Day 1451: Out of Touch

I must say that this semester has been an absolute whirlwind. With five classes, six ensembles, three jobs, three honor society presidencies, volunteer work, Bible study, homework, writing for The Odyssey Online, practicing, and time with family and friends, I've been lucky to eat two meals a day and sleep more than five or six hours. That being said, it's probably pretty obvious that Everyday Disney is a bit behind. It's not for lack of thought, but simply lack of time and energy to write anything more than I had to. Two of my classes were English courses, meaning they were writing intensive, and that's just scratching the surface. 

But to be honest, I've missed writing for this blog. I've fallen drastically behind in everything Disney related actually, and it almost feels like something's missing. I've seen the movies, which will have reviews up soon, and I've definitely been planning here and there for my upcoming trip in January, but overall, I'm behind. Even when I'm not actively writing for the blog, I'm usually going through the Disney news in my feed, but I haven't even done that. 

Which would be why I'm spending an obnoxious amount of time going way back through my feed trying desperately to figure out what I've missed over the past few months. Aside from the big news like the announcement of the Epcot International Festival of the Arts, the premieres of Rogue One and Moana, and the good old Christmas at Disney Announcements, what's really been going on? 

I hate feeling out of touch, and right now, that's where I am. But the good news is that the semester is over, and now I have the rest of the year and into next year to catch things back up around here. Whether or not Everyday Disney will be back to 100% before the end of the year, I'm not too sure, but it will be soon, and as we head into the new year, and the fifth year of Everyday Disney, I'm going to turn back to my roots, because now that I have my life somewhat figured out and back on track, I think it's about time to return to the blog, because I've missed it, and I've missed talking to all of you! 

Get ready for lots of updates here at Everyday Disney and on my YouTube channel, where new vlogs will be appearing soon! 

Have a magical day!

Day 1211: So Far

Every so often I have this overwhelming feeling of "Wow, we've been here a long time." It's Day 1211. It's been three and a half years almost. That's insane. I never expected this to last beyond year one, and now we're in Year Four. Just...where did all the time go? And what in the world actually filled up three years of blog posts? So let's take a look back at what we've talked about so far: 

We've talked about our Fears and we've seen Dreams Come True. We talked about our love of PUSH and Morris Mulch before they left us, and discovered that Disney Music is often inspired by other compositions. We went to Disneyland and Disney World alike, and The Muppets did too, and also to the Twin Cities to talk to Colin O'Donoghue and Chicago to see the Treasures of the Walt Disney Archives. 

We saw Musicals, Shared our Ears, and even had Waffles with Walt. We touched on some hard hitting topics, like Air Cooling, Awkward Thanksgivings, and what we find on a cake, learned about the Hatbox Ghost, Fairy Tales, and took more than a few pictures. You can't forget the time we spent a day like Captain Hook either, or how we lived through New Park Maps and Dorm Rooms. Lots and Lots of Dorm Rooms. 

With movies, we talked about Silent Star Wars and my love of Han Solo. We watched Non-Disney movies like How to Train Your Dragon and Pearl Harbor and related them back to films like Cinderella. There were DCOMs and Dapper Days and Bathsoaps and Memes. And if that wasn't enough we went to MathMagic Land and Minecraft too! 

So I guess you could say that in 1211 Days, we've done a lot of stuff. But we're just getting started, because with Disney, there will never be enough. 

Have a magical day!

Day 1134: Why I Love Mondays

Before you get on my case, let me tell you that I most certainly still am not a huge fan of the first day of the work week. Mondays bring a whole new start to what will probably end up being another never-ending week of classes, homework, and projects to work on, and that is probably unappealing to everyone, no matter who you are.

However, this semester, Mondays have a certain charm to them. It's one of two days a week where my evening is, usually, blissfully free of meetings and practicing and work, as I attempt to get my readings for the week out of the way on the weekend, and since I have a bit of time open, I've dubbed Monday nights more or less "Disney Nights." Since I'm frequently busy on the weekends, Everyday Disney will often get behind, and with my weekly YouTube videos now going up on Tuesdays, Monday nights work perfectly for finishing touches on vlogs and other videos as well as catching up on blogging.

The result is a night that is filled with Disney this and Disney that, whether it be catching up on blog posts from across the internet, writing for Everyday Disney, editing a new video, sorting through pictures, watching a bit of The American Adventure on my computer, or finally drinking out of my Animal Kingdom Starbucks mug for the first time. I did something similar in high school, where one of my study halls was basically dedicated time to working on Disney related projects, as that was back when Everyday Disney was just starting out. These days, time to dedicated specifically to Disney is harder to come by, so something tells me I'm going to treasure these Monday nights more than I ever have before.

Here's a fun game though! How many references to Disney can you find in the above picture? I'll tell you right now that if you really look closely, you can probably find at least 10, and that's just a little bit of my desk setup in my new apartment, which I really need to photograph one of these days to share with you!

If you had a free night to dedicate to Disney though, what would you spend that time doing? Catching up on a Disney related show (I'm looking at you Agent Carter)? Would you watch an old classic Disney movie (I've been dying to watch Hunchback for weeks now)? Maybe you'd start a Disney blog of your own...or, you know, you could go back and read some more of mine! Whatever catches your fancy, let me know in the comments below!

Have a magical day!

Day 1036: A Lot of Thinking

After coming up with almost 60 blog post topics in the past few days, I was left with this one, lone, blog post that I had no idea what to write about. I've gone through Tumblr and Pinterest and Facebook and Twitter, Throwback Thursdays, Pictures, Instagram, and basically my entire room at college with no luck. It turns out, nothing of any interest happened on this day, and considering the fact that I'm a busy college student, that assumption probably isn't all that far off.

