I'll go quite far to make an impression. Especially a good first impression.

I usually wear a jacket and sometimes don a tie. I've taken to toting a brand new, document filled briefcase which I proudly stand on my desk and I make the effort to "Good Morning [insert name]" Everyone I pass early in the day (I did take the care to memorize the names).

Despite the difficulty, I get up every morning at 6am (really 6:30 after several snooze pressings) and begin my regiment of preparation. Even though I've made the effort to get to sleep early and I've sacrificed "seriously fun" weeknight stuff, I still can't quite get the hang of the early rise.

Now 3 weeks in, today was a little different. The plan centered around me and a 3 hour (each way) road trip to view the site of my project and get a personal feel for it. The day started with physical pain; I woke at 4am to report for work at 6. My body screamed, but despite all resistance I did manage to coach myself into the shower where the initial burst of cold water in my overly hot rinse took care of any lingering grogginess.

As I walked under a dark sky, my breath making me look like a steam engine in the freezing air, I began to fear the entire day that lay ahead.
I'd soon be stuck in a very close quarters for quite some time with my boss, a person that with all that has been going on (specifically that front page news [emergency]) as of late, I just haven't had the chance to get to know that well.

6 came and went, soon followed by 6:15, and the arrival of a ridiculously large SUV at 6:16 am.
We were on the road soon after, Tim Horton's in hand and much to my surprise, merrily chatting about psychology.

It wasn't long before Common academic interests left the spotlight to be replaced by more personal conversation. During the course of the following commute I was surprised by how much we were sharing with each other. 2 more Tim Horton's stops followed (for my boss' sake, not mine, though I did indulge) yet topics relating to engineering only lightly crossed.

After a day spent in a place I literally feared for my life, being wary of rather persistent smells commonly associated with certain highly explosive gases while wearing wholly inadequate flame retardant gear comfort came in the form of two strings of advice:

"Don't worry, if anything happened now, you would never, ever know it."
Strangely, this only made me worry more. Not to mention, I just don't want to die right now, nor risk dying; whether or not I'll know I've died is not really of importance.

"If you take one thing away from this work term Colum, let it be the word Prenuptial."
I didn't laugh like the other guy did, I didn't think it was funny. I thought it completely tragic in fact. Marriage isn't something I'm going to plan a Contingency for just in case it fails. It's simply not going to fail; that is, if and when it happens.

All preconceptions about corporate driven life are not wrong.
Actually, most of them are entirely correct.

... and every day I'm moving a little closer to signing the notion that "this just isn't for me."
..but it's a learning experience, right?