August 30, 2010

Monday

Today is the first day of school, and it feels incredibly weird that I’m not going to school. Daniel and Brian went off to their first day of the semester, and I’m the tiniest bit sad … and jealous. I loved being a student, even though it was hard at times. I loved learning from such smart people and getting to walk around campus and meeting new people.

Daniel and I had quite an exciting few weeks, just before coming back to Utah. Our last week in Virginia was a busy one. Daniel was working his last week, and even though my internship was officially over, I worked a couple of days that week as well. Drew needed some extra help because he felt so swamped. So, it was really good that I got to work a little bit extra, keep myself busy and out of trouble. My co-workers were really sweet. They got me a card and a gift card and a delicious ice cream cake as a kind of goodbye. It was kind of sad to leave! I loved working there this summer, and I loved the people I worked with, they were so fun and nice! Plus, I loved being paid for working out!

The Saturday before our last week of work, Daniel and I went to a party for one of my coworkers; a kind of house-warming/engagement party for Jennifer Hawkins. She warned me that there would be a bunch of rednecks there, and she kind of apologized in advance for it. I just told her that that was no big deal, it would be fun! But she really wasn’t kidding about it! There were a TON of rednecks, people missing teeth and wearing kind of funny clothes, smoking. And I’m pretty sure that Daniel and I were the only people there that didn’t have beers in our hands! And Mom and Dad always taught me not to be at parties where we knew there would be alcohol! J Dan and I brought our own Sprites! They had a ton of food there. They cooked bucket loads of crabs and just dumped them on a table for people to eat. I tore into one, with the help of another more experienced guest there. He taught me how to break them open to get the best meat. It was really fun. 

 During my days off, I cleaned up the house and started packing up. I also took a trip to Hershey, Pennsylvania on Thursday the 20^th with Stephanie and Rayna. It was a 3 hour trip up there, and we went to Hershey’s Chocolate World, got a free tour (which was more like an informational Disneyland ride, complete with singing mechanical cows), went to a café for some chocolate cake, and … that was about all there was to see. We left Hershey and went down about half an hour to Amish Country in Lancaster County. That was fun. We just drove around, went to a farmer’s market and then drove home. I had a good time, but I’m not so sure that Stephanie did. We got to talk a lot, kind of bond a little bit.

Our last Saturday there, Daniel and I made plans to go see the last bit of DC that we could. It was our last real day to go see stuff before we were leaving. Before going into DC, we volunteered at a booth at the Arlington County Fair for the church to introduce people to Family Search and encourage people to get to know their ancestry. It was kind of interesting. It was nice to talk to people about it. We definitely were not there to proselyte, so it wasn’t like we were pushing the church on people (like I sometimes feel). After our shift was done, we bought some cheap tickets off of someone at the fair and went on a few rides there. Daniel really felt the need to go on some rides; but then after we did, we both felt a little queasy!

We went to the Library of Congress and the Museum of American History on the mall after the fair. We decided it would be easier to just drive in, since the fair was really close to the city, and it would have been a pain finding parking and then taking the metro. We were surprised, though, to find the traffic wasn’t as bad as it has been in the past. And we even found fairly cheap parking on the street. The library of Congress was very cool to see. We took ourselves on a sefl-guided tour, using a pamphlet provided by the library. A very beautiful building! And so many exhibits to see. The museum was cool, too. But we didn’t even get to see half of it! It was so big, and we had limited time to see it. But, it had the ruby slippers! I mean, the real ruby slippers, the originals, from the movie! There was a huge line to see them, so Dan and I only got to see them in passing. We learned a lot in that museum about the presidents of the US, especially George Washington and Abe Lincoln.

On our way out of DC, we stopped at a few kiosks to get some souvenirs. We bought a sweatshirt for Daniel’s mother ( she lost the one she bought in DC), and then some Tshirt souvenirs for ourselves. I had to get an “I (heart) DC” shirt, you know. And then Daniel and I also got some matching DC shirts. It was a fun day, our last in DC. We finished it up by going out to dinner at a little diner (The Stray Cat), and then heading to the temple.

