Tales of Traveling Team Members

How's this for a Friday: Spending the entire day training?

Haha. It really wasn't that bad; actually, it proved to be a nice interruption in the typical flow for Lizzy and me. We met at the Eastgate Express office [my original Express home] for a day's worth of extended training, conducted by our corporate ventures. Thankfully, we work for a company with an objective of making continued training well, fun.

express swag!

We also have a company that puts its logo on literally everything it gets ahold of.

So yeah. Lizzy and I are trained, and ready to take over the world, according to our training today. :)

It's Friday, and I'm home now with my little family.

Happy weekend!

xo | cmd

Training, Day 2 ... And I'm HOME!

Oh, Springfield :)

hey, express!

Today was the second and final day of the EPSC training seminar to which I'd been sent by my office. It was definitely a long day, but let me say it was completely worth even the grueling moments of fidgets. For the all intensive purpose of being informative and productive, I have to say that this was one of the best seminars/sessions I've attended yet on behalf of Express. 

hey, i know her!

One of the most respectable things I've seen with my company is that it really is indeed a Christian-based company, and that that ethic, when exercised properly and consistently, yields results that are successful from the very core out. I was reminded of the heart behind the effort when Mr. Britton closed the session with his last slide:

corporate well-wishes :) 

^ How refreshing!

Anyway, we wrapped things up and I hopped in the car for the jaunt home. I had the chance over the past few days with the gals from my office, catching up on the mayhem that is underway as the office expansion continues.

spiderman...
['cept i see this and i start singing,
'spiderpiiiiig, spiderpig....
does whatever spiderpig does....]

I made it back to Edwardsville in a reasonable amount of time, and had planned to stop by the office to take care of a couple quick things [email, etc.] before rushing right back into it tomorrow morning. I should've snapped a shot of what had been my desk when I left yesterday; what I found instead was my desk, piled monitor-high with everything that had been sitting within a four-foot radius of my desk. The free-standing shelving units had been bellied right up behind my chair, and everything that had once been on my wall: charts, pictures, and my life-saving map of Madison & St. Clair County, was draped across the surfaces of my desk. So... no go on the Thursday night head start. I'll deal with this tomorrow.

Instead, I made my way back down to Fairview Heights to finish up some last minute errands before heading home. I stopped by the mall and saw this window set at Hot Topic, so I snapped a shot and sent it to my husband, because he is juuuust that big of a fan of Spiderman. Haha.

So yeah, here I am, back home and wondering just how effectively I will be able to apply anything I've learned over the last two days when I get back to work. We. Shall. See.

G'Nite, kiddos.

xo | cmd

Express Training, Day 1

It was coordinated months back that I would be headed to one of the training seminars hosted by one of the Express corporate developers up in Springfield. That was scheduled for today and tomorrow.

official office mode ;) 

Good news: I, along with 19 other staffing consultants and/or FOC's survived day 1 :)

I spent a few short hours this morning tying up loose ends at the office before I hopped on the road Springfield-bound. Apparently I had unevenly estimated the commute time; I rolled into Springfield about an hour early, so I did some light traversing of the immediate area before waiting it out for 45 minutes in the parking lot. Woot.

The training itself turned my brain to goo, but in a totally GOOD way. I know, that sounds ridiculous, but it's true. I picked up some new information and some well-needed refreshers on some processes I already use. Our corporate developer is an excellent public speaker, and the presentation itself was definitely worth the trip. Thanks again for the sendoff, M&D!

[[And I heard from Nancy during the day that our office construction went to a whole new level as the painting started today and apparently displaced everyone who's got a desk in the office. Probably a good thing that I didn't stay all day; I would've been homeless, so to speak.]]

So once the first day of training was finished, I got right down to checking into the hotel before finding my way to the mall [cuz that's what you do when you're me, on a Wednesday night in a city void of anyone or anything you know]

yeah zumiez .gif.... yeah.

panda express. yes please!

I discovered Zumiez tonight; it's kinda like Pac Sun except pretty much completely cooler. I also discovered that after a day of brain-mushing, coupled with the novel feeling of finding a unique store, I am definitely prone to semi-reckless, but absolutely impulse spending. Errrrr... YOLO, I suppose. [Truth be told that's the wildest part of my night. I know, I know: I'm outta control. Zzzz.]

Springfield didn't know what hit it, yeah? Pshhhchyeah. Hah.

Oh, and I indulged on some Panda Express tonight, too, while I was at it. I ate just about all of it and don't feel guilty at all. I do however, feel a little sluggish and full. No big deal. Haha. 

It's back to it tomorrow, bright and early.

Seeeeee you then!

xo | cmd