Amarillo, Texas

Another Color Run, here and gone. This summer is flying by and I am not ok with it. But it’s been such a blast! This color run was one of my very favorites! No sleep but plenty of fun. Literally, I got 2 hours of sleep every night.

            I flew out Thursday morning (I had to get up at 4am. Woof). It’s always easy to find all the other color run staff at the airport because we all wear something that says color run on it. Everyone on this trip was seriously so. Freaking. Awesome. So kind, so fun, and so hardworking! We got to Amarillo which was quite dry. I was expecting it to be humid as heck, but Amarillo is in the pan handle of Texas so the weather was perfect. We stopped for lunch at Torchy’s Tacos, which seriously has some of the best tacos I’ve ever had! We went twice because it was that good. That night we got everything set up at Kohl’s for packet pickup. And I acquired my 2 nicknames for this trip: “The BYU intern” & “Data” because my stupid phone ran out of data and I couldn’t use it.

            After set up we went to the tourist trap of Amarillo for staff dinner- Big Texan Steak House. HOLY COW. It was freaking awesome. It was totally decked out in everything Texas. You could ride in a limo from the parking lot to the front of the restaurant, and the front of the limo had longhorn antlers, or whatever they’re called. Also, they have this deal if you can eat a 72 ounce steak, fries, and a drink in under an hour, your meal is free. My stomach hurts just thinking about it. But it did it! I ate a 72 ounce steak! Haha juuuuust kidding. I’m not thaaat fat. But the food was so good. There were 2 cute little old men all dressed up with guitars walking around to serenate people with some country music. Seriously, I love Texas.

            On Friday we spent all day setting up for the event, per usual. The festival area was located on this hill area next to a hospital and next to some main roads. The first 2 I’d done were at a park, so it was a change of scenery for me. There were only 2500 participants at this race (compared to Hershey, 20k!) so it was really small, but that made it even more fun! My friend Ali who is literally the coolest person ever (she got kissed by Usher. How can anyone top that?) was one of the MC’s, and she asked me to sing the Star Spangled Banner! Hoooooly cow, I haven’t been that nervous in a long time. I used to sing all the time, but for the past 4 years I’ve had vocal nodules (like the girl from pitch perfect who has nodes) so I haven’t really sung because it hurts pretty bad, plus I’ve lost a lot of voice control. Regardless, I decided I needed to get back into it so I happily agreed. That night we went back for round 2 at Torchy’s Tacos. #Yumyums.

            The next morning we got up suuuper early, and with 2 hours of sleep I felt so rested and ready to go. Jk lolz. We got everything set up and then I just walked around trying not to pee my pants because I was so nervous. I kept practicing and making sure I had the words down to the Star Spangle Banner. When I was in high school I sang it at a basketball game and I tooootally messed up the words so bad. I don’t even know what song I was singing, probably something from Miley Cyrus. It was bad. So I didn’t want to do that again in front of 2500 people. Thankfully it went alright! It wasn’t my best, but for my first time singing in front of people in 4 years I didn’t mess up to horribly. Maybe I can convince the race director at my next race to let me sing it again. We’ll see.

            We finished clean up at around 3, and by the time I got back to my hotel I counted 37 mosquito bites, 2 of which were larger than a quarter. I fell asleep and woke up 6 hours later and completely panicked because I thought it was the next day already. Hehe it wasn’t. A lot of the staff got together and went to Midnight Rodeo, a place where every dancer’s dreams come true. There’s a country room with a circular dance floor, and then a hip-hop room to dance to some serious jamz. It was a blast. Something weird- as the guy at the front was checking my ID he noticed my height and said, “What?! Utah?? You’re too short to live in Utah!”…. um sir, you make no sense.

            And then as soon as it came it was over. What a fun trip with such great people. Can’t wait for another color run! Next stop, Grand Rapids, Michigan.

P.S. I would also like to announce that I have now overcome one of my biggest irrational fears- airplane bathrooms. I kid you not, every time I go in there I am silently praying and singing songs to myself so I won’t have a panic attack. But now I’m over it! Yayeeeee. I am still working on my fear of porta potties. Stay tuned. 

Hershey, Pennsylvania

First off, before we get started, I’d just like to point out the embarrassing fact that I can’t even spell Savannah, Georgia. WOW JESSICA, WOW. This isn’t Jimmy Fallon where H’s are “EW”. Sorry I spelled your name wrong, city of Savannah.

