She LIVES!

I have survived! I came through finals ok and I made it through "NonTrad Christmas/Marin Road Trip 2011" virtually unscathed. I did make a few idle threats on my sisters' lives but who wouldn't? That back seat got a little small there near the end.

I have started my intersession class (roughly 1/2 done!) and I'm thinking back on the good time I had New Year's Eve. Time for a list!

2010, thanks for...

...MSDA. It was hell-on-wheels while we were in the middle of it but in hindsight it was a great experience and it brought me closer to so many of my classmates. I love togetherness!

...Paper Conference in San Antonio. Again with the togetherness! So many good times...

...the most epic pub-crawl we've ever seen. I may have coordinated it...I only wish it was something I could put on my resume.

...the summer in the oil fields. I know nobody saw that coming but it really was an adventure and I made some great friends. Can't complain about that!

...my wide travels. I've never felt so grown up as when I've been terrified that I would be lost, and then wasn't. I never got really lost and I did it all without Garmin SanDiego!

...Kyle. He's kinda cool. I sorta like him. But seriously he's fun and sometimes you need more fun in your life. :)

2010, what the hell?!...

...Susan & Mahjabeen leaving. Uncool. I'm going to be bitter with you about this for a while.

...Simulation. I knew it had to come around eventually but it was PAINFUL.

...The financial-aid-scares: the 2010 edition. Seriously I'm about on a first name basis with the graduate school and the financial aid people who have to do their black magic to get me my money. This is ridiculous.

2011, I'm excited you're here. Kudos on starting things off right. Always important to make a good first impression. Here's to hoping you and I have a good run!

Windy City Love Song

So when I last left you, dear reader (Mom), we were on our way to Gino's East. It was amazing. After Gino's, Taberie, myself, and the boys went to go find Coyote Ugly. Bad news is, it's been closed for at least a year. Good news is, it was located right next to a couple other clubs. People, my lady bits were far too covered for me to have been there (in my Sperry's and Cardigan to boot!) and paying $9 for a drink just made it all the more... uh... special. Let's go with that.

Friday we spent most of our day at the trade show. Good times. It was a lot of walking and my normally comfy dress shoes wore a blister in my heel. Irritating. Saw lots of neat stuff (mostly reruns from last time but still worth looking at) and had fun running around with the other K-Staters. After we finished up there we headed down to the US Cellular Stadium for a Sox game. We didn't get to see a win but it was lots of fun and we got a free hat for 1/2 way to St. Patty's day (I love that Chicago celebrates 1/2 St. Patty's day). After the game we grabbed some beverages from the 7 Eleven across from the hotel and just enjoyed our own cheap company for the evening.

This morning we got up and headed up north to Murphy's Bleachers to watch the ISU game with the other K-Staters living in Chicago. It was a great time and as always we ate too much. It was a long ride home on the El (I have no idea how I'm supposed to spell that but whatever... it's short for elevated I think) feeling so stuffed but after a win for the Cats (again!) I can't complain. After we got back we took a long scenic (we stopped in Millennium Park!) walk over to the Sears (Ok Willis but no one calls it that) Tower to see the view. We got to stand in the new glass boxes that hang over the edge and take artsy pictures of each other and the Chicago skyline. Good times. Afterward we went to go stuff ourselves at Hackney's and we ended dinner by deciding to walk back home after all (we needed the exercise bad) and we got to see the crazy sculpture that looks like a baboon. I'll put up a picture later...

Tomorrow we depart at 10 to head back home. The highlight will likely be the World's Largest Truck Stop in Iowa. I missed it on the way up in favor of not getting out because I was sleeping. Judge me if you want but those 3 hours brought me to almost 8 and I survived the rest of the day because of it! It's gonna be a long day.

Pictures of the trip will get put up...when they get put up. This week SIM is due so it may be ill advised to hold your breath. It'll happen though.

Chi-ca-GO!

We arrived in Chicago this morning after touring ArmaLite on the way in (they make rifles...damn good ones!). We drove all night so I needed a shower and a nap like nobody's business but we couldn't check in to our rooms until 3 so we had to kill an hour. We walked down to Navy Pier just to look around and then came back for said naps and showers. Oh and before we did anything we ate at Hot Doug's. Amazing hot dog place. Go there. Seriously. North side of Chicago. Do it.