But then I realized that I should probably give an explanation as to why many of these blog posts have a note at the bottom that says the post was written on a different day, and honestly, you can find a ton of those notes throughout the years of this blog. We're all busy people in this world, and things get behind, especially when your blog is important enough to keep up with, but not important enough to come first on your totem poll of things to do.

It does matter, however, and by the end of the year, I get really antsy about making sure there's a little 365 next to the year when I'm finished, although I suppose 2016 will be a bit different. Plus, I think the fact that we're still here after almost three years proves that there's enough Disney to go around for everyone every single day...it's just a matter of figuring out what those things are and then documenting them.

The hard part is definitely trying to keep things different, and while, on occasion, I'll come up with something entirely new that somehow popped up in my life at the most random of times, more often than not, the Disney in my daily life amounts to nothing more beyond the mug on my shelf and the wish to head on Spaceship Earth (or do anything at Disney World) instead of homework. That's not, however, the point. What we do here at Everyday Disney is celebrate the ways Disney pops up in life, whether it's an everyday occurrence or something that just happened randomly once. It's about celebrating the Disney that surrounds us all the time, whether we're in the parks, watching a Disney movie, or sitting in a class about Music Theory. Somehow, Disney connects it all together, and I'm still amazed at it, no matter how many days I have to sit at my computer to catch up when school put me behind on everything, the blog included.

My point here is this: even if I don't know how Disney was a part of my life on November 2, 2015, I do know it was there somehow, and that's why having the little 365 at the end of the year is so important...because it was there, and that's reason enough to celebrate.

Have a magical day!

(Note: This blog post was written on December 31).

Day 1018: 40,000 Ago

It's always strange to look back at just how far Everyday Disney has come. So much has changed, and when I debated another Throwback Thursday, it occurred to me that on October 15, 2013, I had just hit 10,000 views. Now, two years later, I'm about to hit 50,000, and while it's not necessarily a HUGE number, at the same time it shows that someone is obviously reading.

You can go back and read my post from October of 2013 HERE, just to give you an idea of where I was back then.

Actually, that blog post seems almost like something I would write today, despite the fact that I know I'm a very different person. I still have a ton of homework and other projects I should be focusing on, leaving much less time for my blog than I really want. I'm also still certainly happy with just sitting and writing my blog even if no one is actually reading. Everyday Disney, for me, is all about focusing on my love of Disney while exploring new opportunities, and I'm not about to give any of this experience up.

However, just like in 2013, I really need to get back to my real work. Lots is coming up in the next month or so leading up to my junior recital, and I'm behind already due to a complete lack of time. If only there were more hours in a day!

Have a magical day!

Day 1000: One Thousand

It's sort of strange to think that it's been exactly 1001 days since December 31, 2012. Back then I was still in high school, although I'd just mailed in my acceptence to attend St. Norbert College in the fall. I was a proud member of the Seymour High School Band, and while I'm not a member anymore, so much of this blog has been founded on the experiences of that group, and now I regularly volunteer for the group as a proud Alumni. I wasn't so insanely crazy about Once Upon A Time, and definitely not Colin O'Donoghue. Oh no, those were the hardcore Harrison Ford days, although I'd still gladly watch a Harrison Ford movie whenever, provided that I have the time. I didn't make YouTube videos yet, at least not on the scale that I do now. The very first vlogs were up already back in 2013, and since then I've gone to Walt Disney World four times and Disneyland once...and I didn't even think, on December 31, 2012, that I would go in 2013 at all. I hadn't met my freshman roommate yet, nor any of the college friends I now associate with as family, I still had yet to meet my spectacular Once Upon A Time friends, and Twitter was just a far off idea of social media.
.
But most importantly, on December 31, 2012, I had no idea just where Everyday Disney would take me, and I certainly didn't think I would be here 1001 days later, still blogging about Disney. It's been a wonderful ride, filled with Spaceship Earth, CaptainSwan, Jungle Cruise Jokes, Mad T Parties, DisneyBounds, Vlogs, Fangirl Moments, Millennium Falcon references, and so much more, but the reality of 1000 days is really setting in. There are a lot of blog posts that weren't written on the day they're marked down as, as I get behind almost as frequently as I post on time. Internet problems, computer issues, and a few really bad schedules pretty much rule my entire life, so it's sometimes a struggle, but throughout all of it, I've somehow stuck it out. The other night when I was blogging like a mad woman trying to catch everything up before today (I went for about five and a half hours straight), I realized that, no matter how far behind I get, I would never think about stopping. Not now, and hopefully not for a very long time, if ever.

I have a lot of people that surround me every day, and some are more supportive than others. For me, even with 23 credits, two jobs, three clubs, volunteering, AND personal projects, Everyday Disney is a serious part of the routine. It's a part of my life, and taking it away would be like ripping out my heart. It stands for something, whether it be my persistence, my learning, or my will to do whatever it takes to follow my dream of working with Disney for the rest of my life. It is all of those things, for sure. After all, when my high school band talked about going to Disney, I pushed them harder than they had ever been pushed up to that point, and I've definitely learned more than one or two things about life and blogging in the past two and a half years. But I think it stands for something more than even that; it stands for the love all of us have for Disney.