After church on Sunday, Martina hosted a little goodbye party for us. Michael and Michelle and their family came for dinner, and then Bowman, Stephanie, Rayna and Brother Zerkel came over for dessert and to visit. It was very fun! We were glad to have most of the people we really cared about altogether to see them one last time before we go.

We finished packing on Sunday and Monday morning, and did some last minute cleaning of the basement before leaving for our trip. Saying goodbye to Martina was really sad. She was so happy to have us for the summer, and we really loved staying with her too. She actually cried when we were leaving. We love her! She’s so fun and quirky, she has so many funny oddities, but that’s what makes her so endearing! I am going to miss her. I sure hope we can keep in touch.

Our trip here to Utah was fun. We drove Monday to Kirtland, went on a tour of the Kirtland restoration and then stayed close to Kirtland that night. The tour was a lot shorter and Kirtland a lot smaller than I saw (or at least the old buildings). Old Nauvoo was so huge, and I was expecting Kirtland to be smaller but somewhat similar. We saw the Newel K. Whitney store and house, the ashery, and saw mill. On Tuesday, we paid a few dollars to get a tour of the Temple. The Community of Christ owns that building, and it was very interesting to get a tour, but it really missed the spirit of the Temple. It was also interesting to learn about the Community of Christ church. I don’t understand how a church can have so many of the same beliefs, even believe in the Book of Mormon, but be so off! It just says a lot about how important it is to have the correct authority and a true prophet! Also, it’s interesting that they don’t believe that there is one true church; they simply believe that we are all trying to be good and do right and get back to God. But not that there is one right way to get there. There use of the temple is also really different; they don’t have the ordinances we do, it’s just another place to worship and pray. Interesting.

We drove to Chicago on Tuesday, stopped in Chicago and had dinner at Applebee’s with Adam. It was good to see him and catch up a little bit. Especially since we never see him, and he never makes the effort. He’s a good guy, kind of sad what he’s doing with his life, though. We stayed in a hotel in Joliet with Adam and Liz McMurtrey. He was there for a work conference, and they were just able to get a room with 2 beds, which was really nice for us. We had a lot of fun spending the night with them! We just talked all night, looked at pictures, etc. The next day, Daniel and I drove into Chicago, paid a bit for parking and walked around Chicago. It was fun! We stopped to see a set for the making of the movie “Transformers 3”, we walked down to Navy Pier, and we had lunch at a pizza place, for some famous Chicago Stuffed Pizza. Adam also took a little break from work to come down and see us. It’s always good to visit a big city, but I wouldn’t like to live there for a long time.

We drove during the evening of that day and stayed in a pretty nice hotel room in Des Moines, Iowa for cheap (Dan’s Mom booked us a room online, and found it at a great price). Then the next day, we drove all day and landed here in Provo at about midnight … about the same time that Mom, Diane, Brian and Mary did; which meant that we stayed up even later talking. We were very sleep deprived last week!

The last couple of days, Mom has spent getting Brian set up for school. We went to Costco with them, just to get some things that we needed for cheaper. Yesterday was Brian’s birthday, and we had a nice picnic up Provo Canyon; had some sandwiches, watermelon, salsa and chips, and various salads and juice. We spent some time taking silly pictures, and it was so fun! We laughed a lot! And then we took a walk up the canyon before coming back down for delicious Costco chocolate cake. Some of Brian’s friends came over for cake and we played some games and had a lot of fun. I gave Brian the scrapbook I made for him of his mission, and I think he really liked it. I hope, at least.

It’s been so fun having my family around. I love seeing them! But Daniel is a little bit anti-social right now. He hasn’t been so into it, hasn’t been visiting with us as much, and kind of withdraws himself a ltitle bit when they come around sometimes. I feel bad, and nervous about it, I don’t want him to feel left out. But I also want to have fun with my family. They are kind of in your face, though, so I understand his position. He does tell me he’s fine; so I guess I won’t worry about it so much.

