Day 2 of Training: A Better Pace
Aug. 14th, 2025 05:26 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
canyonwalkerChicago Trip Log #5
Downtown Chicago - Wed, 13 Aug 2025, 10:30pm
Day 2 of training has gone better than Day 1, particularly in terms of not zoning out in one of the late-afternoon sessions. Partly that's because I got almost 2x as much sleep last night as the night before; partly it's because today's session mercifully ended around 3:15 instead of going up til 5— or even 5:45pm.
After the early end today I headed up to my room to unwind and do personal stuff for two hours. Just that bit of relaxing "me" time really helped. At 5:30pm I headed back downstairs to meet my colleagues for a team dinner. We walked out to a restaurant a few blocks away.
The weather in Chicago is stupendous today. Early in the week it was hot and sticky, with highs in the upper 80s. Since then it's gotten cooler. Today the highs topped out at 79°. And after some clouds at midday the sky was clear all afternoon. We enjoyed our walk to the restaurant, taking a scenic detour through Millennium Park to pose for a group selfie at The Bean.
Dinner was a 3 hour affair, including the time to walk there and back. Sales team dinners are always way slower than dinners out Hawk and I enjoy ourselves. For one, team dinners usually involve a nicer restaurant— or at least a more expensive restaurant— where people are expected to stay longer. Two, the pace of dinner is slower because everyone is talking. And three, the pace of dinner is slower because we end up ordering drinks, then salads and appetizers, then mains, then desserts. When Hawk and I dine out by ourselves we usually just order mains and call it done. Sometimes we add dessert as an indulgence.
After dinner the team stopped at the hotel bar for a nightcap. This time I joined them, unlike last night. And this time a nightcap was just a nightcap. My boss was paying and he's not generous. I mean, he's expensing it to the company so it's not his money, but still he's not generous. He closed the bill after one round of drinks. But that was okay with me because I didn't want to stay up late again. And anyway the server accidentally brought me two drinks. 😂🥃🥃
I got back to my room just after 10 this evening. Now I'm winding down and hope to be in bed, lights out, before 12. Yeah, that's not early.... At home I'm often lights-out by 10:30. But it's not that late by the norms of a team business trip. Certainly it'd still be earlier than the 1:30am I got to bed Monday night!
Update: Haha, nope. I stayed up until almost 1am. 🤦 I just couldn't get to sleep.
Downtown Chicago - Wed, 13 Aug 2025, 10:30pm
Day 2 of training has gone better than Day 1, particularly in terms of not zoning out in one of the late-afternoon sessions. Partly that's because I got almost 2x as much sleep last night as the night before; partly it's because today's session mercifully ended around 3:15 instead of going up til 5— or even 5:45pm.
After the early end today I headed up to my room to unwind and do personal stuff for two hours. Just that bit of relaxing "me" time really helped. At 5:30pm I headed back downstairs to meet my colleagues for a team dinner. We walked out to a restaurant a few blocks away.
The weather in Chicago is stupendous today. Early in the week it was hot and sticky, with highs in the upper 80s. Since then it's gotten cooler. Today the highs topped out at 79°. And after some clouds at midday the sky was clear all afternoon. We enjoyed our walk to the restaurant, taking a scenic detour through Millennium Park to pose for a group selfie at The Bean.
Dinner was a 3 hour affair, including the time to walk there and back. Sales team dinners are always way slower than dinners out Hawk and I enjoy ourselves. For one, team dinners usually involve a nicer restaurant— or at least a more expensive restaurant— where people are expected to stay longer. Two, the pace of dinner is slower because everyone is talking. And three, the pace of dinner is slower because we end up ordering drinks, then salads and appetizers, then mains, then desserts. When Hawk and I dine out by ourselves we usually just order mains and call it done. Sometimes we add dessert as an indulgence.
After dinner the team stopped at the hotel bar for a nightcap. This time I joined them, unlike last night. And this time a nightcap was just a nightcap. My boss was paying and he's not generous. I mean, he's expensing it to the company so it's not his money, but still he's not generous. He closed the bill after one round of drinks. But that was okay with me because I didn't want to stay up late again. And anyway the server accidentally brought me two drinks. 😂🥃🥃
I got back to my room just after 10 this evening. Now I'm winding down and hope to be in bed, lights out, before 12. Yeah, that's not early.... At home I'm often lights-out by 10:30. But it's not that late by the norms of a team business trip. Certainly it'd still be earlier than the 1:30am I got to bed Monday night!
Update: Haha, nope. I stayed up until almost 1am. 🤦 I just couldn't get to sleep.
