Internship update

I started my internship for the Idaho Falls Post-Register almost two weeks ago now. So far, so good, though I'm not enjoying the commute to IF five days a week. After working from home (commute time: four seconds), making the 30+ minute drive one-way is taking some getting used to.

Not to mention the fact that there's tons of construction on Highway 20. After the snow and ice melted off the highway a few months ago, nasty cracks started showing up for long stretches. I'm guessing the process of ice melting and freezing over and over on the road made these cracks and then worsened them. That's what you get for not consistently plowing your streets, Idaho.

Anyway, it looks like they're completing ripping up all four lanes (two each way), and making a new road entirely. It's restricted to one lane for at least half of the 30-mile stretch between here and IF, both ways. Normally this isn't too big of a problem, but for some reason they aren't working on the overpasses, so every time they have to transition from road they're working on to overpass, the road elevates about eight inches in the form of a small ramp. And then once you're over the overpass, it ramps back down again. This happens about 10 times from IF to Rexburg.

If I take these ramps at anything over 40, bad things happen to my car's suspension.

Overall, not good times.

Commute aside, work is great so far. I've covered minor-minor league baseball, written stories about high school players of the year for tennis and golf, and even gone to a high school football All-star game.

The atmosphere is very laid back... I'm one of only four people who do sports for the paper, and my boss is a great guy. He treats me like a regular staff member, so I'm not fetching coffee or anything. I'm the only member on staff, too, which is somewhat interesting, but not an issue.

This week I'll be covering the Idaho High School Rodeo Finals in Pocatello. I'm doing a feature story on a couple kids who've done this since the day there were born. Pretty interesting.

A good experience thus far. Ten more weeks to go.