Hi Friends!
Have these past two weeks flown by for you? I feel like this past week was a dream, especially this weekend. I write this with a feeling as if time is slipping out of my hands and I keep grasping for it but like silly putty it has no form to be held by.
I guess our weekend really started Thursday. Invisible Children's media relations and legal go-to guy, Jedidiah Jenkins, gave us a riddle to solve that would reveal the location of our picnic dinner and fun time. We got dinner and ended up at Mount Soledad, a prominent landmark where we ate, played, and laughed with the view of all of San Diego. (Pictures on Facebook) Then Jed told us to follow him to the beach for a surprise. When we got there the entire IC staff was waiting preparing a bonfire! After we made s'mores Jason introduced us to his friend Tom Shadyac who talked to us about changing what we know as "the real world." It was a magnificent day and what made it even better was that our boss said we wouldn't need to be in the office until 9 the next morning (as opposed to our usual 7:30am.)
I set my alarm Friday morning for 7:30 and at 7 I woke to shouts at the front door telling me to wake up. The entire movement staff had brought us breakfast. We were, needless to say, a bit confused but excited for the 2 hours of fellowship time we got with each other and the staff. After breakfast we had "marriage counseling" for our teams. It consisted of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator and learning our love languages as well as questions given to us by Margie. We got to the office around 3 that day and learned more about conflict resolution and "gender talk." After all this we were allowed to take the vans out for the night so about 10 of us went to Sunset Cliffs. We jumped off the cliff, watched the sun set, and got dinner on Ocean Beach. Another great day.
Saturday 11 of us piled onto the trolley at 8am to ride to the Mexican border and walk across it to a place called The Purple Palace where 100 orphans live with a wonderful couple. We had a ball with the kids and got tacos (3 for a dollar) after. We later went downtown to hang out and walked a good 20 blocks to get fro-yo from Yogurtland. Sunday we have down to a routine of church in the morning and barbacue-ing with the homeless community at Ocean Beach in the afternoon. And now I reflect on the week at Cosmos while listening to the Status livefeed.
It's been a jam-packed weekend but for those who work hard, we play hard. And with only 10 days until launch I am taking every second of play I can get.
So this week was Margie Dillenburg's birthday. Margie is the top dog in the movement department here at Invisible Children and she loves Michael Jackson. I like her. So for her birthday the Roadies did a little number for her that we like to call Thriller: Margie Style. We even made a song to go along with the music about how much we like her! And without further ado, here is what became of it:
Not bad huh? Yea, we're pretty legit here. Doesn't everyone celebrate their boss's birthday with choreographed song and dance?
And p.s. if you want to send me letters, postcards, or money go ahead and send them to:
Invisible Children
attn: Jennifer Nitsch
1620 5th Ave. Suite 400
San Diego, FL 92101
love you guys!
Hey everyone! It's been good first week at the office. We've been in training everyday literally from 9am with quizzing until 6pm with lecture. Today we had lecture until 8pm, it was so worth it to stay the extra 2 hours though. Jason Russell (one of the filmmakers) gave his testimony and introduced us to his wife and kids. It was amazing. Other than that we've been learning about the history of the war, how to book a screening, how to enter that screening into SalesForce (a crazy online database that has info on everyone who's ever done anything with IC), and even a session on the importance of intentional relationships with each other and our contacts. It's been a lot of information, lots of studying, and many pop quizzes.
We had this past weekend off though! Saturday we were allowed to take the vans to Pacific Beach where we hung out by the water and at outside Starbucks. It was a good time to really start to get to know everyone on a deeper level. On sunday my teammate Sean's sister and her husband and little boy Evan came by and took our team to Old Town San Diego, which is basically a touristy knock-off of Mexico but was great because we had some great team bonding time, something our regional manager Joleah is adamant about.
And tomorrow the real fun begins. We finally pick up the phone and start booking. We want to have upwards of 100 screenings in our region and about 30 have been booked already. My personal goal is to bang the gong 25 times (everytime a screening is booked a large gong is banged) Our region is split into 4 sections and we're each in charge of 17 days. My teammates have up to 4 cities in New York or Massachusetts while my section of tour is the broadest covering 5 states.
Long Island, NY: Nov 5-11
Hartford, CT: Nov 12-15
Providence, RI: Nov 16-18
Concord, NH: Nov 19
Burlington, VT: Nov 20-21 
I have the last part of tour. Prior to my section we're in western Mass. Sept 13-16, Boston until Oct 10th, Albany Oct 11-13, and New York City through Nov 3rd. We get to spend Halloween in NYC which is exciting because I anticipate the city will be great on such a vibrant "holiday."
Hope you're all doing well wherever you are and I urge you to keep praying for our class, my team, and the staff at Invisible Children for the impossible feats we're going to try to accomplish on this tour and for the near future of the organization. And I'll let you in on a little secret... Obama.
Goodnight!
My First 24 Hours As A Roadie
So here I am in San Diego, well La Mesa right now. I can't believe this is happening, Sunday I was hanging out in Orlando with my closest friends and today I'm sitting outside a coffee shop down the street from the roadie house with about 10 other people that I've just met but already fallen in love with, not to mention the 20 back at the house and the 30 I haven't even met yet.
My flight was good, I'm so glad I got to share it with Lauranne, I would have been super lonely and nervous alone. When we stepped off the plane in san diego we found angela at the IC van and our adventure began as we picked up 7 more and the 10 of us drove 30 minutes to our house. I knew immediately that I liked them all, every time we found a roadie everyone ran out of the van, hugged them, and took their bags from them.
When we got back to the house I looked in all the girl rooms for my bed, because they we're all labeled with notes from the interns. I finally realized that all the teammates were on the same bunk beds and when I found Amy's I found mine however it was not mine. The note on the bed said "Welcome Home Jessica" and inside said "New England is going to love you." I laughed so hard especially at our house rules meeting that night when Jenny asked if we had any mix ups with beds and everyone looked at me. So now people introduce me as "Jennifer, not Jessica." haha.
I love my teammates and the rest of the roadies, its kind of surreal how well we all know each other just from facebook profiles and ichat. I will update you all more when we start at the office tomorrow but know that I am safe and loving my free time here in the city.
bye!