Still On My Hanson High!

Happy Wednesday everyone! The picture above is of all of us Spring interns - I'm third from the back :) This picture may possibly be placed in INC magazine.

As you can imagine, I have continued to be on my Hanson high. It has honestly been a great week - and will continue to be Great for the next couple of weeks. This past weekend we went to Manhattan Beach because it was 75 degrees, while it was -30 in Minnesota! I could definitely get used to laying on the beach every weekend! It was beautiful!

Saturday night, most of us interns met up with some of the full-timers out at a dance club? There is lack of a better word for where we went - but it was a lot of fun to be able to hang out with them outside of TOMS. We all were dancing, having a great time!

Sunday night, I went to church with Abbi and her friend Ryan at Mosaic. The service was actually in an old theater - it was a very different atmosphere that I am used to, but it was a great worship service. For the past couple of weeks, the sermons were formed around advertisements that you can see in LA. It was a great sermon about judgment and misinterpretation.

Although I would say that God has been apart of my life, I know that I have not fully accepted him as I should have. It is amazing what he has done to my heart in the past few weeks - I'm excited to feel and accept his presence in my life. I have already learned so much about myself, who I am, who I can be - what I want with the life God has given me. I still have a lot of questions about my faith, but I'm finally at the point to address these questions and let him overflow my life... :) And that is where I'm at today.

Monday at work, I had to get stuff ready for a trade show that we are at this week in Vegas. I have to put together our spring/summer/fall samples, press kits and other stuff that we give out to buyers at trade shows. After I got a lot of samples together, I decided that I should organize all of our samples and ended up staying at the office until 8:00 to do so. I'm really glad I did though, because it will make future trade shows easier to get ready for!

Tuesday, I was at work early, then I brought one of the full-timers Garett, to the airport. Garett was heading to Vegas to meet up with some other TOMS people for the trade show that I was helping get ready for. This was my first time driving in LA. I got to drive on the infamous 405! Poor Garett. I was driving Abbi's car, which is not a stick shift. But, I think I've got the hang of it now. In LA, you have to be an aggressive driver. AH!

After the airport, I headed to a book signing in Santa Monica. The book is called "Never trust a man in alligator loafers" by Donna Sozio. She wrote the book about how you can tell a guy's love potential by the shoes that he wears - and at her book signings, she does a 'shoe reading' on your significant other's shoes. Well - I went there to get Blake's shoes read... which said he was creative, outgoing, likes to have fun, but is still very structured. Which is very TRUE. It was very interesting. The shoe reading was being taped, so ME and TOMS might actually be on her website!

Yesterday, I also found out that next week I get to go to Vegas for another trade show, WSA. WSA stands for World Shoe Association and the trade show is and the international shoe market. I am SO excited!! I'm the only intern that gets to go, so I am very lucky to get this opportunity. I will get to see how a big trade show like that works and see Blake in action -- I am going to soak in as much as possible!! I will be driving in a U-haul with one of the other TOMS people to Vegas next Wednesday and leaving sometime Saturday night - just in time to make it back for TOMS big event with Red Bull and a local board shop Active here in LA.

So, as you can see I have had a pretty awesome week! PLUS - this Friday is when I get to meet Brett Dennen! I have been in contact with his manager and me and the intern director Mike will be meeting him to give him a pair of TOMS. We are hoping that after we meet him and tell him more about TOMS in person, Brett will become interested and want to be involved! I am SO excited for the show too!

Happy Valentine's Day to everyone tomorrow! I will obviously have more pictures up after this weekend - It will be another nice and sunny weekend here in California and I am planning on spending it at the beach :)


PEACE & LOVE & TOMS :)


-KJ

I'm Tired, Tuesday!

The picture to the left is of me and a couple of the other interns in Laguna Beach over this past weekend! It has been a crazy week! I can't believe a week has already flown by since I last wrote!

Last week we had our party in San Diego. I was planning on going early to help set up at the party and trade show, then I was told I didn't have to, then Thursday morning when I rolled into work I found out I was needed in San Diego. We had to have one of the other interns with a car, who wasn't going to be too busy that day, drive me down to San Diego. Dave, who is from San Francisco was the lucky one.

It was a really busy day for us because we had to stop a couple times a long the way to get some things for the party and trade show. We stopped in Carlsbad, California which was so BEAUTIFUL! Well, really, the whole drive down to San Diego was beautiful. It was a really nice day so I was able to get some good pictures in while Dave drove.

We were able to get the stuff we needed, get down to the trade show in downtown San Diego, walk around the show, drop stuff off at the bar where the party was and get to La Jolla, California just in time to meet the other interns. Most of the other interns came down for the party and we were able to stay at one of the TOMS full timer's house in La Jolla... again, Beautiful! This was the view from the front of her drive way! (below)

The party was good, but definitely not my crowd. There were a lot of 'surfer dude' types there and the bands we had play were very odd...

The next day we all woke up pretty early and a couple cars of us decided we would drive back to LA on the Pacific Highway --- which again, was beautiful!

We didn't stop in a lot of places, but we DID stop in Laguna. A bunch of us stopped and got lunch and did a little browsing of their shops. The town was set up in the hills and had a lot of cute restaurants and shops and of course had a great beach! (The top picture.)

