On The Road Again

Some of you know I am out on the road again; some of you didn't realize it; and, some of you don't really care. To that last group I say, it IS my blog. I will write what I will write. You can delete now or get your own blog. Anyone can do it--LOL:):) BLOGGER isn't picky, obviously, they let me do it! I left on October 2 and I won't be home until sometime on October 18. Then, I will probably be in for the winter unless I am lucky enough to get a resort audit someplace warm and tropical in January or February.

Having cleared away all those who don't really know me or want to know me, let me say that this trip has been very long and very enlightening. The first week and a half I worked my tail off. I did 4-5 retail audits a day and wrote them up and submitted them every night. While I was doing this, my hotel rooms were paid for (and several of my meals) since I was also doing three consecutive resort audits at two really nice resorts and one not so nice-um-er-hotel. (I can't say where because then I would get into trouble for violating confidentiality.)

Completing the time-share shops is a matter of learning to say, "No," in twenty-one different ways. You are rigged up with a portable tape recorder. They are digital now, the old ones were huge and they gave you a special purse to put them into. Pretty soon all the time-share sales people were onto the purses. ("Watch out for the shoppers with the ugly black purses that they keep fidgeting with. Be careful what you say to them and whatever you do, don't swear, even in fun, during the presentation.”) Now you can drop the tiny recorders into a breast pocket.

The most important part of the resort shops is to tape the sales pitch and see if they violate any of the rules of the industry--like getting nasty when you say, "No." Oh, and some of them do get nasty...very nasty. I am sure some of you have attended one of these pitches to get the free vacation or to get the free gift. Well, they pay me to go and check out the resort and tape the sales pitch. And I get the free vacation too-sometimes a whole week in one place, sometimes 2-3 days. I then add the 4-5 OTHER shops to the days I am on the road and try to make a profit. Sometimes I even do! We have gotten to go to a lot of really cool places this way. It's never boring, that's for sure!

This occupation involves a lot of acting. I loved acting in college. I played--you guessed it--the wicked witch of the west in our Children's Theater program which toured different elementary schools in western PA. I can cackle in three languages. "I'll get you my pretty..." Hey look! There’s a real witch playing the witch!

This trip out, I have been on the road long enough to get homesick. This happened even more often when I was staying at the “not so nice resort.” I was calling home twice a day in tears. (I miss you and my doggy, Keri and my kitty, Rosie--snuffle-snuffle.) Now that I am back at a really, really nice resort, right on the beach, I am much better and needing to write an entry to my blog to describe how what I do dovetails so nicely with my travel bug. So this is a ”blog entry/email/creative writing piece” to keep me occupied while I watch the ocean crash against the shore. I know, it’s a tough job…

These last couple days have been-finally-wonderful. I am done with most of the “other shops.” Now is the time when I can kick back and write, surf, catch up on my emails or get philosophical about life. I see what I do on a regular basis at home so much better from out here on the road. I also have realized that I think more clearly and see everything a lot better when ocean waves are crashing in on the shore where I can hear them. I always said I should have been a water sign. I am at my best near the ocean.

Well—now you have some idea of what I do when I am on the road. Tomorrow, I get to attend yet another sales pitch and complete and submit an oil change shop. Whee! Of course, I also get to watch the full moon over the ocean and the sunrise over the ocean in the morning.