Weeks 9,10,11 - Home Sweet Home and Around Southern IL

It's been a while since I updated, but that's because I've been busy visiting friends and family for the short time I was in town!

I started by visiting Burson-Marsteller seeing some old co-workers. It was odd being back in the office again. Thanks to those that took time for lunch that day, and special thanks to Torrey for asking me to go to the Cubs game with her in B-M's corporate seats! It was about 95 degrees, but this is a view I miss terribly while being on the road!


On Tuesday everyone came to Sports Corner to see me which was great. Again, it was blazing hot...so much so that the power went out at the bar and Wrigley twice. But I was glad to see everyone and catch up on what I've been missing while out on the road.

I then headed to Decatur to work for the weekend which was pretty uneventful. We had to work a Race For The Cure. The client came out as well as the Marketing-Werks crew so it was quite an event. Here we are:


The rest of the weekend we had to work in Bloomington/Normal but I did have half a day to meet up with my cousin Heather and her husband Chip and their new baby Olivia. We drove back to the small town my mom grew up in (Royal) and I was able to catch up with some family. Here's Olivia and I...she's adorable!


After the weekend I headed back to Chicago and was able to visit my parents for a few days and see a lot of the family. It's been almost 3 months and has felt like forever. It was nice to actually have some down time since on all my days off on the road I get in a lot of sightseeing.

The 4th of July weekend was insane between working every day and going out with friends in the city. July 3rd was Jen Sanders birthday party on a yacht to catch the fireworks. We all had a blast and it was a perfect night. Here's a few pics from the night...




The rest of the weekend I hung out with friends, family and even hit a bachelorette party. Here's some more pics.
Best Friends:

Shelley the bachelorette with Cindi and mom Linda:

Grandma and Grandpa:

Me giving Mom a screening at the Lisle Street Festival:


Thanks to everyone who took the time to catch up with me while I was in town. I know my schedule was crazy but it was great seeing you all...and it made me realize how much I am missing Chicago! I won't be back until November!!

I'm back on the road again and am in Terre Haute, Indiana this weekend. Back in the rural area with nothing to do but work. But tomorrow I'm heading out east to Boston and can't wait! Till then...

Week 8 - Indianapolis and my schedule while I'm home for the next few weeks!

Well, nothing exciting to report from Indianapolis. We're working 6 out of the 7 days this week. We're here from 9:30 am to 6:30 pm doing 2 Kroger retail stores a day. Not very fun but passing the time quickly so that I can come home and catch up with everyone!

My schedule is kind of confusing because I'm back and forth but I'll try and make some sense of it...

Sunday, June 22 - Leaving Indy about 7pm and heading back to Chicago
Monday, June 23 - off work and will be in the city
Tuesday, June 24 - off work and in the city
Wednesday, June 25 - Off work, in the city during the day and leaving for Decatur, IL for the weekend
Thursday, June 26 - Monday, June 30 - in Decatur, Bloomington and Normal, IL Traveling to parents Monday night
Tuesday, July 1 - Off work, at parents
Wednesday, July 2 - Off work, at parents
Thursday, July 3 - Scheduled to work in Lisle, IL for the Eyes in the Skies festival but may get off work to go to Sanders bday party on boat and meet Brooke's gang out afterwards...still pending
Friday, July 4th - working at festival from 4 - 8pm and then coming into city to go out
Saturday, July 5th - working at festival from 12-8 and then coming into city to go out
Sunday, July 6th - working at festival from 12-8 and then coming into city to go out
Monday, July 7th - off work, in city
Tuesday, July 8th - off work, at parents
Wednesday, July 9th - off work, at parents. Leave at night for Indiana

Then I'm not back in town until November 10th!! So long!

So, if any of you will be around and want to get together drop me a line! Either after work or playing hookey from work! I want to try to go to a Cubs game so if you are up for it let me know. For those of you that don't know...Dawn Hoblit will be in town June 23rd week and Jen Harkins will be in town July 1st week.

ALSO, feel free to visit me at the Eyes In The Skies festival in Lisle, IL. It's supposed to be a pretty cool festival and a chance to get your free bone density screening from me. Believe me, you want to pay attention to your bone health at this point in your life because I've seen a lot of scary stuff that can happen to you when you're old that I was never aware of. I have healthy bones but have seen enough to take extra caution and am now on calcium supplements. Plus, you can be a witness to the beast I'm driving across the country...most of you won't believe it. lol You can find out more information about the festival at www.eyestotheskiesfestival.com And see the times in my schedule above that I'll be working.

