From the Beginning

Ever since I moved here, I've seen something very often that I can't understand for the life of me.

It seems that the majority of people in this city walk up escalators. Now, I understand I live in a major metropolitan city, people are always rushing somewhere, and I don't begrudge them that in any way. But this fine city, in all it's transit stations that have escalators, have also provided a stair case, three steps further down the platform. But all of these people who huff and puff when someone rides the escalator rather then walking up the stairs, they can't be bothered to walk the three extra steps, which would probably get them to their destination sooner. Nope, not here. Everyone's a go-getter. When you see an oppurtunity (like moving stairs) you have to pounce on it.

Not me. I do my pouncing, but when it comes to stairs and my morning commute (where I want to remain relaxed) or evening commute (when I'm probably pretty tired), I much prefer to ride. Huff and puff all you want....or walk the extra three steps and take the regular stairs.

And the other side of the hill

Immediately after I came up with the title for this entry, I wondered how appropriate it actually is. The other side of a hill (in this case, the downside was what I was trying to say) would more suggest that I was running, full force, without care as to what obstacles may occur, with a child-like grin on my face, towards some sort of goal. Not me. Not yet.

I was meaning to say that I recieved my e-mail from Comedysportz last night, at 9:15ish to let me know that I had not been chosen for Battle-prov. This is not the first time I have recieved this kind of e-mail in anyway, but this one was particularly disheartening. The main reason for this being that I really believed I had this one wrapped up. I waited all day by the phone (with the use of a cell phone, this expression kind of loses it's significance, but you understand I'm sure) for that call that I just new was coming. But it didn't come. At the same time, I do keep hurtling myself down that hill towards that goal of performing on a stage and having someone give me a check for it. There's just not much of a childish grin on my face.

Work is going well. I sit at this desk every day. I try to convince people that they want what I got. In most situations, people immediately shut down to a cold call. They don't understand the value of what I'm offering and there's not a real good way to illustrate it to them before the scheduled appointment. So far I've ran three appointments and all the clients seem to love me. They seem to be really interested. One guy even bought, the other two just didn't have it in the budget right now but one guy insisted I call him back every month to check up on him and one day it will pay off.

I need some more coffee.

If you're reading this, I'd love to know. I made my single post in my Livejournal telling people I'd moved and all but one of my friends out and out refused to follow me here. I'd love to know who's out there though.

Anticipation and Success

The anticipation is killing me. I had a great audition last night for Comedysportz "farm team" Battle-prov. If you don't know, Comedysportz is one of the few places an improvisor can actually get paid just for doing improv. This would be a huge deal for me. The idea of Battle-prov is to develop it's members so that they have a leg up when it comes to professional auditions which will be coming up. Comedysportz is a company I've wanted to be a part of ever since I saw the first show, so the butterflies are working overtime.

I made my first sale today. It was only 419 dollars. But still it's very excited to actually close a deal I've been working on. It was quite a thrill, a big email went out to the company, the Vice President gave me a box of Girl Scout cookies. I'm technically 419% over quota now, since my quota was zero. Gotta concentrate on dialing now so I can get my bonus for the month.

Just a few orders of business

I was reading up on an aquaintences blog this morning and he had some old posts about finshing all the crosswords in (I'm assuming) the Tribune for a whole week. I do the Red Eye (for those of you who don't live in Chicago, it's the MetroTimes but it comes out everyday instead of once a week). I've been thinking I'm going to set a goal like this for myself. So starting today I want to solve all the crosswords until next Thursday. This comes on the back of me swearing off the Red Eye so I could get more reading done. So I've decided also not to really read the RedEye anymore. A quick scan to see if anything interesting is in there and then I'm done. I don't think I could go without some of the columns.

I'm going to my first Cubs game in just over a month. I'm really excited. I can't get into too much detail because it's a suprise for someone, but my company is partly owned by the Tribune who owns the Cubs, so we had like 5 games of half price tickets so Infield Bleachers were 8 bucks. I'm pretty stoked.

Everyone is so sullen on the train.

I've been at my desk for three days and today, we're moving to a different floor! I hope there's more people around, I'm interested in making some friends. I'll be on the same floor as the Wii. Hopefully, I'll also have a better view.

Paranoia

Today while I was on the bus home there was a truck sitting, blocking the road. Once it started to move I was able to read the lettering on the back of the truck. It read "DO NOT FOLLOW". Now I was able to deduce that this was a city truck, probably on pothole patrol, making frequent stops on the street since potholes are frequent in this city. Still, I imagined that the driver of the truck was wanted for murder or was in the witness protection program and was just paranoid and decided to plead with his pursuers to not follow him. I don't know, just thought it was funny.


Now, translated for Jerry: Don't let your fears invade you, especially fears of the semen of the demons of your mind.

test

test for feeding

It begins

Today was my first day out on the sales floor. It was alot better than dialing in the computer lab with 20 other people. Now it's just me and my team and we're separate enough that it sounds more like an office (which it is) than a call center (which it's not). Cold calling is kind of interesting. A lot people get really upset, which if it was their home I could understand, but you own a business, people are going to try to get you to use their products. I don't see anything wrong with it. And I really believe in my product, so that really helps.

I was so mad though. I booked my first appointment while in training and today when I called, the guy was sleeping (I guess the husband and wife owners lived at the diner they owned) and when I called back, they weren't there. And I had spent 45 minutes researching the industry and the market and making a nice presentation for them. This cost me making my dial and talk time goals out of the time I lost. If you don't want to hear what I have to say, just say no, but don't set up an appointment with me and not show, that's just rude. If they don't reschedule, I'll be really upset.

In general I'm enjoying sales though. It's kind of an exciting industry.

In other news, I've got an exciting auditioned lined up for Sunday and I'm really looking forward to my first paycheck. I have to say, I'm really proud of my budgeting abilities. Aside from the 118 dollars of debt I incured to Kristen I was able to make what little money I had left really last. The goal now is to try and reduce my living costs while I have money in order to save for some of the finer things in life.

To my old friends who came here from LJ, I'm so glad you came. Expect more regular updates than LJ. To new friends who will stumble on this blog, I look forward to getting to know you better.