Day 1 May 23, 2011
Alarm goes off at 5:45 a.m. And so it begins. After eating a light breakfast and saying goodbye to the parents, I drive two miles to a nearby commuter lot. At exactly 6:30 a.m., my ride rolls into the lot. Because I only do everything in style (and because gas is f*cking expensive), I decided to take a commuter van to Hartford every day. The ride duration: 1 hour. My fellow passengers: 5 older women and 1 older man. Not my usual type for friends, but maybe if we grow close over the next two months, I can get invited to knitting parties and then I can become the newest member of Stitch and Bitch (as if I need to acquire a new activity at Conn). Anyways, I arrive in Hartford at 7:30 a.m. My driver had told me that my internship place was just a block away- how convenient I thought! But, alas, he is wrong. I end up walking for 25 minutes down Farmington Avenue, passing the Mark Twain House and many fast food restaurants. Finally, I am at True Colors. The only problem is that nobody is in the office until 9:00 a.m. My watch and my cell-phone tell me that it is 7:55 a.m. You might see a slight problem here. Not to worry though, because it is only a one minute walk to Mo’s Midtown, which boasts the breast breakfast in Hartford. I walk into the café and am impressed by the gezellig diner atmosphere. I order a coffee and make myself comfortable in a booth. The waitress asks if I am only drinking coffee when she sees that I am contently reading a book and sipping my coffee. I still have an hour, so I order an apple and walnut pancake to earn my hour-long stay. As I enjoy my second breakfast, the waitress, cook, and one restaurant patron have a friendly conversation in Portuguese. At 8:55 I pay the bill and walk into True Colors. After waiting a few minutes, Robin, the executive director of T.C., opens the door and welcomes me into the office. I am given my very own desk with a new computer. I meet Leah, who is the receptionist, and at 10:00, my orientation starts with the other intern, Brianna, who actually went to Connecticut College and was in Spectrum with me before she transferred to Trinity (who would ever do that? No offense, Brianna). Nothing exciting about orientation- just discussing our tasks and how the organization runs. For the rest of the day, Brianna and I read through evaluations of the annual True Colors Conference held at UCONN (not Conn College!) and decide which workshops and speakers were the best and should return in the future conferences. Robin also hands me a grant she has been working on, and with my grant-writing expertise (Thanks, PICA!), I make several revisions and comments hoping to both help and impress Robin. At 3:30, Brianna generously drives me to the corner where the commuter van is supposed to pick me up. We get there at 3:40, but the van doesn’t come until 4:00 and it starts to pour. I run for a bank next to the stop for cover and wait 20 minutes for the van. It comes ten minutes late. And, oh, the one hour enjoyable ride back home, in which I listen to the ladies discussing their retirement plans. 5:00 pm, the van arrives back to the commuter lot. And so ends Day 1. Now, only 60 days to go.
