Week Four

Week Four Completed. A week of international food, sports, raucous hordes of people, and sunshine.

Tuesday, after a normal day at the office, Jenna, Alli, Lauren and I headed out to get some sushi. Jenna's been on an intensive tour de sushi Milwaukee version the last few weeks, and we were lucky enough to join her this week. I can't say that I'm anything close to a sushi expert, but it was purty darn good. How can you go wrong with some raw fish wrapped in seaweed outside on a beautiful day? That's right, you can't.

Wednesday was uneventful, with nothing to write home about. The usual: watching Weeds on Netflix (what! she's pregnant with a drug lord's baby!?!) and tamales from Trader Joe's.

Thursday I saw Passion Pit in concert at Summerfest for free! Kohls was generous enough to provide all the interns with free passes to this massive music festival that takes place in Milwaukee. And when I say massive, I mean MASSIVE. To avoid the parking nightmare that is Summerfest, me and Alli decided to take the free shuttles leaving from North Street, a nearby street with lots of bars.

This resulted in one of my favorite parts of the week: the drunk bus. We had to buy something from the bar for entrance onto the bus, so we sat outside drinking a beer. It's not everyday that I drink at a bus stop, I assure you. Then the bus rolls up. With beer still in hand, we get on the old-school school bus, with ripped brown plastic seats and "Lamers School Bus" written neatly on the side. There was a man literally barking at girls, girls with indecent skirts sitting on people, arms and heads hanging out of windows, and enthusiastic proclamations of love for Tim McGraw and Sheryl Crow (and I thought I LEFT the south...). Fireworks from the Summerfest grounds in the distant background spurred loud shouts of "AMERICAAAA!!!" throughout the bus. People watching at its best. Especially when I'm stone cold sober.

We got off the bus and entered an even more raucous atmosphere. There were about a million and half people walking around this place. Take the NC State Fair and multiply it by three, and add music stages, and beer, liquor, and cheese curd stands, and you've got the Summerfest (minus the roller coasters). We managed to fight our way through the crowds and get to the Passion Pit amphitheater, when we were somehow found by our friends Steve, Dave and Pat. Because of some serious bus confusion and annoyance with the raucous crowds, we ended up walking home with our new friends and stopping for a break and a local beer on the way home.

Friday came with sleepy eyes. Fortunately, all the interns could leave early from work at 3:30pm for a Kohls outing to a Brewers game. I am not an experienced tailgater, so this was an interesting event for me. Cornhole (I've recently learned that this doen NOT involve corn), a game involving golf balls and string and PVC poles, Miller, hot dogs, Brewers T-shirts, and a general yay-sports atmosphere. Although baseball is inherently boring (in my opinion) the game was pretty fun. Afterward, after a well-deserved catnap, we walked downtown with Alli's friends from out of town and had silly times in a corner booth at Yield.

Saturday morning, er, afternoon, we ventured out for Vietnamese food. After a failed attempt the first time, when the building literally did not exist, we stumbled upon Phan's Restaurant and gorged ourselves with chicken, rice and pork. We met up with our new friends Steve etc at Lakefront Brewery for another failed attempt at doing a brewery tour. With the brewery being booked solid, we decided to just drink along the river in the beautiful afternoon weather. Alli's friends left, and we headed to beach for some R&R with some local beer, scones, and naps. After the naps on the beach, we came back to the dorms for some more naps. You see a common theme, right? Von Trier, the German bar on North Street, beckoned us so we went out for a quick beer and popcorn.

Once again, Alli and I are doing our Sunday ritual. At Roast, one of our coffee shops, blogging and looking at pictures.

I think a Target run and bike ride is in my future. :)

Father's Day

Yesterday was Father's Day.

Happy Father's Day to my daddy. You are, hands down, the best dad around. I really wish I could have transported myself home yesterday to be with my family for the usual but not-so-normal family get-togethers. I miss you people a lot.

Instead, Alli, Tiffani, Shawnna and I did some quality shopping and eating time. First stop was Urban Outfitters. That store is my vice, my weakness, and my wallet's mortal enemy (Along with Target). So, in normal fashion (fashion! ha!) I got something. These super cute oxford shoes that sang out to me from the racks and demanded that I purchase them. So I had no choice. If I had a nifty iPhone or something I would upload a picture, but just use your imagination.

Then we proceeded to the Public Market, which is a cook's Disneyland. There were spices, meats, cheeses, wines, meats galore, along with lobsters swimming around happily in their death tank. Obviously, I had little interest in being there for the ingredients, besides the aesthetic appeal, since "cook" is a four-letter word for me. And "bake" is too for that matter. [But, Carrie, you would loved this place!]

