In Which I Make Up for Lost Time

So I have been terrible about keeping this thing updated but the good news isn't because my life down here is just boring and there's nothing going on, it's just been crazy with so many things going on that I haven't taken much time to just sit down and process it so here's my best attempt at catching up with what's been going on for like the last two months.

Picture taken after I got off work at the Contemporary. Enjoying Magic Kingdom's Wishes on top of the resort!

The biggest news, which most people probably do know by now is that I started my new job working for a company called Ikon. They run the business centers at 5 Disney Resorts. So yes, I still work at Disney but not really for Disney. No more costumes for me, I get to wear real clothes! It's a very laid back job that's really helping me start to enjoy living down here. Looking back on the last year I notice how little I was actually able to enjoy without worrying about money constantly.

My roommate, Darius, and I have gotten settled in to our new apartment and I love it. I enjoy having a nice living room again with a TV so I can have friends over and entertain people. I'm still working on decorating my room so that I can make it feel like home, I don't think it will ever be home but I want it to be somewhere that I enjoy coming back to.

This picture of the living room doesn't even do it justice but I wanted something to show.  No pictures of my room until I clean it.

July has flown by. It's been three weeks already since my family came down here to see me and that was a great week. I got to finally introduce them to all of my friends and we even grilled out and went to Ale House together. The best part of the trip was going to watch the Coke Zero 400 at Daytona. It was the first race for all of us, including my Dad and I'm so glad that I got to have them down here and experience that with them because I know he had a lot of fun just like the rest of us and it's definitely not something that we'll forget.

The whole family in front of the pace car at Daytona

Dad and I had to buy new hats to enjoy the race properly

Another first for me was my first trip down to Tampa and Busch Gardens. It's a very cool and intense theme park with some awesome roller coasters that definitely put some other theme parks to shame in the thrill category.

Sheikra. Holy Shit.

I've also got some things to be looking forward to. I just received my ticket in the mail to go to the Van's Warped Tour in nine days! I haven't been in three years and I can't wait to see my favorite band, A Day To Remember, play live finally. I'm also looking hard at a time to make my way back to Iowa once or twice in the next few months to see the family and some Hawkeye football if I'm lucky enough!

I'm sure I'm forgetting something but I think that'll keep you (the maybe 6 people that read this, and made it this far) held over until next time which I promise won't be another two months. So until then, Fly High and Die High.

In Which the Good Times Roll

Ok so it's been over a month since I've posted a blog and I never intended to go that long in between posts but I also promised that I would try to keep from posting depressing and angry posts on here, so I held off until I knew that I was ready and had plenty of good news to share with everyone. I finally have plenty to hold you over, hopefully not another month though!

To start off, in the last month I've spent a lot of great time with my amazing girlfriend, Britni. She recently moved into her first apartment about 5 minutes away from me and it's great having her around and being able to spend time with her because she's my best friend and keeps me sane! We just celebrated our six month anniversary and I can't believe how the time has just flown by.

As many of you know, I've been struggling for so long to find a new job down here that will make me more money, get me out of theme parks, and make me happier and I think I've finally found one. It's taken a long time, during which I've spent many days wondering if I'll just have to return to Iowa and was accused of failing my drug test, but I finally was hired at Ikon. I'll be working in the business/computer center at a Disney resort. I want to stress, though, that I won't be working for Disney. No costumes! I finally get to wear my own clothes. I can't wait to start making better money!

A couple days ago I signed the lease for my new apartment that I'll be moving into on the first of June. I can't wait. I had a chance to check the apartment out and it's so much nicer than the dump that I'm living in now. Getting out of this hellhole I've been calling an apartment will bring a lot of happiness to my life. It's the simple things that can change us.

I'm sure there's a lot more that's been happening but I'll save some of that for later. It's time for bed now, still slaving away at work in the morning. Not dissing work or anything, it pays the bills! More good news is that my parents and the rest of my family will be coming down to visit at the end of June/beginning of July. It will be great to see them down here! We'll be going to a NASCAR race at Daytona!

I'm beginning to get back to that Slater Maxwell kind of feeling! No more depressing days and miserable nights wondering how I will make it down here. Flying high with the eagles!

In Which I Return to the Beach

Exactly a week after I got a really bad sunburn at the beach, I found myself heading back to Daytona yet again. Luckily this time, Britni and I were heading back in the evening to meet one of her longtime friends who wanted to meet me. This always makes me nervous because it feels like I have to get approved by someone else but she was pretty laid back and it was a fun evening. We went to this nice little restaurant next to a dock full of all these really nice boats and then headed on to walk to the top of a lighthouse...

Unfortunately...I had checked online to see how late the lighthouse was open and got my dates mixed up so we didn't make it to the lighthouse before it closed. Note to self: May still isn't here yet. But I did get a picture.

After this we wandered around on the beach for a little while which was great just to stand there and look at the open water stretching as far as I could see. It was really peaceful and a relaxing way to spend the evening.

Other than on my days off I've had some good news about life in general. I found out that my new roommate and I got approved on our new apartment that we'll be moving into in June. It's a nice little apartment complex that doesn't look near as ghetto as the one I'm currently living in and the rooms are great. I fell in love with them as soon as I toured them. On the job front, I've applied for three in the past two weeks and I'm really pursuing two of them and will hopefully be hearing back about interviews soon.

