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.

Rooooaaaaadtriiiiiiiiiiip!

So Saturday was essentially all driving. Conway to Little Rock airport to Houston. It was just a long day on the road. I got to Houston about 5 (yea I didn't get lost or anything--miracle!) or so and was immediately greeted by my homegirl, Jennifer. Missed the crap outta that girl fo realz. We spent the rest of that evening on various shenanigans including, red wine + peach schnapps (which is DELICIOUS and DEADLY), dinner at Alexander the Great (a Greek place around the corner--I had braised lamb shank and it was delightful!), a run to Walgreens for CHEAP wine (we only had that one bottle which was NOT sufficient to meed the needs of all of us, let alone the new wine fetish of Julia and Jen), and drinking said cheap wine while we lounged around in Jen and Julia's room listening to some choice tunes. Those in attendance included Jen and Julia (obviously), Maria, Anjelica, Aislinn, myself, AAAAAND.... Donnald! That's right, the man we all know and love, the pimp the men envy, the one and only Rap Master D! Also known as D Money, he is so fly he can get his nails painted pink and have no one even dare THINK of revoking his man card (lest he shame them to their core with his lyrical stylings). It was a great night.

Today we spent the whole day at a race track. Not the ponies but go karts! It was a long day because there were so many (70) of us but it was a good time. We got there at approximately noon and the final race wasn't until 6 (a whole 5 hours after we began... we had to "warm up" and then qualify...intense!) so we didn't leave until... something like 8ish. Woof. When we finally made it back to the Double Tree we ate some of the tastiest pizza ever and then we all pretty much dispersed to go either to bed or to work on our presentations (don't worry I'm done). It was just a fun day but I'm wiped, however my devotion to you dear readers has kept me up long enough to do some behind the scenes reporting. You're welcome.

Tomorrow: presentations and then one of our infamous dinners on the company tab. I'm hoping my liver can handle it...it's kinda out of practice after this very lame summer. I'll let you know how it goes... eventually.

In unrelated news I finished my first recreational book in ages. State of Fear by the almighty Michael Crichton. Very good. Thought provoking. I recommend it.

And finally we'll wrap up tonight with the usual countdown:

Houston: NOW!!!

Manhattan: 4 days!!!

SFKS: ONE week!!! (MOM IT'S SO CLOSE!)

Goodnight and good luck.

I used to long for days like this...why?

It's funny how when I was in the filed I used to dream about an office day, sitting at my laptop in the air conditioning wearing jeans and regular shoes and no hard hat. Today I had my dreams fulfilled and it was kinda boring. I think it would help if my project was a little more involved but I'm not complaining because the alternative is sleeping in a truck and lugging hose while sweating like a yeti.

I researched flow meters online, talked to people to get information, and started putting together my final presentation. I also Facebook'ed (a lot) and read some news online (Lindsey Lohan was released from prison last night in case you missed that earth shaking event) and listened to my iTunes. Don't worry I'm progressing just fine; I talked to Sharron and she told me so. She even thanked me for my enthusiasm. I'm glad she wasn't directly monitoring me...

Tonight is another Papa Johns night which makes me super happy (oh and lunch was Holly's--I had roast beef, mashed potatoes, and FRIED OKRA...yea...it was good!). I think I'm going to go to the gym tonight, too (who am I?). All in all this day (and likely this week) would be erased from the movie of my life but for now I'm ok with that. I'm just plodding along, looking forward to presenting on Thursday, packing all day Friday, and driving to Houston on Saturday to begin the final festivities with my new intern friends (who I miss a lot)! You know what Loverboy said: Everybody's working for the weekend... :)

So... what do you want me to DO?

Today was our first day in coil tubing. It just so happens that they aren't doing any jobs just now so today was a rare yard day which for them means much needed maintenance work on their equipment. The coil tubing department does all their own maintenance and they don't have a chance to do it often so you would think they'd have more for interns to do... unfortunately they are swimming in green hats (newbies) so this was not the case. First thing Tommy (coil tubing manager) did was show us all the equipment (again for Anjelica and I who did it last week) and next he tried to split us up. The first option offered was to help him with inventory which made the others sick so they threw me under the bus immediately by looking at me and saying "isn't that what you guys do?!" I didn't mind, because they're kind of right so I took it. The other two were sent with guys to go "help" fix things that are broken. Turns out none of us did anything that I'm aware. Tommy spends his time trying to pretend he can multitask--fighting fires, helping the guys fix things, and organizing the department-- which means he ignored that I was there. I sat and watched him pour over schematics with the guys for a good hour and a half this afternoon until Ryan (a newer engineer in the department) came to my rescue. He just sat me down and showed me the paperwork he was working on but it was still WAY better than listening to schematic babble. He's nice and he's only 24 so he seems to "get it" more than the old guys. The young people know a little better what it means for us to be interns. He's also pulling for us to have tomorrow off and he let us go at 4:40 or so today because he realized we were just standing around the whole day. I like this Ryan guy.

As of now it looks like we won't go out on a job until Monday or Tuesday. We don't know much besides that. At this point I'm just pulling for Tommy to delegate us out to engineers to shadow so that we actually do things because watching him pretend to juggle things kind of blows. So far the coil tubing engineers and supervisors I've met are cool so here's hoping.

