El Fuego
I started work yesterday. I'm working with my dad's company, Charlotte Pipe. My dad has a nice office job and is in charge of corporate development. I have a job in what could be deemed the third cocentric circle. Basically this is my schedule: 4:30AM to 2:30PM M-Th, then 4:30-8:30 on Friday. Including travel and the time it takes to change into my uniform, I have to get up for work around 3:15 in the morning. Fun times. I go to bed at 9PM. Ha ha. Basically I work at a large factory that melts scrap iron and then casts it into various mold to suit your plumbing needs. This leads into my Dante reference above - in order to melt this iron, one must heat a furnace to about 3,000 degrees fahrenheit. Interesting as that fact may be, having two vats of molten metal at this temperture creates a rather warm workplace environment. I don't work directly with the glowing hot yellow liquid directly, because, well, I'm a college student, but being near it makes the average temperature in my particular factory about 110+ degrees. If you've seen me sweat from such strenuous activities as deep concentration, playing foosball, or sitting on a couch in 412, you can imagine how much fun my body is having maintaining homeostasis. Without complaining, I can say that I work in a place not unlike Hell, but it's definitely a more T.S. Eliot modernist style hell, because of the inherent industrial overtones. I think the best part about being on the floor of a place like this is the peculiar reaction melted iron produces when it's spilled on the floor. As iron is melted in large furnaces, a trough carries it to smaller containers on fork lifts. Although thicker than water, the same effect occurs if the forklift hits a bump on the ground or makes a sudden turn - some of this iron sloshes out. However, unlike water, which merely lands on the floor and spreads out, liquid iron explodes into flame and produces tiny balls of metal. This is not quite brimstone but it's close enough for me. Today I spent about ten and a half hours pulling pipe fittings off of a conveyor belt and throwing them into large crates. It doesn't sound so bad, but standing in one place for that long is trying, and the fittings are made of iron, and it's not the lightest metal known to man. Perhaps one day a graphite pipe will be developed, but until then, I will slave away at the Foundry.
On a lighter note, since I'm back in America I can dream about dating girls out of my league again. I don't realy have anyone in Charlotte worth my time fancying, but some chicks from William and Mary are in contention for "most awkward man on campus's dream girl." They don't really get any prizes, just obtuse IMs and opaquely veiled metaphors. And of course the "I'm asking like it's a joke but I'm actually serious" ask out. So who's in contention? While Emily Michalski has always been a heavy favorite, the fact that she'll be abroad next year and has had a boyfriend for as long as I haven't had a girlfriend makes that one a difficult scenario to dive right into. Surprisingly, the girl I'm most excited about potentially pursuing is this chick I have nothing at all in common with. Nothing musically, cinematically, attitudanally...nothing. And I haven't fallen for a chick like that since high school, and a lot of times I liked myself better in high school, so maybe this will be good for me. Wait, what's that? Did you ask about Jen Orr? Ahh, yes. Well, Jen has graduated, which means she's in the real world and far away from my isolated and sheltered campus home. While we still talk, I think this glaring gap in lifestages is pretty self explanatory. Although she might haunt my dreams some nights. Ooooooo...spooky
On a lighter note, since I'm back in America I can dream about dating girls out of my league again. I don't realy have anyone in Charlotte worth my time fancying, but some chicks from William and Mary are in contention for "most awkward man on campus's dream girl." They don't really get any prizes, just obtuse IMs and opaquely veiled metaphors. And of course the "I'm asking like it's a joke but I'm actually serious" ask out. So who's in contention? While Emily Michalski has always been a heavy favorite, the fact that she'll be abroad next year and has had a boyfriend for as long as I haven't had a girlfriend makes that one a difficult scenario to dive right into. Surprisingly, the girl I'm most excited about potentially pursuing is this chick I have nothing at all in common with. Nothing musically, cinematically, attitudanally...nothing. And I haven't fallen for a chick like that since high school, and a lot of times I liked myself better in high school, so maybe this will be good for me. Wait, what's that? Did you ask about Jen Orr? Ahh, yes. Well, Jen has graduated, which means she's in the real world and far away from my isolated and sheltered campus home. While we still talk, I think this glaring gap in lifestages is pretty self explanatory. Although she might haunt my dreams some nights. Ooooooo...spooky