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2010-07-18 15:56:00.000 – Kristin Raisanen,  Summit Intern

Marty in a Box

In the past, the observatory staff, particularly the summit staff, has been predominately male. However, this summer the staff on both shifts is either evenly spilt between males and females or is mostly women! I knew it was going to be a special summer when I saw the list with my fellow interns’ names on it and all four of us were girls. After getting my degree in meteorology and graduating with only about 6 other girls, in a class of about 25, I know how significant having a female majority on the summit is.

Now, I could sit here and talk about women’s rights and how we can do everything that men can do and all that, but I won’t. I don’t know how it is on the other shift, but since we have arrived and are now the majority on the shift, I have a feeling Steve, Mike and Marty would say that life on the summit has become much more musical and laughter filled. Steve is continually finding himself being tortured by Backstreet Boys and show tunes during the day. Normally, “annoying songs” (according to Steve) would be played quietly, and there would be absolutely no singing. However, last week Mike was on vacation and Steve was on nights. With no Steve in the office for most of the days, we (Stacey, Sabrina and me) were free to listen to all the boy band music and show tunes we wanted to and sing along while working. We do try to sneak in a bit of singing by bursting into song every now and then, but the outbursts are quickly followed by angry scowls from Steve.

The guys are allowed to pick the movie most nights because if we pick something slightly “girly”, aka without any violence or with any sort of love story, we will quickly loose our male colleagues from the night’s entertainment. Tonight will be an exception though. We decided earlier today that we will be watching the world premiere of “Revenge of the Bridesmaids” on ABC family with or without the guys. I love movies, and in particular I love “chick flicks”, so I am beyond excited about watching this movie. I am sad that we will most likely not be seeing the guys after dinner tonight, but I know they would be sad if they didn’t have us, our singing and our nightly, uncontrollable fits of laughter around the dinner table.

Kristin Raisanen,  Summit Intern