Life Goes On

Last day at Red Frog celebration

It was slow at my last Warrior Dash, so I got to run!

Hey everyone! It's been awhile, huh? Well, quite a few things have happened recently, so I'll fill y'all in on the stuff you're possibly most interested in. Let's start with Red Frog:

My internship officially ended on May 24, and while there definitely was the possibility of a full-time job afterwards, I wasn't selected as one of the lucky few. They grabbed 7 of our class of around 45, so the chances were slim, but actually better than past classes, where they only took maybe 3 or 4. This has definitely taken a toll on me a little bit, just because I loved working at Red Frog so much and I wish that I could have stayed. Their decisions are based largely on what they need at the time, rather than solely on work ethic or popularity, so I try to remind myself of that whenever I'm feeling down about the whole thing, because, I'll be honest, it definitely sucks. One thing that helps me feel better about the situation is that there are other really awesome, hard-working people who are in the same boat as me and who deserved to be full-time as well. The people who were chosen are absolutely awesome, though, and I don't feel like I deserve to be in their place or whatever, because they're all hard-working people who I can call my friends. I've had a dream about Red Frog almost every single night since last Friday so I guess subconsciously it's really been weighing on my mind.

Anyway, life goes on and I'm on a feverish hunt for my next big adventure of a job. Red Frog has boosted my resume, taught me so much about myself and what I'm capable of, narrowed my search for what I want to do full-time and given me a bunch of new friends who I can share unemployment with. In the meantime, I've just started back at Bubba Gump, grabbing all of the tourist money I can manage to take hold of, which should be a lot this summer. The weather has been unpredictably rainy and cold, but once things get to be more beautiful I think the market should be pretty great.

Some other things that are coming up for me are a half-marathon this weekend! I'm so excited to get back into the running scene, and I've picked a pretty good run to start off with. The Allstate 13.1 Half-Marathon (http://www.131marathon.com/Chicago/) is one of the largest in Chicago and is on the south side of town, which provides a more interesting course since I've never really been down there. I've been training pretty regularly and I'm hoping to beat my personal record of 1:50:38, hopefully bringing my time down to below 1:50. I've gotten some pretty bad shin splints recently, so I'm hoping to have those healed by this Saturday. I'll let everyone know how it goes!

Other than that, everything looks like another summer in Chicago. My trips this summer are going to be Firefly Music Festival in Dover, Delaware (a three-day festival of some of my favorite artists) which we all got free tickets to because it's a Red Frog event. We plan on road-tripping over there (about 12 hours) and then flying back, which should be a really fun time. I've also got a trip to Texas planned on July 17-22 for the annual Kunz coast trip. I'd like to see as many people as I can, so hopefully we can get a Bondesen family get-together as well!

I think that's all I've got for now, but I hope everyone is doing well. You're always welcome to give me a call, I'm not too busy these days! Love you all and see you soon!

The Way Things are Going

I know it’s been a while since my last post and I’m sure none of you can get much sleep wondering how my job is going and whether or not I’m liking it, so I’ve decided to catch you all up real quick! Here’s what I’ve got so far.

Everything has been going really well! Work has been keeping me extra busy, but it’s definitely a fun ride. I’ve been working about 40-50 hours a week in the office, with travel in between sometimes. I’ve been working on a bunch of different things. Day-to-day, I’ve been working on:

Warrior Dash Social Media: Facebook, Twitter, Google+, etc.

University Relations: talking to students about the internships we offer

Warrior Dash Maryland Planning: calling and getting quotes on things like dirt, pea gravel, Duraflame logs, porta potties, etc.

Great Urban Race Los Angeles Planning: searching out venues for clue challenges in Los Angeles

Email Communications: building all of the emails that go out to participants prior to and after each event

New Brand Logistics: working on planning for a new event… this one’s a secret

Coffee Talk/Ribbit Reader: Putting together the daily/weekly newsletters that go out to everyone at Red Frog

So any day could be a strange combination of all of those different things, depending on deadlines and all that. Or, it could be completely random and fun, like this past Wednesday when we went on the company field trip. It was a complete surprise, we knew when the field trip was and everything but only select planners knew exactly where we were going to go. As it turns out, we went bowling, followed by a brewery and then we went back to the office where a polka band was set up and played for the rest of the night. Talk about fun. I can’t believe I work for such a cool company!

