It’s about time I start telling people what goes on in my life…I guess I already do but I mean yea whatever I think you know what I mean.

Friday I planned to meet up with a girl I met online in an attempt to make some new friends. (remember the post about making an “Everything” friend) as it turns out she had done something similar to my monthly dinners and planned one of her own. Funny side note: We were having dinner at TGIFridays which is the last place you expect to be eating dinner on a Friday night in downtown Chicago. When I arrive there are 4 girls already there and the girl I was originally trying to meet was not. By the way, its not so good to be uber late to a dinner you coordinated with people who have never met before. Anyway, I digress, I get there and we go around the table talking about ourselves. “Oh, hi, I’m Monica, I’m 25, well really my birthday is in 2 weeks so I am not sure if I should say 25 or 26, but lets just say 25 for now. No I don’t

have any kids, no I am not married, Yes I do like to go out.”

I realize I ramble a bit when I am nervous which I really really was. This was a new thing for me because I am extremely social and usually the life of the party.

Here is another thing, I am not used to being the girl in the group that is “thinner” and I felt like I was getting a lot of slack for it. There were some “smart” comments floating about that I did not appreciate. The thing is, I have been working really hard to lose weight and while I am not one to judge anyone, please do not be rude to me for talking about losing weight and exercising if you are 300+. You chose to let yourself get there, I chose to stop myself before I got there. The end. I will never tell you that you are fat, nor will I make you feel bad about it so in turn I do not want you to make me feel bad for struggling and forcing myself to lose weight. Thanks and good night.

Ook back to the story! As more girls slowly started to arrive I was relieved to find that I actually had things in common with about 3-4 out of the 11 or 12 that showed up. I don’t mind married friends or even friends with kids but the reality is that I do not want to keep making friends with kids because well…shit they can’t do anything without a babysitter. Experience tells me that having friends with kids can sometimes be very frustrating. Married people don’t bother me as I am in a relationship myself. BUT women and men being married does not mean that you can no longer enjoy yourself. So that being said, some of the girls may or may not have appreciated my personality and some got along with me just fine.

It turns out one of the girls that came actually went to the same middle school as me and recognized me. How fun?! All in all it was a productive evening and I had fun meeting new people.

Notice how I didn’t talk about the girl I was originally supposed to meet? That is because once she arrived dinner was in full swing and I only spoke to her once we were all leaving the restaurant.

I don’t have a clue half the time.

That being said, this was week 3 of tutoring my ABE(adult basic education) student and I am having a blast. While it is not exactly “fun” getting home so late after an 8 hour workday I do feel a nice sense of accomplishment everytime I leave the center.

A bit about my student: He is a 21 year old high school graduate who has a 2nd grade reading level. Big shout-outs to the great teachers & parents that let this kid keep passing without catching the problem. Great news is that he is doing something about it, he wants to be able to read, and get a better job to improve his life. Yay him!! He is showing very small bits of improvement but everytime he does I am so happy for him. He is teaching me to realize how much I take for granted. In a previous post I whined about reading romance novels but I am so thankful that someone(s) out there took the time to make sure I learned how to read.

So that is 2 days of my week, and now that I am done with my TEFL course I am working on finishing up my observation hours. I have to get 20 hours of ESL class observation done in the next 3 weeks because I am the worlds worst procrastinator. Yes, I really am. Either way thanks to my friend Ms.R putting me in touch with a fabulous person I have so places to actually go now. So thats another 2 days of my week. Yep, 4 days a week spent teaching or observing someone else teach. Brain overload!!

Either way I am not complaining as I am finally doing some of the things I really really wanted to do this year! I know not everyone is into teaching but I recommend that everyone find something they love doing and then find a volunteer program that involves it and get involved.

This is the week leading up to the biggest tradeshow my company does every year. Can you say madhouse?? I can! It’s been a rough two weeks and the next week or two will be just as hectic. There has been plenty going through my head I want to write about but I can’t seem to form the words to make any sense.