 August 12, 2010

Wednesday

So, let’s see…. Not much exciting has happened in the last week or so. Daniel and I have both been working. I’ve been working on looking for a job. I haven’t had a full-time schedule the last couple of weeks, so I’ve had some days off to do other things, which is nice. I’m almost finished with Brian’s Mission Scrapbook. It’s really simple, but I think it’s cute, and I think he’ll like it. I just want to add some quotes and sayings and stuff to some of the pages, and then it’ll be basically done. I have a scrapbooking magazine that mom gave to me a few years ago and lately I’ve been going through it and looking at some of the techniques other people use. Some of them I really want to try. Others of them are too extravagant for me. I’m going to have to buy some new supplies to try some of them. Hopefully Daniel doesn’t mind. I mean, they will be partially for him: his mission scrapbook, our honeymoon, our summer here, etc.

It’s weird to think this summer is almost over. Bitter-sweet really. We’ve had so much fun living here, and we haven’t been able to do everything that we’ve wanted to do. We love Martina, I love my work and the people I work with, and it’s just so exciting to be here. We love our ward a lot. We’ve had people inviting us to their houses for dinner or dessert, and we’re still fairly new. I just think that’s so nice.

On the other hand, we love our apartment in Provo, and we miss our bed. Provo is less fast-paced and is more familiar to us. Plus, we love BYU, and we’ll back with our family and we’ll have our stuff. We’ll be back in our old ward (which to be honest, isn’t quite as friendly as this one is). So, it’s going to be a very bitter-sweet move.

The other day, daniel came home in kind of a mood because Ethan (his counselor for the internship) told him that E&Y is thinking about not giving him an offer because Daniel mentioned his interest in San Jose and they don’t think he’s very “committed to this office”. So, basically, they want him to decide now what he wants to do and show them he’s more “committed” before they extend an offer. Kind of backwards, right? Kind of retarded, is what I say! Part of Family Home Evening was making a Pros/Cons list for the decision to come back to this area after graduation. I think we both feel more comfortable going to San Jose. I feel a little bit anxious coming back here after graduation, probably because it’s much more long term, especially we’d be away from most of our family for a long time. I don’t like that. We prayed together after we’d made the decision, to see how we felt about it. Neither of us had a truly strong feeling either way, but I think we both still feel just a bit better about California. It’s the smallest difference in feeling; that may be enough.

But, in all honesty, now that we’ve decided that, if kind of makes me sad that we won’t be back here. I’ve really had a great experience here, despite the few little crappy things (traffic, humidity … small price to pay). Now Daniel has to deal with how he’s going to tell the people at E&Y that he doesn’t want to stay here. And once he does, they may immediately terminate his internship early, and there are all the consequences of that (he’s not working for money, we have extra time if we want it, etc). Plus, that means we have to go through the recruiting process again for San Jose, and there is always that small chance that he won’t get an offer from any of the firms. Heck, he didn’t get one for an internship and we know how stressful that was. I can’t imagine how it would be for a full-time offer. We don’t know what the future holds for us. We are just trying to do what the Lord wants us to do. Maybe we are supposed to be in California for some reason, maybe it would just be better for us not to be here, in this fast-paced environment. I don’t know.

I’ve stopped stressing about what I’m going to do with my life, and let me tell you: I feel so much happier, so much more at ease. I’m happy just to be where I am, knowing that I can do whatever I want, but I don’t have to do it right now. Last weekend I went to the AFAA certification workshop and took the test. I am pretty sure I passed the written part and FAILED the practical portion. We’ll just have to see in a few weeks. But I just felt like I should get certified because I want to and I may be working in the field, if I can find some good jobs. I feel like it’s a way to continue my education about the body, and I’ll be better for it because I know better now how to take better care of the body. I can always apply it to my life and help others as well.

Well, I better get on with my day. I just woke up about half an hour and wanted to do this right off before I forget to do it. We’re happy and well. 

 August 2, 2010

Monday

My last entry was very confused. I don’t know what I’m doing with my life. But I had a very inspirational weekend.

