Training, California style.

Did a whirlwind training/business trip yesterday. Flew to LAX to see some on-site training done for a lab in a hospital. Sounds exciting, I know. The morning got off to a bumpy start. First the flight was at 7am...so I set my alarm for 4:30am (an hour a don't like seeing, unless it's because I haven't gone to bed yet), and I kept waking up because I was afraid of oversleeping. Then the alarm buzzed, I turned it off and proceeded to fall back asleep for another half hour. Score. I was all a flury trying to get ready ASAP.

Got to the airport, had a long massively b/s line to go through with security and got to the gate about 20min before boarding. Got on the plane, and the pilot said there's a "spot" on the tire and they are changing it out to be safe. The tire gets changed...and looky here....the breaks are bad too. So we have to get off the plane and reboard. Here's the big bitch of the matter. We were flying Southwest, and both my aunt and I had A passes and sat towards the back of the plane...so when we got off we were at the end of the line! And they didn't reboard us by letters, just in the order in which we got off the plane. So my aunt and I are pretty much screwed in seat selection now... luckily, we sat further back and weren't stuck with an aisle seat. By the time we took off, it was after our arrival time for LAX.

So we land, and go get our car. A pretty little white mustang convertible. Did you know that even though Mustangs are supposed to beefy and fast and all GRRRR on the road, they aren't?? I think my crappy 2005 Lancer has more oomph than that mustang. Seriously. But the weather was gorgeous and it was great having the top down.

We arrive at the hospital (at 10:20, and we were supposed to be there by 10), and we meet our lab service partner that we team with for this hospital with lab processing. She and my aunt have been working together on these set-ups for a long time and she was really really really nice. She tells us the primary person we are supposed to train isn't in yet, so we are just waiting. At 11 we ask again "Where's Heidi??"...still not here...11:30....still not here. Someone suggests we train 2 other techs while waiting for the elusive Heidi. I watch my aunt do the training, it's all basic simple, she trains the 2 ladies (who were 'just show me what to do quickly so I can continue my work), it's 12 and in walks Heidi. She tells us to grab lunch, and she'll train with second shift at 1. We go for lunch, come back, and Heidi 'has a task to finish' before she can train, but told us to train another person and she'll be right there. My aunt does the quick training, and Heidi doesn't come around. Says maybe at 3 when the night shift starts, blah, blah, blah. Well, due to our flight out, my aunt I can't do that. Heidi says no worries, she'll just talk to one of the techs.

We spent most of the day standing around doing nothing, maybe worked/watched (in my case) for about an hour. Auntie said this could have gone another way where she trains one person after the next for 5 hours, or you train a couple of people and you leave after one...we got lucky.

Well, what should one do while in Santa Monica, by the ocean, with the convertible??? Go cruising!!! We land ourselves on Pacific Coast Highway, and drive up to Malibu. I'm such a sucker for large bodies of water. The sight, the sound, the breeze. Heaven. Since I try not to leave my home with out my camera, I had it with me.

I took a picture similar to this on my cell and sent it to all the important people: mom, Hitler, CwJ, SuperJ, Ms M, Tuschka, PPE, Skank....

This is my new background for the computer. I booted fatty off.

Venice beach, at the pier.

Me and Malibu.

This slow introduction to the new job is kinda nice. Especially filled with some "business" travel when not much business is actually getting done. I know it's not going to last forever, and I should enjoy it while I can.

Rock out, in the ocean.