Shelf Shuffle

Do you remember that feeling as a kid when you were forced to visit the dentist for the first time and in your mind you way over-blew the event? Friends and family (even though they were joking) petrified you by telling outlandish stories of their first visit being a time where dentists tortured people with drills and sharp pointy objects? I guess some things never change--since there are people that still hate going to the dentist.

When I first started interning at the station, the same over-blown thought processes occurred in my mind, except this time it was the stereotype that all interns were errand-running servants. I will admit that most of my perception came from the movie “The Devil Wears Prada” (I won’t go in to the details of why I watched the movie, since it is a chick-flick). For those of you that haven’t seen it, Anne Hathaway runs around as the assistant to an over-demanding boss (Meryl Streep), who everyone fears because she is so malicious. Up until Tuesday, my internship fears never had any merit, since I never had to do monotonous tasks. What made Tuesday an interesting day was that I was asked to bring up from the basement an all-metal shelf unit. I was more than willing to grab it, and even assemble it, until I realized that the box had to weigh nearly 200 pounds. With no elevator, and only a dolly for support, I was anxious about getting the IKEA-style shelf up the intimidating flight of front stairs. I did manage to get my load up the 20, or so, steps with a little elbow grease and was able to start putting the shelving-system together.

Like a dad trying to put his child’s bike together on Christmas without the adequate tools, I didn’t have a hammer (suggested in the manual as essential equipment) to help me complete the job. If you have ever put one of these units together, you know that it can be tedious to get the support panels locked into place so the whole thing doesn’t collapse. Using my body weight, I’m sure I looked foolish hanging off the ground while holding on to the side panel to get it to lock into place. When it was all put together (and I had done my pull up workout) I was glad that I had followed the directions (the second mistake that fathers perform). When all was said and done, though, I was pretty astounded that I had built the shelf without any prior experience -- even though there were two extra pieces, go figure.

Ecstatic of my accomplishment, I was a little irate when several staff members walked by and told me how easy it was to put shelves together. At least now I can say that I am a real intern and have done the grunt work.