I hope you're all doing well and can't wait to see you. Mostly I miss my friends and family, Cubs games, music festivals and volleyball!

See you soon,
Kari

Week Six and Seven - San Francisco and I-80 to Peoria, IL

Our final week in San Francisco was great. Unfortunately, the hang gliding didn't pan out as the two days I had off, the fog was too low along the bay. Maybe my bad luck was telling me to save my money...$295 for a half hour!

This week we took it easy pretty much and had to work 4 days. The most exciting part about work was at the Escape From Alcatraz race! We weren't too busy so I was able to watch a majority of the race. It's insane..but yes, it's my goal to race in it next year! For those of you that don't know, it's a 1.5 mile swim jumping from a boat near Alcatraz Island and swimming inland (50 degree shark infested waters), 18 mile bike through the hills of SF, and an 8 mile run which includes part of the run in the sand and a sand ladder raising over 150 feet in a quarter mile. It's a true test, but the oldest competitor of the 1500 atheletes was an 80 year old man. It took him 5 hours, but he finished so I better be able to! Here's the winner that finished in just over 2 hours.


Since leaving Chicago I have yet to find a great Irish bar to hang out at...but in SF I finally found one! It's called The Phoenix in The Mission and it's great if any of you visit the city. And get ready, when I come to Chicago we're definitely going to Cullen's!

After the race on Sunday we hit the road because we had to get to Peoria, IL for an event at 3pm on Thursday. Talk about a haul! Over 2,000 miles and 33 hours later we arrived. We stopped in Reno, Salt Lake City, Denver and Davenport to sleep along the way. We did end up going out in Denver. One of Carolyn's friends works for Host Communications and was running an event and invited us to go. AG Edwards and Quest rented out the Pepsi Center (Home of the Avalanche and Golden Nuggets). With an invite, you were allowed any food or beverage from any of the vendors in the arena. We had special passes to go in a sky box and the entertainment was the Smother Brothers and The Blues Brothers! Jim Belushi and Dan Akroyd were hilarious and put on a great show! Check it out.

After the show, Carolyn's friend Natasha had some friends that lived in town and one of them happened to be Chris Cole who plays for the Broncos. He came to pick us up and take us out to a club in Denver. It was definitely an experience! A glimpse into the life of a pro football player. Here's Carolyn, Natasha and I at Club Purple.


After driving 13 hours on Wed. we finally got into Peoria on Thursday just in time for the event. Here we're just doing some retails events at a handful of Kroger's. Nothing too exciting. Sunday we head to Indianapolis for the same thing for a week. So, the next two weeks will be uneventful..but then I'm in Chicago! Once I get my exact schedule I'll let you guys know when I won't be working.

Until then...

Week Five and Six - San Francisco, CA

San Francisco has been incredible. I love it here. Lots of outdoorsy stuff to do and everyone out here is on a health kick, so it's been helping me make this a healthier lifestyle trip. The best part though, is the fact that some events fell through and our boss has been playing a little bit of catch-up so for the two weeks we've been here we've only had to work 4 days! So, I've definitely been busy doing a lot of sightseeing. Here's some highlights.

We first went to dinner down at Pier 39 to check out the area. There we signed up for a Wine and Country Tour to Sonoma and Napa. It was absolutely beautiful and a lot of fun. Too bad I'm gone for so long because I would have sent some wine home.



The next day Carolyn and I headed downtown and rented bikes to bike the Golden Gate Bridge over to Sausalito (About 10 miles). I'm sad to say that it was so windy that while we were riding across the bridge that the ocean took my Cubs visor! :( I'll have to get another while back in town. But the ride was beautiful and more of a workout than I would have expected.




The next day (Friday) we actually had to work an event in Oakland, CA for a few hours. Well, I didn't end up working it because we got our first flat tire! What a process...no one would tow us since we're so big and being the holiday weekend we were limited. So, I was able to drive with the flat to a wheel shop and then had to get a rental car because they didn't have the tire we needed. It was a pain..but I'm still learning more and more about RV's!

Saturday night Carolyn and I went out downtown in North Beach and dinner at a great Italian restaurant that Jen Sanders had recommended. Thanks Jen! We basically talked to bartenders for a while to figure out some spots to hit and it's a fun city.