Next up on the agenda is the Hancock building and then dinner at (I think) Gino's East (I could be mistaken but I guess if I am I could just lie to you). Probably play it a bit low key this evening so we can enjoy the trade show tomorrow but I guess we'll see...

It's been...one week (since you looked at me)

Ok so it's been another week (and another W for the Cats! Holla!) and I have (again) not much to report. Especially since I've called to talk to Mom and she's about the only person reading this on the regular (no offence to anyone else using this for some attempt at entertainment but I have doubts you exist).

I had a traumatic experience the other day while dropping off my rent. I was marching over to my landlady's house next door in the light rain (rain being relevant because I was just in a hurry to get this job done and get back inside) when I stepped on something that made a fantastic crunchy sound. I didn't pause to look at whatever it was and just wondered what it could have been. On my way back down the driveway I found to my dismay it had been a snail. This is distressing for a couple of reasons. 1) I killed something. Poor innocent little snail never saw it coming. 2) I like snails (at least in theory, I haven't really had many real life experiences with them). They're cute. I know they're pests but that little swirly shell is just kinda nifty. And I smushed it. I am sure Karma is on the prowl and has my number. I'm just waiting for the hit.

Tonight I had dinner with a rep from Conoco Phillips (free dinner at Harry's Uptown. FREE! Ritzy and FREE!) and a few other ladies from the college of engineering. It was pretty dang good and I wish I could afford to eat there more often. Also I think I may be in love with Conoco Phillips so bonus points there. I'm gonna try to work some game on them at career fair next week. Better dust off the ol' resume...

In the larger events category, Susan leaves this week. I'll be on a trip (I'll get to that) so I won't actually be there when the band-aid is ripped off but we keep having send off's and farewells and it's painfully real that she's leaving. Damn you Virginia Tech and your better title and pay increase. Damn you. Tomorrow we're going to the famous Brookville for all you can eat fried chicken tomorrow for a final goodbye. I swear it's like we're trying to force ourselves to have a proper anxiety attack over this with all these goodbyes. That or we're trying to get me to put on a second spare tire. Either way I don't like it.

On a happier note, it's time again for our SME trip to IMTS (International Manufacturing Trade Show) which is in Chicago! My bestie Andrew won't be there (doing work crap in TX which is super lame and just terrible timing) in spite of the fact that he moved away from me to be in Chicago. Whatever. It's still going to be a fun trip. We get to walk around a HUGE convention center full of kick-ass stuff (water-jet cutters, CNC machines, laser inspection equipment, and the list goes on!) and spend time exploring Chicago. We're also planning on a baseball game (beer and hot dogs!) and we'll tour ArmaLite on the way there (they make rifles!). Gonna be a sweet trip. I'll report back later (probably much later because when I get back I'll have a lot of catching up to do). We leave tomorrow night and don't come back until Sunday night (soooo much driving). Unfortunately that means I'm doing laundry right now to prepare. Ugh.

So anyway I'm going to fold some of said laundry now. Oh the exciting life I lead...

That's a rap!

I am still alive. THE interns kind of own your life when they get together so I have been AWOL and I apologize. Here's the low down on our wrap up:

Monday we all presented our summer experiences and projects. I started the day off right by getting on the wrong shuttle with Chris and Donald and going to the training center instead of the office. Don't worry we got the shuttle driver to come back for us and take us but he didn't know where. Fortunately we had a dream combination of people in this predicament--Donald knew the address, Chris had an iPhone, and I was willing to talk to the driver in broken English. We got there which is the point. Luckily in spite of that start, mine went really well--I was the last of the Conway kids to go and we all had basically the same experience so I was pretty sure that people were going to be clawing their eyes out by the time it was my turn but on the contrary they seemed to enjoy my take on things.

That evening was dinner out on the company tab and this meant free food AND free margaritas. Love this. It was a great knight, hanging out with my new people and eating AMAZING Mexican food. Nirvana I tell you. Afterward we just went back to the Double Tree to hang out and drink some more in various rooms. We just wanted to hang out together... Awwww.

