Sometimes You Just Have To Burn That Midnight Oil...

My most sincere apologies for being such a deadbeat for the past few weeks. I have had things to write about, just not enough energy to actually get my fingers moving on the keys. Why? Because I've been working "All Nighters". You see, June is a special time of year at FUN Enterprises when high school seniors graduate and we supply the entertainment at their after-prom and after-graduation parties. It's always nice to shake things up from the usual college events, but it's not so nice when you get used to working midnight to 4:00am and sleeping when the sun is out. Not nice at all. Unless you get home just as a nearby diner is opening up and you get the first fried eggs off the egg fryer. I'll gladly take that breakfast any day of the week, even if it means eating at 6:30am (the time that I normally stumble out of bed). The high school events do have some perks I suppose. There's usually lots of free coffee and pizza. EVERYONE is excited so there is generally never a dull moment and the nights go pretty quickly. The coolest thing is when I have a job in Connecticut and I watch the sun set on the drive out and watch it rise on the drive home. It's sort of like playing tag with the sun, except the sun has a REALLY good hiding place for about 6 hours. There's not a whole lot more to say about the high schools, and since I'm working on getting my sleep recovery time in, I'll just leave you with these fun little GPS photos. (See if you can guess which one I took when I left the house and which one I took when I got home!!)

Rough and Tough NYC

My travels last week took me to NYC for some magical photo magazine covers. My Lovely Lexi and I drove down in the wee hours of a beautiful spring morning fighting Manhattan traffic and pedestrians with a boat load of death wishes. While we're on the subject, let's talk about the favorite pedestrian practice of crossing the street. It's a funny thing that street crossing. When I'm the one doing the crossing, it all seems so simple. The cars stop driving and I start walking or better yet, there are no cars coming and I run across the street to get to the other sidewalk before resorting to pushing the cross walk button. For those of you who are avid cross walk button users, I do apologize, but I am adamantly opposed to the use of such devises for two reasons. The first is that I often find myself crossing mere seconds after pushing the button because traffic has come to a natural lull. The second is that after the previously mentioned lull occurs, traffic is generally ready to pick up just as the cross walk symbol lights and by then there is usually no one crossing the street. I may be a bit biased because this happens so frequently at the intersections near my house, but I doubt this is the only place it occurs. That being said, I now have to give props to the crossing signal operators in NYC. Those folks have really got crossing and driving coordination down to an art; it is choreographed like the most professional of ballets. This was much appreciated considering the fine weather on the day of our travels. I didn't have one close call that Saturday. Not one bumper to human interaction. Shocking. This was not the end of my shocks and surprises for the day though, don't you worry. We had a great time at the event taking pictures of the passers by and enjoying the NYC scenery; fascinating folks in that city, simply intriguing. The best part of a city trip is the ride out, hands down. There's no rush to get to a job, no worries about being late because work is over for the day, and with the rate of traffic movement in the city you get a good long time to really take in the scenery. What was my favorite part of the trip out this time? That has to be the scariest UPS store sign I've ever seen. I'll ask you to indulge me for this one, it's just a fun thing for me. Never before have I seen a UPS sign with such huge spikes atop the letters--kind of like big dragon letters or something. It was simply fantastic, I couldn't help but take a picture. I know that most major cities like to keep the birds from roosting on their signs, but leave it to NYC to post these humongous spikes that would likely impale a pigeon from tail to beak. What a trip...

My Mission for the Month

Since the summer is a rather slow season for travelling (at least here at FUN Enterprises) I've got a new project in the works that I'm pretty excited about. At the suggestion of my boss, I'm writing an article about novelty programming trends that I hope to have published in Campus Activities Magazine. For those of you not in the bizzzz, Campus Activities Magazine is an entertainment magazine designed specifically for artists, agents, and those in charge of booking college events to keep them up to date with the newest artists and hottest trends in college programming. Right now we're running a FUN Enterprises summer ad in their special series at the back of the magazine, so hopefully this article will get us a little closer to the front cover. If all goes according to plan, this will be my first official publication and I'm super excited about it. The main goal of the article is to find out how many novelty programs students and their advisers book on their campus, how much money they spend on this kind of programming and when they book. These are some very simple but important questions that I for one had never really thought to ask. I always figured that my experience as a student programmer was enough, but as it turns out, every school works differently. Imagine that!! The first exciting find I've made is that the contacts I've been calling are MUCH more willing to answer survey questions than to listen to my sales pitch (hopefully that's just because they haven't met me yet??) As of right now, I have about a 20% success rate of getting responses between the calling and emailing I've been doing. This is a good start, but I'd really like to get that closer to at least 80% to have some solid stats for the article. Now the prospect of being published in an actual publication is very exciting, but it's also making me just a little nervous. How many people are going to read this article? How many people are going to love it or hate it? What if someone thinks that my theory is totally off base? This time I'm not just writing for me, I'm writing as a correspondent for FUN Enterprises. STRESSFUL. Despite all this, I am bound and determined to be the best correspondent that FUN Enterprises has ever seen! I will make them proud and I will knock the socks off all of those Campus Activities Magazine readers! Does that sound good for a daily affirmation? I think I'll give it a shot...

Special Edition: Trucker Girl's Birthday

Today's entry is purely self-centered. This one isn't about cars or fitness centers. This one is all about me. It's all about me because I turned the ripe old age of 24 yesterday and I had a pretty sweet birthday. Sure I had to work on my birthday, but does it really count as work if you're having fun at the office? I think not! The day started off with two birthday cards that I've been waiting to open since Saturday, and boy was that a long wait. I felt like I was six again waiting for everyone to finish their lunch at my birthday party while the wrapping paper covered boxes sat and and stared at me on the counter, just begging to be torn open. Let me tell you something, it is so much easier to get up for that 6:15 alarm when there are birthday cards waiting to be opened. Long story short, I went into the day with some cash for evening festivities and a trip to Target in my future--thank you Gramma and the Manions :) After all that excitement it's off to work where I get lunch on the boss (always a bonus), a sweeeeet bonsai plant named Butters and a full chorus of Happy Birthday from the office staff and artists who just happened to be in for the day (coincidence? doubt it.) When 4:30 rolled around I was on the road headed for Boston and the big plan for the day: Sox vs. Twins. This was my first game since July 2005 so I was pretty excited. We had awesome seats thanks to AceTickets and a lovely donor who decided to opt out of his/her season tickets for this game. I'm talking Loge 129 Row LL, perfect view of home plate. Not only did we have amazing seats, we also had swanky accomodations for the evening thanks to the lucky pull of a raffle ticket at last year's FUN holiday party. Ever heard of the Marriott Custom House in Boston? Here are the directions: go to New England Aquarium, turn around and find clock tower, enter clock tower. Besides the old Quaker-Oats-storage-siloh-turn-hotel that I stayed at once in Ohio, this was the tallest and most narrow hotel that I've ever stayed in. It was totally awesome AND super plush AND the best night of sleep I've had in a very long time. This story is leading to a trifecta of awesome that couldn't have worked out more perfectly and I'm so excited to tell you about it, so I hope you've been paying attention. Ready? Red Sox game--Marriott Custom House in downtown Boston--First Time Boston Visitor. Yes, that's right, we were travelling with a first time Boston visitor. It's sort of like Trucker Girl in reverse, instead of me wandering around a city I've never been to before, I spent the night leading a North Carolinian around Boston. It was incredible. My sister's friend is up here for my sister's graduation (that happened on Saturday) and she wanted the full on Boston experience, so we gave it to her. Imagine squeezing into a packed train full of Red Sox fans and strolling down Yawkey Way for the first time, all while practicing a Boston accent with the slightest of southern drawls. It just doesn't get better than that. Ok, that's sort of a fib, it does get better when the Sox win with a 2 run homer by Big Papi. The whole day was fantastic, just a series of glorious happenings and then this morning I come into the office to find a beautiful vase of pink and green flowers sitting on my desk--that's my cherry on top :) So, while reliving the glory of last night, I start thinking about birthdays and here is the conclusion that I've come to: if turning 24 is this insanely good, I'm going to really need this whole year to prepare for turning 25...

