Day 3 and 4 at my internship
I knew Day 3 would be a downer. I just didn't think it would be a soul-sucking downer of a day. It was. I blogged a little in the morning before things started rolling. Then I made some calls to Tennessee to ask people to come to a fundraiser for the Governor. We then broke for lunch, where I went with folks to a local eatery to get food. I thought it would be a good time to get to talk to my new coworkers. It was, sorta. Being the new guy I didn't have a clique to join so sorta walked on my own. Then we grabbed food and headed back to our desks to work. No real conversation. :-(My afternoon consisted of putting names from a sign-in sheet for an event in El Paso into a spreadsheet. Ugh. Mindnumbingly boring. I just wanted to die. I took off as close to 5 as I could and went home to a very understanding wife. She doesn't like spreadsheets either.
Day 4 (today) was better. First, I had to finish off that horrible spreadsheet from yesterday, but since I had done the lion's share previously I was finished by 10. Then I got to work on my own stuff. With the Governor in town for the debate next week, we are trying to arrange a rally and debate watching party. So that is a lot of event planning on my behalf. Also, I've got about 1/2 dozen irons in the fire for other things that I want to get done in the next month or so. So I was kept busy most of the morning.
We ordered lunch in for a big (paid) staff meeting. Another day eating lunch at my desk, but it was just us interns so it was less of a working lunch and more of a getting to know you lunch. I'm sharing a desk with Julia, a high school senior who believes that the class of 2005 is OLD. That's high school class, not college. She interned for Lieberman last year and worked on a 2006 Congressional campaign. She is 17. She loves spreadsheets. I like talking to people on the phone. So she gave me her call sheets for the afternoon (Boston event this time) and she took more data entry (people in Iowa that gave over $100 to Democratic candidates in 2006). It was a nice switch. I contacted a few folks and even raised my first cash for the Governor - $25.
Tomorrow will be more of the same, but next week could get interesting. I've applied for blogger credentials for the debate, I'm arranging a rally of about 100 people for the debate, and my impromptu advance work on Monday got me noticed. I'm on the advanced team for the debate this time around. Although, I don't know what I'll be doing, exactly. I have a conference call on Monday to figure that out.
I don't think I'll give you a daily play-by-play, but as big events happen, I'll fill you in.
Two things I've noticed. I'm exhausted every day and, day 3 excluded, I'm loving what I'm doing.
Two things that my wife has noticed about me. I'm much more consumed with work now and I talk about work now. She said, "I know more about the people you've worked with for 3 days than some of the people you've worked all year with."
posted by Expat Teacher @ 9:59 PM
