The Other Day...

I was knocking doors the other day, I had just talked to a few customers and signed them up for more services. I then came upon a customer who wasn't happy with our service. The ironic thing is the fact that I literally came minutes after a competitors internet service provider rep left their home. They hadn't signed up yet to switch the service. The customer has a very large family and the internet had been going out couple times a week, which is annoying when you're doing homework. I listened to them tell me everything that was going wrong for over an hour. & about their life. The other service provider had told them they could get 50mpbs data, they just had with us 10mbps. I told them that we have that package and it will be cheaper too. The cust said that they didn't even know we offer that package. But that wasn't their only concern, they had had a hard time getting a hold of cust service. The other provider called our service line, only to be put on hold for a few minutes and then sent to an answering machine. They called his service and it picked up. I was thinking thats becuase they don't have any cust (which is sorta true by the fact that we cover more than just utah for service). The lady then told me I should work on my talents, and explained how we can gain talents and such. Well I showed them our price for 50meg and phone and tv, they saw that it was cheaper than the other, I also assured them that we would do something about their internet not working, cause there are a few other customers on the street that have our service, and the service is working fine. So it looks like our competition is selling cust service, becuase the cust knows that we actually have better quality service, (their son was a tech guy who see's that we have invested in more quality products. I hope our customer service will fix the issues that this one particular cust is having. We've fixed things like this. Cuase generally I'd say over 75% of the cust I talk to are happy with our service. but it was crazy. Very nice family they shared their life story and how people haven't treated them very nicely, its sad cuase their very nice and really smart. I"m going to follow up and make sure we treat them right as our customer.

My day off

Dear bloggers,
Isn't it fun hearing Raimo's commentary on life from time to time? I don't think I would hear those things from him otherwise. I enjoyed his notes on tetris, especially since the game has been keeping him locked up in the bathroom for even longer than usual lately. I'm glad to know that it helped in the rearranging of our house:It's so much more open now. I love it.

Today is the first day of fall. We've been leaving the windows open at night, and every morning is so crisp and cool in our apartment. And since we live in the shadows, it remains quite cool all day. Today I wore a sweatshirt for the first time (inside the house). I painted my nails an autumn bronze, I cleaned up my house and added a little fall decor, and I sliced up some garden fresh tomatoes and ate them with lots of salt (Raimo brought them home from work--from an old lady he met on the doors.... they were big and plump and so-much-better-than-grocery-store tomatoes). My friend did a soup week in honor of fall, and I'm thinking I need to make some delicious homemade soups because that sounds soo good.

I have the day off work today. It has been nice to sleep a little later, get caught up around the house, do some laundry, and see some daylight.

That is all that's going on. Lately I am loving:

--the sound of plastic hangers clacking against each other or screeching across a metal pole. This means either I am shopping or I am going to hit my sales goal at work.
--having a stack of good sheet music next to me at the piano (every once in a while, I go play at the church across the street)
--living the simple life with Raimo. Sometimes we really wish we had this or that awesome thing, and sometimes I really wish we had fun plans to move or to do something exciting, but then we have nice days like today and I am quite content where I am.

Here are some recent photos
So that's about it!
Love,
Jessica

I Dream In Tetris...

Apparently there's to many people on facebook right now, because I keep getting kicked off, and it won't load. Any how, I found down in my parents basement, my brothers old hand held Gameboy by Nintendo, along with that, I found some of the old games, like double dragon, mario land 2, blades of steel, and now my own personal favorite Tetris. I've gotten pretty good at the russian inspired game. To the point that when I close my eyes at night I see tetris blocks coming down, and I have to arrange them in such a way that they won't make it to the top. The graphics are sweet, 2 dimensional, black & white.
In everyday life, our apartment is like tetris, we have only so much space, and our furniture are the blocks that we have to arrange so that we can live within that space. Also our scheduling is like tetris, sometimes it can be a stretch trying to get Jess & I's schedules to match up and sometimes we plan everything right or we just get the right pieces and we clear a "Tetris" which is the term used when you make 4 lines disappear at the same time. Usually by the end of the semester, all the peices of hectic lives are coming down super fast and you don't have time to think all you can do is react and place at the lowest possible place. that includes homework, rent, bills, work, dating, family, and everything else.

