Bittersweet Symphony

Today was bittersweet. I haven't blogged in forever... too busy hanging out with people and having pot luck dinners. Now that people are leaving I have time to slow down and collect my thoughts. I finished my internship today and said goodbye to everyone and it was a little sad. I'm glad to be heading back "home" to Manhattan but having everyone say over and over again "You're leaving? Aww... well we will miss you!" made me a little gloomy. They whipped together a pot luck for me and I brought thank-you baked goods. They gave me a picture they all signed. People told me to hurry back. Bless their hearts!

On a less sentimental note I also got to go "fly" a simulated airplane today. Very cool. Be jealous. Actually don't be too jealous, it made me nauseous. I'm terrible and theme parks and I would make a horrible pilot. Oh well.

Oh and one other unfortunate thing happened. There was a roach incident. It was traumatic. It came out of nowhere and ran across my desk. I yelped. I also made Darrell come over and chase it away. He then did the chivalrous thing and hosed it down with Windex. Darrell's a good guy. He hugged me when I left. So it turned out ok in the end.

Tomorrow I am going to try to be a packing/cleaning machine. It won't likely be too fun. but you gotta do what you gotta do.

One long and painful day

So I had the longest day on record. Seriously someone called in from Guinness Records to confirm. Ok not really. My day started out rough. I forgot my badge so I had to get a temporary one. I tried to figure out the best place to park to minimize my walking in and out of the building since I can't use my normal gate with a temporary ("turkey") badge (that's what the guys on the floor called it). This ended up making me drive against the arrows in the parking lot like a doofus and then park in what felt like downtown Fort Worth. I probably walked between 1.5 and 2 miles to my desk this morning.

Once I was finally there I had just enough time to check my e-mail before I went to take my test for my online class. I feel like I was well prepared except that I left a key equation off my sheet which made me take the full 2 hours to finish the exam. I then had one hour to use until a training session. Thing is once you include walking and buying my lunch I was working for about 20 minutes. Keep in mind that going between my desk and the building where I took my test and did my training is about a 15 minute walk. Brisk walk. Add that to the 1.5-2 miles I booked before and after work and we've successfully integrated exercise into my work day! In my work clothes! Across a steamy parking lot! Yay! (Obviously NOT yay).

But who am I to complain? Our friend Rachel (not my roommate) had a car accident yesterday (she's fine physically just, you know, not thrilled about the situation). We are making her dinner tonight (I'm contributing some easy-peasy brownies) so she doesn't have to hang out by herself. That should make both of us happier I would imagine. :)

It's been a long day but tomorrow will be better.

My Struggles (NOT Mein Kampf!)

I swear when I titled this it was not intended to be a play on Hitler's book. Promise. I really am writing about a struggle I am currently having. The one of work/life balance. Or in my case work/life/school balance. For whatever reason I don't seem to be able to ever accomplish everything I should. I fantasize about the day when I don't have but work and life to balance but I'm sure my life and work will just swell to fill the gap and I'll still have a laundry list of "I should have's". I haven't been consistent at anything but going to work and trying to study (inefficiently) over the past week. Everything else is intermittent. This includes cleaning, dealing with my finances, exercise, and picking up after myself. Don't get me wrong I try to hit up those things but I just don't get around to it like I should.

Either way my life isn't so bad. I like my job a lot. For the first time it feels like I was requested instead of thrust upon my employer. The ol' "oh yea... you're here... uh... you can do this!" was getting old. I'm wrapping up a project where I help document parts of the process that can be moved off of the critical path. I finished the "schedule" I made for it today and barring major overhaul I think it's done (knock on wood). I'm about to embark on my next work adventure--documenting tooling in our area in detail so they can plan for it's storage as they finish construction and expansion of our area. It's a huge undertaking but it's going to keep me busy which is key to making the day pass.

This weekend for the 4th we didn't do a heck of a lot. Slept adequate amounts which was lovely. We saw Transformers: Dark side of the Moon which was awesome. Also I went and re-watched Bridesmaids which was epic the second time (just in case you were concerned it didn't have staying power). Yesterday we did and intern pool-side barbecue and then we went and parked our lawn chairs on the edge of the river to watch fireworks. Good times had by all! Here are a few pictures to prove I have friends and we did in fact see fireworks:

The Rachel's! Left to right, Rachel and Rachel (my roommate).

Alex! He's a good sport about hanging with the girls in Phil's absence. :)

7th Street bridge... We though the fireworks would be over the bridge... they were through the tree just out of shot. No worries though...

