Summer Montage

Someone at Clear Admit made a comment that she would have liked to see more pictures of Atlanta. While, I have minimal pictures of Atlanta itself, I do have a plethora of pictures from the summer, so this is my summer in photos!

Goodbye Atlanta... Hello...

Two days ago I wrapped up my internship in Atlanta. My team went to lunch at a swanky country club called East Lake. Though the menu was similar to a traditional country club anywhere else in the country, I must admit, I was impressed with my Asian Caesar Salad. YUMMY!! I ended up with more swag - another t-shirt to add to my growing collection from the company. I think I now have 5 new shirts from the last 12 weeks. I also got a new sweatshirt, a water bottle for my gym workouts and a sweet pen. My team and I exchange some small talk and then some pleasantries regarding the summer. I can't believe the 12 weeks flew as fast as they did. I left East Lake and headed due north towards Charlottesville arriving shortly before 11p. It felt good to be back in Cville as I never realized how much I missed it, especially Arch's Frozen Yogurt. Incredibly delicious and a Cville staple!!

I spent the weekend moving the boyfriend's stuff out of my townhouse and into his. I organized my closet just enough to repack for the next adventure. Last night, some second years caught up with drinks at CD's house. I still remember the first Camp Darden party at his place on Aug. 1, 2008, it was insane! I'm a little bummed that due to not having a free summer, most people are traveling up until the wire, myself included, so there is less gathering prior to school. I guess we'll have to make the most of our time together during second year.

Speaking of adventures, I'm off to CA tomorrow! When we planned this trip, it was supposed to be relaxing and reviving, instead, I think I'm going to need a vacation from my vacation, but isn't that always the case? I'll be in SF for 3 days and they're all filled. I've invited a small group of friends, about 30, over for a BBQ on Wednesday before I take off to Vegas on Thursday morning. It's a 9 hour drive from my house in CA and I need to be as prepared as possible for the ad-hoc bachelorette party on Thursday night. My good friend from college gets married on Saturday and Sunday we drive to SoCal to see the boyfriend's family. After three days there, we'll drive north again, stopping in Morro Bay for a night to ourselves before one last night in SF and a flight back to DC. It's going to be a whirlwind, but it's always good to see friends and family.

Timed Lights?

I live 2.5 miles from work. I don't take the freeway. Yet, it still takes me the better part of 20 or so minutes to get to my internship. There's one street that encompasses most my drive, Ponce de Leon Ave. This street does not have timed lights and so it never fails that every 2-3 stoplights, I hit red, even at 6am, which I found out on the way to the gym this morning. I've learned that if you speed, I can actually hit most the lights and get to work much faster. Lately though, I've seen police on the side streets of Ponce, typically already conducting a traffic stop, which leads me to be a bit more careful. It makes me wonder however, about the behavior not having timed lights cultivates. Yes, I expect not to make every light, but it'd be nice if I could go past more than one.

There are streets in San Francisco that are known for traversing the city. They have timed lights all the way and you can cut minutes off of a commute. South to North, Franklin is a perfect example. Once you hit one green, if you drive the speed limit, odds are you can venture from the freeway to the Bay quickly with no red lights. I'm not sure what the drawbacks of timed lights are, but if they're going your direction, they help immensely with a commute. Other sets of timed lights in SF – Fell/Oak, Gough is the counterpart to Franklin (they like their one-ways in SF), and Pine/Bush. I'm sure there are more, but that's what I remember off the top of my head.

Two Days!!

I don't feel the end as much as I thought I would. I'm excited, yet incredibly busy. My boss' boss, who is the Global IT finance director, has me working on a project with him regarding IT spend. He also did not realize that I'm out of here at the end of the week, so it's been non-stop meeting after meeting to get this project completed or at least as done as possible. Many of my intern-mates are transitioning responsibilities while I'm simply trying to complete all of mine. The plan is to have my computer picked up at 9:30a on Friday. Likely a silly idea as that'll leave me 2 hours to do nothing, but that was the time proposed, so I obliged.

