"Over My Head"

So today is the last day of my official school year. I just wrote and sent the last paper to my professor that i will be doing until this august. I couldn't really be more excited about that because i'm ready to focus solely on my days off as being days off, and not the days that i write my papers. It has been a long road so far, longer than most of you even know. Actually most of you do probably know, because the only ones who still read this are my family i think. I guess its my fault since i havent kept up to date with it as well as i could have, but believe me this has pretty much been the last thing on my mind in comparisons with the rest of my life. I learned a lot so far. With reading my book for school about business and communication and just working in the real world and hating certain aspects of your job, i've really gotten a taste of it all. it's tough....being out here all on my own with no family to rely on. that has probably been one of the two toughest things about being down here. but anyway, i've got three more months down here to really make something happen for myself then we'll see what happens. my have has made a complete u-turn since i've been down here and there is no telling what michigan has in store for me when i return. This is my last "official" posting, but i'll try and write to all ya'll a bit more over the summer. peace and god bless!

"Detroit City"

As the NCAA tournament comes to an end, so does my excitement since my favorite team got knocked out last night in the final four. I really thought UNC was going to be able to do it this year, but man did they get blown out. Anyways, I know I have been really sucky at writing on this thing, but to be honest with all the time spent working, and on the days off trying to get my papers in on time while still trying to have some fun as well, this is like the last thing I think of. Those of you who really care to find out what's going on with me call me anyway, so this thing aint too important. Since we've talked last a lot has happened. I got shipped off to a different store for Disney's busiest week of the year. The "World of Disney" the largest store in the world, was the nightmare that I had to work in last week. I've never been so bored and overwhelmed, and even shunned all at the same time. Because this store is so big, and consists of over 600 cast members, they all have their own little clicks. So you can imagine coming in for one week, I didn't really fit in, and to be honest when ever any of the college kids asked me if I liked it....I told them no, so I think I made them a little mad. However, all the older ladies and older gentlemen really liked me, which I seem to have better luck with them normally anyway.

In my communications independent study, I'm reading all about "teamwork" in the workplace. I found it funny that I didn't get much of that when I was working at a store where no one knew me. I understand you have to make people know you and earn their trust, but then I think that this is Disney and we are all on the same team to start. But people are simple....and the human nature is to be stuck up and not give people a chance until they prove they are worthy of it. Sounds petty, and it is, but humans don't like to give each other the benefit of the doubt, which truly is sad.

Kathryn's friends from Colorado came down to visit for the past week. I had a lot of fun getting to know them. They were an absolute blast and I had an awesome time getting to know them. They act just like she does, and the important thing is that her personality does not change one bit when she is around them, she is exactly the same person, which I really think is cool. Anyway, it's getting to be lunch time and Chik-fil-a is a calling my name. I'll try and write to ya'll more frequently.

~~~~Time to Go To WORK.....Bring on the NBA Playoffs, This is the Pistons Year!

"Family Business"

Well it was that time of year again, the annual Disney Trip for the Stolman family and all there connecting parts. This year was a little different. They had no Brad, Lisa or Isaac. There daughter had a new last name because of the Bryan Veenstra guy. And me, I was already down here working for Disney. A couple of firsts, and probably not a couple of lasts. This trip went extremely well. First of all, I had five days off of work, which couldn't have come at a better time. I truly got to introduce my family to the world that I've been living in down here for the past couple of months. We did just about all we could do in the time they had down here. They completed time in all four parks, one water park (which was the only one that was open), a different restaurant just about every night, a tigers game (two for me), a pool day (though it rained, but we had some good snacks), shopping and getting caught in some of the thickest rain Florida has to offer. We had nothing but laughs to share with each other this vacation. Everyone left their stress back in Michigan, and I left mine at my job. We all meshed and had an extremely fun week. I want to give everyone a little bit of their own shout outs:

To the Ferguson family, I love having you guys as our partner family in crime down here. I'm thrilled to death that ya'll will be joining the vacation club in the near future. I can't wait to check out the new DVC community at the Animal Kingdom Lodge. It's always so much fun having you guys blended with our family. You all bring your own special gift to our trip, and we are excited for the trips to come.

To Bryan Veenstra, you are one of my bests and every time I get to hang out with you is a good time. We always share a lot of laughs, sometimes through jokes that only you and I get or find funny. I'm so happy that you love Disney, you really needed to in order to not be kicked out of this family, haha j/k. But I'm more thrilled that you are passionate about one thing at Disney, and that would be the Fox and the Hound. That will always give us something to do when we come down and keep our eyes open for. I'm excited for all the vintage merchandise that you and I are going to hunt down in the future. Be good til we see each other again, and take care of that wife of yours! love you bro!