Tuesday we had to get up (in spite of some of us having had epic nights...not me but...well we'll leave them nameless) for exit interviews. Again mine seemed fine. It was over fairly early so us girls went to our free lunch and then decided to go shopping. Cute dresses had by all (well nearly all anyway). After shopping we collected a bit of sun at the pool before dinner at...get ready...The Hobbit Cafe. Yep. It was Hobbit themed. I had blackened fish tacos which were AMAZING and we also all had a seasonal German beer they had... it was dark and serious...like a beer smoothie. Also AMAZING. We wrapped that night by again knocking back a few at the good ol' Double Tree with all our new besties. Good times. Until people started trickling out and we had to say goodbye. It wasn't quite tearful but it was sad for sure. Crazy how much you can get attached to and miss people you only met a couple months ago. Le sigh.

I spent the whole day Wednesday driving to Wichita in convoy with Eric. It was a long day... but we made it to Justin and Kevin's and enjoyed the company in spite of the fact that the air conditioning was on the fritz and we all dearly died of heat stroke. I bandaged the wound by making PW pancakes (obviously) for all of us this morning. I rock.

I made it back to Manhattan today and I promptly went to lunch with Emily, Susan and Bre. The Palace knows how to throw down a pizza. God bless them. This afternoon Emily and I went to the new city pool (aquatic park/wonderland) and worked on our tans. Or freckles. Whatever. We capped off the day by eating La Fiesta... I enjoyed a healthy sized margarita. I seem to have missed enjoying a good bev on this dry summer...

Now I sit here amidst my stuff (I am a little appalled that I have THIS MUCH STUFF!) procrastinating putting it all away by writing this. I thought about continuing this to included the things I learned this summer, the best memories, the this I may miss or not miss... but then I realized that Kyle will be here tomorrow and my room makes me look like a hobo so I need to just suck it up and save all that mushy stuff for another day.

Coming soon: Lessons learned in the oil field, Things I'll miss about Conway, Things I won't miss, and a Greatest hits list of memories. Look alive.

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.

The beginning of the end

Today I slept in, made pancakes, I went to get my car looked at (Thanks Toyota dealership!), went to the yard to register all my upcoming travels with Journey Management (if you actually want to know what that is we'll talk about it later... it's not real exciting), packed up almost all of my stuff, read a lot of my book (first recreational book I've read in... I don't even know how long which makes me sad), got a manicure (some femininity needed to be recovered lest we risk me remaining oil field trash forever), and wrote out my directions to Houston (yes I said wrote out...some of us don't have a Garmin, ok?).

Tomorrow we start our journey bright and early tomorrow morning at 7:30 by swinging by the yard to drop off our apartment keys, key cards, and internet cord and then it's off to Little Rock to drop off Anjelica at the airport. Once that mission is accomplished, I will ride off into the sunrise on my trusty steed (or in my maroon Camry...whatever) toward's Houston. I'll arrive (in theory) eight hours later assuming I don't get lost (riiiight). Don't worry too much about me in my travels, for I will be stopping every two hours as prescribed by my Journey Management plan and checking in with dispatch at each stop. Gonna be a good day...

Goodbye Conway! Goodbye Arkansas! Hello Houston!

And so it begins...

My first job!!! I got a call yesterday at 5:15 that I had a 6pm yard time (I was informed later that no matter what they tell you your yard time is, you have an hour from their call so I overachieved by being there on time). I showed up and waited around for everyone to get there and do their pre-trip prep. I was assigned to Kevin, a young operator who apparently keeps getting the interns. We drove to the site in the 18 wheeler that brought the dry cement. I've been loading these trucks with the bulk plant so it was nice to have that pinch of familiarity. Kevin walked me through his pre-trip checklist, making me idle up the truck, and start the compressors to check for leaks in our tanks. Kevin is pretty knowledgeable and he was good at explaining things. Also on our ride was Shawn, the engineer, Jay the other operator and music guru (played music trivia via CB radio and he knows it all!) and the other green hat guy who's name I think was Daniel. (By the way, in case I forgot to mention this earlier, green hats are literal and they signify the new people. It makes us easy to look out for. Once you are hired on by the company and/or go to your first school you graduate to a white hard hat like everyone else.)

