It's hard to believe three weeks have come and gone already, and I would like to take this opportunity to point out a few things:
1. I need to reiterate: Club 4-3-2 lucked out. Completely random choice of roommates and somehow we all have very similar interests (minus watching the Bachelorette), incredible work ethics, and passion for exploring and adventuring!
2. Peoria has some of the best summertime weather ever: cool mornings, clear skies all day, non-scorching heat (mid-nineties are the highest I have seen yet), beautiful sunsets on the river.
3. Filing sucks.
With those three things in mind, I would love to tell you all about my P-town journey over the last week!
Monday:
Thanks to my Atlanta roomie, Kitty Cat Comerford, I have an HBO-go account. Thank goodness because otherwise I wouldn't have been able to sleep last night. Why? Nerd Alert: Game of Thrones season finale came out last night and Woodview Commons is too cheap to provide HBO on their cable, so I logged in late last night and watched 60 minutes of riveting battle and family rivalries - I couldn't sleep afterwards because of all the adrenaline!
Miraculously, I woke up early and went on a long run before work
- unfortunately, Peoria doesn't believe in the revolutionary idea of sidewalks, so I run on the road. Thank goodness ZTA hooked me up with great neon tanks so I stand out to drivers early in the morning before they have their coffee and really open their eyes (great job on the tanks Lea!!).
At work, it was back to filing. I made sure to leave one binder left of 2010 files on Friday so that first thing on Monday I would be able to finish another year of filing. On to 2011. As you all know, I am working in the Defense and Federal Products group - apparently, the recession didn't impact machine sales because these are the biggest binders I have yet to see...oh, goody!!!
At lunch, my supervisor and I hit the cafeteria and we got to sit next to our division's general manager. After 38 years working at Caterpillar, he was a great person to sit next to and bounce ideas off of. I am going to ask him to be my mentor. He had some great leadership advice, and I think I am going to adopt his philosophy that he shared with me:
"It is not my job as a manager to look over everyone's shoulder and tell them how to do their job. They know just as well as I do how to get a job done and it's up to them. I am in charge of being their cheerleader and making sure that I am creating a cultured environment that helps them succeed. It's my opinion that if there are ten people who are given a challenge, there are two people who are guaranteed- no matter what - to hit the ball out of the park and do an incredible job. There are also going to be two people who - no matter what I do to help them - will fail...miserably. It is my job to make sure that 60% succeeds, and if I focus my efforts on that 60% and get the overall group to a 50-70% success rate, then our division will succeed."
I officially started two-a-days to throw it back to high school volleyball conditioning, and I hit the Riverplex for a wonderful, leisure bike ride before heading to the grocery store to pick up some food to contribute to our first, official roomie dinner! Liz's mom sent her back to Peoria with scrumptious, home-made lasagna, WalMart baked some wonderful garlic bread to compliment the pasta, and I chopped up some veggies for some salad! For dessert, Lauren sliced up some watermelon (my favorite summer food ever!!!), and we had the fantastic pleasure of indulging in Lauren's greatest weakness: watching The Bachelorette.
Roomie Dinner #1
From left to right: Liz, Invisible Me, Lauren, Jessie
Tuesday:
Woke up before work again and hit the road running - oh hey shin splints...haven't missed you at all! After nearly breaking into tears on mile 4, I made two executive decisions:
1. I will begin stretching before and after each workout.
2. I will no longer do back-to-back long run days.
I am on fire filing these days. Which is awesome and necessary because this Friday marks the project completion date my boss has set for me to have filing checked off my list of things to do for the summer, for CAT people, we know these as our SMART goals. I think I should be fine; however, unlike in the earlier years' binders, these binders are missing some important papers, and I get to track those down. WHOOP WHOOP! Filing was tolerable today for one reason: over the weekend Lauren had a change of heart and finally told me she wanted to go see Snow White and the Huntsman with me!!! For those of you who don't know: ever since I saw the trailer for the movie at the Hunger Games premier, I have been trying to find someone who wanted to see it with me!!! Yes, it took me over three months to find just one person who was interested in seeing it.