Another Experience: Just a day on the job

So another day has come and gone, the weather was in the mid 80's and it was sunny. The usual thing happened I had to drive and look for the addresses on my list. Which I don't mind with xm radio, my first door, the lady came to the door on the phone and needed me to come back. I knocked a few empty doors, followed up with a lady who said she'd "like to do more research" Which pretty much translates, no. Becuase honestly 99% of those who say that never do any research. This person already is on the same network as us, the only difference with the two providers would be, she would save about $20. Anyways she said she'd contact me once she's done the research. I think the best research would be to just try it, since we don't have contracts, it will save you money. Well I do reccomend that people search things out to see if what we offer will be best for them.
Well enough about that, I was going to follow up with another person on the street and walked by a gentlemen that was standing by a house where there was supposed to be an address that I was suppossed to knock, So I asked him where this particular address is. It turned out he lived there, he had qwest and I could get him about 40mbps more speed for his internet, and save him $34 about. He was a nice guy.
I also followed up with another older lady, she had to buy a new computer, and is going through a lot right now. Her husband is starting to forget how to basic things. I listened to her for some 30 minutes. I think she needed to vent a little bit, and then she gave me some tomatoes from her garden. She's a very nice lady, and asked me to follow up with her in a couple of weeks. I hope everything will work out.
So that was another day on the job.

Great words about great books:

My aunt, Marilyn Faulkner, has just finished her book called Back to the Best Books. It is designed to assist book groups, or any reader really, in reading some 36 different novels that she calls classic. I just read the introduction of the book and loved her definition of "classic" or great novels! Here are a couple of paragraphs:


"When an author combines brilliant artistry with the desire to uplift and edify, the attentive reader achieves a deepened sense of what it is to be human. A great book is designed to change your mind, touch your heart, and lift your spirit. You should emerge from the experience of reading with some new wisdom about the human condition and a deeper perspective about the experiences of your own life. The careful and compassionate observation of the human soul is the gift that a great novel brings us. We cannot live everywhere; we cannot be everyone. But we can read, and by so doing send out a “cord of communion” (to quote Jane Eyre) to another kind of person, and then another, and then another, until we are reinvented by our interconnectedness. Those few authors that have created truly great novels deserve our serious attention; they add to our ability to live creative and thoughtful lives."

"...That is why it is so important that literature paint an accurate, rather than an idealized representation of the human heart. Franz Kafka said, “A book must be an ice-axe to break the seas frozen inside our soul,” and Chaim Potok described the process of writing as “mapping the human heart.” The best books show us our true selves, warts and all, yet somehow inspire us to rise above those weaknesses to something finer. To have this kind of life-changing experience, we must reach beyond the level of simple entertainment. Some great books have happy endings, some do not, but each one teaches us something true about ourselves that may lead to more satisfying resolutions of our real-life dramas."

You can read the introduction to her book in Meridian Magazine here

and her book is available on Amazon here.
And all the proceeds go to charity. Cool, huh?

And don't you love it when a book is your ice-axe that breaks the seas frozen in your soul? What books have done that for you, OR what did you think about my aunt's introduction to her book?

It's no secret...

...I've always wanted one. She is soo cute! And just think of all the fun hair possibilities!
I heart babieeesssss.

Bad Hair day?

Yesterday was Jessica's first day of work. To make sure she was on time, I forgot to comb my hair. from that, i took off for work. another day to knock doors. The first two doors no one answers, even though I can hear people inside, it was relatively early (10a.m.) for a saturday. I walk past a cult de sac that I had knocked in febuary and thought to myself, boy it sure would be nice to know all the houses that have service, I could have knocked just one area quite easily. I walk up to the house. two little kids answer the door, good morning, could I speak with your mom or dad. The dad comes to the door. We talk a bit. I almost ask him if he needs time to think it over with his wife, but they say they'd rather switch over to the service. And they invite me in.
It is at this point I realize that my hair wasn't combed, and let me just say, it was going in all directions, so from that point on I make a joke about not using a comb. it worked out good, the family signed up with a triple play, which means tv phone & internet. I was totally going to let them think about it, but they invited me in and made me a sale. Love it when that happens, but realized that I do need to close sales more.

Another Day On The Job

We all have funny experiences, It just so happens that the mundane of door knocking can be taken away after each door. Jess had the car today since it was her first day of work! I decided to take Axle (my trusted made in China Scooter). It was getting dark, I put $.70 cents into her to fill her up for the month, and off I went. The weather is getting colder, so I put on one of my jackets to keep the cool out. My first door consisted of a family that I had talked to previously, they had asked for some information that I didn't have on me at the time, and I was returning to give them that info. Well they didn't answer the door, so I decided to leave a note with my last large sticky note, Naturally as I turned to leave the gentleman answers the door. We had a brief enthusiastic discussion on what the next step towards getting the service, and then he mentions that he didn't answer the door cause he had just stepped into the bathroom. It happens to the best of us.
Actually that wasn't the funny thing that happened on the way back home with Axle, I noticed out of the corner of my eye, some thing flying, it turned out that I hadn't taken off the sales tag from my jacket. I laughed, I had a lot of people drive by laughing. The other annoying thing I noticed is: you run into a lot of bugs when riding a scooter. I'm serious when the sun has gone down but its not fully dark yet, the bugs fly straight for your headlight and somehow end up hitting you neck, chest, arms, face, it was... an interesting feeling. One day I'll put pictures on with my writing but until then, you'll have to bare with my boring stories.
Do you ever notice that right when you decide to do something, the phone or doorbell rings?

"In Ohio seasons are theatrical."

~from Toni Morrison's Beloved

That's a good way to describe it. Seasons sure aren't very theatrical in California, but here in Utah we see a little more of nature's theatrics.


"Each one enters like a prima donna, convinced its performance is the reason the world has people in it.... summer had been hooted offstage and autumn with its bottles of blood and gold had everybody's attention."




Autumn is definitely SO bold and dramatic. In fact, on the first day of school, it was already overcast and slightly cooler, even though it was still August! I'm a little sad because I don't feel like we had a real summer--we skipped over beach days and a lot of other summer activities. But it's hard to be sad when it's a perfect 70 degrees outside. It's time to trade in the swimsuit for jeans and sweaters...

p.s. My new job at Macy's is going to be really great, I think. I am getting trained right now.

New trick

Lately I feel like everyone is letting me down. Well not everyone, but we've had quite a few things happen lately that are just not so fair and not very nice. My sister-in-law, who seems to get along with pretty much everyone, once told me her secret: "I just don't care." When people let her down or are super mean, she just says, "Oh well" and moves on with or without them. I have given that a try, but I am having a hard time with it because I DO care! I care about justice!! But I think it is kind of a helpful thing because it helps you not be consumed with anger or disappointment, and I can know that as long as I am doing my part and being the best I can for my family, friends, and associates, I can feel happy still even when let down. It doesn't always work right away though. And I have a really hard time forgetting...

I feel like things are not fair this week. Not everyone in our family is being fair and Raimo's boss is unfair and one of our friends is very unfair. I've been crying, but the good thing is that once I move past it... I won't care.

But probably not until I finish one of these rolls

Thanks for listening :) Phew

Ok so last time I shared with you one of my more recent days at work. I'd like to share with you this time one of my first days out knocking ever! (this excert will most likely be put into the experiences chapter of my book.
It was mid March at the time I was assigned a couple blocks, I could knock every in the highlighted map, and so with that I had a system of two highlighters green if they didn't answer, & pink if I talked to them. With this in mind I rode with my co-worker/friend. His area was right next to mine, my first person I talked to had recently bought a snow cat. If you don't know what that is, thats ok, for the most part it looks like a car, with huge tredds under it so it can climb up any mountain covered in snow. It was sweet looking, naturally the guy already had the services we were offering so no sale on that. I met an accountant who wanted me to come back after april when tax season was over, he didn't have any time to talk, met some other people and then ran into a current customer of ours who didn't have the television service we were offering at the time. He was really nice and liked the idea of bundling the service I explained the packages he could have and the pricing, I set it up with the middle package so that if he wanted a little more that was an option or if the price was too high we had other options below. He asked if I could come back later in the evening and show all this to his wife. so I knocked some more. Talked with a guy who was preparing for armageddon, buying all these supplies and food, and gear. I went back later the family was eating dinner at that time. "have you eaten dinner?" they asked me. I hadn't, so they invited me in. We ate meatloaf, and got to know the family. The family had 3 kids, who liked the idea of getting television in the home. the wife wasn't feeling it as much but felt that if the kids did their chores and homework for a week they'd add the service. (naturally that didn't come to fruition so I lost a sale). I was determined to not go home without a sale for the night, I had been knocking for a couple hours already and didn't want to quit yet. I decided to keep going, the last house on the street I meet a gentleman who has dish, and is tired of the price of it. I share with him our promotions and actual price he likes it, and invites me in, we fill out some paper work, and poof a sale.
What happened back there, that sale didn't come because of my amazing selling abilities. Nope, nor did it come because of my good looks and charm. It came because of persistence & the desire to keep going. that was the key. I wasn't very good right off the bat. It took me about 3 weeks of consistant and constant focus, & going out everyday and knocking doors sharpening my approaches and getting used to talking with people.