Starting life as an LC (not Lauren Conrad).

Introduction to my blog:
I have been writing blogs about my life periodically for quite a while now and I usually do this via myspace. I have decided that since I’m doing something with my life at the moment that is kind of a once in a life time experience there may be people who want to read my blog that are not a part of myspace (like my family). So I decided to start blogging on this site. I don’t know how it works yet, if there is a way for people to be updated when I post a new blog or if they have to just periodically check the site for new postings. My intentions with this are to write at least every other day (although we’ll see how that goes once I’m on the road) and then once I’m done with all my traveling get it printed in book form. I think it would be neat to have a hard copy of my experiences when I’m done with all of this. I have not had internet since Saturday (it’s now Thursday) so I’ve been unable to blog about my experiences thus far so I’ve been writing in my journal every night. So now that I have access to the internet, I am going to take what I’ve written in my journal over the last few days and write it here. I’m going to keep it organized by day rather than just spit it all out and not all of it has to do with my job as LC. It also has to do with my ongoing battle with my weight and also my thoughts about the rest of my life and what I think I want out of it. So, here it goes.

Sunday, July 6, 2008
Today I arrived in Indianapolis to being my job as a Leadership Consultant for Alpha Sigma Alpha. I am going to be on the road for nine months with two one-week vacations and December off. I had to get up at 4 am to catch my 6:15 flight from Austin. Luckily, I like to travel so it wasn’t bad. There are two of us LCs so far but there are supposed to be 3. The other girl who was hired for the job got accepted to med school so she decided not to take this job after all so my boss (Christy) is in the process of hiring someone else. In the air port waiting for my connecting flight from Chicago there was a children’s choir waiting for the flight. They were rather interesting to observe. They were all middle school aged girls, and watching them made me realize that I am definitely not cut out to work with kids at that age. They just annoy the crap out of me. I just want to slap them and say, “Seriously, you’re not as cute or as funny or as cool as you think you are, so just knock it the hell off and start acting like a real person”. It’s not really appropriate to do that with kids that aren’t yours.

Of the two of us, I was the first to arrive in Indy so I got to pick up the rental car (an ugly blue PT Cruiser, yuck!) and check us in at our apartment complex. I saw this as kind of a silver lining to my day. Of the two other girls who were originally hired for the job, the one I liked best is the one that quit. Nicole, the one who I’m definitely working with, is still only 20 and kind of got on my nerves the weekend of the interview so I was a bit apprehensive going into this because, as we all know, I’m not exactly the best people person. So I was very excited that I got to get the car and pick out which room I wanted at the apartment before going back to the airport and picking her up. I was not nearly as excited when I actually arrived at our apartment complex. It’s not quite as nice as I pictured it being. It is fully furnished, but it’s rather…trashy. The décor looks like a cross between and old woman’s apartment and a run down motel. But it’s our home for the next 7 weeks, so hopefully it grows on me. There were two bedrooms, each with two twin beds. One had it’s own bathroom inside with a stall shower and two closets. I picked that one since I can be a bit of a loner sometimes and allowed her to have the one with the hall way bathroom and tub. The beds aren’t too uncomfortable and the sheets are nice and soft.

Once I picked Nicole up from the air port and we got all settled into our apartment we went to Amber and Andy’s for a BBQ with them and Christy. Christy is my boss. Amber used to be the LC for our chapter our very first year. She was my inspiration for wanting to be an LC and now she works for National Headquarters helping with recruitment and expansion. Andy is her fiancée. Andy cooked these amazing turkey burgers, mashed potatoes, asparagus and baked beans and Christ brought fat free brownies and pasta salad. I did really well and did not over eat (that’s a really big deal for me) and I was proud of myself. I also had a great time sitting around and chatting with them. Christy is a hilarious and a ton of fun. I loved hearing Amber and Andy tell stories from when they were on the road (Andy was an LC for his fraternity and still works for their national HQ). I was awesome hearing about all the things that I’ll have to look forward to as an LC and also while I’m here in Indy. There are a ton of young Greeks here since Indy is the home of 29 Greek National Headquarters. I am so excited that I’m here and I want wait to meet these people! Hearing them all talk about working for HQ did make me a little sad because the two things that I’m most passionate about (kids and ASA) are two things that can’t really be combined. Until a week ago, I was convinced that I wanted to be a social worker or teacher or something along those lings and now hearing all of this… I love ASA and I definitely want to be involved my entire life. I don’t want to just be casually involved though. I don’t like being just casually involved in anything. I’m really an all or nothing kind of girl. Once I’m done with this job I’m going to have to figure out which one I care about more and choose my grad school and career path based on it. Ugh.

