pyrria

...because I'm procrastinating writing a paper by posting here. A short one, I promise - I'm acutlaly somewhat interested in my topic. If only I hadn't waited until this weekend to do the research and writing! Shame on me...and shame on me next week, when I have two more due and neither one started.

I'll have to be more thoroghu next time I post. It's been a whiz-bang semester (and I mean that in the worst possible sense). The job hunt continues, we're trying to decide where to start looking for a place to live, and I have not gotten to actually /play/ City of Heroes all semester. I'm only ever in game for my shows, which is great, but I'm stuck at level 13 or something in Praetoria, and I really wanted to keep going and see all the content.

Here's to hoping next semester is better.

And Real World Hero is back up and running! Please read the page and consider donating. If you can't donate (and we're all squeezed for cash these days), then please forward the link and spread the word. Thank you!

I'm halfway through my internship with a large financial services company and I cannot seem to get excited about it. At all. I am participating in a specialty program for MBA interested in working in technology, so while my internship is targeted, I just feel...meh. It's not that I'm not excited to get to see things "under the covers" so to speak...but I know I'm being under-utilized. I have two tasks, really. I'm picking up more and more as I can, but I'm still left with far too much time to sit and contemplate colors in a PowerPoint deck.

It's also not helping that we were directed to read Too Big To Fail as part of the internship (suggested, of course). It's not making me enamored of the commercial banking industry at all. My fellow interns seem to be doing better than me (with one exception, but she's in a different program). Don't get me wrong, it's nice to get paid, but...

So now I'm left wondering if I made a mistake, if I should have waited to see if I could get an internship elsewhere instead of taking this one. On the surface, this summer and (should I be lucky enough to get a full-time offer) the program sound like a really good set-up. Unfortunately, it means going back into a bureaucracy, and it certainly seems as though things move as fast as molasses.

I've already determined that I will be interviewing like crazy once school starts again. It can't hurt. And if I do get a full-time offer and we decide to take it...it might only be a year where we would have to relocate. Maybe we could even leave him out West (in a smaller apartment and one closer to his work), and I could room with someone back East.

There are always options. And at least it's work. Who am I to complain about that?

Happy birthday to jesiah_blanche!

I got the assignments done, took the exam, passed the classes, raised the GPA, took the e-seminar, drove cross-country, and have landed in Charlotte, NC for my summer internship. There. You now have the summary for the last month and a half.

The internship is off to a rocky start, from my perspective. The coordinators for the actual work portion of the program either aren't aware of the Orientation schedule or aren't being informed of changes. For instance, both I and my manager were informed that I had Orientation on Tuesday and Wednesday of this week, and would be available to start work on Thursday. On Thursday of LAST week, I was informed that Orientation would be Wednesday and Thursday, and that Tuesday would be only a reception. A time was given. No location.

Seriously? How hard is it to say, "and the reception will be at Bar X?" Or, how difficult is it to mention that the schedule you are handing out in the morning has a change?

I don't want sound completely whiny - I have had some good sessions, and of course, met some interesting people. I will end up starting on Thursday - but only because my office has a deployment on Friday evening, and no one will be in the office on Friday.

Said office also runs 8am - 5pm. Friday mornings are going to be rough.

The city is okay. The downtown kinda reminds me of Austin - there aren't many skyscrapers outside the immediate downtown area. Or Uptown, as it's called. It's clear the area's undergone a recent gentrification. Probably once I'm in a regular schedule of caffeine and work, things will settle down. And craziness around Orientation aside, the office I'll be in seems to be pretty laid-back and doing interesting work. I'm reserving judgment on the whole "post-internship employment" thing though. Need to experience more.

My week back East was totally worth it. Saw Fear Factory and caught up with family and friends. ladycoldfire presented me with a beautiful green amethyst bracelet with a lovely Celtic knot bead. I'm pretty sure it's recharged, so I think I may wear it tomorrow for our second day of Orientation.

The drive back and the drive down here were mostly uneventful. I had one stretch of panic, when I took a wrong turn in the mountains of East Tennessee and had to find my way back to I-85. Hubby was on the phone giving me directions, and then when he went to email me the way back, I lost cell service. So I hopped on Tennessee 66, which is 24 miles of switchbacks, and survived the fog, lack of guardrails, random animals, and native drivers. The yellow signs that say "25 MPH"? Not a suggestion. (If this sounds familiar, it's because I posted it on Google Buzz.) A little freaky - I kept waiting for someone to say "CUT! No no no...you are supposed to be the determined yet doomed co-ed driving across the mountains to meet up with friends when you are killed by an innocent-looking hitchhiker! Where is the drama?!?" Or something.

So there you are. Updated. I'm sure other inane things happened, like the fact that I neglected to pack both jeans and swimsuits, but they probably barely deserve a mention.

...which pretty much tells you all you need to know. We are hurtling towards the end of the semester. I have another exam tomorrow, along with a presentation on a paper I haven't written yet. Lest you think I'm a COMPLETE slacker, I have been working on homework for two other classes along with reading for all classes...and the research for the unwritten paper.

On the plus side, it's all done on the 12th. I only have one real final, and one final case write-up. And the research paper. And some other smaller assignments. All due before the exam on the 12th.

I do have an internship squared away, thankfully. Housing is another story. I have to figure that out this weekend.

Hubby is here, which is great. And he's still being incredibly patient. Hopefully there will be plenty of time to spend together before I vanish into the wilds of North Carolina for the summer.

And because I'm just that insane, I'm also considering taking an e-seminar from PMI to start building up my PDUs for my re-certification.

Sadly, I'm looking forward to the internship - because it will be LESS HOURS.




Man, I have developed a terrible whine since coming to school. Let's hope it eases some over the summer, eh?