why? (part 2)

why are we so obsessed with celebrities? why do we (as a society) spend our hard-earned money on magazines that tell us what rehab brittany spears is in this week? while i am not one who buys gossip mags or watches the gossip shows, i do sometimes catch myself reading the covers at the grocery store. why? i know i don't really care. it's a sickness...

why?

alas, i almost want to have a blog that is titled "why?" and just put things on it that baffle me.

today's "why?": why must people act like that?

i was at an account the other day meeting the gm (we'll call him joe) for the first time. this account is not near any other accounts of mine (it's buried in cinco ranch), so it took me a while to find it. when i finally did, i went in and introduced myself to the first person i saw who looked like he worked there (he had on a baseball cap with the name of the restaurant on it, and he just had an air about him).

he didn't tell me his name (or his job title for that matter), but he immediately (and quite rudely) asked me where i had been and why it had taken me so long to come by. he said he'd been trying to get a rep from our company out there for weeks. hmmm, funny. one of the owners of this establishment (a franchise) used to be the gm of another restaurant in that same franchise and dealt with jeff, one of my 3 co-workers. so basically they could have called jeff and asked about who their rep was for that area. and joe used to be the gm of another restaurant in houston and dealt with another one of our reps...again could have made a phone call. so at this point i'm thinking joe's clearly not the most resourceful guy on the block (especially since he was that bothered by my absence).

when i asked whom he had called to get a rep, he explained that he had run into a guy at the liquor store who said he worked for our company (he wasn't sure if it was a red bull rep, a wine rep, or a spirits rep), and that he told this phantom rep that he needed someone to come see him. seriously? i explained that there were about 300 sales reps in our company in all the divisions, and i had no idea who this person was. i apologized profusely for not being there sooner.

he proceeded to go on and on wanting to know what kind of things i could get him for free (like frozen machines, etc) and told me over and over again what the rep from our competitor had done for him. then he refused to sign something that my company requests when a new restaurant opens up (a survey saying what liquors they carry). i was really taken aback by his demands and the fact that he seemed to be completely unsatisfied with anything i had to say.

anyway, the line my manager used was that "he was just flexing his muscles". ok, let's say that was the case (and he's not just a complete jerk)...why? did he feel like he had lost the upper hand because i hadn't shown up 3 weeks earlier? did he feel like he needed to show me how tough and hard-nosed he is as a business man? was he trying to intimidate me into feeling obligated to do anything he wanted?

that last one is what i have settled on. unfortunately, i don't respond well to that kind of bullying. i am a rebel who's very independent and doesn't scare easily (if at all), and i can get major attitude when provoked like that...not exactly the attributes of a good sales person. thankfully, the Holy Spirit must have been with me, and i held my tongue (probably more out of shock that this guy was behaving like this than anything else) and walked out of there knowing that i didn't stoop to his level.

nevertheless, it should be interesting to see how this "relationship" pans out...

Latest opinions

there's almost been too much going on lately to comment. my brain has been on overload with everything going on in my favorite sport and with my home team (astros). i will share those opinions (and believe me, there are opinions) on the baseball blog.

this is an extremely busy time for me at work (as you can imagine...everyone drinks more during the holidays), and i hadn't had a chance to read the mitchell report yet (still haven't). i've been hearing things here and there, and micah occasionally calls me throughout the day and updates me if he hears something on his talk radio shows, but i have yet to get into all of it myself. as my sis and i were talking yesterday, she said she'd send me the link to the pdf, and i received that email today. since my schedule today is a little bizarre, i am home between lunch and my afternoon and evening appointments (my plan was to do paperwork, but i got on the computer instead). hence the mid-afternoon blog.

as i signed into my email account, i came across an article (and here's another one) that caught my attention. curt schilling (pitcher for the boston red sox..."the bloody sock" guy from the world series a few years back) was calling on roger clemens to return 4 of his cy young awards if he could not refute the evidence against him. hmmm, that's bold...and i like it! as i continued to read, i discovered that mr. schilling has his own blog (who doesn't?), so i went there.

what i discovered in a few brief reads is that i think curt and i would get along famously. i would love to at least have a conversation with him. it seems to me that he has a good head on his shoulders. i don't necessarily agree with everything he believes politically, but i agree with his outlook on politics in general. i like the fact that he tells people to think for themselves. i like the fact that he seems to be realistic. he understands that actions have consequences (he makes that clear in his views on what's happening in baseball right now and with the topic of war in the middle east).

anyway, just thought i'd share. it's not every day that i run across a "celebrity's" opinion that doesn't make me roll my eyes and laugh (and get frustrated with the stupidity of our country's idols). his opinion's are educated, honest, and straightforward, and i appreciate that. i especially like that he called himself out on his grammar in one of his posts...seriously, can i have lunch with him??

hopefully more blogging to come soon...

