Monday:
In keeping with my running training, I woke up at 5:00 AM and hit the ground running on my 5-mile loop. Another gorgeous morning in Peoria, so no complaints there in starting my work week!
At work, the office is pretty empty in my area because of a multitude of dealer visits, customer visits, and training sessions that my co-workers are getting after. After briefing my supervisor on my meeting from Friday afternoon, I started collecting materials for our marketing campaign this morning. I hope I am not beating a dead horse when I mention how frustrating this computer is...I even had time to snap some pictures of my screen when trying to minimize my Lotus Notes (e-mail) window to open my internet browser:
After work, we had our first, official all-intern event: a Peoria Chief's Baseball Game!!! It was kind of like the Braves - if you take a big swig of the $5.75 beer, close your eyes, and plug your ears. My roommate, Lauren, was in charge of organizing this event for our intern class with the help of the overall intern coordinator, so despite baseball being on the bottom of my favorite sports list (along with basketball, so I don't really care about that championship series that seems to have dominated conversations over the past two weeks...), I joined Jessie and Liz to head downtown for the game! Since we all decided to work out before heading to the game, and then had quite a few outfit changes due to the unknown of what we were facing of a small-town, Minor League Baseball game, Club 4-3-2 rolled up fashionably late to find our fourth roommie waiting patiently to give us our tickets.
Lauren and Tim hard at work
Checking off the intern names
while passing out tickets. Tim was an integral part of the process with
his scissors...
Taking a detour around the stadium, we finally navigated our way to the CAT intern tailgate after passing the palm trees (slightly out of their natural habitat if you ask me), two girls preparing to dance in corn costumes (they wouldn't let CJ and I relieve them of their home run duties due to liability issues), and the awesome jump tents that sat completely untouched (the stadium couldn't have had more than 1,000 people there which includes about 175 CAT interns...). Caterpillar had a wonderful cook out set up for us (wonderful wouldn't really describe my tastebuds' reaction to the veggie burger I tried...) in the Pepsi Tailgate area (sorry, Lea - you and your Coca-cola marketing team aren't currently winning the market share in this city).
Palm Trees in the Peoria Chiefs'
Stadium
Apparently, new palm trees are
imported each year - a sustainable and justified purchase because of their
necessity to the sport of baseball...
Club 4-3-2 at the Peoria
Chiefs' Baseball game
From Left to Right: Jessie, Me,
Lauren, Liz
Peoria Chiefs in action
Due to my ADD or my lack of
interest, I missed the one play which made ESPN's top 10 sports moments of the
week...
Martini's
Martini's Mondays
From Left to Right: Andrew,
Jessie, Me, Lauren
After a few great laughs at the expense of everyone at our table ranging from me, soberly, completely missing my mouth and pouring the martini straight into my lap to Andrew's indulgence in watermelon cocktails while linking arms with Tim, we called it a night and headed back to the hoodview.
Tuesday:
At work, I was back at collecting and analyzing resources we have for our marketing campaign. My day was interspersed with working on developing dealer maps, but everything came to a halt when my computer decided it was tired of working and just kinda died a slow and painful death. No worries, after it finished its not-so-snappy-nappy, it booted back up to my delight. In the meantime, my boss helped me book my flight to Louisville, KY for the FedFleet trade show I will be attending in a few weeks with a couple of co-workers - I am SO excited! I have never been to a trade show, let alone a military-focused one, and I am extremely excited about the opportunity to learn about Caterpillar's presence at trade shows and everything that goes into it.
