BLOGGED ALONG THE WAY

Talladega, AL
September 8, 2012

I actually thought it would take me a long time to fall asleep in a strange place, but since I felt so lousy, I just sort of dropped off.  Silver lining is that at least I got a lot of sleep!  I woke up this morning feeling almost human again.  I had two alarms set, one on the iPad and one on my iPod.  Unfortunately, I left my ear buds connected to the iPod and the alarm wasn't audible.  I am a genius.  Luckily, I had awoken on my own before the iPad alarm went off, so at least I didn't oversleep.  I lay in bed for as long as humanly possible, though, but finally I had to get up and get ready.

Before I tell you about my day, I'd just like to take a moment to thank the person who decided on using florescent lighting in the bathroom.  Oh, and for also using it over a large mirror where I might accidentally see myself naked, no less.  If I didn't have body image issues before, I have them now.  Oy.  Seriously, cheap lighting or not, no one should ever have to look at their own body in that kind of harsh, unflattering illumination.  I may never recover.  *shudder*  I also had to put on makeup in that room, and I'm fairly certain that I ended up looking like a drag queen.  The light was so bright that I couldn't gauge when I had on too much.  I kept putting more on to cover all of the ugly, but the light had some kind of x-ray quality that shone right through the makeup!  By the time I was done, I had to wipe half of it off before going anywhere.  I couldn't go into a room full of Baptists looking like a hooker!

After finally getting ready, it was time for breakfast. I honestly couldn't stand the thought of eating in the cafeteria again, not after last night.  Blerf.  I was very glad that I had secreted an emergency granola bar into my bag (since I will never again travel anywhere without food, after the debacle in the Charlotte Airport) so at least I didn't go hungry!  Yay!  The first session started at 8:00, but I hadn't found a class that had anything to do with my actual job during that time, I used that hour to clean up my room and pack the car.  When that was done, I grabbed the giant 3 ring binder that they had given us the day before and I went to the main building to wait for the QuickBook classes to begin. 

The QuickBook classes were technically why I had come to the workshop, so I was  anxious to get started.  The program makes my brain hurt, because it does so many things.  I think it's basically like balancing a very complicated checkbook, really, but it's intimidating.  The lady who was teaching the class (or rather a crash course, since it was more of an overview than an actual class) was in her 60s, and I have a feeling she thought I was much younger than I really am.  When she started talking, she said she'd been working with the program since 1999, when everyone thought computers would quit working when the year rolled over.  She looked at me and said, "...but you probably don't remember that."  I'm clearly older than 12, but I wonder how young she thought I was?  Actually, I don't care.  I think I'm going to send that lady some flowers! :)

I'd love to say I learned a lot about the program, but the two classes left a little to be desired.  The instructor was clearly an expert, so it wasn't her fault at all.  There was a lady in the class (who had also been in a couple of the other classes I'd taken) who kept interrupting the teacher with questions specific to her church.  She apparently works for a church unlike any I'd ever heard of, that has some complicated bookkeeping issues.  I don't begrudge her asking the questions, but she talked so much that we pretty much got an overview of how to use QuickBooks for HER kind of church, and it didn't apply to the other 99% of the people in the classroom. Grrr.  In fact, she talked so much that the rest of us had to walk out of the class while they were still talking, because the session was over.  Sigh.

It was lunch time by then, and I still wasn't feeling the desire of eating in the cafeteria, and since there was only one other session after that, I decided to leave.  There weren't any classes for me in the last session anyways, and besides, I had an adventure planned! 

There is a place called Wright Dairy in Alexandria, AL, and I'd wanted to go there for months.  I'd been looking for a local place to buy cheese and milk and had found information about this one during my search.  Since I realized I'd be nearby, I decided to visit!  I suppose it doesn't sound very exciting, but I love the idea of a family owned dairy, and I wanted to get some cheese and milk from them and take it home.  Don't worry, I had brought an insulated bag to carry it in.  I was ORGANIZED!  I set the GPS and drove about an hour out of my way to get there.  I didn't have any trouble finding it, but when I got there, there was a sign that said it was closed for renovations and wouldn't reopen until the 15th!  BOO!  I had checked and rechecked their website to make sure they would be open when I went by, and according to their site they should have reopened on September 1, but alas, I guess their renovations had gone over time or something.  I felt very Clark Griswold-ian at being thwarted, but there was no moose to punch, so I just drove away. :(  Oh well, you never know what is happening with a place like that, and if it is family owned, there are a million reasons why it wouldn't be open, so I forgave them.  Certainly I'll be back down there one of these days.

So I gave up on that adventure and headed back home.  I actually drove into a pretty vicious rainstorm in Boaz that made driving almost impossible, but I passed through pretty quickly.  I remembered that I was going to have to go out later that evening and get a frozen lasagna to bake for the youth's fundraiser lunch the next day, so my adventure turned out to be stopping at a Piggly Wiggly not too far from where I live.  I don't think I've been in an actual Piggly Wiggly since I was 7 years old, and it was classy.  Any place that plays the Bama game over the P.A. must be top notch. After that,  I came home and crashed.  It had been a long couple of days.