I am also excited because our apartment complex has a club house with some kind of fitness center and there’s also a gym down the road that Amber was telling me about that a lot of past LCs have used and it’s like $5 a day. That’s not too bad I guess, but that can get expensive quick if I go often. Hopefully they have some kind of short term deal for me. I lost 5 lbs while I was home waiting to leave for Indy! I really want to try and keep eating well and working out. I’m nervous about this though. Nicole is smaller than me, Amber is about my size and Christy is much bigger, but none of them really seem all that concerned with what they eat and Christy and Amber keep talking about all of these places that we’re going to be going out to eat at. When I’m good, I’m really good, but when I’m bad, I’m really bad… We’ll see how it goes. Over all, I’m really excited!! I’m excited about the job itself but also really excited about all of the people outside of ASA that I’m going to get to meet this summer!

Monday, July 7, 2008
Today was my first official day of LC training and I loved it! I am so excited that I took this job. I found out that we basically have 3 colonies this year! One of them we are completely starting from scratch. It’s going to be our job as LCs to recruit the women and then turn them into a chapter. Christy thinks that two of us will be going together that first week and then after that it’ll just be one LC. That chapter is in Georgia. The other colony is in Oklahoma. They were a colony last year and just couldn’t get their act together to get installed as a chapter so they need some more help and guidance as well as a kick in the ass to get them going. The third isn’t actually a colony, it’s a revitalization chapter. This chapter (in Louisiana) has been around for years and I’ve actually met girls from this chapter before and somehow they’re down to only 8 members. We’re going to be treating them like a colony and basically starting over with them, and if that doesn’t work we may end up having to shut them down in the future. I’m excited because I’m guaranteed to get one of these three! We won’t find out what section of the US we have until the week after next. Next week we have Convention in Albuquerque and hopefully when we get back that next week we’ll have a 3rd LC and that’s when we’ll get to find out our travel schedules. I don’t really care what section of the US I have, but I think it would be awesome to have Alaska!

We got our ASA credit cards today and we were able to go grocery shopping, which was nice. I also got to go to the gym and workout! First I went and checked out the fitness center over at the clubhouse and that was a joke. I walked in and tried to get on the Elliptical, but it was broken. One of the treadmills was all torn up and the other one didn’t work right when I got on it. It was pathetic. So I went over to Cardinal Fitness and talked to them. My first visit was free, so I got to scope the place out and decide if I liked it before spending money to commit to it. Now I can either spend $7 each visit or pay $35 for a one month pass. I’m definitely going for the one month pass, which will be good until August 9 and we hit the road around the 18th, so I think that’s pretty good. This gym is actually right around the corner from HQ, which is about 10 minutes from our apartment. I’m finding that Indianapolis is a ridiculously easy city to get around. It’s also really pretty. It’s very green with lots of trees. I like it. The average temperature during the day is about 85, and the girls here think it’s hot. I love it! I’m proud of myself for finding a gym to workout at in a city that I’ve lived in for 24 hours! I ran two 12 minute miles and then did about 15 minutes on the elliptical and it felt great! I really do like working out. I’ve never walked away from a workout regretting it. I am a bit anxious though. Amber keeps encouraging me to get out and mingle with the other Greeks in town (who are actually all out of town this week, so I can’t) and I’m afraid that once I do I’m going to get into the habit of eating and drinking things that are not good for me and not finding time to workout. I don’t want to be a hermit, but it’s easier for me to be good to my body this way.