Since Andrea is out of the office traveling this week, another female was needed on the Defense & Federal Products' sand volleyball team, the Sand Fleas. So, I stepped up to the plate and joined the team again for another victory!!! I love playing with this team because of the incredible displays of athleticism my supervisor demonstrates, the crazy amount of competitiveness that approximately 75% of the team has while the other 25% sits back, smiles, and eagerly awaits for the inevitable trip to Crusens, the bar across the street, for $1 bottle beers after the game. So, after the game, we headed on over to Crusens to kick back, relax and celebrate. After an hour or so, I headed back to the sand volleyball courts to meet up with my intern sand volleyball team. Among the hooligans who had taken over the courts was a guy in spandex, so I wasn't too upset when we made the executive decision to return to Woodview. When I got backed, I immediately started baking - I had signed up to bring in two dozen brownies for the Support the Troops Bake Sale in our building on Wednesday. With one batch done (pretty darn well if you can judge by the number Tim ate), I had already whipped up the second batch's batter when I decided to meet up with Silas and Alex. So, I left the second batch in the oven with Tim and Jessie in charge of taking them out. Well, about 30 minutes later when called to check that the brownies had been taken out 15 minutes earlier, all I could hear was Tim say "oh no...I set my alarm for three hours earlier," so the second batch was a little crispy, but on Wednesday, there were no brownies left to be had! I guess the people in my office are extremely patriotic if they were munching on the brownie crisps...
It was awesome to kick back with Silas, Alex and their roommate, Greg. Silas started full time in the Technical Marketing training class last year while Alex and Greg just finished their first two weeks of the program. All of them have great things to say about the program...ughhhh decisions decisions.
Wednesday:
Another long run day! Over the past two weeks, I have been analyzing my running statstics, and I am absolutely ecstatic to say that there has been steady, significant improvements in my running times, and today I ran my 5-mile loop at an 8:34 mile pace (shaved off approximately :30 seconds/mile since the beginning of summer).
At work, I finished pulling resources for our campaign and got to sit down and actually start studying some of the materials I need to analyze. At lunch, Josh was visiting the Tech Center to meet part of his group, so I stopped by the cafeteria to say hi to him and met some of his group which was pretty cool! Jessie and I are going out on the boat with him and his friends this afternoon, so I couldn't spend too much time there because I was peacing out of work early.
After work, I put the pedal to the medal and headed first to the gas station to grab some Busch Light for the guys for letting us go on their boat and some Mike's Hard for Jessie and I. We got to the marina around 4:30 and hit the water immediately. This was my first time on the Illinois River (also known as the Peoria Lake in the widest part right on the riverfront), and despite everyone saying how dirty the water is (and seeing a dead Asian carp float on by), I thought it was wonderful!!! Cruising up and down the river with great music blasting, water skis, wakeboards, and kneeboards in action, and the sun shining, I was in heaven.
East Port Marina
Kickin' it CAT style
Me waterskiing on the Illinois
River
Captain Andy tossing a line
to Jessie
First time trying to water ski!!!
Jessie water skiing
On her first time water skiing,
she was SO close to getting up. Her goal for the summer: become a
proficient water skier while mine is to become proficient in wakeboarding.
Downtown Peoria at sunset
from the Illinois River
After sunset, we headed back to the marina where they pulled the boat out of
the water, and we all headed to the East Peoria Marina Cantina which Jessie and
I hoped was a true, authentic Mexican restaurant as we still have yet to find
to cross off our P-town bucket list. The only authentic part about it was
the cheap, $1 margaritas which were quite potent. After hanging out with
the crew for a while, we called Water Wednesday a night and Josh dropped Jessie
and my slightly intoxicated self back at Woodview where we decided the night
was still young and 11PM is a great time to start a tennis match.Thursday:
All I can tell you is that I woke up with sore shoulders in my tennis skirt and sweatband at 7 AM when Liz graciously knocked on my door to check on me...thank goodness because I apparently had forgotten to set my alarm. After scrubbing the remnants of the Illinois River off in the shower, I set out for work which was full of meetings for the day to help develop stronger customer profiles.
I had one three-hour meeting before lunch to work on the customer profiles for some of the Army branches. I never realized how complex and intricate the hierarchy and branches of the department of defense are, and I am constantly learning in this role. For lunch, my co-worker, Scott, my supervisor, and I went to lunch at Pitas Mediterranean Wrap where I had a fantastic spicy gyro and pretended for a second that I was in the Mediterranean instead of Peoria, but that didn't last longer than the gyro. During lunch, my boss discussed his involvement with the Peoria city council, and I have decided that no matter where I end up, I really want to become involved in some form or fashion in the local government. In my opinion, people shouldn't have the right to complain if they aren't willing to step up and try to change things.
