Tuesday, February 20, 2007
7:36:48 PM

Well, here am I at the Mannatech weekly business meeting with a crowd of about 150 “Mannatech Associates”. From what I’ve gathered, Mannatech is a nutritional supplement manufacturer that works much the same way as Amway and Mary Kay with regards to their product distribution network. Why am I here you May ask? Well for that answer we’ve got to go back to 6:45 this morning. I awoke to the bustle of people packing up their mats, pillows, and blankets from the gym floor. Unfortunately by the time I was ready for sleep there wasn’t much room left on the mats; so I slept on my jacket in the corner. I just had to smirk when people started to complain about how uncomfortable the mats were. I was all good. We loaded the bus before the break of dawn and set off for Dallas. We had a sub-continental breakfast of fruit juice, yogurt tubes, and a bagel with cream cheese. My bus buddy was Yu-lin so we talked at great length about the history and geography of China. Later on, I took the opportunity to snooze for a while (about an hour but when I woke up the scenery hadn’t changed) followed by a few episodes of Family Guy. For lunch we stopped in the town of ________. They gave us each $5 for lunch so I went to a restaurant called “Poppeye’s” with Karin, Patrick, and Meg; others followed. The other options were Subway and Taco Bell. I wanted to try something new. As it turned out, they sell mainly “chicken & biscuits”, I had a spicy chicken sandwich with fries and pop. I tried a new kind of pop called “Big Red”. There was also a doughnut house nearby that Karin and I were determined to visit to buy some tasty doughnuts for the rest of the trip but alas it was closed. After 45 minutes we all got loaded (onto the bus), as our driver said. In the afternoon I slept a little more and we also watched the movie “Crash” which deals very bluntly with racial stereotypes and violence in L.A. California. Later in the afternoon, the Dallas skyline began to loom larger in view. Although we got lost a few times, we still arrived early to our major sponsor’s headquarters in Dallas; Mannatech. We were greeted with coffee and cookies; but mainly the coffee. We had our meeting and were reunited with Leo and Jeff; the advanced team for Dallas. I found out that Angelo from Curaco is my room mate for the next week; it should be interesting for sure. Our host mom and dad (well rather host grandmother and grandfather) are Francis and Casey Riley and they are Associates of Mannatech which brings me full circle. We’re currently listening to former NFL player Butch Johnson.

Interesting Factoids:
2 time Superbowl football player for the Dallas Cowboys. Age 18 you begin to think that you have a shot to be a great athlete. The statistics are against you but you dream about it anyhow. 18 players of each of the teams they played in the superbowl have died. Equivalent of 5000 whiplashes over 10 years of playing. The NFL players give up 25 years of your life to play 10.

Original Brennan Quote of the Day
You never know when you might die; so don’t wait to make a difference in people’s lives. Make a difference now.

To Do:
Add self to wikipedia


Van Horn Gym where we spent the night
Dawn Breaks and we're on our way again


Arriving in Dallas

Finding our Host families
Angelo my room mate for the week, and my host grandma
Butch Johnson, former NFL football star


Its all Good™; well except the fact that I'm again stealing the neighbours internet and I have to go outside to get a strong enough connection to use it.