I don't know how interns in other fields are but I've dealt with a lot of them in my 13-plus years in the television industry--heck, I even was one at one time--and they are a strange and fascinating bunch. When I was at Idaho 8, KIFI, then an NBC affiliate, we had two interns, female college students from the school up in Rexburg, ID. They didn't feel like they had to help out, they were always in the way and very annoying. One time, during the live update between the 6pm and 10pm shows, one of them fell asleep on the floor behind the newsdesk. The anchorman, Jay Hildebrandt, had to step over her and hope her snoring wasn't loud enough to be picked up by the microphones. He was too nice a guy to kick her (which is what I would have done) and wake her up. He just read the brief and got up, stepping over her again on his way back to the newsroom. Her excuse was that she's allergic to milk--it puts her to sleep--and she had drunk some earlier. Hmmmm.
Yesterday, we shot the U of U coach's show with the new football coach Urban Meyer. I went into the studio, and this 18 or 19 year old pimple-faced kid, basketball shorts down almost to his ankles, came in asking me to see how many players were here and who they were and lots of other questions. To avoid punching him in the throat, I went in the other room to catch up on old times with the audio guy. I'd seen the intern before but I've been filling in for the cg operator instead of being at my usual post behind camera one, so I haven't worked with him until yesterday. We were taping two shows because the U has a bye next week so four players came in. I went to get another chair for them to sit in and when I returned, intern boy had moved his chair directly behind my camera. Now, I know I should have just asked him to move, but he'd already ruffled my feathers as had some of the permanent staff from that department so I wasn't in a polite mood. I just squeezed in between the camera and the intern and put on my head phones. During the taping, I had to move around a lot as I was on the chase camera. Everytime I did, I stepped on this kids toes. Also, my butt had to be no more than a couple of inches from his nose and I was so tempted to let one go in his face. Finally after the first segment of the second show, and after many frustrated glances toward my buddy Dick on camera two, I turned to internboy and said, "Am I in your way?" He just sat there! He snorted something that I didn't catch and went back to reading his newspaper. Dick could see I was about to blow a gasket so he told the kid he'd better move back, which he did. He avoided me the rest of the day. I kind of felt bad about it. I guess I can be a real jerk sometimes. . . ok, all the time.
Today I got up and made the kids breakfast. Mrs. Chickenshorts is still physically and emotionally low from the c-section but I had some things going on today so she had to go register our new van anyway. As she was backing the car around the van and out the driveway, she hit the metal fence post. She didn't want to see the damage so she came and got me. I didn't see it at first and was relieved, but she said she'd hit it pretty hard so we looked again. The front quarter panel had a nice six-inch gouge in it. It didn't bother me a bit. It's an older car that has served us very well but I have no particular attachment to it. Not so with Mrs. C. She broke down and started crying. I hugged and told her it was all right, that it didn't bother me at all (not that that would concern her--she doesn't take any of my crap), but she started going on about how we have nothing nice. Everything we have is sticky, dirty, or broken. Then she got in the car and left. When she got back and I got done with my thing, I went to the Auto Zone and got some Bondo and patched the gash. I guessed on the paint color since they didn't have the specified Plymouth color and I did pretty well. Except for the lousy patch job (and the dent that I couldn't pull out), I can't tell from the color that there was a ding there. I'm feeling quite manly now. I actually sort of fixed something!
I've been putting off starting the drawing I should have begun a week ago. I think it's harder to get motivated when I'm getting paid. I'm not sure why that is.
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