Imaginary Conversations and Random Thoughts

Ok so I took a couple of notes while I was away, and it was looking pretty tricky. I wasn’t sure how to organize this, so I thought I might try one day at a time. And Day One might be a little jumbly.

It’s really nice at Die Konferenzmitte. Beautiful weather. There’s sort of a line at check-in, and I see Subtle Boss and Tough Boss, among others. Can you see my problem already? You’ve heard a tiny bit about Tough Boss and Subtle Boss. Look even when I’m in the office, I still practically hide in my office. Plus I started this blog when I was on satellite tasking. Now I’m at this training session, and I’m plunked down in the middle of a bunch of office people, many of whom I am spending more than just a “say hi when passing in the hall” sort of moment for the first time. Do you realize how many nicknames I need to come up with?

I manage to get my room ahead of some others, and I leave a message on Princess Wolfie’s phone to call me when she gets in. She’s rooming with Neighbor Lady, and I haven’t seen either of them for maybe a month or so. You can hear about that here and here. And an important recent take on Princess Wolfie is here. Drinking Buddy should be here any time.

Let me also warn you that as I look ahead, on Day Two I had an experience that maybe snapped me back to reality a little bit. And if you’ve been a regular reader, you may also get the feeling that I’m kind of a douche. I know I did when I started thinking about it. Or maybe I’m just a typical guy. But I should just let things unfold for you, and we can see how they look on the other side.

We’ve got a welcome dinner and social hour first, and that goes well. Nice to see familiar faces. Plus Princess Wolfie. And if you followed the links, you’ll understand when I say that she fulfilled everything I could hope for. Now at meetings like this, with everyone getting together at some distant place for team building and such, I’ve always felt that the social time is almost more important, and definitely more fun, than the actual training activities.

Here are a few people I saw at dinner. Pretty much brand new people to me: Mr. Texas, Mr. Truck, Sista Girl. Two people I know a tiny bit: Miss Lola and Miss Judy. And Princess Wolfie. Fast-forward to after dinner. Drinking Buddy wants to play cards and gamble with some of the other guys. So me and these people I just mentioned decide to hang out. And what does that mean? It means we pile into a couple of cars, find a local food dispensing place, and load up on alcohol. Mr. Texas invites us up to his room, which by some quirk of fate is more like a suite. It’s got a nice big table. We can play some popular card games and get some practice for real gambling at local gaming establishments. And what night would be complete without some kind of drinking game? Brief side note: nights like this are what got me flunked out of the first college I went to.

More later. I have some stuff to get ready at the main office now that satellite tasking is over. I’ll finish Day One this afternoon.

What’s that? What about Neighbor Lady? Ummm yeah. She didn’t show. Maybe I’ll be able to tell you why, later. So no Gang of Four. That number might never be firm. I may need a new name for our group.

And if I haven’t thanked you all for being here, let me do that now. Thank you. I’m trying to make sure I let people know how much I appreciate them.