Sunday we ended up going back to Oakland to swap the truck with the rental car after the fix and then hit the California Music Awards. It's a free day long festival featuring bands that were nominated and every hour they announce an award. While I was there I saw Luce perform as well as Cake receive an award for best song writer. It was pretty sweet.




Sunday night we went out again downtown since it was a holiday weekend...well, that and of course we weren't working! A few months ago some of you knew I went to Vail and met some guys that live here. Fortunately for me, one of the guys, Ryan has been gracious enough to take time out of his busy schedule (since I guesss SOME people actually have to work!) to entertain me and show we the spots while I'm here. Thanks again Ryan!



This past week we were off all week and pretty much relaxed and have been going great dinners. Here are some of the views.




Friday night Carolyn, Ryan and I hit a Giants game. They're no Cubs, but the ball park is sweet. Anything you could eat or drink with amazing views. Giants win and it was cool to see Barry Bonds live. Check it out!




And the best part is that we found out we are going to be here for another week. We have two events this week in Sacramento and two this weekend back in San Francisco. We're working at Escape from Alcatraz so that will definitely be cool to check out. I'm either going hang gliding or aqua gliding tomorrow too!

I'll update again after this week before we head to Denver.

Week Four - Viva Las Vegas!

Vegas was insane. Not only is it a town that never sleeps, we had to work every day and pretty much all day. We were there for 8 days and believe it or not I only gambled twice!

We arrived in Vegas on Sunday and checked into the Excalibur hotel. It was one of the only hotels that had rooms available for our eight day stay.. Surprisingly, it was a great hotel...our rooms were huge suites with a veiw of the pool.

We were able to chill by the pool on Monday and then late Monday we left to California for the night because we had early an early media opportunity with The Dr. Wright Show out of Riverside, CA. There, we did a couple retail stops so they could get some live screenings for their show. This was my first media experience and since Carolyn did one before, I had her do this one so I could see how it went. It's a very small show so it wasn't really a big deal. But some exposure for the brand is good!

After the shoots on Tuesday we drove back to Vegas and didn't get back until late. In the meantime, our boss called and said they had a last minute booking on CBS for Wednesday morning. We had to be ready for an interview at 5:45 am. We drove out to the taping location and Carolyn did this one as well...after this one I felt comfortable enough to take my own stab at it. Wednesday we had interviews with CBS - Good Morning Las Vegas. This time we had to be there at 4:45am! As we were leaving at 3:30, people hadn't even gone to bed yet..and here we are in our uniforms hauling around in our RV. Definitely not the typical Vegas lifestyle!

The reporter ended up interviewing me about 5 different times for different spots throughout the morning. Surprisingly, I wasn't too nervous..after the first one I was pretty comfortable. It was live so that was probably my biggest fear..saying something stupid live on the air, or saying the wrong word since there are so many things we can and can't say regarding Novasoy. Health issues are always picky on wording. But, everything went well! My uncle actually taped the segments and gave me a CD of my first media interview! Unfortunately, it's too big of a file to upload here, however, he was able to pull out a handful of still shots from the interviews..check it out!


The craziest part about the whole media experience is that people actually recognized me from tv! "You're the girl that was on the news this morning, right?" I had to laugh.

Well, at this point in the week is when I started my lack of sleep. Thursday, Friday and Saturday we had to work from 8-5 conducting screenings at a Vitamin store and then again on Sunday from 12-4. My boss, Erin flew in for the weekend and we ended up going out. Thursday she got in and I had previously gotten tickets to see Jason Mraz playing at the House of Blues. What a great show and we had great seats too! Then after that we hit Hard Rock til the early morning hours. I ended up leaving down $40 after hitting the blackjack tables. After getting only two hours sleep, I had to work a full day again.

Friday night, Carolyn was ready to go out. So, we decided to go to Ghost Bar at Palms which was an incredible bar if you haven't been! You "Real World" watchers know it's a bar that's on top of the hotel...what an amazing view and great music too. Here's a few pics...




So, after another night of not enough sleep I had to work on Saturday again! Saturday night Erin wanted to take us out to dinner for our hard work for the week...we got to choose so we went to Chinois - a Wolfgang Puck Chinese restaurant. We were running late for our reservation so we hopped on a bike taxi..it was hysterical! It was a fabulous meal and then we went to Vbar at The Venetian and Rum Jungle at Mandalay Bay. Another late night!