After another leisure bike ride at the Riverplex, I headed back to the apartment to grab a quick bite to eat and pick up Lauren for the movie. IT WAS EVEN BETTER THAN I EXPECTED! I was sold on the movie as soon as Florence and the Machine played in the background of the trailer, but I honestly can say it was a very underrated film as the battles were great, acting above average, and the storyline was pretty dang good if you ask me - a little twist to a Disney favorite!
Little did I know, the night was just starting as Jessie and I decided to take a little walk around ICC. It always amazes me when I look up and am able to see a clear, star-filled sky - definitely a must have wherever I end up! Halfway through the loop, Tim texted and asked if we were up for Euchre to which I am sure you can guess my response: heck yea!
Long story short: we won. Although my volleyball coach, Bob Westbrook, once told me, "There is no asterisk next to a win," I have to take a minute and say that even though Tim and I dominated once again, Jessie was playing with Kunle who had never played Euchre before. Let's just put it this way: In his books, they aren't clubs. They are clovers. Needless to say, good laughs were had by all.
Wednesday:
Back to filing at work, but thankfully, I had a break in my day: GTR (global travel reporting) training at MIDO (the building where Lauren works). GTR is necessary to learn because all of the interns have to submit their receipts and travel information from their relocation: I am looking forward to my next paycheck when my 55 cents/mile from Atlanta to Peoria is reimbursed! I skipped my scheduled training session that was supposed to be with all of the technical marketing interns so that I could hang out with my enginerd friends and go to lunch with them. I stuck out like a sore thumb because I was the only person who didn't have a labtop with them (engineers get all of the new technology while I sit with a computer that has 1 GB to work with while operating...). You may ask yourself: Lisa, didn't you have to submit your reimbursement during your last internship which means you have used this software before? I did, and I do know how to use it. I just needed a darn break from filing and it was humpday, so what better thing to do than take a 30 minute drive at lunchtime to listen in for a hot second and have the opportunity to eat lunch with some co-workers.
This brings me to a side tangent: I hate inefficiencies. It was one of my favorite things about Koch: it was a lean, mean money-making company with no inefficiencies that my intern eyes could see. The fact that interns were paid to attend GTR training with most of them traveling at least 30 minutes to the location to listen to a woman speak for about 30 minutes on something that easily could have been taught through a powerpoint that was sent out to our e-mail list pissed me off. I was astounded. I really hope they give us an opportunity to provide feedback because I can definitely see that part of the program nixed.
Back to my day...After GTR training, we went to Avanti's (the same place of our first roomie dinner date) for lunch where Liz, Ryan, Kunle, Patrick, Tim and I had another tasty meal. Great food, great people, and great laughs: I have been extremely blessed to find a group of such great people who I can call great friends.
When I got back to work, I found my supervisor slightly perturbed that I had attended the training (understandably because my supervisor is able to see the inefficiency and waste there as well), so I made sure to build my rep back up and I rounded another milestone and officially caught up to present
day!!! Now, I am charged with the task of finding all of the missing
pieces: those eight boxes of random files are where I get to stop. Inefficiency at it's finest. The one thing about this project that I am
looking forward to is sitting down the team and presenting them with a
fool-proof process that eliminates all of this waste of their time and
minimizes the confusion. That will be in my final presentation;
however, today, I sat down with my boss and project-lead and gave them a
breakdown of what I have done and what I have left to do. I was very
content when I got two thumbs up from the both of them!
After work, I headed back to the Riverplex and hit up an awesome cardio and butt workout (Cat: no Jillian Michaels, but I think it could have contended!) Despite sleeping in this morning and not running before work, I was exhausted and went to bed around 9 PM. You know you're old when...
Thursday
Back on the long run today and my shins felt great! No sarcasm (something I have to actually say these days as my friends here try to distinguish when I am being serious and when I am being sarcastic...they are quick learners though!). Before work, I whipped up a cake to bring to our intern cookout at sand volleyball tonight. It is Liz's 20th birthday this weekend, and the other roomies and I thought it would be a great way to kick off the weekend!
