Weekend Number 3: Conquered.

It's Sunday. Not quite as "Sunday Funday" as last weekend, which consisted of drinking a wisconsin-amount of beer. Today was a day of marathon naps.

End of weekend number 3.

Thursday: Jazz in the park, a free event downtown. Wisconsians (?) ... Wisconsonians (?) ... gah, PEOPLE FROM WISCONSIN get really crazy about their outdoor activites during the summer. I went with my friend, and he snuck in some wine. Later we met up with my the ladies and went to The Landmark. I swear, there are at least 4 bars here that have the same names as the ones in Raleigh. It's a little freaky. (But they don't have a "Balzac" in Raleigh, for good reason.) But this place was a beautiful little dive bar, including cheap beer, underground location, BOWLING ALLEY, and weird looking regulars.

On that note, there's no SMOKING BAN here. HOW is that possible, when NORTH CAROLINA can have one, when we GROW tobacco, and have 2 to 1 lobbyist to citizen ratio (I'm exaggerating). But seriously, I am so over my hair smelling like smoke ALL the time.

On Friday, Tiffani's husband came into town, so we all went out downtown. We went to the Garage AGAIN. I love that place, but how about a new bar every once in a while? On Saturday, my friend and I went art supply shopping, and then walked around Brady Street a bit. There were a million and half people out, ALL DRUNK, because of the World Cup. I don't understand how nobody cares about soccer until there's an opportunity to drink heavily during the daylight and yell out "AMERICAAAAAA" at the top of their lungs. Men.

Saturday, Alli's friends from Chicago came to visit, and we all went to the Safe House for dinner, which used to be a speakeasy back in the day. There were 10 of us, so we had some time to explore the restaurant before we sat down. That place is CRAZY. You enter through a "secret" entrance on an alleyway, and then you have to give a secret password to get in. If you don't know it, you have to do something ridiculous, likeeee doing the chicken dance. AND once you get in, you realize that there are tvs around showing everyone coming. There are secret and not so secret passageways throughout the underground restaurant, and an elevator with a royal throne inside it. There's a picture of Burt Reynolds in the Women's restroom, with a heart over his man-parts. If you try to lift the heart, a siren goes off outside, letting everyone know. The men's bathroom door opens to a brick wall with a sign saying "Whoa! Out of order" on it. It's a quirky place, that's for sure.

Today was nap day for me. Marathon naps, while trying to sleep through the loud jets flying overhead (There was a mini-airshow at the beach a mile away) And nowww I'm at Rochambo again, gettin caffeinated!

Tomorrow I start my third week at work, and the start of my final project! My managers and I had a meeting outside on Friday beside the pond behind the building. They're such smart asses, I love it. They're obviously great friends, so they bantered about their past halloween costumes, and who acts the most ridiculous, and how the baby of one of them has a flat head and looks like a monkey. (I saw that baby at kohls' onsite nursery/preschool, and it was pretty darn cute) So in the hour and a half "meeting" we finally got around to talking about my final project.

A little background about the intern final project: All of us interns have to do a final project. There are 110 interns in all departments at the corporate office, so projects vary from reevaluating fit in misses intimates ages 31 to 36 (yawn) to redeveloping data analysis programs (double yawn). BUT mine is going to beeee.... [drumroll]... creating a line of home products for Fall 2011 with artwork I create. YAY! So this means that I have to do a crapload of research, which entails looking online at trend and competitor websites, going "comp shopping" (going to competitor's stores), and creating a "story" or mood for my line. After all this I get to play around with hand and computer processes and make artwork. My friend and I went art supply shopping yesterday. There is no joy like entering an art store and looking around at all the beautiful watercolors, pencils, oils, pastels, paper and everything else your heart could imagine, and then NOT having a minor stroke once you get to the register. Ah, how I love you, expense reports.

I have to do the artwork, and LOTS of it, and develop some sort of cohesive line out of it, and apply it to dinnerware (soft and hard, meaning textile and non-textile). Seven weeks from now, all of us lowly interns will have to present our projects in front of our department, our bosses, our boss's bosses, and maybe even our boss's boss's bosses.

Yeah so much for quitting caffeine this summer.