Everyday Disney is fueled on that love, and the connections so many of us can make through it. Disney can be experienced alone, quietly in our own homes with a fuzzy blanket and a cup of tea while watching a Disney movie, or joyfully striding through one of the parks with no one other than a pair of Mickey ears and a dole whip. But Disney is also about community. It's about loving one another, having fun together, and making memories that will last a lifetime. That's what Disney's all about, and how lucky am I that, for the past 1000 days, I've gotten to share my love with all of you? I honestly hope that you, as a reader, have gotten something out of this blog, whatever it may be, because as much as I write this blog for myself, I write it for all of you too. When times are tough and all I want to do is ride Spaceship Earth, you guys are there to listen (even if I do sometimes feel like I'm talking to a brick wall), and when there's some sort of exciting news to share, we get to experience that together too. I can't express enough how absolutely thankful I am for everything Everyday Disney has brought me over the past 1000 days, and I'm certainly excited to see where the next 1000 go too.

Thank you all from the bottom of my heart for reading Everyday Disney.

Have a magical day!

Day 666: Bloggers Everywhere

As you already know, at least if you've been reading my blog for a while, I do have some sort of a line between my personal life and my professional (blogging) life. However, I feel like it's fuzzy line, and in the world of blogging, it's one that we all have to define for ourselves. For instance, we all have favorite actors and actresses, and when we choose our favorites, there's always a particular set of characteristics we have. For me, one of the absolute top things on my list is the ability to keep those lives separate. Colin O'Donoghue and Jennifer Morrison and Harrison Ford definitely all do a great job of this, and as much as I'm always curious as to what they're up to, I can seriously respect that. I would want to keep my life private if I had thousands of fans too.

Regardless, there are times when those two lives connect together, aside from the fact that I blog about my life every single day and how Disney plays a part in that. But I really don't go around talking about my blog constantly, although my roommates probably hear more about it than they really need to know (mostly my continuous attempts to catch up on the last few blog posts so I'm caught up). In fact, I know for a fact that I talk more about Captain Hook on a daily basis than I do about my blog. My friends all watch OUAT...and catch all my references, but that's a blog post for another day.

I just hit 30,000 views on this blog though. It's quite the milestone, and it's over a year and a half in the making. Honestly, it's almost ridiculous to think about the early days, when I'd be happy with 7 or 8 views in one day, and here I am with a total of 30,000 all time pageviews...a number that was barely at 10,000 a year ago. Blogging is a game of patience, and that's one of the things you can only understand as you slowly go through over a year and a half of blogging about the same thing every single day. But one thing I don't get very often, despite the fact that there's 30,000 pageviews on Everyday Disney, is feedback, and even less often do I actually meet a real, other, live blogger.

I think it's partially because the written and spoken word is becoming less and less popular as we go on in time. Just because I write however many words a day doesn't mean that someone's going to come along and read them. Even I have to admit that I don't have anywhere near as much time to read as I really want to or should. Granted, we're reading all the time, whether it be papers or instructions or television show titles, but we're not reading, and even less of us are sitting and writing something.

So when I do have the chance to meet a fellow blogger, it's a great experience, whether or not they blog about Disney as I do. Yesterday I found out that one of my college friends also writes a blog, although he's just starting out. I remember those days...trust me, I do. I wrote a post on them just last week. One of my best friends also writes a blog, and I can't say for sure, but I'm pretty sure I helped inspire her to write hers too. That's a great feeling, not only that there are people out there reading my blog, but that there are people out there writing their own blogs, even if I didn't inspire them at all.

What advice do I have to bloggers, especially after 22 months of work? Keep writing. When I tried to write a blog how many times over, the problem wasn't page views or interest or topic or even how I was writing. It was the ambition to write and the resolve to keep doing so. That's an incredibly hard thing to learn, especially when in college or school and your schedule is so full you don't know what to do with your life other than cry about the future debt you so carefully developed. All those other things will come in time, but to be honest, they're never going to come if you don't keep blogging. Like I said, it's a game of patience. And as I learned during Sunday's episode of Once Upon A Time, patience is a virtue, and most certainly worth it.

If you'd like to check out the blogs of my friends, you can do so through these links:

Life of a Music Education Major
My Life in a Nutshell

Have a magical day!

Day 659: A Look Back

Alright, time for a (not so) funny story.

This is about the third time I've tried to write this blog post, and here's the story as to why it hasn't actually been posted before, well, now.

The first time I tried to write the blog post I had every intention of doing so. In fact, the edit screen for blogger was open for about two days on my computer, but because of a French test and rereading half my blog, that sort of got pushed to the background. It was going to be about the free stuff we randomly get at Disney, since I had a discussion with a couple of my friends at dinner the other night about that very topic. But because I try really hard to make sure that I don't specifically write two blog posts on the same thing, I had to go check to see if I had, indeed, written a previous post about free stuff at Disney. Now, technically I didn't, but everything I would have talked about had already been mentioned at least once, so that idea kind of fell through.

Especially since that led to me rereading (or at least skimming) the first 100 blog posts or so. It's funny because so much has changed since those early posts. Megan and I were both discussing it. I was 17 then, 19 now. I was in High School and now I'm well into my second year of college. Some of those posts are barely 100 words and now if there's a blog post with 100 words...no, wait. There's never a blog post with under 100 words. Not even under 500. It just doesn't happen. And people think writing 800 word papers is difficult. HA!

Anyway, I spent a good amount of time over the past couple days just sort of looking back, and it's weird to think that in only a few short months (just over two really), I'll be ending the second year of Everyday Disney and starting what I hope will be the third, and best, year yet. There's a lot planned for 2015, and I'm excited to get there...if I can ever catch up with the fact that it's 2014 and there's still a few posts to be written from June. In all honesty, if someone comes along someday and reads this blog post from 1 to whatever, I wish you luck. The middle of 2014 probably makes no sense considering the fact that some where written in June, others in August and some in October. I can hardly keep it straight.

