Festivus

Hello, blog.  Hello, world.  Have you missed me?

Don't answer that.

I'm feeling a little punchy today, as Caitlin Nosal would say.  Guess who reads my blog?  Caitlin Nosal does.  I hope she's reading this right now and feeling really special.  Because you are, Caitlin Nosal, you are.

I hope that one day I'm so famous that when I shout out to people in my blog it's a really big deal.  That is my goal.

It's Christmas break which means that my mind is clear (relative statement) and I'm back at work, and being back at work reminds me of blogging because this is where I started this blog.  I blogged a lot about Amy's and my escapades and lunch breaks to Target, but I don't think there will be very many of those over break unless I can apparate to her car because there's no way I'm walking outside at any time that I don't need to.  This is New England, and it is cold, and my mother is holding my impenetrable winter coat hostage because she is halfway through fixing my zipper.  It's all probably a scheme to force me to become more tolerant of the weather.  It's not working.

Today I'm being rebellious and pushing the boundaries of business casual at the T by dressing like a hipster a little bit.  On a regular hipster scale, I think I'm at about a 4, but on a hipster-as-compared-to-people-who-live-in-Connecticut scale, I'm probably at an 8.  I would take a picture and show you, but that would be a little bit weird and, as always, Sue would just look at me and think I'm a crazy person.  Which I am.  But I don't have Amy here to boost my confidence in my crazy today, on account of the fact that she got stranded in Europe but now is home, so I'll err on the side of not-crazy today.

(As a sidenote, I originally wrote "air on the side of caution," then Googled it and corrected myself.  Also, I would like to know if you're supposed to use "a" or "an" in front of numbers as you would if you spelled the number out, as I just did.  Because 8 doesn't start with a vowel or a consonant because it's just a number!  It has no letters.  It's just something I think about sometimes.)

I think about really random and odd things sometimes.  For instance, because I'm back at work today when I went into the bathroom I was immediately reminded of the fact that I ALWAYS go into the same bathroom stall at work.  And every time over the summer that I went in there and the toilet seat was up, I would be like, oh!  That means that it hasn't been used since it was cleaned.  So I think to myself, maybe I should just put the seat back up afterwards, and then if it's down next time, I would know if anyone else used it.  But then I think, what if somebody else has the same exact idea as me?  And then my plan would be foiled and I would be tricked into believing a falsity.  And I literally think this same sequence of thoughts EVERY TIME I go into the bathroom stall.  Including this morning, four months after the last time I thought it.  This boggles my mind.

I told you that I think about random and odd things.

Would you like to know the definition of stream-of-consciousness?  It's this blog entry.

HAPPY FESTIVUS!
Courtney

You Can Stand Under My (Red) Umbrella, ella, ella

Disclaimer: Yes, I know I've been a little MIA lately, but I am trying to win the "most obscene display of materialism" award on Tuesday at move-in and am trying to pack everything I own into bins and suitcases.  It's tough, time-consuming work, so don't blame me.  Please.

After two summers and a winter at the T, Travs, Travelers, as a non-tech technical intern (contradiction?  Yes), Friday was my last day in good ol' Hartford.  Well, maybe.  Unless Amy and I get the a-okay to come back in the winter.  But just in case, I am mourning this ending as it should be mourned.

In honor of Travelers and all the people in it, here are some pictures from my phone that I took while interning this summer.  They bring a tear to my eye...

This is TechDP headquarters, aka "The Corner Part 2," aka the place everyone wants to be, aka Amy's and my desks.  Normally, they're a lot messier than shown, but we were... were... were... about to leave.  Pictured in the desk area are Amy (naturally) and two of the main frequenters of our desks, Jay and ScottyMac.  HEY JAY!  HEY SCOTTY!  BET YOU DIDN'T WANT ME TO POST THIS PICTURE, DID YOU???

Do you miss us?

...Jay?  Scotty??

...you miss us, right???!?!?!!

Sad now.

