gimme all the disney

i get emails regularly asking me or the girls to participate in market research studies.  sometimes they look interesting and i'll respond, but it's rare that we actually get chosen to attend.  so when i received one from disney interactive last week that sounded kind of fun for the bean, i filled out the questionnaire, sent it back and hoped for the best.

well, you can guess where this story is going.  we got a phone call from a disney representative a couple of days ago asking if we were still available for the day and time they needed to fill, and then she asked to speak to the bean.  she doesn't do a lot of talking on the phone other than the occasional call to grandma, so it was funny to watch her all fluttery and nervous as she spoke to some stranger on the line.  but her answers were apparently what they were looking for, because when she handed the phone back to me the rep said that we were all set and that she'd send me an email with the details of location and parking and such.

yesterday found us heading out to glendale right after school to make our 3:30 appointment.  since it was her weekly early-out day and we were going against traffic, we got there with about an hour to kill.  we drove around a little to see if there was anything interesting (there wasn't) and then ended up just parking on the street to hang out, play a game on my phone, and just kind of relax a little.  after awhile, we strapped our seat belts back on, started the car and headed back to the entrance.

the security guard checked my ID and then handed me a parking pass and a guest badge to wear.

we were still a bit early, so we decided to wander around and check things out.  it was a really pretty campus, with modern-looking buildings and a park-like area in the center with lots of places to sit and get some fresh air.

it wouldn't be disney without some character decor. we recognized these from the disney infinity video games.

when we made our way inside the building, there was even more fun stuff to look at.

even the conference rooms were disney-themed.

and there was a table of fun snacks for those attending the "playtest."

when it was finally our appointment time, we were led into one of those conference rooms to fill out the non-disclosure agreement.

 we didn't watch any, but there was a stack of movies to kill time.

then when the bean was taken into a different room to do her thing, i was left to hang out in the conference room, head outside, or grab a drink at the starbucks on the other end of the building.  of course, i chose...

i sat outside for a little while, but it was a really warm day.  when there was no one else around, i grabbed this:

and then i headed back inside the conference room with my drink and a snack to wait for the bean.

she was done about ten minutes later, and we decided to wander a little more just to see what else there might be.

there wasn't much else to look at, although we did pass their branch of the disney cast members' credit union.

and then we spied a bunch of merchandise through a window.  the door was labeled "employee center," but we decided to go inside and check it out.  i mean, we would have left if they'd asked us to, so no biggie, right?

inside was basically a disney store with lots of fun stuff available with a disney employee discount.

there was a section of employee exclusives with the disney logo on it all.

and they had a bunch of merchandise for the upcoming "finding dory" movie.

we didn't attempt to buy anything.  we didn't need any of it anyway, and i noticed that everyone who made a purchase showed an employee badge.

the bean said "mommy, i wanna work here some day.  this place is really cool!"

me too, kid.  me too.