My Life on the road | Peaches Prattlings

{July 18, 2016} I think travel kicked my…

You guessed it.

The day started at 430am, flight at 6am, delay and turbulance on the first flight, enough time to get to the next flight, only to sit on the tarmac for over an hour before taking off, this was due to the lightening storm going on outside.

Finally got to Chicago about 11, then on to the office. Did get some lunch about 1245, I was hu-hu-hu-hungry! Breakfast was at 530 EST!

The day was productive, but sitting, the travel delays and my allergies kicking in for some reason was kicking my butt! Oh, and I think it being Monday has something to do with it!

I left the office about 630, headed to the hotel, got some dinner and I am now in my pj’s at 845pm! Let’s see how long I make it!

{July 11, 2016} I do not like pickled plums…

Sam I am. I so wanted that to work!

Tonight I flew through DTW and went to one of my favorite Japanese restaurants, Spray. Actually, it was a favorite of almost everyone on the same project when we were at UMHS.

I stopped in there and ordered a salad, a tofu dosh and a pickled plum roll, no wasabi. I didn’t know what pickled plum was like, I asked my server, she hadn’t had it, but served it quite often, ok, let’s try it, I’m game!

Um…my personal opinion…ewe…it was so you! So not for me! Turns out I’ve tried pickled plum before, in something I tried in Hawaii, as soon as I took my first bite I remembered and, if anyone who knows me knows I don’t like ginger, but I ate ginger, had to get the taste out!

I wasn’t sending it back, so I decided to just poked the pickled plum out and ate the cucumbers, rice and seaweed with some soy sauce. When the server came by and asked how it was, I told her what I thought as I was laughing.

So…as my mom always said, just try it. I did, because who knows what you’ll like until you try it and the bottom line…no more picked plum for me!

{July 8, 2016} 15 hours to get home? Seriously?

You thought July 4th was a long day? A walk in the park!

Speaking of walking, I wonder if I could have walked back to Boston…my alarm went off at 545 am as it does every weekday, I was only about 10 minutes at the most from the airport, so I took my time.

I did my hair, I prefer the sparklers on the 4th, rather than in my hair, ha ha. Shower, dressed, breakfast, load the car, fill the tank [$2.49], go to the airport, drop off the rental car, check in and then sit in the waiting area, which is right outside the 2 gates they have.

I wasn’t even sure we’d take off, big storms yesterday and this morning, but we did. It was a little toasty on the sessna, the air wasn’t very strong, maybe they should have left the window open! 9 other people on the plane with me and about 15 minutes in, I was unconscious, another awesome nap! Probably the highlight of my day.

I wasn’t sure if I’d make it to my flight in St. Louis since we left late, but we made it, wahoo, with about 45 minutes to spare, great. Got some food, found a charger then eventually got on the plane. And we sat…and waited and waited…delayed due to weather, hmm…

Got to Philly about 3 minutes after the boarding doors closed on my connecting flight. Thank you gate agent for being less than helpful.

Got in line for customer service, along with the other 50 people who got in late or flights were canceled, called my travel company, they couldn’t help. I called the airline…the next 2 flights were booked. I’m now on the 815pm flight. Considered renting a car and driving the 5+ hours, but I stuck it out. It’s now about 4pm, won’t be too bad, right?

Went and got some food, did some shopping then sat and sat and sat. The charging stations that worked were full, half of them didn’t work to begin with…

The 815p flight is now leaving at 9pm, seriously? So, I sat and waited and finally got on the plane where the woman next to me panicked when the air came on and there was condensation that looked like smoke, that was fun.

It’s now 11pm, I am just getting to my rental car and I started my travel day at 7am. I joked that I could have been in Hawaii a few hours by now!

Time to go home, hug the kitties and pass out! Sounds good to me. I’m safe and sound, all that matters!

Good night!

{July 8, 2016} I really like what I do.

Every time I get in front of a class, I am reminded of why I I’m there and how much I love it.

I may have talked about this before, so I hope you don’t mind if I do it again.

I’ve always enjoyed training, but I didn’t realize how much until someone stated paying me to do it. I know how that sounds, but let me explain.

For a long time at different companies, somehow I would be identified as someone who could train, so a lot of times they would get a be application and say “here, we just got this, figure it out and teach it to us!” Ok…

The sweetest moment was when I was teaching my son something craft related, he was about 10 and he looked looked at me and said “your a good teacher”. Hmm, think my heart melted then?

There was even a point where I thought I wanted to be a teacher, I met SDL when I was in grad school in Atlanta. I didn’t finish my masters, but I met one of my best friends, that sounds like a good deal to me!

My mom had even said, “if you come back to NY, I can get you a job in any school”, hmmm..I didn’t, but it was a thought. Both my parents were amazing teachers, it must be genetic. Well, it didn’t get me back there, but she was right, I would make a great teacher, just in a different type of classroom.

After I got divorced, I was looking for work and had lunch with a friend one day, PK, and the company he was working for was looking for trainers. I had never been officially paid as a trainer, let’s see what happens. I interviewed and apparently, whatever I said worked! They hired me and so began my life and love of being a road warrior, it sparked the bug and as you know, I’m still doing it.

I realized a few things, I can learn applications pretty easily, I need to practice, have hands on time to try and try and try, instead of sit there and listen to someone talk, especially if they are not engaging. I can “fake it til ya make it”, even if I don’t really know the subject matter, no one knows because I’m confident in my delivery. Sometimes I am just memorizing the material and don’t really understand it until I’ve taught it a few times, then things click and I’m really on.

As I tell anyone who asks, to me ‘an application is an application is an application’ and what I mean by that is I don’t even have to understand it, I have to help you understand how to use it to do your job day to day. I do actually learn it, just sometimes not right away.