Fortunately, there was another intern event that broke up the monotony of my filing: Caterpillar brand presentation. The presentation was across the street from Tech Center A (where I work) in Building AC. I had never been to building AC
but had heard all about it from co-workers. This building used to be a
manufacturing plant and Caterpillar renovated it into office space.
Walking inside reminded me of Hartsfield-Jackson airport terminals: It.
Was. Huge. I would feel like a drop in a bucket if I worked there.
I double checked with my supervisor to confirm it was A okay with him that I attended this one and was relieved to find that he saw the value in it because it was awesome!!! Coming back from China where intellectual property means absolutely nothing, the trip opened my eyes to what a brand truly means and represents and how easily it can be manipulated. It represents so much more than the machines that are actually sold, and a company such as Caterpillar invests millions to protect and enhance the brand image. In my marketing-trained mind, the presentation was awesome! After the presentation, they let us into one of their simulators. There is a room constructed specifically for this simulation, and Caterpillar has it programmed so that it can become any type of machine that they sell. The images are transmitted to the walls to surround you, and you wear a pair of glasses that track your eye movements and you can see what it is like inside the machines.
CAT Simulator: Motor Grader
Jessie putting her accounting skills to work as an operator.
Made it through the rest of the work day, and headed out to WalMart before volleyball to pick up some icing and candles for the cake. I got pretty excited because I went a new way, and I have decided that even if you get lost in Peoria, you will easily make it to your destination because the city layout is so simple.
Earlier this week, Liz had the brilliant idea of having a cookout at the pavilion right across from the sand volleyball courts at Bradley Park, and she let the other volleyball players know, and the turnout was awesome! I was able to ice the cake in the parking lot before the game, and winning the game was just the icing on that cake (hardy har har)! The Blue Zebras throttled the other team the first two games, and the third (you play for 45 minutes) we somehow managed to lose focus (probably because we were all starving) and lose 23-21. But really, we won, so I wasn't too upset about it.
Birthday Cake at the Sand Volleyball Cookout
I'd like to point out that that spatula was the only thing I had to ice the cake with...
The cookout was super fun as we got to bond with the all of the interns on the other teams before they played against each other (we will get to play them both eventually!). Liz's mom also set us up with some delectable blackbean/turkey burgers which got made fun of by most of the guys, but club 4-3-2 was pretty pumped to chow down on them because they were so awesome!!! Liz - before I forget, I need the recipe from your mom! We cleaned up and went over to watch the Fluffy Bunnies - Pink Elephants face off and it was a really great game. Watching all of the interns have so much fun made all of the chaos of organizing it totally worth it.
Fluffy Bunnies vs. Pink Elephants
Intensity at its finest.
Originally, the plan had been to go across the street to Crusen's to see a local, country band called Brushfire play, but I got a headache and decided that didn't seem like the best remedy for me. Instead, we headed back to Woodview Commons and kicked off our first, official gamenight of the summer. Tim and I teamed up to take on Kunle and Jessie again in Euchre, and Bunmi came along for the ride and after Tim and I added another Win to our books, we taught Jessie how to play spades! We won that too...but who's counting?
Friday:
It's Friday. It's jeans day. It's pay day. It's my last day of filing. COULD I ASK FOR ANYTHING BETTER?!? I submit that I could not. However, it got better.
In tracking down some lost pieces of the filing puzzle, I employed the help of my good work buddy, Justin. Little did I know at the time that he would become my best work friend ever. By lunch time, he had showed me online storage for all of the files I was missing, told the IT guy that I needed a new computer (and IT guy said "sure thing"), and he had given me about 10 more fantastic emoticons (click here to find out what that means mom: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emoticon). So, I am officially done with the filing portion of this project and now have to implement a system so that this process is streamlined. That sounds like more fun to me, and they'd better listen because no future intern should be submitted to this torture!
