I had my first paid speaking engagement earlier this month. At housing conference this past fall I was approached by an individual wondering if I would come and speak at their institution. A few others overheard her asking me and inquired as well. I am in the process of going to some schools to help train RAs during mid-year trainings or professional development nights. I enjoy these type of speaking engagements and now that I am able to charge a small fee I am on my way to becoming a professional speaker. (If I get paid for twenty speaking engagements in a calender year, I can be a member of national professional speaking group.) So, if you want me to movitate you and your colleagues, you should book me at my current rate (transporation, meals, and a small stipend) before I get too popular. ;)
Since Anna has the car in Indiana, I rented a car to get me to/from the speaking engagement. I felt that more than one time I was followed by a police officer during the trip, including one who turned around to follow me. It wasn't until the end of my trip that I noticed I had (way) out of state plates. The picture below is me in my pretty shirt and tie with the rental car. The best part about the rental (in addition to being able to fit comfortably inside it) was that it had some built in navigational equipment to tell me where to go.
For those of you who haven't heard from Anna recently, don't worry, we just are having issues with our cell phone plan. Our "national plan" truly wasn't national and we ran out of minutes for the time being. But starting this Friday we are on a new plan (a NATIONAL national plan) and she will be able to return the phone calls that she hasn't been able to respond to.
Today Anna assisted with Charlie (her grandma's husband) who was celebrating his 90th birthday today. In addition to getting a birthday card signed by the President (or, as Mr. Keillor says, CURRENT OCCUPANT), there were over 200 people who showed up to his party. Anna helped by running errands and setting up the day before as well as serving a lot of cake today.
Kevin came to visit me this weekend and we commiserated while our sweethearts were away and didn't get into too much trouble. But since he's an official pastor now, he has to return on Saturday's to make sure that his sermon his ready for Sunday morning.
This last week and this week I (and some of my colleagues) have been putting a lot of work into Boxes and Walls, a special program for our RA mid-year training happening later this week. It is too difficult to explain, but I will post some pictures at the end of the week after the RAs have gone through the experience.
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