To Katie Stolman. What can I say? You are one of my favorite people in the entire world. I love that I can do just about anything and have you laugh at me. It's one of my biggest joys in life, getting to make you laugh, and I don't see that changing until the day I die, so I'm pretty excited about that. I love when you and I get to have serious talks on the other hand. I feel like you have so much to offer me with all the knowledge you have, and love the feedback that you give me. Thanks for always supporting me and these silly disney dreams that I have. It's reassuring to know that I have an awesome family in my corner. Love you K8!

To my Mother, who has been putting up with my crap for 21 years now. I love you and I'm so glad that I got to share my Disney experience with you for at least a few days. I'm thankful for all the support you gave me to get down here, and what you give me while I am down here. You are the one who is most excited for the time and stuff that I get to experience while I'm here in Disney. Obviously your opinion of me is important, and I'm thankful for all the advice you've given me. I will need a lot more of that in my near future as decisions in my life are made. I'm thankful that you and dad allowed me to experience this time in Florida, and at the same time can't wait to get home to spend my usual time with you and the rest of the fam. I love you mom and I know I will talk to you soon. Disney Bandits together 'til the day the world ends! Love you.

To my Father, who is one of the most respectable men I've ever met. Thank you for being such a good father and husband and always taking care of our family. I'm thankful for the time you and I got to spend down here together Paw. We always have fun when we go to tigers games, even if it is just pre-season. However we didn't know we'd get to see a celebrity in the crowds. We were lucky enough to be graced by the presence of Sloth from the Goonies, a pretty amazing feature of that game. Sharing a beer with you at the game was great fun Dadio. I'm so happy you got to escape your busy life back home and take some time off to just enjoy yourself. You truly fit in down here and whenever Disney receives you as one of their bus drivers, will be a lucky day for them. Love you Dad and can't wait to see you again.

And just so no one is left out. Brad, Lisa, Isaac and little Stolman-to-be, I love you guys equally as much as everyone else. I'm really hoping you all can make it down here to visit me. You are the only ones I haven't seen in a few months, and I would love to see you all in person. I love you all and hope that the fam is doing great, and keep me updated on those kids of yours, haven't gotten any pictures in a while!! Hope to see you all in the monts to come.

I love you all,
Brian

"Funny Little Feeling"

Well, I come to you now after a couple of the strangests days of my life. Sunday night, I volunteered at Give Kids The World for my third time. It was truly amazing again as I got to just spend time with kids and help them have fun. Two of my best friends from back home, Andrew Dobney and Michael Gariepy, drove down this past thursday, but due to my work schedule we couldn't meet up until early monday morning, for all of monday and tuesday, because those were my days off for the week, or were supposed to be the only ones. We started our time out by going to Typhoon Lagoon, an awesome Disney Waterpark. About 12 o'clock, while laying out on my stomach, i felt a very weird feeling in my male parts. I felt like i had to pee, but everytime i went to go do that, i barely had anything in the chamber. So i didn't think anything of it. As the day continued the feeling became more evident and a little more painful. As my boys, my friend Kathryn and I went out to dinner at Wolfgang Puck's, the guys restaurant of choice, i was hit with a very painful feeling in my stomach.

The pain was nearly unbearable and i was praying to God that he would help me pass out, just so i didn't have to feel it anymore. We had to call 911 and they sent some people over to us. They ran my heart rate along with all my other vitals, to see that everything was higher than it should be. They put me on a stretcher and called the ambulance. I was wheeled into the back of the ambulance, and Kathryn was put into the front seat. It was an extremely long 10 or 15 minutes of painful driving. We got to the hospital and I waited about 10 more minutes for a room to open up in the ER. Once I got put into room 14, I waited in agony for a doctor for about 35 or 40 minutes. He came in and gave me a pain killer that was like a form of morphine, which thankfully took it all away. I then went up and had an ultrasound on my male parts, and then a CT Scan. I came back down and was told that I was the proud owner of my very first Kidney Stone. That thing hurt like a mother! They asked me if it was the worst pain i had ever felt, and i said i didnt know, because i have felt a lot of different bad things. The thing that sucked about this one, was that there was no break from pain, it was constant never leaving, never moving! horrible. So i want to send a warm thank you to my dad, because i found out that these are hereditary, and also a shout of concern to Brad, who will probably get one one day, and even Isaac. Take cover boys, those things attack with a vengence!

Really QuIcK....

To all of you who read my posts and make comments, please stop posting them as Anonymous.  From now on, if you post something anonymously without signing your name, I'm not going to publish them for everyone to see.  It would just really help me out to see who these comments are coming from.  Also I can do without some of the snotty comments.  Thanks ya'll!

