Manage Change

I have wondered how things go at work when I am gone.  I had been told about how confusing some explainations are.  Yesturday I saw an example of how this worked.

In a meeting there was discussion of mangement of change.  It went:

When you have change, you need to manage it.  And manage the change, cuz there is always change to manage. When we change, we need to manage it and manage all the change.

What the hell?????  Is this a dime or a quarter????

I think it is time for me to go home.....24 days, and I guess I have no $en$e left....

Columbus, Georgia

I arrived in Columbus Georgia to attend a one day medical course on Advanced Burn Life support.  Never being here before, all I knew was it was a 30 minuet flight from Atlanta.  Of course the flight to Atlanta was over four hours, in which I adequately could read the required text and prepare with the assorted exam that accompanied.  Me, on the other hand, choose to read USA Today, The Oregonian, Star and of course the latest People.... by breakfast I was wore out and slept the rest of the way. Poor use of time on my part.

I land in Columbus, on a small commuter plane full of military personnel.  Dressed as such, and if they weren't.... they were wearing military ID.  The sign says "Welcome to Fort Benning" ahhhh I get it now.

The sign says there are seven gates, I see three.  There are two baggage carousels, one ticket counter and every car rental vendor.  As I approach the car rental they ask if I need directions to the base.  No, s the give me a list of hotels they have pre-printed, hen tell me I can get information to the base. No. They keep talking like I just don't know that I need to go to the base. And of course, I will need to check in at he visitor center when I arrive ON BASE.

I typically rent with Hertz, but as of late keep forgetting to list that on the travel request when I submit it.  Which in turn means that I have become somewhat adapt at in my cell phone as a gps.  Not a skill that I thought I would need.  Even thou this time I brought my gps, but did not get the base, that it needs to plug into.  Again, poor planning on my part.

I finally find the hotel, pick up a salad on my way.  It is hot enough that the locals at the restaurant are complaining.  Off I go to the pool, with text book in hand.  Might as well use my remaining daylight usefully.

Pool is not crowded, but there is a woman with her child discussing current events with two older guys (that say they are Vietnam Vets) while playing poolside.  The woman is balancing her Lite beer, while dressed in a swimming top and oversize men's boxers (not pretty ones but functional ones). -wonder if her husband is missing them?-
This woman, offers them a beer and they proceed to discuss the Iraq/Afghanistan occupation.  She is convinced that Saddam never had the intelligence or the means to hide weapons of mass destruction.  The old guys are preoccupied with what it was like to be in Vietnam and keep relating how the two military actions and locations are the same.  Neither of which I agree with - and one of which I experienced! 
When they all decide that they have figured and solved the Iraq issues and how great it is to be back from Vietnam they venture on to more current things, like the Horizon incident.
The woman -again I do not use this term to define the gender- is convinced it is all a government plot to raise oil and gas prices in the United States.  The two old guys buy into her theory.  Her whole basis for this was - if it was not a government conspiracy then why don't they just send divers down with a cap and close the well in?

Wow, I didn't expect any great revaluations from someone of her education and vast background.  However, the realization of the vast ignorance does speak volumes as to the public response of the oil spill.

God Bless those lives who were lost....

The next morning was the class.  Hope to find some intelligent life...  I had directions - address - and map in hand.  Looking at the map I thought it would probably take me 20 minuets to get there.  So, if I leave one hour ahead of time I can find Starbucks - see some of the sites and get to the class on time.

No Starbucks!!!!  Anywhere..... no Starbucks.  I will not settle for coffee when I am on shore.  If I am buying coffee it will not be Dunkin Donuts supreme or McCoffee Pleasure. 

I find where the class should be held.  It is at Columbus University.  Being a saturday morning, there is no traffic and no problem after finding the address to wonder off and find coffee.  Again. No Starbucks. Damn IT!  I go to a convince store and get two iced bottled Starbucks Vanilla Frapacinno and a cup of ice.  Guess in Georgia the theme is adapt - improvise - and back to adapt.

I get back to the address of the class about 30 minuets before it should begin.  The problem was, there was no building at that exact address.  There was one before - being a teen shelter, and then an empty store front.  Then the one after was the entrance to a dormitory.  There was a key pad at the dormitory entrance, but the door was ajar, so I went on it.  My thought was to find someone that could direct me in the correct direction.

The entrance was typical brick building and you could see the back door, which lead to a courtyard.  There were tables set up all along the walls.  labeled with "flowers", "gift baskets" and all types of gift bags setting around.  But, there was no live body in the lobby.

I wander around, call out "hellllloooooooo", no answer.  I thought I would set up my netbook and see if I could get a wifi signal and get a phone number to call or another contact to find the class.  An older lady got off the elevator and was visibly disturbed that I was in the lobby.  She shouts at me "how did you get in here?"  I told her, the door was open - I walked in.  she checks all the door to secure the building.  I asked her if she could direct me in the right way to find the class.  i showed her my registration information and the map.  She was no about to help me - and still disturbed I was in the lobby.  So I packed up and left.

When I walked back toward the rental car, there was a middle aged gentleman, well dressed, similarly confused.  I asked him if he was attending an Advanced Burn class - and sure enough, he was.  We discussed the addresses and the information that was sent with the registration.  No conflicting information there.  However, he is from the area and said that he thought it was odd they were holding a class on the school campus.

I tried calling work, to see if my relief would be able to find me a working contact phone number, since it was Saturday.  I will give him credit for trying - but he was still no help.
The gentleman says "why don't you follow me and we will go up to the hospital where they usually have these type of courses and see if it might be there"  Ok, that's the best plan I could agree with.

As I was following him to the local hospital, I was thinking.  humm, fly from Oregon to Georgia for a one day class.  This encompasses a three day adventure on the companies dime.  I am sooooo going to get in trouble if I do not come back with this certification.  But, on the upside - I did pick up a brochure at the airport of '50 things to do in Columbia Georgia' - maybe it wouldn't be a complete loss.

We travel for about 10 minuets and find the hospital annex that is the auditorium.  Guess what.... they were holding the class there.  As I am signing in, I would be about 30 minuets late by now.  they announce that they had 30 people signed up, and still only 14 people have arrived, but they are going to go ahead and get started.
I told the lady that was facilitating the class that the wrong address along with interactive mapquest was sent out.  She was like, oh.  And class started.  Nice, they just made $400 per person - and they have an entire herd of people wandering around Columbus University.  I hope they didn't pay out of pocket for this.  But, sure glad I don't have to explain how I went to Georgia for a day tour.......