Well, I finally was able to kick my ear infections though for some reason I still have fluid behind my ear affecting my balance. Fun!

Then on top of that, I injured my trapezious muscle a while back and it never really healed and somehow I really jerked it hard this past week. I'll tell you, it's one of the most painful injuries I've ever had and that includes breaking my wrist. I had to get some muscle relaxers just so I could stand it. I did find that the best thing that worked was alcohol (not mixed with the muscle relaxers!). Luckily I've been off of work all week so I didn't have to do too much.

So this will be my last blog post for 2006 and it was a decent year overall. My family was healthy, we took a nice vacation to California and for me personally, I got my book into e-book form. With that in mind, here are some of my personal goals for 2007:

1. Get "Two Redheads & A Dead Blonde" into paperback form. That's hopefully going to happen soon as I understand the artwork for the back cover is in progress.

2. Get "Chasing Curves" the next book in the "Ronan Marino Mystery Series" published.

3. Land a literary agent with a big NYC agency.

4. Find a band to play with that is fun and motivated.

5. Finish the third book in the Ronan series and keep working on my other projects.

There are certainly other goals but those are personal things I'm not putting in a blog! I'm really looking forward to 2007 as for some reason, odd numbered years have always been better to me. I hope you all have a healthy and happy new year!

So what have I been up to?

Well, for one I have been down with a double ear infection. Now that doesn't sound too bad and I should be able to go to work, right? Wrong as since Monday I've have some bouts of dizziness and my balance has been off. Of course balance is all regulated by your inner ear so that's been the problem. The worst part is I don't feel really sick while I sit still but the doctor told me not to drive until I get my balance back. Makes a lot of sense, especially since I have to drive an hour both ways to work. Even worse, they blocked our work email access from the web so I can't do anything of value for my job at home.

I got my flu shot last week. I wonder if it has anything to do with the ear infection?

I seem to get sick a lot. If you look at me, I'm pretty fit for a guy my age but because of internal issues, my immune system seems to let everything by. It really sucks but at least I have a job who understands. When I worked construction in Florida, they were really jerks about time missed due to illness.

I really get sick and tired of people asking me if I take my vitamins too. How annoying to hear it over and over again! Of course I do. I take about a dozen pills of every variation in the morning for circulation, strong bones, immune system, skin, etc. I can't even imagine how often I'd be sick if I didn't.

One thing that really annoys me is when people feel they have to heroes and go to work sick; hacking and coughing all over everyone. In my capacity as a boss, I generally make people go home rather than infecting everyone in the office. I like in Japan that people who did go out in public sick wear surgical masks. When I lived there it was funny because at the time Michael Jackson was into wearing them so we often equated the masks with him.

Bottom line: if you're sick, stay home!

This may shock you....are you sitting down?

I don't like turkey. No, I'm fine with sliced deli turkey, it's the old Thanksgiving style roast turkey that I don't like....and I'm not the only one.

Since we had T-Giving at my parents house, we had no leftovers to speak of and my wife decided to cook a turkey on Friday for dinner. Now, the last few times I've had turkey I thought it tasted funny and so did this one. Leftovers are even worse. My entire family noticed it this time around and my wife and daughter actually felt a bit ill after eating it.

So what is it? Are turkeys some how genetically mutuating so we humans no longer enjoy the taste of their flesh? Is this some communist conspiracy to destroy a great American holiday? Is it the ham manufacturers sabotaging turkeys in an attempt to get their product into more homes?

Um...yeah, probably not. I suspect that most turkeys are shot up with so much steroids to make them bigger that it's affecting their taste. To me, the meat does have a chemical kind of taste so I strongly stand behind this theory.

So the big question is, how do I find a non-steroided out turkey next Thanksgiving? I'd do the manly thing and go hunt one down but wild game has a different taste too and to be honest, I'm not exactly the great white hunter.

So my quest is now to find steroid free turkeys. Someone, somewhere must sell them. If not, we're sadly going to have to take turkey off the holiday dinner menu.

More random thoughts....

Wow, only two weeks before Christmas and it's almost fifty degrees here in my part of New England. I can live with the winter (though it's really not "offically" that season yet) if this is what we have to look forward to.

My Christmas shopping is by and large completed. I had a blast yesterday taking my eight year old daughter shopping to pick out stuff for her mother. I just hope she likes the Sponge Bob PJs. You should see the stuff I stopped her from picking out. LOL.

