Iceberg

 

Tuesday, my second least favorite day of the week after Monday. I can’t believe it’s only six-forty, and it feels like seven-forty. But that what happens when daylight savings day ends. It just feels so late in the day that you wish it was actually seven-forty, that way, the day would end much sooner. At least that’s how I feel with my life as a Cargill intern. I just never understood what the point was of going to a professional workplace where you don’t even get paid for doing any work, all I could say was, I was not one to live up to the task.

Suddenly, I hear my Mom calling me, “Darold, honey, breakfast is ready, come down and eat it while it’s hot.” I then respond, “Okay Mom, I’ll be right down.” After a minutes of stretching, I put on my silly professional clothes, like my plain light blue fabric shirt, my white pants, and my black shoes, which I hated wearing together, because every time I wore both of these together, I felt like I had penguin feet. After getting my clothes on, I rush downstairs to eat my breakfast, and say goodbye to my folks. Then I get into my car, the BMW, and drive off to the Cargill headquarters building in Minnetonka. As I am driving on Williston road, I come across a family of Geese slowly crossing the road, which puts the pressure on time, which as a result gets me furious.

After the Goose family has crossed the road, I get back on track, trying to get to the Cargill building as quickly as I can, but as I enter Minnetonka Blvd. I come across another disaster. A white car has bumped into a plumbing truck, causing a slowdown on the traffic. I know from there, I am so screwed. Because, my intern instructor, Carrie, says we are always expected to arrive at the building at precisely, a quarter before the class starts, so that we can be ready to start when the clock strike 8. I know, very silly to be expected to arrive there just fifteen minutes ahead of class time, but what can I do, rules are rules.

It is about 7:42 when I finally arrive to the Cargill Headquarters parking lot. I struggle to find a place to park, but then after a minute of circling the lot, I finally find a parking spot. I move my BMW in and then I rush inside to the class gathering room.

As soon as I reach the room, I find everyone getting their class laptops ready and their work going. I then find Carrie right behind me who seems unpleased with me. “Darold” she says, “You’re late.” To which I sigh, after hearing that, Carrie states, “When your boss expects you to be a certain place at a certain time, it is always adequate for you to be there at that time precisely.” I then explain to Carrie, “Yeah, well I can’t always beat traffic now, can I?” After hearing me speak with quite some attitude, Carrie decides she wants to speak with me outside. I know from there, I am about to get a long dull lecture and the only thing I can think of is the big baseball game I have with my folks on Friday. Boy, it’s crazy to think about but you never realize you life in high school was so much better than it is right now, at least back in those days, it was the students that were the problem and not the teachers.