Moving Forward

There's so much to say. I guess that's what happens when you wait 3 months to update your journal. Today was my last day of training for my new job. Yes, I finally got a job so now I have something to do with my days. I actually have a lot to do with my days now. I got a job as an Account Executive with the yellow pages. I'll be working with TWP who is now merged with Yellow Book. I'll have to be driving a lot because it's an outside sales position. I figure it will help get my foot in the door for other outside sales jobs. I might stay for a while if I get good at it and if I like the company. The coolest thing about training was the people I met during the past two weeks. I was very fortunate to have a big training class and by big I mean 12 people. Usually the training classes have only about 4 or 5 people. There were some disadvantages though because everything took that much longer to go through. The other thing is that we had two different trainers. There was someone covering for the real trainer during the first week. The second week we had the real trainer and she was a complete 180 degrees from the other one. We had it much easier the first week. Our real trainer, Judy, should trademark the term "Moving Forward." She used it a lot. "Moving forward you should handle that objection like this." Or, "You should use the full size contract sheets for the homework assignments moving forward." There were an interesting bunch of people in my training class. We had the annoying one, the hippie one, the one from Mass., the narcoleptic one, the brainy one, the one that wanted to quit, the chatterbox, the ADD one, the country boy one, the quiet one, and the slow one. The country boy might become famous one day because he has a lot of talent and can play the guitar and sing. He said he's coming out with an album soon so we'll see what happens. Maybe one day I'll be able to say, "Hey, I trained with that guy playing on the radio." As different as they all were, they did have a few things in common. They all pretty much smoked and drank. They took numerous cigarette breaks a day and drank almost every night. Even after going out and getting wasted they were still able to make it into class the next morning at 7:30. One guy even went straight to class after going out and getting drunk. It seemed like college all over again. It was a little easier for them because they were all put up in the hotel next door to the office. I live here so I got to go home every day. The second week I decided to take clothes and stay with one of the girls in the hotel to make it easier for my sister. We are still currently sharing her car so she would always have to drop me off and pick me up. I stayed from Tuesday to Friday with her. I only really went out with the group twice. I was DD both times. I wasn't completely sober but I was the least drunk of everyone there. I was definitely capable of driving and the rest of them were in no condition to drive. They made the class very interesting and I'm sure I would have had a lot less fun in a smaller class. We did the usual we should all keep in touch thing and even exchanged phone numbers and email addresses but I know how that goes. I've been there and done that. No one keeps in touch. I would love it if we did but the reality is that everyone goes back to their lives and forgets about the whole keep in touch thing. The sad thing is that only two of those people were going to be working in my office. The rest of them were all going back to other offices. It would be nice to hear from some of them in the future.

Not only did I get a new job but I got a new car also. I bought a silver Honda Accord 2003 LX 4-door manual transmission with black interior. It's really nice! It still has the new car smell. The guy that I bought it from took very good care of his car. It is in immaculate condition and I can't wait to start driving it. The only thing is I can't register the car until I receive the paperwork showing the lien is taken off the car. I am hoping that owning a stick shift car will make me better at driving one. I know it handles a lot better than some other stick shift cars I've driven before. (No offense to VW owners). I hope I get the paperwork soon because I start work in the field on Monday. I will need to be driving around very soon. I hope I get really good at my job and make lots of money. I'm sure it will just take some time but I'll get there.