Just hangin' out in the swing room

 As for travel, I’ve been doing quite a bit of that over the past month. February 19-20 I went with two other people to Ball State University in Indiana to talk to students about Red Frog. We went to a career fair there and also presented in front of a couple classes, just kind of generating interest in the internship position. It’s so much fun (and really easy) to talk about Red Frog because it’s such a unique company.

Next, I went to San Diego on February 28-March 3 for the first-ever Urban Warrior Dash. It was such an awesome experience to not only be in downtown San Diego for an obstacle course race, but also to be a part of Red Frog history as this was the first time this had ever been done. Setting up was long – two 12-hour days of some pretty physical labor. Actually, the second day (Friday) I ran the packet pick up at a local running store. It was fun to see everyone’s excitement to be running the race. When race day came, we woke up at 4:30am and started going. I was in charge of the beer tent. It was pretty easy because we were serving cans, plus we weren’t selling any beer, just giving it away to participants who turned in their chip timers. I had awesome volunteers running everything and it couldn’t have gone smoother. That night we got to drive around San Diego in little Go-Cars, which was fun. We hadn’t really gotten to see much of San Diego prior to that since we were always working at Petco Park where the festival area was, so it was a cool experience that I’m glad we capitalized on. Also, the weather was perfect. I think I’m ready to go back now…

Go-Cars!

Second Day Working in San Diego

Behind the Wheel

Currently, I’m in Michigan, but just for fun. My friend Katie from UNT is visiting her family up here so I figured I would take a little vacation (San Diego was awesome, but it was definitely work) and hang out with her. I just got here yesterday (Thursday) on the Megabus, which was an experience in itself. It’s so cheap! My tickets here and back were $14 a piece! The 6-hour drive actually flew by, so I’ll definitely be taking more trips like this in the future. Anyway, I leave tomorrow. It’ll actually be nice to just rest at home, too…

…mainly because I’m back to traveling on Monday! I’ll be driving the two hours it takes to get to the University of Illinois for their Athletic Career Fair that night. I’m not staying overnight for this one, but throwing all that driving into one day is going to be tough. I am going with some pretty awesome coworkers though, so I’m not too worried about it.

On my schedule ahead are a Warrior Dash in Georgia (April 9-14) and then the Great Urban Race in Los Angeles (April 19-21). Last but not least is Warrior Dash Maryland in mid-May. All this travel is definitely exciting, as I haven’t gotten around much since I moved to Chicago. The Megabus is an awesome, cheap resource though, so I’ll definitely be utilizing it more in the future for some fun weekend trips.

I think that’s all I have, family! Everything is going really well here and I’m having a great time and meeting a lot of fun people. Moving to Chicago was such an awesome life-changing experience and working at Red Frog has only made the city as a whole so much more interesting and fun. It honestly feels like freshman year of college all over again, and I know I’ve met people who I’ll be friends with for the rest of my life.

At a glow party we had. I was running it so I didn't take part in the face painting.

 Also, here's a video we made for a weekly newsletter that mimics the Oscars. Might not make much sense, but it was fun to make! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0qkPrQ3Ed0

Hope everyone is doing well! See you all soon!

Back in the Swing of Things

Some lingo that I want to make sure I reiterate here (because it makes typing these posts a little easier) is that full-time, permanent employees at Red Frog are called Frogs. We, little intern babies, are called Tadpoles. I wasn't sure if I mentioned that before but it's pretty important moving forward.

This past week, (Tuesday-Thursday) all of the Frogs were on a retreat that was a complete surprise to them, they knew they were going somewhere, they just didn't know where or what they would be doing. It turns out they went to Memphis, Tennessee to head to St. Jude (the charity all Red Frog events contribute to) and make a huge announcement. You can read about it here: http://www.sacbee.com/2013/01/17/5122446/red-frog-events-commits-25-million.html but essentially Red Frog committed to raising $25 million for St. Jude and a new Proton Therapy Center for children. So basically, I work for a really cool company in a lot of different ways.

While the Frogs were away, the Tadpoles did play. We only had one day (Monday) to have meetings with our group leaders and a lot of us found that we didn't have much to do for the rest of the week, myself included. So basically, besides my actual work, we did this: I organized a foosball tournament for everyone to play in, one girl put together a flash mob dance for us to do at Family Lunch on Monday to surprise all the Frogs, made a music video and we all made "Missing" posters to put on each Frog's door for them when they came back.

Other than that, things have been pretty slow. I put together the first morning bulletin and people seemed to like it. I'll be sure to post pictures soon, but I don't have too many good ones yet. I'll be in touch soon! Enjoy your weekend!

