I can tell it's the beginning of a new semester by my endurance and readiness to work. Part of that readiness comes, I know, because there isn't all that much to be done at this point. It's still the induction period. Until Monday. Then the work begins. Prompted by my fiction class, I'm keeping a writing journal. It's something I've always had in one form or another--scraps of paper folded up in pockets or tucked in desk drawers, documents crammed together and titled "shoe box", and a stack of binders squeezed in my closet at home of bits and pieces of things I've written. Now I've got a section in my notebook, a place I can flip to at any time to write any bit of inspiration I find. I might not use the stuff that goes in there, but the process of keeping it keeps my mind at work. Today was my first day of my internship at Independent Newspapers. It was interesting, to say the least. The staff is a good blend of people and personalities; small, and they all seem friendly and glad to have me around. My go-to person isn't someone I admire a whole lot right now. She isn't very professional and that's a big strike against a boss in my book. For starters, she was late. And then didn't quite seem to know what to do with me. She's very friendly, but I would have liked to just sit down and discuss the company, what I would be doing, give me a tour and explain each department, give me the details. Instead, I was volleyed between staff members while she tried to get organized and an on-looker seemed annoyed that she wasn't doing with me what they thought she ought to have been doing. So someone else gave me a tour and did the explaining. Anyway, I didn't do much. I typed up the sports schedules for the high schools in each area and made phone calls like a telemarketer. They found me two things to go to next week, which is good. Go-To gal said that mostly I would be going out into the field doing pictures and writing some stories, which is exactly what I wanted to hear. No telephone crap, if you please. Tuesday I actually get to cover something at Saguaro! A meeting for project grad, which I'm pretty excited about since it's my school and I already know a good deal about it. So anyway, first day nervousness, I'm sure it will get better as it goes on. Funny though, whenever I felt myself getting a bit nervous (new jobs always make me anxious), there was one person that came to mind that calmed me down and got me to just do the task at hand. I don't know I was really surprised by it, but I thought about Helen. I thought about how she would act if she were in my place, how she would solve the problem I was having, how she would handle the instructions she was given. Helen's worked a lot. A lot. And after seeing her as drum major, well I just always picture Helen sauntering in the room cool as a summer breeze, shrugging at a problem and just taking the reins like God was telling her what to do. So that's how I made out. Having really nothing to do, I left around 2, which was just as well since I don't think anyone noticed that I hadn't gone for lunch. I met Kris for a quick bite before he took off for drumline and then I went to DP to meet Jackie. Chatted with some of the staff and Kristen for a while, during which Jackie was on a conference call. After that we went to the PV house so she could show me all the updates since I hadn't been there in months. It looks absolutely gorgeous and it's not even finished yet. I told her she has so much to be excited about this year. I cannot wait to be an aunt! Carrie