Today was a bit of an emotional day. I got up this morning and it really hit me that today could be my last day of service in the restaurant. I had a gut feeling that it wouldn't be, but it did rather worry me. So I spent time sorting junk in my room, thinking, putting together leaving cards, and other such "leaving" thing. When I went to work this afternoon I harrassed the managers and was told that I got my extension. (Although apparently word wasn't "official" until 9.22 this evening!) That was good. Bad was pre-meal... Hoo boy! All the servers have a meeting lead by the shift manager before seating starts. Wow, what a mess. Two people were getting into their last hour of their last shift EVER and Charlene was sitting for her last pre-meal as a server. Bonour, tears. Pre-meal was the section of the restaurant closest to the doors (New Brunswick, for the knowing,) and one of the guests waiting on podium was watching us as most of us whimpered and teared up as the manager tried to make us feel better. Wow. The September group was so big... Most of us work the evening shifts and anytime the manager mentions stuff happening in the future (Food and Wine Festival, the bulk of free DDP, CHRISTMAS,) we point out that only one - three of the present servers will still be here.

I have a weird pit in my stomach about going to New Orleans. I'm not sure why... I think it's leaving the bubble and seeing somewhere very, very real. We call Disney/the Commons the Bubble. Life is plastic here. Good, but plastic/fake. New Orleans, as everyone knows, was pretty much ripped to shreds just shy of a year ago. I'm excited about going, and this is the "last" big trip for my wee clique (Tear Fest 2006), but I'm slightly ansy on going somewhere that is so far from perfect. I know no place is perfect, but I haven't really seen anything so "real" in quite awhile. It's going to be hard seeing leftover hurricane damage and being in a city where there is/was so much poverty and such an income gap. The way publications make it out to be I'm expecting the Brasil of Louisiana. (Brasil is a country in which many of its residents are either quite wealthy or quite poor, hence income gap.) And crime. I know it's going to be no worse than, say, Paris. We're sticking to the main areas and what not but books/articles/travel guides are making me apprehensive. The most crime I have dealt with as of late is when people take my tray when I'm pouring drinks at the pop station. Which, for the record, drives me right batty.

Sigh, I feel kind of guilty about getting an extension. Happy, but a little guilty. So many people wanted it, and I got it only by chance. I was the first person from the first September arrival group to apply. Most of my closest friends will be gone as I continue to work and get thrown into six-day mandatory overtime but I guess that presents the opportunity to meet more people. And, unfortunately, my September plans are scrapped. No ten-night cruise and no travels along the Eastern seaboard back up east in Canada.

Remember Canada? I remember when I used to live there. What was up with that sales tax?!?! ;) And what about that funny colo(u)red money?!

Anyway, I think I'll get an hour of sleep before I leave the Bubble at 6:00am. I have to stop doing this... I never sleep before flights. Which is fine, when you are flying across the Atlantic or taking multiple flights to travel the relatively short distance to Charlottetown, but my flight tomorrow is less than two-hours long!!!! I need more sleep than that!!! Maybe we'll take the long way and go to Phoenix first.

I kind of wish I had been better with this blog thing... so much of my life down here is undocumented with the exception of pictures, and many of those contain myself and random people squished together into a picture I took myself. I always wish I had taken more pictures, but the way my camera eats up battery power, (eats? more like INHALES.) it's such a hassle juggling 900+ batteries. Plus my camera is a wee bit bulky and I like small purses. I need to rewind this year.

Where has the time gone? =(

Woohoo New Orleans! Laissez les bons temps rouler!