Daniel and I went to Gettysburg on Saturday and it was pretty cool. But we were both so tired that we didn’t fully enjoy it, I’m sure. It was cool, though, because we had an auto tour, a CD with a narrative about the battle of Gettysburg and we drove around the town to see all the sites. On the way driving home, we stopped at Jerry’s Cheesesteak and pizza for dinner. And then we went to the temple. We did iniciatories at the temple; it wasn’t anything spectacular or different. But I really felt the spirit, and I really felt the truthfulness of the gospel. I always feel so good and peaceful in the temple, so the ordinances we perform there must be true, so the church is true, so the Book of Mormon is true … and so on. It just hit me more than it has in a while. I thought to myself that that is the most important thing. To know God and His Son, Jesus Christ; to do their work; to do my best and to come closer to Them. After that, I felt an increased measure of love and compassion for those around me and I felt so much joy. It was wonderful.

Then in church yesterday, we had an awesome lesson in Relief Society about God’s promises, and how they are sure and He fulfills all of His promises. Sister Yeates talked about how sometimes we have to be patient in God’s promises; it’s all on His timetable. It was such a comforting message to me, especially since I’ve been having a hard time knowing my plan and the directions I should take. I think God wants me to do what I want to do, what I think will make me happy.  I need to just make decisions and be patient. God does have a plan for me, but I just need to be patient with how He guides me. I don’t need to stress about it; just take things a little bit at a time. And I can find value in other areas of my life; not just feeling like I have a career. That didn’t make any sense, all of that, but I do feel better about life! 

 July 29, 2010

Thursday

I’ve been a BYU graduate now for over 3 months, but I still don’t have a very good idea what I want to do with my life. There are so many questions unanswered in my mind. It’s kind of funny that I have less of an idea of what I want to accomplish now than I did when I graduate from high school. This entire past year has been a struggle to feel some direction, any direction. I pray, day after day, formally and in my heart to feel Heavenly Father’s influence and plan for me. And quite honestly, the fact that I haven’t felt like I’ve received an answer is discouraging. Is it just that God doesn’t have a specific plan for me? Does He not care what I do? Am I just not looking or listening properly for answers?

I had so many plans great plans before I started dating Daniel: a mission, dental school, perhaps living abroad. But then, of course, I fell in love with Daniel and he ruined all of my plans! J I think he was worth it! But, that being said (or written, as the case may be), I have no plans leftover! My dream of going to dental school still exists and stirs occasionally; but the dream is often silenced with thoughts of duty to family. I am now a wife and I imagine sometime in the relatively near future, we’ll start having kids. And, obviously, I’ve always wanted to have kids and be a mommy. But I am afraid that won’t be enough for me to feel fulfilled and accomplished. I’m afraid that I’ll hit a rut, that I won’t spend my days in worthwhile ways. I think it would be wise of me to figure out some sort of occupation for myself, even when we have kids, that I could do to get me up and going, to help me feel like I’m contributing to the world in good ways. Something I could do at home … or not …. Either way is fine with me. Plus, I’ve always wanted to feel fully prepared to earn a living, just in case I need to.

I feel like I have a lot of options before me, mostly for going back to school. And, of course, I’m thinking of taking fitness as a career. But nothing really feels right. I can’t decide what I would enjoy most, what wwould be the best fit, what I would feel most fulfilled with, and what would work best for me and my family.

It seems slightly ridiculous, but this has been troubling me for a while. I guess I’ve just never been one of those people who feels so passionately about one thing, even to the point of making their career out of it. I used to love playing the piano; but, of course, I didn’t study that because it’s not practical. And now I don’t play that much anymore. I like to work out and take care of my body; but somehow doing fitness doesn’t feel like what I’m supposed to end up doing either. Plus, I think I’d have to be more highly motivated to do fitness: finding and keeping clients, maintaining business, etc.; and I’m not sure my personality coincides well with that business. I’ve always thought of going into the dental field; it provides flexibility of schedule and a busyness that I could work well with. Plus, I wouldn’t be tempted to be lazy about it like I would being a personal trainer. Recently I’ve also been considering nursing … but I don’t know about that. The problem with these last 2 is the amount of school I’d have to do … and then what happens to having kids?

I think about just filling my time with volunteer projects or other projects of my own and developing new talents and learning lots of new things. And I love all those things; but that doesn’t seem like it would be completely satisfying either.

