The Countdown Begins!

Hey everyone!!

First off, I am very sorry that it has taken me so long to update the blog. I have been so busy with all of my wonderful visitors over the past couple of weekends, I just haven't had the time but I am super glad that I do now.

I honestly don't even know where to start telling you about all of the wonderful experiences that I was able to have with my bestfriend and my parents and aunt these past two weekends. To put it simply, I am blessed beyond measure and I could not be more thankful to be surrounded with the most amazing friends and family a girl could ask for.

To start off with, my best friend Madi came in on Thursday the 17th and we had an absolute blast together. Due to my work, we basically had to do everything on Saturday the 19th, and let me tell you, we walked, and walked, and walked!! However, we accomplished so many things that Saturday and I couldn't have asked to have a better person to spend that time with. I am so very thankful that I was able to share this city with her and I love the time that we got to spend together. Not to mention, my roommates and friends from TWC loved Madi and told me they were definitely able to see why we are best friends which makes my heart so incredibly happy. Thank you for all of the fun times twin, I am truly blessed to call you my best friend/sister and go to for anything.

The following Wednesday the 23rd, I was blessed with the arrival of my parents and Aunt Kelly who flew in from Denver to see me. We got to spend 5 wonderful days together and I am so so thankful for the wonderful times that we had. My boss even invited them to stop by work on Thursday for lunch and we had a wonderful time talking about all things sports (Well at least my dad and my boss Doug talked while the rest of us just sat back and happily listened haha). On Friday I had to attend Global Citizenship Day at TWC during the day, so they got to go on the DC trolley tour to see the sites instead. Later on that evening, I was able to meet up with them and go to a great Italian restaurant in China Town (Yes, Italian in China Town sounds a little risky, but trust us it is amazing!! If you ever see a Vapiano in your area, go to it!) before heading to the Washington International Horse Show where we got to see an amazing show full of very talented riders and horses,and even military tributes because it was military recognition night. The following day, Saturday, was the day that my daddy will tell you was the only "mandatory scheduled event" he had on his list while he was here, and that was to watch the Tech vs. Oklahoma football game. So we decided that we would have a nice evening at my apartment, in which my momma and aunt cooked some amazing enchiladas and we had wonderful family time watching the game together. Even though the outcome wasn't what we wanted, I wouldn't trade that amazing feeling of being right at home watching the game in my living room being surrounded by the people that mean the most to me. It is funny sometimes how you take such small things for granted, and sitting around the TV watching sports with my family is definitely one of them. The next day, Sunday, was the day I dreaded since my family got here, the day that they were set to leave. However, I refused to be sad that day, because I was getting to celebrate the birthday of two of the most important people in my life, my momma and aunt! For fear of them killing me for saying their age on the internet, I will just say that it was one of those "somewhat milestone" birthdays, and I am so so glad that I got to spend it with them. We spent the day going to the Holocaust Museum, and then walking around the reflecting pool and up to the Lincoln and back down to the White House. It was quite a journey, but well, well worth it! After we walked our butts off and essentially starved ourselves for the day, we went to a place called Legal Seafoods for dinner. (Shocker here, but it is also in China Town! I am telling you that place has some amazing eating establishments) Our dinner was AMAZING to say the least and we were treated very very well by the staff their!
The worse part about the dinner was leaving, because that is when it hit me that once we took the metro back to my apartment, that was going to be it. They were going to get back in the car and leave. I have to say up to this point, I had been able to keep my emotions pretty well in check for the most part and have not really had a breakdown moment. But when we got back to the apartment and headed back outside to say bye, my emotions no doubt got the best of me. I know that my momma and daddy and Aunt Kelly already know this, but I shed a few tears and they did too, but the best thing was hearing all of them say that they were proud of me and loved me very very much! Even though I already know that each day, it is just a great thing to hear, especially when you are feeling kinda down.