Tonight we're hoping to think of something fun to do since worst case scenario we have to go in to the yard by 9 tomorrow. Fingers crossed that we come up with something because these nights off are so few and far between. I'll let you know if we come up with anything...

And the skies opened up, and God said...

People rejoice for there hath been a miracle! When we arrived for our 8am yard time (praise be it was so late!) we found out that today (not tomorrow) was our last day of frac! Knowing that it was in fact my last day made today a lot more bearable. We were rigging up (night crew rigged down after we left last night) which is a long, rough day. Fortunately, little of the equipment had been moved when we got there so we didn't have too much work to do. We ended up taking a lot of good breaks which helps a lot. There was also a good breeze most of the day (See? God exists and he loves me!). To top it all off the crew we worked with (all new guys minus Justo and Leelund) was pretty fun. Citizens of Francie, brace yourselves--one of my new favorite guys is John Stevens. He's an older guy, native to Arkansas and he cracks me up! I can't tell you some of his catch phrases that have become common to the crew (words unfit for civilized company) but they get me every time. I also had a heart to heart with Leelund today while we soaked up a bit of air conditioning. He told me a little about his life--he's my age but married three years with two little girls. I finally met the infamous duo of Flower and Daisy. People talk about them as a set (because they have the same shift schedule) and so I've been waiting to meet them. Flower got his nickname because he's "a bloomin' idiot" (seems nice to me) and Daisy started with him and they couldn't both be flower... these two are good guys and Daisy even told me on the ride home that he appreciated having us there and that we should skip out on coil tubing and stay with the yellow crew (at least for rig ups anyway). Nice thing to say. And best of all, I met a fellow Wildcat today--Mike is a recent grad of K-State (Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering) and he's been with the company only since the beginning of the year. We agreed that there is no place like Manhattan and he misses it. Also best of all because we were rigging up and didn't need to wait to be relieved, we got home around 7:30. AWESOME!

Tomorrow we're going to go in and help with maintenance of the coil tubing equipment. Tommy (the guy in charge of coil tubing) said that if we get it all done he likes to give his crews Sundays off. Furthermore, because these crews don't have shifts and they go out and stay until the job is done, meaning a few days at a time, he would probably put us on the crew that he was sending a trailer with. That goes out most likely on TUESDAY!!! So much time not spent working (or at least not like we've been the past week) and it's not even my birthday... This morning was just full of great news. Probably another reason my day seemed so much less painful than it should have.

Right now I am eating pizza I had delivered by Papa Johns. It tastes like possibly the best pizza ever. Maybe because I haven't eaten normally all week. Maybe because it is the best pizza ever. The world may never know.

It's Thursday I think...

So the days are running together again... we had a discussion this morning before leaving the yard and someone had lost a week of their life... they thought it was the 15ht or so and this came to light when they checked their phone because they didn't believe it was Thursday.

Today was another day of staging the job. I planned my day a little better and spent my morning outside and my afternoon in the FracCAT. I didn't really do anything at all today. Just watched and listened. Towards the end of the day I did go sit next to Justo who runs the 13 pump trucks on location from the FracCAT and he kind of taught me his job. It was pretty interesting and intense. Basically, if sh!t hits the fan, it's kind of his head on the chopping block. No pressure. He let me prime up the pumps on our last stage of the night. Very thrilling. ;) We also ran into Brendan today finally. The wireline guys are there and between stages they set plugs and perforate. We assumed we'd have to see Brendan on one of these crews eventually and it finally happened today. He has yet to work a weekend and he just works when he wants to. It made me want to punch him a little bit.

Our day didn't end until 9 or so because we were late arriving this morning (had to wait for the rig relocaters... the people they hire to drive us around when we're out of vans or drivers) and on our drive home Jose (the engineer), Anjelica and I fell asleep in the back of the pick-up. This meant that the driving supervisor and Leelund (an operator) decided to mess with us and pull the ol' drive over the rumble strips, swerve and yell obscenities trick. Needless to say that was the highlight of their day.

I forgot to mention a couple of things I am thankful for. A couple of the non-tangibles...

* Notes from my mother who remind me of the closet of last summer and how awful that job was and how much she loves and misses me. Thanks Momma!

* Notes from Emily that say things like please quit your job and come back immediately or I miss you. It's nice to know I'm missed by people besides my Mom (no offense Mom, but you're a given and I love you for that!)

* Texts from Kyle that say things like you'll be alright, and hang tough. Though they kind of irritate me at the time it's only because I know he's right and I do need to just woman up already. Sometimes you just need to hear it.

*Bananas. I know it seems random but last night I didn't get cramps in my calves in the middle of the night and I'd like to give at least half of the credit to the banana I ate that morning. The other half goes to stretching. Cramps in the middle of your 6 hours of sleep suck big time. Potassium for the win!

We interns are cursed

Day two in the shop makes me think we interns have some kind of hex on us, at least when we're in the yard. At least me. We got split up today and I worked with Matt on rebuilding a slinger (the thing that mixes the sand and water for frack jobs) and NOTHING went the way it was supposed to. First of all people needed the crane so we sat around waiting for it for most of the day. Secondly, when we got things taken apart we had to take about another one to trade the sand plates. When we did, the water plate didn't match up with the new sand plate which has never happened before in the shop. Literally everyone was stumped by this. Once we got ANOTHER water plate and put it on, the reworked bottom and middle parts didn't fit together correctly. What should have taken an hour or an hour and a half took ALL DAY LONG and wasn't even done at the end of the day because it had to be torn down, scrapped out and re-done by the night shift. Matt was ticked. Fortunately I still learned a ton about slingers and in spite of the troubles I think I could probably rework one if I had to (under close supervision of course...). I know the difference between a road-side and a curb-side slinger (the direction of rotation of the water...and how that slurry will get to it's next destination on the truck due to it's orientation) and I know that you never re-use a slinger bolt or the bolts that connect the plates. I also know that the top, middle, and bottom parts of the slinger can be re-worked once and then they have to be scrapped. I told him I am nothing if not a good listener.

