Update: School, Internships, TV

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Holy Wow this Semester has started out with a bang. I've been pretty ridiculously busy, and I haven't even had a whole regular week yet.

So here's what I'm up to:

For the next 12 weeks, 24 hours a week, I am the grant intern at the Wolf Trap Foundation for the Performing Arts. I aid the Director of Grants (who is the ONLY person at Wolf Trap getting Foundation and Government Grants for them) in pretty much every aspect I am able to. This is the first year she's been given an intern, so she's pretty excited to have me on board. So far, I have already written a thank you letter from the President and CEO of Wolf Trap to the contact we have at the Exxon Mobil Foundation for their funding, and am working on an annual report to the Filene Foundation (basically the founder of Wolf Trap) updating them on what this last year's grant money was spent on. Pretty cool stuff I think. Much better than answering phones at Corporate Express, Booz Allen, and even better than my old job at UW- even though I liked that one a lot. Here I'm actually doing stuff that requires skill, intellegence, and, ya know, everything that I've been spending the last 4.5 years and hmmmmbbbllaaa of my parent's tuition dollars on. Plus it's music related, which makes me happy. This week (my first week) it snowed- then had freezing rain- which resulted in me having a short week. Tuesday we left early at 3:30 to give us time to avoid rush hour in the snowy mess, the Wednesday we didn't open till noon- which was a good idea, cause the ice was CRAZY. Never seen anything like it. I literally chipped about a half inch of solid ice off of my car windows- which, let me tell you, wasn't easy. I've never seen ice covering stuff like that. It was pretty impossible to walk in parking lots and stuff- had to walk over on the snow covered stuff, just cause it gave you more traction than the solid ice on the roads. WEIRD.

For the next 15 weeks, I'm the intern at the Potomac Arts Academy 6 hours a week. This one is a bit more of a challenge. Not so much in that it's more difficult work, but in that it is much less structured- which is kind of an issue for me. They are a pretty young organization, with only 4 staff members- only one of which is actually full time. And they basically aren't super sure about what to do with themselves, much less with me. So I guess I'm in charge of finding grant money for them? But as I'm finding out, pretty much all grants for FY10 are due to be submitted in, like, a month... so that may be a problem... Anywho... yeah.

I am thinking about taking some free classes offered by GMU to students in computer stuff. Maybe over the summer, depending on what I'm doing. I realize that I wish I could help out Potomac with their website... cause it pretty much sucks, which I guess isn't their fault since no one there is too computer savvy and they did it themselves... and I have good ideas on what it should be- even if it is super simple. Things like: don't make any page super long so you have to scroll forever. Have the GMU logo on the page, since we're supposed to be part of GMU. Have a intuitive and easy to read layout without too many ciruitous links. And so forth. OH, and don't steal pictures from the MENC website, cause I am not even looking for those things and I noticed that the exact same picture of a girl playing trumpet was on the MENC home page as well as ours... I wonder who put it there first...

Classes are going good. I had a shit ton to read this week and I am almost done. (Got class at 4:30- too bad the book is butt-boringly simple, which leads me to updating my blog instead of reading it...) Slightly worried about the work load, but I think as long as I get most of everything done over the weekend, and do things little by little after work through the week, I should be fine.

Hmm stretching for other news... We're watching Lost and The Wire. Both of which are awesome. The Wire is Gritty, as Patrick always says. Really miss season one of The Wire (it was awesome!) but am getting hooked on the new developments in season two. Our friend (and best man for our wedding!) Steve got us Lost: season one for Christmas, which we finished pretty quickly. I gotta say, it took me about 3 episodes before I was hooked, and there are still a few things that happen that leave me thinking.... huh. which don't really sell me. Like "the numbers" thing? huh. Not: "huh?"... "huh." But overall, it is enjoyable and I'm pretty hooked. I've cried like 3 times, which I think makes me pretty hooked. In other tv news- I HAVE CLASS THURSDAY NIGHTS AND CAN'T WATCH THE OFFICE. soooo sad. Oh well. Will have to Hulu it I guess.

That's enough of an update I think. Emma out.