But wait...there's more!!! Earlier this week, I received an e-mail inviting me to attend engineering lunch/listen-and-learns that basically bring in a variety of experienced engineers from throughout Caterpillar to talk to the interns about their experiences, advice, and challenges. It sounded a lot like my favorite class from this past semester, Cutting Edge Engineering, so I was eager to accept! Little did I know that the person who was in charge of making the calendar invites would be so opposed to letting a non-engineering major attend. I became slightly upset when the organizer replied back with some resistance but I very politely explained my T&M situation and got myself on the official invite list. I am giving her a little break because she is preggers and I will just attribute her curtness to pregnancy hormones.
Most of the engineers had taken a tour of the Tech Center this afternoon, so I was able to eat with them at lunch which was so pleasant! Now that I have the ins with the engineering listen and learns, I got to attend my first one today. He was a pretty good speaker and had been with Caterpillar for 38 years - bouncing between engineering roles and management roles throughout the company gave him great insight that he was readily sharing with us. We were able to ask him some questions at the end, and I was grateful I was able to ask about what the biggest challenge he had faced in transitioning from engineering to management roles. His response was along the lines of relinquishing control and enabling others to be in charge. I took a step back at the positions I have held, and I recognize this as one of my biggest challenges: giving up power and decision-making ability. It is something that is crucial in learning to delegate and I need to focus on developing this capability.
After the listen and learn, I jumped into a mini project I have been working on for one of my co-workers and was able to make a little headway before heading into downtown to meet with the marketing coordinator for state and local governmental sales. As I was forcing my eyes to stay open on the drive, I thought it best to stop by 30-30 Coffee to grab a nice, iced Miel before the meeting so I didn't fall asleep.
30-30 Coffee in Peoria, IL
You pay based on the weight, and you get a little pitcher and hot plate to keep it warm!
Coffee was a great choice. I was alive and attentive as Debbie went into impeccable details of what they do, what type of marketing strategy they use, what has been successful, what challenges they have faced, etc. I am really excited to take this back to my supervisor on Monday and start structuring a marketing plan!
After we wrapped up our meeting, I hopped in my car and went less than a mile to the Riverplex where I proceeded to max out my thirty minutes I had allotted to working out by doing a running interval training that Jennifer gave me a while back. It was the first time I tried it, but boy did it work! Despite the fact I wanted to chop off my legs at my knees because my shins were burning so badly, the workout was a great success. I headed back to Woodview to meet up with Jessie, and I invited her to join me at Silas' friends lake house for a cookout and celebration of his birthday!!! I guess lake house is a term used a little differently here because it definitely was no Lake Lanier, but it was absolutely beautiful. We arrived at sunset and before we knew it, there was a wonderful fire going!
Sunset in the Country
Fire Pit at the Lake
To Jessie's great dismay, there were no s'mores. Other than that: Perfect!
It is always amazing to meet up with an old friend, especially when you can pick up just where you left off. Hanging around the fire with Silas and some of his buddies reminded me of Fall 2010 so much and how much fun we all had!
Silas and I
The birthday boy graced P-town with his presence!
Jessie and I headed back to Peoria around 10 to meet up with the intern hood crew, and by the time we got downtown it was around 11. We were celebrating Kunle's 21st birthday, and there was no stopping us...although I tried! After we went to Kelleher's and played some bags, I headed out to take a walk to the river and snapped this pic.
Illinois River at Night
From Kelleher's, we headed up to Sulley's where Kunle heard it was the place to be. When we arrived the dance floor was basically empty just like the bar and the tables. There were a few fellow Cat interns leaving Sulley's to go to Diesel to spice up their night, so we followed. Let me tell you: I have never been to Diesel before in my life, and soberly standing outside of the club watching 400 lb. women in cages dance was slightly nauseating. I was amazed that people were readily paying cover to enter. They must have had some serious beer goggles on.