I don’t want to spend every day all day watching movies or reading or scrapbooking, as much as I love doing those things. It doesn’t seem like it would be a very satisfying life, even though I would be doing things I like doing. 

 July 12, 2010

Monday

So, life has been busy. Dan and I have both been working and going to see exciting things here in DC. We went on a tour of the monuments the week before Independence Day, we watched fireworks on 4^th of July from Iwo Jima Memorial (which was cool, because the fireworks were shot over the monuments), we went Kayaking on the Potomac. Of course, I feel like I don’t have to write much about these things because, first of all, I’ve already put them on the blog, and secondly, I know that I’ll probably be scrapbooking these adventures this coming school year in my spare time.

I do feel badly that I don’t write much in my journal anymore, though. And everytime I sit down to write, I feel a renewed desire to write everyday and be good about it. But that never happens. I don’t know how to get back into the habit. It used to be so easy for me to sit down and write. Don’t know what happened.

Plus, I don’t feel like I have all that much to write. The internship is going well. It’s slow a lot of the time because they don’t give me much to do, but they do have me teaching classes now. I taught my first class a few weeks ago, Core +1, which is a class dedicated to strengthening the core muscles with the addition of either the top half or the bottom half. I also team taught a spinning class with Adrian, which was definitely an adventure, because I didn’t (still don’t) feel very comfortbable with taking spin class, let alone teaching one.

Also, I started the internship not being paid, and now they pay me to fill in for people when they are taking work off. That is exciting for me, I didn’t have to look for another job. Although I’m not getting as many hours as I would like, but I guess I can’t do it all. I’ve started looking for a job for this coming year when we return to Provo, but it’s hard, because I don’t exactly know what I want to do. Should I continue pursuing fitness and look for a job in that field? Or should I take a more safe approach and look for a job as a lab tech? it’s just all so confusing.

Daniel is enjoying his work too. Except for that they don’t have him do a whole lot either. So we are both spending a lot of time doing random other things than work when we are at our respective internships. After this summer we are both going to have to make some big decisions about our futures. If Daniel accepts a job with Ernst and Young Transaction Services, we are coming back here after he graduates. And that’s not preferable for either of us.

We’ve been having a great time here. Martina is such a nice lady! We’ve invited her for dinner and family home evenings, and she has invited us for dinners and desserts. She lets us use her things a lot, and she’s just so nice. We really love her! We feel very fortunate about how everything fell into place for us to come here … so I’m convinced that God wants us here for some reason. We are learning a whole lot.

I really love this ward, too. It’s such a contrast to last summer’s ward. I feel so much more welcome here. Every Sunday, someone else comes up and introduces themselves, and it’s just a great ward. I think Daniel and I are also making an extra effort to get to know people and to be involved, more than we did last summer. But still…

The only bummer is that our apartment is definitely not the best. We are excited already about going back to our Provo apartment! Isn’t that awful?

Anyway, I think I’m going to go do something else now. I’ve been getting lots done today, almost everything on my list (clean the bathroom, tidy the house, do the dishes, pay Julie for Mary Kay, look for a job, work on the budget, write in my journal J, call Nauvoo Visitor’s Center …). I need still to call Grandpa and write out a menu for this week, and make dinner. Plus, I really would LOVE to get some scrapbooking in. I’ve been doing a lot of that, and I’m finally done with my Family Road Trip to Nauvoo, and FINALLY working on my Spain trip … about half way done! 

 June 15, 2010

Tuesday

Daniel and I haven’t been out to see much of anything the last week. After we were both done with work on Friday, we went to hang out with Bowman and Stephanie. Bowman got really expensive tickets from someone at his work for a cool show at an outside theater. The show was an acrobatic, circus type show called Cirque Dreams, Illumination. It was really cool and fun! It was sickening, some of the ways that those people moved. But they did some really impressive tricks! We made some food (delicious food … ribs, barbeque chicken, chicken salad, juice … Mmmmm!) and took it down to Wolf Trap Theater. We had a good time.

