Dun da-dun dun DONE!

I am done in Conway! I presented my project today and completed my exit interview and now I have a day to pack and I leave for Houston on Saturday. Glorious!

My presentation went pretty well, twice as long as it is supposed to be but other than that it was delightful I'm told. I can totally trim some fat so I'm not super worried about it. We took cookies to people as a thank-you for having us and I think that made some days. Not gonna lie here, I think we set the bar kinda high for future interns. Sharron tells us that she tried to dig up dirt on us (talking to people we worked with to assess our performance) and there was none to be had. These people seem to have loved us. Thank you Mom and Dad for my old fashioned, Midwestern upbringing--they loved that we SHOWED UP. It baffles me that this is apparently a recurring problem. I would think that would be the easy part of any job... go to the place of your work. Whatever. Bottom line, they love us. We got parting gifts too! Ok just a little "log book" type notebook (us girls got PINK), some hand sanitizer on a key chain, and a pocketknife (all company promotional items). I'm most excited about the knife. Being a lady of the Midwest I am used to the men in my company to carry them, and I know that I'm never expected to, but now being a piece of oil field trash I feel the need to have one to pry things apart, dig into and cut things, and just use for all kinds of good manly tasks.

Tonight, Anjelica and I celebrated being done by going to dinner at a Japanese steakhouse down the road for sushi. It was pretty tasty. If you're reading this in a timely fashion, my twit-pic should still be over there >> on the sidebar. Or you can see it on Facebook. It was pretty. Not to pretty to eat though. Very tasty! Nick, on the other hand, celebrated by leaving for Texas IMMEDIATELY. This whole damp county thing is suffocating him.

Tomorrow's agenda:

Sleep in (because I CAN!)

Get my car once-over'ed for all the upcoming driving (so much driving!)

Get my nails done (I need to feel like a girl again... very much need)

Pack all my stuff (which has spread out and settled in famously in the past month. Ugh)

Look up, write down, and draw out my directions for Saturday (many MANY times)

Countdown...

Houston: 2 days (ish...depending on how you count Saturday...whatever)

Manhattan (Manhappiness): 7 days

Francie: 10 days

I made it!!!

Also special shout-out to one (of 4) of my readers: Happy Birthday Heather!!! :)

Coil tubing is not for the faint of heart.

We went to our coil tubing job yesterday (the yard at 4 the site at 7) and spent five and a half hours rigging up. It wasn't so bad compared to the day to two day long rig ups of frac. The crew we were on (Nick and I) was kind of the Charlie Brown Christmas tree crew--half the crew missing, one white hat and a bunch of green hats, the janky fluid pump, and 2 3/8" coil which requires you to "stab pipe" (put the pipe in the injector head which is normally how it comes). In spite of all this we still made it home before the other crew on site (and sadly Anjelica) around 8 or so. Both crews are supposed to go on jobs again tomorrow and this seems to mean Anjelica does not get her day off tomorrow (that's right people... another sighting of the rare and elusive day off!) which blows.

On the job we can't really do much beyond rig up and rig down but this time because of the different equipment there is a separate unit for the coil that requires someone additional to spool it on and off the reel, and we got to do that. It's not super hard until you get to the edges when it kind of gets tricky on the turn around... it's ok that I was kinda bad at it because during the job you just spool it on and off the reel over and over again anyway. That's why they let the interns do it. :)

While the work itself wasn't so bad the overall job was kinda rough. We were there just short of 48 hours and during that time I didn't shower. I could have but my bag was locked in the truck during my window. I didn't even change clothes (I should have fought harder on that one...). I smelled like the inside of a fake leg. I didn't brush my teeth or wash my face either which are both kinda raunchy. I slept in my blues and boots at the kitchen table and then on the recliner. I am sunburned from my eyes down to my chin from sitting in the sun in my gear. I have grime so deep in my fingerprints I'm still getting my hands clean. Woof.

I'm just REALLY glad to be home and showered and sitting in the air conditioning. I also ecstatic that I get to sleep in a bed tonight and sleep IN (for realz) in the morning. Seriously we are one more happy thought away from tears of joy. I'll report on how awesome that turns out tomorrow. I may leave the apartment if I feel up to it...or I may not. We'll see what I feel like... man days off are awesome!

Boo Yard Day

We had another yard day today... this job just keeps sneaking off. But finally we have a yard time... unfortunately that yard time is 4am. Whatever, I can do it. It will be painful but I'll be fine.