Kunle went right on in, and standing there, I made a decision that if I went in, sobriety wasn't going to be on my list of things to do. Long story short: we made it a great time. Tim kept putting Jessie up on the platform where there was a stripper pole (shoutout to my China travel buddies...it wasn't anything like that!) where she looked absolutely so out of place it wasn't even funny! Kunle made a really good Cat intern friend. Bunmi and I got to hang out, and he is a pretty freakin' awesome (wish he lived at hoodview with all of us!!). Tim expanded his Peoria network and made friends with the bartender. We took shots of everything...including water. And we all made it safely home!
Saturday:
The weekend is for sleeping in, so that is exactly what I did. Straight on up until 1:30 in the afternoon! Tim and I went out exploring for a Mexican restaurant, and the closest we could find was the Irish-Mexican restaurant, Carlos O'Kellys. I quickly realized it was no El Amigo when our waitress listed off sides that ranged from lime rice to mashed potatoes, but the food was scrumptious and the company was awesome! Another potential business venture: a legit Mexican restaurant in Peoria...don't know what kind of demand there is for one, but I know of a few interns that could definitely go for some good queso and guac!
After lunch, we headed back to Woodview where we joined Jessie and Liz at the pool for some more Euchre! **Disclaimer: Liz was learning to play Euchre (an awesome learner and she played really well)** Oh, but Tim and I won.
By the time we finished Euchre, Liz's friends had already arrived for her birthday dinner, so we got ready to go to Burger Barge to start the evening's festivities. Little did we know, the line there on a Saturday night around 6 is over an hour, so we headed over the river to Joe's Crab Shack. Hindsight: awesome decision. They celebrate birthdays the right way there (see picture below, and upon request, I can provide the movie that goes along with this). Once again, a great time was had by all.
Birthday Cowgirl?
She got to wear her cowgirl hat and ride the horse around the nearby tables while the wait staff serenaded her with Happy Birthday!
Joe's Crab Shack Strawberry Lemonade
Starting the night's festivities
King Crab
Liz's boyfriend, Connor...what a great leprechaun!
CAT Intern Table at Joe's Crab Shack
From Left to Right: Tim, Nick, Jessie, and Kyle
Insert Crabs Here
Pictured: Tim...
Back at Woodview, we really ramped things up by setting up a double table for beer pong in order to accommodate all of the guests in Club 4-3-2. I played fake bartender because the only drink I can make is Crystal Light & vodka, but I make it pretty tasty I think. I lent out the Bubba keg to Liz for her birthday mug, and she lived up to the expectations of a proper Bubba keg holder!
Hoodview Makeshift Beer Pong
I made Jessie carry the team...
It was quite the birthday weekend here at Hoodview, and there were conflicting parties, but we made sure we stopped by at Kunle's party to wish him another happy birthday, and he was struggling (as shown below).
Happy 21st!!!
Cicely and Kunle
Of course, no party would be complete without a fellow Yellow Jacket celebrating with you, so I was glad CJ stepped up to the plate and joined la fiesta!
Sharing a Yellow Jacket Toast
CJ and I showing how we do it southern style
And then I got really tired and went to bed...or something like that.
Sunday:
Since I got such good sleep last night, I was up and at it before my alarm even went off! It was awesome. I cleaned the apartment and noted the massive quantity of alcohol which was consumed. I was slightly disgusted to see that I had made a bowl of cereal as my drunk munchies...I need to work on that because the hangover set in pretty quickly. That didn't stop Jessie and I from heading downtown for Mass at Sacred Heart. On our way, I noticed a tractor (of an unspeakable brand, but it was green and yellow) driving down the road and remarked to Jessie that I find it hysterical that they are allowed on the road to which she seriously responded: "At home, I always factor tractors into my travel time." This girl is hysterical, but in the back of my mind I had to question whether she was serious or not...
We are currently testing out all of the Catholic churches in the area to try and find one that really fits us, and let me say, Sacred Heart was not it. The priest read his homily...I liked juggling a little better. The choir of ten people hit ten different notes at the same time but not in a harmonic way. The woman leading the congregation in song never even smiled once...not that there is anything wrong with all of the above - it's just not Jessie and my style, so we are going to continue our exploration next weekend!
