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!