I realize I haven't put up pictures in a while so let's have a moment to go back and appreciate some of my past adventures as well as some more current ones, in photos...

The bulk plant team!

My first job! A surface (cement) job on a VERY small well. Shawn's crew--you'll note that I rode to the site in the truck with the tanks (at right) and the other truck mixes and pumps the cement (rear of said truck at left). Shawn's pick-up monitors it all!

I don't know why but it refuses to let me delete this duplicate photo of Shawn... sorry.

Shawn (unaware I am photographing him) as the cement is pumped. In the background, Jay the pump operator makes the magic happen.

My bed for my first two jobs... yep... the cab.

This is Kevin on my second job. He's fun. Not a fan of the camera but he's fun.

On that second job we found a HUGE bug. A bug of EPIC PROPORTIONS!!! Orange glove for reference and Anjelica in the background for added drama.

That's a slinger...kind of. It's 1/2 taken apart. The things that look like giant mints are the water plates. The white (new) one is bolted to the sand plate.

This is Matt... he's attaching the water plate. He's a little frustrated by now.

This is Adam putting the middle and bottom parts together...or trying. They don't fit. He's irritated because he's not the first to try and it still isn't working.

That's the silicone job I did... lots of silicone! I was told to "annihilate" that thing with the caulking gun. Mission accomplished.

Job 3... I'm getting better at this

Third job went out last night (7pm yard time got to the site a little before 10) and we got to sleep through the night. I'm in a much more positive mood after this job for a few reasons...

*I thought I'd have to go immediately on another job but Momma Sharron saved us and put us off to a night job. I love her.

*I discovered the sleeping outside on the fender of the ABT (truck with the cement tanks) is WAY more comfortable than the cab of the truck.

*Turns out that sometimes they have a trailer that no one is using and so we (the non-drivers who don't get sleepers) got to go sleep in BEDS. REAL BEDS. Granted they had no sheets but it was EONS better than the cab and even better than the fender.

* I had a fun crew this time around. Wednesday's crew was just...not...fun. They were serious and gloomy. My driver, Gary was nice enough but I got the distinct feeling that Ross didn't like me. He went on this job with us and he was nicer. I think it's just the mix of people you get. Brian, our engineer, was a good guy. "The best" according to Bucky (not kidding...his name is Paul but he hates it...so he goes with Bucky...whatever).

* The weather was reasonable today. I've been working at night and dreading a day job because of the heat and humidity but it rained last night and was overcast for most of the day. It got hot around noonish but then the rain came back. It soaked us but it did feel nice when it started. And we were about done anyway. I rode home soggy but not nearly as soggy as Danny (my driver) who had it "clear down to the underwear." These guys crack me up. They give each other so much crap over the CB radio and on site that it keeps you pretty entertained in spite of the fact that we sit for hours waiting for this and that.

This was a production job (like I think job 2 was) so we pumped cement for about 3 hours. During that time I am normally just standing (or sitting or perching) around hoping that someone will let me flip a valve open. Today they had me doing more of the same but I think I looked too stagnant so he sent me to the other side of the rig to watch returns. This means stand around out of site and watch the oil based mud come circulating back out of the ground to be sifted and settled before it goes back down. You do that to make sure it stays the same. You don't want circulation to slow or speed up. Not sure what that means to the job I just know it's not supposed to do that. So I stood there for what felt like an eternity (probably an hour or two) occasionally "helping" by glancing at the mud in the shaker. Don't worry, it stayed pretty constant.

In unrelated news, I forgot to mention I went to buy books the other day to read during the waiting parts and I treated myself to the Pioneer Woman cookbook. Great life choice. I already made the pancakes (Emily, you introduced me to them and PW herself, I thank you from the bottom of my heart) and they were spectacular! I'm sad that I am ill equipped to make much of anything in it just now but I'm stoked to get it home to my kitchen and whip up some amazing stuff. Get ready friends and family, I may try to feed you. Go with it--she's amazing and so is her food.

Another slow day in the bulk plant

As the title implies, I had ample time today to practice my new found skill of falling asleep while sitting on pallets of additives. I'm totally grateful that we didn't have a day like Nick had where we were stuck until 11 hauling sacks. Just don't think I'd like it much.

Today we loaded one cement job and then we spend the rest of the day doing cleaning and maintenance. We pressure washed the tanks outside and then helped them change out and clean "fluffers" on the tanks of raw materials. Fluffers are the parts through which compressed air is put into the tanks to help move the product out. I don't know if that's the main means of pressuring up the tanks because these things have rubber sleeves over the ends and Andy said when air goes through they "vibrate" to help the dry dust (cement and such) move better. These things get clogged up with cement and need to be rotated out for cleaning. There are several parts that have to be unscrewed (usually with the aid of a pipe wrench) and then have the cement cake chiseled out of them. This was where we were most helpful. We helped clean them and I helped put one back in too. Big day.

