WDWCP: Meet My Friends!

How about we meet some of the people I spent my time with since you'll be seeing them pop up throughout the month!

Brenda and Luis on our lovely couch

I feel like I actually spent a lot of time alone when I wasn't at work. I went to Magic Kingdom alone sometimes. I was always hitting up Downtown Disney by myself, especially when I had a craving for Wolfgang Puck's macaroni and 4 cheese, or garlic mashed potatoes. But sometimes I did get to be with people!

We've met my roommates already and we will for sure see them more, but I didn't actually get to spend all that much time with them. Zaira and I never once hung out just the two of us outside of our apartment. She was never around? It seems like she was only there late at night when we 4 girls were asleep and Puerto Rico took over our apartment. Yeah, so let's start there! Brenda and Zaira (maybe mostly Brenda since Zaira was always gone?) were really popular in the Puerto Rico circle! That brought in many new friends, one we practically considered to be our 7th roommate.

Zaira & Maria before the ball

I remember Brenda coming home from work once with frosting in her hair. She worked at Dixie Landings, and I did go see her once. It was such a cute place and I highly recommend staying at Port Orleans if you make a trip to Walt Disney World!

Luis, was the honorary roommate. He was so darn sweet and handsome! We only hung out in the apartment and once at the Disney-MGM studios, but all of us apartment 3101 girls adored him!

Maria, she was around often as well. She's a winner, and so dang pretty!

David and I hit it off right away, and for the remained of my internship I learned the rest of the PR boys just called me David's Girl. Ha! After our program I saw him again when I went back on vacation, he came to Oregon to stay with me for a week one summer, and then we reunited once I lived in Florida again after college. If I'm lucky we might be meeting up again sometime in Portland?? I'm waiting to hear! We had an up and down relationship the whole time, but he made up by sending me roses, so all is good!

David and I. Look at how pale my stomach is!

Let's toss in some photos of my roomies at work, shall we?

Sarah, the cool one from Louisiana, worked in Tomorrowland merchandise. We hung out all the time - Pleasure Island, the apartment, House of Blues, Walgreens way too often! You're going to see her a ton coming up. She was the coolest girl, and I was so sad when she left the program early. I did get to see her again, though, when she spent Spring Break in Oregon one year!

Sarah bringing in the $$$

Danielle at
California Grill

Danielle, who was really into arm wrestling, worked at the Contemporary Resort at the California Grill.  She had a completely different circle of friends since she was the only CP there. We did get to have some silly times together though. She even gave me a make-over once (i.e. curled my hair and put lipstick on me). A year after our program I ran into her at Disney's Animal Kingdom while she was a dancing frog in the parade! I am skilled at tracking people down via the internet - whether they know it or not. The one person I cannot find is Danielle! If anyone has any info, hit me up!


And sorry for the quality of these photos. Remember, this is all old school cameras. Point, shoot, print. I edited the best I could after scanning, but clearly you can only do so much!

Jamie at the Comedy Warehouse

Okay, back to non-roommates. Jamie! Aside from the next person we meet, and Sarah, Jamie is the girl I was always with. Parks, Pleasure Island, New Years Eve, work, Typhoon Lagoon, everywhere! We were a good pair together I think, but also very opposite. She was the country girl and I was anything but!

Vinny.
I always loved this photo!

One day I was working the Pecos counter (if I could find my journal I know this exact date is written down!) and this busser came up to me. We hadn't had many conversations before, but I knew he was Vinny. This plan may have backfired for Joe, a fellow Cast Member that worked the counter with me. Vinny came up to me in the restaurant area and said, "Yo, Joe wants to tell me you're fat...." at this point my jaw probably dropped. Although I have always felt fat, looking at my photos, I was far from it! ...."Fat, with a PH!" Well if Joe had a crush on me or whatever, his planned failed and pretty much from that stupid moment Vinny won me over, he became my boyfriend, and we were together all the time. I even had Christmas Eve dinner with his family! We were quite a match... the shy girl from Oregon with the obnoxious guy from New Jersey. OMG is this why I love watching Jersey Shore?? Nah! Vinny and I have of course hung out multiple times since my college program and I even talked to him today. I remember after that whole incident went down someone told me "Vinny is the winner of the shiny, happy Ronda prize!" I'll take that as a compliment?

Christina in our kitchen costume

Christina was always this totally cool Texan, but sadly we never got to hang out much outside of work, but I always wish we would have. She did come to Oregon years later for a quick visit, and we are still friends to this day!

There are more friends we will meet along this trip, but those are the biggies that I spent my non-work time with. Everybody I met on the College Program was awesome. I look back and really have minimal negative images when I think of that time, and anything that isn't positive wasn't even a College Program person or situation. We did have one crazy thing happen because of someone across the way from our apartment, but as insane as it was, it makes for one awesome story, so I almost have to thank that weirdo!

And I think I know now what the next story will be!

See ya real soon!