In the past couple posts I have been alluding to the fact that February was a really busy month for me. Yet each time I have failed to go into specifics as to what happened during the month to make it so busy. Well here I am to give you all the skinny. Please forgive me for the length of this post. There is a lot of information here and I hope that you all enjoy.
It all centers around the fact that with my new position with the state that I am allowed to participate in a certain amount of training annually. Last year I was given the opportunity to attend a certification training course in order to obtain my Microsoft Certified Desktop Support Technician (MCDST). This course was a week in length and was offered by one of the training providers here in Vegas. This made the whole process easy. There was a disadvantage however. That was the fact that the tests that you are required to take and pass in order to gain the certification were not included in the cost of the training course. This meant that I had to pay for the actual tests out of pocket.
This year I was given the chance to attend a CompTIA A+, Network+ and Security+ Training Bootcamp. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the term Bootcamp it is meant to be similar to a military bootcamp. The goal is to cram as much information regarding these three subjects into your brain as fast as possible in order to give you the ability to take and pass the necessary tests on the first go around.
CompTIA stands for the ‘Computing Technology Industry Association’. From their website, ‘CompTIA is the leading association representing the international technology community’. Each on of the certifications I was studying for involves a different part of the information technology industry. A+ ‘confirms a technician’s ability to perform tasks such as installation, configuration, diagnosing, preventive maintenance and basic networking’. This certification requires that you pass two exams. Network+ ‘validates the knowledge and skills of networking professionals’. This certification requires that you pass only one exam. Security+ ‘validates knowledge of communication security, infrastructure security, cryptography, operational security, and general security concepts’. Similar to Network+ this only requires passing one test.
This training bootcamp was going to be a lot different then the training course I took the year earlier. To start with the training center was located in Fremont, CA which is approximately 40 miles south of San Francisco. Also the training was going to be provided by a company named Unitek. This particular company was recommended by one of my coworkers as being the best place to go. What made it even better for me was that the cost of the exams was included in the training package. This meant no out of pocket exam expense. Additionally instead of being a week long the course was set to be nine days, starting 2/5 ending 2/13 including Saturday and Sunday. If all went well then I would have 3 more certifications to put at the end of my name on all my emails.
Now in order for me to attend this training required that I do something with Lexi. I mean she is a good girl and all but I don’t think that it would be appropriate for me to take her with me to sit in all my classes. So having known that I would be taking this course several months in advance we worked it to where Lexi would stay with Grandma and Grandma. Instead of flying I decided that it would be easier for me to just drive to Grandma’s house, drop off Lexi and drive to Fremont on 2/4. I will say that the drive wasn’t that bad and I did get to see some beautiful country along the way. I would love to take the drive again when I am not in such a hurry to get somewhere.
I arrive at the hotel on 2/4 around 6:00 in the evening. Everything goes off without a hitch. I get to my room and I am blown away. This particular hotel has partnered with the training center to provide rooms for its students. Now the room wasn’t really a room as much as it seemed like a nice size studio apartment. It had a full kitchen, living room, bedroom and bath. It was really great. Too bad I didn’t spend more time in it.
I’m not going to bore you all with the nitty gritty details of the entire week. I can sum it all up for you, hard work and long hours. Most nights were spent studying with other students usually until 10:00 at night and then another 2 hours of self study time back in the room. This was followed by waking at 6:00 in the morning in order to get ready to catch a van to the classroom in the morning. All this hard work paid off in the fact that I passed all the necessary tests and became certified.
During this study time I met several individuals from throughout the country. All of these people were great and it was a pleasure to have the ability to study with them on a nightly basis. These folks hailed from; Buffalo, NY, Syracuse, NY, Portland, OR, Ketchikan, AK and Edmonton, AB. I know that without their help I may not have passed one of more of the tests.
With class over it was time to travel back to Grandma’s house. I decided to leave the afternoon of the 13th and arrived around 10:00 in the evening. I had already arranged to have the remainder of the week off in order to recover and I simply didn’t want to go right back to work after all that studying. I mean my brain was barely solid enough to allow me to drive! This meant that I didn’t return home to Vegas until the night of 1/19 since as a state employee I had the 19th off.
Also during all this training I had other pressing matters. Previously I had posted about the fact that I had decided to sell the house in Rio Rancho finally. Well while I was in training the sell went to closing and that distracted me somewhat from my class work. Thankfully not enough to cause me to fail any of the tests. I want to say that I was called on the 9th by the title company which needed me to complete the closing paperwork. Thankfully the training center had a public fax machine and I was able to receive all the paperwork. After finding a notary I signed all the paperwork and sent it back to them overnight. I can now report that the house is all done, taken care of and out of my hands. It was a great house, I am sorry to see it go but I realize that it was for the best.
So after getting back to Vegas I had four short days to prepare for the little darling to come out and visit/take the bar exam. Wow how that week just seemed to fly by. Before I knew it I was waking up on Saturday morning to go to the airport to pick her up. It was great seeing her again. It felt like it had been forever since I had seen her last. Dawn’s test started on 2/27 and went through 3/1. Luckily she only had to test for half a day on Thursday which gave us the ability to leave early and head to Grandma’s house for the weekend.
The weekend at Grandma’s house was great. Dawn and I got to go on a very special date, more on that tomorrow, and she was able to spend some time with her family. Sadly the weekend went way to fast and before we knew it, it was time to pack up and leave for Vegas. We decided to leave Lexi with Grandma since she was off the following week and I would return the following weekend to pick her up. This was nice as it gave Dawn and I the ability to go have one more special night before she had to fly back to Hobbs.
So there you have it. That pretty much sums up the month of February. Reflecting back on everything I just typed out I am surprised that so much can happen in such a short month! I hope that you all enjoyed my little novel. I miss you and love you all so much!