Goodbye

I'm going to miss my friends:







I am now employed at Macy's.

The Routine: door sales - They don't come easy

Door Sales sometimes do come easily, but for this particular day... they didn't... After being at school for most of the day. Being locked out of your own house for over an hour, twitching your nose because you took your allergy meds a little later than expected, and because of the fact that our apartment complex rails were being smothored with wet snow white paint, (which coincidently I'm allergic too) sitting on the grass which I was also allergic too. Waiting for Jess to get back with the sweet car we have. I did finally get to go out and sell, after a victory poweraid for such a successful first day of school.
I was going to be going on a field day with one of our reps. who I called 10 minutes before I got to his apartment to let him know I was on my way. I got there sat in the car for 5 minutes (because usually he just comes out of the apartment), but this time no such luck. I knock his door. A tall scrangly dark haired college kid with gangly arms answers. Is such & such there? I ask. He looks at me and lets me know that my rep moved out the week before. convienantly my phone hadn't been working for the past two days, which all the reps were aware of, so I couldn't just call him. All in all that wasted about 2 miles and 30 minutes of valuable time. Time is one the really important factors to door sales. You only have so much time before you have to stop knocking on peoples doors. its all about Timing! Somebody would have signed up if only you had stopped by two days before, or 3 days before, that is sometimes frustrating, so the way I think of it. You have to be out there talking to as many people, as you can before, leaving a positive message or feeling towards the company or product you represent.
Well anyways with being behind time I drive to the first street of addresses that are attached to the fiberoptic network that I work for. I'm following up with some people I had talked with last week, and trying some doors that didn't open up for me last week. I think following up was fruitful, I tried to just establish a relationship with them, find common ground and assess where their at in the sales mix. At this moment for the two people I followed up with, they hadn't checked to see if they were in contracts, which meant they hadn't given it a thought since I last left them. Which meant I needed to push some urgency into it & find common ground. after that, I knocked more doors. At that moment, trying to be pushy would have killed the deal since both were sincere that they were interested in the service, and they just needed a little more time before they were comfortable of signing up.
By this time, those two large poweraid's that had quenched my thirst earlier (sorry gatorade, mcdonalds doesn't carry your sweet beverage) were really starting to bother me, and not let me just do my thing and talk with people, I had to make a pitstop at Harmons your friendly neighborhood grocery store. after that I knocked a few more doors which one person completely looked past me (older lady) even when I spoke to her, and said here kitty kitty, (no cat in sight) and then slowly shut the door. Ok this wasn't going anywhere with no one answering the door but 3 people. Besides I was meeting up with another sales rep later that night to team sell, and see how we can be more effective (since my afternoon had been so effective). We were going to visit one of our MDU's that we provide service. It was that time of year were many of the tenants want to upgrade their tv channel packages so they can cheer for BYU, or for a few that cheer to see them lose. It went rather well. The funniest door was when my coworker Bill (names changed for privacy) knocked into a college girl that was a total valley girl. Bill explained we were the apartments internet & TV provider and was checking up on the apartment to see if they had upgraded their service already. She didn't get that and said "O we already have tv and internet, it comes with the apartment" Bill said I didn't ask that in a question we are your providers. O she said.
And that was today, I also stopped by some people who were interested in the service only to find out after I had left they had signed up with the service I sold them on. Thus leaving me without getting the commission. It happens more than you think. We did upgrade a few customers.

Memiors of a door salesmen

It isn't for everybody, but I have been knocking doors to support our family for the past year, & its been a miracle that I even found this job. When I say that its a miracle that I found this job, I didn't. My wife found it on the computer. I can't think of anybody that would say its a miracle to become a door salesman. It sounds funny to hear it coming out of my mouth too. But it was & still is. Door sales aren't for everybody, though I think if everyone tried it, they'd find that many of the door salesmen are just regular joes trying to make a living. (every once in while there are those bad eggs that ruin it for the rest of us.) And so as it goes, I got an interview I went to the interview found out that it was a door sales job, (I was desperate to get a job at the time, but nervous to get a door sales job, wondering if I'd be good enough for it) and ran into my friend there in the office. With that I decided I better give it my all, and see what miracles could happen. Besides doing something is better than nothing with the economic situation Jess & I were experiencing at the time.
I don't know why I decided to write this at this moment, but I think a lot of door salesmen have gotten a bad reputation from the few selfish individauls that took advantage of others, so I'm writing this to share with you what its like to be a door salesman. Some of the experiences will be common and to those who've done door sales can relate with, other things will be new and unique, because in door sales there are a lot of general patterns, filled with random suprises. I hope that I can convey what its like to walk in the shoes of a door salesman.

I'm steeping

Summer

I steep
in its cauldron.
These are days not swallowed
before they breathe.
Their evenings bridge
toward morning, one motion,
a splendid indolence,
a long novel.
This season's not
bound in batting;
it thunders
through thin linen.
I am a slow cooking roast;
by the end of August
my center will be warm
but still red.

By Natasha Saje


As I was sitting by the pool in Arizona last week, the first lines of this poem came to mind. Isn't this the best metaphor for that unbreathable kind of heat? "I steep in its cauldron." I became a slow-cooked roast that day.

new thought

It only took 1 tank of gas from Las Vegas to Provo. Woot woot!

I'm Back!

