Relationships

Today at work, we had Papa John's pizza. It's my favorite because it comes with that oh so fatty garlic sauce that we all know and love. Apparently, the company's cleaning service decided to buy us lunch in order to make up for some wrong doing.

It was nice because I haven't had the chance to talk to my other colleagues, and there's about 6 of us who are 20 something. For some reason this girl, Heather, got to talking about how her grandmother wished she had gotten her education instead of getting married and having babies. Then she made some side comment about how she wished she'd waited. I was like wait..wait..wait..wait--you're married!?! (Although, things like that shouldn't surprise me anymore.) I'm not sure on exactly how old she is, but she's a senior in college and she looks around my age. Then she told us how she never gets to see her husband because he works all the time saying that he's trying to get out of debt because they both go to school. However, she says it's not the financial situation that's putting a strain on the relationship but the fact that they never see each other and that he never has time to relax, which makes him irritable.

WOW, I just couldn't believe I was having this conversation, especially since I have no idea what it's like to be in a committed relationship. I'm having enough trouble finding a suitable boyfriend.

Memories

Yesterday at HALO, I was making follow-up phone calls for an informational luncheon we're having on Monday. I called a Mr. and Mrs. Smith and ended up talking to the Mrs. I gave my little blurb, "Hi! My name is Adanna and I'm from the Home and Land Owners' Association, blah blah..." Afterwards, Mrs. Smith asks me,

"Are you Adannaa Oparanozie?"
"Well, yes I am!!!" [By this time, I've made the connection]
"I was your fourth grade teacher."
"Oh my gosh! I can't believe you remember me!"
"Of course, you were one of my favorite students."

We chatted a little bit about what we were now doing. She's retired but teaches English at a community college.

I couldn't believe it; I haven't seen or spoken to this woman in 12 years. Ahhhh, it's so nice to be remembered :)

First day on the job

Yesterday was my first day working for HALO. It was boring and frustrating. Boring because I was busy looking up people's phone numbers and frustrating because when I called people, the numbers were wrong or in my little blurb I would say "I'm calling on behalf of so and so," and the listener wouldn't even know who so and so was. However, my boss Kyle is very encouraging about the whole thing reminding me that we're not telemarketers, and that we're really involved in something great and noble. I thought about it later, and I think I just have to go about the calls differently. Even if the people don't know to whom I'm referring, the point is that they are probably property owners and can benefit from the organization.

After work yesterday, I went to a pool party at Baby's apartment complex. This place is freakin' awesome. The apartments are for four people. Each person has their own room and bathroom and they provided them with a bed, dresser, and desk. Also the complex has a pool, beach volleyball court, basketball court, gym, and computer lab. Everyone who lives there is a college student, but it's not university owned. I had a nice time lounging in the pool and checkin' out the boy candy.

HALO

I mentioned a new job with some organization that's trying to fundraise money for private property rights or something like that. Well, today I had a meeting with Kyle who is running the organization and find out a whole lot more information. The organization is called HALO, Home and Land Owners Association of Texas. (It was founded by the real estate guy I've been talking about who goes to my church. Therefore, the location of this new organization is located in his office building.) This is a brand new grass roots organization designed to represent the Texas property owner. The point is to have a unified voice in order to represent property owners in legislature. It's non-profit, non-partisan, and is looking for lots of donations. The current issue right now is school finance reform and property taxes. I'm not 100% clear on how the two affect each other, but I'm reading up on them. I've already read that property taxes make up 60% of the taxes collected in Texas. WOW! That's a huge chunk! This stuff may sound boring, but I'm actually excited about it. I'm learning something new, and I can see how these issues affect my family. Also, there's no other organization that tries to address the issues of property owners; therefore, HALO has a good chance of becoming successful, and I could say that I was a part of that.

Kyle seems passionate about the topic. You can tell he's one of those political sorts--dressed in Khakis and a polo, talks real fast, and is amiable. Not to mention he's worked for the RNC (Republican National Congress) and has worked on several political campaigns. By the way, remember how I didn't get the receptionist job? Turns out that Kyle's girlfriend is the new receptionist. Anyway, I start this job on Monday.