Here's Anjelica helping will get that rubber part off the end of the fluffer. Some of them are wedged on there pretty good. :)

To wash the tanks we got to climb on top of them. They're maybe three stories tall so that was kinda fun I suppose.

These are the tanks in question...

This is Justin, doing the very important job of holding the hose so it doesn't get tangled up. It's hard...

This is Mike doing work while Justin, Anjelica and I supervise. Get it, Mike!

And here I am supervising. Note the size of the truck in the background...we're up high. :) This is also my standard look--"one-sie" blues (not dirty yet), hard hat, prescription safety glasses (so I'm the only one who has to wear them 100% of the time...), and pigtail braids (they fit nicely under the hard hat...no muss, no fuss). Not attractive but whatev...

And...my custom tailoring of my PPE...they are a little big but duct-tape works just great for shortening them...

At one point today Mario was showing off with feats of strength... Justin didn't do an adequate job of tightening the wings and so Mario called him out. This was the result of the show of manliness:

Holding the sledge hammer with one hand... you have to touch your nose...without breaking it.

Of course, Mario can do it.

And then he was hot and sweaty so he had to go stand in front of the fan with his nomex open. He did a little dance for me when he saw I took out my camera. I love this guy...

Bulk Plant...it is what it is..

So today we worked in the bulk plant. We had to start our day at 7 (I think lots of parts of the yard do but lab let us come in at 8...I think because the morning prep work and paper work was not intern friendly) and we finished at 6. By finished I mean they let us go because they hadn't used us for anything all afternoon and in spite of having more work to do, we were probably irritating to look at perched atop palates of additives. Anyway... We spent most of the day waiting. "Hurry up and wait" is the theme of the oil and gas world. We made several (I forget exactly how many) batches of cement for the cementing department and at the end of the day we also filled a truck with liquid nitrogen for the coil tubing department. Mixing cement means getting a recipe and dumping bags of additives into a hopper that feeds into the bulk tanks. All the additives mix with the cement from the bulk tanks and transfer to and from a couple of the empty ones a few times to get them mixed to a homogeneous blend. We just helped empty bags into the hopper.

Loading additives into the hopper. It gets messy real fast.

We also swept the shop a few times as it gets pretty dusty with all the bags being ripped open. We also helped hook the hoses to the trucks that took the cement to the jobs. That is trickier than it sounds because the hoses are heavy rubbery numbers with iron wings to screw them to things. Sometimes it takes two people to do it. I did it by myself pretty quickly once which made me feel like a beast.

Like I said, we sat around a lot today because they recently hired a bunch more guys for the bulk plant and a move to day/night shifts is imminent. There are more than enough people to get things done so the little intern girls get to watch. Because it's hot we're pretty ok with this (but it was fun to get dirty for a change...I'm sure I'll eat those words later).

Anjelica, modeling our dirty blues. Work it girl!

Today we met:

Mario--a Mexican man who's basically second in charge (in charge of us interns and the guys lifting sacks into the hopper). His English is dicey but we get the point most of the time (he uses a lot of charades). He keeps things going in order and make sure we measure things up right. He's also got mad forklift skills. Seriously he whips that thing around with such precision!

The one and only Mario. He was making fun of me by striking poses while I took pictures of other things but then this is what he gives me when I point my camera at him...

Justin--nice guy, has a couple little girls and his fiancée is working nights in the dispatch office.

Nick--also nice. An Arkansas native.

Will--very new (a week I think), nice, and learning along side of us. Receives most of Mario's life lesson style speeches about how to do things and why we do them the way we do. This means he is the cause of at least 1/2 of Mario's little dance numbers which crack us up.

Andy--He says in the air conditioned cube in the corner of the shop, running pumps and giving signals. Don't know much about him but he seems nice.

Several other guys who's names I never heard or forgot--all seem pretty nice. I think they are going easy on the only two girls in the shop. I'm only vaguely offended but the heat makes it hard to notice.

Will, Mike, and... Brandon? I hope that's his name...

The guys try to include us but at some point it's hard to do that without stalling the process and we respect that. Tomorrow I'm going to try to weasel my way into the cube to see what goes on in there. I have to try to learn something good to put in my journal. Also it's air conditioned which I don't hate.

By the way...here's the lay of the land...

That's the main building (offices, dispatch, mechanic's shop) and part of the yard. Just beyond it near those trees is parking lot. Slightly to the right...

...is the rest of the yard... lots of trucks. All large and special purpose for the most part. That's basically the yard but there are a few more trailer-y buildings behind the main office building (like the lab...).

And if you turn around in that spot... the bulk plant! Over yonder is the cube and just beyond the fork lift is the hopper. Also notice all the palates of additives for the cement we make to the left. Outside behind all this is the series of big tanks. I don't know why I neglected to photograph that... tomorrow!

Conway, Conway, where for art thou, Conway

So here we are at the end of the Kellyville training experience (kind of a decent band name there...) and we are all preparing (and by this I mean drinking by the pool) to head out to our locations. I am basically done packing and I have taken the Canadians to Braum's (they don't have it up there) so all that's left is for me to join the merriment down at the pool. I plan to play it pretty low key because I agreed to drive one of my fellow Conway-bound interns to the airport in the morning at the early hour of 6:30 (I'm so nice), but I can't skip out entirely because somehow, in three weeks, I have become friends with these some odd 70 of us. Who'd'a thought (who'd a? who'd of? who'd-a?...whatever)?