Last night I visited a really cool record store where I had reserved a vinyl copy of a single from one of my favorite bands, A Day to Remember, for only $5 which also gets me a guaranteed chance to meet them and get an autograph this Saturday if I can get out of work on time. Here's my Saturday: work till 3, meet and get an autograph from my favorite band, see Scream 4 with my girlfriend, and end the night with a Beach Boys concert.

It doesn't get any better than that so I'll have to end it there. Watch for the crows and soar with the eagles. Or even the Hawks! 

Are Things Turning Around?

It's been a while since I've last posted because again, it's been a rough couple of days, which doesn't sound good when I've only made a couple posts on here all ready, but I'm finally writing because I'm starting to see some light in all of this darkness and I'm ready to share again. I started one post a few days ago that reflected on how I was starting to feel about my time down here and I put that one on hold for now because I'm not sure if those are my true feelings or just what I was feeling when things got hard. What I do know now:

I found out today that my future roommate, Darius, and I are almost approved for a new apartment. We had been looking at a place that I really liked and have been looking at since like January and when we finally applied, they drug us along for almost two weeks before finally denying us for the cheaper rate and wanted to charge us almost $200 extra a month because they claimed we made more than we actually did. So instead we are going with the our second choice which is great because I love the apartment, I'm just afraid it will be a little expensive. Which leads to...jobs of course.

I've applied for three new jobs in the last week. I'm pretty much applying for anything that I'm qualified for and that is a raise from what I'm currently making, which isn't really that hard. It's discouraging when I don't hear back from any of these places but that happens when you're living somewhere as big as Orlando. I just need to keep plugging away at it and keep my spirits high. Like I think I've said before, I've got a great supervisor at Universal who's putting me in contact with others who work for NBC/Universal and I'm going to be pursuing every opportunity and contact I can get.

On the lighter side of things, I spent one of my days off with my girlfriend in Daytona for the first time. I hadn't ever been before so we spent about four hours at the beach and then I finally got to get a look at the Daytona Speedway. We were too late for tours but plan on going back soon for the full tour! The only downside of this trip was getting a terrible sunburn on the top of my feet which has made work and walking in general miserable and a chore itself.

As always, I hope to be bringing better news by my next post so until then, keep flying with those eagles and don't let those crows bring you down, you're probably better than them!

Looking at the Brighter Side of Life

So it's been a couple days since I've posted my first blog but I promised that I would try not to make this thing too miserable and it's been a rough couple of days at work so I wanted to avoid complaining about that but since today is my day off, I'm back!

I've been working on shooting and editing a movie for work that will be shown at our upcoming attractions awards ceremony. I've had a lot of fun being behind a camera again, even if it is just a little Flip camera, and editing again. I started showing the finished product to friends and coworkers and remembered how good it feels to have people laugh and enjoy something I created. We've been beat by other attractions in the past but some team members think we've got a pretty good chance of winning it this year and I couldn't think of anything better than that to boost my spirits.

As I was saying earlier, work is, at times pretty stressful, and I've been looking everywhere for other opportunities and other avenues. Luckily I've got a great supervisor who is helping me make contacts and will be able to let me shadow productions around the Universal property. There's a big one coming up this Sunday but it could be a long shot so I don't want to spoil anything yet, hopefully I'll have some good news after the weekend. I was supposed to meet someone from TNA on Monday but I found out that he was out of town until today so I need to reschedule a time to meet with him. This is all a good start, I just really need to hope something comes out of it.

I've also been pretty busy working on getting a new apartment which is stressful on and expensive but I can't wait to get out of the one that I'm in, I could say more about this 'wonderful' place but I'll just leave it at that.

Life just never slows down here in Orlando, but I think that's why I moved down here. There are so many more things I could say but I feel I've said enough for now

And my sign off line, courtesy of my good friend Jeremy: Until next time, soar with the eagles my friends, not the crows.

I Was Slater Maxwell

A blog? Yeah I guess. I've been thinking lately that I've got so much going on in my life right now that it's time to share some of it. I know there are some people who always wonder what I'm up to in Orlando so I'll share a bit on here, hopefully it will be interesting and not just a place to vent and bitch about my day, but hey, I can't promise you won't get some of that too but I'll do my best to make it entertaining. I have way too much going on in my head so I'm going to use this to get some of those thoughts out.

Anyways, I'll keep this one short since it's late. I tried making a blog on Tumblr but the site kept having problems so they lost me.

For those who don't know, I'm currently living in Orlando, Florida and I've been here since June of last year. I'm working full time at Universal Studios as an Attractions Attendant at Revenge of the Mummy. Yes, I also occasionally pick up shifts at the Tower of Terror at Disney's Hollywood Studios. I've got some amazing friends down here that have kept me going through all the tough times, but I never forget about the great friends I've got back in the Midwest.

I'm doing my best at working towards a job in media production of some sort which is where the name to this blog comes from. In college I had a little production group, company, or whatever you want to call it called Slater Maxwell Productions. I loved being able to work on my projects, live videos, music videos, TV shows, etc. Since moving to Orlando, however, I've hardly done anything down here related to any of that. So I guess this blog will tell the story of my life and how I am getting back to being Slater Maxwell. I was Slater. I need to get back to that "I am Slater" state of mind (which nobody may understand).

I think I'll wrap it up there for now. But I'll leave you all (I don't even know how many "all" may include) with a little tease to maybe keep you coming back for more. Tomorrow I'm meeting a friend who is going to introduce me to the production crew at TNA Wrestling where I hope to find out how I could get a job working with them. We'll see. Hmm. I need a sign off line. I'll think of one later, till then- Have a night!