"All I Ever Wanted"

So from now on, since my titles are usually kind of lame, they are all going to be named after a song. I kind of like that idea, and for those of you who know a lot about music (Katie Stolman or Michael Gariepy are two names that come to mind) you can have the extra added bonus of trying to figure out the artist or group and then finding that song to listen to. So these past couple weeks since we've last talked have been interesting to say the least. They've been physically and emotionally draining for me. I've been working no less than 35 hours a week, which doesn't seem that bad to some of you, but when i wake up at 6:30 to catch a 7:15 bus, the time is that much longer for me. As you all know I haven't been up for McDonald's breakfast in like 10 years, so since we have one in Downtown Disney, i've had it like 8 times. That's telling you how often I've been getting up early, just so SOME of you don't think i'm just on a vacation down here. Work has been going extremely well. I'm learning a lot about my product and doing a good job in selling it, even though we don't work on commission. Still i enjoy selling a lot and getting props for that. I'm meeting interesting people from all over the world as our guests, and recently met a couple from London, who are Disney Vacation Club members, at the Old Key West resort from 1991-92 not to mention, and they were pretty much the coolest couple i've met since i've been here. They had such a love for Disney and just enjoyed sharing their experiences and their disney knowledge with me, which i also enjoyed. Just the other day I actually met a couple from New York, and they were close to our age. The gentleman was on his first visit to Disney World, and was more excited than any kid I've ever seen. It brought such satisfaction to me. Me and another friend of mine talked to them thoroughly and actually exchanged e-mails. It's fun making new friends.

In my communications book, the biggest thing i've been reading about is this thing called the "four-minute barrier." it talks about how we often meet someone and within that first four minutes of talking to them we make our judgements about them, and tag them to be a certain way. Now that's not just in the workplace but in life everyday, which is something we all must strive to fight off in our daily meetings. We know we shouldn't judge people but our nature is to do so, so i've been trying not to let that take any effect in my life at work. I do have someone who i struggle with that each and every time i talk to him. He gets under my skin, as he does with everyone else, but he is good at what he does. I just work hard to work with him. On a good note, we have been getting some new managers, whether temporary or permanent, and other people high up coming into the store, and when i introduce myself to them, they say they've already heard of me. I can't tell you how cool of a feeling that is. I've been making some connections and trying to get things done for myself.

I had three sets of my first visitors in these past two weeks. First, were my two mothers. My real mother who birthed me, Mrs. Jill Stolman and Mrs. Patti Frederick, who is my honorary second mother. The ladies treated me to a week of great food, fun, and a lot of laughs. Then out of nowhere my God-parents and family friends of a long time Chuck and Lynne Blake surprised me on a day of work. It was really nice seeing them and getting to talk with someone from back home. The next day I got to spend the day with the Gambee family who are great family friends, and take them to Hollywood Studios. It was really fun hanging with them as we got to ride a few rides, have some lunch, and most importantly just talk with them and get some advice on some questions that I had.

Lastly, in the non-disney part of life. I've been faced with some tough decisions and obstacles that have been a big part of my time. With being down here, it's kind of changing some of my perceptions and outlooks on things. I just recently made the decision to try and extend my stay down here, and i think I will be remaining down here until the end of August. I realize i'll be losing out on money by not returning to the bank, however when listening to my heart and to my family, we kind of think that this might be the best option for me at this point in my life, if i'm really serious about ending up down here a couple years from now, which i am. This is a really telling time in my life, and will continue to be while i'm down here. Until we talk again, i wanna let ya'll know that I love you and miss you all and can't wait to see my family and friends in less than two weeks here. Live, Laugh, and Love!

P.S.

For those of you who don't already know...the best part of my week was that I found out I've got a new niece or nephew on the way. he or SHE is due the same month as my birthday and I'm super excited for a little niece, and ya'll can quote me, that is my prediction and I was right about Isaac! Bring on my little princess, uncle brian loves you already darling!