Brief recap of Sunday, Monday and Tuesday:

All you need to know about Sunday is that Toy Story 3 changed my life. I'm normally stone faced in any movie but I was a little misty at the end of this one. I'm crazy--I've accepted it. It was just that good.

Monday was a long and boring day of learning about D&M (drilling and measurements)...we basically sat around and waited for the bus between 3 and 5... so fun. Monday night we went to The Melting Pot for birthday fondue (Anna's birthday to be exact). It was AMAZING. I've never had a dinner of multiple courses or one that was mostly fondue style. Delicious!

Tuesday was even more boring that Monday (I didn't even think that was possible)--at least in the morning. The afternoon proved more enjoyable as we got our summer projects assigned to us. My project (drum roll please) is to come up with a volume chart for a new tank in Conway. I'll basically be dusting off what calculus I retained and integrating for volume and correlating it with the depth of the substance being stored. Feel free to be impressed (or vomit...either way). I can't quite decide if I'm excited about this or not. It's totally doable and practical which I like but it does have that element of calculus (the devil's work) to it. We'll see how I feel about it in the morning and in the coming week.

Now tomorrow I head to Conway to really get down to business. As excited as I am to get to work and really apply the things I've learned (how to lift heavy things properly), I'm going to miss hanging out with all these crazy interns here in Tulsa. The good news is that I'll see a lot of them in Houston in August for wrap-up. *Sigh*

The weekend, so close yet so far...

Today was yet another scintillating day of wireline. The good news here is that we spent the whole day "down hill." I know what you're thinking, "isn't that something she whines about?" and the answer is yes. Normally. Today we walked down in the morning (not so hot yet) and we stayed there all day in the wireline buildings. We didn't even change into our PPE until after lunch!

We spent the morning doing simulations of well logging--running tools in and out of hole to read Gama rays to confirm depth and so forth. We sat in little rooms made to be a bit like the wireline trucks that had two computers--one for the operator and one for the engineer-- and we ran computer programs that looked like we were looking at our workstations--the operator also having a control panel and the "window" to see the equipment as it ran and the guy on the rig floor giving signals. We did two proper runs, logging the wells for the "client" and then we were told to just play with it. To a group of interns this means "break it" so we did everything they told us not to do and watched the resulting mayhem. It's not nearly as dramatic as we would have liked but we did get the rig floor guy to give frantic "stop!" signals and we did get our tool stuck down hole and disconnected (which we've been told means we're f***ed and fired) so that was kinda fun.

This afternoon they put us in a tool shop with a guy who normally just supervises a class and he told us what parts were there and then said "alright, take 'em apart!" and then we did. Then came the hard part--we had to put them back together. It was hard but way more fun than sitting and listening to another presentation about well logging. I also bonded with our supervisor and I think I have him convinced that he should organize an arranged marriage between me and his apparently rich and successful son. We'll see if anything materializes. When we left there we went back "up hill" to work on our presentation for tomorrow. We are presenting to an investor looking to provide power to a community of 100,000 people and is deciding between wind energy and oil/gas. Unfortunately I have fallen on the sacrificial goat team of wind energy. We know we're set up to fail but we're gonna give it the good ol' college try. Working on said presentation lasted about an hour of the given two and then we just talked about random things. I mostly eavesdropped on Chad and Kathleen talking about dating in college and I now know his game plan for picking up ladies at the bar. It was a productive afternoon.

Tonight we are going to have a little "fiesta" at Leslie's apartment to watch the basketball game and work on this God-forsaken project. I'm guessing the game and fiesta will take top priority and we'll end up slappin' this bad boy together late tonight/early in the morning before we pitch it. Hopefully I'm wrong. I guess we'll see.

Oh wireline...

Today was day one of wireline. We're doin' this all week. Wireline is the method of gathering data about a well (and more specifically the geology below the well site and many facts about it's properties). This data is gathered by lowering any number of tools down a borehole on a length of wire--hence the name wireline. We spent the day with a guy from Trinidad who had the best accent. He was lots of fun (as are most of the teachers and employees) and I'm sad we don't get him all week. He told us all kinds of things about wireline and then trotted us down hill to see some stuff. Thankfully it was rainy today so we didn't sweat our butts off in our PPE. We also got to talk to a couple of wireline operators of sorts--not engineers but the guys who rig up and run the equipment--and they seemed fun. They told us that we were entering the field at a good time because things were just starting to pick up after a slump. I couldn't help but think that it feels like the worst time what with the situation in the gulf but whatever...

After class today I learned a new word from my friend Kayla. She's Canadian (from Alberta--the only rat-free province...only rat free place really) so we teach each other slang words. The word of today is keener. I guessed on the spelling but keener means someone who is overeager. Think the extra credit whore in class who sits up front and tries to butter up the teacher. Can also be the kid with 20 colors of pens and lots of tabbed folders and all kinds of sticky labels for things. I like this word. I got it in exchange for janky (or jankity as I sometimes use). Even trade I'd say. PS here's a picture of Kayla(she's between Jennifer and I). I like her lots. She's fun. In this particular picture we are displaying our excitement about the circus we are about to see.

