Checking in........

So far Louisville has been as nice as expected. I haven't really had a chance to do much outside of the workshop since we are at the facility all day with the exception of lunch. By the time we finish up @ around 4:30-5'ish, most of the touristy stuff is closed.....even the zoo! Sheesh. I've still got one day to make it Six Flags though. lol

The workshop is going as well as expected. It's a workshop, it can be interesting yet boring as hell at the same time. lol I'm still overwhelmed and really have no phluckin idea what I'm doing BUT I am doing what I came to do which is to (1) get an understanding of the grant writing process (which I have done) and (2) write a proposal. My boss told me that she wasn't really expecting anything on the level of a seasoned grant writer, she just wanted to see how I write so she could better assess my skill level. That took some of the anxiety I had away before leaving but I'm still pushing myself to put my best foot foward. Please believe that I know these folks ain't spent all this $$$ for me to come up to KY to take this ish lightly. :-) So now we are past the lecturing/exercise point and we are writing our proposals. I intially started out by myself, then the facilitator paired me up with some other chick. I knew that wasn't going to work because our areas of non-profit were different but whatever I just rolled with it. When it came down to get to the bulk of it, we both decided that it would be best if we wrote our own individual prop's instead of doing a collaborative one. We still use each other as support here and there but overall I'm happier with the current arrangement. :-)

During my down time afterwards, I've been trying to fit time in to utilize the gym next door, do a little site seeing, eat, sh*t, shave, shower, and do some research/work on the proposal. I'm not this busy when I'm at home. lol

I mapquested Churchill Downs yesterday and took a drive to go check it out. I have oodles of pic's but of course dummy me left my cable cord at the house. I found a pic online that looks really close to one that I took yesterday. I tried to see if there was a way that I could sneak in to get better pics of the track but no dice. It's just as well though, with my luck they probably would have arrested my tail for trepassing or something. lol

Today I ventured downtown to find the Louisville Slugger museum. When I googled it to find the address to map, I was instantly fascinated because the home page shows a pic of the museum with a gigantic LS leaning against the building.

**Sidenote....ma.p.q.ue.st sucks major tittayballs! They give pretty decent directions until the end when you are close to your destination then they drop the ball so you're forced to find the crap yourself. Good thing I'm pretty good directionally (is that a word? Who cares).

Anyway, after taking a wrong exit, I still ended up downtown so I just drove around until I found Main street and continued to drive until a saw that big bat. lol After taking pic's across the street to get the full bat on camera, I crossed over to see the thing up close. I was on the phone with my sister and told her that I wanted to see if it was made of real wood or not. lol Much to my dismay, it is just tons of metal. If I thought I had enough time, I would try to run down there before my plane leaves to get Z one. I'm hoping that we will not be in the workshop until one o'clock like she says because my plane leaves a couple of hours after that. Even if she's not, I'm still leaving. I'm red.ta.go.home. I miss my man and my dogs and I am not about to miss my plane foolin around with this stuff. lol

Someone had mentioned that there was a Muhammed Ali museum/center/something like that. I didn't map it and didn't really feel like looking for it. Instead I parked the car to walk to the Ohio river to get some pic's of it. Maybe, I'll ride back down tomorrow to try and find the Ali place. I don't know why though 'cause it's gonna be closed....*sigh*

I'm hungry, even though I ate earlier. I had leftovers from The Cheesecake Factory last night. I wish I had something sweet to eat on. I've got a granola bar in my purse but you know as well as I do that's not the kind of sweet I'm talkin about. As much as I've been going on about wanting chocolate cake, I didn't even get any last night. I took one look at my plate of food and knew that wasn't gonna happen. I ate about half of my food and was stuffed!! Maybe I'll go get some tomorrow. Scratch that...I WILL go and get a slice tomorrow. lol

So anyway, that's what's up. Everything and nothing. I'm rambling at this point.

**Note to self: this is what happens when your sugar is low....must eat chocolate cake.

Hopefully the next time I post, I will be at home. I hope they don't put me on one of those raggedy @ss planes again that I was on the first leg of the trip. I can't stand riding in those things.....they make me nervous.

I'm in Louisville......

.....Kentucky that is. Home of the Louisville slugger (or so I've been told, lol). I'm here for work to take a grant writing workshop. Since that is part of my new gig, they felt it would be best if I get a better understanding of what the process involves. The workshop I will be attending is the best from what I've been told by co-workers so I'm hoping to learn a lot. Now that doesn't go without saying I'm not a bit nervous, okay maybe a lot because I don't know diddly squat about writing grants. I know what grants are and I know how to write in English so I'm hoping that gives me a bit of a headstart. lol

After a bit of a delay at the airport in Little Rock, I arrived safe and sound (as did my luggage thank goodness!)

Sidebar: I've had luggage that I've checked go lost before and on a direct flight no less. I'm here to tell you that shit ain't NO fun...AT ALL! After I went postal on the baggage claim folks and left the airport (still without my suitcase), I hit up the mall and Wally World to buy a few items to hold me over until I returned home. My luggage was returned the day after I made it back home. I suppose it was just good that my stuff got returned but it still sucked major tittayballs!

Anyway......since I will be here until Friday my suitcase was full of stuff that I just couldn't live without so of course it had to go under the plane. After seeing my bag and thanking the heavens that it got here with me, I went to the rental car place. The chick at the counter was trying to get me to do upgrades, gps units and all that jazz. Ummmm, no sweetie not unless it's free. I mapquested all my routes prior to my departure and I can learn a city pretty fast so yeah....thanks but no thanks. I told them just to point me in the direction of the main interstate and I was good to go. I was at my hotel about 15 minutes later. It would have been 10 if the durn sign to the hotel was facing in more than one direction. I actually passed the place because of that. Anyway, I check in and bolted off to find the center where the workshop would be and to grab me something to eat. The center actually took longer to find than the hotel because it is not directly on the street that it says it's on but off the street. I mean like waaaaaaaaay back off the street. I would explain further but I'm tired so you will just have to take it how I'm dishing it out right now. :-)

So here I am now....nervous, tired, and hon-ga-ray might I add. I ate at like 5 and it's durn near eleven pm here (I'm on EST) and I've got the munchies. If I were at home, I would drink some milk with Nestle hot chocolate mix to make chocolate milk. FYI......that is like the best little nightcap in the world! I know another thing I would be doing if I were at home right now....sleep. So that's what I'm going to do.