Today's yard day was painful. I had to "help" change out o rings in the BOP's. That means I watched while other people did it (and still others stood around). I learned more about the BOP and how it works and is pressure tested (or at least gained a bit of clarity). Unfortunately we had to be useless until 2pm before we could go to lunch... which made me a little more cranky than I already was. This wasn't helped by the fact that this afternoon, Anjelica worked on her video while I continued to be useless outside in the heat. When they told me yard day I assumed they wouldn't let us "work on our paper" so I left my laptop home. Lesson learned I suppose. We got to go home at 5:30 so at least they didn't make us stay until they left. Silver lining right? Yea I'll go with that.

When we got home I finally butchered our free watermelon. We have a ton of it so we're going to give some to Nick when he gets back from the liquor store. Now my tasks are to pack and then to go bed at a senior citizen-ly hour. I was told to plan on at least 48 hours in the field (barring complications) so I need to pack a lot of stuff. Lots of food said Nick, and stuff for a shower (we get a trailer) and my pillow and a blanket for the 3 or 4 hours I'll get to sleep at a time (possibly the only sleep we'll get each day... we'll see) said the guys I talked to. I heard there will be no internet connection out there so I may not be "live blogging" this portion of my summer but it's only a couple of days and I can't imagine this being such an integral part of anyone's day that it will be devastating to anyone. Either way the laptop is coming with me so that if I have a spare moment I can finish up my paper. I'll probably be tweeting from the field so you can always check up on me that way (it's over on the sidebar for that reason... even more live coverage!!!).

Wish me luck!

PS My video is on YouTube if you want to see it at what seems like a higher quality. Check it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4DilKtopPo

Uh...why are we here?

So Nick is in the field and bored (I can tell by his blatantly obvious Facebook status) and now Anjelica and I are at the yard...bored. We haven't done anything related to coil tubing yet today unless you count lunch with Ryan and Russel. We've spent the morning working on our paper and I also got my photos more organized for my video. This afternoon we were to come up with a list of questions, expectations, and fave/least fave things about coil tubing. That took approximately 15 minutes. Supposedly in about half an hour Ryan is coming to get us for something... I'm praying it's our rig tour. But then again who doesn't love some Facebooking at work?

OMGDAYSOFFROCK!

Today we had the day OFF. For those of you who may not know (I know I forgot) a day off means you don't go to the yard, and you don't have to stay in Conway in case they call. You also don't have to go to any job sites. It's amazing. To celebrate our day off, last night we found a concert in Conway to check out. It was a rock concert and not so much our style but it was outside our apartment so it's ok. The band we stayed for wasn't horrible and since there were only about 10 people in attendance I even got a song dedicated to me ("because you're right there...and very beautiful" good save there buddy). After we peaced out from that experience, we just headed to a pizza parlor/bar in Conway for a beer before we headed to bed. First time we've "gone out" since the week we got here... so it was kind of a big deal. Sad huh?

Today I got up and went to mass and when I got back Anjelica and I started to plan our day off. We were struggling to come up with something because we don't know the area at all (in spite of being here for about a month...we live at the yard). We settled on the zoo in Little Rock. We both love the zoo so it was the best plan ever conceived.

Anjelica and I LOVE the zoo!

The wire giraffe sculptures at the gate are pretty cool... just sayin'!

When we got there we headed straight for the Lorikeet Landing--and exhibit where you are in a large netted space with a bunch of Lorikeets and for a dollar you can feed them. It was the best dollar I've ever spent. These birds are "playful" and "friendly" and will climb all over you if you feed them. Brace for pictures.

So when you feed them they get excited enough to sit on your arm if their buddies are in the way of the food (the tiny cup of nectar).

This guy really liked me...

Anjelica made a friend too and she didn't even feed anyone! :)

See? He liked me a lot... or maybe it was just my hair product... I think it smells good too!

And now he brought friends! These guys alternated between biting my ears (which kinda hurt) and eating my hair (which felt funny and kind tickled). I'm trying not to spaz and scare them but it REALLY tickles sometimes...

After that even the giraffes paled in comparison... Just kidding I love giraffes...but I really want a Lorikeet now. For real. We moved on and looked at lots of other good stuff... I photographed most of it but as usual I'll just show you the highlights (I tend to over photograph and no one really does want to see 15 shots of giraffes that are all eerily similar). More photos incoming...