After lunch, it was back to another customer profile meeting with Scott which went very well! We worked through a few of his customers and set up a good basic infrastructure for me to really jump into when I start working on these independently next week.
Post-work, I went to the Riverplex and biked 12 miles before heading over to Bradley Park for another Blue Zebras throwdown. When I arrived, I noticed all of my teammates surrounding the base of one of the trees and found out that somehow, the ball magically made its way to get caught in the highest branch of the tree. We put this aside as we took the court and continued our domination streak. During the game, Tim and his fantastic dance moves unknowingly made our ace cheer which is pretty epic - hopefully, I will catch it on film and be able to share it with you all soon enough! After the game, I vocalized my passion for climbing trees and offered my services for getting the ball from the tree, and after making it about 65% up to the ball, I allowed Caterpillar's brainwashing of safety get the best of me and I halted my climb and tried to use the makeshift water bottle-rope lasso that the brilliant, future engineering minds of Caterpillar had constructed. Finally, I conceded my efforts and club 4-3-2 made our way over to the cookout where Keaton was just closing up shop on the grill.
With our bellies full, we headed back to Woodview where I deemed it necessary to clean my sheets after sleeping on them without showering from the Illinois River and do my laundry. So, I packed up my dirty clothes and headed down to the laundry room with The Time Traveler's Wife, and after stuffing everything into one washer and waiting 45 minutes, I shouldn't have been surprised to find that the washer had broken (when I say I stuffed it full...it was like a Turkey on Thanksgiving it was stuffed so full). So, I manually had to wring out all of my clothes and then put them in the dryer. Well, after I got through what should have been the amount of clothes for one washer, I realized I would rather just pay and get the remaining sheets and towels washed again so I didn't have to wring anymore, so that's what I did. Long story short, the process which should have taken an hour and a half at max turned into a 3 hour process that had me closing down the clubhouse at midnight. That didn't stop me from putting away my clothes immediately because I learned last weekend that all that hard work can be torn apart when having too much fun on a Friday night!
Friday:
Despite waking up at 5 AM for my long run, I went back to bed when I realized I had a race tomorrow morning and the last thing I should do is go for a long run, so with a little extra sleep under my belt, I headed to work where I dedicated the day to developing a process to streamline the documentation process which was the final stage of my filing project. Well, with the help of a couple of co-workers we are taking this process ten steps farther than I think my supervisor initially intended me too, but it is definitely all for the best if we are able to get the process implemented amongst all of the people who are involved. I had the opportunity to present to one of the division's manager which was pretty exciting and I think I did a good job highlighting the opportunity to eliminate some of the inefficiencies and the manager was very responsive and offered great insight to some of the problems we might encounter which took us back to the drawing board to make sure the implementation goes as flawlessly as possible and we create enough user buy-in to make it successful.
To stretch out my legs before the race, I headed straight to the Riverplex and officially signed up for the Steamboat Classic, a local 4-mile running race. After signing up, I went upstairs and hopped on the bike for a 10-mile bike ride. Afterwards, I headed back to Woodview to hurriedly get ready for the evening.
This weekend is the Steamboat Festival which seems to be very similar to the Tremont Turkey Festival but amped up to the size and stature of Peoria. So, I headed back downtown to meet up with some friends and enjoy the festival! We immediately jumped into the open sets from the Bags Tournament which would be known as Corn Hole in Atlanta. Despite my best efforts, my skills were the equivalent of my dad's in the ZTA Daddy-Daughter corn hole tournament this Spring: pathetic. So, I dragged down both of my fellow Yellow Jackets when we played together, but a good time was still had by all.
Steamboat Festival Opening
Night
Bags on the Riverfront
during Steamboat Festival
Ben and CJ
Peoria's wannabe Centennial
Olympic Park Fountain
There was a country band playing live throughout the evening, and they were decent. We sat down at a picnic table in the concert area and whipped out the cards for a solid game of Euchre while we waited for the next band to take the stage. Tim and I took on Jessie and a fellow CAT intern who is a born and bred Ohio-an from Ohio State University, so when we won, we were able to take a certain satisfaction in knowing they had some serious talent on their team, yet, we were able to still put a "W" in the books. Despite the next band being significantly better than the first, we were ready to head out from the festival and headed over to Jimmy's to kick back and relax.