Still, things will always keep moving forward around here, at least with a little luck. Disney is still an every day fixture in my life, and I really don't see that changing any time soon. Thank goodness, right?

Oh, I almost forgot to tell you about the second time I tried to write the blog post. In fact, the entire thing was finished, but something went wrong with my internet and I had to restart my computer...and then it didn't save anything. You'd think that with all the internet capability we have today blogger would be able to retain the information I typed in even after I clicked save, right? Oh well, that's alright. I'm pretty sure this post was way more entertaining than the last version anyway!

Have a magical day!

(Note: This blog post was written on October 23).

Day 648: Behind the Scenes

I had every single intention of having every blog post made up by the end of September. I really, truly, honestly did. In fact, about a month ago I outlined the entire rest of 2014 and what I needed to accomplish in respects to Everyday Disney (and the new stuff coming next year), and catching up once and for all on the blog was part of Phase One, taking place during September.

Then, using Spaceship Earth terms here, we hit a roadblock. Over the past number of weeks, I've had some extreme wrist pain, specifically when practicing my instruments, writing notes and occasionally typing. I went to the doctor, who suggested that I over-stressed my wrist and that I take a week off. 

Which meant no blogging for me. 

Of course, I had to do my homework and such, but as far as long-term (blog post) like typing, that wasn't going to happen. If I want my wrist to be ready for upcomming concerts and (eventually) juries, I needed to take the week off. To be totally honest, it's been a really boring week for me. I finish my homework a few hours earlier every night (since I can do that homework during my usual practice time), and without typing or writing in general, there wasn't much else to do (other than read a book or watch television). 

And so we reach the 10th day of October and I'm no further than I was before. Overall though, I've made pretty good time. I have about 18 blog posts from earlier in the year to make up, meaning that within the span of about two months I wrote around 80 blog posts (plus the ones I was currently writing). That's impressive if I do say so myself. The only problem is that I'm really running out of general topics to discuss. No fear though...I'll come up with something. 

Either way, I figured I would just give an update and say that yes, I am still alive. My wrist is feeling better, although I'm still supposed to take it easy for a while, but I do intend to finish up these last blog posts. If I buckle down it can't take me forever, right? 

Have a magical day!

Day 644: Before the Blog

This is another one of those times when I kind of lost track if I've actually already talked about this or not (and after looking back through my previous blog posts I sort of have...but not really 100%), but I'm going to talk about it anyway.

I started Everyday Disney over a year and a half ago. That's a long, long time. That's a lot of topics. That's a lot of Disney. But as difficult as it is for me to go back to June and try to think up topics for those days that I need to make up, it's odd to think back to all the things I could talk about from before the blog.

Disney has certainly been a part of my entire life. There's no doubt about that. There are entire photo albums just filled with pictures from our Disney trips, and honestly, I'm pretty sure there are more pictures from those trips than of me as a child anywhere else. It's just how my family works. Disney is the one thing we all share, and I love that.

However, there's a delicate line between what I can talk about in regards to when it happened. I mean, I had a whole list of blog post topics I could talk about this past spring, but since I'm now halfway through the next semester, it seems pointless to go back to Philosophy and my Fairy Tales course and talk about them, even if the post in question has a date of June or July, not October.

So where do I draw that line? Is it ok for me to talk about something Disney related that occurred three or four years ago, long before Everyday Disney became as important to my life as it is now? If I can't blog about something from four months ago, how then can I talk about something from four years ago? It's just sort of odd, because there's so much Disney out there that I haven't even hinted at, and I'm not sure if I'll ever hint at all of it. The world just expands to so much more than the films and parks and gosh you just don't know where it all begins and ends.

That's a lie...it all started with a man and a mouse...and it'll never end because we keep moving forward.

Maybe someday I'll find the time and energy to write about things that happened before I started the blog, but for now we'll just have to wait and see where things go. =)

Have a magical day!

(Note: This blog post was written on October 10).

Day 639: How I Blog

Believe it or not, October 1 is the absolute LAST day I have to make up. That's right, this is the last post that has been randomly sitting on my document as not finished for the last how long. Every single post previous to it has been completed, whether the topic on that day is relevant to that particular moment in time or not. After I finish this post, I'll have officially completed the 669 blog posts that equal October 29 (as today's actual blog post won't be written until later tonight). I've been sitting at my computer since 10 this morning, with a short break here and there to eat or talk with a roommate. It's now almost 4 in the afternoon, and I've got other things going on this evening that mean I finished just in time.

Since I've spent the last how long working on the blog and I gave a bit of a glimpse into my process of making up these posts a while back, I figured I would go into a bit more detail, simply because I'm feeling really accomplished right now.

As I mentioned on a post a long while ago, I have a Google Document that lists every single day I've had to make up since April 18, 2014. Think about that for a second. It's the end of October. That's how long this has been going on. I took a "month off" in June, which I then made up later on in the year (such as just a few minutes ago actually). On that list, a blog post remains in bold lettering until it's completed, making it easier for me to see what day I'm working on, what date it's for and what the title is.

But before the post can even have a title and then be written, it needs a topic, which is a whole other story. I have an entire notebook set aside just for Disney stuff, and there's already been more than a few pages dedicated just to trying to come up with blog post topic ideas. Sometimes, such as right now, there are several blog post topics already lined up. I have topics ready to go for today, tomorrow (October 31) and the day after, meaning that although I won't actually sit and write those posts until later, they already have titles and topics associated with them. They stay in that bold format until I actually hit publish though! 

