Iron Man in Deep Creek

I’m headed to Deep Creek Maryland in a couple hours. There are a few things I like about this. First, I don’t know where Deep Creek is; my very good friend Harrison is driving us there and there’s something very great about not knowing where one is. Or, rather, it is good not to need to know where one is. I’m hardly working this summer, what with my internship being only two days a week at the office and a couple out at events, but I’m still getting the burnt-out sensation that takes me every time I do something I don’t want to do for longer than a couple months.

That’s the other sensation I’m struggling with right now. I legitimately do not like my internship at the City Paper. When I’m in the office, my job is essentially transferring information from 200-word press releases to 100-word “Come see this!” listings. Out of the office, I have to go to events that I have very little interest in, and then interview people who have very little interest in me. It’s something I’m not sure my editors understand, that after events (concerts, shows, receptions, etc.) people who are just spectators don’t really want to talk to reporters for more than thirty seconds, and I have to get at least three minutes from them.

So the best conclusion I can come to is that journalism is really my bag. And that’s fine. I don’t need to be a journalist to be a writer, and I certainly do plan on continuing to write. I’ve been working on fiction this summer and I feel like the no-deadline, low-stress writing I do when I don’t need it to be seen anywhere is probably my best. That’s good enough for me, for now.

Now I’m going to go back to watching Robert Downey Jr. build the Iron Man suit in a cave!… from a bunch of scraps!

Office Jobs Are Office Jobs

Complaining about my office makes me feel like I have a real person job. The (free) coffee is shitty, my computer wouldn’t boot Windows XP three times today, and people look at me in a way that makes me feel like I don’t really belong there, which I very well may not. I feel so adult.

When I think about the fall, I either shit my pants or feel an intense desire to weep. I’ve been looking for jobs, full-time ones that have a regular schedule if possible, which it probably isn’t. A lot of them, it seems, exist in the world of corporate communications. Barely a month out of school and I’m already eyeing corporations that would pay me to write press releases; this is not particularly appetizing. Corporate writing sounds about as dull and formulaic as… shit, I guess I’m not a very good writing, I completely blanked on a comparison there. In either case, the writing they’d have me do sounded mind-numbing.

Then I realized that I was writing 100 word event listing comprised almost entirely of information I found in press releases, for events I never plan on going to. I realize that I am but a lowly intern, but the one “longer” piece I wrote, and promptly wanted to disown, was only 400 words long, and I think you’d be hard pressed to find anything in the paper that’s too much heavier. I wonder if this kind of trade-based writing is any more interesting that writing the press releases I currently reference. In fact, I don’t really wonder, I know, I just don’t care to acknowledge it particularly readily.

Also my new shoes are hurting my feet, and today they started making unfortunate fart noises when I walk in a certain way. Life is pain.