Training to drive the train

Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Today was a great day. We had more training at that workshop with the other sororities and it went pretty well. The most important thing that I learned were some dos and don’ts for when I’m meeting with Greek advisors on other campuses, plus some travel tips from some second year LCs. After that was over, Nicole and I went to the mall and spent like 4 ½ hours there. On the way there, I talked to John on the phone and we had a great conversation. We had some super fun travel talk about India. It was rather exciting. He can have visitors while he’s in India and if, once he gets there and scopes it all out, he feels like he’s be ok having someone visit him then I’m going to buy me a plane ticket and go see him in India in December. I haven’t looked into details yet, but my parents are cool with it and I’ve already got like $1000 saved. All I need now is a green light from him and I begin my research into what I hope to be the beginning of my world travels. I suppose the job I have now going be viewed as the beginning, or my trip to France two years ago. That’s not the point. The point is I’m really going to travel!

At the mall, Nicole and I made some key purchases (like the black suit jacket I’ve been needing as well as two pairs of flats – purple and black) and we really had a lot of fun together! It was just the little bonding experience that we needed. I helped her pick out some going-out shirts for when she turns 21 in two weeks. There were some pretty hilarious moments, like talking about spanking with woman who works at Victoria’s Secret, the pimp we saw and the way home and the entire ride home in general. When we got home, there were like 10 more moments that (literally) had us rolling on the floor laughing. She even came into my room and sat on my bed and chatted with me a little about her life outside of being an LC. It was wonderful and we had fun and I’m feeling much less homesick now. Except I did talk to Emily on the phone, which made me sad, and then Brad called me and said he missed me and we chatted for a while. But overall I’m feeling much better than I was a few days ago!

Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Today was my third day in a row to get up and do lunges and crunches. I really didn’t want to, but I just reminded myself that it takes 21 days to make something a habit and just one day to screw it all up and I didn’t want today to be the day that I screw everything up. I wasn’t very enthusiastic while doing these exercises, but I did them none the less.

Nicole and I went in to the office at 8. We found out that they did phone interviews for the 3rd LC. They didn’t tell us anything other than that so I guess we’ll just wait and see. We started looking into booking flights today and I emailed one of the chapters that I’m going to be visiting so it make it seem more real that we’re going to actually start traveling soon! I’m getting excited!

Nicole and I had another workshop to go to today. This one was about creating interactive workshops. It was very interesting and helpful, and a lot more fun than the other workshop we went to! Tomorrow is part two of this workshop (delivering an interactive workshop). It’s being held at Alpha Sigma Phi’s headquarters and we got to take a tour today. Their fraternity was started in 1845 and they have so much cool, historical stuff at the HQ. It was awesome! They also have a lot of cool historical/influential members (i.e.the author of the serenity prayer was an Alpha Sig!). I’m looking forward to going back tomorrow. We’re also going to be going over some fundamental LC training stuff at our HQ that I think is going to be very helpful.

Thursday, July 31, 2008
Today Nicole and I had part 2 of the “workshop” workshop. It was different than I thought it was going to be, but I still learned a lot and had fun. At our HQ, this afternoon we talked about what goes into writing an action plan for a chapter and ironed out some details for our first few visits. I booked my first flight, which was rather exciting for me. I also spoke to a chapter advisor for one of the chapters that I’m going to be visiting, and that was quite overwhelming for me! She’s starting to get stressed out about recruitment and my visit and she kind of just unloaded it all on me. She was very nice about it, but it just came on a little thick for our first conversation. The chapter president for that chapter also called me, and my conversation with her was much more relaxing!

Christy interviewed a girl for the LC position in person today. She told this girl that even though her name is Allison, Nicole and I will most likely her Sherri. We got to meet her briefly; she seemed nice. Christy offered her the job and if she calls back and accepts then I guess she’ll be starting around the 17th. Then hopefully by the end of next week we’ll have our travel schedules for the rest of the semester. Our training is starting to get more intense. This excites me because hopefully I’ll start to feel more prepared. However, the more I learn, the more I realize that I have to do and the more anxious and overwhelmed I get. I know that HQ is going to have my back and I’m sure once I get past my first visit and get into a routine then I’ll feel a lot better about it all.

I got a package from home today. I was bummed that all it contained were my contacts, a book of checks and some bills. I wasn’t expecting anything else, but it would have been nice if there was a little note in there with them! Oh well. Today was day 4 in my morning workout routine. I didn’t make it to the gym today (I did go yesterday!) but it was honestly because all my workout clothes were dirty (no clean socks or sports bras is gross). But tomorrow is Friday which means that I’ll get in a really good workout! I’ve decided that I’m going to order some resistance bands. They’re small and light and I can carry them in my suitcase with me and do my normal morning exercises with them and get better results. I wasn’t very enthusiastic in my workout this morning, so maybe I’ll do a little more before I go to bed. Hannah and I have decided that we’re going to start keeping an interactive diet/exercise journal with each other, so I’m pretty excited about that.

I was planning on going to see Crystal in Iowa this weekend, but she never got back to me about the details, so I guess I’m just sticking around Indy for the weekend. I was invited to hang out with this guy Jamie, but I don’t know what we’re going to do. He’s a nice guy, but comes on kind of strong so I’m definitely bringing Nicole with me for whatever we do. I think next weekend we’re planning on going to Ohio to Cedar Point, which apparently is a really cool amusement park. I’m excited about it. Then, when we come back to Indy at the end of the semester to do our LC wind down, Nicole and I are talking about going to Chicago to see a musical before flying home.

I’m not doing so well with this Barak Obama book. Parts of it are really interesting, but parts of it remind me of reading a history book. I haven’t picked it up in about a week. Maybe this weekend…