So. Now that I have had time to digest the happenings over the past few weekends I have come to realize a few more things. Number one, I don't need to be sad or upset that my family is no longer here, while I would love for them to be with me every single day, I realize that I have grown up so much in my short time here and being without them has taught me so much. I know it sounds silly, but I realized that I can do things on my own and that I am strong enough to live on my own! Although I will admit that I am happily looking forward to being back in the comfort of my parents home when I get back in 6 short weeks, but it is just comforting to know that I can do things on my own. Number two, I realized how rewarding having a "hard working" internship really is. At first I was upset that I had to work during a few of the days that Madi and my family were here, but I realize that that is what happens in real "grown up" life. You don't always get to choose when you want to have off or to even stop working when you are on vacation, and having this internship that pushes me to work hard each and every day has been an overall great experience.

Number three, and perhaps the greatest thing I realized is that I have a whole new "Countdown" to look forward to in the coming weeks. For starters, as I mentioned earlier, I will be home in just 6 short weeks! That may sound like quite a while, but with how fast these weeks are flying by I know it will be here before I know it and I am going to do my darndest to enjoy every minute that I have left here in DC. Next on my list is in just a little over 2 weeks (Nov. 16th and 17th) I will be going up to Philadelphia to visit and stay the night with a few wonderful friends from California and I am so so excited about it. Then 3 short weeks after that, (Dec. 7th) my wonderful brother Karson is coming to DC to visit and help me with my packing to get ready to come back home. Finally to top off the whole "Countdown", I will be graduating from LCU in exactly 44 days!!! How crazy is that! I can't even believe that in a little over a month I will officially be a "grown up"! And of course there are all of the holidays coming up, and although I am missing Thanksgiving for the first time ever with my family back home, I no doubt will be able to have a great time here in DC with my new friends and roommates.

Needless to say, I have had some of the best times possible these past couple of weeks here and I will keep all of these wonderful memories with me forever! I am looking forward to all of the things that I have listed on my "Countdown" and I am most certainly grateful for all of the amazing things that I have been blessed to do and accomplish thus far. DC has been an experience that I will never, ever forget and I am so very thankful that each of you have stuck with me through it all. I will do my best to keep you up to date with work and all of the happenings going on in and around TWC. Until then, please know that I love and appreciate you all so very much. I apologize that this post is so long, and I hope that I haven't rambled along too much. I will post a few pictures below to give you an idea of some of the amazing times we all had!

Have a great week!!

One of Madi and I's adventures at the zoo where we were finally able to see the panda up close!

My roommate Jasmine, Madi and I went on a "night walking tour" to the White House and the Capital

Our seats at the Washington International Horse Show! It was an amazing night!!

My wonderful and amazing Aunt Kelly and Momma on the night that we celebrated their birthday at Legal Seafoods. It was a fantastic night and the food was to die for!! So glad I got to spend this special day with them!

Short and Sweet!

Hey everyone!

This post is going to be short and sweet (hence the title) but I just wanted to make one since I haven't this entire week. (I am sure you are on pins and needles ;)) Haha anyways I just wanted to give you all a little update on how my week is going.

To put it mildly it has been full of work and pretty boring events, but I do have to say that the bright side is that work is actually not too bad and has been rather rewarding in terms of giving me a great experience and a great new appreciation of the term "hard work pays off". We have been very busy at the agency and when I have more time, I will hopefully be able to fill you in a little bit more. But for right now just to let everyone know, I am working every day and putting every skill and piece of knowledge that exist within my little brain to use!

On a much lighter and happier note, this weekend and all of next week will be a fantastic time for me! As I am writing this my best friend, Madi is taking off from the airport to come and visit me until Sunday and I could not be more excited!!! Having her here will be such an amazing experience and I can't wait to show her all that DC has to offer! And hallelujah she is getting here right as the shut down is over so we can actually go to the museums and monuments!! It is going to be a great weekend and I look forward to posting pictures for all of you to see the wonderful adventures we will be going on.

