MIP stop in Logansport

Thursday afternoon, around 3 pm, we headed north towards Logansport, IN in the limo. "We" this time consisted of another cheerleader and myself (no worries, three other girls met us at the event!) But it was very spacious in the limo, to say the least!

We arrived just in time for the 15th stop on the Colts' summer tour...


These events are always fun! It gets me out of the office and gives the girls the opportunity to meet lots of Colts enthusiasts. Furthermore they put lots of smiles on individual's faces.

This stop was set up at the Riverside Park. We had four cheerleaders and two alumni players (Joe Staysniak and Tarik Glen) signing autographs. They actually ended up signing for over two hours, despite the line being cut off. This absolutely amazes me because this had to be the warmest stop yet this summer! I think we hit the 100 degree mark today...feeling hot, hot, hot!! But, thank you Logansport for your enthusiasm!!

I decided to include the following picture so you can understand a bit better what I do...let's play Where's Waldo (or Alicia!) Can you spot me in my lovely Make It Personal Summer Tour Staff t-shirt?? That's me in the background, next to Wendell (the best security guard ever!) - we take our job seriously.


Another summer evening spent with Colts fans and to top it off, Clayton picked me up after it was all said and done so we could head to Goshen for the weekend of the 4th before coming back down to Indy for the downtown fireworks show!!

Take me out to the ball game!

...sing with me...Buy me some peanuts and Cracker Jack, I don't care if I never get back. Let me root, root, root for the home team, If they don't win, it's a shame. For it's one, two, three strikes, you're out, At the old ball game!...

Today two girls & I attended the Indianapolis Indians' home baseball game - this is Indy's minor league baseball team! They played against the Pawtucket Red Sox.

We joined the Community Relations Department for the Books for Youth night. It was SO neat!! About 30 foster kids were given tickets to the game. So before hand the cheerleaders, along with Blue, signed autographs and gave them backpacks full of 25 age appropriate books!

They're able to give out these backpacks to the kids because other individuals purchase a backpack at the Colts Pro Shop or online - it's a Toms, One for One kind of deal!

We all got to walk on the field, take a tour of the dug out, and enjoy ourselves on this Monday evening. Best part about it was that the weather was perfect!! Seriously, God couldn't have provided us with a better evening to hold this event (especially considering thunderstorms had been predicted)!


For this event I actually did more than just stand behind the girls. I was security. I had to tell someone that he couldn't place his arm around the cheerleaders-he looked at me like "who do you think you are," but listened anyways. The best part about it was, he went over to his friends after and they were all talking about it, looking over at me. I protruded my chest a bit further forward, so to make sure he read, "Colts Staff," which was boldly printed in white on my royal blue polo. Bam.

Needless to say by 7 pm (after autographs, picture taking, and mingling) we were starved. So the girls and I got $5 to spend on food! Wonder what we went for? The $1 brats (Monday night special) and chocolate milkshakes!

::YUM::

Re-cap of a week spent at the Lucas Mansion, for work!

Monday morning, June 20th, at 8 am, I "moved" into the Lucas Mansion. Here a look at home sweet home for the week: Google Maps!

The $35 million, 25,000-square-foot mansion was recently bought by the Lucas family. The mansion sat empty for 6 years prior to the purchase, so it was a bit under construction. Nonetheless, it's where we did our 2011 CC Calendar Photo Shoot with Matt Bowen.

I can't complain.

We spent the night in the sports barn, which has the original IU basketball floor! Hair and make-up done by Tyler Mason was set-up in the pool house. The photos were taken all around - inside and out - including in the infinity pool and the resulting waterfall, on the million dollar bridge imported from Europe, in the master sweet and the attached indoor lap pool, and in the library.

Quite couture, quite luxurious - I can't wait to see the calendar!!

Daily Schedule for 6/20-23:
5 am - wake up
5:30 am - begin shooting first group for the day (3-4 girls)
11:30 am - lunch break
1 pm - begin with group number two (4-5 girls)
7 pm - dinner
8 pm - begin with group three (3-4 girls)
12 midnight - time to head to bed!!

In total 42 girls were shot individually, and in groups. It was a long week, with very little sleep, lots of trips to Starbucks, and plenty of delicious food (Subway, Fazolis, Jonathan Byrd catering, and Meijer bagels and fruit). Oh and the Lucas' supplied us with delicious chocolates every evening from a local candy store.

Here's a behind the scenes look at the week:

...Why of course I'll drive the beverage cart!

This morning Heather & I arrived at the office at normal time (8:30 am), but shortly thereafter headed to Eagle Creek Golf course. It was only about 5 minutes away from the complex. It was about 80 degrees outside, mostly sunny and there was a subtle breeze-perfect day for a golf outing!!