Other view from our spot. This is where the magic happens... when you miscalculate where the fireworks are supposed to be and end up watching a different show...

SEE?! There they go. I think these came from the botanical gardens. They were pretty legit.

And more fireworks but this time with a little artistic river reflection added for some drama. You're welcome.

No phone makes me feel crazy...

Well because I can't talk much about what I do it's hard to think of things to put in these updates. I have started going to the shop floor to figure out the process so I can hopefully help them improve it. Other than that I've just been getting training and access to files and other "housework" of starting a new job. I've made friends with a group of assemblers on the floor and they and everyone else has been very nice and helpful. The other engineers are very busy but they always do their best to help me out. I'm trying really hard not to hover over them or seem needy but it's hard at first when you don't even know what questions to ask or what to do next after you finish each task. I'm getting the hang of the rhythm of the place and I don't think anyone wants to push me off the mezzanine yet so that's good.

As for other stuff I haven't done much outside of work since there are limited hours and I haven't quite gotten the complete lay of the Fort Worth social land. I've been to the grocery store a lot. The produce at Central Market is RIDICULOUS! AMAZING! Peaches taste like CANDY! Clearly I spend a lot of time thinking about, purchasing, preparing, and enjoying food. Down here that's mostly fruit. It's awesome. I've also started running. Not much but something has to counteract my other activities. In fact the other night I went to Fuzzy's Tacos and then shopping for produce. It was a magical night. Followed by a jog. You see what I'm talking about? If you'd ever had a taco from Fuzzy's you'd really get it. That's a new favorite of mine besides the TX peaches.

In related news if you haven't tried a Rolo McFlurry may I suggest you immediately go to the nearest McD's and get one? Stat. Seriously.

This random stream of consciousness is brought to you by a broken Samsung Rogue that now functions on par with a rotary phone. I'm having thoughts buildup that is causing these sudden and unorganized outbursts. Expect nothing better for the next week and a half or so. Sorry.

Drinking from a fire hose

This summer's gonna be good! I got my project described to me in detail today, and I am supposed to feel free to seek out additional projects and work. I should feel like I'm "drinking from a fire hose" for the rest of the summer... Hope I don't drown!

Today I started getting my access to various files and online resources as well as getting my desk stocked with supplies. After work I went to lunch with my supervisor who is great. She's a fellow wildcat! There are several wildcats in the department as well as a very friendly longhorn (who showed me pictures of his grand-kids) and a quiet but very nice horned frog who sits at the desk behind me. Sports allegiances are quite prominent for those who have them and no one is bashful about any school pride or ribbing of rivals. It's going to be a fun work environment.

This evening I finished up my lecture for my online class and then went on a bit of an adventure. I had a happy accident when I landed at a World Market (an international food and decor store) instead of the Central Market (a grocery store). A simple mistake. It worked out. I found sugar free coconut syrup for my coffee (I swooned and hugged it right there in the store) and a mini bottle of white wine for my dinner. I also picked up a treat: chocolate covered macadamia nuts. :)

I then came home to kind of butcher my dinner plan. Word to the wise, if you are planning to make faux noodles out of zucchini you should boil them for perhaps 10 seconds. Barely at all. Just kind of warm them up. I actually boiled mine. They basically turned to mush. Oops. Lesson learned.

The plan for the rest of the night... well I'm not certain at this point but I'm guessing I don't do much. My work schedule is a match to the shift work so I go in around 6:30am and then leave around 3:30 or 4 depending on how long it takes me to eat my lunch. Hence I'm tired. Quite tired. I may go to the pool and hang or perhaps I'll just read. We'll see what happens.

Day 1

Well my first day (half day) is over. I have been photographed for a badge and my paperwork has been filled out. It was largely uneventful. Sorry about leading anyone to believe that my life would get more exciting or be more newsy today. My bad.

On the plus side I met some fun fellow interns and we may very well be going bowling this evening! Hopefully that is enough to satisfy anyone's need for news.

I am a Lone Star...

My parents have gone and I'm finally moved into my apartment. Now what? Well here's what I did today:

~Breakfast at Paris Coffee Shop

~Groceries at Tom Thumb (not kidding...check out the twitpic from that trip!)

~Rearranged the living room furniture

~Made sangria

~"Worked out" (a little... at least I TRIED!)

~Skyped Kyle

~Drank Sangria

All in all it was a productive day! More exciting news to follow once I start working. At least I hope so! ;)