[Update 8/23/10: This section of my entry was clearly a desperate cry for attention, and I expected some sort of heartwarming and/or sarcastic comment from Jay or ScottyMac on my blog and/or Facebook.  I got neither.  From either person.  Disappointment reigns.]

Here is the entrance to our desk area, complete with a picture of last year's TechDP intern class (NOSTALGIA) and a sign for the counseling chair which subsequently went out of service when we got our exercise balls.  Oh, and there's a quote about our exercise balls.  It reads: "Do you know what this is?  This is a fitness orb, and it has completely changed my life." -Dwight Schrute.  Only the coolest of cool kids live their lives by The Office wisdom.

We left the signs up when we left.  Everyone must remember us.

Speaking of exercise balls, here is mine.  It used to live under my desk; now it will live under my desk at school.  It misses its friend, Amy's exercise ball, just as I miss my friend, Amy.  COME BACK FROM NEW HAMPSHIRE!

This is FrankyPanky, another intern.  He is one half of the intern combo Frandy, of which the other half is not pictured.  I'm not sure if that sentence was grammatically correct.

I love this picture because Amy and I are so devious.  Gregg will totally miss us pranking him 24/7.

Oh yes.  Oh yes.  Excellent.

I first learned about VitaMuffins at Travelers, and Amy was nice enough to bring one in for me.  I ate it.  It was very delicious, as the package boasts.  I need to buy me some of those.

Oh wait... we do work at Travelers?  I almost forgot.  I didn't take this pictures (obviously), but here are Amy and I presenting our end-of-summer presentation.  Why present together?  Possible reasons: we are the same person, we did the same thing all summer, we don't like extended periods of time away from one another, we rely on each other for validation, we didn't want to waste everyone's time by saying the same thing twice, we wanted to...

On our last day, Nancy took us to lunch and we got these gorgeous looking lemonades and iced teas.  Then we tasted them and had a sugar rush for ten hours.

There was also a giant heart character in a top hat to send us off.  Amy was especially excited and ran up to hug him right away.  And by that last sentence, I actually meant that she was totally freaked out and hid behind me as we walked by.

Some fine gentlemen were practicing their Wii skills in the Link.  Everyone knows that to be a successful businessman you have to have excellent golf skills!  Just ask my Dad.  And John Rossley.  Nerd.

But of course, we had to let everyone know that we will never be gone for good.  AmCo leaves a permaimpression wherever we go.

-----

Bye, dearest Travs!  See you soon...??

Love and red um-ber-ellas,
Courtney

Unrelated PS: SOMEBODY THAT I DON'T KNOW ACTUALLY COMMENTED ON MY OLD BLOG!  THEY THANKED ME FOR A RECIPE!  I'M FAMOUS!

10 Things You Learn from the TechDPi Summer Challenge

On Wednesday, July 28th, Amy and Courtney finally learned how to breathe again as the Travelers TechDPi Summer Challenge came to an end.  Not only did they completely rock it out and become promoted to co-CEO's of Travelers, they also learned a thing or two.

1) College kids make everything into a competition.  It was probably all that Wild and Crazy Kids we watched back in the day.

2) Real-world people make everything into a competition too.  Don't let them fool you.

3) Nobody likes to be the project manager during the project.  If they tell you they do, they're lying. 

4) Everybody likes to be the project manager after the project is finished.  If they tell you it doesn't matter to them, they're lying.

5) The man who created the concept of "Happy Hour" was definitely a project manager.

6) The chocolate stash that you keep in your drawer runs out a lot faster when you're three days away from a deadline.  But you deserved it, right?  Right?  Validate me please?

7) How to do this:

I swear this was my first try. I have superpowers.

8) Those "funny quirks" that your team members have aren't so funny by week two.  Or three.  Or eight.

9) When you're working on a live problem for a project, it's easy to develop severe dependencies on alcohol. And on Chinese food. Just ask Amy's local liquor store and Chinese take-out place. They gave her free extras for being a "valued customer" when we went there last week.

10) Vacations are really, really necessary.  Which is why we are (both!) leaving on one... tonight!! 

Love and the joys of being an intern,
Courtney