The Colts were holding their annual Sponsor's Golf outing, and we got to help out! Over 250 individuals showed up for the event. They all received royal blue Igloo coolers and could buy raffle tickets for the chance to win autographed helmets, photos, jerseys and more. Players like Peyton Manning, Joseph Addai, Dallas Clark, etc. I was super jealous.

As the assigned beverage cart drivers we spent 10 am-1 pm driving around the front nine (at least that was our plan of action). We were given the make shift beverage cart. There were four beverage carts in total that day, three were red, with nice canopy's over head and a legit drink/snack station on the back of the cart. Ours on the other hand was what I would call a converted gator. It was a lovely deep green color, didn't have a canopy, and had four silver compartments on the back filled with beer, soda, and water. The snacks were at Heather's feet.

As the driver I took us our way, and having never before been on this course we quickly drove off course. To get to the green we followed an initial sign, but quickly came to a "Y" and didn't know which way to proceed. With a guess, we headed off (in what we later found out to be) the wrong direction. After about an hour we found our way back to the front nine.

Driving around the course, we managed to dodge a few golf balls, stand on the breaks down a few extremely steep hills, and off-road only a few times. Oh and we emptied out our complementary beverage cart a few times.

We had SO much fun! and in the mean time each made about $40 in tips. Not a bad morning.

In the afternoon I headed to French Lick, Indiana for another Fan Fest stop on our summer tour. A town known for being the birthplace of Larry Bird and home to a premiere resort, spa and casino.

My favorite part of the stop: six of us interns got to debut our Colts fanny packs!! What hotties.

Moving Day, Fri-Day

Well Dad moved down to Indianapolis on Wednesday, I took my time and didn't move into our downtown apartment until Friday.

Yes, I was dragging my feet. I don't like moving. My poor little Civic (named Patsy) has been packed and unpacked one too many times in the past two months. To be exact: it was filled numerous times to get completely moved out of the BLAM apartment in Goshen, so that it could all be temporarily stored at the parent's home in Goshen. But then a stop was made to Florida before packing Patsy up again to take two loads down to Indianapolis. At first I moved into Grandma's house for three weeks before Patsy was packed again so that I could move in to the apartment. ((For all those who know me well - I can't move with just one car load :D

Don't worry, Patsy won't be forgotten, in three months (or four or five or when a home in Indy is found) Patsy will be full again so that my belongings can be moved from the downtown apartment to a home in Indianapolis.

Enough complaining about the moving, because I am truly blessed to be down here. Indy is a wonderful city and I LOVE my job!!!

Well here's the simplified explanation of the apartment: it's AMAZING! Apparently Jeff Foster and Helio Castroneves rent this apartment when they come into town. And you're probably asking, "Who are they??" Well.... Foster=Pacers and Helio=Indy Car driver, I hope you get the gist. Basically, it's a really nice place - thank you IU Health!!

Here's a glimpse of the kitchen/dinning room/living room area:


At any rate after an afternoon/evening of moving in to the new apartment here's what my room is looking like:


((Wanna see more - you should probably come visit!! Really, I'm in an ideal location & I'd love to show off where I work and the people I work with!!))

&& off to Evansville we go...

At 1 p.m. today, myself, four cheerleaders, and one security guard found our way into the back of a black stretch limo and headed south to Evansville.

The three hour ride (one-way) was made more bearable due to a bathroom break, a movie, and solid "get-to-know-you-better" conversation, which actually lead to some pretty interesting topics! These girls are super fun to be around. In fact I am super grateful for all of the appearances I go on because it gives me more time with the girls (besides at practice) to bond and get to know them on an individual basis.

Once in Evansville (4pm CST/5pm EST - the time change got more confusing than it should have) we joined the rest of the Colts Summer Tours team and joined forces to rock out the Evansville Fan Fest. This event was different than the stop in Avon (our first summer tour stop) in that at a Fan Fast there's a live band - Jessie Brown!!

For all you Country/Pop/Rock fans here's a link to her website where you can listen to her music:
Miss Jessie Brown

I'm a fan!! (which is a good thing considering I listen to them for two hours at a time every Fan Fest)

During the Fan Fest the girls signed autographs, while I made sure no harm came against them. When in reality going to these events is just a very good excuse to be allowed to people watch. And let me tell you, some of the individuals who show up at these events - they are definitely people watching worthy!!

Upon the conclusion of the Fan Fest the girls made an appearance at the Evansville Otters game. We got in on some AAA baseball action. Before the game started we got to "meet" the Anheuser-Busch Clydesdales!