Work and such things

Here goes my first ever Red Frog Events update! Hold on to your seats because there's a lot of stuff I've got to say about it!

So it's my second week at RFE and things have been going so, so well. I can't believe this is my job! We've only been in orientation so far, but we've learned so much about the events we run and everything. And yes, Poppy, I finally know what I'm actually doing besides just drinking from the keg and eating Skittles.

Basically, we're put on different teams for the duration of our internship. Everyone has about seven or eight teams, spread throughout all the different events as well as some of the office stuff. We were given a survey on Friday that listed just about every possible team (43 in all) and we had to rank them 1-43, based on how much we were interested in them. I elected to do a lot of different writing teams because I definitely enjoy that and I figured it would be fun to make participants, as well as my fellow Tadpoles (the name given to us interns, as opposed to the full-time Frogs), laugh through text, as often as possible. My teams are CoffeeTalk (the daily work update/info newsletter), Warrior Dash (www.warriordash.com) Monthly Newsletter, Email communications, Great Urban Race (www.greaturbanrace.com) Masterminds team (tracking times for the events, setting up packet pick-up, etc.), planning team for Great Urban Race Los Angeles, and the planning team for Warrior Dash Maryland. I don't know if that makes a lot of sense, but it's kind of a lot to take in all at one time. Most of those will be throughout the internship but some are only until the event actually happens and then you're done planning it obviously. Every Tadpole also has phone and tour shifts every week. Phone shifts consist of sitting in the Phone Pods and answering customer service calls. Tour shifts are when we give tours to the interviewers as soon as they arrive, prior to their actual interview. Anyone who comes to visit me can get a tour for sure, so book your tickets now!

That brings me to travel… I get to travel 4 (and maybe 5) times throughout the internship, which is really exciting! My first trip is for the very first Urban Warrior Dash (www.urbanwarriordash.com) and is set in the very center of San Diego. I'm so excited to go to this one because it is the first of it's kind, plus the fact that usual Warrior Dash is set in the middle of nowhere (Mechanicsville, Maryland? Smithsville, TX?) but this one is right in the center of the city and actually starts in PetCo Park! That's probably the one I'm most excited for. It's March 3rd, and I think I go the Thursday before and leave on Sunday because set up is generally one day since it is in such a large city. My second trip is to Warrior Dash Georgia, which is April 13, so I get a pretty large break from traveling. Warrior Dash crews go on Tuesday before the event and don't leave until Sunday, so it's a pretty long week. We basically have to set up the whole race and festival area, and apparently it's a lot of work but also a lot of fun. My third trip takes me back to California! Great Urban Race Los Angeles is the very next weekend after I go to Georgia, but it's a much shorter trip. The only real work happens on the day of the race (Saturday) but we arrive on Friday and leave on Sunday. I'm also really excited for this one because only two of us Tadpoles go along with the Frogs assigned to it. My last trip is May 18th, to Maryland. Another Warrior Dash, so another long trip. I'm excited because I think my four are pretty widespread and send me to some really cool places I've never been to. I think this travel is one of the best parts!

As for the people, it's a blast working with them. Everyone is generally in the 21-25 age range, and I'm surprised that probably 75% of the people moved to Chicago just because of this job! I guess I kinda did the same but without the job part, but still, I know it takes a lot of guts! There are 45 of us Tadpoles and since most everyone is new here we all hang out together after work too. Everyone came to my house one night to party, and that was really fun. The 5th floor of our office has a bar with two kegs so we also like to hang out up there some nights. Everyone is fun and outgoing and I honestly feel like I have 45 new friends!

Okay, I think that's all I have for right now, but there will certainly be more updates as I get into my actual work. Hope everyone is doing well, I'll talk to you all soon!

Race Results

Today, as promised, I ran the Chicago Half-Marathon. What a day it has been. I started at 4:30 this morning so I could eat some breakfast before I left to meet a friend at a shuttle pick-up at 5:30. We arrived at the race at around 6:45 (the buses were running late) and started right around 7:15. The trail was really cool, and we ran along the highway with views of the lake and the skyline ahead of us. This race was a whole lot busier than the one I had done in April, so it was tough to bypass the slower people but eventually we found our stride.

