Folding shirts: a glamorous start to my astronomy career.

Job update time! Today was my second day of training, and it started with me opening up the observatory visitor center, and getting the registers ready. Nothing too fancy or difficult, though I do a little projector work, glad I'm so comfortable with those!

After some discussion with my supervisor, I went and helped re stock their supply of t-shirts. Basically I spent two hors folding shirts... Gotta start somewhere!

It actually ended up being really fun, mostly because I was in the lobby in the building that houses the staff mailboxes. During the two hours I was folding (my laundry is going to have a new standard because of this already) staff would swing by to pick up their check statement. Almost EVERY one of them stopped to look at shirts and talk to me. Not just hourly workers either. A lot of professional staff chatted with me too! Got to meet this astronomer named Gerard, who was AT Geneva, participating in the discussion of whether or not to demote Pluto! He voted to keep it a planet. ;)

"It was never a question of 8 or 9 planets... It was a question of 8 or about 25!" he told me. "A planet has to be big enough to be round, and big enough to be a bully" <-- heh heh. Astronomy jokes ftw!

Also talked with the tech support, a few other administrative staff, and also the old school designer of the DCT. I'm reeeealy hoping I can accompany him to some of his photo sessions he does after work. :D Had a bunch of people comment on my tattoo too! Though, I checked with my boss and I WILL have to cover it up come summer. I'll be fine until then, as it's still cold enough to wear the long sleeved shirt they gave me (looks super snazzy too!)

I also got my two work shirts today, and my first paycheck for the little bit of help I did over the weekend. Ive got this weekend off again though, and then some more training on Monday. The plan is to open on Monday, get trained on the registers, and then shadow the current worker that day. I think her name is Jamie and I've actually talked with her a little already.

Tuesday, I begin tour training. :D The scheduler has to pull some strings for this to happen, but I think my enthusiasm for doing that kind of thing is showing to a lot of people. I think I'm getting kind of fast tracked, which is pretty awesome.

Every person who works there is incredibly pleasant. I got told "glad to have you as part of the team!" so many times I lost count. That's a really awesome thing to hear from people you just met. I was surprised that they all stopped just to chat too! It wasn't all about astronomy (though a big portion of it was, even overheard a discussion of potential focusing problems on a big telescope) and when one admin asked where I was from, he got super excited at my answer. Apparently he's going to the spruce goose museum to try to borrow the mars lander they have there!

This job is going to rock. Between the people, the work, and the subject matter, I think I'm going to fit right in. Hopefully I can put some of my crazy ideas to work and really impact this place while I'm here. :D

On my down time, I've been doing a lot of reading. Got acquainted with the library yesterday and picked up some Isaac Asimov. :o that guy is an amazing writer. I forgot how much fun reading can be.

Off to find something to do today now!

Stay well, everyone.