TGIF and Weekend!

Friday we got lucky and got to leave the training center early! We spent the day learning to lift things safely and use stairs properly. We also wore drunk goggles to play catch and rode "The Convincer"--an apparatus that simulates a 4-5 mph crash into a brick wall. I did not actually ride it because it looked VERY unpleasant and since I already wear my seat belt and was convinced by watching alone, I opted out. One girl is sore today for it so I'm glad I passed.

When we got home I promptly took a much needed nap. After napping we made a WalMart run (I needed a geek string for my safety glasses--don't judge) and and then joined the intern bar-b-que. Much booze was consumed by most of the interns and shenanigans ensued. There were water balloons and super soakers and people being shoved into the pool. I avoided that bit but it was fun to watch. After a while a group of us decided to go on a little exploratory mission to a little dive "piano bar" down the road called The Dusty Dog. Let me tell you people, it was a winner. The clientele may have been largely middle aged but the group of us girls loved it anyway. Sometimes you need to have girl talk and the Dusty Dog proved to be a good place for "all the single ladies" to pow wow. Good times! We made it back in time to see the remaining shenanigans and have a few heart to hearts with the remaining drunks. Again good times.

This morning, several of us ladies went to get pedicures. We're thinking that when we are in the middle of our month long camping trip style internship, we will look down and what remains of our pedi's and think to ourselves, "oh I remember when I used to be girly and take regular showers and have access to a bathroom...*sigh*" Afterward we went to Buffalo Wild Wings to watch soccer with a BUNCH of fellow interns. It's nice because in spite of the little clusters that form we still hang out together in large hordes now and then. In case you don't know the game was USA vs. England and it was a tie at 1-1. I don't really follow soccer but it was fun to hang out and pretend I knew what was going on. I sat next to Donald (Rap Master D) and he was less a fan. Very irritated by the tie. He's accustomed to hockey which affords more violence and harsher penalties. He's hilarious when he's griping about stuff.

After the game we fulfilled a dream of Jennifer's; we went to the circus! It was magical. Aislinn, Kevin, and Jennifer had never been to the circus and Kayla and I were happy to take them. There were elephants and tigers and zebras as well as the standard horses and dogs. Acrobats and tightrope walkers (who made Kevin very nervous) and all the usual circus fodder were in attendance. We also got to see two women simultaneously fired from a double barrel cannon. Spectacular. We acted like five-year-olds and got Dippin' Dots at intermission (Mom, I know they're ridiculously over priced but I wanted them and I'm a big girl now so I got them. They were delicious) and screamed and clapped with the best of them. A dream come true.

Post circus, we went to dinner and then I did laundry. A bunch of people are going "clubbing" but it's the intense people and I know I can't hang with them. Several others are boozing in the pool now and let's be honest, I can't ride with them either. Forrest-Gump-Peter is drinking enough to kill a moose and I anticipate him doing serious damage either to himself or the Stratford Palace Kingdom. The boys are gross and keep peeing in the pool so again... there's no real draw for me to stay. Instead I'm lounging at Jennifer's watching The Holiday and blogging for you my loyal readers (Mom, Scarlett, and well... possibly Jennifer).

Tomorrow should be pretty low key also, including Mass and general lounging. If anything else exciting happens I'll try to let you know.

Humidity is my arch nemesis...

Another day, another class. We spent the morning "learning" about coil tubing. What is coil tubing you ask? I'm not sure I can really tell you. Our instructor was an intense Colombian woman who flat out told us she wasn't going to tell us anything, just take us down to the pad and let us ask questions. She warned us we would need to ask lots of questions and really try to figure it all out because we would have to build our own coil tubing set up from little mini magnetic "LEGO" like things when we got back. Needless to say this particular intern was a bit intimidated. We tried but she gave us vague instructions about some kind of rotation plan she had and then left it up to us to figure it out. I accidentally took a couple of flash naps sitting in a roll-y chair next to the shop building while I waited my turn to go see things. She never came and we found out we were supposed to just kind of wander up and but in at some point. She seemed to have no plan. Whatever. At least it was in the AM before it got screaming hot and hella humid... oh wait....it's always kind of hot and plenty humid. Especially in that dang PPE Smurf suit.

After lunch she made us put the little models together and explain it to someone. I think our group did a passable job since we're a bunch of ignorant interns. We got back into our PPE and headed back to the shop building "down hill" (which by the way if I have not mentioned is maybe a 1/4 mile away but the walk has to be at least a 1/2 mile with the hills and winding) in the afternoon humidity to go look at fiber optics and tooling. Then we walked back "up hill" to do a coil tubing simulation. That part was also very intense because she gave us a BRIEF explanation of each of the gauges (there are like 20) and knobs (again something like 20 of them) and what things were supposed to be like and then had us "start the job"--which she promptly screwed up for us so we could trouble shoot it. Like we even know how to run the damn thing under proper conditions... anyway we got it together and didn't kill anyone (yesterday's kill count was rumored to be over 60 people due to a snapped line creating an acid shower). This lady was intense. It seemed at times she was trying to break us. I dunno...

We got back to the "Stratford Palace" (as Peter* is calling it) and promptly walked down the road a bit to the Mediterranean restaurant, Ali Baba's, for falafel sandwiches and gyros. Delicious and affordable! Jennifer and I plan to speak highly of it. We should probably get some sort of commission. Possibly free falafel?