Anjelica is not a big fan of bugs... not at all.

Oh yea... Anjelica got a ride on a camel named Sassy! :) Throwin' up the gator bite from the back of a sassy camel, what's up?!

So yea, best day ever. Ryan just called to confirm what's going on with us tomorrow and we are to report "promptly" at "8:03" and we are to pack for "0 days" while "the dude" is to pack for 3 days. Nick get's to go out on a job tomorrow but we'll spend the day in the yard. I don't know what that really means for us. Oh well I'm sure it will be interesting. We will probably go out on Tuesday from the sound of things in the office. We'll see. At least we don't have to show up at 4 like originally told me (he likes to kid).

In summary: I LOVE the zoo. I LOVE days off. I LOVE not going in before 8am. I would like a Lorikeet for my birthday.

Frac Orphans

Today we arrived for our 6:15 yard time and were orphaned by the Yellow crew due to a lack of space in the van. Anjelica and I weren't sure what to do with ourselves and Andrew of the Red crew adopted us (so we got to hang with Nick). We didn't leave until approximately 9 am so I took a good 2 hour nap on a desk in the break room. Both crews were rigging up today and both crews had some issues getting the equipment transfered from sight to sight so it was a sort of slow day. We helped change out valves in the fluid ends of the pumps and general setting up of the site. It was nice that we weren't covered in sand but it made for a lot of sitting around. The good thing was everyone was sitting waiting for equipment to arrive so we didn't look like too much extra dead weight. It was another crazy hot day and again I succeeded in hydrating adequately and not having to pee at the sight. Win for me! I also acquired a couple new nicknames from Cody (a frac'er): Toto (you have no idea how many Dorthy/Kansas jokes I've endured...I've lost count) and Sam-I-Am. They pair up nicely with Jay's "Red." All in all, it wasn't a terrible day. I'm still counting down the days until frac is over though. Sorry Chetsi.

The hottest day ever

Today we hung out with Reggie who maintains the iron. He is in charge of making sure that each piece of piping, chicksun (I guess how to spell that every time), and valve gets taken out of rotation for inspection at the correct interval and he also tests the equipment (trucks with pumps and so forth) before they go back into the field after they come in for maintenance. Testing of the iron is done at FMC (we were told this stands for Food Manufacturing Company... a company that has expanded beyond it's beginnings obviously) which is just down the road. Reggie drives over there to pick things up and drop things off daily. That's what we did this morning... except that he left us there for 30 or 40 minutes to help the big guy running the forklift organize the old jumbled iron sitting outside. Yep, we spent that time team lifting very heavy lengths of 3' and 4' pipe onto pallets and shuffling chicksuns from pallet to pallet so they were more organized. I sweat more than I have sweat so far this summer. Partly from the lifting and partly because today we were under a heat advisory and doing all this lifting in the morning sun. I know that I was ripe by the end of the day.

On a fun note we ate at a place named Holly's today for lunch. It's a place where a group of women just make what they want to make and you file up cafeteria style and just pick out a main dish and two sides and then pay at the end of the counter. I was good! Like having mom cook for me... miss you girl!

We (Anjelica and I...Nick's on his three day weekend) spend half of tomorrow with Reggie again and the second half we have to clean out the cabs of ALL the trucks in the yard. I'm not excited about this but I bought ForceFlex trash bags tonight for the cause and I plan to sneak some rubber gloves from the lab before we start tomorrow. Saturday we are to "inventory the trucks" which means we need to know what trucks are in the yard and what they all do. We also have to be able to diagram all the workings of a cement truck by the end of Saturday. Should be interesting.

Sunday begins frack. We'll call in Saturday night to find out our yard time and on Sunday we ship out for a 12 to 16 hours and then come home for a shower and brief nap before doing it again the next day. I don't think this will be my favorite part but I don't think I can get out of it. I've begged Kyle to come kidnap me and he refuses. He told me to be tough and that I could do it. It's like he talked to Dad. Suspicious. Anyway, Reggie used to be a fracker so he had some advice for us today. We went to Wal Mart (a theme of my life these days sadly) and got not-UnderArmor, Gatorade, and fruit. He assures us that these will be much needed items for the coming week. We are grateful to have had this talk with Reggie.

On an unrelated note I've eaten Toaster Strudel for breakfast for the past couple days. I haven't had those things in years and I've missed them. Mom wasn't one for random junk food but she did let us do the Toaster Strudel thing. Thanks, Mom!

