On This Perfect Day, Nothing's Standing in my Way

Imagine it: three days of perfect bliss.  Nope, they weren't in Peoria.

Friday
For those of you who don't know me well may not know that I am a privileged Delta "brat," a term some have dubbed those of us who are the children of Delta employees who are lucky enough to receive flight benefits and fly standby (quite an adventure in and of itself) for free.  During my last internship with Caterpillar I was quite surprised to find out that Peoria is an international airport, and I got ahead of myself thinking that any airport that is an international airport would surely have a nonstop flight from the world's busiest airport, Atlanta Hartsfield Jackson.  Little did I know, the only reason Peoria is an international airport is because my beloved Caterpillar Inc. is able to ship cargo internationally as well as host customers from international origins.  However, it was just my luck that earlier this year in April, Delta came to their senses and recognized the great demand for people, such as myself, to fly directly to Peoria, and they re-opened the route.

While this "direct flight" detail may seem superfluous to some, it is definitely a factor in where I live in the future.  If a city doesn't have a flight that goes directly to Atlanta, then it is one of two things:

1. Too disconnected
2. Too far away from my friends and family

So,  needless to say, I was extremely happy to find out Peoria re-opened the route, and on Friday, I had the opportunity to experience the delightful 1.5 hour flight in the cramped confines of seat 1A.  Per usual, I was knocked out and dead asleep before the flight took off...a common theme of my flying experiences.

As soon as I landed, I headed to MARTA where I proceeded to wait approximately 30 minutes for one train to show up (train transportation is one of my biggest problems I have with Atlanta), and by the time I reached the Midtown station, the band that my friends and I were going to see had already been playing for about 30 minutes.

Just sittin' around here watchin' airplanes...take off and fly.

Airtran flight about to land at Hartsfield-Jackson

While in comparison to all of the college stories my friends and I share, this evening was pretty uneventful, it was one of the best nights we have ever had!  As soon as we ruled out the band, we immediately relaxed, ordered-in, and simply caught up with one another.  Now, who are these friends you may ask?  Well, they are three, incredible women who I have been lucky enough to call best friends throughout my career at Georgia Tech: Summer, Vivian, and Natalie.

 From Left to Right:

Vivian, Natalie, Summer, and myself.

Hopping around the bars throughout Buckhead, we quickly realized we should have gotten to the bars sooner than midnight as Atlanta has not caught on to the trend of keeping bars open past 2 AM; however, we managed to have a fantastic time despite Summer's failed efforts to make friends with the policeman blocking our entry at Johnny's Hideaway at 2:45.

"Sir, if you were taking your wife out right now, where would you take her?" - Summer

Saturday
Well, spending time with my best friends was not the reason I made the trip to Atlanta this time.  On Saturday, I joined my family in celebrating my little sister's high school graduation which marked the end of an amazing, 14-year long chapter of Carlsons attending Marist School.  Fortunately, the end of her time at Marist also marks the beginning of her time contributing to the Carlson legacy at Georgia Tech!  Jennifer was able to end her time at Marist with a 4.0 GPA during her last term (which I told her to cherish because it may be her last...) and aced her three AP exams, so I would venture to say she is definitely ready to take on GT.

Lil' J making it happen

From Left to Right:

Nikki, myself, Dad, Derek, Jennifer, Mom

Ramblin' Wrecks from Georgia Tech

Sunday

Waking up bright and early on a Sunday is only worth it when...you get to see your best friend from high school who you haven't seen in WAY too long!!!  Jen and I go back to seventh grade volleyball tryouts at Marist.  From the beginning, she has always been my voice of reason and logic, a role model, a pusher, and my bestie.  So, I cannot attempt to convey to y'all how excited I am not only to have her back in Atlanta this Fall but also with me in the gym coaching Pace Academy's seventh grade volleyball team!  Similar to our 6 AM workouts before school throughout high school, we made our way out to Kennesaw Mountain (really a mole hill for anyone who is serious into hiking, but for being about 25 minutes from downtown Atlanta, it rightfully earns the title of "mountain").  Two hours, countless stories, and an ab workout from great laughs later, we were back in the car jamming out to some Carly Rae Jepsen with the windows down and livin' the dream.  

Clearly ignoring the "Please Keep Off Cannon" sign...

