"Meetinged" Out

In a mere eleven days, I sat in on at least fifteen conference meetings. This includes the CCCA Super Sectional, camp staff meetings, and church meetings. It also includes two back-to-back trips to Omaha.

So far, this hasn't really been a typical work week. Jon's out of the state getting some sort of ropes certification, which makes some projects frustrating since I can't bounce ideas or get access codes to websites that I really need to use! Before he left, he asked me to attend a chamber meeting on Tuesday so that the camp could better utilize the chamber member benefits. Lunch was provided, so I decided to go for it.

I ended up not reserving my spot at that meeting until Monday, but I had all day with nothing to do because my car was in the shop. I took it to Square Tire for brakes check and alignment, and although they take a really long time, they are right next to the hall of a mall. I used my not-so-extreme couponing skills to take three food items out of HyVee and got paid five cents to do it! Then I learned that they couldn't do alignment because some parts would need to be replaced first, and the hub assembly on one of my wheels was crooked and ruined the brakes. All this would cost over $1300! They didn't have time to actually do any of the work, so I had time to think it over.

Tuesday I went to the meeting at the chamber. Going to business meetings is so fancy because I can pretend I'm some person of influence as I rub shoulders with owners and directors and store managers. They served sandwiches, chips, cookies, and water.

On Wednesday I dropped my car off at the shop once again. There was no way I could afford all the work it "needed", but since my 13-year-old car gets close to the gas mileage it's supposed to get, I decided the alignment, and all the work needed to get to the alignment, wasn't necessary. Replacing the brakes and the hub assembly was expensive enough! But I could get my mind off the expense because Emily picked me up and we went to sit at a booth at the Grace University career fair. They served sandwiches, chips, cookies, and water.

On Thursday, I left work early (which was okay because I probably wouldn't have done anything after that point; I was already taking far too many breaks since I was so limited on what I could do) and drove, once again, to the Square Tire parking lot. I cringed when I drove by the store, and I'm sure they cringed when they saw me pull up. (I may have been a bit of a hassle the day before, but it did end up saving me forty bucks.) But fortunately, my car was now running fine, I was just there to meet with other Toastmasters. Instead of our typical meeting night, we were going to support one of our fellow Toastmasters, who was speaking in a competition in Omaha. The competition was held at PayPal, which was actually a really cool building. No wonder they have security measures to get inside! Can you guess what they served? Yep, sandwiches, chips, cookies, and water. The contest was very educational. Maybe I'll enter one in the future...

...but probably not anytime soon. I am meetinged out!