Well, it's the last day of July, and unless I brake an ankle going down the stairs for lunch in 8 minutes, it looks like I'll cross the 100 mile line this evening.

I had my evaluation yesterday with my two supervisors. It went well, and was about what I expected. HR provided the form, and it just gave a bunch of different categories in which I was given a rating from 1-6. Then, at the end, I got rated overall on a scale from 1-10.

Now that my evaluation is over, I can pretty much do whatever I want without the risk of failing my internship. Not that I would do that; although, I'll admit, it's hard to find motivation during these last days. There's not enough time to start anything ambitious, but there are still a few little things that I can devote my time to. For one, I grabbed a book from amongs my editors numerous stacks, and I've been quickly reading through it in just a few days. I'll try to finish an article related to the book this afternoon and tomorrow. That will be my last writing project. It's a book about a girl who was pretty much enslaved to her stepfather for almost 20 years. BreakPoint will be anxious to publish something about it cause they're big on human-rights and raising awareness that slavery is still rampant in many forms.

Post-run tonight I'll be loading boxes and getting everything packed into the car. I check out of the dorms tomorrow night at 6, then head to Erin's house for our last intern get together. I'll sleep in the dorms that night, then get up and leave nice and early Saturday morning. I'm actually looking forward to the drive home. Rather than the nerves and anticipation that accompied me on the way here, I'll be taking home a sense of accomplishment and broadened horizons.

Though everyone knows I'm anxious to get back, being here hasn't caused me to think that I never want to do anything like this again. I've learned a lot about how organizations work, what it's like to be in an office all day, settling into work habits, and what kind of work I find fulfilling.

I'll bring my camera tomorrow and take shots of anything that hasn't been documented - my office, the building, the people I work with (we'll all be going out for lunch). I'll also take pictures tomorrow night at our final get together.

I need a pithy final statement to wrap up this entry - this entry which may be my last while I'm here...

But I probably won't find a satisfactory statement that ties up all the loose ends and lends a sense of closure - because normally that's not how things work. Instead, seasons come and go between blinks, and I'm left feeling like I should have milked it for more of what it was worth. Then, like someone binging on brownies the day before they promise they'll start dieting, I tell myself that this was the last time, the last time that I'll let time slip through my fingers.

Whether or not that is what has happened this summer, I don't know. I'll guess I'll find out if, in the future, when I think back to what it was like being here, I can't remember names or faces or what I did to pass the time.

Either way, I guess I'm coming home.

So there's a lady who works in a cubicle within earshot of mine, and for the last hour she's made 30-40 phone calls to her boss's business contacts to inform them that he'll be out of the office for awhile because he just had a heart attack.

"Hi, Susan, it's Kelly from Prison Fellowship. Ken Whitman asked me to call and inform you that he'll be out of the office for awhile. He had a heart attack earlier this week, and will be undergoing triple bipass surgery in the next few days... Yes, please keep him in your prayers... Thanks you."

"Hi, Dean, it's Kelly from Prison Fellowship. Ken Whitman asked me to call..."

"...Heart attack earlier this week..."

"Triple bipass surgery..."

"In the hospital..."

"...heart attack..."

"No, it happened when he was getting in his car at home to go to meeting..."

"Yes, please pray..."

"Hi, Mark, It's Kelly...Triple bipass surgery... heart attack..."

*****

She's still going. This has to be the fiftieth time.

Gosh, I'm so uplifted.

Worldview week is over, and thank God. I think my brain would explode if I had to sit through another hour of lecturing. The lineup of speakers was pretty phenomenal, don't get me wrong, but there's only so much one can take before resorting to biting the inside of your mouth till it bleeds just to stay awake. But on Friday and Saturday the conference center we were at had free, unlimited, all-the-time Starbuck's. I took advantage of that.

Wow, as the summer goes on, I'm realizing that my entries are becoming more and more centered on the theme of pure survival. So it goes.

Here is something out of the ordinary. I did a little diversity project over the weekend. I noticed that other interns kept mentioning that they spoke other languages, so I did some documenting:

This is Karen. She works in Restorative Justice. She's from a Virginia, a vegetarian, and a marathon runner (she's the one that pushed me to do 7 miles in that heat about a month ago). She was homeschooled, where she learned the language of the Spaniards (and that's Billy wandering around in the background in the blue shirt).

Here's Julia, who works in the Public Policy Department. Her dad works in the State Department, so she's from a multitude of places, but grew up mostly in the Balkans, where she learned Macedonian.

Then there is Emily, whose father also works in the State Department. She's been all over as well, but claims Brazil as her home country. They speak Porteguese there, for whatever reason, so here's some of that.

Now we take a jog across the globe to France, where we find that Julia is once again able to represent the native tongue (Casey, maybe you can translate so I know she wasn't slandering me).

Lastly is Maisie, who showed up a few weeks ago and joined the intern posse. But nobody knows where she came from. And I'm pretty certain she's not answering my question in this clip, which demonstrates the Mandarin language...

These clips serve as an example of why you should never try to build a tower reaching to heaven. Have a good Monday and BE WARNED.