Then shortly after Madi leaves me, I get another wonderful visit from my lovely parents and aunt who is coming all the way from Colorado to visit! I am beyond words excited for them to get here and so glad that it is only one week away!! They will be here for around 5 days and I just know we will have an amazing time! I am so happy to get to be the tour guide now instead of having to ask someone else for help. I must admit I have gotten pretty darn good at knowing where things are around this crazy place, so hopefully we won't be getting in to too much trouble while they are all here! ;)

As I said earlier this past week has been filled with work and some homework assignments for our class, but I did have the opportunity to catch a preseason NBA game between the Wizards and the Heat on Tuesday and it was lots of fun! It is pretty hilarious to see how crazy people get over seeing Lebron James and Dwayne Wade play. I will post a few pictures below so that you can see what the Verizon Center Arena looks like. I will hopefully be attending more sporting events their in the coming weeks, so when I do I will be sure to keep you posted.

I hope you are all having a fantastic week and I look forward to sharing with you all in the weeks to come about the adventures that we all take with my lovely visitors!!


Sorry the picture is kind of blurry! But here is what the Verizon Center looked like from our seats! Lebron James is on the bottom left and Dwayne Wade is the one shooting the free throw on the right! Hopefully I will have better pictures in the weeks to come, so stay tuned!

Off to the airport I go!!! Love you all!!

Kalee

Forever Blue!!

Hello everyone!

What a week it has been! This weekend was by far the best that I have been a part of while being here, and it just so happens that it included many of our wonderful faculty and dignitaries from LCU. This post will be mainly about the wonderful events that we attended throughout the weekend and some of the great people that I was blessed to meet.

Starting on Saturday, we got to catch up and eat lunch with some of our faculty members from LCU and discuss with them all of the fun things we have been getting to do, along with talking about each of our internships and the great experiences we are having. We ate at a great place called Ella's Woodfire pizza that I will definitely be going back to at some point while I am here. It was delicious!

Sunday was our first full day of activities with the LCU crew and we started it off on a great note by attending church service at Arlington Church Of Christ in Arlington, VA. It was a wonderful little church that even welcomed us during the service and it was honestly the first time where I felt like I was somewhere that reminded of the wonderful church community back in West Texas. The only downfall about this great church is the fact that it is an hour commute in each direction for us from the RAF at NOMA, so it is quite a daunting task to get there. After church our group went to an amazing chili place called Hard Times Cafe. This is one of the times that my previous trip here to DC back in March came in handy because my mother and I had actually ate there and I knew it was great, so thankfully the others trusted my opinion and we enjoyed a great time at Hard Times. We were blessed to be joined by many faculty members and President Perrin and his wife were also there to enjoy some time with all of us which was great. After eating entirely to much, we made our way over to the Courtyard Marriott at the Navy Yard where we were set to have our LCU Forever Blue Alumni Reception. For those that don't know this is the Alumni Relations tour that President Perrin has been traveling around to throughout the state of Texas and many states across the country in order to keep in contact with our alumni and keep them involved with the university. This event was pretty amazing for me to see the amount of alums that came out and also to see how people who used to be students just like me from LCU have gone on to have some amazing careers and lives within the DC and New York area. At the reception I was also introduced to Mr. Jim Cardwell who plays an extremely pivotal role in my time here in DC as he and his family have provided the scholarships for the LCU Washington Program and getting to meet and talk with him was a great honor and privilege.  I was also able to connect with many alumni, along with several of the LCU board of directors and their spouses which turned out to be an amazing experience. And to top it all off, each of us got to take a to-go box full of goodies back to our apartments from the reception! Let me tell you, if you think this sounds like we were spoiled this weekend, you are exactly right! But just wait, it gets even better!