We had lunch at the Water Buffalo. And no, they did not serve water buffalo, that I know of. Sitting outside in the beautiful 76 degree breeze, alongside the river, sipping a delightfully girly Berry Key Lime Martini, was a great way to finish the weekend.

Today it was back to the grind. In a good way, though. :) Now Alli and I are holed up a cute little coffee shop called Brewed on Brady street.

Peace out, ya'll.

Fun by the Focean

End of another lovely week.

My heart is still aching from putting up my beautiful photo wall. I had ordered a bountiful amount of photos from Snapfish, because what use are they just sitting in my computer, all lonely-like? So I printed them out, and mounted them in my prison cell of a dorm room. 150 pictures ($12! Heck yeah!) of some of my favorite people in the world. As I was flipping through them all, I took a trip through memory lane.

...

Rolling around in the grass at the Court of the Carolinas. Dancing wildly at a Starfucker concert. Chicago. New York. Prague. Colorado. Stoopin on Clark. Eating corn dogs and drinking pabst on our roof. Sparklers on the fourth. Snowed in 2010. Glowsticks. Headbands. Studio late nights. Studio early mornings. Cowboys and Indians. High Life. Biking at night. Helios. Helios late night. Sunday El Rodeo tradition. J-pot. Art to Wear. Suicidal feelings because of Art to Wear. Thing 1. Thing 2. Raleigh. Friends. Family.

...

End of memory lane. I won't subject you guys to my nostalgia anymore. :)

Wednesday night was Focean night. Alli and I headed over to Bradford Beach at dusk to see Lake Michigan, the beautiful faux-ocean (Focean). Armed with Coldstone ice cream and Hefeweissen, we sat down on the cool sand to gaze at the water. Nobody was out, except a few people walking by. Night slowly came, with lights from passing barges and sailboats fading into the mist, and Hall and Oates playing in the background from her iPhone. I still can't believe I've only been here for three short weeks. I feel like I've known these people and this place much longer.

This week Shawnna (the other home art intern) and I have started doing the artwork for our final project. I've been painting apricots, artichokes, corn, flowers, leaves, and other random motifs. So progress continues...

Last night we battled the rain and went to a cute little german restaurant/bar. Complete with huge murals, beer steins on display, and movies from the 60s paying in the background, this place is definitely one of my favorite places so far. The night was complete with a call from Andrew and Emzilla at J-pot.

I have skype guys! My username is jlroush2, so talk to me!!!

We're all jonesing for some good Mexican food, so we're gonna go take care of that now.

Weekend Number 3: Conquered.

It's Sunday. Not quite as "Sunday Funday" as last weekend, which consisted of drinking a wisconsin-amount of beer. Today was a day of marathon naps.

End of weekend number 3.

Thursday: Jazz in the park, a free event downtown. Wisconsians (?) ... Wisconsonians (?) ... gah, PEOPLE FROM WISCONSIN get really crazy about their outdoor activites during the summer. I went with my friend, and he snuck in some wine. Later we met up with my the ladies and went to The Landmark. I swear, there are at least 4 bars here that have the same names as the ones in Raleigh. It's a little freaky. (But they don't have a "Balzac" in Raleigh, for good reason.) But this place was a beautiful little dive bar, including cheap beer, underground location, BOWLING ALLEY, and weird looking regulars.

On that note, there's no SMOKING BAN here. HOW is that possible, when NORTH CAROLINA can have one, when we GROW tobacco, and have 2 to 1 lobbyist to citizen ratio (I'm exaggerating). But seriously, I am so over my hair smelling like smoke ALL the time.

On Friday, Tiffani's husband came into town, so we all went out downtown. We went to the Garage AGAIN. I love that place, but how about a new bar every once in a while? On Saturday, my friend and I went art supply shopping, and then walked around Brady Street a bit. There were a million and half people out, ALL DRUNK, because of the World Cup. I don't understand how nobody cares about soccer until there's an opportunity to drink heavily during the daylight and yell out "AMERICAAAAAA" at the top of their lungs. Men.

Saturday, Alli's friends from Chicago came to visit, and we all went to the Safe House for dinner, which used to be a speakeasy back in the day. There were 10 of us, so we had some time to explore the restaurant before we sat down. That place is CRAZY. You enter through a "secret" entrance on an alleyway, and then you have to give a secret password to get in. If you don't know it, you have to do something ridiculous, likeeee doing the chicken dance. AND once you get in, you realize that there are tvs around showing everyone coming. There are secret and not so secret passageways throughout the underground restaurant, and an elevator with a royal throne inside it. There's a picture of Burt Reynolds in the Women's restroom, with a heart over his man-parts. If you try to lift the heart, a siren goes off outside, letting everyone know. The men's bathroom door opens to a brick wall with a sign saying "Whoa! Out of order" on it. It's a quirky place, that's for sure.

