Autism Speaks

So last Sunday was Autism Speaks.  It was the first day Shortcake worked at Santaland this season.  She had to be there early because the event was at 8am.  What's the event, you ask?  Well.  It's a prearranged time when parents can bring their children who are on the spectrum to see Santa.  There's no music, the lights are muted, and the elves and Santa are trained how to interact with children on the spectrum.  It's a lovely event.

Here's the kicker.

The reservation system had reservations open from 7am-10am on Sunday.  Santaland didn't open to the public until 10am, but people showed up expecting to see him as of 7am.  The store wasn't even open.  So Santa had to see some people from the event AND people from the reservations.

Basically, the box office didn't talk to the production office about the performance schedule.

Insert roar of frustration here.

And we also had reservations for Monday and Tuesday.  We were going to soft open on Monday, forcing Cider to come in 2 hours early, (And Cider was NOT happy about that.  There may have been angry yelling texts exchanged.  Luckily, Shortcake is well versed in getting yelled toward over text.  No, that sentence may not have made sense, but yes, that is exactly when she meant to say.) but then the managers were able to e-mail the people with reservations (amazing what databases can enable) and tell them to come at 10am.  We did a small soft open on Tuesday because of another event - but that's Tuesday, and we're talking about Sunday.

The point is: Autism Speaks went well.  Once Santaland opened to the public, everything went smoothly.  We were busy all day, and it was Peppercorn and Shortcake aka the Dream Team.  Shortcake was still sick, so her energy was low all day.  She still felt confident about how she did her switches, and Santa was ready early after all his breaks.  Santa was at Breakfast with Santa forever.  He didn't come back up until after 1pm.  Good Lord, breakfast people.  Santa has other things to do, you know.

Oh, at one point Shortcake was walking behind Santa as he walked back into the Santa room.  He stopped to get water, but Shortcake didn't see him stop, so she walked directly into him.  Her face hit his shoulder.  Santa laughed and giggled at Shortcake.  She deserved it.

Here's the fancy vacuum Housekeeping uses to clean the Santa room.  It's labeled.  (If you can't see, it says "Santaland."


Puncake came to visit Santa after Shortcake got off work.



Santa asked Puncake what he wanted, and this time Puncake wanted a pet dolphin.  (Shortcake wanted self-discipline.)  Santa then quizzed Puncake on how he would care for the dolphin.  Here is a short play, highly paraphrased and subject to Shortcake's memory and interpretation:

PUNCAKE: I would like a pet dolphin.
SANTA: Do you have an aquatic habitat for the dolphin to live in?
PUNCAKE: I would also like an aquatic habitat.
SANTA: And what will you do to keep the dolphin entertained?
PUNCAKE: Play games.
SANTA: I like the way you think.  What games?
PUNCAKE: Basketball.
SANTA: Hm hm.
PUNCAKE: [some other game that Shortcake can't remember, but it doesn't matter]
SANTA: You lost me.
PUNCAKE: Water polo.
SANTA: And we're back.  And how will you engage the dolphin's mind?
PUNCAK: Build a maze.
SANTA: I like the way you think.

And then Shortcake and Puncake went home to do, wait for it, it's gonna be legendary, laundry.  But first Puncake found a musical instrument on the subway and played it.

Yeah, that green rafter steel thing has buttons you can push to make sounds.  This made Puncake very happy.