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!

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!!! :)

I'm running out of clever titles for the boring days

So we decided not to work in the office today because the work to be done didn't require it. We slept in, I made PW pancakes for Anjelica and I, and then we went in to the yard just long enough for her to talk to someone about her project. I spent that time in the parking lot reading a book so no one would see me sitting around doing nothing (they don't like that... they prefer you to hide).

I polished up my presentation from the comfort of my couch and then I went to the pool to try to correct my tan lines (I swear, one burn, one time and you can't fix it! You either have to re-torch yourself or live with your circus pattern) before I bonded with the couch some more.

Productivity spiked again a little before 4 when I took Anjelica to the hair dresser. I came home and baked thank-you-cookies to kill time before I went to pick her up. Knocked out two tubes (one of them JUMBO sized thankyouverymuch!).

And thus brings us to the present, where our heroine sits on her couch watching Sinefeld. I'll finish baking at some point, perhaps read some more, watch SHARK WEEK and then go to bed. Looking like an intense night. Risky since I present tomorrow at 1pm but I like to live on the edge.

Cashing in my foregone air conditioning

I spent today working on my presentation in the office again. I touched up my "project" a little more and edited photos (which are a HUGE player in this presentation). I did that between Facebook checks. It was a boring day. Luckily, Anjelica finished early so we were home by about 3:30. I took a nap (not because I NEEDED it but because I was vaguely drowsy and I COULD) and after I ate leftover Papa Johns (I pledge allegiance to Papa Johns) we went to Wal Mart to get sour cream for THE Pioneer Woman pancakes we're going to have for breakfast tomorrow and cookie dough for our thank you treats we're bringing on presentation day.

Ok now if you're still awake after reading about my fascinating day...

The countdown to Houston: 4 days

The countdown to Manhattan: 9 days

The countdown to SFKS: 12 days

So close!

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... :)

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. :)