Now that THAT’S out of the way, I wanna talk about Hershey PA! It was so. Much. FUN! Suuch a great weekend. Here’s de lowdown...

This trip was from Wednesday-Monday because Hershey had a two-day race since so many people registered. I left Wednesday and made it onto my flight right as they were boarding the last people. I just have this thing where I love to see how close I can make it I guess… More like I went through security twice because the first time they thought I was a terrorist with my opened yogurt that I hadn’t started eating yet. And they wouldn’t let me eat it on the other side of security- how lame is that? Well they have every right to do that. I could have been a terrorist with that yogurt. I’m kidding by the way, NSA…

            We landed in Baltimore and drove through some iconic Baltimore streets that made me feel like I was in Hairspray, except all the windows and doors on the street were boarded up. It was a little bit eerie I must say.

            We made our way to Hershey and decided to stop at Panera Bread because IT’S NOT IN UTAH, and we somehow got roped into some random guy trying to get us to join his multi-level-marketing company for protein drinks and wouldn’t leave us alone about it. The key to getting rid of those people is to not make direct eye contact, but just look at their forehead the whole time. Drives ‘em crazy.

            Holy cow, Hershey is INSANELY beautiful!! There were so many rolling hills with cute little barns all by themselves with tons of trees everywhere. I loved it. It was decently humid but it wasn’t too bad, except the last day when it was rainy.

Car pic of the gorgeous roads. 

            I got super lucky and had my own hotel room since there were only 3 girls. It was SAWEET. The first morning we had PPU (packet pick up) for the participants at Kohl’s and then we had a meeting. Pretty chill day. The next morning, some friends and I drove to Hershey High School and did a sprint workout on their track. That high school is DANG nice, and it was really fun to drive through the neighborhoods and see how much personality all the houses have.

Gorgeous morning @ Hershey High.

            We went to the venue (Hershey Park, right next to the theme park and the Giants Stadium) and set up all day. I love watching a huge park with just grass turn into a really cool venue. I dunno, maybe it’s dumb, but I love watching everything come together; maybe that’s why I like events so much.

For this race, The Color Run partnered with the Rett Syndrome Foundation, and our friend Noelle graduated from high school! Staff pic required. 

            The next day we woke up early for the race. The first race day went really well! The race director named Wally was a TON of fun. He bought sheets of birthday cake and just threw the entire thing into the audience. It was freaking hilarious. One entire cake went right in this girl’s face who was on her dad’s shoulders. It was amazing. She was totally fine, by the way. Wally also brought a water buffalo and was drenching everybody. It was so much fun! I had to go on stage to take some pictures, and the DJ came up behind me and dropped a big bag of yellow color all over me- I was completely covered.

            Since this was a two-day race, we didn’t have to take anything down after the race the first day! It was so nice. One of the vendors sold fried chicken and burgers, and they fed of the staff free lunch. Afterward we all changed and headed to Hershey theme park for freeeeee! That was so awesome. They have a water park inside too. I was a total idiot and decided not to wash my yellow-covered hair thinking that it would wash out in the water. WRONG. It turned my hair green!! Ya know I promise I have a brain inside somewhere. Thankfully the green didn’t stay and it washed out when I came home. Hershey has some sick roller coasters too.

            Race day #2. I made the decision in my head and in my heart that I was not going to get covered in color that day like I did the day before. I was going to avoid major colorful areas and leave the venue looking pretty clean.

About 30 minutes after they sent the first wave of runners, Wally came up to me riding a gator with another staff member. He rode up to me and said, “Hey Jess can you come here for a minute? I’ve got a question about sponsorship.” And I’m thinking, ‘Oh yeah let’s do this! I gotta impress’, and I run over and Wally throws a bucket of yellow color all over me. I. Was. COVERED. Then he started laughing and they drove away. SERIOUSLY?! It was actually really funny though. I totally fell for it.

 Everyone was efficient with cleanup and we got out of there at a decent time. I totally forgot to put sunscreen on and I wore a tank top all day. I have a real good burn to prove my stupidity. Thankfully it turned into a tan. Awww yeah.

Um... OW!!!