Familial graduation celebrations ensued later in the evening at an adorable, French restaurant in Buckhead called Anis.  It puts a smile on my face just thinking about writing about the evening from the notes we all wrote to Jennifer on her picture frame to the poem-writing contest to the near-attack of our waitress at the slightest hope there were still the infamous crepes available, the night was absolutely perfect!

 Derek

Derek's poem...












Nikki












Nikki's poem to me (graves referring to the opportunity I have to attend the National Gravediggers training with Caterpillar equipment..."Oh the places you'll go")

Jennifer and Brooks: the two GT bound graduates

 The Family: we aren't all that strange...

Monday, Memorial Day

Well, one mountain simply isn't enough...so we woke up early this morning and went after Stone Mountain this time!  Joined by two other great friends from high school, Lindsey and Lindsay, Jen and I were at it again.  Today was a beautiful day for Stone Mountain because it was overcast and not too hot (providing the melanin-lacking best friend a "sneaky sunburn"), and when we reached the top, there were two hawks simply soaring with the winds.  Getting to catch up with these girls makes me realize just how much I have missed them.  They played integral parts in my fondest Marist memories, and I hope that as we go forward that we are able to recreate adventures such as our ski/snowboard senior spring break with our vacation days (from what jobs...we aren't quite sure yet), our Emmaus retreats, and who could forget the countless hours spent in the volleyball gym?

 From Left to Right:

Jen, Lindsay, Lindsey, and myself

If you look close you should be able to see one of the hawks...

View from the top of Stone Mountain

A home-cooked dinner was just the cherry on top, and being able to share it with Summer and Natalie was such a treat!  

To finish my perfect weekend, I arrived at the airport about an hour and twenty minutes early.  Mind you, this is about 40 minutes more than the time I allotted before I departed for Beijing, so clearly I was worried about the Memorial Day security traffic...but, as always, Hartsfield-Jackson was on top of its game and got me through in no time.  I was able to walk off my mom's delicious dinner as I walked to Concourse C.  I got on the flight from Atlanta to Peoria in a seat which lies in the "hillbilly first class" as Derek likes to call it or the "Exit Row" as the FAA prefers to call it.  On the flight were the other two GT-Caterpillar interns who had both returned home for their siblings' high school graduations.  In keeping with tradition, I was asleep as soon as I heard the pilot announce "there is a waxy substance on the Left wing and we will have to wait for maintenance to remove it before we depart," and I awoke when the wheels were released under the wing to prepare for landing.  As we descended, I was able to look out and watch, in my opinion, one of the most beautiful things ever: a lightning storm from the sky.  

I grabbed my bags and headed to my car where I found that I had left my car unlocked the entire weekend (you can't do that in Atlanta and expect to find your security badge and running iPod still on your dash...).

It was truly the perfect weekend, and I can't wait for it to carry me through this week! 

For Every Day I Workin' on the Illinois River

Before I left Atlanta, people would respond to the name "Peoria" in one of two ways:

1. "Wait, where did you say?"
2. "WHY?!?"

So, for those of you who don't know anything about Peoria, it is a small city of about 115,000 people located on the Illinois River in central Illinois.  About two and a half hours SW of Chicago and two hours NE of St. Louis, Peoria is a city that is comprised mostly of Caterpillar buildings that are named all different letters like alphabet soup.  The locals are just that: locals.  They have rarely ever ventured too far away, and if they have, it was probably to do Caterpillar's bidding.

For those of you who question my decision to come here and continue to ask me why, I ask you to check out some of the pictures I captured on my morning runs.

In Atlanta, I love inhaling smog (which I thought was bad until I took a meander around Beijing) during my runs throughout the city while dodging sketchy looking people that the news has warned me to keep an eye out for all while turning my iPod up to extra loud to drown out the sirens.  In Peoria, I just lace up my neon running shoes, take in my surroundings, and before I know it, six miles have come and gone.  On my new route this morning, I was surprised to find this view at the top of one of the rare hills you can find in Peoria:

Yep...that's downtown Peoria for you!  I've always been a firm believer in the iPhone camera capabilities, but it just couldn't quite capture everything this time. 

Now, back to me.  Why is this place potentially for me?  Well, after letting the beauty of this scene really sink in all I can think about is taking on that river.  I'm thinking that a kayak may play into one of my next few blogs.  If not a kayak then maybe a canoe.  If not a canoe, maybe I will pretend that the Illinois River is the English Channel and just swim across. 