Once a blog post is published though, the title of the post gets added to a HUGE master list of all the titles I've ever used on any post. The point in this? It helps to make sure I only use each title once, therefore separating every single post from all the others. If I already used the title, I need to find another one that still fits. Luckily, the search feature makes it really easy to figure out if a title is already taken. 

The process of actually sitting down and writing the posts is actually the quick part most of the time. Once the topic and title and date are set, I just have to sit and type for a while. And once it's posted, it means it's time to hit the social media and share it all. Of course, lately that hasn't been an option because of how far behind I was, but with this last updated blog post, I am very excited about the fact that my social media presence for Everyday Disney cannot only continue, but expand. Thank goodness.

I can't believe I'm caught up. You literally don't know how excited that makes me. Hundreds of days, all completed. Finally. I guess there really is a little bit of Disney every single day, isn't there?!?

Have a magical day!

(Note: This blog post was written on October 30).

Day 634: Lurking

Blogging is sort of like talking to a brick wall.

Parents seem to say that phrase a lot in connection to their children and the instructions going in one ear and out the other, making it seem as if they're talking to absolutely no one. But I honestly feel like the term has never fit better than on the internet. On average, if I blog every single day as I should (and really do try to), I spend probably 15 minutes blogging. Now, that's not a lot, but think about it this way.

My friend Emily also goes to SNC. She lives literally only a couple of blocks away from me and we frequent the same buildings on campus, but yet I hardly see her for more than 10 minutes a week, much less a day. There are some friends you have conversations with for hours. Your roommates, for instance, are generally people you see and talk to for more than just a few seconds a day. But with a blog, you do all the talking, at least for the most part. Internet "fame" is a hard thing to come by, but the only way you really come by it is if you keep doing what you're doing because you like doing it. If you're not passionate or serious about your work, then nothing's going to succeed. I mean, yeah, I'm still about 25 days behind on my blog, and I get behind a day or two each week, but that's minor in comparison to the fact that I am currently writing blog post 636. That's a lot of days, a lot of conversations and a lot of time. If you take that average of 15 minutes per blog post, which is just on average NOW and not at the beginning or for some of the longer post, it means I've spent at least 159 hours blogging. I have spent 159 hours talking about Disney on the internet. That's crazy.

But it's still like I'm talking to a brick wall.

One of my roommates asked me about blogging and if I can see how many people view it and everything and lucky for me, the answer is yes. I CAN see how many people are viewing my blog each and every day. As I type this, Everyday Disney has had 28,406 pageviews in it's history, and on the average day I have around 50 views. So you sit and read those stats and you know that there are people out there reading what you're writing, but very rarely do you get someone who comes up and says "Hi! I read your blog!"

There's my mom and my friends, of course, who read my blog constantly, and then there's me, who writes the posts, but aside from that, it's a question of "Are there actually people out there?" I tried to explain this concept to my roommate, using the term "lurking" and she thought that was funny, simply because it sounds sort of creepy. But it's true, I know there are people lurking out there because I do that too. I get it, we don't all have time to comment on blog posts the time. I follow about 40 different Disney blogs and very rarely actually comment on them.

So I'm going to issue a challenge.

In the month of October I'm going to try and comment on one Disney blog post a day and become a more active Disney Community Member. It won't be here, but it will be other places, and let's see if we can all join in and be an even closer community. I'm not talking about necessarily promoting what you do, but just joining in on the discussion. Let's all stop lurking!

And to those of you who are out there and read my blog, thank you! Feel more than free to comment or send me a message or something and introduce yourself, even if it's not here and is instead on Twitter or Instagram or something. I'd love to meet my readers!

Thanks again to everyone who's out there lurking! Much love to you all!

Have a magical day!

Day 562: Wait...what?

I'm no stranger to having to make up obnoxious amounts of blog posts, meaning that I'm also not a stranger to having to sit and brainstorm for what seems like hours on end to come up with what I'm going to talk about. I mean, there's enough of Disney in my everyday life that if I was actually able to blog every single day on time I wouldn't have a problem. After all, I've had a wide range of topics since the beginning of Everyday Disney, and there are probably thousands of others still out there. But when you sit down and write five or ten or even more blog posts, you get sort of...confused.

This particular blog post is number 562, although technically today I would be blogging Day 640. That's a huge number, right? I mean, how long does it take you to count from 1 to 640. A long time I'd wager. But is it really possible that all 640 of those blog posts are different and unique and have their own individual topic? Sure. Is that how it really is? No, probably not.

You see, Disney is an extremely diverse topic. I could talk for 50 some days alone about the animated movies, and spend over a year focusing on every little aspect of Walt Disney World. In fact, I could probably spend a FEW YEARS only on Walt Disney World. But I don't have the time to do that sort of thing and it really wouldn't be relevant. This blog is about how Disney fits into my daily life.

Which means that from time to time, things start to repeat...sort of. A while back, sometime earlier this year, I made it a goal to never use the same title twice. It means that I have a giant list with, yes, all 640 blog post titles, or at least I will once I finish catching up. And while that is generally a pretty good way to keep track of if I already blogged about something, it's pretty easy for things to slip my mind.

In other words, when I do have times like right now, where I have what seems like an endless number of posts to write, I forget what I've already talked about and what I could bring in that would be new. It's so confusing sometimes to be completely honest, and I worry about you guys reading the same thing over and over again.

But then I realize that as much as I talk about one thing or another over and over again, if I talked about it last year you probably don't even remember me talking about it, unless it was something very specific, such as the day I talked about River Country on my brother's birthday, or the days that showcase my Favorite Things or my Disney Collection. I can't just repeat those all the time.

