Day 3 - The Work Begins

It was a fine morning except for the painful crustiness on and around my lips. I had no idea what it was. All that I knew was that I was already having some irritation around my lips before I left for Phoenix.

It couldn't have been allergies because the allergy medication I had did not even touch it. It wasn't sunburn because that was the only part of my body that was affected. Whatever it was, it hurt. And it made my lips swell to twice their normal size.

I had to apply a cool compress to my lips to get some relief and to soften up those painful crusts. Yuck!

Gary and I had a better opportunity to get to know each other over breakfast (which I can't remember what we had except for the fresh strawberries and raspberries, bacon, and coffee). He was a sweet 66-year-old Texas gentleman who worked for the U.S. government at Fort Bliss.

It was good having Gary join me for breakfast, especially when he exclaimed to Carolyn that this was 10 times the amount of food he normally eats for breakfast. Good! I didn't have to feel so bad for not being able to eat all of Carolyn's gut-busting portions.

Because we had to be at class for 9:00 AM, there was no dilly-dallying over breakfast like yesterday. Also, there was no more bringing back uneaten left-overs either.

Our 3-day seminar was officially called "CorelDRAW X3 Unleashed Boot Camp." It was to be 3 full days of intensive training in the new version of CorelDRAW, a graphic editing program which I think is superior to the ubiquitous and over-used Adobe (Illustrator and Photo Shop) software. (Sorry to all you folks who like and use Adobe products.)

All along, for some reason, I had thought that the class was going to be taught in one of the function rooms at the Rancho Mañana Golf Club. Maybe that was because it was listed in the directions to get to the boot camp.

But no, boot camp was actually held at the home of the the instructor, Foster Coburn III, who also happens to be a CorelDRAW guru.

Foster's an interesting guy. He looks younger than his 42 years of age. He's a nice enough fellow, but not one who elicits warm fuzzies. And he does seem to be a bit full of himself at times. I suppose that is to be expected of someone with his extensive area of expertise.

But still, he was an excellent teacher who had much to offer.

It's amazing just how much of his material Foster knows. And even more amazing is the opulent adobe home that he has across the street from the Rancho Mañana Golf Club. That swimming pool is none like I've ever seen except in those fancy-schmancy home and garden magazines.

Boot camp was in this darkened room that looked like a home theater. Just as well that the room was dark. I was feeling rather self-conscious of my Bozo lips, though for originally skinny lips like mine, they probably did not seem as freakish as I thought.

First order of the day, after finding our name tags and assigned seats was to introduce each other.

We already met Gary. And you all know who I am. So that leaves Gina, Kandy, and Gala who work for Wilkerson's, a jewelry liquidator in Arkansas; Edie, another government worker at the National Institute for Standards and Technology (the place that's home to the Atomic Clock) in Boulder, Colorado; and Jodi from Vancouver, British Columbia who has her own design and sign-making business.

Knowing that the U.S. government (along with some big mucky-muck corporations that were not represented in this boot camp) sends its people to train with Foster gave me great confidence in my decision to attend this boot camp.

After introductions, it was down to business. Today's full-day class was going to focus on vector graphics.

Vector graphics may be a little bit hard to explain to those of you who have no familiarity with graphic editing.

Vector graphics is what you use in designing logos, signs, illustrations, etc. Unlike bit-maps, of which photos are one example, vector graphic do not become distorted and do not pixelate when they are enlarged. This is all done using very complex mathematical algorithms that I will not even attempt to explain.

We were well fed all throughout the day. Soda, coffee, tea, water, pastries, etc. were always available. For lunch, we had a choice of items from a menu of a local restaurant (and a new restaurant for each day that we were there). I ordered a southwestern burger.

When Foster's assistant, Diane, arrived with the food, we broke for lunch. Surprisingly, we all ate outside, even though the temperature was in the low 100s.

What?! Were we nuts?!

No.

Actually it was comfortable outside because the air was being cooled with fine mists of water that were being sprayed at periodic intervals. Plus, we all sat in the shade at one of the many tables that were scattered around Foster's extravagant pool.

My Bozo mouth made it difficult and painful to eat. Plus, my stomach could not accept an entire burger. It was an effort just to eat half.

While all the others threw out their uneaten portions, I saved mine for the left-over collection that was multiplying back in my room. After all, my mother deeply ingrained in me that throwing out food was a sin.

All through the class Edie kept exclaiming how the information that she just learned had already paid for her class. Her boot camp experience must have been paid for at least a dozen times by the end of the final class!

While there were a lot of things that I already knew about, there were also plenty of things that I had forgotten about or not even used. Plus, there were some new tools that I didn't know about. So I felt good about my first day in class.

We managed to survive day one of boot camp.

That night I offered Gary a bottle of chili beer, and he took it with trepidation as we headed up to the star-gazing deck for some conversation.

Gary is not a big beer fan. The only beer that he drinks is Coors, which he calls "Colorado Kool-Aid."

We had pleasant conversation about the boot camp, Arizona, our lives, and the sense of accomplishment and failure we experienced.

After awhile of this deep and personal conversation, Gary said, "I hope you don't get offended if I don't finish this beer."

Me? Offended? No way! More chili beer for me!

Pretty soon my bladder was signaling its discomfort. I guess this was as good a point as any to call it a night. I made a bee-line for the bathroom while Gary called his honey back in El Paso.

Thus day 3 of my great Arizona adventure has been put to bed.