Oh yea... it's PAYDAY!!!! My favorite day of all... something good on the hottest day ever.

Goodbye bulk plant...

Finished our stint in the bulk plant today. In honor of our last day, Mario fed us all day--cookies, a breakfast taco, peanuts... He also made me promise to come back and visit him before I leave Conway. To sweeten the deal he said if I joined the company and came back to Conway, he'd take me on a Mexican vacation. Not for a whole week, mind you. He only get's five days off and so we'd probably just for for three. Heavens does this guy crack me up. As un-fun as bulk plant work is I may miss the guys a little. They made an effort to get us involved today and we got to help out with a few extra things today. I got a proper tutorial on filling liquid nitrogen, I learned a little more about how the mixing of cement works from inside the cube, and I helped make labels for the tanks of the trucks. We also collected samples and continued to fill the hopper and change hoses. Basic day really.

I did not go out on a job this evening as anticipated so tomorrow I'll just spend the day in the yard learning things about paperwork or whatever else they can find for me while Anjelica and Nick go out to the field (on call so who knows when). Not super exciting but it's the price I pay for the weekend off. If I get done early enough I'm going to drive up after work and hopefully attend a parade with Carrie in the morning! I'm crossing my fingers. So ready to just hang out with people...

All good things must come to an end...

Today was the last day of lab. It was a crazy lab day. We had a million tests to run and most of them on some kind of rush. We had to run "mud push" tests all day long-- the spacer I mentioned before is kind of a guessing game and it's important to get it right. It's what gets pumped in front of the cement to clean out the drilling mud (mud and cement get along about as well as the Capulets and the Montagues). It has to have all the right rheology numbers AND be compatible with the mud. The compatibility test is where you see if you need to redesign your spacer. This particular job's spacer was redesigned 8 times before we left (all night they worked on it) and it still wasn't quite right. Lost of good smart people working to try and tweak the recipe to come up with something that was up to standard.

In the mean time we interns helped run rheologies on the cement samples from the bulk plant (special shoutout to Dr. Wang who taught me about viscosity...the focus of my time in the lab), did "dishes" and helped clean up the lab. Mark (who sounds like my cousin Bobby) is super nice and told us we were really helpful. I informed him that my number one priority was not to get in the way and my number two priority was to try and contribute something useful. Apparently it worked. We also met Marcus and Obaid today. They also work in the lab but they were off this weekend. Marcus is ornery but lots of fun. I'm a little sad we didn't get to work with them more. I plan to try to make it back to the lab if possible.

As I said, all good things must end, and tomorrow we go to the bulk plant. Nick has been staying there until 10 or 11 each night so I'm not super excited about it. The good news is that we're girls and apparently they've been waiting for us since they heard they were getting interns at Conway (which explains why I feel like I'm wearing a funny hat or have something hanging out of my nose every time I walk the hall or out in the yard) and so they MAY go a tad bit easier on us. Also I plan to do what I'm told and do it with a smile so they don't feel the need to be rough on me. It's these thoughts (lies?) that keep me optimistic about the next three days. That and the fact that I requested my weekend off to be this weekend for the 4th of July. I don't know what I'll do with it yet but I want to travel up north either to visit people in Fayetteville or maybe as far as KC (depending on what people are doing and if I think I can really pull off the trip). Over the next three days, I may be AWOL (I could be working late and pass out the second I crawl out of the shower) but don't fear for me. I'm probably still alive.

Cement testing and gelling water...

Today was our first day in the lab. What does a oil extraction services provider do with a lab you ask? They design and test cement mixes as well as frack job fluids. They do this all in the comfort of an air-conditioned trailer. Needless to say, I like the lab. We got to run rheology tests for cement mixtures that were going out on jobs and we also got to help test a water to gel mix and the corresponding breaker. I'm probably not using all the right terms here but who'll check me on it? After lunch we also watched the USA soccer match on Mark's phone while he mixed test slurry. He's into soccer so it was fun to talk to him about it. Lunch was amazing by the way; La Fuerta (sp?) is the Conway version of La Fiesta. So tasty!

We'll spend a couple more days in the lab before we move out to the bulk plant where Nick has been working and sweating is (you know) off. You haul, open and mix bags of cement and additives to make the mixtures designed and tested by Mark in the lab. It will be heavy manual labor in the sun and humidity so I'm trying to soak up the AC while I got it.