Good news on the book front. While it's not exactly selling like hot cakes, it is finally going to be in trade paperback form. The publisher asked me for a photo for the backpage so in the next few days I need to take some. Hopefully once the paperback is out, I can publicize it properly and also get it on Amazon and into local bookstores. That's when I hope it really takes off.

Dry heat sucks. Not in the outdoor sense but for heating. I forgot to turn on my humidifier last night and my head is killing me. Hopefully in my next house, we'll have forced hot water and forced hot air.

So will I live in NE the rest of my life? I'd like to think so but my wife told me the other day she doesn't think our aching bodies will hold up in this climate. We did Florida so where to go? Maybe S. California if my dream of being a full-time writer ever takes hold...I can do screenplays too!

Well, time for the Pats' game. More later this week...

I've been in what they used to call a really "blue" mood lately and it's been pointed out by loved ones that I get no joy from the holidays anymore. I'm not sure why. I used to love Christmas as a kid. Not the presents necessarily (though what kid doesn't love X-Mas morning?) but the lights, family and food and all the other wonderful things that go with the season. You can throw in the Christmas specials on TV like "Rudolph" and "Frosty" too.

The most ironic thing is when I lived in Florida I used to say it didn't feel like Christmas because it wasn't cold and there wasn't any snow. Now that I live in New England, I thought to myself today that it doesn't feel like Christmas because I miss all the lights and shiney things at Disney over the holiday. D'oh!

There is hope though. This morning I was grumpy going to work but for some reason, decided to put a Christmas CD on the stereo. This is one I made myself a few years back with songs done by Springsteen, U2, etc. For whatever reason, something clicked and hearing "Do They Know It's Christmas" and "Baby, Please Come Home" immediately put me into a better mood and my blues cleared. I felt like the Grinch when his heart grew four times too large.

Now all I need is a little bit of snow and someplace all lit up and shiny to take the kids and I just might feel all better!

I think today will be final WDW for a while until I think of other things to write about down the road.

So just what do Cast Members (CM) do in their free time? (Well...yeah, besides all the freaky stuff I talked about before...which isn't as prevalent as I probably made it sound.)

Well, for one...spend time in the parks! As a Cast Member you can enter any Disney park for free. They also give most hourly employees 12 entries a year for three guests and additional free tickets throughout the year. Once you're in management or with the company for a specified period of time, you get the Silver Pass which gives you the right to bring in three people every single day. I'm not sure what exactly the Gold Pass does but I believe they give those to senior management....

Another big CM thing to do is go to Pleasure Island on Thursday nights where you got into all the clubs for free. Since I had to work Friday morning, I only checked that out a few times. Unfortunately, you might get in free but the drinks are still at tourist prices!

If you wanted cheap drinks, a very popular hangout was the Big Bamboo Lounge over on Route 192 in Kissimmee. It was a very eclectic place that really didn't look like much from the road with an old rundown building with a mock guard tower and I believe an old Army ambulance parked out front. The walls were covered with old Disney (and other theme parks sprinkled in) CM newspapers, badges, props and even full costumes. You got your beer served in a mason jar, the tables were old cable spools and there were a few rooms scattered throughout with couches to get more comfortable. They played big band music over the sound system and the parking lot was dirt (I was there once after a huge rainstorm and the lot was more like a pond...two guys were actually fighting and rolling around in the water....I told the bartender he had two scuba divers going at it...).

The place had a very "M*A*S*H" like vibe to it and greatly reminded me of some of the bars I'd been to in Korea. Unfortunately a few years after I moved, it burned down. The owners however maintain a website http://bigbamboolounge.com/ to keep the memories alive. I understand from some friends that The Big Bamboo was also a mecca to the tiki culture.

Working for WDW greatly reminded me of the military in many ways. They have their own acronyms (AFD....accidental fecal discharge...my water park buddies taught me that one....ewwww), culture, places to shop, drink, parks, etc. Another thing is they are big on giving out buttons or other mementoes commemmorating company anniversaries, new attraction or movie openings or holidays. I have a pretty nice collection at home from my time there.

