My First Ever Business Trip

Hey everyone. So I have a real job if you didn't know, and with my real job I had my first ever business trip. This took me to Indiana for MODAPTS training, to which I had to drive there. It's about a 4 hour drive, and I drove there after a half day of work. Whenever I have long drives like this I want to make a long form podcast, because I normally don't have time to do so during my normal days. Unfortunately I didn't think of anything to talk about, and I was coming down with a small cold, soooo...no long podcast. I drove pretty much strait through. I enjoyed listening to Rush since I'm normally working then. I was listening on my local affiliate that syndicates his show, until it cut out because I got too far away from the radio transmitter. Thankfully, because Rush is the most syndicated radio show in America, I just had to scan the rest of the AM radio band until I found another syndicate.

I pulled off the freeway to get gas, and the GPS took me down the street on the exit. I figured it meant I was close and I followed the GPS expecting to get there in maybe 10 minutes. Turns out I was 45 minutes out and the GPS didn't think to take be back on the express way. I went through side streets for 45 minutes. I eventually hit a point where I said "I should have gotten back on the express way," but that was 30 minutes in, and I had no idea where the express way was. I checked into my hotel and crashed because I was so tired. I knew I had to eat something, but I didn't want to leave my hotel room. I ordered Applebees carside to go, and just watched anime on adult swim.com back in my room. I showered, set my alarm for 6:00 (training started at 7:30), and went to bed; and here's where the fun begins.

I woke up "before my alarm" feeling refreshed. I thought it was a little bright for before 6AM. I look over at the clock and it was 7:36! Turns out I set my alarm for "6PM" not "6AM." I bolt up, throw on my work clothes, grab my laptop bag, what I thought were the directions to the training facility, ran to the breakfast area in search of something I could eat on the run (found dry fruit loops), and ran to my car. I must have been quite a sight, professional looking man with a laptop bag over shoulder frantically trying to find something to eat. I get to my car and realize I grabbed the wrong paper. Luckily my room was relatively close to the door. I get the address, plug it into my GPS, and get on my way to the facility. When I got there I got the news that the instructor was running late and the class went to a nearby company plant. I got the directions, and headed to the plant. I had some trouble finding how to get to the visitor parking by the main entrance (the entrance I had to go to), so I parked in one of the employee spots (not a problem since I do work for the company). The spot was kind of far from the main entrance, so I ran there. I got to the main security check-in out of breath. When the guard was asking for my information, I just handed over my badge as that would be easier for everyone seeing that my panting overtook my ability to speak. We get a walking tour of the plant, and that was cool since it's similar to what we do at my plant, but it's a different component so things are a little different.

Eventually our instructor made it in, and when he did we all went back to the learning facility. Right when we got back to the training location we broke for lunch, because it was 11 and that's when the plants have lunch (and about the same time that salary-management takes lunch). Apparently the instructor's flight got canceled, so they had to find something else for him. But on the cool side he was stranded in the same airport with Kareem Abdul Jubar. We did our first day of training. Nothing too special. After class the group from my plant wanted to do something together. I had to go back to my hotel to make sure nothing got misplaced when the maid cleaned my room. I left my laptop out, my clothes on the floor, and my glasses...somewhere (I pulled out my glasses case and it was empty), and basically didn't put all the things away to make sure they didn't end up missing. Luckily nothing went missing. After a couple hours we went to a local restaurant. I had "pick 2 combo" meal where I had pulled pork and ribs. We hung out for about 2 hours, and it was fun spending time with my coworkers that I normally don't spend much time with. With that I came to the realization I'm either one of the most interesting person you will ever meet, or one of the most boring people you will ever meet. I'm into videogames, cartoons, anime, and internet culture. If you like any of that, I have knowledge that will keep you interested. If not, well you will find me quite boring. After dinner I watched more toonami on adult swim.com, trying to get caught up on all I'm behind on.

