Back to Boise

I'm now back in Boise after a 3 week hiatus for Xmas break. If you were lucky enough to have seen me, I spent about 2 of those weeks back home in Indy and another weeks worth travelling. I now know the stretch of road between Sacramento and Winamucka, NV like the back of my hand. In truth, there's not a whole lot to know-- Nevada is one long stretch of nothing with one scrubby mountain blending in to the next one. The only respite for the monotonous mountainous landscape is at sundown. For about 20 minutes the sun hits just the right angle and the miles and miles of tumbleweed resemble the amber waves of grain that I'm used to back home; the mountains light up like lanterns and reflect the clear brightness of the sky.

Work has picked up where it left off: hours of staring at a computer screen, waiting for tasks to be distributed to me, and creating Excel sheets and Word docs that I hope get used by somebody. The reader will have to excuse me in my grumpyness and in my lack of posts for first few weeks of work here in Boise. I don't get internet access in my apartment very well, so the only time I have at a working computer is always right after I get done with work on the same computer that had been burning out my retinas for the past few hours. This is the case right now, so I'm going to make it short.

The work around here really isn't that bad. It's nothing that I've been accustomed to in the past-- I've been going over files and amending budgets the first week. Before I left I was able to help place some of the countries into hotels (I'm in the Accomidations dept.). In between these projects, I've been doing odd jobs making faxes, miscellaneous signs, drinking coffee. It's been a bit of a frustrating process because many of the things put before me are short term, and I'm occasionally out of the loop of the big picture applications of the things I'm doing. The shortcomings of my job have mostly been because we're all working at a fever pitch, and my superiors haven't had a whole heck of a lot of time to train me. The upside is that I've learned that I have the ability to pick new things up on my own. It's been a bit of a confidence boost, and I hope it's something that I can take with me down the road. The other good news is that later this week I may have more responsibility soon and possibly will be in charge of all of the hotels for a one or two of the sporting events. That would be a big step to having me working more autonomously rather than one project that I'm given at a time.

Well, I hope all is well with friends and family at home and away. Merry belated Christmas to everyone, and feel free to keep in touch for the new year.