Monday, Monday, Monday. Typically this is the day that I dread because it means the start to another long week of programming, but this Monday I was far from that viewpoint. I knew that we were in for a grand day, but I must admit my expectations were far surpassed. We started off the day by attending the TWC Awards Luncheon in which President Perrin accepted our award for private university of the year and it was a great experience. I will be honest and tell you that I was pretty nervous about the food choices that we would be given, because as my family and friends that know me so well will tell you, I am an extremely picky person and only in the past few years have I actually started eating more than chicken strips and mashed potatoes. But let me just tell you, I ate pretty much every bit of the food that was provided for us, which included a salad with a vinaigrette, chicken stuffed with some type of spinach mix and the best strawberry shortcake dessert I have ever had! Yes, you read that right, I ate spinach, and salad without ranch dressing in the same sitting! (I know must of you reading this don't believe me, but Dr. Rogers is my witness and will tell you the truth if you need to ask him ;)) Overall, the awards luncheon was a great time and provided me with a lot more insight as to how The Washington Center really works and their particular interest in the civic engagement area for all of us students.
Now comes my favorite part of this entire week! Last night we got to attend the amazing and literally awe inspiring Gala that was put on by TWC. Let me just tell you that I have never in my life been somewhere this nice and elegant! Of course we all looked extremely fancy and put on our best dresses and suits for the occasion. I will say that we Texans clean up pretty darn good when we are asked to! Every one of us got many great compliments on our attire and personalities and not to toot my own horn, but I truly believe we were great representatives for LCU and our Lubbock community through our actions last night. As we were standing around during what you would call the social or cocktail hour, I was in awe of how many upstanding people I was surrounded by, not only from our University but from people all across the world. When it came time for the curtains to be opened to the dining room, I thin I can speak for all of us students and say that our jaws literally dropped when we first walked into the space. It was by far one of the most beautiful places that I have ever seen and the decorations, along with the fountain sprouting right in the middle of the dining area made for a spectacle that I will never forget. The table settings were immaculate and in all honesty I was a little concerned that I was out of my element when I saw that we each had 3 glasses, multiple forks and plates and there was shimmering golden laced china around us. However, thanks to my wonderful parents who sent me to Cotillion for two years back in my Junior High days I was able to put my "fancy dining" skills to good use and not feel too overwhelmed. Once again, I will admit that I was very nervous about the food that would be served to us, but it turns out that if you are willing to be a little adventurous, then most of the time it will pay off. Now I will have to say that I did not eat all that was on my plates, but just so you know, I did make sure to try everything on my plates (other than the brussell sprouts. Sorry mom, that is just never going to happen!!) I was very blessed to sit at the table with some great people from LCU including Dr.'s Jesse and  JoAnn Long who are absolutely amazing! Their influence on me has meant so much, and I am so excited that I now have more connections with faculty other than the great people of the ESS Department.
In regards to the actual event, I will reiterate how insanely honored I was to even be in the same room as so many dignified people. Not only were we in the room with them, we got to hear so many of them speak and accept their awards that were bestowed upon them by TWC. We got to hear from two congress members who were both very funny and even joked how they knew there was irony in the fact that they were accepting awards during a government shutdown. There were also several other great men honored who have been a huge help in respects to TWC and their fundraising efforts. I won't go into too many details in order to keep this post from being a full on book, but just know we were surrounded by some truly amazing people of very high standing.
So as you can see, we were surrounded by an abundant amount of amazing people who have built some of the most impressive careers possible, and many of them have actually come from TWC roots and internships themselves. As a matter of fact, every person who got up to speak to us talked about the importance of internships and how they would not be where they were without the opportunities given to them through internships! This gives me so much hope and courage to keep on keepin' on with this great experience and I could not be more thrilled that I got to be a part of such a wonderful occasion.
It was truly a night that I will never forget and I am so thankful to be a part of an amazing school like LCU. It is pretty awesome to say that such a small school from the state of Texas has made such an enormous impact on the world of Washington, D.C. and for us to be recognized in the setting that we were in was a huge honor. I can promise you that we as interns are doing are darnedest to represent LCU in a way that exemplifies this award and we will continue to show everyone just what it means to come from the Life Changing University. At the end of the day I can truly say that I am a part of the greatest institution possible, and I will always and forever be grateful for all of the amazing opportunities that it has provided for me.

Now comes the not as fun part, going back to work! However, for me it is just as fun because I am getting to be a part of an ever growing agency and sports law environment and from here on out I look to come to work with a positive attitude every single day that will allow me to work my tail off, while at the same time having fun and learning as much as possible. It is funny sometimes how things tend to work out in your life, and I truly believe that being here at DLE will shape and mold me into a better person in all aspects of life.

