In Training

Must update blog. Blog has been neglected for days. Must read other blogs. Must keep up with all my blog buddies. Must share some of the details of my training classes I have been taking at work.

I was informed a couple of months ago that I had been selected to attend a training course that will teach myself and several other employees how to conduct a certain type of audit. Anyone who knows anything about auditing knows it is NOT fun.

When you show up to conduct an audit, people are not happy to see you. You will be viewing their department, and procedures that are done in their department. They tend to take it personally. Even though THEY are not being audited.

Anyway, I started the training on Monday. The first day was an introduction or overview of the material we are required to learn. Tuesday we were broken up into groups and given exercises to complete as a group.

Which is not a problem............unless you have uncooperative, argumentative people in your group. I will get to that momentarily.

When were reviewing our first exercise, the instructor pointed out that someone in our group had said the right answer, but the others had talked her out of it. I started giving the woman beside me sidelong glances. I was trying to figure out what I had talked her out of. The instructor said, "You had it Susan". I was startled and turned to him and said, "Who me?". Just like a kid in school who got caught not paying attention.

It was nice to know that what I had been trying to tell the group all along was correct. Throughout the day, I noticed a tendency in one of the members of the training class to argue quite a bit.

At a later point in the day it was announced that we would be paired into groups of two for another exercise. My mental conversation: Please don't let me be paired with that guy, please don't me be paired with that guy. Please.Please. Please. The instructor says, "Susan you will be paired with so-and-so". Yep I got paired with the pain the butt. Rats. Rats, rats, rats. When we had to work together I tried so hard to be patient. Truly, I did. By about 3 in the afternoon I was ready to bite his head off. We had pizza for lunch so I was sleepy and irritable, and not really in the mood to listen to his pompous rambling. At one point I just said, "I am confused. I have NO IDEA what you are talking about".

There is NO WAY I am going to be able to complete the final exercise with this guy. He was driving me up the wall.

Today we broke into our large groups to complete MORE exercises. We all had to agree on our answers AS A GROUP. Of course Mr. Know It All argued with EVERYTHING the rest of us said. EVERY.SINGLE.TIME. Finally as nicely as I could muster, I said, "We are going to have to reach an agreement on the answers. If not, we will NEVER get all the questions completed". He relented a little.

Guess what? The rest of us were right. Our answers were right. Surprise, sur-freakin-prise. Tomorrow is the last day of the training and I have to spend an hour with this person. I hope it goes by really fast. Really, really, fast.

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My older brother called me a couple of nights ago. Unfortunately his call brought the delivery of bad news. My stepmother passed away last week. It was unexpected I think. To narrow down confusion, I have two dads. A North Carolina dad, and a Tennessee dad. My North Carolina dad is the one who lost his wife of about 31 years. She wasn't even that old. Maybe in her early sixties. That just doesn't seem very old to me.

I don't think I have mentioned my older brothers very much. Not because I don't love them, we just live far away from each other. I have two older brothers and four younger brothers and sisters. I know. That's a lot of kids. My oldest brother is 11 years older than me. So we were not terribly close when we were growing up, but I always knew he loved me. I still know it. No matter how much time passes between our conversations, I still know how much he cares. That means a lot. His love is freely given whether we talk once a month, or once a year. He never nags me about calling more often. I never nag him about calling me more often. It is the best kind of relationship. Love with no strings attached.

Talking to him made me extremely sentimental. It made me miss him very much. It made me wish we lived closer. I know I can't have it all. I mean, I moved to Tennessee to be closer to the family I have here. Besides, there are more here than in NC. Five of us live here, two there. I don't love my brothers any less than I love my other brothers and sisters. I just don't get to see them as much.

My mom married and had three children, then divorced and remarried and had five more. My dad remarried and had one more. (My other brother Paul) I don't consider myself to be anyone's "half" sister. That is so ridiculous. What? Someone is only half related to me because of a little thing like different fathers. I think not. I never taught my girls about being "half" sisters, even though they have different fathers. Melissa didn't even know what a half sister was until she was about 10 years old. I didn't tell her, one of her friends did. I was livid. I told Melissa that some people might say that her and Keri were only half sisters, but we don't have half siblings in our family. I explained to her about the different fathers in my own family and used my siblings as an example. I told her that she had never heard me refer to my siblings as "half". I told her that we don't have half siblings in OUR family.

Anyway, I love you Ben, Jeff, Paul and Dad. Very much. I hope everyone is doing well and I am thinking about you.

I know......I rambled......and I got mushy.