North Dakota last week. Took my allergies with me to temperatures ranging from a sunny 75 to a sleeting 43. Wasn't at my best - coughing and wheezing ... and the audience was sooooo quiet, it was hard to gain momentum. I guess that audiences don't realize that passive sitting and waiting for enlightenment drains energy from the room... and from me, the tuning fork of presenters! A few nods and smiles go a long way to keeping me pumped and primed to deliver energy. Without them, I wilt. Yes, I am co-dependent, nuerotic... whatever you want to call it. I'll claim my insecurity.
And when you leave Bismark, ND - as far as driving out of town, it is not a slow gradual transition as it is in more populated areas. One minute - you are in front of a Red Lobster and KMart and the next minute, you are out in the farmland for as far as your eye can see. Boom - you have dropped off into the nowhere...
I was lucky enough to book a stay at the Hampton Inn, which is always pleasant. White linens, feather pillows, microwave, clean etc etc. Men's underwear did not drop out of the foot of my bed as they did in the Raddison in Tucson - nor did I have to pay for internet, parking, or breathing as I do in the 'luxe' hotels. Hampton Inn is about the best you can do when traveling - unless you are staying at a 4 Seasons (which just doesn't happen to me!) And I hit all the chain restaurants that appear in every other town - so it was much like being in any other town - same hotel, same food, same stores... how comfortably homogeneous travel can be sometimes.

Mid-September in El Centro, California. Agricultural, desert, border town. Very much like the Texas Valley... except it has mountains on the horizon and the San Andreas Fault (which I drove over!)

The people here are friendly and happy. They complain a little bit about not having a lot to do - but none of them would trade their lifestyle for an LA lifestyle.

I taught Audit Report Writing today - and although the whole process only takes 30 minutes to create a good finding - some CPA manager/partner in the audience always says "I don't have time for all of that." Little do they know that many auditors spend days writing a good finding. The cultural divide between CPAs and internal auditors is WIDE and DEEP. I got to play right in the middle today as I had both types of auditors in my class. Thankfully, I have worked in both worlds.

YellowBook-CPE.com

YellowBook-CPE.com
Earn Your 24 Yellow Book Hours
24 Hours a Day!

CPE doesn’t have to be boring to be relevant. Let the authors at YellowBook-CPE keep you up-to-date in an enjoyable way.

No need to spend a lot of money on travel because the CPE can come to you on your schedule.

Come back often to check out our latest offerings.

Today, you can choose from:

o The Yellow Book Interpreted—14 hours
o Basic Governmental Auditing Skills—6 hours
o Interviewing Skills for Government Auditors—4 hours
o Six Sigma/Lean for Government Auditors and Accountants—8 hours
o Surviving a Peer Review for Government Auditors—4 hours
o Crafting an Audit Finding using the Five Elements Required by the Yellow Book—4 hours
o Overview of Governmental Accounting—5 hours

Live seminars, too! If you’d prefer to attend a live seminar to earn your hours, see Leita’s teaching schedule at www.leitahart.com.

We can also customize a course for your team. See a list of topics at www.leitahart.com/classes.html.