Why Do I Travel? I'll Tell You! (In Case You Don't Remember)

So it is certainly no secret that I spend much of my time travelling and seeing cool stuff. The one question that I have not yet answered is why. Why do I stay in crazy hotel rooms with wasps and drive Lego shaped rental cars? Why do I have strange encounters at rest areas and get bear hugged by Hall of Fame Baseball players? The answer is very simple. It's my job! Sort of. Here's how this all breaks down. I work for FUN Enterprises, a novelty entertainment company that sends me all over the country making fun swag like key chains and dry erase boards with people's pictures. Basically I bounce from college to college, invading campuses and bringing our programs to their events. It's SO MUCH FUN. (If there was sound on this, that would be really really loud!!!) In addition to loving the fact that I get to visit places all over the country that I'd probably never know about if it weren't for this job, I get to be the new kid on campus everyday and have FUN all the time. I mean, how could I not have fun taking a group of college students and putting their faces on a coffee mug? Seriously. Without going into too much detail now and giving away all the fun and exciting details, I'll leave you with this, a few examples of what I do for work:

A Good Night for a Bear Hug

Every once in a while, this job has perks beyond my wildest dreams. Tonight was most certainly one of those rare nights. The event was local, and at first seemed to be nothing out of the ordinary--take a few hundred photos of convention goers with some Hall of Fame baseball players. If I sound a slightly blasé about the whole scene, it is only because I find that the nonchalant attitude is best for celebrity situations such as these. It helps to focus the mind in order to better deal with large and potentially unruly crowds. One must not let the light of celebrity shine so bright as to distract one from the job at hand, that's what I always say. Or at least that's what I would say if I were to author a Miss Manners book. But I digress, please forgive me. So, the event is a convention and the entertainment is six Hall of Fame baseball players, two of whom we have been assigned to photograph with adoring fans or folks completely out-of-the-know but who believe they should get their photos taken because everyone else seems to think it's very important. People can be so sheepy sometimes...good thing we were only taking pictures and not, say, shaving heads. We'd have lots of baldies if that were the case. Again, I digress. Ok, so we're preparing to meet our assigned players when all of the sudden Wally the Green Monster walks in. Let me tell you, this is the kind of celebrity I get excited about! I mean, the guy is famous! He's all over the TV during home games and people flock to see him at public appearances. Wally is quite the legend and here I am standing right next to him!! Perhaps I feel some sort of costume character kinship with my past experiences as an Easter bunny and a lobster, I really can't say for sure. No matter. The point is that Wally was there and I was excited in a Christmas morning type of way, seriously thinking that it couldn't get any better than that. Little did I know, the best was yet to come. A few minutes pass and my nerves calm a little bit from all the excitement of my green furry friend just in time for our baseball players (or personalities as they prefer to be called) to show up. My co-worker TJ and I stroll on over to our spot to discover that our personality is Carlton Fisk. Now of course I know the name, and I know that he's famous, but other than those two facts I really have no idea who it is I'm meeting. He seems like a nice guy, kind of quiet, but happy to chat with fans as if they are all his long lost friends. I was actually pretty impressed with how personable he seemed, but I suppose this is just one of my celebrity stereotypes being blown to bits. The entire event only ran two hours and during that time it was my responsibility to take full camera chips to our printers, replace them with empty chips, rinse and repeat. The entire walk was probably only about 50 feet one way, but when you do it at high speeds while ducking and weaving through crowds of people, it truly became a feat of strength and endurance to last a full two hours. At 7:45 we shut down our booth to let the men leave for the night, but right before we left, Carlton asked if we wanted to get a picture with him. I have a dad, how could I not possibly want a picture with Carlton Fisk?? So I go ahead and grab TJ's picture first then step up for my turn with the legend. Perhaps it was his appreciation for my speed walking skills that caused the next great event of the night, or just the mere fact that there was a tall blonde standing next to him. I can't say for sure exactly, but what I do know is that before I had time to sing Sweet Caroline, the great Carlton Fisk had me in a bear hug. This wasn't just any bear hug either. This was a bear hug from a man who, even at a more mature age, clearly has not lost much of his former strength and probably could have squished me if he tried. It was so surreal and unbelievable that I couldn't help being starstruck for a few moments, realizing that I had just received possibly one of the best souvenirs from a great former player on one of my favorite teams. I started tonight with a Green Monster Encounter and ended it with the best Hall of Fame Hug ever. How can I not love my job?

