Flying All Over the Place: April 20 - May 3
April 20-26. On April 21, I hit the road again. This time it was a recruiting trip in Berkeley. Once again, I flew 4 hours west and then 4 hours east. This time, in the space of 2 days. But, before leaving, I took my first certification exam. It felt easy. I certainly hoped it was.
I landed in San Francisco on Tuesday night and took a 30 minute cab ride across the Bay, to Berkeley. I stayed in the Bancroft Hotel. The drive actually took 10 minutes longer than it should have. When I tried to pay the cabby, I discovered that he didn’t take credit cards. Since I don’t carry cash that presented a bit of a problem. We circled the block a few times until we found an ATM and I could withdraw some cash to pay him off.
Wednesday, from 10am to 4pm, we hung out at the Cal Berkeley student union and talked up Epic to job hungry students. Afterwards, after crashing at the hotel for an extended nap, I started exploring the campus. I’m glad I did. I found the world’s most awesome hot dog shop: top dog hot dogs. Have you ever seen a hot dog shop plastered with libertarian propaganda? I sure hadn’t. But I found one — in Berkeley of all places. I actually found it in the hotel, searching Google for restaurants near the hotel. I was convinced when I clicked on the “Propergander” link and discovered that it contained updates from the Ludwig von Mises Institute.
I walked over to it and it was awesome. I was reading pro-gun statements, old Thomas Sowell columns, and anti-government screeds while I waited for my food. Over it all was a giant version of the World’s Smallest Political Quiz. Truthfully, I haven’t enjoyed myself that much in a restaurant in a really long time.
Unfortunately, I didn’t enjoy the rest of my night nearly as much. Our hotel was right in the middle of the Berkeley campus. Wednesday night, the students put on a drumming contest across the street. It lasted until sometime after midnight. Given that I’d never adjusted to Pacific time, it felt like 2am. Then, when I’d finally gotten to sleep, I was woken up by the sound of someone singing and playing guitar — piped through a really loud sound system. Two hours after that, it was time to get out of bed for my flight home.
I flew back to Madison bright and early (6am) on Thursday morning. I was quite exhausted and actually managed to get a good bit of sleep on the return flights. I landed in time to go back to the office for a few hours before going home.
When I did, I saw the results for both my first project and my first exam. I passed both: 98% on the project, 96% on the exam.
Friday afternoon, I took my second certification exam. It felt harder, but I still thought I passed.
Friday night I had the privilege of seeing our friend Teresa, from our church Life Group, get baptized.
All told, I logged 13.25 hours to my certification work, 7.25 to recruiting, 19 to travel, and 53.25 hours total this week.
April 27-May 3. Tuesday morning, I got the results from my second certification exam: 95%. I decided that I wanted to get things finished as quickly as possible, so I started ignoring all other work and just focused on my second project. Besides getting it done, focusing on it would also be good study for my third exam. I managed to finish the project late on Wednesday night and submitted it for grading. I took my third (and final) test on Friday. I felt like I knew the material well, so I walked out of the exam room already feeling certified.
This week was definitely devoted to the EMR. Out of 51 total hours logged, 24.25 hours went directly to my certification work.