One of my favorite memories is finding out Martina McBride was recording a show for the annual X-Mas morning show on ABC after the parks had closed and inviting CMs to be in the audience. The show was filmed at the Diamond Horseshoe Jamboree in the Magic Kingdom and I got to sit front and center at the stage. She is one of my absolute favorite singers and I got to talk to her between songs and she was one of the nicest celebs I have ever met....and those eyes......wow....

CMs also have their own theater company called STAGE...which is an acronym for something but I can't remember what. I performed in two productions, playing Steven Hopkins in "1776" (which we did on a riser right in the Hall of Presidents!) and Lt Col Nathan Jessep (the Nicholson character from the movie) in "A Few Good Men." Most of these productions were very well done as you can imagine...there are a lot of actors working for the company.

One last thing. When I worked in the office during the work, we'd have bad days like in any other job. They didn't last long as we'd zoom out to Animal Kingdom and ride the safari or head to the Magic Kingdom and ride Space Mountain. We'd blow off some steam and head back to the office recharged. That's an option few other jobs offer. In fact, I wish I could get up and go ride Rock n' Roller Coaster right now.

Well, that's it for my Disney memories for now. At some point, I'm sure I'll think of more stuff to write.

Sorry for the delay in posting part 3 of my Disney World experience but I've been a bit under the weather this week.

So okay, I've talked about how I got there and the freaky Cast Members. In this post I'll discuss actually working there. While I had two jobs, I'm going to focus on the theme parks as that's what interests most people.

At the time I was there, Tower of Terror was the premier attraction on property (and is still one of them) and I was lucky to be assigned there. At the time, Disney was very selective about who they let work at Tower due to the demands of the attraction. Not only is there a lot to learn about operating the system, but at the Walt Disney World version of the ride the Cast Members have to get into character.

At many WDW attractions, the Cast Members are themselves, running the ride, smiling, answering questions and keeping order....but not at TOT. There we were portraying bellhops who were friendly but just a bit "off" in a creepy way. I have ability to keep my eyes wide open...ala the bug-eyed look for minutes on end and that added to my character. I got to interact with guests, speak somberly, stand bug eyed and smile oddly.

Most guests seemed to love this and I am no doubt in many a family scrapbook especially in Japan. I took a lot of pictures with Japanese women on vacation at WDW and they always seem to flash the peace sign. It helped that I know a little bit of Japanese from my three years living there.

While this has probably changed, the attraction had four rotations at the various stations including the main entrance onto the grounds, the greeter, the library, the load (where you get on the ride after getting the safety speil), control room and exit. They had it set up so you rotated every fifteen minutes with a fifteen minute break between the last and first position. You basically got a fifteen minute break every hour in most cases (before I left they were trying to figure out how to eliminate this....cheap SOBs) unless someone went to lunch or we were shorthanded.

My two favorite places to work were the control room and load. In control, there are cameras and you can see the guests on every single second of the ride. This made for some interesting stories as some women tried to flash just before the drop where they take your souvenir picture. Load was also a lot of fun (unless you were there for long periods) because you got to interact the most with guests and really play up the creepy bellhop character.

I also got to meet a lot of celebrities. They generally get escorted around by a guest services Cast Member so they avoid waiting in line. My favorite celeb that I met was Mariah Carey even though I'm not much of a fan. She was actually really nice and was with an older woman that I thought may have been her mom and a pre-teen girl. After I gave her the safety speil, she started to flirt with me and asked if I'd go on the ride with them. To this day I kick myself for not doing it since I could have had the picture. She also did the rub my arm flirt move. (This was before she went crazy.)

The funny thing about celebs is that the rank and file guests don't recognize them. Mariah had her hair up in pig tails and wore little makeup. Some other celebs I met were Drew Bledsoe (who was QB of my Pats at the time), Dan Marino, Judge Reinhold, Leonardo DeCaprio, all of Aerosmith and Britney Spears (who was 19 at the time..I like to describe her as "vapid.").

They also asked me to go work at the Rock n' Roller Coaster for a while when it opened (I had been involved during test & adjustment of the ride) but I really didn't enjoy working there much. It was pretty mundane since you just load and unload with no play acting. Great ride, boring to work.

I also pitched in a few times working at the Magic Kingdom during busy seasons. Yes, there are tunnels that go through the entire park (it's the only one...the other parks have no all encompassing tunnels).

Next time, I may blog about other experiences working at WDW including doing two plays with their theater company. See you then!