B-town

For the record...

I’m writing this to you five days into my Burlington summer adventure. On Microsoft Word. Because I don’t have Internet. And I’ll have to copy/paste it into a post when I am reconnected with the rest of the world. Things are a little rustic here. As I mentioned earlier, I had come up to look at a place a couple weeks ago, and wound up subletting that same place, for lack of time and other options. I think my parents were a little leery when they dropped me off and the place reeked of cigarettes and pot, but my ‘Super Odor Killer’ air fresheners and leaving my molding windows open whenever I’m in the room has helped a little bit. As for the musty smell throughout the rest of the apartment...well, at least it’s just for 2 months.

I will have three roommates—one of them is moving in tomorrow and the others are already here. One is cool...the other is a little on the anti-social side. He wakes up at 5:30 a.m. and doesn’t get back until 9 or 10 p.m. (I know the 5:30 part because I hear the toilet flush around that time every morning, get paranoid that my alarm didn’t go off and look at my phone, only to find that it’s 5:30.) But anyway...things are going well so far. The internship is going pretty well: the newsroom is a lot bigger and younger than in Rutland, I got to go out on a good story assignment on my second day, and there are other interns. People are nice, but much more serious about their jobs than anyone in Rutland was, which puts a little more pressure on me to do a good job, but it’s great to be at a better paper. Here is the link to my first BFP story: http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2008806040308
And (supposedly) at the end of all of this interning, I’ll be getting paid for some work that I do...from my musty apartment as a freelancer. Oh and the best part of all? I have Mondays and Fridays off, which obviously means four-day weekends. (It’s kind of like a dream come true, even for someone who is undoubtedly Type A and likely to be a workaholic for the rest of her life.)

Last but not least, let’s face it. Burlington is a great town. I just went for a run in Battery Park and took in a sunset over Lake Champlain, which can only be considered majestic. It has a distinct flavor and personality where Rutland has...very little going for it, to be perfectly honest. The only things I can really think of at the moment are: A. It’s at the base of Killington and B. It’s in the southern part of Vermont, making a trip to get the hell out of there that much shorter. Oh and it’s an hour from Saratoga. (Still, let’s keep in mind that Burlington is in Vermont. Meaning you’ll still run into some characters. See: woodchucks*)

So there you have it. I’m getting psyched up for Vegas (where I will be landing 2 weeks from right now) and my twenty-first birthday (T-16 days) and then relaxing with family who are in town from Illinois for the following week. (Although as experience has had it in the past, time with the extended family will probably end up less than relaxing. I remember back on the day of my graduation, when my parents and sister ditched me, and I ended up having to chase around one of my four grandparents, who shall remain nameless, because they were cutting the grass around the house with scissors, while I was trying to shower and get dressed. But I digress.)
And Burlington is cool, and I think it’s going to be a really good experience and I’m meeting good people, but I’m hoping it doesn’t prove to be a lonely summer. Even though I was working two jobs last summer and wasn’t home all that much, it was nice to wake up to a fresh pot of coffee, courtesy of Dad, that I could have with breakfast before going to my internship, and to have someone to talk about my day with when I got home from my restaurant job that night in either my Mom, Katie or even Rusty. But this is how it’s probably going to be next year when I start up on a job God-Knows-Where...being in a crappy apartment and not knowing much of anyone. I’ll survive, as long as there aren’t rodents.

*Woodchuck. A name given to a native, backwoods Vermonter, who may be seen wearing flannel, sporting long greasy locks and missing teeth. Essentially it’s a Vermont redneck. Perhaps named a Woodchuck because both the people and the animals are a nuisance? Also important to note, it was a pair of Woodchucks who first told me what a Woodchuck was.