            After we got cleaned up we all went out to dinner at a place called Houlihan’s. It reminds me of the cheesecake factory. Yum yums. It was good. Afterward I went with my two ladies Julie and Jenny (the 3 color run girls were Julie, Jess, and Jenny. Those poor boys haha) and we drove around looking for an ice cream shop open past 9pm. Turns out most stores go to bed early. We did get out and dance to some seriously good 90’s hip-hop jamz in the middle of the street in the rain. #HERSHEYEPICMOMENTS

 They are so stinkin cool.

            The next day we went back to theme park for about an hour before heading back to the airport. I got 4 bags of pretzels on the flight home and my sweet Matteo was waiting for me at the airport. It was a great great trip! Next stop, Texas. 

Savanna, Georgia

As I mentioned in my previous post, I am interning with The Color Run this summer; I’ll be working as an onsite sponsorship coordinator. Basically I work with the vendors and sponsors for that specific event and help out with putting together the event and all that fun stuff. I’ll be travelling throughout the summer to work at the events in different cities. I had my first race last weekend in Savanna, Georgia, and I just wanted to share about it before I leave for another race tomorrow.

            My race dates were from Thursday-Sunday, and it was nonstop craziness! Normally I would stay at a hotel with the rest of the crew and I would have a roommate. This race was unique because they rented a house and cottage in the middle of the city for the weekend for us to stay in! I really enjoyed it. The house and cottage were both gorgeous and located in the cutest little neighborhood. The city of Savanna is an absolute dream. There’s so much history, beautiful architecture, and gorgeous weather. The race was at Forsyth Park, located in the historic district of Savanna. It’s a huge park that kind of reminds me of Central Park in NYC.

Not a very good picture... the house we stayed at.

The historic district is gorgeous. During the weekend I think I saw about 

8 weddings going on throughout the city. 

            My flight got in late on Thursday night, and on Friday morning we had a team meeting and split up to head to the park to set up and to Kohl’s for packet pick-up (where all the participants go to pick up their race packets). It was a busy day of setting up the venue and working with vendors and sponsors in preparation for the race the next day.

The gorgeous venue.

            The next morning I woke up at 4AM. I repeat, 4AM. Woof. We arrived super early to finish set up and get everything ready for the race to start on time. Watching everyone have such a blast at the race and at the concert after the race made all the hard work so worth it! I had to go on stage and take some pictures, and it was so much fun being on stage and watching how excited everyone was to see me up there! Hahaha totally kidding. But I decided that I want to DJ the next race. I already know how to beat box so you could say that I’m qualified.

            After the race was over and all the takedown was finished, we went back to the house where some of the guys were barbecuing. After dinner we split up and some of the group went bar hopping and some girls and I explored a bit of the city. It’s really interesting how there are opportunities to be a missionary in situations like these. Just because I said no thanks to a few glasses of wine and to not going bar hopping, people got really curious and started asking me questions. It’s refreshing being one of the only Mormons in a group of people- it reminds me of my Disney days.

Goofing off after a long day of working.

            Here is where the story gets really good so PUT ON EVERY SEATBELT YOU OWN PEOPLE.

            I got to bed at about 12:30 Saturday night because I had to do some work after we got back. I woke up at 3:45am the next morning to get to the airport. My flight was at 6:30 but the girl I was taking with me to the airport had a flight at 5:30. No biggie. I dropped her off, returned the rental car, and headed up to check some bags. There was a HUGE line because there was only one person doing all of baggage checking. I finally got through checking my bag and went through security up to my gate. There were no employees at the gate to be found, and we were supposed to be boarding fairly soon. All of a sudden I see the guy who was checking bags come running up the stairs to board everyone! I was worried he was gonna put on another hat and drive the plane too. We had to wait longer because of unexpected maintenance issues (don’t know if that’s comforting or terrifying). I was nervous because I had an hour in between flights and this was really cutting it close.

            When we landed in Houston I had ten minutes to spare. I was gonna make it! Then we heard an announcement: “Ladies and gentlemen, although this is the most amazing invention in the world, it seems we can’t get close enough to the gate door.” WUT. Fiiiinally after about 7 minutes we got outta there. My gate was across the airport so I ran onto a train and ran to my gate. I turned the corner and saw that my gate door was still open and thought YAS I did it!! And then they shut the gate. 30 yards away. I was screaming like a crazy person, “KEEP THE GATE OPEN I’M COMING!!” but it slammed shut. I ran over to the airport employee and frantically asked her to open the gate and she said, “We called your name and you never came. We can’t open the gate.” to which I replied that I was late because I was in the SKY when they called my name. They looked at each other and said, “Oh… we didn’t know that.”

