(written January 12, 2007)
Temperature reading on my car at 7:30am: 0°F
Temperature at lunchtime for the outdoor workout: 22°F
I never knew what it felt like to have my nostril hairs freeze....until today. Now that’s one of the strangest feelings ever. My first week in Bend has been full of fun, new life experiences, nice people, early mornings, even more beautiful scenery than Seattle, and some intense workouts!
In a week, I have become a semi-saavy snow and ice driver...something I never thought would happen. The drive from Eugene was fairly epic. For some reason, the designer of my car thought: “let’s see how small I can make the clearance between the tires and the wheel well,” making it nearly impossible to put the chains on the car. But that’s not all. At the second pass on the way to Bend, we were forced to stop and chain up. Dad jumps out in his shorts and has his chains on the suburban before I can even get all layered up. I was feeling good because I was totally going to do this on my own. I get the chains out and layed behind the tire...and I can’t fit my fingers under the wheel well. Turns out that 300 pounds of books and other most likely unneeded shit in your car weighs it down a little....who knew? So, after unloading the trunk and using the jack, my chains were on and things were looking great. It was actually fun (and beautiful) driving over to Bend.
So now, I live in a house that my roommate, Jinn, owns. We also have another roommate, Beth. So far, we are having fun and doing more than I thought I would in my first week here. Jinn and I went running on Saturday, which was an interesting experience when I started to slip on the ice and contemplate how badly injured I would get if I bit the dust. Supposedly they have these things called Yak tracks which are basically strap-on snow shoes to run in....I might have to invest. Jinn played D1 basketball at Montana State and has already recruited me to play post on their way-better- than-me city league team, which could be fun or frustrating...I’m not sure yet.
Work went amazingly well this week. I wasn’t as exhausted as I usually am the first week of a real job, the snow and ice were hardly ever a problem, I love all of my coworkers, and as far as I know at this point, I really like what I’m doing in lab. Bend Research, Inc. is an awesome place to work. I’ve already been invited out for beers twice, we get free food and drinks all the time, I can see about 6 mountains from our parking lot, we have really awesome outdoor workouts with a personal trainer a bunch of times a week, and then there’s the holiday party tomorrow. Hm. This should be interesting since I swear 98% of my coworkers, although they’re mostly only in their late 20s to late 30s are friggin married. Lots of cute guys...all with rings. Blast. That’s worse than all ugly guys by a long shot!
So far I’ve made a couple freshman mistakes in lab, and I don’t feel like I’m getting the respect I deserve quite yet, but there’s time for that. I made three different polymers, and started getting trained on some equipment too. There is also, apparently, time for like 6 meetings a day. Not including my first day, which was all meetings, I’ve been to 5 in the last 4 days. Not too shabby for a first week intern. Of course, don’t ask me whether I understand what they’re saying or not.
So there we have it. I’m alive and loving Bend so far. Even the crazy-ass coldness isn’t that bad, and I will be going through a bottle of lotion every day. Did I mention I got paid today? Things are definitely looking up. Oh, and this is my view from work:
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