Mid-Summer thoughts.

I have the time to update! This will be the first time I get two updates in one Month; this is a major mile marker for me. We'll see if I can keep it up. The last two weeks haven't been super eventful.

Work

I finally got to do some real work on a client project. After a week and a half of training I was able to finally see what people in a big 4 firm do. The fact that they are willing to train us is nice, and it has given us all a good foundation for understanding the firm we are working at, but it's nice to be doing; instead of just sitting and listening. The project I was on didn't have the ordinary kind of work for us so I still don't have a solid idea of what a 'typical' engagement is like, but this coming week I'm on a new client that we do more traditional work for and I should get the feel.

After one week of being on a client, we (the interns) were off to more training in San Francisco, but it was a gathering of all the professionals in the specific division we are interning with, so it was much larger in scale but more focused as far as the scope of the subjects being trained. Again, we had our special intern training, but lots of time to meet and network within the practice. My impressions and feelings so far are still in the middle. I think it would be a great place to get some great experience, but there are still some things I have reservations about. One being 4 weeks in and I've only had one week of actual work, with the rest being training and such. It's hard to form a solid opinion without the experiences. Hopefully the next two weeks will be more typical of the everyday life.

Life

Sharon and her family are all in Iowa this week for a family reunion. I'm sad I didn't get to go out with them. It's been a long week being away from her and I can't wait for her to get back to Seattle next weekend. Before she left we went on our mega date of the summer. It was really fun. We went to the Seattle temple in the early afternoon and then headed into town. We ate downtown at the cheesecake factory then took a stroll through the Pike's Place Market as things were closing up. The main event was the 'Cirque de la Symphonie' put on by the Seattle symphony for their 'summer festival' with the guest performers being jugglers, contortionist, strong men, aerial specialist, and a 'cube specialist'. It was really fun and cool. We could hardly believe our eyes when one man did a one-handed hand stand while another man did another one-handed hand stand on his neck. Here is their website. Go to their gallery and you can see the 'strong men' doing handstands on each other. I couldn't copy the pictures, so you'll have to do some digging yourselves. If they are ever in your area it is definitely worth seeing.

So, I still love Seattle. I can't speak for Sharon, but whenever we talk about it we agree we like this area. Coming home from the long week in San Francisco I felt good returning here and while reflecting on it, I found myself thinking it is a place I would love to 'come home' to and in a sense it already feels that way. With that said we are gearing up to move to Pittsburgh for the next year and a half. Hopefully we fall into place as easily as we did here. We wish you all the best. Cheers.