At exactly 6:30, my alarm clock brought me to my feet and I got out of bed. My stomach was doing summersaults, so I went to the refrigerator and had myself a few glasses of Orange Juice (which I had purchased the day before) and rushed about trying to get dressed. I put in my contacts, tied my first ever tie, grabbed my camera (I would be needing that!) and headed out the door to meet Nathan. He arrived shortly after 7:15 and the two of us set off on a historical day... at least for me!

We arrived at Focus on the Family at 7:45 , fifteen minutes early. After going through security, we made our way to the Human Resources department where we discovered my contact person had not yet arrived, so we decided to head down to Audio Resources where the Odyssey team worked. To be honest, the offices were set up entirely different then I expected. The Odyssey Team works in the Audio Resources department of Focus on the Family, and within their section there is plenty of other programs that are being written and produced in various other cubicles. It was clear Odyssey wasn't as secluded as I originally thought. The team is just one of several others operating under the same roof, with nothing but a thin cubicle wall separating them from each other. Inside each of the Odyssey writer's cubicles, AIO albums line the shelves with Odyssey Merchandise such as calendars and toys hanging about. Letters from fans, drawings from their children, and family photos also round out what is otherwise a typical cubicle. On this morning, the only one in the office was Chris McDonald: the public relations woman for Odyssey. The three of us chatted for a bit and then Nathan showed me to his cubicle where I would be working for the duration of the intership (he would be working in a different cubicle where he was going to be gathering clips for "Inside the Studio"). Nathan informed me that they were hopefully setting up an internet account for me later in the day, as well as my own email address!! Neither of which ever happend. Then shortly after 8:00, the people in the rest of Audio Resources department gathered in front of the Odyssey team's cubicles to hold Devotions.

Devotions, which are new to me, are basically a group of people gathering together to discuss their lives and ask for prayers. Lissa Halls Johnson was the leader for that day and she read a story from a book. John Fornof (or known by his pen name: John Beebee), arrived in the middle of Devotions and was asked to close the morning out. Afterward, Nathan brought me to John where we introduced ourselves and a few minutes later I visited my contact person in the Human Resources room where I got set up with my identification badge. The badge had my photo on it and would allow me access to almost any building I needed to gain entry to... except the basement.

I then returned to the Odyssey cubicles and got to work on my major project down in Colorado Springs. For the next several weeks, I would be wading through audition after audition, demo after demo, and not only recording the tapes into the computers but linking them into a database so the Odyssey staff could easily cast upcoming shows. Chris has already done quite a bit of work on the actual database, so I spent the entire morning adjusting levels and finding a perfect format for good quality yet compact size. We were then about to head to the cafeteria (or chapelteria as they call it!) for lunch, but took a detour so I could meet up with Dave Arnold and Paul McCusker respectively. It was such a unique experience finally meeting men whos name's have been engrained into my earliest memories of growing up. And actually speaking with the evil Philip Glossman and shake his hand? It's mind blowing. The introductions were short, as they were both fairly busy, and we left to go have our lunch.

As a volunteer, I was given a free lunch as long as it is under $4.00 and so my first meal was a French Dip Sandwich. I was surprised at how good it, and the fries that came with it, tasted. I guess not all cafeteria needs to be bad afterall! We then returned to the offices where I begun the most pressing of jobs I had... to create 150 Odyssey trivia questions to be used at the upcoming Fall Festival which would be held on the weekend.

I sat down and wrote a complete round of trivia which Nathan decided was too difficult for your average Odyssey listener. Taking his advice, I revised my questions and toned them all down. I was then approached at 4:00 by Chris McDonald who needed me to go over the latest "Luke Reports" and make sure the names of the characters in each scene were correctly listed according to the script. So it would be my job to go through every single page, look for mistakes (if any) and write them down. When she handed it to me, she jokingly said "I want it on my desk by 5:00". I didn't catch that she was kidding and told her "I can do that", and she laughed and said that she didn't think I could possibly get it done in an hour. So I got started right away, and sure enough... I didn't get it finished at 5:00. But rather, 5:05... unfortunately, Chris had gone home ten minutes earlier and I wasn't able to impress her with my timeliness! Hehe.

Nathan and I left work and I got home at about 5:45. Since I had nothing to do for the rest of the night, I decided to pass the time sleeping... which I did. My first day had been a success... and I was really looking forward to the rest of my stay.