I do want to make it known that I spend quite a bit of time trying to figure out things for each individual post. And you know what? I should seriously sign a contract that says I'm never going to get behind again because this has been ridiculous. We all know I won't stick to it forever though, whether it be because of the internet or time or school or whatever else.

I can try though.

Have a magical day!

(Note: This blog post was written on September 30).

Day 536: WDW Kids

In order to appreciate where you are now, you really need to appreciate where you came from. This is definitely something I've learned for the past year or so, simply because I was stuck in the middle of a situation where I worked like crazy for a long time only to have people disregard all of that work faster than they even realized. Therefore, I now have a bit of a deeper appreciation for the past, and the journey that led me to where I am right now, sitting in my dorm room typing what seems like the hundredth blog post in the past two days (Actually it's about the 12th).

I realized that as much as I talk about why I started Everyday Disney in general, and how it came to be, there's a large portion of the story that I'm actually leaving out. As of today (actually October 30), I'm 19 years old, but I started blogging a long, LONG time ago. Everyday Disney began when I was 17, but I started blogging when I was 14. That's younger than my brother is right now, and it's sort of odd to think about.

My first Disney blog, or at least that I can still find and remember, was called WDW Kids, and it started on April 6, 2010. Surprisingly enough, it went on for about 16 posts, which isn't bad considering most other times I made attempts to start a blog it ended at about post 3. You can find the whole blog HERE, if you want to check it out, but note that I wrote that stuff a really long time ago. Even just reading it is sort of strange, simply because a 14 year old version of myself wrote that, and my writing has certainly changed since then.

In fact, so much has changed since those days that I can't even begin to describe how much. My interests were different, my friend group was different (some of the people I call very close friends today I didn't even know yet back then, and in some cases, there are friends that have both come and gone in the time span of between then and now).

With so many blog posts to write, I don't really have the time to go through and reread all of my old posts right now, but I did go back and read a couple of them, and I welcome you to if you want. There are certainly some similarities between those posts and ones that are featured here on Everyday Disney. But goodness...16 posts and this one has almost 700. How did that happen? Plus, it's entertaining to actually WATCH me fall in love with Tangled, if only over the span of a couple posts. I remember going to see Tangled, and I remember that blog.

Things certainly do keep moving forward, don't they?

Have a magical day!

(Note: This blog post was written on October 30).

Day 528: 101 Things

I figured that since I needed blog posts, and one of the suggestions for blog post topics was "list things!" there was no better thing to list on a blog post I have to make up from literally four or so months ago than a really awesome list of all the things I did instead of blog. There were, after all, TONS of things I probably did instead of actually sitting down and blogging.

So, in no particular order, here's 101 things I did instead of work on my blog:

1. Homework
2. Eat
3. Sleep
4. Drive my Car
5. Read
6. Watch Movies
7. Watch YouTube Videos
8. Watch Television
9. Watch Once Upon A Time (yes this gets it's own number...)
10. Check Twitter
11. Check Instagram
12. Check Tumblr
13. Check Facebook
14. Go on Pinterest
15. Go Shopping
16. Write in my Journal
17. Write something completely unrelated to my Blog
18. Read other blogs
19. Go to Marching Band Rehearsal
20. Go to concerts
21. Go to Disney (does this even count?)
22. Edit Vlogs
23. Film Vlogs
24. The Ice Bucket Challenge
25. Plan my next Disney Trip
26. Surf the Web
27. Laugh with my Roommates
28. Go to Class
29. Practice my Instruments
30. Practice Piano even though I really didn't have to
31. Go for a walk
32. Play with my cat
33. Do something completely ridiculous with my brother
34. Make cupcakes
35. Make coffee (or go get coffee)
36. Make CaptainSwan Tea
37. Organize my closet
38. Do Laundry
39. Organize a Disney Sing-Along with no one other than myself
40. Read my own blog
41. Wash the dishes
42. Make attempts to write blog posts and then get completely distracted
43. Think about Harrison Ford
44. Think about Colin O'Donoghue
45. Think about OUAT in General
46. Listen to Music
47. Make Dorm Door Decs
48. Clean my Bedroom
49. Watch my roommate put on a fashion show
50. Go to Panara
51. Eat Swedish Fish
52. Leave Awesome Voicemails
53. Find holes in the door
54. Obsessively Tweet the OUAT Cast
55. Clothe Melvin (You'll get there eventually)
56. Have Ridiculous Water Fights
57. Think about Blogging but Never actually do it
58. Watch Disney Vacation Planning Videos
59. Prepare OUAT Disneybounds
60. Talk about Disney
61. Talk like Captain Hook
62. Make List about how I'm like Jennifer Morrison
63. Hang head in shame as Megan stares me down for not blogging
64. Stare at the ceiling
65. Unlock my phone (think about how much time that must add up to!)
66. Attempt to make Squirrel friends
67. Injure myself
68. Sit Silently Wishing I was at Disney
69. Have super intense conversations with my friends
70. Listen to Illuminations
71. Make attempts to educate everyone around me about Disney
72. Redesign my Blog
73. Make To-Do Lists
74. Sneeze
75. Yawn
76. Eat Muffins...IT'S A MUFFIN
77. Rant About Crying Kitten
78. Play Clue
79. Paint
80. Eat Ice Cream even though that's a completely awful idea
81. Complain about how I'm behind on my Blog
82. Debate how long it would take me to drive to WDW
83. Talk with my Family
84. Look at Disney merchandise on eBay and Etsy
85. Take a Shower/Bath
86. Collapse on the floor because Once and Life and Hook
87. Sit casually looking around my dorm room for inspiration
88. Wish that I could eat Ice Cream
89. Wish that I could eat something in general
90. Try to figure out what to do with my life
91. Explain to other people why and how I'm going to work for Disney
92. Make various attempts to memorize the narration for Spaceship Earth
93. Practice Drawing Treble Clefs on my Whiteboard
94. Spend a half hour deciding what music I want to listen to while blogging
95. Learn Random Facts about Random things I probably didn't need to know about
96. Make Paradox Jokes
97. Watch Daniel Radcliffe Rap
98. Hide in Fear
99. Slide hangers under the door...forcefully
100. Teach my roommate how to moonwalk
101. Make Ridiculous Lists of all the things I do instead of blogging.

