In the spring of 1989, things were definitely looking up.  I was having a great time in college, having fun with friends and dating a nice guy, and about to graduate.  Woohoo!  (Little did I know that having a Bachelor’s Degree wouldn’t really help me that much, but I still felt a huge sense of accomplishment).  I still remember taking my last final – I did my best “Dennis Miller from SNL Weekend Update” impersonation, drawing a bunch of circles on a scratch sheet of paper before sending the pen stroke off on a wild tangent, proclaiming “I am outta here!”  I resisted the urge to throw all of my papers up in the air as I left the building.

Once the graduation ceremony was over, it was time to make some decisions.  The guy I had been dating was nice, but I wasn’t “in love” with him, and luckily for me we were able to transition into being friends fairly easily.  The other big decision was to go back to Disneyland for one last fun summer before I settled down to find a “real” job.  So I packed up my stuff and headed back down to my folks’ place in Anaheim, and back to the Park.

As fate would have it, this summer I was assigned to the areas of New Orleans Square and Critter Country, which meant I was in the area of Splash Mountain when it was first opened to guests.  We all would look over the fence that had been constructed as the test runs were happening, anxiously awaiting the chance to ride the newest Disney attraction.

There’s a spot near Splash Mountain that is a convergence zone for Disney cast members.  (There may be other ones in the Park, but this is the one I’m most familiar with).  As you walk from New Orleans Square toward Splash Mountain, just past the exit of the Haunted Mansion, you’ll often see a small knot of 5-6 cast members chatting.  They come together, talk for a few minutes, then disperse.  Wild phenomenon, but a great way to meet other cast members.

One time while I was standing with some other cast members, one guy said something to me, then called me “Kristen”.  This had always been a pet peeve of mine (although I have mellowed on this one), so I held up my name badge and said something like “What does this say?”  He corrected himself, calling me “Kirsten”.  I smiled, thanked him for saying my name correctly, then we all went back to work.

A couple of weeks later, in yet another of these groupings, the same guy was there, and he was rotating his shoulders, trying to massage them.  I asked him what was wrong, and he said that he was sore from the cast member canoe races.  Cast members get to take the Dave Crockett Explorer Canoes out and race them around Tom Sawyer Island before the Park opens, and his team had been down one person, so he had worked extra hard that morning.  I’ve been told that I give good massages, so I offered to meet him later and work on his shoulders for him.  We coordinated our afternoon breaks, and met in a small offstage area near the exit of Haunted Mansion.

As I worked on his shoulders, we got to know each other a little bit.  His name was Jim, and he taught computer programming at a local private elementary school.  He had been working on Davy Crockett Explorer Canoes before being transferred to the opening crew for Splash Mountain.  He came to the Park so often that he figured it would be cheaper to work there during his school vacations.

When the break was over, he said he wanted to thank me for the massage.  In what has to be one of the best lines ever, he said “I’ll buy you dinner, I’ll make you dinner, I’ll even give you money so you can go out with someone else.”  How could a girl refuse?  I said, “You can buy me dinner”, to which he replied “I’d rather make you dinner.”  He cooks?!? 

I arrived at his house at 5:00 for dinner, and we connected immediately.  We talked, ate dinner, talked, laid out in the hammock in his back yard, talked, watched the premiere episode of “Doogie Howser, M.D.”, talked, kissed, and talked some more.  I finally left his house at 2:00 in the morning.  A nine-hour date – that has to be some kind of record.  I didn’t know it at the time, but the relationship had taken root and wasn’t going to let go.