As for last night's festivities at Chris's (who had a birthday yesterday), it was fun. The nice thing about working here is that everyone's really friendly and they like to hang out with each other...probably because their schedules don't really promote out of company friends...but I digress. They invited us lowly interns on the spot and they were happy to have us. It was good times!

Oh I'd also like to add a note about the effects of the gulf incident (sorry I haven't done more of this, Bre, but I don't know what to tell you):

The company will likely cut their recruiting efforts drastically for the coming year because their policy is not to fire people if the need in their district wanes (or is eliminated by other means) but to relocate them to where they are needed. All the displaced workers are going to be filling the positions that open up around other parts of the country and so they won't need to hire new greenhorns for those positions. This has been the first few days since starting work that I haven't heard something about BP or the oil spill or "the situation in the gulf." It's a hot topic.

Mom, I know I just told you all of this but now it's properly documented in case you forget about it. It was good to talk to you tonight!

Stay tuned for the next installment of Intern Sam and the Oilfield Diaries.

It's Friday! Oh wait, I work all weekend so it doesn't matter...

We spent our whole day doing standards certification. It wasn't as fun as it sounds. The good news is we are starting real work tomorrow. Anjelica and I start in the lab and Nick's in the bulk plant. Early next week we'll switch and then at the end of the week we'll hopefully be out on jobs!

In other news, I got my oil changed. Sorry I was so late doing it, Dad. My bad.

Oh we also met one of the new engineers today. Her name is Chetsi (sounds like Chelsea but with a t instead of an l). She lives upstairs from us and she's nice. She helped us find Chick-fil-A for lunch so we like her. :)

Tonight I think our plan is to go hang out with the other engineers for Chris's (cement engineer) birthday. I'll let you know how that goes.

Day 2

This morning we got a yard tour from a girl named Kelly who is only here through the weekend because she's being transfered to Oklahoma. She was nice. I'm sad she's leaving because she seems like she's fun. She and Sharron took us out to lunch today since we're new and we don't know our way around yet and so that they could expense their own lunch too. Naturally we went to Friday's and ate too much. Good times.

This afternoon all we've done is certifications for standards. We have to do about 7 or so of them and they're a pain in the...you know. We sit in the break room and try to look up answers to each test in the pages of standards for each one. It's way boring but we gotta do it. That's all that's really on our agenda because we can't do anything else until they're done and passed. Tomorrow we'll have Kelly's help and she thinks we can get it done by lunch. When we finish our next move is to the bulk plant where they mix up cement and frack components and put them in the trucks to go out to the field. We may also work in the lab here in these first few days. Testing cement I think... we'll see if I'm right.

Tonight: Walmart for groceries and then maybe some light exploration of Conway.

Welcome to Arkansas, where the accents are thicker and our purses are camo

At long last, I am finally at my field location in Conway, Arkansas (the drive was, in fact, lovely. Thanks for asking)! I know you were all wondering when my internship would actually start. The answer is: today the moment I arrived in Conway. I showed up at the yard (the office) and was pretty much set to work setting myself up in the company online systems and taking tests to be allowed to go to the field. It was an intense first 3 (ish) hours.

We got set up in our apartment which is NICE. It puts the StratCastle to shame (though that's not real hard to do). The only thing it's lacking is all the fellow interns... *sniff* Nick, Anjelica and I are all in Well Services so we are in the apartments and Brendan and Jared are in Wireline so they're in a hotel for the time being but I think they move to some apartments (we're hoping ours) by next week. Unfortunately we've already been told that we'll spend little time in our apartments.

My manager (Stephen-cementing manager) has already let down any professional best behavior facade that he may have had. He's real honest and upfront. I like it. Our mentor (Sharron or "Mamma Sharron") is much the same. So is everyone really. Again, I like it. So far things are good. I'll try to keep reporting regularly but from the sounds of it, things may get kinda sporadic. Hang in there people, it's gonna be a bumpy ride.

First purse I see in AR is forest print camo of course.

Walking into our apartment and looking slightly right: The kitchen!

And if you look more forward: The doors are just the back door (nothing special out there) and the hall to the right leads to our rooms...

When you go to the end of the hall you get to my room... sleepin' in style!

And if you look back toward the door you see that I have the master room...my own private bathroom! Anjelica has a bathroom (the door across the hall) to herself too so don't feel too bad. There's a washer and dryer in hers too (I swooned!).