In addition, last night I said farewell to my summer soccer team. It was fun playing while in town and I'm a bit bummed to miss the coming games after such an awesome match. We've lost every game with the exception of one tie to have my final match be a WIN! Not only that, but we found a formation that flowed and actually had us putting balls in the back of the net, including the game winning goal by yours truly in the last 60 seconds of regulation. After the last year of constantly losing teams, I forgot what it was like to win a game. While I appreciate good competition and try not to get down when good competition leads to a loss, I find merriment in winning.

I have one suitcase packed and another one to go. I want to wash my sheets before I leave and need to make sure the car is packed Friday before work. I keep making mental notes about the odds and ends that I need to ensure return to Charlottesville – toaster oven, water purifier, olive oil container – but I’m convinced something will be left behind. That summer project on which I was working for a local retailer is about to be cut off. I never got as far as I desired, but the owner was not willing to help herself as much as I anticipated. She very much wanted me to do the work and I'm sitting here contemplating if I should even go help tonight. Since I'm not one to "drop" projects or people, I will probably try to help her for an hour.

Two more days and it’s one more crazy “vacation” before second year and the Darden case method are in full effect.

5 days until Freedom

There's something rather strange about being an intern. I feel like 3 months is about the time on a job that you start actually understanding the way a company, a department and your job works. And here, exactly 11 weeks later, I'm getting ready to break free, again. While the paycheck has been nice and the experience has been good, I'm ready to return to Virginia, though not without another trip under my belt (off to SF next Monday!!).

Friday, my intern class took a tour of the collaboration lab. It reminded me of James Bond meets sustainability. Quite an interesting experience. We even got to try some new product. One of the products sounded horribly weird and yet tasted fantastically good. Afterwards, we had lunch in a nice private conference room and the CFO essentially joined us for dessert. There were some interesting questions raised. I asked him about relieving stress and work-life balance. He said he trained his body not to be stressed, much like you train your body to fall asleep on an airplane. I understood the analogy, yet, I'm not sure I'm convinced. As for work-life balance, that wasn't a problem for him either. He believes in everything he has done, he has had a choice and so if he was reviewing a 10K instead of attending his son's baseball game, he was exactly where he wanted to be. It sounds like, long ago, his dream was to be successful in the work place and so he marks that a priority, a very interesting perspective.

One of my Darden classmates, who is also interning here, asked about him not having an MBA and what he thought about the degree given that many of us are returning for our second year. Again, we received a response I was surprised to hear. He mentioned that if we found an MBA necessary, that it would open doors, but once in the door, it doesn't really matter. I almost got the feeling that he thought the value of the degree is not what we believe it to be, and while I understand the argument that once you're in, you must perform. I do think, especially in this organization where more people are CPAs than MBAs that MBAs help round out thought. Plus, MBAs tend to be financial analysts versus straight accountants. Quite thought-provoking.

We rounded out Friday with final presentations. It feels good to have that out of the way and I'm not quite sure what to make of my last week. I'm tying up loose ends and will leave work on Friday after lunch. Part of the reason is that my badge dies at 11a and the other is that I plan to drive due north, back to C'ville. Ooo-wee, I’m excited.

Questions for the CFO

On Friday, my internship class is having lunch with the CFO. We have been told to have prepared questions for him given that in our past roundtables, questions may have seemed a bit ad-hoc. While I understand the excitement of this meeting, I'm a bit stumped as to what I ask an S&P 100 CFO! Without much access to the TV and internet at home, I’ve only caught snippets of news. My Wall Street Journal subscription expired at the end of school and I opted not to renew it until I return there. I wasn’t sure how much time I’d have over the summer.

