Today may have been a bit easier, especially since my excel and word actually were up and running. After numerous unrequited inquiries, Claire decided to take matters into her own hands, and give the IT assholes a call. (IT do what they do because they are good with technology, not people). As soon as she hung up the phone, this really nice guy called me and walked me through the steps to fix my computer. Now that wasn’t so hard, was it?
However, once I opened the contact list spread-sheet, I experienced a mini internal freak out. I’m still struggling with becoming accustomed to using a Mac, despite the fact that I’ve been toying with the idea of making my next computer a Macbook or something cute and savvy like that. Finally, I just decided to ask what the hell it was I was supposed to do, event though it had already been explained to me yesterday… whoops Claire seemed somewhat annoyed I think, but I know its better to ask then to sit there for an hour trying unsuccessfully to figure it out on my own. What I was supposed to do was to fix the spreadsheet because the previous intern listed the PR companies and products in the wrong columns. This I found somewhat reassuring, because it was only my second day afterall, and I was apparently not the only one who made mistakes.
Later in the afternoon, I emailed a fitness celebrity’s PR person asking her to verify a workout plan for the November 1st issue. There are two issues in November (intense!) My technical title would be “Research Intern”, so my duties will probably, aside from general bitch work, include fact checking and hopefully some writing.
Some of what I’ve been doing is organizing article information into respective folders and labeling them with the correct information, which I actually can’t stand. What’s sad about this is, I don’t even mind the mindless, busy-work… but unfortunately, my handwriting is PATHETIC haha. Why can’t I be like a normal girl, and have cutesy, bubbly handwriting?
So far I have met a few people, but I forget most of their names already, I am sooo bad with names. I’ll just have to go with the flow of it and listen to what they address one another.
I hope tomorrow is smoother…. I’m not so good with adjustments I guess. I would really like to do more fact checking, and just more work in general. The past couple days, I’ve felt like a huge waste of space. Claire is out of the cubicle and around the office about half the time that I’m there, so I’ve often been sitting there waiting for her to come back and either clarify something or assign me a new duty.
I’m somewhat worried that they think I’m a dope… But I’m trying to keep that article I read yesterday in mind, about positive thinking from the August issue Since 50% of happiness is supposedly attributed to nature, and the other half to how one is “nurtured”, I have the power to force myself to think positively. So, I’m going to concentrate what went right each day, instead of what went wrong, and focus on making each day more successful than the last.
Monday, August 31, 2009
August 26, 2009
Today was the first day of my internship at the magazine, Family Circle in New York City. I woke up at 6:30 AM, chugged some coffee, showered, and put on my new bright red shift-dress, still wrinkled, to my horror, despite an hour of ironing the night before! At least the commute was smooth, and my walk down East 42nd street, passing all the typical flashy- tourist attracting signs and Bryant Park, was quite pleasant (nevermind the sweltering heat).
Overall, the day was interesting, but Definitely not what I had expected. I suppose I had anticipated some big introduction to everyone around the office, and a thorough explanation of all the workings of the company… but I quickly realized that no such orientation was going to occur. I exchanged a few perfunctory greetings with my supervisor, Claire, sat down at my cubicle, and began following the directions I was given to submit a ticket to the IT department to set up my phone. Claire is nice and seems to be quite an interesting character, all the while maintaining that typical No-Nonsense-New Yorker attitude. That is precisely why I often feel hesitant to ask for clarification, because I’m afraid of that, are-you-some-kind-of-idiot stare. Then again, maybe I’m just over-thinking the whole affair.
Since I couldn’t log into excel or word all day, and IT refused to show up (which may or may not have been my fault), I sat at my desk awkwardly all morning and filed papers in the afternoon. One definite mistake I made was forgetting to pack a lunch. By noon I was starving, but didn’t feel like going outside and dealing with the city’s exorbitant prices.
Tomorrow I will hopefully have a computer and begin fixing an excel spreadsheet of PR contacts and products, such as “Boost” a kid’s version of ensure (blehh). I’m not even really sure what else I will be doing, but whatever it is, I will try my best to do a good job. I will also pack a lunch… And finally, positively no more cheap shoes!
Overall, the day was interesting, but Definitely not what I had expected. I suppose I had anticipated some big introduction to everyone around the office, and a thorough explanation of all the workings of the company… but I quickly realized that no such orientation was going to occur. I exchanged a few perfunctory greetings with my supervisor, Claire, sat down at my cubicle, and began following the directions I was given to submit a ticket to the IT department to set up my phone. Claire is nice and seems to be quite an interesting character, all the while maintaining that typical No-Nonsense-New Yorker attitude. That is precisely why I often feel hesitant to ask for clarification, because I’m afraid of that, are-you-some-kind-of-idiot stare. Then again, maybe I’m just over-thinking the whole affair.
Since I couldn’t log into excel or word all day, and IT refused to show up (which may or may not have been my fault), I sat at my desk awkwardly all morning and filed papers in the afternoon. One definite mistake I made was forgetting to pack a lunch. By noon I was starving, but didn’t feel like going outside and dealing with the city’s exorbitant prices.
Tomorrow I will hopefully have a computer and begin fixing an excel spreadsheet of PR contacts and products, such as “Boost” a kid’s version of ensure (blehh). I’m not even really sure what else I will be doing, but whatever it is, I will try my best to do a good job. I will also pack a lunch… And finally, positively no more cheap shoes!
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