The great thing about the holidays is that, usually, I am just wrapping things up with work and not proactively going out there and getting more. WHICH - that usually means that I don't have to travel as much. And this week, my traveling is keeping me home based which makes me feel semi normal (no comments please :).
Things have been slightly difficult as of late for me as, the normal just going out and selling, has now been raised a bar and its all out, gloves off battle with my competition (which will go unnamed as one of my traitor family members now works for them - grrr....). I know they're lying about claims they make, but now, I have to sit down and read through oodles of legal documents that blah blah blah and I have to decipher what they say and make sure that I have a good argument to put to my customers and to-be customers. ISO, FDA, ANSI/AAMI - why can't these people just speak plain and ordinary English. Ah! But - this week has been spent mind-numbingly reading through 100s of pages of these documents and procuring more because those documents have referred and led to other documents.
Yesterday was a day that my brain got a little clearing, but my back and rear got exceptionally tired. I was in the car for a little over three hours going to Platteville, WI. And then a delightful three hours back. The nice thing about Platteville is that it is the section of Wisconsin where, once you get through all that open and undeveloped dairyland, there are some great rock cliffs and interesting scenery. And to top off a nice drive in the country, my first three hours resulted in an extremely nice customer visit. I actually got to help a customer who is wanting to purchase my product but is having a problem sourcing it through their distributor. I actually have someone who is desperately searching for my product! :) Such a wonderful feeling.
Friday I have to go down to Decatur, IL (aka -- CORN.... actually, technically, SOYBEANS!) to again visit an extremely nice customer who very much likes me. You don't know how much it means when you get "thank you for your help!" and emails sent to administration that say "I love working with Alison because she's always there to help us". Its like a breath of proverbial fresh air. It makes me enjoy my job and during those horrible days when people are breathing down my neck and I feel like I'm going to crack, I remember the customers who actually appreciate me - and I breathe a sigh of "ah, there are people who like me and my product :)"
Insert for the day - remember when you graduated from college and a year or so after, there was that rash of friends and others you went to school with who entered into wedded bliss. Invitations, rumors and newsletters that announced, so and so are getting married!
I've discovered that when you work with youth group for enough years, you go through that rash again, but now they're your friend/youth groupers. I have no thoughts on it except that, the wallet gets a little thinner and, unless they were thick with people at church, you're stuck sitting at dinners and receptions by your lonesome and meeting a lot of new people.
Admittedly, its a different time and people don't tend to get married as young as they used to? Its just kind of an observation. I had a rash with the ones just out of college (which was maybe three) and the rest have gone on and gotten masters or started careers and then have wisely chosen to tie the knot. And so comes Amanda.... there were several who I had in youth group and we just got to be friends rather than "youth group leader/youth" and we continued out of youth group and through college and now after. Now - my friend, Amanda, is going off and getting married. And I'm extremely excited for her and proud of her! Save the date! :)
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