Full Circle

We have a new intern and she started today. And by we, I mean the company… and she really has nothing to do with “me” so I guess “they” have a new intern. Anyway, there’s someone new in the office. And she’s young. Hooray!

So said new intern graduated from Iowa a couple of weeks ago and moved here because she wants to live in Des Moines. She’s also living in the unattractive apartments I first lived in prior to moving in with my all too fabulous roommate, EWoz. Coincidentally, she started today on my two year anniversary in the new world. Sound familiar? I know, whoa. Sign from heaven. 

I’m not sure if we’ll be bff’s or just work mates, but I’m excited to (attempt) take her under my wing and show her the Des Moines ropes, as a few good friends did to me during my first few months in this lovely metropolis. She’s already asked me “where should I go out this weekend” and I became giddy excited of the opportunities.

It’s fun to see myself in her (minus the blonde hair), look back to my first week in the 515 area code and fast forward to present, with me giving out the advice on where to eat and where to go. As always, things come full circle.What a whirlwind of a two years; viva la vida... life is good.

Making lemonade...

Friday rainy roadtrip to B's mom's. I fell asleep about 20 miles out of Des Moines and woke up about 20 miles from home... as in my home... as in the very wrong direction from Missouri. Someone was on autopilot while listening to the Cubs game on XM and forgot to exit. Oops.

After a brief panic by me and some reassuring words (also by me), we're back on track (just 45 minutes later and 45 miles lighter in gas) with our rally caps on and smiles all around. Happy Memorial Day weekend friends and go Cubbies. Cheers!

Obsessed

I have many obsessions. Most of them healthy. Well, healthy in the theoretical sense. I'm not quite sure chips and salsa is exactly on the same page as a veggie salad, but whatever.

One of my (healthy) obsessions is the Iowa's capitol building. I love visiting, touring, looking at, driving past, popping in for a second; anything capitol related. I'm sure B gets quite annoyed hearing "wow, it's just so beautiful" each and every time we drive past. One of the perks of our office move is that we sit at the bottom of the capitol's hill. So I can step outside and take a gander just whenever I feel the need. Another perk of the gig is having the opportunity to tour the building at least twice a year and the tour is on the "it's my first visit to Des Moines" list of things you have to do. 

Why it's labeled an obsession? I went through my phone photos today and found no less than five capitol related photos in the past couple of months. Oops. I even snapped one on my walk today over lunch... oh and on my walk Tuesday.

Here are a few for your viewing pleasure. Excuse the quality...

Let me know when you need a tour (after all, it's probably been since your high school government class that you've even stepped foot in the building... right?) It's absolutely one of the most beautiful buildings on earth. For sure.

Power of the Prezi

Today, I’ve been working on a presentation for our company’s annual conference taking place in a couple of weeks. We have developed a character aimed to bring about awareness of our leadership programs, written a story about her and will now present her to the masses. The story is tongue-in-cheek clever, the character ‘hip and cool’ so now I have my work cut out for me to make the presentation equally fantastic.

When sitting in our initial marketing/presentation meeting a few months ago, we brainstormed ways to make this character come to life. As you might expect, PowerPoint was almost the only idea mentioned. And I hate PowerPoint. If utilized correctly, it can be an somewhat effective way to present. Unfortunately, the slides are almost always overcrowded, filled with either sensory overload or monotonous boring facts. Below are some examples helping prove my point from today’s Wall Street Journal. If your slides look like these, yes this is a cue to make some changes.

So in said meeting, I suggested we use Prezi. What’s Prezi? It’s the best kept presentation secret. It’s PowerPoint on steroids. It’s awesome. And easy to use. And free. And AMAZING. While it takes a little while to get used to, the results are worth the extra effort. Why? Because it looks professional and, at the same time, exciting. After all, there are only so many PowerPoint templates you can use to attempt to make yours stand out from the masses. I use it for work. Here's an old example. My mom (high school business teacher) uses it in her classroom and even makes her students use Prezi instead of PowerPoint. Cool, huh?

I’m telling you this because, as young professionals, we tend to be significantly younger than every other person in any given meeting. Thus, we have pressure to be creative yet act professional, buy in to old ideas but still think outside the box to develop new ones. And while Prezi isn’t going to solve all of our so called “YP hardships” it’s a start. Enjoy.

I love Nashville

I just returned from Nashville. Ok, not just but I’ve been back long enough to clear the cob webs, catch up on some sleep and stop my checking account from the bleeding it seemed to do while in the fine state of Tennessee. If you haven’t been, I highly recommend it. Regardless of if you love country music or not.

I’ve been trying to come up with a witty/clever/show stopping blog from the trip. Since I seem to be suffering from writer’s block in both my professional and personal worlds, however, I’m going to have to stick to some rather boring (or professional related) facts I discovered about Nashville.

Two things (of many) I have to give Nashville props for: their marketing/branding department and their CVB.

Marketing: Nashville – Music City. That slogan is all over their websites and marketing materials. And boy that tag line doesn’t lie. From the time I stepped off the plane, music was everywhere.

Examples:
• Vintage music posters hanging in the airport
• Live bands (sometimes multiple) in every single restaurant and bar regardless of the time of day. And they were all good bands of every genre you can imagine.
• Outdoor speakers outside of restaurants and bars so you could listen as you stroll along the streets.
• Outdoor service “contraptions” (for severe lack of better word) that doubled as a. a service station for city workers and b. speaker system that played music on the same stroll even when not on 2nd or Broadway. Cool.

 Marketing Lesson: Keep it consistent and simple. Nashville gets a big A+. They promised me music and boy, they didn’t lie.