This list was relatively easy to make...which is probably not the best sign, but I've been bloggingfor the past how many hours so that's at least good, even if I did get distracted by the Swedish Fish and Twitter and Colin O'Donoghue and Roommates and Coffee.

Have a magical day!

(Note: This blog post was written on October 29).

Day 430: Random Disney Topics

I'll be honest, writing a blog post about Disney every single day is kind of difficult. Especially when you get behind. Once you're more than about three days behind, you kind of forget what you did on those days, and then you're stuck with a bunch of open blog post topics that you have nothing to write about for.

So what do I do when I get really far behind on blog posts and I need ideas for topics? I ask my friends of course! Yesterday I asked Megan if she had any ideas, and she did come up with a couple, and this morning I brought the subject to my Music Theory class. They did end up giving me a couple of great ideas that I have been able to use, since I don't necessarily see absolutely everything that goes on in the Disney fandom. I mean, there's a lot constantly going on, and while I do see a good portion of it, I don't always hear about the things currently going around on the internet until someone brings it to my attention, and I can guarantee you that I don't know much about the next Disney Princess (well, I do now...since I'll be writing a blog post on that topic exactly in just a minute).

But it's interesting to see what people come up with. In the span of just a couple minutes, there were tons of different ideas for topics! Someone suggested the Pizza Planet Truck, and as you can see, one of the blog posts I had to make up is, indeed, about that truck. Another suggested a blog post on the next Disney Princess, which will be a topic on March 26 (since I still have to make that one up...but will be momentarily), and honestly when he suggested it I had no idea what he was talking about. Shows how aware I am. Megan suggested an entire post on MrCheezyPop, since I'm getting so many questions about who he is since I met him in Florida last week (seriously, just go read my blog posts from my trip and you'll see). Yeah, so many ideas.

Plus, if I go back into my old phone, I have a whole list of random Disney topics that my friend Evy and I came up with once upon a time. Everything from why Gaston is so awesome to Disney food and, personally, I would add coconuts. She'll understand why if she ever reads this.

Either way, there are so many different topics that I could talk about, and like I said, I don't know EVERYTHING there is to know about Disney...I just know a lot more than the average person. So if there's ever a blog post you'd like to see me do, just let me know! I'd be more than happy to look into other things, do some research or make changes as needed! Especially since I've now hit 20000 views on my blog, I would love to hear some feedback!

Have a magical day!

(Note: This blog post was written on March 28 due to Midterms and Travel).

Day 288: 10,000

You know, it's been almost 300 days since I started this blog, and since I'm writing this post I probably wont't write one when I hit that number. But that's a long time. We're in the 10th month. Yes, that's right, for 9 and a half months I've been doing this blogging thing, and honestly, that feels like a lot even to me. I have no clue how I've gotten this far, but I'll reflect more on that in a couple of months.

At the moment though, Everyday Disney has met a grand milestone: 10,000 views. Now, honestly this doesn't seem like a ton in the grand perspective of things. Youtube videos get millions of views, sometimes within a day, and there are probably millions of Disney fans out there that could be reading this blog and are not, but I'm ok if they don't. I've said it time and time again, but I'm happy with just writing my blog. I don't really care how many views it gets in the long run because it offers me a good break from school work, it keeps me up to date with everything going on at Disney and it just, in general, makes me happy.

But that doesn't mean that I don't get a bit happy when my views jump up, and I've been waiting for this 10,000 view mark for a while now. Honestly, my blog has gotten more views this past month than I has really in any month previous, with the views up to almost 2,000. So whether that means a lot of random people are just looking at my blog or people are actually reading it, I don't know, but it's a step, right?

Truth be told, at the moment I just have a lot of homework. I spent about four hours working on a paper tonight that's due tomorrow...and it's not finished yet. I've just hit a bunch of writers block and have about four hours to finish it up tomorrow. It's mostly written, I just have to go through and make the last few ideas make sense, so I'm not super worried about it. I also have two midterms this week, so I really should get back to working, especially since the next (and last) thing I have to read this night has a super Disney connection! You'll hear about that in a day or two though!

Here's today's Disney History: 1971: LIFE Magazine presents a look at the newly opened Disney World in Florida. A color photo of 1,500 Disney employees, posing in front of Cinderella Castle, is featured on the cover. The issue also includes a pull-out poster of the new Magic Kingdom.

Have a magical day!

Day 285: Caught Back Up

You know what I love? When I'm all caught up on my blog. That's right, as of today, October 12, 2013, I am OFFICIALLY CAUGHT UP.

What does this mean, exactly? It means that I'm 100% done with all of the different posts before this. Yes, it took me about three hours or more to catch up on it all. Actually, probably a lot longer than that, but it's still worth it because I'm all caught up and that is awesome.

So here's a list of all the posts I just worked on so you can go read them if you wish. Otherwise you'll miss them completely! Because they won't really appear on the new blog screen because some of them are a couple of weeks back.

