Apparently I'm broke

So what happened this week... huh... not that much really. School, grading, some hanging out with friends. Nothing huge. Oh I signed up for Mint.com this week. Apparently the fact that there is any money in my accounts is basically a miracle. Like a serious, write-to-the-pope-to-get-this-validated act of God. Mint is basically budgeting and money managing software online. It reads your bank account and categorizes your spending. It sets budgets based on your spending habits and shows you at the end of the week how you're doing. It seems as though I've had no concept of my spending up to this point. Hopefully we'll get that under control.

Wednesday I had a birthday dinner at Olive garden with a group of my people. Leslie, Kristin, Stacey (and Mike), Carrie, Scarlett, Emily, Robbie, Brant, Jeff, and Ed all came. I felt so loved! :) It's always fun to sit down with you're people to break bread.

Speaking of hanging out with your people, we decided on a new Friday ritual--Friday FroYo at 5! There's a new self serve place called The Orange Leaf and it's awesome! Go check it out online (you can see a local perspective at thescoopmanhattan.com) and then promptly go there to experience it! This week we followed up our desert with dinner (just Robbie, Scarlett, Sarah, Ed and myself) at Pat's and then Robbie, Ed and I spent a night in (as opposed to spending money out and about) watching that old classic film, Mystery Men.

Today I mentored for a GROW event (because of the aforementioned lack of cash flow) in spite of having a weird vertigo type feel all day. I bucked it up and toughed it out and it got better enough to go to Emily's for a chilly dinner (which was spectacular to say the least). I still feel just a little wonkey but I think I'll survive. Hopefully I'll shake it enough to be productive tomorrow.

Oh and finally the highlights of Chicago! Enjoy!

The big city lights... as seen from the Hancock Building.

My drink at the Hancock Building-- so pretty!

Free hat at the Sox game in honor of 1/2 way to St. Patty's day!

Dinner at the Sox game--as good as(or better than) it looks!

Postin' up at the bean in Millennium park. Possibly favorite part of Chicago.

See? I rock the Sr. Pics at the bean...

Crew at that classy silver bean again...

Adam walks on water sometimes... whatev.

In the new viewing boxes that hang out over Chicago in the Sears (Willis?) Tower. I am breaking ground in the field of fake Sr. pics here people. Check me out!

And that red thing... I forget what it's called. We checked it out though. Also very cool. :)

There are more up on the Facebook and even more on SnapFish. These are just the ones that struck my fancy enough to make it into the blog...

Showing Dad that I'm no fool...

Today was the first day of school...hooray! It's been a couple days so quick recap of what you've missed (not much):

I am no longer jobless! I am grading Operations Research 1 for Dr. Wu. I am supremely thankful for this because 1) I needed a job that fit my schedule and grading rocks in this aspect and 2) I can't work at the GAP in real life because I would spend all my paychecks on their clothes (that arrangement only works in my dreams). I got my first quiz to grade today (Yup, day one... Wu doesn't mess around)

I've also decided not to mess with the title of the blog... so what if my life is no longer an adventure? I fixed the tagline anyway... I'll change it when my girl J Greene tells me what to change it to alright?!

I did go see Vampires suck with Scarlett and it was... a movie. Like those Scary Movies they made it is really awkward... I dunno.

Farmer's market was delightful. I got cherry tomatoes, edamame, and peaches. All tasty.

IE pub crawl was, as expected, lots of fun. Hitting the ville with my people is always a good time and it's just so good to get the band back together.

Sunday I discovered tamarind sauce. It's better than any condiment I have ever had. I can't do it justice in words so get to a store with a desi (Indian/Pakistani) food section and get you some. It will change your life.

So that brings us up to today. I didn't sleep well last night because I flossed my teeth last night and my gums hurt something terrible and I think I was excited to get started with the semester. Even so it was a good day. I started by visiting the office before class... there were PW cinnamon rolls and they were AMAZING.

First class was simulation with Dr. Wu (who doesn't mess around) and he told us (as he tells all his classes) that his goal for day one was "enrollment reduction" and he informed one of the grad students (who do all their projects solo) that project two (which will take something like 200 hours) was going to be...well... he said "if you alone...you get killed" (all in his fantastic Chinese accent). Good start to my day. I then sat through Computer Aided Manufacturing (CAM) and then Advanced Engineering Economy. Advanced Econ will be fun because it's an Easton class. CAM...well it'll be CAM.

Tomorrow is my last UGE credit, Urban and Regional Economics. I don't know what to think about this at this point. We'll see. After my one class tomorrow we get to meet our freshman "buddies" and talk to them about time management and all that good orientation crap. Should be fun. I'm just crossing my fingers that for once the kids I am assigned will actually show up and be in our department. The last two years I've had non-existent kids. Fortunately there are always unaccounted for orphans for me to adopt.

Tomorrow night is desi food night to say goodbye to Mahjabeen who leaves for NYC on Thursday. I promised not to cry... the jury is out on whether or not I'll deliver on that. I guess if it get's misty I can just cuddle up to some tamarind sauce or samosas...

Easy like Sunday morning...

So today I didn't get to sleep in, I had to go to work at 8. It was a little rough to get up because Anjelica and I went to see Dinner for Schmucks last night and didn't get home until midnight meaning I got only 6.5 hours of sleep or so. Not ideal but considering my recent patterns pretty darn good. We went in for a "class day" with "Mama" Sharron which meant we talked all morning about our projects (and what they would be if the ones we were given were garbage) and our experiences. It was a pretty informal conversation, she just made sure we took turns and all talked about everything. I like Sharron.