Overall, these past 4 days have been some of the most rewarding days I have ever had the chance to experience and I am so thankful that I was able to do it with our LCU family. From church, to the Be Blue Reception, to the awards luncheon, to the awe inspiring Gala, I have been so blessed to have this opportunity and will forever be indebted to all of the wonderful people who made it possible. There are several people who were with us throughout this weekend who I have not mentioned in this post, but trust me every single person I came in contact with has made a huge impact on my life in one way or another and I want to thank you all!

I look forward to filling you all in next week on the things that I will be working on this week at DLE and like always thank you all so much for your thoughts and prayers. As cliche as it sounds, I promise I feel your love all the way here in DC and it means the world to me. I am going to post some pictures below for you all to enjoy! I hope you have a great week and know that I love you all!

 All of us interns with President and Mrs. Perrin at Hard Times Cafe.

Throwing up the Chap sign for Chap Nation of course!

Accepting the award for Private University Of The Year

 The panoramic view of the dining area at the gala. Such a awe inspiring place! The picture does not do it justice!

 Masy, Me, and Angela at the gala. Love these girls! 

Our table setting! See what I mean by all of the fancy things! 

Big thanks to Dr. Susan Blassingame for sending me lots of these cool pictures she took of us over the weekend! 

More pictures to come later! Thanks for reading this super long post! I am now and will always be FOREVER BLUE! Have a great night/day!! 

Love you all!

Kalee 

First Day and What Lies Ahead

Hey everyone!

This week has been crazy already and it is only Tuesday! I realized that I have yet to actually make a post that tells you about my week and the things that are happening in it, so this post will definitely be about all of that.

Yesterday I FINALLY started my internship, and I LOVE IT!! Yes it has only been one day and yes it was only for a few hours, but it was utterly amazing. I left there feeling like I am going to experience so much this semester and get to do so many cool and exciting things. My boss is genuinely an upstanding guy and is literally in the position that I aspire to be in someday. I am also getting to work alongside another student who is in his second year of law school at George Mason University, named Pasha. He is a great guy and I think we are going to be able to work very well together. DLE Agency is truly an up and coming sports representation and consultation agency and there is no doubt in my mind that it will become a huge hit among big time athletes in the very near future!

As for the rest of this week, my boss will be in New York attending business meetings so Pasha and I will be working together through email from the comfort of our own homes. I am so excited about all of the opportunities that I will be presented with throughout these next 10 weeks and can not wait until I have more to share with all of you.

As for my weekend, it will be extremely exciting as well! Most of you know, but some may not, LCU is being honored by the Washington Center as the private university of the year and because of this we will all be attending a Gala on Monday evening. So because of the gala and us being honored, many of our deans and faculty from LCU are coming here to DC to celebrate with us and we will get to have a fun filled weekend of catching up and going to see the sights (well at least the ones that aren't shut down by the government). We will have a reception on Sunday evening for all of the LCU people that are here, as well as various alumni from around the area and I am so looking forward to seeing familiar faces and talking with all of these wonderful people.

In regards to the government shutdown it doesn't really effect my job so I am still getting to go to work every day in the coming weeks, or however long this thing lasts. However, many of my friends are now out of internships so it will be an interesting time for all of them trying to find something to keep them busy the next couple of weeks or so. It does also mean that most of the museums, the monuments and the zoo will be closed for the time being and that is truly so sad because it ruins the experience of DC for so many people. I am hoping that this shutdown will not last as long as people are saying that it will and we will all be able to return to a since of normalcy around here, but until then I am sure that we will be able to find fun things to do!

I hope each of you has an amazing week and I look forward to sharing more about my internship with you over the next few months! I am so excited for the fall weather to come and get to experience the leaves changing in the next few weeks. Until next time, just know that I love and appreciate you all and thank you so much for all of the sweet comments that I got yesterday regarding my first day. You are all amazing!

Love,
Kalee