Day 23-25

Day 23 was a great afternoon full of meetings following a morning of calamity (I cut myself on broken glass, set off the fire alarm twice, spilled things all over the kitchen, and had to run to my meeting all because I was trying to make a pot of soup that didn't even taste good when I was done with it). I met with a fellow who works in the Johnson Center for Philanthropy here in Grand Rapids. He asked me all kinds of questions about who I was, what I wanted to do, what I needed from a job, and what I wanted from a job. He said he'd see if a few phone calls he could make would yield anything. I left feeling like even if nothing came of it, it was great to sit down and talk with him because it helped me to organize my mind.

After this meeting, I had a more informal chat with someone from Bazzani Associates, a green builder here. I now know where to go to buy some shoes that don't make my feet hurt and that supports local businesses, and may have a contact for playing league soccer here. Yes!!! I just have to get my turf toe healed first -- hence, the new shoes! We talked in Global Infusion, which I always like going to because it's where I got engaged. :)

That was all Wednesday. On Thursday I met with some folks from the Grand Rapids Community Foundation. I just can't believe how open people have been to meeting me and talking about what I'm doing. It felt weird to be back in another foundation; even though this one was a community foundation and not another private foundation, it had the same kind of quiet, opulent feel to its offices and they were definitely the most dressed up of all the other people I've met with. Is this just a foundation thing?

Now, I feel that for being gainfully unemployed, my last 2 weeks have been extremely busy. After the Thursday meeting, I took off for the town I moved away from just over a month ago: Albion. I went and saw my friend perform in the Vagina Monologues and hung out with the Albion posse again. Isn't it strange how at the same moment, it can seem as though you never left and you left long, long ago?

Since I got home at 3 AM, I didn't do anything on Friday except put my spices into a cabinet because...after a little over a month...I now have a residence. It's going to be the place I've been staying, but now that it's decided, I get to UNPACK!!!!

I've also been thinking...even if nothing job-related comes of all of these meetings I've had in the past month, I can see a huge difference in myself from my first meeting to the last one I had. I am so much more comfortable talking to people. I am better at conversation, better at reading people small cues about when to go and when to leave, better at establishing a connection (but probably still not that great at that). And I am much, much better about going out and just talking. My first couple meetings I remember obsessively reading as much as I could about the people, taking notes, trying to memorize newspaper clippings, and thinking that I would need to spout as much of this as possible when I met with the person so that they could see I knew my stuff. I realized that they don't care. I still will review the company the person works for, but I don't feel the need to wow them with my knowledge of their organization...I think I may have seemed like a bit of a nervous ass in my first couple meetings. Oh well...live and learn!

I'm off for the weekend to get my taxes done with the help of my future father-in-law. Should be interesting.