I completed my first week of craziness on Thursday.  After driving 1,000 miles through 2 states, taking 4 flights and not landing until midnight, you could say I’m a little tired.  Or, you could be more accurate and say I’m exhausted.  I have to say though that I’m very happy with how smoothly things went.  I never got lost, never ran out of gas and all the training sessions were a success.  Of course I still have 3 weeks to go, so there’s plenty of time left for any of those things to happen.  Please pray that none of them do.

The only really traumatic encounter I experienced was the one with the crickets. Yep, crickets.  They are EVERYWHERE during this time of year in the south.  When I checked into my hotel in Marble Falls, Texas, there was a sign with a picture of Jiminy Cricket talking about the problem, which is very deceptive because the crickets aren’t anything like the one off of Pinocchio.  The one in my bathroom sink was big and scary, not cute and full of wisdom.  And even though I knew it would make me look like a complete ass, I asked the lady at the front desk if she would come get it for me.  I first thought about trying to drown it, but then I remembered how well they jump.  And forget about squashing it.  That’s way too much crunch for me.

Everyone there thought it was rather amusing; my fear of the crickets.  In one of the stores I trained in there were crickets all over the room.  Most of them were dead, but there were a few crawling around.  And when I was like, “Ummm there are a lot of crickets in here.”  They nonchalantly were like, “Oh yeah, they’re everywhere.”  Like we were talking about flowers or something.  Seriously people, why do you live here?!

Next week I hit 4 states; Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina.  Stay tuned for more adventures from the south.  I’m sure there will be many.