Some More News

On more of a not-so-serious note, thus far this experience has been a blast. I'm really getting to know all my roomates and bunch of other people really well. It's a lot of fun getting to know these people from all over the country. Since we last spoke, I've hit up the Magic Kingdom and did the Haunted Mansion, Pirates, Thunder Mountain, Snow White, Peter Pan's Flight, Philarmagic, and even caught Wishes, MK's firework show. I went to Hollywood Studios (for those of you who do not know about this historical month for Walt Disney World, they have changed their name from MGM Studios to Hollywood Studios) and the only ride I had time for before my shift was the Rockin Roller Coaster. Yesterday was really fun. Me and 3 of my roomates started at the Animal Kingdom, and rode Expedition Everest 3 times and the safari, before hopping a bus over to Epcot where we visited all the countries, and then headed over to the Contemporary Resort where we had ourselves a feast at "Chef Mickey's." It's really fun being able to go over because the one thing that I have in common with the people I've been hanging out with is that we show "Disney Love" to people even when we aren't working, it's really fun to watch each other give to other people, even when we don't have to. We had every body laughing on the safari with our jokes and enthusiasm, we made little kids happy on the monorail as we got them into the drivers seat and had them all excited, and even got a bunch of kids to play some bongos with us at one of the countries. I really enjoy showing "love" to complete strangers, it's fun watching how my job and my religion can really tie together. Being at Disney has opened my eyes to sharing my love with a whole new group of people, ones that I might not have if I didn't make it down here. God's doing some wonderful things in my life right now, and I will continue to share them with you. One last thing...I just had to share with you all my latest purchase of Mickey-Bling, gotta show love to my boss :)

Back By Popular Demand

So, it's been about a week since my last post and I've really taken a lot of heat for that. Apparently, ya'll want me to write in this thing a little more often. To make up for that I will give you a good breakdown of what I've done since the last time we talked. With being one of the few people to have their first two days of being here off, I took advantage and got a good jump on my homework. I've kept up with the pace of reading a chapter a week, and was really able to see how the content in my book was applying to my job when I started the following day. My first 3 days of work, consisted of "on the job training" with my trainer, Pam. This is a cool lady. When I first saw her, my sinful nature came through as I passed a little bit of judgement on her, but God couldn't have blessed me with anyone better. She was very upbeat and excited to train me, because she was excited with the fact that I requested to be at the art gallery. She is very passionate about art herself and really knows her trivia about many topics, mainly movies, comics, cartoons, and the three stooges (dad, you could really have some could conversation with this woman). The following 3 days I was on my own. It started a little scary and I quickly grew into the role that I must perform. Talking with people has never been a problem for me, and that is definitely the part of my job that comes easy, it's knowing all the facts about each style of art, the history of the artists, the prices and the inventory. I've gotten it a little bit more each day, and have already sold 3 pieces all on my own, it's pretty exciting. Reading about communication and leadership in my book for the first two chapters helped me keep a watch out to see if my "leaders" at disney did them the right way. For the most part they do, they listen to me and encourage me to ask questions when I have them, which I have a lot about everything, and they answer them for me. One thing that is pretty exciting and scary all at the same time, is that given my banking experience and drive to learn while I'm here, one of the managers has given me some extra responsibility. I now have the duty, when I have the closing shift, to cash out all the registers and make desposits and get the drawers ready for the next day. They want me to learn the process really quickly, and it has been pretty hard, but I'm getting it and will be closing out the stores all on my own very soon. Bring on the corporate job......! I'm going to write another, separate entry that will give you some more of my personal info, non-work related. Scroll up to read on!

Hey Ya'll

What's good everybody? I know I haven't written anything in a while, and I apologize for those of you who've been checking daily (cough, cough...Brad), but i've been extremely busy with crazy long hours and trying to finish homework assignments between then, and sometimes getting to eat. but have no fear, today is one of my two days off along with tomorrow, so after i hit up a couple parks today, i will write an elaborate entry! love to you all til later!

Only The Beginning...

My Disney experience started less than a week ago, and already I'm having the time of my life. In six days I've done so much. I've met a lot of cool and interesting people from all over our country and even many from all over the world. Disney truly brings people together, and in my eyes it brings some of the best. I've already went to Epcot Center, the Magic Kingdom, and ate at Planet Hollywood, in Downtown Disney, which is where I'll be working. I have received a job at "The Art of Disney" which is in the marketplace area. It's all the way down at the right end next to the Rainforest Cafe, for those of you who are interested in coming to visit me. I actually put in a request with my recruiter to work at this store, because when I was little the only thing on my mind was working for Disney animation making movies. I was an art major for a little bit before I chose to take my life a different way. Plus most of those great movies are digital now. However, in this place I get to be around art and animation all day long. I get to watch artists in action and I get to study it on a daily basis.

I am receiving credits back home through GVSU, and have already began to put in work time for my classes. For one of my communications classes, I was instructed to set up a blog, hence the reason you get to read up on my life for the next 4 months, maybe 7. Another thing I will be talking about in my blog, is how I can relate my working experience to concepts that I am learning about in my 'Business and Professional Communications' book, so look for some interesting facts that ya'll (I'm already picking up some southern drawl) might not know. The other thing I've already got to take part in is a non-profit organization called 'Give Kids The World'. This is a program for people who want to volunteer to work with kids who's last wish was to make a trip down to orlando. It's an organization that Disney and many surrounding companys donate heavily to. If ya'll have heard of "Make a Wish Foundation," it's strongly comparable to that. The experience was amazing, and I will be going back, not only because a class back home requires me to, but because this was a place where I can go and just show love to others, strangers at that, and kids with terminal illnesses at that. Anyways look for more information on that in the days, weeks, and months to come. Looking forward to hearing comments on this and miss ya'll very much. I'll be posting again real soon.