview and is on her way to the second individual interview! My managers were very excited that she did well, they were jumping up and down with me!
     A much more mellow day than in the past, it was still great fun seeing my sister go through all the motions of becoming a bear builder. :)

We're lost...again

I'm sorry, I have not been faithful to you blog. So much has been going on, and I've been distracted. I will work on my communication skills I promise. Do you forgive me?

Let's go back a little and recap the highlights of last week...

Tuesdayyyy:
Allie, Melanie, and I took a little trip down to Harbor House, a restaurant in Long Beach that Mel adores. Besides the fact I was in direct eyesight of at least a dozen movie stills from Star Wars Episode IV-VI and the discovery of the pink prison cell size bathroom, nothing terribly exceptionally exciting happened during dinner.  The real story took place after we left the restaurant.

Our first mistake was to head toward the water after leaving Harbor House. We wanted to take a little stroll in the sand, but after exactly 27 seconds, we decided walking on the beach in the dark with no male protection was not the smartest idea we've ever had, so we high tailed it back to the car. [though I have to say the girls rather enjoyed my pepper spray lesson] Driving toward what I believed was home, we stopped in Downtown Long Beach at a Yogurtland. Here comes mistake number two. I may or may not have completely missed the one way street sign and found a great parking spot...going the wrong direction.

The picture is a little dark, but there's my pretty little PT Cruiser, and all the other cars just looking at it. Such haters. I kept driving and driving, picking random streets, with no clear destination. We were just cruisin'... Drove down some alleys, following Pacific Coast Highway we passed Balboa Park, said hello to the Queen Mary, went across some bridges, and found ourselves in a shipyard.

     Uhhh, there are no shipyards anywhere near my house. That's when we came to the obvious conclusion we were without a doubt very, very lost. Ahoy, mistake number three! By the time we found an off ramp that didn't start with "Dock" and end in a number, we were in San Pedro. None of us had ever heard of San Pedro. After finally finding a grocery store to ask for directions, we started the 2 hour journey home. RE-DIC-U-LOUS. Here is a map of our travels. It's kinda hard to see [if you click on it, it will expand], but the star on the far right is my house. The star in the middle is Harbor House, and the star on the far left is where we ended up. I'm not very good with directions, I enjoy driving aimlessly around, and I love my friends who had as much fun getting hopelessly lost as I did. What I did not love was the discovery of mistake number four in the form of the very sad, very low gas gauge needle.  

     Wednesday, we did some cooking at Allison's house and I began documenting via FlipCam our summer adventures. Do Re Tea Productions presents Summer 2010, coming soon to a facebook and blog near you.

     Friday. O my gosh Friday was funny. Allie's parents treated me, Mel, Becca, Ben, and Allie to Farrell's Ice Cream Parlor. This place was intense. Servers running around everywhere, screaming, banging on drums, it definitely catered to all of your overloaded senses.

    One particular server was particularly fascinating to watch. He was excited, played the huge drum well, and if I dare say, not hard on the eyes. Everything would have been fine. We would have left the restaurant with gorged bellies and visions of pretty servers in hats, but alas, this is not a fairy tale. Prompted by my FlipCam, he opened his mouth and our illusions were shattered. How should I put this. He was not walking the straight and narrow. He had more pazazz than Rachel Berry on Glee. Move over Tyra Banks, there's a new addition on America's Next Top Model? Get the picture? We did. All too clearly.  

This commercial may be banned from TV, but my future kid will definitely be wearing these.