1.26.2010

Larry Miller and Mildred

Tuesdays and Thursdays are my favorite days! They start with my internship. It was a busy day and the two-ish hours went by quickly with my task list from Rob. One task was to take the "Kosy" Box Truck to get the windshield replaced.  The poor windshield encountered a huge rock a while ago by someone else. It looked closer to a victim in a Kearns shoot-out than a promotions tool. I drove it to the Larry Miller service station. This is where I met Mildred and a very strange shuttle driver.
It was just the shuttle driver and me. I can't remember his name but it doesn't matter because I'm sure his face was more memorable.
His average clothing and plain fleece beanie fit the car service technician that I expected. He had a friendly round face with bright eyes and a nose that reminded me of my grandpa and I could picture spectacles sitting on the tip. He didn't have spectacles, but he did have a truck driver mustache that trailed the sides of his face. The mustache was red and getting a little long, curling out to the sides like Wolverine's hair part.
It was a short drive and he explained to me that we were riding in Mildred. The Larry Miller Shuttle Van with decals for the dealership covering it was named Mildred. Apparently the shuttle van has a more vast story than I do.
He proceeded to tell me the transmission jolts that Mildred gave him constantly and it was probably attributed to the 60,000 miles he put on her each year.  It turns out that Larry Miller Ford Dealership (Salt Lake City) has named all their shuttles. The name has been the same for what sounded like generations.  He also told me that one of the dealership's regular service customer's name is also Mildred.
I had no idea that name was so popular in society among cars and women. I don't have a middle name, perhaps I should go to the courthouse and change it. How does Michelle Mildred sound?














It's not Mildred but you get the picture. She was a great hostess.



1.23.2010

Day One-

So here we go with the beginnings. It's all about new beginnings these days in my life. Suddenly, I have a great deal of extra time on my hands.
Don't get me wrong, life is busy. My life exists somewhere between my classes at the University of Utah, my internship with Clear Channel Broadcasting, the daily gym obsession and finding a "career job".
With all this time I made some great starts or restarts (sometimes life really is like a video game). So I thought I would share some new or restored joys that have come to my attention.

1: Riding Trax again-That's right I use public transportation again. I get to save money and encounter trax stories that I missed so much while driving. It was my first day of the return and the metal benches with a sort of carpet cushion was good and familiar, while the people avoid eye contact and stare into the darkness of the early morning. I was fairly disappointed not to encounter anything exciting, but I know it will happen.
2: Editing- My new love is a renewed love from a previous class (Convergence in Journalism). In my Video Production class yesterday, we worked on editing video and audio formats for practice. It was so exciting to pull it all together and make it work with my awkward fake video clips (which had a strong story about zombies invading campus and people "bowling to save the world"). I love editing and I am thinking about pursuing this more heavily for my future!
3: Internship Enthusiasm- Shout out to Rob and Clear Channel Broadcasting. I told him about my company layoffs(from Wednesday) and he has totally supported me and my new time availabilities. It means I spend more time at the station helping out. I love doing ridiculous things to help marketing. My love of editing comes into play here too. Next week I hope to be getting some movie reviews about new movies coming out, editing them and throwing them up on the web. Stoked!
4:Census Contact- First job contact since the "incident". The test is February 11 and I really look forward to this job (hopefully). Part-time, good pay and perfect for my time constraints.