Fundraising and Meeting Famous Authors

Today I attended Classroom Central's annual fund & awareness raising lunch, as a guest of a client and as a supporter of the organization. It was a double whammy for me.  One, because I think it's a great cause and two, because I got to meet Janice Booth, their Executive Director and published author.

Here are some really crappy statistics about poverty & the CMS school system:

• 100,000 kids live in poverty in the Charlotte region
• Everyday, 93 children drop out of school in NC because they lack BASIC school supplies.
• It would take $20 Millon dollars to provide for every underprivlieged child
• 27,000 NC inmates are HS dropouts and the state spends $635 Millon dollars to incarcerate them
• It only costs $200 to provide basic supplies for a student
• One class goes through 200-300 pencils in a MONTH

Now for the great statistics about Classroom Central:

• will provide $5 Millon dollars in school supplies this year
• turns every $1 donated into $7+ in school supplies (wish I could do that with my dollars!)
• gives out 39,000+ pens, 32,000 pencils & 7,200 one subject notebooks each week

As Mick Mixon said, there is enough money to fund these children's needs...it's just in your pocket! 

Now, back to the second reason I was glad to go to the lunch.  I was able to chat with Janice Booth who wrote "Only Pack What You Can Carry: My Path to Inner Strength, Confidence and True Self-Knowledge".  Janice spoke on Charlotte Talks recently and I throughly enjoyed her interview! It was very timely considering the trip I am embarking on next month.  While I will have a co-pilot on this trip, she reminded me of the adventures I've had travelling on my own, rekindling and fanning the flame of independent travel! Janice was incredibly warm and personable today, taking the time to share a story about having dinner with a Prince in Rome; an opportunity that only presented itself because she was alone.  I really appreciated the time she took to chat with me, even more so, because she had just finished one of the biggest events of the year on her business calendar!

A Day in the Life

This was yesterday:
New Tires on South
Up to NorthLake to view new listing with Mr. Bossman
Down to the office (picked up lunch along the way)
Went to showing, brought Mr. Bossman, other broker never showed.
Back to office.
Left at 515 to SouthPark
Bought: shoes (on sale), flip flops, lipstick (original reason for going), swimsuit, a couple of knit dresses (they ARE awesome, Dre was so right), a boob shirt and a dress for work.
Home by 630
Packed
At lauras at 705
Loaded car.
On the road by 715
Front Street brewery at 1050
Level 5 at midnight
Beach house at 130.

Not a bad day. :-)

Cancun or Bust!

What does the sane girl do when she loses her job?  Take off to Cancun for a week of soul searching!

We'll see if this turns out to be one of my crazier ideas or not.

Oddly enough, or not, actually, my friends reactions when I told them I was taking off was, "Are you crazy?!"  Wait, no, you're Jen.  This is a completely normal reaction for you. Good luck!"

My plan is to take this time and figure out what is important to me and decide WHAT TO DO WITH THE REST OF MY LIFE.  Or, at least the next chapter.

I am so grateful to have spent most of the month of January in blissful ignorance of my impending job loss.  January was quite a bit of fun and wouldn't have been if I had known what was just around the corner.

Isn't that the crux of life?

Una margarita por favor!!