"The Sconces are Glass!"

Ah, the perks of working for Deloitte. Every year, we get to go to Georgia for some national training. Since we're making the transition to being Seniors/In-Charges, they sent us to Peachtree City, GA, for a week to teach us about the process of performing an audit. While that's what we did during the daytime, pretty much the fun stuff is what we did at night.

Most of the evenings were pretty relaxed, but we still found activities and things to do around the conference center or Peachtree City. For example, on Monday night there was a reception in the ballroom with lots of games, like ping pong, foosball, double shot, and that sort of thing. As it got later, the crowds thinned out and a couple of us guys were doing long distance basketball shots. A facilitator came by and said to be careful because "the sconces are glass!" We just kind of looked at him with blank looks for a second, as we had no clue to what he was referring. Turns out that the light covers in the ballroom were called sconces. Click here and here to see examples.

On Tuesday night I went for a run after class and then we ate dinner and caught up on emails and reading on the patio. Victor and Sara took advantage of the opportunity to sip champagne in celebration of Victor passing an exam.Since we'd been cooped up in the conference center for the last couple days, we really wanted to get out on Wednesday night. Some guys had heard that a Japanese restaurant/bar did karaoke in the back room, so we headed over. Turns out that karaoke isn't on Wednesdays there, but they did have a Wii hooked up to a projector screen, so we played some tennis and bowling before catching the shuttle back and playing some pool in the lounge.On Thursday we hurried out of class to go play some racquetball before the happy hour.Once happy hour was over, everyone wanted to go to a local bar for karaoke. This is kind of a Deloitte training tradition on the last night. Almost everyone went, which added to the fun.

I got a couple buddies to join me in doing "Fight for Your Right (to Party)" by the Beastie Boys. It was a crowd pleaser, for sure. I like that song because you can have as many guys as you want and it requires absolutely no singing ability. You just yell into the mic and do fist pumps. Go ahead. Try it the next time you do karaoke. I guarantee the entire audience will join in and be cheering you at the end. Later in the evening, I got up and sang happy birthday to Autumn. Let's just say it wasn't my best work, but I'll do better next time.The best part of training is seeing friends that live and work in other parts of the country: Southern California, Floriday, Minneapolis, New York, etc. You get to catch up and hear how everyone is doing and what they've been up to. And who knows when you won't be back and get to see them again, ya know?Best wishes, friends, and (maybe) I'll see you at next year's national training in Georgia!