Tales from the First Week

Okay, technically I've only been at work for four days, since Monday was Memorial Day, so I haven't yet been through an ENTIRE work week, but I think I can safely say that I successfully survived my first week as an intern at Sandia. Now, I'm not sure how much I can actually post on this blog since by now I've been through at least 5 different corporate courses that emphasize not giving away controlled or sensitive information, so now I'm paranoid that if I say something specific the federal ninjas will come and get me. But I will try my best to give you an idea of what my job has been like.

The first day was like any first day at some company - the first step was to fill out, sign, and date about 10 different forms, and if you did anything wrong, you had to cross it out, correct it, and initial and date the correction. Then we went through a presentation that, usually, takes 8 hours, but in our case only took 2-3 hours. Then there was a tour, and meeting a bunch of people we are still struggling to remember the names of, and finally we were shown to our office where we got our passwords and discovered that we couldn't yet access the internal web with the convenient personal page summarizing everything, and learned we would have to wait for that access since the computer dude wasn't there. And then we started on what we worked on for the entire week, and are still working on: training.

In this case, since we're lab dorks, "training" consists of reading several pages of various types of procedures, plus going through a bunch of corporate presentations online, including a bunch of cheesy scenarios where there's always that one guy - and it's always the SAME GUY - who knows nothing and you have to pick the right bubble to guide him. For some reason Lockheed Martin - they own Sandia so all these presentations are made by them - decided that instead of creating a standard office set, or filming in the office during non-standard work hours, they'd just substitute all the background and furniture with sub-standard computer animation. It looks really weird, especially when you realize that the people are sitting at computer-animated desks. At this point we're just starting to get into the online stuff that actually relates to lab stuff.

Who's we? Well, at this point, it's me and another intern, Brittany, who seems to be even more quiet and shy than I am. We rarely speak to one another, saying only "Good morning" as I come in (Brittany always gets there before me) and "See ya later" as one of us leaves. Occasionally one of the many office people will wander in and check on us, ask how we're doing, verify that yes, we are still working through the training, and then wander away again. Usually the first time someone stops by, they'll try to be all friendly and chatty. This can be kind of annoying when you're in the middle of reading a tedious procedure or midway through a corporate video that can't be paused. Usually the person manages to get me to admit that I'll be a senior (that's so weird to say) at the University of Michigan, I'm majoring in Materials Science (I'm too lazy to say "and Engineering", I've noticed), and that I'm from Michigan; and they get Brittany to admit that she'll be a junior at Penn State, she's from Virginia, and she's majoring in Physics. Honestly that's about all we ever say to anyone. After that info, the person usually tells us the general direction of their office and what they work in and wanders off.

Next week another intern is starting, and apparently the third computer station in the office isn't set up yet, so that'll be interesting. Perhaps when the computer dude comes in to set that up, we can get him to add printer access to our computers so we can actually print stuff.

Now, I may have led you to believe this is a tedious boring office. It's not. The people are really nice, and are willing to answer any question. Even I feel comfortable (nervous, but not frightened into complete avoidance) approaching the manager of our entire team, Christi, with a question. Granted, it's kind of hard to feel nervous when she brings a puppy into the office. Apparently she owns purebred Briard show dogs. The puppy's name is Feelin' Groovy (or Groovy for short), and she's the pup of a dog I can't remember the name of which is currently on some show tour. Groovy is SO CUTE. She's 10 weeks old, fluffy, and likes to sleep under the legs of wheeled office chairs so that the person sitting in said chair can't move. She kinda looks like these puppies. :)

Apparently we usually have kickball on Wednesday afternoons, but we didn't this week since a lot of people are out on vacation. We did have Sundae Thursday, though. Sundae Thursday is when we gather in the large conference room for ice cream sundaes. This past Thursday there was also some blueberry cake stuff. The funny part is, the Sandians (as they like to call themselves) can count this as exercise (which maybe they can charge to some special corporate code as part of their benefits, I'm not sure) as long as someone is playing the Wii. Oh, yeah - we have a Wii, purchased with Sandia money, to promote exercise. And since I'm a pushover, I was talked into playing Wii bowling with one of the younger employees. I actually did really well. I felt kinda awkward, playing an unfamiliar video game in front of an audience, which dwindled as people finished eating and chatting and went back to work. Eventually it was just Christi and a couple other people. Christi cheered me on the entire time. :)

*yawn* Well, I'm getting kind of sleepy now. Tomorrow I'm finally going to do all the cleaning I've been meaning to do since I got here - dusting practically everywhere, de-molding my bedroom window, windexing the windows, clorox-wiping pretty much every surface, swiffering the tile, and vacuuming the carpeting. If I still have energy after that, I'll unpack the last 1.5 boxes of stuff sitting behind me and maybe put posters up on the wall so they aren't so EMPTY. Sunday will probably be laundry if I don't run it while I'm cleaning, and a trip to Walmart to restock food and find weather stripping and clear packing tape.

If you want to send me something to put up on my wall or use as some other home decoration, please do so! I have ridiculous amounts of empty space and only a few posters to cover it. If it's just a funny picture or something and you want to email it, that's fine, I can print it out here - I'll just have to find a black ink printer cartridge. But I have the key to my mailbox now so I can actually get my mail. YAY. So if you want my mailing address just email or facebook me or comment or something and I'll get it to you somehow. :)