I haven’t blogged in awhile–but I’ve gotten requests to post more, and although those requests were several weeks and possibly even a few months ago, I’ve decided to start posting–at least for today.
This morning I drove to Chapel Hill High School where I helped volunteer for a youth program called “Odyssey of the Mind.” It’s an event that gives kids of all ages the ability to participate in a “problem solving” exercise. A team of kids representing their school are given a “problem” which they have to find a solution to and present it to a panel of judges in the form of a skit. The problems are very unique and it was interesting to see how each group (I was watching middle schoolers) took a very different approach to the problem. The reason I signed up for this was because Laura is close friends with a homeschool family who had kids participating. They needed to provide a judge and a volunteer, and Laura and I volunteered. Her job was a “staging area judge.” She had to help get the kids situated with all their props before coming on stage, and gave the announcement to start. I just closed the doors and made sure nobody came in and out during the performance.
I left about 12:45, so on my way back, I started thinking about lunch. I was craving some Chick-Fil-A, and I remembered hearing that there was one near Southpoint mall–so I took that exit despite the fact that the “Food This Exit” sign had no Chick-Fil-A sign… Needless to say I didn’t find it, and didn’t feel like going to the mall food court. I got back on the highway after wasting about 15 minutes and took the next exit which DID have a Chik-Fil-A sign. I then remembered that I had a coupon in my wallet for a free large sprite there, so I got that along with a sandwhich topped with provolone cheese and a large fry. Mmm… BBQ sauce and Honey Roasted… speaking of which, I realized just now that the laundry I put in the washing machine when I got back has the leftover pack of honey roasted in my jean pocket. I hope it doesn’t explode.
Why are the jeans I was wearing this morning in the laundry you say? Because when I got back, the parking lot was empty. TOTALLY empty–that never happens at the XA house. I took the opportunity and grabbed a shovel and broom, working like a dog until all of the mud, dirt, and leaves that typically turn our parking lot into a swamp when it rains were gone. It took me a good little while, and at the end I was covered in dirt and very sweaty… so I changed. Now I’m blogging and nursing the blisters on my hands.
Weekends are nice… it’s great to be able to think about nothing, and it’s easier to do that as a worker rather than as a student, so I’m enjoying my internship this semester. Not having to think about homework over the weekends is very, very nice. I also enjoy my time at work. After spending the first few weeks adjusting and learning, I’m finally at a point where I’m knowledgeable enough to be a significant help to my boss and co-workers. One of the business analysts found out about my development capabilities and started giving me tasks to do. It started out with some basic suggestions about design, a meeting to discuss my ideas, and the next thing I knew, I was actually building the prototype– leveraging my design and programming all of the database backend, then meeting with the business unit who we’re designing this project for and showcasing it to them. On top of that, we gave a demo to my manager, who liked it so much that he now wants us to get it functional enough to show to ANOTHER business unit for a similar project! So I’ve gone from being the intern who could do things as slow as I need to and moved upwards to having to produce thing in time for meetings to present them. I enjoy it. The challenge is good, and the work is rewarding, not to mention fun to do! I love my internship and I hope to be able to do this kind of work when I graduate.
I’m waiting for Laura to get back from her judging duties so we can hang out. Life has been so busy that it seems it’s been hard for us to grab time together. This past wednesday we took the night off and went to her apartment to watch “Tropic Thunder.” The movie was ok–the good part about it was finally being able to spend time with JUST her. She’s at the XA house every night, so I see her every day, and we are on the worship team together, and both fully involved in XA, so we spend a lot of time together, but it seems like it has been an increasing challenge to get 1 on 1 time. Last weekend was spring retreat, then sunday we went to her parents house. The weekend before that we went home… which actually did present us some time together, but weekly life here just seems like it doesn’t settle down much.
I’m sleepy, and I can’t think of much more to write about right now. Thanks for reading this though, you rock!
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