We drove out to the site and did a surface job which is just what it sounds like--we cemented casing for a shallow well. Sometimes it's just the first part of the well and it will go deeper after the cement sets but in our area most everything is shallow and horizontal so I think this may be it for this well. Because this was a very small rig (basically a rig truck and air drilling which I didn't know existed) this was an easier, shorter job. Rig up took about 10 minutes and the cementing took about half an hour. We arrived on site at 9:30 or so but they hadn't finished drilling and so we waited for them to finish and set the casing which took until 1:30. Hurry up and wait. We napped in the truck (as best we could...the front seat is not as comfortable as you might think and I slept in that morning so I only caught maybe 2 hours) until they finished. We worked until right about 5 am which is as early as we are allowed to drive. Our convenient finish time meant we got on the road without napping first. Kevin slept well in the bed in our cab so he was fine to drive, I, however was essentially catatonic and passed out not long into our drive. They made fun of me. "Puppy, here fell asleep" and "How's red doin' back there" over the CB radio...at least that's what I heard of it through my coma.

The job went as planned and I got to help the other green hat guy connect hose and tear down iron (the pipes that carry cement). I also played the nurse role and fetched them the tools they needed ("Scalpel!" "Wrench!" "Hammer!") I got plenty dirty carrying and lifting hoses and other such things. I think I did ok. At least I wasn't in anyone's way.

Independence Day

I had this past weekend off so I got to leave Conway and go get a drink of something besides the blue kool-aid I've been sippin' on for a month. I chose to drive (6.5 hours) up to KC to visit the boy and Carrie who's interning with Honeywell in KC. I had been hoping to see some others but a three day weekend ain't much to work with. C'est la vie.

As is custom on 'Merica's birthday, we blew up plenty of fireworks. There was grilling and some beer and even a pool. All in all, a good weekend best summed up by the exchange between Kyle and the guy who sold us our fireworks:

Kyle: The fourth of July is my favorite holiday. Grilling, drinking, the lake...

Fireworks dude: ...and you get to spend it with who you want!

Haha.

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...

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!).

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*

One day closer to being fully oriented...

Day one. Begin: 5:35am Leave hotel: 6:30am End: 7:30pm Arrive back at hotel: 8:10pm

Today was a lot of "house cleaning" type stuff--we signed tax forms, heard about 401K plans and insurance, talking about reimbursement, received our very own pair of RedWing boots, turned in our prescriptions for safety goggles, and were fitted for our overalls. We also received nice duffel bags for hauling all of our goodies (they came pre-packed with sweet green t-shirts and even sweeter green hard hats...go ahead and take a moment to be jealous). We also took our DriveSMARRT course that re-taught us how to drive. We are now trained to be crash-free drivers and we will abide by stringent rules that will keep us safe on the road. To make sure we were listening we had to complete a "commentary drive" with an instructor, narrating our driving thought process for 15 minutes of driving in rush-hour, downtown, Houston traffic. Tell me that's not what dreams are made of. Good news: I passed. I need to work on my eye-to-mirror foot-to-break though (you can't touch the break without checking your rear view!). I'm also a bit timid. I suppose that comes from growing up and learning to drive in "Francie" where we don't even have stoplights.

The agenda for the evening is to wait for our new friend from Alaska to check in and shower before we head out to eat a late dinner. I am going to start google-mapping the crap out of Houston to figure out where we will be finding said dinner. Wish me luck.

PS--Mom, I DO know how to spell Houston. I fixed it. Thanks for being such a teacher/proofreader. I'll use spell check this time.

Tulsa Houston Shuffle

Sunday I had the opportunity to drive approximately three hours from Wichita, KS to Tulsa, OK. Now, I know roadkill is everywhere but I feel like this drive put Oklahoma in the running for roadkill capital state. I've only ever seen a live armadillo once in my life (the funniest critter in the Omaha zoo) and even so I felt just terrible at the sight of all the mushed ones on the median. So sad. Also Bambie is now not only an orphan but he has no cousins, or aunts or uncles to speak of in Oklahoma.

Anyway... I got to Tulsa and arrived at our apartment only having been lost once. And that was not my fault. Tulsa is the road construction capital of the universe. I was a big girl and I figured it out all by myself.

I have two roommates--one from K-State and one from Georgia Tech. I also met a girl this morning from Pittsburgh PA. After much wondering about arrangements we made it to the Tulsa airport, onto our plane, and to Houston. We wandered around the Galleria (the biggest mall I've ever seen...also the poshy-est) for a while and I have decided to call it a night early. We are being picked up at 6:20 tomorrow morning... otherwise known as the @$$crack of dawn. I plan to be alive for it. Or as close as possible.