Work, work, work

This has been a tough week. It's been crazy busy at the lodge since so many people came in for the marathon and races and all star weekend. I was scheduled 7 days in a row. However, yesterday when I woke up I wasn't feeling 100% and felt even worse as the night went on. By the time I got home at 10pm I was pretty drained. This morning I woke up for work but I had a sore throat, stuffy head and achy body-- so today is my first sick day. Disney has a "point" system so we're allowed so many call ins etc, but this was my first one so I'm still in good shape. I've been sleeping most of the day and I'm feeling a little better so hopefully it will pass quickly.
My hours are still all over the place- I'm working until 2:30am a few times this week again but I spoke to someone about it so hopefully that won't be the case for much longer. Earlier this week there was a day when our system was scheduled to go down so the check in process of course was really easy and fun. (HA) There were lots of issues and irritated guests but luckily the system came back up about half way through my shift. Despite that being frustrating, I had an interesting magical moment. I was out in the lobby being a greeter (AKA keeping guests away from the counter and encourage them to go to the parks or pool instead of trying to check in while the system is down.) A little girl was playing and twisting around one of the big posts in the lobby and I saw her look my way. She walked up to me and said "what's your name?" And I smiled and told her my name and she held her hand out for me to shake it and said "Hi, I'm Shanelle." She couldn't have been more than 7 or 8 years old so I was really surprised that she was so outgoing and even shook my hand! She talked to me for a while about how they had been waiting for her room and her mom was checking on it again because they really wanted to go to the room. So I responded with "Hopefully it will be ready for you real soon.. maybe you could go swimming for a while if it's not ready since it's nice and hot outside." And she replied "Well, yeah but we figured we can go swimming anywhere... we can only see the animals here." What a grow up response! After that I basically just said well, yeah you're right. haha Then she proceeded to tell me how she takes ballet class and demonstrated a few moves for me. Her mom left the counter very disgruntled and I tried to speak to her but she hurried off. Shanelle waved goodbye and they disappeared down the hall.
The next day I went to help the runner deliver a package to a room. On our way back down to the lobby Shanelle and her mom got off the elevator. I waved but she didn't really see me at first. After we got on the elevator right before the doors closed I heard her gasp and she ran in front of the doors and yelled "Emily! Hi!" It was like she ran into her best friend. The runner (Julia) asked me if I knew her and I told her about the previous day.
It's moments like these that remind me how much I will always love Disney and everything the company is based on. I may be struggling now with the hours and being mistreated by some fellow cast members (which shouldn't be happening) but I will never lose my passion for Disney and providing magical experiences for guests.