First Free Day

Whoa! Almost forgot to write a blog post tonight! It wasn't my fault. My aunt had Sherlock on when I got back from dinner. I got distracted.

I will be working at my internship on Tuesdays and Thursdays, so today, being Wednesday, was my first day off. I'm kind of extremely happy about how my schedule worked out. It means I work a day, get a day off to recover, work another day, and then I get a four-day weekend!

I really hate that I'm already complaining about having to work at this internship. I shouldn't be feeling that way. I really need to be grateful that I got a position with this company that is being so flexible and in a town where I have free and entertaining lodging- dogs included. It's just... Well, I was originally told that I was going to be working four hours a day, and now I'm working eight hours a day, not including an hour-long lunch break. That first day kinda took a lot out of me, you know? And that wasn't even a full-length day.

I mean, you saw in that last blog post where they made me talk to people on the phone, right? (I know, I know, I need to get over it and be an adult.)

Living in a new place and starting a new internship can just be hard sometimes, I guess. Especially since this magazine stuff is so new to me. I'm an English major, so all I know about journalism comes from the class I took in seventh grade and my time as a high school correspondent for my local newspaper. Also, I'm already stressed out because driving in Richmond is harder than what I'm used to.

But in cases like these, I know it's important to focus on the positives. For example, yesterday I learned how to fact check an article. Basically, you just call the people you're writing about (AAAAAAAAAH) and make sure your information is right and your telephone number works, and if there's a website, go there and make sure the URL works.

Also, the people at my office are all pretty friendly. My supervisor got married over the weekend, so they had cupcakes for him in the morning, and I got to have one. The computer I'm working at has a touch screen, and while I don't use it, it's still cool to have. The screen saver is bubbles that float around the screen. Best of all, there's a little deck with a picnic table behind the office. I can eat my lunch there, breathe a little bit, not look at a computer screen or traffic, and recharge my being-with-and-talking-to-people batteries.

So there's a lot of good stuff about this internship. But the title of this blog post is First Free Day.

I stayed up late last night, and I slept in late this morning. And it was glorious.

I watched Justice League on my aunt's giant TV. And it was glorious.

I ate English muffins with peanut butter for breakfast and cheesy scrambled eggs on toast for lunch. The food was glorious.

I wore my favorite marching band t-shirt and my favorite crimson athletic shorts with houndstooth stripes. And it was glorious.

I explored the immediate area on foot, the method of transportation with which I am most comfortable. And it was glorious.

I saw a sign for a dentist whose name was basically Davey Crockett. And it was glorious.

I bought a little box of fancy chocolates from the chocolate shop, making sure to bring one home for my aunt. And it was glorious.

I found a whole bunch of places to eat lunch. And it was glorious.

I bought a green tea frappuccino at Starbucks. And it was confusing, because I had fully intended to order a green tea lemonade, but somehow the word "frappuccino" came out of my mouth. But it was still glorious.

I started feeling dehydrated and sick on my way home. That wasn't so glorious.

My aunt told me that there is, indeed, a Moe's Southwest Grill in Richmond. And it was glorious.

I went to dinner with a friend that I haven't seen since middle school. And it was glorious.

I watched Sherlock with my aunt, accompanied by her two dogs and to the tune of a gentle thunderstorm. And it was glorious.

Then I sat down to write this blog post, and I had intended to just write about my day today, but then my feels started coming out. Man, I hate it when that happens.

I guess I just needed that. I didn't talk to hardly anyone about my first day yesterday. Mostly I just wanted to curl up in a ball. "Please don't ask me about my day. I don't want to talk about my day. Don't ask me about my day."

It's okay. I ate some pasta. Then I felt better.

Okay! Game plan for tomorrow: Get up. Get ready. Make a lunch. Eat breakfast. Go to the office. Do work. Wait as long as I can to have lunch. Do more work. Come home. Scream a little. Have a snack or just dinner. Watch some YouTube videos. Relax. Celebrate the fact that I have four days of freedom.

Sounds easy, right?