I didn't do as well as I would have liked. I really wanted to get under 1:50 and beat my old time of 1:50:38. Unfortunately, I just couldn't do it. I ended up with the time 1:51:44 (adding 1:06 from last time). I think the problem was that I stayed with my friend for the first 8 miles because I thought it was motivation to keep me going the same speed as him, but really he was just going faster than I should have been. If I had kept my own pace I would have ended up with a time of 1:48, so I should have just done that. He ended with a time of 1:46, and I honestly didn't even think of getting a time like that as a possibility. It was definitely cool running with him though because it was fun to feel like we were running as a team, and we would split up to bypass some people and then get back together, and we were always looking out for one another. I wish I could have kept up though! Anyway, I still feel accomplished, and even though I'm disappointed, I know I can just do that much better at the next one.

Speaking of the next one, my potential (and likely) running schedule looks like this: on October 21 there is another half-marathon in Chicago called the Monster Dash (www.chicagomonster.org). I just heard about this a few days ago but I really want to do one more half-marathon before I move on to a marathon. Today's run made me solidify my choice (even more so) to do the Dallas Marathon on December 9th. I think finishing a half-marathon is pretty cool but a marathon must be a pretty amazing accomplishment. Plus, the fact that it is in Dallas is ideal because I could have a lot of friends and family cheering me on, and it would be really motivating to see people I know on the sidelines! So I definitely look forward to that, and hopefully I'll see you there! I think that will be the next time I'm in Texas, so I'm excited.

Also, my legs aren't too sore or banged-up, but usually the day after is the worst day for aches and stiffness, so we'll see how that goes. Anyway though, I'm gonna head to bed, I'm pooped! I'll post some pictures as soon as they're uploaded onto the website. Until then!

FAQs

Well it's been over two months since my last update, so I have quite a bit to share. I've decided to put this blog entry into a "question and answer" format, as I think that if I were to see most of y'all, these are the questions you might ask me. So, here goes:

Where do you live now?

My apartment building. The windows to the
right of the door are actually ours.

As of August 1st, I've been living in a new apartment with my friend Emily. I've known Emily since middle school because we both went to Trinity. When people would ask me if I knew anyone in Chicago, she's the one I would tell them about. Even though we had only seen each other a few times since I moved up here (she was living really far away in south Chicago), it just so happened that we were both looking for a roommate at the same time. We agreed to live together on a Tuesday, and by Thursday we had already found a place and put our name on the list. Talk about moving quick.

Me and Emily in high school, working with the church in the valley.

The apartment is really nice, there's only two of us and I'm paying less than I used to. The location is also a whole lot better. I really liked my old neighborhood, but now I live a block from the lake shore running trail, and closer to all of the places I would usually visit. Living here now makes me realize just how removed I was before and I'm glad to be closer to all my friends and the places we hang out. Getting to work is a whole lot easier too, as I only have to take one bus. That brings us to the next question...

Where are you working?
I'm still working at Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. for now. The summer season just ended on Monday, so things have slowed down considerably. I've begun my search (once again) for something full-time. I think I can maintain my living situation off of serving at Bubba Gump, so I definitely have time to make sure I find something that I really enjoy and will stay at for the long-term. I've been applying to a bunch of different universities and colleges in the Chicago area, because it seems like a good place to start a career. Something like an Admissions Adviser or Administrative Assistant could be an excellent position. My most promising thus far was an Event Planner for the Career Center at DePaul University. I just applied to that one two days ago, so on most of these I still feel really hopeful. Of course I'll post an update when I find something, hopefully soon!

Anything interesting happen recently?
Yes, actually, thanks for asking! This past weekend (Labor Day weekend) we had to German couchsurfers stay at our apartment. For those who don't know, couchsurfing is a community (www.couchsurfing.com) where people travel around the world and stay on other people's couches. I've never participated before, but my roommate and a few of my friends have done it and I was interested in the opportunity to meet new people from all over the United States or the world. So for our first time we had two people (a guy and a girl, 19 and 20) from Germany. They had just graduated and were traveling all over the US and Canada. They stayed with us Wednesday through Sunday and slept on our couch and on a thin air mattress on the floor. The way couchsurfing works, they didn't have to pay us, it's just kind of a community thing. I know it sounds risky and strange, but it's actually really cool and there are reviews for each person so you know whether or not they've used the program before or not. One more benefit is that now I have a place to stay if I ever decide to visit Berlin!

What's coming up?
I've got a few big things I'm excited about, the first of which is tonight! I've created a book club with a few friends and our first meeting is at 8. The August book was The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon, and tonight we're just going to discuss what we liked and I've also found some discussion questions online so stimulate conversation. I think it's going to go pretty well! Only four people read, but I think in September we're going to get a few more members. I also just bought some wine, cheese and crackers to make it a fun little gathering.

