Lessons Learned

This was my first week back on the instructor rotation program, so I was in Cleveland, imparting knowledge to the kiddies as best I could. I'd been swamped with prepping for training and trying to get in planning work for a couple of clients, so I spent most nights in my hotel room working and prepping. I really didn't get to see much of the city. From what I did see, though, Cleveland does not rock (damn you and your lies, Drew Carey). The hotel and the training center were not really what I expected for a major international accounting firm, but that might be my big city snobbery shining through again. When you're used to hosting trainings in gleaming new office buildings and staying at 4- or 5-star hotels, everything else seems shabby.


So during this particular trip, I learned a few valuable lessons:


1. When leaving a message, make sure you hang up at the end of the call. I was leaving a message for a staff on their cell phone when I saw that he was trying to call me back. I finished up my message and then tried to pick up the other call, thinking that it would hang up on the other line. Problem was, I missed the incoming call, muttered my favorite 4-letter word that rhymes with "duck".... and then realized that I had said that straight into my phone, which was still recording the message on the other line. Oops! So much for not scaring the kiddies....


2. It is a good thing to wake up early and get a head start on the day. For 3 days in a row, I got up at 5:45AM to hit the gym (3-5 mile runs). I managed to turn in pretty good times, felt REALLY good during and after the runs, and made it to class on-time, all with absolutely no soreness afterwards. Maybe it's just because I was out of town, but I was super motivated to get in some mileage this week. We'll see if it keeps up, but somehow running early in the morning doesn't feel as hard as it does in the evening. Or maybe I was just sleep deprived?

3. As with all endurance events, epic happy hours require the appropriate training beforehand. As I realized on Wednesday night's HH with the class, my tolerance was not very high (wow, that could be interpreted in SO many ways), and as I haven't been drinking on a regular basis, I decided to take it easy and not try to keep up with the 23-year olds. I do not have a 20-year old's liver trapped in this 30 year old's body. What I do have is a 30 year old brain that is filled with reminders of similar events held in years past that have resulted in countless instances of stupidity, one self-inflicted black eye, and a pinch of shame. So, like a good, responsible, and mature trainer, I had 3 beers (not counting the Irish car bomb) and made a few friends by giving the next few shots to others. I was definitely feeling pretty happy with the world by the end of the night, but I was still able to get up in the morning and wrap up the last day of class with a decent amount of energy.

On a side note, the other highlight of this week was winning pub trivia. Yes, at long last, all the random crap that's in my head finally paid off! Actually, it was a tremendous team effort (team consisted of my accounting class, myself, and my awesome co-instructor). Together, we turned in a 100+ point performance, totally dominating the locals (just like the Angels did to the Indians). Along the way, we won a bunch of bonus rounds and got 2 pitchers of beer on the house, and that's before the gift card that we got for winning. Ah, the thrill of victory!!

Tomorrow, it's off to New York for a weekend conference (yes, I'm technically charging time all weekend-long for this event). On the plus side, I am the only person from Baltimore going so I am going to have to network and practice talking to strangers, which is still something I'm not comfortable with. And since it's New York, if it all goes horribly wrong, I can just go and drown my sorrows at Ginger Man or console myself with a couple of enormous cupcakes from Crumb.