Convention and Visitor’s Bureau: I got a lot of flack for emailing their CVB before I left for the south. However, non-profits are experts in their specific subject matter… something I’ve quickly learned from being in the biz myself. When visiting a new city, you bet I’m going to find out the must-see from not only locals but locals whose job it is to sell place X. And so I crafted a (perhaps over the top) email to my non-profit friends in Tennessee. My new friend, Greg emailed me back two days later with a hearty list of must experiences. As my friend Jake says in his post about a city’s customer service, it’s imperative that CVB’s are accessible. Another A+ for Nashville.

Greg’s CS was impressive, so much so that I’m still talking (and blogging) about it. I even stopped to snap a quick (and rather awkward) photo when I happened across their building on our downtown adventures.

Travel Lesson: when you travel somewhere new, please reach out to the chambers/CVB’s in the area. They really do know what they’re talking about.

And with that, I'll step down from my Nashville soap box.

Song, Song of the South

I leave tomorrow for a girl’s weekend with two of my most favorite people. To Nashville. Home of Country music, the Tennessee Titans and…country music? I’m giddy excited about the trip. I’m even fine with waking up at 4 am on a non-football Saturday to catch my 6 am flight (what I definitely would consider a red eye).

When I called our hotel this week to ask a couple of probably stupid questions, I was shocked when the woman answered and she had a very distinct southern accent. I’m not sure what exactly I was expecting (a Brooklyn one wouldn’t have made sense) but I couldn’t get over how stinking cute it was. She even called me sweetie (but why wouldn’t she? I had my phone voice rocking; the corny was flowing fast and furious.)

I guess my experience with the “south” includes Florida, a brief stint in Houston which felt much more like a beach than Texas, flying into Dallas multiple times and many trips to Arizona (not the “south”). So while I’m extremely excited to spend time with these lovely ladies, I’m excited to see if the southern stereotypes are true. I’ve been mentally preparing all week for southern accents, southern food, southern hospitality, hopefully not too many southern belles and perhaps some Southern Comfort here and there. Country music has been prevalent on my Pandora and I have my boots (okay, flip flops) packed and ready to go.

Don't mess up on a slow news day...

The saying goes “Everyone dies famous in small town.” Being from a small town, I totally get that. I also know that even today after almost 6 years of being gone, should news about fabulous MP or anywhere in its vicinity hit the press, my ears instantly perk up.

While on my daily peruse of the online Des Moines Register today, I came across: High School Golf Coach Charged With OWI While Driving Team. Sounded interesting… especially when a quick skim shows the coach represented our conference rivals just 20 miles away. Now I’m hooked.

In case you don’t want to read the story yourself, this happened at 7:55 this morning on the way to a girl’s golf meet. Yes, the headline was true - with students in the car. The vehicle was already sitting on the side of the road when approached and had made it a solid 40 miles from their origin.

I assumed this golf coach had to be a twenty something, fresh out of college, pulled an all-nighter. Here’s the mug shot. Yep, it’s a great one. She’s definitely old enough to know better (59 years old?! Come on).

My question still is: if she were still legally intoxicated at 7:55 this morning, she had to have been at one killer party. On a Tuesday night. In a small town.

I typically try not to (publicly) laugh at another’s misfortune, but this one is so unintelligent I couldn’t help myself.

So, if you’re a middle school teacher and/or girls golf coach looking for a change of pace, I think there will soon be an opening in southeast Iowa.

Sunday Funday

Following a going away bash Saturday evening, I was in desperate need for some mindless activity. A quick run to the mall and Hy-Vee was about all I felt I could handle. While hanging out with B-ri and his roommate Blair yesterday afternoon, it was decided we needed some additional mindless activity and the boob tube just wasn’t cutting it. What did we do to pass the time? Quelf.

Ever played? Me either. Even though I had purchased the game (oh yeah, it’s a board game) sometime last year, I’d only unwrapped the pieces. I’d even taken it home once and to the “in-law’s” once but had yet to dabble. Come over soon, you have to play. Think Cranium, but much more a. fun and b. random. Another great feature is you can play with 3 or a ton of fine folks. I haven’t laughed that hard in a while. I was even fortunate enough to land on all “thinking spaces” while watching Bri and Blair land on the acting/singing questions time and time again. They got to make fools of themselves while I showed off my unwavering brains. (ha). No pictures were allowed, however which was really unfortunate.

Highlights (use your visuals to imagine) to name a few:

• B-ri having to make a “snorkel” out of household items: sunglasses, funnel and a rubber spatula and wearing it for the rest of the game

• Blair doing the hula
• B-ri doing an interpretive dance about getting to work late
• Blair singing. A lot.

Run to Target now and pick up this diddy. You won't regret it. Or just come over tonight. You might find us playing again.

Happy camper

Spring is officially here. Second only to Saturday's spent at Kinnick is my love of the Des Moines dowtown Farmers Market. It boasts primo people watching, random run ins and the worlds finest food... and bloody Mary's.
Today marked the opening day of the 2011 season and I dragged Bri and Blair to inspect each and every booth. With glorious weather and great company, it was a great way to spend this Saturday. Happy weekend.

Souvenir anyone ?

Work brings me to Atlantic, Iowa this week. I love small town Iowa so learning about all this community has to offer should be great.
I wasn't in town 5 minutes, however, before snapping a quick pic. This little sign was on my vanity.
Noteable background info: we are staying at the Super 8 (it seems the haven't recruited a Marriott or Hyatt yet). I hadn't heard about the overwhelming popularity of their "Guest Room Amenities" but I'm not always in the loop...
I might just be cheap on my linens purchases but $50 for a hotel pillow and/or shower curtain seems a bit steep. 75 bucks for a clock radio? Are these prices standard?! Highway robbery! Looks like there won't be any towel stealing this trip.
If anyone wants a souvenir, or needs a wedding gift, let me know prior to Friday at 2:30 pm.