This past week, I had the oppertunity to work down in Arizona. the temperature was very hot. the days ranged from 102-109 degrees. My wife had a great time sitting by the pool as I drove down to the wonderful town of Maricopa and made contacts with people. Hopefully we can get a sales team going on down there.
Also visited Las Vegas, my brother lives there, his wife is so cute and bless her heart, she highlighted my sweet Jessica's hair. I have a very cute niece. She uses the word "my" for I'm so when she runs at top speed she yells "my fast, my fast mommy" She's adorable.

I'm not good at manual labor

So far this week I had the oppertunity to help my dad pour and lay some cement in their backyard. Everything was going well until I got there... Actually by the time I got to my parents place, the portable cement mixer my dad rented was faulty and wouldn't mix, so we had to head back to the store and return it. The manager was nice enough to replace it with one that actually did work. So we get back, its time to start pouring the cement bags into this mixer, which looks like an orange pot the size of a round cow, ontop of a wheelbarow. Let me tell you cement bags, even the small ones are heavy, about 80 ibs and you have to balance them while trying to pour them in your giant orange "pumpkin" without hitting the sides which are moving and could tear the bag opening and pour out the contents everywhere. Well after doing that some 42 times of opening bags pouring water in, mixing the mixing machine with a shovel and then putting some dyes in to change the color of the cement it wasn't half bad a job. except the fact that there were to colors of dye's and I mixed both colors, so the cement job might not be all the same color. I didn't know we had to different bags of color. Needless to say, we'll see if my family will call me to help. maybe....

SO THIS HURTS!!!

A few weeks ago, while dancing ( & more particularly while cooling down). I was going over the samba steps, while Jess was stretching. I began a samba roll when I immediately knew something was amiss! I felt this nice intense stabing electric feeling in the middle of and on the right of my back. it hurt to shift and move and breath and sit, and lay down and do anything. It turns out one of my ribs out of place. So naturally i went to see the dance trainer with some intense stretches, and then laying me on my back, crossing my arms and the guy telling me to breath in deep and exhale, he popped my rib back into place. the pressure was so intense, and then it felt good, i could move again even though the muscles were sore from the rib being out of place.
Its amazing that one little rib can completely stop me in my tracks. well onto today. This weekend I was goofing off, jumping around. And decided to try some dance/exercise moves i've seen on tv (I"m refering to the infomercial "insanity" a workout that will change your life or something like that). The process of the dance Move I was attempting was kicking your legs out and up in front of you while flexing your abs. The show said you would feel it in your abs, legs, gluts, back. All I felt within 5 seconds, or 4 kicks, was this pop on my right side middle of my back, and the same iintesnes pressure, pain to breath move, and anything else.
I think I retwisted my rib out of place again... Not the most exciting thing. I can't even say that I did anything cool to dislocate the rib. Jess just looked at me like are you serious! How dumb are you!!! "I just wanted to have a fun date" (did I mention this happened on our date)
OK I"m exaggerating on that, she was actually very simpathetic, just a tiny bit stunned that this should happen again. But like I said she was very simpathetic to my plight and has babied me a bit. Which is nice...
So later that night as I lay mortally wounded trying not to breathe cause it hurts, or move, cause it hurts or shift, or do anything cause it hurts.I'm just about to fall asleep, and I guess in my sleep I try to shift. becuase of this I scream out "bah" Jessica rolls over eyes still closed, and tells me in a somewhat annoyed voice, "No screaming, I'm just about asleep." I look at her (which hurt to turn my head). She was already asleep! She says the funniest things in her sleep. come to think of it so do I.

Yesterday Raimo and I hopped on the scooter and rode into the canyon to find a waterfall. We decided Bridal Veil Falls sounded like a promising place for us to stop. We took a little walk next to the Provo river and when we came around the corner there was this huge fall that really did look like a veil! It was beautiful, and the water came all the way right down to our feet. Just next to the water we saw a pretty steep trail. It looked pretty promising so we headed up. There were quite a few scary spots on the way up. Some parts were really steep and were full of loose sand and rock. One part looked washed out, so we scaled it! We were really rock-climbing! Well we reached a part of the trail that seemed a bit too dangerous, so we headed all the way back down. We washed our dirty hands in the water and just decided to continue the little walk by the river. Well just a few yards away was a little rock-lined path that looked much more like an official trail. Needless to say, we made it to the waterfall without even breaking a sweat on that trail. Should have taken that one in the first place. The falls were amazing up close. The sun was just peeking over the top of the mountain, so when we looked up it was shining through the spray. It was really neat up there too because the water sort of pooled under the fall before trickling down the mountain to the river. It was a nice day.

The thunder has been unreal today-- I keep jumping at it because it is just soo loud and it is like right over our apartment! It sounds like someone has turned a enormous cooler full of ice upside down over us... with a microphone nearby. The rain is on and off, but the drops are just huge! Weird!

We had our first lesson on a rhythm dance with a professional today. His name was Decho and he really helped us a ton! And he was so positive and really made us feel like we have a lot of potential and that we'll do really well in the future. Our bolero is much improved already, and with some practice will be really cool. I'm glad we did it, even though it was expensive!

I am very frustrated that my job searching hasn't gotten me anywhere. I'm just hoping that one of these days someone will read my resume and call me up. And not take all year going about the hiring process. I'm sure something will work out.

Happier news: we found a new frozen yogurt place that has SO many flavors. mmm