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Well...I'm back in Nashville for a few days. I was in Harrisonburg, VA the past two weeks. I flew from Nashville to Dulles Airport outside of DC then rented a car and drove to Harrisonburg. The airport was probably the biggest I have ever been to, or at least the most spread out. There were at least three separate terminals with buses going from one to the next. The buses were unlike anything I have ever been on before. The buses, called "mobile lounges", have passenger compartments that are raised or lowered in order to align one of the terminals doors with another terminals doors or directly to the door of the plane.

Training went well. Manufacturing training was a little boring at times, but I had never seen a book manufacturing plant before so the binding process was interesting. A lot more goes into making a book than I ever expected and I majored in this sort of thing. Pricing training went a lot faster because I was learning a lot. I have more background knowledge in the manufacturing process than in the pricing process so I had a lot to learn. Because I was already familiar with the whole manufacturing process, it made the pricing training a lot easier for me than most. I was done with the training a day early, so I didn't have to go in on the last day.

Harrisonburg was a nice little town. It's situated in the Shenandoah Valley, which was beautiful. There's not a lot going on in Harrisonburg except for JMU. I did end up going to see Carbon Leaf at a small little pub right down the road from my hotel. I liked their live music a lot more than their produced music. The people that I worked with at the plant were all great. They took me to all the good local places to eat that I probably wouldn't have found on my own.

It snowed a few fractions of an inch on a couple days while I was there, and I think the average high for my two-week stint was probably around 20 degrees. It was much colder than anything I'm used to, which made me even more ready to get back to Nashville. I found it funny that most of the people living in Harrisonburg consider Virginia to be a southern state, but every restaurant I went into only had unsweetened tea, if any tea at all. All-in-all the "friendly city" was indeed that, but I was ready to finally get back home to Nashville.

In between my two weeks of training, I drove down to Roanoke to visit my sister & her family at her husband's parent's house. My sister & her family drove up from Charlotte and met me for the weekend. The weather wasn't the best or the worst. They got a little snow and ice, but not enough to have any fun, just enough to make a mess. Overall, it was a lazy weekend. I ended up reading two books and watching the playoffs, but I was able to spend time with other people instead of being cooped up inside my hotel room.

I flew back to Nashville Friday night and Jeff flew in a few hours before me so we met up at the airport and then got a ride with a guy I work with, Kevin, back to my apartment. He drove us down music row, which is on the way to my apartment from the airport. Saturday was rainy most of the day. We went downtown and ate sushi at a place called Koto. We spent the rest of the day walking around downtown in the rain. I’ve driven around downtown once or twice, but I don’t get a very good feel for where things are unless I walk. We walked down historic Printer’s Alley, which is definitely not Printer’s Alley anymore. It’s more like a couple of businesses that look like they should be on Bourbon Street. Sunday we drove down to Cool Springs, which is pretty much just a huge commercialized area with a big mall and tons of restaurants and stores. On the way home from dropping Jeff off at the airport Sunday night, I stopped by the Tin Roof on Music Row to see what time the Angie Aparo show started. It was only 6:30 and the show didn’t start until 9:00, so I didn’t end up going to the show. If Jeff had still been around I probably would have gone, but I’m getting old and getting home at 1:00AM on a work night doesn’t work for me...especially not for my first day back after training.

I was back in the office yesterday to start getting some practical experience. Karl sent me a job to quote Friday before I left Harrisonburg. I quoted it after I got to the airport while I was waiting on my plane to board. Once I came in and compared it to the layout Karl did I quickly learned that the “corporate way” is just a guideline and all the Reps in the office price jobs differently, so I have plenty left to learn. I am going down to Reynosa, Mexico with Karl and one of his customers Sunday and coming back Wednesday.
Then it’s off to Crawfordsville, IN for another week of training. After I get back from Crawfordsville, I shouldn’t be traveling too much more. I’m hoping that mom & dad will be able to bring Jake up in March or April.
My bedroom mirror and a new footboard (to replace the one that is split) will come tomorrow and my living room furniture on Saturday. I’ll post some pictures of the apartment once everything arrives. There still won’t be much in the way of decorations, but at least it will be furnished! Since Friday and Saturday will be my first musical outings in Nashville, and it’s Will Hoge, I’m sure I’ll take pictures of that to post as well.

...I guess I should post more often so these things aren’t so long and boring...