Internship

Progress

Posted on Jun 22, 2011 | 10 comments

Sooo, now that my internship is complete, I promised an update. Have I taken back my twenties yet? Nope. But, recently, I’ve been feeling a lot closer to the kind of daily life that I’ve been striving for (especially when the weather warmed up). Unfortunately, I feel a little stuck right now because my career path is in limbo and my internship didn’t really help me narrow down the options – it only ruled out school psychology.

But, I definitely made some process in terms of adjusting to full time work (although I’d obviously rather have flexible hours or work from home:))

This is what I wrote on my first day of work back in September and in bold are my reflections on how I did with each goal:

“My mission on Taking Back my Twenties is not to complain, but to take charge of my life and find ways to make working days more enjoyable. Part of this means making life at work more comfortable.  I have a few ideas about how I’m going to accomplish this, so I made a list of goals.  Most of the things on this list are common sense, but they tend to be easier said than done, which is why I’m going to need reminders…

1. Think about food ideas before weekly grocery trips so that I can incorporate leftovers to make lunches more interesting. And, pack plenty of snacks!

2. Pack my bag, lay out clothes, and make lunch the night before.

As for numbers 1 and 2, I did well keeping up with meal planning, but I rarely made dinners that yielded leftovers I could take for lunch. I tended to make meals for two to minimize waste and then would remember I could take them for lunch. I did well packing my lunch the night before, but I NEVER picked out my clothes. It wasn’t really a problem though, because I usually brainstormed in the shower and dressed like an eskimo all winter.

3. Get in bed 30 minutes before bedtime so I have a chance to wind-down.  Since I’m a night person, I tend to get energized before bed and then I have trouble falling asleep right away.

Number 3 didn’t go so well as I always stayed up until the last minute and then had trouble falling asleep. I was pretty much tired every day for the whole year:(

4.  Pick one day a week to skip the gym and work late to reduce the amount of work I have to do on weekends.

Although I did skip the gym one or two days a week, it was because I had to babysit, not because I was working late. I really didn’t end up doing much work on the weekends, which was fine with me.

5. Keep a pair of old flats and a sweater at work for comfort.

Yeah, I didn’t do this at all and was freezing on many of the shoulder season days when the heat would be turned off. I also got bad blisters a few times when I didn’t have back-up shoes.

6.  Get up 15 minutes earlier than I actually need to so I don’t have to rush in the morning.  I hate.rushing.

Also didn’t happen, I was frantic most mornings, especially when I tried to go to the gym before work.

7. Get organized and take the time to stay organized! Once I know what my case load will be like, I want to create an organization system that makes my life easier so I don’t waste time looking for things.

I did pretty well with 7, although I must say I think it will be 100 times easier to stay organized when I actually have a desk or computer to call my own.

8. Think of each day as a learning experience and not just a list of tasks that I need to get through.

I did OK with this one. I never really minded being at work, especially because I was working with a bunch of friends. But, there were definitely times that I just viewed work as a bunch of annoying things that needed to be crossed off my list. But, it was a great learning experience.

I’m excited to see how my next work experience differs. I’m hoping that making money and being more independent (aka, not an intern) will really change my outlook.

For those of you who have been working for a while now, do you have any advice for things I could do differently in the future?

Celebration

Posted on Jun 18, 2011 | 4 comments

Yesterday afternoon I said goodbye to the high school

and hello to the bar:)

Let’s just say the beers were going down fast. I had a Sam Brick Red, Abita Purple Haze, and a Long Trail Ale over the course of the afternoon.

I hung out with my co-interns as well as some new people and there were lots of good laughs. It was a really an amazing afternoon.

Then, Matt arrived and bought me a mojito!

A group of us wanted to continue the celebration, so we headed over to a little tapas place in Washington Square. I had actually eaten there with Lauren and Evan right after we moved to Boston and met them, so it was appropriate that we returned for a sort of going away dinner.

I went all out and got a flight of tempranillos (the prices were amazing, I guess that’s what happens when you venture out of the city). There were subtle differences between the wines, but since they were all from the same family, they were much more similar than different. I couldn’t pick a favorite.

Matt and I split…

grilled brie with apples and raisin chutney,

the trio of sausages with mustards and flatbreads (minus the onions!),

goat cheese empanadas in some kind of red pepper and cinnamon sauce,

and a pork tenderloin with mushrooms and white beans.

The empanadas were my favorite, but everything tasted delicious by the time we ate around 9!

I couldn’t have asked for a more perfect afternoon and evening of celebration with some of the friends that I will really miss:( Every second of yesterday was a blast!

—

This morning, we got up at 8:30 and started more packing and sorting and we’ve been working for five hours now. I’m a bit overwhelmed, but very thankful that I have an entire week with no work to get everything ready to go. And we’ve def. made some good progress. We’ve been saving a giftcard since Christmas to a fancy restaurant, so we’re headed there tonight. Only more more weekend after this one, so we’ve got to keep enjoying bean town. Talk to ya tomorrow.

And just like that it’s over

Posted on Jun 17, 2011 | 6 comments

…and it feels so.damn.good.

This internship has been a wonderful experience and I couldn’t be happier with the placement I chose. I definitely want to share some of my reflections with you, especially in response to my working woman mission. For now though, I’m going to enjoy this last day and spend my afternoon consuming pints of water, malt, yeast, and hops.

PS: check out my man legs in Thursday’s snapshot. I actually ended up taking off the boots and belt because Matt and I agreed that this was just not appropriate for work.

Happy Friday!

Off My Shoulders (and Toes)

Posted on Jun 10, 2011 | 4 comments

I feel like a huge weight is off my shoulders. I’m finished with all of my assessment cases and IEP meetings. A few more counseling cases to see next week and I’m done and done with this internship. Whew.

And it’s [fashion] Friday!

I snagged these wooden shoes for $19 with a gift card at Urban. The color isn’t exactly what I was hoping for, but at that price, I couldn’t resist.

On the Menu

Posted on Jun 9, 2011 | 0 comments

Greetings. I’ve been in an exceptionally good mood recently. I think it’s because I’ve finished nearly all my work at my internship. I’ve also been working out in the morning more frequently and it makes my whole day more position when I get exercise out of the way. And, I got a really nice job rejection – not good, but much better to get nice feedback than hear nothing at all.

I babysat today because my family needed a bit of extra help this week. I’ve been loving babysitting now that it’s warm because I can take the little guy to the park and read my book while he plays. Reading outside in the shade of a huge tree with a nice breeze is just heavenly. What wasn’t so pleasant was the thunderstorm that popped up right when I needed to leave. Luckily, it moved quickly and I was able to get home. It did delay me by about 40 minutes though, so I was quite hungry by the time I got home. But, blackened tilapias were on the menu and it doesn’t take too long to make these guys. I just dip them in a nice helping of butter and spices and throw them on the skillet.

And it’s one of my favorite meals!

I made a dill yogurt with fage and served it over couscous + corn.

Mmmmm…blackened fish + butter reminds me of the south.

Tomorrow is my LAST IEP meeting!!!! I’ve got to go in pretty early tomorrow, so I’m getting in bed soonish. And then I have a relatively free weekend! I keep forgetting it’s summer because, for the past 20ish years, I have been finished with school by mid-June, but the real summer starts so soon!

Is anyone doing any fun summery things this weekend?

Back to Lentils

Posted on May 31, 2011 | 4 comments

Whew…I am tired. So tired I didn’t bother to shower after the gym (ewww, gross – I know). I got up at the crack of dawn to prepare for an IEP meeting for which the parent did not show up:( The good news? I’ve only got three more assessment cases to close the door on before I will be officially finished with the work load at my internship. The.end.is.near. I’m starting to feel stressed about the move though. Like all the logistics of moving my whole life. So do I buy boxes or just put clothes in trash bags? When do I change my mailing address? When do I stop buying groceries and start eating only gross pantry combos? There’s just so many things to think about. Speaking of pantry combos, tonight’s nourishment came in the form of spicy black lentils and kidney beans from a Trader Joe’s Indian meal. We had that strange South Indian bread on the side instead of naan and the texture combination was pretty awesome.

Now I’m suffering from the I was just on vacation indulging in amazing food and I want to eat everything in sight syndrome. Do you guys get that after coming back from a trip?

Despite my glorious weekend, I didn’t get much rest, so I’m getting in bed as early as possible. Oh, and tomorrow is already Wednesday…lovin’ this short week!