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...