It was really nice to have the Friday off and be able to take our time getting back to LA and get to see some things along the way. That night we all were pretty tired and wanted to just relax, so we did!

Saturday afternoon my room mates and I decided to do some touring around Santa Monica and LA. We went to J-Town (Japanese Town, which is just a little area that has a lot of Japanese restaurants and stores). We then decided to go to The Grove, which is a shopping area in West Hollywood that has a movie theatre, a lot of great stores and a farmer's market - where we had some onion rings, which we think are what gave Abbi food poisoning, she was sick all day Sunday :(!

Yesterday at work we got to meet Blake for the first time! It is really fun to have him around the office and it totally feels like he is a celebrity - well, at least to us interns! It was just really odd when I was going through our press clippings, with articles about him and he is standing right there! Yesterday a film crew with Current TV came in to interview him and took footage of our office/warehouse.


Today was awesome! I got to sit in on a merchandising meeting with Blake... I learned so much in just 40 minutes! I got to listen to Blake explain where he got the idea for an upcoming product for TOMS. He was incredibly inspiring - I could have listened to him talk about everything for hours! Plus, what TOMS has coming up for spring and fall is pretty amazing and I can't wait for the launch!

I am incredibly exhausted and I will write more soon! I would love to hear some of Ya'll's comments!!

-Peace & TOMS!

Kirsten

"Surprise Me, God"

Happy Monday!


This past weekend, I bought (or shall I say, Financed) a digital SLR camera. When I was in high school, I took all of the photography classes possible and fell in love with it. I have been itching to get a digital SLR camera for awhile, and thanks to a generous Christmas 'donation' to my camera down payment, I picked up my camera on Friday.

I haven't had anything to really take pictures of except my lovely hot dog Jewels , since my mom makes funny faces when I try to take pictures of her (don't worry, I won't post them.) So, this weekend I took about 200 photos of Jewels, and she wasn't too happy about it. But it was good practice for me, since I have a lot to learn about the camera and it's capabilities. I hope to take a lot of photos while I am in Santa Monica, that is if I think my beautiful camera will be safe in my living quarters. I might have to invest in a lock box and chain it to my bed or something.

Yesterday I attended a "Women's Winter Tea" with my mom at our church. I wasn't too thrilled about going at first, thinking I would be the youngest one there (but I wasn't, by far.) But, I actually enjoyed myself since a lady who we sat with was a mother to three of my fellow RAHS grads. We definitely had a lot to talk about since Roseville is pretty much a Small World, and everyone seems to know everything about everybody.

The speaker for the Tea, was Terry Esau who is/was a jingle writer for advertising, many of which I know most people would recognize. He has written a book about his faith experiment called "Surprise Me, God." And, I don't think that I can give his presentation justice by explaining it, so I highly suggest you check him out by going to his website or even reading about his book on Amazon.com. But, I will say that the experiment is simple and something I think everyone can/should adopt because it is simply about recognizing God's gifts to us in our daily lives.

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I've been looking into concerts and events that I will want to go to in California. I am really excited to see that one of my recent favorite artists, Brett Dennen, will be performing at a small cultural center in LA on February 15th. The center is about 10 - 15 miles from where I will be living.


Adios, para ahora! (I've been told that my Spanish will come in handy, yay!)

Off to California!

Hello to all!


This past weekend, I found out that I was offered an internship with TOMS in Santa Monica, California. It would be stupid of me to not accept.... So, I'm leaving this Minnesota winter and off to California in two weeks!

I'm hoping to keep my blog updated while I am away in sunny California, so that my family and friends can read what I am up to. And of course, I will be posting pictures!!


I first heard about TOMS before heading to a Hanson concert at First Ave in Minneapolis. Hanson's 2007 tour was called "The Walk Tour" which was in partnership with TOMS shoes. At every tour location, Hanson invited their fans to do a mile walk around the city without wearing shoes - then they encouraged the 'walkers' to check out TOMS.

TOMS was started by Blake Mycoskie and is formed around the idea that every pair of shoes purchased, TOMS donates a pair to a child in poverty. This past November, TOMS brought 50,000 pairs of shoes to South Africa; in 2006 they brought 10,000 pairs to Argentina. Hanson actually helped out with the South Africa shoe drop and you can see what all they have done to get involved with TOMS.

My discovery of TOMS and seeing how Hanson has gotten involved, was very inspiring for me. You can ask my mom, she wasn't sold on the idea at first. (The idea of me taking an internship in California.) But, after I explained the cause and what I would be doing, I think she understood. This experience will allow me to support and promote a business revolved around a simple idea: To give back to others in need. I would be excited at the opportunity to go along to a 'Shoe Drop' but I'm not going to get a head of myself. :)
My official title is "Cause Connect Intern." I will have more details about my duties later. But, for now I can tell you that I will be living in Santa Monica with the other interns, within 2 miles of the Pacific Ocean. I will not only get to be involved with a great cause, meet other passionate people, get valuable work experiences.... But, it will be bringing me to a great location that I have never been to. :)

More later!