I’ve thought about asking about the future of the company, specifically how the devalued dollar will affect future operations and decisions (though I know more revenue comes from outside North America than inside). I’ve also thought about asking about this person’s personal choice to come to the company after a very successful career elsewhere. What were the motivations – money, power, new experiences, or additional personal development? Then there is the thought surrounding work - life optimization. At this point in their career, how do they balance the two?

I want to find out what makes this person tick and why they’ve become so successful. Sometimes I feel, however, that my preference for “fluffy” questions is misconstrued in the formal workplace. I don’t ask these questions because I don’t have anything academic or thought-provoking to ask, as above. I ask these questions to understand with whom I’m speaking. A Darden MBA, a business major from Colorado and a career in finance doesn’t tell you much about who I am. My blog, the fact that I love team sports – in particular soccer, and that someday I want to return to the Bay Area are facts that can give insight to what makes me tick and how I ended up here.

Resume

My resume is the source of most of my anxiety these days. I spent all last year editing, sculpting and getting my resume to a point where I am comfortable. I am comfortable with the way it looks and the person it conveys. And here we go, time to rewrite. While I'm grateful for the internship I do have, I do wish the company believed in offers. It's been quite clear that the company hires for need and not before, so the chance of any of us getting an offer before April 2010 is slim, which means, I'm back on the market and my resume carries that much more weight.

So what did I do this summer? I'm struggling to answer that question. While I have fancy names for my projects that make sense internally, an outsider may simply be lost if I attempt to use them. Plus, I have space restrictions. I have an entire section that I can theoretically delete. However, that section shows a bit of me that the rest of my resume does not. This leaves me approximately 4 lines of text for my summer internship and lately I'm at a loss of words. Whenever I think I make sense, the outside world disagrees. I suppose the good news is that I have people willing to work with me. Although, the resume is due August 10th, so I need to work quickly.

To Twitter?

I had a meeting today with a communications director who covers social media. I often forget exactly how interested I am in the space. I joined Frienster far before anyone dreamt of Facebook. Being from the Bay Area, I lived on the edge of the tech boom with my father being a member of one of many start-ups that just couldn't make it. And even today, I look at companies like Google, Yahoo, Facebook and SalesForce in wonder that someday I may join their ranks or find a company to compete with them.

So how does Twitter fit in you may ask? As I sat there discussing the next big thing this company is doing (definitely cool!!), I thought, how can I consider myself a full blown participant of the digital revolution and still not be a part of Twitter. So it hit me, even if I didn’t use it to its full extent, I had to join. Well, slight problem. As you’ve noticed, the title of this blog is JulyDream, which has been an alias since I was… oh… 10ish. I often contemplate getting a “big girl” name, but revert back to this alias time and time again. Turns out, twitter.com/julydream is taken! My first name is just common enough to be gone as well. My initials are short a middle name, so that too is unavailable and for whatever reason, whenever I set an internet address, I get a sense of anxiety that this is permanent. Think of the hassle there is in even changing an email address!

The first letter of my first name followed by my last name is available, but then I actually have to spell my last name for people, which is one of many reasons that I have kept the alias for so long. While I realize, in comparison to future decisions, this is minuscule, it seems these are the thoughts I have while eating my lunch. So if I join twitter, what name do I use?

Home Stretch

It may be premature to say that I see light at the end of the tunnel, but I do!! This is week... 10 and I have 2 weeks left of my internship. Some of my classmates are ending theirs and albeit it has been a great experience, I’m ready to join them in the official employment status of student.

At the end of last week, I was finally able to enter inter-company bills. This was the culmination of two months of data mining, manipulation and analysis (mixed in with other projects). Today, I feel like I’m a business school applicant again, waiting for the status of each of these bills to update. Each bill must be approved by four different people before it officially gets processed. Naturally, since this is Corporate America, those people often span two continents, which are on opposite sides of the world. Needless to say, I anticipate (and hope) this project completes before my internship does. (Woo hoo!)

I keep looking at my to-do list with the thought that I’m almost done with just about everything on there. Almost, because it never fails that I’m waiting on someone else. I do get anxious at times that the information or data I need will not come with ample time to finish the project. And to me, that’s unacceptable. As soon I’m done on Friday August 7th, I’m headed out of town because in true JulyDream fashion, I have set plans for the following 2 weeks starting on August 10th. And yes, my new townhouse in C’ville is STILL a disaster, unless of course some stranger with OCD came in and cleaned it for me.

The Mirror Before Me

Do you ever look in the mirror and think, so this is it? It's the day before my 27th birthday and I'm honestly not sure what to think. Half my friends are married, a few are pregnant, and then a couple more already have kids! WHOA! Some are on a career path and others are likely still "finding themselves." And here I am ready to finish my internship in 3 weeks and return to my fake adolescent life called business school. Of course, I have some important decisions on the horizon. Where do I want to live? What do I want to do? For which company do I want to work? AH!? It all happened so fast.

It's crazy to think at this time last year I was finishing up my week of Bay Area goodbyes. I remember the craziness of going out every night in an attempt to see everyone that was important to me or had influenced my life in some way. I always thought I'd move back there immediately after business school, at least until I actually moved to Virginia. Getting out again (the first time being college), opened my eyes to another world. I love the Bay Area and in my opinion it is still one of the best places to live, but why not try other places while I'm young.

Then I think, so exactly how young am I? A good friend, who I admire because she does have the guts to move on a whim, picked up and moved to Texas last week! Though she's nowhere near where I would call desirable, I still think her view of the world can be refreshing. Mind you, this is the same friend who returned from living in St. Thomas within the last 2 years. I am not sure I’d ever have the fortitude.

Work is going well, but after an early morning field trip to a call center (which was more interesting than it sounds) and a bit of a fuzzy head (which I fear is the last 3 travel weekends catching up with me), I can't seem to focus today. It's interesting being back on the learning curve and while at times it's fun, I do miss the feeling of knowing it. I used to have days at my previous employer where I just knew everything going on and I felt like I was on top of the world. This business is very different than that one with more integrated parts than I think I ever imagined.

As I think of all these aspects of my life, I wonder what or who I will see in the mirror next year.

I feel like a FT Employee

A couple weeks back I was mentioning how being a summer intern is hard. While some of my classmates have received meaningful projects, others had found that they are not being used to their full potential. Needless to say, I was in the latter camp. Thus, I screamed, yelled and asked for more work and the company happily obliged. I'm knee-deep in spreadsheets with somewhere around 4-5 concurrent projects right now. Many of them, while independent, are very much intertwined as one project builds on the next. It feels good!

Yesterday, I was here "late." Not late in terms of actual standards, but late in terms of I'm required to only be here 8 hours. Let's just say for the first six or so weeks, I happily obliged, lucky if I was busy for the entire 8 hour workday. Yesterday though, I met with my manager for a three project update and walked out of her office feeling absolutely refreshed. Not only that, I also taught her how to construct a data table, who would have thought?!? I figure it was a good thank you for the intimacy I now have with PivotTables.

After my meeting, I sat down at my desk and finished updating my sheets and sent them to various people around the world who represent a sub-section of the company's legal entities. This morning, I had emails from Costa Rica, Philippines and a few from Atlanta. I'm excited to feel more involved, though I still have questions.

One more day of spreadsheets and then I'm headed to Vegas to release some steam!

SC Beach House

Surfside Beach is just south of Myrtle Beach on the South Carolina coastline. It's much cheesier than I ever anticipated with miles of "all you can eat" seafood joints, "cheap beachwear" signs, a random waterpark, a couple mini golf places and lots of billboards. Our four bedroom, four bath house was across the street from the beach. It slept 14, we had 21, which meant accommodations for the weekend were inexpensive. We loaded up plastic tubs with ice and all the "decent" cheap beer you could drink. Shots flowed as we had TWO ex-bartenders competing in a shot-off. Afternoons were often spent at the beach, sometimes with a football or what some like to call a frisbee in hand (the hole in the middle makes me beg to differ). All around, the six hour drive to the coast from Atlanta was worth the weekend. The extra traffic for my drive home was unwanted, but the great thing about long car rides by myself is that I can to catch up with friends. I spoke with a former classmate from Colorado for 2 hours about business school, the internship, his job, his hopes of b-school and other aspects of life. I promised I'd visit NY sometime as well (though at the rate my weekends fill, who knows when that will be).

I'm back in the grind for the week, until Friday when I head to Vegas for a triple birthday celebration, one of which is MINE! :D I've spent hours playing with spreadsheets this week and while I'm not analyzing the end numbers, I have been combing through the inputs and corresponding equations. Analytical in a different way. What I found on Monday was no less than shocking. The NPV calculation in excel was being used wrong. Let me preface by saying I learned TVM (time value of money) calculations on an HP 12C. When I first switched to excel, I was warned of some idiosyncrasies. Needless to say, I often still check my answers on my financial calculator simply because I am more comfortable with how to get the correct answers. Excel, when using its “=NPV” function, you do not include the initial outlay, essentially Year 0. You add Year 0, which more often than not is a negative number, to the NPV of Year 1 through X. This spreadsheet, used Year 0 through 5 within the NPV function, ooops. While the correction increased the NPV of my example by a couple million dollars, I suppose it's possible the correct NPV for a different project would have an unfavorable result.

The summer is racing by.

Systems

How many systems does on large company need? How much does technology help, if the systems don't talk with each other? This is what I contemplate as I manually type in USER ID numbers to find specific locations so that I may bill the appropriate cost center. Sounds fun huh? It isn't bad when the data comes speedily, but every 10 or so minutes, I have a solid 60 second delay as my computer "thinks." I realize, an IBM T42 is a little dated, but the RAM seems on par with my needs and the processor speed, though not over 2Ghz is still spinning.

What I find even more entertaining is with all the systems we provide in IT and all the development dollars that are invested to keep this shop running, we're still behind. I'm using Excel to compile my data - all 30,000 lines of it. The knowledge I have about Vista is useless as the network is still run on XP. Tab-browsing, what's that? It couldn't possibly be more efficient could it? The company has recently switched to Office 2007 and I hear the woes from cubicles as I cruise through programs because of Darden's use requirement over the last 10 mos.

Technology can be a business' best friend and also, the bain of its existence. It's a necessary evil in today's marketplace, a capability for many companies that help them surpass competition. I wonder if the breadth of this company hinders its ability to invest in the technology it should, at the pace it should. Maybe for now, the company is destined to swim among the old fashioned CPGs of America.

Amazing Weekend

I didn't come into work on Friday. Instead, I arrived at a local plant at 6a for my ride-a-long. This was a chance for me to understand a part of the supply chain that no one thinks about when they see product on a shelf. How does it get there? Who stocks it? Turns out, there's a little man in a brightly colored truck. The experience was eye-opening and the work ethic impressive. Physically, I could not do his job today. The speed and acuracy is important, as is the execution. From local food outlets to convenience stores, everyone expects the best service. Further, this man's scheduled 10 hour shift can be shortened by moving quickly. He's paid for the minutes on his paper, not for his actual time of execution unless he works past 4p. Absolutely fascinating.

As for the rest of the weekened. My boyfriend landed around 9p. I've learned that the airport is just big enough that if company calls me when they LAND, I should arrive as they exit through baggage claim. That said, the Atlanta airport has numerous flaws in my opinion. The largest being that baggage claim and ticketing/check-in are along the exact same wall. Meaning halfway through the wall, the cars on the left want to be on the right and the ones on the right want to be on the left. SILLY!

Friday night we ventured to one of my favorite tapas restaurants in the Highlands, Noche. Indeed it was bustling, but the 10p reservation had us seated quickly. Afterwards, we strolled N. Highland to a local pub with a highly entertaining singer. Plus a unicorn dance that looks like the chicken dance on steroids. Saturday morning we had breakfast on the otherside of Piedmont Park at Flying Biscuit. Quite yummy and yes, incredible biscuits!! I've decided the food here is enough for my waist to expand a size (thank goodness for the walking I do!). We spent the afternoon in the Atlanta Botanical Garden before crossing the park back to Summerfest, a Virginia Highland festival. We met a couple interns and ran into more classmates at the festival - bands on both edges of the street, funnel cakes, knick-knacks and lots of art. The dinner destination was Ruth's Chris - decadent food, but delicious. Opera Nightclub was our final stop for the night, meeting up with another intern and her roommate. It slightly reminded me of a club in Vegas and though I didn't last until 3a as I was still full from dinner, it was a fantastic experience and a place I'll likely frequent.

Finally, Sunday kicked off with Murphy's brunch followed by an afternoon at the Georgia Aquarium. Can't beat the 50% off student rate after 3p on Sundays!! I'll admit, there were a few too many kids out for me, but the afternoon was still fun. Dinner was a home cooked meal, which I missed after 2-3 days of hearty Southern food. After my drive to the airport, I relaxed before heading to bed early. It'll definitely be 5 gym days for me this week! Perfect weekend.

What is it about the floor candy jar?

This is a very tenured company. Most employees I've met have been around for multiple years if not decades. The kind woman who sits kitty-corner from me tells me that she's gained 60 pounds during her 4 years here. I'm not quite sure that's true, but I'm sure there is some office weight in there. I sit right next to the floor candy jar. On one hand, I meet numerous snackers, but on the other, I've done all I can not to indulge myself. I have a horrible sweet-tooth, though you wouldn't know it since I've been here.

At work, even before business school, I was always regimented with my meals. And so here, even with the expansive cafeteria that I'm convinced is partially subsidized by the company, I'm trying my best to keep with my previous trend. It's hard! When I meet friends for lunch with my fancy Igloo Maxcooler filled with tuperware and portioned food, I walk by the grand cafeteria thinking I COULD have one cookie. Though one cookie today will lead to one tomorrow and while I'm here, I'm trying to find my routine because as we all know, it goes to hell when I return to C'ville. "Regular" meal times and gym time is often subsidized by cases and free pizza.

My goal for the next 8 weeks: Keep my hand out of the candy jar!

Darden grades were updated today. I logged in thinking this may make or break my day at 9a. I'm proud to announce, it made my day! I was impressed with my performance and look forward to seeing professor comments on my exams.

The Finance Interns are going to dinner tonight. Should be a fun way to kick off the weekend except that I need to be somewhere at 6a tomorrow. OUCH.

Solo Weekend

Atlanta is your typical big city with lots to offer! That said, enjoying many of the places and sights is better spent with someone than solo. Though that may be true, my weekend included a lot of alone time. It seems that the majority of people I know in this town had ventured off to finer places. On Friday night I went for a walk and stopped for a late supper. I sat at the bar next to a local who looked like she was doing "homework." Turns out she was analyzing an inventory report for her first 3 weeks of business. We spoke at length about anything and everything. She has two daughters, one who attends Haas ironically enough. She opened a children's clothing store 3 weeks ago and frequents the restaurant I was in. She asked if I needed some extra money, to which my imagination flashed back to the days of working retail with fickle customers. I declined, but inquired as to if she was looking for extra help. She said she had one project - she needed someone to set up an accounting system. I was a bit baffled as that would be on the top of my priority list for a new business, but I guess that's the difference between designer and number-nerd. All the same, I said I'd be interested, not for the funds, but for the experience. I emailed her when I returned home, but haven't received a response. Oh well... more time for me.

