Training Can Be a Good Thing

I'm scheduled for basic training for the next two days.

No, it's not basic training for the military. That would be one instance where "you can't teach an old dog new tricks" would apply!

Close, but no cigar.

I work for the government, so I go for training after I've been on the job and have a bit of experience under my belt already. The same thing happened the last time I had a government job. I was sent to a week's worth of basic training after I'd done the job for over a year that time. At least this time, I've only been doing the job for 3 months. This time, I do have a set of questions I hope to get answered. In that way, it's good, and I'm looking forward to the training.

I wish I never had that experience of going to training well after I was deep in the job. I mean, that training had to be the most ridiculous thing I ever had to sit through. Think of Lance Armstrong going to a training at this point in his career that starts out with a tricycle with training wheels and you'll get the idea.

The worst part may be waking up much earlier to do the hour-long drive down to Little Rock. Usually, the alarm is set for 5 a.m. and that's early enough! That gives me a good half hour to whack the snooze before I actually do have to get out of bed. But, I can only justify setting it back a half hour to 4:30, so I'll have to waive that snooze whacking time.

You see, the biggest difficulty of this training is the parking around the state capitol. There isn't any. The half-baked solution is to park in a nearby hotel parking lot and take a shuttle over to the capitol. 

OK, I'm losing some precious sleep time, I'm wasting hours of travel time, I'll have to suffer through bumper to bumper traffic and two days worth of being in a city on top of doing the unthinkable and riding down with someone who I have no idea how she drives!

Oh, it just all sounds so risky. I have no medical or life insurance! Couldn't I just write an email with my questions? Couldn't I just stay at my nice, safe desk?

I'll have my camera with me as always. That's the good thing. Maybe I'll come away with some decent photos of the capitol of Arkansas. Yeah, that would be cool...