American Pride: Don't Tread

Before I begin this entry, let me first give a shout out to Matt McGowan. The MD (or "The Guy in the Corner Office") at my office, Matt is the brainchild of the title of this blog as well as its #hashtag - #tbsoc. The title was uttered during a tie down meeting for one of our conferences and from that point on, I knew I had to find a use for it somewhere... and this it where it went. Thanks Matt!

Onward...

On Sunday, I had the distinct pleasure of watching the US national men's soccer team play against the German national team down in Washington, D.C. My day started out normal enough... or as normal as one's Sunday can start when one is out of bed at 5:30am. I drove to PA to get my friend and by 7:30am we were off to DC. The drive itself was mostly uneventful, with the exception of me taking the wrong exit off the PA Turnpike and ended up somewhere I probably shouldn't.

When we arrived in the D.C. area a mere three hours later, I was excited to 1) finally try Nando's (a dining establishment apparently super popular in the UK serving amazing peri-peri chicken) and 2) see the US national team play. I always try to catch at least one international match a year during the summer. It's always a fun experience and the US supporter groups are quite an interesting bunch. I can tell you this, lunch was great and the match was better.

Our train ride to the stadium was one of the most entertaining train rides I've ever taken -- and I work in NYC. The car we were in was absolutely packed to the brim. People were on top of each other and passengers tried to squeeze their way onto the train. Our conductor, who should probably use his vocal talents on a stage than a train, was not having any of the bulls**t that day. At that point, regardless of the result of the match, I knew this was going to be the highlight of my day.

When we arrived at the stadium, I was not so shocked to find that, once again, the US supporters were outnumbered by the German ones. It didn't take very long to realize with the German flags being draped around the stadium. But the one thing about the US supporters, what we lack in number we made up in sheer passion and patriotism.

Most of us went in hoping that the US would score at least one goal. While the Germans were fielding their second string, you can't deny the talent that these guys have. Their second string makes several first string teams look like a little league team. So when the first goal from the US came, there was pure pandemonium in the stadium. That was when I discovered the joy of having beer thrown all over me. People were cheering, screaming, jumping up and down, hugging each other, and throwing cups of $10 beer all over the place.

Repeat that 3 more times and you'd get the full experience I had during the match. I took it in stride knowing how the supporters can get. It's not every day that the US wins against a European team. And it's even more rare for them to put 4 in the net. It was worth having beer thrown around me to see the joy in the faces of the players and the fans who have come out from all corners of the world to come and watch the team they love play. The match was clean and friendly. No cards were given and no punches thrown. It was a great showcase of the growing following of the sport in this country.

The US won 4-3. I left Washington, D.C. satisfied with the result and smelling like a frat house party gone wrong. As they say, "USA ain't nothing to f**k with."

Here's a Vine I took after the US scored their 3rd goal by none other than their skipper Clint Dempsey/Deuce. https://vine.co/v/b3OdAVPF2B2

All the best - Ploy

Graduation, Cowboy Boots, and the Real World

My life right now = transition time. I graduated from Loyola University Chicago just about three weeks ago with a Bachelors degree in Marketing. Honestly, graduation kind of went by in a haze. It's this time where your family comes in to town, everyone keeps telling you how proud of you they are, but the truth is, you really aren't sure if you are proud of yourself yet because, oh yeah, you still have to figure your life out.....that's fun. However, graduation is a good time that includes lots of nice meals your family pays for and lots of alcohol!

Now with my family involved, graduation was nothing less than entertaining. I was in a weekend long battle with my mom about her wardrobe choices. Remember how I mentioned before that she is a hippie? Well she thought it was going to be warmer (it was freezing cold) so the only shoes she brought were a respectable pair of nude slingback pumps and....wait for it....a pair of ankle length, bright, fuchsia, COWBOY boots. Come on mom, people already think we're rednecks since we are from Minnesota. Well, since it was "too cold" to wear her sling backs  she felt the need to wear the cowboy boots to every event including the commencement ceremony. She also wanted to wear her fuchsia Northface over her dress. Thankfully, I convinced her to wear a blazer of mine instead. Where I didn't win though was the Commencement ceremony, she showed up wearing a summery empire waist dress, my blazer, black leggings, and the freaking cowboy boots. I tried to channel my inner Joan Rivers and fashion police her, but it just wasn't happening. I got over it, since I do love her dearly, but my graduation memories will always include those damn cowboy boots. I've included a nice picture on the left so you can see what I had to deal with, photo cred goes to my brother, Robert. Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately, all of my pictures from commencement do not include our feet, so there is no evidence of the cowboy boots, hence why I provided this picture. 


Now fortunately, I kind of have my life together after graduation. I started working full time three days after graduation. I'm pretty lucky, I know, but I have to talk about the transition to 9-5 work days. Suddenly I had to wake up at 7:30am every day, and be in the office for seven hours straight, I would die without my lunch break. I had a really busy last semester of college, and I couldn't wait to move to a 9-5 schedule. However, the thing about school is, you can choose how hard you want to try, most of the time you can still pull of decent grades and be lazy at times. You can skip class if you aren't "feeling well" or better yet you can go to class and zone out the whole time. At work you have to always put in your maximum effort, and you can't not show up when you don't feel like it. It's also just plain weird not being in class. I have spent the last seventeen years of my life sitting through class, it's weird picking up a new daily routine. It's not all bad though, weekends are glorious and I'm really enjoying not pulling my weekly Wednesday all nighters that plagued me my last month of college!

All the best - Donais

Welcome to Our Humble Virtual Abode

Welcome! Bienvenue! Bienvenido!

We're two marketers navigating the "real world" after getting our degrees from Loyola University Chicago. The two of us met while Ploy was a senior and Donais was a sophomore studying at Loyola. At that time, Ploy began mentoring Donais, aiding her with course selections and term papers.

At this point in time, Ploy works for a media company in their interactive marketing division, in New York while Donais works for a marketing analytics company in Chicago. This blog is a way for us to keep in touch, explore our many interests and share any cool discoveries that we find. What will you find during your time here? The 5Fs. What are they? Family, friends, food, fashion, and footie (football -- the one with the round ball).

Family -- We'll probably talk about our crazy families (Donais' mom is basically a hippie) and how much we love them.
Friends -- Like a second family to us, they're the pillar of our experience at Loyola and life in general.
Food -- While Ploy's parents are chefs (she knows she's spoiled) we both love to cook. You'll see tons of different recipes that we've tried and love.
Fashion -- Ploy's obsessed with menswear fashion. Don't ask her why, she doesn't know. Donais is a Europhile Fashionista.
Football -- Ploy's a massive Arsenal fan as well as a supporter of the French national team. Donais is all things Spain. Spanish national team and Atlético de Madrid (we both abhor Real Madrid with the exception of Xabi Alonso and Iker Casillas).

We should also mention that we're massive geeks. We love marketing analysis, thanks to our former marketing professor, Stacy Neier. We actually enjoy sitting in front of the computer staring at charts on Google Analytics, or in Ploy's case Twitter's analytics, and try to make sense of all the data. Why? We like understanding people. For us, the best way for us to do our job is to know who we're talking to. Pretty much our professional lives revolve around finding the best way to connect with everyone.

We hope that we'll make you laugh, cry (in the best ways, hopefully from so much laughing) and think a little bit here and there.

All the best -- Ploy & Donais