I have to tell you, when I get in front of a class, I soar, I could be dead on my fear tired but when I get up there in front of the class, it’s like bam! I’m on! I might collapse at lunch or the end of the day, the minute I start teaching, wow, I come alive! I am very energetic, try to be engaging, so far it seems to be working.

I know what is like to be in a boring class, not want to be there in the first place and have a boring or bad trainer. I want to be sure that you stay awake, engaged, participate, enjoy yourself and heaven forbid…learn something!

What people tell me on their way out of class or sometimes during a break encourages me and makes it all worthwhile and that’s what it’s really all about and why I know I’m where I’m supposed to be, doing what I’m supposed to be doing and I love it. What do they say…if you love what you do you’ll never work a day in your life. You were right mommy, darn it!

{July 1, 2016} Ahhh….

At home with my babies…sigh, I’m happy.

After three straight weeks on the road that includes two weekends mind you, which were fabulous!

But you can’t beat it! Sigh…

{June 30, 2016} It’s the little things

It really is, isn’t it.

I checked into my hotel today and found this bunny, isn’t that sweet?

After negative attitudes this week and a long drive after class today, it was a welcome site.

I felt good and I know that tomorrow is a new day. Wahoo!

Thanks HGI!

{June 29, 2016} Good intentions!

What do they say about the road to hell?

I swear to you, I have very good intentions of getting up every morning and going to the gym. It’s not like I have to drive anywhere, I have to get out of bed, put my workout clothes on, take the elevator and walk into the fitness center at my hotel. My alarm is set for 5:45 for that reason…I’m giving myself at least 15 minutes to snooze.

That sounds reasonable, right? Ha ha!
Man, that snooze button is too easy to hit! I need someone pushing me out of bed sometimes. When I’m up, I’m up, it’s the getting up that gets in the way! And I will tell you, once I do get up and hit the gym, I’m so very glad I did. And I get into a routine for a while, I go every day for a few weeks or months even, then…then the cycle starts all over again.

I went today, hmmm…what will tomorrow hold, I wonder. Keep ya posted!

{June 24, 2016} Cleveland Rocks!

Dad and I have been talking about taking a trip somewhere and we’ve both wanted to see the Rock-n-Roll Hall of Fame.

Problem solved, we’re going to Cleveland!

We made a decision, then just needed dates, then came booking flights. Just about that time, GES and I were trying to figure out what to do for Father’s Day…

Perfect…we decided to fly him to Cleveland. I got the rooms with my points, yeah baby! Doubletree Hotel , warm chocolate chip cookies, breakfast included, bath robe…we do things in style around here!

So…here I am in Cleveland to spend the weekend with my pops, enjoying good conversation, a lot of laughs and some rock…n…roll!!!

Can’t wait to tell you all about it! Gonna crash now!

I hope you have rockin’ dreams!

{June 24, 2016} Sharing the vegan love

I know you know in a vegan, my friends and colleagues know, but it’s not something I push on anyone.

There are jokes about vegans out there “How do you know someone is a vegan? The tell you in the first five minutes of meeting them!” Ha ha, very funny. Well that’s not me. I like being vegan, but I don’t push it on anyone and I would never force anyone to be vegan. But if you have questions or want to know something, I’ll answer as best I can.

Most people find out I’m vegan when they make restaurant suggestions and I have to tell them my criteria. My coworkers have been great at our get togethers, always making sure I can get something when I’m there, I appreciate it so much. Don’t think my friends aren’t the same way!

Sometimes when I am having a conversation about it someone will say “oh, I want to try it, but I don’t think I could do it”, “I want to go vegan cold turkey”, so to speak. I’m happy to share knowledge, even recommendations. Sometimes it’s just, “do to want to taste what I’ve got?”

I’m always honest about what I think is good, I’ll tell you if it’s passable, I don’t think all vegan is awesome. Do you remember me telling you about the cheese that smelled like feet? See, honest!

And that happened at work this week. One of my new coworkers said she wants to go vegan. Ok…Tuesday she went with me and we had vegan for lunch at a place I like, and it’s the only vegan place near the training site. She loved what she tried, she was blown away!

Yesterday, I took two of my new coworkers to the vegan place, they were amazed! So was I! I had a new item on their menu and it was awesome! A kale salad with Seiten “chicken”. Wow! Guess what! My third new coworker wants to join us tomorrow! Suweet!

I’ll let you know how it goes!

{June 22, 2016} To get up or not to get up…

That is the question…

My alarm goes off about 545am every day. I know, that’s not early for some people, maybe they have to leave by 7am to get to work by 8 or because of traffic maybe earlier. Many different reasons.

Since I’m on the road for work, I make sure my hotel is never more then 30 minutes from the client site, so baring any major traffic issues, I can get to the client site by 8am no problem.

I set the alarm for 545am so I can get up and go to the gym, I know I’ll get at least 30-60 minutes in doing something and that leaves me 30-45 minutes to shower and dress, grab breakfast and an uber to the client site.

My dilemma is, and it’s truly not a dilemma…do I want to get up and work out, even though I know I need to. I set the alarm for 545am so I can snooze for a few minutes and then get up. The problem is that I can keep snoozing until it’s too late to go to the gym.

Now, once I make the decision to get my arse up, no problem, I’m go, go, go, dressed and in the gym in less than 5/10 minutes. The problem is procrastinating getting up…

Today, I decided I wasn’t going because I wanted to take a few extra minutes to sleep after getting in from Hawaii, even though I slept so hard on that first leg of my trip. So, I snoozed until about 645 and then motivated.

Part of me thought I should have works out, not a very aggressive part, mind you…Hopefully tomorrow, that part wins…I need to work out. We’ll see…

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