I skipped out on the nights activity of volleyball because I took Sarah to the clinic to get her ankle looked at. No one seemed real into volleyball anyway so I don't know if it even happened. In other news I am still exhausted and plan to go to bed early again if possible. Let's hope!

*A note on Peter: He is also a Vanderbilt kid and he is so painfully southern that he sounds like Forrest Gump from time to time. Hilarious. He's also very loud so you don't have to talk to him to know about this. Jennifer assures me he is usually a "couple notches" less intense and he's just hamming it up. Either way he's really fun to eavesdrop on...

A bunch of sweaty interns...

So yesterday we learned about cementing. Cementing wells is an interesting endeavor. It's kinda complicated but it was presenting in a simpler way than our fracking class. We also talked about how the oil spill happened. It's really complicated to try and type it out without a proper piece of scrap paper on which to sketch this situation so if you ever see me in person and want to hear about it, I'll try. I'm glad we talked about it though because I was having a hard time getting my head around why you can't just plug up a hole that's not more than a couple feet wide (if that...it's more like a foot). Ok I'm still kind of struggling with that one but I get it a little. Anyway...

The practical part of cementing consisted of a brief tour of the equipment but that's about like any noisy plant tour in that I heard almost nothing about the stuff they were pointing at and so I learned little from it. We also did some more stuff that was "practical" but didn't involve our PPE--simulations! They were kind of fun... one was strictly computer screen and it was mostly just for kicks but the second was dummy equipment that ran water and it was pretty interesting.

Last night, we were again wined and dined (I think they are trying to cloud our judgement about their balls to the wall lifestyle with booze) at an (I kid you not) oil themed steakhouse. It was good but I've eaten better (judgement still in tact). I got to sit with Jennifer and Rifaah two of my new fun friends (Rifaah was in the hat picture and Jennifer is from Vanderbilt. Also she's hilarious and generally awesome) and we had a good ol' time ordering drinks and being sad for poor vegetarian Rifaah who couldn't eat any of the appetizers (or Land Survey's as the menu called them) because ribs and bacon stuffed mushrooms are not acceptable for vegetarians. Don't worry they brought bread and he's a good sport. We decided that the life of a recruiter is pretty much as good as it gets... you get to hang out with a bunch of college kids and get them drunk and they'll hang on your every word because they want you to hire them. Not a bad gig. Anyway...76 drunken interns later... today begins...

Today we had the most enthusiastic instructor ever: Oliver. He talked to us about sand control. I know, you're riveted already. He was seriously good at teaching and we had the most fun practical section ever. We went out and used the dummy equipment to run 16 gravel pack jobs (pretty literally since there was water and sand flowing freely in this situation...) so that we each had a chance to run all of the five parts of the job. I rocked at most of them. We all did but that's beside the point. We got to wear radios complete with headsets just like the ones they have in Nascar (I know because they had some name on them implying they were the radio of choice for racing sports). We also happened to be the first group that did this class so that meant we had to "rig up" the equipment. This means we carried and connected the giant hoses that link all the parts of the equipment (the tanks of water to the "little monster" diesel pump to the slurry mixer to the giant pump to the manifold that pumps the slurry into the ground...). These hoses are huge. It takes three people to carry them safely. Also you get to use a mini sledge hammer to tighten the wings on them which is kind fun. We spent 4.5 hours outside in our NOMEX, boots, and hardhats rocking out this gravel pack job (16 times) which means I came in from "down the hill" super hot and sweaty. A hot mess, if you will. We all were though so it's ok.

Tonight when we got home I promptly showered to attend our little tuna tetrazini dinner party (Jennifer cooked tuna helper for Victoria and I) which also included a bit of the hockey game (we weren't really THAT into it but that's what all the cool kids were doing). Now that I'm fed and showered I am accepting that I am exhausted and I'm excited to go to bed. Tomorrow is supposed to be a big day: we'll learn about coil tubing and tomorrow evening we are apparently going to the park for sand volleyball and a picnic. I need to rest up and get my game face on.

Too cool for school...

Day one of our training was kind of intense. It was also a bit of a cluster. We started the day by attempting to get on the bus (the only one we were initially told) but because we are engineers, we know that 80something people will not fit on one bus and so we don't try very hard. Another bus is soon to arrive we are told. Ok but there are still like way more of us than will fit. Ok so bus driver numero dos tells us he knows this is a problem and he called for the first to come back...in 30-45 minutes. So we wait. I napped next to my new Canadian friend Donald (Donny, RapMaster D... ok that last one is my own creation and he may not be on board with it...) both in the lobby and on the bus. I think it made him vaguely uncomfortable but we've since become closer (I asked him lots of random questions in order to get to know him). ANYWAY... We arrived approximately 30 minutes late and missed some of the safety info--no worries, we caught the most important bits about Tornadoes and the tail end of the brown recluse spider lecture. Awkward start to our day.

We were split into four groups (red, blue, yellow, and green) and the red group (my group, obviously...) spent our day learning about fracking--hydraulic fracturing. It's quite the deal. Here's what I learned in a nutshell (aka Scarlett and anyone else not really interested in the oil industry should skip past the tilde's):

~Wells sometimes don't produce as readily as they should (due to plugging of various origins and natures that you don't really care about or because the rock is not as permeable as you would like) and so you must frack them.