Life changes

Well, I have been married for almost three months now. It's crazy because for a long time, I didn't know if I was going to get married. Now Micah and I are talking about having children (because I'm not getting any younger). My life has changed so much in the last two years!

Two years ago was the beginning of my last year of teaching. It was a great year, and it was a good way to end 11 years of teaching. Right now in my job, I get to "teach" a little. I go into restaurants and teach people about wine. It's actually a really cool part of my job (and I never have to grade papers!). Most people really enjoy learning about wine, so I usually have a captive audience.

There are things that I miss about teaching junior high though. I rarely see an "a-ha" moment when I'm telling people about wine. That was one of my favorite things about being a teacher: when a student who had struggled with a concept finally got it. There's a look that comes over that student's face that is priceless. I miss those times.

There are a few things that I love about my job though, one being that it is very flexible. I don't have to be somewhere every day at 7:30 in the morning. I can get up at that time and go work out or read my Bible or whatever. Then I can work in my pajamas (or whatever I worked out in) until about lunchtime if I want. I don't have to go in to an office every day (because I don't have one); although my boss has one, so I do go up and bug her sometimes. But I love not having to be somewhere at a certain time every day (unless I schedule it myself).

One decision that we've been face with recently is what I will do after we have a baby. I would really love to be able to be a stay home mom. I am looking into things that I can do from home. I know I could continue tutoring, but I'm looking into other options as well so I can supplement that income. My most recent thoughts are that I could sell prints. I have taken so many pictures (both B&W and color) over the years, and I took so many more on our honeymoon at Yellowstone. I know some of them are good enough to sell on the internet or something. I'm still working out all the details, but that is one thought.

The other thought I had was to edit websites, business letters, and emails. I'm still working on that idea too.

a frighteningly long update

micah and i got married sat, aug 4. it was very small (about 30 people) and intimate. It was perfect! apart from neither one of us remembering much, we loved it. he was unbelievably nervous because he surprised me with a diamond “engagement” ring, and he was stressing about how he was going to put it on my hand without me seeing it before it was time and without dropping it, etc. he was sweating up a storm, which was a little nerve-racking for me at the time…i didn’t know if he was getting cold feet or what. i was so busy staring at him and grinning the whole time, i didn’t know what else was going on. it was like we were the only 2 people there (for me at least). several things went a little awry, but i didn’t care…it worked out well. the minister forgot to call up my cousin tanya to do one of the readings (but she did it later in the front yard at my parents’ house in front of everyone who was outside smoking cigars, and it turned out that those were the people the reading (excerpt from “the prophet”, by kahlil gibran) meant the most to anyway). then the minister’s “speech” at the end was longer than expected (he asked us to kiss twice, which was fun), and the song to which we left (a very upbeat version of "amazing grace" by the dropkick murphys) got a little messed up and wasn’t heard well. no biggie. i was married, and i so didn’t care!

anyway, from there we went to my parents’ house and ate…again, perfect. it was incredibly relaxed, and we got to have normal conversations with everyone. we weren’t rushed or being interrupted by people we didn’t know or hadn’t seen in years…or just didn’t care to see at all (nightmare!). i think everyone had a really good time.

we finally left my parents’ at about 8 or 830 and drove to galveston to san luis hotel. when we got there, micah had had them sprinkle rose petals all over everything: the bed, the bathtub, the sink. he’d also had them put out chocolate covered strawberries in the room with whipped cream. totally awesome! we spent 2 nights there relaxing and getting massages and stuff. it was amazing!

then we came back to the reality of houston and work for a couple of weeks before going on our honeymoon. we had to postpone the honeymoon for 2 weeks because i had to go to california for work. We went to sonoma county to a few vineyards and stuff. amazing trip, but a lot of hurry-up-and-wait type stuff.

so then we left for our honeymoon fri, aug 24. we drove to san Antonio to stay with tanya and chris (cousins) for a night (to break up the drive to nm to see camille and matty and fam) and left sat morning to see them. my nieces are adorable! bennett is HILARIOUS! so much personality. kylie not so much yet, but she was only a month old. so we stayed in roswell sat and sun nights and left early mon morning to drive to grand junction, co to stay with some of micah’s family’s friends for a night (that was a very long and ultimately very stressful drive through a mountain pass in the rain…fun fun). then we drove from there to stay with his grandparents in casper, wy. they are an absolute trip! they are 91 and 92 years old, and they still drive (yes, wyoming still allows them to drive…crazy!). apparently grandpa is not supposed to drive at night and can’t drive over 40 mph…gee, i feel better! anyway, they’re both hilarious, and i can totally see micah and i being like them. they’re completely in love, and they still get along so well, yet they mess with each other too. they’re still a little smart-allicky with each other, which i love.

we spent 4 nights with them. then we drove to yellowstone and had 4 nights by ourselves. it was really nice, even though the hotel screwed us: small room (not the end of the world, as we weren’t in it much), small bed (even though we were told it was a king), bad shower/bath (it leaked and made noise), and toilet issues. They wouldn’t refund any of our money, even though there’s a sign in the bathroom that says that if we’re unhappy with anything they’ll compensate us....go figure. anywho, definitely not the end of the world.