Things are lookin up

Recently, I've had issues with finding a job here at home. I worked for the city during the summer and it's going to continue when school starts back up, but it's not my most favorite job. I would still be working with annoying children and job would only be 12 hours a week which limits income. However, I shouldn't complain that much since the boss is looking out for me and is paying me well. Also, I had a very unpleasant experience with a certain real estate company especially because I was pretty sure I would get the job.

Well, I got a phone call today from this guy, Kyle, who has been collaborating with Ben, the owner of the real estate company. Kyle assumed that Ben had talked to me about a possible position with this Halo organization, but Ben had not. It turns out that although Ben did not accept me for his office, he was actually looking out for me by passing on my resume to this guy Kyle. Now, it looks like I'll be working for this Halo organization which is trying to fundraise money for some private property thing. I'm not sure of the exact purpose of this company, but that's okay. I do know that I'll be doing a lot calling trying to solicit money. Not exactly what I would call fun, but the point is that I have another part-time job. Kyle said he would be calling me next week to start.

Although the title of this entry is "Things are lookin' up" the general boy situation is not. I haven't mentioned it before in my entries, but I started taking a liking to this guy, Chadd, from work. We made it known that we are interested, but since work has ended he's totally dropped the ball. I've become disheartened about the situation, but we'll see what happens.

I met another boy prospect last week at a party. His name is Gian and what's interesting about him is that he's half Italian and half Belizean (from Belize). The obvious connection is the Italian. Unfortunately he's pretty far removed and doesn't speak the language :( The Belizean connection is interesting because Belize is one of the possible countries I could be going to in the Peace Corps. I went out on a date with him Monday night. It went ok. The conversation was a little lacking, but he seemed like a nice guy. Then the other night, he invited me to go out with him and his fraternity brothers. I wasn't really in the mood and I didn't want to go up there by myself just so I could feel like an outsider. I ended up hangin out with Nick, and after I left around 2am, Gian calls me. He really wanted me to stop by his place, so I did. But he was drunk, I was not, and I wasn't in the mood for a make-out session. However, he was persistent to the point of forceful, and I was NOT down with that. He reminded me of another certain Italian guy who tried to rush me into things. We sort of planned to watch a movie at his place the next day, but when he called I didn't answer.

I want to end this blog with something that's related to the title. Most of my friends here in town are boys, and after a while you realize that girlfriends are important. Luckily, I met this girl named Baby. And yes, that is her real name. We went out last Saturday night, and she introduced me to a bunch of her friends, and I think we're hanging out tonight.

Weekly Update

The open gym and summer afternoon program are over, so I have a few weeks off before the After School Time Program starts up.

This week I've been taking Ezinne to volleyball tryouts. She says they're supposed to find out if they made the team today, so we're all keeping our fingers crossed. I'm also making her and Chinyere go through all their clothes before school starts, so we can get rid of the ones they won't wear anymore. In addition, I will make them clean the entire house. A new year is starting, and we want to start fresh.

I was looking at my Peace Corps account the other day where you can check your application status and read helpful information. I actually discovered a new feature that I had not noticed before. You can prepare yourself for your assignment by reading more about the work you'll be doing and the country you'll be in. Since, I'm not sure which country I'll be in, I focused more on my health assignment. I just browsed the material, but they have downloadable pdf's and suggested reading. Now, I feel more motivated knowing I can prepare myself during my interim period. Also, I was looking at the grad schools that work in conjunction with the Peace Corps to provide its volunteers with benefits. There is this awesome international mba program at the University of South Carolina that really excited me. You can focus on a language and culture, do an internship abroad, and gain practical, business experience. There's also a MPH program at the University of Denver that interested me. Now one of my goals is to do some more research on these schools and others, so I have some idea about what I want to do after I get out of the Peace Corps.

Conor is back from Europe (HOORAY!) I saw him and Paul at the Fox last night. (I went up there with Aimer). I had a ton of fun. I've mentioned it a million times, but Conor is one kool kat. He was great at dancing (we even two-stepped) and he's hilarious. However, there is a new side of him. Apparently some of his friends get violent (i.e. they break things and fight folks) when they get drunk. It looks like some of that has rubbed off on him. He didn't do anything drastic, but he wanted to.