Dan and I moved back to the town he grew up in about a year after we were married. I was working as a telemarketer and making obscene amounts of money at it. Yeah, I was a telemarketer, the kind who calls you at home during dinner with some great deal you just have to take advantage of. I’m good at getting people to talk so it was an easy job for me; I made manager within the year. I went on to help the general manager open a franchise of her own and when it became the top office in the nation she recommended me for a position with corporate as a consultant. I was 24. A lot of what I got paid to fly around the United States and tell people seemed like common sense to me but apparently people who run telemarketing offices need only have two requirements to fill and common sense isn’t one of them.
I took the job seriously. I found myself reading books about sales in the evenings and watching televangelists trying to analyze how they sell to the masses. Just because those guys have everlasting grace to sell doesn’t mean it’s an easy thing to do, those are the pros right there. They have rhythm and passion and tactics and they sell to a crowd all at once with no merchandise to stock – no warehouse to manage – no goods for your money. The phenomenon is still amazing to me and now if you ever borrow my van and upon turning the key hear “InTouch Ministries” emanating from the speakers you’ll know why.
Leaving every Monday morning for St. Petersburg, or Salt Lake City with a suitcase and a Stephen King book for the plane started out fun. Expense account, nice hotels, and company cars, all that was great, but after a while I missed my new puppy, my new husband and my new house. It didn’t help that when you are the axe-(wo) man suddenly your jokes are SUPER funny to everyone in the room and no one really wants to get closer than they have to during lunch for fear you will notice them. I was lonely, my stomach hurt and I couldn’t sleep, but we had gobs of money. After a year and a half at the top of my game I refused an offer for my very own office in Chicago and I came home to my dream house and the two loves of my life Dan & Wednesday.
Shortly after, the neighbor lady said to my Mother in law “I see that Dan’s girlfriend finally moved in” and my startled Mother-in-law said “What girlfriend!” The neighbor lady said “The one who shows up with a giant suitcase every Friday."
6 comments:
that's funny! really it is! i can't picture you doing that job for some reason. i don't know why. but i picture you softer than the aggression it takes to be in sales. i hate sales! and i had a couple of those god-awful telemarketing jobs - horrible. they lasted for a minute. anyway, funny story! glad the hubby decided to ditch the other girl for you!;)
Hi Jenny,
Olivia here. I feel really bad about last night. I mentioned to Teresa about going over and she was busy...so I didn't want to just turn up at Barbara's door on my own and say "Oh Jenny said we are meeting here."
I haven't seen Barbara in years so felt a bit strange about it. Should have called you yesterday and arranged to meet in Robin's and then we could have gone in!! Why didn't I think of that yesterday? My head is all over the place with leaving today.
Would love to have had a good old chat with you before I left. Chris and I went shopping yesterday for gifts and we got back at five. Then suddenly he and Jason ran out the door to Robin's so I didn't get time to tell him to pass on a message to you. Hope I didn't offend you in anyway.
Thanks again for the lovely Memorial Day parade. Alex was so excited. He was almost hyper ventilating when he saw the fire trucks! He is big in to vehicles.
Jenny, I had a little conversation with Ella. She is so articulate for her age. Well able to express herself. I love the way she runs around doing dress up. I see an Oscar ahead!!
I spent most of last night packing so we are just getting our things together this morning. It is a very emotional day. My parents will be delighted to have Alex back but it is heartbreaking for Teresa.
Things are very tough for her at the moment..you know the situation with Jason and now she has Stu on board. (I really think she should transform Widergren in to a B&B..everyone has lived here at some stage.)
Sorry for only getting out to Pecatonica once. We were going to Rockford Memorial twice a day for the last seven days of our trip..we had three visits to Alex's great Aunt..two to Alma Nelson retirement home...one to Teresa's Aunt Bonnie. We also met up with Teresa's friends from Arizona who were in town. It was insane.
I would love to get back for Christmas as Chris is off for two weeks. If we do I plan to spend more of our time with friends. People under 70..now that would be a treat!
Take care,
Olivia
Olivia - don't you feel bad at all. We in Rockford anyway yesterday. Ella fell asleep pretty early so we wouldn't have been much fun for company.
I'm so glad you came out to see us and we hope to see you again at Christmas. Ella's done nothing but talk about Alex all morning - he is so handsome and bright.
Give Teresa a big hug from us and tell her she had better come over next time we have a party.
I have the cutest picture of Alex on Chris' shoulders. Those are handsome men you have there.
And the photo I took of you three is fab. I'll send them snail mail to the house.
Thanks Jenny. We are finally home after a bit of a setback! Immigration in Chicago was chaotic. Alex, Chris and I had to take off our shoes, empty our pockets, remove watches and other jewellery. Well, I removed the jewellery..Alex isn't in to that type of thing at the moment! Anyway, long lines of stressed out people trying to get to their departure gates and so on.
Chris was holding Alex, the laptop and about twenty other bags when he approached the gate. He started to walk through with Alex but the detector kept bleeping. He attempted to hand Alex over to me but the security officer stopped him in his tracks. I thought Chris was going to have a heart attack. As if Alex had a bomb in his diaper -- it was insane.
Chris said words to that effect. He even used the word bomb. I nearly died but luckily the woman chose to overlook it!! Recently I heard of someone being forbidden from going on a US flight for wearing a T shirt with the name of the U2 CD "How to dismantle an Atomic Bomb" so I really thought we were in trouble. Thank God she chose to shrug it off.
So we got on the plane and did our nine hour stint to Shannon. Got off and headed to to the car only to realise that Chris had left his car keys in the tray next to the scanning machine at O'Hare. My car key was with our spare house key at my mother's in Cork about two hours away from the airport. So we were in trouble.
For a minute I thought Judge Judy would have to be called in but we calmed down pretty quickly. My darling brother in law drove from Cork to Co Clare to drop off our spare key and we finally made the journey home this afternoon.
So it was fun, fun, fun. However, on a positive note Alex was really a joy on the flight. Slept a lot of the time and spent his waking moments playing with a toy Aer Lingus plane we bought him. He has now decided he is going to be a pilot so who knows we may get a few cheap fares further down the track!!!
Oh by the way Anderson's Gardens looked like a fun day out. I went there a few years back and had planned to return this visit but we ran out of time. It is such a tranquil spot..you feel revitalised when you leave the place. Take care,
Olivia
*Forget to mention I saw the story on blogging in the Register Star on Sunday. Your hit rate will go way up! Will we have to pay a subscription fee to read your blogs from now on???
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