We determined that my project was going to be a cost analysis of getting flow meters for the liquid chemicals so that it would reduce the discrepancies between the inventory records of the bulk plant and the coil tubing department. That is if I get the ok from Tommy for the project. I couldn't do that today because he wasn't there. I'll talk to him tomorrow. Because of this I just worked on getting my journey management registered and my reimbursement paperwork printed. So still a productive afternoon.

We ended up home by 2:30 which made up for missing mass this morning because I got to go to evening mass in Little Rock. It was particularly good today because they had a bunch of kids doing the music rock band style. Nice change from the slow, sad organ.

I polished off my leftovers from Los 3 Potrillos for dinner as I watched the old Shark Week coverage leading up to the new stuff for this years Shark Week. I really can't complain... my life rocked today. :)

White Elephant Interns

Another day of maintenance in coil tubing. When we arrived this morning we sat around for about half an hour before they doled us out to people and their projects. I was so lucky as to be paired with a guy helping change filters, and fix a c pump on one of the pump trucks. First he showed me around it pointing out all the highlights. Then we propped the cab up (it's an over engine style tractor... old school) and looked around... then we put it down because we determined...well I dunno I think they may have just wanted to pawn it off on the mechanics. Either way we decided to wash it. That meant I stood around and waited my turn because they gave me the task of rinsing. The rinse hose has a small range but lots of water so you get soaked trying to do anything with it. I think they gave it to me because I'm the ignorant intern and they knew it was the worst part. Whatever. Anyway, they moved it into the shop afterward and I watched them change filters. I held one so it didn't spill diesel everywhere. Big day.

Before lunch we noticed that a couple guys were unloading watermelons onto the lawn in the yard--free for the taking! So I took one. Afterward I realized that I couldn't find my Clay (there are two, Anjelica was paired with the other Clay) and I was informed he probably just went to lunch. Awesome. So I did too. We ate and Slim Chickens (again) a place we LOVE. It was AMAZING as usual. We went ahead and took our time since everyone else seems to.

When we got back we were still ahead of everyone, so we visited the bulk plant. After killing some time we went to talk to Russel and Ryan about what to do with our afternoon. Unfortunately we were told just to head back to the boom truck with hydraulic problems that had been giving them fits since Saturday. We can't really help with this so we just stood and watched at a distance. Super boring. I think they forget we're around... again whatever. I wandered off to tell Russel and Ryan this and they were going to give us something else to do after they finished their paperwork but then the truck was fixed (finally!) and we had nothing to do. After a discussion of what to do with us it was decided that them spending time inventing tasks was a waste and we'd go home and work on our videos and papers. We got to leave early because we are basically inconvenient at this point. Oh well we got a short day and I'm not complaining.

After work we went to best buy to deal with Anjelica's sad camera and then we watched When In Rome... a predictable and super cheesy romantic comedy. It was cute. We also went to Wal Mart again for travel sized shampoo bottles for when we finally go out on a coil tubing job. I'm now trying to write my paper. It's been a pretty vanilla day really. Tomorrow morning we're going to go with Russel (who is the cell leader and a cool guy) to see a job site (all rigged up) for a quick tour to keep us from feeling so lost when we go...which seems like it will be Wednesday. Today wasn't a very inspiring day...sorry if this reads as boring to you (Mom, Scarlett, Nomi, Heather... possibly other people...) as it does to me. Hopefully tomorrow will be more exciting.

Frac Approaches

I have been spelling it wrong I think. I believe I should have stopped at the c (frac seems to be how everyone abbreviates it). Oh well... I'll press on.

Today we were supposed to have the morning with Reggie but he didn't have much to work on so we cleaned trucks early and helped him when we were done. We watched him test a truck and fix it and test it again. Actually we went to lunch in there (Taco Bueno which is my new favorite!). After lunch we also got Reggie to explain to us all the frac trucks and the basic set up of a frac job. That was our task for the afternoon--figuring out all the trucks in the yard (name and purpose). We also went through the coil tubing trucks with Eric (a coil tubing guy obviously). We're saving cement for tomorrow because we kinda know it already and tomorrow we have to diagram a job anyway.

Because it was a slow morning and we worked ahead we got to leave at 3:30. This meant we were home during daylight and we went to the POOL! I have been swimming precisely twice this summer which is horrifying considering my history with aquatic activity. it was a much needed swim. To top it off we ate Pioneer Woman pancakes again. Those things can change lives. For serious they are amazing. PW, I love you. After we ate pancakes (from heaven) we went to see Inception. Spoiler alert: It's AWESOME. Ok kidding about the spoiler part but not kidding about the awesome. (Dad, you would like it a lot. Go see it please. I'm sure it will come to Francie eventually. Do it. ) And the best part? I put on REAL CLOTHES for this. We're talking, JEANS, and NOT A T-SHIRT. I even wore MASCARA! Big night on the town! I haven't worn mascara in...weeks. I wear almost exclusively athletic shorts and t-shirts (don't even talk to me about a real bra...). Getting really dressed was kind of amazing in itself. Listen to me... I'm going slowly crazy.

Tomorrow we get to diagram the cement job and make sure we know about the cement trucks (that we already know so intimately... sleeping in them will do that). This shouldn't take long so we're going to treat ourselves to sleeping in and going in a little later than 7 and we're thinking we'll be out early again as well. Not sure what we'll do with our extra time but I'm sure we'll try to make the most of it. Frac starting Sunday is like a mini death sentence--you have two days to live and then... they own you. But it's only for a week and if this internship is teaching me anything, it's that I can go with the flow and tough it out for a week. Wish me luck!

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*