Today I went to a Cleveland scavenger hunt. Run by a group called (i)Cleveland. An event for interns all over the city. They want us to stay in Cleveland after we graduate, and I don’t want to stay in Cleveland after I graduate. Fair enough.

They got us to run around downtown, getting pictures of stuff like “a piece of public art,” “an elected official,” “a segway,” and so on. Whatever, I got paid for it. And I got to meet other interns from around Cleveland, which was nice. The guys I came with, from Hyland, were the biggest nerds. So when we got thrown into random teams, I thought, great, new people. To divide us into teams, first they asked “who’s been skydiving?” Two people, out of maybe 100. “Okay, who’s been to another country?” Probably 90. So I finally got arbitrarily assigned to a team, and we made awkward introductions- my voice is so damn low. I can’t be heard, and my name is one ambiguous syllable- “Dan.” Jim? No, Dan. Hello, Emily, Bill, Amber, Matt. Err, good to meet you… some more words I can say to keep the conversation going.

It as at this point that I looked around and remarked, “They could have just given us all random numbers.” And Amber, tan, beautiful, wearing a low-cut shirt and lip gloss, (that’s what it’s called, right? just to make her lips shiny, not add color) Amber looks at my name tag and asks “What company are you from?” I said “Hyland Software,” but remember, my voice is very low, a gravelly, nasal bass. So she asked me again, and I raised my voice to the audible range. “HY-lend SOFT-ware.” “Oh. That’s what I guessed, something technology-related.”

I sputtered back, in the most cocky, self-assured swagger I could muster, “Heh heh. Was it that obvious?” but I was lost in the deluge of conversation and background noise. The gravelly, nasal bass flopped around in the bottom of the conversation boat.

Later, I asked her, where do you work? “National City Bank, in advertising.” Oh, that’s what I thought, something SHALLOW.

Well, she was really a nice enough kid, I talked to her for a bit- she was on my team, after all. She meant no offense. Still, it was a label. And I will never see these kids again. Isn’t it ironic how, defending myself from her labeling me, I labeled her?

Err… I have to go now. I meant this to be a normal blog entry, really. At any rate, that’s the most interesting thing that’s happened to me in the last day. Hey, scaveneger hunting > working.