Steamboat Festival Hoodview Crew
From Left to Right: CJ, Jessie,
Tim, Eric, Me, Ben
Well, as the DD for the evening, I had tapped out after two beers and switched over to water to start rehydrating for my race tomorrow. We hung out at Jimmy's long enough to notice a life size cardboard cutout of Justin Bieber being toted around by a thoroughly intoxicated college girl who danced, kissed, and who-knows-what else she did with him.
Peoria's biggest Justin Bieber fan
I know it's difficult to tell, but
I tried to capture the sight of this girl dancing with J. Biebs, her imaginary
boyfriend...only in Peoria.
Saturday:
Thank goodness I have been waking up early for the past month because when I opened my eyes and saw it was bright outside I was seriously worried I had slept through the race (start time: 7AM). I checked my phone: 6:30 AM. There is no better way to get the adrenaline pumping than waking up 30 minutes prior to the race start time. So, within three minutes I was in the car headed downtown towards the start line, and knowing the parking would be ridiculous I had to park about half a mile from the start - a great warm up distance. I jogged up to the start just in time to snap a picture for the blog, a short two-minute stretch, the singing of the National Anthe, and a text to my supervisor reminding him that I would split the winnings on the bet I made on him finishing between 30:42 and 30:42 to which he responded, "See you at the finish line for a beer."
Steamboat Classic 2012 start line
About 5,000 people participate in
either the 4-mile or 15K course which winds through downtown Peoria and
finishes at the river.
Steamboat Classic
Finish line Treat!
It was already in the 80's when I
crossed the finish line at 7:35, so a cold Bud Light tasted great...for
the first two sips before I realized I would rather just have some H2O.
The Dublin Pub's Horseshoe
and Ponyshoe Menu
CJ contemplating how to go about
attacking his Horseshoe
Who doesn't want to get in a bathing suit after eating a ponyshoe?!? Well, we headed back to Liz's house where we headed out to her pool where a great game of categories ensued. Tim learned what a heavy equipment manufacturing company was even though he has been working for Caterpillar for nearly a month now and Liz now knows that Tinkerbell is not a Disney Princess. Learning opportunities were plentiful, and I also got to my indulge my clean-freakness and used the cleaning screen to clean the pool - meticulously so. A couple of Liz's older sister's friends came over with one of their sons and he was just adorable and added plenty of entertainment! When our skin was plenty pruned, we headed over to the table and hit up Euchre where CJ learned how to play - I am excited that a fellow Yellow Jacket will be able to play when we return this Fall - now we only have to find two more players! I am sure you will be surprised to find out that Tim and I won...again. Closer than we would have liked, Tim put CJ and Liz out of their misery when he went alone to bring in the victory - it. was. awesome.
After Euchre, I took a shower and dressed because my day was just beginning as I headed to St. Louis to visit one of my best high school friends, Dan Moore. Well, I arrived about two hours later to crash his Cousin's Day and celebrate his birthday! For his birthday, I let him and his cousin win the game of beer pong, but next time when I visit I will show no mercy...I can't tell you how wonderful it was to spend time with him - we spoke at great length about how blessed we were at Marist to find the group of friends we will take with us for life. Just like it was with my Marist girls over Jennifer's graduation weekend, we picked up right where we left off!
Me and Dan
Sunday:
Well, I woke up at 6 AM to see everyone still asleep so I caught a little more shut-eye to find everyone gone when I woke up again at 8:30 AM. Dan and I hung out in the morning and I hit the road around 1:30 to arrive back at Woodview at 4 and just in time to see Club 4-3-2 roll out to ultimate frisbee. I took that opportunity to unpack, catch up on some work, and take a nap which I woke up to around 10:30 to the surprise of my roommates. We caught up on our new favorite show, Burning Love!
St. Louis Arch
Art in motion as I snapped on the
drive out of St. Louis!
Happy Father's Day to all padres, but especially mine!!! I wish I could have joined the festivities at lunch today in Atlanta...you're the best!
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