Good Weekend

I went on my church's singles' retreat this weekend and had a pretty good time.

It was held in the mountains of New York state on a beautiful campground. The only problem was the weather. It was incredibley cold... and I lived through several Chicago winters and this was colder than the time I walked around down town Chicago, in the wind and snow, with my Impact girls. Not only was it cold it was SUPER windy.

I think that because of the cold there was not as much social mingling as there could have been. People tended to go to one place during the free time and stay there because they did not want to go back out into the cold. I know that is what I did. I went to the game room and stayed there. Attempted to play pool with one girl. I also joined 3 guys and played some ping pong... well, attempted that too. It was still fun though. I really had to step out of my comfort zone and force myself to meet people. It was hard but worth it in the long run.

Eventually, I made my way out of the game room and found a girl I somewhat knew. I at least had met her on another occasion when I went to a girls' movie night. When I found her I suddenly remembered that I had a game "Marry, Date, Dump" in my car. (Lola and I found it at K-B Toys on clearance... it says "Age: Adult on the box"). So, Karen and I went to my car to get it then rounded up some people to play it with us. When I opened it I could not find the stickers for the dice so we had to forget the game. Karen left. After she left I found the stickers hidden in the score pad. Unfortunately, Karen was too far away to call he back to play so 5 of us played without her.

We had a good speaker too. He was very entertaining and was talented at speaking. My only problem with him was that he divided us into groups of 4 and kept making us discuss the same thing each time we met! Not only that, sometimes the questions just needed a one word response or else he asked us a question that just required us to repeat the same thing he had just told us. Simply put, the questions did not evoke deep thoughts in anyway.

I had a very enjoyable car ride on both the way to the camp and on the way back. I went up there with a girl from my Bible study named Beth. We ended up talking the whole way up and the whole way back. A 3 hour car ride seriously felt like 1. We could not believe we made it to our destication when we did. It was great! I also got to spend a lot of time with Beth while we were on the retreat. I think it's safe to say we really enjoyed eachother's company and friendship.

Sales Reps

I have been having so much fun with my reps at work. I really have.

One is named Dave Young. I told him he was sales rep of the year because he got 120 people to a seminar that Oley and I thought we'd be lucky if we got 60 at. Dave did an amazing job! Anytime he called or emailed me I would tell him "You rock Dave Young" or "You're great Dave Young" or "You're the Best Dave Young". You know. Sutff I can get away with because it is typically me. Well, from what Oley told me, Dave told Oley that he and I have a thing going on now (totally joking of course). The next week when Dave called in I told him that we really need to keep these office romances to ourselves. He is so funny (And he is well over 40).

Then last week I did some updating on our customer lists. I sent each guy their list back in NOVEMBER and some got back to me with some changes. Only 2 of those who responded made address changes. As I was updating the lists for the 15th time I noticed that another guy, Dan, had SEVERAL customers with only street names for their addresses... no number! So, I called each one and got the address. When Dan called me today I told him I wanted to shoot him last week. I forgot that Dan is not a joker and can be sensitive. He got a little upset and asked me why so I laughed and told him why then told him that I'm nto mad at him any more.

Another one is Thom. Thom is a lot of fun but he is very high maintenance... but you don't realize it because he is such a smooth talker! He got me to order flowers for a customer who had a baby... not my job. He got me to mail 150 note cards for him... not my job. He got me to print customer mailing labels for him... above and beyond my job. I don't know how he does it!

Well, this week I had to email all of the guys about their mailing lists because I kept getting returned mail for some invitations we sent out for our 8 seminars this winter. I emailed the guys they belonged to and asked for changes but no one got back to me so I deleted them from their customer bases for our next invitation and the catalog mailings taht are going out this week. I told the guys why I did it too. Thom wrote back and aksed me to tell him who was removed from his list. I had given Thom my changes and he has his original list mind you. So, I wrote him back and explained that I have 11 reps to take care of and I cannot remember who was removed from each list but resent his original list, the list with his changes, and the list with my changes and told him to figure it out himself because I am inundated with work. Wouldn't you know Thom called this morning and when I answered the phone he asked me so nicely if I could remember who was deleted from his list. Before I knew it I agreed to go through the trash and figure it out for him!
I got off the phone and had to go into Oley's office to tell him what Thom did! He thought it was really funny. I have to admit it is. I also told him what I said to poor Dan and Oley said "You're enjoying all your boyfriends, aren't you?" I had to say that yes. I am enjoying them very much.

Sometimes they make me want to shoot them but I am enjoying my work with them.

Sorry About My Delay

Hey Guys!
I'm sorry it has taken me so long to give you an update. Things are going well. I've started to hang out with people on a regular basis, got on some meds, got off of my birth control, and started seeing a counselor. I did come into many obstacles in the medical part of this but I got through them. I could post about them but I am not going to bring up all of the negative and mean things that were said or done.

One thing that has helped is that I am making a conscious effort to not be shy. Those who know my know that I am very shy by nature and as a result it takes me a while to get to know people because I get too nervous. I basically decided that attitude is not going to get me far and am making a very conscious effort to be the Tracie that people know after she is very comfortable in her surroundings.

That being said, I need to ask for your prayers on another issue. The MS is acting up again. This time in addition to affecting my mobility it is causing very blurred vision. It makes going out very difficult. On Wednesday I was so fatigued I could not sit up and could barely see at all so I had to take off of work. I did not like doing that because I don't have vacation time yet and I don't want this to count against me but when you can't move or see you can't move or see.

Thanks!
T