In Which I Remember How Much I Struggle to Like Salespeople, and an Update about the Jam

The jam set up! The jam set up! And it tastes like jam! I had some on a pb&j I made myself for lunch. And now, I have three lovely jars of blueberry jam to stick in a pantry--as if I were the kind of woman who does that! And just guess who will be eating homemade jam on his sandwiches this year. I hope he likes it.

this is him and my friend Lauren eating the cheesecake he made for my birthday. I hope he likes jam as much as we liked that cheesecake. Let's just say it wasn't around for long.

On another note, I had an interesting set of run-ins with some unnamed make-up salespeople this weekend. Despite a longstanding personal resolution to avoid meeting with this sort of person at all costs (ever since my mom and I got cornered into free makeovers once when I was in high school. Free makeovers=high pressure sales), I am getting married next month. I want to have nice makeup on that day. I feel relatively incompetent in the world of makeup. And so, with some encouragement from my roommate, I looked one of these people up and called her.

She was available right away, and I went over to her house. We actually had a great time. She made me look really pretty and we had a great time getting to know each other. Of course, our interest in each other was somewhat cheapened by the fact that she wanted to sell me lots of makeup AND convince me to throw a makeup party AND someday become a makeup saleperson just like her. But aside from that, we had a genuinely nice conversation.

Anyway, as is often the case with me, I am bad at saying no to people, and when she asked me to help her with a "mock interview" the next day I stumbled to think of any reason why not. She assured me this was just an opportunity for me to help her out; her supervisor was going to be in town from Virginia and would come tell me about their company and my new friend would sit and observe. This was only a training tool, my friend assured me. I gave no firm answer, but said I would let her know if I was interested. However, on the day of the "mock interview," my friend called several times and even had her supervisor call twice (I googled the area code from the unknown number and gasp--it was a VA number). Finally, I answered the phone. I gathered my courage and weakly expressed my disinterest in becoming a salesperson. Again, I was assured there would be no pressure of the sort.

The funny part of the meeting was when my friend was trying to win me over by talking about me to the supervisor lady, while I was sitting right there. I sat there while she told her supervisor about how I was getting married next month in Utah, and then said to me, "And just tell her what you told me about why your fiance says you guys won't ever move back to Idaho or Utah!" She said this as if what I had shared was the most fascinating secret. The supervisor lady chuckled and said knowingly, "Oh, I can only imagine. . ." I halted, confused. "Um, well, we won't move back there because there are too many dentists. We're Mormon. I guess there are lots of Mormon dentists." I hadn't thought that was particularly interesting when I mentioned it the day before, so I was surprised to be asked to repeat it.

At another point in the "interview," the supervisor lady mentioned that one of the great benefits of being a consultant for this particular company is that you get tax write-offs as a business owner. I nodded. This signal of comprehension was yet another cue for her to talk about how amazing I was. ("Now, I'm going to say this right in front of Cammie, but you probably notice I don't need to go into a lot of detail with her. You really don't have to go into a lot of detail with people who are very educated like she is.") I was trying so hard to fight the eye-roll reflex.

Anyway, I learned that 1) I am interesting because I'm not moving to Utah or Idaho, and 2) I am smart because I can act like I know what a tax write-off is. I'm not sure whether to feel elated or insulted. But no matter: I am happy with my purchases, I successfully convinced two ladies I was not interested in joining their team, and I've got some funny stories to show for it all. Have a lovely Tuesday!