Thank Goodness I Exercise Regularly

The Daily Grind

Last week was hands down the longest week yet. A long weekend beforehand meant four, ten-hour days, including two night shifts. Both were spent on the same thing we've been working on for the past several night shifts, which was frustrating, but thankfully this week we spent a night shift on Big Thunder instead, which was actually kinda fun.

During the normal day shifts, however, I've been working primarily on a project related to the new ride that opens in April in Fantasyland: Seven Dwarves Mine Train. It's a project in which I design something entirely on my own and see it through to the release of that design, which is exciting because that's pretty much the core of mechanical engineering, at least in my mind: design.

In fact, just this morning I presented several different solutions I'd designed for that project to the Engineering Services manager. We made a decision on which design to pursue, so next week I'll start performing virtual tests on it to analyze it and subsequently tweak/improve it. Cool stuff! I've never done anything like it so far in school.

With that in mind, I'm beginning to realize why internships are such a big deal, at least in the engineering disciplines. In school, we rarely get a chance to apply what we learn to the real world, and when we do, it's in pseudo-practical projects that last a couple weeks and constitute 20% of our final grade. In internships, all of what we do is projects, and they last months rather than weeks; the stakes are 100% of people's safety, not 20% of a grade.

Essentially, I'm getting far more in-depth and hands-on experience than I've ever gotten in school, or probably will ever get in school. It's exciting! And I feel like it'll give me a fresh perspective on the courses I take from here on out, now that I understand more of how things work in the industry.

Speaking of next semester's classes, this past week was registration week: course lists opened up on Monday, and registration was at 6:00 am MST on Thursday. What's that? Why did I put in the time zone? Funny you should ask.

Normally I wake up for work at 6:00, so I knew getting up a few minutes early to make sure I was ready to register wouldn't be a big deal. (I don't know how other colleges are, but classes fill up extremely quickly at ASU!) I didn't realize it the night before, but apparently I was pretty paranoid about oversleeping and missing registration, maybe because of oversleeping my nap a couple weeks ago. I woke up a total of about four times throughout the night, each time panicking until I realized it was still only the middle of the night.

Finally it came time for me to truly get up, and so right at 6:00 am, I sat in front of my laptop and clicked the button that would sign me up for all the courses I'd added to my "check out cart."

I clicked once. Refreshed the page. Clicked again. Refreshed the page. A couple cycles later, I glanced again at the time - 6:02 am, on Thursday, February 27th. Just like it needed to be. Why couldn't I register? Then it dawned on me: time zone! It was still only 4:00 am in Phoenix, where the rest of ASU slept soundly in their beds with visions of sugar plums dancing in their heads.

So all the stress of the night before was for naught. I went to work, and at 8:00 am ET, registered for my classes. None of my classes start before 9 or end before 5, and I only have one class on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays! I'd say a pretty good schedule. Nineteen credit hours, but three of them are for an online class that only lasts half a semester, so it shouldn't be too bad. And I'm actually looking forward to taking classes again, and just being back in the college lifestyle.

K-pfffff

That's the sound a couch makes when you flop your 180-pound body onto it after the most tiring work week you've ever had.

Maybe it was because I needed to balance out the week's productivity, but last Friday I came home and spent all evening laying on the couch watching How I Met Your Mother (8 episodes) on Netflix, along with the rest of the Christmas season's Reeses piled on my stomach. Oh yeah, and I was in sweatpants. And the only light in the room was provided by the television. A wonderful evening, indeed.

I need to replenish my stock of Reeses, though.

But I woke up the next morning feeling shameful for my bumminess the previous night, so I went to the gym and ran some errands, including getting an oil change. It took them over two hours just to look at my car, because Saturday is the entire working world's day for oil changes! But it was two well spent hours; I walked over and tried Firehouse Subs and spent the whole time there reading a book and glancing at SportsCenter playing in the background.

My sandwich was expensive, but rightfully so. It was very, very large and absolutely delicious! Best of all, it was called The Engineer! It was clearly meant to be. But then again, true love is always meant to be.

<3

Other Things That Have to Do With Love

Do segues get any more obvious than that? Haha. Well here it is: the dramatic conclusion to the cliff-hanger I posed last week... the one that has consumed your every thought since you read my post last week... Hannah's second Valentine's Day gift to me!

Of course, if you're friends with me on Facebook, this surprise may be ruined. But make no mistake, it was a wonderful surprise for me when it came. In the mail last week arrived a personalized calendar full of all sorts of pictures from the three years I've been dating Hannah. Every month made me smile, as I'm sure it will continue to do for the rest of the year.

I hung it in my cubicle at work, hoping somebody else will see it and ask me about it so I can brag about how amazing my girlfriend is. Nobody's said anything yet, so I may have to resort to more overt means of showing it off. Maybe I'll try taping it over one of my coworker's computer monitors.

Unexpected Magic

At this point in my internship here in Disney World, I've begun to get a bit cocky about my knowledge of the parks. I'm remembering where all the pictures are taken on the rides, I can sing along to every second of Fantasmic, and I strut through the parks with the arrogance of one who has seen Disney princesses walking underneath the Magic Kingdom without spritely smiles plastered on their faces. In fact, just this morning about nine Disney princesses walked right past me, single file, on their way to take a ginormous picture comprised of every Disney character in the park. I almost gagged on all the estrogen that dripped from the air around them. And I think I sustained a couple of cootie bites.

But when my roommates and I went to Studios on Sunday, I discovered new things about the park that I didn't expect to be as fun as the parts of the park I was more familiar with. We spent all day going to shows instead of rides, including Beauty and the Beast; Lights, Motors, Action Stunt Show; and Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular.

Normally I assume the shows are childish and boring, but guess what - they're not! They're actually really entertaining, and it was just cool to discover fun parts of the park that I didn't think would be fun. It's got me in the mindset of trying new things all over the Disney parks, because apparently I might find magic even in the places I least expect it.

Don't worry, though, we finished the evening with a couple runs of Tower of Terror and Fantasmic. No trip to Hollywood Studios is complete without those.

I also rediscovered the magic of pizza. Yesterday evening I realized it'd been over a month since my last piece of pizza, which, if I remember freshman English correctly, is one of the nine paramount sins from Dante's Inferno. So this evening I ordered Dominos delivery, and now five slices of pizza and half a sandwich later, I'm sated. Pizza satisfies hunger in a way no other food can.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm gonna get started on another How I Met Your Mother binge. Don't judge.