Saturday, Daniel and I slept in late, did laundry and other random things, and then we went yard-sale-ing. None of them were that good, like by the time we got there they were all picked over. Bowman and Stephanie swear by yard sales … so far, we haven’t had any luck with them.

Later that evening, we went to dinner with Bowman and Stephanie to a brother in their ward’s house, Brother Zirkle. He apparently usually makes really delicious, gourmet food and has people over to eat it, and he invited us. It was really good and fun! The missionaries were over and another guy who used to serve in the area. We had some good chicken sandwiches, pasta salad, and juice. I ate a ton … and then they brought out a HUGE dessert. Two huge brownies and two big scoops of vanilla ice cream, covered in strawberries and drizzled with chocolate syrup. TOO MUCH! And I ate all of it. Probably shouldn’t have…but I did. It was delicious!

Sunday afternoon, after church, Daniel and I went over to his cousin’s house, Heather, for lunch. Dan’s Aunt Tamara was there, and Michelle and Michael and their kids were there too. We spent the afternoon with them, getting to know them and hanging out.

Work yesterday was fine. I went in at six in the morning, took a zumba class and helped out around the fitness center. I got home at 2pm, and Dan was still at work, so I watched movies, worked on my bag-bag (the bag I’m crocheting with plastic bags … Dan calls it my bag-bag), did dishes and other things. After picking Daniel up, we talked, at some leftovers for dinner, and then had family home evening. I prepared a lesson based on one of the general conference talks, and then we made milkshakes and played a really hard mind game.

Today, Dan’s working and I’m home just doing random stuff.

FHE notes June 14, 2010 :

·       Scriptures enlarge our memories – we know of the stories in the scriptures, even though we weren’t there to witness them;

o   We also are able to remember lessons of the past through scriptures, not letting us forget what we and earlier generations have learned:  “Those who either don’t have or ignore the recorded word of God eventually cease to believe in Him and forget the purpose of their existence. You will remember how important it was for Lehi’s people to take the brass plates with them when they left Jerusalem. These scriptures were key to their knowledge of God and the coming Redemption of Christ. The other group that “came out from Jerusalem” shortly after Lehi had no scriptures, and when Lehi’s descendants encountered them some 300 or 400 years later, it is recorded that “their language had become corrupted; . . . and they denied the being of their Creator”. In Tyndale’s day, scriptural ignorance abounded because people lacked access to the Bible, especially in a language they could understand. Today the Bible and other scripture are readily at hand, yet there is a growing scriptural illiteracy because people will not open the books. Consequently they have forgotten things their grandparents knew.”

·       Standard for distinguishing Truth and Error:

o   “His commandments are the voice of reality and our protection against self-inflicted pain. The scriptures are the touchstone for measuring correctness and truth, and they are clear that real happiness lies not in denying the justice of God or trying to circumvent the consequences of sin but in repentance and forgiveness through the atoning grace of the Son of God. Scripture tutors us in principles and moral values essential to maintaining civil society, including integrity, responsibility, selflessness, fidelity, and charity. In scripture, we find vivid portrayals of the blessings that come from honoring true principles, as well as the tragedies that befall when individuals and civilizations discard them. Where scriptural truths are ignored or abandoned, the essential moral core of society disintegrates and decay is close behind. In time, nothing is left to sustain the institutions that sustain society.”

·       Bring us to the Savior:

o   “Faith will not come from the study of ancient texts as a purely academic pursuit. It will not come from archaeological digs and discoveries. It will not come from scientific experiments. It will not even come from witnessing miracles. These things may serve to confirm faith, or at times to challenge it, but they do not create faith. Faith comes by the witness of the Holy Spirit to our souls, Spirit to spirit, as we hear or read the word of God. And faith matures as we continue to feast upon the word.”

o   “Surely with this blessing the Lord is telling us that our need for constant recourse to the scriptures is greater than in any previous time.”

