Meet the New Caliber Crew
By Jenny Rackl, digital marketing coordinator
A few new faces have joined the Caliber crew in the last few months. Together we sat down for a short interview to get to know each other – and we figured it’s a great opportunity for you to get to know us too. So without further adieu, here’s a little something about us.
Where are you from?
Mandy: Small northwest Iowa town. I grew up riding ponies and playing in creeks!
Jenny: I’m from Colorado, where the scenery is considerably less flat. I didn’t ride any ponies though, just the occasional fire truck.
Tiffany: I’m from Brookings, born and raised. We rode four wheelers and weren’t afraid of getting stuck or muddy!
What got you into trouble growing up?
M: I used to stay up really late reading in my room downstairs. My dad would try and run down the stairs to catch me with my light still on. I got pretty good at shutting my lamp of quickly.
J: We had almost the same crime! I used to read under the covers with the tiny light from my alarm clock – hence the eyeglasses now. I wish I had thought to use a proper light.
T: I was really, really bad at checking in. I’d come home to my mom sitting on the front steps waiting for me. That was never a good sign. It meant that I missed her epic whistle that the entire neighborhood could hear.
What’s the weirdest job you’ve ever had?
M: I worked at a vinyl graphics shop one summer. I thought I might get to design something, but I ended up putting graphics on cars, trucks and trailers all summer. It was actually really fun.
T: I worked in a corn field for several summers throughout college. But one summer I took a few weeks off to go work for a concession stand company that sold corn dogs. I worked at three fairs, including the Sioux Empire Fair. It was so hot, and a very greasy job. I would recommend working in a corn field over a corn dog stand any day! It wasn’t ideal.
J: Mine wasn’t either. Two 12-hour shifts of lamp assembly at a new Hobby Lobby in town. I didn’t get hired on full time, so I must not have excelled at it. At least one of the three of us was having fun.
What’s the weirdest thing you’ve snuck into a theater?
T: A bag of wine from a box of Franzia. It was a midnight showing of Batman. I was forced to go, I needed something to get me through it.
M: Snap peas. I was trying to be healthy and not eat popcorn!
J: I passed up the popcorn for Coldstone Creamery ice cream.
Describe a favorite scene in one of your favorite movies.
T: One of my all-time favorite movies from when I was a kid, still remains one of my favorite scenes in a movie. The movie: Matilda. The scene: When Matilda is home alone and has mastered her secret powers and dances around the house to Little Bitty Pretty One by Frankie Lymon and The Teenager. I used to dance around like a nut during this part of the movie. Gives me some happy feels.
M: The last scene in Pearl Harbor. The majority of the movie is pretty sad, and this scene is a nice ending. The war is finally over. Rafe is at home with his son, Danny, who was named after his friend who was killed in the war. They are flying over Tennessee in Rafe’s fathers old plane.
J: The scene in Stranger Than Fiction when Harold Crick brings Ana Pascal, his love interest, a box with 10 neatly wrapped, little paper bags. “I brought you flours,” he says. Ana is a baker, you see.
Name a favorite place to eat out in Sioux Falls and a memory from there.
T: I love Mexican food and I love fake Mexican food, so Chevy’s is one of my favorite places to eat. When I lived in Brookings, a couple of my good friends and I would drive to Sioux Falls just to have chips, salsa and queso. Of course, we had to have a margarita too, but it always sucked if you were the one who had to be the sober driver.
J: Mama’s Ladas is my favorite. I think it’s the first restaurant where I’ve been so much of a regular that some of the wait staff can remember my order.
M: Tokyo on Louise and 57th Street. I went there for my birthday this past summer. They played some really loud song over the loudspeaker and everyone in the restaurant sang to me. It was quite the birthday lunch.
What’s been the best part of joining the Caliber crew?
J: I’m really fond of all the collaboration that we do as a team. The easy access to multiple candy jars isn’t bad either.
T: Being reintroduced into the advertising world. I love working with a team that is passionate and excited to come to work and do cool things!
M: Beyond getting to work with a group of talented people, I really enjoy the fact that there is a foosball table in the office and beer in the fridge. What more could a person want?