We had to work again on Sunday but not until noon so for once I got to sleep in! Since the last "Bachelor" was on Erin, Carolyn and I opted to stay in for a night to watch the show and catch up on paperwork. Bachelor and American Idol are so big out here..you can vote in the casinos...not betting money though.

Our plan was to sleep in on Monday and stay the day and then hit the road for San Francisco and split the 10 hour drive in two days. So we head out about 4pm and I remembered I had to go back to the Hard Rock Hotel and cash out some chips..so we packed up the truck and stopped there on our way out of town. Hard Rock is by far my favorite hotel in Vegas and I always want to stay there. Well, Carolyn had never seen it...and we got in and grabbed lunch and just decided that we didn't really want to leave..so we wanted to get a room there for the night. They were booked, but we already had it in our head that we were going to hang out there that night, that we opted for a Comfort Inn room across the street! So, we dropped our stuff and then went over for dinner.

The reason the hotel was sold out was because a lot of country bands were staying there since the Academy of Country Music Awards was happening Wednesday. We saw a bunch of bands which was pretty cool. And the best part was I ended up being hot at the blackjack tables and at one point I was up $250 and ended up walking away plus $185. A little extra cash is never a bad thing!

Monday we finally headed out of Vegas and decided to tackle the drive to San Francisco in one day. The only bad part about this was that we were going to miss the final American Idol showdown..and our whole Novasoy team are reality tv junkies! By chance we decided to try to stop for dinner at 8pm and hoped they had a tv so we could watch the show. We were in the middle of the desert and then 10 minutes before the show out of no where there's a Petro Truck stop...we go there and not only do they have a tv, they have a theater with surround sound! We were laughing so hard we were crying..what are the chances. We even got a few of the truckers to watch too!


So, we arrived in SF late Tuesday night. Today we slept in and had to get the truck washed (which is always a huge task) and after we hit Pier 39 and Fisherman's Wharf to get some sightseeing in. Tomorrow we signed up for a 9 hour tour of the Napa and Sonoma to visit the wineries! This week I'm also hoping to do a few bike tours as well.



Our boss is comping us for our long hours last week, so I don't have to work until Saturday! Sweet! Finally some time to sight see!

Week Three - Los Angeles con't...

Overall I had a good week in LA. We only had two events to work this week but had to get a lot of truck maintenance done. Imagine two girls at the trucker stops getting the RV washed and oil changed. It's quite the scene....but I'm learning a lot about RV's...not sure when that's going to come in handy.

Well this week was pretty full. Monday we went out for Cinco de Mayo and I ended up in a mechanical bull riding contest and lasted about 7 seconds! Girls, it was MUCH more intense than the one at the Sundance. I was so sore the next day..ha ha.

Wednesday we headed to Santa Barbara for a race event on the beach. It's absolutely beautiful there. Here's some pics from there. It was pretty cloudy but still great.




Thursday we had to do truck maintenance most of the day and through some connection that Carolyn had we volunteered at the Venetian Ball at the Beverly Hills Hilton. It's a huge ball where everyone is dressed like they are at Carnival in order to raise money for the United Nation's children. I can tell you that I've never seen so much money being thrown around, the biggest diamonds I've ever seen and the most plastic surgery too! The rich of the rich were at this event and ready to flaunt it! Paul Sorvino and Shirley Jones (The mother from the Partridge Family) that I saw and I heard that Ron Howard was there but didn't see him. I was in charge of one of the silent auction tables where dinners in LA were being auctioned for $500 or more and then I was a "parader" for the prizes in the live auction. They were bidding anything from a cell phone with 30 diamonds around the face to dinner with you and 20 of your friends at Spago with Sidney Poitier...auction items went for between $10,000 to $25,000. It was a surreal experience! I was pretty busy so I wasn't able to take pictures.

Friday we went to lunch in Beverly Hills at Hamburger Hamlet. Our seat was at the window and as we were eating Mr. Rooney from Ferris Beuller's Day Off was speedwalking with headphones on by us. It was pretty funny. No big celebrity sightings while in LA but it was fun to see a few older ones.

We had to lay low Friday night because we had to be up very early and at the Revlon 5K Race in Exhibition Park in LA. There were 60,000 participants and it was a huge event. Debra Messing and Billy Crystal were the celebrity spokespeople and Gladys Night gave a free concert afterwards for everyone. We got to see all that from our booth on the big screen.