Club 4-3-2

It's the fourth post, and I am sure you are already tired of hearing about me, so I am going to introduce to you some of the key players in my summer story: the roommates.  For my Georgia Tech friends, equate where I am living to North Avenue apartments (with about 1/4 as many levels, no flooding problems, and a no-alcohol policy - yes, you heard correctly).  So, I have three roommates and all of them are from Purdue.  We met via the Caterpillar Intern google group, and despite none of us knowing one another we decided to room together: BEST. DECISION. EVER.

Lauren
Well, when I rolled up to ICC on Friday and had a less-than-welcoming greeting from the Woodview staff, there were two other girls there, and wouldn't you know: one of them was my roommate, Lauren.  She is a fourth-year from Purdue who will be working in HR for Caterpillar this summer.   I knew she and I would be great friends because she didn't judge when she saw my overstuffed car and actually offered the help of her boyfriend of three years, Matt, to finish my unpacking!  Little did I know that she was AWESOME until we were unloading our groceries and she said "feel free to move my 30 case of PBR or the vodka."  Yes, the alcohol had made it into the refrigerator before the groceries, and it was a unanimous decision that our priorities were in line.

Liz
The lone engineer in our roommateship,  Liz is a junior in the Mechanical Engineering department at Purdue.  No worries, she is normal!  As extraordinary as that sounds, she is one of the only normal, female engineers in this internship that I have met, and Club 4-3-2 has the honor to call her a roommie.  When did I know that she was AWESOME too?  When she was telling us all about the "Fat Ass 5K" of Springfield, IL.   I am definitely thinking this is an idea that could be brought back to Atlanta successfully.  Apparently, it's a 5K that benefits charities, and throughout the race the runners get to stop at food stations ranging from ice cream to corn dogs, and at the end of the race it is just a huge street part for the whole day.  Your involvement in the festivities and the intensity of which you run the race changes on whether you sign up to be an "Ultimate Fatass," "Frugal Fatass," "Junior Fatass," of a "Fatass Friend."  Long story short, she is an awesome story teller, and as soon as they announce next year's Fat Ass 5K date, it is going on all of our calendars and we are going to run it together.

Jessie
My lone super-senior friend, Jessie is a fifth-year Accounting major at Purdue and just completed an internship with E&Y (my previous dream company - previous to me deciding I hate accounting and finance).  She is a little quieter than my other rooomies, but she definitely brings her own personality to the table and adds a great dimension to Club 4-3-2.  When did I know she was AWESOME?  After she informed us that she never really watches TV, we convinced her to come out and just hang out with us in our living room where we proceeded to watch the preteen-focused, ridiculous show "The Secret Life of An American Teenager" only to be followed by an absolutely awful episode of "The Bachelorette" - but she never once judged us.

At this point, we have had our roommate dinner at Avanti's, hosted several interns to our place for brief meet and greets, run around the ICC campus together, and tonight we determine if we all want to join the same gym after we do spin class and Zumba together.  Club 4-3-2 is definitely where life is happening in P-town, so if you get a chance, feel free to stop by and say hi!

Party Party All Night Night Night...Sleep All Day Then Do It Again!

You may ask yourself, what do people do on the weekends in Peoria?  The answer is: GET MARRIED!  It seems to me that people here in the midwest get married at a ridiculously young age, but since weddings are fun, I won't complain just yet.

Before getting ready for the wedding, I went to the Riverplex for an awesome spin class (the bikes aren't as fancy as Jennifer's LA Fitness, but they are much better than Wichita's YMCA).  I tried to join the Riverplex only to remember that there was still a block on my account...life without access to your money is absolutely no fun.

As Josh's plus one, I thoroughly enjoyed my first Peoria wedding at St. Bernard's Historic Catholic church in Peoria, IL.   What I was really curious about was: where do people have wedding receptions here?  Ding ding ding...if you guessed the "Pair-A-Dice Casino" then you were right!!!  With ten kegs, countless bottles of wine, a spacious dance floor, and some fantastic tunes, the wedding was fun for all especially for Josh and myself! 

For the first time all week, I slept all night.  Until 1:15 PM.  It. Was. Awesome.  After calling my supervisor and setting up a meeting for late in the afternoon, I made plans to meet up with Anne (intern from Fall 2010) to go see "What to Expect When You're Expecting."  Aside from the Atlanta landmarks, a guy wearing a Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets shirt, some freakin' adorable little babies (and obviously, Chace Crawford), the movie was way too hectic for my taste.

