fandomsecrets | [ SECRET POST #3972 ]

⌈ Secret Post #3972 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

01.

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02.

[8 out of 10 Cats, The Great British Bake Off]

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03.

[figure skating]

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04.

[Pirates of the Caribbean franchise]

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05.

[Jenny Slate/Chris Evans]

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06.

[X - CLAMP]

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07.

[Daredevil]

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08.

[Jeremy Jordan from Supergirl]

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09.

[Sorcery and Cecilia or The Enchanted Chocolate Pot]

Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 03 pages, 56 secrets from Secret Submission Post #569.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 1 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Hunker down, because there's a whole fuckin' lot of backstory/context to this'un. In 2005, I applied for the Disney College Internship program and was accepted. This was long before my physical health went to shit, mind, although my mental health was almost as bad as it is now. Also, I was about five years from learning that I'm autistic, so keep that in mind. Also keep in mind that this was my first time living away from home, where I was an only child (my parents learned their lesson the first time). Now the Disney College program gives you the option of living in one of their sponsored apartments, with between one and seven(!) roommates. If you were under 21, you automatically got put in a "wellness" apartment where no alcohol was allowed, and you generally had at least three roommates.

I ended up with five roommates, one of whom I had to share a bedroom with. Things started out relatively okay, but two of them and their male friend were the aggressively extroverted types, and were always pushing me to go out and party with them no matter how tired I was. Also, out of all the other girls in the apartment, only one of them (who was as tired of the pushy ones as I was) ever helped me clean. Now, the Yacht & Beach Club Resort where I worked was having to schedule people with lots of overtime for some reason, with most of us only getting a day off every ten days at best. While the double-time pay was nice and my managers and coworkers were mostly awesome, it was exhausting, especially since my hours were so inconsistent. I might be scheduled to work 2:30-10:30 one day in one area and 7:30-3:30 the next day in a different area. We weren't allowed to sit down unless we were doing children's activities by the pool or driving people around in the golf cart, and while I didn't have arthritis, fibro or a herniated disc at the time, I still had a weak heart, endometriosis, depression/anxiety and undiagnosed autism, so that presented some difficulties. Also, I had just caused my group in lifeguard training to fail the final test, partially because I wasn't able to remember how to do a certain procedure that the instructors hadn't even spent five minutes teaching us the day before, and also because I wasn't confident enough in my speaking voice. So that was a real kick in the crotch, and then a few days later I came down with a cold and still had to work.

One night I came home exhausted at 11:00 PM and went straight to bed, only to have the two aforementioned roommates (one of whom shared the same bedroom with me) and their male friend take turns coming in to wake me up to try and get me to come out and hang with them, even though they knew good and well I had to be at work at 7:30 the next day, had worked eight days straight with my next day off in two days, and worked eight-hour shifts while they only had six-hour ones and got two days off per week. They would sit on my bed and bounce, poke me, shove me, tell me the stray cat we'd been feeding had been hit by a car, play loud music and just whine non-stop, then get offended when I told them to leave me alone. That night was pretty much my breaking point. I tried to transfer to a different apartment and a different part of the park where I could work reasonable, consistent hours, but there were no openings anywhere, so I threw in the towel, turned in my two-week notice and got ready to move back home. The day before I left, these same roommates begged me to leave my Super Nintendo and all of the games with it. I did, but I took the TV with me, 'cause I'm the one who bought it.

Anyway, sorry about all the teal deer. Some old frustrations resurfaced as I was writing this.

Edited 2017-11-19 03:39 (UTC)

I was in the Disney World College Program also! Summer 2007- food and beverage at Artist's Pallet in Saratoga Springs Resort and Spa.
I am also an only child and went there before I was diagnosed with Autism.

I was in Chatham Square and had three roommates- R, C, & A. C & I were the only ones that did any cleaning. I was roommates with R and ended up switching rooms with A to live with C. A went to parties all the time and brought home strange guys. Then left them in the apartment when she went to work. R actually hated Disney and was trying to get into working at Universal Studios. R was also a huge slob. Which was hilarious because she worked in Epcot as a janitor.

C & I fed the stray cats too. My favorite was a huge orange and white male I called Oliver. C ended up adopting him when she went home.

I left the program early due to a family emergency. I was also having problems that came from Autism, anxiety, and depression. I was not diagnosed at the time and would have had a better time if I had been on medication for the anxiety.

I was written up once because a guest complained that I wasn't smiling. I had been informed of the family emergency just prior to starting my shift. I quit not long after that.

Ah, no way! I was in Chatham Square, too! It's a small world, after all. Our cat was an over-affectionate tuxedo cat that my roomies decided to call "Chatham" because that was the extent of their creativity. I wish I could've taken him with me when I left, as he was better company than they were. I'm glad Oliver found a good forever home, though!

I was really lucky in that my working life was good, apart from the wonky schedule. I got along really well with most of my coworkers, and the ones I didn't like I didn't have to see very often. My managers were quite frankly the best I've ever had. I was in recreation after my failed attempt at lifeguarding (it's probably for the best that I didn't pass, as lifeguards at the Y&BC had ten-hour shifts and also at the time I was dealing with some seriously awful periods and could only wear pads for TMI reasons), so I often did a variety of things each day, and worked at a different part of the resort every day. One day I'd be behind a counter, the next I'd be renting out boats, and the next I'd be leading children's activities, handing out towels, doing minor clean-ups and ferrying people around in a stretch golf cart, which was easily my favorite part. Interacting with a bunch of strangers day in and day out was mentally taxing, but luckily you don't grow up as the granddaughter of a semi-famous preacher and the daughter of missionaries without learning how to play the game, so it wasn't too hard, just tiring.

The best day was when ~~the devil~~ Michael Eisner was having some sort of big meeting at the Yacht Club resort. I was working the boat rentals that day, and since it was a slow day rental-wise and we needed to look busy, we cleaned up all the boats. On our breaks, we went into the employee dockhouse and bitched about what a fuck-up Eisner was and how much we all hated him. Now, the meeting was being catered, and after it was over they had a ton of leftover food that they were going to throw away. Entire cheesecakes, baskets of rolls and big bowls of salad and soup and meat. I was sent to ask if we might take it off their hands, and returned victorious with all of the leftovers. The caterers were just glad they didn't have to deal with it. I brought two cheesecakes home to my roommates that night and told them all that the cakes were for them, since I've never been a cheesecake fan. They complained that the cakes took up too much room in the fridge (not as much as their pizza boxes) and a few weeks later I ended up having to throw them out, anyway. No one had eaten so much as a slice.

Anyway, I don't blame you a bit for leaving, and I hate that they wrote you up for that! That sounds like what happened to me when I worked at Petland. I hope everything worked out okay!

Edited 2017-11-19 08:37 (UTC)

[ SECRET POST #3972 ]

Re: Give me some neighbor and roommate horror stories!

Re: Give me some neighbor and roommate horror stories!

Re: Give me some neighbor and roommate horror stories!