After Mass, we were supposed to meet up with Tim and CJ to go to the Tremont Turkey Festival. If you haven't heard of this before, don't worry, I hadn't heard of it either, and now that I have been, I can understand why. Don't get me wrong, it was quite a blast, but we walked through their downtown without knowing we had even entered the city. So, we were so excited about the festival and so worried that they would run out of turkey before we got there that we had to split our group up. CJ drove Jessie and I, and thank goodness, we got there before the 190237218327 pounds of turkey were eaten!
Tremont Turkey Festival 2012 Marketing Campaign
Tremont Turkey Festival Car Show
No festival is complete here without a car show...I told you!
Tremont Turkey Festival
My Personal Favorite
Straight out of Grease...pink lady style!
Jessie's Dream 'Stang
Her dream is to drive this car (slightly different color blue) to North Carolina and move there!
Tremont Turkey Festival Talent Show
CJ swears the guy on the right should be on Glee
Tremont Turkey Festival Talent Show
Cutest kids on Earth singing "Chihuahua" - CJ thinks there may be a future Carrie Underwood and Justin Bieber pictured here...we will have to wait and see
Well, we made it in time for the infamous turkey sandwiches which were pretty good! Nikki, you definitely would have wanted some siracha sauce to flavor it up a bit (just because I know you are already looking at your vacation days and planning to attend next year). We ate our sandwiches in the tent that was hosting the local talent show. Now, I have been to some pretty raging concerts in my time - this was just the opposite, but these kids thought they were stars and it was adorable! We were able to tolerate that just as long as it took Jessie to finish her last bite and then we were moving on to the retail tent which was a glorified flea market. The first CJ comment we got as we walked into the flea market area was, "Oh, so this is where Beanie Babies come to die," and it was the truth. I almost bought a $6 croquet set, but it didn't come with any balls, and CJ made a great point that I definitely won't have room for that on my way home. We saw some pretty fantastic belt buckles, McDonald's kids menu toys, and some Harley Davidson gear, and how can I forget NBA 2K5 which was CJ's favorite find. Long story short, by the time the other car had arrived at the festival, we felt we had experienced it in it's entirety. As we were headed out, we spotted the following sight.
Tremont Turkey Festival Bed Race
If you looked at this picture and kinda tilted your head and asked yourself what the hell are those contraptions, then you would have been right alongside CJ and I; however, Jessie was quick and excited to explain this event to us. It is called bed racing. The beds are designed for speed. There are teams of five that race against each other on the street. Four people push the contraption while the other steers it. Unfortunately, the event was not scheduled to start for another 2.5 hours and well, that was just too much of Tremont for us. I was glad that we came and helped stimulate the economy. The turkey sandwich was good.
After we returned to Woodview, we kicked back and relaxed and I set in on writing this blog. Before I wrap this up, I must tell you that we just had a wonderful roomie dinner date at Burger Barge. With CJ, Ryan, Tim, Liz and Jessie, a good time is sure to be had even when waiting for an hour and a half! Tim said it best when he said his abs hurt...we were all in stitches for 90% of the time and the other 10% of the time was dead quiet as we all ate!
Burger Barge Board Walk
As we drove up to Burger Barge, Jessie spotted Silas (she met on Friday) and as we pulled up, sure enough, it was Silas, Alex, and a whole gang who had been on the river all day! What a small world...oh P-town.
So, our roomies are officially the planners. Lauren planned the intern event at the Peoria Chiefs baseball game tomorrow, Liz planned the cookout at volleyball and Jessie and I worked on the birthday celebration plan!
I firmly believe that it's people who make or break your experiences. I look around at these past internships, and I have been so lucky with those that I have been able to meet and get to know - this time is no different! I am looking forward to NO MORE FILING and getting my hands dirty with some marketing!
Until next time...stay positive, laugh lots, and keep me posted on what you are doing!
