Maybe it's just that I woke up early. Or maybe the past three weeks' worth of flu-like symptoms (yes, I barfed! Several times!) have, in some placebo-like fashion, cleansed my system in much the same manner as a raw veggie fast might. Over raw veggies, I'll take barfing any old time. Regardless, this morning I woke up to Velvet Underground crooning on my fancy new iPod/alarm clock thing (present from Mom... I'm not about to spend my hard-earned money fueling the corporation that routinely brings me to my knees [in defeat, not over the toilet. Wrong knee-falling context.]).
A hot shower would surely have topped off what were unknowingly the first few minutes of a glorious day, but a certain roommate of mine was immersed in her normal 30-minute-shower-with-the-bathroom-door-locked-and-a-seeming-determined-disregard-for-responding-to-loud-knocks/protestations routine, which might be acceptable if said routine didn't always happen when two other people also need to use the bathroom, in which case at least leave the door unlocked so we can grab our toothbrushes, yeah? But so anyway I eventually stumbled from the house, re-parked my car (an activity that in itself would have guaranteed a disastrous, nihilistic day if I were headed to Apple), saw a rainbow, immediately got caught in a fierce hailstorm, walked a few blocks to the Castro, and ran spot into a certain shaved-headed individual who also happens to work at Apple and is the most charismatic human being I've had the pleasure of knowing (and before any of you get any ideas, he's 40... not that I'd let that stop me with this one). As is always the case around him, I immediately became awkward and sweaty and blundered my sentences by trying to articulate about ten different sentence options at a single time in what's always a severely misguided attempt to appear/act normal. He smiled, congratulated me on my "rainbow-internship-hailstorm that I just saw going to" (okay, so it wasn't that blundered, but still) and recommended what was, in his words, "the best coffee shop for the best cup of coffee you will ever drink- and just down the street!"
I mean, how could I say no (other than the fact that I was literally incapable of saying 'no')? Turns out he was right. The coffee was a dream and I can't wait to go back. At any rate, after this superb cup of coffee, I took the underground MUNI to New Montgomery Street - the underground subway system still excites me an irrational amount every time I use it: there's no traffic, it's underground (!), and I feel like I'm living in a city at least twenty times larger than San Francisco when I'm down there hurtling through the dark. New Montgomery Street is a magical confabulation of everything that's right about downtown San Francisco (also, it isn't even close to the Apple Store), with delicious sandwich shops and art students and huge brick buildings everywhere.
But so anyway the Wikimedia offices are perfect and beautiful and located on the sixth (and fourth) floor of this great, old, six-story brick confabulation. There are giant windows and wide open spaces filled with funky chairs and dry erase boards and I have my own desk with a computer and pens and a stapler (!) and everything. Oh, and the sweet-ass kitchen is stocked with all the pop and candy I could ask for (resupplied monthly!) and I can already feel my office ass expanding in, and filling out, my office chair. It's a perfect working boy's dream. My boss people are easily the two coolest people in the building (right after Miguel, the door guy, who I wisely made a good impression on day 1). I kind of just sit and listen to them talk, all the while drooling because what I'm overhearing is so effortlessly intelligent and funny.
Today I have: attended a creative brainstorming meeting with Jay (Boss 1) and an outside creative consultant regarding Wikimedia's outreach efforts for 2011 - highly kickass; walked through both floors of office space with Jay and an eager assistant, the two of us listening to his grand vision for how best to utilize the wall space with photos and banners that really communicate Wikimedia's mission - the whole situation was fucking hilarious, but I'm pretty sure I'm the only one who thought so; attended a lunchtime discussion hosted by an Egyptian Wikimedia staffer who's actually been in Cairo for the past three weeks; ran and picked up sandwiches; and closely read over Wikimedia's five-year plan, which I'm now apparently supposed to transfer into an online format. Further directions pending.
This whole time I've been sitting here considering how lucky I am NOT ONLY for this to have happened to me (and of course it never would have happened without the hook-up of a lifetime from my friend Deniz, who deserves a shout-out even if almost none of you know her) but also that I landed this particular internship under the tutelage of these particular two people (who, let's hope, don't turn into total duds now that I'm writing this), because if I'd landed anywhere else in these offices I'd guaranteed not be having as awesome a time as I already am. The whole thing's just super lucky.
Now all they need to do is pay me, because I'm already dreading work at the Big A-hole tomorrow...