Saturday I watched a few movies and wandered around the area. I was starting to feel lonely as hanging out by yourself in a new city is only so fun. I still don't know where the usual amenities are. Saturday night, I ventured out again, but this time for a drink. I walked up and down N. Highland and settled on a bar whose name reminds me of a Boulder bar from undergrad. I walked in to see one of the other interns there, out for his brother's bachelor party. It looked almost too tame for me. The boys might as well have been on a houseboat - with no females! We spoke for a while and after my drink I headed home.

Sunday mirrored much of Saturday. I grabbed breakfast at a fabulous local joint. Ate at the bar and people-watched. The entire weekend made me realize just how hard it can be to move to a new city. Most of my moves have been for education, which allows for instant friends, this move is quite different. I've scoured the net for soccer teams too, but to no avail. However, my friend from college who lives here says that I can play with her next season (starting soon). I'm going through mild withdrawals since my Vegas tournament!!

In better news, my boyfriend comes in on Friday and there is plenty to do in the area with Summerfest happening about a 100 yards from my house. I'm also planning a trip back to CA in August!

No Reason for Silence

I'm not sure why I've been so silent. Last weekend my friend N.A. came to visit me here in Atlanta. First, it was great to see her, but more importantly, it was fun to have someone here with whom I could explore. We dined at a local Tapas restaurant (5 blocks from my house). The food was delicious and the sangria was even better. Turns out there's a gelato place a block further than the Tapas restaurant. That tidbit of information may become quite dangerous (I LOVE ICE CREAM!). That night we spent in the Virginia Highlands. Cute town and nice bars, but I really am a dancer. It'll still be good when I just want to grab a drink though.

Saturday was spent shopping in the Highlands. My friend and I both bought new dresses. Saturday night when we went to a lounge in Midtown, I realized that dresses and cute shorts are the "in" attire for nightlife. I suppose it makes sense given the typical humidity-temparture combination that has been very mild thus far. There was some overcelebraing in our party on Saturday night, so Sunday was very lowkey. My temporary roommate met a couple cute Italians and spent the next couple days hanging out with them, though she leaves this Monday. All in all a successful weekend!

On the work front, my manager finally returned on Monday, though she had training. We discussed expectations and had dinner at a traditional southern restaurant. It can't be good for you, but damn, it tastes like butter. On Day 8 of my internship, I joined the team for Habitat for Humanity. I basically spent all day caulking doors, baseboard and windows. It was an excellent way to "bond" with the team, even if we weren't working together on our house projects. And today is Friday!! I've discovered that I don't know anyone in Atlanta besides the other interns. The couple I've asked about plans this weekend are leaving town, so I may be flying solo. I've been to clubs solo in Paris, but I'm not sure about Atlanta. Should be interesting.

Sublet!!

I'm so excited, I just can't hide it... I found the perfect sublet in Atlanta for the summer. Not only is it for exactly 3 mos, but it is also in the neighborhood I wanted, the Virginia Highlands. I'll be 1.0 miles from the one person I know in Atlanta and 2.5 miles from work. There are restaurants and bars close by, and I am a short cab ride away from the clubs in Midtown. The place is furnished and the guy from whom I'm subletting seems awesome! Ironically enough, he's headed to DC for the summer. From the sounds of it, I wouldn't need to bring much besides clothes, linens, and perhaps a couple kitchen utensils. Right now, I feel like things are falling into place.

In other news, I'm headed back to SF this weekend for a wedding! I can't believe I haven't been home in 4 mos. I am excited to see all my friends as well as celebrate my girl's special day with her. This coincides nicely with a number of family birthdays too! My grandmother's was yesterday, mom's is tomorrow, and dad's is on Friday. Needless to say, I have a lot of meals already planned for me.

Finally, a big shout-out to a member of LT7 who got ENGAGED over the weekend!!!! Soooo happy for you... and as I said, remember, I throw one hell of a party. ;)