Mama’s home, training yesterday, mock training today

Mama made it home safely yesterday afternoon. She was a little worried about one particular stretch of road in Oklahoma City where the construction had caused longs delays for the southbound traffic. She had noticed the backup on her way to Brittany’s last Saturday. Since she did not know an alternate route, she knew she might be stuck with the delay. She is not a fan of traffic jams. Well, she stopped on her way back in Edmond, OK and as it turned out, she spoke with a policeman who was able to tell her how to get around the construction area and avoid Oklahoma City altogether. She was thrilled. Those of you who know Mama know she loves shortcuts and alternate routes. She thoroughly enjoyed her time with Brittany and the twins. She actually gained a little on her biceps while she was there.

I was conducting training all day yesterday. It was an uncharacteristically small class – only twelve. However, it was a good class. There was a lot of discussion, a lot of participation and so many questions that the class lengthened itself to the point that I had to breeze over some less relevant portions. All in all, it was a very good class. Two more to go for this month. The next of which is very near San Antonio. IT is one of these class venues that I wish I could take Mama with me. We both love San Antonio, but I will not do much on my own while I am down there. I may go to the River Walk for dinner one of the two evenings I am there, but not much more than that.

Today, I will be in a class setting all day. With the program we have implemented to get new trainers onboard, one of the requisites is to have each new trainer candidate to do a mock training. Something akin to a full class presentation done in a mock setting – generally with me and several other employees to serve as the attendees. Today, the presentation will be with me and the presenter alone. It is a pre-mock setting for this individual. Because of the volume of the information contained in the eight-hour course, this individual needed a run-through that would allow me the opportunity to do a good bit of coaching and instruction as he wades through the material. I am confident that he will do very well, but both of us realize that he will need a chance to do a full-blown presentation to a mock audience before he presents to a client class. This will serve as a time to adjust his presentation pace and broaden his understanding of and comfort with the material. I have had to adopt this process for a couple additional candidates as we add trainers to our roster. It may seem tedious, but the final results in presentation confidence are well worth the additional time.

Since Mama is off and since we have limited groceries in the house, I suggested we meet for lunch. Mama was pretty quick to agree, but we did not settle on an eatery. I thought we would play that by ear as the day unwound. We’ll see how that turns out. She will be getting feed this morning and will be on the road back home about the time we would normally have lunch so, we will see what she is ready to eat when she comes back into Decatur from her shopping trip to Muenster. I am ready for school to start again. I find I would rather eat lunch with Mama in that setting than in any restaurant we have available to us. I do not mind eating out per se, but I do not like the associated costs of doing so. Most times I would rather eat what I brought.

It is more boring, but it is so much more cost effective.