 June 10, 2010

Thursday

I know it’s been a while since I’ve written in my journal; but a lot of the things that Daniel and I have been up to I have been putting up on our blog. We are finally in DC, and we have both started our internships. We stopped in Nauvoo on the way here, and spent a few days there. It was a lot of fun! We didn’t get to see everything, but we did get to see a lot of it. And we saw three shows while we were there, that were a lot of fun. We were there on a Saturday and a Sunday, and so we were able to go to church with all the missionaries serving in Nauvoo. And we spent both days looking around and getting tours of the buildings. Towards the end of our visit, we stopped by the old Nauvoo cemetery, and I loved it! It was so peaceful and hidden from the world in this little forest. And it wasn’t so well kept up as other cemeteries are, which I actually kind of liked.

Well, anyway, the drive here was long and arduous. We got caught in traffic and lost before we arrived really early in the morning on Tuesday. The first week was spent setting up our apartment and visiting our family in the area (Michael and Michelle’s family, and Bowman and Stephanie’s family). I started my internship a week ago, on Thursday. Basically the time was spent talking to the people I work with and getting to know them, training and learning how things are run in the fitness center at Freddie Mac, and just learning the ropes. The last few days of my work, I’ve been learning more and more. I take classes everyday that I go in; I took a spinning class, a weight training class, and an intervals class. I have also observed some of the trainers do their training for clients. Also, Jennifer Hawkins, who is basically in charge of me, the intern, has discussed a lot of useful things with me: the certification test, how to train, anatomy and exercise physiology, etc. Everyone I work with is really nice; I like them all a lot. And I think they like me too. The director/boss over the fitness center, Becky, is really impressed that I’m doing the internship simply because I want to learn; I’m not getting college credit or filling a requirement or getting paid. I think it’s been different for me, socially; I haven’t hung out with non-members for a long time. They swear … a lot. But they are really nice. I have been working really hard for months not to let myself get the better of me; I don’t care what other people think. So I’m more confident than I have been in a while, and I think that helps. That, even though I’m new, and only an intern, they respect me, because I don’t take crap from anyone and I let them tease me, but it doesn’t get to me at all. It’s been really good! I’m having a lot of fun! I’ve even been getting to know some of the security guards, which is fun. They’re cool! It was definitely a hassle the first couple of days, before I got my own badge. I had to call in to security every time I came in, give them the reason I was there, my license and plate number, and have someone from the center come get me. It was frustrating the second day I had to do it, because I’d already been there before. But it was okay. It’s kind of interesting that Freddie Mac is stringent on security. I have to carry my security ID with me at all times and whenever I leave and enter the building. Anyway…

Plus, I told Becky that I’ve been looking for a part-time job in addition to my internship, so that I can make some money this summer. She offered to hire me as an On-Call worker there, so that I can fill in for people when they are taking work off this summer. There are a lot of opportunities for me to fill in for others, especially this upcoming month; I thought it was great that she offered me that position, so that I can actually get paid a little bit while I’m working there. That’s pretty exciting for me! Especially since I don’t have to go out and look for another job! Plus, I’d be getting paid $15 an hour, which is more than I’ve ever been paid … sure, it’s not great, but better than I’ve ever experienced.

Today I have a day off. My current schedule is Monday 6am-2pm, Wednesday 10am-6pm, and Friday 10am-2pm. When I start filling in for people, I’ll be working more hours, which is good. Right now it’s just my basic part-time internship. But that means I have a lot of time to take care of the apartment and read and scrapbook and do whatever else. Study…if I feel like it. J Daniel started his internship yesterday, training and doing all of that kind of thing. He got his own laptop for work, which is nice, because I get this one during the days when I’m off. It’ll be interesting to see how his internship turns out. He’s the only one interning with Transaction Services. Ha! Good job, Daniel! He looks so handsome when he goes off to work, all dressed up in nice clothes. MMMM!

During our days off, we have gone down to DC to explore the city a bit. We went to the Freer Art Museum, the Holocaust Museum, and the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum. They were all really fun and interesting. Well, the Holocaust Museum was really sad and disturbing. But still very interesting. It’s fascinating and sad how people can mistreat other human beings like that! I wonder how it even gets to that point? It kind of makes me want to read books about the Third Reich and the Holocaust. It’d be interesting to learn more about it. I think.

There are some interesting and different things about this place. But I think that’ll have to wait for another day and entry. I have to get doing some other things right now.