So if my other flight would have told them I was late they would have waited for me… and I missed it by 3 seconds. Cool. So I burst into tears and started bawling in the middle of the airport. Classy Jess, that’s me. I was so so so tired and I felt sick and I just wanted to go hooome. I ended up having to wait till 5:15 that evening for the next flight. During that time I managed to tell the whole saga to random people that would speak a word to me. Or I would just strike up conversation and insert the whole story in there. Those poor innocent people.

            I was on my connecting flight ready to go home. The plane took off so I texted Trevor (who was picking me up in SLC) saying we were leaving earth, when an old man behind me inserted his head in between the two seats and said to me, “You know, you and Hillary have a lot in common.” At this moment I was trying so hard to respect the elderly, and I said, “Who’s Hillary?” “Hillary Clinton.” “Alright, what do Hillary Clinton and I have in common?” “You both don’t like to follow the rules!” Old man burn. NICE.

            18 hours later and I made it off the plane and out of the airport lookin real good. Even though Sunday was a nightmare, I had soo much fun at my first and I can’t wait to go to Hershey, Pennsylvania tomorrow for round 2!

I'm back!

I’m back! After 9 months of being busy with work and school, it’s finally time for some fun. I can’t believe that a year has passed by since I started my Disney College Program- it feels like yesterday! After a lot of thought, I decided not to repeat my summer and do the program again; it’s time for different adventures. This summer I’ll be interning with The Color Run (the happiest 5k on the planet). I’ll be working as an onsite sponsorship coordinator. Basically I work with the vendors and sponsors for that specific event and help out with putting together the event and all that fun stuff. I’ll be travelling throughout the summer to work at the events in different cities. I am super excited!

Before I document my trips, I want to document my first summer adventure with my cute lil boo. After school ended, Matt and I took a trip to California! Oh my goodness, we had a blast. Here’s a little run down of our trippy trip trip.

We stayed with my Aunt Bo who lives in Temple City, 30 minutes away from Disneyland. It could not have been more perfect! Aunt Bo is the sweetest and totally took care of us during out stay. We drove to California and visited the Santa Monica Pier just in time for the sunset (I’d never been there. It was gorgeous but freezing cold, so instead of riding the ferris wheel, we played some intense skeeball. You can’t go wrong there), then we went to the outdoor mall to get some clothes.

The next day we spent the day at Disneyland!! Thanks Liz, my old roomie at Disney World for 1) working at Disneyland right now and 2) getting us in and saving us some cash. We had a blast. And yes, I cried about 4 times that day. It was just perfect alright?! You would cry too if your love danced with you down Main Street. *Sigh*... ‘twas magical. We were able to get both parks done in one day; what a miracle. It was rainy in the morning, which was fantastic because we got so many rides out of the way! Good times.

The next day we drove down the Pacific Coast Highway and stopped at pretty beaches along the way. We ended up at Laguna Beach, where Matt had made reservations at a restaurant called Big Fish Tavern, which is on the second story of the building so it had a gorgeous view of the ocean. After dinner, we walked along the main street and visited art galleries, and one of the galleries had all the original Disney paintings in them! (You know those really gorgeous Disney paintings on display at the park stores that are insanely expensive? Those are the ones I’m referring to).

The next day (Sunday) we went to church and sang in Aunt Bo’s ward conference choir. Haha, that wasn’t planned. She lives in an older ward and we had a great time practicing and singing with the choir. After church we went to Long Beach and visited the Getty Villa. It was amazing!! Matt and I had just taken our civilization classes, so it was especially cool since we had just learned about everything we were seeing. Afterward, we made our way to the LA temple, which is HUGE HOLY COW! It is ginormous. I love how it’s right in the middle of the city. The neighborhoods surrounding it are just adorable.

The next day, we headed to Las Vegas, but we couldn’t leave Temple City without going to the Asian market! Aunt Bo seriously lives in China town. All the stores are in Chinese and they’re mostly bridal shops and tea stores. It’s amazing and hilarious. When we got to Las Vegas we kinda just walked around a bit before heading out- I liked Las Vegas a lot more as a kid than I do now. It was just alright.

Instead of driving all the way home, we spent the night at my Gramma’s in St. George. She lives 2 blocks away from the temple, so it was fun to go for a walk to the temple that morning before heading home that afternoon.

Best trip ever!!