Kyle Rasmussen - BRIT/Andes to Amazon
Week 3

Fort Worth Museums, Irish Girls, Lobster Dinners and The Atrium Database

Another week in Texas has failed to disappoint me. It was a busy week with BRIT and Roz had as much energy and delight as anybody possibly could. I could not believe that I had already spent three weeks in Texas. The time was flying by in front of my eyes. My task at designing the Atrium website tour was just starting and I was getting worried about if I was going to finish it. I created a quick storyboard much as filmmaker would, so that I was heading the right direction. It was going to be a difficult task that would take a lot of thinking. It took much longer than I thought it would, just to plan out how the tour was going to function. I felt much more assured about this project because I was able to use one of my favorite programs, Flash. I am very familiar with Flash. Creating the tour with this program gave me the opportunity to explore more of the interesting details of the program. I am also proud to announce that I created the internship section of the Pinhead Institute website with Flash. That too has helped me understand Flash much better.

I also did much more, aside from working at BRIT this week. It has been raining in Ft. Worth like I have never seen before. There have been floods all around us.  Thankfully, none of them have affected me. I have had barely any chance to do any outdoor activities due to the downpour. Bea thankfully picked me up every day after work. It was pouring rain whenever she did pick me up. I also went to lunch with Roz, Bea, and a girl from Ireland that was also in town for an internship at Roz’s office. Her name was Cira. She was so friendly. I really enjoyed talking to her because for one, I loved to listen to her accent, and two, she said that I could come up to Ireland some day and she would give me a place to stay. I thought that that would be a great experience, so I offered for her and her brother to come up to Colorado as a favor back. Lunch was a very enjoyable with her. I had a really good chicken pesto pasta. It was sunny our for once, but I could tell that it was soon to turn cloudy again when I saw the clouds in the distance building up like an iron horse coming down it’s tracks. I went back to BRIT after we said our goodbyes. Cira mentioned that I would be seeing her again on Saturday so our goodbye was not a very serious one. She also said that I would be meeting her brother Paul.

After working at  BRIT that afternoon, Roz met me outside to be taken home to get ready to go to dinner with her son Billy, and his wife Rozanne. The dinner was one of the most unique dinners that I have ever had. It was my first time having lobster, which I loved. Also, I had another cultural experience. Rozanne insisted that I have a little bit of wine with my rib eye steak. She said that it was a Jewish thing and that it was legal for minors to drink wine if they were with “family”. The steak tasted like no other steak. I do not think that the wine could have made a difference, but then again I may be wrong. Billy also said that I should call Roz, “Grammy Roz” because that is what everybody knows her by. I decided that I would call her by this name from then on.

My time at BRIT went on for the rest of the week as did my time away from work. We had another get-together with Billy on Friday.  This one was at his house. Everybody at the dinner was family of the Rosenthal’s. It was a really quick dinner, but it was pleasant with the people that were there. I got the chance to watch a movie on Billy’s movie screen before the evening was over.

On Saturday, we planned to go to a concert with Cira and her brother, Paul. It felt good that it was the weekend. The only rough part about it being the weekend, was the realization that my time in Ft. Worth was speeding to the finish line much too quickly. The weekend was not wasted. Grammy Roz was excited to show me some of the museums in Ft. Worth. That is what she had planned for this weekend. She first took me to the Modern Art Museum. The current exhibition that was at the museum at the time was artwork by Ron Mueck. His sculptures, made from fiberglass and silica, are models of people. They are so life like that you actually catch people walking up to the sculptures to talk to them. Being at the Modern Art Museum took up most of the day. We would have stayed longer, but our stomachs disagreed with us and told us to go eat. Lunch was at a small restaurant that was considered a gospel restaurant. It was all fried food, but it tasted like a piece of heaven at the time.

As soon as lunch ended, we went back to Grammy Roz’s house before Cira and Paul showed up. Upon entering the house, I could see Paul was a blonde and had an Irish accent just like Cira. We chatted for a while of Roz’s couch. The phone rang and the person on the other end was calling to tell us that the concert was canceled due to all of the rain. This did not bother any of us because we had other tricks up our sleeves. We made our original plans to go out to dinner to eat out. But we also decided to go watch the movie Evan Almighty. The movie was entertaining. We yet again said more goodbyes after we went to get ice cream and made plans to meet again at Billy’s lake house for a sleep over on Monday night.

Sunday was the day that Grammy Roz and I went to the Kimbell Art Musem, and the Museum of Science and History. The Museum of Science and History had props that were used in Star Wars movies. It was interesting, but I found the Kimbell Art museum more fascinating.

Monday I continued my work at BRIT. My work with the Atrium tour was going slow. We were still in the panning process and I was beginning to get a little bit worried about if I were going to finish it in time before I left to go to Peru. In the afternoon I left with Cira and Paul to stay at Billy’s lake house. Billy is Grammy Roz’s son. It was a good afternoon. I stayed the night at the lake house and woke the next day early. Cira brought Paul and I to Billy’s meat packing company. This was the actual factory where they would cut the meat and send it to various restaurants such as Outback Steakhouse. Cira then brought me back to BRIT. I said my final goodbyes to them because I may not see them again.

Wednesday was the 4th. I told Grammy Roz that I needed to go to Barnes and Nobel to get a couple of books on Spanish that I would be using in Peru. We also decided to go to a movie, Pirates of the Caribbean, while we were in downtown. After the movie we had a hot dog dinner at Grammy Roz’s with one of her friends, Sara Bettie. We then watched fire works from Billy’s porch.

Thursday after work I went to a Rangers game with Todd, Roz’s granddaughter’s boyfriend. We had second row seats. We were so close that you could see the sweat drip off of their eyebrows. They were playing the LA Angels and lost terribly. Paul was with us at the game.

Friday had come quickly. I had a new job at BRIT. Like Dawson had to, I had to print labels for the new plant specimens that came in from Peru and put them with the correct plant. It was a monotonous job but it was a nice change in pace from staring at the computer. I also finally go the exact details on how BRIT wanted to Atrium tour. I was no longer confused like previously and I was not worried about finishing it before I left for Peru. My last weekend at Texas had arrived before I could count to three and everything was falling into place just as I liked it.