~This means you pump first a substance that is essentially water in at such high pressure, that it cracks the rock around the well.

~You then follow up with a slurry of sand to prop it open. It's called propate. Yup... prop for short. Not sure about spelling but yea you get the idea.

~Under some circumstances you would frack with acid that erodes the cracks open.

~These new cracks can reduce the "skin" of the well (the random hindrance to the wells production) to less than zero, meaning you can force the well to produce more than it would naturally.

~Fracking is an intense endeavor (that may just be my opinion).

So there. Now you know. And so do I.

Once we completed our day (including about an hour of walking around outside in full PPE and turning ourselves into sweaty beasts) we sat and waited to get on a bus again. This time for 1.5 hours. Yep. Add the half hour drive and we wasted two perfectly good afternoon hours. Oh well. When we made it back we ate and went to WalMart and saw a woman with teal boots, a jean dress complete with jean jacket, and a teal hat complete with giant teal feather. It was epic. I also found the little kid hair ties that have vanished from all Manhattan retailers. I bought two packs.

Tomorrow we get to sleep in a little and just catch the second edition of the bus run (interns get the shaft...jk we literally clapped when they announced this) and we are hoping and praying some kind of similar arrangement will be made in the evening so we aren't sitting on the sidewalk like second graders waiting for the bus. Fingers crossed on that one. Also on tomorrow's agenda: Dinner and Glee at Jennifer's apt. She's making tuna helper and we're a bit excited about it. There may even be wine. Because we're classy.

Welcome to Tulsa!

Our first day in Tulsa (well all together anyway) and what is a group of interns to do? We started by getting groceries obviously. Next we went for lunch and then frozen custard and after that the mall! The point of this entry is to show the world this photo:

New friends don't just go to the mall, they gotta try on hats and make fierce faces! Left to right: Kevin (Alaska/Colorado State), Rifaah (Saudi Arabia/CU Boulder), Renata (University of Pennsylvania), and Aislinn (Pennsylvania/Carnegie Mellon University). Those are some FIERCE floppy hats. Good work, team!

I am oriented!

What a week. Woof. We got geared up and learned all about safety procedures, protocol, and the lifestyle we are about to be submerged in. Talk about overload.

We started every day by getting on the bus at 6:30 (except that first day...) and we ended at 5(ish...) and then went to eat dinner with the recruiters. Our days basically didn't end until 9 or 1o pm. We've spent considerable amounts of time on the three shuttle buses contracted out to cart our sorry little hind-ends around and we've spent even more time listening to PowerPoint presentations about things like lifting with your legs and not your back or only driving for a maximum of 10 hours in a 24 hour period (but never between 11 pm and 5 am!).

Don't get me wrong, it's been pretty fun. Our dinners include an open bar (can you say drunk interns?) because the company culture boils down to "work hard" (SO hard) "and play harder" (no kidding). We also do have very minute times to ourselves (between shuttle bus rides) in which we can roam the mall or take a much needed nap. We have started to get to know one another (at least as much as possible between listening to talks about coveralls when there are 76 interns...) and we are "gelling" well. Seriously, I have never seen such a large group of people our age that fit together so nicely. There aren't really cliques (yet) and even when there seems to have formed a conversation group, we all are pretty comfortable joining in. It's kinda weird. I like it. I've made friends with people from Alaska, New York, California, Michigan, Tennessee, and West Virginia (to name just a few) and I've only had to endure two Dorothy jokes so far.

And then there's the SWAG (easy trigger, I mean Stuff We All Get)! I am now the proud (yes proud--I mean that) owner of two sets of blue Tyvek suits (for those of you who may not know: flame resistant coveralls in a perfectly smurf-y hue), a green hardhat (also excited about that), Red Wing boots, prescription safety goggles (they look HOT), and a sweet duffel bag to keep it all in. I have yet to don them all at once but I assure you that when I do, there will be photographic evidence. I'll probably fall in line and start referring to all of this as my PPE (personal protective equipment) as is the trend, so heads up on that one.

We are treated not so much as interns as prospective employees so they aren't sugar coating anything. This job can eat people alive. The hours are crazy (they OWN you for the first three to five years) and the work is DEMANDING (physically, mentally, emotionally...). I may spend several days on site and that means sleeping in a truck whenever I can catch a few minutes and peeing outside (no proper potty on an oil platform). As a woman I've been prepared to be treated as somewhat of an oddity and talked to as if these "roughnecks" (not people from our company but the actual work horses of an oil platform) had never seen a girl before. Should I chose to adopt this lifestyle as my career, and should I last for those first three to five years, I could be moved and placed in virtually any job, in any country in the world. I could become a sales rep, recruiter, or design engineer in France, Chad, or Venezuela. They work with you, and try to accommodate you as much as possible, but the facts are that for those first years when you are earning your keep you don't get scheduled vacation and no more than perhaps four or five days at a time. Family, if I stay with these folks, I may not see you for quite a while. It's INTENSE. The purpose of this internship program is to see if this is for me. I may very well not be. We shall see.

In the end we are geared up and oriented. We have flown back to Tulsa and we have the weekend to ourselves before we start training in Kellyville. It'll be partly classroom learning, and partly hands-on practical work. I'm kind of excited for this part.

Tomorrow I'll buy groceries, and I'll return to write more about the effects of the oil spill in the gulf. As for tonight, I'm exhausted and I'm going to bed.