The night before I set 3 alarms; 1 for 6 AM, 1 for 6:10, and 1 for 6:20. I woke up at 6 and had continental pancakes and mini chocolate muffins, with tea. I had more training, and that went well. We carpooled using the company car today. We had Dominos Pizza for lunch, and that was kind of unpleasant as the Dominos didn't agree with me. After training I went back to the hotel to try to calm my stomach, and I was able to. We were going to go to Indianapolis, but that was going to be 1 hour 1-way, and we weren't going to do that. We went to the local mall, and finding that was kind of an ordeal because it's not like we could just put "the mall" into the GPS, but since we're 3 engineers, we were able to figure it out. I went to a gamestop, FYE, and Books-A-Million there. I picked up some Steven Universe comics and a Captain N DVD at Books-A-Million. We wanted to have dinner together again, but none of us could agree on a place. One guy wanted something upscale, I didn't want anything Italian (Dominos still wasn't sitting with me completely), and the other guy was allergic to peanuts, so none of the steakhouses in the area (peanuts at the tables); so instead of arguing over where to go we just ate separately. I had Applebee's Carside to go again, this time riblettes. Still watched more Toonami anime.

On the last day we had the test. I took it, and finished within 1 hour and 30 minutes. It was actually kind of easy. The teacher asked if I took the class before, and I said "no I'm just really good at my job." Everyone else had to go back that day, but when I saw that the training was scheduled for all day I said "I'm not driving back 4 hours at 4 PM after taking a big test, I'm spending an extra night." When I found out it wasn't going to take all day, I made arrangements to spend the rest of the day at the plant that supplies us with raw castings. I wanted to see the process, and how our parts are made. I also got some good ideas of things to do at my plant. It was a good last day.

Now for the fun. My dad said "look up some videogame stores in the area" in a kind of joking fashion. I did look up local videogame stores though, and I found 2. I went to the 1 store and looked through all the PS2 games. I picked out 24 games I didn't have, and then found some other games I wanted for a grand total of 30. I had a little conversation with one of the clerks about how I'm working on a complete PS2 collection while the other clerk went to pull my game discs. Apparently there was some buy 2 get 1 free or whatever deal going on (or because the manager was serving me he threw in some freebies because I was buying so many; don't know and don't care). After that store I went to another store. I thought it was a videogame store, but apparently it wasn't there anymore. There was a comic book store and toy store, so I stopped at them. Sure, I'm not that into comic books, but maybe I'll find some clearance comics to give a try, or maybe they'll have some manga. They didn't have anything I wanted, but it was still cool to see. The toy store also wasn't a "KB Toys" toy store for kids; this was a "collectable, mint quality" toy store for adults. I looked around hoping to find some anime action figures I'd like (pokemon, DBZ, other), but alas, it was all Star Wars, Star Trek, Transformers, and such. Oh well, still pretty cool. It was a pretty cool little down town.

After down town I went to a 50 year old drive in burger place called "Dog n Suds." It reminded me of A&W and it was quite good. I wanted a vanilla milkshake, but unfortunately they didn't have any ice cream, so no shake for me. In the adjacent lot there was a group of guys with their street cars. I was wondering if there was going to be some fast and furious street race going on right next to me, and if I was going to get caught in the cross fire. Lucky for me it was just a group of enthusiasts getting together to show off their cars. Yay. Again, watch more toonami. I'm almost caught up now. I also did work on getting my website up to date over the trip.

The next (and final) day I packed up everything, checked out, and headed home. On my way home, I found a flea market, and found a lot of overpriced games. I did find some decent priced games, and almost completed my unholy trinity of bad games (E.T. for Atari [yes], Superman 64 [yes], and Sonic '06 [no]). I chose not to get Sonic '06 because the disc had the giant circle scratch on it and probably didn't work. I did get 2 games that looked like they'd work. After hours of driving I made it home. It was a great trip. Even though it was a business trip with the focus on business and work, it was a fun trip, and I hope I can do more in the future. This has been Pokematic, signing off, and bu-bye.