Thoughts from the Road

Columbia, South Carolina

I’ve just begun working for a company called the Bureau of Education and Research. Of course for some reason the title of the company makes me feel like I should be wearing thick black glasses and analyzing long lists of binary that are being spat out by a room-size computer, but in reality the company puts on educational seminars for teachers all over the US and Canada and my job, as program manger, is to facilitate them. That isn’t to say that I’m giving these presentations. Each week I’ll have a different presenter give seminars on education techniques. For example, this week the topic of my presenter’s seminar is Using Interactive Centers to Differentiate Instruction for All Students in Reading, Writing, Math and Sciences. Yeah, I know. It’s a little bulky, but the teachers seem to love it. Anyway, I’m just there to set up the AV equipment, register the teachers and basically make sure everything happens the way it’s supposed to. The fun and also the bitch of this job is that I’m required to be in five cities a week, so I’ll be on the road basically 5 and half days out of the week. For example, this week I was in Columbia, SC on Monday, Atlanta on Tuesday, Denver on Wednesday, Edmonton on Thursday and I’ll be in Calgary tomorrow. Now usually, I’ll be in one region for the week, but you get the gist.

So this blog will be just general thoughts and observations as I go from place to place. I hope you enjoy it and I hope to see many of you on brief visits as I go from place to place.

October 13th-16th Training Week

For some reason, I thought I would be in the average age range for this job, but apparently daily travel and hotel stays don’t appeal to the average 32 year old. There are 19 program managers in all, half of whom are returning from last year. One of the weird things in the BER office that I knew existed somewhere, but had never experienced was the college rivalries. The training was peppered with Husky and Coug references and at the office reception we actually were asked to burst out of our training room and declare our collegiate affiliation while The Final Countdown flared from the tinny speakers of somebody’s laptop. “Scott Williams, Washington State!” one PM said and half the crowd responded with “Yeah, go Cougs!” “Krista Burton, U-Dub!” said another girl. “All right Huskies!” the crowd replied enthusiastically. Finally at my turn, “Mike Moe, Evergreen State!” “Yeah, okay… Go Gooeyducks… “Uh, yeah. Thanks guys.” Anyway, I’m sure most of you experience this every day, but I thought it was strange.

Monday, October 19th – Columbia, SC

Back to the betel stained roads of the South for the first time in about five years. I remember the first time I crossed the Mason-Dixon, it was in August and it felt like somebody was holding a hot, damp wash cloth just inches from my face the entire time, however now the air is cool and comfortable. Still the South always has a certain slowness to it, like everything has been dipped in molasses. Now certain southern accents annoy me, for example the nasally chirpiness of Natchez, Mississippi or whatever part of Texas George W. Bush is from, but the farther East you go, the more the accent fades away from the nose until it’s a honey-glazed throaty drawl that makes me weak in the knees, especially when used by pretty teachers just out of college who like to call me darlin’. (Hmm… two references to sugary substances in one paragraph. For some reason I’m craving Baklava)

So the first couple of nights, we’re working in groups, before going out on my own on Thursday. Hence, last night I went out with a few of the other PM’s (program managers) and had a particularly random night in Columbia. A couple of our activities (which you may put in the I’m getting to old for this sh*# file) included playing beer pong, smoking a hookah and staying far too late.

What I learned today: The prime of my beer pong career was age 22.