Day 197: The Hardest Part
Day 264: La Peri
Day 265: The Laugh Floor 
Day 267: The Art of Disney
Day 268: My Disney Collection V5
Day 269: Simple Disney Things
Day 275: 101 Reasons I wish I was at Disney
Day 276: Making Movies, Kind Of
Day 278: A Few of my Favorite Things V3

A couple to note are the two new additions to my ongoing blog series. I have a new volume of My Disney Collection and a new volume of A Few of my Favorite Things, so be sure to check those out. As well as the final one from my Disney trip. In the end though, I'm just really really glad that everything is caught up. Now I can continue to blog daily without having to worry about what I'm missing!

And tomorrow I'll be for sure blogging. What's tomorrow? Sunday! And that means ONCE UPON A TIME! So of course I'll have a blog post on "Quite a Common Fairy!"

Remember to #Tinkerbell tomorrow!

Here's today's Disney History: 2008: Today is the final day of operation for the Sun Wheel, an attraction at Disney California Adventure. Although inspired by Coney Island's 1927 Wonder Wheel, this opening-day attraction differed from conventional Ferris wheels. The Sun Wheel's 16 orange and purple gondolas ride on interior rails so they slide inward & outward as the wheel rotates. It will reopen with new theming in 2009 as Mickey's Fun Wheel.

Have a magical day!

Day 265: The Laugh Floor

It's been a long time since I spent like 6 hours organizing my Pinterest boards so that I had different ones for just about everything Disney. Yeah, I think my current number of Disney boards is 17? I might be wrong, but I'm fairly certain that's how many I have at the moment.

So sometimes I'll talk about what's on my Disney Truths board, or the Disney Geek board. Once I even talked about what was on my Disney Store board and all the things I wanted to buy. But when it comes to the stranger, unexpected Disney boards, one is missing: The Laugh Floor.

Sometimes it's just not enough to put all the funny Disney stuff with all the other funny stuff. It get's lost, and when you really want to laugh at something Disney related, you don't want to sit and search through everything else. And so I have The Laugh Floor, cleverly named after the Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor in Tomorrowland at Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World. I thought it was funny AND made a lot of sense.

Just like I've done with some of my other posts, I'll just share a thing or two from the board every once in a great while. Pinterest is a huge portion of my life, so I see a lot of awesome stuff on there that's just too good not to share.

This first one directly relates to this blog. I mean, I am a Disney blogger now, after all:

And then to brighten your day, we have to have some Tangled: 

Ahh Zachary Levi. You never stop being awesome.

Oh, and eventually you'll figure this one out: 

And here's some more Frumstagram!!! Today's picture is inspired by the prompt "hidden mickey" but I just love this picture too much! 

Here's today's Disney History: 1964: Nurse-turned actress, comedienne, writer, director, television producer and daytime television hose Bonnie Hunt is born in Chicago, Illinois. Her Disney voice credits include Dolly in Toy Story 3, Sally in the 2006 Cars, Flint in the 2001 Monsters Inc., and Roise in the 1999 A Bug's Life. 

Have a magical day!

Day 208: Still Thinking

You know, over the past few weeks I've been really behind in my blog, but I'm not giving up. Whenever I miss a bunch of days I just go back and write them based on what happened on that day! So in other words, it's still that day's Disney, I just didn't write it until later.

But at the same time, this job requires a heck of a lot of thinking. I mean, to go back a number of weeks and think about "what happened today?" can take some time. Actually, what I do is make a list of all the days I missed and go through and write ideas, normally the title for each blog post, and then write them in order based on what happened. I use the dates and days of the week a lot to try and figure out when I did what, and it doesn't always work out exactly, but normally it's pretty close.

For instance, there are still a couple of posts I need to write from my trip to Disney, because I haven't gotten the daily video done for those days yet, and I don't want to post the blog for that day without the complete video! Of course, those videos take me about two-four hours to edit, and then another while to save to the computer, and then 10+ hours to upload to Youtube (yes, my internet is that slow. Sometimes I wish I could live at Google where you can upload in like minutes). It takes forever, and I mean, you can only edit so much in one day. I try to keep it to two videos per day, but I have a feeling that I'm going to have to double up soon because this is getting ridiculous.

And then there are the days that I have pictures that go along with it. I have an Instagram, which you can find on the left sidebar, and I do encourage you to follow me there because I do post a lot of Disney stuff, where I post pictures of a lot of the things I'm talking about. Or there's those days when I just randomly take a picture of something or another that goes along with a blog post for a specific day. If I miss that day, then I have to go back and find the picture that goes along with it, and even when I don't miss the day, that picture thing means sending it in an email from my phone to my Yahoo, saving the picture and then reuploading it to Blogger!

Honestly, the entire process of keeping this blog takes a little bit longer than I really should be spending...then again, if I did just blog each and every day like it's intended, then maybe I wouldn't have such a problem...still, it's a great addition to my hobbies, and I love this blog like no other! I'm pretty sure I couldn't live without it! But as I've said multiple times in the past few weeks, that's a story for the end of the year!

Here's today's Disney History: 2011: Jennings Osborne, the creator of the Osborne Family Spectacle of Dancing Lights, passes away at the age of 67 in Little Rock, Arkansas. Known as the man with the dazzling lights outside his home in Arkansas, and each year at Christmas time at Disney World, Osborne was a successful businessman and self-made millionaire who started a medical research facility with his wife in 1968. A holiday tradition at WDW, Osborne first lit up Residential Street at Disney-MGM Studios back in November 1995.

Have a magical day!