Andrea Enchanted

I am having such a bad hair day. So flyaway-frizzy. Uncontrollable! And my face is breaking out like crazy. I feel like a mess. Perfect time to speak to an intimate group for six hours about notary law and identity theft. I can handle the bad hair - but why am I breaking out like a teenager? Does stress bring on pimples?

Best moment of the day - I order a cup of coffee on the plane, turn my head to close my eyes for a moment, wake myself up with an obnoxious snore (MY obnoxious snore), and hear the attendent coming by for the last trash pick-up. So yeah, slept through them trying to give me my cup of coffee. Slept through the entire flight. So, how long and how loud do you think my snoring might have been? The fact that my throat felt a little sore right after I woke up just leads me deeper into despair - clearly I was sawing away for awhile. Mortified.

I'm here in Albuquerque at the Marriott. It's kinda nice. The lounge has a giant waterfall and its pretty empty and I have a chicken sandwich on its way. And I have wireless access. I love wireless access. I had it for free at the Phoenix airport this afternoon. Which was good, because my flight was delayed for a very long time.

I got to talk with Jessica and Joshua for a heartbeat - Maggie was taking Josh to work and Jessica was going with him to hang out watching movies all day. Next time she visits she'll have to hang out at his new workplace - Starbucks! Josh is a barista again! Better pay than the movie theatre gig. I imagine the plan is that he can walk to work.

Tomorrow night I head to Santa Fe - I get to stay there two nights which is very exciting to me because I almost NEVER get to stay two nights in the same hotel. Thursday I will get to do a little sightseeing - it's a travel day for me because it's a five hour drive to Las Cruces, so I'm going to spend some of that day being a tourist in Santa Fe!

Just finished the chicken sandwich. Trying to decide if I can handle the french fries. Eyelids are drooping...

Valley weather

We live in the valley. Got that, right? V-A-L-L-E-Y. Low point. pretty darn close to sea level. Anyway, Mom just walked out of Ralph's and into hail and snow. Car was covered in it, she used newspaper to keep the hail off her head. Crazy times. Is the world ending? And then three blocks away, the snow and hail turned into rain. An hour ago it was sunny. Feels like we live in Dubois!

Oh, right...

So, I titled my last post "Pepper Spray." And there WAS a reason for that. I just can't quite remember what I intended to tell y'all about pepper spray. Man, I bet it was a GOOD story. A really good story!

I feel amazing right now. Sick with this cold all week (still got it - but WHO CARES), having that female thing (not the same female thing Maggie has - oh no, mine would be the opposite), having to get up crazy early to drive to local seminars (so much easier to just sleep in till six in a hotel room in the same hotel where I am doing the seminar, roll out of bed, shower, dress, walk to the elevator...), and contributing to my co-workers tears.... Last night, I got home from the NSA seminar, ate some food, put on some really cozy fleecy PJs (it is FREEZING), and pretty much passed out around 8:00pm. Proceeded to get 12 hours of sleep. So yeah - fantastic.

Pepper Spray

I'm sitting here at the sales table at an NSA seminar. Training has begun! Still not sure how I feel about starting the NSAs. I have a nervous pit of acid in my stomach. It might have something to do with yesterday's seminar which was not lovely. The crowd left my fellow seminar presenter in tears. And I think the pit in my stomach is there because I feel a little responsible. I let the group have too much freedom in asking questions and that led to anarchy when she went up there. And really, it IS my job to control the question/answer process. More than you might think. Plus I was a little behind. So I feel like I sabotaged her. Can I blame it on being sick?

I am sick. I've had that hoarse voice all week - which has led to three separate people at two different seminars coming up to me and saying I reminded them of Bette Midler (which confuses me, because I don't think of Bette as having a scratchy or whiskey or husky voice). Hey, I used to hear that I reminded people of "that woman from Misery - you know, Kathy Bates." I'll take the Divine Miss M over the also talented Kathy Bates any day. I like them both - but being Bette-ish is much nicer than being Annie-ish. Mr. Man. Dirty bird.

Someone is quitting at the NNA today. And in a month she is flying off to Paris. And traveling abroad for the next 18 months. Crazy. But nice for her. I'm going to miss her - she is nice, smart and she went to Berkeley - so we have something to talk about over drinks. Well, even without Berkeley, there is always something for co-workers to talk about over drinks - right? Your co-workers.... Your supervisors... Working conditions... The attendees... Maragaritas make all things fodder for gossip.

Monday morning I fly to New Mexico. I am really looking forward to it - I hope the weather is nice. Maybe I should check it out before I pack. Mountains and desert. Hmmm, I may need a very large suitcase.

It's a good thing. Right?

At work, the goal is to get to do NSA seminars. Why? Because you make more money doing them. Your sales are MUCH higher and your incentive speaking fee is at least double what you make on regular seminars. Plus, if you do NSAs, you travel out of state a lot more and that sort of travel earns you little bumps also. So. Everybody around me is in a rush to get to do them. The guy who started right ahead of me is VERY eager. The woman who started right after me is chomping at the bit. The woman who started a month or so before me thinks she is about to go into training and she is ecstatic.

But me? I just want to take my time and really understand everything about this biz before I am pushed into teaching it.

Problem is, if you turn down additional responsibilities or promotions, well, that reflects poorly on you.

So, the NNA in all its wisdom, decides that I am ready to start doing NSAs. Before Jason = who will take this as a personal affront. Before Kate - who wants it bad and thinks she should be pushed ahead of everyone because she is also an attorney. And before Becky who definitely has seniority.

So, I'm flattered. Right? But what do I do? How do I tell Jason I just leapfrogged over him? This guy is emotional and intense. He will stick the knife in so deep I won't be able to dig it out.

But I am flattered. And it will be nice to make additional money. And it did happen a lot faster than everyone said it would. Which MIGHT have something to do with the fact that the department is growing and they just promoted two NSA instructor's right out of their seminar presenter roles.

So maybe I'm not so flattered.

voices in the night

I fell asleep with the TV on - not a common habit for me. A couple of hours into my snoozing something brought me back to wakefulness. I stared blearily at the TV, watching an old Cold Case episode, wondering what had brought me from slumber. The young man on screen was waving a gun at the main character, scaring everyone in the squad room. And HEY, that young man was Jason Dohring - aka Logan Echolls of Veronica Mars fame. I guess I love him.