Wednesday Blues and Walking Shoes

Days two and three have come and gone now. I woke up this morning and thought, "OH! It's Thursday!" and then I quickly realized it was in fact only Wednesday. After a lengthy two days of mostly filling out paperwork and familiarizing myself with my new environment, I was tired. Still, I got up and got dressed, ate my oatmeal and headed out the door at 7:40.

My black flats -- cute, yet comfortable. An unusual match
in the world of shoes.

Once I arrived I got started on a list of on-going tasks. This is one thing I prefer about work to school -- I don't have to wait on anyone else to get started on something and I can work as quickly as I like.  I dropped off some paperwork -- the final ones, I hope -- and worked until 10:00, at which time I had a meeting.

The other intern (hi, Jameson) came to the meeting, too, because we were both invited. Lots of acronyms were thrown around, but we introduced ourselves with a little more detail earlier in the meeting before moving into other stuff. I find it's sometimes difficult not to space out a little during these meetings since I don't yet have the context to understand what, exactly, is going on. It doesn't make sense to ask questions at this point, either -- I'll learn everything better just by absorbing pieces as we go along. There's too little time in the day to ask all of the necessary questions and I know it will come with time.

I got through the rest of the day okay. Lunch was nice because I was able to be by myself for a little while. That, I think, is something that has made these last few days so draining for me -- as an introvert, it's incredibly exhausting to be interacting with people for eight hours straight. Of course, now that I've settled in some, I'll be able to work more independently and I'll get used to interacting with people more.  As of right now, however, I'm used to either spending the day at home alone or spending a few hours in class with people, maybe a couple of hours in the office, but the rest of the time in my dorm by myself.

I like walking home, though. The weather hasn't been too cruel yet so it's pretty enjoyable, even in business casual clothing -- including my little black flats, which, as it turns out, are comfortable enough to walk to and from work in. While sitting in an office all day gives me a bit of an itch to be outside (why is that, by the way? When I'm able to go outside, I don't care to; but when I can't go outside, I want to.), it's better than standing in a drive-thru window for eight hours straight.

This work makes me more mentally tired whereas McDonald's made me physically (and occasionally emotionally) tired. I don't know if that's a better or worse thing. I have, at least, enough energy in the evenings to take a walk with my boyfriend after dinner. I think we're trying to make it a regular thing, even though we both already walk a little over a mile every day. It's good for us to go out and see things, anyway. Otherwise we'd both just sit inside and stare at our computer screens (me, scrolling through Tumblr and him on Hulu or an online class), which is basically what we both do at work all day.

He said he'll be home late tonight. This is fine with me. I like having the apartment to myself for a little while. I like hearing the traffic outside, watching the light shift throughout the room, listening to my computer keys click and glancing over at Stuart, my toy hamster in his pink ball to the right of my laptop. (Margo, the rubber duck librarian, sits nearby, too.)

Stuart, a hot dog eraser on heart-shaped sticky notes,
 Wonder Woman usb, stapler, pens, and Margo the
 rubber duck librarian.

I'm hoping to finish up rereading Feed for my honors thesis this weekend. Then I can head over to the library and get a library card so I can check out some other stuff for my thesis. I also need to be checking in with my plans as head resident assistant for the first series of programs.

Speaking of libraries, when I introduced myself to the group today I mentioned that I intend to become a YA librarian. One of the women I work with said that they might have some assignments they can give me that will allow me to work with the library and librarians at the National Science Foundation library (which has materials for the people who work at NSF -- both work-related and pleasure reading). I'm really excited to get some more library experience. If I've learned anything today specifically, it's that I don't want to be a copy-editor. I've been going through some training manuals and polishing up the language and, while it's good to have some kind of writing involved in this internship, I'm fairly certain I could not edit anything on a permanent and constant basis.