:Nintendo Widow

Tonight I met my winter quarter team for dinner and drinks. Even though our quarter ended in early March, it has taken us five months to find time to meet again as a team. We had a wonderful homemade curry dinner plus dessert. I had no idea how much I missed my friends until we were all gathered together again dishing about our internships and lamenting the loss of Kien to Shanghai for the fall quarter. Coming together at the end of a short summer made me realize how short our stint in grad school really is. At the end of fall quarter last year we all cringed at the thought of having five more just like it. Now I cringe at the thought of being done in less than a year! I have a lot to do and not much time left. If I want time to do it all and have time to play I’d better learn to survive without sleep.

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I can’t think of anything clever to say, so here’s a rundown of what I did this week.

For some reason, I had a very very long week. It was productive and pretty fun but it just went on forever. It did end though, with a great vacation. Yesterday morning, Danny and I got up early and drove to Anacortes to catch the ferry to San Juan island. Our ferry was only 1/2 an hour late and we got to the island by 1:30. We had a wonderful trip and finished it off this morning with a 60 minute private flight in a small plane over the San Juan Islands. I’d never been in a small plane before and I was pleasantly surprised. It was kind of a phobia I’ve had my whole life. I decided to just get over it and do something unnatural for me. We had such a good time. The weather was clear and Danny got plenty of photos. I’ll post them soon. Until then, I’m off to bed and working for the man.

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I’m mid-way through my internship and I now have some honest-to-God projects. I was in training and at conferences for the first four weeks. I really enjoyed it but I wasn’t sure how much I was learning. I learned a lot about the company but not so much about the work. This is good. I know they don’t want to overwhelm us at first. I’ve had jobs before though so I’m ready to take charge of something and run with it. I know I’m sounding whiney but I’m not unhappy, just antsy.

Last week, I “shadowed” my coworker at Boeing. I had some small assignments and got a taste of what my long-term assignment would be like. Now I’m at Starbucks HQ until the end of my internship. It is so so sweet. Free coffee. Free GOOD coffee with all the fixins. My coworkers are nice, knowledgeable and they care whether or not I learn something. The only bad thing though is I’m still waiting on my access badge so I don’t have free roaming privileges.

Bonus: I found out that one of the recent 07 MBA grads works there so we’re meeting for lunch on Thursday.

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It reached 100 at Husky Stadium today and a paltry 97 at SeaTac airport. I’m smug and snug in my cool, air-conditioned apartment tonight. Even though we don’t need it 350 days a year, it is totally worth having for those 14 random days of 80+ temps.

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Danny and I returned to Portland yesterday for another relaxing weekend in the company of friends. This completed a very pleasant week. For one, I had a break mid-week for the 4th of July. I didn’t have to fly anywhere for work. I had two different projects over four work days which thrills me. Even if I haven’t figured out what the hell I’m supposed to do, at least there’s variety.

I also had a very MBA week meaning that I saw many people that I hadn’t seen in a month because of work, vacation, or travel. We swapped internship stories and enjoyed just hanging out without any assignments hanging over our heads.

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I survived my recent western regional intern conference in Scottsdale. Don’t get me wrong, I did have fun. I also realized how long it’s been since I was 21 and free beer was the ultimate goal of me and my peers.

I stayed at a really nice resort from Wednesday morning until Friday afternoon. My schedule was booked solid. I did have some free time in the evenings after 7pm, but from 8am until then I was busy with lectures, team-building activities, and wandering from one side of the complex to the other. I did meet some cool people but it took a while to find them. To give you an example of what I was up against, here is a snipped of conversation I overheard while checking in.

Chickie 1: Wow, your bag is full. What did you bring?
Chickie 2: Mostly makeup and hair products.

Each evening, we had a themed dinner. The dress code was casual but we were still at a business event. We even had a dress code. Still, some people thought it was appropriate to wear a tube top to a company event. She looked really really cute but….. a tube top? Hmmm….

After doing my time and getting through the crazy schedule, I was ready to head home. I’d eaten plenty of free food and consumed plenty of free wine but it was enough. I was ready to sleep in my own bed again.

During the closing ceremonies, our host announced the winner of the team competition and guess what? My team won! Out of twenty-nine teams my team had won enough events and shown enough team spirit to take home the grand prize! Yay! I knew we could do it! I was for it all along! *cough cough*

I’m really proud of my team. Despite my constant skepticism, we really pulled it off. The contest. We pulled off the contest, not the tube top. However, I did hear that many a tube top came off after 10pm when the bar closed. I was asleep and in bed like the old lady that I am. After this weekend I can honestly say that thirty is not looking so bad.

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Reno was a lot of fun. I met the rest of my summer project teammates over drinks and dinner the first night. I was completely worn out at that point so I hope I didn’t come off as disinterested. I’m very excited about my project. I’ll explain more later once I can find a way to accurately and succinctly describe my job.

The retreat involved about 30% speakers, 20% eating, and 50% talking and drinking with coworkers. I also met another MBA from the San Francisco office. This thrilled me since I’m the only MBA intern out of the 40 at my office. Anyway, she and I spent about an hour talking about our impressions of the internship as well as the differences between our two programs. We did this during the drive back from our company-sponsored optional afternoon excursion to Thunderbird Lodge on Lake Tahoe. I’d never been to Tahoe before and I was not disappointed. Check out some (stock) photos here.

To finish up the conference, I made a late night run to In n Out Burger around 10:30. One of the things I miss most about California is the food. Don’t get me wrong, Seattle has great restaurants, but I haven’t had time to discover as many “new” favorites as I had in CA. In n Out was great as always and it took a little of the edge off my last gin and tonic.

I got back to the casino around midnight and promptly found a $5 craps table. The table wasn’t hot and I was losing money. I took what I had left and went to the place next door. I found a really good table and walked away with $88. I’m happy that I didn’t lose anything and was thoroughly entertained for about two hours.

I got home around 2:30 today and crashed. I had a great time and didn’t act too dorky in front of my colleagues. And really, isn’t that what truly matters?

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I started my internship on Monday and I’m off to a conference/retreat in Reno tomorrow. I’ve never been to Reno before. I’m looking forward to it. I’m sure I’ll have much more interesting things to discuss when I return….and perhaps some more money.

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Since I’m done with school for the year, I have time to volunteer. I’m working on a planning committee for an upcoming fundraising event. I used to help with this kind of thing when I was employed but I haven’t had much time for it in the last year. It feels good to catch up on non-school related activities.

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On a whim, Danny and I attended a screening of Sakuran, a Japanese film that premiered in the US at the Seattle International Film Festival. I don’t go to a lot of movies, but this one looked intriguing especially after Danny mentioned that the music was written by one of his favorite J-pop artists, Shiina Ringo. We had no idea the movie was playing until my friend Shanna, her sister, and her sister’s boyfriend invited us to the screening. Waiting in lines for a chance to see a movie I know little about usually does not interest me, but hell, what else was I going to do? The online preview looked cool and it’s not like I have homework to deal with right now.

The line outside the theater was long but we got in no problem and even found five seats together. We ended up in the very back of the theater but I didn’t mind as long as I could read the subtitles. The movie was much better than I expected. It is based on a popular manga and I think this added a lot to the story. It also explained some of the over-the-top directorial choices involving plot twists and music. The point is, it’s worth watching if not for the music and cinemetography alone. The story is pretty good too.

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