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.

Happy Thoughts

Today was eons better than the past two days. We are done rigging up and are now actually running stages. We also followed Jose, the on site engineer to see what an engineer does on one of these jobs. Turns out being an engineer on a frac site is much less miserable. We spent the first half of the day in the FracCAT (Fracturing Computer Assisted Treating) which is air conditioned and only kind of dirty. They monitor all the pumps, densities, rates, and downhole conditions from computers in the FracCAT and call the shots or "treat the job." It's kind of boring to watch, especially since we can't hear what all the guys on site are talking about over the radio but it was much nicer than roasting.

The second half of the day, we wandered outside to look helpful. I didn't do a whole lot but I went to sit and watch Jimmie run the POD and after a bit he let us interns run it. It was kinda fun. After that we wandered around and "helped" fix one of the pumps. We didn't do much since when you are pumping the job, things are set unless something breaks, so when it does EVERYONE kinda dives on it.

Since I've been whining so much (since we started) about frac, and since today was unusually smooth, and since we have a 10 hour night and thus a "late" yard time of 5:45, and all of this puts me in a good mood, I'm going to make one of my "famous" lists of things I am thankful for:

1. Showers, soap, loofah's, and shampoo. As a team, these things can erase a really bad day. Love you all.

2. "Underarmor" and all things like it. Special shout-out to Wal Mart and Starter for giving me access to this miracle fabric at an affordable price.

3. Fruit. Even when you are hot, sweaty, smelly, and generally disgusting, and when food doesn't even sound good, fruit still does.

4. Baby wipes. These little guys can get you just clean enough to enjoy some fruit after a long day on site. They get the grime and dirt off your face and hands but don't burn if you rub your eyes with them. Praise be to the Lord in heaven.

5. Gatorade. Orange specifically. Regular or the low cal version. Great stuff.

6. Beef jerky. When you are starving and you've eaten all your fruit, beef jerky makes you feel like you've really eaten something. For realz.

7. Dr. Sholls heel supports. Steel toed boots are rough and tough, but these guys make them less rough on me.

8. My PPE (I know... I know... I also hate it but hear me out here). Those blues are one big napkin and it's kind of a badge of honor when they stop looking so blue. That hard hat has sheilded my head from countless encounters with corners and edges of trucks, pipe, and valve wings--bless that thing. And my RedWings...I've dropped enough heavy hose and pipe on them to really know what it means to love steel toes. I've also used them to kick countless things that would have annihilated my feet. Love you guys.

9. Sunscreen. As a ginger, sunscreen is my religion. My nose may be a little pink and kind of peeling but I can't imagine the state I would be in if I hadn't worn sunscreen. Like Kyle said, I burn like a cheap pizza.

10. Toaster strudel. Starting your day with one of these does things you wouldn't believe for your morale. I only have one left so I may have to make a second post-job-Wal Mart run tomorrow so people can look at me funny as I stink up the aisles. They're that important to my day.

11. Microwave dinners. When you get home at 8 and you first and foremost need a shower, being able to eat 5 minutes after you set foot in the kitchen seems like the stuff of fairy tales. And the box says LEAN Cuisine so it's good for me (please don't shatter this illusion, it keeps me going).

I have a dozen other things and those are the things that keep me from hiding under the sand chief in the middle of the day. I can't think of everything just now but I'll keep you posted if I remember any other really good ones. You know, besides the standards (I don't have cancer or AIDS, I have never been shot at, I am not a starving child in Cambodia being chased by a tiger...).

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.

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.