Today was nap day for me. Marathon naps, while trying to sleep through the loud jets flying overhead (There was a mini-airshow at the beach a mile away) And nowww I'm at Rochambo again, gettin caffeinated!

Tomorrow I start my third week at work, and the start of my final project! My managers and I had a meeting outside on Friday beside the pond behind the building. They're such smart asses, I love it. They're obviously great friends, so they bantered about their past halloween costumes, and who acts the most ridiculous, and how the baby of one of them has a flat head and looks like a monkey. (I saw that baby at kohls' onsite nursery/preschool, and it was pretty darn cute) So in the hour and a half "meeting" we finally got around to talking about my final project.

A little background about the intern final project: All of us interns have to do a final project. There are 110 interns in all departments at the corporate office, so projects vary from reevaluating fit in misses intimates ages 31 to 36 (yawn) to redeveloping data analysis programs (double yawn). BUT mine is going to beeee.... [drumroll]... creating a line of home products for Fall 2011 with artwork I create. YAY! So this means that I have to do a crapload of research, which entails looking online at trend and competitor websites, going "comp shopping" (going to competitor's stores), and creating a "story" or mood for my line. After all this I get to play around with hand and computer processes and make artwork. My friend and I went art supply shopping yesterday. There is no joy like entering an art store and looking around at all the beautiful watercolors, pencils, oils, pastels, paper and everything else your heart could imagine, and then NOT having a minor stroke once you get to the register. Ah, how I love you, expense reports.

I have to do the artwork, and LOTS of it, and develop some sort of cohesive line out of it, and apply it to dinnerware (soft and hard, meaning textile and non-textile). Seven weeks from now, all of us lowly interns will have to present our projects in front of our department, our bosses, our boss's bosses, and maybe even our boss's boss's bosses.

Yeah so much for quitting caffeine this summer.

Who would have thought...

If you know me at all, you would and should know that I enjoy my beer, and I enjoy my cheese. (But not together, that's just gross) Luckily for me, MIlwaukee has both of those in plenty. Along with a pretty kickass internship at Kohls.

So here I am, sitting at the Rochambo Coffeehouse and Teahouse on Bradley Street. It's an adorable little two storied coffee hangout that reminds me of the oh-so-many coffee shops that I frequented in Raleigh. [I'm a bit of a coffee whore] There's a real quirky atmosphere here, as if these people have gone just a little mad each winter and their only therapy is drinking a LOT of beer and spending an inordinate amount of time outside during the summer. [Not that either of those are bad!]

I'm sitting with Alli, my roomie, caddy corner to The Garage, a pretty sweet bar we discovered this past weekend. I think this place may become "our clubhouse," as Tiffani claims. FIrst of all, there are TREES growing inside. Oh yes. And everyone's super friendly. Both occasions we've gone we've made friends with the tables next to us. Yesterday, for instance, a friendly dude (whom I called Princess, and yes, to his face) offered his drunk self as entertainment to us. He held his left foot and jumped through it with his right. It was wildly entertaining, as you could imagine, since he was WASTED at 4pm on a Sunday.

Today was my first Monday at Kohls. My beautiful little microcosm of a department within kohls (home art team! woot!) is wonderfully laid-back, creative, sassy, and super nice. I really like these people. I can't really make an accurate judgement yet about whether I'll like the work cuz we've been doing other stuff, but I think I will like it.

The whole internship is a little like school. We get up at the buttcrack of dawn and catch a bus. There's a dress code. We have classes that are mandatory and are intended for "our future". There's a principal (department head, ceo, etc) and teachers (our managers). We live in dorms. We have played team-building activities (barf). And we have to behave and suck up to the right people.

All in all, good start.

Alright, weekend agenda: Friday, head out on the town. Saturday: laundry! and... the "Safe House" for dinner (it's supposedly this crazy restaurant and bar where there's secret passageways and passwords and the like.) then... exploring more of milwaukee nightlife. That seems to be the theme...

AND bought my band of horses ticket and about to buy my pitchfork music fest ticket (beach house, pavement, neon indian, etc etc) I LOVE that milwaukee has a sweet music scene!

I'm tired, so ... end of first blog entry. Big day. G'night ya'll.