End of the second day working for the City…. and I’m dead tired.

Seriously, I have to get used to getting up early again after working half days last week in my old internship. During grad school, I didn’t have to get up until 7 or 7:15 to be at school by 8:45 and now I have to get up at 6:15 to 6:30 to be at work before 9.

Additionally, it takes 45 minutes for me to travel from where I’m staying in Smyrna to where I work. I’m driving in heavy Atlanta traffic, with the sun directly in my eyes. My transition glasses don’t work in my car, so I’m squinting and irritated. By the time I get to work, I’m sleepy again. Luckily, my co-workers are wonderful and they wake me up.

Thirdly, my first day at work lasted 13 hours. Yes, from 9 am to 10 pm, it was damn near 11 by the time I got home and close to midnight before my head hit the pillow. Then I had to get up and do it all again today. :-/ So, yeah I’m tired and I should probably go to bed now….

And I will, but first let me tell you what I’ve learned so far during my super summer internship.

1. I don’t want to be a County/City Manager. If I become a CEO of a local government, I can kiss my life good-bye, and I don’t want to do that now. Maybe when I’m old and don’t have anything better to do with my time I’ll change my mind, but I doubt it. Being a manager is a hard, largely thankless job. As a manager, you deal with all the crap, not just the fun parts, and I’m really only interested in the fun parts.
2. Speaking of the fun parts, they consist of downtown revitalization, urban development, affordable housing and general real estate, and creative solution to solve social problems. I love community development!!! Who knew?
3. I think I’d be best working as a department head or a consultant working for local governments. I would get to know all the people that City/County managers know, without having to deal with all the stuff that makes my head hurt and bores me to tears.
4. I am not a morning person. Mornings give me a headache. I need a job where I make my own hours and no one is expecting me to show up before 10am.
5. I love Decatur. I am drawn to progressive cities like a moth to a flame. I heard a presentation last night that said that residents of the city where I am working are smarter and wealthier than the rest of Metro Atlanta and most of the nation. Sound familiar? Just like Chapel Hill, Madison Wisconsin and several other places at the top of my “have to live there” list.
6. I really need to work on my small talk skills. Even when I try to keep conversation light, I generally fail miserably, and I don’t introduce myself well. Any suggestions?

I really like my internship. Everyone has been so helpful and nice to me. I’ve gotten some good leads on possible projects that could turn into capstones. Good Times!

Work has been so busy I haven’t had any time to do anything fun, hoping to fix that over the weekend…. and hopefully have pictures! Oh, and I’m trying public transportation tomorrow, so I’ll have time to read