Friday Five, #49

1. Although it might be easier to believe that “I’m a dork” or “Vincent D’Onofrio” are the #1 and #2 search strings that lead people to this little blog, they are not. The top search string that has garnered me four times the number of hits than any other phrase is “Billy Bob Thornton”. WTH? He has only been mentioned here three times (okay, now four times) whereas Vincent has been mentioned…how many?…eleventy hundred? At least. Is Billy Bob even in the news right now? Why are people constantly looking for him? On Monday alone, 120 people found their way here looking for him. I seriously don’t get it.

2. Well, since I last posted about the flooding, another levee was breeched right at the point where we would have been crossing the river to attend the reception. There are a few bridges still open into Iowa but all entail a few extra hours drive time…so the bride has decided to move the entire wedding to the reception hall in Iowa. Since the wedding is later in the afternoon, she thought everyone could have enough time to find a bridge to cross and make it for the ceremony and then the party can start right after. Probably a good idea. But I won’t be going now.

3. Guess who I met today, almost a year after she moved in? Isabel’s mom! We finally ended up at home and out at the mailboxes at the same time so we chatted for a while. She was upset about a proposal that our Homeowners Association is bringing up for a vote next week and wanted to talk about it. I set her straight on a few misconceptions she had and also gave her a few more facts to chew on before the vote. She seemed very nice but really concerned about the costs of some of the improvements. She’s a single mom without a lot of spare funds so I certainly see her point. I’m glad I talked to her because I really didn’t care one way or the other how things went but now I’ll make sure she isn’t railroaded into something that puts her into a vulnerable financial situation. If we decide that we should implement some of the changes, I will suggest that we offer people a payment plan option, rather than expecting a lump sum payment, as it was communicated. I think people who have it a little easier quickly forget that other people need more warning and additional time to cover unexpected expenses. I’m ashamed of us for not thinking about it.

4. The first day of training was surprisingly fun and interesting. I was afraid that eight hours of sitting in a classroom-type setting would be painful and unbearably long but it wasn’t at all. In fact, 4:30 arrived before I thought it should. I hope this bodes well for my aptitude in this area and I actually enjoy this new role.

5. Speaking of training, one of the women attending this class was a guest at the Center’s volunteer dinner Wednesday night. We spoke briefly at the dinner and I thought, “She’s kinda cool. I wonder if we could be friends?” And then Thursday morning, I was walking into the training room and held the door for the person behind me…and it was her! We said hello and giggled about it being a small world and then sat at different tables. But about a half hour into the day, the instructor decided to rearrange everyone to better suit the exercises he was going to have us do and now we’re sitting at the same table, directly across from each other. Long story short, we’re pals now. Another woman at my table is working with the charitable foundation department of our company (that I so desperately want to work with!) and she and I are trying to figure out if there could be some opportunities coming up where I could get involved with that area. How cool would that be? Maybe I should report this time as networking, rather than training? I’m definitely working it!