Trying life on my own

Tuesday, July 8, 2008
Today was great as well! I really love my job and I’m looking forward to going out on the road and working with chapters. I am also enjoying working in an office, which is something that I was never really sure if I would like. I learned a lot of stuff in training today and I also learned a lot from the women that I had lunch with. Nicole and I went out with Linda and Pat, both are older women (50+) who work in our office. Linda was a leadership consultant back in the day, but I don’t remember if Pat said that she used to travel. One thing I have started to worry about is me level of involvement in ASA later in life due to the face that I’m not (at this moment) planning on majoring in student affairs in grad school. But Linda used to do a lot of different things before coming and working a headquarters so it gave me hope that I can do the same thing. She also has attended 18 of the last conventions (that’s 36 years worth!) and it has inspired me to try and do the same. I am so excited about convention. I am going to get to meet some amazing women and I can’t wait! I’m excited to meet all of these women that get talked about so often around the office. I hope one day to be one of them.

I’m also looking forward to this weekend! Nicole is going out of town with her little on a road trip and that kind of sucks because it turns out that we get along pretty well. But one of the LCs from last year is in town this weekend and has invited me to hang out with them. I think I’m going to so I can get out and meet some people. I guess she knows a lot of people around here, most of whom are going to be out of town with Amber’s boyfriend at a fraternity conference, but it will still be good to meet who I can. I also need to go to the mall. I thought I had more than enough clothes to take with me, but it turns out I was wrong! :)

I worked out again today and I feel great! I did one 10 minute mile and one 12 minute mile, 15 on the elliptical and 15 on the stair master. I also weighed my self and I was pleased with that. Not pleased with the overall number, but pleased that it was lower than the last one I saw on there. I usually weigh myself in the morning, before eating, after pottying so I get the lowest results that I can. I weighed myself this time after having eaten three meals and was still one pound lighter than I was before I left for Indy. So that’s 6 lbs total that I’ve lost in the last week and a half, so I’m pretty psyched about that. Hopefully I can keep it up. I tend to plateau rather quickly…

Thursday, July 10, 2008
I didn’t journal yesterday because nothing particularly exciting happened. I did go shopping and get some khakis, brown shoes and some other cute things. I think I might go back and get the same shoes in black. Because of shopping I didn’t really have a lot of time to work out, but I still went to the gym and did 30 minutes, just to try and stay in the habit of it.

There are definitely some boring parts of LC training, but luckily we haven’t encountered to many so far. We worked on Advantage stuff today (the New Member education program). It probably wouldn’t have been so bad if I wasn’t so tired. We finally got our laptops today. Mine doesn’t have a very long better life (about 10 minutes) so that might be a bit of a problem out on the road. Hopefully we can get that taken care of before we head out in August. It was nice to be able to get on the internet with a screen bigger than my phone!

My eating didn’t do as well today. Breakfast was normal and healthy, but we went for Mexican for lunch and I had way too many chips and a nice, unhealthy, Mexican dish. Then for dinner the girl from work went to a nice pizza place. I did have a salad, but I also had a beer and the most delicious pizza ever! It had bacon, mushrooms, artichoke hearts and five different cheeses! I was in heaven! I was proud of myself for not eating the entire 10” in one sitting (something I would have no problem doing). I saved half of it for this weekend. Really I didn’t extravagantly over eat, but I ate more than I’m used to lately, so I just feel gross. I did read a tip in a fitness magazine that you should allow yourself one day of indulgence, as long as you keep your calories between 2000-3000 (my normal dieting intake is 1000-1300), so I guess I’m still ok. I also didn’t get to work out because I had some work stuff that I had to work on when I got home, so that just made me feel even worse. But I did enjoy getting out and socializing with the girls on a non-work level. Tomorrow we only have a half day at work, so I am hoping that I am going to be able to get some good workout time in!

When I sat down to write in my journal tonight, I flipped through the beginning of the journal, which I wrote in while I was in France two years ago. It’s crazy how different my life is now compared to what it was like then. I was still dating Nick then and we were completely infatuated with each other at that point. It’s weird reading about it now. I forget what it’s like being in love. It’s also hard remembering what it was like with Nick. I hope I don’t forget all together. It was only two years ago and he was a big part of my life. I really wish that I had been more specific when writing about my trip. I didn’t mention Esther, the young woman from New Zealand that we met and spend a lot of time with, the trip to Cluny (a small town outside of Taize) that we took with her, the walk through the country and John, Crystal and I took in the rain, our umbrella dance, and who knows what else that I’ve already forgotten. I’m also disappointed that I didn’t appreciate Taize itself more while I was there. I’m reading Eat, Pray Love, by Elizabeth Gilbert right now, and it’s amazing! Reading about her experience in India makes me wish I’d really appreciated and absorbed Taize more. Reading about Italy and Indonesia makes me want to do so much with my life! I really want to be super involved with ASA the rest of my life, maybe be a part of National Council (which you can do and still have another job, like working with kids!) but I also want to really travel and see the world. I want to experience different countries and cultures and meet people from all over. But I also want to start a life for myself, a career and a family. Ugh. I really have no idea what I am going to do with my life when I’m done with this job in nine months. I guess for now I’m just going to enjoy what I’ve got going for me at the moment, because I’m so happy with this job! I can not express that enough. This really is an opportunity that I’m grateful to have and I can’t imagine being in grad school or working in any other job right now. I loved my job at The Boys And Girls Club, but I know I can get a job like that at any time, and honestly, it wouldn’t open nearly as many doors for me as this one could.

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