Remember, dear readers, you heard it hear first. Off the record, on the Q.T. and very Hush-Hush.

I'll do this in three parts.  It's not long:

Act I -- The Beginning

My contract position with Disney's Theme Park Merchandise Sourcing team came to an abrupt end and could not be renewed this past July.  This was disappointing for a few reasons:  1. I was getting pretty good at it   2. I really enjoyed it   3. My leaders and I thought there was long-term potential for me doing it.


Did I mention I got the news of this while I was on vacation out in Washington and Oregon?  I made use of the new time off.  I had a great August by taking an epic road trip throughout much of the western U.S. with Mom and Dad.  This worked out great time-wise, because in September I was given the opportunity to join Epcot's management team helping during the Food & Wine Festival.  Unfortunately, this was seasonal and the hours ended in mid-November.

Act II -- I'll call this *Now*

No work from mid-November gave me quite a few free weeks to enjoy going to Wisconsin football games, at least.  And holidays with the family.  And enjoying the Citrus Bowl back down in Orlando.  In fact, the plan after the Citrus Bowl was to haul all of my stuff back to our house in Roscoe, as I did not see much happening employment-wise at Disney anytime soon.  I had a couple of interviews with Universal Studios for a contract position doing Sourcing work that kept me in Orlando a bit longer than I had anticipated.


This resulted in a call that they could use me managing for six weeks at Epcot for the new International Festival of the Arts that was going on.  I told them sure.  In the meantime, another Disney Sourcing position opened up--which was right in line with what I had been doing already for them these past few years.  I applied and had some really good interviews with the Executive team. 


As January rolled into February, I patiently waited and performed my Manager role at Epcot for the Festival.  As February rolled along, everything came together this past week.


I accepted a full-time position to perform strategic sourcing for our Disney Store merchandise team as Associate Sourcing Manager.  For those of you who may not be sure what all my work entails, I found a great brief description from the University of Michigan.  Check it out here.


Disney's corporate headquarters for The Disney Stores is not in Orlando/ Walt Disney World.  It is in Pasadena, CA.  Which is where I will be relocating to over the course of the next month!

Act III -- The Future

It's probably going to be legendary!  Never one to pass on crazy opportunities, moving somewhere different, trying new things, and most importantly getting out West, I believe this will be a great fit for me.  Yes, the cost of living/ housing/ everything else is outrageous.  Yes, traffic is worse than terrible everywhere you go at all times of the day.  Yes, there is smog.  But, the pros simply outweigh any of that.  Time to get excited!

The Dude abides.