we spent a day in grand tetons, and we went on a rafting trip on the snake river…we saw a bald eagle and some osprey. we spent 2 days in yellowstone and saw all these geysers and boilers. i took tons of pics the first day, and then it got old b/c they all started to look the same (micah kept telling me that would happen, but i ignored him...he was right). one day it rained, so we slept in, stayed in west yellowstone (the little town we stayed in, actually in montana) and walked around the town and hung out. then we went back to the hotel and watched tv and went to sleep…or tried. kind of hard with the tub dripping and the uber-small bed.

on our way home, we basically took the same route we took up, but we stayed with some friends in santa fe for a night before moving on to see camille and fam (this time we met them in ruidoso, as someone had lent them a cabin for the weekend). we were finally home sunday, exhausted, but home.

all in all, the trip was really cool. we saw all kinds of cool animals: lots of elk and buffalo, a moose (that was really cool…we were about 10 feet away from him), a bear cub (he happened upon us on a trail by lake jenny, and we kept our distance but followed him...it was cool, and i got a few pics), 2 bald eagles (although it was hard to see them b/c they were in trees pretty high up), 2 wolves, some osprey (birds), deer, antelope, etc. if we did it again, i’d fly and only stay in the park 2 days. in total we put 5,000 miles on the car and spent a lot of money on gas, but it was worth it.

one of the funniest things we saw on the trip: in front of a house right off the highway was a sign propped up next to a car (that was in the yard) that said "SUDAN FOR SALE". anyone, anyone? that would be SEDAN spelled phonetically. nice! i couldn't get my camera out fast enough b/c it took a minute for me to register what the people were actually trying to sell.

let me finish the story by returning to the ring (did you think i’d just gloss over that point?). i had originally said i didn’t want an engagement ring. i'd rather have spent the money on the honeymoon or something for the house or whatever. well, i guess i had talked about a ring a few times before we actually got engaged, and then the man who made my dress has a friend who sells diamonds wholesale, and he and micah apparently got to talking, and they did a little side deal unbeknownst to me. i was SHOCKED! the ring is perfect…exactly what i wanted. it’s beautiful, princess cut (it’s square, i think that’s princess), tiffany setting in a white gold band. it’s amazing. it looks big on me (i think) b/c my fingers are so short. i love it!

on being in love

ok, i don't want to be sappy (and i'm honestly the least sappy girl i know), but i am constantly amazed at how in love i am and how abnormal that feeling is for some people. i listen to people (and sometimes it's just plain old eavesdropping at the next table), and what i hear is such a far cry from my life, that in my naivete, i'm flabbergasted. why isn't everyone as happy as i am? why isn't every relationship like mine? very simple questions with extremely long and difficult answers i'm sure.

it reminds me though how much i appreciate my man. i love that we play around. today, i was unpacking groceries, and he was helping, and he just stopped and came up behind me and started playing with me. i actually fell on the ground because i was tring to avoid his slobber (i think that's what it was...it could have been food for all i know) on my neck. yet as much as i act like i don't like it (yes, micah, i'm admitting it...in writing), i wouldn't trade it for the world. i hope we still act like this when we're 70. i run from him when he chases me, just like we're kids on the playground.

this is the fun part of being in love. how can you possibly face all the challenges in love and marriage if you don't enjoy the fun too? even though our relationship is not all fun and games, it's hard for me to remember those challenging times because there are so many more fun ones...and i tend to remember those instead. i am so happy, and i'm so in love...and i'm so very blessed. i waited 34 years for this man, and God blessed me with someone more perfect (for me) than i could ever have imagined, and i am so excited to be spending the rest of my life with him...

sharp'ner

imagine this word in a thick british accent (pronounced shop' nuh). i learned the other day what this little (british) english word means.

part of my job involves going to "kick-offs," in which a supplier either introduces a new product or re-launches (re-markets) an existing one. the last such kick-off was hosted by the supplier that represents malibu rum, kahlua, and beefeater gin (among others). malibu and kahlua both introduced new flavors (banana, and french vanilla and hazelnut respectively), and beefeater has a new package.

beefeater's new marketing plan includes a change in target market: they are going after a younger crowd. one of their marketing gems is this "sharp'ner." so what is it?

everyone is familiar with the "happy hour." well, apparently in england, they are way bigger commitment phobes than we are, and instead of committing to an entire "hour" somewhere (not that all of us americans literally do this), the brits do more of a bar hop/pub crawl thing, and stay at each place for one drink or so, a "sharp'ner" (dovie and heather, can you confirm?); at least this is what the marketing ploy is. so the supplier is spending tons of money on this "sharp'ner" theme.

i'm intrigued, and it should be really interesting to see if this catches on.