Thursday, Aug. 14

At about 11:40 a mystifying young guy came in. He was dressed in a ratty polo shirt, American Eagle checked shorts, and plastic flip flops. Had sunglasses. He burst right into Mr. MD's office and bellowed, "whaat's up?". He had the air of a jaunty sophomore from Sigma Tau.

I have not met Mr. MD yet, but as Ms. B's husband, I expect he is either well versed in the art of wrestling wounded dangerous animals or is rather ferocious himself. He is very quiet and dignified, a retired business tycoon who sits in that office for reasons that have not been adequately explained to me. His mouth is a hard line. I cannot yet tell if it is from the quiet dignity, or from a rage simmering just below the surface. To listen to this kid walk right through the threshold without so much as a knock, to me, seemed akin to throwing a lit match into the gas tank.

Mr. M welcomed him in and asked him how he'd been. They spoke jauntily for a while. Then the guy walked into HR's office, looked around. He was heading to P's office when he turned to me.

"I don't think I've met you?"
"Nope. I'm Maggie. I just started."
"Cool! Are you a student intern?"
(What? In this suit?) "No..I'm an admin.."
He cuts me off. "Oh okay so you work for the people upstairs. That's cool." He wanders into P's office, picking things up off the desk and turning them testingly in his hands, as though he's about to hurl them out the window.

He sits at R's desk, closes the database window, and starts to surf the web. We talk a little, he asks me if he knows me because I look so familiar. I think must have an air of Portland about me, as this is the second time someone has asked me this. I say no, he asks if I've been to Eugene, I say barely. Someone comes by, high fives him and asks what he's been up to and they talk. He mentions that he will be turning 21 soon. A student intern comes up and tells him that Ms. B is ready to see him upstairs, and he leaves with her.

I iChat R, who is up at reception.

Me: (Who is that guy that just went upstairs?)
R: [name]
R: His dad owns the building and like another quarter of Portland
Me: Deal. I was really thrown by him just sort of waltzing into MD's office and being all, "what's uup!", as if he owned the place. I guess, well, he does.

//

Yesterday I was sent down to filing to find a bottle of Pinot Grigio. It was my first time down there, and I'd had to ask almost every person down there to help me. After this, A had come upstairs to get her afternoon coffee and came by my desk to ask me how it'd gone. I'd had to cut her off to ask someone about the Chocolate Thing. Today I iChatted to apologize, and she waved it off as No Big Thing. According to the website I've been asked to memorize, she and I seem to have the most in common here. She is also, judging by the photos, that absolute happiest person currently working for the firm.

//

Every day after I eat lunch, I go outside for the remainder of my lunch hour. I usually walk to the benches out by the library and to sit in the shade and draw in my sketchbook. All the benches were taken today so I sat instead on a ledge on the west side of the building, facing a new building I hadn't drawn yet. I started on the contours. The sheriffs I saw yesterday, (elderly, balding) were coming up to me in my peripheral, and one said gently, well, I have to bother the nice girl.

"Oh! Am I not supposed to be sitting here?" I jump down.
"No, I'm sorry...I think you would be fine but other...bigger people sit here and the library would rather they didn't."
"Oh no no it's no problem ...ah, see there's a bench open now. I was going to sit here earlier but they were full."
"Oh we saw someone there and chased them away just for you!" Joking. I think.

//

Dad (sent from his Blackberry): You doing ok?

Me: Yes .. today and yesterday were much better than my first day, because I'm actually getting started on tasks rather than just sitting around getting acclimated and occasionally running errands.

My supervisor is very keen on forcing me to learn stuff by relying on the fact that I have a brain. I can call this phone number and order this part, because if his instructions aren't exactly correct, I'll still manage to get the part ordered. Some of that is intimidating:

"Go down to the craft room.."
"We have a craft room?"
"Have you been down to the basement?"
"No"
"Do you have the door codes?"
"No"
"Have you met YN?"
"No" (Me, to myself: Dude I just started here yesterday, and you left me at my desk alone all day while everyone else dealt with a day-long crisis.)
"Okay. Here's the door code. YN's in filing. Go down the stairs, then turn left and left again, and then go get that thing and bring it up here."

And I did it, eventually, even though I had to ask just about everyone in filing where the thing was and what it was. They were all pretty supportive and helpful.

Other supervisors aren't that gung-ho...they offer help, or say "oh I can show you that later, a student intern can do that right now," but P's approach is GO NOW, which is frustrating when you get it wrong, because he only says, "Yeah. That's not right at all. Go to your desk." But when you get it right he says, "Want to go on another walk?" "Sure." "Good answer!"

Dad: You have a great attitude!