This Sunday I'll be running in my second half-marathon! It's called the Chicago Half Marathon (www.chicagohalfmarathon.com) and it's one of the biggest in Chicago. I think this one is going to be better than my last in a lot of ways, but mostly because the route is so extremely different than anything I'm used to. I don't feel as prepared as I did for the one in April, but there are a few things that I know are going to motivate me more than when I'm running on the lake shore by myself. The energy of the crowd has a lot to do with it, as does the temperature, which looks to be somewhere around 60 degrees at the start of the race. I'm hoping to beat my time from April (01:50:38.2) so that I can feel like I've made some progress. Also, I'm highly considering doing the Dallas Marathon (www.dallasmarathon.com) on December 9th, but that has yet to be determined... stay tuned!

I've also got a hankering for exploring some nature and going on a trip, so I think in a few weeks some friends are I are going to go to Starved Rock State Park (http://starvedrockstatepark.org/). This place looks awesome. We'll have to rent a car (it's a two hour drive) but it will be well worth it. I'm thinking just a Saturday day trip but we might camp overnight or something. Anyway, that's exciting!

Is that it?
Yup, I think that's about it. Hopefully this sums up my summer pretty well and leaves you wanting more! I'll post the information about my race on Sunday. Other than that, I'll talk to everyone soon. Also, I'll leave you with some pictures from my most recent trip to Texas (8/17-8/20). Thanks for reading!

San Antonio friends (Katie, Jazmyn, Sarah, Amy
John Paul, Preston and me)

Goodnight!

Eating Whataburger

Going down the tube chute!

After the river

A Summer of Festivals

Two weekends ago was a huge weekend for festivals in Chicago. Apparently, during Chicago summers, there are festivals to be found somewhere in the city every single weekend. There just happened to be five this weekend: Ribfest, Andersonville Midsommarfest, Old Town Arts Festival, Waveland Park Chill and Grill and Bluesfest at Grant Park. Luckily I had Saturday off and I wanted to make it to as many of them as I could. And while I didn't end up making it to all five, I got to go to both Ribfest and Midsommarfest.

My friend Marcus met me at my apartment around noon and we collectively decided (largely based on our empty stomachs) that Ribfest was the best place to start our day. It was really nice and sunny out, plus the festival was only about seven blocks from my apartment, so we decided to walk instead of taking the CTA. After stopping at a convenience store for a small snack (our stomachs were extremely empty), we made it to the Festival of Ribs.

The sheer amount of rib selection was overwhelming. When 30 different restaurants are vying for your money (or in this case, tickets) it's hard to decide which place will be the best. We chose to try five different sample platters at different booths instead of getting a half or whole rib at just one or two. Any place that mentioned the words "Texas-style" definitely had my vote, but we needed to base such important decisions on more than just familiarity. There were so many good ribs there, with so many different sauce choices. We rated them based on taste and ease of eating (whether they were falling off of the bone or not). My ultimate selection was the first one we tried, but I'm pretty sure my opinion was biased due to the fact that I was starving upon arrival. So after our five samples, a little bit of wine tasting and lots of water and hand wiping, we decided to head back to my place to rest for a minute before hitting up the next festival.

After an hour of just hanging out in the air conditioning, we decided that Andersonville's Midsommarfest was going to be our next target. Andersonville is a neighborhood north of Wrigleyville, almost on the outskirts of Chicago. Even though it was about two miles north of my apartment, we weren't having very good luck with the buses that day and we ended up walking all the way there. I did need to stop for some sunscreen though, as I was already getting red from the couple of hours we had spent at Ribfest.

I had absolutely no idea what to expect or what a "midsommar" might entail, but it didn't matter because I literally could not have possibly guessed how the day would turn out. After spending about an hour walking around the streets of the festival (which was just like any other street festival: bands playing, dance crews performing, food vendors, etc.) we met up with a mutual friend at a bar we had never been to. We met some of his friends and just chatted for about thirty minutes before the friend we had met ducked out to go take a nap. So here we were, at a bar with people we had just met, and so of course they invite us to a garden party at someone's apartment. I feel like that's Chicago summers in a nutshell: you never know who you're going to meet or where you're going to go next. So we met even more people and drank free beer and just had a good time conversing. The day was getting late though, and we decided to take off soon after.

The festivals were awesome, but the experiences around them were even better. If this is what Chicago summers are like, then I'm a huge fan. Of course there are even more festivals to come: Pizzafest, Burgerfest, Market Days, and even more that I haven't heard of yet. Let's hope every weekend this summer can be as awesome as this one was.