I have 2.5 weeks left of my internship (goodness, gracious me. Where did the time go?) and I'm somewhere between keeping up with work well enough that sometimes I have these slight lulls and so bogged down with things to do that I don't know how I'm going to get it finished. It's kind of awkward at times, but I'm enjoying it. I like my co-workers and the rest of the team for the report a lot and this internship is teaching me a lot too. For example, when you're working with 6 others and none of them except yourself are working on the project for more than 20-30% of their time, deadlines tend to slip a lot and nagging will ensue. Also, scheduling meetings is basically impossible. Oh, on the topic of meetings, meetings tend to be more about talking than actually doing; though, on the other hand, the talking is something needed even if it's not exactly productive. It's one thing to hear about this, but to actually witness it? It's quite a different thing. In all seriousness, though, I'm learning a lot about managing my time, refining my internet search capabilities, team work, managing my documents and versions better, and keeping track of what I've done and what still needs to be done. So I feel like I've gotten a lot out of the internship that will be very transferable to a future job. It's also nice because they're skills that work in any job situation. So my internship place is a bonus, but at least I'm not doing some side project that I write a short paper for that some internal people read and never really goes anywhere. I'm working on a full blown Packard Foundation grant report that I'm helping to write and compile (pretty spiffy), with a well known NGO, and learning skills that are transferable to any job. Not to mention my boss will also open doors for me in Santa Barbara and she knows some of my CSUMB and UCSB profs. At the end of the day, I couldn't have asked for a better internship.
Anyway, beyond my glowing remarks, I'm feeling the stress of the ever-growing-closer deadline. I'm basically the person who gets to format everything and keep the master document, which I admit is instilling considerable trust in me from my boss (thank you Judy and your recommendation!). On the other hand, I do have the skills from working with Judy and I am the only person on the team who is 100% working on this report. So, it makes sense. Unfortunately, the report won't be finished by the time I leave (my last day is the 15th). Therefore, making sure this report is in a complete rough draft form before I leave is pretty crucial. However, that means I will be going cross-eyed by the time the 15th rolls around form scrutinizing everyone's pieces to make sure the format is consistent across the board. Should be fun!-ish. Oh well, welcome to the real world?
On the good news side of work, though, I will be heading to Morro Bay next week! Oh yeah! I'm getting a sort-of-vacation in this summer! I'm actually getting paid, but...hey. I get to go out to sea to do some ROV work trawling impacts. It all happened thanks to one of those lovely networking connections of my boss and my former professor at CSUMB (a professor I got grad school recommendation letters from!). She and I got to talking about something, which brought up the project and then the fact my former prof is part of it and then -- voila! -- I was invited to come after she talked with my prof. They're going out the 19th to the 6th so I'm going out mid next week. They will be LONG days since we have to leave the home they rent (some vacation home) at 6am and we don't get back to the docks till 4pm. Hopefully I'm so tired by the time we get back that I roll into bed pretty early because getting up at 5-5:30am is NOT going to be fun. I'm also hoping the seas are good. I've never gotten seasick on all the trips I've been on, but I've also never been on a boat for almost 10 hours straight. It should be fun, though! I love being on boats and it's ROV stuff so it should be cool. Plus, I'm being paid my salary to go and I'm basically extra help. So much fun! I'm hoping there are whale sightings (little late in the season, but you never know).
Man...school is creeping up quickly and I haven't (*cringes*) worked on my GP since the first month of summer. Ugh. I need to step that up quickly. Fall quarter is when all our work is supposed to be in full swing and basically wrapping up. In other news, though, I will be seeing Steve Martin perform October 8th! He's going on tour again with his banjo and some other bluegrass bands, so that should be fun! I'm also seeing Jhumpa Lahiri who is a Pulitzer Prize winning author for Interpreter of Maladies in October.
My fishies are still doing well. My shrimp are still procreating every 6-7 weeks. They are like clockwork I tell you! They're pretty much full grown now. They don't molt as often, but they still manage a molt every 2 months or so. Since the females can't molt while they're carrying eggs, they always do it in between breeding. I ALMOST thought my large female was done having eggs (even though I could see them), but she just decided to wait almost a week. It was kind of bizarre. My suckerfish who decided the bottom of the log was his/her place to be finally decided to come out again. It was actually doing its job! Then it stopped and now hangs out on the plant with the other suckefish. So bizarre.
The rabbit has taken to coming into my room also. She recently learned she can go up and down the stairs and has decided trying to get underneath my bed (and simply going up and down the stairs) is her new job in life. She comes running into my room, goes to my bed, tries to move things out of the way, checks out the rest of the bed, and then decides to run back out of my room. After the first 3 times she ran underneath my bed, I blocked off access to underneath my bed (Autumn is not happy about it, btw), which is why she now tries to move things (it's kind of funny to watch). The only thing is, she's decided she needs a nibble before she leaves and has tried chewing on 2 books and my clipboard! The books are stacked neatly in my bookcase so she has to get up on her hind legs and chew on it. Not cool. I've chased her out so many times now. I can't really close my door because of the cats when I'm in my room. So...it's a little bit of a pickle I'm in.
Well...with that...It's seriously time to hit the sack. I meant to go to bed an hour ago. Whoops.
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