The Midwestern Treasure Hunt

If you've never driven through MidAmerica, then you've likely never had the chance to get trapped in the maze of highways and county roads sandwiched between the major interstates out here. As a semi-full-time traveler I have had such an experience. More than once. And let me tell you, more than once is way too much. Here is the moral to this little intro: driving through Indiana can be hard. A big part of what makes the drive so tricky is the terrible navigational advice from my Garmin. Now I know that sentence may be a little confusing for some of you out there, but the Garmin is not always right, and sometimes it is very very wrong. In my wildest dreams, I have never imagined a world where tractor-paths-turned-winding-cornfield-roads were the BEST way to get from one interstate to another. Clearly I never dreamed in Garmin. Ugh, what a joke. All we wanted to do was find a casino to lose a little money at on a Friday night. Instead we ended up spending almost two hours driving through pitch black, deer infested woods and up a mountain. How a mountain got into Indiana I don't know, but I am sure that this was it. So we drive up this dark, dark mountain, dodge a few deer and then what to we come to find out? I'll tell you. Apparently, Garmin decided to forgoe the closest escape from the torture road to get us just a little farther west on the interstate. Uhh what? Did I hit the civilization avoidance in the settings? I think not. Thanks Garmin, thanks a whole bunch. Thank goodness my navigator finally figure out what was going on and got us pointed in the right direction, otherwise we probably would have ended up sleeping in the van and trying again at daybreak. Side note: how anyone lives out there, I don't know. It's a corn maze everyday and really those things are only fun for like, 20 minutes tops, so I am totally stumped on this one. Ok, back to the action. So we finally find the interstate, and we finally find a hotel (the only one for miles--no joke) and we finally think we're going to get to sleep when yours truly misses the turn and gets back on the interstate...in the wrong direction. The only thing worse than missing your bed for the night is missing it by 6 miles to the next exit and then another 6 to turn around and get back. Yeah, not good. However we did finally make it to the Comfort Inn and got a room and then proceeded to collapse into a deep, deep slumber. While enjoying our free breakfast the next morning, we notice a nice little rain storm going on outside but does it really matter? Nope! Why doesn't it matter you ask? Because there is no rain in the casino!!! Yep, after all those mountains and deer and missed interstates, we were finally ready for the casino. This isn't just any casino trip either. Our destination was well researched and put through a vigorous interview process before being chosen as the destination of choice that night. When it came down to it though, Indiana Live! really had everything we needed: penny slots, a bar, a fancy restaruarnt with creme brulee, coctail waitresses and a bar. I'd go back to Indiana Live! anytime I'm driving down Interstate 74 through Shelbyville, IN because they had the most generous penny slots I've ever had the priviledge of pulling the handle on. I'm not saying I walked away a milloinaire, but I did only leave $30 behind and that was after getting risky with my machine winnings and losing it all for a few high priced spins of the wheel. Sometimes it's just so hard to stop though. The best part about the night?? Creme brulee and dessert wine with the lovely Sam. You know you're in a fancy part of town when an $8.50 glass of wine is approximately 2 shots of liquid in a port sized glass. That dear sirs and ma'ams, is what I like to call swanky. Wine like that is not for chugging. It is meant to be slowly sipped and enjoyed while it enhances the flavors of our $8 dessert, and let me assure you, it did all that and more. That creme brulee was literally the best food we ate all week. Panera did come pretty close to the Maker's Mark Steakhouse dessert, but that delicious concoction absolutly takes the cake. It made our midnight drive SOOOO worth it, and although I never want to drive THOSE roads again, I'd gladly go back for seconds of the creme brulee.