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January 13, 2005 - Thursday, 10:07 a.m.

I left work at about 5:30 and on my way home Jim calls me on my cell. (He'd called the house and got the cell number from Justin). (We won't even talk about the odds of Justin answering the house phone at 5:15 pm). Anyway, he calls me. He's got a partial scholarship for these classes and wonders if I know of anyone who might be interested. Now the scholarship didn't really apply to me, and though I could think of people that might benefit from these classes, I know of no one that could drop everything and start these classes immediately... like within 30 minutes. Except myself. I asked a bunch of questions about the classes and then finally said, "I take it you called me because you thought I might be interested." He said, "No, actually I was hoping for a possible lead, but now that you mention it. Yeah." So we talked about the cost and I weighed it and thought, �you know, I am just going to do this.� I told him, "Yes. When do I need to be there?" He said, "When can you get here?" I said, "By 6:30." No problem. Viola!!

I walked in late (missed about the first hour and a half of the seminar). It's an interesting process. We talked about ground rules and ways we avoid things, and then did some group exercises. We didn't finish until after 12 am. We talked about value and being attracted or not attracted to things and whether not being attracted effects the actual value of the thing. One exercise had us make a list of the people who attracted us least and most in the class, and then we had to approach them and complete an exercise. Amazingly enough, or not, Mark and I picked each other for most attracted to. Interesting.

We are in the same small group and I picked him as my buddy to keep track of, and make sure he is taken care of. He couldn't pick me to be his buddy; everyone picks someone else within the small group. I think there are a lot of positive possibilities to be gained from this class. I'm excited about it. One of our rules is that we aren't supposed to divulge the process or share about people in the class without their permission. So I won't go into any more detail. They told us we could talk about our experiences, but not give a detailed list of each thing we do. Talk about the process in generalities and your personal experiences in any detail you desire.

Actually this is an intensive course.

Wednesday night 5 pm - 11:30pm (or later, possibly earlier)
Thursday night 5 pm - 11:30 pm (or later, possibly earlier)
Friday 9 am - 11:30 pm (or later, possibly earlier)
Saturday 9 am - 9:45 pm at which time is graduation followed by a social.

SOOOoo... my weekend it booked. :o) I was to bed by about 1 am last night, then up at 5:30 am.

The most surprising thing about all of this is how it fell together. It's amazing. I called Mark at the right moment to interrupt a call with Jim. Jim thought to call me. He caught my house at a moment when someone actually answered the phone. This alone is amazing, as we don�t answer about 90% of the incoming phone calls on our landline. If Justin had been working this week, he'd have either been asleep or in the shower. It happened at a time that I could do it. All the added on things, that I wasn't told about up front, don't interfere with anything else in my life (like school). (Follow ups on Monday (no classes) and then the following Tuesday (again no classes) My weekend was pretty clear, I have to call Rosie and move our movie to Sunday night, and I need to talk to my mother about MLK, as I won't be able to help with that. I am sure they'll do fine without me. Also, my school loan money arrives today, so I could afford it.

Mark was very surprised to see me there. �Blown away,� I believe were his exact words. I think he is glad I am there. So am I. I think this will be good for me, but I think it will transform him. The one thing that Jim said to me, that someone said to him, really struck me. She said, what she got out of the class was she learned how to get out of her own way. I need that. More than anyone in my life I get in the way of my own hopes, dreams and progress. To be perfectly honest a big part of the reason that I agreed to do this, is to be there for Mark... and for possibilities. I think this could transform him and I'd like to be apart of that. Ya know? But a bigger part, a reason I will really try to do the work, is the hopes that it�ll transform me as well.

Life�s strange and wonderful.