Saturday night we decided to head downtown to go out in LA for our final night. We decided to hit this hotel bar called The Standard. It's very posh and where all the beautiful people seem to go...oh yeh, and rich too. I was very out of place! But it was cool to see, but not really my style. We were exhausted from the week and didn't make it a crazy night. Here's some pics of Carolyn, her friend Elma and I at The Standard.





Sunday we left for Vegas and it's much better weather here 80-90 degrees all week! I have a very hectic schedule between media interviews and events this week so not much free time. But I'll have an update at the end of the week before I leave for San Francisco.

I hope you are all doing well! Miss you.

Kari

Week Three - Los Angeles

Monday I flew to LA and it was such a pain with all my luggage. Packing for 7 months, expecially for a girl is not easy! My first night in town, my partner Carolyn met some of her friends here and we went out in Manhattan Beach and then to West Hollywood for Cinco De Mayo! It was nice to finally get out on the social scene a bit.

Well, the RV is bigger than I imagined. I have yet to try to drive it. I think I'm going to drive it out to Vegas Sunday. Here's the beast...


Well, yes it's happened...."Our first wreck". No, mom and dad, it wasn't my fault. Carolyn was actually driving. We went to the gas station to fill up both the diesel and generator and Carolyn thought she could make a turn into the aisle and the turn wasn't quite wide enough. We scraped the side of the RV along the metal guard that protects the actual gas pumps. It was quite a scene and we had all these guys rush over to help get us out without further damage!




Luckily we were already on our way to a truck repair place to get an oil change and the truck washed for the weekend. The scratch looked MUCH worse but we were able to buff off the paint from the pole. The damage left a crack above the weel and a little paint missing. Still waiting to hear from management about this one!

Well, I'm only working two days this week and am off to Santa Barbara today to work a triathlete/racer training at the beach. I'll post again before I head to Vegas!

Week One and Two - Raleigh, North Carolina & Detroit, Michigan



Well, my plans have already changed. My team decided it would be best to train for two weeks with someone who has done the tour before...so that sent me off to North Carolina and Michigan for some Southern Women's Shows with Cindy. She's a 52 year old from Texas and was very sweet and fun. This week was the first reality as to how long some of my days can be. 50 hours of work in 4 days. Whenever there's a convention, it's pretty much all weekend at least 10 hours a day. The Southern Women's Shows drew thousands to the expo. At each event, we have local temp staff there to help us that we have to manage. Here's a picture of Cindy and I with our temp staff Jo and Lauren.


The drive out to NC wasn't bad at all. I feel so weird..kinda like I'm on vacation but not really. I don't think it's hit me that I don't have to go into an office for quite a long time. The part of the tour that I trained the first two weeks drove a Ford Escape and trailer. Check it out.


I can tell you that I've seen more feet in the past two weeks than I care remember! It does feel good educating the public and doing something positive. Consumers who come to our booth look up to us as we are physicians..even though I always remind them different! Overall, a good experience so far. Looking forward to meeting up with my partner Carolyn in LA to get some sightseeing in.

Not too much time to sightsee with the long hours and drive days...but it's not like there's too much to do in Detroit and Raleigh. I did get some running in, but that's about it. Two weeks of working hard and any time off was spent relaxing.

I seem to be in the right place at the right time for meeting bachelors from "The Bachelorette"! Bob the bachelor was in both NC and MI for the show. He drew hundreds of women and I actually chatted with him for a bit. For those of you who are big fans and in Chicago, he told me that he visits Chicago often to see Jamie and they hang out at Bordo's! (Yes, I'm a reality tv freak..lol)



Monday the 5th I fly to Los Angeles to meet up with my permanent partner Carolyn, as well as be introduced to the 24 ft. RV we are driving cross country! Yikes! I hope not to make news headlines by being stuck under a bridge somewhere!

Almost on the road! Before leaving Chicago, my group of G-town girls rented the back room of John Barleycorn and threw a great going away party! Since this job came up so quickly, it was great to get all my groups of friends together for a great night out in Chicago. Thanks again to El, Gen, Aim and Cindi for throwing such a fun party! I miss you all already! Check out a few pics of the night...

1. Me, happy that my friends could make it out for a last hurrah
2. Grayslake Girls responsible for the great party
3. Girls Saying Good Bye
4. Late night crew (about 5am) at Burton Place
5. Crowd Shot
6. Todd, Aimee, Jason
7. Joe and Mike