From the Desk 6/17/2008

This morning my alarm rudely interrupted my sleep at 6am. I had to get earlier than normal to make it down to the Box where I was picking up Stacy, Corey, and Leslie to carpool down to Summer Training at First Baptist Atlanta. We met at 7am and departed shortly after that. We were fortunate to not run into heavy traffic before we took the 285 bypass. It took around 35 minutes for us to arrive, which was 10 minutes longer than trip yesterday. We arrived in time to grab a little bite to eat from the fruit, bagels, etc. they had set up for us. I said good morning to my Knoxville friends and then made my way over to say hello to Christina. I was lucky as I had been placed in the same color group, so we would be going to the same classes at the same time all day.

The classes were about the same as last year. Some were really exciting and helpful while others were filled with too much information to absorb and not enough energy to remember what was said. We also visited booths that vendors had set up in the hallways to demo new products and hand out information on how to better push/sell their products. There were a total of 12 classes and 15 vendor booths that we visited throughout the day. We had a lunch break at 12:10 where we had a motivational speaker come talk to us. As we walked through the lunch line and found tables to eat at, we were serenaded by Brad Caudle from Rock 'n Learn as he had written a song special for The School Box Summer Training. We also got to hear a brief word from Carol Marsh, founder of Gallopade Publishing, Inc. It was neat to meet one of the authors of several thousand books that we have carried over the years. The keynote speaker was from Tupallo, Mississippi and was very funny. She had a strong southern drawl that made you pay attention to every word she said. She was pretty good as far as inspiring each of us to be passionate about whatever we are doing and to find what makes us passionate and work in that field. It was different form last year's as the magician's speech from last year focused on customer service and this year's focused on the individual. I chose the Grilled Talapia with some sauce with rice and veggies for my lunch. It was really good as was the lemon bar dessert. After lunch we finished out the remainder of the day with classes. At the conclusion of the seminar, we all gathered in the large room and people were presented with 5, 10, and 15 year service awards. The door prizes provided by the vendors were also given away through drawings. Much like the past two years, I won nothing. I helped man the table where we gave out the new School Box T-shirts to employees as they filtered outside to go home after a full day. After everyone had received their t-shirts, I helped Dave and Kenny pack up the extras for tomorrow's groups.

Then Stacy, Corey, Leslie, and I piled back into my car to drive to Leland's house for a "fiesta" dinner for the managers, purchasers, and vendor reps. The drive there was filled with laughter and some unexpected dancing from the backseat. (Note:His house is enormous and extravagantly decorated including a laundry room (complete with washer and dryer) on each floor. He has 3 roommates that were also there to serve people drinks and appetizers. The dinner was catered by La Parilla Mexican Restaurant and the food was delicious, as expected. Leland had even hired an actual Mariachi Band to play at the dinner tables on the back lawn. The weather was perfect for eating outside as there was a slight breeze and the back yard was masked in the shadows of several tall trees. After dinner we were treated to a game show spoof "Are you smarter than a Mexican 5th grader?" involving several vendor reps and school box employees. Thankfully, I was spared form involvement in this oddly named game show. After that was over, my group decided it was time to make our way back home seeing as how it was nearing 9:00 and the day had started very early for all of us. Before we left I called Christina since I was in charge of handing out t-shirts and didn't get a chance to talk to her before she left. We made plans to go see The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian Friday night after she gets off work. Needless to say, I smiled all the way home.

We drove back to the Box where I dropped off Corey, Stacy, and Leslie and then made my way back to my apartment. I arrived, very tired and decided that video editing for even an hour would prove to be useless and frustrating so I glanced at a few things to clear off my desk and checked facebook and myspace before calling it a night around 10:15pm. I don't think sleep will be a problem tonight.

Meditation for the day: 1 Corinthians 1:8 "He will keep you strong to the end, so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ."