June Photo Challenge

I've been having problems with Blogger for a larger part of May, and combined with going out of town for both work & pleasure 3 times this month I haven't gotten a chance to post much at all.  But that will change for June.  I'm going to partake in the June Photo Challenge, starting tomorrow!

I learned about this via A Feathered Nest.  We'll see if I can keep up with this challenge all month long! 

Back

Had the best sleep ever last night.  9 solid hours!!!  My internal alarm clock is generally set to 7ish, so I was really happy to hit the 8am mark.  I know 8am is still hecka early for most people, but then again they don't hit the sack before midnight.

Anyhoo, I'm glad to be back home, briefly.  Although I have to pack again as I'm going to Sacramento on Tuesday.  This trip will be more on the serious side though (leg visits at the Capitol) so nothing too crazy.  I've been to Sacramento several times for work and it makes me *yawn*.  I should really give it a chance one of these days.

Some things I liked about my week long training: 
The tasty breakfasts.  Every morning we noshed on eggs, sausages, potatoes in different b-fast forms, cut up fresh fruits, and really rich pound cake.

Bonding with folks doing work both similar and different from my own.  So many people inspired me!  They were from all over- Alabama, Texas, South Dakota, etc.
Playing this game again.

So I have to explain.  The picture after "having sex" was supposed to be of the Virgin Mary.  The gal who got the stack with "having sex" didn't want to draw that so she tried to draw the most innocent thing she could think of.  LOL.
Learning something new, literally every minute!

Some of the learning activities that we did were hilarious.  I won't even try to explain them here as there's too much background to go into, but let's just say that I laughed so hard I had tears of joy.

What I won't miss:
The long days.  We went from 9am to 9pm everyday!  And after 9pm, we'd still hang out afterward shooting the breeze.  About 1/3 of the group commuted and 1/4 of our group wasn't that social, so the rest of us would hang out in the main lounge.

Lunch and dinner had its highs (cooked to order NY steak one night!) and lows (fish so overly salted that I nearly spit it out), but after a while it got too heavy for me.  While I really enjoyed breakfast, the other two meals were heavier on the salt and tended to be a little dry and overcooked.  But there were some really tasty dishes including the steak, rice pilaf, corn chowder, etc. 

Lecture based learning.  I gotta admit, while I learned a lot of valuable skills and gained great knowledge, there were moments when I'd slip into a food coma and check out.
Chatty Cathys.  We had quite a few talkers in our group, and sometimes it took a lot of effort to make myself be heard.  Friday night Jerry had to tell me multiple times to take my voice down a notch.  I had been used to a whole week of speaking up!

Homestretch

I've been in San Ramon all week for work (a training).  While it's been an eye-opening experience personally and professionally, I'm looking forward to coming home.  Our days are long- we start at 9am (which is actually late for me as I usually start at 7:30) and we don't end until 8:30 or 9pm.  Breaks and 3 full meals are built in, of course, so there's a bit of time to decompress...but still I'm feeling pretty drained.  In addition to ending so late, I've been hanging out with my fellow participants afterward as well.  So really my days don't end until midnight!  Last night was our "free" night (where there was no session after dinner) so a bunch of us headed out to Oakland for some bar hopping.  We ended up at lesbian night at the Den at Fox Theater.  Let me tell you, I was never into the party scene to begin with (I only reached the tip of the iceberg in college), and I definitely felt out of my element, esp since it had been years since I last "partied".  Seriously I felt like the grandma in our group even though I wasn't the youngest or oldest of the group.  While it's been fun to be out of my element and to break routine, I can't wait to go home and snuggle up to Jerry with a good book in bed.  At 9pm.  *yawn*