After the movie, I skidaddled over to Barnes & Noble to meet my supervisor and get my onboarding information before he leaves for the week.  My supervisor is: AWESOME.  He has great communication skills, a clear vision of what he wants me to achieve this summer, and he has high expectations for the group I am working in.  I am extremely excited to start my first day on Tuesday in the Defense & Federal Products and meet my group!

Before I call it a weekend, I got to meet my roomies!!! As I write this, I know that these girls are definitely going to take this summer to a whole different level, so I am going to save introductions until the next post so I can do them all justice.

Gone By Morning Light

I pulled out of the drive in Atlanta, GA at 6:30 AM EST and arrived in Peoria on Friday, May 18 at 4:45 PM CST just in time to check-in to Woodview Commons on Illinois Central College's campus.  Despite the many pictures you will see throughout my blog, I made sure there was no proof of how over packed my Volvo S60 was on the drive (needless to say there was no rear-view mirror whatsoever).  My justification?  If I want to make Peoria feel like home, then I need to bring all the aspects of home with me!  I definitely thought that the tent, the beerpong pool float, and the 300 pairs of shoes were all necessary when I was packing, but as I trekked my way up the three floors to our apartment, I began doubting that logic.  About 60 trips later (with the help of my roommate's boyfriend), I officially was moved out of my car - and ready to pass out for at least 48 hours.  Strategically, I chose to not unpack my bedding until the last box.  Oh, but then I remembered I had to go get some necessary things like food...no bed yet.  At that point, I was severely regretting the invitation I had extended to other interns in town to come over for a meet and greet later in the evening.

Well, after a large ordeal at WalMart where I found out my bank account had been frozen from suspicious activity tracking from Beijing, China to Atlanta, GA to Dalton, GA to Neoga, IL to East Peoria, IL, I finally made it back to my apartment with a bottle (or three) of much-deserved wine only to find interns knocking at our door to meet us.  Needless to say, it was an interesting night...if it was any indication of what the summer will be like, then it is guaranteed to be an even more interesting summer.

Feast your eyes on these pictures of my home away from home, and just use your imagination of my Volvo S60 transporting all of this and more...

I'm Just a Summer Girl

So, what happens when you take a sweet, Southern Bell and send her to a small, Midwest town that is home to the headquarters of one of the largest manufacturers of construction and mining equipment?  Well, I may not fit the sweet, Southern Bell stereotype in the least, but I am an Atlantan - born and raised - and living in Peoria, IL for the summer, so you have a chance to find out if you keep up with my blog!

For those of you who know me, you know that this is not my first rodeo here in the fine establishment of Peoria. During Fall 2010, I had the opportunity to work in East Peoria and find out what the corporate world was all about as a technical marketing intern for Caterpillar, Inc.. However, this internship will be different...in a good way! I'm excited to figure out if Caterpillar is the company for me and if I could see any extended part of my life here in Peoria! So, how am I going to do this? I have set up some goals that I am going to share with you (so, help keep me honest and check in on me!):  

Professional

• Further understand the Caterpillar company culture by consistently meeting with my mentor and buddy
• Determine if my job truly challenges me while utilizing my strengths by quantifying the value of the work I do and communicating with my supervisor
• Attend all intern events - both technical marketing and corporate
• Expand professional network through interaction with Young Professionals   

Health

• Join the Riverplex (an awesome gym that has a gorgeous view of the Illinois River) and attend Cycling classes ALL THE TIME (I am addicted to spin class...) oh and maybe a little Zumba on the side because just like Shakira, my hips don't lie. 
• Comprehensively train for my third half marathon (to be determined which one once Lea and I figure out our schedules!)
• Get together an intern team for a sand volleyball team  

Spiritual

• Find a Catholic Church that I enjoy the community and feel
• Read and journal to "A Purpose Driven Life" 
• Begin studying the Bible again  

Intellectual

• Study Portuguese (thank goodness for Rosetta Stone!)
• Read "The Science of Success" 

If you can't tell - I have been thinking about this extensively.  I want to get the most out of this internship, and as my favorite quote reads "If you fail to plan, then you plan to fail." So, stick with me and see how I do - I've always been up for a good challenge and making life an adventure every day!