Lotta Action

I have done many things in this past week. Many of them are boring, uninviting, trivial, and uninteresting. I will tell you about only some of those. The others, however, are very exciting and would like very much to tell you about them.

After an early night of bourbon drinking at my home on Friday night, I arose with the song of the meadowlark. Long looking forward to an adventure of unbridled action, I hopped in my car and headed for Terre Haute, IN. I saw lots of corn. Finally, I arrived in time to watch the Dartmouth Women's cross country team. My favorite was not there. I will let you decide which. After that race, I went to interact with Barry for the first time since the fabled Gold Medal Camp Incident in the Summer of Oh Ten. It was marginally awkward, but I could tell he wasn't exactly thrilled to see me. It went a little something like this.

Enter Stage right: Jason to meet with Coach Harwick and Coach Coogan.
Barry: Hello Jason!
Jason: Hi Barry, it's great to see you. Is that a new half zip (it was). It looks phenomenal and you sure picked a great day to wear it. You've got to keep it white and fresh for as long as you can.
Barry: You bet. These are hard to come by. Mark, do you know Jason?
Mark: Yes we-
Barry: Oh that's right you met this summer at ca- well it was nice of you to come, Jason.
Jason: My pleasure, Coach. I'm really excited to see the guys run. Well, I'm gonna go see if I can see Monica race.

All in all, it could have been worse but it still doesn't change the fact that he completely ignored my e-mail from a week and a half ago. I think I'll send him another and link him to meatspin.

I saw Monica race. Great second half of the race. Then I saw the guys race. They had a good day. It wasn't great, but it definitely was not bad. It hurts to see the results show that a bit lower team score would have put them in front of some nationally ranked studs but you can't dwell on that. They are going to tear it up at HEPS for sure.

More corn.

Got back, had some more bourbon and carved a pumpkin. I wanted to bring it into work this week but by the time I remember it on Wednesday, it was smelling a little funky.

All week I was re-negotiating contracts for the appliances. It is mundane work because it is 8 straight hours of editing spreadsheets essentially. The fun part is calling the customer and letting them know that I'm dropping the price on pretty much everything on their quote. I say fun, but it is also a bit stressful as some people take the opportunity to give me an earful about how GE's prices were too damn high to begin with. I listen respectfully and come back firing.

Jack, I don't dissagree with a word you're saying. I hear you loud and clear and also think the prices were too high. That's why I'm here. I'm new and I want to sell you appliances for you apartments. I've lowered the prices on these appliances and I want to be your go to guy. I want to be the first thing you think of when you wake up, I want to be the last thing you think of before you go to bed. I'm here and I'm shaking things up and I want your business.

Note: all of these are things I have actually said to customers.

I'm really starting to get the hang of it. I have done the equivalent of learning the menu as a waiter and now I'm ready to start schlepping appliances. There are a few main differences between waiting tables and selling appliances.

First, in waiting you only have to memorize a menu. 30, maybe 40 dishes and what they come with. Doesn't take more than a week. There are literally hundreds of appliances people could buy.

Second, the price on the menu for a dish is always the same. I choose the price for the appliances. It's pretty cool, but the hard thing is I have to make sure I get close to what the competition is selling their comparable appliances for. Very interesting stuff.

And the last difference that I can think of right now is that I'm doing it over the phone. It's a little harder to build relationships over the phone but part of that si tight. I've heard stories about how guys landed planes on highways in the great war, about pleasant trips people have taken to the Freedom trail in Boston, and about fights guys got into at the steelers game this past weekend. Most of the people I deal with are maintenance bros that like to talk shop. It's pretty tight most of the time.

I also went to Mi Patria, a fantastic authentic Mexican restaurant in town. So authentic they don't even speak English. In fact, we typed up a little speech to say to them and translated it with babel fish and read it at lunch today. It was awesome.

Basketball on Wednesday mornings before work is cool.

I leave work around 1 tomorrow, nap time, then the Bourbon Chase starts up. Looking forward to it.

Pretty matter-of-fact post, I know. I'll get back to it. Send me Music.

-jman