After standing on the field (yes, me included, with a camera and minus poms) for the National Anthem, we watched the first inning of the game. The girls then performed in between the first and second innings. It was to the song Tambourine by Eve

For dinner the Otters gave us brats - yum! yum! And after a three hour drive back, we were home.

Another long, but fun-filled day!!

40 hrs. = a Shopping Spree

Okay so it wasn't a legit shopping spree, more like some time spent at the mall and a few purchases made on a Wednesday when I'm suppose to be at work.

A new law was set this year for the Colts organization: Interns can only work 40 hrs. per week.

Due to this, I was forced to take today off. And what better to do with a day off than to go shopping?! So Grandma, Mattie (my cousin) and I headed downtown to Circle Center Mall. My goodness, it sure is nice to jump on the highway and 10 minutes later you arrive at a mall. What's more practically any and every store was there - a little piece of Alicia Heaven, ahhh....

Despite two pay checks in the bank, I limited myself to a new purse, a necklace from LOFT (I think I've found my new favorite store, thanks to searching for a graduation dress, and repeated visits) and a top from Forever 21.

After a morning of shopping, we had lunch at Qdoba. If you have the chance to go to one get their Mango Salad with Chicken - it's a delicious summer lunch!!! I promise.

Does this picture help to get those taste buds watering??



It's an Indy life.

Zumbaaaaa!

I have officially learned: Tuesdays are going to be LONG days.

Today started at 6:45 a.m. when my alarm clock so graciously went off. I got in to work by 8:15 (it takes about 30 minutes to get to work from Grandma's house on the south side of Indy). And from 8:15 in the morning until 10 o'clock at night I was busy at the Complex.

I had to get to work early so I could be in attendance at the 8:30 breakfast with the Colts' Marketing Department and those from Emmis Communications. We had a delicious breakfast comprised of fresh fruit, muffins, scrambled eggs, bacon, and hash browns. YUM. YUM. YUM!!

At the breakfast we played a friendly competition of Family Feud, which was creatively renamed Company Feud. The best part about it was that I got to "test out" the game the day before. Six of the interns were asked to take some time away from their busy schedules on Monday to help make sure the game worked! The thing is we played 3 rounds and were away from our desks for a good 30 minutes. No worries, my team won :D

I thought I would really enjoy Family Feud. I did have fun, but I always found myself at a loss for words, especially when the topic seemed so easy!! But I must give credit to the one and only AMill because I was able to win a category for my team because of her. Long story short the category was famous football related movies, my guess: Friday Night Lights - it's because of her that I know of that movie & show.

After breakfast a lot was accomplished, mainly in preparation for practice in the evening. At practice vets (or the returning girls) received their game day uniforms, everyone tried on their new warm-ups made by Annette (Annette is an absolutely AMAZING seamstress!!), final make-up stuff was handed out thank to Tyler-Mason, we had three things for the girls to try on, and the new travel bags were handed out!!

So...my job was to get all of that stuff to practice & in an organized fashion for 42 girls. Let's just say mission accomplished!!!

After all of that happened in the beginning of practice, the girls went through a few dances and fillers. Then the moment I had waited for all day long: ZUMBA!!

I got to work out with the girls, of course I hung out in the back - didn't want to make any of them envious of my mad dancing skills :D NOT. Mara, a cheerleader, is a Zumba instructor and so she lead us all and oh my goodness that was the best Zumba I have ever done!! It was super fast, but so much fun.

I'd say I held my own doing Zumba with the Colts Cheerleaders. Gosh, I LOVE my job!!

Make It Personal

1st MiP of the Summer!

The Make It Personal Colts Summer Tour is officially on its way - we made our first stop at Avon! What a way to kick off June!!

Avon was only 15 minutes away from the complex so Heather & I met the girls there. We got to leave around 4 - all the other interns had to leave around 1 so they could get there early and set up. Thank goodness that's not my task :D

We arrived at a random strip mall in Avon where the tour set-up in the parking lot. Huge Colts player inflatables, a climbing wall, and lots of football affiliated games were at the location. All Heather & I had to do at the event was stand on the stage, behind where the cheerleaders and alumni players sat and act as security. Bow chica wow wow. Who would have thought I, Alicia, would be security?! Guess I am a bit intimidating...or not really.

I got to meet Mike Prior and Will Wolford. And little did I know, Mike Prior actually works in the office with Youth Football, so I see him about every day...oh the perks of being a Colts intern.

To see a summary of the event click on the following link (& see if you can find my Internet debut!!):

Make It Personal - All In Tour Kicks Off at Avon

Here's a hint, I took pictures at the event with my spiffy Canon Rebel XS: