i also spent some time watching recorded webinars and i've gotten really good at booking hotels and flights!
thursday rolled around, and i went into the office to make some copies for megan, one of the trainers i would be going with on sunday-back to houston again...i knew she was travelling and lives a ways from the office, so i offered to make the copies (gotta' earn my keep). once i had those made, i headed to the airport and found a spot at my gate and began reading. when i stopped in at the office, i stopped by lori's office, as she'd mentioned a book during our training a few weeks back, and i was really interested in reading it. i hadn't seen my colleague at that point, and i wasn't sure if she was a last-minute-er, or not.
when the announcement came, i packed up the book, leaving off at what the author self-proclaimed the best chapter. and once i got in line,there was a gentleman right in front of me, and i don't know exactly what his excuse was...either a) it was still dark in his house when he grabbed his daugher's backpack, b) a cute girl selling backpacks told him it looked really manly on him... c) he got a really good price on it...? not sure, but there he was:
upon arriving in houston, we got to the car rental, and she goes so often that she knows the rental lady (lucy?), who gave me a hug and said to look for her whenever i came in to rent a car. good to have friends! when traveling with people, you learn a lot about them...family, friends, where they have lived, what type of music they listen to (this time, it was some slow-r&b, i guess?) but it was just background music...like the music you'd use in the background of a video/movie. nothing like sharing music! and then after the young man at the gate dropped the amex under the car, and we had to back out to get it, we started toward the hotel, or so i thought.
actually she was kind enough to show me the town and different areas of houston, since i'd never really been to the downtown area and seen the sites. so i was given the royal tour! it's nice to have someone who is familiar enough with an area to be able to point out different areas. then we grabbed dinner at niko nikos- apparently featured with guy on diners, drive-ins and dives. it was a great little greek restaurant! but truly nothing compares with the first gyro i ever had in an authentic little dive in san diego with stacey cruse and family! #mouthwatering.
once we finished with dinner and drove a little more, we found our hotel-this was one that she had frequented often, as they had recently remodeled. it was a pleasant evening-i went to bed early. then the next morning we got to the campus, and the room set-up sometimes just isn't what you had anticipated, so you roll with it. the first morning session was light and it was difficult to get everything in, then when it was time for the second group to enter, it was chaos. i mean to tell ya, it filled up and seemed like maybe they'd gotten the wrong memo-that maybe this was the carnival, or something because they came in droves, and at that point, my partner looked at me and asked me to go find the person in charge. so i found the lady that had helped us get set up in the morning and she came in with a big stick-metaphorically speaking (her attitude) and basically said, "if you did not register for this training, you need to stand up now and leave, there is not enough room. if i have to, i will start reading down the list, so you may just want to get up now." and that was that! still a full room with people sitting on the floor in the front of the room. so third world. anyhoo, the show must go on...and it did.
several of the participants were new to istation, so hopefully they were able to digest everything-you never know when time is so short! but there were a couple of ladies in the second session who stayed a little after to ask some questions, so i know they had a bit of a grasp and they were going to be serious about using. i always pick up some sort of tid-bit even this far into the training. this particular trainer used some good anecdotal supports, and a bit of humor-which can go a long way, if done right!
we finished around noon-thirty, and made our way to the airport. she had put the airport name in the google maps or siri, and it took us toward the airport, at one point telling us to turn on a back road, so i pointed out the road and she turned in...and it took us to a back side of the airport-the cargo side (still close) and told us to park and walk the rest of the way. (not my fault). so we backtracked and got to national to turn in the car without further ado.
hungry doesn't even begin, so we got food on the fly, as we were trying to standby for the early flight. the flight was a little late-which was fine by me-i got to eat before getting on the plane! for whatever reason, this short hop left me feeling a little queasy-weak and shaky...thought i was getting sick, but thankfully such was not the case-no time to be sick!
friday night, saturday, all a blur...talked to some friends, did laundry, headed out again sunday afternoon for...houston! this time i was meeting up with megan and deAn. it had been a bit since i'd seen deAn, and so i was excited to see her, and i was also looking forward to working with megan for the first time-i've only heard good things, so i was looking forward to getting to know her better on this trip.
more on that tomorrow-for now, it's time to call it a day!
julie
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